Posts Tagged ‘ Lawsuit ’

Monster Energy + Scruples Don’t Mix? (Just Ask the Beastie Boys)

January 23rd, 2015. By LucyC

Beasties vs. Monsters. That’s a headline copyright infringement lawsuit circa 2014. And who won? Well the first round went to the Beastie Boys. But—their lawyers are heading back into the ring for round two. This time—over legal fees. Monster Energy—no stranger to lawsuits—was found guilty by a federal judge in Manhattan, of using the Beastie Boys’ songs without their permission to market their energy drinks. Take what you need and pay the piper later—if you need to? Nice. But it seems that’s the way Monster rolls…an appropriately named business.

The back story? The rappers from Brooklyn took Monster to court over the drink manufacturer’s use of five (FIVE!) of the group’s songs for a 2012 promotional video of an event called “Ruckus in the Rockies.” The video included the group’s 1994 megahit “Sabotage”. 

As anyone who follows the Beastie Boys knows, the rappers don’t shill. Let’s not even get into the fact that Monster didn’t ask BB if they could use the songs. Wait—there’s more—in an act of mindboggling gall, tastelessness, and just outright ‘profit where you can’, Monster added the words “RIP MCA” at the end of the video’s credits: Beastie Boys member Adam “MCA” Yauch passed away days before Monster’s marketing event. He died of salivary gland cancer at the age of 47. All of this without the Band’s knowledge (I’m guessing here) or permission.

So, the group sued Monster. They won. The jury awarded surviving band members Adam “Ad Rock” Horovitz and Michael “Mike D” Diamond, and the wife of the late Adam “MCA” Yauch $1.7 million: $1.2 million for unauthorized use of their songs and $500,000 after finding Monster liable for false endorsement.

Cut to present day—a second suit has been filed seeking $2.5 million in legal fees. According to The New York Post—one of the group’s lawyers said the firm and its associates performed 4,227 hours of work on the case at a “reduced” rate that ranged from $675 to $840 depending on each lawyer’s rates. The $2.5 million ask included nearly $100,000 in expenses the firm claims it spent representing the rappers.

The rapper’s lawyers summed it up this way: “Monster failed to engage in good faith negotiations to resolve this m​matter and repeatedly sought to increase the cost of ultimately litigating this matter.”

Monster has admitted wrongdoing but believes it should be liable for no more than $125,000, based on the video’s viewership. The company says only about 13,000 viewers saw the four-minute video before it was pulled off YouTube. They’ve been drinking the koolaid.

According to The Post, Monster’s lawyers filed legal papers urging the Judge to deny an injunction request by the Beastie Boys, saying Monster already removed the video and has no plans to ever show it again. Really—you think? How considerate.

Tags: Beastie Boys, Lawsuit, Monster Energy
Posted in Crazy Sh*t Lawyers See | 2 Comments »

Crazy Sh*t Lawyers See: Reality TV Edition (Even their Lawsuits are Larger than Life)

April 9th, 2014. By LucyC

Ok—brace yourselves…for the Crazy Sh*t Lawyers See (or at least have to deal with).

Is this the “fun” in funeral? Let’s hope not. Plymouth, Mass, was the scene of a recent shooting. It happened during a funeral (why not?) and the accused is claiming self defense. Hey – funerals can be tense affairs. At least the corpse was safe, so to speak. (I know…I know…)

The accused, Gai Scott, of Randolph, pleaded not guilty in Plymouth District Court to armed assault with intent to murder. “When the dust settles with respect to this case, it’s going to be abundantly clear that Mr. Scott, a licensed gun owner, was acting in self-defense and in defense of his family,” said Jon Ciraulo, Gai Scott’s lawyer.

Thirty-six year old Scott is accused of shooting his 48-year old Uncle who goes by the name Benzino—a hip-hop artist and star of the reality TV show, VH1’s “Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta”. Benzino’s real name is Raymond Scott, and he put in a surprise attendance at his mother’s funeral. The incident occurred on Route 3 in Duxbury, during the funeral procession. I’ll bet that livened things up (pardon the pun).

