Food Poisoning Lawyer & Attorney : Bill Marler : Marler Clark

According to the Kern Faculty Medical Group, they expect to have enough hepatitis A vaccine shots after supplies temporarily ran out Saturday. The medical group had given about 90 vaccine shots Saturday morning before supplies ran out, said Dr. Mansukh Ghadiya with the clinic.  Public health officials made arrangements with Kern Faculty Medical Group for people who needed the vaccine or other treatment after news a worker at Chuy's Mesquite Broiler (not to be confused with the Chuy’s in Austin Texas which was famous for serving alcohol to one of the under-age Bush girls) was diagnosed with hepatitis A was released last week.  I bet Chuy's wished they required Hepatitis A vaccines of all employees.

In that last several years we have represented health departments who pay for these shots, the people who stand in line waiting to get them and those unfortunate enough to not get the shots in time. Restaurants have included, Houlihan's, Carl's Jr., Chi-Chi's, D'Angelo's, Friendly's, Maple Lawn Dairy, McDonald's, Quizno's, Silver Grill Location Catering, Subway and Taco Bell.

Hepatitis A is one of five human hepatitis viruses (hepatitis A, B, C, D, and E) that primarily infect the liver and cause illness. An estimated 80,000 cases occur each year in the U.S., although much higher estimates have been proposed based on mathematical modeling of the past incidence of infection. Each year, an estimated 100 persons die as a result of acute liver failure in the U.S. due to hepatitis A, but the rate of infection has dramatically decreased since the hepatitis A vaccine was licensed and became available in the U.S. in 1995.

Hepatitis A is a communicable (or contagious) disease that spreads from person-to-person. It is spread almost exclusively through fecal-oral contact, generally from person-to-person, or via contaminated food or water. Food contaminated with the virus is the most common vehicle transmitting hepatitis A. The food preparer or cook is the individual most often contaminating the food, although he or she is generally not ill at the time of food preparation. The peak time of infectivity, when the most virus is present in the stool of an infectious individual, is during the two weeks before illness begins. Although only a small percentage of hepatitis A infections are associated with foodborne transmission, foodborne outbreaks have been increasingly implicated as a significant source of hepatitis A infection.

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It reads like the who’s who of restaurants - Carl's Jr., Chi-Chi's, D'Angelo's, Friendly's, Houlihan's, Maple Lawn Dairy, McDonald's, Quizno's, Silver Grill Location Catering, Subway, Taco Bell – who we have sued over the last dozen years for allowing either a Hepatitis A infected worker to serve food, or serve food already infected with Hepatitis A. Either way, the outcome has been the same, hundreds sickened, several deaths and tens of thousands of customers standing in line for immune globulin (IG) vaccines.

Now, an employee of Chuy's Mesquite Broiler on Rosedale Highway went to work with Hepatitis A. The Kern County Department of Public Health says the employee worked and was potentially infectious from Friday, January 4 until Thursday, January 10. The Health Department announced that IG vaccines for patrons who have not already received the Hepatitis A vaccines are available. The vaccinations will be available at Kern Faculty Medical Group at 2201 Mount Vernon Avenue, Suite 211 in Bakersfield. You can call them at 661-872-7000 for more information.

Over the last several years, we have repeatedly called on restaurants to voluntarily provide vaccines to employees to prevent this in the first place. My guess is that Chuy’s wishes they would have listened.

Hepatitis A is a communicable (or contagious) disease that spreads from person-to-person. It is spread almost exclusively through fecal-oral contact, generally from person-to-person, or via contaminated food or water. Food contaminated with the virus is the most common vehicle transmitting hepatitis A. The food preparer or cook is the individual most often contaminating the food, although he or she is generally not ill at the time of food preparation. The peak time of infectivity, when the most virus is present in the stool of an infectious individual, is during the two weeks before illness begins. Although only a small percentage of hepatitis A infections are associated with foodborne transmission, foodborne outbreaks have been increasingly implicated as a significant source of hepatitis A infection.

