$27 Million Verdict for Emmon Smith v R.J. Reynolds

MIAMI, March 28, 2012 - In a trial that took place in Marianna, FL and lasted more than three weeks, Plaintiff Emmon Smith, a Florida resident was awarded $10 Million in compensatory damages (70% against R.J. Reynolds) and $20 Million in punitive damages in a landmark decision by a Jackson County Court.  Mr. Smith was represented by the firms of Richard J. Diaz, PA, Ratzan Law Group, PA, J.B. Harris, PA, Crabtree & Associates, and Robert Trammell, PA.      

Left to right:

Lead Attorney Rick Diaz, Attorney Robert Trammell, 

Client’s wife - Vernell Smith, Client - Reverend Emmon Smith

Attorney Don Fitzgerald from Crabtree & Associates  

Attorney J.B. Harris 

Attorney Carlos Santisteban, Jr. from Carlos Santisteban, Jr. PA

Emmon Smith, a Marianna minister started smoking at age 13 in 1944.  He tried numerous times to quit but was unsuccessful until 1992 when he was diagnosed with lung cancer, had his left lung removed and was advised by his doctors that smoking had caused his disease.  Mr. Smith filed the lawsuit in 2009 as an Engle progeny case named for a disbanded statewide class action named after a Miami Beach pediatrician who was the lead plaintiff in the class action 2007 lawsuit filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court.  He filed the lawsuit on the grounds that he was addicted and diagnosed with a smoking-related disease.

Tobacco companies have known since 1953 of a causal relationship between smoking and lung disease but did not acknowledge a connection until 2000.

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U.S. District Court Southern District of Florida has held that Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) be covered by Medicaid - Link to Permanent Injunction order included

MIAMI - In a precedent-setting victory for the rights of all children with autism who are insured by Medicaid, Judge Joan Lenard of the U.S. District Court Southern District of Florida has held that Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA), a proven and highly effective treatment of children with autism, be covered by Medicaid.

CLICK HERE TO SEE PERMANENT INJUNCTION ORDER

The Court ruled in favor of the three plaintiffs in the case. K.G., a five-year-old Florida Medicaid recipient suffering with autism and two other plaintiffs ages two and five, were denied ABA treatment by the State of Florida, on the grounds that it was an ‘unproven treatment.’ K.G. was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) at approximately 19 months of age, after his mother, Iliana Garrido began noticing signs of significant regression in K.G.’s development. These signs included: the inability to verbally communicate, avoiding eye contact, the inability to eat solid foods, extreme irritability, hyperactivity, incessant screaming, aggression, and frequent tantrums.

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CLASS ACTION SUIT ALLEGING WELLS FARGO AND QBE INSURANCE PROFITED FROM ‘FORCE-PLACED’ INSURANCE SCHEME

MIAMI– On February 21, 2012, United States District Judge, Robert N. Scola, Jr. certified a class of Florida borrowers who had insurance forced placed upon their homes by Wells Fargo, where plaintiffs alleged that Wells Fargo Bank and QBE Specialty Insurance Company contrived a scheme to artificially inflate the premiums charged to homeowners for force-placed insurance on property, after the homeowners self-placed insurance policies had lapsed.

“We have discovered more than 20,000 insurance policies that were force-placed by Wells Fargo and QBE from 2009 to 2011 in the State of Florida,” said Lance A. Harke of Harke Clasby & Bushman LLP (www.harkeclasby.com). “This scheme to inflate and profit from force-placed insurance is a clear violation of Florida law and affects our State’s most vulnerable and disadvantaged homeowners,” said Harke.

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ROTHSTEIN PONZI SCHEME CASE AGAINST BARRY BEKKEDAM DISMISSED

Harvey Gurland

Matthew Taylor

MIAMI—February 15, 2012—Barry R. Bekkedam and Ballamor Capital Management announced today that all claims asserted against Bekkedam and Ballamor in the Scott Rothstein multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme case have been dismissed by investors.  Bekkedam and Ballamor were represented by Matthew Taylor of Philadelphia and Harvey Gurland of Miami, from Duane Morris LLP.

