A lawsuit has been filed against Bayer Pharmaceuticals, claiming the company sold birth control pills they knew could cause organ failure. In her lawsuit, Louise Thanos claimed that she experienced gall bladder failure after taking the birth control pill Yaz. Other women have filed similar lawsuits across the country, claiming the pills cause life-threatening blood clots and organ problems. They say the company knows or should know that the pills created a higher risk for strokes, heart attacks, deep vein thrombosis and liver and kidney disease for those who use them. Thanos claims in her lawsuit that the drug contains an insufficiently tested synthetic hormone that is dangerous to women. She is seeking unspecified damages.

Social networking site Facebook has agreed to pay $9.5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over a marketing program that published what users were buying. The settlement was approved by a California federal judge this week. Plaintiffs contested that the Beacon program violated their right to privacy. As part of the settlement, Facebook will issue more than $6 million in grants to organizations that study user privacy online.

A Los Angeles jury recently awarded a California man more than $200,000 to cover the cost of a liver transplant after his insurance company, Anthem Blue Cross, refused to pay. Ephram Nehme was on the transplant list at UCLA in 2006. When his condition deteriorated, he decided to have the operation in Indiana, where the wait time was much shorter. After the surgery, however, his insurance company refused to pay the medical bills. The jury concluded that Blue Cross had breached its contract with Nehme and acted in bad faith by not paying his medical bills. Nehme was also awarded damages to cover his legal fees.

Toyota Motors Inc. has announced that it believes that the account given by a man whose Prius allegedly speed wildly out of control in San Diego earlier this year does not match up with the initial examination of the car by the company. Investigators for Toyota found that the brakes would have worked had they been fully applied during the incident, but have not accused the man of lying. It is possible that the man did not fully apply the brakes, instead only lightly tapping them, Toyota officials said.

The Nashville-area Metro Council has agreed to pay nearly $100,000 to a man who claims a sheriff’s deputy ripped out his teeth and left him bloodied and in jail without medical attention for 10 days. Anthony McCoy was arrested last November for failing to pay child support. When he told officers he could not remove a permanently attached gold jewelry from his mouth before entering his cell, Lt. Tanya Mayhew allegedly ripped it from his teeth, his lawsuit said. McCoy claims the enamel from his four front teeth were ripped away, and he was only given a Tylenol for his pain.

Toyota Motors Inc. had the opportunity to install software to prevent sudden acceleration in their cars in 2007, and yet only began doing so in January of this year after a 2009 accident in San Diego left four dead. The Los Angeles Times reported than in 2007, federal regulators asked Toyota to install the software after receiving complaints about unexpected acceleration. Documents show that regulators pushed Toyota to install the software, and that a year before the crash, Toyota officials ordered an internal investigation regarding the acceleration. Legislators said the documents raise questions as to whether Toyota is taking proper steps to fully eliminate the dangerous acceleration.

On 03/13/10 at approximately 0105 hours CSPD Sergeant Philip LeBeau was riding a Honda Police Motorcycle southbound on Tejon at Vermijo when a red KIA Optima driven by Raymond Laracuente (27 YOA) turned left in front of him. Sgt. LeBeau’s motorcycle struck the right side of the car and he was launched over the vehicle, landing approximately 45 feet from the point of impact. Sgt. LeBeau was transported to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Mr. Laracuente was arrested on charges of Vehicular Assault and DUI. Alcohol does appear to be a factor in the accident. None of the occupants of the KIA were injured.

A Texas-based medical device maker failed to report the death of a 4-year-old patient fitted with a one-of-its-kind pediatric heart pump, according to a warning letter by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In the letter, the agency said MicroMed Cardiovascular should have reported that the DeBakey VAD Child Device may have caused or contributed to the death of the child. MicroMed maintains that the device worked properly and played no role in the patient’s death.

A U.S. District Court judge in Miami dismissed a request by a group of banks to throw out a lawsuit that accuses the banks of manipulating overdraft fees and charging excessive penalties when customers overdraft on their debit cards. Judge James Lawrence King said in his decision that that lawsuit has merit because it challenges the practice of “manipulating the overdraft fees…in order to maximize a benefit to [the banks] and a great detriment to [the customers].” The lawsuit contends that the banks tweaked the overdraft charges so that a large purchase would be processed first, and each of any subsequent smaller charges would be hit with the fee, even if the large purchase was bought last. Attorneys for the plaintiffs said they are seeking class-action statues for the lawsuit.

The Orange County District Attorney has filed a lawsuit against Toyota Motors Inc., claiming the car company was aware of the potential for sudden acceleration in their vehicles and sold them anyway. The lawsuit is one of many brought against the automaker in the months following the massive recall of many Toyota models. The lawsuit accuses Toyota of engaging in deceptive business practices by withholding information from the public about sudden acceleration problems. The lawsuit is seeking $2,500 per violation under the Unfair Business Practices Act.