Your First Meeting With Your Injury Lawyer

  By

byAlma Abell

One of the most important things that you can do if you have been injured is to meet with an injury lawyer to discuss your case. While some types of injuries are simple and straightforward there are some seemingly simple cases that can actually be very complex because of the law.

If you are meeting with your injury lawyer for the first time, usually in what is called an initial consultation, you should be prepared to answer specific types of questions. The more information that you can provide to the attorney the better understanding the injury lawyer will have of your case.

Write a Statement Describing What Happened

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In advance of the meeting, if you are capable of doing so, writing a description or overview of the accident can be very helpful. You can do this in point form or in a more narrative form, but it will help you to provide the information that your attorney needs.

Remember to include not just the actions of the other person but also what you were doing, who else was there, and the particulars of the events that led up to your injury. Usually the injury lawyer will ask very specific questions to help to clarify your case. Be sure to answer honestly and completely or let the attorney know you don’t know or can’t remember specific details.

Bring Medical Information

It is also helpful for your injury lawyer to have your current medical records and information at that initial meeting. You may just need to provide a list of medical treatments, medications and doctors that you have seen.

The injury lawyer will also ask you what treatments you are still receiving, especially if you have a type of injury that could have long term medical issues and a lengthy recovery. You may be asked to keep a journal or record of the symptoms and pain you experience to help to build your case.

Your injury lawyer will also ask if you have talked to any insurance company representatives or if you have given statements to the police or the other people involved. In addition the attorney will give you an overview of how they view your case, what options you have, and whether the attorney will take your case.

To speak to an injury lawyer at no cost and no obligation give us a call. More information can be found at www.malmanlaw.com.

malmanlaw.com

Canadian Liberal Leadership frontrunner, Ignatieff, refused to attend debate in Toronto

  By Uncategorized

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Canadian Liberal Leadership frontrunner Michael Ignatieff refused to attend a debate with all three frontrunners in Toronto, on Tuesday. Instead, Bob Rae, second place to Ignatieff in Leadership race, Stéphane Dion, and Gerard Kennedy attended.

Ignatieff was invited to attend but refused to participate in the event. His spokeswoman described it as “arbitrarily restricted to perceived ‘front-runners. She said Mr. Ignatieff wanted all eight candidates to be present.

“We were approached several months ago by the Canadian Club-Empire Club to participate in a debate that was only to include Stéphane Dion, Bob Rae and Michael,” said the Ignatieff statement. “We advised the organizers that we are not prepared to participate in a debate that was arbitrarily restricted to the perceived ‘frontrunners’.”

The leadership campaigns were notified several months ago the event was being planned, with advice sought on scheduling for after the “Super Weekend.”

Ignatieff also offered to speak alone, but it did not happen.

“His camp would say participating in a debate where invitations are not extended to all the candidates would be doing a disservice and would be rude to the other (four) candidates,” said Liberal strategist Scott Reid. “That’s smart because he wants to flatter people whose support he would require for a later ballot.” However, Reid said other camps would suggest that Ignatieff is avoiding a mix-up with the three contenders with the best chances of supplanting him at the November 28 to December 3rd convention in Montreal.

Ignatieff’s name was only mentioned once in the whole debate. Mr. Rae, who spoke of Canada’s perennial national unity difficulties as requiring practical, constructive solutions rather than “abstract, theoretical discussions to resolve the constitutional riddle,” an allusion to Mr. Ignatieff’s proposal to reopen the Constitution debate and have the province of Quebec recognised as a nation within Canada.

“Trying to build support, build momentum on later ballots that’s really where this campaign is being fought now,” said CTV’s Roger Smith.

The party’s final formal debate in Toronto on October 15 is the big chance for Ignatieff to get more supporters.

Bird flu spreading through Indonesia and China

  By Uncategorized

Thursday, February 9, 2006

Two Indonesian women, 23 and 27, have tested positive for the H5N1 strain of avian influenza. They are in “serious condition but seem to be improving,” said Hariadi Wibisono, a senior health ministry official. They are being treated in the designated bird flu hospital, Sulianti Suroso in eastern Jakarta. It is believed that both women had contact with infected poultry. This brings Indonesia’s number of confirmed cases of the virus to 25.

