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CHATSWORTH METROLINK DISASTER LAWYERS
Class Action | 2008/09/18 02:21

Arnie Peterson's evening train, the Metrolink 111, banked to the left, toward the coast. The work week, and the metropolis, faded behind him.

He and his fellow travelers were a motley crew -- a lawyer with tasseled loafers; a young man with a shaved head and a profanity emblazoned on his shirt; Peterson, a 47-year-old cement worker for the city of Burbank, clad in his orange work shirt, headed home to Simi Valley after another long day. Normally, they would probably never be in the same room, but 10 times a week -- once in the morning, once in the evening, five days a week -- they were together.

Theirs was "an odd kinship. Many of them had communicated for years with little more than nods, and yet they were so respectful that they wouldn't think of stealing each other's favorite seats, so trusting that when they had to use the restroom, they would leave cell phones and briefcases on their seats without second thought.

Peterson was staring out the window, "thinking," he said, "about how it was Friday."

The terror, for some, began before impact. The left turn in the tracks, just above the Northridge-Chatsworth station, is very sharp. So commuters sitting by the windows on the left side could see the Union Pacific freight train headed straight for them.

"My first thought was: I'm not seeing this," said Albert Cox, 53, a regular rider who had boarded the train in Burbank and was on his way home to Simi Valley.

It was clear they could not stop soon enough. There was time for a few muffled screams before they hit.

Arnie Peterson found himself flying through the air, over six rows of seats. He is not, he pointed out, a small man.

Everything and everyone, for a moment, seemed airborne. Some of the tables, torn from their moorings, turned into missiles, hurtling toward the front of the train. Cox was thrown from his seat -- there were no seatbelts, since Metrolink trains are not designed for sudden stops -- and landed on a table, breaking it in two. "The table won," he said. Peterson was thrown, with 20 others, against one wall of the train.

Suddenly, but for black oil seeping from the freight train and black smoke billowing from the impact site, everything stopped moving.

"It was dead quiet," Peterson said.

Slowly, the sound built again -- moaning, then screaming. Phil Thiele, 55, of Simi Valley, had been sitting in the back of a Metrolink car. Now he looked up into the face of a man who was pinned between collapsed seats.

"He was pleading with me to help him," Thiele said. "I tried my damnedest to get him out, but I just couldn't."

Nearby, a woman with a serious head injury was trying to crawl through the wreckage. Thiele had received first-aid training this week at work; he urged the woman to stay put, and placed her purse under her head as a pillow.

Across the train car, through the darkness, a scream: the fire was spreading. Thiele turned back to the pinned man. "Don't worry," he told him. "I'll stay with you as long as I can."

Soon, the first firefighter peered inside. Help was heading toward the wreckage from every direction now, through the back of a residential cul-de-sac, running down bridle paths used by local families that board horses. The riders who could move on their own were clawing their way to safety.

"People were climbing out of the side, bleeding, crying, screaming," said Katharina Feldman, who was working out of her nearby home office and raced to the scene with bottles of water after calling 911.

Firefighters assigned her to a man whose head was gashed. The man asked her to call his wife; she did, while holding his IV.

Around them, the wounded came spilling out like ants in a rainstorm. Feldman spoke with a dazed woman in her 70s; she had broken her teeth and was having chest pains. Arnie Peterson was sitting on the ground, leaning against a fence. He had blood caked on his left arm; he wasn't sure, he said, if it was his or someone else's. One woman was carried out, her femur clearly snapped in two.

The injured were laid out in a triage area near the school. Those with moderate injuries were led to a large green tarp; those with serious injuries were led to a yellow tarp; those in the worst shape were laid out on a red tarp.

Some victims had their whole heads wrapped in gauze. One man was sitting on a lawn chair; a Barack Obama button was still affixed to his white T-shirt, though it was drenched in blood. Helicopters used a nearby soccer field where children were practicing an hour earlier.

Long after the sun set, family members pressed against police cordons, desperate for information.

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Special Message for Victims of Chatsworth Metrolink Disaster

On September 12, 2008, an unprecedented tragedy occurred in Chatsworth, California when Metrolink Train #111 struck a Union Pacific freight train which was traveling on the same tracks. Our hearts go out to the victims. But this tragedy should not have happened. It happened because of human error on the part of Metrolink employees. Unfortunately, as the lawyers of RKA know well, human error by railroad engineers is not at all unique as a cause of commuter rail disasters.

Jerome L. Ringler has greater experience in representing victims of commuter rail and fright train disasters than any other lawyer in the State of California, if not the country. He has served as lead counsel in every one of the largest commuter rail disasters which have occurred in Southern California in the past 10 years.

In the Placentia Commuter Rail Disaster of 2003, Mr. Ringler was appointed by the Court as lead counsel for all of the Plaintiffs. He was requested by all of the lawyers representing individuals injured or killed in that incident to try the first case. That case resulted in the largest verdict for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ever rendered by a jury in the United States. That verdict, which was for $9 million, is detailed below in the multimedia section.

