Nothing beats cozy public cocooning with an iPod, but Seattle attorney and class action specialist Steve Berman has filed an action against Apple in San Jose, currently on behalf of a Louisiana client who says he may or may not have suffered hearing loss because the volume level could well be too loud on his iPod, the earbuds increase risks, and the hearing loss warning accompanying the product is too imprecise.
Berman, who helped states including Washington win a huge settlement against tobacco companies, also joined the Microsoft defense team when the company faced that big anti-trust prosecution by the feds. This isn't the first time this friend of Microsoft has gone after Apple, either. Berman was involved in a previous consumer case against Apple, representing an iPod Nano owner irate over scratches to his device's screen (see last graf here).
Steve, I think everyone knows where the volume control, and "off" switch are on their iPods. What's next? A class action on behalf of insufficiently warned iPorn addicts?
Posted by Matt Rosenberg at February 04, 2006 04:41 PM | Email ThisBerman should be disbarred since his degree is patently fraudulent.
Posted by: JCM on February 4, 2006 05:35 PMI am not familar w/ the I Pod case and I think Chris Gregoire's filing of a class action lawsuit on cigarettes (a product the Surgeon General warned on January 11, 1964 was dangerous, but the State of Washington continued to collect excise taxes and still collects) was an attention grabbing act by an Attorney General with dubious results during her 12 year tenure.
In October 1999 Steven Berman filed a class action lawsuit againt Mayor Paul Schnell dba The City of Seattle because "Seattle's faulty parking meters cheated drivers out of perhaps $20 million" (Seattle Times Mar-28-2000 by Brier Dudley)
Berman lost the class action lawsuit because King County Superior Court Judge Larry Jordan ruled "that drivers should have challenged their tickets individually". Although Jordan's ruling is technically correct, the reality is the vast majority of people pay questionable penalities because the amount of time and lost wages going to court is greater than the penalty.
Former Mayor Paul Schell was well aware that Seattle had defective parking meters as documented by The Seattle Times and KOMO TV. Schell's attitude to customers was "screw you" in the news.
As a result of Berman's lawsuit, Schell decided to fix all parking meters within 90 days.
I do not know the status of Berman's appeal.
If Matt really wants to protest dingbat lawyers he should hilight (Retired Judge) Larry Allen Jordan, who left the bench in 2001 to join Judicial Dispute Resolution, LLC on Fourth Avenue in Seattle.
Matt can also give an update on the King County Court Judge who threw out Tim Eyeman's Nov 1999 win on the car tab initiative. The governor and the legislature enacted a law for $30 car tabs. The judge who threw out the car tabs iniative should be working at 7-11 and asking customers if they would like beef jerky with their slurpee.
I could be wrong, but I recall something like that back in the day.
Kalroy
Posted by: Kalroy on February 5, 2006 08:17 PMWhat's *really* curious is that you think it's someone else's responsibility to make sure you don't do something stupid. Are you a lawyer by any chance?
Posted by: libertarianobserver on February 6, 2006 12:41 PM