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The Associated Press reports that the Food and Drug Administration says workers at one of four Mexican green onion farms inspected as the result of a 2003 hepatitis outbreak lived in windowless metal shacks with no showers. Shallow trenches ran from an area littered with soiled diapers and other human waste, downhill to onion fields and a packaging house, recently released documents show.

The FDA has stopped short of conclusively linking any one problem at the farms to the outbreak, which sickened at least 650 people and killed four who ate at the Chi-Chi's restaurant in Beaver County.

From the article:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded green onions caused the outbreak because they were the common denominator for all those who got sick. The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the FDA traced the onions through Castellini to the Mexican farms that were inspected in December 2003, two months after the outbreak, Gordon said.

"I think people make a lot of assumptions about conditions at these farms and what those conditions might have led to," said Castellini attorney Gary Becker. "But there's no evidence the hepatitis A that contaminated these poor folks in Pennsylvania were ever found on a green onion."

That's a red herring, Gordon said.

It's true that investigators never found a green onion that tested positive for hepatitis at the restaurant or on the farms.

But officials say it's uncommon for tainted food samples to be found after an outbreak because they have been eaten or thrown away by the time the outbreak is discovered. And, months after the farms shut down for the season, there's no way to test whether hepatitis A tainted the onions, said Bill Marler, the Seattle-based food litigation attorney who represents scores of victims.

Marler gave the FDA inspection reports to The Associated Press after his firm obtained them last month through the Freedom of Information Act.

FDA spokesman Michael Herndon said three of the four farms inspected in 2003 are still banned from exporting onions to the United States. Among other things, inspectors questioned worker training and hygiene; whether water supplies were tainted by human or animal waste; and whether water used to wash onions was clean and properly chlorinated.

The Dos M Sales De Mexico farm in LaRumorosa where the FDA found the squalid housing also couldn't document that portable toilets were available to workers for two weeks during the 2003 growing season. Workers there fashioned showers out of wood and metal scraps, the FDA found. The farm was the only one inspected that didn't offer child care, forcing workers to keep tabs on their children from a distance while they worked.

"They didn't find the smoking gun. The conditions at that place were the worst, but hepatitis A could have spread at any of those locations," Marler said.

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Five lawsuits have already been filed against the Chi-Chi's restaurant chain over a hepatitis A outbreak that has killed three people and sickened more than 600, and scores of other lawsuits are likely to follow.

But legal experts say two key issues facing the company could determine whether victims and their families get the settlements they seek: insurance and bankruptcy.

The Mexican restaurant chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Oct. 8, citing cash flow problems, a month before the hepatitis outbreak was confirmed.

On Friday, a bankruptcy judge gave limited approval to Chi-Chi's plans to begin paying some expenses for those sickened in the outbreak - up to $20,000 per claim. He did not, however, fully approve Chi-Chi's plan to pay $500,000 on an insurance deductible so the company could tap into as much as $51 million in liability insurance it may need to settle claims. A hearing is set for Tuesday on the matter.

None of the lawsuits filed so far are on behalf of those who died in what is the biggest known hepatitis A outbreak. It, like other recent outbreaks in Georgia and Tennessee, was blamed on tainted green onions.

Another outbreak, which sickened 16 people in North Carolina, probably stemmed from the same source as the Georgia outbreak, according to a report by Georgia's health department obtained by The Associated Press.

The Georgia outbreak had previously been traced to green onions shipped from Mexico, and the report said a single Atlanta Farmers' Market distributor provided green onions from California suppliers to three Georgia restaurants where multiple people got the liver infection.

Federal health officials said Friday that green onions from Mexico probably were responsible for the Pennsylvania outbreak, but stopped short of saying they came from one of three Mexican companies known to have supplied the onions blamed for other outbreaks.

If Chi-Chi's does not emerge from Chapter 11, some hepatitis plaintiffs might find themselves waiting in line for pennies on the dollar behind the chain's other creditors, said Chicago attorney Robert Clifford, who led a group of plaintiffs who settled multimillion-dollar claims after a USAir flight crashed near Pittsburgh in 1994.

