Watchdogs Sue Kellogg's Over Cereal Ads
National News
According to Courthouse News, Kellogg falsely advertises that its Frosted Mini-Wheat cereal "improved children's attentiveness by 20 percent," the National Consumers League claims in Superior Court. The nonprofit Consumers League claims Kellogg's "study" compared kids who ate its sugared cereal with children who did not eat breakfast at all - and even then, juggled the numbers.
The Consumers League claims the breakfast cereal giant's "clinical study" actually found that only one out of nine children who ate Frosted Mini-Wheats for breakfast was more attentive by 20 percent.
"In fact, kids in the clinical study who ate Frosted Mini-Wheats had an average of 10.6 percent better attentiveness three hours later than kids who had skipped breakfast," the complaint states. "Indeed, relatively few kids - only approximately one in nine -experienced 20 percent improved attentiveness in the study, and only one in seven kids who ate the cereal improved their attentiveness by 18 percent."
The National Consumers League seeks damages of $1,500 per violation of the D.C. Consumer Protection Procedures Act, plus costs.
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Workers’ Compensation Subrogation of Administrative Fees and Costs
When a worker covered by workers’ compensation makes a claim against a third party, the workers’ compensation insurance retains the right to subrogate against any recovery from that third party for all benefits paid to or on behalf of a claimant injured at work. When subrogating for more than basic medical and indemnity benefits, the Texas workers’ compensation subrogation statute provides that “the net amount recovered by a claimant in a third‑party action shall be used to reimburse the carrier for benefits, including medical benefits that have been paid for the compensable injury.” TX Labor Code § 417.002.
In fact, all 50 states provide for similar subrogation. However, none of them precisely outlines which payments or costs paid by a compensation carrier constitute “compensation” and can be recovered. The result is industry-wide confusion and an ongoing debate and argument with claimants’ attorneys over what can and can’t be included in a carrier’s lien for recovery purposes.
In addition to medical expenses, death benefits, funeral costs and/or indemnity benefits for lost wages and loss of earning capacity resulting from a compensable injury, workers’ compensation insurance carriers also expend considerable dollars for case management costs, medical bill audit fees, rehabilitation benefits, nurse case worker fees, and other similar fees. They also incur other expenses in conjunction with the handling and adjusting of workers’ compensation claims. Workers’ compensation carriers typically assert, of course, that, they are entitled to reimbursement for such expenditures when it recovers its workers’ compensation lien. Injured workers and their attorneys disagree.