The Consumer Justice Foundation, a free online resource for those who are struggling with legal or personal injury issues in relation to insurance companies and/or large corporations, hereby announces that Depakote class action lawsuits have been filed by plaintiffs in St. Clair County, Illinois against the manufacturer of Depakote, Abbott Laboratories. These Depakote lawsuits, which carry the case numbers of St. Clair County Circuit Court Case No. 10-L-651 and St. Clair County Circuit Court Case No. 11-L-143, respectively, seek damages for the classes of plaintiffs that would be used to compensate them for medical expenses incurred and future costs that will be incurred in caring for those who have been harmed as a result of using Depakote.

The Depakote class action lawsuits mentioned above involve claims regarding pregnant mothers who used Depakote while pregnant. Depakote is generally used by people in order to help them treat the symptoms of seizure disorders that include migraine headaches, epilepsy and the manic episodes associated with bipolar disorder.

Unfortunately, parents around the United States have claimed that using Depakote while pregnant can lead to the possibility of children of mothers who used this medication while pregnant being born with severe birth defects. Examples of these alleged Depakote birth defects have included spina bifida, neural tube malformations, heart defects and brain defects.

The lawsuits that have been filed against Abbott Laboratories claim that the company knew of the risks of the use of one specific active ingredient, known as valproic acid and its tendency to raise the risk of birth defects developing in children of mothers who ingested this substance during the early stages of a pregnancy.

These Depakote class action lawsuits further claim that Abbott Laboratories misled doctors and the public in general by downplaying these known risks, and that this downplaying of these potential risks led to the harm suffered by the children who were born with these birth defects. Plaintiffs in these Depakote class action lawsuits are seeking compensation for medical expenses and future costs of care.

A court magistrate is set to consider a request by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to extend a restraining order against a 19-year-old Pennsylvania man accused of stalking her.

At Monday's hearing, a magistrate in Anchorage will consider extending the order against Shawn Christy of McAdoo by six months.

Palin, her father, Chuck Heath, and her friend, Kristan Cole, also have been seeking long-term protective orders against Christy's parents, Craig and Karen Christy.

Craig Christy is accused of barraging Palin's parents with harassing telephone messages, including 26 in one day, and contacting Cole's children on Facebook. Cole's request for a protective order against Karen Christy was denied last month.

Palin and Cole obtained original restraining orders against Shawn Christy last year.

More than two dozen states challenging the health care overhaul urged a U.S. appeals court on Wednesday to strike down the Obama administration's landmark law, arguing it far exceeds the federal government's powers.

The motion, filed on behalf of 26 states, urges the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta to uphold a Florida federal judge's ruling that the overhaul's core requirement is unconstitutional. The judge, U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson, said Congress cannot require nearly all Americans to carry health insurance.

Allowing the law to go forward, the states argued in the 69-page filing, would set a troubling precedent that "would imperil individual liberty, render Congress's other enumerated powers superfluous, and allow Congress to usurp the general police power reserved to the states."

So far, three federal judges, all Democratic appointees, have upheld the law. Vinson and the Virginia judge, both Republicans appointees, ruled against it. It seems certain that the broad health care challenge will be resolved only by the nation's top court, and Vinson suggested in a March ruling that the "Supreme Court may eventually be split on this issue as well."

The filing comes about a month after the Justice Department formally appealed Vinson's ruling, arguing that Congress had the power to require most people to buy health insurance or face tax penalties because Congress has the authority to regulate interstate business.

The legal wrangling started when the states filed a lawsuit last year. Vinson agreed in a Jan. 31 ruling that said the entire health care overhaul passed by the then-Democratic-controlled Congress and signed by President Barack Obama is unconstitutional. It is considered the most sweeping ruling against the health care law.

An internal tug-of-war over control of jailed polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs' southern Utah-based church may force Utah courts to walk a constitutional tightrope that experts say could tread a little too close to separation of church and state.

The presidency of the 10,000-member Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has been in question since March 28, when church bishop William E. Jessop filed papers with the Utah Department of Commerce seeking to unseat Jeffs as president of the church corporation. Under state law, the move automatically put Jessop in power.

That set into motion a flurry of filings from Jeffs loyalists removing Jessop and claiming that some 4,000 church members have pledged their loyalty to their incarcerated leader.

Monday marks the deadline set by commerce officials for both parties to resolve the dispute or a legal showdown might be set in motion since, if no agreement is reached, the state says power will revert back to Jeffs.

The doctor charged in Michael Jackson's death returns to court Monday to ask for a delay in his upcoming involuntary manslaughter trial.

The move comes two days before jury selection resumes, and one week before opening statements are scheduled to begin.

Dr. Conrad Murray had been seeking a speedy trial, but his attorneys asked for a delay late Friday to give them more time to prepare to rebut the opinions of newly-disclosed prosecution experts.

The Houston-based cardiologist is accused of giving Jackson a lethal dose of the anesthetic propofol in the bedroom of the singer's rented mansion in June 2009. Murray has pleaded not guilty.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor said Friday that he would consider the delay request, but would not necessarily grant it.

A doctor will pay a second visit to a Portuguese model accused of castrating and killing a TV journalist in a Times Square hotel before his lawyer decides whether to pursue a psychiatric defense in the attack.

A psychiatrist visited Renato Seabra this month but needs a second evaluation of the 21-year-old model, defense attorney David Touger said Friday. Seabra was transferred two weeks ago from Bellevue Hospital to jail at Rikers Island, Touger said.

"He is medicated because he has a psychiatric illness. He is doing well under the circumstances that he is under," Touger said after a short pretrial hearing in state Supreme Court in Manhattan.

Seabra, a former contestant on a Portuguese talent-search show, has pleaded not guilty to murder in Carlos Castro's Jan. 7 death. Castro, a 65-year-old Portuguese TV personality and writer, was found dead, naked and bloodied in a room they were sharing.