Chevron Can Sue Over Law Firm's Efforts to Enforce Multi-billion Judgment

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan has ruled that Chevron can sue law firm Patton Boggs "for fraud, malicious prosecution and making false statements to the New York court during the titanic legal battle between the U.S. oil giant and one of Washington’s most prestigious law and lobbying firms," The Washington Post reports.

Patton Boggs was hired by Ecuadorian villagers to come up with a strategy to enforce the $18 billion judgment won by plaintiff lawyer Steven Donziger against Chevron for polluting the country's rainforest, Reuters reports. (The award was reduced in 2013 to $9.5 billion.)

Last month, Kaplan ruled Donziger used bribery, fraud and extortion to win the multibillion-dollar judgment, Reuters further reports.