According to a statement issued by the Plymouth district DA, “growing family tension” between the men resulted in the shooting. For his part, Benzino was released from South Shore Hospital in Weymouth earlier this week, very much alive. He said he had paid his respects to his mother in private at the funeral home but decided to skip the procession and funeral because of tensions in the family over money. Apparently, he was on his way to Plymouth to pick up a friend when he came upon the procession and someone opened fire. But he didn’t volunteer any names of the shooter. Not making things any easier for his lawyer here.

The accused was ordered held without bail pending a hearing, and as one might expect, Gai Scott was ultimately denied bail as it was sort of thought he might be a danger to society. Perhaps?

 

It ain’t all tutus and frills… A pair of brawling Betties—also known to the courts as Kelly Hyland and Abby Lee Miller, of “Dance Moms” fame—or infamy—you choose—finally have a court date. Kelly Hyland is charged with assaulting Abby Miller, and the whole thing is caught on tape. A slam dunk you think—um, not so much, according to the defense lawyer.

The back story—for anyone who failed to follow “Dance Moms”—is that the former star of the Lifetime series instigated a cat fight (as one does) over what role Hyland’s daughter, Brooke, would play in a dance routine—Meow! Gritty stuff indeed. (The pic at right shows a clip posted over at TMZ where Dance Mom Kelly goes at it with Dance Mom Dame Hyland over the amount of time the kids get to learn new routines. Like I said, this is gritty stuff indeed…)

Caught on video, as everything is these days, Hyland is shown losing the plot on dance instructor Abby Lee Miller backstage at Lehman College. “Get your finger out of my face!” Hyland screams before slapping, scratching and pulling Miller’s hair in the scuffle. “She’s crazy,” Miller yells back.

Hyland’s defense lawyer, Paul Martin, said he’s trying to unearth uncut footage of the incident, which he said would show Miller being the aggressor. “My client’s intention is to go trial. She believes that she’s not guilty of any crime and we’re confident that when a jury considers all the evidence that she’ll be vindicated,” Martin said. Yes, good luck with that.

“I think the videotape along with the history of Ms. Miller, my client will be vindicated of any type of criminal wrongdoing.” Guess we’ll see…court date’s set for May…

Tags: Benzino, Dance Moms, Lawsuit, Lawyers, Reality TV
Posted in Crazy Sh*t Lawyers See | No Comments »

Finding a Good Lawyer Sucks – PART 1

February 11th, 2014. By AbiK

This one may get ugly…it’s the personal saga of yours truly as I embark on the process of hiring the right personal injury attorney—for real! The attorneys I’m reaching out to do not know I work for a legal news website. So I’ve got no special “in” here and will live this process just as everyone who clicks that “submit claim” button does. Only, to be fair, I’m not submitting a claim here, where I work. Ready to come along for the ride?

The Beginning: I think I need a lawyer.

It happens. One day, you say the words, “Maybe I should talk to a lawyer.” There’s an uneasiness in your stomach as the words flow from your lips. But you’ve reached that point where, for whatever reason, you need—and are ready to pursue—legal help.

You might think your next step would sort of be like what you’d do if, instead, you had said something like, “Guess I need to get the car checked.” No. That would be too easy: Pick up the phone. Schedule a time to bring the car in. Done. A pain in the a$$, but easy.

No. When you need to find a good lawyer, you start to feel more the way Rose might in a Dr. Who episode—you know, the parts when she’s all like “But why Doc-tuh?…Doc-tuh?…Doc-TUH?!?” And there’s Rose standing helpless and clueless in the middle of some street while “Doctuh” has disappeared.

