Posts Tagged ‘ Class Action ’

Wal-Mart Sex Discrimination Class Action: Slice, Dice and Onward Ho

October 27th, 2011. By AbiK

Walmart Cart Wal Mart Sex Discrimination Class Action: Slice, Dice and Onward Ho Close to 80% of you who voted in our poll that asked, “Did the Wal-Mart women have a case?” responded in the affirmative. Clearly, you disagreed with the US Supreme Court after it determined that the original class action lacked a cohesive enough group of plaintiffs (i.e., a “class”) with similar circumstances.

Well, as the saying goes, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned—and sure as shootin’ there are still some mighty ticked off former female Wal-Mart employees who aren’t wanting to just let it ride. Their attorneys aren’t backing down either. They’re just moving on to plan B.

Plan B in this case is to slice and dice the original class action lawsuit—which was nationwide–into smaller regional sex discrimination cases. The first case has just been filed in California—so a heads up to the estimated 45,000 or so current and former California Wal-Mart workers: this is one to watch.

The new smaller lawsuits still allege Wal-Mart discriminated against female employees by paying them less than their male counterparts, and by promoting women less often.

Stay tuned.

Tags: California, Class Action, Wal-Mart Class Action, Wal-Mart Gender Discrimination, Wal-Mart Sex Discrimination
Posted in Class Action, Discrimination, Employment | 8977No Comments »2011-10-27+20%3A59%3A45AbiK

Hollywood Lawsuit #2: PR Peeps Show up at Events, Don’t get Paid?

October 5th, 2011. By AbiK

The difference between this Hollywood lawsuit and yesterday’s post is that this one comes from a PR Rep who was actually on payroll.

Seems Daniel Malakhov—who worked for major PR firm Rogers & Cowan—filed a lawsuit against the firm alleging that he and other Rogers & Cowan publicists were required to work PR events after hours (when else are they typically?)—but they did not receive overtime pay, meal breaks or rest breaks. I suppose it has the makings of your basic California overtime lawsuit, if not perhaps that of a script-worthy plot line.

And let’s face it, if you’ve ever attended a PR event of any sort, it’s the PR folks who are hustling around, playing meet & greet, and ensuring all runs smoothly. Heck, even bathroom breaks can be hard to come by. It’s easy to see where overtime pay could be in order.

Apparently, too, the lawsuit claims that Rogers & Cowan didn’t mandate attendance at PR functions, but in making them voluntary made it clear that failure to attend such events would negatively affect their chances of career advancement.

So Malakhov is thinking bigger here—it’s Hollywood, after all. He’s seeking class action status on this one. And, Malakhov, showing a bit of altruism (?), is looking out for his PR brethren and filing the class action on behalf of all the firm’s employees.

The class action seeks the usual suspects: back wages and damages–along with an injunction that would force Rogers & Cowan to change its after-hours work policies.

In terms of the injunction, however, US District Judge George H. Wu ruled last week that Malakhov could not seek the injunction as Malakhov, himself, could no longer benefit from it as he is no longer an employee of the firm. Needless to say, Malakhov’s side is saying that to reject the injunction would mess with the the ability for the lawsuit to help those current employees who are seemingly still at the mercy of Rogers & Cowan’s existing (alleged) pay practices.

Tags: Class Action, Hollywood, Malakhov, Overtime Pay, PR, PR overtime lawsuit, Public Relations, Rogers & Cowan, Wage and Hour
Posted in Class Action, Emerging Issues, Employment | 88341 Comment »2011-10-05+21%3A17%3A29AbiK

Announcing LawyersandSettlements.com Settlements RSS Feed

May 13th, 2011. By AbiK

A lot of our readers have been asking for this, so we’ve gone ahead and added a Settlements-only feed to our main news RSS feeds.

If you’re looking for current news and info on lawsuits, class actions, settlements, emerging issues and more, we’ve put it all at your fingertips. Check here for what you’re looking for…

Legal News However You Want It

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LawyersandSettlements.com Main News Feed

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LawyersandSettlements.com Settlements News Feed

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Oh, and of course, if you’ve got a complaint for a lawyer to review, simply fill out a claim form here.

