Jurors in some Lake County cases won't get free lunches while serving because budget cuts have forced judges to halt a practice of using public money to feed them.

The changes affect Lake Superior Civil Division Courts but not jurors serving in the better-funded Lake Circuit and Lake Criminal Courts.

Chief Superior Court Judge John Pera said he is frustrated and embarrassed by the move to end lunch payments, a change that is the result of 30 percent spending cuts over the last two years. The civil courts already are at a disadvantage with other courts that receive revenue from tax and user fees that aren't shared, The Times in Munster reported.

"We struggled long and hard over every penny in our budget to see where we can cut and still provide the same level of service the public expects," Pera said.

The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal challenging campaign disclosure laws in Washington state.

The court on Tuesday let stand without comment a federal appeals court ruling that upheld the state's disclosure requirements. Human Life of Washington challenged the requirements as a violation of the First Amendment. The group didn't want to reveal its donors in a 2008 campaign opposing an assisted suicide ballot measure.

The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the disclosure requirements "have become an important part of our First Amendment tradition."

A Florida Supreme Court ruling that threw out a $145 billion award against cigarette makers is biting Big Tobacco back, making it dramatically easier for thousands of smokers to sue and turning the state into the nation's hot spot for damage awards.

The 2006 ruling has helped generate more than $360 million in damage awards in only about two dozen cases. Thousands more cases are in the pipeline in Florida, which has far more smoking-related lawsuits pending than any other state.

Though the justices tossed the $145 billion class-action damage award, they allowed about 8,000 individual members of that class to pursue their own lawsuits. And in a critical decision, they allowed those plaintiffs to use the original jury's findings from the class-action case.

That means the plaintiffs don't have to prove that cigarette makers sold a defective and dangerous product, were negligent, hid the risks of smoking and that cigarettes cause illnesses such as lung cancer and heart disease. The plaintiffs must mainly show they were addicted to smoking and could not quit, and that their illness — or a smoker's death — was caused by cigarettes.

Jurors have sided with smokers or their families in about two-thirds of the 34 cases tried since February 2009, when the first Florida lawsuit following the rules set by the Supreme Court decision went before a jury. Awards have ranged from $2 million or less to $80 million, though tobacco companies are appealing them all.

Michael Thurmond, who served three terms as Georgia's labor commissioner, has joined the Atlanta law firm of Butler, Wooten and Fryhofer.

In making the announcement on Tuesday, the firm said Thurmond will focus on personal injury cases, product liability, class actions and whistleblower claims.

Thurmond ran for the U.S. Senate last year rather than seek re-election as labor commissioner. He won the Democratic nomination but lost in the general election to incumbent Republican Johnny Isakson.

Before becoming labor commissioner, Thurmond served in the Georgia Legislature, representing a district in Athens, and practiced law there.

A Maine judge has upheld a jury verdict that awarded $7.3 million in damages for emotional distress to a businessman who contended he was double-crossed by a law firm he hired.

A Cumberland County jury last summer said the Portland law firm of Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer and Nelson worked against Peter Redman's interests in a dispute with his brother over control of the now-defunct Northern Mattress and Furniture Co. In a 37-page ruling, Superior Court Justice Thomas Humphrey denied the law firm's motion seeking a new trial.

Redman, of Old Orchard Beach, was banned from the family business' headquarters over a sexual harassment claim he contended was orchestrated by his brother to wrest control of the business. Redman said the firm failed to defend him against the accusations.