| Midday Business Report: Restaurant group takes aim at minimum wage gains | | Posted Friday, November 10, 2006 2:46:08 PM by Blog57 Team | | Unhappy with the minimum wage increases approved in all six states where they were up for a vote, the National Restaurant Association has come out against the ballot initiative process. Voters lack the ability to "scrutinize" such economic proposals, the association said. At issue was the "complicated indexing provisions that set automatic yearly wage hikes on autopilot," the Washington, D.C.-based educational and lobbying trade group said. Tom Foulkes, the association's vice president for state relations, criticized the business community for not being more "engaged in these fights" against raising the wage floor. If they don't become more involved in the political process, he warned, "they will be seen as an easy target in elections to come." His call to arms may be sounded again soon.... | |
| |
| | | Lynne E. Dailey | | Posted Friday, November 03, 2006 12:46:10 PM by Blog57 Team | | At the age of 28, Lynne E. Dailey went back to school to become a lawyer -- although her work in the legal system began five years earlier. In 1979, Dailey became an insurance adjuster with General Adjustment Bureau in Illinois. "My entire adult career, both before and after law school, has been focused on dispute resolution both in and out of court," Dailey said. In 1981, Dailey became a litigation paralegal dealing with personal injury cases. Three years later, she began attending the University of Florida and later received her law degree. After spending two years as a prosecutor for the 20th Judicial Circuit, she became an associate attorney at a Fort Myers law firm. Eleven years ago, she became a partner at George, Hartz and Lundeen Law Firm in Fort Myers where she remains today.... | |
| |
| | | Fraud charges against 35 in sting | | Posted Thursday, November 02, 2006 2:46:37 AM by Blog57 Team | | A Center City lawyer and 34 other people were charged with fraud yesterday in an elaborate sting operation that focused on personal injury claims from supposed vehicular accidents, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced. U.S. Attorney Patrick L. Meehan said his office and the FBI set up a bogus chiropractic clinic, known as Injury Associates, on Roosevelt Boulevard in Northeast Philadelphia as the center of the sting, which was conducted over about three years. Officials said those charged were divided into three groups: the lawyer, Jordan B. Luber, who obtained a legal settlement on behalf of two FBI agents posing as injured patients from a vehicular accident; 31 "patients" who sought financial recovery based on false medical diagnoses and nonexistent medical treatment for supposed injuries from vehicle accidents; and "runners" who received referral fees from Injury Associates for recruiting "patients" to the clinic while knowing the clinic was a fraudulent operation.... | |
| |
| | | Firm Sanctioned for Bid to Cut Co-Counsel Out of Shared Fee | | Posted Tuesday, October 24, 2006 2:45:53 PM by Blog57 Team | | A Bronx, N.Y., judge has sanctioned a personal injury lawyer and his firm $15,000 over their attempts to keep a $574,000 attorney fee for themselves, despite a written agreement to divide the fee equally with out-of-state co-counsel. The parents of Marek Leskinen, a brain-damaged infant, retained Maryland lawyer Dov Apfel in 1997 to represent them in a medical malpractice suit against Lawrence Hospital in the Bronx. Apfel, who is not admitted to practice in New York, in turn brought in David M. Shearer of Shearer & Essner of Manhattan to act as local counsel. Their 1997 agreement stated that the two would split attorney fees equally and Shearer would take steps to have Apfel admitted pro hac vice. But the latter was never admitted and Shearer handled the suit from its 1998 filing to its July 2003 settlement for $4.5 million.... | |
| |
| | | State your case: Attorney may be best in personal injury case | | Posted Monday, October 16, 2006 2:45:37 AM by Blog57 Team | | Editor's note: The information in this column is not intended as legal advice but to provide a general understanding of the law. Readers with legal problems, including those whose questions are addressed here, should consult attorneys for advice on their particular circumstances. Q: I had an accident at a business, slipping and falling face down on a concrete floor. I think the business is responsible for not cleaning the floor properly. .... | |
| |