"If, at the end, you've got a bankrupt defendant who did it, these people are going to get (shortchanged)," he said. "Bad things happen to good people every day in America."

Also unclear is whether Chi-Chi's has enough insurance to settle the cases in the same fashion as other restaurants that faced similar food poisoning lawsuits.

Hundreds of people sued the Jack in the Box fast-food chain after it served hamburger tainted with E. coli in 1993 that killed three children and sickened hundreds.

The burger chain offered to pay medical bills and some lost wages. Still, the linchpin to settling the lawsuits was $100 million in liability insurance, said William Marler, a Seattle attorney who has filed three of the five Chi-Chi's lawsuits so far.

Chi-Chi's has stated in bankruptcy documents that it has $51 million in liability insurance - about half as much as Marler believes the company will need.

Marler represents some 80 people who contracted hepatitis A or received shots to prevent it after eating at the restaurant, about 25 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. The three suits Marler has filed have been put on hold by a judge to protect creditors of the Louisville, Ky.-based chain.

Chi-Chi's attorney David Ernst of Portland, Ore., refused to discuss liability issues.
"It is absolutely within the best interests of Chi-Chi's to do right by its customers," Ernst said. "But that (insurance and lawsuit settlement) part of it is not like the Jack in the Box case - we have to comply with the bankruptcy court."

Pittsburgh attorney Robert Peirce, who has filed two suits, said his clients want more than reimbursement for doctor bills and missed work.

"Pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life are important," Peirce said. "But I don't want clients looking for some big payday, because that's not what I'm here to do."

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Another news article on my two most recent Chi-Chi's lawsuits, on behalf of Bennie Martino and Angelo Palitti.

Chris Osher of the Tribune-Review reports:

The lawsuits, both filed by Seattle lawyer William Marler, allege that the method Chi-Chi's used to store green onions, which health officials have identified as the likely culprits, essentially created "hepatitis soup."

"It was definitely the last thing I needed to go through at that point," Martino said. "It was just crazy. Now, I get creditors calling me and sending me letters. I tell them it's in litigation. That's all I can do right now."

He said his adopted 6-year-old son helped him pull through.

"He'd come to the hospital every day and see me laid up like that," Martino said. "The most important thing in my life is my boy and being here for him."

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Lawsuits against Chi-Chi's Mexican Restaurant, the center of a major hepatitis A outbreak last year, continue to trickle in.

As KDKA.com reported:

Two more federal lawsuits were filed this week against the chain for making what one attorney calls "hepatitis soup."

Bennie Martino, of Monaca, and Angelo Palitti, of Aliquippa, say they too were sickened by green onions when they ate at the chain restaurant in a Beaver County mall last fall.

The suits were filed by Seattle attorney William Marler, who is representing numerous other victims in the case. Nearly 700 people were sickened in the outbreak and four died from complications. Marler says improper storage of the green onions by Chi-Chi's led to the outbreak.

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Christopher Snowbeck of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette did a story yesterday about my clients Richard and Linda Miller, two of the 660 people sickened with hepatitis A in last year's Chi Chi's outbreak. Snowbeck's article Hepatitis still hurts reports:

Tomorrow marks the single day on which the greatest number of outbreak patients -- more than 50 -- started feeling sick last year. Most of those people have recovered, but from Richard Miller's home on a quiet street in the town of Beaver to the farms of northwest Mexico, the outbreak's impact still lingers.

Chi-Chi's is in the process of paying out about $10 million to roughly 350 of those sickened in the outbreak. That includes payments of more than $35,000 to each of about 50 victims -- larger claims that are subject to bankruptcy court approval.

Ernst said fewer than 100 claims from hepatitis A victims have yet to be resolved through a special mediation process. But Bill Marler, an attorney for several people sickened in the outbreak, said several of the remaining cases -- including that of Richard Miller -- involve some of the most serious illnesses. Chi-Chi's has $51 million in liability insurance.