A 26 year old female farmer in Fujian, China whose surname is Lin, also has the deadly H5N1 virus. She was admitted to the hospital in January, but it was only confirmed on Wednesday that she had the virus. Some of the people that have come in close contact with the woman are under observation by local health officials. Her current condition is reported as stable. This is China’s eleventh confirmed case of the virus.

Julie Hall of the Beijing-based World Health Organization said that the latest patient was “highly likely to have had contact with sick animals,” but the WHO is still waiting for information on how she could have gotten the disease.

Some experts believe migrating birds from China’s Qinghai Lake nature reserve are spreading the virus; however, there others who believe it’s shipments of poultry and poultry products along with poultry manure.

As avian influenza confirmed in Nigeria, “We shouldn’t assume that is just in Nigeria” said David Nabarro, the United Nations’ coordinator for bird flu and pandemic influenza. “The outbreak in Nigeria means [we] have another central point for the virus to become embedded into the poultry population.”

About 20 countries have reported outbreaks of the virus in birds which has sickened people who come in contact with the infected birds. If the rate of human infection continues to increase, so does the chance the virus will change into a form easily transmitted by humans.

Strongest earthquake in 40 years hits Southeast Asia

  By Uncategorized

Sunday, December 26, 2004

Indian Ocean – The death toll continues to grow and millions face a homeless life in the new year as coastal communities in south Asia struggle against continued aftershocks and flooding caused by the largest earthquake to strike the planet in more than a generation.

The magnitude 9.0 undersea megathrust earthquake struck off the western coast of Sumatra, Indonesia on December 26, 2004, at 00:58:50 UTC (or 07:58:50 local time in Jakarta and Bangkok).

The earthquake was the strongest in the world since the 9.2-magnitude Good Friday Earthquake which struck Alaska, USA in 1964, and the fourth largest since 1900. More than 140,000 deaths[1] were caused by resulting tsunami, which in Thailand were up to 10 meters (33 feet) tall, and struck within three hours of the initial event.

Multiple tsunamis struck and ravaged coastal regions all over the Indian Ocean, devastating regions including the Indonesian province of Aceh, the coast of Sri Lanka, coastal areas of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the resort island of Phuket, Thailand, and even as far away as Somalia, 4,100 km (2,500 mi) west of the epicenter.

While the earthquake and the tsunamis are no longer ongoing (other than aftershocks), the humanitarian and economic crisis generated by the disaster is still ongoing. This report will attempt to cover the crisis as it continues to develop.

Award Winner Interview: Belinda Curtis, Qantas}

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Award-Winner Interview: Belinda Curtis, Qantas

by

Jamie Liddell

SSON: Belinda, can you give us some details about Qantas shared services? How long have you been in operation, and what functions does the SSO support?

Belinda Curtis: The Qantas Shared Services (QSS) group was established in 2004 and includes Financial Services, Payroll, Finance Business Support and Group Property Services. The total headcount is just over 600. QSS is located in Mascot [New South Wales]. This is where the majority of our staff and operations are based so it makes sense to be here. Some of our services are delivered face to face (eg learning and development) so this location is ideal for these types of services.

SSON: Can you tell us a little bit about your own experience with Qantas and how you became involved with the companys shared services program? Whats your current role?

BC: I joined Qantas in 2004 in a line HR role before taking on my current role as General Manager People Shared Services (PSS) in October 2007. So I was first a customer of shared services and from this perspective I developed a good understanding of customer requirements.

SSON: Qantas was awarded an Honorable Mention in the category of Best New Process Improvement & Innovation at the 2008 Shared Services Excellence Awards for Australia what do you think set you above and beyond your competitors in this category?

BC: We tackled the problem of shifting from very outdated, manual recruitment processes with an administration focus and within six months we had established a best practice in-house recruitment function which is delivering substantial benefits to the business. Our change program involved all 38,000 Qantas staff and included extensive training of the HR community and line managers who play an integral role in the sourcing and selection of staff. It was a massive task to introduce new technology, a new employment brand, a careers website which gave Qantas Careers a public face and direct access to the candidate market, a new team of specialist recruiters and new business processes, and to build HR and managers confidence and capability to use the new systems and processes.

SSON: Did the shared services leadership intentionally set out to excel in this particular field, or do you think your success has been a by-product of generally high-quality endeavours across the board?

