New Britain personal injury lawyer Ronald Murphy has handled plenty of “dram shop†cases, which hold bars liable for serving alcohol to patrons who are later involved in accidents.
The lawsuit against the bar involved in Patrick O’Dell’s alcohol-fueled death seemed a prime candidate for a settlement. Instead, it went to trial, ending in a largely symbolic $4 million verdict.
HARTFORD, November 18 – A case investigated by the Department of Consumer Protection’s occupational enforcement unit led to the recent arrest of three employees of Roto-Rooter of Windsor for allegedly directing unlicensed plumbing work and allegedly engaging in unlicensed plumbing work, Consumer Protection Commissioner Jerry Farrell, Jr. said today.
Thanks to legal pressure brought by Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal against HOP Energy, 2,171 present and former customers of HOP Energy’s Connecticut subsidiaries are receiving $375,000 in refunds. The money represents excess profits HOP…
Attorney General Richard Blumenthal announced today he will seek legislation requiring greater disclosure of medical mistakes at hospitals, as well as providing regulators beefed up investigative resources and new authority to impose civil penalties.
Joining Blumenthal in his call for a major strengthening of the state hospital medical mistakes reporting law was Connecticut Center for Patient Safety Executive Director Jean Rexford.
Read all about it here. CNN took a wrong turn when it let opinions cloud news. Maybe now they have it right. Says the Daily News: King, the network’s chief national correspondent and the go-to…
Sean Hannity apologized to Comedy Central news analyst (what else can I call him?) Jon Stewart last night after Stewart busted him using doctored footage to make an anti-medical care rally seem bigger than it…
CNN host Lou Dobbs told his “shocked” viewers tonight that he is leaving CNN immediately. The Harvard educated anchor, who in many ways dumbed down crucial discussions of important issues, declined to say why he…
LAW TRIBUNE: Is your new web site, CTWatchdog.com, going to be a replacement for your job at the Courant?
GEORGE GOMBOSSY: It is my job. And it will become profitable over time. It has potential.
LAW TRIBUNE: Do potential advertisers shy away when you say you won’t go easy on them?
GOMBOSSY: [On my site, a propane company pays] $200 a month for an ad, knowing full well that, any chance I get I will take a shot at the propane business, because it is the most opaque, least transparent, shadiest energy business in the country.
Advertisers don’t advertise because they like the publisher or the reporter. They couldn’t care less. They scream and holler about a negative story, but they don’t cut their advertising. If they have a bad image problem, if they’re smart they take out more ads. Think about it. How did this work out for Sleepy’s? Did the Courant really protect Sleepy’s [image]? I never investigated Sleepy’s. I just followed up on an attorney general’s investigation with just normal reporting.
LAW TRIBUNE: The Courant says that your position was eliminated, and you were offered a different job.
GOMBOSSY: No. I wasn’t offered any position…I was offered severance. It would have come with a gag order and a confidentiality agreement – I didn’t read it that closely, because it would have prevented me from suing the Courant.
LAW TRIBUNE: The Courant’s lawyers say your case has important employment law and First Amendment issues of first impression.
GOMBOSSY: The reason it’s a case of first impression is because no journalist has ever sued a newspaper claiming that their right of free speech was hampered or prevented because their employer refused to publish something that was in the public’s interest to know. [In this case,] the journalist was then fired for attempting to do what his job is.
You think jewelers and furniture stores have huge margins? Â Check out spice prices. Compare what you pay in a grocery store to what the REAL cost is at places like Costco or Wal-Mart. Consumer Reports…
Sure he’s a comedian. So was Ronald Reagan when he made movies with a chimp and Stuart Smalley before he became a Senator. Right now, Stewart is doing the best media policing in the country….
Rockville Bank and I will be hosting a free financial seminar on Dec. 15 titled “How to grow and protect your nest egg during these treacherous time.” We are expecting to have two certified financial…
The National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA) presented George Gombossy with NACA’s 2009 Media Award at their annual meeting held last month in Philadelphia. The award last year was given to two reporters from Business Week.
Gombossy was the first investigative consumer columnist in the Hartford Courant’s history, and unfortunately, probably its last, as he was fired on Aug. 14, 2009, after refusing to “be nice†to the papers’ major advertisers. For over three years, Mr. Gombossy served as the advocate for Connecticut’s consumers, working with thousands of readers who sent him complaints and tips. His Watchdog columns resulted in more than a dozen state investigations and improved customer service at many local and regional companies. He continues to rattle the chain of big business with his www.CtWatchdog.com website.
New Haven employment lawyer Joseph D. Garrison has amended my wrongful discharge lawsuit against The Courant and its parent Tribune Co. by claiming that I was fired for following the Courant’s written News Mission statement.
The News Mission statement was developed in early 2002 by a group of editors and reporters (including me) as a code by which we expected ourselves to follow. We published the statement and it is still on The Courant’s website as what I consider a promise to readers.
Best Buy, the nation’s largest electronic retailer, has two major legal battles on its hands as it defends itself against accusations from Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and New York class action lawyers Kantrowitz, Goldhamer…
It’s sad that one of the best journalists of the day is Jon Stewart, and his research team of about a million. But by lacing his commentary with hard evidence, he’s doing what most news…
The family of the mother who died in 2007Â trying to win a video game console for her kids received a $16.5 million jury award. Read about the strange case of Jennifer Strange here. The…
We are thrilled to announce that Cheryl Jones-Reardon, CEO of The Mindful Path, LLC, is joining our Ctwatchdog.com team as a regular blogger. Cheryl lives in central Connecticut, holds a Master’s degree in Exercise Science…
Andrew Kreig, a former Courant reporter and now a nationally known investigative reporter, is joining our team of bloggers at CtWatchdog.com.
Andrew is a free-lance investigative reporter, lawyer and radio host based in Washington.
His primary focus for the past year has been exploring allegations of official corruption and other misconduct in federal agencies, and also advising several nonprofit groups fostering cutting-edge applications within the communications industries.
Attorney General Richard Blumenthal today announced a $1.3 million settlement with The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc., resolving claims that it participated in several anticompetitive schemes that illegally inflated insurance and reinsurance costs nationwide.
The Courant has begun its defense in the wrongful termination lawsuit I brought against it last month by claiming that losing this case would have a detrimental effect on all newspapers and other media in…