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Grocery Wholesaler in Federal Antitrust Action
Trending Legal Issues |
2009/01/05 08:48
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The nation's two largest grocery wholesalers, Supervalu and Camp;S Wholesale, conspired to allocate territories, restrain competition and inflate prices, according to a federal antitrust class action. Gary's Foods claims the defendants competed until 2003, when Vermont-based Camp;S decided to go after Supervalu territory in the Midwest.
nbsp; nbsp; Rather than extend their competition to the Midwest or continue to compete in New England, the Defendants conspired to allocate territories: Supervalu agreed to
nbsp; nbsp; exit New England in return for Camp;S's commitment not to enter Wisconsin, Iowa, and other states in the Midwest, the complaint states. This scheme has caused substantial harm to retailers: prices for wholesale sales and services have been inflated, fewer manufacturer discounts have been passed on to retailers, and the supply of wholesale sales and services has been artificially reduced.
The two defendants have combined annual revenue of $28 billion,according to the complaint. Gary's also claims the defendantsfraudulently concealed their conspiracy. Gary's demands treble damagesand punitive damages for the class. It is represented by Daniel Kotchenwith Kotchen amp; Low of Washington, D.C. |
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Judge Upholds Detention of Two Gitmo Detainees
Court and Trial |
2009/01/02 09:27
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A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the U.S. government is properly imprisoning two people as enemy combatants in Guantanamo - the first legal victory for the Bush administration in the issue for a long time, and the first of an expected 200 or more similar cases.
nbsp; nbsp; U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington, D.C., was the jurist who ruled about a month ago that the Bush administration had illegally imprisoned five Algerians at Guantanamo for nearly 7 years. He ordered the administration to release them.
nbsp; nbsp; The recent case involved a Yemeni, Moath Hamza Ahmed al Alwi, and a Tunisian, Hisham Sliti.
nbsp; nbsp; Judge Leon found that Sliti was an al Qaeda recruit who attended a military training camp in Afghanistan.
nbsp; nbsp; Judge Leon ruled that though there was no proof that al Alwi had made war upon U.S. forces, his ties to the Taliban were sufficient to justify his imprisonment as an enemy combatant. |
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Train Accident Attorney Jerome Ringler on Metrolink Crash
Top Attorney News |
2009/01/01 14:32
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It happened in just seconds. As hundreds of people aboard an LA commuter train headed home late on the afternoon of September 12th, the engineer at the throttle of a Metrolink commuter train ran a red light. In the blink of an eye, it collided head on with a Union Pacific freight train. Twenty-five people were killed and dozens of others were injured in the a href=http://www.rkallp.comChatsworth Metrolink accident/a.
Jerome Ringler was the worst commuter train disaster in the city’s history. That unprecedented disaster is now being followed by an unprecedented and extremely complex legal action. One of the lawyers at the center of the litigation is highly regarded southern California attorney a href=http://www.rkallp.comJerome Ringler/a of Ringler, Kearny and Alvarez. “These kinds of cases,” says Ringler, “require highly experienced civil trial lawyers with significant personal injury and complex litigation experience to do the work effectively.”
Time is Running Out
Ringler’s firm currently represents about approximately a dozen people involved in the a href=http://www.rkallp.com/metrolink-disaster-lawyers.htmlMetrolink crash/a. At lest four of the cases involve claims by families of people killed in the accident. The others are people who sustained serious, in some cases catastrophic, injuries. “We have a number of clients—but I still believe the vast majority of the individuals who have been harmed have yet to actually select counsel,” says Ringler.
For those who may have a substantial claim and not yet stepped forward, the clock is ticking and ticking loudly. “Some of the victims may know about the statute and some may not,” says Ringler. According to California laws, claimants have only 6 months from the date of the railway disaster to let their intentions be known to the courts. “It has been only 2 to 3 months since the accident,” says Ringler. “Traditionally many people don’t hire a lawyer for a year after a tragedy, but in this case it is important that everyone make a decision within six months because the statute is running.”
Ringler Knows Railway Disasters
Jerome L. Ringler has more experience representing victims of commuter rail and freight train disasters than any other lawyer in the State of California and is one of the most knowledgeable a href=http://www.rkallp.com/metrolink-disaster-lawyers.htmlrailway disaster lawyers/a in the US.
