The wrongful death suit over the 2007 death of Todd R. Murray, a member of the Ute Tribe, has the United States courts trying to figure out the scope of the ‘bad men’ provision written into a treaty drawn up in 1868. Murray was a passenger riding in a car being driven above the speed limit along highway 40 in Utah’s Utinah County, when two police officers tried to get the driver to pull over. Murray and the driver continued on, pursued by the two officers, until they reached reservation lands where the two men then got out of their car and ran in different directions.

Officer Vance Norton alleges that Murray shot two rounds at him after being ordered to the ground and that he responded by firing two rounds back. Neither one hit the other, and Norton claimed that, at this point, Murray turned the gun on himself, delivering a fatal shot into his own head. He later was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.

Officer Norton was the only witness to the final moments of Murray’s life, and his account of what happened is contested in the wrongful death suit.

Murray’s parents, the Ute Tribe, and the Ouray Reservation filed the suit, and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims threw the case out. Debra Jones, Murray’s mother, contends that Murray did not shoot himself but that he was shot by Officer Norton. Because there were no other witnesses and because the gun was destroyed when turned over to the government, Jones asserts that there is no way to prove that Murray shot himself. Jones filed another suit to this effect, and it was also dismissed by a lower court. In 2015, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals also upheld that previous decision.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has now said that the case must be reviewed again by the lower courts, citing a ‘bad men’ clause in a 1868 treaty between the Ute and the United States. The provision states that if a non-Indian ‘bad man’ commits wrong to the people or property of the Indians that it is to be sent to the Commission of Indian Affairs and that they are to be ‘arrested and punished’. The person victimized is also to be reimbursed. It must now be determined whether the evidence was handled correctly or not, as this will determine whether the ‘bad men’ provision was indeed violated.

After a lengthy deliberation, a jury has awarded over $1 million to former Chula Vista Fire Chief Jim Garcia. The experienced fire chief argued that the city wrongly discriminated against him in two different categories when they ended his employment back in 2015. Garcia argued that both his age and his spinal cord injury played roles in his termination. Furthermore, his neck injury was work-related. Garcia and his attorney, Bradley Gage, effectively argued that the city knew about his medical problems when they terminated him and this was grounds for wrongful firing.

Garcia knew that his recent medical problems were negatively impacting his ability to do his job. He thought that it might be in the best interests of the public for him to leave; however, Garcia was terminated by the city without any notification or cause for his exit.

When Garcia asked the city for an explanation regarding his termination, the city simply told him that his position had been eliminated.

In fact, his position was not eliminated. Furthermore, many new positions were created by Garcia’s departure. Even worse, Garcia was more than qualified to fill many of these positions. According to Garcia’s complaint against the city, many of these positions were filled by significantly younger people who the city could presumably hire for a much lower price. This served as the impetus for Garcia to lodge his formal lawsuit. At the age of 58, Garcia had decades of experience which were certainly valuable to any city. As qualified as any young employee might be, they cannot replace the experience of Garcia, who provides significant benefit to public safety.

During Garcia’s time with the fire department, he received numerous awards and accolades including being recognized as Employee of the Year twice and receiving the Medal of Valor twice. After receiving such awards after a career dedicated to public service, it is understandable that Garcia was shocked by his termination. It appears that the court system was equally shocked as they awarded Garcia a settlement of over $1 million on the grounds of lost wages, both past and future, and damages due to emotional distress. Garcia said that he felt he could have worked another five years if given the opportunity.

Without a doubt, the NFL has been in the spotlight for all of the wrong reasons in the past couple of years. Between the national anthem protests, the concussion issues, and the fiasco surrounding deflated footballs, the NFL would undoubtedly like to bask in the glory of the season’s end; however, this proves only to be a pipe-dream. The NFL was recently hit by a lawsuit filed by cheerleaders demanding higher wages.

This has been an ongoing issue in the NFL even if it doesn’t receive the same type of media coverage as the issues that were mentioned above.

The cheerleaders for the Oakland Raiders and the San Francisco 49ers make up a group of cheerleaders that have filed a lawsuit demanding higher wages from NFL teams. In total, the group of cheerleaders represents 26 of the 32 NFL franchises. People should note that the Cleveland Browns and Chicago Bears do not have cheerleaders. While the cheerleaders certainly aren’t demanding to be paid like the athletes on the field, they point to the mascots for the NFL teams who make somewhere between $25,000 and $60,000 depending on the team. The cheerleaders state that it simply isn’t fair that the mascot receives that kind of compensation in comparison to the work the cheerleaders put in.

