Los Angeles Legal Blog

Texas grad suing college because she can't find employment

2009-08-10T16:07:00.000-07:00

"As the costs to students and their families go up, more are viewing college as another major purchase in their life. Some people think very seriously about whether or not they are getting value for what they are paying in."

According to the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, the average cost of tuition and fees has risen by 440 percent over the past 25 years, a rate that is more than four times the pace of inflation and almost twice the rate of medical care, said Weinberg Law Firm, Texas Employment Lawyer.

According to UW-Madison's "Data Digest," it cost the average in-state undergraduate $6,974 to attend Wisconsin's flagship university during the 1989-90 school year; this covered such costs as tuition and fees, books and supplies, room and board. A decade later, that figure jumped to $11,538 for 1999-00. And for 2008-09, it cost the average in-state undergrad $19,028 to attend UW-Madison.

Add it up, and it's no surprise that more and more students are leaving school with significant amounts of debt. The Data Digest shows that 43.6 percent of those who earned undergraduate degrees from UW-Madison in 1989-90 left school with debt, and of those the average amount of debt was $7,754. The most recent figures, for those graduating from UW-Madison in 2007-08, show 48.9 percent left school in debt, with those students owing an average of $20,747.

Los Angeles women and the bottle leading to more DUI's Los Angeles women and the bottle leading to more DUI's

2009-08-10T12:51:00.000-07:00

One federal study showed that the number of women who admitted to abusing alcohol (having at least four drinks in a 24-hour period) increased from 1.5 percent to 2.6 percent over a 10-year period that ceased in 2002. For women ages 30 to 44, the number were more than double, from 1.5 percent to 3.3 percent.

According to California Highway Patrol figures, here in San Diego County, 18-24 year old females driving under the influence who were responsible for fatal or injury related crashes grew 124%, from 49 to 110 accidents over the last decade. Of those between 18 and 20 years of age, the figure doubled to 100, said Michael Bialys, Los Angeles DUI lawye r.

Mom Says Coach Ignored Son's Stroke-Causing Brain Injuries During Football Game

2009-08-05T10:28:00.000-07:00

The suit seeks compensation for at least more than $200,000 Hunt has incurred, as well as at least $50,000 for each of the petition's four counts, says John Q. Kelly, New York brain injury lawyer.

According to the lawsuit, Hunt sustained a broken collarbone in July 2008 when Sunkett ordered him to tackle a teammate while neither wore protective gear. The other player suffered a broken neck, the lawsuit claims without identifying the athlete.

Orange County hospital employee claims promotion denial due to sexual harassment complaint

2009-08-05T09:49:00.000-07:00

"On more than one occasion, Ms. Glass pulled her pants down …and on one occasion she grabbed my buttocks" the complaint states.

Glass was eventually fired for sexual harassment in August after Houser talked to the human resources department at Baptist Hospitals and to the hospital's CEO, he claims.

In September, Houser applied for director of the Orange Baptist Hospital location - the same position from which Glass was fired, according to the sexual harassment lawyer Orange County.

86-Year-Old Chicago Association Files Suit Against New Partisan Organization Using Same Name

2009-08-04T15:33:00.000-07:00

New BGA formed just this year and announced its intention to launch a national ad campaign on Monday, July 27. Its first ad ran on a full page on July 31st in USA Today.

“Our reputation as a nonpartisan organization is critical to our mission and so it is extremely troubling that we have already received emails, phone calls and attempted donations from people who have confused us with the very partisan Akron group,” said Dave Lundy, President of the BGA Board of Directors. “And yet that confusion is unavoidable given that they chose to use the exact same names. That is why we have filed suit.”

The litigation lawyer Chicago is committed to fighting waste, corruption and inefficiency in government. The organization applies investigative journalism techniques, litigation, and public policy studies to expose problems, inform citizens about the operations of their government and lay the groundwork for substantive legislative and administrative reforms.

BGA has earned a national reputation for its investigations and its media partners have won two Pulitzer Prizes and other national and local awards for their work with the BGA. BGA has given numerous awards to national news figures and news organizations including those in Ohio.

Pittsburgh public works manager suspended after DUI guilty plea

2009-08-04T13:52:00.001-07:00

Saturday, June 13, 2009
By Rich Lord, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

City of Pittsburgh officials yesterday suspended, without pay, a Department of Public Works manager whose duties include checking other employees' records for drunken driving convictions, following his guilty plea to DUI after drinking at a city-sponsored wellness event.

