Judge tosses Prichard bankruptcy | al.com

MOBILE, Alabama — Prichard’s bankruptcy case was dismissed this morning, after a judge agreed that the city was not eligible for Chapter 9 under Alabama law.

A crowd of city retirees and current employees applauded when U.S. Bankruptcy Judge William Shulman read the decision.

Shulman granted a motion filed by a group of current employees whose attorney, Donald Stewart, said outside of court that they wanted to “prevent the city of Prichard from destroying the pension plan.”

An attorney for the city, C. Michael Smith, refused to comment after the ruling.

The city had filed for bankruptcy in October, a month after retirees stopped receiving pension checks.

In a plan to emerge from bankruptcy, the city had offered to pay pensioners $190,000 to divide, and then give them $200 a month for 10 years.

A group of retirees had sued the city, but that case was put on hold, along with all other civil suits against the city, during the bankruptcy. Stewart said he believed those civil cases would now be able to move forward.

After the hearing, one pensioner walked out of the courtroom and said, “We won the first round.”

The New York Times reported on the settlement reached between an engineering company, URS Corporation, and the victims involved in the collapse of a bridge in Minneapolis that broke apart and fell into the Mississippi River.  13 people died and 145 were injured.  URS agreed to pay $52.4  million, bringing the total settlement amogst all defendants to $100 million.  At issue was whether URS was aware of a design flaw that was later uncovered, and possible punitive damages if the case went to trial.

If you or a loved one have been injured in an accident or hurt on the job, call the personal injury attorneys at The McKellar Law Firm today for your FREE Consultation, at (865) 566-0125.

Norman McKellar - Top Attorney Knoxville Tennessee

The July-August 2010 Cityview Magazine announced that Norman D. McKellar is a “Top Attorney” for Income Tax and IRS Resolutions.

If you need assistance with your tax problem, contact Norman D. McKellar today at 865-566-0125 for a free consultation.

With at least 1,300 people suffering from salmonella, and around a half-billion eggs recalled, you might say that the poultry industry is having rough few weeks.  MSNBC reported on the story, which highlights to the lack of regulatory oversight when dealing with egg moguls such as Austin “Jack” DeCoster, who owns Wright County Egg and Quality Egg.  Remember to check the labels to see if the time stamp corresponds with the bad sources.

If you or a loved one have been injured in an accident or hurt on the job, call the personal injury attorneys at The McKellar Law Firm today for your FREE Consultation, at (865) 566-0125.

The New York Times reported that the $20 billion oil spill compensation fund will not be disbursed in lump sums without some strings attached, most prominently a waiver of further law suits.  The fund is to be administered by a prominent Washington lawyer and the skirmishes over the terms is ongoing.  Another determining factor will be geographic proximity, which would limit many of the  secondary suppliers and distributors of Gulf Coast products who have been impacted by the spill.

If you or a loved one have been injured in an accident or hurt on the job, call the personal injury attorneys at The McKellar Law Firm for your FREE Consultation today, at (865) 566-0125.

In an ongoing feud reported on by The Tennessean, Nashville Metro police are at odds with ICOP Digital Inc. over the the destruction of 1,300 police dashboard camera videos.  Such videos constitute key evidence in any case involving traffic stops, from DUI and speeding to automobile searches.  At issue is how exactly the videos were suddenly deleted and why no backups were made.  Talk about throwing a monkey wrench into a lot of cases.

If you or a loved one face have been arrested or cited, call the criminal defense attorneys at The McKellar Law Firm today for your FREE Consultation, at (865) 566-0125.

We all know that the BP oil spill is producing the largest litigation effort in US history, but the first critical issue is where are these cases to be heard?  The answer came today from the Federal Multi-district Litigation Panel, which ruled that a US judge in New Orleans will entertain the hundreds of suits that have already been filed, while a US judge in Houston will handle BP shareholder litigation.  The New York Times reports that while the plaintiffs’ attorneys were ecstatic, counsel for BP noted in what is perhaps the understatement of the year, “ We look forward to the cases proceeding as expeditiously and efficiently as possible in the selected venues.”

If you or a loved one have been injured in an accident or hurt on the job, call the personal injury attorneys at The McKellar Law Firm today for your FREE Consultation, at (865) 566-0125.

Honda is having a difficult time fixing a consistent problem: a defect in the shift interlock system could allow the vehicle to be turned off and the key removed without the vehicle’s automatic transmission being in Park. That could allow the vehicle to roll away.  That is a problem.  The New York Times‘ “Wheels” blog reports that the most recent recall involved 2003-04 Accords, Civics, and Elements, but the problem goes back for several years and includes up to 1.4 million vehicles.

If you or a loved one have been injured in an accident, hurt on the job, or harmed by defective products, call the personal injury attorneys at The McKellar Law Firm today for your FREE Consultation, at (865) 566-0125.

Personal Bankruptcies Rise, Reversing Trend – WSJ.com

More Americans filed for bankruptcy protection in July, reversing a trend of declining filings over the previous three months and highlighting the continuing financial struggles of many consumers.

Personal bankruptcies numbered 137,698 last month, a 9% increase from the June total, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute, an organization of lawyers and other professionals. The data were supplied by the National Bankruptcy Research Center; similar government tallies won’t be released for months.

Curbs on access to credit, such as those that arose during the recent recession, tend to fuel consumer bankruptcies as individuals who encounter trouble paying debts fail to find new sources of credit. “They can no longer borrow to stave off the day of reckoning,” said Robert Lawless, a University of Illinois law professor.

Filings in July were also up 9% compared with the same month a year ago, and 2010 is on pace to record the largest number of consumer-bankruptcy filings in five years. Filings topped 1.4 million last year, the most since Congress revamped bankruptcy laws in 2005 to make it more difficult for consumers to shed debt.

So far this year there have been nearly 908,000 personal-bankruptcy filings, representing roughly one in every 125 U.S. households. At this point last year there were about 802,000 filings.

The upswing in personal filings has cast doubt on whether the 2005 bankruptcy-law change has been effective. Filings declined drastically in 2006 but resumed their increase in following years.

Consumer-bankruptcy filings are veering toward the higher levels recorded in the early and mid-2000s, before the overhaul, but have so far remained a bit lower. The number of filings could decline modestly in the next few years if less access to credit makes it more difficult to accumulate debt.

Personal bankruptcies haven’t been distributed evenly. The suburbs of Atlanta had particularly high filing rates, according to an analysis by Ronald Mann, a professor at Columbia University’s law school. Of the 10 U.S. counties with the highest filing rates, six were in Georgia.

Filings in many Southern states, however, have begun to decline compared with last year, including South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, West Virginia and Mississippi.

“The places that have come out of this quickly are the places that aren’t really tied to the financial centers,” said Mr. Mann.

In other areas, the number of personal bankruptcies continued to skyrocket. Filings in Hawaii, California, Arizona and Utah have jumped 30% or more compared with a year ago.

An interesting article from Financial Times about Americans living abroad and desiring to give up their citizenship in order to avoid the Internal Revenue Service.  http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0ae8415c-9e5e-11df-a5a4-00144feab49a.html

Instead of renouncing your citizenship, try contacting Tennessee tax attorney Norman D. McKellar today at 865-566-0125 for a free consultation.