We are investigating illegal price-fixing agreements between drug manufacturers aimed at keeping cheaper, generic pharmaceuticals off the market. As a result of these anticompetitive agreements, consumers are forced to pay artificially higher prices for important medication.

Nationwide class action among other things seeking recall of tires as well as to recover costs incurred to replace the defective tires.

Judicial Council Coordination Proceeding No. 4208, (Contra Costa Cty, California Superior Court), the Court granted final approval to a $61,420,000 partial settlement fund for owner’s of properties on which certain manufactured cement composite roofing products were installed. Gilman and Pastor, LLP was one of four firms that represented the class members. After extensive litigation on all fronts, the case was partially settled during trial against certain defendants for over $61 million dollars.

Charged more than double the monthly payments and imposed a $10 monthly service fee on customers who had accepted Chase’s fixed rate balance transfer offers.

Best Buy and Circuit City have failed to honor their warranties, included by its third party Insurers.

We are investigating claims by consumers that Pella Windows develop condensation inside the window glass, resulting in moisture buildup, which leads to rot of the window frame and molding.

We are investigating claims by consumers that Jeldwen Windows develop condensation inside the window glass, resulting in moisture buildup, which leads to rot of the window frame and molding.

We are investigating claims by consumers that Weathershield Windows develop condensation inside the window glass, resulting in moisture buildup, which leads to rot of the window frame and molding.

The four-wheel, side-by-side All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV) Rhino manufactured by Yamaha Motor Corporation has become one of the most popular ATV, off-road vehicles, in the U.S. Nearly 60 riders have been killed and hundreds seriously injured in Rhino accidents.

Zimmer Holdings, the nation’s largest producer of orthopedic devices, has recalled the Durom cup, a hip socket, due to a high failure rate. The medical device was first sold in the U.S. in 2006 and has been implanted in 12,000 patients.

We are currently investigating consumer complaints regarding Harley Davidson Screamin' Eagle motorcycle engines, including product defects and warranty claims. Among the complaints are allegations that the Screamin' Eagle or CVO 110 cubic inch engine may have resulted in problems with the function of the motorcycle, as well as lead to additional product failures, including oil leaks from rear cylinder, rear cylinder head gasket failure, burning engine oil, engine stalls, overheating engines.

We are investigating allegations against Comdata, owner of a monopoly credit card system used at truck stops throughout the U.S.
The allegations center on claims that Comdata has harmed competition by using its market dominance to impair the ability of rival card issuers to challenge Comdata's monopoly, resulting in independent truck stops, such as Pilot, Petro, and Travel Centers of America, having to pay millions of dollars in excessive fees. These fees are passed onto truckers and consumers.

We are investigating claims of price-fixing and conspiracy relating to the emerging new futures markets, called carbon exchanges.
These exchanges trade in "carbon credits," not only in advance of proposed Cap and Trade legislation in the U.S., but where such regulations exist in Europe.
Most major power plants and factories anticipate being part of a legally binding scheme to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Carbon trading is the trading of greenhouse gas reduction credits as defined in the 1997 Kyoto Protocol of the Climate Change convention. If too many allowances have been issued, the carbon price will fall and could even hit zero, making the whole scheme collapse.

We are investigating claims involving price-fixing of gasoline in the United States. Allegations have surfaced that CITGO Petroleum Corporation and other major oil refinery corporations in the U.S. conspired with OPEC to fix the price of gasoline in the United States.

We are actively investigating and litigating claims on behalf of investors who suffered significant losses. Many third parties who were negligent and breached their fiduciary duties in failing to perform the necessary due diligence when advising their clients to invest in these funds.
We allege that the issuing firms, including brokers and investment banks, fail to disclose to ordinary investors that ETFs represent short-term speculation, that their trading expenses decrease returns to investors, and that most ETFs provide insufficient diversification.
ETFs can be, and have been, used to manipulate market prices, including having been used for short selling, that many observers claim have contributed to the market collapse of 2008. As a result, many investors have suffered significant losses, including their entire investments