Tags: @OnlineLegalNews, Class Action, Emerging Issues, Facebook, Foursquare, lawsuits, LawyersandSettlements, Legal Issues, Legal News, LinkedIn, Settlements, Twitter
Posted in Class Action, Complaints/Comments, Emerging Issues, lawsuits | 7796No Comments »2011-05-13+19%3A30%3A29AbiK

Takes a Strong, Brave Man to File a Propecia Lawsuit

February 16th, 2011. By AbiK

Think about it. To step up to the plate and serve as lead plaintiff in a Propecia class action, a man’s got to bare his sole a bit. He’s got to come out of the proverbial closet on a few things. Well, two to be exact: male pattern baldness and sexual dysfunction. How many red-blooded men—in their prime mating years (i.e., their 20′s) would have the you-know-what’s to do that?

Enter Michael Miller of Vancouver. Maybe it’s the beer, cold weather, ‘BC bud’, or just the sheer sense of humor of our neighbors in the Great White North that brings a man—a young man—to lead a pack of over 80 Canadian men in charging Merck Frosst Canada with failing to adequately warn Canadians of the possible risks associated with taking Propecia. (By the way, Propecia is also known by another brand name, Proscar; both are the generic drug Finasteride.)

Miller is apparently quite open in sharing his tale of woe. Seems he was noticing some hair thinning going on (those of you who’ve been to your five or ten year high school reunion have no problem visualizing this). So Miller’s doctor put him on Proscar (Propecia). And about a month later, he experienced what’s possibly a twentysomething’s worst nightmare: he lost interest in sex.

According to the release put out by his law firm, Klein Lyons, Miller stated, “I lost my interest in sex and I felt anxious in social situations for no particular reason.” He also says that after stopping Proscar, the symptoms did not go away: “My sexual functioning has not recovered, I have seen specialists and have tried treatments but nothing has worked.”

All kdding about male prowess aside, it’s one thing to have adverse side effects from a drug and know that they are non-life-altering and circumstantial—that they’ll only be present during the Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Class Action, Erectile Dysfunction, Finasteride, Propecia, propecia-proscar-sexual-dysfunction-class, Proscar, Sexual Dysfunction
Posted in Drugs/Medical, Emerging Issues | 6868No Comments »2011-02-16+14%3A55%3A14AbiK

Can I still File a Lawsuit if there’s already a Settlement?

January 18th, 2011. By Kristine B

Good question—and this week, Pleading Ignorance answers it. It’s a question a lot of people have: Can I still file a lawsuit if there’s already a settlement? I spoke with attorney J. Benton Stewart of Stewart Law, P.L.L.C. to better understand the in’s and out’s of class action settlements and when it’s best to file your lawsuit.

Before we can answer that question, we have to first understand how class action lawsuits and settlements work.

Class action lawsuits can be opt-in or opt-out lawsuits.

Opt-in Class Action Lawsuit

If they are opt-in, then you have to ask to be part of the lawsuit. Typically, with an opt-in class action, you have to submit a claim form indicating that you wish to be a part of the class action—you have to officially “opt in”. If on opt-in class action lawsuit settles and you weren’t part of the class, you’re still free to bring about your own lawsuit. If you were part of the class, then you can’t bring one of your own.

Opt-out Class Action Lawsuit

In an opt-out lawsuit, you’re automatically part of the class regardless of whether or not you meant to be—you have to tell the claims administrator that you don’t want to be part of the class before you’ll be taken out. In this situation, if you haven’t told them that you do not want to be part of the class and the lawsuit settles, you can’t bring your own lawsuit. Basically, if you’re included in a class that settles, either because you chose to be or because you didn’t opt-out, you can’t bring your own lawsuit.

Bottom line, if you think you may want to file your own lawsuit against the defendant in the class action lawsuit, you cannot have been a member of the class (ie, the plaintiffs) of the class action. Still with me?

Of course, there’s more to it than that because of how settlements normally work.