The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced in mid-March that over-the-shoulder baby slings can be deadly and warned parents to use them with caution. The warning came after more than a dozen babies died while using the slings, according to ABC News. In response to the CPSC warning, Infantino LLC, the company behind one [...]

A new law in the United Kingdom will protect employees from sexual harassment beyond just coworkers and bosses, now extending to “customers, suppliers and others they encounter in the course of their work,” according to a story in the UK’s Guardian. Well, technically the punishment still goes to employers if they are aware of the [...]

Target became the most recent retail company in the United States to announce it would end the use of polyvinyl chloride (more commonly known as PVC) in some of the products it sells, most notably children’s paraphernalia like eating utensils and lunch boxes. By 2008, the company wants to eliminate PVC from changing tables, bibs [...]

Johnson & Johnson recently agreed to pay $1.25 million to settle allegations that its Ortho Evra birth control patch was responsible for the death of a 14-year-old Wisconsin girl. Just two weeks ago, J&J settled a separate lawsuit over a death allegedly caused by the patch as well. In fact, J&J has settled dozens of [...]

In a 93-page ruling last week a federal judge threw out an Oklahoma state law forcing companies to allow employees to bring guns to work.

Less than a week after announcing a 21.7 million pound recall of ground beef, Topps Meat closed its doors. The recall, one of the largest beef recalls in U.S. history, was initiated because the meat was potentially contaminated with E. coli. It was the first recall for the company, founded 67 years ago.

Nearly 22 million pounds of meat were recalled last Wednesday after E. coli bacteria was suspected to be in the meat, resulting in at least 25 injuries. Topps Meat, Co. recalled the meat, which included ground beef and those packages that have either a “sell by” or “best if used by” date between September 25, [...]

A Louisiana judge ordered Honeywell International, Inc. to pay $12 million on Thursday for its part in the death of an employee. Delvin Henry died a day after opening a mislabeled one-ton cylinder that contained “highly toxic and corrosive material.” Of the fine imposed, $8 million will go to pay a criminal fine, $2 million [...]

Melbourne based Camden Neon Pty Ltd has been fined $300,000 Australian dollars by the Victorian County Court after pleading guilty to “failing to provide a safe work environment.” 26-year-old Sion Rees died after attempting to remove broken glass from a light fitting with improper tools. Judge Sue Pullen said the company had “insufficient” safety conditions [...]

A new study commissioned by the Food Standards Agency, an independent UK government department established to protect public health, found that certain artificial colors and additives in food can lead to hyperactivity disorder in children. It’s believed that the new study will pressure the food and drink industry to remove certain artificial colors and additives [...]

Final regulations regarding a California law mandating sexual harassment training for supervisors went into effect Friday, August 17th. California law AB 1825 requires all employers who supervise more than 50 employees to undertake two hours of sexual harassment training once every two years. When first implemented in 2005, the law was unclear on whether web-based [...]

A 65-year-old St. Louis man on his way to Los Angeles went missing after he was kicked off a train by Amtrak personnel near Williams, Arizona. The man was suffering from a diabetic shock which was confused by the Amtrak employees as drunken behavior. According to police, Roosevelt Sims was asked to leave the train [...]

New research coming out of Australia suggests that office laser printers can damage lungs in a very similar way as smoke particles from cigarettes. A team of Australian scientists from the Queensland University of Technology found that almost a third of all business laser printer models emit dangerous levels of toner particles into the ambient [...]

Fisher-Price has announced a recall of nearly one million Chinese-made toys over concerns of lead-based paint. The worldwide recall affects 967,000 Nickelodeon and Sesame Street toys, including such popular items the Big Bird, Elmo, Dora and Diego characters. In an interview with the Associated Press on Wednesday, David Allmark, general manager of Fisher-Price, said the [...]

We are filing this one under the category of “Careful Communications” as the Pakistani government is reporting that five people were killed in Kararchi several days ago as a direct consequence of falling billboards in the city which collapsed due to strong winds… Police confirmed the deaths which were caused when at least twenty billboards [...]

On Tuesday of last week, China executed its former chief food and drug regulator (Zheng Xiaoyu, age 62) for taking nearly $1 million in bribes from eight pharmaceutical companies to approve medicines. Reportedly at least six of the medicines turned out to be fakes – and some of the ingredients caused bodily harm. According to [...]

On what must have been a slow news day in Detroit, FoxNews is reporting about a Michigan woman who is suing Starbursts’ parent company, Mars Inc. for more than $25,000 for “permanent personal injuries” she claims she sustained after biting into one of their yellow candies in 2005. The “victim”, Victoria McArthur of Romero, Mich., [...]

It hasn’t been the best year thus far for Best Buy – it’s been one plagued by controversy surrounding questionable marketing practices, document retention regarding litigation and allegations of invasion of privacy. Perhaps the most widely-known incident is the lawsuit filed two weeks ago by the Connecticut Attorney General, Richard Blumenthal, alleging that Best Buy [...]

According to media reports, a NY man is suing Novartis over a days-long erection that he attributed to ingesting the Boost Plus Nutritional Energy Drink. As 29-year-old Christopher Woods told the New York Post… “It gave me a lot of energy — too much energy,” Woods said of the protein drink. “It was unbearable and [...]

OSHA plays an important role in helping keep people safe. However, sometimes OSHA, both here in the United States as well as north of the border, can come across as clueless. Accidents happen. No matter how much regulation you put in place and bureaucratic paperwork, people are going to get hurt or even die. Last [...]

Wow! Okay the GC was also the Chief Ethics Officer so that is a little unfair – but some headlines just about write themselves and prevent us from having to pretend that we are clever and witty. This case comes to us courtesy of the current former Chief Ethics Officer and General Counsel of Realogy, [...]

Elaine from the Sienfeld Show would be proud. According to media reports a Chicago woman has filed a lawsuit claiming “negligent dancing” by her boss’s husband and seeking damages for a fractured skull. In her complaint, Lacey Hindman says that David Prange picked her up and threw her during a jitterbug… saying that Prange grabbed [...]

Nokia, the world’s biggest cell phone maker, has sued two Chinese competitors in its first Chinese legal action, alleging illegal product copying. In the lawsuit, Nokia is asking the court to force the two manufacturers to stop making and selling models that allegedly infringe on designs for its own midrange 7260 model. Nokia is also [...]

The widow of an electrician who was killed in 2002 when a cherry-picker truck tipped over has settled a wrongful-death lawsuit by agreeing to a payment of more than $1.8 million. Dennis O’Neil was killed, while he was stringing holiday lights on Waltham Common from a cherry-picker truck. O’Neil was nearly 70 feet in the [...]

The District Appeals Court in California has ruled that LA Fitness Health Club could be sued by a member who slipped near the pool despite a negligence waiver. Reoven Capri accused LA Fitness of negligence and negligence per se for allowing a growth of algae to accumulate around the pool. Capri’s attorneys successfully argued that [...]