The latest 401(k) lawsuit brought by the firm for the protection of employees and retirees has been the subject of numerous news articles. On behalf of Ameriprise employees and retirees, Schlichter, Bogard & Denton has filed a lawsuit against Ameriprise accusing the financial planning power house of self-dealing and breach of fiduciary duties under ERISA.
Firm partner Nelson G. Wolff's letter to the National Mariners Association was published in the Association's newsletter to call attention to the details surrounding an important maritime injury case settled by Wolff.
Schlichter Bogard & Denton is gaining national recognition in employee benefits circles. The firm was noticed by the New York Times Oct. 14 for filing a lawsuit against Ameriprise Financial Inc., the largest employer of certified financial employers in the country.
A study published in the British Medical Journal on October 25, 2011 confirms that Yaz, Yasmin and Ocella are at least twice more likely to cause dangerous blood clots than other types of birth control pills.
Late last month, six people, including one current employee, sued Ameriprise Financial, accusing it of stuffing its 401(k) plan with expensive, underperforming mutual funds that came from the company’s own investment management arm. The law firm behind the suit, Schlichter, Bogard & Denton, in St. Louis, now inspires fear and dread in employee benefits circles, since the suit is one of several it has filed against a variety of companies.
In what could be one of the largest verdicts in Grady County in recent history, a jury awarded Plaintiff Terrie L. Smith, Chickasha, $1.75 million for lost earning capacity and medical bills from a March 2009 accident.
Yaz, Yasmin, and Ocella also pose an increased risk of gallbladder disease as
compared to other common birth control pills.
DePuy has released the following statement to the public:
"Data recently received by the company shows that more people than expected who received the ASR Hip System experienced pain and other symptoms that led to a second hip replacement surgery, called a revision surgery. For this reason, DePuy Orthopaedics is voluntarily recalling its ASR(tm) XL Acetabular System and DePuy ASR(tm) Hip Resurfacing System. This recall means additional testing and treatment may be necessary to ensure the hip is functioning well. In some cases, patients may need additional surgery."
LOS ANGELES Energy company Edison International violated its duty of prudence under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act by offering three retail mutual funds as investment options in its 401(k) plan rather than their less costly institutional option equivalents, a Los Angeles federal judge has ruled.
Yaz®/Yasmin®/Ocella®
The newest birth control litigation involves Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals who is the manufacturer of Yaz® and Yasmin® birth control pills and Barr Laboratories and Teva Pharmaceuticals who are now the manufacturers of Ocella®, the generic form of Yasmin. In November 2009, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPMDL) granted a petition filed by plaintiffs and created a Yaz®/Yasmin® multidistrict litigation (MDL). All pending cases and all future lawsuits filed in the federal court system will be centralized for discovery purposes in the Southern District of Illinois before Judge David R. Herndon.
A 4 mph jolt translated into a $3.18 million verdict for a Burlington Northern engineer who injured his back. A unanimous St. Louis County jury made the award to John Walsh after a four-day trial. Walsh was injured when another train struck the one he was working on.
Recently, the Missouri Court of Appeals affirmed a jury verdict in the amount of $27 million with pre and post judgment interest that Schlichter Bogard & Denton obtained for Angela Martin, widow of St. Louis firefighter Derek Martin, and their three children. Partner Jerry Schlichter tried the case. The Missouri Supreme Court also upheld the verdict, declining further review of the case. In January 2010, the verdict was paid in full with pre and post judgment interest for a total amount of $40.4 million.
LITTLE ROCK - A former worker at the Tyson plant in Pine Bluff who sued the manufacturer of poultry processing equipment after being injured was awarded $1.35 million by a federal court jury at Little Rock Friday.
Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy program, petitioned the FDA asking that it pull Ortho Evra from the market.
An injured railroad worker has reached a nearly $2.3 million settlement with Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Co. in St. Louis City Circuit Court.
Timothy Sorrell, a railroad trackman, was injured on November 1, 1999 when the dump truck he was driving for his employer, Norfolk Southern Railway Company, was forced off a county road by a worker driving a truck. Mr. Sorrell's truck, filled with 15 pounds of asphalt, rolled off the road causing him to sustain neck and back injuries. We tried Mr. Sorrell's case in the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis and a jury awarded Mr. Sorrell $1.5 Million in damages on November 7, 2003.
In one of the first railroad cases to reach trial since the state changed its tort laws, a $1.05 million jury verdict has attorneys split on how St. Louis County will handle a deluge of corporate injury cases.
In June of 2007, Schlichter Bogard & Denton, in a case handled by Nelson Wolff, obtained a settlement valued at approximately $700,000 for Chief towboat engineer Charles Blaine, Jr., who suffered back injuries while working for Bluegrass Marine.
