Law

NEWS - Law

SBJ Staff Report

Nov 28, 2011 - United States residents who suffered bladder cancer after taking Actos – the nation’s top selling diabetes drug – may have a legal right to pursue financial compensation, according to Girard Gibbs LLP, a national ligitation firm.  Many users of Actos who have contracted bladder cancer or suffered other symptoms have already filed cases or retained attorneys to protect their rights.

On Thursday, December 1, a multi-district legislation panel in Savannah will hear arguments that will determine the Court where the Federal cases will be coordinated.  The arguments are being heard in Savannah because

Girard Gibbs LLP, with offices in New York and San Francisco, recently filed a federal Actos bladder cancer lawsuit against Takeda Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly and Company. The lawsuit follows an FDA Actos safety warning released in June 2011 that concluded that exposure to Actos for more than a year can increase the risk of bladder cancer by 40%.

Following the FDA’s safety warning, Takeda submitted a new Actos warning label that disclosed the risk of bladder cancer associated with use of the medication.

Since the FDA Actos warning was released, a number of lawsuits were filed by people who took Actos and later contracted bladder cancer, alleging that Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Actos’ manufacturer, failed to warn them about the risks associated with the medication. 

NEWS - Law

SBJ Special Report

Nov 14, 2011 - HunterMaclean, the region’s largest business law firm with offices in Savannah and Brunswick, announced last week that is pleased to announce that Best Lawyers in America, the oldest and most respected peer-review publication in the legal profession, recently honored a record 23 HunterMaclean attorneys by including them on their list of leading lawyers.   

“We are delighted to have a record number of attorneys from our firm featured on this year’s Best Lawyers in America list,” said Frank S. Macgill, HunterMaclean’s managing partner. “This honor reflects hard work on the part of the firm’s partners and associates.”

HunterMaclean lawyers earning this top honor for 2012 include the following:

LeeAnn W. Aldridge - Real Estate Law

Saunders Aldridge  - Commercial Litigation

Dorothea Coy -  Commercial Finance Law

H. Mitchell Dunn, Jr. - Tax Law, Trusts & Estates

Andrew H. Ernst  - Environmental Law, Economic Development Law

T. Mills Fleming - Health Care Law, Immigration Law

Wade W. Herring II  - Employment Law - Management, Litigation - Labor & Employment

John M. Hewson - Corporate Law

Dennis B. Keene - Product Liability Litigation

Sarah H. Lamar - Employment Law - Management, Labor Law

Frank S. Macgill - Trusts & Estates

Kirby G. Mason – Medical Malpractice Law

Diana J. P. McKenzie - Information Technology Law

M. Lane Morrison - Trusts & Estates

Sally C. Nielsen  - Employee Benefits (ERISA)  Law

Chris Phillips – Construction Law, Litigation-Construction, Medical Malpractice Law

Janet A. Shirley - Trusts & Estates

David F. Sipple - Maritime Law

W. Brooks Stillwell - Real Estate Law, Litigation-Real Estate

Ron D. Talley - Environmental Law, Real Estate Law

John M. Tatum – Bet-the Company Litigation, Commercial Litigation, Litigation-ERISA, Intellectual Property, Litigation - Trusts & Estates

Harold B. Yellin - Land Use & Zoning Law, Real Estate Law

Arnold C. Young - Insurance Law, Personal Injury Litigation, Product Liability Litigation

H. Mitchell Dunn, Jr. has been included on this prestigious list of top attorneys for the past 28 years. In addition, Andrew H. Ernst, David F. Sipple, W. Brooks Stillwell III and John M. Tatum have been listed in Best Lawyers for 15 or more years.

The Best Lawyers in America is a referral guide, published biannually since 1983, listing the preeminent members of the legal profession across theUnited States. The Best Lawyers lists, published by the firm Woodward/White, Inc., are compiled from more than 350,000 evaluations of attorneys in the United States. The completed lists represent more than 30 specialties in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

The referral guide is subscribed to by more than 4,000 of the leading law firms in the United States and abroad and by more than 1,000 of the world’s largest corporations, who utilize the lists to locate counsel in unfamiliar jurisdictions for major legal matters

Best Lawyers compiles its lists of outstanding attorneys by conducting peer-review surveys in which thousands of leading lawyers confidentially evaluate their professional peers. The current, 18th edition of The Best Lawyers in America (2012) is based on more than 3.9 million detailed evaluations of lawyers by other lawyers.

With offices in Brunswick and Savannah, HunterMaclean represents both businesses and individuals in all areas of litigation as well as in corporate, tax, real estate, health care, information technology, business, transportation and maritime law. The firm’s clients include Fortune 500 companies, banks, hospitals, maritime companies, professional service organizations, industrial development authorities and nonprofit corporations.

