Posted in Blog, Employment Law
Two more woman have complained that they were sexually harassed by the Philadelphia Housing Authority‘s executive director, Carl R. Greene, the agency’s board chairman said yesterday.
The women do not intend to file formal complaints against Greene, but approached the board on their own in an attempt to put the incidents behind them, said John F. Street, the board chair and former mayor of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
“They are sick of it, they have been afraid, and they have been frightened to death about all this, and now they see some light at the end of the tunnel,” Street said.
“Their motivation is not to file a complaint” in the hope of receiving a cash settlement, he said. Read More
Posted in Blog, Personal Injury
SAN FRANCISCO — During Cindy Cool’s almost daily visits to the nursing home, she would routinely find her Alzheimer’s-suffering father wearing urine-soaked clothes.
The Blue Lake, California resident said it would take upwards of 20 minutes for the apparently short-handed staff of Eureka Healthcare and Rehabilitation to respond and help Cool clean her father. Other patients fared worse, she said.
“A lot of times I walked out of there crying because of the things I saw,” Cool said an interview.
She provided key testimony before a Humboldt County jury last month slammed the owners of her father’s nursing home with a $677 million verdict, sending shock waves through the industry and rekindling calls for tort reform.
The verdict as it stands is already thought to be the largest in the country this year and its ramifications are still being sorted out weeks after the jury surprised even the plantiffs’ lawyers with the size of their verdict. Tort reformers have seized on the verdict as the latest example of litigation abuse. Read More
Posted in Blog, Personal Injury
PHILIPSBURG – A 28-year-old Philipsburg, Pennsylvania man was flown to the Altoona Regional Trauma Center with serious injuries following a motorcycle accident at 3:05 p.m. Saturday on state Route 53 at its intersection with East Laurel Street.
The Philipsburg-based State Police identified the man as Michael W. Liptak Jr., 28, of Philipsburg. They indicated that he was not wearing a helmet at the time of the accident, which occurred on the north side of the Philipsburg Borough building.
According to the accident report, Liptak was traveling southbound on North Centre Street. As his motorcycle approached the intersection at East Laurel Street, it skidded and caused the front tire to strike a concrete island on the left side of the roadway. Read More
Posted in Blog, Employment Law
A new lawsuit has been filed against FedEx as part of an ongoing dispute between the company and some of its truck drivers. Thirty-one current and former truck drivers for FedEx filed a lawsuit against the company in a U.S. District Court in Boston last Tuesday. The lawsuit seeks class-action status and claims that the truck drivers are incorrectly classified as independent contractors when they really should be considered employees.
The truck drivers filing the lawsuit claim that they are considered independent contractors even though an employer-employee relationship exists between truck drivers and FedEx. FedEx controls what its drivers wear, sets the times they work, and monitors their performance and equipment, among other things. The drivers are seeking to be classified as employees so that they can become unionized as are their counterparts at rival parcel delivery company, UPS. The worker lawsuit is also seeking financial compensation. Read More
Posted in Blog, Criminal Defense
The first thing to know about roadside testing is that, when you are stopped by police, you do not have to do the tests! You can refuse to perform these tests, and not be given a separate ticket for refusing to perform them.
Unfortunately, police officers are not required to tell you that you do not have to perform these “tests.”
And, the current state of the law is that you do not have to be read your Miranda rights prior to performing the tests, even though the very tests that you do on the roadside are going to be used to try to convict you in court.
Since New Jersey can convict you of DWI in two ways: (1) if your blood/breath alcohol content is greater than 0.08%, or (2) if your ability to drive a car is impaired due to drinking alcohol or taking certain drugs – it is very important to the reliability of the tests given to you just before your arrest. Read More
Posted in Blog, Personal Injury
The South Carolina Supreme Court overturned a $31 million verdict in a Ford rollover case stemming from a catastrophic accident in 2001 that caused brain damage to a 12 year-old boy. This was a difficult case. A mother was driving with four children who were not wearing seat belts and the mother took her eyes off the road and swerved to get back on the road. The question was whether the design of the Ford Bronco was a substantial contributing cause to the child’s injuries.
