A U.S. government investigation into runaway Toyotas has found no new safety defects beyond problems with accelerator pedals that explain reports of sudden acceleration in the vehicles, according to preliminary findings. Safety experts have said vehicle electronic systems could be to blame for the problems that have led to Toyota’s massive recalls but the review [...]
View the video here on your mobile device. Though it has been around for years, whistleblowing website WikiLeaks has made waves recently. Perhaps most notably, the site released more than 77,000 secret U.S. military documents in July, prompting the Pentagon to demand that the site’s editor-in-chief cancel any new postings. The uploading of a huge [...]
New public opinion survey findings from the Insurance Research Council (IRC) indicate that a majority of Americans believe that adopting new laws allowing people to sue their own auto insurance company for punitive damages, in addition to receiving benefits for their insured claim losses, is not a good idea. Twenty-six percent of those surveyed said [...]
A young Toronto man went to court Wednesday to challenge Ontario’s new law prohibiting drivers 21 and under from having any alcohol whatsoever in their systems. Kevin Wiener, 20, filed his application in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, alleging the law that took effect Sunday violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms because it [...]
Banking titan Citigroup Inc. is paying US$75 million to settle civil charges that it misled investors about its potential losses from subprime mortgages as the housing bust hit in 2007. The Securities and Exchange Commission announced the settlement with Citigroup on Thursday. It says the company repeatedly made misleading statements in calls with analysts and [...]
View the video here on your mobile device. In 2002, Vancouver lawyer Alan Cameron Ward was arrested and strip-searched after police mistakenly believed he intended to throw a pie at then-Prime Minister Jean Chretien. Ward sued the city and provincial governments. The trial judge ruled that the city and province violated Ward’s charter right to [...]
Goldman Sachs & Co. has agreed to pay US$550 million to settle civil fraud charges that accused the Wall Street giant of misleading buyers of mortgage-related investments. The settlement came on July 15 – the same day that the Senate passed the stiffest restrictions on banks and Wall Street since the Great Depression. The deal [...]
A new study by the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform (ILR) shows that small businesses in that country shoulder a tremendous burden of the nation’s tort liability costs, having paid $105.4 billion in 2008. Noting that small businesses have created 64% of all net new jobs in the United States over the past 15 [...]
A Quebec court has given the victims of financial fraudster Earl Jones the go-ahead to file a class action lawsuit against RBC. Superior Court Justice Robert Mongeon gave the green light in a Montreal courtroom on July 14. Former clients of the financial adviser allege a Montreal-area branch of the RBC bank was aware of [...]
While she may be one of this year’s most popular performers, Lady Gaga’s insurance company will not be paying out in the $30 million breach of contract battle the star is in. According to reports, Navigators Specialty Insurance Company has denied the singer’s claim to help fight a $30 million breach of contract suit with [...]
View the video here on your mobile device. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, named after sponsors Senator Paul Sarbanes and Representative Michael Oxley, was passed in 2002 as a response to some of the accounting issues related to Enron and WorldCom. The law created the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) to regulate the accounting industry. The [...]
Quebec’s highest court has rejected a bid by the Caisse de depot et placement to be excluded from a lawsuit related to the Norbourg scandal. The Quebec Court of Appeal’s decision on June 28 overturns a Superior Court ruling last summer. In August 2008, a former police director who lost $300,000 in the [...]
Ontario’s highest court has closed the door on a pension increase for fired Hydro One executive Eleanor Clitheroe. Clitheroe sued Hydro One seeking to have her pension raised to $33,644.21 a month – slightly more than the average Hydro One pensioner gets annually. The lawsuit was originally dismissed, but in appealing it to the Court [...]
The WTC Captive Insurance Company, the City of New York, the contractors the City hired, their subcontractors, and attorneys for over 10,000 plaintiffs alleging injuries from the rescue, recovery and debris removal operations at the World Trade Center site operations after 9/11 have announced amendments to a March 11, 2010 settlement of those claims. The [...]
Eleanor Clitheroe, who made millions at the helm of Hydro One Inc. before being fired, is arguing it is “pure vindictiveness” for the government to limit her pension. Clitheroe, who was dismissed in July 2002 after weeks of controversy over executive salaries at the province’s publicly owned transmission utility, is suing Hydro One. Clitheroe is [...]