In the Burbank Commuter Rail Disaster, which also occurred in 2003, Mr. Ringler was again appointed by the Court to serve as lead counsel. In that capacity he was given the responsibility to try the entire liability (i.e., fault) case for all of the victims. In other words, every one of the dozens of lawyers who represented individual victims in that disaster trusted Mr. Ringler to try the liability phase for them, knowing that their clients would only recover if Mr. Ringler was successful. He was. In fact, Mr. Ringler not only obtained a favorable verdict for all of the plaintiffs, he obtained a $12 million verdict for his own client as well. This verdict was the largest in the State of California for a person with the type of injuries Mr. Ringler's client had suffered. This verdict is detailed below in the multimedia section.

Mr. Ringler is currently lead counsel for all plaintiffs in the Glendale Metrolink Derailment Disaster of 2005. This incident was, before September 12, 2008, the largest Metrolink disaster in history. Interestingly, in that case (which involves 11 deaths and dozens of serious injuries), Mr. Ringler has, against all odds, developed testimony proving that, even though a mentally-ill person placed a jeep across the tracks that the Metrolink train was traveling upon, human error on the part of the Metrolink engineer prevented him from stopping the train before hitting the jeep, which caused the train to derail. In other words, while the jeep certainly never should have been on the tracks, the Metrolink engineer would have been able to stop the train before ever striking the jeep had he only been paying proper attention. That case is scheduled to go to trial on June 8, 2009, with Mr. Ringler as lead counsel.

The verdicts detailed on this page all relate to railroad litigation. However, Mr. Ringler has achieved enormous, record-breaking monetary awards across California in a variety of complex areas. Those accomplishments are detailed elsewhere in this website. To see them, click here.

If you or a loved one has suffered injury or death as a result of the horrific Chatsworth Metrolink Disaster, we are available to discuss your rights with you confidentially and at no charge.

Please feel free to contact us at your convenience. Ask for Mr. Ringler,or any of his partners, at (213) 473-1900.




House votes to ease DC gun restrictions
Breaking Legal News | 2008/09/17 10:01
The pro-gun majority in the House moved Wednesday to compel the nation's capital to broaden the rights of its residents to buy and own firearms, including semiautomatic weapons.

Critics, led by the District of Columbia's sole delegate to Congress, decried the action. They said the vote tramples on the District's right to govern itself and could endanger both residents and political dignitaries who often travel across the city.

But the National Rifle Association-backed bill passed easily, 266-152, with supporters saying they were determined to give D.C. residents the same Second Amendment right of self-defense that has been available to other Americans.

Many of those speaking for the bill in debate that went well into the night Tuesday were conservative Democrats from rural districts who strongly support gun rights. Eighty-five Democrats voted for the bill.

"Number one, I'm a pro-gun Democrat," said Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark. "Number 2, if the government of the District of Columbia can take your guns away from you in our nation's capital, Prescott, Arkansas, and many other small towns across the country could be next."

The legislation is unlikely to be taken up in the Senate in the few remaining weeks of this session, but it served both to give lawmakers a pro-gun vote shortly before the election and to demonstrate the NRA's continuing political clout.



Lehman Brothers schedules bankruptcy court hearing
Bankruptcy | 2008/09/17 10:01
Lehman Brothers has scheduled a hearing in its bankruptcy case that could lead to a judge's approval of an asset sale.

The investment bank, which filed the biggest U.S. bankruptcy case on Monday, has on its agenda for the meeting Tuesday afternoon a motion that seek a judge's approval to sell certain assets.

The Wall Street Journal was reporting on its Web site that Lehman was close to reaching a deal to sell its U.S. broker-dealer unit to Barclays.

The hearing was scheduled to be held at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York, before Judge James Peck.



Congress passes expansion of disability law
Political and Legal | 2008/09/17 10:00
Someone who takes medication to control epilepsy or diabetes could end up in a situation where he or she is no longer eligible for protection under the Americans With Disabilities Act.

It's a "terrible Catch-22," House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller, D-Calif., said Wednesday as the House passed, and sent to the White House, legislation aimed at assuring that the ADA lives up to its promise of protecting the disabled from discrimination.

The 1990 law is widely regarded as one of the major features of civil rights legislation in the 20th century because it ensured that the disabled have access to public buildings and accommodations, thus giving them better access to the workforce. But the Supreme Court has generally exempted from the law's anti-discrimination protections those with partial physical disabilities or impairments that can be treated with medication or devices such as hearing aids.

The Supreme Court has slowly chipped away at the broad protections of the ADA and has created a new set of barriers for disabled Americans," said Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., a chief sponsor of the bill along with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md.

The bill directs the courts toward a more generous application of the ADA's definition of disability, making it clear that Congress intended the ADA's coverage to be broad and to cover anyone facing discrimination because of a disability.

