Articles Posted in In The News

The existing South Carolina whistleblower law is an attempt to encourage state and local government employees to report instances of wrongdoing by other government employees. Such wrongdoing could include bribery, kickbacks, embezzlement, conflicts of interest and misuse of government assets for personal gain. Unfortunately, the S.C. law acts as a disincentive for potential whistleblowers.

Typical witnesses to public corruption are employees who can face retaliation from the very people who are committing the criminal acts. Whistleblower protection legislation should protect and compensate those reporting alleged wrongdoing, but South Carolina law sets arbitrary, low limits on restitution, thereby discouraging the whistleblowers from stepping forward.

South Carolina attorney Herbert W. Louthian co-authored an article on the S.C. whistleblower law and its need for reform. Louthian’s article, SC’s Whistleblower Law Reforms Long Overdue, states, “The current law (Section 8-27-10 et seq.) limits the damages for a government employee who has suffered retaliatory discharge or demotion to $15,000. That means if the employee was earning $50,000 per year, was fired in retaliation and remained jobless for two years, he would suffer a net loss of $85,000 plus lost benefits..

Continuing our conversation of Securities Arbitration cases for defrauded retirees.

Two recent awards in retirement securities arbitrations are bringing hope to retirees who have disputes with brokerage firms that gambled away their retirement funds. The first, in the case of Cain v. Securities America, concerns a retiree whose hard-earned savings were liquidated in favor of more aggressive investments. After an extensive arbitration process, the petitioner was awarded nearly $4 million in compensatory damages, another $3 million in punitive damages designed to punish the securities companies, and nearly $2.5 million to offset legal fees and costs.

The second case, May v. Intersecurities, Inc., involved IRA rollover accounts that were placed into high-variable annuities that proved risky, unsuitable to the retiree’s objectives, and ultimately worthless, producing no investment income whatsoever and losing the funds that had been promised to sustain the petitioner throughout retirement. May was eventually awarded nearly $1.7 million in compensatory damages and half a million dollars in punitive damages.

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A recent article in the Wall Street Journal points out a strategy that has given victims of the subprime loan crisis new hope: using the 1921 Martin Act as a legal tool to crack down on misleading mortgage-backed securities offerings. Why is the Act so powerful? Simple: it takes away the burden for a plaintiff to prove intent to defraud, making filing a lawsuit against an unethical securities company that much easier for plaintiffs.

An interesting debate on South Carolina speed limits is heating up the pages of the Charleston Post and Courier. A recent editorial on speeding prompted community response from readers who debate speed limits, enforcement of limits, and lack of driver education.

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The state Department of Motor Vehicles came out with some good news for South Carolina drivers this month. According to The State, the number of uninsured drivers involved in accidents in our state has dropped by half in the past few years, from 18% in 2003 to 9% in 2006, thanks to laws passed in 2002 and 2005. And because those are only the uninsured drivers who get into car wrecks, those numbers are probably even higher for the state as a whole. Industry and issue groups estimated that the uninsured rate could have been as high as 28% before the laws went into effect. As most of us know, this is a problem because uninsured motorists drive up insurance costs for those who do the right thing by buying insurance. They also don’t pay vehicle registration fees, depriving our state of needed tax revenue.

But there’s a more immediate threat posed by uninsured drivers, which many people don’t realize until they or someone they care about are hit. If you’re in an accident with someone who has no auto insurance, you may not be able to collect any compensation at all. It doesn’t matter whose fault it was, or what other circumstances might apply. The money just isn’t there, because the other driver illegally failed to buy insurance.

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In a case that reads like a nightmare, a lawsuit asking for $10 million has been filed against a man who caused a car wreck in Anderson County on New Year’s Eve. According to the Anderson Independent-Mail News, it’s the third lawsuit against driver Robert Blair and his employer, Craft Construction, over the fatal three-car accident.

Blair, a construction company employee, was on his way to work on Dec. 31 at around 6:30 a.m. when he ran off the side of the road. Blair overcorrected and drove his company-owned Ford F-250 across the highway’s median, running it head-on into a car owned by a married couple named Andrew and Syblene McAbee. The McAbees died in the ensuing accident, as did Arlene Sorrells, Mrs. McAbee’s sister and a passenger in their vehicle. Blair survived, but witnesses reported that he was driving under the influence of alcohol, cold medicine and a prescription drug. He is currently awaiting trial on felony DUI causing a death. According to the newest lawsuit, filed by the husband and daughters of Arlene Sorrells, Blair’s co-workers were following in another vehicle.

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On the day before Thanksgiving, Graco Children’s Products quietly recalled more than 300,000 infant car seats because they may pose a choking hazard. The backing of the seats can peel away from the seams, exposing filling underneath that could choke a curious baby. The recall affects Graco SnugRide stand-alone (non-travel) seats sold between August 2006 and mid-November 2007. Parents who think they may already have bought such a seat can visit the Graco Web site for more information on the recall.

The news may have been especially disheartening for parents who remember the February 2007 car seat report by Consumer Reports magazine, which found serious problems with many major-brand infant car seats. The magazine was forced to retract part of its report after discovering problems with its calculations, but stood by its request for a recall of at least two seats. One of the seats that didn’t fail safety tests was the Graco SnugRide — the focus of the current recall. With this seat now under suspicion, parents of small children could be forgiven for wondering whether they can trust any major brand of child car seat.

Unsafe products for babies are especially bad news because babies can’t make their own consumer decisions. Parents charged with keeping fragile infants safe should be able to trust manufacturers to sell safe products that are free of defects and protect their children from auto accident injuries.

Santee Cooper, a South Carolina owned utility provider, is being sued for raising rates to pay for a building project but never returning the rates to their old prices after the project was completed, as they had agreed to. The suit alleges that the utility company owes around 150,000 customers hundreds of millions of dollars in paybacks for the 1994-1995 rate increase, an AP Report states.

“In a nutshell, Santee Cooper raised their rates to pay for a capital improvement project. It was only for a set amount of time. After that period, they were supposed to lower it, and they never reduced the rate like they were supposed to,” said Don E. Watson a Myrtle Beach motel and restaurant owner who is the lead plaintiff in the suit.

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The hits keep coming for the toy industry. Last week, a wave of new toy recalls by the RC2 Corp. and Target resulted in the recall of more then 900,000 toys. And now a consumer advocacy group said it has found hazardous levels of lead in many toys made out of vinyl plastic, an Associated Press report stated on Friday, September 28th.

Mike Schade, a campaigner for the Center for Health, Environment, and Justice said that a random testing of 50 plastic toys found high lead level content in 11 of them.

“It’s absolutely astonishing to us that lead continues to be found in children’s toys despite the fact that consumer and environmental groups have been warning the government about this issue for more than 10 years”, said Schade.

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