Major brokerage firms, ABN AMBO Bank N.V., AIG, Bank of America, Barclays Bank, Bear Stearns, Charles Schwab, Citigroup, Countrywide Securities, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, E-Trade, Harris National Bank, Incaptial LLP, JP Morgan Chase, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Keegan, Morgan Stanley, RBC Royal Bank, Societe Generale, UBS Fraud, Wachovia, represented and sold principal protected notes (PPN) as safe and secure investment vehicles. We allege that these banks specifically targeted conservative, risk-averse investors who were seeking to preserve their capital and generate income. In fact, these notes subjected investors to significantly more risk than was disclosed.
These brokers and investment banks pushed their sales representatives to dump these products on their own retail. As early as 2005, industry regulators from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) raised concerns about misrepresentations regarding the safety and complexity of principal protected notes and other structured investment products.
Holders of these structured securities and principal protected notes (PPNs) face significant losses, including their entire principal investment.

Gilman and Pastor is investigating the Nuveen Insured Premium Income Municipal Fund and other related instruments. We are investigating claims of breach of fiduciary duty by the issuing entities.

Gilman and Pastor is investigating Amazon.com over its stock price decline in connection with the failed launch of its defective and problem-plagued hand-held computer book, Kindle.
We are investigating claims on behalf of Amazon.com investors who have incurred financial losses as the result of the stock price tumble on reports that Amazon.com’s much-anticipated, much hyped, and recently launched, Kindle product, which among its fanfare was claimed to revolutionize how books and magazines would be sold into the future, flopped.

We are investigating claims against overnight delivery giant FedEx regarding allegations that FedEx is violating its employees’ overtime rights. Among these allegations are that FedEx classifies many of its drivers as independent contractors, misclassify their ground delivery personnel as exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) overtime pay requirements, and otherwise fail to properly classify and pay their employees overtime pursuant to the FLSA.

We are investigating claims against IHOP regarding current and former employee claims that IHOP is violating its employees’ overtime rights. Among these allegations are that IHOP misclassifies its servers, cooks, and supervisory personnel, as exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) overtime pay requirements, as well as the failure to pay for hours worked over 40 hours per work week pursuant to the FLSA.

We are investigating claims against Countrywide regarding current and former employee claims that Countrywide is violating its employees’ overtime rights. Among these allegations are that Countrywide misclassifies its staff and mortgage brokers as exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) overtime pay requirements, as well as the failure to pay for hours worked over 40 hours per work week pursuant to the FLSA.

Our firm is investigating claims by Information Technology (IT) workers throughout the country who claim they have been denied their overtime rights pursuant to Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) overtime pay requirements. Eligible IT workers are often those who work on installing, maintaining, supporting, and repairing computer software and hardware, for external clients or for customers within the company. These FLSA eligible employees often work in the following IT fields: System Administrators, Database Administrators, Web Administrators, Network Engineers, Business Systems Consultants, Helpdesk Support Workers, Deskside Support Workers, Systems Analysts, IT Specialists.
Regardless of job title, IT workers who engage in the following types of work may be eligible for FLSA protections, including overtime pay: perform repetitive tasks, follow established procedures, protocols & guidelines, keep computer systems up and running, operate under supervision & rules, perform such work a majority of time (even if also perform substantial other work).

We are investigating claims by stockbrokers, financial advisors, and broker sales assistants of brokerage firms AG Edwards who claim they have been denied their overtime rights pursuant to Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) overtime pay requirements.
While most brokers work on commission only, and while commissions are an important part of any broker’s income, many prominent Wall Street firms have been demanding that brokers sell managed-money products that do not produce high financial returns, which in turn further reduce the income of hard working brokers.
As such, these employees may be eligible for overtime pay under the FLSA.

We are investigating claims by stockbrokers, financial advisors, and broker sales assistants of brokerage firms Merrill Lynch who claim they have been denied their overtime rights pursuant to Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) overtime pay requirements. While most brokers work on commission only, and while commissions are an important part of any broker’s income, many prominent Wall Street firms have been demanding that brokers sell managed-money products that do not produce high financial returns, which in turn further reduce the income of hard working brokers. As such, these employees may be eligible for overtime pay under the FLSA.

