| | The TTLA 2008 Mid-Year Conference w/ Advanced Personal Injury Course & Board Meeting is scheduled for April 30th - May 2nd at the Driskill Hotel (800-252-9367) in Austin, TX. For more information contact rhonda@ttla.com. |
| | A mother of two who was paralyzed after her Ford Explorer rolled over should receive $82.6 million in damages, a California appellate court concluded on Monday. The automaker had appealed the initial award, arguing that it was not warranted in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Philip Morris USA v. Williams. The 4th District Court of Appeal had previously reduced the award from $369 million to $82.6 million. Mike Mckee, Law.com 03/11/2008 | |
| | A group of employees from New York Life Insurance Co. will receive $14 million as part of a class action settlement approved by a federal judge Monday. In the lawsuit, employees claimed they were forced to pay excessive fees and expenses because the company invested billions in its own mutual funds. The settlement also calls for New York Life to take steps to prevent possible future misconduct in the handling of its pension plans. Shannon P. Duffy, Law.com 03/11/2008 | |
| | A group of foreign workers who were brought to the United States to supplement a labor force depleted by Hurricane Katrina have filed a lawsuit against the company that brought them to the country. According to the complaint, Signal International falsely promised the workers permanent-resident status, forced them to live in sub-standard housing and threatened them once they protested. Other groups of foreign laborers working along theGulf Coast have also complained of exploitative working conditions since Hurricane Katrina. Adam Nossiter, The New York Times 03/11/2008 | |
| | Two whistleblowers have accused the Federal Aviation Administration of allowing Southwest Airlines to skip key safety inspections and attempting to intimidate investigators looking into the matter. According to government documents, produced by the Office of Special Counsel, the allegations appear to be substantially true. The House Transportation Committee is scheduled to hear testimony from the whistleblowers on April 3. Alan Levin, USA Today 03/11/2008 | |
| | Allied Aviation will pay a reported $1.9 million to settle allegations of racial discrimination and retaliation filed by 15 current and former employees. According to the lawsuit, filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the company engaged in and allowed a pattern of discriminatory conduct to occur at its Dallas/Fort Worth Airport location. Allied Aviation claims to be the largest domestically owned provider of fuel services in the United States, employing about 500 workers. David Wethe, Ft. Worth Star Telegram 03/11/2008 | |
| | A Washington jury has ordered the maker of a medical device to pay $40.1 million to a man whose heart was severely burned during a relatively routine bypass operation. According to the lawsuit, Edwards Lifesciences Corp. failed to notify doctors about problems with a monitoring device that malfunctioned causing a catheter inside the man’s heart to heat to 500 degrees. The man eventually had to undergo a heart transplant. The award also included $8.3 million in punitive damages for malicious conduct by the company. AP, Seattle Post-Intelligencer 03/11/2008 | |
| | A Pennsylvania jury has ordered the state police to pay $28 million to the family of a 12 year-old-boy who was shot by state troopers. Jurors found that the troopers, Samuel Nassan and Juan Curry, acted intentionally when they shot the unarmed boy. The verdict is believed to be the largest ever awarded against the Pennsylvania State Police. Debra Erdley, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review 03/11/2008 | |
| | The Justice Department announced Tuesday that W.R. Grace & Co. will pay $250 million for asbestos contamination cleanup in and around the northwestern Montana town of Libby. The town of Libby was exposed to asbestos from a vermiculite mine and processing plant operated by Grace from 1963 until 1990. A federal bankruptcy judge must approve the agreement before it can be finalized. Susan Gallagher, Houston Chronicle 03/12/2008 | |
| | More than a dozen warehouse employees of a regional doughnut maker have agreed to settle their discrimination lawsuit against the company. The workers claimed that Shipley Do-Nuts supervisors regularly used racial slurs and threatened immigrant workers with deportation. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed. Shipley, which is based in Houston, operates about 200 stores in the Southeast. Cindy George, Houston Chronicle 03/11/2008 | |
| | Eli Lilly & Co. concealed serious side effects of the schizophrenia drug Zyprexa, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday by the State of Connecticut. According to the lawsuit, Lilly marketed Zyprexa for unapproved uses and failed to disclose dangerous side effects, costing the state millions of dollars. The State of Alaska has made similar allegations against the drug maker and is currently pursuing those claims at trial. Reuters, Reuters 03/11/2008 | |
| | A California lawmaker on Monday called for a widespread audit of substance abuse programs for all healthcare personnel. Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas said that a lack of uniformity among various healthcare boards that govern so-called diversion programs make such an audit necessary. The Medical Board of California decided last year to do away with confidential diversion programs after audits revealed that they were not effective. Charles Ornstein, LA Times 03/11/2008 | |
| | A former blood disease specialist at Brown University warned colleagues in 1990 that the anemia drug Epogen might promote tumor growth but few took his research seriously. Now, as federal regulators are scheduled to consider whether to extend further restrictions on Amgen's drugs Epogen and Aranesp, and the Johnson & Johnson drug Procrit, Dr. Athanasius Anagnostou seems almost prescient. Since Dr. Anagnostou's work, eight clinical trials seem to show that such anemia drugs might exacerbate the cancers of some patients. Andrew Pollack, The New York Times 03/12/2008 | |
| | A team of researchers from the University of Washington and the University ofMassachusetts plan to publish evidence that implanted medical devices such as pacemakers may be vulnerable to hackers. According to the research, the scientists were able to gain access to a combination heart defibrillator and pacemaker and reprogram it to deliver potentially fatal shocks and remotely access personal patient data from the device. While the researchers stress that the likelihood of such a hacker attack is minuscule, they suggest that too little attention is being paid the to security of such devices. Barnaby J. Feder, The New York Times 03/12/2008 | |
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