Personal Injury Resources

The police of Los Angeles have recently had a lot of fun, when they were filling out papers to register a series of car accidents. As it turned out, drivers were losing control and running into other vehicles because of a giant women's pubis, which they could see displayed on the front part of an oncoming car. The LA police started desperately looking for the unfortunate pubis and came upon the tracks of young hairdresser, Nelly Node.

Nelly's passion for arts made the young woman photograph her own crotch and put the zoomed picture on her Volkswagen Beetle. Nelly decided to use such a shameless method to prepare her college course work, in which she analyzed the art of design. The witty student's idea worked for the college professors: she was proudly driving her "pubic beetle" until the police arrested the woman.

The court ruled that Nelly's car was creating a dangerous situation on the roads: the girl had to paint her car's bonnet over.

how the drug giant merck tweaked tests on vioxx to hide the fact the painkiller could cause heart attacks and strokes..

For instance, a group called Texans for Lawsuit Reform (TLR) advocated for limits on our civil justice system and Proposition 12, which limited medical malpractice awards to $250,000. They have advocated for the use of mandatory arbitration stripping our Constitutional rights to a judge and jury. Their advocating has resulted in little if any reductions in consumer goods or protections for consumers, but has provided overwhelming protection from lawsuits for business interests.

Capping medical malpractice payouts, putting in place President Bush's centerpiece education law and modernizing the election system also are among the GOP goals that, critics say, expand federal powers at the expense of states' rights.

Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., the masterful attorney who gained prominence as an early advocate for victims of police abuse then achieved worldwide fame for successfully defending football star O.J. Simpson on murder charges, died Tuesday. He was 67.

Cochran died of an inoperable brain tumor at his home in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles, according to his brother-in-law Bill Baker. He had been diagnosed with the brain tumor in December 2003, Baker said.

We faxed the copy of the cashed money order from our bank and letter stating the facts to Malasia twice and san,diego. They claim the don’t know any thing about it. Look if anyone else is thinking Class action law suit then count us in. Between constant calls saying we did not pay and trips to kinkkos to fax letter, we have’nt had time to grieve my mothers death. Look its fraud and I’m sure of it now. How does a company do this?

The loss of men was too great to be explained by New Zealand’s high male youth suicide rate, or by death through risk-taking or car accidents. The imbalance is an oddity - New Zealand has one of the highest ratio of women to men among developed countries. In Denmark and Germany, the imbalance runs the other way.

Doctors and hospitals will have more protection from medical malpractice lawsuits beginning July 1 under four bills signed into law Monday by Gov. Brian Schweitzer.

Hines and Terry Kinnas, Republican candidate for the legislative seat left by former Rep. Peter Larkin of Pittsfield, remarked on the high cost to Massachusetts employers of workman's compensation and unemployment insurance.

Lawyers filed into a federal courtroom Friday for the first pre-trial hearing in the federal Vioxx liability case, the start of a legal process expected to be complex, years-long and potentially very costly for the painkiller's maker, Merck & Co.

Certified public accountant Mark M. Gleason spends much of his time helping clients, either buyers or sellers, value an asset to determine a fair price. But the Pittsburgh accountant also is gaining a national reputation for knowing how to make assets last.

Gleason, 54, is one of three court-appointed trustees overseeing a $2.5 billion fund established to pay asbestos victims who can link their problems to exposure to products made by subsidiaries of Halliburton, the Houston, energy, engineering and construction services company once chaired by Vice President Dick Cheney.

"Well over one million claims could be submitted ... anywhere from today to 30 or 40 years from now," Gleason says.

In an unholy alliance between a few opportunistic members of the medical community and a handful of super-wealthy asbestos lawyers, healthy people taking chest exams bought and paid for by law firms almost always receive positive indications of asbestos injury. Doctors and radiologists have even been paid more for positive results than negative results and some physicians have certified hundreds of people a day as positive for asbestos damage to the lungs without ever examining a single patient. Hundreds and sometimes thousands of these plaintiffs are then included in lawsuits against companies that have little if any relationship to asbestos or products containing asbestos.

The latest evidence of distorted legal evidence comes from scientists working for and with Johns Hopkins University, who were asked by beleaguered asbestos defendants to examine the legitimacy of radiology findings by plaintiffs' experts in asbestos cases. The results seem to indicate more than professional disagreement over ambiguous diagnoses. Independent radiologists were asked to review 492 chest films without being told the X-rays were evidence in asbestos lawsuits. They found only 4.5 percent positive for asbestos damage while radiologists employed by plaintiff lawyers found 96 percent positive for asbestos. These results mirror similar findings reached by the RAND Corp. in recent years. Serious questions of the validity of testing and suspicions of manufactured evidence also have emerged recently in a similar silica lawsuit being heard in a Corpus Christi federal courtroom.

Near the end of class on Wednesday, several students expressed their concern over how the seemingly legitimate, voluntary concession of rights required by EULAs has the serious potential to chill innovation: by providing a legal precedent under which contract law may supercede the previously determined precedent of fair use protection for reverse engineering, hardware and software developers may be deprived of this extremely useful (and, as was pointed out in a previous post, historically significant) technique. There is, however, a larger issue at stake, one that in part rests upon the outcome of this case - the appearance of legal authority over small, independent development teams gained by corporate software studios in cases such as Davidson & Associates v. Internet Gateway may indirectly discourage the type of grassroots efforts from which many original works spring.

