November 2019

‘TIS THE SEASON

By Partners Keith More & Jose Gonzalez

 

The Holiday Season is just about to ramp up this week with post-turkey shopping on Black Friday.  For the brick and mortar shoppers it’s the unofficial start of the Holiday Season, Christmas trees and decorations await along with blowout sale prices on TV sets larger than their budgets would otherwise allow. Analysts say that this holiday shopping season is expected to be as robust as ever with the average person spending $1,047.83, up 4% from last year’s average even though the season was shortened by 6 days due to Thanksgiving being a week later in November.

The real shopping damage will be done on December 2– Cyber Monday.  Hundreds of millions of Americans will at some point turn on their computer screens to take advantage of enormous online sales.  In 2018, the one-day sales topped $7.9 billion.  This year is expected to be even larger with online giant Amazon having a substantial stake.

The Cyber Monday shopping orders will be filled for the next three and a half weeks until Christmas by hundreds of thousands of Amazon workers throughout the country and in Southern California through mammoth fulfillment centers in the Inland Empire located in Moreno Valley, San Bernardino, and Redlands.  The work shift for most of the Amazon workers at the fulfillment centers are going to become 10-hour shifts with many overtime hours.  Workers will be enduring increase repetition in their job duties of handling millions of items ranging from cosmetics to car engine parts.

Amazon sells everything and the workers will deal with the pain of it all.  This work is grueling, repetitive, and wears on the workers’ necks, shoulders, arms, backs and knees.  Every item that Amazon sells is handled by workers from the moment that the bulk items are received from the various vendors in the warehouse and are unboxed, scanned and boxed again for storage to being unboxed, scanned and shipped out to the online shopper in the fulfillment centers.

Bentley & More LLP continues to see an increase in the filing of Amazon work comp claims and has taken on the cyber giant. As the popularity of Cyber Monday increases each year unfortunately,  the price is paid for by the Amazon workers.

 

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As millions of people in the US have begun vaping over the last few years, many have been oblivious to the fact that this issue parallels the rise of smoking in the country. This is especially true when it comes to teens and vaping. Over the last two decades, the use of tobacco in teens has significantly decreased. However, with the introduction of e-cigarettes and flavored vape, millions of teens have picked up the habit, most of whom had ... Read More

There is one phrase that keeps coming up over and over in the media as we become more aware of vape-related illnesses – popcorn lung. As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) continues to track the thousands of vape-related illnesses and dozens of deaths, the public is struggling to understand what is going on. The American Lung Association (ALA) has been investigating a link between the use of e-cigarettes and lung illnesses... Read More

The use of e-cigarette products has increased significantly over the last few years, with most people under the assumption that they are safer than traditional cigarettes. However, that myth was busted recently. As many thousands of people have become sick after using vape products, both the public and the government have begun to more closely examine the e-cigarette industry. How are these products affecting people? The Centers for Disease ... Read More

Juul Labs has always said that their products are safer than traditional cigarettes. They have claimed the e-cigarettes have helped millions of people transition away from smoking. However, what if Juul sold contaminated vape pods? There are reports that a former Juul executive claims the company knowingly sold a million contaminated pods and then did nothing to warn consumers of the danger. Digging into these allegations Siddharth Breja ... Read More

For years now, e-cigarette companies have worked to convince the public that their products are safer than traditional cigarette smoking. However, their ability to make these arguments has been hampered this year, as many thousands of people have been hospitalized due to vape-related illnesses. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has kept track of vape-related illnesses and deaths, and the number has been steadily climbing for... Read More

Bentley & More will be making its way up to San Francisco next week for the Annual CAOC Annual Convention. We have a great line-up of speakers & moderators covering the following topics:

Greg Bentley – Friday 11/15 from 10:15 to 11:30 a.m.

Panel title: I Never Thought of That! Innovative Ideas for General Damages

Greg’s section: Proving How Pre-Existing Conditions Can Increase Damages

 

Clare Lucich – Friday, 11/15, from 2:20 to 3:20 p.m.

Moderator – Defense Experts: How to Discredit, Diminish, and Flip

 

Matt Clark – Friday, from 2:20 to 3:20 p.m.

Moderator – The Appealing Appeal – Protecting Your Record and Presenting Well in the Court of Appeal

 

Keith More – Saturday, 11/16, 9:00 to 10:15 a.m.

Panel title: Workers Comp 3^rd Party Litigation

Keith’s section: Eliminate or Deflate the Workers’ Compensation Lien

 

FOR MORE ON THE CONVENTION OR TO REGISTER, CLICK HERE

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