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Halal McDonald’s Food Settlement

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Sunday, April 21st, 2013

Halal Here is some Monday food for thought, with a blog that is about a food settlement. (Detroit Free Press)

 

Dearborn, Michigan attorney Majed Moughni, here holding a McDonald’s chicken sandwich that was sold as a halal prepared chicken sandwich. A Halal sandwich means that it was prepared to comply with Muslim religious customs and practices. Halal is the Muslim equivalent to Jewish Kosher preparation.

Any food prepared to receive the Halal preparation designation meets several criteria including how the animal was killed as well as whether prayers were recited to Allah while the animal was killed. Currently, McDonald’s sells halal chicken products at only two of its restaurants in the entire U.S.

A lawsuit was brought against this Michigan McDonald’s restaurant claiming that the food was not truly prepared as represented. McDonald’s did not admit to any wrongdoing but did agree to a $700,000 settlement to resolve the lawsuit.

According to Moughni, the lawsuit and settlement “was positive”. The purpose in filing it was that “it allowed us to educate the public on halal religous customs and practices. It’s a good thing for the community”.

According to the article, there was some objection to the settlement by those participating as part of the Muslim class. Separately, there was some suggestion that McDonald’s was threatening to discontinue serving any Halal prepared food, if they pushed McDonald’s for more. McDonald’s denied any threat on the free speech of its customers.

For pic o’ day, I went with some Monday Cat humor:

Monday Cat

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Categories : Food and Drink, General Law, Political
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Courtroom of Narnia

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Tuesday, April 16th, 2013

      “The Chronicles of Narnia” is a series of childrens’ books that were written by C.S. Lewis. Lewis wrote the books to illustrate stories from the Bible. In reading the stories, I also see some analogies to the law,  because the stories deal with right and wrong.

     In one scene, talking beavers (imagine that) are describing Aslan the Lion to three newcomers, who have arrived to the realm of Narnia. In anticipation of meeting Aslan, previously described throughout the story as both fierce and loving, the newcomers ask questions that reveal their fears.

     “Oh!” said Susan, “I’d thought he was a man. Is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”

     “That you will, dearie, and no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver, “if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.”

     “Then he isn’t safe?” asked Lucy. “Safe?” said Mr. Beaver, “Don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

     In the story, after the three had met the King, Lucy notes that the Lion’s paws can be soft or terrible. Soft as velvet when the claws are in, or sharp as knives with the claws extended.

      Yes, this is a childrens’ story. Still it also reminds me of the courtroom. Almost everyone goes to court with some fear,  including jurors. The courtroom can be scary for criminals because that is where sentencing takes place. The courtroom is a place of accountability.   

     In Civil cases, the courtroom can also be a place where a person can go with their claim. A place where ”fixing” occurs. Juries can fix, help or make up for harms that have been caused. 

     And for pic o’ day, I stick with a bit of funny from my Mom:  

 

Ole

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Categories : Current Affairs, General Law
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Colts and a Tombstone

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Monday, March 11th, 2013

     We have all heard that the only thing  certain is death and taxes. This story is about one man’s interests in life that cannot be part of his monument in death. (story)

A Tombstone

     An Indiana woman wanted to honor her husband’s interests in sports with a special black granite headstone at the grave. Shannon Carr spent $9600 on a headstone that is shaped like a couch. It features images of a deer, a dog and various color logos of NASCAR and the Indianapolis Colts.

     Once the St Joseph Catholic Church learned of the unusual monument, they put a stop to having it placed in their cemetery, where the man is now buried. The Rev. Jonathan Meyer notified the monument maker that the headstone did not meet the cemetery standards in the century-old graveyard.

     The wife has now filed suit against the church for refusing to install it, alleging that these regulations did not exist when she purchased the headstone and that she had shown pictures of her anticipated purchase to the cemetery representatives and they had not objected to the monument.

     The church says otherwise. They claim that at all times they had told her that the monument was not acceptable. As the priest said, “We have consistently communicated the same message prior to her purchase. We did not think a granite couch was an appropriate monument in our historic cemetery”.

     The wife claims that she now has bitterness against the church. When I read the story, I could not remember ever seeing a couch in a cemetery. However, I did notice that no one was complaining about the Colts logo. As a Colts fan, I had to appreciate that!

     I promise not to bombard you every day with a St. Patrick’s Day picture; but this is one that made me smile, was sent by my mom and is a little bit connected to the blog.

At Patty

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Categories : Current Affairs, General Law, Political
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Beat Virginia’s Life Expectancy?

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Monday, March 4th, 2013

     In every injury case that we take to trial, we introduce the life expectancy chart (Virginia Code 8.01-419) for the jury to consider when there is evidence of a permanent injury. It also makes me scan the life chart to see how long the law says that I am expected to live.

     According to the chart, at the start, women live to about 80 and men to about 75. The jury instruction tells the jury to give consideration for the rest of that person’s expected life span life. Of course, many clients lean over and whisper to me, “I’m going to beat that!”.