Joseph Hulen was a deckhand for American Commercial Barge Lines (ACBL) on a tow boat when he was killed on November 2, 2002. He was survived by his parents. Joe had hoped to follow in his father's footsteps as an engineer. The incident occurred on the Ohio River, between Illinois and Kentucky. Joe was knocked into the river when a coiled line got tangled and knocked him into the Ohio River. He was crushed while in the river between the boat and a barge while being held by another employee due to a delayed rescue attempt.
A $4.5 million settlement has been reached in the case of a Union Pacific railroad employee who suffered severe injuries, including an above-the-knee amputation of his leg, when he became trapped beneath the wheel of a locomotive and dragged for 20 feet or more.
In January, Partner Nelson G. Wolff won a verdict in the City of St. Louis, Shepherd v. Union Pacific, on behalf of a conductor who fell and suffered foot injuries while walking down the steps inside his locomotive. The engine, like many engines in service in North America, was not equipped with hand rails or grab irons. The railroad claimed that since the FRA did not require handrails to be installed, it did not need to install any device to protect workers, even though it knew that some workers would slip and could avoid injury if a handhold were provided. The railroad also accused its employee of causing his own injuries by failing to keep a careful lookout. The jury's verdict exceeded $700,000.
Influence can flow from the financial resources to buy a competitor or create and market a new product. It can stem from a new idea that is — or will be — widely adopted or authoring a piece of legislation that changes the industry. It can also be as simple as holding the respect of one's peers so one's ideas can be widely spread and acted upon.
BOSTON, Dec 3 (Reuters) - A U.S. court has granted class-action status to a lawsuit filed by employees and retirees of a unit of Swiss engineering group ABB Ltd against the firm and two units of Fidelity Investments, a law firm said on Monday.
On September 19, 2007, after a 4½ week trial, Schlichter Bogard & Denton obtained a jury verdict in the amount of $27 Million for Angela Martin, widow of St. Louis firefighter Derek Martin, and their three children in a case tried in St. Louis by Jerry Schlichter and assisted by Brad Wilmoth. The $27 Million verdict consisted of $12 Million in compensatory damages to the family and $15 Million for punitive damages against Survivair Respirators, Inc. and Bacou-Dalloz, S.A. The punitive damages were assessed for aggravating circumstances to punish the companies for their conduct and deter future misconduct. The jury found defendants 100% at fault.
On December 22, 2005 the FDA issued a recall of Composix Kugel Mesh Patches used to repair ventral (incisional) hernias. Kugel Mesh Patches are manufactured by Davol, Inc., a subsidiary of C.R. Bard, Inc. The Kugel Mesh Patches were recalled because the "memory recoil ring" that opens the Patch can break after it has been inserted in the intra-abdominal (inside the belly area) space. This can lead to serious injuries, including bowel perforations and/or chronic intestinal problems, including abnormal connections between the intestines and other organs. Since the date of the initial recall, it has been determined that additional manufactured lots of the Patches were also defective and therefore, the recall notice has been expanded on multiple occasions, with the most recent recall date of January 10, 2007. Davol, Inc. has notified surgeons and hospitals to stop using the recalled products and return unused units to the company. The FDA has issued warnings to patients who have been implanted with these recalled devices to seek immediate medical attention if they experience symptoms that could be associated with ring breakage such as unexplained or persistent abdominal pain, fever, tenderness at the implant site or other unusual symptoms.
In a major victory for railroad workers nationwide in the U.S. Supreme Court, Schlichter Bogard & Denton was successful in preserving the favorable law on causation of injuries to railroad workers. In a recent ruling, the Supreme Court adopted the arguments made by our firm in ruling that the FELA law for injured railroad workers should not be changed to be more restrictive to those workers.
The days of the overpriced 401(k)-type retirement plan are numbered. The word is out. Congress will soon hold hearings on program expenses, and the U.S. Labor Department will issue guidelines on making fees more transparent.
Fidelity Investments is the latest target of what has become a growing number of lawsuits filed against 401(k) retirement plans alleging that participants were charged improper, undisclosed and excessive fees.
True or false: Your 401(k) plan is costing you more than $1,000 a year. If you can't answer that question you're like a lot of Americans.
ST. LOUIS - Schlichter Bogard & Denton announces that it is investigating potential claims for injuries related to the use of a particular type of blood pressure medicine, called ACE inhibitors, during the first trimester of pregnancy. ACE inhibitors available in the United States include: captopril (Capoten), benazepril (Lotensin), enalapril (Vasotec), lisinopril (Prinivil, Zestril) fosinopril (Monopril), ramipril (Altace), perindopril (Aceon), quinapril (Accupril), moexipril (Univasc), and trandolapril (Mavik).
St. Louis could become a major player in nationwide legal action involving Raritan, N.J.-based drug maker Ortho-McNeil, following claims that the company's Ortho Evra birth-control patch may have caused blood clot problems and other serious side effects in users.
The popular contracreptive Ortho Evra is the target of seven product liability suits filed by women claiming the drug maker failed to warn them about the risk of developing blood clots.
