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Posts by: Steven Kazan

Why Kazan Law’s Foundation Supports Legal Services For Prisoners With Children

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Learn how former prisoners are denied jobs, housing, student loans, child custody and the right to vote

What if you had served time in prison but because of your record, you were unable to get a job or find a place to live? How could you possibly become a productive member of society when every door slammed in your face?  How would you make money to feed and clothe your children?

Or what if you were a victim of domestic abuse who was locked up in prison for trying to defend yourself and your children against harm?  And now because of your unjust imprisonment your children were without the one parent they could love and trust?

Decades of advocating for workers and their families who are coping with asbestos-caused malignant mesothelioma has had a profound effect on all of us here at Kazan Law.  It has made us all more keenly aware of institutionalized injustices of many kinds including those I mentioned above.

As attorneys who specialize in asbestos cases, we can’t jump into a different legal area to professionally help people facing these situations. What we can do is offer support through our firm’s foundation to an organization that is committed to improving the odds for incarcerated Americans and their families.

Kazan, McClain, Abrams, Fernandez, Lyons, Greenwood, Oberman, Satterley & Bosl Foundation is proud to be a supporter of Legal Services for Prisoners With Children (LSPC).  LSPC provides legal support, trainings, advocacy, public education, and community building to reunify families and communities impacted by the criminal justice system.

Here are some of LSPC’s key projects:

  • The Family Unity Project strives to help keep families connected when a family member is in prison
  • All of Us or None provides support for formerly incarcerated people and their families and seeks to end discrimination against people with conviction histories (see video above)
  • California Habeas Project seeks to free from prison survivors of domestic violence who are in prison for crimes related to their abuse.

To help LSPC fund these and other important projects and to celebrate this organization’s longevity, our foundation became a major sponsor for LSPC’s fundraising 35th anniversary celebration.  The gala event “Rooted Together, Rising as One” takes place on October 19th in San Francisco.  It promises to be a great evening for a great cause.

Italian Asbestos Victims Ask Yale to Revoke Convicted Eternit CEO’s Honorary Degree

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Casale MonferratoMention the Piedmont region of Italy and most people think of a glamorous vacation destination with picturesque villages and castles framed by the Alps.  But behind the tourist façade, it is an asbestos-infested valley of the shadow of death.

More than 2,000 people have died from mesothelioma just in Casale Monferrato, a town that has been around since the days of the ancient Roman Empire. By the dawn of the 20th century, it became known as a cement producing capital because of a factory built there in 1906 by Eternit, a company based in neighboring Switzerland.  Founded in 1903, Eternit produced asbestos-containing cement until 1997.

Headed by the Schmidheiny family since 1933, the company flourished during the post World War II rebuilding boom throughout Europe.  Besides Italy, Eternit also had factories in the Netherlands, France and Brazil. But amid a growing scandal about asbestos, Eternit’s four Italian factories closed in 1986 and the company was sold to an Austrian bank in 2003.

In 2009, following five years of investigation, billionaire former CEO Stephan Schmidheiny , 65, and major shareholder Louis de Cartier Marchienne were accused of criminal neglect . Both men were found guilty in February 2013 and sentenced to 16 years in prison.  You can learn more about this important asbestos trial in a free ebook  co-edited by my sister Laurie-Kazan Allen and her husband David Allen, asbestos victim advocates in their own right.

Marchienne died at age 91 on May 21, 2013 during the appeal of his sentence. Charges against him were dropped in June. But Schmidheiny’s sentence was increased to 18 years. He is appealing the case to Italy’s highest court.

Now, a group of mesothelioma sufferers and their families in Italy are seeking to have Yale University, an elite American college in New Haven, Connecticut, take back an honorary degree it presented to Schmidheiny in 1996.  A New Haven attorney representing the Italian group sent a petition to Yale officials this week.  Yale has never revoked an honorary degree and has expressed support for Schmidheiny .   Ironically, Schmidheiny’s Yale honors were conferred on him for his environmental activities, which cynically could be seen as an attempt to distance himself from the environmental and human disasters his company created.

Kazan Law Pro Bono Attorney Frances Schreiber Fights to Protect Workers

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Fighting for mesothelioma patients who were exposed to asbestos at work is what we do at Kazan Law. Seeing first-hand every day the senseless tragedy of honest hard-working people facing death because of neglect and carelessness by those who manufactured, designed, sold and installed asbestos- containing products inflames our sense of justice.  Our outrage inspires us to work not only to seek justice for our clients coping with asbestos-caused mesothelioma but also to strive to prevent other people from dying or ever becoming afflicted with work-related injuries or illnesses.