BC: I think its the latter we didnt treat this initiative any differently to our approach to managing change across shared services. Weve implementing other large-scale business process changes and continue to do so. Its all part of the continuous evolution of our shared services function.

SSON: How do you intend to maintain these high standards in future?

BC: We have put monitoring and measurement systems in place to ensure we are meeting targets weve set for ourselves. Well continually review and stretch these targets consistent with our future direction. We have some very sophisticated dashboards which measure key metrics such as time-to-hire, direct versus agency placement rates and candidate attraction. These are available to the business and enable data to be split by segment and department to give groups good visibility of their performance as well as the overall group performance in best practice recruitment. We are proud of our achievements and regularly communicate the results achieved to maintain the commitment within the business to strive for even better results.

SSON: And how do you plan on expanding your SSC (if at all)?

BC: We are constantly looking for opportunities to take on more in the SSC where this makes sense for Qantas. There are still activities happening in the business that could be done more efficiently in the SSC and its a process of demonstrating our capability in these areas and working with stakeholders to be given the opportunity to take more on. A recent example is bringing the management of Identification Services into People Shared Services. ID Services manages the assessment and issuance of aviation security and general identification cards which govern control over access to Qantas premises. As its an integral part of the new staff on-boarding process, and is fundamentally a governance and processing activity, it made good sense to integrate with PSS. The results have helped streamline on-boarding and improved operational efficiency with better reporting and management of transactions.

SSON: What are the most important targets for your team the ambitions which drive you forward?

BC: The most important targets are those related to meeting our SLAs with our Segment customers. These are a reflection of what is important to our customers in the context of our product and service offering, so ensuring we are focused on these is in reality ensuring we are focused on our customers needs.

SSON: What are the biggest obstacles youve encountered along the way and how have you overcome them?

BC: The biggest obstacles are almost without exception related to change. Centralizing certain activities into Qantas Shared Services has probably proved to be one of the larger obstacles because you are dealing with new organizational structures, establishing new SLAs and charge rate protocols, and in some cases taking resources away from business units that are now carried out by the centralized service.

The most successful way to overcome the issues associated with structuring a shared services operation is to ensure you have a robust stakeholder plan, complimented by a comprehensive communications strategy. Also spending time with the business unit and Segment customers and involving them in structuring the SLAs helps build the foundation for a positive working relationship going forward.

SSON: What do you see as being the biggest challenges youll face over the next year or two, and why?

BC: The biggest challenge will be how to scale the operation to deal with the capacity changes that our business and Segment customers will be experiencing themselves as a result of any economic downturn and subsequent upturn. Providing a scalable product and service offering that is sensitive to the cost constraints of our customers is critical to our future success.

SSON: What is unique about an SSO for an airline Qantas in particular as opposed to for any other kind of organization?

BC: Other than the fact that the airline industry operates on low net profit margins and costs are a constant challenge, the main characteristic that could be used to describe the uniqueness would be complexity. This is particularly true at Qantas which is still a very vertically integrated organization running its own catering, airports, engineering, freight, loyalty, and flying businesses.

Not only is it highly vertically integrated, but it is also a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week, global operation with significant numbers of staff geographically removed from their home base.

SSON: What do you see as being the raison detre of your SSO? Are cost savings still paramount or have you truly embraced the value-add agenda?

BC: The SSO was originally structured to exploit the cost benefits associated with centralizing activities of similar type, and taking advantage of the volume-based efficiencies.

The organisation has more recently been focussing on increasing customer value delivery through programs of work that partner with our Segment customers for benefit to them and QSS.

SSON: Finally, what advice would you give to an individual or team just embarking upon a shared services journey?

BC: Focus on mutual benefits to your business unit and your business unit customers.

Ensure you are delivering products and services that create or enable value for your customers, and ensure there is common understanding of this value. SLAs help in articulating value and provide a good platform for future discussions with your customers about product and service offerings, and more importantly performance.

Develop internal communications that are a balance between your organization’s achievements, and customer stories. It is important that all members of the SSO’s teams understand the importance of the customer and the customer value delivery mechanism in their department.

