Hello Not So Legal’ers! I did a video post about this but had to follow up….growing up in Dallas, I went to Walmart. Why did I go to Walmart you might ask? I don’t really recall but I vaguely remember the florescent lights and the many sections of weird shoes that no one wants to buy.
Aside from the florescent lights, apparently Walmart likes to discriminate against women (allegedly). Five women brought a lawsuit against Walmart and thousands more joined in as they all allege sexual discrimination. One supervisor told one of the plaintiff’s that she should get “dolled up” when she went to ask for a raise. Walmart is standing by their claim that they give equal opportunities to everyone and always help women advance in their careers. The joy of this case is that the reason why it may actually even go anywhere is because SO many women came forward to join the class so the lawsuit could be filed.
The Supreme Court is going to hear the case to decide whether these group of women will classify as a “class” for the purpose of filing a class action lawsuit. Walmart claims they are missing the “commonality” element, which means that the group of women suing do not have enough in common to be considered a class for the purposes of the filing. I am fairly certain they all probably have some story that would be around the idea that someone told them to get “dolled up” for an interview.
Cases like these can really create a difference in the workplace and differences for the better. I had a supervisor once ask me if I thought the real reason men met took meetings with me was because they wanted to date me. Another one once asked why I didn’t wear more skirts. Random sexual questions don’t just happen at Walmart, it happens everywhere. I am glad these women had the courage to speak up! For all the men out there, would love to hear of when women have been treating you inappropriately at the workplace. Curious to see how many stories we can hear about that!
Always remember to honor your power and stay tuned for the next posting .
I love music. Mainly hip hop but I do love music. I think it is so interesting that most people think music should be free. This concept has brought the music business to its knees while people just spend time downloading songs without paying for them.
Bring in the case of a Boston student fined over 675k for illegally downloading and sharing 31 songs. The Supreme Court denied even listening to the case and the case has been returned to the lower court on the issue of penalties. What do you think about this case? Do you think it is fair for a guy to have to pay that much for 31 songs when there are probably far more egregious downloaders out there? It is clear this case was meant to send a message. Do you think it is too harsh of a message? And, what kind of music do you like? Write in and let me know!
I figured why not talk about some kind of airline lawsuit. I really love how they have wi-fi on the planes. It makes me feel like I am doing some I am not supposed to do for some reason. For years and years I feel like all we hear is turn off our phones and computers so things work properly. I know from flying on a private plane that you can always keep things on — and I feel like most people do whatever they want anyway. In any event, I like being so high up but still being able to be connected. On a computer at least.
Anyway…let’s talk about Southwest Airlines (not the airline I am on right now). A woman is suing Southwest for essentially their claim that she is too fat. She doesn’t want monetary damages, she just wants to have Southwest modify their policies.
This particular woman had been told before she was too overweight and needed a second seat….then lost 100 pounds and was essentially humiliated in front of a bunch of other customers while being told she should buy a separate seat, again.
How can we police this issue? I don’t think someone should have to stuff themselves into an airline seat taking the arm rest of the person next to them. However, I don’t think you need to be called out in the middle of the airport for needing to buy an extra seat. This is a case where some good actually may come of it. These types of issues do need policies and applaud her for not wanting monetary damages as I think she will get farther in this case with that plan. It isn’t Southwest Airlines fault if someone is overweight and needs to buy two seats. It is, however, their fault if there policy causes humiliation to their passengers because they don’t have a proper way to handle it. I like this lawsuit.
I don’t do boats. I mean I like the idea of sailing the high seas but it is one of those things in life that can remain a mystery to me as far as I am concerned. I read about the most horrible story today about a fisherman stranded at sea for 18 days that sued Princess Cruise Lines because essentially they just passed him by. The fisherman and his two friends were stranded at sea and three passengers on the cruise line happened to see the stranded men waving their arms. They told Princess employees but apparently they didn’t do anything. Two of the friends died and luckily the one fisherman was finally discovered by the Equadorian navy.
Princess Cruise is being sued for negligence as clearly they neglected their duty of care by just passing up three stranded men on a boat. The captain says he was never notified and there is a lot of speculation as to the communication process on the ship that would have allowed this to happen. I think it is just a sad tale and we know this will go the settlement route but I hope Princess has to pay up.
I love lottery tickets. I also love Vegas. I am not a big gambler but I love playing a few slot machines every now and then. I don’t, however, dig in the trash for lottery tickets to see if maybe a thrown away ticket might be a winner.
A women in Arkansas made a ritual practice of searching trashcans for discarded tickets, scratch off tickets, etc and actually found a ticket that was for ONE MILLION DOLLARS. Can you imagine? Talk about a lucky find! Not so fast because the woman who initially bought the ticket decided to claim the ticket and says she is entitled to the money.
In order to claim the “finders keepers” law so to speak, the item needs to actually be abandoned. The woman who bought the ticket said the machine told her she didn’t win but the machine was actually broken. Is that de facto abandonment? The court didn’t agree and the woman who initially bought the ticket is entitled to her winnings.
I kind of like the idea of a woman searching the trash to find her millions. Too bad the court disagreed.
