Washington, DC —The following is a statement from American Association for Justice (AAJ) President Gibson Vance on today’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion:
“The Supreme Court has allowed major corporations to grant themselves immunity when they cheat consumers or employees. This decision leaves Americans with practically no recourse to challenge corporate wrongdoing and gives corporations a blueprint to draft forced arbitration clauses to avoid accountability for a wide range of unfair or illegal practices.
“This is a death blow to Americans’ chances for justice when faced with forced arbitration clauses. This devastating decision has the potential to result in virtually no consumer or employee cases involving small claims being heard anywhere. Corporations will now be allowed to get away with sweeping wrongdoing, particularly where the damages would be too small to justify pursuing individual claims.
“Many states have deemed provisions banning class actions unconscionable. This decision preempts state law and further highlights the need for a legislative fix that would end the use of forced arbitration. It is imperative that Congress pass the Arbitration Fairness Act to protect consumers and employees from these abusive practices.”
The Center for Constitutional Litigation filed an amicus brief on behalf of AAJ, which can be found here. If you would like to speak to an AAJ spokesperson further about the implications of this decision, please let me know
read more at www.justice.org
By Gibson Vance
April 16, 2011
Traffic deaths in the United States have dropped to their lowest level since 1949, according to a report released this month by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Remarkably, this drop occurred even as Americans drove 21 billion more miles in 2010 than they had the previous year.
The drop in fatalities is due in large part to the fact that cars are getting safer. Since the introduction of the Ford Pinto nearly four decades ago — a car synonymous with danger, destruction and executives putting profits ahead of consumer safety — amazing advancements have been made in auto safety. The technology is better, regulations are stronger and buyers have more information. Not surprisingly, consumers are drawn to cars with the latest safety features.
Yet these factors alone do not tell the whole story. History shows that litigation and the civil justice system have served as the most consistent and powerful forces in heightening safety standards, revealing previously concealed defects and regulatory weaknesses and deterring manufacturers from cutting corners on safety for the goal of greater profits.
read more at justice.org
Thomas Garrett Seelie/ Honor Student/ Friend to many/ Tennis Player/ Most valuable player award.
Deans listed at FSU in pre-med. Nominated to Collegiate Honor Society after first year.
Won $5000.00 when you were 10 and gave most of it away to charity and to your uncle who was dying and could not afford the medication.
Thomas Garrett Seelie is loved by many people. We support you in your battle against the medical condition affecting your life! You will get through this!
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that federal vehicle-safety standards and regulations do not protect car makers from product-liability lawsuits for installing lap-only seat belts.
The decision, written by Justice Stephen Breyer, clears the way for a California lawsuit against Mazda Motor Corp. stemming from a 2002 fatal collision involving a 1993 Mazda MPV minivan. A rear-seat passenger wearing a lap-only seat belt was killed, and her family alleges that the lap-only belt was to blame. However, two California courts had ruled that the plaintiffs’ lawsuit couldn’t proceed because it was preempted by federal law.
The premption defense has been used to prevent lawsuits against any manufacturer that has had to meet Federal Standards of any time- including pharmaceutical, tires, medical devices. Call Michael E. Seelie for more information about your injury.
Have you had an accident because of other party’s neglect? Were you injured or damaged from the incident? Certainly, the Florida law protects the rights of any injured person to allow compensation against whoever inflicted the harm.
Most of the lawsuits or personal injury claims being filed by the plaintiffs are due to negligence on the part of someone else.
A person or business may be guilty of negligence if he/she failed to do something that a normal cautious person would exercise under a particular situation or doing something that a normal sensible individual would not do in the same situation. Sometimes this means that they breached lawful duties, contracts or responsibilities.
Therefore, in order to support his/her accusations of negligence, a victim must establish the following elements of his/her claim:
· The defendant has a duty to ensure his/her safety
· The defendant has breached such duty
· The breach was the proximate cause of the accident that resulted to his/her injury
If your or a loved one has been injured or harmed by the negligence of another, contact a board certified trial attorney to review your case. Michael E. Seelie has more than 30 years experience in personal injury law.
Drivers and passengers can be injured in low speed crashes when there is little or no vehicle damage. With improved car construction, a car occupant can be thrown around and injured inside the vehicle while the outside remains fairly undamaged. Soft tissue injuries and closed head injuries can be difficult for a juror to see. Some injuries, those that cause physical impairment, are more obvious to the eye.
However, many insurance companies take advantage of the difference between visible evidence to the vehicle and injury to the plaintiff. They refuse to settle the cases and then mislead jurors into thinking that the plaintiff was not injured. In fact, insurance companies even have a name for these cases. Allstate coined the phrase MIST for miner injury soft tissue.
These cases have become increasingly difficult to win against aggressive insurers who do not want to pay. But people that are injured deserve their day in court. If you need legal representation for an injury caused in a vehicle accident, be sure to look for a lawyer that has experience in trial. You can find one by checking with the state bar association and looking for Board Certification in Civil Trial Law. Do not chose an attorney based solely on television advertising. Some Law firms are better at marketing and some are better in court.
Florida’s Move Over Law is almost six years old, but there are many Florida motorists who do not know about the law or do not follow the law.
The law was enacted to help protect the lives of those that protect ours- troopers and first responders as well as the motoring public. From 1996 to 2000, motorists in Florida crashed into working law enforcement vehicles that were either stopped or parked along Florida roadways 1,793 times, resulting in five deaths and 419 injuries.
More information about the law can be found here. If you have been in an accident and need help, contact the office of an experienced Florida Attorney.
The case could have enormous implications about the ability to hold vaccine manufactures responsible for the safety of their vaccines. Currently, vaccine manufacturers enjoy immunity for the injuries associated from vaccines because Congress created a compensation program funded by a tax or fee paid when a patient gets a vaccine. The manufacturer pays nothing into this compensation scheme and in the Bruesewitz’ case, there was a safer alternative vaccine the petitioner could have received.
Your legal rights are affected by these decisions!
VA hospitals in Murfreesboro, Tenn., and Augusta, Ga. Did not properly sterilize equipment used in colonoscopies. As a result, more than 11,000 veterans In all three hospitals were exposed to and five veterans tested positive for HIV, 25 for hepatitis C and eight for hepatitis B.
Now, the Miami Herald Reposts that that the Department of Veterans Affairs, “which in March 2009 revealed that more than 2,400 Miami-area veterans were given colonoscopies with improperly cleaned equipment, announced Tuesday that 79 veterans mistakenly were not notified they are at risk of contracting a disease such as HIV from the procedure.” The agency, which “said the failure to contact the 79 veterans came from administrative errors relating to their charts,” has “temporarily removed Mary Berrocal, director of the Miami VA Healthcare System,” and replaced her with Thomas Capello, director of the Gainesville VA hospital, “until a 30-to-60-day investigation is complete.”
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/07/06/1718202/79-miami-area-veterans-never-notified.html#ixzz0t3310Em4
Government regulators, retailers, manufacturers, and consumer experts are expressing concern over signs of “recall fatigue” in American consumers according to the Washington Post.
“We call it the Chicken Little syndrome. If you keep shouting at the wind — ‘The sky is falling! The sky is falling!’ — people literally become immune to the message.” said Craig Wilson, assistant vice president for quality assurance and food safety at Costco.
Jeff Farrar, associate commissioner for food protection at the Food and Drug Administration, said that the number of recalled products “is steadily going up, and it’s difficult for us to get the word out without oversaturating consumers.”
The government maintains a Web site, offering information about all kinds of recalls, and consumers can subscribe for e-mail alerts about specific products. For civil actions regarding personal injuries, contact a board certified personal injury attorney.
