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| | Best Kept Trial Secrets: What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas | |
| | Don't gamble with your cases. 48 hours in Vegas can change your practice forever! Join some of TTLA's battle-tested veterans and emerging superstars in Las Vegas for a CLE experience that'll change your luck in the courtroom. February 23-25, 2012, Bellagio Hotel, Las Vegas, 8 hrs. MCLE w/ 1 hr. Ethics | | Products | |
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| | Nissan Recalling 39,000 Versa Small Cars | |
| | Nissan is recalling 39,000 Versa small cars because the transmissions can be shifted out of park without the driver’s foot on the brake. The 2012 model cars were made from June 9, 2011 through Jan. 13, 2012 and sold in the U.S. and Canada. Federal safety regulations require that a driver’s foot must be on the brake before a car can be shifted into gear. Associated Press, The Washington Post 02/10/2012 | | Read Article: The Washington Post | | Laws/Cases | |
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| | A/C Company Settles Sexual Discrimination Suit | |
| | An air conditioning company in Weatherford, Texas, has agreed to pay $37,500 to settle a sexual discrimination lawsuit filed by a former female employee. In her suit, the woman claimed a facility manager "subjected her to sexually vulgar comments and touches soon after she was hired," and even exposed himself to her more than once. The plaintiff said her complaints fell on deaf ears, and she was forced to quit. Darren Barbee, Ft. Worth Star Telegram 02/09/2012 | | Read Article: Ft. Worth Star Telegram | | BP’s Past Accidents Barred as Evidence at First Gulf Spill Trial | |
| | BP Plc persuaded a judge to bar the introduction of evidence of previous accidents involving the oil company from this month’s trial over fault for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico blast and oil spill. U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans granted a BP motion blocking the introduction of exhibits pertaining to prior industrial accidents, including the 2005 explosion at BP’s Texas City, Texas, refinery and a 2006 oil spill at its Prudhoe Bay field in Alaska. Andrew Harris and Allen Johnson Jr., Bloomberg 02/10/2012 | | Read Article: Bloomberg | | Jury Awards $1.25 Million After Officer Kills Man | |
| | The family of a man who was fatally shot six years ago by an off-duty Chicago police officer was awarded $1.25 million by a federal jury this week. According to the suit, the man got into a fight with off-duty officers at a bar one night, and went home with a friend to retrieve guns to confront the other men. The officers claim the men came back and flashed their guns while at a stop light, but the plaintiffs' suit said the victim's body was found 40 feet from his car, dead in the middle of the street with multiple shot wounds. Annie Sweeney , Chicago Tribune 02/09/2012 | | Read Article: Chicago Tribune | | Suit: Prison Guard Sexually Assaulted Inmate | |
| | An inmate in a Pennsylvania prison has filed the third lawsuit against a suspended corrections officer, accusing him of physical and sexual abuse. The lawsuit claims the suspended officer forced the plaintiff to choose from various sexual acts, and that other officers and officials knew of the behavior but did nothing to stop it. Two similar lawsuits have already been filed against the officer. Rich Lord, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 02/10/2012 | | Read Article: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | | Settlement Doesn't End Mortgage-Related Problems for Banks | |
| | The agreement between 49 states and five large banks gives the financial giants immunity from future complaints about some aspects of their foreclosure practices. The banks had previously made changes to improve the way they foreclose on homeowners and had put aside most of the funds necessary to pay for the $25-billion settlement. The settlement releases the banks from claims involving foreclosures, mortgage customer servicing and loan originations. However, authorities can still investigate various fraud claims, including those involving the mortgage bonds whose meltdown triggered a global financial crisis. What's more, there is no criminal immunity or release from private claims by individuals or class-action lawsuits. Nathaniel Popper and E. Scott Reckard, LA Times 02/10/2012 | | Read Article: LA Times | | Court Sends Exxon Spill Case Back to Trial | |
| | The state's second-highest court has rejected much of a $147 million jury verdict that was awarded to hundreds of northern Baltimore County residents whose groundwater was contaminated by a gasoline leak at an Exxon station. The Court of Special Appeals ruling could mean that some of the Jacksonville plaintiffs — who endured a five-month trial — will have to return to court. Steve Kilar, Baltimore Sun 02/10/2012 | | Read Article: Baltimore Sun | | Federal Judge: Texas Co. Didn’t Discriminate Against New Mom | |
| | A federal judge’s ruling against a Houston mother who says she was fired after asking for a place to pump breast milk has highlighted a question left unanswered by higher courts: Is firing a woman because she wants to pump at work sexual discrimination? In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes said it wouldn’t be illegal even if Donnicia Venters and the EEOC were correct in assuming that Houston Funding, a debt collection agency, fired her because she’d asked to pump breast milk at work. The judge reasoned that lactation was not pregnancy-related and, as a result, “firing someone because of lactation or breast-pumping is not sex discrimination.” Associated Press, The Washington Post 02/10/2012 | | Read Article: The Washington Post | |
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