A jury has awarded $2.1 million to a 60-year-old former Navy engineer and his wife for exposure to asbestos that left him with terminal lung cancer.

Anthony and Maxlyn Cadlo of Pine Haven, Wyo., won the verdict Tuesday against John Crane Inc. of Illinois and Metalclad Insulation Corp. of Anaheim after a six-week trial in San Francisco Superior Court.

Cadlo joined the Navy in 1964, at age 18, served four years and was in combat in Vietnam. He was exposed to asbestos from the equipment and insulation he installed and removed on the ship and from dust emitted by the destroyer's guns when fired in combat, his suit said.

Cadlo was diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma in 2002 and is near death, the couple's lawyer, Christopher Andreas, said.

Jurors assigned one-third of the fault to the Navy, but it is immune from damages, Andreas said.

TXU on Friday agreed to pay $150m to settle a class action lawsuit alleging that the US utility misled investors about its strategy and financial performance.

Dallas-based TXU denied any liability in the action first brought in October 2002, but also agreed to look at tightening its corporate governance standards following negotiations lasting more than eight months. Counsel for the plaintiffs said the proposed settlement required these changes to be made.

A federal judge has dismissed a class-action lawsuit filed against Aquila Inc., allowing the utility to avoid potential damages in the millions at a time when it wants to sell some of its operations to pay its massive debt.

The lawsuit charged that shareholders were cheated when the company, then known as UtiliCorp United, reacquired part of its energy trading operation three years ago. U.S. District Judge Fernando Gaitan Jr. granted summary judgment to Aquila on Wednesday.

Different River has an interesting post on medical malpractice. He attempts to use the econ technique where you point out that if X were true, there would be a lot of money to be made by doing Y. So if Y is not happening, X is unlikely to be true. While this is a part of “the economic way of thinking", IMHO, we should be careful not to have too much confidence in the output, since its easy to make subtle mistakes. The comments section demonstrates some such issues for this case.

A class action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of purchasers of ChoicePoint Inc. common stock during the period between April 22, 2004 and March 3, 2005 (the "Class Period"), the law firm Lerach Coughlin announced March 10, 2005.

The suit comes after ChoicePoint disclosed in February that a secruity breach of its systems compromised personal information on as many as 145,000 consumers nationwide - including credit reports and Social Security numbers.

The complaint alleges that during the Class Period, defendants disseminated materially false and misleading statements concerning the security of the Company's systems, its results and operations.

"At the same time ChoicePoint's security breaches were concealed, two of the Company's top officers sold $20.89 million worth of their ChoicePoint stock," according to the lawsuit.

Help is available to borrowers who have claims against their lenders for violating the Truth in Lending Act and other laws regulating credit transactions. Such violations may be a defense to a mortgage foreclosure. If there is a violation, you may be able to void the mortgage and apply 100% of your payments to principal. You may also be able to recover money damages.

If the answer to any of the following questions is "yes," please arrange for a professional auditor to review your loan documents (including demand and collection letters, correspondence, and any account histories or monthly statements).

A serious problem in the regulation of drugs is that manufacturers do not have to make all of their data on the safety and effectiveness of drugs available to the public. We have seen this in the recent controversies surrounding Vioxx and the use of anti-depressants with children.

There is legislation in the Senate called the Fair Access to Clinical Trials Act of 2005 (or FACT -- cool name -- S.470) that would go a long distance toward solving this problem.

I sought out information about the lawsuit at the Zylon vest class action website but it had nothing useful. A year-old Detroit News piece, Cop death tarnishes armored vest maker, covers the background to the suits pretty well and clearly favors the company. The article mentions the two reputed failures of SCBA/Zylon vests. The first involved an Oceanside, California officer who was killed in the line of duty while wearing a Second Chance vest. The article repeats the company view that the fatal hit came at the edge, where vests often fail to stop bullets. The second incident that happened in Pennsylvania a few days later incontrovertibly involved vest failure and led directly to the Department of Justice getting involved.

The Complaint charges defendants with violations of the federal securities laws, specifically Section 14(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 14a-9 promulgated thereunder. The Complaint alleges that the defendants have issued materially misleading proxy statements (the “Proxy Statements”) to the limited partners of the Textainer Partnerships requesting that the limited partners grant proxies to be voted in favor of the Sale and related proposals. In the action, the plaintiff alleges that (1) the Proxy Statements failed to appropriately disclose that the prices at which the assets of the Partnerships were to be sold were materially lower than current market conditions would dictate; (2) the Proxy Statements omitted to state that there was a risk that the Partnership’s Assets were being sold at a value below the market because Textainer Financial and its affiliates had required any bidder agree Textainer Equipment Management Limited be retained to manage the assets of the Partnerships after they were sold, a condition which effectively eliminated other container leasing companies from the bidding process or artificially capped the amount that they would bid; adjustments made to the pricing of the Sale did not account for the increasing value of containers; and (3) the Proxy Statements omitted to state other material facts that an investor would consider important in deciding whether to grant their proxies to be voted in favor of the Sale and the related proposals.