"It will afford millions of individuals with access to the courts under the ADA and clarifies that anyone with a disability is protected from unfair discrimination," AARP senior vice president David P. Sloane said after the Senate passed the measure by voice vote last week.

The House passed the measure by voice vote as well. But Hoyer noted that it took months of difficult negotiations involving the business community and advocates for the disabled to find the right balance between the rights of the disabled and the obligations of employers.



Parents charged in 2-year-old son's shooting death
Court Watch | 2008/09/17 07:00
State police on Wednesday arrested the parents of a 2-year-old boy who died last month after accidentally shooting himself with a gun he found in the family's home.

Jason Matteau, 27, and Rebecca Matteau, 24, of Jewett City, turned themselves to police in Montville after being told authorities had arrest warrants for them. They were freed on $50,000 bonds and ordered to appear in court Oct. 1.

Their son, Wyatt, died Aug. 28, about two hours after being shot in the head when the gun accidentally fired, state police said. The Matteaus were at their apartment with their son and infant daughter at the time, but Wyatt was alone in a room when the gun went off, troopers said.

Connecticut law makes it a crime to store loaded firearms in an area where the owner reasonably should know that someone under 16 could find them.

Jason and Rebecca Matteau are both charged with risk of injury to a minor. Jason Matteau is also charged with criminally negligent storage of a firearm.

Both charges are felonies. Risk of injury to a minor carries up to 10 years in prison, and the firearm charge carries up to five years in jail.



Defense says O.J. middleman may testify Tuesday
Breaking Legal News | 2008/09/16 08:58
Lawyers for O.J. Simpson were expecting to take another crack at cross-examining an alleged robbery-kidnapping victim after his first time on the stand was cut short by illness.

On Tuesday, the court expected to call Bruce Fromong again and perhaps several other witnesses who could set the stage for the jury to hear from Thomas Riccio, the colorful collectibles broker who arranged a hotel room meeting between Simpson and memorabilia peddlers Fromong and Alfred Beardsley a year ago when the pair said they were robbed at gunpoint.

"Obviously the prosecution may change witness order a little bit, but I would expect Tom Riccio tomorrow or Wednesday," Simpson defense attorney Yale Galanter said.

Fromong, 54, became "lightheaded, dizzy and started to sweat," according to his lawyer, Louis Schneider, before Clark County District Court Judge Jackie Glass sent the jury out of the room and suspended his testimony.

Fromong has had four heart attacks in the past year, said Schneider, who described his client as "medically fragile." Paramedics examined Fromong in the courthouse hallway, but left without taking him to a hospital.

The break interrupted a pointed cross-examination by Simpson lawyer Gabriel Grasso, who bored in after Fromong said for the first time that he heard "somebody in the room saying, 'put the gun down.'"



Iowa meat co. fights unionization at NY warehouse
Labor & Employment | 2008/09/16 06:56
A kosher meatpacking plant in Iowa that was the target of a sweeping immigration raid this year is not the only venue where the plant's owners are locked in a fight over undocumented workers.

Agriprocessors Inc. has gone all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to urge the justices to reconsider their long-held position that workers in the country illegally have a right to join labor unions.

The Supreme Court has yet to decide whether to take the case, but if it does, it could have ramifications for a complicated area of U.S. labor law.

At issue are rules that make it a crime for a company to hire illegal immigrants, yet simultaneously protect those same workers from retaliation for engaging in union activity.

Those intertwined standards came into play at Agriprocessors' small distribution facility on the Brooklyn waterfront in 2005, when a group of about 20 workers voted to join the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.

Agriprocessors fired most of the workers after the vote, saying it had investigated their Social Security numbers and concluded at least 17 were in the country illegally.

The company also refused to accept the unionization vote, arguing that it was invalid because of the workers' immigration status.

The National Labor Relations Board sided with the union and took the company to court. The company ultimately gave the workers $2,500 apiece to settle their retaliation complaints, but the dispute over whether the warehouse is now officially a United Food and Commercial Workers Union shop is still unresolved.



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Class action or a representative action is a form of lawsuit in which a large group of people collectively bring a claim to court and/or in which a class of defendants is being sued. This form of collective lawsuit originated in the United States and is still predominantly a U.S. phenomenon, at least the U.S. variant of it. In the United States federal courts, class actions are governed by Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule. Since 1938, many states have adopted rules similar to the FRCP. However, some states like California have civil procedure systems which deviate significantly from the federal rules; the California Codes provide for four separate types of class actions. As a result, there are two separate treatises devoted solely to the complex topic of California class actions. Some states, such as Virginia, do not provide for any class actions, while others, such as New York, limit the types of claims that may be brought as class actions. They can construct your law firm a brand new website, lawyer website templates and help you redesign your existing law firm site to secure your place in the internet.
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