Corporate and trial lawyers, corporate executives and government officials responsible for managing class action litigation are enjoined to attend a seminar featuring a series of lectures relative to ‘Innovative Strategies for Litigating Class Action Suits’ on May 11 & 12, 2006 at the Renaissance Seattle Hotel in Seattle, Washington.
According the program organizers, this seminar brings together a national panel of leaders from the courts and both sides of the class action bar to explain the most recent and important developments in state and federal laws affecting class actions and class arbitrations. Legal experts will share innovative strategies to successfully litigate and meet the business and legal challenges of class actions.
On January 12, 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court accepted the petition of the Altria Group Inc., the parent company of Phillip Morris. The company have said that its advertising is regulated by the Federal Trade Commission, and that made it a “person acting under” a federal officer. The court approves the transfer of the cigarette case, Watson v. Philip Morris, to federal courts.
The case set off when consumers alleged that the company had violated the state's deceptive-advertising law with claims about its "light" cigarettes. The case originally started in Arkansas followed by similar class-action lawsuits filed around the country.
The world's second-largest car-paint maker and the largest U.S. paint retailer allegedly inflated the prices for auto refinishing paint.
On behalf of consumers who bought auto refinish paint between January 1, 1993, and December 31, 2000, six auto centers in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Illinois filed a class action lawsuit against PPG Industries Inc. and Sherwin-Williams Co.
The class action described as "a violation of antitrust laws by conspiring to fix prices in the US," was filed in 2001, in the US District Court of Philadelphia.
On December 28, 2006, the companies won preliminary approval to settle the case for $39 million -- with PPG paying $23 million and Sherwin-Williams shelling out $16 million. U.S. District Court Judge R. Barclay Surrick approved the settlement, ending a five-year litigation process.
On August 2006, approximately 400 tons of allegedly highly toxic waste was dumped in the Ivory Coast city of Abidjan by Probo Koala, a cargo ship chartered the London-based arm of the shipping giant Trafigura.
Pungent smell and noxious fumes drifted over the area and left at least 10 people dead and more than 40,000 seeking medical advice after suffering from sickness and nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, breathlessness, headaches, skin damage, and swollen stomachs.
Now, the ground for one of the largest class actions heard in the U.K. is now being prepared. Thousands of witnesses are expected to turn in their statements and up to 5,000 people may sue those to blame, according to According to Leigh Day, the British law firm advocating for the victims.
Over alleged bad jeep brakes, a class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of all those who bought or leased Jeep Grand Cherokees from 1999 to 2004 – a total of 1.2 million vehicles.
The case centers on defective front brake discs or rotors and defective brake housings or calipers, resulting in uneven disc thickness that caused pulsation when the brakes were applied and sometimes led to brake failure. In addition, Cherokee maker DaimlerChrysler Corp allegedly stonewalled complaints about the brakes filed during the warranty period.
On January 2, Superior Court Judge Jonathan Harris of New Jersey has approved a $14.5 million settlement in the national class action.
In 2003, Janet Lee, a freshman at Bryn Mawr College, was traveling home to Los Angeles for the holidays when she was arrested at the Philadelphia International Airport for allegedly carrying substances stuffed in three condoms in her suitcase, which airport screeners found, and law enforcement officials say tested positively for cocaine and opiates (two drugs not commonly mixed together).
Lee would end up spending Christmas behind bars, three weeks to be exact. While incarcerated she was under a $500,000 bail and was told that she was facing 20 years in prison for drug charges.
The young lady has stated that the condoms were actually filed with flour and used to squeeze to deal with exam stress. Lee thought the toys were funny, so she packed them to show to friends at home – facts she reasoned both to TSA screeners and the police when she was detained at the airport.
A securities class action lawsuit, filed on behalf of shareholders who bought Check Point Software Technologies Ltd stock between July 10, 2001 and April 4, 2002, and names certain officers and directors as defendants, has seen better days with a $13 million settlement.
The worldwide leader in securing the Internet has agreed to settle but is quick to state that Check Point’s insurer will reimburse the payment, thus, will have no financial impact on the company. Along with the settlement, the Israeli Internet security software maker denies any violation of law or wrongdoing and has said that it entered into the settlement solely to avoid the burden and distraction of protracted discovery and litigation.
The deal was already struck. It's a new 600-bed lockup to be built on a piece of land near Pelley Road and new Kentucky 17, near the Liberty Orchard subdivision and the Summit View middle and elementary schools.
The Independence, KY neighbors not keen on the idea took their battle to court. Showing up in number, a class action lawsuit has been filed seeking to prevent the county from closing on the sale.
The rhetoric was intense with the lawyer representing the plaintiffs alleging that the site was secretly selected in a process akin to a Central Intelligence Agency operation, and saying:
Johnson & Johnson allegedly discriminated against black and Hispanic managers and other salaried employees.
Earlier this month, a lawsuit seeking class action status has been filed in the United States District Court with the plaintiffs claiming pay discrimination against Hispanic employees, and both pay and promotion bias against blacks.
For one, the plaintiffs claimed in court papers that the 'discriminated’ workers' starting salaries were 3.75 percent lower than those of white non-Hispanics of comparable experience and education. Minority managers made between 5.2 percent and 8.39 percent less pay than comparable whites from 1997 to 2003, it added.
For the "defective nature of the Nintendo Wii wrist strap for the Nintendo game console," a US attorney, on behalf of owners of the Nintendo Wii, has filed a class action lawsuit against Nintendo of America in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington.
The Wii is the first console to contain movement sensors, allowing players to swing the controller to play tennis, hit a baseball or bowl in a virtual bowling alley.
But the users complained:
"The controller comes with a wrist strap but the users would easily lose their grip, the wrist strap would break, and the remote would leave the user's hand causing damage to players and home furnishings…Nintendo's failure to include a remote that is free from defects is in breach of Nintendo's own product warranty."