Nationwide, the cost of auto insurance is expected to rise by just 1.5 percent in 2005, the smallest increase in five years, according to the Insurance Information Institute.

The average cost for auto insurance nationwide for 2005 is estimated at $870, an increase of $13 per vehicle from last year, reports the I.I.I. The projected increase represents a continued slowdown from 2004, when auto insurance costs rose by just 2.8 percent, said Robert Hartwig, senior vice president and chief economist of the I.I.I.

“The price of auto insurance is increasing by little more than one-half the rate of inflation,” Hartwig said. “Many people who, for example, drive safe cars, have excellent safety records and good credit-based insurance scores may see their rates go down.”

Hartwig cited the declining number of auto accidents, safer cars, new auto theft technology and fraud-fighting efforts as key factors behind the trend.

The household use of products containing asbestos has spread through the years since the discovery of the special qualities this material posseses. Such properties make asbestos specially useful for certain tasks. Some of these uses are thermal and acoustical insulation, strengthening of other materials, fire proofing, flooring and roofing.

Asbestos is added to insulating materials, for example, papers, textiles and shingles that are found in roofs, walls and ceilings; pipes covering, household appliances, etc. The reason for this is the fact that asbestos is resistant to heat and cold.

Asbestos is also used to make floor coverings more resistant to humidity. Likewise, it is employed for thermal insulation in many household apliances, for example toasters, ovens, dishwashers, etc.

Today’s first case, Tory v. Cochran, No. 03-1488, involves an appeal brought by an ex-client of superstar attorney Johnnie Cochran. The client challenges the constitutionality of a permanent injunction that forever prohibits him from “orally uttering statements about Cochran [or] Cochran’s law firm.”

Erwin Chemerinsky will argue the case for the petitioner, Ulysses Tory, whose brief is available here. Jonathan B. Cole will argue the case for the respondent, Johnnie Cochran, whose brief is available here. Check out the following link for extended coverage of one of this Term’s more amusing cases.

Not only has the prevalence of malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) increased over the past 40 years, it is anticipated that the increase will continue because of the widespread use of asbestos from the 1940s to the end of the 1970s. MPM is a highly lethal neoplasm, and diagnosis is difficult because of the frequency of vague symptoms present over a long period of time. Chest radiography and computed tomographic (CT) scans can be helpful only in revealing the presence of pleural effusion. Enthusiasm for the use of pleural biopsy has waned, and other procedures such as percutaneous needle biopsy, fluoroscopy and CT biopsy have significant limitations. Heilo and associates assessed the clinical use of ultrasonographically (US)-guided core-needle biopsy performed with a one-hand automatic sampling technique in the diagnosis of MPM.

A police department in New York is suing Ford Motor Company because they feel that the cars they’ve been buying from the company, the Crown Victorias, are unsafe.

Chicago Tribune - About a year ago, Buffalo Grove police joined a class-action lawsuit against Ford Motor Co. alleging that the company’s Crown Victoria sedans, the car of choice for most law-enforcement agencies, weren’t safe.

Except now they’re going to drop out of the lawsuit. Why? Because they want to buy more Crown Victorias from Ford and Ford won’t sell them.

I'm surprisingly out of practice when it comes to dealing with children, and his presence was initially very jarring. After a short time, Jeff and I decided it would be appropriate to stop “banging” my “ho” with my “gat” in the new Grand Theft Auto, so we switched to more benign games, like Burnout 3. It seemed obvious to us that actively trying to cause car accidents was a healthier atmosphere for impressionable minds.

The term asbestosis refers to a chronic disease of the lungs produced by asbestos exposure. This lethal ailment can initiate permanent lung damage, it can enhance the risk of lung infections and trigger heart malfunction. The first signs and symbols of asbestosis are shortness of breath, coughing and breathing is accompanied by a dry sound. The person can also experience chest pains and in the long run becomes weak when doing physical efforts and even when resting.

Here’s a post at Kadachi’s blog which describes the online advertising game by way of the high payout for the keyword mesotheliomaTechnorati Tag. It’s actually pretty hilarious the way ambulance-chasing law firms are so desperate to find clients for their class action suits.

For those of you who aren’t aware, mesothelioma is a lung disease that sometimes results from exposure to loose asbestos fibers.

Current law allows doctors to go without med-mal coverage if they post a notice on the wall of their office in the reception area to let patients know they don't have insurance. They also must agree to pay any judgment against them up to the amount of insurance they otherwise would have had to carry.

But if this proposed law passes, Florida doctors would be required to either buy med-mal insurance, have a letter of credit or have an escrow account set up to pay judgments in a malpractice lawsuit.

It's a move some say will have devastating results on health care in the state if it passes. That's because doctors "already can't afford the insurance, and some insurance companies won't insure the doctors in high-risk specialties," says Lisette Gonzalez Mariner, spokeswoman for the Tallahassee-based Florida Medical Association, which represents about 16,000 doctors in the state.

