The father of a man who was strangled to death by a CVS store employee after being suspected of shoplifting filed a wrongful death lawsuit recently against the chain of convenience stores.

Michael A. Johnson is claiming within the personal injury suit that a CVS manager strangled his son, 34-year-old Anthony Kyser, while attempting to hold him before authorities could arrest him, according to the Chicago Sun Times. The lawsuit was filed in the Cook County Circuit Court.

Police said the struggle took place just before 11 a.m. on May 8, in the 2600 block of South Pulaski Road in Chicago. Apparently an off-duty Cook County Sheriff’s deputy stood by while the conflict ensued and did not interfere. The deputy was not named in the lawsuit.

The wrongful death lawsuit claims that the manager had chased Kyser from inside the store and down into a nearby alley, according to the Sun Times. Once the manager caught up to Kyser, he held the man in a “choke hold,” and would not let Kyser go despite his pleas that he could not breathe.

Witnesses said that Kyser, who was a Chicago resident, kept crying out, “I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe.” Witnesses to the struggle said further that it appeared the manager held Kyser in the choke hold for what seemed to be several minutes.

An off-duty Cook County Sheriff’s deputy reportedly held her gun in her hand as the struggle ensued.

Kyser was pronounced dead at 11:38 a.m. on May at Mount Sinai Hospital, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office. Since his passing, an autopsy ruled that he did die from strangulation and the death was ruled a homicide by the medical examiner, according to the Sun Times.

The Chicago Police Department are treating the death as an accident and criminal charges will not be filed against the CVS manager, said CPD spokesman Daniel O’Brien.

The wrongful death lawsuit claims that the store manager assaulted and battered Kyser, and the store is responsible for the manager’s actions in Kyser’s death, according to the Sun Times.

Eight counts are detailed within the lawsuit, including a claim of false imprisonment along with the assault and battery charges. The damage amount requested from the Highland Park CVS and the manager is more than $400,000.

The manager is not being identified because he has not been charged with a crime.

The company who owns the Deepwater Horizon, the BP oil rig which sunk in April after an explosion, recently said they will be appealing to a federal judge to place a limit on the overall liability cost they will be responsible for at $27 million.

If the request is granted, Transocean would be left as much as $533 million in insurance money.

The dollar amount is similar to what the company was expecting to make off of their three year contract with BP, who leased the sunken rig, according to the Associated Press.

The maneuver comes at a time where Transocean along with oil company BP are the targets of an increasing number of wrongful death, personal injury and class action lawsuits filed by rig workers, their families and people affected by oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico. The two companies are clamoring to plug an open oil well that is leaking about hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil into the ocean every day.

To add to their legal troubles, congressional and administrative hearings held recently are raising questions about the safety methods and equipment used on the drill site. Eleven people were killed during the explosion and hundreds were injured.

Karen McCarthy, a New Orleans-area lawyer who is representing Louisiana crab fisherman who filed a lawsuit against the two companies, said she will oppose the liability cap.

McCarthy said she expected Transocean to point fingers at BP, but the company also will try any possible legal method they can to reduce their costs associated with the disaster.

Northeastern University law professor Tim Howard said he expects Transocean’s attempt to lower the liability will ultimately fail, and the subject will be added to the other multitude of lawsuits against the company. Howard has filed potential class action lawsuits against the companies on behalf of people affected by the oil spill.

“The evidence so far shows a tremendous amount of culpability on their part,” Howard said.

A spokesman for Transocean said it will cite an 1851 law that holds the owner of a sunken sea vessel accountable for its exact value after the accident. The oil rig was considered to be worth $27 million when it exploded, according to AP.

Transocean seeks to cap the amount it would be forced to pay if it loses any of the numerous injury lawsuits related to the Deepwater Horizon explosion. The company could also delay other proceedings for years while a judge determines the size of Transocean’s liability, said Keith Hall, a New Orleans lawyer who represents oil and gas companies.

Transocean CEO Steven Newman recently said its contract with BP holds the oil company responsible for the costs and liability from the spill.

