Monday, April 21, 2008
To date, there are approximately 230 pleadings on file with the Federal District Court here in Atlanta in your case. We spend a significant amount of time generating or reading legal papers - the most important currently pending are Motions for Class Certification. In addition, one of our clients, Ms. Anne Cease, who is Class Representative for the "consumer class" (costs of refund and associated nuisance costs), was deposed at The Orlando Firm in Decatur, Georgia by ConAgra lawyers. Anne, who has two twin 12 year old boys, told her story straight out: she was a loyal Peter Pan brand customer, bought two jars, heard of the recall and was instructed by ConAgra via the initial news reports to throw away her jars. Later she heard ConAgra had initiated a refund program, but by then if she hadn't turned her jars over to her husband - a lawyer I know - they would have been in the dump. For those who listened to the FDA or news reports and disposed of their potentially poisoned jars, Anne represents a class of folks seeking a refund. Anne told ConAgra that she just wanted that poison out of her home and away from her children.
By the way, have you noticed that ConAgra's refund program included instructions to keep the lid and throw away the jar of peanut butter? Think about it, we have. A consumer becomes violently ill, it is believed salmonella infected peanut butter is the source, the manufacturer encourages you to throw away the infection source, and then claims they cannot compensate you for your illness and medical bills because you lack the proof as to the source of your illness! Plainly, whether intended or not (why would anyone be suspicious of a large corporation like ConAgra with a legal department experienced in dealing with food borne illness claims?), encouraging sick consumers to mail in their lids for $2.00 and throw away their contaminated peanut butter seems to have benefitted ConAgra in unexpected "?" ways.
At this stage, as before, we await ConAgra to see if they will increase their current settlement offer to an acceptable sum that will fairly compensate everyone. Concurrently, we push forward on the litigation front. I wish I could say more.
A TYPICAL EMAIL:
The following email was one of many I receive and is typical. It is re-printed in its entirety and with the young lady's permission. I decided only to withhold her name for her privacy:
Dear Mr. Orlando,
I recently read all of your timely emails about our case. I appreciated
you kinds words of wisdom. I am like a lot of folks, wanting the case
to settle now! I know that you might feel somewhat pressed by ones like
myself, wanting to settle now. We are all facing hard times, but I realize
that you have invested a lot of time and money into this case, therefore
I will wait and pray that you can over come some of their unfair dealings
and settle our cases so that everyone receive their just do. I pray for
you because everyone knows that a lot of corporate lawyers are trained
to pay out as little a possible and retain their employment. I understand
fully what you are facing and what you were saying on your February 2008
email.
Do your job and continue to do the work that you seem to enjoy very much.
Just remember that some of us are out of work, about to lose our homes
and are victims of the recession. I never dreamed that one day I would
be waiting for a law suit to settle so I can keep my home! But, many are
worst off than I am, so I will not take up your time complaining about
my troubles.
Sincerely,
[CLIENT]
I re-printed this email for a number of reasons. First, to remind myself and everyone else WHY I do what I do and how important your case, a case of any size, is to you individually. Secondly, every email I receive, without exception, is supportive and encouraging. This is crucial. I encourage the public to be skeptical when retaining a personal injury lawyer because there are an incredible number of lawyers out there who are either unethical or incompetent, or a combination of both. Hopefully by now, as it appears, we have earned your trust. This is crucial because it is easier for us to fight for your rights and recovery knowing that you stand firmly behind us - as this young lady's email demonstrates. In other words, we do not face the distraction of having distrusting clients behind us as we attempt to fight forward.
CONCLUSION:
For the past week and this coming week, David Karnas (your Tucson, Arizona lawyer) and I will be distracted by (hopefully) finalizing a settlement of a class action pending in Raleigh, North Carolina. We are off to Jersey City, New Jersey for a 4th mediation which has the potential to end another, unrelated case upon which we work. This case is never far from my heart and mind so if anything changes in the immediate future, I will post an update on this site.
In the past I have posted "thank you" notes to other law firms who have referred their clients to us for handling in this case. Yet again, at the beginning of last week, I met a young lawyer who came to my office with a single file for someone he was attempting to assist. He was meeting with Ms. Zany Dunlap, who as you know, is my Litigation Paralegal and the life blood of my law firm. I had the chance to pop in our conference room to meet this gentleman. There's never been any secret that as lawyers, we earn a living by handling cases such as yours. But, here, too, I was impressed by this young lawyer's sincere and altruistic desire to help his client. Someone, another lawyer "in the know," chose to trust us as you have. Thank you.
SPECIAL NOTE:
We have a new Legal Assistant on the case. Zany has become overwhelmed with client calls from folks who do not read updates through this website or who have specific questions not addressed herein. To give her relief, we have hired a young lady away from her nursing program - she wanted to try law - to help in the office. So feel free to call Ms. Amila Ahmetovic as well. Or write to Amila@OrlandoFirm.com.
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