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• Nursing Home Abuse & Neglect
• Medical Negligence, Mistakes and Malpractice
• Personal Injury & Wrongful Death
• Insurance: Unfair Insurance Claim Practices

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General

• Philadelphia Judge Awards Wal-Mart Workers $62M More
  Nov 10, 2007

  “A Philadelphia judge has awarded an additional $62 million in statutory liquidated damages to 124,506 current and former Pennsylvania employees of retail titan Wal-Mart who a Philadelphia jury found were not properly compensated for off-the-clock work and missed rest breaks. Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Mark I. Bernstein, who presided over the 2006 trial in Hummel v. Wal-Mart and Braun v. Wal-Mart, Wednesday awarded $62,253,000 to the plaintiffs who worked after Jan. 1, 2002. The 12-member jury last year awarded $78.5 million in compensatory damages to 186,000 current and former employees of the retailer. The rest of the class did not qualify for statutory damages because of the time frame in which they worked.” Amaris Elliott-Engel, The Legal Intelligencer, Law.com 10/4/07 - 31 - 40

• State Bias Claims Against Employers Gain Traction
  Nov 10, 2007

  “The right to sue an employer for discrimination in state courts is gaining momentum, rattling the nerves of employers who fear more lawsuits and costly jury trials. From Oct. 1, Maryland employees for the first time are allowed to sue employers for discrimination in state court and seek a jury trial due to an amendment to the state's anti-discrimination law. In the past, employees were limited to suing in federal court or filing administrative claims with a state agency or the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Illinois employees also have gained similar rights. Starting on Jan. 1, 2008, plaintiffs there will be allowed to pursue workplace claims in state court, rather than be limited to federal court and administrative claims. Illinois and Maryland join 38 other states that allow for workplace disputes to be pursued in state courts.” Tresa Baldas, National Law Journal, Law.com 10/8/07 - 32 - 40

