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Albany Med settles nursing pay lawsuit for $4.5M
Headline Legal News |
2011/02/25 09:27
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| pAlbany Medical Center will pay $4.5 million to settle its share of a federal class-action lawsuit alleging officials conspired with counterparts at other hospitals in the area to keep pay down for about 4,000 registered nurses./ppCourt documents say similar settlements for about 2 percent of nurses' pay from June 2002 to June 2006 were reached with companies operating St. Peter's Hospital in Albany, St. Mary's Hospital and Samaritan Hospital in Troy and Albany Memorial Hospital./ppThe hospital companies admit no wrongdoing. The suit is still pending against Ellis Hospital in Schenectady./ppA call to Albany Med was not immediately returned Wednesday./ppAttorney Daniel Small, representing the nurses, says about $9 million altogether is in an escrow account pending the end of the case. Lawyers are requesting one-third./p |
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Maine court rules against counties in access suit
Headline Legal News |
2011/02/25 09:26
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| pA Superior Court justice has ruled that six Maine counties overcharged a Cumberland businessman who requested public records under the state's Freedom of Access law./ppJustice Thomas Warren ruled that fees charged by Androscoggin, Aroostook, Cumberland, Knox, Penobscot and York counties -- in response to a request by John Simpson -- can't be justified./ppThe Sun Journal of Lewiston says Simpson, owner of MacImage of Maine, filed Freedom of Access requests in 2009 for digital copies of records in the six counties' registries to create his own document database. Among the prices quoted by the counties were $12 million by Cumberland, and $4 million by Penobscot at $1 per page for 4 million pages./p |
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US high court says Nevada can ban brothel ads
Headline Legal News |
2011/02/25 09:26
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The Supreme Court is refusing to invalidate Nevada laws banning newspaper advertisements that identify places where prostitution is legal. pThe court refused to hear on Tuesday an appeal from two newspaper companies, the American Civil Liberties Union and a Nye County brothel called the Shady Lady Ranch./ppLaws went into effect in Nevada in 1979 that prohibited brothel advertising in counties where prostitution is illegal. Prostitution is illegal in five counties, which include Las Vegas and Reno, and 10 Nevada counties authorize prostitution by local ordinance./ppA federal judge said the laws were overly broad and unconstitutional, but the judgment was overturned by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The Supreme Court upheld that ruling.
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91,000 Gulf oil spill claims, just 1 final payment
Headline Legal News |
2011/02/01 10:21
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pBP's compensation fund for Gulf oil spill victims has issued a final settlement payment to just one of the thousands of people and businesses waiting for checks, records show, and that $10 million payout went to a company after the oil giant intervened on its behalf./ppBP won't identify the business, citing confidentiality, but acknowledges it lobbied for the settlement. The amount far exceeds smaller stopgap payments that some individuals and businesses have received while they wait for their own final settlements./ppThe Gulf Coast Claims Facility was set up in August to independently administer BP's $20 billion compensation fund in the aftermath of its April 20 oil well blowout off Louisiana./ppAs of this weekend, roughly 91,000 people and businesses had filed for final settlements, but the fund's administrator, Washington lawyer Kenneth Feinberg, has said those checks won't start rolling out until February at the earliest. Thousands of people have received some money to tide them over until a final settlement amount is offered, but only one business listed as paid on the facility's website has so far received a check./ppA BP spokeswoman called it a unique situation in which an existing BP business partner and BP submitted a view on a specific claim to the facility.
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Tax on medical residents upheld by Supreme Court
Headline Legal News |
2011/01/12 08:59
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| pMedical residents are doctors, not students, when it comes to paying federal taxes, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously Tuesday in a decision that disappointed the University of Minnesota and the Mayo Clinic, who have been fighting the issue in court for years./ppAn opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts upholds an Internal Revenue Service requirement that medical residents pay Federal Insurance Contributions Act taxes./ppThe University of Minnesota and Mayo have argued that medical residents are students who qualify for a long-standing exemption from paying those taxes. Full-time students who work are generally exempt./ppBut the Supreme Court says medical residents -- who typically work 50 to 80 hours a week -- don't qualify./ppThe decision ends decades of legal back-and-forth and could cost medical schools $700 million in federal taxes annually. The employer and employee each pay half the tax. The University of Minnesota estimates that the U and its medical residents pay about $4.3 million a year./p |
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