After a 14 year legal battle, Feld Entertainment Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus reached a settlement collecting $15.75 million from the Humane Society of the United States and multiple other animal rights groups. The long running litigation suit was based on allegations that Ringling Circus was mistreating elephants. The extraordinary legal case evolved into a costly embarrassment for some of the nation’s leading animal rights organizations. Read More
Category Archives: Settlements
Vibram to Foot the Bill on Multi-Million Dollar Lawsuit
Approximately 70 million Americans purchased a pair of those “weird looking barefoot running shoes”, which retail for around $100 per pair. Vibram, the company behind FiveFingers shoes, just settled a $3.75 million class action lawsuit over false health claims made. The Huffington Post states, “The thin-soled, flexible shoes are said to mimic the experience of running in bare feet, and thus “improve foot health” — an unsupported claim the company falsely advertised”. Vibram claimed several health benefits of the barefoot running experience such as stronger foot and leg muscles, improved range of motion, improved posture, and several others. Experts have now said that barefoot running can actually negatively impact foot health. Read More
Another Lawsuit Lands On The NFL’s Desk
On May 20, 2014, more than 600 former NFL players filed a lawsuit against the NFL, according to the Associated Press. The players stated they were abetted by team trainers and physicians to often take illegal narcotics and pain killers. They would do this on game days so they would make the pain they were going through. Among the painkillers were Percodan, Percocet, and Vicodin, and sleep aides such as Ambien. The lead attorney, Steven Silverman, states these drugs were “handed out like candy on Halloween.”
J.K. Rowling Sues The Daily Mail
As the Harry Potter author, J.K. Rowling, rose to fame over her hit book and movie series, rumors surrounding her earlier life became a hot topic in multiple news sources. Some of these sources speculated on how Ms. Rowling began writing the series, questioning if she actually wrote the series on napkins in cafes. Other sources, however, speculated about her personal life as they reported on her previous relationships and life as single mother. One such source that publicly discussed her single-parenthood was the British newspaper, Daily Mail, who published an article on September 27, 2013 suggesting that Ms. Rowling “told a false ‘sob story’ about being stigmatised by churchgoers” (BBC, 2014). The Daily Mail’s report was in response to an article that Ms. Rowling posted on Gingerbread charity’s website (www.gingerbread.org.uk) about her realities of being a single parent. Read More
Amazon Workers Subjected to Short Lunch Breaks
A lawsuit was filed in federal court last week against the popular online retailer, Amazon. The details of the suit claim, “company’s workplace policies don’t leave them with reasonable time to eat their lunches”. South Carolina employees state they were required to continue working, even when their scheduled 30 minutes break began. Once they got through the mandatory security screen and sat down with their lunch, they were left with all of 18 minutes or less to enjoy their lunch breaks. The complaint states that workers are unable to have a comfortable mealtime. Read More