Class-action status was granted by Judge Neil Thomas in Hamilton County Tennessee Circuit Court.

Class-action suits brought by various collections of homeowners as well as the attorney general of Minnesota, were filed against the Inner-Seal siding.

Class-action status was requested at the time, and granted by Judge James Rosenbaum on December 16, 1991.

Class-action suits were also filed in 1995 on behalf of full-time Walmart pharmacists whose base salaries and working hours were reduced as sales declined, resulting in the pharmacists being treated like hourly employees.

The Austrian Supreme Court, in a recent judgment, has confirmed the legal admissibility of these lawsuits under the condition that all claims are essentially based on the same grounds.

Many environmental lawsuits turn on the question of who has standing ; are the legal issues limited to property owners, or does the general public have a right to intervene?

Franchise contracts tend to be unilateral contracts in favor of the franchisor, who is generally protected from lawsuits from their franchisees because of the non-negotiable contracts that require franchisees to acknowledge, in effect, that they are buying the franchise knowing that there is risk, and that they have not been promised success or profits by the franchisor.

Class action lawsuits are another example of judicial economy in action, as they are often tried as a single case, yet involve many cases with similar facts.

Not all lawsuits are plenary actions, involving a full trial on the merits of the case.

Iceland, furthermore, has great advantages for communications companies as they are effectively immune from defamation lawsuits for disseminating any adverse information about public events or companies or figures, which is a key driver of day trading and arbitrage activity.

States are also protected against lawsuits by their sovereign immunity.

Often affidavits are exchanged before trial, but the first opportunity to question the opposing party in most lawsuits is at trial.

According to International Advocates for Justice, Falun Gong has filed the largest number of human rights lawsuits in the 21st century and the charges are among the most severe international crimes defined by international criminal laws.

Civil lawsuits against the Crown in its public capacity ( that is, lawsuits against the Queen-in-Council ) are permitted, but lawsuits against the monarch personally are not cognizable.

There are also a handful of federal laws under which lawsuits can be pursued only in state court, such as those arising under the federal " junk fax " law.

Under the 11th Amendment to the United States Constitution, federal courts are generally prohibited from exercising jurisdiction in civil lawsuits for money damages between a state government and a private party.

In reality, more often than not, most lawsuits are resolved through a settlement before ever going to court ; shows like Damages, Suits and occasionally The Good Wife, do attempt to portray this.

* Scientology has filed lawsuits against a number of Internet users, The Washington Post newspaper, over fifteen various Internet service providers in The Netherlands, and others concerned in the matter of Karin Spaink, a supporter of Arnaldo Lerma and other Internet activists who posted on her Web page excerpts from Scientology's copyrighted scriptures, which are withheld from the general public.

Though the majority of lawsuits are settled and never reach trial, they can be very complicated to litigate.

These sessions — which encourage participants to share their worst experiences and recall repressed memories — are modelled after Lifespring, whose controversial methods were the subject of multiple lawsuits for mental damages in the US during the 1980s.

There are three levels of federal courts with general jurisdiction, meaning that these courts handle criminal cases and civil lawsuits between individuals.

This method reflects the fact that administrative lawsuits are for the most part about matters of formal procedure and technicalities.

Barbie has been an important part of the toy fashion doll market for fifty years, and has been the subject of numerous controversies and lawsuits, often involving parody of the doll and her lifestyle.

Compensation via asbestos funds or class action lawsuits is an important issue in law practices regarding mesothelioma ( see asbestos and the law ).

One of the most important legal benefits is the safeguarding of personal assets against the claims of creditors and lawsuits.

In 1828, he moved to Salem, where his successful conduct of several important lawsuits brought him prominently into public notice.

He became a member of the bar in 1815 and handled several important lawsuits before leaving Burlington for the lure of what was then called the Southwest.

The NAACP was established in 1909, and by 1920 the group won a few important anti-discrimination lawsuits.

Unless the official correspondence were properly cared for, there would be no tradition in diocesan management, important documents would be lost, and the written evidence necessary in lawsuits and trials would be lacking.