For anyone faced with a dire prognosis of cancer or any other disease, the following interview will inspire you. In the annals of cancer, mesothelioma is one of the worst possible types of cancer to have. In the words of oncologists it has a "dismal therapeutic outcome"� and is "an aggressive incurable tumor."� The median survival from diagnosis ranges from 6 to 18 months�. Despite this prognosis, Mr. Paul Kraus is alive nearly 8 years after he was diagnosed with peritoneal mesothelioma. What is equally remarkable is that Mr. Kraus had no orthodox cancer therapies - he opted to say 'no' to chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation. Instead, Mr. Kraus made radical lifestyle changes, altering his diet, using intravenous and oral vitamins, herbs, amino acids and other immune boosting therapies and supplements, and tapping into the power of the mind-body connection.

Lawyers filed into a federal courtroom Friday for the first pre-trial hearing in the federal Vioxx liability case, the start of a legal process expected to be complex, years-long and potentially very costly for the painkiller's maker, Merck & Co.

The mood was cordial at the initial procedural hearing, which lasted just over an hour. Russ M. Herman, the lawyer speaking for the plaintiffs, even went out of his way to compliment Merck's attorneys.

The bespectacled and balding Judge Eldon E. Fallon said he was impressed by caliber of lawyers before him. But he also noted the difficulty of the case and encouraged lawyers on both sides to work together. "Most of the time an agreement you make will be better than one I impose," he said.

The frequency of medical malpractice lawsuits is starting to decline in West Virginia, but the medical and legal communities are at odds about why fewer cases are being filed now than a couple years ago.

The West Virginia Legislature changed civil justice laws relating to medical liability lawsuits in 2001 and 2003.

The 2001 changes went into effect the following year and required all medical negligence lawsuits to have a certificate of merit completed before the case could be filed, introduced mandatory mediation and established litigation deadlines to keep cases from languishing in the court system.

The 2003 changes were more diverse and included a lower limit on non-economic damages from $1 million to a sliding scale of $250,000 to $500,000, a $500,000 limit on total damages for malpractice lawsuits arising from trauma care and financing for the new West Virginia Physicians Mutual Insurance Co. The 2003 reforms took effect July 1, 2003.

The complaint charges Audible, Donald R. Katz (Chairman and CEO), and Andrew P. Kaplan (CFO) with violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. More specifically, the complaint alleges that the Company failed to disclose and misrepresented the following material adverse facts which were known to defendants or recklessly disregarded by them: (1) that the Company intended to pursue new business initiatives; (2) that the Company's growth, through these expensive initiatives, would severely undermine Audible's margins and earnings; and (3) that as a consequence of the foregoing the Company's ambitious growth plan posed a substantial risk to the future stability of the Company and its stock price.

During the Class Period, defendants concealed the fact that Dexanabinol, the company's flagship drug product for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) trial was not exhibiting materially favorable reaction. Prior to disclosing this information to the public, Pharmos sold millions worth of stock in private placements. Furthermore, the Company's CEO sold 20% of his holdings and its President sold almost 50% of his holdings. Such sales occurred after the close of Phase III enrollment and after the six month post-enrollment period concluded. On December 20, 2004, just weeks after insiders sold 400,000 shares of stock, Pharmos announced that Dexanabinol was not found to be materially effective in Phase III testing. Furthermore, after years of touting the effectiveness of Dexanabinol, the Company abruptly ceased its effort to gain approval for Dexanabinol for TBI.

Class action law suits in the US are still pending, but Adecco said it believed they had no merit and had filed to have them dismissed, although it added that there could be no assurance that the resolution of any of these matters would not have a material effect on the group.

City Clerk Sandi Ramsey stated that workman's compensation had to be paid. She added that the city has been breaking even after making payments to employees and paying phone bills to keep services from being shut off.

Ian Walker, partner at London personal injury law firm Russell Jones and Walker, said he was representing four customers seeking compensation.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, March 17 /PRNewswire/ -- A new report issued by the Consejo de Latinos Unidos, a national non-profit organization which educates and assists Latinos and others, shows that Hispanic patients and physicians in Puerto Rico appear to never have been informed in Spanish about the cardiovascular risks of Vioxx.

The Complaint alleges that defendants violated Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder. Unbeknownst to the market until February 15, 2005, from approximately October 2003 through October 2004 criminals using "low-tech" methods had been able to access thousands of records containing personal information maintained by ChoicePoint. Throughout the Class Period, the Defendants made material misrepresentations and/or omitted to make material disclosures by falsely claiming that ChoicePoint had unique capabilities and systems in place to enable the responsible use of information while ensuring the protection of personal privacy. Defendants also falsely claimed during the Class Period that the theft of consumer data they recently announced was unprecedented and that the Company welcomes national discussion on how to ensure that information is used responsibly.

As the market learned in February, 2005, ChoicePoint did not have adequate controls in place to protect the privacy of the information it compiled and sold. Defendants became aware of the criminals' access of the Company's records in October of 2004. Despite knowing of this serious threat to consumer privacy and despite knowing that their representations about the security of ChoicePoint's data were inaccurate, Defendants waited until February 15 of this year to disclose any information about the breach in Company security. As the market learned on March 2, 2005, a similar incident occurred five years ago resulting in the disclosure of 7,000 records. Notwithstanding their nondisclosure and misstatements, Defendants Smith and Curling sold over eighteen million dollars of stock between the time they discovered the criminals' access and their initial disclosure of the breach of their system in February.