Obviously, a jury found that it was and sent a powerful message to Ford: $16 million in actual damages and $15 million in punitive damages. Read More
Posted in Blog, Family Law
Let’s assume that you and your worthless spouse, “Sluggo,” are definitely headed to “splitsville.” The only remaining question, as far as you are concerned, is whether to go ahead and file for a divorce, or, instead, simply to try a separation, (and file a separate maintenance action). What should you do?
As divorce lawyers in Augusta, Georgia, we should tell you, first of all, that each situation is different and that one size does not fit all! In other words, you should sit down with your own divorce attorney to discuss the pros and cons in your particular situation.
But here are some practical tips to consider and to discuss with your divorce lawyer:
Reasons for Divorce:
- If “Sluggo” is presently in a cooperative, “signing” mood, then it might be good to go ahead and get him to sign a generous settlement agreement now;
- Why pay for two legal proceedings, (separation and divorce), when you can go ahead and pay for just one, (divorce); and
- Going ahead and getting a divorce might give you peace of mind, sooner rather than later.
Reasons to Separate:
- If you are having health/medical problems, and you are on your spouse’s health insurance plan, then this might be a good reason to simply file a separate maintenance action, so you won’t lose health insurance coverage; and
- If you don’t want to have to sell your house right now, because, for example, you want your child to have time to graduate from a particular school, or because the housing market is so lousy in your area at the present time.
Again, each situation is different and this list is not all-inclusive. There are many other factors which might be relevant in your case. Please be sure to discuss the pros and cons of separation versus divorce with your own divorce attorney!
This complete article was written by “Divorce Lawyer in Augusta, Georgia“
Posted in Blog, Personal Injury
An average of 646 car accidents occurred each day on Florida roads last year, and more than half of those resulted in injury or death. If these numbers seem high, that’s because they are: Florida’s rate of traffic fatalities per capita has hovered around 30 percent above the national average for years. While careful driving can go a long way toward keeping you safe on the road, there is always a chance that another driver’s recklessness may cause you to crash. Listed below are some basic steps to follow if that happens.
Exchange Information
If you have been in an accident, exchange the following information with every other driver involved in the crash, even if you do not think you have been injured — many injuries do not appear until days after an accident, or even later.
- Name
- Address
- Phone number
- Insurance provider and policy number
- Driver’s license number and description of the vehicle
Posted in Blog, Family Law
Governor Paterson signed into law a bill making New York the last state to allow no-fault divorce. Prior to this, divorces could only be granted on grounds of cruelty, adultery, abandonment, or imprisonment, often resulting in a kind of unavoidable perjury in cases when both sides wanted a divorce.
The new law lets a person divorce on the ground that their marriage has been irretrievably broken for 6 months.
However, all issues regarding child custody, child support, spousal maintenance, and property distribution must be resolved prior to the divorce.
The Governor also signed separate bills affecting spousal maintenance and awards of legal fees in divorce actions.
The law will now allow couples to split based on irreconcilable differences, and lowers the waiting period from one year to six months. After signing the bill, Paterson declared “Finally, New York has brought its divorce laws into the 21st century.” Read More
Posted in Blog, Personal Injury
Another medical malpractice lawsuit has been filed against a West Virginia gynecologist over the use of a Bard Avaulta vaginal mesh, which has allegedly caused the plaintiff to suffer severe permanent injury and disfiguration.
The Bard Avaulta malpractice lawsuit was filed against Dr. Mitchell E. Nutt, of Huntington, West Virginia, by Dinana Boerke on June 24 in Cabell Circuit Court. Boerke claims that Nutt negligently implanted part of the Bard Avaulta system into her body to treat pelvic organ prolapse. According to a report in the West Virginia Record, the complaint also includes product liability claims against C.R. Bard and Covidien.
Boerke’s claim is one of more than a dozen similar lawsuits filed against Nutt over the use of the Avaulta Anterior and Posterior BioSynthetic Support System. A growing number of lawsuits over Bard Avaulta vaginal mesh have also been filed in courts throughout the United States involving similar allegations that C.R. Bard, the manufacturer, was negligent in the product’s design and in failing to warn patients of possible complications with Bard Avaulta pelvic organ prolapse mesh.
The lawsuit claims Boerke suffered mental and physical pain and suffering, permanent injury, substantial physical deformity and loss of a bodily organ system. She alleges that the implanted mesh was harmful and unwanted. Read More
