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Vonage to pay $4.7M to settle suit
Vonage Holdings Corp. has agreed to pay $4.75 million to settle a class action lawsuit that was filed in 2008 over the company’s marketing and sales practices.
The settlement is expected to pay “dollar for dollar” to consumers, including those who were charged for service despite an introductory offer for one free month of service, according to Seeger Weiss, a Philadelphia law firm.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in New Jersey in 2008, accused Vonage of engaging in “deceptive advertising.”
The settlement “gives them the dollars they lost,” said Scott Alan George, a lawyer with Seeger Weiss.
Missouri bill limits nuisance lawsuits against corporate farms, hurts small family farms
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon on Wednesday signed into law legislation that limits nuisance lawsuits against farms and livestock producers.
The measure restricts how much money people could win in nuisance lawsuits against livestock and crop producers. It also seeks to prohibit neighbors from filing repeated nuisance claims arising out of similar conditions against the same farm.
For years, all of West County—especially Chesterfield—was a patchwork of small family farms. In fact, some of them still exist in Chesterfield.
So when West County state legislators voted for a bill that restricted the ability of small farmers to sue enormous hog farm operations, I thought something was amiss.
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According to Missouri Ethics Commission filings, [the registered lobbyist for Smithfield Food] gave 41 hams to state representatives at Christmas time on behalf of Smithfield: 37 to Republicans and four to Democrats. All but one of the Republicans who received a ham voted for the bill or were absent. None of the Democrats voted for the bill.Senators were given 32 Christmas hams: 25 to Republicans and seven to Democrats. All but three of the 25 Republicans voted for the bill; two were absent. Only one of the Democrats supported the bill.
I think it’s wrong for elected officials to enjoy a Christmas dinner on a company that needs their votes. I imagine the farmers of family-owned Missouri farms agree with me.
Seeger Weiss goes after ‘free’ Apple apps
A show of hands, please, for all you grownups who’ve purchased a wheelbarrow full of virtual Smurfberries for a mere $59.99 while you were playing the Smurf Village game app on your iPhone. Anyone? How about a $99.99 chest of pearls in the Fishies app? Or a $99.99 trunk of coins in Tap Zoo? No? Hmm. So how is it that these games—all free to download but not to play–apparently generate millions of dollars a month in revenue for Apple?
A group of plaintiffs lawyers claim it’s because Apple is “preying on young children” who click on treasure chests and cute animals without any idea that their parents’ Apple accounts are being charged, said Michael Boni of Boni & Zack. On Monday his firm filed its third class action against Apple in the last month, claiming in a San Francisco U.S. district court complaint that “highly addictive” free game downloads are “designed solely to lure minors to purchase game currency.”
Some pretty big-name plaintiffs lawyers are taking up the cause. Seeger Weiss appears on all of the complaints.
BP Policies Hurt Franchisees’ Earnings
A putative class of BP Products North America Inc. franchisees claimed in a suit Thursday in California that the energy giant and a subsidiary broke franchise agreements by mandating a set of business policies that cut into their earnings.
More than a dozen BP franchisees allege the company skimmed money from their businesses by forcing them to install new sales systems, controlling product pricing and manipulating gas supplies, among other improprieties.The franchisees are all owners of ARCO-, BP- or am/pm-branded gas stations and convenience stores, whose collective damages following class certification will total well over $5 million, according to the complaint.
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The plaintiffs are represented by Seeger Weiss LLP and Lee Tran & Liang APLC.
Hip Makers Told to Study More Data
In an unusual move, the Food and Drug Administration has ordered all producers of a popular category of artificial hip to undertake studies of the implants, which have been linked to high early failure rates and severe health effects in some patients.
Under the order, producers of “metal-on-metal” hips will have to conduct studies of patients who received the device to determine, among other things, whether the implants are shedding high levels of metallic debris. Some patients have encountered that problem, including soft tissue damage that has disabled them.
Chris Seeger to speak at Mass Torts Forum
Chris Seeger, along with Mike Papantonio of Levin Papantonio Thomas Mitchell Rafferty & Proctor, will be heading up a forum on Antidepressant/Anti-Seizure Birth Defect Litigation and Zimmer NexGen Litigation in Philadelphia on May 24, 2011. The details are below:
Antidepressant/Anti-Seizure Birth Defect
Litigation and Zimmer NexGen Litigation
presented by Mass Torts Made Perfect, a plaintiffs’
only forum on these two emerging mass torts
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
The Rittenhouse Hotel, Philadelphia
Topics to Include:
- SSRIs and Topamax and their role in causing birth defects
- Case selection and client intake – what to look for, what to avoid
- Calculating damages in both birth defect and Zimmer NexGen cases
- What we learned from the Kilker Paxil trial
- View from the bench: Insights from Judge Sandra Mazer Moss and Judge Mark Bernstein
- Zimmer NexGen MIS, the uncemented NexGen CR-Flex knee replacement, and the Zimmer Gender Solutions High-Flex Knee
- Company history and where to file cases in both Zimmer and birth defects
- In-depth discussion on the medical literature in birth defects
Presented by: Levin Papantonio Thomas Mitchell Rafferty & Proctor, PA, Pensacola, FL
Faculty: Mike Papantonio, Levin Papantonio Thomas Mitchell Rafferty & Proctor; Chris Seeger, Seeger Weiss; Tim Becker, Zimmerman Reed; Ed Blizzard, Blizzard McCarthy & Nabers; Bob Brown, Baron & Budd; Chris Coffin, Pendley Baudin & Coffin; Michael Goetz, Morgan & Morgan; Seth Katz, Burg Simpson; Kim Lambert, Levin Papantonio Thomas Mitchell Rafferty & Proctor; Tobi Millrood, Pogust Braslow Millrood; Hon. Sandra Mazer Moss, Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas; Daniel Nigh, Levin Papantonio Thomas Mitchell Rafferty & Proctor; Ellen Relkin, Weitz & Luxenberg; Mark Robinson, Robinson Calcagnie Robinson Shapiro & Davis; James Ronca, Anapol Schwartz Weiss Coahn Feldman & Smalley; David Rosenband, Weitz & Luxenberg; and Jamie Sheller, Sheller P.C.
