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.

The new, informal complaints are in addition to four sexual harassment complaints filed against Greene since 2004 with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission. Their disclosure resulted in Greene’s being suspended from his job by the board last week.

Greene will remain at a medical treatment facility for some weeks, said his attorney, Clifford E. Haines, who expressed astonishment at Street’s comments.

“John Street tells a newspaper reporter that he has some unknown person making some unidentified complaint about someone who has been in the press for weeks? I don’t know where to go with that,” said Haines. “Mr. Street and I are quickly becoming adversaries, unfortunately.”

Street said one woman is a current PHA employee and the other a former employee…

Continue Reading this Article HERE

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.

The company’s stock price has plunged on fears it will have to file bankruptcy. Cool, 58, was part of a class-action lawsuit representing 32,000 patients that blamed the nursing home staff shortage for the misery she encountered — echoing a common complaint across the country that for-profit nursing homes are too concerned with the bottom line.

After Wall Street investment firms went on a nursing home buying spree during the early years of the new century, critics charge that many companies drastically cut payroll expenses to prop up stock prices.

“The major problem for most nursing homes in California and in the nation is staffing,” said Pat McGinnis, executive director and founder of the California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform.

Find a Nursing Home Abuse Attorney in your area.

Continue reading this article here.

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.

Police said the Liptak motorcycle then crossed East Laurel Street and struck the curb. At the time of impact, the motorcycle overturned and caused Liptak to go airborne. He landed on the roadway in front of the motorcycle.

We offer our condolences to Mr. Liptak and wish him a speedy and complete recovery.

This article was first reported by GantDaily.com

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.

As reported by Reuters, FedEx classifies its truck drivers as independent contractors in order to have a competitive advantage over UPS. Courts have already decided in favor of FedEx’s position in similar lawsuits brought against the company. Earlier in August, a district court judge in Indiana ruled against FedEx drivers in another class-action lawsuit. The judge said that even though FedEx had some control over the work and appearance of its drivers, it was not enough to prove the existence of an employer-employee relationship.

This article was written by Grady & Associates

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.

When the breath/blood testing is suppressed or kept out of the trial due to errors in that testing, you still have to “beat” the field sobriety testing in order to be successful in your defense of the drunk driving charge.

The challenge against the testing is based on many things.

How did you get out of your car? If you didn’t need to use the car for support as you walked to where the officer told you for the testing, you are better off than if you needed to use the car door to help you out of the car, or used the car for support as you walked along side of it.

Did the officer ask you if you had any injuries that would prevent you from doing the testing, or that would cause you any problems while doing the testing? Any injury to your back, legs, knees, or feet, could cause problems standing on one leg or walking a line, and as a result, even if you performed the testing, the validity or reliability of the testing is compromised.

Do you have balancing problems, middle ear problems, vertigo, or anything else that would cause you to have a problem with balancing while performing these tests?

Are you 50 pounds overweight? Are you over 65 years old? These are reasons that the officer should not do field testing on you.

If you are wearing two-inch heals or anything larger, you should be given the opportunity by the officer to take off your shoes.

This article was first written by the New Jersey Traffic Ticket Lawyer Blog

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.

The South Carolina Supreme Court overturned the verdict for a lot of reasons. I won’t go into all of them but there are two reasons set forth for the court’s reversal that I think are of particular interest.

First, the court found that it is improper for lawyers in closing arguments “to arouse passion or prejudice.”

Continue reading this article on: The Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog

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“

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

Document the Accident

Write down exactly where and how the accident occurred. It is a good idea to carry an inexpensive camera in your car to take pictures of the accident scene and any damage to your vehicle. You also may want to record the contact information of any witnesses who saw what happened.

File an Accident Report

An accident report can help the insurance company process your claim more quickly, but police do not always respond to accidents unless someone has been injured. Fortunately, you can file an accident report yourself by visiting a police station after the accident.

Contact Your Insurance Company

After you have been in an accident, you should contact your insurance company as soon as possible to let them know what happened and to give them your side of the story. It is essential, however, to seek legal counsel before providing any kind of statement. And never speak to the adverse insurance company directly or provide them information about potential injuries or witnesses.

Even if the other driver has offered to pay for your repairs out of pocket, you never know for sure if he or she will follow through. If you wait too long to get your insurance company involved, it will be more difficult to gather the information they need to process your claim.

Nobody likes to think about being in a car accident, but it is something that most drivers have to deal with sooner or later. Following these steps after a crash will help protect your rights and make it easier to get the compensation you need.

If you or someone you love has been injured in a car accident, contact the experienced personal injury attorneys at Greenberg & Stone, P.A. for a free consultation. For more information, visit the author’s website at www.sgglaw.com.

This article was written by Greenberg & Stone, P.A.

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.”

The new law allows New York couples to divorce by mutual consent and does not require a spouse to accuse the other of misdeeds, including adultery. Conservative family groups and feminists are among the critics of no-fault divorce.

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.

In October 2008, the FDA issued a warning about problems with surgical mesh like the Bard Avaulta. The vaginal mesh products, which are used to treat pelvic organ prolapse (POP) and stress urinary incontinence (SUI), have been associated with over 1,000 reports of severe infection, pain, urinary problems and bowel, bladder or blood-vessel perforations. Many women have also reported recurrences of the prolapse or incontinence, and the need for additional surgeries to remove mesh that had eroded into the vagina.

A pelvic organ prolapse occurs when organs such as the bladder, uterus, bowel or rectum drop and push against the wall of the vagina. This happens when the muscles holding the pelvic organ in place become weak or stretched, often due to childbirth or surgery. The surgical mesh is used to support the muscle.

Last month a petition was filed with the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation to consolidate the federal Bard Avaulta litigation in one court for pretrial proceedings. At least 36 federal court cases are currently pending against C.R. Bard over problems with Avaulta vaginal mesh.

If an MDL, or multidistrict litigation, is formed, all cases filed in federal district courts throughout the United States will be transferred to one judge. In addition, as Bard Avaulta lawyers continue to review and file additional federal cases in the future, those claims will also be transferred into the MDL.

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