The On Call Story – Truth and Justice Denied

DSL Lawsuits Multiply in California.(Pacific Bell Internet Services)(Brief Article): An article from: XDSL News

Expendables Producers Dump Entire Lawsuit ; Will They Refile?

Aug. 26, 2011  By Mike Masnick One of the most high profile US Copyright Group lawsuits was for producers Nu Image, who made The Expendables movie, which ended up making over $100 million. For some reason, they thought that it would be a good strategy to then shake down a bunch of people who downloaded the movie. In fact, they sued an astounding 23,322 people. After first allowing such subpoenas to go out to identify who was behind those 23,322 IP addresses (though not necessarily behind any infringement), the judge realized that most of those people were not in the proper jurisdiction and dismissed 23,238 of the IPs from the lawsuit… Read More @ TechDirt  

Tropicana dragged into Mob Experience lawsuit

Aug 26, 2011  By  Steve Green The Tropicana Las Vegas has now been dragged into the legal disputes among investors and creditors of the Las Vegas Mob Experience at the resort. Jay Bloom, one of the developers of the experience who claims he’s been wrongly pushed out of parent company Murder Inc., charged in a counterclaim Thursday in one of the many Mob Experience lawsuits that the attraction is struggling in part because the Tropicana has failed to fully assist in its marketing efforts. The claim says just 350 people per day were going through the experience through June, well below initial numbers of 700 per day in March. “Tropicana failed to honor its obligations under its on-property marketing commitments, upon which (investors) relied upon in making the decision to invest millions of dollars in improvements in the Tropicana leasehold,” the claim says. For example, Bloom claims, Tropicana failed to place Mob Experience tent cards in its hotel rooms and didn’t advertise the experience on its marquee on Las Vegas Boulevard. The Tropicana has not yet responded in court to the allegation, and Tropicana officials on Thursday said the property had no immediate comment. It’s likely, however, that the Tropicana has its own beef with the Mob Experience. That’s because contractors that built the experience and say they hadn’t been paid $4.5 million, as of Aug. 11, have filed liens against the Tropicana to secure payment of those funds. “We are aware that these liens constitute an event of default under our credit agreement and we are currently in discussions with our lender for, among other things, the temporary waiver of this event of default,” Tropicana said in its second quarter financial report. Bloom made the allegations about the Tropicana in a counterclaim he filed Thursday in a lawsuit filed against him Aug. 4 in Clark County District Court. That suit was filed by lenders Vion Operations LLC and Strategic Funding Source Inc. claiming that before his departure from Murder Inc. about July 1, Bloom had looted the company of more than $1 million and that he had misstated the financial condition and prospects for the company in part by submitting inflated visitation projections. That lawsuit was on top of six lawsuits filed earlier by investors and creditors against Bloom and his companies since 2010, generally alleging bills had gone unpaid or investment agreements weren’t honored. Besides attacking the Tropicana, Bloom attorneys charged in Thursday’s counterclaim that Vion Operations LLC, Strategic Funding Source Inc., Strategic Capital Management LLC and two individuals, Louis Ventre and Andrew Reiser, have been scheming against Bloom. In what has evolved into a lengthy and convoluted he-said, she-said story, the counterclaim alleges these firms and individuals are working to deprive Bloom of his ownership stake in the company and plan to wipe out the positions of Bloom and other investors with a bankruptcy filing. Ventre worked with Bloom to develop the experience and, following Bloom’s departure, has been one of the executives running the experience. Reiser was involved in a deal in February in which Ventre sold $4 million of Murder Inc.’s future credit card receivables in a factoring transaction, the counterclaim says. The price was $3.1 million and the buyer was Reiser, one of the Strategic companies and Vion, the counterclaim says. This was part of $16.5 million procured for development of the Mob Experience, of which Bloom takes credit for $9.5 million and says Ventre was responsible for the other $7 million, the counterclaim says. “Vion and Strategic filed a frivolous lawsuit (Aug. 4) as part of what appears to be their premeditated scheme, through a preexisting and secret relationship between Reiser and Ventre, to pilfer the Mob Experience and defraud me of my equity as well as each and every one of the company’s secured note holders,” Bloom said in a statement. “As owner of the Las Vegas Mob Experience, I offered my own equity interest to help the company raise capital to succeed and placed this escrow in trust to accomplish this goal. It’s a frivolous allegation that I somehow looted my own company or conducted fraud by way of misrepresenting attendance numbers provided by third-party experts as a forecast several months prior to opening,” Bloom said Thursday. His counterclaim Thursday also alleged: Read More @ VEGASINC

How To Find a Lawyer To Defend Against a Lawsuit.

