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Cell Phone Fee Case Set for Trial

July 25, 2008

Lawyers in the second of four coordinated class actions over the legality of cell phone providers’ early termination fees will square off today in opening arguments in Alameda County, Calif.

The first of those suits reached a pro-Sprint verdict just over a week ago, and this time, Verizon is on trial.

In all four class actions in Alameda County Superior Court, consumer plaintiffs are citing state law to challenge cellular companies’ right to charge early termination fees. Following juries’ factual findings, Judge Bonnie Sabraw will decide whether the suit is pre-empted by federal law and, if not, whether the companies have to return millions in collected fees.

Read Article Law.com

Posted By Phoenix Injury Attorneys

State pays mother of dead kids $1 million

The state has agreed to pay a $1 million settlement to the mother of two children who died while Child Protective Services was investigating their case, the mother’s attorney said Friday.

The mother, Jamie Hallam, 30, filed suit after the body of her daughter, Ariana Payne, 4, was found in a storage locker. Her son, Tyler Payne, 5, is presumed dead, but his body has not been found.

Both children were staying with Hallam’s ex-husband, Christopher Payne, 30, and his then-girlfriend, Reina Gonzales, 24, in 2006. Ariana’s decomposed body was found in February 2007. The couple have been charged with first-degree murder and child abuse. Both face the death penalty if convicted.

Read Article Tucson Citizen

Posted By Phoenix Injury Attorneys

Family awarded $1.6M

July 24, 2008

A Superior Court jury awarded $1.6 million to the husband and children of a Pennsylvania woman who died in 2003 after being prescribed the wrong heart medication.

Sandra D. Koch was prescribed 80 milligrams of Sotalol, which keeps the heart beating normally in people with certain rhythm disorders of the ventricles.
The drug was the wrong medication for someone on dialysis, said Timothy Lengkeek, the family’s attorney. Koch also was given four times the appropriate dosage for someone in that condition, he said.

“The drug is excreted from the body by the kidneys and if the kidneys don’t work and you are only getting dialysis every third day, the drug can build up in the body and cause a fatal heart arrhythmia, which is what she had kill her six days after she started the drug,” Lengkeek said. “There was overwhelming evidence that you don’t use this drug in this particular patient when there are other alternatives that were available that would have done the same thing.”

Read Article Delaware Online

Posted By Phoenix Accident Attorneys

Settlement to Ease Drug Costs for Some on Medicare

The Bush administration promised on Thursday to provide new protections for low-income Medicare beneficiaries to ensure they can get prescription drugs promptly, at minimal cost.

The promise came in the proposed settlement of a nationwide class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of hundreds of thousands of people who have had difficulty getting the medicines they need.

Under the 2003 Medicare law, more than six million people eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid are entitled to extra help with their drug costs. But in many cases, they could not get the assistance, so they did not receive the drugs they needed, or they experienced long delays.

Read Article New York Times

Posted By Phoenix Personal Injury and Accident Attorneys

Farmworker’s family sues over California heat-related death

July 22, 2008

Lawyers for the family of a teenage girl who died last month after working hours in a hot vineyard filed a wrongful-death lawsuit in Merced Superior Court on Wednesday.
The lawsuit alleges Merced Farm Labor and West Coast Grape Farming Inc. – the company that hired Merced to provide workers – are responsible for the death of María Isavel Vásquez Jiménez, who died in Lodi two days after collapsing in a vineyard on May 14.

Labor activists say they want the suit to send a strong message that California farm companies – not just the labor contractors they hire – should be held accountable for conditions that endanger workers.

Witnesses told state labor inspectors the girl worked more than nine hours without shade and was too intimidated to take sufficient water breaks in temperatures that exceeded 95 degrees. Witnesses also said she was not taken to a medical center for more than 90 minutes after she collapsed.

Read Article Sacbee.com

Posted By Arizona Auto Injury and Accident Attorneys

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