More Articles: Want to receive more articles like this? Have a tip, learning or case study you want to share?Join our growing community of shared services and outsourcing professionals. Sign up to our eNewsletters and ensure you receive the latest news, articles and features from our growing global community… Find out more at www.ssonetwork.com or email enquire@ssonetwork.com

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Award-Winner Interview: Belinda Curtis, Qantas}

Contract to buy properties on site of Buffalo, N.Y. hotel proposal extended

  By Uncategorized

Monday, October 2, 2006

Buffalo, New York —Sam Savarino, CEO of Savarino Companies, the development company to be in charge of building the Elmwood Village Hotel at Forest and Elmwood Avenues in Buffalo, New York has told Wikinews in an exclusive interview that the contract to buy the properties from 1109-1121 on Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo has been “extended,” but would not elaborate on how long the extension would last.

“We have extended our agreement to purchase the property and will have it under contract for what we hope is a sufficient period of time,” said Savarino.

The hotel would require the demolition of the five properties on Forest and would cause several businesses to relocate or close their doors. The hotel will be 72 rooms and will cost at least 7 to 10 million dollars to build. Wyndham Hotels is expected to be the owner/operator of the hotel. The properites are still owned by Hans Mobius. Two other properties, 605 and 607 Forest might also be part of the proposal, but lawsuits have so far stopped any development from taking place.

Savarino also stated in a recent interview with Wikinews that his company may be “about ready for round two” in the process of resubmitting the hotel proposal to the City of Buffalo’s Common Council and Planning Board.

“If we were to go through the re-zoning process again it could be arduous,” said Savarino.

In July, Savarino “withdrew” the proposal which is undergoing a “do-over,” according to Vice President of Savarino Companies, Eva Hassett.

In related news, several residents around the area of the proposed hotel were speculating that current roadwork to repair and add sewer lines on Forest Avenue were part of the construction process for the proposed hotel. Savarino has denied those claims.

“We are certainly not doing any work on the site nor is any work being performed on our behalf or at our direction [in relation to the hotel],” said Savarino.

So far, the proposal has not been resubmitted to the City’s Common Council or Planning board and there is no word on when the proposal will be resubmitted.

Wyndham Hotels, which is owned by Cendant Corporation, has not commented on the proposal despite several attempts to contact them.

 This exclusive interview features first-hand journalism by a Wikinews reporter. See the collaboration page for more details.

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Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.
This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.

Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

Economist reports Saudi oil production can continue unabated

  By Uncategorized

Monday, August 14, 2006

In its August 10 edition, The Economist magazine asserts that Saudi Arabia can continue producing oil at its current production levels for 70 years, without having to look for another drop. Further, the magazine claims that the nation could find “plenty more if they look”, calling for privatisation of national oil companies to help increase oil production.

The language is provocative – the world has plenty of oil, and only requires sufficient investment and exploration to find it. This is a line that The Economist has held for some time, certainly since before its now infamous March 1999 issue proclaiming that we were “drowning in oil” and featuring a prediction of US$5 per barrel. That issue was followed by an embarrassing retraction in December of that year, as oil started its steady climb. It now sits above US$70 per barrel.

However, petroleum geologists and energy investment specialists maintain a different view of oil reserves. They say that there is a limit to what is in the ground, and further to that, a limit to how much of it we can retrieve even with advancing technology. Just how much is down there can’t be said with any certainty, for a variety of reasons. A big one is the suspicious reserves figures given by producers in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia. Since OPEC starting using a quota system based on reserves, the estimated reserves for member nations has magically risen, and even continued rising in the face of increased extraction from those reserves.

Amongst those who deal with the physical realities of oil fields, forecasts of a peak in production vary between 30 years, as the USA’s Energy Information Administration suggest, and now, as suggested by the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas and other more pessimistic forecasters. A peak in production would then be followed by decline. Certainly, in the petroleum world, there is no serious suggestion of sustaining the current level of oil production for 70 years.

Fiji Military Coup possibly underway

  By Uncategorized

Monday, December 4, 2006

Fiji’s fourth coup in 20 years rose today as troops disarmed Fiji’s only armed police unit. This is the first step in the long expected military coup.

Fiji’s president dissolved parliament on Tuesday and sanctioned the military to remove embattled Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase, said New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark

Qarase, who is in his residence in Suva, said the military was staging a coup and he would not resign but would have to be forcibly removed from office.

“I am not going anywhere,” Qarase told Reuters.

“I am the democratically elected prime minister of the people of Fiji. They will have to move me by force.”

