Atlanta libel lawyer L. Lin Wood said he notched a settlement against one television network and a preliminary win against another over TV specials featuring unsolved crimes—cases that he said should serve as a warning to other media companies.

In civil cases associated with two of the most sensational unsolved crime mysteries of the past two decades, Wood on Jan. 4 consummated a settlement agreement in a $750 million defamation case against CBS and on Jan. 7 secured a favorable ruling from an Alabama judge who refused to dismiss a fraud and outrage case against cable crime network Oxygen Media.