Consumers whose private information may have been put at risk due to the recent security breaches at ChoicePoint now have a new consumer information and action center available at www.ChoicePointClassAction.com. The website will feature up to the minute news on the ChoicePoint case as well as the pending Choicepoint litigation.

“The ChoicePoint class action site is designed to continually update those consumers who may have been affected by the security breaches at ChoicePoint,” said Leonard Bennett, lead counsel for the ChoicePoint class. “Our goal is to provide the latest news and information to those consumers who are members of the ChoicePoint class and point them to resources for coping with the effects of identity theft.”

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Richard Byrd, R-Kirkwood, includes a $250,000 cap on "pain and suffering" damages, constraints on punitive damages and a provision that injury lawsuits be held in the county where the plaintiff was injured.

Republican lawmakers said the provisions will reduce doctors' growing malpractice insurance premiums.

Some Democrats argued that the bill goes beyond helping doctors and gives favors to special interest groups. To illustrate their argument, they pointed to language that extends special protections to pharmaceutical companies and nursing homes.

"This bill goes too far," said Rep. John Burnett, D-Kansas City. "This bill has been hijacked by special interests."

People who file medical malpractice lawsuits would be required to go through mediation before their cases could move through the court system under a bill approved by the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.

Doctors complain that too frequently lawsuits that are filed against them are thrown out, leaving them with legal expenses, said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Harrison, R-Columbia.

"Mediation earlier in the process eliminates some of the costs of defending frivolous claims," Harrison said.

On March 10, 2005 it was disclosed that EchoStar's audit committee had launched an internal accounting probe and that the Company and Defendant Ergen, the Chief Executive Officer, were the subjects of an SEC inquiry. According to a March 10, 2005 Reuters article, the probe relates to the booking of transactions with suppliers and consulting payments to a friend of Ergen's. A Bloomberg article reported unnamed sources claimed that the investigation had uncovered "evidence," including "company records that showed Ergen may have directed or authorized vendor transactions and consulting payments to an unidentified friend." The Bloomberg article also noted that since July 2004, the SEC has been examining the way EchoStar and other companies in the telecommunications industry account for subscribers.

The Complaint alleges that Forest Labs violated federal securities laws by issuing false or misleading public statements. Specifically, the Complaint alleges that Forest Labs concealed deficiencies with its Celexa/Lexapro drugs in treating adolescent depression and when Forest Labs ultimately disclosed an agreement with the New York State Attorney General to make available summaries of previously undisclosed studies on the drugs, the price of Forest Labs stock dropped to as low as $36 per share.

The complaint names as defendants Hypercom, Christopher S. Alexander (Chairman of the Board, President, and Chief Executive Officer), and John W. Smolak (Chief Financial Officer) (collectively "Defendants"). According to the complaint, Defendants violated sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder, by issuing a series of material misrepresentations to the market during the Class Period. Hypercom manufactures, designs, and sells end-to-end electronic payment solutions that include point-of-sale /point-of-transaction terminals, peripheral devices, transaction management systems and application software and provides related support and services.

“People expect good judgment from their lawyers and there’s a sense that riding a bike is reckless,” [said Spohrer Wilner partner Bob Spohrer].

Not at all, explains Spohrer. Although he admits he rides his silver Harley-Davidson for the “adrenaline rush,” he said his days of zooming through mountain passes are over. Like many of the legal riders, Spohrer favors cruising the open roads.

“Like anything worth doing, there’s an element of risk, but it’s manageable,” said Spohrer, sounding every bit the personal injury advocate.

Clients on the other side of the personal injury aisle don’t mind a motorcycling lawyer. E.T. Fernandez, a partner at Inman and Fernandez who specializes in personal injury defense, said his clients like his biking experience.

It gives him an edge, he said, when he’s defending a client against an injured biker suing for damages. It’s relatively easy to defend against lawsuits from bikers, said Fernandez. He can look at the circumstances surrounding a wreck and tell whether the biker was driving recklessly, he said.

A Cook County Circuit Court judge gave preliminary approval to a $38 million settlement of a class-action lawsuit accusing Aon Corp. of taking hidden payments from insurance companies.

The settlement occurred less than a week after the Chicago-based insurance broker agreed to pay $190 million to settle separate civil complaints brought by the attorneys general of Illinois, New York and Connecticut.

The suits described secret deals with insurers in which Aon profited at the expense of customers who may have overpaid for insurance coverage.

Located at http://www.mesotheliomasite.com , the Mesothelioma Network web site discusses mesothelioma diagnosis and treatment, clinical trials, and medical breakthroughs. It includes useful resources such as lists of physicians and medical centers that treat the disease. Because a diagnosis of mesothelioma can be so devastating, the site also contains a list of support groups for patients and their loved ones.

The claim, filed with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, alleges misrepresentation of Nortel's financial situation between April 24, 200, and April 27, 2004.

Nortel announced last April 28 that it had dismissed Dunn and two other executives for cause. It also disclosed that its 2003 profit was substantially less than it had stated three months earlier.The announcement sent Nortel shares plunging.

The city (Los Angeles) sued the four online travel companies, alleging that Los Angeles is losing about $10 million a year in hotel taxes because of the way the sites price their trips.