The lawsuit has cast a shadow over the Super Bowl which was recently played in Houston, Texas. While the other issues may have already done that, the cheerleaders make a claim that the NFL has successfully manipulated the market to avoid paying its cheerleaders fair wages. Some people might be surprised to learn that this isn’t the first time the NFL has been sued by its cheerleaders. in 2014, the Oakland Raiders were the target of a lawsuit filed by its cheerleaders who were being paid less than $5 per hour at the time. The lawsuit was eventually settled or over $1.25 million.

In the past couple of years, there have been protections for cheerleaders enacted in the state of California; however, this lawsuit looks to institute changes that will happen on a league-wide level. It remains to be seen how the NFL will cope with this most recent distraction.

Tragedy struck a Texas town when the lives of several young softball players were tragically lost in a bus crash. Nearly a week after a semi-truck struck a bus, killing the young softball players, the accident has caused such emotional distress for everyone involved that the driver of the semi-truck took his own life. While this is a heartbreaking story from multiple angles, the families of the young women who were lost say that they intend to sue the company that made the bus carrying their daughters and their teammates.

In an interview, the families of the softball players repeatedly stated that they never intended to prove guilt on behalf of the driver who crossed over the interstate and struck the bus.

The families maintain that their lawsuit is more about getting these unsafe buses off the streets. The families went and looked at the bus that was carrying their daughters and their teammates and immediately decided that the bus simply wasn’t safe enough for anyone to ride on.

The lawyer for the families, Todd Tracy, has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the families against the bus manufacturer, called Champion Bus Company. Tracy and the families said that an investigation of the bus demonstrated that the materials involved in making the bus included plywood, styrofoam, and metal pieces. While these materials might raise eyebrows under any circumstances, they raise even more questions when further investigation revealed that these pieces were not even welded together. Without welding the pieces together, the bus does not provide as strong of a structure to withstand an impact. It certainly wouldn’t be able to hold up well against an impact from an object the size of a semi-truck. Perhaps this contributed to the tragic loss of life that occurred in the tragic bus accident.

The families have stated that their goal is to prevent accidents like this one from ever happening again, particularly to students. The mothers believe that no student should ever have to ride on a bus as unsafe as the one that carried their daughters. If the families win the lawsuit, they plan to use the money to build a brand new softball stadium.

When parents place their children in the care of an experienced daycare center, they never expect the worst to happen. Unfortunately, that is exactly what happened to the parents of a young daughter whose life was tragically lost while at a suburban day care center. A 3-month old child named Tessa McDaneil died while in the care of Tender Harts, a daycare center that is operated out of a residence located in Lombard. The parents filed a lawsuit alleging negligence on the part of the daycare workers. They claim that the child was unattended when she suffered a serious injury that ultimately led to her death.

The attorneys representing the couple claim that the young infant was left alone for over a half hour before the daycare staff realized that she wasn’t breathing. While it’s likely she suffered an injury while at the daycare, the exact cause of death has not yet been determined. As supporting evidence for the lawsuit, the attorneys pointed out that one of the owners, Jason Hart, was attempting to supervise over 20 children by himself. This ratio is in violation of a state law that indicates how many children can be safely supervised by a single staff member at a single time.

The attorney made a statement saying that the laws that govern the supervision of children exist for a reason. They claim that the laws are in place to prevent tragedies like this one specifically from happening.

Further investigation revealed that this is not the first time the daycare center had received complaints regarding its practices. In fact, the Department of Children and Family Services is currently investigating over a dozen potential violations that have been committed by Tender Harts. Many of these complaints specifically target the number of children allowed in a group daycare setting and the number of staff available to watch these children.

The lawsuit is looking for damages in excess of $50,000. The parents and their attorneys claim that the lawsuit is looking to draw attention to issues surrounding child safety. The ultimate goal is to prevent tragedies like the one Tessa McDaniel suffered from ever happening to another child.

In May 2014, brothers Anhuar and Karim Bandy, and 10 co-conspirators were arrested and charged with racketeering, conspiracy, criminal use of runners and other related charges. According to the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General, the brothers were the ringleaders of “a scheme in which illegal ‘runners’ were used to recruit motor vehicle accident victims as patients for chiropractic facilities, controlled by unlicensed individuals [Karim and Anhuar Bandy], and as clients for other medical and legal service providers… in order to generate revenue for the chiropractic facilities, Anhuar and Karim Bandy used runners to bring motor vehicle accident patients to the facilities so they could bill insurance carriers for services rendered at the facilities.  An investigation determined that, through the scheme, the chiropractic facilities allegedly billed insurance companies for millions of dollars for services they purported to perform.” The prosecutors alleged that this scheme lasted from 2009 through 2013.

