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An accident involving an Amtrak train left two dead and more than 30 wounded Sunday morning, becoming the third high-profile Amtrak accident in the last twelve months. The train was moving at high speed when it struck a backhoe on its track just outside of Philadelphia. The incident killed two construction workers and injured dozens of riders.

In March of 2016, a cross-country Amtrak train derailed in Kansas, sending 32 of its passengers to the hospital.

Leon Carelli, Chief Technology Officer at Locks Law Firm, was quoted this week in Forbes. Carelli contributed his expert advice on the best resources for dealing with tech problems.

The feature, "Seven Top Resources For Technology Troubleshooting," can be read in full here.

Office Building Janitor Secretly Videotaped Women Over 11-Month Period

An invasion of privacy case involving a group of 29 women surreptitiously videotaped using a restroom by a janitor working in a Somerset, NJ, office building was settled yesterday in Bergen County Superior Court for $940,000.

The women were represented by Neel Bhuta, an attorney for Locks Law Firm, and Franklin Solomon, of Solomon Law Firm, LLC, along with co-counsel Hill Wallack LLP.

The defendants in the trial included the building security company, Planned Security Services; and the collective building management (the janitorial company, CRS Janitorial Services; the building owner, I&G Garden State; and the property manager, Jones Lang LaSalle). The janitor who did the taping, Teodoro Martinez, was criminally charged and released on bail, but subsequently fled the country and is thought to be hiding in Mexico.

Locks Law Attorneys Andrew DuPont and Jenna Kristal Egner Prove that U.S. Steel’s Benzene Caused Client’s Leukemia

On February 24, 2016 a Philadelphia jury found U.S. Steel liable for strict liability, recklessness and fraudulent concealment of the health hazards of benzene that caused a worker’s Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) in a case (DeSorbo vs. U.S. Steel)  tried by Andrew DuPont and Jenna Kristal Egner.

According to DuPont, the case was made particularly challenging by Connecticut law which applies a 10-year statute of repose for products liability and requires proof of actual knowledge and intentional misrepresentation or fraudulent concealment to avoid application of the limitations period.

As the Oscar’s approach, Senior Partner Marc Weingarten discusses America’s long fascination with courtroom drama, trials and lawyers as viewed through the Hollywood lens.  Whether it’s Miracle on 34^th Street, My Cousin Vinny or A Time to Kill, they have all shown facets of the legal profession that are both entertaining and instructional.  Read the full article here.

On February 11, 2016, the Honorable Judge Andrew J. Guilford of the Federal District Court for the Central District of California signed an order appointing Locks Law Firm to the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee in the Experian Data Breach Litigation.   The Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee will be in charge of prosecuting the more than 30 class actions filed against Experian because of its conduct with regard to the exposure and subsequent theft of the personal information of approximately 15 million T-Mobile customers.

On February 8, 2016, the Honorable Judge Jeffrey S. White of the Federal District Court for the Northern District of California signed an order appointing Locks Law Firm to the Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee in the YapStone Data Breach Litigation. YapStone is a web and mobile platform-based payment processor which processes payments for companies such as Vacation Rental By Owner (www.vrbo.com) and Home Away (www.homeaway.com).

The Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee will be in charge of prosecuting claims on behalf of all individuals and entities whose personal identifying information and bank account information were accessible through an unsecured URL owned by YapStone.

As Part of Philadelphia Bar Association’s Advancing Civics Education Program

Attorneys from Locks Law Firm recently offered a presentation on the Magna Carta to students at the Girard Academic Music Program in South Philadelphia as part of the Advancing Civics Education (ACE) program sponsored by the Philadelphia Bar Association and the School District of Philadelphia. The program was developed to provide students with supplemental civics education in areas such as fundamental principles of citizenship, democracy and dispute resolution. Shown are (from left), Locks Law attorneys Mark Weinstein and Melanie Garner; Brendon Jobs, a history teacher at GAMP and whose class hosted the forum; and Locks Law Partner Marc Weingarten. Locks Law has been participating in the program for the past seven years.

Ken Stabler is the most recent of many professional football players to have been diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (C.T.E.) This morning The New York Times reported that Stabler has joined more than one-hundred former N.F.L. players to have been diagnosed with the life-altering disorder.

Yesterday the Fourth Circuit refused to enforce the arbitration agreement in a Western Sky payday loan agreement in the case Hayes v. Delbert Services Corp.  The Court’s holding is an important reminder that despite the current anti-consumer state of the law on arbitration agreements, these clauses are not invitations to companies to imagine new and exciting ways to strip consumers of their substantive rights.

The Court’s holding on both the issue of the agreements purported waiver of rights as well as severability is instructive on the kinds of challenges that can be brought against unconscionable arbitration agreements.