| | | The Cochran Firm to cut ribbon | | Posted Saturday, October 07, 2006 6:45:39 PM by Blog57 Team | | JACKSON — Though it officially opened in September 2005, The Cochran Firm-Jackson Office will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony October 19. The law firm was established by the late and noted attorney Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., and now has 19 offices in 11 states and the District of Columbia, which houses more than 125 attorneys. Vicki Gilliam is The Cochran Firm-Jackson Office's managing partner. A native of New Orleans, Gilliam earned her bachelor's degree in social studies education, graduating cum laude, from Northeast Louisiana University before earning her master's degree in history, also from Northeast Louisiana. She subsequently graduated cum laude from the University of Mississippi School of Law with a juris doctorate degree. Gilliam is admitted to practice in all state courts in Mississippi, Arkansas and Texas.... | |
| |
| | | Panel Rejects Defamation Lawsuit by Attorney Against Former Boss | | Posted Friday, September 29, 2006 10:45:39 AM by Blog57 Team | | A Manhattan appellate court has thrown out a former associate's defamation claim against the onetime boss who harshly criticized her in letters to her clients, finding that his disparaging comments were either protected opinion or not sufficiently shown to be false. The associate joined the Long Island personal injury firm Bruce G. Clark & Associates in 1997. She resigned in June 2001, taking several clients with her to launch a solo practice. In November 2001, the firm's principal, Bruce G. Clark, sent letters to two personal injury clients who went with her. Both letters described her as inexperienced and inept, and said she had a record of losing cases. He told one of the clients that she failed to appear at a settlement conference in that client's case, despite advance notice and repeated efforts to reach her.... | |
| |
| | | Church seeks dismissal of sex-abuse lawsuit | | Posted Wednesday, September 20, 2006 6:46:02 PM by Blog57 Team | | | Plaintiffs who allege that they were sexually abused by priests should not be allowed to sue the archdiocese under federal anti-racketeering laws because the statutes do not cover personal injury, church lawyers argued Monday. C. Clark Hodgson Jr., attorney for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, asked a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit brought against the church in June by 13 people who say they were abused by priests. The lawsuit argues that the archdiocese violated federal conspiracy and anti-racketeering laws by attempting to cover up the abuse. The statutes are most commonly used to prosecute organized crime, and lawyers in other states have been unsuccessful in using the laws in alleged priest abuse cases. .... | |
| |
| | | Lawyer quits; conspiracy theories fill information void | | Posted Saturday, September 16, 2006 12:45:47 PM by Blog57 Team | | The "People's Lawyer" took down his shingle last week, saying he wanted to focus on helping the poor in Richmond. In doing so, City Councilman Jim Rogers sparked a torrent of unwelcome intrigue about why he surrendered his State Bar license less than a month after embarking on a re-election campaign for his second council term. The prominent personal-injury attorney, well-known to late-night television connoisseurs for his stridently worded commercials, has sold his Oakland practice to an employee and offered his "tender of resignation with charges pending" to the State Bar, an attorney there confirmed. Rogers characterized the Bar action as a career change to do different, more meaningful work. "I don't want to be a lawyer anymore," he said.... | |
| |
| | | Attorneys warned on soliciting | | Posted Sunday, September 03, 2006 10:45:45 AM by Blog57 Team | | U.S. Attorney Amul R. Thapar is reminding residents and attorneys that it's a federal crime to try to solicit business from relatives of Comair Flight 5191 victims this soon. The law prohibits unsolicited communications about a potential action for personal injury or wrongful death before the 45th day after an accident like the Comair flight, which went down Sunday in Lexington, killing 49 people. Each violation is punishable with a $1,000 fine. "We are extremely saddened by the tragedy of Comair Flight 5191 and the loss of life involved," Thapar said. Earlier in the week, Kentucky Attorney General Greg Stumbo issued the same caution to respect the privacy of those who lost loved ones in the crash. "It's not just the right and moral thing to do - it's the law," Stumbo said.... | |
| |
| |
|
|
