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Consumer Concerns and Advice Recent UpdatesMay 12, 2008 May 05, 2008 April 30, 2008 April 22, 2008 April 14, 2008 Archives
October, 2007 Web ResourcesChalat Hatten & Koupal PC
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It practically takes a legal background to act as an informed consumer in the American marketplace today. You make a simple purchase and then find yourself confronting - defective products, product recalls, class action suits, waivers, mandatory arbitration clauses and so on. How do you protect yourself and your legal rights? By staying informed - and we will help by providing timely updates to current issues.
Even Santa at Risk This holiday season even Santa is at risk for falling victim to unsafe or recalled toys. Tens of millions of toys have recently been recalled due to lead paint, small magnets, or toxic chemicals. With all this uncertainty about toy safety, Consumer Reports has put together twelve tips for buying safe toys this holiday season.
No Matter How Loyal, Nothing Safe from Recall The names are familiar to children and adults alike: Pirates of the Caribbean, Winnie the Pooh, Barbie, Elmo. The brands are familiar too: Mattel, Banquet, Fischer-Price, J.C. Penny, and Dunkin Doughnuts. In the past few months, companies have asked you to check your closets and toy boxes for brightly colored but toxic toys, and your refrigerator for foods that may be unsafe too.
Popcorn may be toxic! Pop Weaver, the nation's second-largest popcorn producer, has pulled the synthetic flavoring, diacetyl, from its microwave popcorn products because of the link between exposure to the chemical and lung disease. ConAgra, the world's largest supplier of the 3 billion bags of microwave popcorn sold each year, said Tuesday that it will eliminate the use of a controversial chemical butter flavoring linked to severe lung disease in workers from its Act II and Orville Redenbacher products.
Increased Truck Accidents Prompts New Laws A few years ago, traffic on Interstate-70 heading from Denver to the mountains was particularly heavy during the ski season as front-range ski enthusiasts headed up for the day. But with the increase in summer tourism and those day-trippers seeking the golden aspens of autumn, traffic is heavy year-round. Average daily traffic at the Eisenhower Tunnel increased 7 percent from 2004 to 2006, according to CDOT.
Pools Pose Deadly Attraction When 3-year-old Anthony Muniz drowned in a neighbor's backyard pool here earlier this month, the tragedy was particularly piercing: Little Anthony had been named for his mother's teenage brother, who died in his family's pool years ago. The fence that Anthony climbed over after slipping out of his Long Island home on June 6 was four feet tall, as required by the town where he lived, Brookhaven. An hour's drive west, the fence would have had to be five feet in the town of Hempstead and six feet in North Hempstead. And the pool he drowned in, built about 30 years ago, was exempt from a new New York state law that requires alarms, but only for new or renovated pools.
No Day in Court for Widow The widow of a leukemia victim failed to persuade the Supreme Court Monday to consider allowing her to sue chemical companies over her husband's exposure to a toxic chemical, a case her lawyer calls a legal "Catch 22" in Alabama. The justices without comment declined to take up the case of Martha Jane Cline, who is trying to hold the manufacturing companies accountable for her late husband's health problems. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the case June 4.
Reasonable Ramming? Last week the U.S. Supreme Court decided that it was reasonable for a pursuing police officer to force a fleeing driver off the road by ramming his vehicle from behind. Victor Harris, 19, who was suspected only of speeding, was permanently paralyzed in the accident that resulted.
Study Highlights General Motors
Report Flunks Colorado on Medicaid The non-profit consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen last month issued a report ranking Medicaid programs by how well they provide adequate medical services to low-income populations. Fifty-five million, mostly low-income Americans get their health care coverage through their state Medicaid program. The report considers federal mandates in four categories: eligibility, scope of services, quality of care and provider reimbursement.
Pit Bull Ban Upheld The Colorado Court of Appeals has upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit against the city of Aurora over its pit-bull ban. An Aurora home-owner brought the suit against the city in Arapahoe County District Court, saying that her constitutional rights were violated by the ban. The Aurora City Council imposed the ban on new pit bulls in February 2006. But it did allow all current owners at that time to keep their dogs if they obtained $200 annual licenses and adhered to a number of requirements.