Frances Schreiberg is how we do that. Fran is a brilliant attorney who just happens to be passionate about workers’ rights, specifically their right to a safe and healthy workplace, and who also has an impressive track record in working with both the legislative and executive branches of California state government to protect workers from safety and health work place hazards of all kinds. Fran provides free advice to unions and other worker organizations that might not be able to afford an attorney of her experience and caliber.  We pay Fran so they don’t have to.  We let Fran work for them for free also known as pro bono.

In 1980, during Governor Jerry Brown’s first administration, the Governor asked the Director of the Department of Industrial Relations who then asked Fran to find out why the Division of Occupational Safety and Health better known as Cal/OSHA was not bringing criminal cases against companies killing workers as a result of exposure to toxic materials. Fran accepted the challenge.

“Once I became involved,” Fran recalls, “I found it very compelling.”

While working at Cal/OSHA Fran looked into every fatality that occurred in California. Fran recalls, “I reviewed those reports.  Always someone on that jobsite knew that so-called “accident” was going to happen. But either they spoke up and were told to shut up or they didn’t say anything because they didn’t want to lose their job.”

I first met Fran in 1985 when she asked me to provide supporting exhibits for a legislative proposal being authored by then Assembly Member – later to become Governor – Gray Davis to protect workers from asbestos.

In 1987 when powerful industry interests succeeded in having Governor George Deukmejian eliminate Cal/OSHA, I was honored to be a part of a group that banded together to fight back.  We called ourselves WORKSAFE!  and supported an initiative to restore the Cal/OSHA program, Prop 97. It was a tough fight but we succeeded. Cal/OSHA was restored.  WORKSAFE continues to advocate for worker safety and health and to this day our law firm supports their work with annual grants and significant in-kind contributions of office space.  Fran continues to work closely with the organization she helped found.

When Fran left the State Building Trades in 1991, I realized Fran needed to focus full-time on work designed to prevent folks from dying.  I invited her to work for Kazan Law.

“This firm tries to do everything possible to prevent people from ever having to come to see us in the first place,” Fran comments. “So I do trainings for legal services programs, worker centers, unions, and even for businesses.  I give workers and their representatives the tools they need to speak up for a safe place to work and to fight retaliation.”

Fran also spends a lot of time in Sacramento on policy work.  This year she’s worked on three bills to protect workers.  One is SB 193. It would permit the California Department of Public Health to require manufacturers and others to provide information about toxic materials being shipped into California workplaces so that the Hazard Evaluation System & Information Service (HESIS), when there is new scientific or medical information, can assist both employers and employees in protecting against the risks from those chemicals.

“We are hopeful we can get it out of the Assembly Appropriations Committee early next year.  We need to overcome the pressure being exerted by various companies – members of the American Chemistry Council – who see it as interfering with their business – their right to make money,” Fran says.

Every year over 66,000 American workers are injured or die from preventable workplace hazards or exposure to toxic chemicals.

“And Cal/OSHA cannot do it all, nor can they do it alone,” Fran acknowledges. “Cal/OSHA only has 146 inspectors for 18 million workers. Who are we kidding?  It’s a constant struggle.  So laws that facilitate prevention, such as SB 193, are critical.”

“I’m very proud of the bill by which that and numerous other changes were achieved. That’s why I keep doing this,” Fran says.

And that’s why Kazan Law keeps Fran doing this important work.  Thank you, Frances Schreiberg.

Mesothelioma Awareness Day Events Generate Nationwide Attention

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Meso_Awareness_DayMesothelioma patients and their families confront the malignant asbestos-caused cancer every day but yesterday all across the US many people got their first introduction to the often fatal illness, including those in a position to do something about it.  These included everyone from Congressional representatives in Washington DC to college students in Florida and Arizona who participated in fundraising runs to support mesothelioma patients.

Started by the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation (MARF) in 2004, Meso Awareness Day event organizers have steadily scaled up their efforts to familiarize the general public about this deadly type of cancer caused by asbestos exposure primarily in the workplace or asbestos-containing products in the home.  About 3,000 Americans are diagnosed with mesothelioma each year.

MARF is the only national non-profit organization entirely dedicated to ending mesothelioma by funding research, providing education and support for patients and their families, and by advocating for federal funding of mesothelioma research.

With dozens of events occurring around the nation and more scheduled for this weekend, here are a few highlights of Meso Awareness Day 2013 thus far:

  • MARF members held a Congressional Briefing at 10 a.m. yesterday in the Rayburn Office Building. Their presentation was called “Mesothelioma: Unknown, Underfunded and Incurable.”
  • A large group of MARF supporters gathered at New York City’s Rockefeller Center for the taping of the Today Show were visible in their bright yellow shirts. Today Show Al Roker briefly spoke with the group .
  • The Baltimore Orioles, during their game against the Toronto Blue Jays, recognized Meso Awareness Day by featuring information about the Meso Foundation on the jumbotron screen.