ST. LOUIS - On December 16, 2005 Ms. Bintha Lewis, the guardian and representative of the estate of minor Ashley Lewis, deceased, filed a lawsuit in the St. Louis City Circuit Court against Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson, Inc. along with Miss Lewis' St. Louis City medical doctors and two St. Louis City medical facilities in regard to the death of Miss Lewis as a result of using the Ortho Evra Birth Control Patch. The suit was brought by the firm of Schlichter Bogard & Denton in St. Louis. At the time of her death, Miss Lewis was seventeen years old and had a one year old child.
On May 13, 2005, an Illinois Federal Court ordered American Commercial Barge Line, LLC. (ACBL) to pay almost $710,000 to Dennis Shreve for back injuries he suffered from a work related injury in November of 2002. Shreve, 43, of Hartford, Kentucky, was working as a mate crewed to the M/V TOM FRAZIER when he injured his back while attempting to "jerk" slack out of a steel wire at a "high-low coupling" after passing through a lock on the Mississippi River at Winfield, Missouri. The judgment is believed to be the largest ever against a barge company involving this work practice, which was described by ACBL at trial as "customary" and "ordinary" in the maritime industry.
Claudine Wilfong, 36, managed a rent-to-own appliance store in Arnold, Missouri. Renters Choice, Inc., acquired her store and approximately 1,400 others and began operating them as Rent-A-Center stores in 1998. Wilfong noticed that the company's atmosphere changed markedly immediately after the takeover. Managers told women — but not men — that they would have to deliver heavy appliances by themselves rather than in pairs, and demanded that female employees clean restrooms because, they said, "It's women's work." When her supervisor ordered Wilfong to fire a female employee on a pretense, she refused, and quit her job.
A St. Louis jury awarded $1.5 million in damages on Nov. 7 to a railroad trackman that suffered injuries to his neck and spine after his dump truck rolled over.
Thousands of Women to Receive Money and Jobs, New Human Resources Department to be Created
Jerome Schlichter and his six-lawyer St. Louis law firm have amassed quite a courtroom record over the past two years — 12 jury trials against railroad companies and 12 victories.
When an unhinged metal flag smacked conductor Greg Haskin in the head, his employer, Union Pacific Corp., dismissed the injury as a superficial scalp wound.
A jury in Wichita awarded a Junction City resident more than $800,000 on Monday for injuries caused while working for Union Pacific Railroad.
A St. Louis City Circuit Court jury recently awarded a Missouri resident $2.975 million against a trucking company, whose truck caused an accident that injured him and ended his career.
ST. LOUIS, Mo. - An incident that left one man dead and another seriously injured in Paragould on. Aug. 18, 2000, was settled by a trial jury Friday in the. St. Louis, Mo., Circuit Court.
St Louis law firm, Schlichter Bogard & Denton, receive top 3 railroad injury verdicts.
"It's kind of like a tug of war – the other side lets go unexpectedly so you fall backwards," described Richard Zalasky, an attorney for an injured railroad switchman who recently received a $1.6 million award from a St. Louis jury.
Thomas Ramsey, 52, an engineer for the railroad, fell on the ice on the platform of a locomotive and seriously injured his back.
American Commercial Barge Line Company (ACBL) is seeking a new trial after a jury returned major verdict against the company in a lawsuit involving towboat manning.
Rent A Center Inc., a consumer rental company headquartered in Plano, Texas, faces a $410 million lawsuit, accusing the firm of discrimination.
This week a federal judge is expected to approve the largest settlement ever reached in the metropolitan area in a racial discrimination suit.
A $1.9 million judgment has been handed down by a Scotts Bluff County District Court jury for a former Union Pacific engineer who was injured on the job.
ST.LOUIS, Mo. - The Missouri Supreme Court has upheld a jury's verdict that awarded Kenneth C. Holley just over $1 million against Union Pacific Railroad for injuries received Jan. 2, 1990 in a Little Rock, Ark., shop.
A St. Louis City jury awarded $4.1 million to a Clinton, Iowa, locomotive engineer who was injured in a slow-motion train derailment.
Lawyers in a national sex discrimination class-action suit against Rent-A-Center Inc. announced on Thursday that they have reached a tentative settlement with the Plano, Texas, company.
ST. LOUIS - Attorneys for more than 5,000 women in a national multi-million dollar sex discrimination class action suit and the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today announced that they have reached a tentative settlement in principle with national rent-to-own chain, Rent-A-Center.
A Scotts Bluff District Court jury Thursday awarded a Morrill man $900,000 for an injury he sustained in 1994 while working for Union Pacific Railroad.
ST.LOUIS, Mo. - A jury in St. Louis has awarded $1.7 Million to injured railroad conductor, Tommy Calloway. The Jury reached the verdict after a one week trial which ended Friday.
MORE THAN 100 Missourians — including residents of Times Beach, the town shut down by the U.S. government three years ago — have been awarded $19 million in a tentative settlement of three dioxin-contamination suits.