Monthly Archives: June 2012

Couple wins $55 million in ‘bad birth’ case  A couple won a $55 million jury verdict against Johns Hopkins Hospital for the birth of their severely disabled son. Enso Martinez and Rebecca Fielding planned to deliver their baby at home with a midwife. But when complications arose after hours of labor, Fielding was rushed to Johns Hopkins Hospital for an emergency Caesarean section. According to their lawsuit, the hospital waited two hours to perform the operation and because of the …

Consumer advocates in Pennsylvania won a hard-fought delay on Wednesday against a pending bill in the legislature that would once again permit payday lenders to charge predatory rates and victimize the state’s poor and downtrodden residents. Bill would raise allowable interest rates to 369 percent Loan companies falsely claim the bill is a “consumer protection law” Predatory lending banned in 17 states and on military bases   Army of Lobbyists A bill that passed the Pennsylvania state house earlier this …

If you’ve lost your home to foreclosure  or your home is “underwater” (you owe more on your mortgage than your home is worth), and you believe it’s because your lender messed up, you’ve got just two more months to apply to the federal government for help. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve Board offer a program called Independent Foreclosure Review to people who have lost money or their homes because of errors by banks …

What’s less surprising than two famous musicians flinging insults at each other and then brawling over an (absent) woman in a swank nightclub in New York City? Let’s see…maybe the actual presence of beautiful models and one’s pronouncement of her intent to sue everyone in sight after she was injured in the melee? Like bees to honey, the entourages of famous people are drawn to the good life – free booze, fun times, exclusive parties, and no doubt the sparkling …

The Supreme Court of the United States ruled today to uphold most of the provisions of the controversial 2010 federal health care law, including allowing the individual mandate requiring all Americans to purchase health care to survive as a tax. In the 5-4 ruling, with Chief Justice John Roberts providing the swing vote, the court gave a green light to health care reform almost in its entirety. The only limit the court put on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care …