Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Janssen Malloy LLP partners, W. Timothy Needham, Michael J. Crowley, Patrik Griego and Amelia F. Burroughs have been nominated by Consumer Attorneys of California for the organization’s Consumer Attorney of the Year Award.  The nomination arises from the firm’s handling of the seminal jury verdict case of 2010, Lavender vs. Skilled Healthcare LLC.  The Janssen Law Firm, along with co-counsel Michael Thamer and Christopher Healey, obtained the largest jury verdict in the United States in 2010, $677 million dollars.  The case had a significant impact on the healthcare industry, specifically the skilled nursing facilities throughout the nation.

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In addition to their efforts as lawyers to obtain justice for our clients, the partners at Janssen Malloy LLP are deeply involved in the community in which they live and practice.

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When business and estate planning professionals discuss family businesses, discussions usually center on the challenges faced by the typical family business.  In addition to the estate tax and income tax considerations, determining who should succeed to the ownership and management of the business, and when that succession should occur, we are also often discussing the potential for family conflicts within the business.

For those of you in Humboldt, Mendocino and Del Norte Counties who own family businesses, take heart.  A new study finds that by dealing with these family issues, a family business may have a significant competitive advantage over a non-family business.

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Words are Not Enough

Humboldt County employers know that having an written sexual harassment policy is a critical practice.  The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently released an opinion that reads like a cautionary tale about excellently-written sexual harassment policies that don’t get enforced.  (See EEOC v. Prospect Airport Services, Inc., 2010 DJDAR 14107, Sept. 3, 2010.)  The employer had a written sexual harassment policy, signed by employees, that encouraged employees to report sexual harassment to their immediate supervisor and promised that the employer would “investigate each complaint in a prompt and proper fashion.”  In this particular instance, a male employee reported sexual harassment by a female employee to three different supervisors in the chain, saying that he just wanted the harassment to stop.  The last  supervisor to receive the complaint responded that he didn’t want to get involved in a personal matter, and spoke to the offending employee once about her behavior.  After approximately five month of harassment, even subsequent to the supervisor counseling the offending employee, the employer terminated the male employee, basically for his bad attitude.  His complaint against the employer has now been litigated before a United States District Court of Appeal—an expensive proposition for any employer.

In short, employers must enforce their sexual harassment policies, or they face credible complaints of harassment.

In one of the first class actions in which I was ever involved we sued an insurance carrier that had a policy which cheated its insureds out of fairly small amounts.  During discovery we turned up a memo that discussed bonuses to the employees with the slogan “A penny a patient.”  The idea was that, since the insurance carrier had over 20 million patients, if it could find a way to save (cheat) the patient out of one penny, that saved the company $200,000.

Of course who’s going to fight with a major insurance carrier over one penny?  No one.

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Journalist Matt Drange of the Eureka Times-Standard covered the Lavender v. Skilled Healthcare jury trial, writing in depth in a three part series the stories underlying the class action law suit against Skilled Healthcare.  Drange noted that it was the longest civil trial in Humboldt County history, and the $677 million verdict was the largest trial result in the United States in 2010.

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North Coast Journal lists the Janssen Law Firm’s victory in the Skilled Healthcare as No. 4 of Humboldt County’s top 10 stories of the year.

Ryan Burns of the North Coast Journal writes:

“Even those who were closely watching the class action lawsuit against Skilled Healthcare Group, one of the nation’s largest nursing home chains, did a double-take in July when, after a trial that stretched for more than 100 days, a Humboldt County jury rendered its verdict. What was shocking wasn’t the verdict itself — the jury found that between 2003 and 2009 Skilled Healthcare criminally under-staffed 22 of its senior housing facilities in California, including five in the county — but rather the eye-popping size of the damages. It went for max, awarding nearly $619 million for health code violations and another $58 million for false advertising. It was the largest jury award in the U.S. this year, and it immediately sent Skilled Healthcare’s stock into a nosedive; shares fell 76 percent in a single day, to just $1.52.

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The Janssen Law Firm recently resolved a tragic wrongful death matter from the Hoopa area for the defendant’s policy limits.   Michael Crowley of the Janssen Law Firm represented the adult children of Filmore Harvey, Sr., regarding his tragic death on December 16, 2009.

Mr. Harvey was run over by the defendant driver, who was driving under the influence at the time of the incident.  The defendant is currently being prosecuted for vehicular manslaughter in Humboldt County Superior Court.

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It appears the voters of Humboldt County have reelected their District Attorney Paul Gallegos.   On behalf of the State of California, Humboldt County District Attorney Paul Gallegos intervened into the Skilled Healthcare case filed by the Janssen Law Firm, Michael Thamer, and Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps LLP.   As a result of his work on that case Mr. Gallegos successfully obtained an injunction on behalf of the People of the State of California that, among other things, will help insure that skilled nursing facilities throughout the state maintain legally mandated staffing levels.   The Times-Standard article on the election results can be viewed here.

The North Umpqua Foundation (TNUF) will hold a business meeting and its annual meeting October 23, 2010.  As usual, the meeting will take place in the library at The Steamboat Inn, 42705 North Umpqua Hwy, Idleyld Park, Oregon.   All members of TNUF are encouraged to attend.   Important agenda items will include updates on the Steamboat Falls fish passage project and the Legacy Rivers project with Pacific Rivers Council.   TNUF also has updated its website and all are encouraged to visit it at www.northumpqua.org.