Class Actions

The Mental and Emotional Toll of Bed Bugs

July 1, 2015 | Gregory J. Brod

Think about a paper cut caused by a thin edge, a shaving nick caused by the smallest imperfection in a blade, or a bite from a mosquito you barely see that may carry deadly diseases. These injuries prove that the neither the size of the wound nor the size of the culprit determines the impact. As a bed bug law firm in Oakland, San Francisco, and Santa Rosa, we have worked closely with the victims of bed bug infestations and know just how much these tiny creatures (despite not being linked to the spread of any diseases) can impact your life.

Study Points to Psychological Toll of Bed Bug Infestations

Last October, The Atlantic reported on the effects of a bed bug infestation. The story opens by sharing the writer’s experiences coping with the pests. She jokes about “bed bug PTSD” and then turns to actual research studies suggesting bed bugs leave people anxious, depressed, and paranoid.

California Bed Bug Lawyer on Why Landlords Must Take the Lead in Bed Bug Extermination

April 24, 2015 | Gregory J. Brod

A bed bug is only about the size of an apple seed and, while an initial bite often goes unnoticed, repeated bites can cause itchy welts that get worse with continued exposure. A single female can lay 540 eggs(!!) in her 6 to 12 month lifetime, so missing even one or two bugs can give the pests the upper hand. In residential rentals, landlords/owners bear primary responsibility for combating bed bugs – it makes sense and, pursuant to a wide-range of rules and regulations, it is the law. Our San Francisco bed bug lawyer helps renters when landlords fail to live up to this obligation.

Law & Reason Require Property Management to Effectively Address Bed Bug Infestations

Image by Mick E. Talbot

California Bedbug Lawsuits: Damages, Compensation, and Class Actions

April 1, 2015 | Gregory J. Brod

It sounds like a silly rhyme — “Sleep tight. Don’t let the bedbugs bite.” — but for an increasing number of people bedbugs have become an all-too-real nightmare. Even a brief encounter with bedbugs can leave a person in a great deal of discomfort, a feeling that is only magnified when pleas for help go unheeded. Our San Francisco bed bug lawyer helps people who have experienced this distress, including tenants whose landlords ignored their pleas for a solution. Today’s blog entry looks at one of the more recent cases of bedbugs in California and then shifts focus to bedbug lawsuits looking at the types of damages available to bedbug victims and the possibility of a bedbug class action.

Senior Living Community Facing Bedbug Infestation Residents of one senior living facility in Desert Hot Springs are among the many Californians battling a bedbug infestation. KESQ, a CBS affiliate, reports that many residents of Linda Vista Senior Residences have found themselves covered in bedbug bites. One woman said her loved ones are afraid to visit, especially after a friend and the friend’s children spent one night with her and awoke to “bumps all over.” Desert Hot Springs is investigating conditions at the community and vows to help improve conditions. The City has also issued citations to the management company based on code violations although the article does not provide details/specifics on those citations.

Management at Linda Vista has begun to take notice of the problem but residents worry their response may prove ineffective. Representatives of the management company report that a pest control company has done an initial treatment and has plans for a second application and a follow-up visit. Residents, including many disabled seniors, had to wait outside during the treatment and returned to find clutter and belongings scattered throughout their units. Some pieces of furniture were deemed too infected to treat and the company disposed of those items. While management is providing some reimbursements for items that had to be tossed out, some residents who have limited financial resources say the money isn’t enough. In the words of one community member, “I respect they are trying but that’s all they are doing is trying.”

Class Action Attorney Discusses Settlement in Flight 214 Case

March 6, 2015 | Gregory J. Brod

While twenty months have passed since the tragedy, the image of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crashed on a runway at San Francisco International Airport (“SFO”) is still fresh in our minds at the Brod Law Firm. For the victims and their families, those moments will never be forgotten. Lawsuits are never a perfect answer; they cannot undo the harm done. Still, monetary compensation can be critical following an injury, helping the victims deal with the financial, physical, and even emotional (i.e. money for counseling, funds to live on if the victim can no longer work because of psychological scars) damage. By their very nature, plane accidents often involve many victims with similar, though never identical, stories. For this reason, our San Francisco airplane injury law firm believes that plane crash class actions can be a useful tool for victims and their families. As with other civil actions, meritorious claims filed as a class action often result in settlements, although settlement is a bit more complex in class action cases.