We are investigating claims by stockbrokers, financial advisors, and broker sales assistants of brokerage firms Prudential who claim they have been denied their overtime rights pursuant to Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) overtime pay requirements. While most brokers work on commission only, and while commissions are an important part of any broker’s income, many prominent Wall Street firms have been demanding that brokers sell managed-money products that do not produce high financial returns, which in turn further reduce the income of hard working brokers. As such, these employees may be eligible for overtime pay under the FLSA.

We are investigating claims by stockbrokers, financial advisors, and broker sales assistants of brokerage firms Wachovia who claim they have been denied their overtime rights pursuant to Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) overtime pay requirements. While most brokers work on commission only, and while commissions are an important part of any broker’s income, many prominent Wall Street firms have been demanding that brokers sell managed-money products that do not produce high financial returns, which in turn further reduce the income of hard working brokers. As such, these employees may be eligible for overtime pay under the FLSA.

We are investigating claims by stockbrokers, financial advisors, and broker sales assistants of brokerage firms Smith Barney who claim they have been denied their overtime rights pursuant to Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) overtime pay requirements. While most brokers work on commission only, and while commissions are an important part of any broker’s income, many prominent Wall Street firms have been demanding that brokers sell managed-money products that do not produce high financial returns, which in turn further reduce the income of hard working brokers. As such, these employees may be eligible for overtime pay under the FLSA.

We are investigating claims against The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, which operates A&P, The Food Emporium, and Waldbaums, regarding current and former employee claims that the A&P chains violate their employees’ overtime rights. Among these allegations are that the chains fail to pay employees overtime wages and delete hours actually worked from time records in violation of the fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Our firm is investigating complaints by current and former employees of Costco regarding Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) violations. Among the claims we are investigating are that Costco has (1) intentionally and improperly designated department managers as "exempt" managers for its warehouses in order to avoid payment of overtime wages and other benefits; (2) locking hourly employees inside each warehouse every night for approximately 15 minutes after they have finished work and are off the clock, during which time the stores' managers perform closing activities, such as removing jewelry from display cases and emptying cash registers; (3) denial of overtime pay for workers who worked more than 40 hours per work week.

Gilman and Pastor is representing business and entities who have been audited by the Internal Revenue Service for pension and retirement funds. The firm has put together a top team of professionals to defend such litigation and audits.
Life Insurance Companies and their Agents have been selling abusive life insurance and annuity products. Many pension plans have been promoted as legitimate retirement plans which contain various life insurance products and annuities. Unfortunately the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) has now attacked many of these pension and retirement plans and is conducting audits to demand payment for taxes, penalties and interest and attempting to disqualify many plans.
If you are an accountant, business owner, corporate officer, dentist, doctor, professional athlete, professional or corporation of high net worth, you were unscrupulously targeted by life insurance companies and their agents to purchase a 412i defined benefit pension plan. You were chosen to purchase a 412i plan because you have the net worth to pay for it.
Our investigation has disclosed that many life insurance companies, promoters, attorneys, and accountants promoted and sold these plans, including but not limited to the following:

• American General Life Insurance Company
• Guardian Life Insurance Company
• Hartford Life and Annuity Insurance Company
• Indianapolis Life Insurance Company
• Pacific Life Insurance Company
• Pension Services, LLC
• Many Other Life Insurance Companies and Agents

The individuals and groups above devised a scheme to sell abusive tax shelters under the auspices of Section 412(i) of the tax code. A 412(i) is a defined benefit pension plan. It provides specific retirement benefits to participants once they reach retirement and must contain assets sufficient to pay those benefits. A 412(i) plan differs from other defined benefit pension plans in that it must be funded exclusively by the purchase of individual life insurance products.