“I have been advised this morning that the president of Fiji has acted outside his constitutional powers and supported the removal of the democratic prime minister by the military,” Clark said in a statement to the New Zealand parliament.

Acting Police Commissioner Moses Driver denied that any take over had occurred. He said soldiers arrived to inspect police weapons, and were waiting for approval for that inspection. Troops later surrounding the Nasova Police Academy in Suva demanding the handover of weapons, and occupied the main police station in Suva. No shots were fired when the police were locked out.

At a news conference inside the main Suva barracks, Commander Frank Bainimarama said that police weapons were confiscated so that “dissidents” did not use them against the military.

There are also reports that military checkpoints are been set up around the capital. There are approximately four roadblocks with 20 soliders at each.

Troops tried to arrest the Prime Minister of Fiji, Laisenia Qarase, in the afternoon by setting up a roadblock between Suva and the province where Mr Qarase was attending a meeting, but he escaped in a helicopter, and has since been in hiding. The Prime Minister and his cabinet are understood to be in safe, secure places, and some of them separated for extra security.

The army kept up the pressure on Mr Qarase when he was later summoned to President Ratu Josefa Iloilo’s residence.

Mr Qarase drove to the estate, but was told by soldiers at a roadblock outside that he would have to walk the rest of the way. A witness inside the grounds said the prime minister, whose bodyguards were also disarmed by the military, refused and returned to his office.

Mr Qarase will make another attempt to meet President Iloilo on Tuesday morning.

Military chief Commander Frank Bainimarama had repeatedly threatened to remove Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase’s government unless it drops several pieces of legislation, including a bill that would grant amnesty to those involved in a coup in 2000. Commander Bainimarama has laid allegations on PM Qarase of stalling his pledge of ditching of the controversial legislation.

However Bainimarama is denying a coup is under way. “This is not a coup,” Bainimarama said today. “Everything is normal. Nothing is going on.”

He had earlier imposed a deadline of noon (0000GMT) on Friday, December 1 but that deadline was extended to today as there was the annual rugby game between the police and the military. Commander Bainimarama is both an avid rugby fan and active church goer. The police won the rugby game. “I maintain my demands and the deadline still stands and I will make a commitment to my stand after the rugby match,” he said.

Mr Qarase told Fiji radio on Monday morning that he remained in control and has called an emergency cabinet meeting for Tuesday.

Fiji’s Great Council of Chiefs called for calm on Monday and for the military to return to negotiations with the government.

Local radio reported seven government vehicles used by ministers and parliament’s Speaker had been confiscated by the military since Monday night.

World leaders have commended Commander Bainimarama actions. Including New Zealand which has banned Commander Bainimarama from entering New Zealand except if he is attending political crises talks. Helen Clark described the situation as “…it’s a very disturbing situation.” Some of Commander Bainimarama’s close family live in New Zealand.

Conditions on the street of Fiji are said to be mixed, with some apprehension.

The United Nations might discontinue use of Fijian soldiers in peacekeeping operations of which is a large source of Fiji’s income. Also the British army might not use Fijian soldiers. The International Community have said they will discontinue aid to Fiji which is worth millions annually.

Edmund White on writing, incest, life and Larry Kramer

  By Uncategorized

Thursday, November 8, 2007

What you are about to read is an American life as lived by renowned author Edmund White. His life has been a crossroads, the fulcrum of high-brow Classicism and low-brow Brett Easton Ellisism. It is not for the faint. He has been the toast of the literary elite in New York, London and Paris, befriending artistic luminaries such as Salman Rushdie and Sir Ian McKellen while writing about a family where he was jealous his sister was having sex with his father as he fought off his mother’s amorous pursuit.

The fact is, Edmund White exists. His life exists. To the casual reader, they may find it disquieting that someone like his father existed in 1950’s America and that White’s work is the progeny of his intimate effort to understand his own experience.

Wikinews reporter David Shankbone understood that an interview with Edmund White, who is professor of creative writing at Princeton University, who wrote the seminal biography of Jean Genet, and who no longer can keep track of how many sex partners he has encountered, meant nothing would be off limits. Nothing was. Late in the interview they were joined by his partner Michael Caroll, who discussed White’s enduring feud with influential writer and activist Larry Kramer.