Seventy-Two Injured Plaintiffs Settle Flight 214 Claims As a report in this week’s Oakland Tribune recalls, Flight 214 crashed on July 6, 2013 as it prepared to land at SFO following a flight from South Korea. The plane collided with the seawall at the end of the runway, killing three and injuring nearly 200. Investigators concluded pilot error was to blame and suggested the setup of the 777’s flight control systems was an additional factor.

On Tuesday, a group of 72 passengers settled a class action lawsuit against Asiana Airlines, Boeing, and Air Cruisers Company which manufactured the plane’s evacuation slides. The class of plaintiffs, each of whom received an award commensurate with their injuries, included victims whose injuries had stabilized and were generally less severe than plaintiffs involved in other pending suits.

Bed Bugs in the Courts (Not Literally!) — Using Individual Lawsuits and Class Actions to Protect California Renters

January 27, 2015 | Gregory J. Brod

Landlord-tenant lawyer Greg Brod is often asked whether an individual tenant’s case can really be big enough to justify a lawsuit. Often the answer is “Yes.” Recognizing the potential for power imbalances and the critical importance of a safe home, rental contracts and state/local laws often provide extra legal protection for tenants, even allowing triple damages in some cases. Our team is proud to advocate for individual tenants, a practice that includes helping renters who’ve faced a major bedbug problem. In some cases, however, our San Francisco bedbug lawyer finds that the best way to fight back against an individual landlord or rental company that neglected its responsibilities is for tenants to work together through a bedbug class action.

Bed Bug Class Action Filed Against Public Housing Authority

We previously reported on a $2.45 million settlement in an Iowa class action involving the bedbug infestation at two apartment buildings in Des Moines. In October, another bed bug class action case was filed in Iowa’s capital, this time involving the city’s largest public housing complex. The Des Moines Register reports that the lawsuit alleges the public housing agency failed to properly address a major bedbug infestation creating unconscionable, substandard conditions at the Royal View Manor apartment tower. In addition to asking for monetary compensation, the suit also asks the Agency to immediately eliminate the bedbug problem.

Appeal, Safety of Compact Fluorescent Lamps Come into Question

June 10, 2014 | Gregory J. Brod

Compact fluorescent lamps have been billed as an energy-efficient means for reducing carbon emissions, and the so-called CFLs have steadily displaced the traditional incandescent light bulbs on store shelves in the United States as our government has banned the manufacture or importation of the latter. However, like many consumer advocates and product safety specialists, San Francisco products liability attorney Gregory J. Brod has concerns over whether the new technology is all that it has been hyped up to be or even safe.

The now-recognizable spiral-shaped CFL was first invented in 1976 by Edward E. Hammer, an engineer with General Electric, in response to the stateside pinch in energy supplies that was caused by the 1973 oil crisis. In 1980, Philips introduced its model SL, which was a screw-in model of the CFL, and in 1985 Sylvania began to market it model EL lamp, which was the first CFL to feature an electronic ballast. Work on newer models strived to develop a CFL that would be able to fit into the same volume as comparable incandescent lamps, which required a bulb with high-efficacy phosphors that could withstand more power per unit area than the phosphors older-generation large fluorescent lamps employed.

Modern CFLs are said to emit the same amount of visible light as incandescent lamps, use one-fifth to one-third the electric power, and last eight to 15 times longer. However, there are some issues with CFLs that dim their appeal as well as raise questions over their safety. Some factors that may take away the luster of CFLs include the following:

The actual lifespan of a CFL depends on a variety of factors such as operating voltage, manufacturing defects, exposure to voltage spikes, mechanical shock, frequency of turning a CFL on and off, lamp orientation and ambient operating temperature, among other factors;
While CFLs, under optimum conditions, last up to 15 times longer than incandescent bulbs, they cost three to 10 times more than the traditional light bulbs;
Due to the fact that it has so many component parts, the electronic ballast within a CFL may fail, and any failure may be accompanied by discoloration or distortion of the ballast enclosure, odors or smoke;
CFLs are generally not compatible with dimmers, and the use of the two items together can shorten the lifespan of the former – dimmable CFLs must be used for the desired results;
Some manufacturers of CFLs have claimed that the bulbs could be used to replace higher-power incandescent lamps while their light output has belied that claim – a more accurate assessment of equivalent wattage can be determined through the lamp’s actual output of light, measured in lumens and marked on a package; and
CFLs are not designed for outdoor use and will not start in cold weather.

