- Pete Burns | January 27, 2009 10:04 AM |
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MiscellaneousWhen a woman experiences wage discrimination, a child is damaged by a dangerous drug, or a defective product kills or injures a worker most Americans agree compensation is in order. Traditional...
- Pete Mackey | January 26, 2009 10:25 PM |
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MiscellaneousIn a previous post, I wrote about ERISA and its effect on your healthcare claim determinations. In this post, we will talk about ERISA and its interplay with your disability insurance. Many people...
- Billy Cunningham | January 26, 2009 6:36 PM |
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MiscellaneousImpact Alabama, a Birmingham, Alabama based non-profit organization that helps low-income Alabama residents sent undercover staff with recording devices to 13 seasonal tax preparers across the state...
- Pete Mackey | January 24, 2009 5:28 PM |
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MiscellaneousStrategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation are lawsuits filed by overdogs against underdogs. The plaintiff in a SLAPP lawsuit is not trying to win, but only to spend the underdog dry. These...
- Pete Mackey | January 24, 2009 5:00 PM |
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Workplace DiscriminationYesterday, I was forwarded an e-mail from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce warning me that trial attorneys are heading to Washington looking for a handout. I wondered what the Chamber thought about the...
- Troy Schwant | January 22, 2009 6:01 PM |
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Automobile AccidentsWith Super Bowl Sunday just a little over a week away millions across the country are making preparations to travel to their Super Bowl Party of choice. Some may go to the local sports bar, some may...
- Pete Mackey | January 22, 2009 12:54 PM |
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MiscellaneousIf you have never been represented by a trial attorney during a time of personal tragedy - an injury, financial devastation or losing a loved one, you may not understand all the aspects of our role....
- Pete Mackey | January 19, 2009 6:57 PM |
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MiscellaneousI re-read Dr. King's Letter from Birmingham Jail every year at this time. My kids are then subjected to yet another missive from dad - it hits me differently every year....
- Troy Schwant | January 19, 2009 10:48 AM |
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Miscellaneous
With a new year comes, new years resolutions, and one of the most common new years resolutions is to lose weight and get healthy. Unfortunately in the desire to look skinny, people sometimes go...
- Billy Cunningham | January 18, 2009 10:08 PM |
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Miscellaneous My partner, Pete Mackey, recently posted a blog about how we evaluate cases to determine whether we can represent someone in lawsuit. Nursing home abuse cases are unique. Often the resident has...
- Pete Mackey | January 17, 2009 6:52 PM |
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MiscellaneousWhen you sue an insurance company for failing to pay your medical bills, chances are that your lawsuit will be governed by the Employees Retirement Income Security Act of 1974. That Act was...
- Pete Burns | January 17, 2009 2:13 PM |
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Workplace DiscriminationSenators will vote on the Lilly Ledbetter bill when it comes for a final Senate vote in the very near future. The bill supports equal pay for equal work by removing a loophole that has allowed...
- Pete Mackey | January 16, 2009 12:43 PM |
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MiscellaneousUnitedHealth's $350,000,000 settlement is not enough money, says a lawyer for some of the plaintiffs in that case:
“We believe the amount agreed to is inadequate and does not reflect as...
- Pete Mackey | January 15, 2009 6:54 PM |
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MiscellaneousUnitedHealth Group entered into a $350,000,000 settlement of three class actions on behalf of the American Medical Association, health plan members, healthcare providers and state medical societies....
- Pete Mackey | January 15, 2009 8:17 AM |
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MiscellaneousThe UnitedHealth settlement with the state of New York has been hailed as a boon for healthcare plan subscribers who want to use doctors aho are not part of their network. Perhaps it is not all that...
- Pete Mackey | January 13, 2009 3:38 PM |
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MiscellaneousUnitedHealth Group has agreed to settle a case filed by the New York Attorney General's office. That lawsuit, filed in the spring of 2008, accused the health care giant of defrauding its members by...
- Pete Mackey | January 12, 2009 11:11 PM |
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MiscellaneousThe bailout for the financial industry has been somewhat of a mystery to me. I have been busy with work and have not been able to delve into the details. So ... watching from afar, I am not sure...
- Billy Cunningham | January 12, 2009 10:34 AM |
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MiscellaneousHospitals around the country were scrambling to put new programs in place to prevent pressure ulcers after the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced in May 2008 that starting...
- Pete Mackey | January 12, 2009 8:00 AM |
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MiscellaneousGeorge Will's recent op-ed piece, Exploding Litigation Means the death of Common Sense, lacks a key ingredient - a basis in fact. Mr. Will, generally a stickler for detail, offers only anecdotal...
