Andrus Anderson Partner Selected 2011 Northern California Super Lawyer

Andrus Anderson partner, Jennie Lee Anderson, has been selected as a 2011 Northern California Super Lawyer.   Each year Super Lawyers recognizes outstanding lawyers who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement.   The selection process is multi-phased and includes independent research, peer nominations and peer evaluations.  Visit Ms. Anderson’s Super Lawyer Profile for more information.

Jennie Lee Anderson

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Andrus Anderson LLP Partners Take Leadership Roles At The American Association for Justice

Lori E. Andrus and Jennie Lee Anderson attended the American Association for Justice Annual Convention in New York City, July 9-12, 2011.   In furtherance of their efforts in and outside of the courtroom to advance the interests of their clients, including injured consumers, employees and small business owners across the United States, Ms. Andrus and Ms. Anderson were both elected to presigious leadership positions this year.  Ms. Andrus was elected First Vice Chair of the Women’s Trial Lawyer Caucus.  Ms. Anderson is the incoming Co-Chair of the organization’s Class Action Litigation Group.  

Andrus Anderson Files Nationwide Gender Discrimination Class Action Against Deere & Co.

On March 16, 2011, Andrus Anderson LLP filed a nationwide sex discrimination class action against Deere & Co. and John Deere Landscapes, Inc. (“Deere”).  Artis v. Deere & Co. (Civ.10-05289 WHA). The suit charges that Deere, a leading farm, agricultural equiptment and landscaping company, systematically denies certain jobs to women and discourages them from even applying.   

The Plaintiff, Holly Artis, applied for a customer service position at Deere’ s landscaping facility.  Despite having over five years of sales and service experience, she was told that Deere “frowned upon hiring women” and was denied the job.  She was falsely told that the position had been cancelled, when in fact it had been given to a man with less experience.  “Deere should not be allowed to continue to deny qualified women employment or discourage them from applying because of their gender,” says co-lead counsel for Plaintiff and the proposed class, Andrus Anderson partner, Jennie Lee Anderson.  “Female applicants must be given the opportunity to compete on a level playing field–that’s the law and it’s also the right thing to do.”   The complete Press Release is available here.  For further information, please Contact Us today, or  visit Deere Class website.

Partner Lori Andrus To Attend California Attorney General Harris’s Transition Team Policy Summit

Lori E. Andrus, appointed to California Attorney General Kamala Harris‘ Transition Team, will attend the Attorney General’s Policy Summit on March 16, 2011.  Ms. Andrus was named to the Attorney General’s “Smart On Crime” working group, and was asked to assist in identifying the most pressing issues facing California and researching best practices from across the nation to help make California safer and better.  Within the “Smart on Crime” working group, Ms. Andrus’ focus has been on mortgage fraud and consumer protection. 

A.G. Harris’ Transition Team has tapped leaders from around the state, including other Attorneys General, law enforcement figureheads, District Attorneys, representatives from universities, foundations, think tanks and other leaders at the forefront of research, ideas and innovation.

As a lawyer who frequently represents consumers in cases brought against large corporations, and as a long-time Board of Governors Member for the Consumer Attorneys of California, Ms. Andrus has years of experience advocating for consumer rights. 

Jennie Lee Anderson Participates In Panel On Summary Judgment

On February 1, 2011, AA LLP partner, Jennie Lee Anderson, was a panelist on the San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association’s program “Summary Judgment From Every Angle“.  The panelists discussed best practices in preparing and opposing summary judgment motions and included the Hon. Winifred Y. Smith, who contributed with perspectives from the bench.

Lori Andrus Honored With Prestigious Justice Association Award

Attorney Lori E. Andrus, a founding partner in Andrus Anderson LLP, has been awarded the prestigious Wiedemann Wysocki Award by the American Association for Justice.  The award honors attorneys for their commitment to their profession and support for improving the civil justice system.

“I would like to thank the American Association for Justice for this important honor,” Ms. Andrus says. “This award is named for two great Louisiana attorneys, and I hope to continue their goal of helping deserving plaintiffs find justice in the civil court system.”

The Wiedemann Wysocki Award was established in honor of Fritz Wiedemann and James Anthony Wysocki, two New Orleans-based trial lawyers and active American Association for Justice members who died in a plane crash while traveling to an American Association for Justice event.

Ms. Andrus will receive the award on July 11, 2010 at the association’s annual conference in Vancouver.

Civil Justice System Spurs Auto Safety Innovation

Lori Andrus and Jennie Anderson, both active members of the American Association for Justice (“AAJ”), support AAJ’s efforts to make vehicles safer.  A new AAJ report shows how design defect litigation has led to safer vehicles.  The AAJ press release reads:

Washington D.C.—As the fallout from Toyota’s sudden acceleration fiasco continues, a new report released today by the American Association for Justice (AAJ) illustrates how similar vehicle design defects, when brought to light by the civil justice system, have spurred innovations in auto safety.