In addition to the aforementioned shortcomings of CFLs, there are also concerns related to health and the environment. For example, CFLs may pose a health risk to people who suffer from skin conditions due to the ultraviolet and blue light that the bulbs emit; a European Commission scientific study found that CFLs could produce ultraviolet exposures that approach current workplace limits in force to protect workers from skin and retinal damage. In addition, a recent study found that exposure to CFL light caused significant cell damage in cultures; further analysis confirmed the presence of significant UVA and UVC radiation, which the study thought might be attributable to damage in the bulbs’ internal phosphor coatings.

Should the base of a CFL not be made to be flame-retardant, which is required in voluntary CFL standards, overheating in electrical components in the bulb may cause a fire hazard. And, as in the case of any other light bulb, if a CFL breaks there will be quite a mess to clean up, a hazardous situation that is not limited to glass shards in the case of a CFL – like all fluorescent lamps, CFLs contain highly toxic mercury as vapor inside the glass tubing, which is released into the atmosphere when a CFL breaks. Any CFL that makes it through its lifespan without breaking may very well end up broken in landfills if proper disposal techniques recommended for CFL cleanup and/or disposal are not followed.
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Huge Security Breach at Target May Be Poster Child for Larger Problem

January 17, 2014 | Gregory J. Brod

The post-holiday period is usually associated with exchanges of merchandise, white sales and an anticipation of the Super Bowl. Not too many people expect that the first few weeks of January should be preoccupied by a concern that one’s personal information has been compromised by a security breach, but that’s what many, many people must concern themselves with this month as a result of the revelations concerning a much bigger than originally thought security breach at Target and beyond. And the news has San Francisco attorney Gregory J. Brod wondering whether the latest revelation is just the tip of the iceberg regarding this story.

Malware from the Former Soviet Union
According to CNN, the Department of Homeland Security announced Thursday that malware originating in the former Soviet Union may have infected the point of sale devices of Target, resulting in a massive security breach at the big retailer during the holiday shopping season. The advisory comes on the heels of the known breach at Target, which compromised credit card numbers and other personal information of up to 110 million customers. Target, after initially downplaying the scope of the breach, later owned up to a breach that encompassed such sensitive information as a cardholder’s PIN for a debit card, name, address, phone number and email address.

But more alarmingly, the Department of Homeland Security warning stated that consumers should be aware that the malware that infected Target’s point of sale system may have invaded the point of sale systems of other retailers. Once gaining a foothold in point of sale devices, the malware monitors data processed on the device and passes on the information to a recipient not connected with the retailer.

In the wake of the Target hack – which exposed up to 40 million in-store customers and 70 million additional customers to the breach – the retailer has provided new debit and credit cards to its customers and offered apologies to those whose identities were compromised.

Retailer’s System May Have Been Particularly Vulnerable
But whereas the government has warned consumers to be vigilant in a broad sense over their credit and debit card purchases of merchandise, there is evidence to suggest that Target may have been at the epicenter of data theft this holiday season. According to The New York Times, experts in cybersecurity and credit have stated that Target’s point of sale system was particularly vulnerable to attack from hackers, largely because the retailer’s system was remarkably open. That wide-open porthole, experts say, enabled hackers to casually shop around from system to system and gather information as they pleased.

As a result of the relatively easy installation of the malware, known as a memory scraper, the criminals were able to put credit and debit cards up for sale on the black market – and many innocent shoppers who originally owned the cards began seeing unauthorized charges on their statements.
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Defective Food Products: Lack of Food Safety

November 12, 2013 | Gregory J. Brod

Consumers expect a certain level of safety when they purchase food products. However, many Americans suffer adverse effects to food that is improperly manufactured, packaged, transported and/or stored. The Brod Law Firm believes California residents should be able to trust the safety of products sold and used by residents of The Golden State. As a products liability law firm, we help consumers injured by defective products recover compensation through individual lawsuits.