- Pete Mackey | January 11, 2009 10:07 PM |
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Workplace DiscriminationThe Lilly Ledbetter Act, along with the Paycheck Fairness Act, was passed by the House last Friday and the Ledbetter Act could reach the Senate as early as next week. The Ledbetter Act increases the...
- Pete Burns | January 11, 2009 5:52 PM |
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Medical MalpracticeThere are about 2,000 cases of aortic dissection in the United States each year. With timely treatment the survival rate is approximately 85%. Without treatment 25% of patients die in the first 24...
- Pete Mackey | January 09, 2009 4:18 PM |
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MiscellaneousIn his continuing report, Jeff Seidel of the Detroit Free Press reports that County Judge Timothy Connors has ordered mediation in the lawsuits by female inmates alleging sexual assaults by prison...
- Pete Mackey | January 08, 2009 5:37 PM |
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MiscellaneousYou have been in your brand new house for four months. It was kind of scary draining your savings account for the down payment and your new monthly payment is $350 more than the rent you were paying...
- Billy Cunningham | January 08, 2009 8:46 AM |
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Nursing Home & Elder AbuseWith a new administration ready to be sworn in and some significant changes in Congress there is real optimism that the S. Bill 2838, Fairness in Nursing Home Arbitration Act may actually pass this...
- Pete Mackey | January 08, 2009 8:33 AM |
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Toxic SubstancesPrior to the fly ash sludge holding pond rupturing at the Kingston, Tn. steam plant on December 22, not many people even knew what fly ash was. In the aftermath of that disaster, news surfaced that...
- Pete Mackey | January 07, 2009 11:09 PM |
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MiscellaneousNobody comes in to our offices to tell us what a great day they have had. We don't do adoptions, we represent folks who have suffered severe personal or financial injuries. Unfortunately, we have to...
- Pete Mackey | January 07, 2009 8:09 AM |
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MiscellaneousThe Michigan prison system may find that protecting female inmates from sexual assaults by guards is not just the morally right thing to do, but that it makes business sense, as well. In the first...
- Pete Mackey | January 06, 2009 3:46 PM |
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Nursing Home & Elder AbuseThe William F. Green State Veterans Home in Bay Minette, Alabama was severely critcized in a report by Federal inspectors released last month. The inspection, conducted in February of 2008, found...
- Pete Burns | January 06, 2009 2:06 PM |
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Defective & Dangerous ProductsDeaths from fires and burns are the fifth most common cause of unintentional injury and deaths in the United States (CDC 2005) and the third leading cause of fatal home injury (Runyan 2004). In...
- Pete Mackey | January 06, 2009 8:30 AM |
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MiscellaneousThe Democrats controlling Congress are looking to overturn the Supreme Court's recent decision which limited worker's discrimination claims by providing a restrictive statute of limitations. The...
- Pete Mackey | January 05, 2009 10:12 PM |
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MiscellaneousConsumer groups are opposing the insurance industry's effort to lower reserve requirements. The Consumer Federation of America and the Center for Economic Justice are up in arms - they believe that...
- Pete Mackey | January 05, 2009 8:00 AM |
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MiscellaneousA 10 week course to better explain to lay people how the legal system works - the People's Law School - returns January 26 in Huntsville, Alabama. Huntsville's Mayor, Tommy Battle, explains how the...
- Troy Schwant | January 04, 2009 10:57 PM |
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MiscellaneousWith Christmas bringing new bicycles to both kids and parents, the importance of bicycle safety should be stressed to all new cyclists. Unfortunately, this past weekend a South Alabama resident was...
- Pete Mackey | January 04, 2009 6:55 PM |
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Miscellaneous
Two weeks after the area around the Kingston, Tn. steam plant was inundated with fly ash sludge after a holding pond ruptured, news has surfaced a TVA Inspector General had issued a report in...
- Pete Mackey | January 02, 2009 3:54 PM |
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MiscellaneousBy now, if you do not know who Bernie Madoff is, chances are you have been hibernating in a cave for the winter. This self professed financial scammer has been front page news world wide for his...
- Troy Schwant | January 01, 2009 8:21 PM |
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Automobile AccidentsI would like to wish everyone a Happy, but Safe New Years. I know that saying is cliche, and everyone hears these same words every year around this time, but even if you are being safe, you still...
- Pete Mackey | January 01, 2009 12:48 PM |
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Toxic SubstancesResidents of a subdivision in Tennessee located near the Kingston, Tn. Power Plant filed a lawsuit against the Tennessee Valley Authority seeking $165,000,000 in damages caused by the rupture of a...