Kazan Law is proud to be listed on the Annual Donors page on MARF’s website.  We are pleased to know that through donations from the Kazan, McClain, Abrams, Fernandez, Lyons, Greenwood, Oberman, Satterly & Bosl Foundation, Inc., we are part of who MARF is talking about when they state:

“Because of your support, the Foundation funds the highest-quality, peer-reviewed research, provides education and support to patients and their loved ones and leads advocacy efforts to increase federal funding for research and increase awareness of mesothelioma.”

We believe that thanks to MARF’s efforts like Meso Awareness Day, mesothelioma will not be unknown, underfunded and maybe not even incurable in the future.

In Support of the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation

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California Rural Legal AssistanceBecause of seeing the tragedy of mesothelioma strike so many dedicated hardworking people who were just at their jobs doing what they were supposed to do and giving it their best,  I realized that more needs to be done to protect people in the workplace.  Especially to protect people who have few resources and do not have the means to protect themselves. Helping people who are unable to help themselves is a core value of our firm, a driving force behind the work we do, and one of the most compelling reasons that helps all of us maintain our focus. One of the mechanisms that allows us to continue to fight against the scourge of asbestos production and usage throughout the world, is the work we are able to perform through our charitable foundation.

That is why at Kazan Law, the stated goals of our charitable foundation include trying to:

  • Increase and improve public awareness about work-place health and safety
  • Enhance access to, participation in and education about the legal system and governmental processes

To fulfill these goals we identify and support nonprofit organizations that are effective at providing help in these areas where and to whom it’s most needed.

One organization we are proud to support is California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation (CRALF).   For over 30 years, CRLAF has worked with California’s farm workers, migrant workers and the rural poor to protect their rights and health. CRALF gives a voice to Californians in low-income and marginalized communities and provides them with essential legal services.

Just last Sunday, the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper had a front page article highlighting the effects of pesticides on generations of field workers in the Salinas Valley.  Although pesticides are different from asbestos, the  overriding similarities – workers exposed without their knowledge or consent to potentially life-threatening lethal toxins – that make this is a cause that I wholeheartedly support. .

I am proud of CRLAF’s Pesticide and Work Safety Project and its efforts to encourage stricter enforcement of existing pesticide laws and regulations, better regulations and increased use of safer pest control alternatives.  They recently created a pesticide exposure prevention and response video for farm workers and have helped author reports such as Fields of Poison and Second Hand Pesticide: Airborne Pesticide Drift in California.

To help support CRLAF, Kazan Law is helping to sponsor a fundraising event on Friday night, October 4 at the California Museum in Sacramento.  The event Luchando por Justica (Fighting for Justice) will honor Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Emily Vasquez, California Labor Commissioner Julie Su, and farm worker and women’s rights advocate Guadalupe Negrete Rendon.   Justice Cruz Reynoso, the first Hispanic to serve on the California Supreme Court and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2000, will be the keynote speaker.  If you can, I hope you will consider joining us there.

EPA Developing New Ways to Measure Asbestos Exposure Risk

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asbestos exposureCould taking your dog for a daily walk increase your risk of developing mesothelioma?  Yes, if that daily walk takes you through an old asbestos-contaminated area and stepping on the soil releases long dormant asbestos fibers into the air that you unknowingly breathe.

That is why the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is developing new ways to more accurately measure asbestos risk.  These include focusing on the types of activity occurring at a specific site and how they may increase asbestos exposure.

“Unlike a number of other contaminants, the main risk of asbestos is not so much direct contact but inhalation of the fibers that can enter the air if material contaminated with asbestos is disturbed,” said Julie Wroble, a toxicologist with the EPA’s Washington regional office in Seattle.

Across the U.S. there are sites embedded with naturally occurring asbestos or commercially-made products containing asbestos that may put people at risk for asbestos exposure, according to Wroble. “At the EPA we have been developing techniques to better estimate this exposure and the resulting health risks” she said.

Wroble made her remarks at CleanUp 2013, the world’s leading scientific contamination conference, which is being held in Melbourne, Australia this month.   She presented the latest techniques used by the federal EPA to estimate exposure risk to asbestos.

Every two years, scientists, engineers, regulators and other environmental professionals from many countries gather in Australia for this major conference addressing contaminated site remediation.
This year’s program featured 200 speakers and over 50 poster presentations.