Although by this time most of Mostek's designs were no longer commercially viable, their DRAM patents turned out to be valuable and STM started a series of lawsuits to collect royalties.

* The Cult Awareness Network ( CAN ) was driven into bankruptcy in 1996 in part by a number of Scientology-related lawsuits ( CAN had also been held liable for over $ 1 million in damages for the kidnapping and abusive deprogramming of a member of the Life Tabernacle Church, a church unaffiliated with Scientology ).

In 1998, the company was part of the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement with 46 US states, agreeing to pay smoking-related health care costs and restrict advertising in return for protection against private lawsuits.

Some sources also claim Berliner as a co-founder ; others say Berliner was never connected with the Victor company, though that may have been part of a ruse by Johnson to defeat the Zonophone lawsuits that had put Berliner Gramophone out of business ( in the U. S., but not in Canada, the UK, or Germany ) and threatened Johnson's phonograph business.

In many of the countries mentioned, prenuptials may also protect the non-shared property and money from being pulled into a bankruptcy and can serve to support lawsuits and settlements during the marriage ( for instance if one part has sold or wrongfully mortgaged a piece of property that had been set aside by his / her partner ).

Brownlee is standing in the back row at left. Brownlee became the AFCEC's lawyer, and in that capacity dealt with lawsuits against the company alleging incompetence on the part of its general manager and fraud on the part of a former auditor.

Risk aversion and fear of lawsuits on the part of the adults who design playgrounds prioritizes injury prevention above other factors, such as cost or developmental benefit to the users.

He was involved in several patent lawsuits and spent a substantial part of his income from his inventions on the legal bills.

Except for the denominations of the parties, the action proceeds for the most part as other civil lawsuits in the same jurisdiction.

Peacefire's own website is often blocked, either in part or whole, by filtering software, and the organization has both sued and been threatened with lawsuits in civil court in the United States.

Before the start of the 2009 legislative session, four separate unions representing state workers filed lawsuits against the governor for suggesting that the workers ' pay raises be dropped as part of addressing the looming state budget deficit.

Hooker began to file to run for various political offices including governor, Senator, Congressman, and others, for the purpose of acquiring the legal standing to sue all of these persons running for the office for taking campaign contributions from " out of state " contributors, which according to his legal theories were both illegal and unconstitutional, and Hooker continues to bring lawsuits in that regard down through the early part of the 21st century.

A declaratory judgment is typically requested when a party is threatened with a lawsuit but the lawsuit has not yet been filed ; or when a party or parties believe that their rights under law and / or contract might conflict ; or as part of a counterclaim to prevent further lawsuits from the same plaintiff ( for example, when only a contract claim is filed, but a copyright claim might also be applicable ).

( Many patent owners file patents to cover seemingly trivial concepts without any intention of enforcing the patents, but rather to use as part of a larger patent portfolio in their own defense against potential future patent lawsuits.

As part of its " Control Abuse of Power " ( CAP ) project, CEI launched lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the 1998 tobacco Master Settlement Agreement and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board ( PCAOB ), respectively.

These lawsuits ultimately turned out to be a large part of Synanon's undoing, by giving journalists access to Synanon's own internal documents.

It was released by Geffen in part because of the delay in the making of Chinese Democracy, and the subject of lawsuits by band member Axl Rose and ex band members in an attempt to block its release due to its track listing.

In British Columbia, as part of " a spate of lawsuits " against online news sites, according to legal columnist Michael Geist, several cases have put key issues in online journalism up for rulings.

These events are speculated to have been politically motivated, and part of a pattern of lawsuits and criminal proceedings against dissenters in Singapore.

Liability insurance is a part of the general insurance system of risk financing to protect the purchaser ( the " insured ") from the risks of liabilities imposed by lawsuits and similar claims.

As part of the effort, at least four groups filed lawsuits with the goal of preventing the toll road from passing through San Onofre State Beach.

On January 24, 2001, this and all other outstanding Sun-Microsoft lawsuits were settled as part of a wide-ranging agreement between Sun and Microsoft.