Care

Civil Rights Lawsuit Aims to Keep Elderly Couple Together

The fight continues for an elderly couple forced to live apart during their final years. Noboru and Elaine Kawamoto were staying at an assisted living facility when his health started to deteriorate. Because he needs constant care, he’s now living in a care home in Kaneohe, but state law prevents his wife from joining him.


Schwab Lawsuit Claims DCF, Other Agencies Engaged in ‘Kids for Cash’ Enterprise

An amended civil complaint filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for Kansas alleges the Kansas Department for Children and Families, as well as other agencies and individuals, are engaged in a “Kids for Cash type unlawful enterprise.” “Private agencies are contracted that the longer they keep the kids, the more funding they get,” said plaintiff Raymond Schwab. “They allegedly, …


Suit Claims Northwest Hospital Fails to Screen for Charity Care

Northwest Hospital & Medical Center fails to properly screen poor patients eligible for charity care, instead sending their debts for collection in violation of state law, according to a class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday. The suit, filed in King County Superior Court, seeks damages on behalf of two low-income men who sought emergency services at Northwest, which is operated by UW Medicine. It …


Randall County Faces Lawsuit Over Former Inmate’s Death

A lawsuit filed in federal court this month claims a mentally ill man incapacitated by traumatic brain injury wasn’t assessed for mental illness, nor given seizure medication, and was only discharged from the Randall County jail when it came time to pay his hospital bill. The complaint filed on behalf of the estate of Wendell Carl Simmons, now deceased, claims that inadequately trained jailers …


Arizona Prisons Ordered to Improve Health Care for Inmates

A judge in a class-action lawsuit that protests the quality of health care in Arizona’s prisons has ordered the state to improve medical and mental health services for inmates after attorneys who won a settlement in the case complained that officials were dragging their feet in making required changes. The order Friday from U.S. Magistrate Judge David Duncan requires the state to come up with a …


Lawsuit: State Gave Child Foster Care License to Known Abuser

The Hennepin County Human Services Department allowed the placement of a foster care child into the home of a Brooklyn Park woman who had a record of substantiated child abuse, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis. In December 2014, 6-year old Kendrea Johnson was found dead in that …


Total Renal Care Faces a Class Action Lawsuit Filed by Blumenthal That Claims the Dialysis Service Provider Failed to Provide Proper Wages to Their Golden State Employees

Total Renal Care is the target of a proposed class action Complaint filed by five of their California employees who allege various California Labor Code violations San Francisco, California. The San Francisco employment law lawyers at Blumenthal, Nordrehaug and Bhowmik filed a proposed class action Complaint against Total Renal care, Inc. (“Renal”) for allegedly failing to …


Conditional Class and Settlement Terms Approved in Laborers’ Action Against Landscaping Firm

A U.S. magistrate judge has approved conditional certification of the settlement class and settlement associated with a Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) case brought by a group of seasonal landscape laborers from Mexico. U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth T. Hey issued her decision in the case initiated by Rogelio Ortega Hernandez and a group of laborers similarly situated, against…


Palm Beach Gardens Mother Fought for Kids in Medicaid Lawsuit

More than a decade ago, Rita Gorenflo of Palm Beach Gardens signed on as a plaintiff in the class-action lawsuit against the state of Florida on behalf of nearly two million poor and disabled children on Medicaid. Through a lengthy Miami trial and the appeal of the judge’s scathing findings against the state, Gorenflo lost a son, while she raised six other adopted disabled children to …


Long-Term Care Insurance: Less Bang, More Bucks

Mary Julia Klimenko thought she was prudent 20 years ago when she invested in a long-term care insurance policy, one she believed would help pay for the care she’d need as she aged. Now she wishes she’d banked the money instead. Her monthly premiums have nearly quadrupled over the past two years, and Klimenko, 69, is furious about the choices she’s been given: pay the higher cost, lower her …