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Man jailed for dodging child support for 14 kids
Legal PR |
2009/04/12 16:31
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Authorities in Michigan say a man fathered 14 children with 13 different women and owes more than $530,000 in unpaid child support.
The Flint Journal reports 42-year-old Thomas Frazier was jailed Thursday. Court records say he hasn't made a support payment in six years.
The newspaper says the unemployed man could be held for 90 days if he doesn't pay $27,900. Frazier says he thinks he fathered only three of the children and that it's unrealistic for authorities to expect him to pay child support that was $3,000 a month at one point. Frazier remains held at the Genesee County Jail. It wasn't immediately clear if he had a lawyer who could speak for him. |
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Gilman & Pastor File Class Action vs. "Chinese Drywall"
Court Watch |
2009/03/19 18:12
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Notice is hereby given that Gilman and Pastor has filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida asserting class action claims on behalf of homeowners, building owners, community developments and owner associations across the United States to recover losses associated with the removal, replacement and remediation of defective "Chinese Drywall," as well as damages for personal injury.
Residents who may be affected include those living in homes that were built between 2002 and 2007, when imported Chinese Drywall was used by several of the major building companies. The defendants named in this lawsuit include Knauf Gips KG, the leading manufacturer in drywall located in Germany, Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin (KPT), a Chinese drywall manufacturer; Knauf Group, the German parent company of KPT; Banner Supply, a Miami building supply company; and Rothchilt International Ltd., a China-based exporter. Developers that have been identified as possible users of this drywall include Lennar Homes, W.C.I., Tousa, Engel Homes and other national home builders.
The lawsuit alleges that "fly ash" waste material from Chinese power plants was used in the manufacture of this Chinese Drywall. These waste materials can leak into the air and emit harmful sulfur compounds, including sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide.
Our investigation has concluded that this is far more serious and vastly more extensive than previously determined. More than 550 million pounds of Chinese drywall was imported to the U.S. during the housing boom from 2004 to 2006. There are approximately 60,000 homes affected by these defective building materials in multiple states across the USA, with defective Chinese drywall gaining entry through ports in Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Washington, among others.
There is no easy way to fix the damage caused by the defective drywall. In most cases, owners of homes where the toxic drywall was installed are forced to move out, gut their homes to remove the toxic materials, and rebuild the interiors of the homes with new drywall before moving back in. All personal property inside the home that may have been contaminated by the sulfur gases must also be replaced. The Sulfur emissions may also cause extensive electrical damage. Corrosion of air-conditioning units and wiring has been linked to Chinese drywall. Residents in homes built with the defective drywall have also reported suffering from respiratory problems, nose bleeds, coughing, and irritation of sinuses, eyes and throats.
Prompt action is important. With many builders and developers filing for bankruptcy protection or closing their doors, a delay in asserting your claim may limit your recourse against the builders that installed the defective materials or their suppliers.
News agencies and informational web sites could be especially helpful to consumers by alerting them to this serious problem.
Gilman and Pastor is a national litigation firm with offices in Boston, Massachusetts, and Naples, Florida, specializing in product liability litigation, consumer class actions and complex business litigation. For 30 years our attorneys have recovered more than a billion dollars on behalf of our clients.
Gilman and Pastor's managing partner, Kenneth G. Gilman, has worked extensively to assist building owners recover losses from defective building materials. Gilman and Pastor was appointed by the United States District Court as lead class counsel in Sebago Inc et al. v. Beazer East, Inc. and Johns Manville against the two manufacturers of phenolic foam roof insulation. PFRI, when exposed to even small amounts of moisture, releases an acidic leachate that corrodes metal roof decks. In 2000, the United States District Court in Massachusetts approved a nationwide class settlement which involved remediation of class members' buildings with payments of a combined estimated value of more than $350 million.
You may learn more about our lawsuit and our investigation into Chinese Drywall by contacting Kenneth G. Gilman toll-free at (888) 280-1236. Additional information is available online at www.defective-drywall.com. We can assist you in all phases of this matter, including properly scheduled inspections. |
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Christian Boot Camp Accused of Abusing Kids
Legal News |
2009/02/26 21:42
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Thayer Learning Center and its successor the Teen Life Skills Center abused children at its "Christian boot camp," hog tying them naked and spraying them with a hose, duct-taping children together overnight, throwing ice water on them as they shivered naked on a concrete floor, putting them in solitary confinement for a month, and forcing a girl to eat her own vomit, one girl's mother claims in Federal Court.
The mother, Ruth Romer, claims that Teen Life Center, of Kidder, Mo., "is a mere continuation of the predecessor Thayer Learning Center and that the creation of the successor for in whole or in part for the purpose of escaping liability for the tortious acts of Thayer Learning Center."
Teen Life is a Utah corporation. Also sued are Dorothy Steele, Willa Bundy and John Bundy, all of Springerville, Utah.
Romer also claims her daughter was provided with inadequate medical care. She says Thayer and its staff tells kids to "suck up your drama," denies them medical attention, and "terminates employees who report abuse to public agencies and law enforcement."
She says the defendants screen mail to and from children, "routinely misrepresent the physical and emotional status of children in their care when speaking to the parents of said children," and "misrepresent to parents the level, or lack thereof, of qualified medical training for staff at Defendant Thayer.'
She claims that "children at Defendant Thayer were routinely 'taken down,' meaning physically incapacitated and taken to the ground through 'choke holds' and other means."
She claims that "when a child was 'taken down' the 'drill instructor' or staff involved, would yell 'grenade,' meaning all other 'cadets' must get on the ground face down with their hands over their eyes and head, so as not to be witnesses to the event."
