Virginia Legal News | InjuryBoard Richmond

Age discrimination is a hot topic these days, with several cases pending for decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) protects employees age 40 and older from discrimination in employment based on age. Age discrimination can include discrimination in hiring, promotion, pay, benefits, and discharge. The Act also protects against retaliation for...

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For generations, the hourly billing business model for law firms has forced plaintiffs involved in commercial litigation to pay attorneys by the hour regardless of the outcome of the litigation. A better business model for plaintiffs seeking to hire counsel to initiate business litigation may involve contingency fees, fixed legal fee pricing or a combination of a diminished hourly rate and a...

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A number of pharmaceutical companies, including Roache Laboratories, Inc., Abbot Laboratories, Inc., Eli Lilly & Co., Pfizer, Inc., Merck & Co. Inc. and GlaxoSmithKline Plc, are facing wage-and-hour suits filed on behalf of their sales representatives. Our firm recently filed such a case against Solvay Pharmaceuticals Inc. claiming the company failed to pay hundreds of sales representatives...

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We are pleased to report that, today, our law firm received a favorable Fourth Circuit Court ruling for a client establishing a claim for a company's retaliation against former employees who claim unpaid overtime compensation. The controlling law which requires the payment of overtime for all hours worked over 40 per week, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), contains separate retaliation...

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Lockheed Martin Corporation has agreed to pay a former African American employee $2.5 million to settle a racial discrimination case filed by the U.S. Equal Employment and Opportunity Commission. The former employee, a 45 year old aviation electrician, said he was called racial slurs and threatened by four co-workers and a supervisor between 1999 and 2001. When he complained about how the...

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The Seventh amendment to the Constitution of the United States says, "In suits at common law...the right to trial by jury shall be preserved." This right has been under attack by so-called tort reformers who want to preserve the right to trial for corporations while restricting it for citizens. One tactic of the tort reform movement has been to devise talking points to scare the public about...

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As part of National Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Week, Senator Hillary Clinton today introduced legislation to improve coordination among federal, state and local government agencies, update standards for pre-lease or sale inspections required by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and establish pilot projects to target areas of high incidence of lead poisoning in...

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Anyone who believes the propaganda from the insurance industry and US Chamber of Commerce about trial lawyers driving insurers out of business should read the excellent article posted October 15 on SunHerald.com about home insurers cheating victims while recording record profits. This article shows that the tort reform movement is a fraud. Even in the wake of Hurricane Katrina,...

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Thanks to a tip from fellow injuryboard blogger, Ben Glass, I recently contacted my automobile insurer to report that my eldest child matriculated from his high school and is now attending college. When our auto insurer learned that my son would not have a car on campus, it lowered our annual premiums by almost $700.00. My son is still an insured driver on our policy, but the carrier now deems...

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I favor free-trade and don't consider myself to be an isolationist, but enough is enough. First we learn that Chinese-made ingredients in pet food are killing our pets. Next we learn that Chinese-made toothpaste is toxic. Recently, we learned that Thomas the Tank Engine toy trains contain enough lead paint to cause permanent brain damage to toddlers who might chew on the toys. Now, the...

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Judge Roy Pearson, Jr., who filed a $65 million lawsuit against a dry cleaner for losing a pair of his pants, has brought great embarrassment to the legal profession. The profession is fighting back. The American Association for Justice, formerly the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, filed an ethics complaint against Pearson with the D.C. Bar.

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Michael Baroody, the senior lobbyist at the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) nominated by President Bush to lead the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), will receive a $150,000.00 payment from NAM when he takes his new government job; a job that involves enforcing consumer laws against members of the association. Sounds like payola to me. Even Baroody characterized the...

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President Bush's attempt to emasculate the federal agencies tasked with protecting the American people has reached a new nadir. The President nominated Michael Baroody to head the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). One would think the head to the CPSC would have a track record of promoting consumer product safety. For the past 13 years, Mr. Baroody has been an anti-consumer lobbyist,...

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The widow of a former shipyard worker who died from exposure to asbestos while building Navy aircraft carriers was awarded $9.25 million by a Newport News, Virginia jury. The deceased worker was in daily contact with asbestos from 1963 to 1974. He retired in 1994 and was diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2004. Mesothelioma can remain latent in the body for 40 years.Sixty percent of the total...

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The Bush Administration has placed so many of its industry cronies in charge of federal regulatory agencies that one has to wonder whether there is an agency out there that is being run by someone who isn't trying to undermine that agency's mission. Edwin Foulke was South Carolina's Republican Party Chairman, and an anti-union, anti-regulatory zealot who was well-know for his efforts to weaken...

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