Miscellaneous

• Allstate Insurance Company Ordered to Reduce Homeowner's Rates

  Scott Smith | March 19, 2007 3:19 PM | 0 CommentsColumbus, OH

  Allstate has been ordered to reduce Texas homeowner's insurance rates by the Texas Department of Insurance by as much as 5%. Allstate was found to have overcharged Allstate insured's since December 2004 and must also refund this amount estimated at approximate $56 million. The Texas Department of Insurance Commissioners found Allstate's homeowner's insurance rates were excessive, unreasonable...

• Class Action Against Arthur Andersen Settles for $73 Million

  Scott Smith | March 15, 2007 3:17 PM | 0 CommentsColumbus, OH

  Enron Corporation shareholders have settled a class action lawsuit against Arthur Andersen, LLP for $72.5 million as approved by Judge Melinda Harmon of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. In a related matter, Arthur Andersen was found guilty of criminal charges based upon facts common to the class action. The class action settlement coupled with the six week...

• Holocaust Settlement Approved in Class Action

  Scott Smith | March 12, 2007 3:40 PM | 0 CommentsColumbus, OH

  U.S. District Judge George B. Daniels approved a settlement involving Holocaust victims and their relatives that has lasted approximately ten years. The settlement was entered into with Italian insurance company Assicuraazioni Generali whereby the insurance company would accept new claims until March 31, 2007 after noting it had paid $135 million to settle claims to date. Nonetheless, the...

• Overview of Ohio Personal Injury Law

  Scott Smith | March 02, 2007 3:47 PM | 0 CommentsColumbus, OH

  Personal injury law covers a broad spectrum of issues when one has been physical or emotionally injured, and/or personal property has been damaged. In legal circles, personal injury law is also known as "tort" law, the French word for "wrong." Personal injury or "tort" law is the body of laws that allows one to be compensated in the even that someone's carelessness, recklessness or intentional...

• CNN Uncovers Auto Insurers Unfair Personal Injury and Property Damage Claims Practices and Bad Faith

  Scott Smith | March 01, 2007 12:35 PM | 2 CommentsColumbus, OH

  An article on CNN.com determined "[I]f you are injured in a minor car crash, chances are good that you will be in the fight of your life to get the insurance company to pay all the medical costs you incur - - even if the accident was no fault of your own." (CNN.com, Auto Insurers Play Hardball in Minor-Crash Claims by Drew Griffin and Kathleen Johnston, February 9, 2007)CNN conducted an eighteen...

• Wal-Mart Discrimination Class Action Suit Continues

  Scott Smith | February 27, 2007 12:20 PM | 0 CommentsColumbus, OH

  A class action against Wal-Mart for major gender discrimination continued in the Northern District of California's courtroom with Judge Martin Jenkins that affects approximately 2 million female employees. Judge Jenkins ruled for the first time in three years the Plaintiffs would be permitted to take the depositions of former Wal-Mart Executive Thomas Coughlan, III who was second in command at...

• $143 Million Awarded To Nuclear Fuel Reactor Operators

  Scott Smith | October 05, 2006 2:11 PM | 0 CommentsColumbus, OH

  The US Federal Court of Claims awarded $143 Million to three nuclear fuel reactor operators because the government failed to remove used reactor fuel rods. The award could be the sign of more lawsuits and awards to come for other operators who also claim the federal government failed to follow contractual agreements that nuclear waste was to be taken from the sites by 1998. Consequently, the...

• Ferry Boat Crash Results in $3 Million Settlement

  Scott Smith | October 03, 2006 3:29 PM | 0 CommentsColumbus, OH

  New York City agreed to pay $3 Million to the estate of Debra Castro who died from severe injuries when a Staten Island ferry crashed in 2003. Castro died two months after the October 15, 2003 crash suffering from the loss of one leg and massive internal injuries. Ferry pilot Richard Smith passed out at the helm of the boat. The ferry then crashed into a pier where ten other people died and...

• Kentucky Plane Crash Victim Sues Comair

  Scott Smith | September 29, 2006 1:59 PM | 0 CommentsColumbus, OH

  Another plane crash victim of the Comair plane crash in Lexington Kentucky sued the airlines in Federal court this week. The lawsuit was filed by the mother of Ceclie Moscoe and that is among several filed against Comair and Delta, Comair's parent company. Meanwhile, the pilot and lone survivor of the crash, James Polehinke, underwent yet another surgery to stabilize his fractured spine. The...

• Class Action against Tobacco Companies for Selling Light Cigarettes

  Scott Smith | September 26, 2006 12:35 PM | 0 CommentsColumbus, OH

  A Federal Judge ruled in favor of certifying a class action against the nations two largest tobacco companies for selling light cigarettes when the companies internal research showed they knew the risks to be about the same for non light cigarettes. The tobacco companies plan to appeal. Regardless of the validity of the courts decision, stock prices for the Phillip Morris USA Inc and R.J....