12.28.08
Posted in News at 5:25 pm by kevin
A year after Carlos Sousa, Jr., a 17-year-old was mauled by a Siberian tiger at the San Francisco Zoo, his family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit. On Christmas Day 2007, a 243-pound tiger, Tatiana, mauled the youth and injured his two friends, Paul and Kulbir Dhaliwal.
Police investigators at first said that taunting may have been involved in the case, but have brought no charges against the youths. The family of the Dhaliwals have claimed their was a smear campaign by police and have filed claims for personal injury and character defamation.
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09.18.08
Posted in News at 10:35 am by kevin
New York City Major Bloomberg and his administration have decided to settle a class action lawsuit concerning homeless families stemming back to 1983. The longstanding lawsuit acknowledges that plans to reduce the homeless population as expected have failed.
There are currently over 9,000 homeless families that include over 14,000 homeless children in New York City. The Legal Aid Society filed the lawsuit in 1983 to call attention to the problem of homelessness in the city.
At issue has been the right to shelter in NYC for men, women and homeless children. The settlement relieves the city of the burden of using time and employee resources to carry out over 40 detailed court order. After this settlement, however, a new lawsuit will go forward over similar issues.
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06.08.08
Posted in News at 8:15 am by kevin
In San Jose, California a federal jury awarded the family of Robert Heston, Jr. $6 million after the man died due in part to being repeatedly tasered by police. Taser International of Scottsdale, Arizona the maker of the taser guns were found to be responsible in the death of Heston.
According to the jury, Taser International failed to inform police that its product could be dangerous when used upon someone who was on drugs or in combination with chest compressions. Heston was tasered as many as 30 times after police were called to the scene.
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05.10.08
Posted in News at 9:04 am by kevin
The U. S. Secret Service, long charged with protecting presidents, vice-president and their families has been hit with a racial discrimination lawsuit. According to the employment discrimination lawsuit, black agents have been passed over for promotions and have been subjected to racial epithets both verbally and in email form.
According to the employees filing the case, supervisors regularly use racial slurs when talking about criminal suspects or black leaders of foreign countries. Last month a noose was found by one of the black employees inside the Secret Service training center. The employee who tied the noose has been placed on administrative leave.
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04.17.08
Posted in News at 3:23 pm by kevin
There is a wrongful death lawsuit against ex-Bolivian president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada that has been consolidated this week in Maryland. Also implicated in the case brought forth by 10 Bolivians living in the U. S. is ex-defense minister Jose Carlos Sanchez Berzain.
Both ex-President and ex-defense minister fled to the United States seeking asylum. The plaintiffs’ lawyers are claiming that in 2003, the defendants took inappropriate governmental action that resulted in the killing of 67 Bolivians and that the defendants put themselves under the jurisdiction of U. S. law by fleeing to this country.
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01.29.08
Posted in News at 11:24 am by kevin
In Greenwich, Connecticut, parents of a 6-year-old boy have filed a lawsuit against the pool manufacturer, Shoreline Pools and the city in regard to a fatal drowning. According to the lawsuit, the boy was trapped by the water intake at the deep end of the pool and could not set himself free, nor the father who tried to free his son.
The child was eventually freed when the mother raced to cut power to the entire facility. The parents tried CPR but were unsuccessful in reviving their child. Over the past 20 years there have been 48 reported fatalities from swimming pool drain entrapments.
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01.15.08
Posted in News at 5:06 pm by kevin
The Catholic priest sexual abuse scandal continues, at least in Green Bay as a person named John Doe 119 has filed a lawsuit against a former priest and the diocese. According to the lawsuit, ex-priest John Patrick Feeney is named as the offender and the Green Bay Diocese is named as covering up the criminal behavior of the priest.
The lawsuit states that the Green Bay Diocese transferred a known child sexual predator to the Las Vegas diocese where the sexual abuse took place on a 13-year-old boy in 1984. The lawsuit states the church failed to protect its parishioners after it was discovered that Father Feeney had a diagnosable and untreatable sexual disorder.
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01.10.08
Posted in News at 4:44 pm by kevin
Georgia prisoners have filed a class-action lawsuit against corrections officers for allegedly beating and torturing the inmates. The lawsuit tells a story of routine beatings of restrained inmates along with deprivation of food and water throughout the state.
The charges also allege that over 40 guards sought to cover up the beatings by denying photographs of the affected inmates and denying visits with family members. The suit says guards used nightsticks, combat boots and special “beating gloves” to attack inmates.
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01.03.08
Posted in News at 12:22 pm by kevin
Approximately 90 New York residents have filed a toxic tort lawsuit against IBM that they say caused birth defects in infants and cancer in adults. The lawsuit claims a toxic plume of chemicals including trichloroethylene was released from an IBM plant into the soil, groundwater and air.
According to the seven law firms representing the clients, the toxic chemicals caused personal injury and wrongful death to family of the plaintiffs. One of the law firms included in the case is Masry & Vititoe made famous by the movie “Erin Brockovich.”
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