Posts archive for: February, 2008
  • Spine and Spinal Cord Injury from Car Accidents in California Cities

    Los Angeles injury attorneys who litigate car accidents, motorcycle accidents and wrongful death claims that occurred due to spinal cord injuries, brain injury, and other serious catastrophic accidents in California cities like Los Angeles and Orange County areas of Marina del Rey, Venice Beach, Santa Monica, Huntington Beach, Playa del Rey and Corona del Mar.

    We all know that numerous automobile and truck accidents happen every single day. No matter how careful you make it a point to be, if another driver or another automobile is negligent, you could still be involved in an automobile accident. The fact is, there are 100´s of automobile and truck accidents each day. Many of which will change the lives of those involved forever. Spine and spinal cord injury from car accidents in California cities can even be fatal.

    One of the first things we tend to think about when we´ve learned that one of our friends or family members has been in an automobile or truck accident, is of course hoping that no death occurs. The next thought, a lot of the time, is hoping that there are no spinal cord injuries involved.

    There are many different injuries that can occur to your spine and spinal cord if you have been involved in an automobile or truck accident, and many other types of accidents as well. Usually, if you were harmed in a bustling city like LA, California, you will need to quickly retain Los Angeles spinal cord injury attorneys. Some of the many injuries associated with spine and spinal cord injuries are herniated or ruptured disc, bulging disc, pinched nerves, whiplash, crushed vertebrae paraplegia, quadriplegia, and various other injuries like disc burst fractures.

    Experiencing any one of these spine injuries can be very frustrating and very painful for you to endure. If you, a close friend, or one of your family members have been involved in an accident that has caused some type of spine or spinal cord injury, don´t think it will be ok and eventually go away, you need to seek professional and specialized medical attention immediately.

    The next most important step you can take for you and your family is to contact professional spine and spinal cord injury lawyers such as accident lawyers in Los Angeles who specialize in these types of bodily injuries, as well as automobile accidents. Spine and spinal cord injury attorneys are familiar with the different symptoms you could be experiencing due to your accident.

    There is numbness from the hip and down your leg a lot of victims experience, tingling sensations in either your arms or your legs, sharp or stabbing pains in your lower back or lumbar region of your spine, shoulder pain or pain traveling down your arm due to neck injuries, or the cervical region of your spine, and various other symptoms that experienced and knowledgeable attorneys are familiar with.

    At a time like this when you are going through a lot of pain, it can be very frustrating for you, as well as your family members. Contacting Los Angeles spine and spinal cord injury attorneys will take a lot of worry off your shoulders, so you can use this time to heal. These injuries are often caused by car accidents. This is why it is vital you contact Los Angeles car accidents attorneys if injured in LA, or Orange County vehicular accident lawyers if you were hurt in cities like Newport Beach or Huntington Beach.

  • Lawyers: trainer has evidence against Clemens

    Lawyers for Roger Clemens' former trainer said yesterday that he will provide Congress with information about physical evidence today corroborating their client's story that he injected the star pitcher with steroids.

    Richard Emery, one of the attorneys for the former trainer, Brian McNamee, declined to describe the evidence. But sources familiar with the situation said the evidence included syringes that McNamee says he used to inject steroids and human growth hormone into the pitcher, as well as gauze used to blot up the injection sites and empty bottles from which the drugs came.

    Clemens has denied McNamee ever injected him with steroids or human growth hormones, but has conceded the trainer injected him with B-12 and the painkiller lidocaine.

    The sources also said that McNamee passed on to federal investigators at a meeting in January syringes that he believed he used to inject Andy Pettitte and Chuck Knoblauch with human growth hormone. They also are being tested by the investigators. DNA testing could take weeks. The Pettitte and Knoblauch relationships will be part of his congressional testimony, the sources said.

    Pettitte has acknowledged receiving HGH injections from McNamee. Knoblauch has not publicly discussed his relationship with McNamee.

    Pettitte's lawyer, Jay Reisinger, did not immediately return a message left at his Pittsburgh-based office. Knoblauch's lawyer, Diana Marshall, declined to comment when reached by Newsday.

    McNamee handed over the Clemens material to federal investigators from California, who are heading the federal probes into the use of steroids by professional athletes, several weeks ago at a meeting in Manhattan, the sources said. The meeting was held with IRS agent Jeff Novitzky and assistant U.S. attorney Matt Parrella on Jan. 10 at the Manhattan office of Earl Ward, a lawyer for McNamee.

    McNamee told the investigators that the material might contain traces of Clemens' DNA either in blood, or microscopic amounts of skin or muscle tissue, along with steroids.

    "That material has been turned over to the government," Ward said. "Brian will discuss it tomorrow [with Congress]. And after tomorrow we'll talk about it."

    But the sources cautioned that the government has not completed testing of the material McNamee handed over. Further, even if Clemens' DNA were found on the material, he could argue that it came from contamination when McNamee injected him with vitamins or the painkiller.

    McNamee's lawyers have argued to federal investigators that if the needle contains only Clemens' DNA and steroids, that would prove that the needle was not used to inject either vitamins or lidocaine into Clemens and then later contamined by McNamee to implicate the pitcher, according to the sources.