A federal recall was recently announced for storage trunks sold nationwide by retail store Target since they pose a possible strangulation risk. The defective product recall comes about a year from after two children were injured in relation to the trunks.

One child suffered crippling brain damage in connection to the trunk model, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission-sanctioned recall involves about 350,000 woven trunks used for storage. The commission said the store chain has cooperated fully with the recall.

The move comes about two months after a family filed an injury lawsuit against the company after their child was injured by the trunks, according to the Star Tribune.

Target released a statement on May 20 saying that the trunks were never intended for use by small children, or even to be used to store toys. The company urged anyone who purchased the trunks and have small children living in their home to return the trunks to local stores and receive a full refund for doing so.

The issue that led to the recall is the trunk’s lid, which can drop suddenly when released, thus “posing a strangulation hazard to small children opening or reaching into the trunks,” according to a statement released by the CPSC.

In July 2009, Camryn Surman, who was 18-months-old at the time, suffered brain damage when the trunk’s lid came down on the back of her neck and pinned her throat against the rim. The family then filed an injury lawsuit against Target in March 2010, requesting damages for medical expenses, as well as pain and suffering that Carmryn experienced.

According to the injury lawsuit, Target “specifically endorsed the storage of children’s toys as one of the intended uses” of the trunks. The suit further claimed that if purchased online, the trunk comes with no warnings or notices about proper use and that it lacked a safety mechanism.

Target filed documents in court in April challenging the Surman family’s lawsuit, and any claims that the company was negligent or that the trunk was defective.

The federal recall of the trunk includes 14 models all made from woven rattan, abaca or banana leaf, according to the Star Register. The trunks were sold between February 2009 and April 2010, were sold for between $50 and $130 and were made in China and the Philippines.

Customers were advised to immediately stop using the trunks and return them to Target for a full refund, or for a different product.

Personal injury attorneys were chosen out of a pool of 75 legal professionals from across the United States to handle consolidated legal cases against Toyota over issues with cars that led to a nationwide recall.

The Japanese auto maker has faced a slew of personal injury, wrongful death and class action lawsuits after recalling about 8 million vehicles around the world after vehicles were found to have suddenly accelerated.

Newport Beach-based personal injury attorney Wylie Aitken was appointed as a liaison counsel to state lawsuits, according to a ruling recently issued by U.S. District Court Judge James V. Selna. Aitken is one of three plaintiff attorneys selected to keep Selna, who is based in Santa Ana, Calif., up to date on different lawsuit developments that relate to the Toyota case, according to the Orange County Register.

“This litigation is important to millions of Americans,” Aitken said. “On an individual basis, it’s also important to Orange County and the legal community here.”

The California county is home Toyota’s United States headquarters, and will be the location of federal legal actions against the beleaguered auto maker. Both lawyers working to represent people suing the auto maker, and Toyota’s lawyers, agreed that a combined litigation should take place in Santa Ana.

Selna was chosen in April to preside over the consolidation of about 90 personal injury lawsuits filed across the country against the Japanese auto maker. The Register estimates that the total costs in damages assigned for Toyota to cover may be $5 billion.

Legal experts have said previously that the class-action lawsuits, filed because the recalls led to a drop in resale value on Toyota cars, will be more costly to the company than the damages paid out for the personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits filed against Toyota.

Seventy five lawyers representing people who are suing Toyota went against each other to work the consolidated cases. They recently appeared before Selna to make a case for themselves to be assigned.

Selna issued his judicial on May 14 that created three teams to work the consolidated cases. A nine-member liaison committee for the wrongful death and personal injury cases, another nine-member team that will focus on economic loss and a third nine-person group that will work on core discovery.

Three lawyers, including Aiken, were also selected to keep track of state legal cases.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found at least 52 deaths in automobile accidents that were linked to crashes caused by the accelerator problems in Toyota vehicles, according to the Register.

A federal wrongful death lawsuit filed eight years ago in relation to the fatal shooting of New York City rapper Notorious B.I.G. was recently dismissed.