Baby Food Recalled Due to Manufacturing Defect

ABC7 News covered a story on the recall of baby food products due to a manufacturing defect. Plum Organics, an organic baby food manufacturer and supplier, recalled the products once Plum Organics determined that potential spoilage associated with a manufacturing defect may cause some containers to swell. A manufacturing defect is an irregularity created during the assembly of the product that differs from the product’s specification. Plum Organics stated products with a “Best Buy” date ranging from August 5 to December 8, 2014 have been recalled. The company warned parents to not feed their child any of these products. Consumers who consume the product may experience gastrointestinal issues, including nausea and diarrhea. So what should you do if your child has already consumed the baby food and was injured? Is it possible for you to sue and seek damages? Well, you may be able to bring a defective products claim.

Bay Area Residents May Not Be Able to Breathe Sigh of Relief, Even as Feds Fine Valero for Pollution

October 23, 2013 | Gregory J. Brod

We tend to take the air we breathe for granted, with the vital element of life often characterized as one of the free things in life. But there are few things in life that can be as quickly and pervasively polluted as the air we breathe, and our San Francisco toxic tort attorney Gregory J. Brod is reminded of this fact and how important it is for those who fall ill from the inhalation of polluted air to find experienced legal representation to win the compensation from polluters that the victims of pollution deserve.

The San Francisco Bay Area received an up-close-and-personal reminder of the fact that companies emitting harmful pollutants into the air very much exist in our region when it was announced Tuesday that the Valero Refining Co. agreed to pay more than $300,000 in civil penalties for air quality violations. According the Bay Area Quality Management District as reported in a story in the San Francisco Chronicle, the energy firm was cited for 33 violations in 2011 and 2012 committed at its Benicia refinery. Among the specific violations emanating from the Benicia refinery were those that involved excessive emissions and gas leaks.

In 2013, Valero earned the dubious distinction of being named one of California’s top producers of toxic substances, ranking as the 10th biggest source for chemicals and pollutants in the state, according to a January assessment by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. Within the Bay Area, Valero ranked just behind the ConocoPhillips refinery in Rodeo as the region’s biggest emitter of poisonous substances in the region – the company was linked to the release of 504,472 pounds of toxic substances into the air, water or ground.

However, in a version of the saying, “We’ve seen this act before,” the recently announced penalties against Valero are not the first time the energy company has landed in hot water with the government over pollution and paid a penalty as a result. Indeed, the federal government levied a much bigger penalty against Valero in June 2005 as a result of the emission of harmful substances. In a settlement with the Justice Department and the EPA under the Clean Air Act, Valero was required to pay $5.5 million in penalties and to defray the cost of supplemental environmental projects valued at another $5.5 million in the six states where Valero refineries are located. Once again, among the 14 refineries at the center of the settlement, Valero’s facility in Benicia but also its refinery in Martinez were involved. In the 2005 settlement, Valero was expected to reduce harmful emissions by more than 20,000 tons per year from its 14 refineries, including nitrogen oxide, sulphur dioxide and particulate matter. The federal government also authorized injunctive relief that called for the following goals:

Valero was to spend more than $700 million on injunctive relief through 2012.
Valero was to guarantee emissions reductions of specific substances at each refinery.
Valero made a commitment to reduce the number and severity of major flaring events at all of its facilities.
Valero made a commitment to put in place improved procedures for reducing benzene emissions and volatile organic compound leaks from its equipment.

Concerns About BPA Now Include Potentially Elevated Miscarriage Risk

October 16, 2013 | Gregory J. Brod

We come into contact with countless man-made chemicals every day. There is often a delicate balance between a chemical’s usefulness and the potential danger the substance poses to our health or environment. There has been much debate in recent years about certain chemicals, such as those used in nonstick cookware and those used in flame-retardant children’s sleepwear. A new study from a major university is raising a new concern regarding a chemical that has drawn much scrutiny in recent years – bisphenol-A or BPA. This study and others like it are of major concern to our Oakland toxic chemicals attorney, Gregory Brod, who works with people made ill by the ever-increasing presence of toxic chemicals in our modern lives.

An Overview of the Study and BPA

A Stanford University study, covered in an Associated Press article carried by The Oakland Tribune, suggests high levels of BPA may raise the chance of a miscarriage among women who are already prone to miscarriages or had difficulty conceiving. Importantly, scientists suggest the study cannot be considered conclusive at this time. However, Dr. Linda Giudice, the president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and a California biochemist, said the study adds to “the biological plausibility” that BPA may impact on fertility and other health issues. Nonetheless, a group of obstetricians called for further study of potential fertility hazards due to environmental chemicals.