Author Archives: Lawyer Team

About Lawyer Team

This blog scans breaking news to find significant and interesting legal settlements. Lawyer.com is a directory website for lawyers. Featuring the best search in its field, lawyer.com connects people who need legal advice to the most qualified professionals who can provide it.

Women Seeking Relief from Menopause Get Breast Cancer

Cool down

Hot flashes, night sweats, abnormal periods, and breast cancer: everything a woman can look forward to during menopause.  That is, if the woman was prescribed Prempro, a drug designed to relieve menopause symptoms.  Ten thousand women have sued Pfizer for overemphasizing the benefits of Prempro and failing to advise customers of the risks.  Pfizer has already settled with 6,000 women for $896 million since 2006 and has put aside $330 million for the remaining 4,000 women who have filed suit.

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Happy Day for Former Sitcom Cast

TV turnaround

Queue the jukebox: the ol’ gang just got an increase in allowance.

Happy Days actors Anson Williams, Don Most, Marion Ross, Erin Moran, and the estate of the late Tom Bosley have settled with CBS and Paramount over a contract dispute from April, 2011.  Potsie and co. believed they had not received proper royalties for the sales of Happy Days merchandising that used their images, including comic books, T-shirts, and trading cards.  (Yes, nearly three decades after Happy Days aired its last episode, they still make comic books and trading cards with the characters.)  The actors’ contracts included clauses that gave 5% of proceeds from any merchandise holding their image and 2.5% if they’re shown as a group, but they claim that CBS and Paramount never included merchandise figures in revenue statements provided to the actors.  CBS and Paramount’s counterclaim was that, under a separate agreement with the Screen Actors Guild, the companies were allowed to use images from the show to promote sales of DVDs without paying the actors any extra royalties.

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Concussion Lawsuit may be the New England Patriots of Lawsuit Cases

Ominous metaphor

It can be assumed that one who takes part in violent activity is at risk of permanent injury.  In many cases, however, the reward is well worth the occupational health risks. This is a justification that can be seen as far back as Roman Gladiators, who won riches and celebrations across the Empire for their successes despite facing certain death for their failures.  The same holds true today, where aside from stunt drivers or Chris Brown’s girlfriend, a professional football player might be the most dangerous gig in the entertainment industry.  The shelf life of an NFL player, especially those at positions prone to poundings (such as running back), is only a few years. Players who have spent their lives honing their craft are given a very small timeframe to cash in on their talent and to position themselves financially for the future. Even if a player remains healthy, fatigue and athletic decline can be seen by the age of 30. Just ask the guy who drafts Chad Ochocinco in your fantasy league this year.

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Rabbi Takes A Sabbatical To Jail

Hung out to dry

Rabbi Mordchai Fish, of Brooklyn, New York, has been sentenced to 46 months in prison for laundering nearly a million dollars.  In early 2008, Fish accepted checks to charities in New York and New Jersey from admitted Ponzi schemer and FBI informant Solomon Dwek.  The charities, including Boyoner Gemilas Chesed, Beth Pinchas, and Levovous, are called “gemachs”, groups intended to give money to people in need.  Instead, the cash went straight back to Dwek, freshly laundered, with Fish keeping a nice 10% commission for himself in the process.  Too bad Dwek was wired up and handing Fish bait money provided by the FBI.  Over two years, Fish and Dwek, with the latter informing all the while, laundered more than $900,000, a crime punishable by a maximum 20 years in prison and fines up to $200,000.  Fish swam by the recommended 57-month sentence from Judge Joel Pisano, receiving a lower sentence because of his work in the Orthodox community.

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Anthrax Settles With Ex-Singer, Shreds Original Request

Musical mishap

Anthrax members Charlie Benante, Frank Bello, and frequent VH1 panelist Scott Ian found themselves caught in a mosh in 2009 when Dan Nelson sued the group for some inaccurate statements they made after his departure from the band.  The band  published that an illness had caused the singer to leave and the band to cancel an upcoming concert tour.  Nelson pursued a $2.65 million lawsuit to refute Anthrax’s “intentional defamation” and collect lost royalties.  “I was never seriously ill or sick at all, as reported in Anthrax’s 7/17/09 press release,” said Nelson. “This statement misled fans, friends, and family members into believing that I was seriously ill when I was not.”  To settle the suit, Nelson was offered a confidential, yet “fairly small”, monetary amount and was given co-writing credit on 11 of the 14 songs on the band’s 2011 release Worship Music.