- Jeremi Young | February 28, 2006 4:53 PM |
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Workplace InjuriesLoan originators for First Horizon Home Loan Corp. have filed suit against the company claiming they were illegally denied overtime pay.Follow a series of similar lawsuits agianst Bank of Blue Valley in Overland Park, Kansas, recently settled for over $1 million, National Bank of Kansas and Principal Residential Mortgage, the First Horizon suit is one of the largest of its kind. Close to 6,000...
- Robert Wolf | February 27, 2006 10:05 AM |
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Defective & Dangerous ProductsMedtronic Inc. continued selling flawed cardiac defibrillators for two years after learning that some of them may suddenly quit working, according to documents filed in a California lawsuit. "Medtronic has been taking products they know are not quite right and putting them into people rather than take the loss,'' said Hunter Shkolnik, a New York lawyer, who said in a Feb. 13 interview that he...
- Staff Writer | February 24, 2006 8:12 AM |
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FDA & Prescription DrugsIt's a scary a thing. Why all of a sudden are more and more of our children being diagnosed daily with attention deficit disorder and hyperactivity and being prescribed so called "cure-all" drugs. A staggering 29 million prescriptions were written in 2004 for stimulant drugs such Adderall, Ritalin and other similar drugs to treat this so called epidemic disease, most of them for children. Two...
- Staff Writer | February 23, 2006 12:26 PM |
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MiscellaneousThe University of Rochester has agreed to pay almost $9 million to employees who allege that the University violated wage laws by denying its employees payment for work done during their breaks. About 40,000 workers may be eligible to collect part of the settlement so that they will receive approximately $700.The University of Rochester, in Rochester, NY and its affiliates have reached a...
- Clint Gilbert | February 22, 2006 9:12 AM |
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Automobile AccidentsFor years now, the bus manufacturing industry has repeatedly defeated lawsuits focused on the lack of seatbelts on commercial buses. Federal highway safety regulations have never mandated that seat belts are required on passenger buses, and the industry has relied on that lack of regulation to shield itself from liability in bus wreck cases. That comfort came to a crashing halt this week,...
- Robert Wolf | February 21, 2006 11:19 AM |
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MiscellaneousAt Chatham College, in Pittsburgh, Dr. Renee Falconer and lab technician Caitlin Corbitt, are finding dangerous levels of chemical pollutants in some of our children's favorite toys. "We decided to go ahead and look for pesticides, while we were looking for the flame retardants, and we found both," said Dr. Renee Falconer. The scientists take the teddy bears apart and pieces from the outer skin...
- Jeremi Young | February 21, 2006 8:26 AM |
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Workplace InjuriesService Corp. International will pay over $4 million to settle a lawsuit alleging violations of overtime laws.The case involves premium payments, overtime and other wage & hour claims for funeral directors and other non-exempt employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA") and the New York Labor Law ("NYLL"). More than six hundred present and former employees of affiliates of SCI from...
- Robert Wolf | February 20, 2006 4:17 PM |
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MiscellaneousA new study shows that women using the Ortho Evra birth-control patch have double the risk of developing blood clots compared with those who take the birth-control pill, the Food and Drug Administration said Friday. The finding comes from one of two studies comparing the patch and the pill, said Ortho Women's Health and Urology, maker of the once-a-week patch. The company, based in Raritan,...
- Staff Writer | February 17, 2006 2:46 PM |
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MiscellaneousA federal judge gave preliminary approval to a class-action settlement between investors and Kmart executives. Shareholders accuse the company of investing 401(k) savings plans in Kmart stock, which became worthless after the company filed for bankruptcy back in 2002. The agreement would pay nearly $11.75 million to those who invested in securities between March, 1999 and May, 2003. An estimated...
- Clint Gilbert | February 15, 2006 9:03 AM |
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Defective & Dangerous ProductsA federal jury in Denver has recommended an award of $553.9 to several thousand land owners whose property was contaminated by Dow Chemical Company and Rockwell International Corp. The area in dispute in the lawsuit, filed in 1990, surrounds the former Rocky Flats nulear waeapons facility near Denver, Colorado. Some 13,000 land owners are represented in the class suit.The Rocky Flats facility...
- Jeremi Young | February 14, 2006 8:49 AM |
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Workplace InjuriesUBS Financial services has agreed to settle class-action suits by employees claiming to have been underpaid for overtime work. Settlement of all claims, both state and federal, could result in payment of up to $89 million. The basis for the suits was that UBS misclassified as exempt certain financial advisers and employees in training for that job. These employees were paid on a salary basis...
- Robert Wolf | February 13, 2006 11:16 AM |
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Defective & Dangerous ProductsStimulants like Ritalin could have dangerous effects on the heart, and federal regulators should require manufacturers to provide written guides to patients and place prominent "black box" warnings on drug labels describing these risks, a federal advisory panel voted on Thursday. "I must say that I have grave concerns about the use of these drugs and grave concerns about the harm they may...
- Staff Writer | February 10, 2006 1:07 PM |
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Workplace InjuriesIn Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores the federal district court certified the largest ever private civil rights class. There are 1.5 million female current and former Wal-Mart workers certified to be part of the suit. Beyond the unprecedented size and scope of the class the class members come from different geographic locations and held a variety of positions, both hourly and salaried. Despite these...
- Staff Writer | February 08, 2006 10:22 PM |
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Defective & Dangerous ProductsA welding products worker sued his former employer for his debilitating neurological damages, including his Parkinson's disease. He claims that his employers were negligent and should be found liable because they failed to warn him of the dangers associated with exposure to magnesium and for not providing him with fume extraction systems in the workplace. Suits such as these are becoming more...
- Clint Gilbert | February 08, 2006 12:04 PM |
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Defective & Dangerous ProductsBombardier Inc., the maker of the popular Sea-Doo personal watercraft, settled a wrongful death lawsuit involving a 12-year old girl that was fatally wounded after crashing a Sea-Doo in 1999. The parties reached the private settlement agreement after jurors informed the trial judge that the jury was deadlocked after a 6 day trial and lengthy deliberations....The suit was brought by Tammy...
- Jeremi Young | February 07, 2006 5:07 PM |
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Defective & Dangerous ProductsThe families of two men who died after being shot with a TASER gun have sued the City of Amarillo, Texas and the manufacturer of the TASER.Although the defendants claim the weapon is safe, the families of Corey Calvin Clark and Troy Dale Nowell who were killed, feel differentlyThe defendants claim that deaths from TASER shocks are rare and typically occur only when the person shocked has heart...
- Robert Wolf | February 06, 2006 12:36 PM |
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Defective & Dangerous ProductsThe Food and Drug Administration ordered a New Jersey-based broker of human tissue closed this week in the midst of accusations that the company took body parts from cadavers without family permission and did not always screen these body parts for diseases.The agency said an investigation showed that the company, Biomedical Tissue Services of Fort Lee, had improper documentation of the cause of...
- Clint Gilbert | February 01, 2006 9:10 AM |
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Automobile AccidentsAdvances in automotive technology have provided us with vehicles that are incredibly resilient in withstanding low-speed traffic collisions with no or minimal visible damage. Reinforcements and bounce-back materials have virtually ensured that wrecks that occur at less than 10 MPH will leave your car all but unscathed to the naked eye. But what about the effect that such "low speed" accidents...