     I have blogged on this before because I am fascinated by the prediction of the length of life. That’s also why I  have blogged on some who have lived long lives, when they discuss their reasons for long life. I am also interested in articles that discuss how to lengthen your life.  

     The March edition of “Parade Magazine” has an article titled “Do You Have a Longevity Personality?” It postulates that having certain emotional traits or even tweaking your behavior can add years to your life. Here are the three characteristics that the article suggests to boost your life expectancy:

     1. Your glass is half full. A study of those over the age of 97.6 consistently found that they were more optimistic and easygoing than the general population. The article recommends that you daily write down things for which you are thankful and it will help to push away the troubles that create negativity.

     2. You’re everyone’s pal. According to a study by Brigham Young University, having strong social relationships can raise survival rates by more than 50%.  It doesn’t mean that you have to be a social butterfly. You can do simple things like invite friends to lunch or join a book club.

     3. You’re never late. Being detail oriented and responsible is consistently associated with longegivity. Making and using to-do lists.

     Staying positive, friendly and organized makes sense,  but coming from a health magazine also gives credence that they really may be a good life-long idea. I just checked the life expectancy chart. Guess what?  I think that it said that I should be writing this blog another 88 years. Let’s all stick together!

     For pic o’ day, here is a cat’s way of keeping the mailman hopping!

cat in mailbox

 

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Categories : Auto Accidents, Current Affairs, General Law, Insurance Law, The Human Spirit, Truck Accident
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Lance Armstrong’s Class Action Suit

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Monday, January 28th, 2013

Do you remember the old joke about the definition of an autobiography? Answer: the life story of a car. Yes, I know it’s not funny. But, Lance Armstrong also doesn’t think that his autobiography is bringing him much joy either.

    He is now probably hearing angry voices in his head over a lawsuit filed against him, because of his best-selling co-authored book.

The Los Angeles Times and USA Today  are both reporting that a lawsuit has been filed by two individuals against Lance over his book “It’s Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life”.

The plaintiffs claim that they would not have purchased his book if they had known the true facts about his involvement “in a sports doping scandal”. They are seeking class action status against Armstrong and in that petition, they have indicated that the lawsuit could involve in excess of 100 people.

The lawsuit is also being filed against his book publishers, which includes the publisher of Armstrong’s other book “Every Second Counts”,  which was published back in 2003.

This raises an interesting legal question of whether an author can be held accountable for misconduct, so as to allow past purchasers to seek their money back for a product. Armstrong won seven Tour de France victories between 1999 and 2005; it was during that period that he now has acknowledged that he used banned substances.

Our pic o’ day gives us another idea. Maybe he would rather be in the box of shame instead of facing lawsuits!

 

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Categories : Current Affairs, General Law
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The Woman with 10 Husbands

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Monday, January 7th, 2013

     How is that for a blog title. Plus, it’s a lawsuit where even “Buddy” was in danger.

      The Daily Press reports that Shirley Smith Smart is getting out of prison on January 14.  When she gets out, the convicted bigamist will be facing a lawsuit by Elden Bowen. He married her on December 23, 2004, in the Isle of Wight Wedding Chapel.

     At the time of the marriage, Smart was already married to someone else. In her search for marital bliss, she must have forgotten the law on such things. So now, Bowen is suing her for $434,000, alleging that she cheated him out of house and personal belongings. Oh, and I think that the  the other husband might fall  under that cheating category.

     Bowen’s lawsuit alleges that the diminutive 73-year-old woman has been married ten times over a period of 50 years. At least three of those marriages occurred while married to another.

     Smart has responded to the Bowen lawsuit by penning over 80 pages in response, to portray her as the victim, and Bowen as the liar. She even casts doubt on their marriage despite Bowen’s ability to produce photos. Her response to the photos, “I do not remember when or anything about it”.

     Bowen says that when he married Smart, she managed to take possession of his home, a pickup, his dog (Buddy) and $80,000 in cash.

      Now, here’s the kicker. At one point, Smart took Buddy to the Gloucester-Matthews Humane Society.  Just plain mean. Fortunately, Buddy is back with Bowen. Apparently, Smart is a collector of husbands but no pet lover!

     For pic o’ day, I had to go with a dog picture… Right?

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Categories : Current Affairs, General Law
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Discrimination Lawsuit Collection

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Sunday, January 6th, 2013

ABC”s sport show “Wide World of Sports” started out with a catchy tune and the announcer, Jim McKay, telling us that the show was “spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport… the thrill of victory… and the agony of defeat”. The last part of the narration included video of skier Vinco Bagataj , whose dreadful mis-jump and and twisting crash landing of March 21, 1970, became synonymous with “and the agony of defeat”. Fortunately and amazingly, he suffered no broken bones, but was then infamously known as the show’s hard-luck hero.

