Lead plaintiffs counsel Robert Abrams of Baker & Hostetler reached the deal with Wal-Mart just three days after announcing a $140 million settlement from Dean Foods in an unrelated case. In both cases, however, much of Abrams' share of the contingency fees will go to pay Howrey's creditors.

State court jurors thoroughly rejected Michael Ciresi's appeals to sentiment and outrage in a closely-watched securities trial.

This billion-dollar recovery for indirect purchasers of LCD panels, if approved by San Francisco U.S. District Judge Susan Illston, will likely lead to some big fees for the plaintiffs lawyers. In a separate case brought by different counsel on behalf of direct purchasers, Illston approved a 30 percent fee, for a total of $121 million.

The class had filed a risky appeal to the Ninth Circuit that could have affected standing for indirect purchasers in antitrust cases far beyond the DRAM litigation. The settlement removes that risk.

By Buckley, P.J., Mazzarelli, Andrias, Saxe, Sullivan, JJ. 7409-7410-7411. Trans-Resources, Inc. plf-ap, v. Nausch Hogan and Murray, def-res Nausch Hogan and

Everyone knows that fuel prices tend to go up in the summer. But are consumers in warmer states also getting less gas than they're (over)paying for? That's what a class of gas purchasers alleged in five-year-old consolidated litigation over "hot fuel" that settled on Friday.