As well as getting millions of dollars in fraudulent insurance claims, personal injury lawyer David Walker allegedly paid thousands of dollars in kickbacks to the brothers for referring patients to him for legal representation. Walker, and a paralegal working at his firm, Alexandra Gallegos met with patients at the chiropractic facilities in order to convince the patients to let them represent them in suing for settlements from insurance carriers.

In July 2014, Anhuar and Karim Bandy both pleaded guilty to insurance fraud in the second degree.

Fast forward to 2017 – one of those insurance companies, Allstate, through their N.J. subsidiary Encompass Insurance, as well as the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance Commissioner, Richard J. Badolato, are filing a joint lawsuit against Anhuar Bandy, David Walker, and Alexandra Gallegos. The lawsuit alleges that Anhuar was the mastermind of the scheme, and that Walker and Gallegos paid kickbacks to Bandy for referrals.

According to the State of New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance, the lawsuit “follows an investigation by the Department’s Bureau of Fraud Deterrence, Allstate and OIFP [Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor]. On behalf of New Jersey consumers, the Department is seeking a substantial, yet undetermined IFPA-mandated fine amount and Allstate is seeking reimbursement for personal injury protection benefits that Allstate paid on behalf of its customers.”

The case

In August 2016, the United States District Court for the District of Delaware directed Google Inc. to pay a total of $ 5.5 million in its determination of a class action lawsuit. In the lawsuit, the class, the group of people who had suffered similar injuries, had accused Google of interfering with the privacy settings of Safari browser, a software application owned by Apple. By making it possible for advertisers to use the browsers of users as platforms for setting up third party cookies, the class argued that Google violated federal privacy laws.

The objections

Theodore H. Frank, an objector and class member, is represented by the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Center for Class Action Fairness (CEI). Although Google had agreed to the settlement, CEI is contending the final approval of this settlement.

According to CEI, the allegations of privacy infringement against the defendant amount too much more than the value offered under the settlement. CEI claims that the statutory damages amount to billions of dollars. The institute further argues that the fees and expenses charged by class counsel will translate to almost half of the total settlement value. As such CEI has termed the fees as excessive and lacking justification.

Moreover, CEI has pointed out that the net settlement will be paid to cy pres, a third party, a factor that will deny the real class members the chance to benefit from the money. The institute alleges that cy pres enjoy a preexisting relationship with the defendant or counsel representing the class. With this, CEI claims that this may give rise to a serious conflict of interest.

Proposals from CEI

CEI has suggested that the benefits be paid directly to class members, proposing that class certification be discarded if direct distribution will not be possible.

The response

In dismissing the objections raised by CEI, class counsel claims that Frank and CEI are serial objectors and that Frank is just one objector out of the many class members. Class counsel goes on to say that Google has also paid the statutory damages through the fines that the government has exacted for violation of the law. They state that the lawsuits were protracted and the court competently decided that the class members be compensated indirectly since direct distributions would not make economic sense. Lastly, the Council emphasizes that the fees charged are reasonable and justifiable.

The final hearing for this case has been set for January 11, 2017.

Detroit high stakes gambler Brian Benderoff swindled Michigan physician Sheldon Gonte out of more than two million dollars, according to a lawsuit filed in Oakland County Circuit Court in Michigan. The Detroit Free Press reported that the lawsuit alleges that Gonte loaned 50-year-old Benderoff $2.6 million to support business investments that Benderoff said were in the works. Benderoff signed promissory notes vowing to repay the funds but he never did. Therefore, Gonte filed a lawsuit against Benderoff, alleging that Benderoff owes him the funds.

This is not the first time that Benderoff has had legal problems. In 2008, he was sued by a travel agent located in Atlantic City. She accused him of swindling her out of more than one-half million dollars in loans with a promise to pay it back.

Of course, he never did. This case was eventually dismissed so that criminal charges could be filed. Benderoff was ordered to pay nearly $300,000 in restitution to the travel agent. He was also sentenced to 18 months of probation.

In addition to all of the above legal troubles that Benderoff has found himself in, he has now come under the federal government’s radar from an incident that happened back in June. According to the Detroit Patch, Benderoff and his associates flew into the Detroit Metro Airport from Las Vegas with more than $2.5 million stuffed in their luggage. TSA noticed that one of Banderoff’s associates had a carry-on bag had large amounts of cash inside. The two travelers were stopped and questioned in Detroit. After an investigation, federal agents seized the cash and a Rolex watch. Benderoff told investigators that he is a high stakes gambler and won the money in Las Vegas. His associates told investigators that the money was from unsuspecting investors. They admitted to federal agents that the money was solicited for bogus business deals and was instead used for gambling. Benderoff does not currently face criminal charges from the federal government but they want him to forfeit the $2.5 million that he allegedly obtained illegally.