I use that introduction to this Monday blog, because we are spanning some Courthouses across the United States. I am attaching three cases that were filed. The common denominator is that they are all discrimination lawsuits. If you want more information on them, you can see where I attached the full article. Which will end up with the agony of defeat.

The New York “Daily News” reports on a lawsuit filed by Sherry Harrington, the first female operations chief at the New York Metro-North Railroad. Her lawsuit alleges that she was singled out and reprimanded for recommending her live-in-companion, for a railroad job. In her lawsuit, she also claims that she was being paid less than a man in an equivalent position; and that she was subjected to inappropriate and offensive comments in the office.

Her discrimination claim “is based on sexual orientation bias and nothing more”. She further states that her employer has ” damaged her reputation, career, physical and emotional well being.”

Our next discrimination suit comes from Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. (Cleveland.com) Jonathan Keith Blazek sued the city of Lakewood after he was fired for consuming alcohol, during one of his work shifts in March 2012. The lawsuit alleges that the city did not take Blazek’s alcoholism into account when he was terminated.

Initially, he filed a claim with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission. Then, his claim was brought before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The finding of both Commissions was “that the allegation that he was terminated, based on disability, is baseless”. The lawsuit now is filed as a claim under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The lawsuit seeks back pay, reinstatement of his employment, and compensatory damages.

Our third lawsuit takes us to Georgia and the “Atlanta Journal-Constitution“. This lawsuit had been filed on behalf of seasonal American workers. The lawsuit alleged that black workers were given fewer hours, asked to do lower paying jobs, and were subjected to racial comments from their manager before being terminated. These seasonal employees claimed that the Mexican workers were treated better.

The first two lawsuits are currently pending. The farming suit has now settled. The settlement included back wages and rehire offers were extended. In addition, the managers who were targeted in the lawsuits are to now have limited contact with these workers.

For our pic o’ day, I can never get enough of captioned dog pictures!

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Categories : Current Affairs, General Law, Legislation and Politics
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Screwdriver Robbery

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Wednesday, January 2nd, 2013

An argument against gun control is that you should blame the person, not the gun. For the purpose of this blog, I am not going to tackle that issue. I am not going to comment on whether our founding fathers ever contemplated assault weapons in the right to bear arms. Instead, I turn our attention to a recent robbery in Gaffney, South Carolina.

The Spartanburg newspaper reports that a jeep was recently stolen at a gas station. A man approached the driver, while brandishing a screwdriver. He then stole her jeep and drove off. Police are now looking for the stolen vehicle. It is black with gold trim and has a paper license plate. Yes… a paper license plate.

I don’t want to downplay the serious nature of this crime. I’ve just never heard of a screwdriver being used in the commission of a crime.  No word on whether the National Screw Driver Association has issued a press release, reminding us that people have a right to bear screwdrivers.

For pic o’ day, here is more “behaving badly” conduct:

 

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Categories : Current Affairs, General Law
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Bad Neighbor Lawsuit

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Tuesday, December 4th, 2012

Someone just told me another “bad neighbor” story. Bad neighbor was angry that the other neighbor had a flagpole in his yard; So, he sneaked over and cut a piece of the flagpole string so that the flag cannot easily go up and down. Of course, the one neighbor didn’t see bad neighbor do it… he just knows it.

Bad neighbor also complained about the wind-chimes and the periodic noise that they made when the wind blows. Neighbor told bad neighbor that he would remove the chimes… as soon as he could get his flag up and down the pole. Bad neighbor left for the weekend and lo and behold, left a radio on his back porch that was blaring a local radio station on its highest volume…  a Spanish station!

I thought of that story when I just saw the “Bad Neighbor” lawsuit that has now been filed against NBA basketball Center Andrew Bynum. (USA TODAY) The lawsuit that was filed by the neighbors on both sides of Bynum lists the following complaints:

“Bynum has demonstrated open contempt for the Becketts specifically and for the neighborhood generally by blasting loud, profane, and disrespectful music and video games at window-shaking volumes; by letting his dogs run loose through the neighborhood; by apparently engaging in illegal drug use and permitting marijuana smoke to drift into the Becketts’ backyard; by constructing a fence on his property which is not in compliance with the community codes and regulations; by conspicuously brandishing firearms in an attempt to threaten and intimidate the Becketts in retaliation for their legitimate complaints; and, perhaps most seriously, by recklessly racing his luxury cars through the neighborhood at dangerous speeds where children or others could be injured or killed.”

Tonight, I will gladly go to my home,  to a neighborhood that lives in harmony. Carl Sandburg once combined the great Bible commandment with some interesting advice, “Love your neighbor as yourself.; but don’t take down the fence”. Of course it also can be added that nothing can make you more tolerant of a neighbor’s noisy party than you being there! (Franklin Jones)

For pic o’ day, Amy M. reminded me that sometimes we just can’t blame others!

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Categories : Current Affairs, General Law, The Human Spirit
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