Recently in Personal Injury Category

The adoptive parents of a child born with male and female organs say South Carolina mutilated their son by choosing a gender and having his male genitalia surgically removed.

The surgery took place when the child was 16 months old and a ward of the state, according to the attached lawsuit filed by the parents against three doctors and several members of the South Carolina Department of Social Services.

Lawyers for the parents said the complaints filed in federal and state courts are the first lawsuits of their kind filed in the United States.

The child, now 8 years old, feels more like a boy and “wants to be a normal boy,” Pamela Crawford, the boy’s adoptive mother, said in a video released by the Southern Poverty Law Center. “There was no medical reason that this decision had to be made at this time.”

Calling it a "close call," a federal judge on Wednesday allowed victims to pursue wrongful death and liability claims against Cinemark, which owns the Colorado movie theater where 12 people were shot to death last summer.

U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson indicated that it wasn't an easy decision but said the 10 lawsuits pose questions of interpretation and application of law.

"I suspect that many people, despite overwhelming sympathy and grief for the victims of the Aurora theater shootings, might upon hearing about these lawsuits have had reactions like, 'How could a theater be expected to prevent something like this?' " Jackson wrote. "I confess that I am one of those people."

James Holmes has been charged with murders and attempted murder in criminal court. Ten separate civil lawsuits were filed against Cinemark USA, which responded by saying that it couldn't have foreseen a shocking criminal act.

Jackson dismissed a claim of negligence but let stand a claim of wrongful death and another claim filed under Colorado's Premises Liability Act.

Mike McQueary, a key witness in the trial that led to Jerry Sandusky’s arrest for child molestation, has filed a lawsuit against Penn State for defamation, misrepresentation, and whistle-blower charges. The complaint alleges, among other things, that McQueary’s cooperation with investigators back in 2001 led to the suspension and eventual firing of the former assistant football coach. The complaint also alleges that his treatment by the university since Sandusky was arrested in November has caused him distress, anxiety, humiliation and embarrassment. The lawsuit seeks millions of dollars in damages and legal fees.