    The steroid injections were administered at Clemens' Manhattan apartment in early 2000, and McNamee took the material back to his Queens home for disposal, the sources said.

    McNamee told federal investigators, and plans to tell a congressional committee today, that he said to Clemens that his son was a diabetic and that he had a syringe disposal unit at his home in Queens. The son is diabetic, but McNamee kept the material because he did not trust Clemens in case the situation became the subject of an investigation into drug use, the sources said.

    "Remember, he was a cop ... and he didn't want to be thrown under the bus," by Clemens, said one source familiar with the situation. McNamee had been a NYC police officer before he went in athletic training.

    Of McNamee's alleged, corrobative evidence, one of Clemens' lawyers, Lanny Breuer, released a statement late yesterday, saying: "Brian McNamee is obviously a troubled man who is obsessed with doing everything possible to destroy Roger Clemens. McNamee lied to the police who were investigating him for sexual assault, he lied to Senator [George] Mitchell, he lied to the federal government, and now he apparently has manufactured evidence.

    "He has changed his story repeatedly on this matter," Breuer continued. "He claims to love Roger Clemens, he says he modeled being a father on Roger Clemens, he said Roger treated him like family - but he now claims he kept blood, gauze, and needles from Roger Clemens for seven years. It defies all sensibility. It is just not credible - who in their right mind does such a thing?"

    Parrella, the assistant U.S. attorney who is handling the investigation in California, declined to comment.

  • Would you buy a car on faith?

    No one would buy a car without a look under the hood. Industry veteran John Hill says you shouldn't buy a WMS that way either.

    Buying a warehouse management system (WMS) is a lot like buying a car. You want to kick the tires, get behind the wheel and poke around under the hood—especially if you’re mechanically inclined.

    The same is true of a WMS. From the time you begin the selection process up through the time you commission the system and go live with your operations, following a proven checklist helps to ensure that you get the system your company needs and not a “lemon.” After all, while lemon laws protect car buyers, there’s no such thing as a lemon law for WMS systems, only buyers’ remorse.

    The steps below are the guidelines I consider the most important to follow when you’re selecting a WMS. They provide a measured approach to WMS pre-selection and selection. We’ll look at deployment and post-deployment in a subsequent column.

    Pre-Selection Phase

    Establish clear improvement targets for key performance metrics.
    Match material and data flow, using process flow-charting to identify opportunities for improvement in layout and operating procedures.

    Prepare a detailed functional requirements document.

    Build project ownership by fostering broad employee participation in the identification of improvement opportunities and assessment of potential payback.

    Maintain a proper balance between the concerns and needs of IT and those of the operations management.

    Review the functional requirements document with IS, financial and operating personnel to identify what could possibly go wrong. Develop appropriate back-up procedures. Step through every system function: Determine the probability of problem occurrence and the cost of resolution. At the end of the process, you'll have a document that details what might go wrong, a probable solution cost and whether or not the risk warrants additional investment. Adjust the specification and equipment configuration accordingly. A by-product of the process is a plan that permits continued facility operation in the event of a minor problem or major system failure.

    Prepare a preliminary return-on-investment package. With that, you want to secure management buy-in before initiating the selection process. Be sure to set the proper levels of expectation—don’t oversell the potential.

    The RFP

    Prepare a request for proposal (RFP) that clearly describes the application environment, process flows and system expectations.
    Ensure the RFP is not released until stakeholders have had an opportunity to sign off on it.
    Do your homework and narrow the field so you don’t send the RFP to the world.
    Encourage and provide sufficient time for suppliers to visit your site(s) before submitting their proposals.

    Include a Conformance Table requirement to encourage suppliers to follow a prescribed format that will facilitate and simplify proposal preparation and your review and assessment of it.
    Ensure that performance improvement targets and expected benefits are included in the RFP and that suppliers address each in their proposals.
    Check references!

    Selection Phase

    When the RFP has come back, narrow the field to three or, at most, four semifinalists. Once you’ve done that, you’re ready for the next phase.

    Require semifinalists to produce a complete demonstration of their packages keyed to your environment and requirements. Ensure that your IT, operations (including floor personnel) and management teams participate in the demos and provide feedback for the evaluation.
    Visit reference sites! This is important enough that I’ve mentioned it twice.
    Ensure the chemistry is there between your organization and the vendor before making the final selection; i.e., how well does your team interact with the supplier team?
    Fine-tune the investment package and obtain final approvals.
    If you’ve followed those steps, your ready for the last, which is to select the vendor, and, like buying a car, you’re ready to drive it home.

  • Brennan, Wiener & Associates of La Crescenta is honored to announce that its lead partner and founder, Robert F. Brennan, has been honored by being selected as a "Southern California Super Lawyer" for 2008

    This is the third straight year Mr. Brennan has been honored by being named a "Southern California Super Lawyer".

