Author Archive

You Asked…LawyersandSettlements.com Gear is Here

March 24th, 2011. By admin

Visit our logo and fanware shop over at Zazzle (click the images above). We’ll be adding more, so stay tuned…

Tags: Fanware, lawyer magnet, lawyer mug, lawyer t-shirts, Lawyers Giving Back, LawyersandSettlements, Logo clothing, mugs, t-shirts
Posted in Emerging Issues | 71921 Comment »2011-03-24+20%3A55%3A30admin

Attorney Michael Blickensderfer Opens his Wallet to Help Out in Tampa

March 8th, 2011. By admin

Lawyers Giving Back looks at a side of lawyers you don’t hear too much about—the side that gives back…pays it forward..and shares the love. We’ve found quite a number of attorneys who log non-billable hours helping others—simply because they believe it’s the right thing to do. Their stories are inspiring, and hey, who knew lawyers were so…good? If you’ve got a story to share about an attorney who’s doing the right thing, let us know—we’d love to let others know, too. Today, we’re talking with Florida attorney Michael Blickensderfer…

Attorney Michael Blickensderfer: “You think they are small or unimportant donations, and you don’t realize the impact that will have on others.”

A quiet spoken attorney with a very loud and clear commitment to the community around him, Michael Blickensderfer made a decision to open his wallet and open it wide. Although the Blick Law Firm may do a bit of legal work for free from time to time in the classic pro bono definition, Blickensderfer, a former prosecutor and public defender in New York and Florida, decided he’d step to the plate with cold, hard cash.

The firm contributes up to 10 percent of its annual income to charity. “It varies,” says the very modest Blickensderfer, “a tithe is 10 percent, we are not always faithful to that amount, but we try to be consistent.”

After 25 years in public service and a brief turn at private practice in three other Florida firms, Blickensderfer went out on his on own two years ago. Together with his wife as the office administrator and his daughter as the marketing and community liaison, the Blickensderfers have established their own very personal way doing things.

The Blick Law Firm has established relationships with about a dozen organizations, from the St. Jude’s Hospital for Children to a Christian motorcycle riders association to a suicide prevention organization. “These are groups we have connected with sometimes out of personal relationships with some of their members, sometimes people come to us or perhaps it is through a client,” says Blickensderfer. “We discuss as a family where we can best put our resources and make a difference.”

Primarily a personal injury practice, Blickensderfer provides a range of other legal services from bankruptcy law to real estate. They regularly reach out to organizations and participate in community events. “Sometimes we hear about a needy family through some of these organizations,” says Blickensderfer, who is a committed Christian. “It touches your heart, you feel compassion and just you feel the need to reach out and help.”

“On New Year’s day we went to the Christian Motorcycle Riders Association event,” says Blickensderfer. “We just showed up and gave them a donation. We didn’t think we did that much but they were so grateful.”

“We were just putting a little gas in their tanks; they really go out and do all the hard work. They’re out there with their ‘tanks on fire’ ready to do things and we were pleased to able to help them,” Blickensderfer says.

Although Blickensderfer, who is also a former US Marine, says there are a lot of lawyers out there who volunteer their time he prefers to go the ‘donation’ route. “A lot of lawyers at other firms do a lot of pro bono work,” he adds. “I don’t do that much in the classical sense of pro bono.”

The firm is developing a bit of a reputation around Tampa for its generosity but Blickensderfer says people still seem surprised to see him arrive with a check in hand. “We just want to help the best way we can,” he says. “I think people are surprised in this day and age when anyone goes out of their way to help.”

“You think they are small or unimportant donations, and you don’t realize the impact that will have on others,” he adds.

“I wish we could do more,” says Blickensderfer. “We have a lot to be thankful for and I count my blessings when I look at others and see how many people are in need.”

“I thought I had problems,” says Blickensderfer with a smile and a bit of humor in his voice.

Lucky for Tampa Bay, Blickensderfer came to town with his check book.

Michael Blickensderfer has a degree in business administration from Ohio State University and earned his J.D. at the Seton Hall University School of Law in New Jersey. The Blick Law Firm, based in Tampa, FL, handles personal injury litigation, bankruptcy law, wrongful death lawsuits, medical malpractice cases, as well as other areas of law.

Tags: Florida Attorney, Lawyers Giving Back, Michael Blickensderf
Posted in Emerging Issues, Lawyers Giving Back | 70986 Comments »2011-03-08+14%3A47%3A34admin

Is there an Actos Class Action Lawsuit?

February 25th, 2011. By admin

That’s the question someone posted over at Answers.com—aka, wikianswers. And there it sits with zero answers—which should pretty much state the obvious, that, no, there is not an Actos class action lawsuit*. There may well be Actos lawsuits, however.

And therein lies the crux of what many type-2 Diabetes patients who are currently taking Actos are finding themselves asking. After all, Actos became to go-to drug—starting back in 2007–when drug-of-the-same-class Avandia started to come under fire. Doctors began switching patients, many of whom probably asked for the switch themselves, over to Actos. Needless to say, as more and more information became available regarding Avandia adverse events, Actos became the favored child of the family, so to speak—the lesser of two evils.

Even with the halting of the TIDE study—which compared Avandia vs Actos—over ethical concerns about continuing a study that involved a drug, Avandia, with potentially very serious side effects—the default takeaway message appeared to be, “switch to Actos”. It was only after the dust began to settle and the FDA had chimed in on Avandia’s fate that attention began to drift back over to Actos.