City Operations Director Art Victor said he is still reviewing Public Works Operations Coordinator John Barley's employment history and the facts of his Oct. 12 arrest before deciding on a disciplinary measure, which could range from admonishment to termination.

dwi defense lawyer pittsburgh

LA Injury Lawyers Ringler Kearney Alvarez LLP

2009-07-31T14:17:00.000-07:00

Los Angeles class action law firm Ringler Kearney Alavarez LLP have established themselves as a premier law firm by providing clients with consistently excellent service. They pride themselves on their intellect, creativity and tenacity.

These LA injury lawyers have achieved victories in over 100 trials with total verdicts in excess of $250 million.

Ringler Kearney Alvarez LLP achieves their verdicts by utilizing their substantial financial resources to obtain the best result possible for each of their clients. This LA injury specialist law firm fights tirelessly for their clients, no matter the cost and no matter the foe.

Supreme Court Sides with Union - The Times, They are a Changin'

2009-01-22T14:23:00.001-08:00

From the Associated Press:

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court has unanimously upheld the right of a local public employees' union to force government workers who are not union members to pay a share of legal fees.

So the court decided in this case that everyone who was going to benefit from collective bargaining must pitch in to help with the legal fees. This sounds pretty logical, but it's kinda hard to believe that this had to go all the way to the Supreme Court.

Read More.

Moorpark Councilman to Head Board of Metrolink - Amid Class Action Lawsuit Possibilities

2009-01-21T13:23:00.000-08:00

Keith Millhouse of Moorepark has been elected to head the board of Metrolink. This early January election came only a few months after the catastrophic train wreck in Chatsworth where some 25 people died and many more were injured.

Millhouse will head an organization that manages some 500 miles of railroad and serves some 50,000 people in the Los Angeles area alone.

Millhouse's election comes after the last Head stepped down following scrutiny of Metrolink and possible class action lawsuits from survivors and families of the victims.

What's going on now is very similar to what happened in the 2003 train disaster in Placentia. At the time, Los Angeles Catastrophic Injury Lawyer Jerome L. Ringler, who was appointed by the Court as lead counsel for all of the Plaintiffs, won a verdict of $9 million for the victims and their families.

Let's hope that this time the survivors and the victims' families get a settlement that is just for all of them.

Metrolink Attorney Jerome Ringler Interviewed by FOX 11

2008-09-18T10:46:00.000-07:00

Experienced Train Accident Lawyer Jerry Ringler Comments on Chatsworth Metrolink Crash

2008-09-16T15:47:00.000-07:00

As a governmental agency, lawyers noted, Metrolink cannot be subjected to punitive damages in any civil action - a situation those lawyers said likely protects it from a bankruptcy situation. A spokesman for Metrolink said the agency would not be making any comments on potential legal issues.

Attorney Jerome Ringler, who served as lead counsel for victims of a Metrolink train derailment in Placentia in 2002, those in a Burbank derailment in 2003, and in the Glendale derailment in 2005, said the Chatsworth crash could expose further fault with Metrolink.

"I suspect the real reason these tragedies occurred is due to either simple inattentivenesss on the part of the engineers or a failure on the part of the railrood industry to allow these engineers adequate rest between shifts so that these kind of tragedies could be avoided," Ringler said.

"This is a horrible tragedy. They are facing hundreds upon hundreds of millions of dollars of exposure."

Los Angeles Personal Injury Lawyer Jerome Ringler and the Metrolink Train Wreck

2008-09-16T10:45:00.000-07:00

Special Message for Victims of Chatsworth Metrolink Disaster

On September 12, 2008, an unprecedented tragedy occurred in Chatsworth, California when Metrolink Train #111 struck a Union Pacific freight train which was traveling on the same tracks. Our hearts go out to the victims. But this tragedy should not have happened. It happened because of human error on the part of Metrolink employees. Unfortunately, as the lawyers of RKA know well, human error by railroad engineers is not at all unique as a cause of commuter rail disasters.

Jerome L. Ringler has greater experience in representing victims of commuter rail and freight train disasters than any other lawyer in the State of California, if not the country. He has served as lead counsel in every one of the largest commuter rail disasters which have occurred in Southern California in the past 10 years.

In the Placentia Commuter Rail Disaster of 2003, Mr. Ringler was appointed by the Court as lead counsel for all of the Plaintiffs. He was requested by all of the lawyers representing individuals injured or killed in that incident to try the first case. That case resulted in the largest verdict for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ever rendered by a jury in the United States. That verdict, which was for $9 million, is detailed below in the multimedia section.