 

NEWS - Law

SBJ Staff Report

Nov 7, 2011 - A young adult from Savannah, Richard Louis Williams, 23, had his initial court appearance today before U.S. Magistrate Judge G.R. Smith in Savannah after being indicted last week by a federal grand jury for conspiring to use the stolen identities of Delta SkyMiles and American Airlines AAdvantage members to purchase airplane tickets, hotel rooms, and merchandise for himself and others.

The indictment charges Williams with one count of conspiracy which carries a maximum sentence of five (5) years in prison; one count of access device fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of fifteen (15) years in prison; two counts of mail fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of twenty (20) years in prison; and four counts of aggravated identity theft which carries a minimum mandatory of two years in prison to be served consecutively to any other sentence imposed.  All charges also carry a fine of up to $250,000 per count.

According to United States Attorney Edward J. Tarver, “Individuals who are alleged to have engaged in financial fraud and identity theft crimes, of any type, will be apprehended and prosecuted in the Southern District of Georgia.   Financial fraud and identity theft impact millions of Americans. The United States Attorney’s Office will not ignore its obligation to protect victims from these invasive crimes.”    

Tarver emphasized that an indictment is only an accusation and is not evidence of guilt. The defendant is entitled to a fair trial, during which it will be the Government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

The indictment of Williams arises out of a joint ongoing investigation by United States Secret Service and the Savannah Chatham Metropolitan Police Department.  Assistant United States Attorney Natalie Lee is prosecuting the case for the United States. 

 

NEWS - Law

SBJ Special Report

Oct 17, 2011 - The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) is accusing the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) with stonewalling on the leading environmental groups requests for information on what SACE terms the full extent of the risks to which taxpayers “are exposed in the massive commitment of $8.33 billion in conditional federal loan guarantees to Southern Company and their utility partners for two proposed new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle in Georgia.”

This week, SACE will press ahead with its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation so that U.S. taxpayers can learn more about taxpayer-backed obligations for the proposed Vogtle reactors which the group claims is roughly 15 times greater than the failed Solyndra solar panel company loan guarantee.

“In the wake of DOE’s last production of heavily redacted documents,” SACE officials said they are “continuing their suit in federal court in order to force the federal agency to release some of the improperly blacked-out and otherwise withheld information. Of particular interest to SACE is information revealing whether company officials played an inappropriate role in shaping the terms of the loan guarantee. Based on the limited information produced, it appears that the power companies had to put almost no skin in the game, promising to pay a credit subsidy fee of possibly as little as 0.5 or 1.5 percent of the total loan guarantee.”

According to Stephen Smith, executive director, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, “Given some of the lessons learned developing from the Solyndra loan guarantee case, it’s unacceptable that the much larger Vogtle loan isn’t getting intense scrutiny when the potential risk to taxpayers is much greater. The DOE needs to operate with more transparency now, not less.””

SACE filed its FOIA request on March 25, 2010. Under FOIA, DOE was obliged to respond in full to the SACE request by April 22, 2010. On August 10, 2010, when SACE had still not received a complete response, it filed suit in the D.C. District Court. DOE recently made its final document production on September 14, 2011, nearly 17 months after the response deadline. Most of the documents produced by DOE were heavily redacted, and the loan guarantee terms and credit subsidy fee estimates were withheld as confidential information belonging to the power companies, according to Smith.

Taxpayers for Common Sense also supports the FOIA request and urges DOE to provide the details of the agreement for the Vogtle plant, especially because taxpayers are on the hook for such an enormous amount of money, according to that group’s President, Ryan Alexander, in a joint release last week with SACE. “With more than $8 billion on the line it’s time DOE start shedding some light on this program. Solyndra was the canary in the coal mine for this deeply flawed program, these defaults will continue if things don’t change,” Alexander wrote.”

SACE has now posted the thousands of pages of documents on a website that is open for the public to access. “Accompanying the documents are highlighted examples of the egregiously and… illegally, redacted materials,” said Smith.

Mindy Goldstein, acting director of the Turner Environmental Law Clinic, is representing SACE in their FOIA litigation. “DOE claims that the loan guarantee terms and credit subsidy fee estimates are confidential and may only be viewed by Georgia Power and its utility partners. Let’s hope DOE is wrong. For such information to be withheld as confidential, it must have been obtained from the utilities themselves. If the power companies are literally writing their own guarantees and credit subsidy fee estimates, the Loan Guarantee Program is more flawed than anyone could have imagined,” she said Friday. ”

According to Smith, “Obama's Department of Energy, Southern Company and the public power companies involved in the Vogtle project need to set the record straight and tell the truth about what is going on here; that they are socializing the risk and privatizing the profits for big power companies."

