A federal judge issued sanctions against a plaintiffs attorney, finding that he acted in bad faith by repeatedly violating court orders during his opening statement and in his questioning of the first two witnesses, forcing the court to declare a mistrial. The judge ordered the attorney to reimburse the defense team for the time it spent in beginning a trial that was aborted because of the lawyer's conduct. The defendants – Valero Energy Corp. and Premcor Refining Group Inc. – are jointly represented by lawyers from Ballard Spahr's office in New Jersey and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld in Washington, D.C.