In the Burbank Commuter Rail Disaster, which also occurred in 2003, Mr. Ringler was again appointed by the Court to serve as lead counsel. In that capacity he was given the responsibility to try the entire liability (i.e., fault) case for all of the victims. In other words, every one of the dozens of lawyers who represented individual victims in that disaster trusted Mr. Ringler to try the liability phase for them, knowing that their clients would only recover if Mr. Ringler was successful. He was. In fact, Mr. Ringler not only obtained a favorable verdict for all of the plaintiffs, he obtained a $12 million verdict for his own client as well. This verdict was the largest in the State of California for a person with the type of injuries Mr. Ringler's client had suffered. This verdict is detailed below in the multimedia section.

Mr. Ringler is currently lead counsel for all plaintiffs in the Glendale Metrolink Derailment Disaster of 2005. This incident was, before September 12, 2008, the largest Metrolink disaster in history. Interestingly, in that case (which involves 11 deaths and dozens of serious injuries), Mr. Ringler has, against all odds, developed testimony proving that, even though a mentally-ill person placed a jeep across the tracks that the Metrolink train was traveling upon, human error on the part of the Metrolink engineer prevented him from stopping the train before hitting the jeep, which caused the train to derail. In other words, while the jeep certainly never should have been on the tracks, the Metrolink engineer would have been able to stop the train before ever striking the jeep had he only been paying proper attention. That case is scheduled to go to trial on June 8, 2009, with Mr. Ringler as lead counsel.

The verdicts detailed on this page all relate to railroad litigation. However, Mr. Ringler has achieved enormous, record-breaking monetary awards across California in a variety of complex areas. Those accomplishments are detailed elsewhere in this website. To see them, click here.

If you or a loved one has suffered injury or death as a result of the horrific Chatsworth Metrolink Disaster, we are available to discuss your rights with you confidentially and at no charge.

Please feel free to contact us at your convenience. Ask for Mr. Ringler,or any of his partners, at (213) 473-1900.

www.rkallp.com

Prominent Los Angeles Based Attorney Defends Alleged Gang Member

2007-10-24T16:25:00.000-07:00

From: Newsweek.com

The federal charges name 61 alleged F13 members in two indictments. The gang-violence charges came in a 53-count RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) indictment against 24 alleged gang leaders, charging them in a conspiracy to sell drugs, possess weapons illegally, and assault and kill black gang members and civilians. In the second indictment prosecutors charged the rest of the men on federal drug-distribution charges. More than 40 of the defendants pleaded not guilty at arraignments Tuesday, according to prosecutors. Michael Khouri, an attorney for Luis Aguilar, 35, says his client left the gang "several years ago" and served recently as a gang negotiator. "Mr. Aguilar will plead not guilty, and he is not guilty," says Khouri. Fifteen of the accused remain fugitives.

The indictments provide a telling snapshot of the changing nature of gangs in south L.A. According to federal prosecutors, F13 has grown into a tightly controlled gang of 2,000 members in 30 cliques led by convicts and parolees who are members of the prison-based Mexican mafia. It's a far cry from the '80s, when the black drug gangs, including the Crips and the Bloods, predominated, mining the crack epidemic with ruthless efficiency. Compared with looser Latino gangs that were seen as turf-conscious fighters, the black gangs were organized and disciplined. "The stereotype was that [the black gangs] were all about the [drug] business," says gang researcher Cheryl Maxson, an associate professor of criminology at University of California, Irvine. With the black gangs, "there was a millionaire in every neighborhood" perched at the top of the crack distribution pyramid, adds gang expert Alex Alonso, who edits streetgangs.com.

Read the Rest of the Article.

Health Care Defense Attorney Defends Prominent San Diego Plastic Surgeon

2007-05-14T03:43:00.000-07:00

From: 10news.com

SAN DIEGO -- A prominent North County surgeon could be in trouble with the state medical board and learned he could lose his license, 10News reported.

Dr. Dennis Nigro is the subject of a hearing at the state building in which he is accused of having sex with a patient.

Nigro admitted to having a brief affair with a woman in 2003, but said she was no longer in his care during their relationship.

Nigro’s attorney, Michael Khouri, said, “The woman does not believe Dr. Nigro was her doctor when the sex occurred.”

Read the rest of the article.