Guidant Forced to Toe the Moral Line

May 1st, 2010. By Hunter West

Tuesday a federal judge in Minneapolis rejected a plea deal arrangement that would have seen Guidant, the medical device manufacturer acquired by Boston Scientific about four years ago, plead guilty to a couple of misdemeanor charges and pay a fine. A big fine, mind you—$296 million, described as the largest fine ever thrown down in front of a medical device manufacturer. The relatively small fine paid by Toyota for leading the feds down the garden path is niggly in comparison. 

But that’s not the point. Given the risks associated with playing in the medical devices sandbox, one can assume that the players plan for this sort of thing. Their revenues are staggering as it is. And a plea of guilty to two misdemeanors, when the company knowingly vended life-saving devices that were faulty and led to the deaths of at least six individuals, just seems so wrong. 

A judge agreed, and rejected the deal. Donovan W. Frank noted in his ruling that the deal allowed the company to escape accountability. 

At least there were misdemeanor charges. How often have you heard companies of any stripe pay a huge fine for a proven misdeed but admit to NO wrongdoing? 

That’s like telling a child who knowingly was responsible for bad behavior, “okay Johnny, give Mummy five bucks and we’ll forget this ever happened…” 

No parent in his, or her right mind would ever offer that deal to a child. What are we teaching them? 

And yet, it appears de rigueur in big business. Do something bad, cop a plea where you don’t have to admit to anything, pay a fine for the privilege and move on. 

It is assumed that any new deal surrounding the Guidant situation involving those defective defibrillators will include a probationary structure as recommended by the judge, together with a fine. 

How big that fine will be, remains to be seen. Perhaps the same, perhaps smaller than the original. Either way it will be in the millions. 

As for where that money goes, I profess ignorance. Maybe it goes into a specific budget line, or to general revenues. A better place would be to help pay for the nation’s health care, just as fines levied to automotive manufacturers should go to fix up our roads and bridges—or finding a way to segregate massive trucks away from smaller cars, in an effort to mitigate the carnage on America’s roads when the ever-expanding rigs meet up with an increasingly-shrinking car. 

Or how about giving that money to the families of the victims? 

Sure, fines are important—even assuming big companies build that kind of thing into their business plans. The money could benefit someone, somewhere. 

But the payment of a huge fine should not prove a whitewash for moral irresponsibility. 

That’s the point the judge was making Tuesday.

KC and the Sunshine Band Bassist due in Court Today

April 30th, 2010. By AbiK

Yeah—I’m your Boogie Man, alright.

This is the type of story—from a writing standpoint—that has entirely too many “it was there and I went for it” moments. Too many easy-to-take shots. But let me preface this by saying I absolutely do not take the charges against Richard Finch, co-founder of rainbow & bell-bottom lovin’ KC & the Sunshine Band, lightly; the guy’s charged with sixteen counts of sexual contact or involvement with male minors—including ten counts of sexual imposition, and three counts of compelling prostitution involving minors.

Finch is to appear in court today for a pretrial hearing—meanwhile, he’s been sitting in jail. And, of course, his legal team reminds us that “…these are just allegations and that Mr. Finch is presumed innocent.”

Be that as it may, according to a report on cnn.com, Finch disclosed in an interview with detectives that he “did in fact have sexual contact with the juvenile, along with multiple other male teenage juveniles as well ranging in ages from 13 to 17.”

So here’s what makes this one fodder-a-go-go for any writer…

KC & the Sunshine Band’s songs. In true just-make-sure-it-doesn’t-come-back-to-bite-you fashion, we’ve got, “That’s the Way (uh-huh, uh-huh) I Like It”…yes, we can imagine how he (allegedly!) likes it. Then we’ve got “Get Down Tonight”. Hmm. “Shake, Shake, Shake” your booty and “Keep it Comin’ Love”? One last one: “Blow Your Whistle”. The charges against Finch give new meaning to doing the hustle. See, I just can’t help myself.

But it gets better. Finch apparently lives in Newark, OH. Ok, whoopdedoo. It’s in Licking County. You can’t make this stuff up. (and, I say this will all due respect to the residents of Licking County).

Next up. RichardFinch.com. Yes, he has a website. I imagine there were just throngs Read the rest of this entry »

Facebook Can Take Instant Personalization and You-Know-What It

April 29th, 2010. By AbiK

We’re fans of Facebook. Or should I say “friends”. We like Facebook. And yes, LawyersAndSettlements.com also has a page on Facebook. But you won’t find what your BFF’s on Facebook “like” streaming on our site.

So why aren’t we embracing this Spirograph-like “open graph” concept? Five Reasons. Read on.

Reason One: Because we know you have a brain of your own. If you are interested in a certain legal topic or issue, you’ll go to it. Without your friend’s having to share the link on FB to prompt you. And hey, if they were really such good friends, wouldn’t they have sent you the link already if they thought you’d be interested?

Reason Two: We also know that you already have Google and Twitter and a whole bunch of other options out there that can tell you what’s popular or high-ranking in search. Oh, but as Mashable’s Pete Cashmore so aptly noted in a recent post at cnn.com, perhaps FB is jonesing to become the site “best positioned to rank the Web”.