The suit targeted the city of Los Angeles, and further legal action in the rapper’s death is likely, according to the Associated Press. A lawyer working for the estate of Christopher Wallace, the rapper’s real name, said in April that dismissing the wrongful death lawsuit could allow investigators to make arrests in connection to Biggie’s shooting death.

Attorneys for both Wallace’s estate and the city of Los Angeles agreed that the suit could be filed again at a later time. The personal injury lawsuit makes claims that officers from the Los Angeles Police Department played in a role in the rapper’s death, according to AP.

Wallace, who also was known as Biggie Smalls, was 24 years old and at the early part of a burgeoning career as a rapper when he was shot several times while leaving a Los Angeles party.

Frank Mateljan, spokesman for the Los Angeles City Attorney’s office, confirmed that the lawsuit was dismissed, and that the police continue to investigate the death.

In 2005, three years after the original lawsuit was filed, a federal judge declared a mistrial after lawyers working for Wallace’s family discovered the city withheld several documents from the LAPD. The city was ordered to pay $1 million in fines for doing so.

Attorney Bradley C. Gage, who is representing Wallace’s family in the lawsuit, said local and federal law enforcement are still preventing him from accessing some records.

Gage further said that dismissing the suit will allow law enforcement time to investigate the shooting without also worrying about legal ramifications related to treatment of the case. Gage also said this method will ensure that blame isn’t placed on someone who may be proven innocent later, according to AP.

Gage believes it could be about two or three years before the wrongful death lawsuit is refilled, but it ultimately depends on the investigation.

While he would not offer specifics, Gage said that after years of working on the case the he has strong suspicions about who is responsible for Wallace’s death.

“I believe our civil lawsuit was going on the right path,” Gage said.

The lawsuit named Death Row Records founder Marion “Suge” Knight as a defendant, and claims that he ordered Wallace’s shooting. The suit also names former LAPD officers, several of whom were the focus of police corruption scandal within the department’s Rampart division, according to AP.

Personal injury lawyers representing several oil rig workers who were aboard an off-shore drilling platform that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico said they were told to sign documents that denied they were hurt or that they witnessed the explosion.

Workers who were on the  Deepwater Horizon deep sea drilling platform when it exploded, killing 11 people and leading to one of the largest oil spills in history, filed personal injury lawsuits against companies involved with running the rig. Companies named as plaintiffs include BP and Transocean, according to the Associated Press.

Attorneys said those who survived the explosion floated for hours on life boats while the rig burned. Once they finally made it back to land company officials met them with documents to sign that claimed they had no “first hand or personal knowledge” of the incident.

“These men are told they have to sign these statements or they can’t go home,” Attorney Tony Buzbee said. “I think it’s pretty callous, but I’m not surprised by it.”

Buzbee is representing 10 Transocean workers.

A spokesman for Transocean, who owns the oil rig, declined to answer whether Transocean or other companies involved with operating the rig had brought in the statements, saying that it was inappropriate to comment on pending litigation, according to AP.

“Our focus has been on the crewmembers and their families, working with all parties in the response efforts and conducting a Transocean investigation into the incident,” said Guy Cantwell, spokesman for Transocean.

Workers who survived the explosion were left to float at sea for about 10 hours, and were then taken to a hotel Louisiana to be debriefed and to sign statements, according to Buzbee and court documents filed by other Transocean workers who have filed injury lawsuits against the company.

Although the statements usually do not wield any legal power in a court room and are a regular practice in the industry, they can be used to besmirch the credibility of workers who might offer testimony in court or file lawsuits, Buzbee said.

During a recent interview that aired on PBS show “NewsHour with Jim Lehrer,” 23-year-old Christopher Choy described what happened after he escaped the rig.

“When I signed that I didn’t care what it was. I wanted to sign the papers to do whatever I had to do so me and my wife could leave to go home,” Choy said during the interview. “I’d been up for 40 hours and was just going through hell.”

Three workers who survived a deadly explosion on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico reported in injury lawsuit filing papers that they were left floating in lifeboats for over 10 hours, in full view of the burning oil rig.

