What is a class action?

You may have been in a situation of feeling hopeless in winning a court case due to how big you were up against. If this was the case and there were several others with claims similar to yours, your case would have made a dent if you were part of a class action.

Image Source: gigaom.com

Lawsuits might make you a bit uncomfortable or simply confused, and the most natural course of action is to ask someone who knows something about legal turns or Google about it. Class action is used in civil litigations to allow multiple parties to file a case based on the same legal grounds.

This type of litigation is normally applied when a person is going against big conglomerates or private entities which are assumed to employ the best legal services. A class action gives all claimants better chances of receiving compensation, and as part of this legal recourse, you can figure out the next steps legal procedures more easily than if you were doing it alone.

Image Source: injuryattorneyar.com

One of the biggest benefits of class action is the distribution of legal costs. Lawsuits are expensive and you simply wouldn't want to go through judicial hoops if your claim for damages is relatively small. If you are involved with a class, you can get a justified claim depending on the rule of the courts.

Another is that individual suits are done on a first-come, first-served basis. If you have several complainants ahead of you and their claims are much larger than yours, you might end up facing a bankrupt company by the time you get your turn. With class action, the damages are justifiably spread to all members.

Image Source: fastweb.com

You can try to fight alone at any given time, but if you can find other people to help your case, it will always be the best solution to take.

Evan Granowitz is a versatile lawyer who specializes in class action and other types of civil litigation. Get to know more about the law by visiting this website.

REPOST: Court: School was within its rights to ban U.S. flag T-shirts on Cinco de Mayo

The court's verdict on the school that banned the use of U.S. flag t-shirts on Cinco de Mayo is out. Read about it from this CNN.com article. 

***

(CNN) -- A California school that stopped students from wearing American flag T-shirts on Cinco de Mayo didn't violate their constitutional rights, an appeals court ruled Thursday.

The school's approach, according to the appeals court, kept students safe in a climate of racial tension.

"The controversy and tension remained," a panel of judges from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said in their opinion, "but the school's actions presciently avoided an altercation."

School officials were worried about violence and disruption of school activities "and their response was tailored to the circumstance," the opinion said.

The case dates back to May 5, 2010, when the principal of Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, California, asked a group of students wearing American flag T-shirts to turn their shirts inside out or take them off.

The students at the Northern California school refused, according to the appeals court's summary of the case, and later brought a civil rights suit against the school and two administrators, arguing that their rights to freedom of expression, equal protection and due process had been violated.

Judges said the civil rights case forced them to weigh the difficult question of what takes precedence: students' free speech rights or school safety concerns?

According to court documents, the incident occurred amid "ongoing racial tension and gang violence within the school, and after a near-violent altercation had erupted during the prior Cinco de Mayo over the display of an American flag."

The previous year, court documents said, a group of students carrying a Mexican flag had clashed with students who hung an American flag from a tree and chanted "USA" on Cinco de Mayo, a holiday marking a famous Mexican military battle that is often celebrated in the United States.

In 2010, the appeals court said, "threats issued in the aftermath of the incident were so real that the parents of the students involved in the suit kept them home from school two days later."

***
More legal news are offered on this Evan Granowitz blog site.

REPOST: Judge: Spying on NJ Muslims by NYPD was legal

Surveillance on Muslims in New Jersey is deemed legal by the court. Read about this news on SeattlePI.com.

***

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge has ruled that theNew York Police Department's surveillance of Muslims in New Jersey was a lawful effort to prevent terrorism, not a civil rights violation.

In a decision filed Thursday in federal court in Newark, U.S. District Judge William Martini dismissed a lawsuit brought in 2012 by eight Muslims who alleged that the NYPD's surveillance programs were unconstitutional because they focused on religion, national origin and race. The suit accused the department of spying on ordinary people at mosques, restaurants and schools in New Jersey since 2002.

Image Source: privacydatasystems.wordpress.com

 Martini said he was not convinced that the plaintiffs were targeted solely because of their religion. "The more likely explanation for the surveillance was to locate budding terrorist conspiracies," he wrote.