SACE’s March 2010 FOIA request covered such items as: the Southern Company loan guarantee; related correspondence between DOE and Southern Nuclear Operating Company, Georgia Power Company, Oglethorpe Power Corporation, Municipal Authority of Georgia (MEAG), and the City of Dalton, Georgia; environmental review records related to the loan guarantee request; any credit analysis conducted by DOE in relation to the loan guarantee; all records related to the general terms and conditions of the loan guarantee; and all records related to issuance of the loan guarantee.

The Vogtle FOIA documents SACE received, document summaries, a timeline of their FOIA activities, and SACE court filings can be found at http://blog.cleanenergy.org/2011/10/13/vogtle-foia-loan-guarantee.

NEWS - Law

SBJ Special Report

Oct 10, 2011 - A verdict won by the law firm of Harris Penn Lowry DelCampo, LLP (HPLD) of Atlanta and Savannah has been recognized as one of the largest verdicts of 2010, in a recently published report.

VerdictSearch's recently released "Top Verdicts of 2010" reports that the firm secured Georgia's largest verdict last year as well as numbers five, nine and 17.

In 2010 HPLD, which serves clients across the country, won more than $77 million in verdicts. "Many of the people we represent have no voice, no other way – except through the court system – to seek the assistance needed because of significant harm caused by the negligence of others," according to HPLD partner Stephen G. Lowry.

"It's rewarding when our work is recognized by the legal community," said HPLD fellow partner Darren W. Penn.

The largest verdict in Georgia in 2010 came in the case Terhune v Forum Group Corp. “That negligence was heart-breakingly clear in the $43.5 million verdict in Terhune vs. Forum Group Corp,” according to the firm, where Lowry served as co-lead counsel. “Not only was it the state's largest verdict, it was also by far the largest judgment against a nursing home facility on record in Georgia,” according to Lowry.

"The conditions at Moran Lake Nursing Home in Rome, GA. were deplorable," said Lowry. "Our client's father was sent to the facility for what was supposed to be a temporary stay as he received rehabilitative care for stroke-like symptoms. He was otherwise in good health. Instead, Morris Ellison was malnourished, dehydrated, denied medical care for a broken hip and ultimately died."

The fifth largest verdict last year in Georgia was won in Corey Airport Services v City of Atlanta, Clear Channel.

Penn took on, along with HPLD partner Jeffrey R. Harris, the City of Atlanta and Clear Channel in a widely publicized corruption and bid-rigging case involving the advertising contract at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.  In July of last year, a federal jury awarded $17.5 million to Corey Airport Services after finding that the City of Atlanta, Clear Channel and Barbara Fouch, Clear Channel's minority partner, conspired to deprive Corey of its equal protection rights while bidding for the advertising contract at the world's busiest airport in 2002.

The verdict was number five in the state overall and was the largest Constitutional Law judgment for the year, according to HPLD.  "The attention garnered by Mr. Corey's case encouraged positive changes in the handling of contracts awarded at the airport," said Harris. "We are grateful for the transparency in the bidding process that has grown as a result of new leadership and a new vision at City Hall. Mr. Corey looks forward to bidding on the airport advertising contract when the opportunity is presented."

In another case, Bilbrey v United States of America, the firm secured an $11.5 million verdict for Mary Bilbrey and her injured son, Anthony Bilbrey, after a United States Postal Service (USPS) employee was found negligent in the operation of his mail delivery truck. As a result of the car crash caused by the USPS employee days before Christmas in 2006, Mary, who was eight months pregnant at the time, was sent into early labor, suffered severe injuries and remained in a coma for five months. At the request of Bilbrey, the court appointed a conservator to ensure the funds awarded to Anthony are properly managed and distributed so he will be cared for throughout his life.

The case of Allen v Consolidated OB-GYN, DeKalb Surgical Associates involved Kathleen Allen's daughter, Tanyka Brydson, who was admitted to DeKalb Medical Center to give birth to her twins via cesarean section. After the procedure, Brydson's incision became infected and developed into necrotizing fasciitis, which required immediate, aggressive treatment as well as timely surgical intervention. Instead, it was delayed, according to HPLD.  “Ultimately, Brydson underwent multiple surgical debridements as her condition continued to worsen. Allen was eventually able get her daughter transferred to another hospital, but it was too late.  She ultimately died due to multi-system organ failure as a result of the negligent care of her physicians,” they explain. 

Harris and Lowry teamed to try the case and delivered a $4.3 million verdict, which was the 17th overall in the state as well as the largest Medical Malpractice judgment for the year.

NEWS - Law

Aug. 17, 2011 - Richard D. Guerard, 43, of Savannah, Georgia was sentenced yesterday by U.S. District Judge William T. Moore Jr. at the U.S. Courthouse in Savannah, Georgia, to 52 months in prison in connection with a conspiracy to defraud over $2 million from the First National Bank, Savannah, Georgia, and other banks from 2007 to 2009.