    In the contemporary legal world, online leads to lawyers can be a critical way for any company to save time and money. Defending a lawsuit can be a daunting process at the best of times. Taking upon one’s self the total responsibility of defending a lawsuit would be too much to ask for anyone who is not versed in legal process and generally speaking, jurisprudence. These days, all you need to do is locate a  “find a lawyer” site and fill in your personal information and the main contact center will put you in correspondence with the proper lawyer for your situation. No hassles and no wasting time tracking down attorneys that do not fit the situation. The fact is that  establishing trust with a lawyer can be a bit dicey. Although  contacting a lawyer via a friend is not a bad solution, it is not always the best avenue for locating the appropriate professional.  Instead, the lead generator makes life easy for you. Most of these sites  will take your  basic information and like a matching service, will put you together with the right guy. These lead generation sites have a plethora of highly-skilled lawyers that they know are at the top of their professions. In fact, these lead generation sites  have  the vital information on all their contact lawyers so the site knows what their specialty is, their experience and portfolio , and the types of law suits they prefer to take. Using this service to find and choose your attorney can not only save you lots of time and frustration searching for the ideal match, it can also prevent you making a mistake or settling for less than the best. In summary, for every different kind of lawsuit, the lead generator has what you need.  Whether it is bankruptcy lawsuits, injury lawsuits, or DUI lawsuits,  you can find the lawyer you need with this extraordinary platform. In any case, be remind yourself  not to  go into defending a lawsuit  i without  acquiring the help of a lawyer  that can defend your case.   By eLawsuit.com

A Record Award in a Lawsuit against Cuban Government.

Aug. 25, 2011 By Juan O. Tamayo Read more @ The Miami Herald  

Find a Lawyer: The Process

Finding A Lawyer “Many people see finding a lawyer as an expensive process, and there are certainly a large number of lawyers who charge exorbitant hourly fees and have lots of expenses, but these are far from the only lawyers available. In many cases, a competent lawyer with experience handling your particular kind of situation is enough and should be right within your price range. One of the easiest ways to find a lawyer for most is through personal connections. If you have any friends who are lawyers themselves, they will usually have a strong network of acquaintances within the local legal community, and should be able to put you in contact with a lawyer who is familiar with the experience relevant to your case. A more general way of finding lawyers is through a lawyer association service with the bar association. When you are researching a lawyer, don’t just ask about the lawyer’s experience in the field that you are interested in, but also try to get a sense about the lawyer’s people skills. What are some of the characteristics that any good lawyer should have? Communication skills are one of the most vital things a lawyer can have. They should be able to explain your options without being confusing or having to use any more technical terms than necessary. If a lawyer has a strong understanding of your problem they should be able to describe what you need in plain English. A good lawyer should also have enough time and resources to focus on your case, so you don’t get lost among a large number of other clients. A good lawyer should also be able to explain clearly at the outset what kind of things you can expect, and what the lawyer will be able to provide you with in exchange for your money. When you are billed for your lawyer’s activities, you should be able to get a full break down of the bill which identifies all of the administrative fees, the hourly fees, and lets you know exactly where your money is going at the office. Finally, it is of course important that you are comfortable with your lawyer personally and that your lawyer is polite, capable of dedicating the right amount of time and attention to the case, and capable of being trusted and keeping secure any confidential information that you share. Hourly rates for a lawyer may vary from around fifty or seventy-five dollars an hour to hundreds of dollars per hour. Often the rate that a lawyer will charge will be closely tied to where the lawyer’s offices are. Big city lawyers charge the most, while lawyers who have their offices in suburban areas are significantly more affordable. Most lawyers charge a retainer, which is a down payment against the future expenses of handling your case. You should make sure to have your lawyer inform you when your retainer is reaching its limit, so you know what your financial situation is at every point and don’t let your legal fees run away with you. There are other ways that you can pay for a lawyer as well – lawyers in some cases work on contingency, which means that they will receive a certain percentage of any final settlement or recovery after a trial. Most personal injury cases are treated in this way, which provides a strong motivating factor for the lawyer to win the case. In the event that the case is lost, you then owe the lawyers nothing, so this is one of the safest financial options for you, but only available in specific types of cases. Before you begin working with your lawyer, you should have the lawyer’s estimate of how much time it may take to resolve your problem, and also working from that get a sense of how much money your case is going to cost in total. Good communication with the lawyer’s office about the status of your bill throughout the entire process is key to making sure that costs do not run away from you and that you do not spend more money than you will realistically be able to repay. When you meet your prospective lawyer for the first time you should have a list of questions about how the lawyer will operate, such as on what kind of basis will you be in contact, how often will you be billed, how familiar the attorney is with the kind of law which will come into play during the case and how earlier cases worked out, the estimate (as explained before) of how long the case is likely to take and how much it will cost, and finally some references that you can check to see what it has been like for previous clients of your lawyer…” Read More @ BUSINESS ROUTE

Google Bomb: The Untold Story of the $11.3M Verdict That Changed the Way We Use the Internet