“It’s not enough to just sample the contaminated material. There are a number of other factors that need to be considered when assessing how likely the fibers are to get into the air,” said Wroble.

“For example, we need to know what type of fibers we are dealing with and even what the weather is typically like in the local area. Most importantly we need to know what kind of activities take place at that site and whether these could release asbestos.”

Wroble and her EPA colleagues developed a system called “Activity Sampling” that measures the amount of asbestos fibers likely to be inhaled as a result of possible activities.  They are trying to standardize techniques used to measure asbestos exposure risk across the US.  This will allow for comparisons between sites in different parts of the country and help EPA determine which sites to clean up first.

Asbestos Attorney Carole Bosch Joins Kazan Law

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Carole Bosch

Carole Bosch

I am pleased to announce that Carole Bosch has joined our firm as an associate asbestos attorney.

Carole has successfully represented plaintiffs in personal injury, civil rights, prescription drug, and toxic exposure cases.  Since 2007, she has been litigating cases on behalf of numerous plaintiffs affected by asbestos exposure, including construction workers, drywallers, plumbers, pipefitters, insulators, pump mechanics, plant maintenance persons, matchplate makers, as well as their wives and children who were exposed to asbestos unwittingly brought home.

You can read her complete bio here.  For now, I’d like to share what Carole had to say when I asked her about her work.

How does your work as an asbestos attorney at Kazan Law help mesothelioma victims?

A lot of people have been and continue to be exposed to dangerous toxins in the work environment.  What we do serves a dual purpose.  It  serves to compensate victims and their families who develop illness through no fault of their own as a result of their exposure to asbestos without any knowledge or protection.  Often their families are also victims through secondary take home exposure.

Our work at Kazan Law also serves to deter companies from doing today what companies in the 50s and 60s did. Asbestos is more regulated today but still many workers are exposed to other lethal toxins in the workplace.

How do you approach working with mesothelioma victims and their families?

I bring both a personal touch and an expertise.  I develop a close bond with my clients and I am very familiar with the products they used and the work they did.  These are wonderful people who took a lot of pride in their work. We give them an opportunity to talk to someone who understands what they did.

It is important for these people who are suffering to know that their attorneys care.  We really do care about them, we care about their families. And we care about their families’ future.

What do you like most about your work as an attorney in asbestos and mesothelioma litigation?

Helping people.  It sounds cliché but that is what we do here at Kazan Law. We help people. We make a difference in their lives and we make a difference in the workplace.

Now that you are part of the team of asbestos attorneys at Kazan Law what do you hope to do?

I really want to contribute to what it is that Kazan Law does best.  Kazan Law has a reputation for doing high quality work for their clients.  That is something I share and want to continue.  It is what sets us apart from the many firms that do volume work as opposed to quality work.

Demystifying the Asbestos Litigation Deposition

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taking oathAn important part of our asbestos litigation practice at Kazan, McClain, Satterley & Greenwood, is preparing for trial. On both sides of a case, preparation involves taking depositions. This often keeps our attorneys on the road traveling to wherever the deposition will be held. But we wouldn’t miss one for the world. They are just too important. Why?

You can be sure we know the law and legal precedents that apply to each case. But what we don’t always know and aim to find out is what information key witnesses in each case possess. Why? Because what they know will inevitably come to light during the trial and we don’t want any surprises. Nor does the other side.

To put it simply, a deposition is a formal interview under oath normally conducted out-of-court by an attorney. It yields oral testimony given by a witness without a judge present. The purpose is for the attorney to discover key information that may be relevant to the case. The witness can also be examined by the opposing counsel – the attorney the other side hired – who invariably is also present.

After the questioning is finished, the deposition is transcribed to written form and studied carefully by lawyers during the time leading up to the trial as each looks for information to support their arguments. That’s why a hired court reporter or stenographer is also part of the deposition process. Often the deposition is recorded on video, which can be edited so that relevant portions can be shown at trial.

Abraham Lincoln, who practiced law for 25 years in Illinois[1] before entering politics, once said that harm comes not from use of a bad thing but from misuse of a good thing.[2] So it came to be with the vital legal procedure of taking depositions.

We care about the results, and spend the time necessary to get to the important facts. Lawyers defending asbestos cases get paid by the hour, not for results, and there are usually lots of them at every deposition – so they like to drag things out as long as possible – for them, time is money!