But monetary damages aren't the only pains still being suffered. Richard Miller still feels the pain, too.

In the kitchen of his Beaver home, a plastic tub filled with 11 pill tubes sits on the counter, a constant reminder of the many medicines he must take. Miller received a liver donated by a 24-year-old, and the organ is functioning very well. But the transplant requires him to take anti-rejection drugs, likely for the rest of his life, and cope with their side effects.

During the transplant surgery, Miller suffered a cardiac arrest, which cut the supply of oxygen to the brain. As a result, he has brain damage that sporadically affects his short-term memory.

Hobbies such as golf, hunting and fishing are impossible, and Miller says he can't even mow his lawn. But what really hurts is not being able to work, he said.

"Work gives you purpose in life," Miller said. "Somewhere along the line, I have to find a way to find that again. But right now, I only have about two hours worth of work in me each day."

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Joe Mandak of the Associated Press reported today that 14 out of 15 hepatitis claims against Chi Chi's were settled in first mediation sessions. Two settlements involve more than $35,000 each, so they'll have to be approved by the bankruptcy judge.

"The amount of the settlements are confidential, although the cases we resolved are certainly none of the long-term hospitalized cases or deaths or liver transplants," said attorney William Marler, whose Seattle-based firm Marler Clark specializes in tainted food litigation.

"What we dealt with is people who were sick for three to six weeks and had your standard, but horrible, hepatitis A infection," Marler said of the first round of mediation, which occurred privately late last week near Pittsburgh.

A second round of mediation is being scheduled for late next month, Marler said.

The cost of mediation is being split between plaintiffs' attorneys. My firm represents 85 of the 300 plaintiffs. Most of the others are represented by local Pittsburgh attorneys.

Chi-Chi's will try to recoup some of its losses from the onion suppliers through bankruptcy proceedings, Marler said.

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The Associated Press reported this morning that Chi Chi's bankruptcy judge approved the mediation agreement which will allow claimants 45 days to submit lawsuits to nonbinding mediation, beginning in about two weeks.

In the past, notices of court orders like the one signed Thursday have been run in newspapers and on radio broadcasts advising people who say they were affected to send in claims, Marler said.

The state has records of the approximately 9,000 people who were inoculated following the outbreak.

"The argument against this system is there is a short timeframe for filing claims," Marler said. "But you don't have to send in all of your information. You just need to make sure that Chi-Chi's, the suppliers and insurers know you exist."

Cases may be divided into those who were sickened and those who just went in for shots.

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The agreement to approve a mediation system to handle major legal claims against Chi Chi's was going to be presented on Tuesday, but was delayed because one of the attorneys couldn't sign off on it until Wednesday.

The agreement will create a 45-day window during which those who got sick could submit their pending lawsuits to nonbinding mediation. Those whose cases don't settle would then be free to sue Chi-Chi's for damages.

As J.D. Prose's story Chi-Chi's agreement awaited reports:

"What we're trying to do is figure out a way where everyone gets fairly compensated," said attorney William Marler.

Marler, a Seattle-based lawyer whose firm represents about 70 hepatitis A plaintiffs, described the proposed mediation as "a process where everybody gets an opportunity to resolve their claim in a ... straight-forward manner."

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As Joe Mandak of the Associated Press reported today, Chi Chi's hepatitis claims may go to mediation. As the AP reported, I have been working for two months to come up with a solution for people who want to get their claims settled. My firm represents 67 people who intend to sue Chi-Chi's.

The bankruptcy court has only allowed one lawsuit, filed by Richard Miller who needs a liver transplant to save his life. He already has more than $500,000 in medical bills.

Marler said the agreement was reached, in part, because if the total claims against Chi-Chi's exceed its insurance, the chain's assets - which could be used to pay bankruptcy creditors - could be targeted in lawsuits.

"The creditors are concerned that the $51 million isn't enough (to cover the hepatitis A lawsuits) and they want to have some ability to at least keep track of the settlements," Marler said.