Billing the Roadtrip Found 4/13/07 on the front page of the website for The National Law Journal, a link to an article titled:
With spring around the corner, it's time to pack the kids in the car for a family roadtrip. But don't let that stop you from keeping the clock running on your billable hours. The above lead links to an article explaining how lawyers can pack in billable hours while touring with the family- does this suggest a loss of balance - or maybe sheer looniness- for those firms obsessed with billable hours?
Paralyzed skier wins against terrain park After a five-week trial, in King County, Washington, jury on last Friday awarded $14 million to a 27-year-old skier who was paralyzed after dropping 37 feet from a ski jump at the Summit at Snoqualmie.
Deadliest States for Truck Crashes Wyoming and Arkansas are the deadliest states for truck crashes, according to Citizens for Reliable and Safe Highways, a safety group that has called for tougher federal regulation to reduce fatalities resulting from big rig truck crashes. The number of nationwide fatalities each week has remained above 100 nationwide for years. The safest states for truck crashes were Rhode Island and Massachusetts, based on the number of fatalities per 100,000 residents during 2005, the most recent year with complete figures.
Teenage Death Behind the Wheel Parents of teenagers worry about lots of things: drugs, sex, poor choices of friends. But the activity that poses the greatest danger to your child is driving the family car. Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for 16- to 20-year-olds, with about 5,500 teenage drivers or passengers dying each year. In addition, about 450,000 teenagers are injured, 27,000 of them requiring hospitalization, the American Academy of Pediatrics reported in the December issue of its journal, Pediatrics.
Lunch loaded with danger In the last two weeks we have experienced four major food recalls - tainted chicken breast strips, foul fresh cantaloupe, bad baby food (taking "organic" a little too far) and that most beloved of lunch-time standards, peanut butter gone bad.
Deny, delay, defend CNN recently released the results of an 18-month investigation into minor-impact soft-tissue injury crashes around the country, reporting what every personal injury lawyer already knows. According to CNN findings, most of the major insurance companies when faced with claims from such cases, have universally adopted a scorched-earth strategy since the 1990's. The leaders in this strategy are the two largest insurers, Allstate and State Farm.
Heavyweight Match: ABA vs. NRA The American Bar Association, the nation's largest lawyers group, is taking on the National Rifle Association, the biggest gun rights organization. The issue is whether an employer has the right to bar workers from leaving guns in their cars while on the job.
Smoke, smoke, smoke that cigarette... With fewer and fewer public places to light up, don't you wonder about those poor souls still huddled outside in frigid weather, dragging on a cigarette? Well, if they haven't kicked the habit yet, Big Tobacco is making it more difficult to do just that, according to a study just released by Harvard.
Lawyers Can Finally Rep Vets Finally, those that served our country can receive adequate help in seeking benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs. For years, former military personnel, many wounded or disabled, left the global military arena to fight alone against some of the worst of government red tape. But, during the last session, Congress removed the barrier to vets seeking legal representation in their applications.
High Altitude Congestion Last winter a record 58.9 million skiers and snowboarders hit the nation's slopes. This season, Colorado resorts are on a pace to break last winter's record of 12.53 million skier visits, with 6.74 percent more in the first part of the season than the same period last year, the industry recently reported. The resorts had nearly 3.3 million skier visits from October through December 2006, up 207,533 when compared to the same period in 2005. While the mountains have less snow than last year's near-record, TV coverage of snow-covered Denver has well-publicized the great skiing conditions. And Colorado resorts have benefited from the lack of snow suffered in the East and most of Europe. |
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The information you obtain at this site is not, nor is it intended to be, legal advice. You should consult an attorney for individual advice regarding your own situation. | |
The insurance industry determined that General Motors' vehicles had the highest and lowest death rates in the period between 2002 and 2005. According to their 
How to make your family vacation more productive