To create a 412(i) plan, there must be a trust to hold the assets. The employer funds the plan by making cash contributions to the trust, and the Code allows the employer to take a tax deduction in the amount of the contributions, i.e. the entire amount.
The trust uses the contributed funds to purchase some combination of life insurance products (insurance or annuities) for the plan. As the plan participants retire, the trust will usually sell the policies for their present cash value and purchase annuities with the proceeds. The revenue stream from the annuities pays the specified retirement benefit to plan participants.
These defendants (with the aid and knowledge of the insurance companies) used the traditional structure and sold life insurance policies with excessively high premiums. The trust then uses the large cash contributions to pay high insurance premiums and the employer takes a deduction for the sum of those large contributions. As you might expect, these policies were designed with excessively high fees or “loads” which provided exorbitant commissions to the insurance companies and the agents who sold the products.
The policies that were sold were termed Springing Cash Value Policies. They had little or no cash value for the first 5-7 years, after which they had significant cash value. Under this scheme, after 5-7 years, and just before the cash value sprung, the participant typically purchases the policy from the trust for the policy’s surrender value. In theory, you have a tax free transaction.
The IRS does not recognize the tax benefit of such a plan and has repeatedly issued announcements indicating that such plans are contrary to federal tax laws and regulations.
Have you received a letter from the IRS either (1) informing you of an upcoming audit of your plan or (2) demanding payment for substantial tax "penalties and interest"? The "tax free" benefit pension plan you purchased might be a scam, a fraud. Please allow us to speak with you and review your documentation to help you to determine your best course of action. Your communications will be treated with the strictest attorney-client confidence.
If you were a victim of such a sale of a 412i or 419 plan, we encourage you to contact us immediately for legal assistance. You may also receive a free initial consultation by telephone at 877-428-7374. If you desire a free initial phone consultation please leave a specific time or time period within which to contact you.
Since you have already expanded a substantial amount of money in your pension plan and believed it was a legitimate retirement plan, you are obviously shocked to now learn that major life insurance companies and their agents may have sold you improper retirement plans simply to generate enormous commissions on life insurance and annuities.

Kingston Fossil Plant (Kingston Steam Plant) Eastern Tennessee. In December of 2008, more than one billion gallons of coal fly ash spilled from a burst dike in Eastern, Tennessee and covered over 500 acres with sludge.

Gilman and Pastor’s personal injury attorneys have represented many individuals in personal injury and insurance related claims, including but not limited to automobile, truck and motorcycle crashes, premises liability, property damages, property and casualty losses and professional malpractice cases.

Manufactured and sold by Medtronic, Inc., the Infuse Bone Graft has been approved only for use in lower spine-repair surgery to promote bone growth. Infuse has been linked to dozens of cases of fatalities or life-threatening complications when used off-label in surgeries on the upper spine and neck.

Women taking the oral contraceptives Yasmin and Yaz have experienced blood clots, deep vein thrombosis, strokes, gall bladder damage, and in some cases have died.

On June 17, 2009, the FDA warned consumers to stop using Zicam, a popular homeopathic cold remedy, because it can damage or destroy the sense of smell. The FDA had received 130 reports of people losing their sense of smell after using one of the Zicam nasal products, which include Zicam Cold Remedy and Zicam Cold Remedy Swabs.

Zimmer Holdings, the nation’s largest producer of orthopedic devices, has recalled its Durom cup, a hip socket, due to a high failure rate. The medical device was first sold in the U.S. in 2006 and has been implanted in 12,000 patients.

Magtastik and Magnetix Pre-School Magnetic Toys are animal, vehicle, or building toys embedded with magnets that allow the parts to connect to large, colored metal balls. The embedded magnets can detach over time. When more than one magnet is swallowed or aspirated by a young child, the powerful magnets attract to one another, causing intestinal perforations and blockages, which can be fatal.

Medtronic has recalled its Sprint Fidelis defibrillator heart lead in 2007. Today the defective product injured heart patients, from seniors to children, who received defective heart leads.

Multiple vehicles, including certain Ford and Chrysler cars and SUVs, have faulty automatic transmission shift selectors which can cause them to unexpectedly move backwards.

Millions of Ford trucks and SUVs were equipped with faulty cruise control switches which have caused hundreds of fires. We represent vehicle owners who were injured or incurred substantial property losses as a result of a vehicle fire. We also represent owners of vehicles produced by other manufacturers who suffered catastrophic burns in accidents due to defective fuel tanks.

The four-wheel, side-by-side Rhino manufactured by Yamaha Motor Corporation has become one of the most popular recreational off-road vehicles in the U.S. Nearly 60 riders have been killed and hundreds seriously injured in Rhino accidents. Plaintiffs charge that the Rhino contains multiple design flaws rendering it unstable and prone to rolling over, even when driven on flat ground at low speeds. Plaintiffs further allege that the Rhino is equipped with defective doors, inadequate seat belts, and a dangerous roll cage.