The report explains that since the 1960s, design defect litigation has enforced safety standards, revealed previously concealed defects and regulatory weaknesses, and deterred manufacturers from cutting corners on safety for the goal of greater profits.

“Runaway Toyotas may be front-and-center today, but unfortunately, this scenario has been repeating itself for decades,” said AAJ President Anthony Tarricone. “And if history is any judge, the litigation brought against Toyota will inevitably make the company more responsible and responsive to problems, and ultimately safer for consumers.”

For example, auto safety litigation was critical in forcing American manufacturers to install safer power window controls following multiple deaths of children. While a Texas mother spoke with her husband through the driver’s side window of a Ford F-150, her three-year old daughter leaned out of the passenger’s side window and accidentally hit the “rocker” style switch, causing the window to close and strangling the child to death.

Manufacturers were well aware of the risks of rocker switches inadvertently closing if a child leaned on one (in 2004, seven children died in the span of three months) and even installed safer “pull-up” switches in the cars they offered to foreign markets. But it took litigation for manufacturers to install safer switches in domestic cars, since the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had no rules governing power window safety.

Other safety improvements included in the report that were promoted by the civil justice system include life-saving repairs to vehicle gas tanks, seat belts, side impact design, roof strength, tires, electronic stability control, door latches, air bags, power windows and seats.

Click here to download the report, entitled “Driven to Safety: How Litigation Has Spurred Auto Safety Innovations.”

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As the world’s largest trial bar, the American Association for Justice (formerly known as the Association of Trial Lawyers of America) works to make sure people have a fair chance to receive justice through the legal system when they are injured by the negligence or misconduct of others—even when it means taking on the most powerful corporations. Visit http://www.justice.org/newsroom.

Andrus Anderson Partner, Lori Andrus, Authors “In The Wake Of Iqbal” for Trial Magazine

In In The Wake Of Iqbal, published in the March 2010 edition of Trial Magazine, author Lori Andrus explores the impact of the United States Supreme Court’s ruling in Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 129 S.Ct. 1937 (2009) on federal pleading standards. The article also provides helpful tips on how to prepare your case to meet Iqbal‘s challenging new standard. To read the entire article, click here.

Reprinted with permission of TRIAL (March 2010)

Copyright American Association for Justice, formerly Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA®)

Jennie Lee Anderson Speaks About Prevailing at Class Certification at the AAJ Winter Convention in Maui

On January 30, 2010, AA LLP partner, Jennie Lee Anderson, spoke to attendees at the American Association for Justice Winter Convention in Maui about how to prevail at class certification in document-based cases, including class actions regarding mortgage fraud.  The focus of the presentation was on three recent decisions wherein courts certified classes finding that common documents predominated over individual issues.  Among the cases highlighted were the Ninth Circuit’s decision inYokoyama v. Midland Nat’l Life Ins. Co., and the Northern District of California’s class certification order in Lymburner v.  U.S. Financial Funding.  Ms. Anderson is counsel of record in the Lymburner  case and successfully argued Plaintiff’s motion for class certification in the case.

Yasmin/Yaz Manufacturer Warned by FDA

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned the makers of Yasmin and Yaz birth control drugs about problems concerning the testing and quality of the pharmaceutical ingredients in the drugs.  This, after repeated warnings by the federal government to Bayer (and its predecessor Berlex) for improperly marketing its birth control drugs in a manner that overstates the drugs’ benefits and downplays the very serious, and potentially fatal, side effects of the drug.

In a letter released on September 15, 2009, the FDA warned Bayer about the quality control and testing problems relating to the key ingredient in Yasmin and Yaz, drospirenone.  Click here to view the letter.

The warning followed an inspection, conducted in March, of the Yasmin manufacturing plant in Berghamen, Germany that “revealed significant deviations from U.S. current good manufacturing practices (CGMP) in the manufacture of non-sterile APIs [Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients].”  Bayer has thirty days to respond to the warning.

Andrus Anderson LLP is representing women who have been harmed by Yasmin and Yaz, including those who have suffered: gall bladder disease, heart attack, stroke, cardiac arrhythmias, pulmonary embolism (PE), deep vein thrombosis (DVT), liver failure and kidney failure.  The primary concern with Yasmin and Yaz is that the active ingredient, drospirenone, increases potassium in the blood to dangerous levels.  A prominent consumer advocacy group, Public Citizen, listed Yasmin as a “Do Not Use” drug in 2002, because:

*Yasmin side effects caused by drospirenone increase blood levels of potassium, which could result in heart problems and other health concerns; and

* There is no evidence that the drug is superior to old contraceptives or that the benefits outweigh the risk of Yasmin dangers.

For more information on the potential dangers of Yasmin and Yaz, or to speak to an attorney, please contact Andrus Anderson LLP by clicking here.