Miami Teachers Lawsuit

As a result of budget cuts implemented by the Broward County School Board, the board has changed its policy on teacher retirement extensions to prohibit the practice and effectively leaving some teachers without a job. Some of the teachers have hired attorneys and began the process of filing a lawsuit.

Some 32 of the affected teachers had applied and been approved for the extensions much earlier in the school year and as a result had made crucial life plans based on the belief that they would be employed.

The wife of comatose former Dallas Cowboys running back Ron Springs filed a medical malpractice suit in state district court Tuesday claiming gross negligence by the anesthesiologist and plastic surgeon involved in an October surgery to remove a cyst from her husband's left forearm.

Springs suffered a heart attack during the surgery at Medical City Dallas Hospital and has been in a coma ever since.

Attorney Les Weisbrod, who is representing Adriane Springs in the lawsuit, said he is still gathering evidence and could eventually include the hospital in the suit. He said it could take two years before the case comes to trial.

The anesthesiologist, Joyce Abraham, was described by Weisbrod as "a rookie" who had been practicing for three months.

She did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.

A receptionist at the office of plastic surgeon Dr. David Godat at Medical City, said he was "not interested" in discussing the case.

Details of the suit were revealed at a news conference at the George L. Allen Sr. court building. Mrs. Springs sat alongside her stepson, Shawn Springs, a member of teh Washington Redskins, not far from her husband’s former teammate Everson Walls.

"I know and my family knows he would want us to do this," Mrs. Springs said referring to her 51-year-old husband who remains at Medical City.

Ron Springs and Everson Walls made national headlines last February when Springs received a kidney from Walls in a transplant at Medical City.

Springs returned to the hospital on Oct. 12 for a follow-up day surgery to remove a cyst, described as being one centimeter by two centimeters. It was a requirement before going under an additional surgery in hopes of reversing a muscle problem that affected his arms and hands.

"He just wanted to get it done," Walls said.

Weisbrod said a follow-up lawsuit will be filed in federal court to challenge Texas' $250,000 cap for pain and suffering in malpractice awards.

Sex Discrimination Lawsuit Against Cigna Corp

A Cigna Corp employee has filed a sex discrimination lawsuit against the leading health insurer in the U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts, claiming $100 million in damages for gender bias and violation of US Civil Rights Act.

The plaintiff, Bretta Karp, a veteran of 14 years with Cigna Healthcare Inc, claims that the Philadelphia-based health insurer denied her a well-deserved promotion alleging that she "came across as too aggressive" in a job interview, following which she lodged her complaint but was rather punished and stripped of her duties of managing the Vermont market.

Wal Mart Lawsuit Class Action Limitations Used In Comcast Lawsuit Stragety

Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) and Amgen Inc. are to ask the U.S. Supreme Court today to further limit class actions following a decision last year in the landmark Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) discrimination case that restricted such group litigation.

In 2011, the court rejected class certification for a lawsuit brought on behalf of more than 1.5 million female workers alleging discrimination in pay and promotions at Wal- Mart, the world’s largest retailer (WMT). The justices, dividing 5-4, said the women failed to point to a common corporate policy that led to discrimination, preventing them from suing as a group.

Plaintiffs often seek to sue as a class to pool resources against wealthy corporate defendants, gaining leverage to force a settlement or win at trial. The ruling in Wal-Mart v. Dukes, cited in a series of lower-court decisions -- most favoring companies -- will influence the Supreme Court’s view of the antitrust class action facing Comcast and the securities fraud class action involving Amgen, said Gerald Maatman Jr., of Seyfarth Shaw in Chicago.

“Dukes is the 800-pound gorilla in the courtroom,” Maatman, a lawyer who represents defendants in class actions, said in an interview. “Between June 2011 and Dec. 31, 2011, there were 260 rulings in state and federal court applying Wal- Mart.” Since then, at least 800 more cases have cited the case, he said. “There has been no hesitation by courts to apply Wal- Mart to other types of class actions.”

Steeper Road
While some decisions citing Wal-Mart have allowed class actions to survive, the road for plaintiffs has become steeper, said Deborah Hensler, a law professor at Stanford Law School in California.

The Wal-Mart decision “is making it more and more difficult to certify class actions,” she said. “You need to prove a lot about the merits at the certification stage.”

This requirement may lead to a reversal of class certification in one of the two cases being argued today before the Supreme Court, she said.

“Comcast is the next step on the road after Wal-Mart,” she said.

Comcast, the nation’s largest cable company, is trying to stop an antitrust lawsuit that seeks $875 million on behalf of as many as 2 million Philadelphia-area customers.

The company contends a federal judge improperly certified the case as a class-action lawsuit without first resolving whether proof of damages could be determined for the plaintiffs as a group. A Philadelphia-based federal appeals court let the case go forward.

Comcast Case
The Comcast case “could be very significant if the court decides that plaintiffs always need to prove common injury through admissible evidence” before a class can be certified, said Michael Waterstone, a law professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

“In antitrust, that’s going to make it very expensive” to pursue such claims, he said.

Courts are already requiring pre-certification evidentiary hearings, Hensler said.

In the past,