And I’m not talking about trying to find your run-of-the-mill divorce lawyer or the lawyer who writes up your will. No disrespect to those folks—but their work, while important and at times quite messy, is pretty straightforward. You know the end goal and pretty much how to get to it. And, chances are, you can get a few good referrals right from your circle of friends. No, I’m talking about needing a personal injury attorney. Things start to get murky when you’re in the land of “harm”, “damages”, “wrongdoing”, and the ever-popular “pain and suffering”.

So here I am, muttering that “get a lawyer” phrase and…I’m stymied. Yep. Don’t know where the hell to start. And here’s the part I want y’all to remember: I WORK IN THE LEGAL INDUSTRY. So for those of you who do not, and who are either on this journey or have been on it, please know I have no special “in” that I’m using and yes, I really am feeling your pain. Really.

Now, before you even get to picking up your mobile to dial 1-800/888/877/866-INJURY-NOW or whatever cute & catchy vanity phone number you saw as you blew by that billboard on Route You-Name-It, you hesitate. You don’t even know if you SHOULD call an attorney, right?

Maybe you’re overreacting. Being a bit prickly. A wuss. After all, people (the media?) always tend to show potential plaintiffs in the worst light: we’re all opportunists (hot coffee lawsuit anyone?). Or, we just don’t suck it up. So there’s that stigma to reconcile with yourself at the outset. And let’s face it, most people really don’t want to be litigious. It’s too…confrontational.

Then, there’s all that imagery of advanced learning—framed certificates of this or that, suits & ties, mahogany everywhere and built-in bookcases with series upon series of books that all have that same monotonous red & gold leaf binding. Who are these people? And who the hell wears a suit all the time anymore?

It’s off-putting. You feel self-conscious, insignificant, daunted and on the defensive before you’ve even opened your mouth or shaken any hands. Why is it that those legal help billboards scream “Come On In!” and yet for some reason you still don’t feel that welcome feeling? As someone whose background is in marketing—yea, I drank the “consumer’s always right!” kool-aid and am a strong believer in transparency—if I had the option to shop elsewhere for legal help—for example, maybe my mother-in-law who’s been known to put up a good fight (and has no problem stating her mind) would like to represent me. I’d get her on contingency. But there’s that lousy requirement about being admitted to the bar. Excuse me, The Bar.

So here we go. I’ve weighed the pro’s and con’s—as much as I know of what those could possibly be—and I’ve decided to go for it. I’m going to find an attorney! I’m going to right the wrong!

Not so fast.

You thought you’d walk into the lawyer store and pick one off the shelf, eh? Thought they’d have your fit, size and color right there for the taking? Silly you. Well, actually, not silly you–after all, that’s sort of how you find a doctor, right? You figure out what part of you ails and you get a doctor who works on that part.

Ahh, but just try to let your fingers do the walking in the Yellow Pages (online edition, of course) for a lawyer, it’s not like they’re listed by the lawsuits they work on. Go ahead and see for yourself. Search for “lawyer” and you’ll be given some options to further filter your search. One of those options is “Personal Injury Attorney”. Think you’ve found your match? Think again!

No—the lawyer who argues the case about Yaz birth control is NOT the same guy (or gal, we don’t discriminate here) who argues your wrongful termination case and is NOT the same guy/gal who even might argue your egress/regress employment issue! And see—I’ve already started with the jargon—WTF is egress/regress?!? (Yes, I know what it is…I’m making a point.)

That will be your first surprise. Which you won’t necessarily know unless you actually MAKE CONTACT with someone at the law firm you’re trying to connect with, and they tell you in so many words that you’ve got the wrong address (aka, the proverbial “I don’t really handle those cases” line that tells you you’re not welcome there, but does not quite tell you where you should be.)

Frustrated yet? And you’ve only just begun (nod to The Carpenters).

So, first, you need to know what your problem is. It’s not all that difficult, but no one REALLY explains that well up front. So, if it’s employment-related, you need an employment lawyer (in your state of employment, I might add). If it’s a medical device problem, you need a medical device attorney. Tracking with me? Good.

