Tenet Healthcare Katrina Class Action at Tentative Settlement

March 28th, 2011. By LucyC

Six years later and counting—the mess from Hurricane Katrina drags on. This month, one of America’s largest health care corporations was due to go to court over allegations that it is responsible for deaths and injuries at a hospital in the Big Easy during the hurricane. 

However, in the middle of jury selection last week, Tenet Health/Memorial Medical Center reached a tentative settlement—the details of which will not be disclosed until it has received final court approval. 

The class action lawsuit is brought on behalf of people who were essentially marooned at the Memorial Medical Center during the storm of the century. It alleges that the hospital had insufficient electrical back-up in place to deal with the events, as well as failed plans for patient care and evacuation, which resulted in death and in injuries. The hospital sheltered about 1,800 people during the hurricane. 

Memorial hospital was owned by Tenet Healthcare Corporation, but has since been sold, along with the company’s other Louisiana hospitals, interestingly. At the time, Tenet reportedly did not have an emergency command system set up to deal with the catastrophe —but instead instigated a plan during the hurricane. While officials at Tenet lobbied to get federal rescuers to help out—and who ultimately did not—the company, realizing it was on its own, spent something like $1 million Read the rest of this entry »

Understand the Pharmaceutical Representative Overtime Lawsuits? Here’s Help

March 25th, 2011. By Kristine B

If not, you’re not alone. In fact, even the courts have reached contradictory rulings in the pharmaceutical representative overtime lawsuits they’ve seen. While the pharma reps won the Novartis lawsuit, they lost the Johnson & Johnson and GlaxoSmithKline lawsuits. Those losses, however, don’t mean that pharmaceutical sales reps should just give up. In each case, the judges relied on different legal issues and exemptions, which is how such different results were achieved. Pleading Ignorance takes a look at what’s been going on…

First, the Backstory: the Fair Labor Standards Act 

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, certain employees are considered exempt from overtime pay. Those exemptions include outside sales employees and people who are considered “administrative”. Outside sales employees are considered exempt because they are paid on commission and therefore have an unlimited earning potential. Furthermore, many outside sales people work independently of an office and therefore have a say in what hours they work and how they go about their job. To be considered exempt from overtime pay, however, outside sales people must spend at least 50 percent of the time in their job involved in sales. 

Administrative people are those who exercise independent authority, judgement or discretion in their job. They have a great deal of discretion in their job activities and how they fulfill their employment requirements. 

Lawsuits have been filed against various pharmaceutical companies alleging that pharmaceutical sales reps do not fit either the outside sales exemption or the administrative exemption. 

Novartis Sales Rep Overtime Lawsuit

In the Novartis lawsuit, the court found that the pharmaceutical reps were misclassified as exempt from overtime pay—meaning they should receive pay for overtime hours worked. In reaching the decision, the court found that Novartis sales representatives were not directly involved in the sales transaction. Instead, the reps informed physicians of a product’s benefits and encouraged physicians to prescribe Novartis products. At no point during the visit did the sales rep actually engage in a sales transaction. 

Furthermore, the court found that the Novartis reps didn’t fall under the administrative exemption because Novartis controlled the sales pitches and reps were not allowed to deviate from that pitch. Additionally, the reps did not have the authority to in any way direct or interpret Novartis policies or procedures. Because the courts found the Novartis reps were not exempt under the outside sales or administrative rules, the reps are therefore, according to the courts, eligible for overtime pay. 

Johnson & Johnson Sales Rep Overtime Lawsuit

A lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson, however, resulted in a different decision. In that case, the pharmaceutical sales representative was found to be exempt from overtime pay under the administrative employee guidelines. In that case, the court found that the plaintiff was able to develop her own itinerary, could visit some doctors more frequently than others and was expected to develop a plan to obtain more sales. The court found that the plaintiff worked without direct oversight most of the time and therefore had discretion and independent judgment required for the administrative exemption. 

GlaxoSmithKline Sales Rep Overtime Lawsuit

In GlaxoSmithKline’s lawsuit over pharmaceutical representative overtime pay, the courts backed GlaxoSmithKline’s decision not to pay the reps overtime. In this case, unlike Johnson & Johnson, the court determined that GSK sales reps fall under the guidelines of outside sales representatives because they are motivated by commissions and they have freedom to work outside the office. 

