When a hospital announces that one of its longest-serving obstetricians will require a chaperone when treating women in the maternity ward and has been removed from both hospital leadership and the list of doctors on call to deliver babies, you know something serious is going on.

A week after the Los Angeles Times reported Dr. Patrick Sutton had been accused of sexual misconduct by five former patients, three other women filed a lawsuit against Sutton and Huntington Memorial Hospital, claiming he subjected them to unwanted sexual remarks and touching during exams in the 1990s.

Three Southern California girls molested by a police officer while in a police explorer program have settled their civil suit against the Irwindale Police Department and Learning for Life, the company that runs the program, for a record $4 million. The settlement comes on the heels of another settlement against the same defendants last year for $2.75 million. All four victims were sexually assaulted by the same former police officer, Daniel Camerano, either in police cars during ride alongs or in police stations.

Tommy Fry was stuck on the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride at Universal Studios Orlando for about an hour back in 2015, when the ride he and his two sons were on malfunctioned. Fry claimed to have been suspended upside down for this time, though the facts are unclear, since the ride technically does not invert passengers, but rather, tilts them. Fry sued in 2017, claiming injury and mental anguish among other things. Last week, an amicable settlement was reached between the two parties for undisclosed terms.

This brings up an interesting question: can you sue an amusement park for being injured on a ride? Apparently yes, and the cases often settle, with payouts running into the millions of dollars.

While the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) waives the sovereign immunity of the federal government under certain circumstances, but those circumstances don't include injury claims by members of the armed forces and their families for injuries arising out of or in the course of activity related to military service. That might make sense for combat injuries sustained on the field of battle -- after all, can you imagine if the government got sued every time a soldier was injured or killed?

But what about when a healthy 33-year-old woman, who happens to be a Navy lieutenant and giving birth in a military hospital, mysteriously bleeds to death within hours of childbirth?

Navy Lt. Rebekah Daniel 's widower, Walter Daniel (a former Coast Guard officer himself), is suing in a search for answers as to his wife's death. And he is now taking his wrongful death case to the Supreme Court to try and get around decades of precedent preventing injury lawsuits against the federal government involving active-duty military members.

In the wake of the deadliest U.S. transportation-related accident in almost a decade, the operator of the limousine company whose "Frankenstein vehicle" was involved in the crash was arrested and charged with criminally negligent homicide. And while he is facing criminal liability for the 20 deaths as a result of the accident, he and the limo company may also face civil liability as a "common carrier."

But what are common carriers? And what are their responsibilities under federal and state tort law? Here's a legal roundup.

A Kansas foster care agency is being sued in federal court after a foster child, who was placed back into her father's home, died from being attacked by pit bulls that lived in the home. The lawsuit is against the Department for Children and Families (DCF) and KVC Behavioral Healthcare, a private not-for-profit foster care contractor, and seeks damages of more than $75,000.

Plaintiffs, consisting of the child's mother and the child's estate, claim that the agency was negligent in placing the child back into the father's home, and for failing to adequately assess whether the home was safe.

A tragic limousine accident last weekend killed 17 passengers, the driver, and two pedestrians, rocked the small town of Schoharie, New York, and raised new questions about limo safety, licensing, and legal liability.

According to reports, the modified 2001 Ford Excursion had recently failed a state safety inspection, the driver did not have the proper license to drive the vehicle, and even one of the passengers texted her concerns about the limo before the crash. The vehicle "was not supposed to be on the road," according to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. So, who is liable for the accident?

Like any experienced music festival attendee, Michael Ryan, of Panama City Beach, Florida, purchased VIP tickets for the Gulf Coast Jam country music festival in 2014. That gave Ryan access to unlimited quantities of free alcohol in the VIP area.

And like any experienced litigant, Ryan doesn't explicitly admit to consuming any of that free booze before he fell off a platform in the VIP section, "causing him to suffer severe and permanent injuries resulting in loss." Ryan also doesn't elaborate on those injuries in his lawsuit against the company hosting the music fest and the company providing security, but he is asking for $15,000 in compensation.

Accidents and natural disasters may seem inevitable or like an act of God. But that doesn't mean that all injuries stemming from a disaster are unavoidable, or that someone isn't liable for the accident itself.

Determining that liability, however, and recovering for your injuries, can be complicated. Here are some tips if you've been injured and are considering a lawsuit after a disaster.

"Given the history of violence in their parking lots," a wrongful death lawsuit claims, "and Wal-Mart's [sic] knowledge they were not employing adequate security measures, it was foreseeable to Wal-Mart that the Plaintiff would be attacked in their parking lot and sustain serious injury or death."

That's the legal argument a widow is making against the megaretailer, and it may be difficult for Walmart to refute. Recent years have seen a crime wave at Walmart locations, from the serious to the silly. This time it was Fadil Delkic who was shot and killed after an argument in a Snellville, Georgia Walmart parking lot.