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.

Celebrity Chef Pays $5.25 Million in Confiscated Tips to Workers

A pile of delicious spaghetti (representative of but not actually Batali’s, though)

Celebrity chef Mario Batali has settled with his disgruntled workers over allegations he skimmed 4-5% of servers’ tips at the end of every night at his high-profile restaurants.  The employees claimed that they were not paid overtime when they worked for over 10 hours and that Batali took the tip money to pay the salaries of sommeliers at his other New York restaurants.  The settlement comes in the wake of an overhaul of New York wage laws, which one lawyer connected with the case said made the circumstances “ambiguous”.  Overall, tip-skimming is illegal, and restaurant owners need only follow the guidelines set by the New York legislature to avoid similar lawsuits.

I went to one of these restaurants a few years ago as part of a company morale type of thing at my old job.  The food was pretty good, but not exactly worth the money paid for it.  I guess it’s more about the name at the front of the restaurant than the meal itself.  But anyway, between 20 or so people, the bill turned out to be more than $1,000 with wine and whatnot, if I recall correctly, and probably more knowing my old boss.  A 20% tip on that would be $200, and 5% of that would be $10 going to Batali’s sommeliers.  It seems like a pittance to file a lawsuit over when you look at it localized like this, but compounded over however many hundreds of meals are served per day over five years and between at least eight restaurants, this number becomes astounding.  If the tip-skimming was truly as widespread as the plaintiffs alleged, Batali should be thankful that he only had to pay $5.25 million.

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$500,000 Awarded in California Sexual Harassment Settlement

Justice

Burt Legal, a law office out of Ventura, California, announced today that it has won a judgment on behalf of its client, Kristine Avalos, for $429,779 in a sexual harassment suit.    Ms. Avalos alleged that her former employer willingly maintained a hostile work environment, forcing her to endure inappropriate and demoralizing verbal attacks, often of a sexual nature.  When she complained, the company fired her.  The lawsuit, headed by lawyer Joshua A. Burt, sought damages for wrongful termination, discrimination, and emotional trauma caused by the abusive employment.  Today’s announcement signals a victory for the downtrodden everywhere.

Lawyer.com is proud to list Burt Legal among its premium respected lawyers, and we congratulate them on their victory.  To find out more about the firm, visit their page at lawyer.com, or visit their website here.

How Prevalent Are Ponzi Schemes?

Ponzi schemes are difficult to unravel, not unlike a billion-piece puzzle.

Ponzi schemes have been in the news recently, but not for bad reasons.  Specifically, proposed and confirmed settlements of three big ponzi schemers have been reached with some of their victims.  The victims of Earl Jones, a convicted Québécois schemer who swindled an estimated $40 million from 150 people, have settled in a class action suit with his bank for about $18 million.  The late Kenneth Wayne McLeod, whose Capital Analysts Inc. group stole $34 million mostly from federal agents and policemen, has proposed settlement for an undisclosed amount with 140 investors (though not without some suspicion, as noted in that article).  And perhaps biggest of all, though not Madoff-big, is Scott Rothstein, the big-mouthed Florida lawyer whose Charlie-Sheen-esque ramblings during a deposition were something of a pop culture phenomenon last year.  He made off with $1.2 billion of investors’ money, with his bank recently settling for $170 million for its part in the scheme.

While reading this, I became curious as to how prevalent these Ponzi schemes are.  Presumably after Bernie Madoff made headlines with his $65 billion scheme, duping even high-profile celebrities and financial leaders, people would be more aware of what they were doing with their money.  However, Ponzi schemers are just as active as ever.  This list on Wikipedia shows 32 caught Ponzi schemers in the last decade alone — some with schemes going back ten years or more.  Just think about how many are perpetrating a fraud right now.

Read on to learn about common investment fraud tactics after the jump.

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Harley-Davidson Given the Boot

Motorcycle

The motorcycle company Harley-Davidson has settled a suit with the estate of Marlon Brando over the unlicensed use of the iconic actor’s name.  Apparently, Harley-Davidson produced and sold a boot called the “Brando” which resembled the footwear worn by the actor in the 1953 film The Wild One.  The details of the settlement are not public.  What came over the Harley-Davidson company to think selling clothing called “Brando” would be a good idea?  They license their own name for $43.2 million a year — surely they must know how copyright works.  Perhaps they thought they could fly a little closer to the sun this time, though this writer asks: is nothing sacred?

Read more at Reuters

Two Recent Negligence Settlements from Public Service Mistakes

Justice

Everyone makes mistakes, even those whose sworn mission is to protect and serve or to do no harm.  Two settlements were announced this week that demonstrate exactly that.  In Brooklyn, New York, a woman whose doctors’ negligence resulted in the amputation of her arms and legs was awarded $17.1 million.  In Tallahassee, Florida, the negligence of the police concerning a woman who was murdered during a botched drug sting operation led to a $2.4 million settlement for her family.  In both these cases, the professionals in charge, the ones whose judgement is awarded a certain amount of trust, made bad decisions that led to unfortunate consequences.  Everyone makes mistakes, but the law in general isn’t there to prevent that.  Rather, the law and the court system are intended to pursue justice among an otherwise ambivalent world.  And so, the silver lining: in Florida, a new regulation, called “Rachel’s Law” after the woman in question, was enacted to train policemen better and set up new guidelines in the use of criminal informants.

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