On September 17, 2012 – almost exactly a year ago – California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law a bill that Kazan Law was instrumental in advocating. AB 1875 limited how long a deposition could take. Deposition abuse – extending depositions of victims for days on end – had become a problem not only for those suffering from asbestos-related diseases but for other ailing people as well. AB 1875 limited depositions of ill and dying victim to two days of seven hours each, for a total of 14 hours. Exceptions can be made if a judge decides that more time is absolutely necessary.

 

[1] Lincoln’s Advice to Lawyers, Abraham Lincoln Online, www.abrI ahamlincolnonline.org

[2] Temperance Address 1842, ibid

Kazan Law Serving the Mississippi Center for Justice

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Gordon Greenwood

Kazan Law partner Gordon Greenwood

In addition to serving our clients and supporting mesothelioma research, the partners at our law firm work through the Kazan, McClain, Abrams, Fernandez, Lyons, Greenwood, Oberman, Satterley & Bosl Foundation to help disadvantaged communities around the country tackle various issues.

To maximize our impact, we try to support other organizations that help disadvantaged citizens maneuver through obstacles that they may encounter because of their socioeconomic status. Several of us also volunteer as leaders for these groups.

Partner Gordon Greenwood

One of our partners, Gordon Greenwood, is serving on the board of the Mississippi Center for Justice, or MCJ. The lawyers and professionals at the MCJ strive to bolster the legal and socioeconomic statuses of communities of color in a state that has traditionally been a hotbed of racial tension. The organization has dealt with matters that are far-reaching in both geography and history. Ongoing campaigns include helping HIV-positive patients navigate the healthcare system, fighting predatory lending practices and keeping public housing affordable.

One of the more high-profile undertakings of the MCJ is its work to help citizens who were hurt by the BP Oil Disaster. Despite the fact that the oil company was found legally liable for the calamity – which killed several people and devastated those who worked in the fishing and service industries – leaders at BP have been trying to brush off all responsibility and stall compensatory payments to residents of the area. Meanwhile, the company is trying to sweep these developments under the rug with a reprehensible public relations campaign touting its supposed efforts improve the region.

MCJ responded to the injustice by forming the Gulf Justice Consortium. The project is helping those that BP hurt by providing pro bono services, arguing for changes to the claims system, giving a voice for all people whose jobs were affected by the disaster, ensuring fair calculations for claims and ensuring the presence of language aides to assist the sizable Vietnamese population.

Our firm’s foundation is proud to have Gordon sitting on the MCJ’s board of directors, where he’s in a position to help millions of Mississippians.

 

Kazan Partner David McClain Serves as Key Witness in Major Asbestos Bankruptcy Trial

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David McClainBecause of Kazan, McClain, Satterley & Greenwood’s acknowledged expertise in asbestos claims, one of our principal partners David McClain recently was asked to serve as a key fact witness in a major asbestos bankruptcy case underway in Charlotte, NC.[1]  The outcome of this trial will determine how much Garlock Sealing Technologies and its parent company Enpro will have to pay into a trust fund for victims exposed to its asbestos-containing products.

According to David, “It was acknowledged by the counsel representing both present and future asbestos victims that we are among the foremost experts in this type of litigation and would be in the best position to tell the judge about Garlock’s liability.”

Garlock wants to set aside about $270 million for the trust. The claimants are asking for over a billion dollars from Garlock and its parent company Enpro.

As part of its legal strategy, Garlock filed for asbestos reorganization in federal bankruptcy court. The gasket manufacturing company’s case went to trial in early August to determine its total liability.  Although the evidence is now closed[2] a decision is not likely soon as the judge has much to consider

Garlock went to federal bankruptcy court to avoid more expensive lengthy trials for individual claims, which often resulted in big settlements. Now, to reduce the amount of the trust for claimants as part of a bankruptcy settlement, Garlock is attempting to prove that the victims’ cases are dishonest, because they may have been exposed to asbestos from sources other than their products, even though this argument has never worked for it in court when they actually tried cases.

“They (Garlock) have the money to pay up.  They just want to keep it for themselves. So they were trying to claim that the plaintiffs were being dishonest.  I countered that, and showed that it’s not true,” David commented when we discussed the case.

David pointed out to the judge how under California law, plaintiffs only need to show that the company’s gaskets increased the risk of developing mesothelioma, the fatal cancer caused by asbestos exposure. This ruling provided incentive for Garlock to avoid individual trials by paying its fair share in settlements of those cases.

When the judge hands down a decision on this asbestos bankruptcy case, I will report to you about it right here on the Kazan Law Blog.

[1]    Evolving litigation landscape led to settlements, witness testifies at Garlock trial; Legal Newsline; Aug 7, 2013

[2]  Garlock bankruptcy trial concludes in N.C.; Legal Newsline; Aug 23, 2013

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