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Massive LA County court layoffs to begin Friday
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2012/06/15 17:03
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Squeezed by state budgets cutbacks, the Los Angeles County court system is launching massive job layoffs, pay cuts and transfers, court officials said Thursday.
Cutbacks that will be implemented Friday will affect 431 court employees and 56 courtrooms throughout the nation's largest superior court system.
Presiding Judge Lee Smalley Edmon bemoaned the loss of longtime employees as well as the impact on public services.
"We are laying off people who are committed to serving the public," she said. "It is a terrible loss both to these dedicated employees and to the public."
The union representing state and municipal employees called Friday's action a "freeze on justice in Los Angeles" and warned that the county would experience "an end to timely justice" with cases being delayed for years, particularly in civil courts.
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees — AFSCME — planned to have representatives on hand to assist employees who will not know they are losing their jobs until they are informed individually Friday.
A spokeswoman for the California Judicial Council said other courts in the state will also be impacted by the budget cuts but will handle them individually. Los Angeles' court system, as the largest, will be the most heavily affected.
Edmon said the drastic actions are the result of a state mandate to reduce annual spending by $30 million. She noted that earlier reductions already saved $70 million, but more cuts in state support for trial courts are scheduled for the next fiscal year. |
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'Octomom' bankruptcy case thrown out of court
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2012/05/16 05:37
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A judge threw out "Octomom" Nadya Suleman's bankruptcy claim Tuesday after she failed to file the proper paperwork to show she can't pay as much as $1 million in debt.
That means creditors can move to collect what they say they're owed, and a pending foreclosure can go ahead against the La Habra, Calif., house Suleman lives in with her 14 children, according to The Orange County Register.
Suleman's case was thrown out because she didn't file a dozen financial documents and statements required to prove bankruptcy. In her initial filing April 30, Suleman estimated that she owed as much as $1 million that she is unable to repay.
Suleman had sought protection from her debts under Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which means a court-appointed trustee would have liquidated her assets to pay off creditors before she is discharged from most of her debts. According to the filing, she owed money to more than 20 parties, including utility companies, her father and a Christian school. |
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High court weighs overtime pay for drug sales reps
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2012/04/17 17:20
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A seemingly divided Supreme Court on Monday weighed a potentially costly challenge to the pharmaceutical industry's practice of not paying overtime to its sales representatives.
The justices questioned whether the federal law governing overtime pay should apply to the roughly 90,000 people who try to persuade doctors to prescribe certain drugs to their patients.
Many sales jobs are exempt from overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act. But unlike typical salespeople who often work on commission, pharmaceutical sales representatives cannot seal a deal with doctors. Federal law, in fact, forbids any binding agreement by a doctor to prescribe a specific drug.
Two salesmen who once worked for drug maker GlaxoSmithKline filed a class-action lawsuit claiming that they were not paid for the 10 to 20 hours they worked each week on average outside the normal business day. Their jobs required them to meet with doctors in their offices, but also to attend conventions, dinners, even golf outings.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was among several justices who wondered about limits on overtime opportunities if the court were to rule for the sales reps. A court filing by the industry said drug companies could be on the hook for billions of dollars in past overtime. |
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Suit challenges federal licensing of tax preparers
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2012/03/12 19:48
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After three decades as a part-time tax preparer, 80-year-old Elmer Kilian of Eagle, Wis., is concerned that new IRS regulations may prevent him from hanging out his shingle.
Kilian is one of three plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit by a libertarian legal center this week that challenges new licensure requirements for hundreds of thousands of tax preparers across the nation.
The IRS says the new regulations, more than two years in the making, are needed to ensure that taxpayers who hire tax preparers get high-quality service. The regulations require most paid tax preparers to pass a federal competency exam and take ongoing continuing education courses to keep up with changes in tax laws.
But the Arlington, Va.-based Institute for Justice, which expects to file the lawsuit Tuesday in Washington on behalf of Kilian and two others, say the IRS lacks the statutory authority to require these kinds of licenses without congressional authorization. The new rules are bad policy, the institute contends, that put mom-and-pop tax preparers out of business and give unfair advantages to lawyers and certified public accountants, who are exempt from many of the licensing requirements.
"The likely result of these regulations is less options for consumers and higher prices," said Bob Ewing, a spokesman for the institute. The nonprofit law firm has filed numerous legal challenges against government regulations, including local licensing requirements for professions from hair braiders to yoga teachers and federal rules against paying bone-marrow donors. |
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