Ringler served as lead Counsel in the Burbank commuter train crash in 2003 and is also representing people injured in the 2005 Glendale commuter train crash litigation in California. In the Burbank case, Ringler won $12 million for a woman whose ability to walk was permanently affected by the accident. She also suffered post traumatic stress.
“You have to understand all the ramifications involved in a major rail disaster both technically and procedurally and from a a href=http://www.rkallp.compersonal injury/a point of view as well,” says Ringler.
Claims Capped
It could take years for the Chatsworth crash to be dealt with in the courts and choosing the right lawyer will be critical for those with claims.
As an attorney for 35 years, Ringler anticipates some major challenges in the Chatsworth Metrolink case. One of those challenges is overcoming the $200 million cap on liability. “We believe there is a $400 million or $500 million loss here.”
Ringler’s view is that legislative change will be required in Washington, D.C. “The cap needs to be lifted and that’s a decision that has to come from the United States Congress.”
“That’s the best option—so that those who have been tragically injured or lost their lives can be compensated, or at least the families who have lost a loved one can be compensated.”
The Ringler Philosophy
The Ringler firm is careful about the cases it chooses. “We don’t take any case where the award will be less than a million dollars and we are very selective,” says Jerome Ringler. “We attend to them all with great detail and great care.”
Ringler’s personal philosophy puts a high value on ethics and value work for his clients. “I believe in getting 100 cents on the dollar for every client that comes to me,” he says. “If settlement is the best way to achieve that then we settle, if trial if is the best way to achieve that we go to trial.”
“The most important thing to me is that I get every dollar for my client that they deserve and never compromise their rights in order to expedite any kind of resolution,” he adds. |
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Corruption crisis creates confusion in Illinois
Attorney Legal Opinions |
2008/12/29 09:12
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| Embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has made a point of regularly going to work at his office in Chicago. He has signed legislation and issued pardons. He has sent out press releases about predatory lending and fighting poverty.pBut his arrest on federal corruption charges has clearly complicated his work as the state's chief executive and already cost the state some $20 million. The state is facing a potential $2.5 billion budget deficit and the governor doesn't have the same horsepower — or clout — to address the problem that he had just a month ago./ppNo one in the state capital trusts Blagojevich enough to give him authority to trim the budget on his own, as he requested in November. Any other idea he advances would probably be rejected out of hand. Yet no other official can take the lead./ppEverything just comes to a halt. You have complete paralysis, said House Republican Leader Tom Cross of Oswego./ppBlagojevich, a second-term Democrat, was arrested Dec. 9 on charges accusing him of scheming to swap President-elect Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat for profit, shaking down a hospital executive for campaign donations and other wrongdoing./ppThe governor has defiantly insisted he's done nothing wrong and that he will not resign. His aides say he is going about business as usual./p |
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Judge: 2 adoptive dads belong on birth certificate
Lawyer World News |
2008/12/28 09:12
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| A same-sex couple in California has won a federal court ruling that their adopted son's Louisiana birth certificate must bear the names of both adoptive fathers.pThe facts are so clear that no trial is needed, U.S. District Judge Jay Zainey wrote./ppWhat a great Christmas present for these guys! said Kenneth D. Upton Jr. who represented Oren Adar and Mickey Ray Smith of San Diego./ppIn his ruling Monday, Zainey said Louisiana's Office of Vital Records must give full faith and credit to the New York State court in which Adar and Smith adopted the boy, he ruled Monday. The office had refused to issue a birth certificate listing both as the boy's legal parents./ppUpton, reached at home Saturday evening, said he hopes to get a birth certificate in the coming week but doesn't know whether the Louisiana Attorney General's Office — which is in charge, although a state health department attorney argued the case — will decide to appeal./ppThe attorney general's office will look into the matter next week, said Tammi Arender Herring, spokeswoman for Attorney General James Buddy Caldwell./ppUpton, of Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund Inc. of Dallas, said it is the fourth case of its kind that he knows of. Cases in Oklahoma, Virginia and Mississippi also were decided in the parents' favor — the Mississippi case decided at trial about a month ago, he said./p |
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