A Southern California woman took Honda to small-claims court and won in a big way.
Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Douglas Carnahan ruled Wednesday that the automaker misled Heather Peters about the potential fuel economy of her hybrid car and awarded her $9,867 ? much more than the couple hundred dollars cash that a proposed class-action settlement is offering.
"At a bare minimum Honda was aware ... that by the time Peters bought her car there were problems with its living up to its advertised mileage," Carnahan wrote in the judgment.
Honda disagrees with the judgment rendered in the case and plans to appeal the decision, company spokesman Chris Martin said in a statement.
Peters, a former lawyer, said she is renewing her legal license after a 10-year lapse so she can represent other Honda owners who have the same problems she did.
"Wow! Fantastic. I am absolutely thrilled," she said when The Associated Press informed her of the judge's decision. "Sometimes big justice comes in small packages. This is a victory for Honda Civic owners everywhere."
Carnahan included in his 26-page decision a long list of misleading representations by Honda that he said Peters had correctly identified. Among them were that the car would use "amazingly little fuel," ''provides plenty of horsepower while still sipping fuel," and that it would "save plenty of money on fuel with up to 50 mpg during city driving."
"Actual performance of plaintiff's vehicle did not live up to these standards," he said. He noted that when she began receiving much less than the advertised mileage, "she knew she had a problem."
Peters opted out of the class-action lawsuit so she could try to claim a larger damage award for her 2006 Honda Civic's failure to deliver the 50 mpg that was promised.
http://www.insiderexclusive.com/show-content/361-americas-911-emergency-crisis.html
All Across America....There is a serious 911 CALL Emergency Crisis.....911 calls to police and firefighters.....who our nation's "domestic army" - and the same troops who will be called upon to respond to the next terrorist attack .....are going unanswered! At least two-thirds of the nation's fire departments are understaffed, according to the National Fire Protection Association which sets firefighting codes and standards.The shortage is worst in rural volunteer departments that have trouble recruiting new members. But many big and medium-size cities..... that are more likely to be terrorist targets are .....also short-handed.And in Prince William County, Virginia and many other financially troubled cities and counties .... the reduction in those ranks of first responders... are reaching a crisis level! In 1988.
Prince William County residents were at risk for a hidden danger...their own 911 system provided only the "illusion of safety"This INSIDER EXCLUSIVE TV Special examines the severe Crisis in America's "911" Emergency Services Network, in "America's 911 Crisis!"And the courageous efforts of Chuck Roberts, Ptr Charles B. Roberts & Associates, in representing Mrs Overman as well as all the citizens of Prince George County Virginia to correct and to improve this serious Crisis in the Emergency 911 Services in the county.
Chuck Roberts goal in pursuing the Overman's case is one of those courageous examples of a lawyer...and a citizen... "Doing the Right Thing...for the Right Reason". Because Chuck knows..... "If you have integrity, nothing else matters. And .... "If you don't have integrity, nothing else matters"
We hope you'll tune in to "America's 911 Crisis!" this January and join us on our TV website to watch it again.
http://www.insiderexclusive.com/show-content/302-unbreakable-the-peggy-myers-story.html
Imagine your life coming to a sudden "Standstill" by getting slammed in the face by a 100 pound, 6 foot wide...6 foot high gate, hitting you at 60 miles per hour.
That is exactly what happened to a beautiful young elementary school teacher named, Peggy Myers, one cold November Ohio morning.
Peggy suffered unimaginable injuries and 22 surgical operations later she joins the INSIDER EXCLUSIVE, in her first Television appearance in her remarkable story "UNBREAKABLE - The Peggy Myers Story" joined by her lawyer, Bob Palmer @ the law firm of ROBERT GRAY PALMER Co. LPA who discovered the truth about that horrible accident on November 13, 2003...And got Justice for Peggy Myers
Peggy is an inspiration to everyone that no matter what catastrophes may befall us in life with willpower with determination with the help of one's friends and with God, we can all make a comeback slowly but surely
And That is truly... Peggy Myers unbreakable spirit.
And that is the same spirit that inspired Bob Palmer to get justice for Peggy, and has earned the highest respect from citizens and lawyers alike.... as one of the best Trial lawyers in Columbus In Ohio and in America.
We hope you'll tune in to "UNBREAKABLE - The Peggy Myers Story" this November and join us on our TV website to watch it again.
http://www.insiderexclusive.com/show-content/303-deadly-explosions--the-imperial-sugar-story.html
On February 7th 2008 an explosion at the Imperial Sugar Refinery in Port Wentworth, Georgia kill 14 workers, injured 44 more, and resulted in millions of dollars worth of damages....
What was the source of this horrifically powerful industrial explosion that took over a dozen lives and completely destroyed an entire factory? Was it some exotic chemical substance that was being used as part of some industrial process?
This devastating explosion was fueled by nothing other than a simple accumulation of otherwise harmless sugar dust.
You might not think of sugar, corn, or metal as materials that can cause a catastrophic explosion in a factory, but when they're ground into dust-and suspended in the air-all it takes is a small spark to set off a major disaster.
As the INSIDER EXCLUSIVE Investigative TV Series discovered..... Devastating dust explosions at American factories are more common now than ever.
In an industrial setting otherwise benign substances such as flour, corn, sugar, metals, or wood, can accumulate. When exposed to an ignition source these can lead to immensely powerful explosions.