So that’s where I am in this process. I’ve figured out my problem, figured out the kind of attorney I’m looking for, and now I’ve started to reach out to them. IMPORTANT NOTE: The easiest/best thing for me to do would be to submit a claim form to request legal help right here on LawyersandSettlements.com (shameless plug)—after all, my claim would go to at least three good lawyers—shotgun style! I like that! But, again, that would be too easy and I don’t sh*t where I eat… So I’m out on the “open market”, so to speak.

I won’t name names throughout this process. But come along with me and we’ll share our pain. And we’ll ask the question (quite often I might add): Why is it so hard to find a lawyer? And maybe, just maybe, we’ll make it better somehow.

Stay tuned.

 

Tags: Attorney, Lawsuit, Lawyer, legal help, personal injury attorney, trial attorney
Posted in Emerging Issues, lawsuits, Lawyers, Personal Injury | 6 Comments »

Top 10 Legal News Stories of 2013

January 7th, 2014. By AbiK

Bet you can’t guess what the top legal news story on LawyersandSettlements.com was for 2013 (and no, none of them featured former NYC mayoral hopeful Anthony Weiner…).

I’ll take that bet even further—I bet most attorneys, who you’d think would be in the know on these things, couldn’t even guess.

That’s because 2013 turned out to be a pretty interesting year in terms of the top legal news stories our journalists covered. While employment lawsuits—typically involving issues such as unpaid overtime and misclassification, on-the-job discrimination, workers’ comp, and wrongful termination—are always reader faves, in 2013 something strange happened: employment issues did not show up in our top ten news stories. At all.

Go figure, eh?

To be fair, when it came to content posted other than legal news articles (i.e., emerging issues, settlements, lawsuits filed), employment settlements drew the most readers. But it was health-related issues that drove readers’ interest when it came to articles and interviews. Here’s how the year’s top ten legal news stories played out (as measured by number of clicks the articles published in 2013 received):

1. Denied Disability: Social Security Recognizes Fibromyalgia

2. Health Canada Documents Link Yasmin and Yaz to Deaths

3. Are Fen-Phen Pills Back? You Would be Half-Right…

4. New York State Cracks Down on Illegal Internet Payday Loans

5. Mirena User Suffers Miscarriage, Now Filing Mirena Lawsuit

6. Mirena Side Effects Lead to Early Hysterectomy for Young Plaintiff

7. Monster Caffeine Levels: When Too Much Energy Isn’t Good for You

8. Junior Hockey League Player Filing Ulcerative Colitis Accutane Lawsuit

9. Yasmin Birth Control Suspected in Deaths of Canadian Teens

10. Mesothelioma Victim Awarded $8 Million

And if you’re wondering what the number one legal news story was for 2012…here’s that one (and, you guessed it, it was about a wage and hour lawsuit, the ‘Lunch Break Lawsuit‘ (Brinker Restaurant Corp. v. Superior Court))

Tags: 2013, Class Action Lawsuit, Lawsuit, lawyersandsettlements.com, Legal News, Settlement, top 10
Posted in Class Action, Emerging Issues, lawsuits, Personal Injury, Settlement | No Comments »

Top 10 Drug Legal News Topics For 2012

December 24th, 2012. By AbiK

LawyersandSettlements.com recently shared its list of the hottest consumer-related pharmaceutical legal news stories during the last year. Of note is that while the top drug-related topic on the legal news website in 2011 had been Tylenol—prompted by concerns over a series of Tylenol recall notices as reported by The New York Times; for 2012, the most sought out pharmaceutical topics have shifted to women’s health.

Third-generation contraceptives such as Yasmin/Yaz, NuvaRing and Mirena top the list this year as numerous birth control lawsuits either settled, or began the process of consolidation into multi-district litigation (MDL).

