Today the American Lung Association released its latest air quality report: State of the Air 2012. The annual report looks at a range of air quality issues for communities across the nation. And this year there are signs that the work to help protect the citizens of the Birmingham area is making a difference.  Gathings Law currently represents hundreds of clients in a lawsuit over air pollution in one part of the city.

The metro area has a long way to go before being considered a model community for air quality, but thanks to the work of the Jefferson County Department of Health, the EPA, state agencies, and other groups, the quality is improving. First, a look at where we stand today. The latest report shows the greater Birmingham community is the 12th worst in the nation for year-round particle pollution, a measure that looks at the amount of material suspended in the air we breathe. Those particles get into our lungs and eventually into our bloodstream wreaking havoc on our entire body. The area is also the 21st worst for ozone pollution. Jefferson County is also the 15th most polluted county in the nation in terms of the year-round particle pollution.

But good news can be found in those figures. The metro area improved four spots in the rankings for the year-round particle pollution and fell off the short-term particle pollution list entirely. Also the progress Jefferson County has made for the year-round particle pollution has earned it a passing grade from the American Lung Association. The Birmingham News has a good article looking at some of the reasons behind the improvements.

But we can’t look at the improvements and declare victory. Just looking at the report you can see that there are tens of thousands of people in our community in groups that are at high-risk for being affected by the pollution. That is why we at Gathings Law continue to fight to protect our community from pollution problems and to make people responsible clean up the mess they left behind when they leave. Many homes have been damaged because of pollution and many residents have been harmed because of our poor air quality. We applaud the work of the agencies trying to clean up our community and hope to see Birmingham fall off of these most polluted lists entirely in the near future.

You can read the American Lung Association’s findings on its website or download the entire report.

You can read the Birmingham News article about the report on the newspaper’s website.

April has been a busy month for recalls and warnings from the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. The sheer number of the recalls is amazing and becomes downright scary when you start to look at the serious injuries that some of these products can cause.

Bicycles (ranging from cheap to the very expensive) and their parts continue to lead the list of recalls, most stemming from problems with breaking parts. Bikes are followed closely by tires and issues they have splitting, delaminating, etc. and leading to blow outs.

If you are shopping for a baby in your family, I would not buy one thing without first checking with the CPSC to see if it is covered by a recall. That includes products as simple as pajamas or a rattle all the way up to cribs and car seats. Get any identifying information from the product before you try to search.

The caboose of this flurry of recall activity is motorcycle products. They combine the worst characteristics of bikes and tires for a deadly result. Again, I am just amazed at the numbers of recalls and how I simply cannot overlook the product potential of any auto wreck, bike wreck, or baby injuries.

You can check the latest recalls from the CPSC and the NHSTA on our website or go to those pages to search for your product or vehicle.

Charles Lorant

Another wave of relief is on the horizon to help stop foreclosures and to soften the devastation caused by wrongful foreclosures. The United States and a group of individual states are close to signing a monumental agreement with the major foreclosure players to set aside $17 BILLION dollars for those who lost their homes, are losing their home, and are trying to keep their homes! The settlement arises from an investigation into the alleged fraudulent practices of Bank of America (including Countrywide), JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup, for the “robo-signing” of foreclosure related documents.  The relief for homeowners will include principal reductions for mortgages, interest reductions, and cash payments to homeowners who lost their homes.  People have been screaming for a part of the bailout monies that went to the big banks.  Maybe now the people will see some of that.  I encourage lawyers to talk to their clients about this and clients to talk to their lawyers about this. The “robo-signer” fraud to stop a foreclosure has long been overlooked as a defense and as a good offense!

Charlie Lorant

That’s how much Asset Acceptance, a huge bottom feeder in the debt collections world, just got nailed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for unfair debt collection practices!  Just weeks after the appointment of a director for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Washington sends another booming signal that it is getting serious about hammering debt collectors who harass consumers.   Again, you can see that the tide is starting to turn in favor of the “little guys”, the people who have been beaten to death  by this economy and have had trouble paying a debt. The FTC fine told Asset (and sent a message to other debt collectors) that it is no longer acceptable to harass a debtor, to mislead a debtor, to report inaccurate information about a debtor, to collect stale debts where the statute of limitations has expired, to fail to verify the validity of a debt, and to commit various other unfair collection practices. We already have cases against Asset Acceptance, Midland Funding, Portfolio Services, and other debt collectors for deceptively collecting stale debts and I continue to explore actions against debt collectors for these and other unfair, harassing, or deceptive collection practices.  With fines and lawsuits, maybe debt ridden Americas can float up a bit from the bottom and see light above the water.