The personal injury lawsuit was filed in the Galveston, Texas area county court, and contains a request for unspecified damages for Louisiana residents and rig workers Joshua Kritzer, Nick Watson and Bill Johnson, according to the Associated Press.

The suit was also filed on behalf of the family of Aaron Dale Burkeen, one of 11 rig workers who remain missing and are believed to have died during or after the explosion, which happened on April 20 off the Gulf Coast. Burkeen left behind a wife and two children.

Houston–based personal injury attorney Kurt Arnold filed the injury lawsuit on behalf of the three workers and the Burkeen family, according to AP.

“After these guys were pulled off the rig, they were kept in lifeboats for over 10 hours and saw the whole thing burn. They knew their friends were still on that rig burning,” Arnold said. “They couldn’t call anyone at home and say they were OK.”

But a spokesman for the company who owns the oil rig was quick to point out how many lives were saved by rescue efforts.

“One-hundred and fifteen people got off this rig alive,” said Guy Cantwell, spokesman for Transocean, Ltd.

At least two other wrongful death or injury lawsuits were filed by rig workers or their families against Transocean, British Petroleum and other companies that were involved in some way with the off-shore oil drilling effort.

Electronics technician Michael Williams was seriously injured in the explosion, and has filed a lawsuit requesting $6 million in damages, according to AP.

The explosion and subsequent sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig has led to an ecological disaster within Gulf waters.

The oil well, left uncapped by the explosion, is releasing about 200,000 gallons of oil a day into the ocean waters, creating a new threat against beaches, fish and other ocean-dwelling animals. About 50 potential class action lawsuits have been filed by fisherman, restaurateurs, resort companies, property owners and others who believe the oil spill will cause drastic economic losses.

While rig workers that were seriously injured were taken to area hospitals by helicopter, others were held up on lifeboats despite their injuries and stress.

Officials from Transocean and BP said the cause of the explosion is still unknown. Representatives from BP declined to comment on the lawsuit.

A year after a 16-yer-old boy died shortly after he was shocked by a Taser weapon, Detroit-area police departments are changing policies on the weapon’s use.

In October 2009, Taser International, the Arizona-based company who manufacturers the 50,000 volt stunning weapons, sent out an advisory to law enforcement agencies around the country, recommending that officers using Tasers should not fire at a person’s chest, according to the Detroit News.

The company now recommends firing below the chest when shooting at a person facing forward. The suggestion should lessen risks of striking the head, face, neck and chest areas, in order to reduce legal claims and personal injury lawsuits.

Robert Mitchell, 16, died on April 10, 2009 after a Warren Police officer shot him with a Taser, according to the Detroit News. A medical examiner ruled at the time that he died from a heart condition that was likely aggravated by the shock from the Taser.

Mitchell’s family has filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit against the Warren Police Department and the city.

A spokesman for Taser International said the new target zone was decided upon after research, risk management knowledge and feedback from their customers. Taser Spokesman Steve Tuttle also said the new target area was not related to Taser incidents in Michigan.

“When used properly, medical and law enforcement experts have concluded that Taser technology is among the most effective response to resistance interventions,” Tuttle said.

But many opponents to the use of Tasers interpret the new firing area as a sign that the weapons can cause death.

“This potential has been known a long time,” attorney William H. Goldman said. “Now they [Taser] basically admitted it, and what they’ve done is admit the obvious.”

Goldman is the personal injury attorney representing Mitchell’s family in the wrongful death lawsuit.

Within the lawsuit, Mitchell’s family has claimed that the use of a Taser was an act of excessive force that led to Robert Mitchell’s death. Mitchell was a sophomore at Detroit Kettering High School.

Groups that protest police brutality, as well as Mitchell’s relatives, have called for a ban on Tasers as well as a change to Warren Police rules on use of force, according to the Detroit News.

Warren Police Commissioner William Dwyer also said the department’s change in Taser use police was not influenced by what he described as the “tragic” incident. Dwyer also pointed out that officers involved in the tasing of Mitchell were cleared of any wrongdoing.

“The Taser continues to be a very effective tool for us, as far as preventing injuries to police officers,” Dwyer said. “The target area was modified and that’s all.”

