Monthly Archives: March 2012

The Way Suing Should Be?

Posted on March 30, 2012 by

Reuters reported on March 21, 2012, that a class action lawsuit has been filed in California alleging CarMax, Inc. failed to pay certain workers overtime in violation of federal and California overtime pay laws. The lawsuit charges that CarMax and certain subsidiaries “have a common, uniform practice of misclassifying its buyers as exempt and failing to pay them for all overtime hours worked.” “CarMax’s great success in the used vehicle sales market rests in part on the hard work and long hours of its dedicated buyers,” plaintiff Mike Luchini said in a press release. “We work through early mornings, meal times, and late evenings for the company. We just ask to be paid for the hours we have worked, according to what the law requires.” The lawsuit is seeking “fair compensation for CarMax’s roughly 1,500 buyers nationwide” by recovering overtime pay for the hours the employees have worked in recent…
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Mountaineer Survived Everest, But Not Mesothelioma

Posted on March 28, 2012 by

The Associated Press reported that mountaineer Lincoln Hall expressed no resentment about being left near the summit of the highest mountain the world in 2006. Hall reached the peak of Mount Everest but became gravely ill because of oxygen deprivation during the descent. While his own guides helped him initially, they left to save their own lives and, incredibly, American guide Daniel Mazur, his two clients and a Sherpa guide found Hall the next day two hours from the peak. “I was shocked to see a guy without gloves, hat, oxygen bottles or sleeping bag at sunrise at 28,200 feet height, just sitting up there,” Mazur told the AP after the rescue. Hall survived being given up for dead near the top of Everest, but he died at the age of 56 on March 21, 2012, in Australia one year after being diagnosed with mesothelioma. The AP said he was…
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Schwab-Finra Outcome Could Affect Other Class Actions Against Brokerages

Posted on March 26, 2012 by

There could be an important ruling about class action lawsuits coming out of a U.S. district court next month when Charles Schwab and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (Finra) next meet. The Wall Street Journal reported on March 16, 2012, that the two sides are currently in a dispute over whether investors should be allowed to bring class action lawsuits against brokerages. Investors opening brokerage accounts typically agree not to sue the broker, instead settling disputes through an arbitration process run by the industry-funded Finra, according to the Journal. The problem for Finra is not only does it not have an arbitration process for class action claims, but it claims that its rules prohibit brokerages from making customers agree to waiving their class action rights. The Journal reported that Schwab added a class action waiver to its customer agreements in September, and is citing an April U.S. Supreme Court decision that…
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Gene Therapy Clinical Trial Gives Hope to Mesothelioma Victims

Posted on March 23, 2012 by

As we discussed on Monday, Dr. Daniel Sterman discussed some very encouraging results from a gene therapy clinical trial at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine that could give hope to millions of mesothelioma victims and their families. In addition to calling the crude data from the trial “very, very impressive,” Sterman also spoke about how gene therapy affected some of the mesothelioma patients. “We had one [recently] with a 75 percent reduction in the tumor,” Sterman said, according to Asbestos.com. “[In this trial] we can provide all the benefits of standard therapy, along with the exciting prospects of genetic therapy.” Sterman spoke about one patient who, 14 years after an early version of gene therapy, needs help only for an occasional bout with pleural inflammation. Asbestos.com reported that because of gene therapy, the patient’s own immune system has “kept the mesothelioma in check.” Sterman also talked about another…
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