    Membership in Super Lawyers is limited to five percent of the lawyers in Los Angeles and Orange Counties. Super Lawyers names Southern California's top lawyers as chosen by their peers and through the independent research of Law & Politics. The list of 2008 Southern California Super Lawyers is based on surveys of more than 65,000 lawyers across Los Angeles and Orange counties. The goal was to select as Super Lawyers the top 5 percent of Southern California attorneys in more than 60 practice areas. The list of Southern California Super Lawyers is published annually in the February issues of Los Angeles magazine and Southern California Super Lawyers, which is mailed to every attorney in Southern California.

    Brennan and his firm had an excellent year in the courtroom in 2007. He obtained a $1.1 million dollar verdict against Wells Fargo for false and unfair credit reporting, followed by a verdict of about $200,000 against Arrow Financial for unfair debt collection. Mr. Brennan closed off the year with a $300,000 lemon law judgment against Bentley Motors for a "lemon" 2001 Bentley Arnage.

    Robert F. Brennan and Brennan, Wiener & Associates is widely recognized as the leading Southern California law firm on a wide range of consumer protection issues, including lemon law, car dealer fraud, identity theft, wrongful credit damage, unfair debt collection practices consumer protection class actions and landlord-tenant class actions, as well as major personal injury cases. The firm enjoys an "AV" rating from the prestigious Martindale-Hubbell ratings agency, which is the highest possible rating for an attorney or a law firm and is based on pre-eminence in both legal ability and ethics.

  • Britney Spears ‘drugged by her overpowering manager’

    From Times Online

    A restraining order was issued against Britney Spears’ manager after he was accused of drugging her, parading her in front of the paparazzi and cutting her phone lines.

    Osama Lutfi, 33, the pop star's sometime companion, guru and manager has been at Spears’s side throughout much of her well-documented public breakdown.

    The singer was physically removed from her Los Angeles home last week and detained for psychiatric evaluation for the second time in a month after a series of hysterical episodes.

    It emerged last night that Lynne Spears, the singer’s mother, told a Los Angeles court that Mr Lutfi “drugged Britney, he has cut Britney’s home phone lines and removed her cell phone chargers. He yells at her. He claims to control everything - Britney’s business manager, her attorneys and the security guards at the gate.”

    After hearing her testimony, the Los Angeles Superior Court ordered Mr Lutfi, who is known as Sam, to cease all contact with the singer and her family. He must remain 250 yards away from the medical centre where Spears is being held, her home and the homes of her parents, siblings and children.

    Today Mr Lufti gave an interview to Us magazine admitting he gave Spears medication, but he insisted it was to help her sleep. He described the pills as "magic" and said Spears agreed that they helped her.

    He went on to claim Spears had been suffering from bipolar disorder for approximately five years.

    "In the depressive episodes, it's all crying. But in the manic episode, there's very little crying or sympathy or compassion. She becomes another person. She becomes somebody that just doesn't care about anybody or anything," he said.

    Spears's gradual demise has been closely followed by the world's media and by judges, who awarded custody of her two children to Kevin Federline, her ex-husband, last year.

    Lynne Spears, who has had a strained relationship with her daughter, said that in October last year Mr Lutfi had “essentially moved into Britney’s home and has purported to take control of her life, home and finances”.

    She described to the court a long chaotic night inside her daughter’s Beverley Hills home in the days before she was put on “mental health evaluation hold”.

    Lynne Spears said there were a string of disagreements between her daughter and Mr Lutfi. “Sam had told Britney she was an unfit mother, a piece of trash and a whore, that she cares more about Adnan (Ghalib), her current boyfriend than she cares about her kids and that she does not deserve her kids,” she said.

    To keep Britney quiet Mrs Spears claimed that her manager said he ground up drugs and put them in her food. “He told us that the doctor who is treating her now is trying to get her into a sleep-induced coma so that they could then give her drugs to heal her brain.”

    Late that same evening, she said Britney decided she needed to go shopping for lipstick. Before they left the house, she said Mr Lutfi took Britney upstairs and gave her something “to make her more lighthearted, happy and fun.”

    Throughout the evening Britney’s mother claims that paparazzi were present in the house and that they were being corralled by Mr Lutfi.

    “The paparazzi reported to Sam and addressed him with great respect,” she said. “They treated him like a general.”

    The graphic depiction of life inside Spears’ home will be amplified by a disturbing description of the Louisiana-born musician’s mental state in the next edition of an American music magazine.

    Rolling Stone will publish an account of the singer verbally abusing a fan and breaking down in a shopping centre.

    When her credit card failed to go through she is reported to have reacted furiously. “A wail emerges from the cubby — guttural, vile, the kind of base animalistic shriek only heard at a family member's deathbed. ‘F*** these bitches,’ screams Britney, each word ringing out between sobs. ‘These idiots can't do anything right!’” according to an excerpt from the forthcoming article.

    Vanessa Grigoriadis wrote for Rolling Stone that after a crowd had gathered Spears was approached by a fan for a photograph: “’I don't want her talking to me!’ she screams. She whirls around and stares the girl deep in the eyes, her lips almost vibrating with anger. ‘I don't know who you think I am, bitch," she snarls, ‘but I'm not that person’”.

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