Like traditional travel agents, the Web sites negotiate discount rates with hotels, then mark them up and sell them to consumers. The suit alleges that the companies charge and collect taxes based on the higher rate but pay the city's 14 percent hotel tax based on the lower rates, then pocket the difference.

My research (summary here) shows that awards against out-of-state defendants are much higher in states that select their judges using partisan elections compared to other states. I have little doubt that the plaintiff's lawyers (or their firm) are big contributors to Judge Donald Floyd's reelection campaign (this is neither illegal nor uncommon in Texas).

A relatively new source of financing is now available for both individuals and business owners. It is called lawsuit financing, often referred to as lawsuit loans or lawsuit funding. But these are not loans because the money does not have to be paid back unless the case is won. Lawsuit financing (loans) help clients who are having financial difficulties.

The Complaint alleges that Viisage violated federal securities laws by issuing false or misleading information. Specifically, Viisage borrowed funds from its controlling shareholder, and was in dire need of a credit line adequate to finance its ongoing business needs. In order to secure such credit, the defendants engaged in a scheme to artificially engineer a profit in the third quarter of 2004, and made earnings projections known by them to be baseless. The third quarter profit, which was reported on October 25, 2004, was only made possible through various accounting manipulations, whereby certain assets were prematurely recognized, while certain expenses were artificially deferred from the third quarter of 2004 into the fourth quarter of 2004.

On February 27, 2005, defendants disclosed numerous fourth quarter charges and a significant asset impairment, all of which returned Viisage to substantial unprofitability. On this news, Viisage stock fell over 20%. Then, on March 2, 2005, defendants announced that Viisage had a "material weakness" in its internal financial controls, and that BDO Seidman LLP, the Company’s external accounting firm, would issue an adverse opinion with respect to the effectiveness of the Company’s internal controls over financial reporting. As a result, the stock plummeted an additional 20%, to close at $4.50 on March 3, 2005.

Last year, nearly 10 million Americans were victimized by identity thieves using information maintained by companies such as ChoicePoint. According to the Federal Trade Commission, identity theft is the nation's top fraud complaint.

ChoicePoint executives, who dumped millions of shares of company stock in the weeks before the scandal hit, refer to the far-reaching security debacle as "crimes committed against ChoicePoint." If true, then ChoicePoint should try to contain and reduce the harm the crimes have inflicted on others. The firm's own laxity, fueled by its eagerness to make sales, allowed criminals to use open, seemingly legitimate accounts to buy sensitive financial information belonging to unwitting consumers.

When the information brokers can't spot a fake and will sell to all comers, what hope do consumers have to protect their assets and good credit ratings? This pervasive problem demands a comprehensive solution to protect law-abiding citizens' credit and privacy. In the meantime, perhaps ChoicePoint can explain how it came by all this personal information and what right it has to sell it at a profit.

Using misappropriated passwords and identifications from legitimate customers, intruders got access to personal information on as many as 32,000 U.S. citizens in a database owned by Lexis Nexis, the company's corporate parent said Wednesday.

Reed Elsevier Group PLC said the breach of its recently acquired Seisint unit was being investigated by staff and by U.S. law enforcement authorities.

Boca Raton, Fla.-based Seisint stores millions of personal records including individuals' addresses and social security numbers. Customers include police and legal professionals and public and private sector organizations.

Reed Elsevier bought Seisint — which provides data for Matrix, a crime and terrorism database project funded by the U.S. government that has raised concerns among civil liberties groups — for $775 million in August.

The wife of Senate President David Williams has settled her medical malpractice lawsuit against a Lexington ophthalmologist in a case that drew attention because of Williams' support of a proposed constitutional amendment to control such lawsuits.

Robyn Williams sued Dr. Thomas Abell in 2002, alleging that eye surgery he performed on her in the early 1990s damaged her vision. She claimed at least four "non-economic" damages, including pain and suffering.

David Williams has repeatedly sponsored a proposed amendment that would allow the legislature to cap jury awards in civil damage suits against doctors and hospitals.

The suit charges that the defendants violated federal securities laws by issuing a series of false and misleading statements to the market that led to artificial inflation of the market price for the company's securities.

It was filed on behalf of shareholders who purchased or acquired Delphi stock between Jan. 17, 2001 and March 3, 2005.

The lawsuit follows the results of a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation that found Delphi had overstated its profits and misrepresented how much cash it had from its operations.

The complaint alleges that Direct General's financial statements and defendants' disclosures throughout the Class Period regarding the Company's financial statements were materially false and misleading in that Direct General was failing to properly adjust for loss reserves with respect to a change in the law related to personal injury protection coverage in Florida. Beginning with policies issued on or after October 1, 2003, Florida mandated that the maximum personal injury protection coverage deductible be reduced from $2,000 per occurrence to $1,000 and that the limit be increased to $10,000 in excess of the deductible as opposed to $10,000 less the deductible. The Complaint further alleges that as result of this, the Company had to further increase its reserves by approximately $2.2 million, and as a consequence of the foregoing, the Company's income was materially overstated at all relevant times. On January 26, 2005, Direct General announced that it would be adjusting its loss reserves and changing its reserve analysis. Following this news, Direct General's stock price dropped more than 31% on January 27, 2005, on heavy trading volume.

