Posted on 06/12/2007 7:39:55 PM PDT by JACKRUSSELL
U.S. District Judge Noel Hillman has ordered Menu Foods and/or their agents to have no further contact with consumers of the pet food recall products without the involvement of the consumers' attorneys. Judge Hillman called the endless telephone calls to consumers " abusive and harassing." As if pet owners had not already been put through enough with this pet food recall nightmare. Most consumers' pets who ingested the contaminated pet food have become seriously and permanently ill and thousands have died. Now, it seems, representatives of the insurance company representing Menu foods, Crawford and Company, think nothing of calling and harassing these victims further.
Beginning in mid-March, Menu foods has recalled pet food sold under more than 150 brands. The contaminated pet food has been linked to contaminated wheat flour, which was tainted with the chemical melamine and imported from China. The Food and Drug Administration has stated that they have unconfirmed reports of more than 4,000 animals killed as a result of the recall. This week a federal multi-district court panel will meet to determine which district will hear cases against Menu Foods. It is expected that a decision will be made this summer.
No, consortium does not mean THAT, you sick freaks.
Usually the smart move is to take the fall, announce all sorts of new secuity measures (like basic testing), and promote the product as the safest on the market.
Worked for Tylenol way back when.
I wonder why they aren’t suing China. Yeah, I know. We wouldn’t want to anger a major trading partner.
Crawford & Co. is not an insurer. They are an insurance adjustment firm. We used to work with them when I worked in arson investigation.
They don't get involved unless a claim is filed with a client insurer. So this "harassment" sounds like the claims agents trying to get some information on the claims that have been filed against their client . . . .
They don't get involved unless a claim is filed with a client insurer. So this "harassment" sounds like the claims agents trying to get some information on the claims that have been filed against their clientInteresting, there's claims against their client yet no one knows what the claims are...got it.
Hey, I have an idea. Ask the client who has the claims against them what the claim is rather than harass the claimant.
I think it's probably standard procedure in any claims situation that a claimant is contacted to get information and, more importantly, to attempt to settle the claim up front. The lawyers who are pursuing class action don't want any claims settled up front as they will make money on unsettled claims. Not sure there's any guys in white hats here.
Menu Foods knows who a lot of the claimants are and what the claims are, because the consumers have been ringing their phones off the hook and burning up the wires with Email.
The adjusters are simply trying to follow up on all the phone calls, letters, and Emails complaining that pets were injured or killed. They probably have been given authority by Menu to settle claims on the spot up to a certain dollar amount. That's their job, not harassing people.
And you're exactly right that the lawyers are running interference trying to sign up as many clients as possible. In fact, I would not be at all surprised if the harassment claim was floated by one of the lawyers, not by any disgruntled claimant, to try to scare the adjusters away from settling claims.
Adjusters don't scare easy . . . seriously, I worked with Crawford on fire cases for ten years or so back in the 80s. Good outfit, at least locally here. The adjusters were honest and didn't give anybody a hard time.
Everyone knows what a Tylenol is what it does, and what it looks like.
A few months ago pretty much no one who wasn’t an industry insider had ever even heard of Menu Foods, and would have only the vaguest guess on what they did, where they were located, and no clue if any of their products had ever touched their lives.
My prediction? By the end of the year Menu Foods will simply cease to exist. There will be no company too sue or collect from.
All of Menu Foods equipment will still be in use, being operated by the same people, reporting to the same supervisors, and selling “new” products under a new brand name to the same old customers. Upper management will have most of the same faces, minus a few who will be “fired” with huge severance packages...
Well..... maybe in San FranSicko, Portland and Seattle.
Bump...
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