A northern Illinois judge facing a drunken driving charge has recently filed a personal injury lawsuit against a suburb’s police department, accusing the police of mistreating him during the arrest.

Judge David Hall has claimed in a federal lawsuit that police officers used excessive force during the traffic stop and subsequent arrest. Hall alleges that rolling up his car window as officers approached was not a just cause for using pepper spray against him, according to the Chicago Sun Times.

Within the suit Hall argues further that he “posed no threat to anyone during his interactions” with Vernon Hills officers who pulled him over on April 26, 2008, within the Chicago suburb north of the city.

Hall’s injury lawsuit targets two Vernon Hills police officers, one of whom reportedly died from a heart attack about six weeks after the arrest. Hill said within the lawsuit that the pepper spray resulted in injuries that required medical attention.

Officers with Vernon Hills Police defended the actions of the two policemen named in the injury lawsuit, and said they acted properly, following all necessary procedures during the arrest.

“I’m very surprised, and confused, that this allegation (of excessive force) has taken this long to come out,” Vernon Hills Deputy Police Chief William Price said of the lawsuit. “In two years, we never heard a complaint from Mr. Hall or his attorney. … It was a routine traffic stop based on one or two driving violations, and they suspected the driver was impaired.”

Price further described the amount of pepper spray used by the officers was at a minimum, according to the Chicago Tribune. Officer Jerry Goldsmith, who passed away after the arrest, sprayed toward the judge when he started rolling up his window during the arrest.

The lawsuit was filed on April 26 in the U.S. District Court in Chicago, according to the Sun Times. Hall’s lawsuit does not specify an amount of money he wishes to receive in damages from the Village of Vernon Hills as well as Goldsmith’s estate. The second officer is also being targeted for damages related to police brutality.

Hall is still awaiting trial for his DUI arrest and resisting arrest charges placed against him as a result of the 2008 traffic stop. While his blood-alcohol content was found to be past the legal limit, a Kane County judge ruled procedure was not followed properly during the blood testing, and that information is now being held from jurors.

Hall, who at the time of the arrest was chief judge in Lake County, has since stepped down from the position, but continues to work as a judge in the Lake County Circuit Court.

And you thought the Oscars were long.

An actor recently filed a $50 million personal injury lawsuit against the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, claiming that security guards working the Oscars ceremony interrogated and held him and his wife for several hours while the ceremony proceeded.

Michael Avmen filed the lawsuit accusing the Academy of illegal false imprisonment, as well as intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress. He filed the lawsuit in the Central District Superior Court in California on April 27, according to FoxNews.com.

The damages requested in the suit are for claims that the couple were “injured in health, strength and activity” and “sustained injury to his and her body and shock and injury to their nervous system,” according to FoxNews.com

Avmen claims in the suit that tickets for the ceremony on March 7 were “tentatively confirmed,” but both Avmen and his publicist were unsuccessful in finding a full confirmation before the ceremony, despite several attempts.

Once at the event, Avmen claimed that he and his wife were taken by an usher from the hotel they were staying at to an area where he could speak with an Academy employee named Kim he had talked to before about attending.

The suit further claims that Avmen and his wife were then led onto the red carpet by the usher, but were then immediately treated differently, according to Courthouse News Service.

The two were taken to what was described in the lawsuit as a “detention center” and were questioned about how they accessed the red carpet area without tickets. They were then accused of lying and trespassing, according to FoxNews.com.

Avmen and his wife were held at by the ushers for about six hours, despite repeated requests to be allowed to simply leave and go back to their hotel. Around 10 p.m. Los Angeles police officers arrived at the area where the ushers kept Avmen and his wife.

The couple was then taken to a police station, but no charges were filed and Avmen said the officers apologized profusely for how the two were treated by the Academy staff.

The Academy has not commented about the case.

“If I or some ‘regular’ individual acted as The Academy did, we would be in prison right now. I want, and I will show that these people aren’t above the law,” Avmen said in a statement. “Security is one thing, but this was outside the realm of excessive. My wife and I have suffered, and there has been a great injustice enforced.”