Under the mediation system, potential lawsuits settled for $35,000 or less will be paid from $500,000 in self-insurance the restaurant chain has or a $1 million Arch Specialty policy, without further review from the bankruptcy court. Chi-Chi's will agree to seek the bankruptcy judge's approval of settlements of more than $35,000.

Retired U.S. District Judge Donald E. Zeigler and his law partner, Tom Cooper, of Pittsburgh, will mediate the cases.

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A few months ago, the nation's worst outbreak of hepatitis A killed three people and sickened 660 others in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. More than 9,000 frightened people flocked to hospitals for tests and inoculations. Now that Chi-Chi's has reopened its doors, loyal customers are happily returning.

But as the "Hepatitis Claims?" billboard on Route 60 attests, the health and economic crisis set off by the disturbing epidemic of hepatitis is far from over. Local lawyers are saying the hepatitis A outbreak is the biggest source of public health litigation in a generation, ever since the steel industry began generating workers' asbestos claims.

As a Monaca, Pennsylvania, journalist has reported in the story Surviving in western Pa., Chi-Chi's has paid out $96,000 in claims since the bankruptcy court approved the company to reimburse victims up to $3,000 for medical costs and lost wages.

Chi-Chi's essentially has a $500,000 "deductible" on a $51 million liability insurance policy, which it expects to dip into after it reaches the limit. Victims might have other avenues for restitution. At least one suit has been filed against producers and suppliers who were implicated as possible sources of the tainted green onions.

While these kinds of legal imbroglios involving major chains and public health crises often take years to resolve, William Marler, a Seattle attorney, expects a speedier outcome.

"Chi-Chi's in bankruptcy is actually a good thing for the victims," says Marler, who represents 120 victims, including the 56-year-old man who needed a liver transplant. "If they want to get out of bankruptcy, they have to get rid of these claims sooner rather than later."

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Yesterday, Joe Mandak of the Associated Press reported in his story Hepatitis plaintiffs want judge to OK lawsuits against Chi-Chi's, that we have asked the bankruptcy judge to lift the automatic stay to sue the restaurant chain. Lifting the stay will be our first step in accessing the $51 million in liability insurance held by the company but currently protected by bankruptcy proceedings.

As the AP reported:

"We are asking the court to lift the stay so these defendants can be in one courtroom," said William Marler, one of the attorneys. "We believe that this will allow a jury to determine how this tragedy occurred and how we can prevent it from ever happening again."

"We not only need to find out who is responsible for the injuries of over 650 people and the deaths of three, but these people need to be compensated for their injuries and loss," Marler said. "Having the entire chain of distribution of these green onions in one suit will ensure fair compensation for all victims."

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About 50 people have submitted paperwork so far to recover medical costs and lost wages related to the hepatitis A outbreak at the Beaver Valley Mall Chi-Chi's. Many of them have already been issued checks, generally for less than $3,000 each. Any claim higher than $3,000 requires review from either insurance companies or the bankruptcy court.

My firm has dropped lawsuits against Chi-Chi's this month and instead named four green onion suppliers as defendants in a suit brought on behalf of one Beaver County man. My strong suspicion is that, with all of the defendants ultimately responsible, there should be sufficient insurance to cover all of the claims.

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As James McNair of the Cincinnati Enquirer reported in his article Castellini named in hepatitis suit, my firm has filed a lawsuit on behalf of Richard and Linda in Pittsburg against Castellini Co., because the green onions connected with the recent Chi Chi's hepatitis A outbreak may have passed through the company's warehouse.

The Millers ate at Chi Chi's on October 12 and two weeks later were both diagnosed with hepatitis A. As a result, Richard Miller underwent a liver transplant on November 8. Their medical bills exceeded $500,000.

As the Cincinnati Enquirer reported:

"Castellini Co. received the green onions packaged in master cartons, ready for shipment to its customer in the Pittsburgh area," it said in a statement. "That customer may have supplied the green onions to the restaurant in question. The cartons in question remained intact in the Castellini Co. warehouse until shipment to the Castellini Co. customer. Neither Castellini Co. nor any of its affiliates unpacked or processed the green onions in the cartons."