The complaint charges Bradley Pharmaceuticals, Daniel Glassman and R. Brent Lenczycki with violations of Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder. The complaint alleges that the defendants failed to disclose and misrepresented the following material adverse facts: (1) that the Company was materially overstating its financial results by engaging in improper accounting practices; (2) that the Company's future sales growth from its Keralac(TM) franchise would be hindered by generic competition; and (3) as a result of the foregoing misrepresentations and omissions, there was no reasonable basis for the Company's revenue and earnings guidance.

Homestore Inc. said on Monday it finalized the settlement of the class action law suit filed against the online real estate company in December 2001.

The sole remaining objector to the settlement between Homestore and the California State Teachers' Retirement System, or CalSTRS, has dismissed his appeal with prejudice.

The move concluded the appeals process, which began after Homestore received final trial court approval of the shareholder class action settlement agreement in March 2004.

The complaint alleges that Vishay has made a tender offer to exchange 2.64 shares of Vishay common stock for each outstanding share of Siliconix stock, an offer valued at approximately $34.98 per Siliconix share (the "Exchange Ratio"). This price represents a discount of approximately 11% from Siliconix's 52-week average of $39.20, and a substantial discount to its 52-week high of $59.62. Following the tender offer, Vishay intends to effect a merger of Siliconix with a subsidiary of Vishay (the "Merger").

The Complaint further alleges that Vishay is trying to take advantage of the fact that the market price of Siliconix stock does not fully reflect the progress and future value of the Company, that Vishay's offer has been dictated by Vishay to serve its own interests and that Vishay seeks to force Siliconix's minority shareholders to relinquish their Siliconix shares at a grossly unfair price and that such action constitutes unfair dealing.

The developer of a new home subdivison in El Dorado Hills will warn prospective buyers that naturally-occurring asbestos may be found in their neighborhood. The move follows a News10 investigation last fall.

A lawsuit is a civil action brought before a court in order to recover a right, obtain damages for an injury, obtain an injunction to prevent an injury, or obtain a declaratory judgment to prevent future legal disputes. It usually involves dispute resolution of private law issues between individuals, business entities or non-profit organizations. However, it may involve public law issues in those jurisdictions that enable the government to be treated as if it were a private party in a lawsuit (as plaintiff or defendant regarding an injury), or that provide the government with a civil cause of action to enforce certain laws rather than criminal prosecution.

A lawsuit is a civil action brought before a court in order to recover a right, obtain damages for an injury, obtain an injunction to prevent an injury, or obtain a declaratory judgment to prevent future legal disputes. It usually involves dispute resolution of private law issues between individuals, business entities or non-profit organizations. However, it may involve public law issues in those jurisdictions that enable the government to be treated as if it were a private party in a lawsuit (as plaintiff or defendant regarding an injury), or that provide the government with a civil cause of action to enforce certain laws rather than criminal prosecution.

The Maryland Patients' Access to Quality Health Care Act of 2004 was recently enacted. Information concerning the bill's passage is here. The unofficial, marked up text of the bill is here. Among other things, the Act limits an award or verdict for noneconomic damage for a cause of action arising between 1/1/2005 and 12/31/2008 to $650,000. After that, it increases by $15,000 per year.

At Point of Law, Walter Olson notes that many states use an "offer of judgment" rule as a means of promoting settlement. In some of the states, including Michigan, the sanctions that will apply - if an offer is rejected by a party who then does not prevail - will include attorneys' fees and other costs of litigation. This is, theoretically, a meaningful protection against frivolous plaintiff cases, a form of the "loser pays" system he advocates. Note, though, the qualification.

Michigan uses the same schema to apply to both offers of judgment and to pretrial case evaluation. A party who either loses or does not improve on the case evaluation / offer of judgment figure by more than 10% can have the court award him the costs and fees necessitated by the rejection. But good luck getting them paid if you are the defendant.

Transat AT Inc., the owner of Canada's biggest charter airline, agreed to a C$7.65 million ($6.17 million) settlement with 175 people aboard a plane that ran out of fuel over the Atlantic Ocean before gliding to an emergency landing.

The twin-engine Airbus SAS A330, with 293 passengers and 13 crew, was en route to Lisbon from Toronto on Aug. 24, 2001, when a fuel line failed and both engines shut down. The aircraft glided for 10 minutes to the island of Terceira in the Azores, about 1,500 kilometers (932 miles) west of Portugal.

Air Transat, based in Montreal, settled out of court earlier with 118 other passengers, and today's agreement, which would end a class-action lawsuit, must be approved by the court. Air Transat's insurers will cover the cost of the settlement, the company said in a release distributed by Canada NewsWire.

A class action lawsuit seeking C$240 million ($194 million) in compensation has been launched against Manulife Financial Corp, alleging it failed to conduct due diligence on the safety of hedge fund Portus Alternative Asset Management.

The statement of claim, filed on Tuesday in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, is the latest in the unfolding drama of Toronto-based Portus, which has been under investigation by regulators across Canada over its operations.

Manulife has been accused of sending C$240 million worth of client investments to Portus, and reaping referral fees of more than C$10 million in addition to "significant" trailing fees from the class members' capital invested with the hedge fund.

