Legal

A devastating fire that began at a lumber processing mill in Weed, California, has led to a significant lawsuit filed by local residents against the mill's operators. On July 10, 2024, plaintiffs Ashley Navarre, Michael Navarre, Justis Navarre (through guardian ad litem Ashley Navarre), and Jacalyn Navarre (through guardian ad litem Ashley Navarre) filed a complaint in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco, against Roseburg Forest Products Co., Benjamin Hornsby, Jeffery Lee, and other unnamed defendants.

A British Columbia First Nations leader says the province must rethink its approach to the forest industry in light of Canfor Corp.'s decision to shutter two sawmills and leave 500 workers without jobs.

The United Steelworkers union is calling Canfor Corp.'s decision to shutter two northern British Columbia sawmills a "kick in the gut" for workers who will lose their jobs, calling for the company to lose its forest tenure rights in the province.

The American Paper Plate Coalition ("APPC"), representing the majority of American paper plate production, announced that the U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) has made preliminary affirmative findings in the antidumping (AD) duty portion of investigations involving paper plate imports from China, Vietnam and Thailand, and imposed preliminary AD duties up to 1039.05 percent.

Stora Enso's internal investigation into the environmental violation in Hukkajokiin Finland, which was discovered on Thursday 15 August has been completed. The investigation was conducted with the assistance of an external legal expert. The violation is also subject to a police criminal investigation and is being investigated as a serious nature conservation crime.

Police collected an "AK47 style pistol," two loaded AK-style magazines and two loaded AR-15 style magazines. A manager told police that there were 75 employees present during the incident and a loss of $15,000 in wages.

Smurfit Westrock will now pursue the full value of the Award from Venezuela.

The violation is being investigated as a serious nature conservation crime.

McKinley Paper Mill will label the Port Angeles mill closure as permanent, triggering benefits for eligible employees.

Stora Enso has suspended harvesting in all areas throughout Finland where there are restrictions under the Water Act, the Forest Act or the Nature Conservation Act. Harvesting has been suspended until the operational guidelines, harvesting plans and risks related to these sites have been reassessed. Any non-compliance that may be detected will be assessed in cooperation with the authorities.

The U.S. Department of Commerce announced the final determination of a combined anti-subsidy and anti-dumping duty rate of 14.54% in the fifth annual review of unfairly traded Canadian softwood lumber imports into the United States.

WorkSafeBC has fined Louisiana Pacific Canada Ltd. Dawson Creek OSB Division $316,061.

Pactiv Evergreen argued this week that it should not have to repay North Carolina the full $12 million in economic incentives it received for employing workers at its now-shuttered paper mill in Canton.

Two workers when to the emergency room over suspected exposure to hexavalent chromium.

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company (RRD), a global provider of business communication and marketing services, agreed to pay over $2.1 million to settle disclosure and internal control failure charges relating to cybersecurity incidents and alerts in late 2021.

After a three-year battle in court, lawyers for New-Indy Catawba LLC; parent company New-Indy Containerboard LLC and roughly 6,000 plaintiffs have reached settlement agreements of about $103 million.

The company received the $12 million in exchange for job creation in late 2014. To receive the funds, the company was required to employ a minimum of 800 full-time employees for the duration of the 10-year contract.

The man was exhibiting bizarre and erratic behaviors, severe agitation, and threatened violence toward law enforcement.

Nine survivors of a deadly 2017 paper mill explosion in DeRidder, Louisiana have won a record $141 million award for the Middle District of Louisiana in a lawsuit filed after the fatal blast at the Packaging Corporation of America mill.

A Federal Court of Appeals revives a portion of a lawsuit accusing former Appvion officials of inflating the company's value before it went bankrupt. The lawsuit was filed in 2018 by Appvion workers that were involved in the company's Employee Stock Option Plan.

Visy Board Pty Limited (Visy) was fined $375,000 after the NSW District Court handed down its findings earlier this month.

In early 2023, Paper Excellence announced that it would be investing nearly $50 million to upgrade paper operations at the Catalyst Crofton mill, re-start the paper machine and put employees back to work. That didn't happen, and a year later, the company announced the indefinite curtailment of paper operations in Crofton.

Napoli Shkolnik and the other members of the PFAS Settlement Steering Committee praise U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel's decision; Settlement follows $1.18 billion DuPont approval.

People living near New-Indy's paper mill in Catawba, South Carolina, say they've experienced health problems due to the plant's emissions.

A class action lawsuit filed in 2023 that alleged gas emissions from a Kalamazoo paper mill violated the Clean Air Act and civil rights was dismissed by a federal judge on Friday.