Charles Lorant

My partner and I just returned from a seminar presented by the American Bar Association in Hollywood, Florida. Two of the topics at the seminar were environmental torts and the selection and trial of bellwether cases.  Our firm is very much involved in these areas, representing thousands of clients for both property damage from pollution and health conditions caused by pollution.  I was pleased that while the seminar was informative, it confirmed that other specialists in these areas are either not as knowledgeable or are not more knowledgeable than we are in these areas.  That being said, we did have the opportunity to hear the views of a state court judge from New Jersey who handled the Vioxx cases, as well as other mass tort cases, and had some excellent thoughts on the subject of bellwether trials.

Now, for those of you who are experts on goats as opposed to mass torts, you may be wondering what a bellwether trial is and what that has to do with goats.  Goat herders have traditionally placed a bell on one of the goats that would  lead the herd of goats.  In mass tort cases, certain representative plaintiffs are selected to try their cases first in bellwether trials. Like the lead bellwether goat, the trials of the bellwether plaintiffs hopefully show the remainder of the plaintiffs and the defendants how to go, i.e., what a jury is likely to do in a representative case.  This information can then be used to arrive at a reasonable settlement of all the cases.

So, if you have a problem with a bellwether goat, you need to call a goat herder.  If you have a problem with pollution, we can probably help!

Lloyd W. Gathings

Richard Cordray was appointed as the director for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, giving new authority to the watchdog agency.

Last week Birmingham hosted an event that marked what could be the beginning of a new era of consumer protections. That event was the first ever field hearing for the the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and received national press in the wake of Obama’s back door appointment of Richard Cordray as its director. The CFPB  brings some of the most significant changes to financial consumer protection in decades. The most anticipated parts of the act, a section aimed at stopping banks and other institutions from taking advantage of customers, was on hold while Congress in Washington debated who would lead it. That answer came this month when President Obama appointed Richard Cordray as the CFPB’s first director.

So how does his appointment translate into new protections for consumers like me and you? Well, by law, the CFPB could not start policing private mortgage lenders, credit bureaus and payday lenders, until a permanent director was in place. Those institutions often fell outside of existing regulators’ authority and sometimes preyed on desperate or less sophisticated consumers. The payday lenders in particular were why Cordray picked Birmingham for the bureau’s first field hearing.

Alabama has more payday lenders per capita than nearly every other state in the country. More than 1,100 have opened up shop in Alabama, or about 26 for every 100,000 people, pushing short-term loans with astronomically high interest rates. The oppressive fees and interest rates trap borrowers of small loans in a cycle of debt sometimes totaling tens and hundreds of  times the original loan amounts. Nationwide, 20 million people use payday lenders every year, incurring fees of $7.4 billion. In Birmingham, Cordray came out swinging and said he wants to start investigating that industry to seek out bad behavior. ”These illegal practices are outrageous,” Cordray was quoted in the Birmingham News as saying. “We want to root them out where we find them.” My dad’s one man war against these payday lenders could use some fresh troops and some good ammo for fighting against this consumer slavery.

I am excited to see how Cordray will use his new authority to protect Alabamians from the deceptive and unfair practices of not just the payday lenders but also other institutions, including some private mortgage lenders and the ensuing tidal wave of unfair mortgages, negligent servicing, and wrongful foreclosures. He pledged that there would be “real consequences” for companies that take advantage of consumers. Many of the subprime loans that got people into trouble and are now the reason that banks are trying to force them from their homes, were issued by those lenders. Cordray wants to establish clear rules and standards so that they operate fairly.

The new consumer watchdog and WE want to hear from you if you have complaints about a credit card company, mortgage company, payday lender, credit bureau or any other financial institution. You can lodge a complaint with the CFPB online at www.consumerfinance.gov. And, if you are having trouble with any consumer financial matter from payday loans to collection harassment, and everything in between, let us know as well by filling out our contact form or emailing us.

Charles J. Lorant

Yet another impact of pollution in Birmingham is on display today as the EPA holds a series of meetings today at Hudson K-8 School.  Contaminated soil was recently found around the newly built school and around homes in the North Birmingham neighborhood.  That finding prompted Walter Coke to pay for the soil to be replaced at the school and the impacted homes.

