Sunday, May 29, 2011

Settlement in Freedom of Speech case

I am pleased to announce a $45,000.00 settlement in a case involving violations of constitutional rights of freedom of speech and assembly and California's civil rights statutes.  My client was peacefully passing out political leaflets on the public sidewalk on Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco.  A corporate security guard threw out his fliers, pushed him off the sidewalk, and then lied about the incident to a responding police officer.  What makes this case significant is not the amount of recovery; it is that several other attorneys would not represent my client because he had no physical injury and the police report was against him.  I believed my client and saw the value of the constitutional rights of which he was deprived, so I filed his lawsuit.  Turns out the entire episode was caught on surveillance video, obtained during litigation, which vindicated my client and destroyed the credibility of the security guard and police officer.  The Law Office of Francis J. Shehadeh -- digging deeper, for you not them.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Why not to do business with unlicensed contractors

So you are a proud homeowner who has hired a contractor to do construction on your premises.  Make sure the contractor is licensed !  If the contractor is unlicensed and his/her employee is hurt on the job, under Labor Code section 2750.5 the homeowner becomes the statutory employer of the injured worker and faces liability in tort.  That is the premise of a sad and preventable case that I just filed on behalf of a quadriplegic man and his wife against an uninsured and unlicensed contractor and the homeowners who hired him.  More to follow.