TRIAL LAWYERS STAND UP AND FIGHT

Court Blasts Home Depot for Attempting to "Escape the Results of Its Own Carelessness"



California businessman Alan R. Sporn discovered that something was wrong with his credit history when he was rejected for a low-interest loan to re-finance his home. When he looked into the problem, Alan discovered that Home Depot was accessing his credit report monthly and the "inquiries" on his credit report had driven down his FICA score.




Alan's Social Security number had been stolen and was being fraudulently used by someone in Virginia to apply for store credit at Home Depot. Verbally and in writing, Alan told Home Depot someone in Virginia had stolen his identity, and asked the company to stop accessing his credit report. Home Depot ignored Alan for nearly two years, refused to stop the wrongful use of his credit and damage to his credit rating, and even refused to give Alan the information he needed to identify the person who had stolen his identity.




After two years of no response, Alan was forced to file a lawsuit against Home Depot. Home Depot never showed up for any of the court proceedings. A jury awarded, and the court upheld, compensation for Alan for the financial damage done to him by Home Depot.




Home Depot's disregard for Mr. Sporn gets worse. The company never responded to the verdict, so half a year later Alan's attorney was forced to serve the bank that handled Home Depot's payroll with the financial judgment. This got Home Depot's attention – the company's defense lawyers filed an appeal against the verdict and even went as far as to accuse Alan of being underhanded in his dealings with the giant company.



The appeals court upheld the judgment against Home Depot and wrote, "an obvious gap appears in the evidence... there is no statement that the [court papers sent to Home Depot] were lost, stolen, forwarded to the wrong person, or eaten by the dog."


Home Depot's "apparent belief that they can persuade this court to somehow make up for the consequences of their conduct by the excessive use of noxious characterizations to describe the conduct of the plaintiff and his lawyer is mistaken and offensive," the court continued. The court deemed Home Depot's filing "frivolous" and awarded sanctions against Home Depot and in favor of the plaintiff.

In the Stores
Home Depot has also been held accountable by the civil justice system for its practice of stacking merchandise too high on store shelves – heavy merchandise has fallen, killing and injuring customers. In addition, the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission brought and won a case against Home Depot for systematically discriminating against its female employees.

Because the civil justice system allows consumers to hold corporations like Home Depot accountable for putting profits before safety, it isn't any surprise that Home Depot CEO Robert Nardelli is one of the most outspoken proponents of "tort reform" and a major funder of the campaign to strip Americans of the constitutional right to hold wrongdoers accountable.

By the Numbers
57.7 million: Number of individuals whose personal information was potentially compromised by security breaches in 2005.
[Source: Identity Theft Resource Center]

600: The number of hours an identity theft victim will spend trying to recover from the crime.
[Source: Identity Theft Resource Center]

$1,400: Average out-of-pocket expenses per identity theft victim.
[Source: Identity Theft Resource Center]

reprinted from atla by anthony castelli cincinnati car accident personal injury attorney

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Personal Injury Car Accident News

Information from Cincinnati Personal Injury And Car Accident Attorney


A $9 Safety Improvement Could Have Saved the Anderson Family from Horrific Burns





On Christmas Eve, 1993, Patricia Anderson drove her four children, ages six to 15, home from church services in their Chevy Malibu. As Ms. Anderson pulled up to a red light they were rear-ended by another car. The front of the other car was forced partially underneath her rear bumper and punctured her fuel tank in several places. The leaking fuel ignited, and the car burst into flames with the force of 108 sticks of dynamite.




Patricia and her children suffered severe and debilitating burns. Eight-year-old Kiontra was burned when, after escaping, she ran back to the car to help get her younger sister out. Three of Anderson's four children were burned over 60 percent of their bodies.



Last week the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on product safety that focused partly on the Chevy Malibu case as an example of egregious corporate misconduct.




What makes this story even more tragic is that the injuries suffered were wholly preventable. General Motors knew for several decades that the placement of the fuel tank in the Malibu made the car unreasonably dangerous and at risk of exploding in the event of a rear collision.




Yet instead of putting the safety of families like the Andersons first, GM made a conscious decision to market a product they knew would kill people.




In an example of Pinto math, an internal GM memo showed that the company estimated that deaths resulting from post-collision fuel-tank fires cost General Motors $2.40 per car. This calculation was based on an estimate that each life "has a value of $200,000." Internal memos also showed that the company had developed an improved design that would do a better job of protecting the gas tank in collisions. Improving the design would cost the company $8.59 per car. Executives decided not to do so.





In 1999, a jury found that General Motors Corp., in an effort to cut costs and increase profits, knowingly endangered the lives of their customers and ordered the company to provide compensation for the horrific burns to the Anderson family.







On The Hill

Last Friday, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on proposed criminal sanctions for corporate executives who deliberately endanger American lives by knowingly putting a defective product on the market. Witnesses at the hearing discussed both the exploding fuel tanks in the Chevy Malibu and the Guidant heart defibrillator as tragic examples of what happens when corporate executives place profits before human life.



By the Numbers

$8.59:Amount that GM estimated it would cost to improve the fuel tank design, per car.
[Source: Respondent's Brief, CA Court of Appeals, 2nd Appellate District, Case No. B135147]

$4 billion: Amount GM spends yearly on advertising.
[Source: Trial Testimony]

500: Number of fatalities GM estimated would occur every year because of post-collision fuel tank fires.
[Source: Internal GM Document (Ivey Memo)]

5 million: Number of GM vehicles with the dangerous fuel tank that are still on the road, including the Malibu, Oldsmobile Cutlass, Pontiac Grand Am and El Camino.
[Source: Trial Testimony]

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Workers' Comp Encourages Settlements

What Ohio Workers Compensation Claimants Should Know


In a so called new approach to claims management, the Ohio bureau of workers compensation commision is urging employers and workers who are back on the job to settle cases instead of letting them hang on.
The bureau has been sending letters to employers and claimants regarding this. However this is nothing new, but has been little known unless you were knowledgeable about your rights or had a lawyer represnting you.

A monetary settlement is only made by agreement of the employer, claimant and bureau of workers compensation. If one of the parties does not agree there can be no settlement. Moreover you have no right to sue for a monetary workers compensation settlement.

The employee must know all of his rights and what kind of compensation he is entitled before he can intelligently assess whether a settlement is fair. Moreover the employer or the bureau is going to try to settle for as little as they can.

I suggest you seek the services of an attorney certified as a specialist in Ohio workers compensation law to advise and negotiate a settlement. Most attorneys will charge a percentage of the amount they are able to recover for you. This percentage can vary from attorney to attorney.

I will be glad to consult with any claimant and determine what would be a fair setttlement and negotiate it for a percentage of the recovery or if you wish I wil charge you an hourly rate to work for a fair settlement if it is appropriate under the circumstances.

There are ways to add value to the settlement and to get an unwilling employer to agree to a settlement.

For more info or to discuss your case you can call Anthony Castelli an attorney certified as a specialist by the OSBA in Ohio workers compensation law at 1-800-447-6549 or go to his web site http://www.castellilaw.com/Workers-Compensation.html

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