Today (Monday), the EPA, the Jefferson County Department of Health, and school leaders will discuss how air pollution is impacting schools in the community. Birmingham City Schools recently shelved plans to build a new school in the area until an air quality study was conducted.

That study is the subject of the first meeting today, at 2:00 pm at Hudson K-8 School. Parents and community members are welcome at the meeting. Two other meetings, from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm and from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm, will be held to give more people the opportunity to hear about the problems.

Pollution has decreased since the 1970′s but Birmingham still has a long ways to go before its air quality is considered good. Our firm represents many residents of the Wylam community now in a lawsuit against several companies regarding the impact of pollution on their lives.

The problems found at Birmingham schools show that there are still lingering effects of the city’s industrial base hidden around our communities.  We hope the work of the EPA, the county’s health department, and others will keep uncovering these effects and continue to make the responsible parties clean up the mess.

Lloyd Gathings

Alabama Consumer Lawyers wanted to make it easier for people looking for consumer lawyers to find us, so we have ventured into social networks.  You can reach us on Facebook and Twitter and of course here on www.alabamaconsumerlawyers.com.  Please let us know how we can help you if you are dealing with a foreclosure, a harassing creditor, or any other consumer problem.  We will fight to protect your rights.

I grimace to think how many widows and fatherless children I have represented over the years because of work related deaths. Fires and crushing injuries seem to have been the leading causes in the cases I have handled. The cause has little meaning, however, in view of the destruction to the family when this happens.

The statistics are not yet finalized for the 2011 calendar year, but the statistics for 2010 are horrifically numbing. 4,547 fatal work injuries were recorded in the United States in 2010, according to results from the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) program conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Of great concern to Alabama is the fact that fatal work injuries in the private mining industry rose from 99 in 2009 to 172 in 2010. Work-related fatalities resulting from fires more than doubled from 53 in 2009 to 109 in 2010. The total number of fatal work injuries resulting from fires and explosions rose from 113 in 2009 to 187 in 2010.

Worker’s Compensation benefits are not sufficient to protect the worker’s family when he or she is killed on the job. Damages must be sought from any responsible parties other than the employer in a jury trial for the family of the deceased worker to be adequately protected and provided for. Such actions are known as wrongful death actions. This firm has handled such actions successfully for the families of coal miners, construction workers, drivers, mechanics, heavy equipment operators and way too many others.

While Alabama has abundant natural resources in coal, gas, oil, timber and pulp wood, our working men and women are our most valuable resource. Almost everything you see around you that was made by man was made by them, constructed by them and maintained by them. Without them Alabama would be little more than an untamed wilderness.

Let’s urge worker safety in our State. And when worker safety is not provided due to the negligence of others and a worker is killed, help us do justice for the families in the courtroom. Alabama will be a better place if we do.

Lloyd W. Gathings

Historically, paper documents have been as closely linked to lawyers as “white on rice”. The link was so strong that in the ’70′s a movie about law school students was aptly named “Paper Chase”. Practicing lawyers’ offices and desks were piled high with paper, and the piles got higher and higher with the invention of high speed copiers and computers. It was just too easy to create voluminous documents and to make multiple copies.

One of my least favorite things in the practice of law was to find a needed pleading or document in a paper file that often consumed more than one file cabinet. My other least favorite thing was to sit in a warehouse and sift through voluminous bankers boxes of documents, or to sit in my office and review a truck load of documents in a products liability case.

That has all changed to a great extent. My desk is now covered with computer monitors instead of paper. My only meaningful in-box is shown on one of those computer screens, as opposed to using the old fashioned tray in the office. My calendar and emails are shown on another screen, while work in progress is shown on a third screen. Telephone conferences are now done by video conferencing, with the video on one screen while I look at documents necessary to the call on another screen. Defendants now produce documents to me in electronic format and I am able to do word searches on them when they number in the hundreds of thousands pages. These examples are just the tip of the iceberg, but you get the point. A lawyer who is not computer savvy and willing to fully embrace the digital age is quickly becoming a dinosaur in complex products liability litigation, toxic tort and pollution litigation and mass tort litigation.

I frequently lecture at continuing legal education meetings on discovery of electronically stored information (ESI). Few lawyers fully understand how to obtain the information they need in complex litigation, due in large part to the vastness of the digital world. But those who are to remain the best must keep abreast of the developments and go, at least almost, paperless.

Lloyd Gathings