Manulife spokesman Tom Nunn said the insurer is concerned about the events and is reviewing the situation, but declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Bank of America Corp. agreed Thursday to pay $460.5 million to settle its part of the massive WorldCom Inc. class-action shareholder lawsuit, putting additional pressure on the 14 remaining banking defendants to settle as well.

Plaintiffs in the case, led by the New York State Common Retirement Fund, allege that Bank of America and other banks helped sell billions in WorldCom stock and bonds to investors in 2000 and 2001 even though they knew the telecommunications firm was falsifying its books. The banks have generally argued that they could not have known about WorldCom's fraud.

Bank of America denied breaking any laws in agreeing to the settlement. The firm said in a statement, "Bank of America believes it is in the best interests of the company to resolve these claims and put this litigation behind it and focus efforts on creating greater value for the shareholder."

Not yet, but American copyright law makes it possible. Blawger Reasonable Man says you own your own words when published. Conceivably commenters might sue for a share of ad revenue, or a partnership stake in the blog.

"Who owns blog comments?" also suggests a blog's Terms Of Service can be written to assign some of the commenter's rights to the blogger, so a blogger can keep the post as part of the web site and protect its conversations.

As bloggers add defensive TOS, look for some bloggers to create predatory terms where all your comments belong to the blogger, no rights left for the commenter.

In American Service Center V. Helton the D.C. Court of Appeals held that remedies for injury to personal property include residual diminution in value after repair.

In this case, there was an automobile accident involving an Avis rental and a Mercedes Benz owned by a large Mercedes dealership, the American Service Center. Avis paid for the repairs to the Mercedes, but American Service Center sued to also recover the net residual diminution in value after repair. The Court held that:

when a plaintiff can prove that the value of an injured chattel after repair is less than the chattel’s worth before the injury, recovery may be had for both the reasonable cost of repair and the residual diminution in value after repair, provided that the award does not exceed the gross diminution in value.

There are two words insurance companies love to use. These words are: claim denied. Once you hear these words, you have two choices: One choice is to walk away and forget the whole thing and the other is to find a lawyer and litigate. Here is what you will discover: An insurance company will spare no expense to justify why your claim was denied.

In 1965, my brother Reuben was working for a radio station and he fell two stories off a radio tower and broke his neck. Being a young, strong man, (he was 19 years old) Reuben survived the fall, but he was a high level quadriplegic. Reuben was totally paralyzed from the neck down. There was no hope he would ever walk or move again because there is no cure for quadriplegia.

Shortly after Reuben's fall, my parents filed a Workmans' Compensation claim on Reuben's behalf with Liberty Mutual Insurance Company. Liberty responded by denying Reuben's claim for disability and asked for a Hearing.

Due to the back up of Workmans' Compensation cases, the Hearing date was several months off. During the Hearing, Liberty's lawyers argued that it was too soon to make a determination about his injury and they asked for a delay. The judge went ahead and ruled in favor of Reuben. Liberty appealed, and another round of Motions were made along with more medical exams and depositions taken from expert witnesses. A year went by, and the Workmans' Compensation Court of Appeals rejected Liberty's Appeal.

An engineer working for leading publisher Electronic Arts has become the second staff member to file a class action lawsuit against the company, seeking back pay, damages and penalties for unpaid overtime hours.

Leander Hasty, who has worked for the firm since mid-2003, filed his suit yesterday against the company, arguing that a special Californian law which exempts certain creative professionals from overtime regulations should not apply to EA's engineering staff.

The Californian law, instituted in 2000, says that programmers who make more than $41 an hour and are working in creative or intellectual roles on advanced technology projects - a definition which Hasty's lawyers challenge in the case of EA employees.

Today, however, President Bush would have you believe that the justice system is being misused and that the economy is being held back by "frivolous asbestos claims." He and the Republicans in Congress are trying to convince the American people that there is no asbestos public health crisis, merely an asbestos litigation crisis, by pointing out that about 70 companies have filed for bankruptcy protection because of asbestos lawsuits, and that about $70 billion has already been paid out in claims and related costs.

What the president and the Republicans fail to appreciate is how far the ripples of asbestos disease have spread. For example, in the small town of Libby, Mont., where W.R. Grace & Co. mined asbestos-contaminated vermiculite, hundreds of the company's employees have died of asbestos disease, as well as many residents who never worked for Grace but were merely exposed to asbestos fibers in wind-swept dust coming from the mine. Grace not only knew about the asbestos hazard in Libby and did nothing to about it but also had been assessed punitive damages for outrageous and reckless misconduct in prior asbestos litigation. This did not deter Tennessee Sen. Bill Frist, the Republican majority leader in the Senate, from describing Grace as a "reputable" company driven unfairly into bankruptcy.

Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) results from neoplastic transformation of mesothelial cells (i.e. cancer). Past asbestos exposure represents the major risk factor for MPM, as the link between asbestos fibres and MPM has been largely proved by epidemiological and experimental studies.

Diagnosis of Mesothelioma

The diagnosis of epithelial type mesothelioma can be established in most cases. Several mesotheliomas, however, especially rare subtypes, and sarcomatoid, desmoplastic, and poorly differentiated mesotheliomas continue to present diagnostic challenges.

Current Mesothelioma Treatment

Malignant pleural mesothelioma continues to be a challenging clinical problem.