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National Mesothelioma Awareness Day 2011
Marketing |
2011/09/22 11:13
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National Mesothelioma Awareness Day 2011 carries special meaning for New York-based Weitz amp; Luxenberg, P.C., one of the nation's leading personal injury law firms, because so many of its clients are mesothelioma victims on whose behalf hundreds of millions of dollars in verdicts and settlements have been won.
Arthur Luxenberg, founding partner of Weitz amp; Luxenberg, explains that mesothelioma is a relatively rare form of cancer that strikes as many as 3,000 Americans each year.
A common cause of mesothelioma is asbestos exposure, he says. Victims tend to be electricians, plumbers, armed forces veterans -- anyone who worked with or around asbestos. The condition develops decades after exposure, but the disease can prove fatal within a year of diagnosis. At present, there is no cure. And to make matters worse, family members also often fall prey to mesothelioma as a result of secondary exposure to asbestos fibers carried into the home by the primary victim.
Weitz amp; Luxenberg has been able to play a pivotal role in the ongoing effort to compensate mesothelioma victims thanks to its extensive experience and vast resources.
Mesothelioma awareness is an extremely serious issue, and we at Weitz amp; Luxenberg are grateful for the opportunity National Mesothalioma Awerness Day 2011 affords us to inform people about it, to build broader partnerships that hopefully can deliver more help to victims, says Luxenberg.
The disease -- which affects internal organs by attacking surrounding membranes -- receives less attention than it deserves, health advocates insist. Their raised voices helped convince Congress to acknowledge the problem of mesothelioma by proclaiming Sept. 26, 2011 National Mesothelioma Awareness Day.
About Weitz amp; Luxenberg
Founded in 1986 by attorneys Perry Weitz and Arthur Luxenberg, Weitz amp; Luxenberg, P.C., today ranks among the nation's leading law firms. It specializes in multiple litigation fields including: mesothelioma; defective medicine and devices; environmental pollutants; accidents; personal injury; and medical malpractice. Weitz amp; Luxenberg offers free legal consultation to injured parties by calling 1-800-476-6070 or by emailing clientrelations@weitzlux.com. More information is available at www.weitzlux.com |
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Appeals court in Va. tosses 2 Abu Ghraib lawsuits
Court Watch |
2011/09/21 22:08
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A federal appeals court in Virginia has dismissed two lawsuits by former Iraqi detainees who claimed they were tortured at the Abu Ghraib prison.
A divided three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed Wednesday with two contractors who claimed immunity because they were doing the government's work in providing interrogators and translators to the U.S.-run prison near Baghdad.
In one of the cases, four Iraqis claimed they were abused by interrogators employed by CACI International Inc. The other lawsuit was filed by 72 Iraqis against L-3 Services, which provided translators at Abu Ghraib and other prisons.
The appeals court's ruling reversed decisions by federal judges in Alexandria, Va., and Greenbelt, Md., who had rejected the contractors' immunity claims. |
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Court halts Texas execution of ex-Army recruiter
Headline News |
2011/09/20 22:09
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A former Army recruiter who for the third time this year was hours away from his scheduled execution for the rape-slaying of a woman in Fort Worth nearly 10 years ago was granted yet another reprieve by the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday.
Cleve Foster, 47, was set to die Tuesday evening in Huntsville.
The high court twice earlier this year stopped Foster's scheduled lethal injection. The latest court ruling came about 2½ hours before Foster could have been taken to the Texas death chamber.
Foster was meeting with one of his lawyers in a small holding cell a few feet from the death chamber when a Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman delivered the news.
He thanked God and pointed to his attorney, saying this woman helped save his life, prison spokesman Jason Clark said.
He also said Foster repeated his insistence that he was innocent. |
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Noted NJ attorney Michael Cole dies at 67
Lawyer News |
2011/09/20 22:09
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Michael Cole, a noted lawyer who held several key state government positions during his long legal career, has died. He was 67.
Cole's death was announced Sunday by the Teaneck-based law firm of DeCotiis, Fitzpatrick amp; Cole, but further details were not disclosed. The Morris Township resident had been a partner with the firm for many years before recently retiring and was still serving as a counsel for them.
During his governmental career, Cole served as chief counsel to Gov. Tom Kean and also had been a first assistant Attorney General, where he handled matters ranging from school funding to gubernatorial powers to gaming regulation.
A graduate of Rutgers Law School, Cole was an attorney for more than 40 years. Among his survivors is his wife, state Supreme Court Justice Jaynee LaVecchia. |
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Idaho inmates settle lawsuit over prison violence
Topics |
2011/09/20 22:08
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A potential class-action lawsuit against the nation's largest private prison company over allegations of violence at the Idaho Correctional Center has been settled in federal court.
The agreement between the inmates and Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Boise.
In it, CCA doesn't acknowledge the allegations but agrees to increase staffing, investigate all assaults and make other sweeping changes at the lockup south of Boise. If the company fails to make the changes, the inmates can ask the courts to force CCA to comply.
The inmates, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, sued last year on behalf of everyone incarcerated at the CCA-run state prison. They said the prison was so violent it was dubbed Gladiator School, and that guards used inmate-on-inmate violence as a management tool and then denied prisoners medical care as a way to cover up the assaults.
CCA has denied all the allegations as part of the settlement, but the agreement is governed under a section of the Prison Litigation Reform Act which only applies in cases in which prisoners' constitutional rights have been violated. |
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Kona coffee dispute prompts class-action lawsuit
Court Watch |
2011/09/20 22:08
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A spat involving Safeway and Hawaii coffee growers is still brewing, even after the supermarket giant agreed to change labeling on its Kona blend coffee.
A $5 million class-action lawsuit was filed in federal court in Northern California claiming Safeway profited off the reputation of Kona coffee while selling an inferior product with very little Hawaii-grown coffee.
The lawsuit was filed Aug. 30, a day before Safeway's letter informing the Kona Coffee Farmers Association the company would change its packaging to reflect the percentage of Kona it contains. The farmers had called for a boycott of Safeway's 1,700 stores nationwide after a farmer saw the Kona blend for sale in a California store.
In an effort to protect a world-famous Hawaii product, the state's Board of Agriculture Chairman Russell Kokubun sent a letter to Safeway officials asking them to comply with a law here requiring labels to specify the percentage of Hawaii-grown coffee included in the blend. The law requires those blends have at least 10 percent Hawaii-grown coffee. But because Safeway's Kona blend isn't sold in any of the 19 Hawaii locations, Kokubun could only ask for voluntary compliance. |
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