Recently, an article in Cardiovascular Business showed just how great the switchover to Actos has been:

“Even after the class-wide FDA black box warning for congestive heart failure was added in 2007, pioglitazone [Actos] use was largely unchanged and it was prescribed Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Actos, Avandia, Diabetes
Posted in Emerging Issues | 70006 Comments »2011-02-25+18%3A28%3A35admin

Special Edition Tortelicious: Tracking Rebecca Thybulle (Jury Duty Idiot)

November 9th, 2010. By admin

It’s a two-for-Tuesday today at Totally Tortelicious. Some stories are really just too precious not to share—and this baby deserves her very own Tortelicious…

[Note, as you read on, I have another "two" for you—two words: Background Check. Just tuck those away for now...]

So here’s Rebecca Thybulle. She’s an HR Manager in Staten Island, NY—and she’s been a Payroll Manager according to several reports, as well as her LinkedIn profile. That’s right—a Payroll Manager—you know, one of those people who figures out who’s been working when and how much they should be getting paid every two weeks and all. She should know a thing or two about “paid time off“, right? (Not to mention that you’d hope she had a bit of integrity when it came to a company’s purse strings…but I’m ahead of myself.)

Well, she may know about it, but she apparently doesn’t feel the need to play by the paid-time-off rule book herself. First, her latest news…

It seems Rebecca wanted to take some time off from work. Several days’ worth. Clearly, no one would want to blow vacation days on that. And to feign illness and call in sick would only work for a day or two…hard to milk a week or so outta that one—and then you risk that whole short term disability thing, too. No that won’t work. So what else does a red-blooded American have in her paid-time-off (aka PTO) toolbelt to skip out of work for several days and still get paid for it? Hmm…

Well, there’s the death-in-the-family route, but that would probably risk a few do-gooders at work trying to offer their condolences and wondering where to send flowers… Nah…that won’t cut it.

Oh! There’s jury duty! Oh—but wait—you need one of those you’ve-been-summoned-to-jury-duty mailer thing-a-ma-jigs to submit to your HR department. That’s the usual policy at least. And, how fortuitous! How seemingly serendipitous! It appears that Rebecca—or at least someone in her household—had received a jury duty notice! Lucky, lucky Rebecca!

Only thing was, it was apparently for her dad.

No biggie. She allegedly just forged the notice to say it was hers, handed it in at work, and…voila!…she’s a free bird!

But, foolish, foolish Rebecca did not cover her tracks. She—one hopes in her haste vs her stupidity—left the original jury duty notice—the undoctored one—on her desk! Bad move Rebecca! Bad move!

It gets better: she decided to share her jailbreak news on Facebook—and told her best buds that she was “Bmore bound!” and en route to see a Kevin Hart show.

Long story short, she got nabbed bigtime…held in lieu of $25,000 bond and is now facing potentially up to 14 years in prison. Ouch!

Ok, but remember when I said to tuck those two words—background check—away? Well, here’s where they come into play. See, Rebecca is apparently not a “first time offender” as they say. Here’s her recent rap sheet. She is due for sentencing this month on a grand larceny charge. What did she do? Theft of about $6,400 from Coffee Shop (the Union Square eatery) where she had worked as a Payroll Manager.

Huh? And…

Ms. Thybulle was also previously convicted in 2002 for embezzling about $28,000 from an elderly home in Poughkeepsie, NY where she had worked…in charge of payroll.

Ok—I can’t condone what Rebecca has done. Worse, she clearly sucks at it—she’s three for three on getting caught—not on getting away—and let’s just say that when performance review time comes around, well, Rebecca will be getting a “Needs Improvement” on a couple of things. Seriously, if Rebecca were part of the animal kingdom, predators wouldn’t have to work too hard—it’d be like, “oh look, yep, there’s Rebecca’s paw prints—she went thataway”.

But where the hell are the hiring managers who put her on payroll—and put her IN CHARGE of it—to begin with? Have they not heard of doing background checks? And heck, we’ve established that Rebecca’s not that good at covering her tracks so how hard could it be to uncover her rap sheet?

And people wonder why we have things like elder abuse, consumer fraud, malpractice…and on and on…

Tags: Rebecca Thybulle, Tortelicious
Posted in Emerging Issues, Totally Tortelicious | 5641No Comments »2010-11-09+18%3A19%3A03admin

Great Tips to Avoid Being a Fraud Victim

November 1st, 2010. By admin

The US Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) is sending out flyers with some great tips on how to avoid becoming a victim of mail fraud—a type of consumer fraud. For those of you who may not have received it, I’ve shared some of the tips below.

The video above is from the USPIS website, deliveringtrust.com, where you can find further information about fraud—specifically cross-border fraud which is happening more frequently. It is a longer video—12 minutes—but there are some good tips at the end, and quite frankly, the USPIS did a pretty good job of channeling some sort of CSI episode to make the subject matter here more entertaining (if it’s possible to even make fraud “entertaining”).

You’ll also find a quiz over at deliveringtrust.com to test your scam radar savvy, and also information about fake checks, cross-border fraud, internet fraud, foreign lottery scams, work-at-home scams, identity theft, telemarketing fraud, and what to do if you’re a victim of fraud. Of course it’s a good idea to contact a consumer fraud attorney if you’ve been a fraud victim as well.