Reason Three: It’s a privacy thing. We’re all on Facebook in our personal lives as well. We like to keep it intimate. Cozy. If we’ve shared it on Facebook, we’ve shared it on Facebook. Not on cnn.com’s homepage in some baton hand-off, website to website.

Reason Four: There’s something out-of-body about seeing your high school buddy’s name flashing before your eyes on the right side bar of cnn.com. It’s like some weird Warholian 15-minutes-of-fame thing—but isn’t in reality as you’re the only viewer seeing it. And it somehow stabs at the integrity of what you’re looking at…cheapens it a bit. It’s as though rather than having CNN on a wide-screen tv behind the bar you’re at, suddenly, cnn has pulled up a bar stool next to you. A little too…chummy. (Note, of the “50,000”+ sites who’ve adopted the new FB app, apparently news stalwarts NYT and WSJ have not…)

Reason Five: We’re finding—for ourselves—that most of the “friends” whose opinions we’d actually give a rat’s -ss about have opted out of Facebook’s new attempt at web domination. The mere fact that they had to dive into the depths of the veritable snake pit that the Facebook Privacy Settings are shows the lengths they went to—a sure sign that they did not “like” sharing their “likes”. Food for thought.

By the way, if you’re thinking that “opting out” of FB’s instant personalization option is a no-brainer, guess again. Intuitive it is not. Here’s how you do it. Go to your FB profile. Click on Account in the upper right. In the drop-down, go to Privacy Settings. From there, click on Applications and Websites. From there, uncheck the “Allow” box next to where it says, “Instant Personalization Pilot Program” (which FB had so graciously checked for you to begin with). Voila!

Oh, and hey—don’t forget to “like” us on Facebook!

Asbestos News Roundup: 4.29.10

April 29th, 2010. By LucyC

A roundup of recent asbestos-related news and information that you should be aware of. 

Asbestos Lawsuits

Charleston, WV: The widow of William D. Thompson is suing her late husband’s employer, CSX Transportation, Inc, alleging wrongful death in an asbestos-related suit.

Mary Thompson’s husband worked for CSX from 1971 until 1988 and during that time, she alleges he was exposed to toxic substances, including asbestos, chemicals and diesel exhaust, which in whole or in part, caused him to develop lung cancer, which he was diagnosed with in July 2008.

The complaint alleges that CSX did not provide a reasonably safe work environment; furnish Mr. Thompson with safe and suitable tools and equipment; warn Mr. Thompson of the true nature and hazardous effects of the asbestos, chemicals and diesel fumes; test asbestos-containing products prior to requiring employees to work with them; and formulate and implement a safe method for handling asbestos, chemicals and diesel fumes. (WVRecord.com)

Madison County, IL: Seventeen new asbestos lawsuits have been filed in recent weeks in Madison County, among them, a suit brought by Orlene Dicks of Florida who claims her late husband, Emory Lee Dicks, developed mesothelioma after his work as a boatswains mate and truck driver at various locations from 1942 until 1964 and from 1966 until 1978.

And Teresa Montesano of California, also recently widowed, claims her husband, Ronney Montesano, who developed mesothelioma and subsequently died, was exposed to the lethal substance during his work in a variety of environments which would all have used asbestos. He worked as a member of the U.S. Navy; as a mill work performer and as a worker at Gray’s Harbor for 10 years, as an insulator, as a home remodeler in the 1960s and as an automotive repair worker in the 1960s and the 1970s. (MadisonRecord.com)

Asbestos Settlements

Mercerville, NJ: New Jersey based Congoleum Corp, a manufacturer of commercial and residential Read the rest of this entry »

Asbestos Corporate Bankruptcies: Don’t Shed A Tear

April 29th, 2010. By admin

Guest blogger, RJ Abernathy, is an Asbestos attorney with Goldenberg Heller Antognoli and Rowland. He has a unique perspective as an asbestos lawyer, having been a Laborer with Local 100 in East St. Louis, Illinois for over 20 years prior to becoming an attorney. As a Laborer, he worked in many of the same conditions as those in which his clients have worked. Abernathy also lost his own father to asbestos-related cancer in 1999.

A recent article published by an arm of the US Chamber of Commerce noted that another company “collapsed” under the weight of asbestos claims. According to this article, 89 such companies have “collapsed” since 1982. In the latest case, Durabla Manufacturing sold asbestos containing products well into the 1980’s, long after asbestos was recognized as a dangerous and deadly material. 

A closer look at the other 88 “collapsed” companies reveals that not only have many of these companies remained in business, but many of them thrived after ‘going bankrupt.’ Walk into any Home Depot or Lowe’s home improvement stores and you will find a large percentage of these “collapsed” companies’ products on the shelves. For example, the Pink Panther didn’t lose his job when Owens Corning went bankrupt. Dick Cheney’s former employer, Halliburton, never missed a beat over the past seven years during the Iraq war since filing for bankruptcy protection due to its subsidiaries asbestos liabilities.

In another case, W.R. Grace filed for bankruptcy protection in 2001, even though it has annual sales of nearly 3 billion dollars. In 2005, the United States Department of Justice filed criminal charges against Grace, including counts for fraudulent transfers of nearly 5 billion dollars just prior to the bankruptcy filing.

In other cases, I think it is hard to argue that these companies should not have “collapsed.” The miners, manufacturers and purveyors of raw asbestos fibers should have been out of business Read the rest of this entry »