Living up to his reputation as a crack litigator, Marler is now going after upstream parties in the Chi-Chi's case. Teaming with a law firm in Pittsburgh, Marler sued four companies that allegedly grew, brokered and shipped the infected green onions to the Chi-Chi's in the Beaver Valley Mall. In addition to Castellini, the suit names three California produce growers and shippers.

"We have filed suit against those growers and suppliers who had the opportunity to prevent this outbreak before it reached the Chi-Chi's restaurant and the Millers' lunch," Marler said. "Taking this step gives us the best chance of preventing such a disaster in the future."

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As Dan Fitzpatrick reported for his Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story, Hepatitis waning, but costs continue to climb, the Chi Chi's hepatitis A outbreak in Beaver County is causing serious money problems for local families and businesses.

There is not one local business "where I cannot think of a person affected," said Beaver County Chamber of Commerce director Cynthia Gitnik.

The work of tabulating the financial impact of the nation's worst outbreak of hepatitis A is just beginning, and so far it is hard to predict how much it will cost.

I am representing more than 80 of the hepatitis A victims. As Fitzpatrick reported, I predict that as much as $25 million has already been spent on medical costs and lost in wages. Eventually, the costs could top $100 million, once pain and suffering charges are tacked on to damage claims in court.

"What you are looking at is a substantial economic loss to the citizens of Pennsylvania," he said.

Other attorneys involved in the case backed away from Marler's $100 million prediction. An examination of past outbreaks shows that the impact most likely will run into the millions but certainly will not dent a local economy that generates output of about $112 billion annually and total annual wages of about $37 billion.

Looking to the past as a guide, similar outbreaks in other parts of the country have varied in economic impact, averaging a cost per person of anywhere from $1,817 to $3,837. A 1996 Denver food-borne outbreak affected 43 people and cost the community $800,000, according to one study. A 1997-1998 Hepatitis A attack in Spokane, Wash., sickened 590 people and resulted in an economic impact of $2.25 million, according to another study.

But Pittsburgh's case is arguably much more severe -- and thus more expensive.

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In an article Chi-Chi's litigation hinges on company's insurance, the Associated Press reported yesterday about the lawsuits my firm is handling in the hepatitis A outbreak which has so far claimed three lives and made at least 600 people ill. The source of the outbreak has been traced to Mexican grown green onions, but thus far only the restaurant has been named in the lawsuits.

That does not mean the farm that grew the onions, or the middlemen that shipped or sold them can't also be sued successfully - but Chi-Chi's is the top target because they likely have the deepest pockets, said William Marler, a Seattle attorney who has filed three of the five Chi-Chi's lawsuits so far.

"Chi-Chi's is always on the hook - regardless of whether it's green onions are not" that caused the virus, he said. "Generally speaking, the upstream supplier of tainted products is not going to have much in the way of assets or insurance."

My firm represents about 80 of the people who either got hepatitis or had to receive shots to prevent getting sick after eating at the Chi Chi's restaurant in Beaver County. I've filed three lawsuits so far, but the cases have been put on hold by the bankruptcy judge.

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As the Associated Press reported, Chi-Chi's faces 5 lawsuits over hepatitis, and more lawsuits are likely to follow. The outbreak has killed three people and sickened more than 600. The challenge we face in getting these victims compensated is partially that the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, so all claims against the company are automatically stayed, meaning all lawsuits have to be approved by the bankruptcy court in order to proceed. The other problem is insurance.

The company has $51 million dollars worth of liability insurance, which likely won't cover the costs of compensating this many victims, especially considering the outbreak has caused deaths and liver transplants.

As the Associated Press reports:

Hundreds of people sued the Jack in the Box fast-food chain after it served hamburger tainted with E. coli in 1993 that killed three children and sickened hundreds.

The burger chain offered to pay medical bills and some lost wages. Still, the linchpin to settling the lawsuits was $100 million in liability insurance, said William Marler, a Seattle attorney who has filed three of the five Chi-Chi's lawsuits so far.