So it currently appears that whether or not a pharmaceutical rep is eligible for overtime pay is somewhat determined by which court hears the lawsuit and by which company you work for and how much authority you have in your job. 

The court’s decision in GSK actually contradicted a brief filed by the US Department of Labor that supported pharmaceutical reps being paid overtime. So, even though the Department of Labor supports overtime for pharmaceutical reps, there’s no guarantee that the courts will agree with it. More lawsuits are still to come and the Supreme Court might wind up determining the whole thing in the end. As of now, though, there’s no reason for pharmaceutical representatives to give up the fight.

You Asked…LawyersandSettlements.com Gear is Here

March 24th, 2011. By admin

Visit our logo and fanware shop over at Zazzle (click the images above). We’ll be adding more, so stay tuned…

FAA, Where are You? Clearly Air Traffic Control is Oxymoron

March 24th, 2011. By Hunter West

Now, wouldn’t that make a great reality TV series? Modeled after ‘Car 54 Where Are You,’ only in this scenario the two cops are replaced by two bungling air traffic controllers who don’t bother to answer when a pilot coming in for a landing, radios the approach tower at a major airport and gets no response.

Wait a minute—that would be incorrect. Because apparently there need be only one air traffic controller on duty…late at night…when things are quiet and it’s easy to nod off.

We don’t know if that was the case in the wee hours of yesterday morning when not one, but TWO incoming flights had to make do with input from regional towers and land at Ronald Reagan National Airport using unmanned airport protocol.

But this is bloody serious. Utter negligence. A lawsuit in the making, and a juicy one at that, had anything more serious happened.

According to a report yesterday in The New York Times and a compelling treatment on NBC‘s ‘Today’ this morning, an American Airlines Boeing 737 from Dallas approached the airport around midnight Wednesday but aborted its landing and circled the airport after pilots got no response from the tower. About 15 minutes later, a United Airlines Airbus 320 from Chicago also tried unsuccessfully to establish contact with the tower.

The controller in the tower at Reagan apparently re-appeared and all was well after that. The ‘Today’ show reported this morning that the controller who was on duty has an unblemished record (ps, the controller’s since been suspended, thereby blemishing that unblemished record).

Fine and dandy. But hey, FAA, why is it okay to have just one person in the tower? Would it not, Read the rest of this entry »

Asbestos News Roundup: 3.24.11

March 24th, 2011. By LucyC

A roundup of recent asbestos-related news and information that you should be aware of. An ongoing list of asbestos hot spots from the Asbestos News Roundup archive appears on our asbestos map.

Asbestos Lawsuits

Jefferson City, Mo: A St. Louis resident is facing a lawsuit brought by the Attorney General for Missouri, Chris Koster, over allegations that during the demolition and removal of asbestos-containing materials at a building on Page Avenue in St. Louis, he violated the Air Conservation Law of Missouri.

Robert Collins is facing three violations, specifically that he failed 1) to inspect the building for asbestos before he started the demolition; 2) failed to put measures in place that would deal with any airborne dust and prevent it from escaping the building; and 3) that he did not notify the Department of Natural Resources 10 days in advance of the scheduled demolition.

“Missouri’s Air Conservation Law was enacted to protect both citizen’s health and our environment,” Koster said, “The attorney general’s Office will not look the other way when these violations occur.”

The AG has asked the court to issue permanent and preliminary injunctions prohibiting Collins from further violating the Missouri Air Conservation Law. Furthermore, Koster has asked the court to assess a $10,000 penalty for each day that Collins was in violation of the law, and that Collins pay for court costs.(LegalNewsLine.com)

Lynnfield, MA: According to a press release issued by Attorney General Martha Coakley, a Lynnfield asbestos removal company, its owners and an employee have been indicted for the improper removal and disposal of asbestos for work performed on numerous public and private buildings in the cities of Lynn, Beverly and Marblehead.

AEI Environmental, LLC (AEI), David Harder, Jr., age 47, and Julie Rosati, age 51, of Lynnfield, Read the rest of this entry »