Pharmaceutical company Merck says it will start cutting checks next month for former users of its withdrawn painkiller Vioxx. Merck announced plans today to fund the $4.8 billion settlement involving about 50,000 lawsuits.

Merck & Co. will start cutting checks for former users of its withdrawn painkiller Vioxx next month after announcing Thursday that it will fund a $4.85 billion settlement expected to resolve roughly 50,000 lawsuits.

The city of Columbus was awarded $3.4 million Tuesday for its share of punitive damages in its lawsuit against a Phenix City plant. The city of Columbus, local boat dealer John Tharpe and south Columbus resident Owen Ditchfield won their suit against Continental Carbon in 2004. They had said their homes, businesses and buildings had been damaged by carbon black dust emitted from the plant.

MONTGOMERY, Ala., July 3 (Reuters) - The state of Alabama said on Thursday it would offer 69 drug companies it sued over alleged Medicaid price-fixing 30 days to reach a settlement before taking further legal action.

An attorney for Alabama asked jurors Monday to award the state as much as $800 million from two pharmaceutical companies accused of overcharging for Medicaid drugs. The state claims GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis engaged in fraud from 1991 to 2005, depriving the cash-strapped Medicaid program of badly needed resources. Attorneys for the two firms said the companies followed federal rules and the prices were proper.

Attorneys have completed closing arguments in the trial of the state of Alabama's lawsuit against two prescription drug companies. The jury now has the case. An attorney for the state of Alabama has asked jurors to make two drug companies pay as much as $800 million in a lawsuit accusing the firms of fraud in Medicaid drug pricing.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - A state court jury on Tuesday found two major pharmaceutical companies defrauded Alabama in a long-running Medicaid drug pricing scheme and ordered the firms to pay more than $114 million in damages. The jury found that GlaxoSmithKline should pay the state $80.8 million in compensatory damages and that Novartis should pay about $33.7 million in similar damages. But it declined to order any punitive damages.

July 1 (Bloomberg) -- GlaxoSmithKline Plc and Novartis AG inflated drug prices paid by Alabama's Medicaid program and must pay the state $114.3 million in damages, a jury ruled after a two-week civil-fraud trial. After deliberating for 5 1/2 hours yesterday and today, the state jury in Montgomery, Alabama, found the drugmakers liable for misrepresentation.

Investors might find it easier to sue insurance agents and carriers, thanks to new standards from the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc., attorneys said.

Jere Beasley, founding shareholder of Montgomery, Alabama-based Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C., has once again been recognized as one of the most outstanding lawyers in the United States. He was selected as one of 10 attorneys featured in The National Law Journal's 2008 special report, titled Winning: Successful strategies from some of the nation's top litigators.