She claims that "children at Defendant Thayer were routinely 'smoked' meaning that they were forced to perform physical exercise and exertion until they collapsed from physical exhaustion."
She claims that "Some children have spent thirty days or more in solitary confinement, during which time they are forced to hear 'motivational' tapes over and over.
"Children have been restrained with zip ties around their ankles and wrists.
"Children have been restrained and attached to furniture.
"Male children have been stripped to their underwear, 'hog tied' and sprayed with a hose. ...
"A child was thrown into a barbed-wire bundle and told to get himself out.
"During the summer, for punishment, children have been placed in a 'hot box' which is an outside, rubber-sealed tent.
"For punishment, children have been duct taped and/or belted together for an entire day and sometimes overnight.
"For punishment, a child has been forced to brush her teeth for a four hour, non-stop time period.
"Students were stripped down to their underwear, tied up, and laid on a concrete floor and ice cold water was poured on them every hour.
"Restroom breaks were so limited that students regularly soiled themselves.
"The restricted bathroom breaks led to various urinary tract infections and bladder infections.
"One girl was forced to sit in a plastic tub containing urine for at least two and one-half hours. ...
"A female student vegetarian was forced to eat meatballs. The student got sick and vomited in her hands. 'The girl was then forced to eat the vomit.'"
And so on.
Here are the defendants: Thayer Learning Center LLC, Teen Life Skills Center Inc., Parent Help LLC, 2B Enterprises Holdings LLC, A 2B Enterprises LLC, Dorothy Steele, Willa Bundy, and John Bundy.
The Romers seek punitive damages. They are represented by James Thompson with Edelman & Thompson of Kansas City, Mo. |
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Munger, Tolles & Olson Retains Clearwell to lower costs
Legal Focuses |
2009/02/23 17:59
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Clearwell Systems, Inc., a leader in intelligent e-discovery, today announced that Munger, Tolles & Olson, LLP (MTO), a California-based 2008 AMLAW 200 Law Firm, has deployed the Clearwell E-Discovery Platform to help lower e-discovery costs and more rapidly respond to litigation and governmental document requests.
The current financial downturn has spurred a flood of new investigations, surpassing the total number of cases filed from the savings and loan crisis over the last two decades. Affected enterprises and executives face lawsuits and inquiries from investors, financial regulators and the government that require extremely fast responses that drain resources and drive up the cost of e-discovery. Clearwell's rapid processing and analysis of case documents can help clients and law firms respond more cost-effectively to e-discovery requests under extremely tight deadlines. Furthermore, Clearwell's Transparent Search and advanced cull-down features help ensure that only the relevant data is produced and the process is defensible, thus mitigating legal risks.
"Responding successfully to time-sensitive litigation and governmental document requests requires efficient and cost-effective e-discovery processes that maintain accuracy and defensibility, even under tight timelines," said Ron Best, director of legal information systems at MTO. "The Clearwell E-Discovery Platform allows us to more quickly index, search, analyze, and cull-down case data in a product with very robust and transparent tracking and audit capabilities."
"As enterprises navigate through the current financial crisis, many are being hit two-fold with the burden of e-discovery requests from increased litigation and investigations," said Aaref Hilaly, president and CEO at Clearwell Systems. "In order to defensibly respond to these e-discovery requests, enterprises and law firms are seeking products that provide a level of transparency not available with traditional 'black-box' technologies."
About Clearwell Systems
Clearwell Systems is transforming the way enterprises perform electronic discovery in response to litigation, regulatory inquiries, and corporate investigations. By automating the processing, analysis and review of electronically stored information, Clearwell enables enterprises to accelerate early case assessments, lower processing costs, reduce review workload, and gain control of electronic discovery. Clearwell received the highest ranking of 'Strong Positive' in Gartner, Inc.'s, 2008 MarketScope for E-Discovery Software Product Vendors, and was ranked a Top 5 E-Discovery Software Provider Overall in the 2008 Socha-Gelbmann Electronic Discovery Survey. For more information, visit www.clearwellsystems.com or read the E-discovery 2.0 blog at: http://www.clearwellsystems.com/e-discovery-blog/. |
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Microsoft Dodges Class Action For Now
Legal News |
2009/02/20 17:32
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Microsoft got rid of the class-action status in the Vista Capable lawsuit, but the plaintiffs might retaliate and appeal the recent ruling. Although they had no immediate comments to make after the ruling, one of the partners in the law firm representing the plaintiffs confirmed that they will take action.
Computerworld quoted Jeffrey Tilden, partner in the Seattle law firm Gordon Tilden Thomas & Cordell LLP, as saying: We anticipate further motion practice in the trial court, followed by -- if unsuccessful –an appeal to the Ninth Circuit.
The plaintiffs argued in the court filling that Microsoft was unfair and deceptive in the Vista Capable matter, creating artificial demand, at artificially maintained prices, for PCs that were not Vista ready. Furthermore, consumers paid (more) for the Vista capability, but did not receive the real Vista capability.
A series of emails revealed in court showed how Microsoft representatives were doubtful about tagging some PCs as Vista Capable, as they would deceive consumers. The plaintiffs said consumers bought Vista Capable PCs only to discover that they were able to run just a basic version of the operating system, and were unable to run Vista’s core feature, the Aero interface.
But U.S. District Court Judge Marsha Pechman granted Microsoft the motion for the class decertification of the lawsuit, while also rejecting its demand for summary judgment. This doesn’t absolve Microsoft from coming back to court though, where 6 individual claims are still standing.
Microsoft will still have a hard time proving that consumers have not been deceived when purchasing Vista Capable PCs, but dealing with individual claims is likely to cost them less than it would have under a class-action lawsuit. |
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