On the night of her death, Nicole Catsouras took her father’s Porsche without permission and was driving at dangerously high speeds. She hit another vehicle then crashed into a toll booth. The damage was so extensive that the Catsouras family was not allowed to view Nicole’s body following the accident. Soon after photos began to appear online.

The Catsouras family sued the California Highway Patrol for invasion of privacy. At first the lawsuit was dismissed because it was believed nothing illegal had taken place, but in 2010 the decision was reversed. The Catsouras family recently settled the lawsuit and is still working to get the photographs off the Internet, a likely impossible task.

For more on this story, see this article.

The original post is titled Auto accident, family nightmare , and it came from Paulson Coletti - Portland Oregon Law Firm .

The Portland City Council agreed to the premium pay as part of union negotiations, but now council commissioner Dan Saltzman hopes to rescind the pay until police officers are actually tested for physical fitness. The original plan was for officers to take an actual fitness exam, but negotiations hit a snag when the police union voiced concerns about officers having to take the exam during off-duty hours with no overtime pay. The biometric screening then became an option.

I don’t know about you, but I would certainly like Portland Police officers to be physically fit. If they are out of shape, how are they going to chase down criminals? For more on this story, see this article.

The original post is titled Portland Police and Physical Fitness , and it came from Paulson Coletti - Portland Oregon Law Firm .

Owens was fired not long after the shooting for a number of reasons, including his failure to fix the supposedly faulty gun safe. To complicate matters, an investigation into the matter found that Owens placed the blame for the accident on his 11-year-old stepdaughter and made her say she was supposed to be watching the toddler but fell asleep.

Owens is now suing the sheriff’s department and asking for $1 million and his job back. He claims the police targeted him because he became very vocal about gun safes and wanted the police to test safes in the homes of deputies.

For more on this story, see this article.

The original post is titled Shot in the Dark , and it came from Paulson Coletti - Portland Oregon Law Firm .

Plenty of other police forces around the country include steroids in their random drug testing, but the local union is against it and has even filed a grievance against the City of Portland to try to stop the drug testing.

Yvonne Deckard, director of Portland’s Bureau of Human Resources, says the union delayed negotiations, and finally, at the end of December, Deckard notified the union the city would proceed with random drug testing in 2012.

Daryl Turner, president of the local union, says concerns over testing of steroids stems from the fact that officers could test positive for steroids by, say, ingesting over-the-counter supplements that include chemicals or other substances that illegally contain steroids. Such a situation, says Dr. Linn Goldberg of OHSU, is not plausible.

So, we shall see what happens. Under the new testing policy, 55 officers per month will be tested. I wonder how many of them will test positive for steroids?

For more information, see this article.

The original post is titled Step away from the steroids , and it came from Paulson Coletti - Portland Oregon Law Firm .

Attorney Gregory Kafoury, who represents six of the victims, indicated in court filings that the hospital knew about the misconduct months prior to notifying the authorities. In addition, a complaint about abuse from as early as 2007 was found. Nurses allegedly knew of Field’s inappropriate behavior and made a point of not being left alone with him. One nurse filed a complaint against Field in May 2010 for inappropriately touching her. Many of the patients who filed complaints against Field were abused while they were incapacitated and thus unable to defend themselves.

Dr. Field was arrested in the summer of 2011 and was released pending trial in December. He has yet to enter a plea.

For more information, see this article.

The original post is titled Dr. Feelbad , and it came from Paulson Coletti - Portland Oregon Law Firm .

The Toone family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the pest control company, Bugman Pest and Lawn, as well as the exterminator who fumigated the property. The lawsuit was filed in March of 2011 and settled in December 2011. The suit contended that the Fumitoxin pellets were not used according to the product instructions. In October the fumigator and Bugman both pleaded guilty to unlawful use of a registered pesticide in U.S. District Court.

Soon after the deaths of the Toone girls, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency banned the residential use of Fumitoxin.

Pest control and toxins go hand in hand. Do your homework if you plan to hire a fumigator!

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The original post is titled Beyond pest control , and it came from Paulson Coletti - Portland Oregon Law Firm .

Reister’s trial will begin on February 1. He was arraigned on December 13, 2011, and plead not guilty. Reister has been on paid leave since the shooting on June 30. He has been wiht the Portland Police for fifteen years. The Portland Police Association has voiced its support of Reister and issued a statement disagreeing with the indictment.

For more information, see this article.

The original post is titled Portland Police: From beanbags to court , and it came from Paulson Coletti - Portland Oregon Law Firm .

The patient, Lisa Nasseff, was in the treatment center for 15 months and believes her psychologist was involved in the hypnosis. She also believes the motive for the hypnosis may have been partly financial, a ploy to keep her in treatment to extract medical insurance reimbursements for as long as possible. Nasseff also says the center used psychotropic drugs in addition to hypnosis to “treat” her anorexia.

Castlewood Treatment Center plans to fight the lawsuit and denies Nasseff’s allegations. The psychologist named in the lawsuit, Mark Schwartz, says hypnosis was not used in Nasseff’s treatment. Hypnosis is not a recognized form of treatment for eating disorders.

For more information, see this article.

The original post is titled I’ve been hyp-no-tized , and it came from Paulson Coletti - Portland Oregon Law Firm .

The 73-year-old, Othon Cortes, was flying from Spain to New York and then on to his home in Miami. He ingested the in-flight meal on the flight from Barcelona to New York and soon was plagued by stomach pain and nausea. He continued to feel ill on board the flight from New York to Miami, and the plane had to make an unscheduled landing in Norfolk, Virginia, to tend to his medical needs. Cortes died shortly after landing.

Cortes’s family claims the chicken he ate was contaminated and made him ill. The family also believes the airlines was negligent and should have provided medical care to Cortes earlier. They think he should not have been allowed to board the flight to Miami, since he was in medical distress, and that the airplane delayed its emergency landing too long. The family is asking for more than $1 million.

Food poisoning generally does not come on suddenly, but there are exceptions to the rule. It is unclear whether others on the flight were sickened by the same chicken. In fact, this story brings up a lot of unanswered questions.

For more on this story, see this article.

The original post is titled Death by poultry? , and it came from Paulson Coletti - Portland Oregon Law Firm .

Riders reported that Hendren, nicknamed “the monster” by some of her riders, repeatedly yelled at passengers for such offenses as talking on cell phones, listening to iPods, or having conversations with fellow passengers. Also, the 67-year-old driver had previously yelled at other parents of crying children. Complaints allege that Hendren would stop the bus and refuse to continue until her demands were met.

TriMet says they addressed Hendren’s excessive complaints with training and coaching, but it is pretty clear that tactic was unsuccessful. It took public shame and worldwide publicity for TriMet to take action–since word got out that Hendren kicked the mother and child off her bus, Hendren was put on unpaid suspension for two weeks. TriMet has also hired a trainer who will concentrate on assisting drivers with high complaint numbers.

For more on this story, see this article.

The original post is titled Don’t mess with the TriMet driver , and it came from Paulson Coletti - Portland Oregon Law Firm .