Since 1980, there have been at least 350 such explosions in the U.S., killing 133 people and injuring hundreds more. There are at least 30,000 factories in the nation vulnerable to dust explosions, and yet, some top federal safety officials tell the INSIDER EXCLUSIVE that the government agency whose job it is to protect workers is ignoring a tried-and-true way to prevent those explosions.
If the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) had acted to control combustible dust levels in the nation's factories, the 14 workers killed in the explosion probably would be alive today.
The Insider Exclusive Investigative TV Series filmed this documentary on location in Savannah Georgia researching and interviewing one of the key figures who investigated this catastrophic disaster, Mark Tate, founder and Partner of the Tate Law Group, and who successfully represented 14 of the victims of the Imperial Sugar refinery explosion. He is joined by one of the surviving family members of this horrific, preventable disaster.
Most lawyers didn't want to pursue this litigation because they thought it was an open-and-shut workers' comp case.
But Mark was able to cut through the corporate veil and determine there was a real viable defendant. He successfully proved that Imperial Sugar was negligent in its maintenance and upkeep of the Port Wentworth facility.
http://lbishow.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=354:featured-guest-john-a-farrell&catid=51:americas-best-selling-authors-series
How does one begin to explain this paradox, this sophisticated country lawyer, this hedonistic defender of the poor and downtrodden, this honest, devious man, Clarence Seward Darrow? It isn't easy. But Jack Farrell does so, in an amazing in-depth study of one of America’s greatest trial lawyers in his new bestseller.
Farrell is an American journalist and author. In 1996, Jack received the Gerald R. Ford prize and the Aldo Beckman Award from the White House Correspondents Association for coverage of the presidency, the first time anyone had captured both awards in a single year. He has also won the 2001 Raymond Clapper Memorial Award for distinguished Washington reporting, the 1990 Roy Howard Public Service Prize, and a George Polk Award in 1984. During his tenure as Washington editor for the Boston Globe, members of the 10-person staff won a George Polk award, the Raymond Clapper prize and the Aldo Beckman award.He now works as a writer and reporter at The Center for Public Integrity, a non-profit center for investigative reporting in Washington, DC, after a prize-winning career as a newspaperman, most notably at The Denver Post and The Boston Globe.His Darrow biography has won critical praise.
"This book is a joy and revelation. It is at once a rollicking tour through the mind of a legal genius and a spellbinding account of some of the most famous cases in American history. The chapter on Leopold and Loeb alone is worth waiting in line to get a seat in Jack Farrell's courtroom," said David Maraniss, biographer of Bill Clinton and Vince Lombardi, and author of When Pride Still Mattered and They Marched into Sunlight.Drawing on untapped archives and full of fresh revelations, here is the definitive biography of America’s legendary defense attorney and progressive hero.Clarence Darrow is the lawyer every law school student dreams of being: on the side of right, loved by many women, played by Spencer Tracy in Inherit the Wind. His days-long closing arguments delivered without notes won miraculous reprieves for men doomed to hang.
Darrow left a promising career as a railroad lawyer during the tumultuous Gilded Age in order to champion poor workers, blacks, and social and political outcasts against big business, Jim Crow, and corrupt officials. He became famous defending union leader Eugene Debs in the landmark Pullman Strike case and went from one headline case to the next—until he was nearly crushed by an indictment for bribing a jury. He redeemed himself in Dayton, Tennessee, defending schoolteacher John Scopes in the “Monkey Trial,” cementing his place in history.
Now, John A. Farrell draws on previously unpublished correspondence and memoirs to offer a candid account of Darrow’s divorce, affairs, and disastrous finances; new details of his feud with his law partner, the famous poet Edgar Lee Masters; a shocking disclosure about one of his most controversial cases; and explosive revelations of shady tactics he used in his own trial for bribery.
Clarence Darrow is a sweeping, surprising portrait of a legendary legal mind. http://www.jafarrell.com/clarencedarrow.html
Former Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal has joined the international law firm of Crowell & Moring as senior counsel.
Freudenthal says in a telephone interview with The Associated Press that the firm will open an office in Cheyenne, where he will be based. He will work for the firm's Environment and Natural Resources Group.
He says he will advise clients on issues that he handled during his two terms as governor, including minerals, natural resources development and environmental permitting.
Freudenthal says he will continue to teach at the University of Wyoming College of Law and serve on the Arch Coal Inc. board of directors.
Crowell & Moring has nearly 500 lawyers with offices in Washington, New York, Los Angeles, London, Brussels and elsewhere.
Johnson & Johnson on Tuesday announced another Tylenol recall due to a musty moldy odor linked to a trace chemical.
The company's McNeil Consumer Healthcare unit is recalling one product lot of Tylenol Extra Strength Caplets made in February 2009 and distributed in the U.S. The recall totals 60,912 bottles, each of which has 225 caplets.
McNeil said it has received a small number of reports about the pills' odor, which has been linked in past J&J recalls to the presence of trace amounts of "2,4,6-tribromoanisole." TBA is a byproduct of a chemical preservative sometimes used on shipping pallets.
Besides causing an unpleasant odor, TBA has been associated with temporary and non-serious gastrointestinal symptoms.
Since September 2009, New Brunswick, N.J.-based Johnson & Johnson has had about two dozen recalls of prescription and nonprescription medicines, replacement hips, contact lenses and diabetes test strips, including tens of millions of bottles of children's and adult Tylenol and Motrin.
The reasons have ranged from metal and other contaminants, to nauseating odors and packaging issues. Joint replacement systems so painful they required corrective surgery were also recalled, as were contact lenses that irritated eyes, along with potentially contaminated syringes full of the antipsychotic drug Invega.
