LANDMARK WIN ON ASBESTOS BRAKE PADS A former Perth brake mechanic is the first Australian to win a successful verdict against the Ford Motor Company for exposure to asbestos through brake pads.

Antonino Lo Presti, 58, worked as a brake mechanic at Ford dealerships from 1970 to 1987. He was diagnosed in July 2001 with asbestosis and pleural disease, due to asbestos exposure.

The Supreme Court of WA today ruled in favor of Mr Lo Presti, ordering Ford to pay him $840,000 in damages in addition to his legal costs.

Earlier he had told the Court that he inhaled asbestos when he used compressed air to blow out brake drums when brakes were serviced or changed. The brakes were usually Australian-made Ford brakes. During the entire period he worked in workshops without mechanical ventilation. No masks or warnings were given to staff. Even at workshops Ford held for mechanics, no warnings were provided. (Read more…)

Bulgaria’s non-government organisations, already under-financed, could experience severe financial difficulties after the withdrawal of foreign donors from the country, Bulgarian Centre for Not-for-Profit Law (BCNL) said on February 25 2008, as quoted by mediapool.bg.

Foreign donors provide more than 40 per cent of total financing to Bulgarian NGOs, a survey by pollster MBMD, commissioned by BCNL, showed. Although dependence on foreign funding has halved since 2000, it remained high.

The rest of the funding comes from NGO’s own activities (17 per cent), state subsidies (eight per cent), corporate grants (eight per cent), donations from individuals (six per cent) Bulgarian organisations (six per cent) and municipalities (two per cent). (Read more…)

BROOMFIELD, Colo. (AP) - A new tribal law aims to make it easier to get loans on Native American reservations. Representatives from about a dozen Native American tribes around the country will attend a 2-day seminar Friday and Saturday in Broomfield to learn about how it works. Banks have previously been reluctant to loan money to people on reservations because of the difficulty of going through tribal courts if the loan defaults.

The Crow Tribe in Montana was the first to enact the law in country. The Model Tribal Secured Transaction Act was authored by the Uniform Law Commission, which works to make some areas of law consistent from state to state.

About 30 tribes have either enacted the law or are considering it.

Source: www.krdo.com

ALBANY – Five individuals were arraigned for failing to file New York State personal income tax returns, and the remaining 26 will be arraigned on April 4, 2008. The 31 individuals are believed to owe over $650,000 in tax liability.

The charges are the result of an initiative undertaken by the New York State Department of Taxation & Finance’s Office of Tax Enforcement to identify professionals who have failed to file and remit personal income taxes to the State. The 31 people are all real estate professionals who received 1099 income in tax years 2000 through 2006. Twenty-nine of those accused face violations of §1802(a) of the New York State Tax Law, an “E” Felony, for failing to file returns for three or more consecutive tax years, having a tax liability in each of those years, and, if found guilty, may be sentenced to a maximum of 1 1/3 to 4 years in state prison. The remaining 2 defendants are facing misdemeanor charges, for failing to file in a given tax year or non-consecutive years, in violation of §1801(a)of the New York State Tax Law, exposing them, upon conviction, to up to a year in jail. (Read more…)

GUATEMALA CITY — Luciany Ball’s adoption file says she was born 14 months ago by Caesarean section to a single mother who gave her up so she could be raised by a loving family in a six-bedroom Indiana farmhouse.

But now some of the documents appear to be fraudulent, part of a slew of irregularities at the agency handling Luciany’s adoption that have left dozens of babies in danger of being seized from their anguished American adoptive parents. The probe also casts a cloud of uncertainty over some 2,900 pending U.S. adoptions.

Prosecutors describe their probe of Casa Quivira — considered Guatemala’s best adoption agency — as their first serious attempt to investigate a $100 million industry that has made tiny Guatemala second only to China in sending orphaned infants to the United States.

The system has delivered 29,400 Guatemalan children into U.S. homes since 1990. (Read more…)

In October 2007, Anucha Browne Sanders won her sexual harassment case against Madison Square Gardens and was awarded $11.6 million. The verdict was the result of a grueling trial where Browne Sanders, a high-profile sports executive for the New York Knicks, recounted witnessing male executives pressure young female interns into sex. When she approached her boss and colleagues about the improprieties, she was met with slander, threats, and was subjected to profanity-laced tirades and sexual slurs at the hands of Isaiah Thomas, the club’s president and coach. The jury ruled in favor of Browne Sanders, ruling that the actions of Thomas and the other men had turned Madison Square Gardens into a hostile workplace. (Read more…)

COLUMBUS — Senate Bill 17, the most comprehensive drunk driving law in the state’s history, has been passed by the Ohio Senate and now moves into committee in the Ohio House of Representatives. It would create a Web site with the names and pictures of all drunk drivers with five or more convictions.

It would mandate Breathalyzer tests for drivers stopped under suspicion of drunk driving after two convictions, and monitoring devices to be worn by multiple-time offenders. Repeat offenders could also have their cars impounded for one year or permanently.

“If you’re going to drink and drive and put other Ohioans at risk, we’re going to get you off the road,” said Senate Bill 17’s sponsor, Senator Tim Grendell, R-Chester Township. (Read more…)

Deane Brown started her legal career at a high-powered firm that tops many new lawyers’ lists of best places to work. But when her daughter Morgan was born in 1996, the Boston University Law School grad worked nights and weekends to meet the billing requirements, leaving her feeling cheated. “At that point, I knew I needed to go to a smaller firm,” she says. In 2002, she joined Beermann Swerdlove, working in commercial litigation and employment law. “We appreciate that people have lives outside of the office here,” she says.

Law is a notoriously demanding profession for those with ambition. To become a partner, associates typically have to charge clients for at least 2,000 hours of work a year, though that minimum can rise to 2,400 hours at top-tier outfits—or 46 billable hours each and every week of the year. The burden falls especially hard on mothers who have got kids to tend to and households to manage. Little wonder that while half of all law school grads are women, only 17.2% of partners are, according to the Project for Attorney Retention at the University of California Hastings College of Law in San Francisco. (Read more…)

New Delhi: The All India Muslim Women Personal Law Board has released the “Shariat Nikahnama” that they claim would give equal rights to both Muslim men and women.

If the board has its way, a Muslim woman would be entitled to seek divorce if her husband was found having illicit relationship with another woman.

The board has also rejected any divorce done through SMS, e-mail, phone as video conferencing, besides rejecting divorce done on provocation.

A Muslim woman can seek divorce if she is forced by her husband to indulge in unnatural sex. She can also seek divorce if her husband contracts AIDS. (Read more…)

Notary publics who scam Latino immigrants by charging them for legal advice will now face criminal penalties under a new law signed by Gov. Jim Doyle in Milwaukee on Tuesday. In Mexico and Latin American countries, a notario can have legal training, while in the U.S., a notary can only administer oaths and witness signatures.But many who advertise as notarios take advantage of vulnerable immigrants looking for a way to stay in the U.S. and charge for legal advice that raises false hopes, said state Rep. Pedro Colón (D-Milwaukee), who sponsored the measure after reports of rip-offs, especially on the city’s south side, which is largely Latino.

“Many people want to follow the law and seek counsel from people who, unfortunately, have no legal standing to give advice,” he said. (Read more…)