Reader interest in Yaz/Yasmin rose in response to Yasmin lawsuit settlements that were announced in April (In re Yasmin and Yaz (Drospirenone) Marketing, Sales Practices and Product Liability Litigation, 09-md-02100, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Illinois, East St. Louis). Bloomberg reported Bayer AG settled about 500 Yasmin lawsuits over claims of blood clots that had, in some cases, led to stroke or heart attack.

Along with Yaz, readers remained concerned about NuvaRing (etonogestrel/ethinyl estradiol) and blood clot risk even as a new study on non-oral hormonal contraception, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ 2012;344:e2990), was presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (May, 2012). The study, aimed at quantifying NuvaRing blood clot risk, indicated no significant difference in risk of venous thromboembolism when compared to oral contraceptives.

Still, NuvaRing lawsuits continue and have been consolidated into a federal MDL court in Missouri (In re: NuvaRing Products Liability Litigation, No. 08-md-1964, JPML, Eastern District Missouri). As of September 5, 2012, according to the U.S. Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, more than 1,000 NuvaRing lawsuits have been filed.

Mirena IUD (levonorgestrel) saw an increase in reader interest after August 2012, as Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals, Inc. submitted an Application for Centralized Management of Certain Cases involving Mirena. As FoxNews reported (11/11/12), the request seeks to create a multi-district litigation (MDL) for 16 pending Mirena lawsuits in NJ that allege Mirena caused uterine perforation, infection and hemorrhaging injuries.

After the top three women’s health-related drugs, Pradaxa (dabigatran), an alternative to warfarin, joined the list this year making the Top 5. In November 2012, the FDA issued a Drug Safety Communication regarding Pradaxa bleeding events which in turn helped drive reader interest.

Thousands of LawyersandSettlements.com monthly readers have followed the latest legal news and information on these topics, many of which have fallen from the radar of traditional media outlets.

“We believe these issues are of great importance to the public, mostly due to the life-changing impact they can have on an individual,” said Stephen King, CEO. “Some of our most interesting stories of the year related to pharmaceuticals. Many of them have pending lawsuits or have had substantial settlements related to their life-altering side effects and it’s important to get this information out to the public. While many pharmaceutical companies continue to earn significant profits, people are suffering. They may think they have no recourse but in many cases they do. By keeping these topics alive, LawyersandSettlements.com is helping people stay up-to-date on these important topics every day.”

The LawyersandSettlements.com Top 10 Pharmaceutical Topics of 2012, along with the potential side effects readers were seeking information on, are:

1. Yasmin/YAZ (gall bladder disease, blood clots, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism)

2. NuvaRing & Mirena (blood clots, infection, perforation of the uterus)

3. Pradaxa (uncontrollable bleeding, lack of an available antidote)

4. Granuflo (elevated bicarbonate levels, risk for metabolic alkalosis)

5. SSRIs (birth defects including heart defects, spina bifida, cleft palate, club foot, PPHN)

6. Actos (bladder cancer, heart failure, kidney failure, rhabdomyolysis)

7. Diethylstilbestrol/DES (cancer)

8. Crestor / Statins (diabetes, cardiomyopathy, rhabdomyolysis)

9. Fosamax (bone fractures, esophageal cancer)

10. Propecia (sexual dysfunction, erectile dysfunction, sterility, prostate cancer)

LawyersandSettlements.com readers are looking for the latest and most comprehensive legal news available. Those seeking legal help can request assistance by completing a form which is then distributed to attorneys specializing in these cases. Over two and a half million people visit the site yearly, and hundreds of thousands of request forms have been submitted by qualified readers looking for legal guidance.

Tags: Actos, Birth Control Side Effects, Class Action Lawsuit, Crestor, DES, Drug Injury, Drug Lawsuit, Fosamax, Granuflo, Lawsuit, Legal News, Mirena, NuvaRing, Pradaxa, Propecia, SSRI, statins, Yasmin, Yaz
Posted in Class Action, Drugs/Medical, Emerging Issues | No Comments »