Chi-Chi's has stated in bankruptcy documents that it has $51 million in liability insurance - about half as much as Marler believes the company will need.

Marler represents some 80 people who contracted hepatitis A or received shots to prevent it after eating at the restaurant, about 25 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. The three suits Marler has filed have been put on hold by a judge to protect creditors of the Louisville, Ky.-based chain.

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Some good news for those sickened by Chi Chi's hepatitis A outbreak: attorneys for the company have asked the bankruptcy court for permission to pay up to $20,000 to each victim for medical expenses, lost wages and related costs.

"We received approval from the U.S Bankruptcy Court to proceed with a plan to begin to respond to the needs of the affected customers," said Bill Zavertnik, the company's chief operating officer. "We established a toll-free number to enable all our customers and employees affected by the outbreak who are having questions or concerns about hepatitis A to contact us."

"It was an important first step," said local attorney Jerry Meyers, who with a Seattle-based law firm represents about 60 people who became ill in the outbreak. "The real challenge will be to see to it that the people who have suffered serious injuries are fairly and appropriately compensated."

Although my firm filed lawsuits against Chi Chi's before the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 8, all claims on the company are automatically stayed. Chi Chi's request of the bankruptcy court to allow the company to spend up to $500,000 to reimburse outbreak victims is the first step in accessing the company's $51 million in liability insurance to compensate victims.

"We didn't have a problem with a claims process being started and a claims-handling agency being engaged by [the company]," Marler said. "But we felt strongly that people shouldn't sign away their rights."

Affected people will not have to waive their rights to pursue future claims against the company to get reimbursed for their out-of-pocket expenses, he added.

I, along with local counsel, will soon be asking the bankruptcy court to lift the stay so we can file lawsuits for our clients, at least one of whom has a medical bill for more than $100,000 that is not covered by health insurance.

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At least 575 people have gotten sick, and at least three people have died in connection with Chi Chi's hepatitis A outbreak, the source of which has eluded officials. Evidence is pointing to green onions as the outbreak's source, as most of the cases were traced back to the mild salsa served in one or two of Chi Chi's entrees, health officials are saying.

On November 15, the FDA warned consumers to only eat cooked green onions to ensure safety. It's not yet known whether the green onions are linked to the other hepatitis A outbreaks in Tennessee and Georgia, although health officials are saying it's a similar strain. Those outbreaks have been traced to green onions shipped from Mexican suppliers.

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Pennsylvania health officials reported Tuesday that there are at least 300 confirmed cases of hepatitis A linked to the Beaver County Chi Chi's outbreak. Not all were from the Pittsburgh area. Other confirmed cases were from Ohio (31), West Virginia (8), Florida (1), and South Carolina (1).

So far, the outbreak has claimed one life. 38-year-old Jeff Cook of Aliquippa got sick after his family ate at the Chi-Chi's Restaurant in early October and died of liver failure Friday following a transplant.

On Tuesday, the University of Pittsburgh Medical reported that four people were in fair condition and two were still in critical condition from illnesses tied to the outbreak.

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Today I asked Chi Chi's to pay damages to the nearly 300 people infected with hepatitis-A after eating at the restaurant's Beaver Valley Mall location in October and early November. I am representing nearly 40 people sickened and exposed in the outbreak and have already filed one lawsuit against Chi Chi's.

It is time Chi Chi's stepped up to the plate and took responsibility for what has happened, starting with immediately paying all medical bills and lost wages for those who were sickened.

I have also recommended that Chi Chi's reimburse individuals for the cost of receiving Immune Globulin (IG) shots, reimburse individuals for wage loss for seeking IG shots, require all employees in all of its restaurants to be vaccinated, review hand-washing and glove policies, and agree to further and fair additional compensation for victims, to be determined later.

In an effort to provide victims of this outbreak with information about the virus, my firm has re-launched its website www.about-hepatitis.com in a new, more navigable design. Our site website provides some of the most comprehensive information about hepatitis-A on the Web.

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