The plaintiff-investors’ claims in the Rothstein case arise from their loss of monies invested in what has now been revealed to be the largest Ponzi scheme in Florida history, created and run by attorney Scott Rothstein of Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  Rothstein enticed investors to invest in confidential settlements that his law firm, Rothstein, Rosenfeldt, Adler, had supposedly negotiated for plaintiffs, who purportedly were Rothstein clients in sexual harassment and labor employment cases.  Rothstein’s elaborate scheme made it appear that hundreds of millions of dollars in settlement funds were on deposit in local banks when in fact they were not.  He offered investors the opportunity to invest in these supposed settlements using the ruse that the plaintiffs in the underlying civil lawsuits would be willing to take a discounted amount in return for not having to wait months to receive their funds. 

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$19 Million Judgment Reversed in Florida Third District Court of Appeal

Jane Kreusler-Walsh

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.  – Appellate attorney Jane Kreusler-Walsh led a team of attorneys to win an appeal of a $19 million summary judgment against guarantors of two multi-million dollar construction loans.  Attorneys at West Palm Beach-based Kreusler-Walsh, Compiani & Vargas, with Miami-based Payton & Associates, argued successfully against attorneys, including White & Case’s Raoul Cantero, that the trial court erred in ruling that the guarantors had waived all defenses to liability under the guaranties. 

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Texting-While-Driving Death Case in South Florida Reaches $8.8 Million Verdict

Dr. David Strayer

Tragic Accident Caused By Teenage Driver Reinforces Why National Transportation Officials Want to Ban Cellular Phone Use in Cars

MIAMI  - A Miami-Dade County jury recently awarded more than $8.8 million to the family of a Miami-Dade County wife and mother who was tragically killed in September 2008 when a teenage driver collided into the passenger's side of the family car. Attorneys Alan Goldfarb and Rick Gunion represented the husband and two children of the deceased.

Myriam del Socorro Lopez was a passenger sitting next to her husband when 17-year-old Luis Cruz-Govin slammed his father's Subaru into the couple's car. Lopez was killed.
Evidence in the case showed that Govin was driving between 61 and 69 mph in a 40 mile per hour speed zone and was also texting at the time the crash occurred.  The texting records obtained showed an outgoing text from the driver to his girlfriend at 8:19 pm and the paramedics were first notified of the accident at 8:21 pm.

Dr. David Strayer, a nationally known texting and distracting driving expert testified during the trial as to the effects of driving and texting.    Dr. Strayer's research includes the phenomenon known as inattention blindness that can affect drivers who are texting  or who are anticipating the next text.

The $8.8 million verdict was awarded as compensatory damages to the husband and two children and also as personal injury damages to the husband who was also in the family vehicle at the time of the accident.

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Poor E-Discovery compared to standup comic who delivers the punch-lines of his jokes first

From the Legal Times Blog - The now famous Lamberth Opinion. Here is an excerpt:

I. Introduction

Imagine a standup comic who delivers the punch-lines of his jokes first, a plane with landing gear that deploys just after touchdown, or a stick of dynamite with a unique fuse that ignites only after it explodes. That’s what document production after trial is like—it defeats the purpose. Yet, the District’s Motion would have this Court bless its decision to violate multiple Court orders, ignore the Federal Rules’ carefully calibrated discovery apparatus, and produce thousands of responsive e-mails after trial ended. A discovery violation of this exotic magnitude is literally unheard of in this Court, and when—on the first day of trial—the District’s plan was revealed, this Court held that the District had waived objections (including privileges) with regard to all of the unproduced e-mail and ordered it to produce them all within one week of the Case 1:05-cv-01437-RCL Document 247-1 Filed 05/09/11 Page 1 of 182 close of trial. Before the Court now is the District’s Motion to reconsider that Order. After exploring the relevant aspects of this case’s factual background, the Court will explain its reasons for denying the District’s Motion...

Read the full opinion here:
legaltimes.typepad.com/files/lamberth-opinion.pdf

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Legal Complaint Claims Songwriter Owed Licensing Fees For San Diego Chargers Fight Song

MIAMI - April 13, 2011 -  Richard Wolfe, an attorney with Ehrenstein Charbonneau Calderín (ECC), has filed in a lawsuit in Miami Dade Circuit Court on behalf of songwriter Bobby Kent (f/k/a Ira Brandwein) and Hollbrand Music Publishers against the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) involving one of the most popular fight songs in history (Case #10815CA21).

The ASCAP is a performing rights society that collects licensing fees derived from the public performances of the compositions of its contracting members, and later disbursing the contractually agreed-to share of the collected funds.

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