The judge added: "The police could not have monitored New Jersey for Muslim terrorist activities without monitoring the Muslim community itself."

Farhaj Hassan, a plaintiff in the case and a U.S. soldier who served in Iraq, said he was disappointed by the ruling.

"I have dedicated my career to serving my country, and this just feels like a slap in the face — all because of the way I pray," he said.

The Center for Constitutional Rights in New York and the California-based civil rights organization Muslim Advocates, which represented the plaintiffs, also called the decision troubling.

"In addition to willfully ignoring the harm that our innocent clients suffered from the NYPD's illegal spying program, by upholding the NYPD's blunderbuss Muslim surveillance practices, the court's decision gives legal sanction to the targeted discrimination of Muslims anywhere and everywhere in this country, without limitation, for no other reason than their religion," CCR Legal Director Baher Azmy said.

The lawsuit followed a series of stories by The Associated Press based on confidential NYPD documents that showed how the department sought to infiltrate dozens of mosques and Muslim student groups in New York and elsewhere.

Martini faulted the AP for its use of the documents.

"The Associated Press covertly obtained the materials and published them without authorization," he wrote. "Thus the injury, if any existed, is not fairly traceable to the city."

The AP declined to comment on the ruling.

The city's Law Department also declined comment. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly had been staunch supporters of the surveillance programs, saying they were needed to protect the city from terrorist attacks.

A similar lawsuit filed in federal court in Brooklyn is still pending.

***
Read the latest on the legal arena by following this Evan Granowitz Twitter page.

Video deposition formats - what they are and how to choose

Read this HG.org article about the variety of video formats that attorneys can choose from should they wish to have a copy of the video deposition.

 

This article was written to help explain the various video formats available to attorneys after conducting a video deposition.

At the end of a video deposition, a videographer usually asks counsel if they would like a copy of the video and in what format. Nine times out of ten, they have no idea that they even have a choice of format, not to mention the difference between mpeg-1 and mpeg-2 (that is, if they even know they want it in the first place!). In an effort to edify and illuminate a fairly esoteric topic, I put together a list of the most common video formats along with their corresponding strengths, weaknesses, advantages and disadvantages.

DVD/VOB 

This is your standard DVD disc. Quality can vary depending on the videographer’s settings but it is typically standard definition with little to no compression. These discs have title menus and are playable on set-top DVD players and in computers. I only mention VOB because we occasionally get requests for VOB formatted video which is essentially synonymous with DVD.

• Advantages: High quality video. Universally compatible in all DVD players

• Disadvantages: Extremely difficult to edit/make clips. Long loading time. Must be stored on a disc (can’t upload to a hard drive for quicker access and archival purposes).

MPEG-2

This is the raw, uncompressed, high-quality format that is used to author DVD/VOB discs. It is essentially the same thing as a DVD, except without menus.

• Advantages: High quality video. More easily editable. Can be made into a DVD or MPEG-1*. Can be stored easily on a hard drive. Can be synchronized with transcript and exhibits.

• Disadvantages: Requires video editing software to edit. Limited compatibility. Will not play in a set-top player and requires a special codec for playback on Window Media Player. Large file size requires approximately one disc per deposition video tape. So, for an all-day deposition where seven tapes were used, you will receive seven discs even though they are not authored DVDs.

MPEG-1

This is a compressed or “lossy” format. Although resolution is degraded, the tradeoff comes in the form of drastically increased compatibility.

• Advantages: Can be played on essentially any computer without requiring additional codecs in programs like Windows Media Player, QuickTime and RealPlayer. Smaller file sizes require less storage space. An entire day’s worth of videos can typically fit onto one DVD. Quicker load and response times. Best format for synchronized depositions.

• Disadvantages: Degraded video quality… that’s about it! I hope that was helpful. If you are still in need of further explanation, please don’t hesitate to contact our video department. We are happy to help!

Source: http://www.hg.org/article.asp?id=29197