Guess who is in NYC. Me. Guess who found a place that sells mini pies! Me. I may or may have not tried the chocolate mini pie. I am a big fan of desserts — usually chocolate or cheesecake and rarely Nutella. Why do I mention Nutella? Nutella is made by Ferrero, an italian confectionary group and they were on the receiving end of a class action lawsuit by a woman who sued them after discovering that nutella chocolate spread had more calories than jam or syrup. Is it just me or isn’t that obvious? Strawberry jam or Nutella? Oh definitely Nutella since I am trying to keep my girlish figure. No. Nutella is CHOCOLATE. How someone would think that Nutella would be the obvious lower calorie choice makes no sense to me. The first article I read about this case didn’t have too much detail so I had to investigate further.
Apparently Nutella was advertising that their product was somewhat healthy so the lawsuit was about deceiving the public since the product actually has as many calories as a candy bar (which, you can easily read on the label). They settled for 3.5 million which means roughly $4 – $20 to any person that had the product during the time in which the lawsuit was alleged.
Sigh. This is a case where I get that it is frustrating to feel like you are eating something you were told was healthy but then you find out it isn’t….but a lawsuit is one step too far. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to perhaps question how healthy a chocolate spread could actually be. It is pretty self-explanatory. BUT, what if you saw this commercial?
http://youtu.be/ThIrw_LpuRA (I also posted it in its own separate post below)
Now suddenly this case gets interesting. Even after watching this, I still thought — seriously? Nutella as a healthy breakfast for kids? Even when I look at products that “seem” healthy or are advertised as such, I can always look at the ingredients to really get a sense of things. I champion the idea that it would be fantastic if all advertising was created to give the honest truth to the consuming public but we all know there are tricks to the trade that entice us to buy. It is one thing if it was called carrot delight and you found out it was super unhealthy but Nutella is used in desserts and doesn’t lend itself to some type of healthy concept. Moral to the story is don’t feed your kids Nutella for breakfast and if you want to have chocolate cake, just have it and call it a day.
If you have an email address, I am sure you have seen an email that goes something like this:
NATIONALE POSTCODE LOTERIJ
WEBSITE:www.postcodeloterij.nl
VAN EEGHENSTRAAT 77 1071 GK
AMSTERDAM.
ONLINE RESULTS:FOR FIRST CATEGORY
DRAW DATE:DECEMBER 2010
PRIZE NUMBER:NPCL/67/89/82/28
AMOUNT WON: ONE MILLION EURO(1,000,000 EURO)
RE: ONLINE EMAIL AWARD NOTIFICATION
YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS HAS WON A PRIZE MONEY OF ONE MILLION EURO AWARDED TO
YOU BY THE NATIONAL POSTCODE
LOTERIJ.TO FILE FOR YOUR CLAIMS SUBMIT THE FOLLOWING INFORMATIONS FOR
DOCUMENTATION OF CLAIMS.
*FULL NAMES *ADDRESS *NATIONALITY *COUNTRY *TELEPHONE/MOBILE *AGE *SEX
*MARITAL STATUS & OCCUPATION.
PAYMENT OPTION: TICK AN OPTION WHICH SUITS YOU BEST FOR THE REMITTANCE OF
YOUR PRIZE MONEY TO YOU.
1. COURIER DELIVERY OF CERTIFIED WINNING CHEQUE (.....)
2. ONLINE BANK TRANSFER OF PRIZE MONEY (.....)
CONTACT YOUR FILE AGENT WITH REQUIRED DETAILS
Or, something like this:
Try it!
www.euxicur.com
Doesn’t everyone just love these emails? In Milwaukee, they are prosecuting a man for sending out spam mail. Prosecutors contend that on any given day, one out of three “unwanted emails in the world” originated from this particular person. Fascinating I think to hold the title of “I am the person that sends out emails that nobody wants”. If convicted, he faces a $250,000 fine and up to three years in jail. Strong enough punishment? You tell me.
If you will recall, a few posts back I wrote about Lady Gaga and her relationship gone bad that lead to a lawsuit. Her boyfriend/manager/agent/some guy who was helping her and then wanted to take all of the credit, decided he was entitled to more money since he supposedly helped launch her career. He probably just still loved her but somehow weaved the love into a lawsuit. The parties settled, all is well in Gaga land but there was no mention of whether there was any monetary settlement. Why did she wear meat to the VMA’s by the way? Super disgusting.
I digress. The point is, don’t have your boyfriend manage your career and think that when you make tons of money that he won’t try to say he is responsible for it. Or, if you are going to have him manage your career, at least get two separate attorneys that can represent both parties and you can negotiate a fair management agreement. It would have saved all the time to file the complaint, have the parties go back and forth to only then settle at the end.
First, I would like to say I am really bummed the Cowboys lost tonight. However, let’s focus on other topics. The California Medical Board is suing the doctor of the Octomom. It would be hard to believe that someone wouldn’t know who the Octomom is but just in case, she is the woman who decided to get pregnant and happened to have eight babies given the wonderful help she had from her fertility doctor. On the upside, I can’t fault someone who wants to have children but how you could think it would be a good idea to have eight at one time gives one some cause for concern.
However, it doesn’t really matter whether I, my neighbor or my friend down the block thinks it is a good idea for someone to have eight kids. The real question is how a doctor could think it would be a good idea and whether he actually advised here in any kind of way that could have maybe meant she could have only had two kids instead. Luckily the California Medical Board is getting involved at least to raise the issue that clearly there should have been some additional criteria to be considered by the Octomom’s physician. I figured it was only a matter of time before they brought the claim against him so looks like the time has come.
. 
Let's make the law entertaining, shall we? 