Price: $795
To register, call Sharon Boothe at 610-644-3943, or email sboothe@levinlaw.com. To view the entire agenda and speakers, click here to download the PDF.
Sponsorship and exhibitor information available by contacting Sharon Boothe. For hotel accommodations, please contact the Rittenhouse Hotel directly at 215-546-9000 and indicate that you are with the Mass Torts Made Perfect group. Any questions, please contact Sharon Boothe at 610-644-3943 for assistance. Exclusively endorsed by the National Trial Lawyers Association.
Duerson Findings Could Shape NFL Brain Injury Debate
Duerson’s case is unique beyond the circumstances of his suicide. Since 2006, he had served on the six-member panel that considered claims for disability benefits filed by former N.F.L. players.
Although individual votes are kept confidential, that board has been sparing in awarding benefits, including those for neurological damage. Duerson himself told a United States Senate subcommittee in 2007 that he questioned whether players’ cognitive and emotional struggles were related to football.
The N.F.L. has altered its approach to concussions in recent years, changing rules to help limit them and revamping how concussions are handled when they occur. But those efforts cannot turn back the clock for players who sustained irreversible damage decades ago.
Nationwide Class Action Filed by Franchisees of BP, ARCO, and am/pm Against BP and Retalix
The law firms of Seeger Weiss LLP and Lee Tran & Liang, APLC announce that they jointly filed a class action lawsuit today in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California on behalf of owners of BP and ARCO gas station franchises and am/pm convenience store franchises. The defendants are BP West Coast Products LLC and BP Products North America, Inc., both subsidiaries of BP p.l.c. (LSE: BP; NYSE: BP), and Retalix LTD (NASDAQ: RTLX).
The case is entitled Green Desert Oil Group Inc. et al. v. BP West Coast Products LLC et al. (N.D. Cal case number CV-11-2087).
The wrongful and illegal conduct set forth in the complaint include the following: (i) BP Defendants required all franchisees to install a new centralized point of sale (“POS”) computer system developed by co-defendant Retalix LTD that is defective which in turn, resulted in substantial damages to the franchisees such as lost operation time, lost revenue, lost or inaccurate inventory, lost receivables and cash, and increased operating costs and burdens; (ii) BP’s illegal manipulation of gas supply and pricing; (iii) BP’s improper direct control of and/or pricing by third-party vendors; (iv) BP’s policy of forcing sale of items and collection of fees for which Plaintiffs receive no compensation.
There are over 1600 franchised BP and ARCO gas stations and am/pm stores across the country, all of whom are part of the proposed class for this lawsuit. The Service Station Franchise Association, Inc. (SSFA), which represents a large number of the franchisees, has been instrumental in assisting the plaintiffs in their quest to bring the defendants to justice via this action.
Seeger Weiss is one of the nation’s preeminent plaintiffs’ law firms with offices in New York City, Los Angeles and other cities. It specializes in mass tort and class action litigation. The firm’s reputation for exceptional results, leadership and innovation has resulted in its appointment to numerous plaintiffs’ steering or executive committees in a variety of high-profile multidistrict litigations throughout the United States. Among its recent accomplishments include acting as Lead Counsel for Plaintiffs in the Vioxx Litigation against Merck & Co. that resulted in historic $4.85 billion settlement, one of the largest settlements of a mass litigation in United States history.
LTL, based in Los Angeles, is one of the most technologically-savvy business trial law firms in the country. LTL has extensive experience–and achieved significant successes–handling high-stakes matters involving some of the most sophisticated computer technologies. Founded in 2003 as the first spin-off of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP, one of the leading business trial law firms in the world, LTL has garnered its shares of accolades and successes. LTL attorneys have consistently been honored by their peers and legal publications as among the rising stars in the legal profession.
Builder may be forced to fix Chinese drywall homes in York County, Virginia
The homebuilder for Overlook Point subdivision might be required to fix four homes contaminated with Chinese drywall, a state review board has ruled.
Homeowner Psyche Page, who lives in Overlook Point in one of the four homes covered by the case, said for the first time, she’s encouraged by the government’s response.
“Patience is a virtue. It’s taken a long time, but we have to persevere,” Page said.
Since 2009, homeowners in Hampton Roads have been dealing the effects from toxic gases released by the drywall. The gases have corroded electrical systems, damaged appliances and air conditioners, and caused many homeowners to complain of “rotten eggs” smells and health problems.
Toxic Drywall Taxes Katrina Relief Groups
Relief organizations whose volunteers built or repaired hundreds of damaged houses after Hurricane Katrina have found they installed toxic Chinese drywall in more than 200 buildings, requiring hundreds of low-income families to move out for months while the houses are gutted anew and rebuilt.
For many families, it’s a return to stress, dislocation and helplessness more than five years after the storm — and long after they thought their ordeal was over.
And for relief organizations, which have decided to shoulder the full cost of millions of dollars in repairs, doubling back to gut and rebuild old homes is a major budget setback that cuts into their future work.
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