Tyson Chicken Settlement Raises Question of Lawyer Compensation

January 20th, 2010. By AbiK

So the Tyson Chicken proposed settlement could give consumers $5 million in refunds and coupons.

The Tyson Chicken proposed settlement could also give the plaintiffs’ attorneys $3 million in fees and court costs. Not.

Not if federal Judge Richard D. Bennett has anything to do with it. And I can’t entirely blame him—but not for the reasons you think.

Before I have a slew of attorneys bashing me, I have previously defended the payments attorneys request as part of settlements. Let’s face it, the attorneys usually put up the money themselves to litigate a case—i.e., there’s zip in cash flow until the case is settled—and won. So all the hours they work, travel they incur, office rent, staff salaries—all of it has to be paid out-of-pocket. Additionally, a case can take years to wind its way through the system—again, while there’s zilch in income. And let’s not forget that there isn’t one attorney pocketing whatever comes their way in a settlement; when we’re talking class actions, we’re talking lots and lots of lawyers, researchers, admin staff…who need to get paid (did I mention the electric bill?).

So when you hear a settlement of $3 million, and think that the first lawsuits in this case were filed in 2008, well, Read the rest of this entry »

Now that’s Tortelicious! A few gems on the docket…

January 20th, 2010. By LucyC

Welcome to Totally Tortelicious—a review of some of the more bizarre lawsuits making news. Goodness knows there’s no shortage of them. 

Education the new Defective Product? Last week the LA Times reported that several minors who are currently incarcerated by the Los Angeles County Probation Department have sued their teachers at an LA country probation camp for routinely missing class, punishing students who ask for help with their lessons, and awarding a high school diploma to boy who is illiterate. I had to read the article twice to make sure I was getting this straight—the teachers are being sued for missing classes? I realize it’s been a while since I went to school, but I don’t think myself and my compatriots would have complained had our teachers not shown up for lessons. In fact I know we would have been delighted!

However, while I might make light of this, because it is quite ironic, it seems that these kids really want an education, no matter how low the standards. After all, it’s their best ticket out. And this is what makes it so tragic. According to an investigation by the attorneys representing the plaintiffs, 95 percent of the 650 students at the Challenger Probation Camp—the scene of the crime so to speak—have consistently scored below proficiency on state exams. So these kids have taken matters into their own hands. I wonder what the punishment is for teachers skipping class?

Exotic Dancers Give Grammar Lessons? In the spirit of the carefully phrased “I did not have relations with that woman”, a grammatical technicality is at the forefront of a prostitution lawsuit in New York. Something must be in the air because this is thethird or fourth lawsuit this month that’s dealt with things related to strip clubs. This Read the rest of this entry »

NSF Registry Aims to Understand Disease

January 19th, 2010. By AbiK

When news first broke about the possible link between Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis (NSF) and gadolinium-based contrast agents used in MRIs, it was certainly alarming. But not much was known about it aside from the alleged correlation.

So after the first cases of NSF were identified, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) worked with doctors from the University of California in San Francisco to investigate the disorder. The work has since moved to Yale University where Dr. Shawn Cowper is in charge of confirming and investigating new cases of NSF.

The NSF Registry—the official project name for the work Dr. Cowper is heading up—aims to collect and organize information about NSF patients globally. The information is collected in order to help identify factors that may be related to or causative of NSF. Additionally, the NSF Registry will collect information on NSF treatments—successes and failures—in order to determine effective therapies and to help design future medication/therapy trials.

Anyone who has been afflicted with NSF or NFD should have their doctor contact Dr. Cowper at . For more information, visit the NSF Registry website: icnfdr.org.

Kristen Parker Sentenced for Fentanyl Theft

January 18th, 2010. By LucyC

About a year ago a woman named Kristen Diane Parker, a surgery tech who worked in hospitals the Denver area, made the news, including on LawyersAndSettlements.com. I wrote a couple of short pieces about her. She was addicted—maybe still is—to Fentanyl.

Also known as Duragesic, Fentanyl is a prescription pain medication—quite a strong one—and quite an addictive one by all accounts. Kristen Parker was so addicted to the stuff that she would steal syringes from hospital surgery carts where she worked—syringes that were filled with Fentanyl—and inject herself. She would then fill the used syringes with saline and replace them. Just in case this isn’t crystal clear—post-operative patients were being administered saline in used syringes instead of their prescribed pain medication.  

Ah, but it gets worse. Parker ended up infecting some 36 people with hepatitis C, a currently incurable viral infection which leads to chronic liver inflammation, and in some cases liver cancer. Parker, who shared needles when injecting heroine, is hepatitis C positive—something she claims she didn’t know when she was fixing her needles.

Thankfully, Ms. Parker got careless, and she got caught. No surprise there, given the state she must Read the rest of this entry »

WHO Fights Back Over “Fake Pandemic” Accusations

January 18th, 2010. By janem

The World Health Organization (WHO) is almost in fisticuffs over recent accusations that it exaggerated the H1N1 threat. “The world is going through a real pandemic,” said Dr. Fukuda, the WHO’s special adviser on pandemic influenza. “The description of it as fake is both wrong and irresponsible.”

On January 15th the US Center for Disease Control (CDC) released the latest statistics–  based on two nationwide telephone surveys–about  H1N1 fatalities, infection rates and inoculations covering the first eight months of the “pandemic” from April through mid-December. According to the surveys, about 55 million people contacted the infectious virus, nearly 246,000 needed hospitalization and around 11,160 died from the flu.

Do these statistics sound like a pandemic? CDC estimated that about 36,000 people died of seasonal flu-related causes each year during the 1990s in the US. So why don’t we have a pandemic alert every year?  It makes you wonder: Is the CDC and WHO collaborating with big pharma companies like Glaxo Smith Kline? Surely GSK can afford to bank roll them with the profits they are making from their H1N1 vaccine.

Meanwhile, health officials and hospitals nationwide report that the outbreak has waned.

For instance, Des Moines’ main hospitals are loosening their visitor policies and Tarrant County, Texas is closing six locations that have been administering the H1N1 vaccine because their health department says the number of people wanting the vaccine had dropped off.

At the end of January, the Council of Europe will be debating “Faked Pandemics: a threat to health”, and WHO officials have been asked to testify. Dr. Fukuda has denied that the WHO was influenced by the pharma industry in declaring a pandemic.

Health officials warn that a third wave of H1N1 is coming. If it does, the WHO is off the hook. If it doesn’t hit, I guess they’ve got a lot of explaining to do.