United States Attorney Edward J. Tarver said, "Bank fraud is an epidemic that has hit Georgia especially hard. With 67 banks failing since 2008 - including First National Bank, the bank this defendant defrauded - Georgia ranks second in the nation. Prosecuting those who engage in bank fraud will continue to be a top priority for the United States Attorney's Office and the Department of Justice."

According to the evidence presented during the sentencing and guilty plea hearings, Guerard, a real estate developer acting on behalf of two businesses, entered into loan agreements with First National Bank and other banks for the purchase and development of areas within downtown Savannah. During a two year period, Guerard submitted dozens of bogus subcontractor invoices to First National Bank for work that had not been performed. As a result, Guerard fraudulently received well over $1 million in loan funds to which he was not entitled. Then, in an effort to prevent the loans from becoming delinquent, Guerard conspired with others, including employees of First National Bank, to fraudulently arrange over $1 million in nominee loans, the proceeds of which were not for the benefit of the borrowers, but for the benefit of Guerard and his coconspirators. In June of 2010, First National Bank became the first failed bank in the Savannah metro area.

In addition to his prison sentence, Guerard was ordered to pay $2,396,372.83 in restitution and to serve 3 years on supervised release upon his release from prison. There is no parole in the federal system.

This case is the result of a joint investigation conducted by the United States Secret Service, the FDIC Office of Inspector General, the U.S. Department of Treasury Office of Inspector General, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Office of Inspector General and the United States Attorney's Office. First Assistant United States Attorney James D. Durham is prosecuting the case for the United States.

NEWS - Law

June 20, 2011 - The Conner Law Group, serving south Georgia from offices in Savannah and Jesup, was recently selected for inclusion in the 2011 Martindale-Hubbell Directory of Distinguished Attorneys.

Inclusion in the Directory of Distinguished Attorneys is based solely on peer review and client ratings, and fewer than 10 percent of all law firms in the United States are accepted to be listed. Martindale-Hubbell is one of the oldest and most trusted resources in the world used to find lawyers and law firms, containing profiles of more than one million lawyers and law firms in the U.S., Canada and hundreds of other countries.

"I am honored and humbled that my peers and clients helped the Conner Law Group join such an elite group of lawyers and law firms in the Directory of Distinguished Attorneys," said Mike Conner, who is the founder and managing partner of the Conner Law Group as well as the City Attorney for Jesup. "We work diligently to serve our clients, and we are grateful that our hard work has been recognized."

Conner has earned a reputation for being one Georgia's most outstanding litigators, and the Conner Law Group serves a broad range of services in to corporate and individual clients in south Georgia. As one of Georgia's premier business litigation and personal injury attorneys, Conner has frequently been acknowledged by his peers on a regional and national level.

He is a fellow in both the Litigation Counsel of America and the Council on Litigation Management, and he has been peer selected as a Georgia Super Lawyers Rising Star for the past five years. He has also been recognized in Georgia Trend Magazine's Legal Elite in 2009 and selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers In America in 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011.

Visit www.theconnerlawgroup.com or call 877-283-2745 for more information about Mike Conner or the Conner Law Group.

NEWS - Law

SBJ Staff Report

June 13, 2011 - The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments last week in the lawsuit filed by 26 states, including Georgia, and other plaintiffs challenging federal healthcare reform. Former United States Solicitor General Paul Clement argued on behalf of the States.

“We are fortunate to have Paul Clement, the nation’s preeminent appellate advocate, presenting our argument today before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals,” said Attorney General Sam Olens on Wednesday.  “He and his talented legal team are committed to ensuring that the States are successful in our Constitutional challenge to federal healthcare reform.”

The States and other plaintiffs are challenging federal healthcare reform on the grounds that it exceeds Congress’s powers as enumerated in the Constitution, infringes on individual liberty and unconstitutionally commandeers the States.

“The law passed on partisan lines by Congress last year blatantly violates the U.S. Constitution by mandating Americans to enter the marketplace and purchase products,” said Olens. “This direct assault on individual liberty exceeds Congress’s enumerated powers. Additionally, the law significantly alters the Medicaid program and passes on massive costs and more requirements to the States. I am hopeful that the court will agree with Judge Vinson that the law must be struck down.”

Many believe the effort little chance of success due to fairly recent rulings of the U.S. Supreme Court, including conservative Justices such as Antonin Scalia and Anthony Kennedy.  Within the past 10 years, the Supreme Court has agreed to review several important cases regarding the general regulation of interstate commerce and has consistently ruled that the Constitution gives Congress almost unlimited power to regulate the marketplace.

Recently, Scalia supported the constitutionality of broad federal regulation of health insurance, leading supporters of the Federal Healthcare bill to question the tactics and expenditure of fighting the legislation that Congress spent months on before passing.