• Bill Would Streamline Whistleblower Protections (Nov 2, 2007)
  Nov 05, 2007

  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Adam Miles, Legislative Representative Phone: 202.408.0034 ext 132, cell 202.276.2007 Email: adamm@whistleblower.org Bill Would Streamline Whistleblower Protections Woolsey Bill Covers Private Sector, State and Municipal Employees (Washington, D.C.) – The Government Accountability Project (GAP) applauds Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), Chairwoman of the House Education and Labor Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, and a group of 13 co-sponsors, for introducing the “Private Sector Whistleblower Protection Streamlining Act of 2007” yesterday, November 1. The legislation, H.R. 4047, would for the first time establish a uniform, coherent system of legal protections for all private sector, state and municipal employees who are retaliated against for disclosing threats to public safety or violations of federal law. “This is a ‘Good Housekeeping,’ good government measure more than 30 years overdue,” said GAP Legal Director Tom Devine. “Whistleblowers are the life blood for the government to enforce consumer protection laws. But the legal system is hopelessly dysfunctional. For too long, whistleblower law at the non-federal government and corporate levels has been a crazy quilt of contradictory, hit or – usually – miss protections tucked into specific public health and safety laws.” The list of 13 original co-sponsors includes Rep. George Miller (D-CA), Chairman of the Education and Labor Committee, Rep. Robert Andrews (D-NJ), Rep. Tim Bishop (D-NY), Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Rep. Phil Hare (D-IL), Rep. Dale Kildee (D-MI), Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), Rep. Don Payne (D-NJ), Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA), Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH), and Rep. John Tierney (D-MA). The legislation uniformly adopts “best practices” whistleblower protection models Congress already has passed, or has been considering, on an issue-by-issue basis since last November’s election. To illustrate, in August President Bush signed into law enhanced whistleblower protections for ground transportation employees in the rail, bus, trucking, and public transit industries. The Senate Commerce Committee this week advanced similar pro! tections for employees who blow the whistle on violations of product safety standards. The Senate approved modern, “best practices” whistleblower protections for employees of defense contractors as part of its FY2007 defense bill. H.R. 4047 applies the modern “best practices” throughout the private sector and for non-federal government employees for enforcement of consumer protection laws in areas including health and health care, environmental protection, food and drug safety, transportation safety, building and construction-related requirements, energy, homeland, and community security, and financial transactions or reporting requirements, including banking, insurance, and securities laws. “It will benefit labor, management and the public to streamline the 32 disparate federal whistleblower statutes, while filling arbitrary coverage gaps,” GAP Legislative Representative Adam Miles explained. “Currently almost everyone is flying blind about whistleblower rights. Nobody knows what the rules are without a legal specialist.” To illustrate, an employee at a meat packing plant has whistleblower rights when challenging the release of fecal-contaminated water flowing into a river. But the same employee has no rights when disclosing the shipment of fecal-contaminated meat and poultry to a supermarket’s butcher case. A truck driver is protected for challenging bad tires, but not illegal cargo in his haul. An employee of a pharmaceutical company has protection for disclosing false statements in financial reports to shareholders. But there is no protection for challenging false statements to the government or the public about potentially lethal drug safety hazards. To see a comprehensive list of the failures of the current system, see Devine’s testimony from a May 15 Workforce Protections Subcommittee hearing at http://edworkforce.house.gov/testimony/ 051507TomDevineTestimony.pdf To watch Tom Devine deliver a s egment of this testimony on You-Tube, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtVJLEtGF5U To read other witnesses’ testimony from the hearing, "Private Sector Whistleblowers: Are There Sufficient Legal Protections?", including tobacco industry whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand, go to http://edworkforce.house.gov/hearings/ wp051507.shtml To read the legislation, go to http://www.whistleblower.org/doc/2007/ HR_4047.pdf To read a summary and section-by-section analysis of the legislation from the Education and Workforce Subcommittee, go to http://www.whistleblower.org/doc/2007/ summary%20of%20Private%20Sector% 20Whistleblower%20Protection%20Streamlining% 20Act%20of%202007.pdf - 33 - 40

• More Protection for Whistle-Blowers Proposed
  Nov 02, 2007

  "U.S. officials have long retaliated against employees who speak out, burying the dangers they expose. Now, Congress wants to give whistle-blowers greater protection -- but President Bush vows to stop it." - 34 - 40

• 20/20: Katrina: Where Things Stand: 8/25/06
  Nov 01, 2007

  In an exclusive report on the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, ABC News chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross investigates allegations of fraud in the handling of Katrina-related damage claims in Mississippi by State Farm Insurance. Speaking publicly for the first time, two State Farm insiders, Cori and Kerri Rigsby, claim supervisors in their Mississippi office demanded that outside engineers change or bury damage reports so that State Farm would not have to pay the claims. The Rigsby sisters, who worked as independent adjustors for State Farm for eight years, have provided thousands of documents to federal and state prosecutors in Mississippi. Their allegations are now a key part of a massive lawsuit against State Farm by policyholders who claim they were cheated. 'Katrina was devastating. But so was State Farm,' says Cori Rigsby. 'Until this storm, we were very proud to work with State Farm,' she says. A lawyer for State Farm, Wayne Drinkwater, says the company paid more than a billion dollars in claims in Mississippi and denies State Farm cheated anyone. - 35 - 40

• Smithfield Union Suit Claims Racketeering
  Oct 30, 2007

  - 36 - 40

• From NYT: "Fires’ Cost to Insurers Is in Range of $1 Billion"
  Oct 26, 2007

  - 37 - 40

• Allstate Bad Faith? Fight to Release McKinsey Documents Continues.
  Oct 10, 2007

  - 38 - 40

• Protection for Disabled Employees to Continue: ADA Restoration Bill Introduced
  Oct 10, 2007

  - 39 - 40

• Plaintiffs Await Ruling on Canceled Health Insurance Policies
  Sep 28, 2007

  - 40 - 40

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