Justice for the Community
Attorney Domiguez undertakes cases
which reach out to the community.
His personal dedication, efforts and principles identify a spirit and commitment to humanity and the practice of jurisprudence.
Attorney Dominguez has been instrumental in securing justice for those who have been wronged by a system both in the United States and abroad. The following cases express the results and depth of his services to the public. |
 |
The Cases
| Jose U. (A Minor) |
 |
In the year 2000 this seven year old boy, Jose, was taken from his parents by Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services (DPSS) and placed in a foster home. Jose was riding his bicycle at a nearby parking lot and was struck by an automobile sustaining injuries.
Jose was treated at a local hospital and subsequently cared for at a convalescent home to recover from his several injuries. The court appointed attorney Juan J. Dominguez to represent the rights of the minor, Jose, for his personal injuries.
The foster home agency and DPSS were sued for the negligent supervision and entrustment of the child’s safety and well-being. The defendants initially refused to pay, but after extensive litigation the defendants eventually settled for a grand total of $200,000.00 dollars cash and $500,000.00 over Jose's lifetime. |
PRESS RELEASE
April 6, 2004
ATTORNEY DOMINGUEZ SUES MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS IN
L.A. FOR TOXIC CHEMICAL INJURIES TO NICARAGUAN WORKERS
|
Los Angeles attorney Juan J. Dominguez filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court demanding that American multinational for-profit corporations pay economic compensation to the workers that suffer the deleterious effects of exposure to a highly toxic and dangerous pesticide used in Nicaraguan banana plantations.
The lawsuit names Dole Food Company, Inc., The Dow Chemical Company, Amvac Chemical Corporation, amongst others, as responsible for manufacturing, commercializing, and/or using dibromochloropropane (DBCP), a highly toxic pesticide, despite knowing that it poses substantial risk of harm to human health, producing sterility in men, damage to other tissue and cancer. It is the most toxic chemical known to science to cause sterility.
The complaint alleges that the defendant corporations responsible continued to manufacture and use the dangerous toxic chemicals for numerous years after their knowledge of the dangerous toxic consequences to human health and reproduction, intentionally withheld from the workers information regarding the dangers they were facing when using the pesticide and further failed to provide protective clothing.
The complaint filed by attorney Dominguez in Los Angeles has a significant relevance because it is intended to force the multinational corporations to finally face a trial. Until now, some of these corporations had avoided trial by using the legal concept of “Forum Non Convenience”. This allows a multinational corporation facing legal action to choose the country where it would fight the case. Many of the foreign countries do not have adequate laws to protect and/or compensate injured nationals in these types of cases, and these corporations have conveniently chosen those countries as a forum. Thus, effectively terminating any plaintiffs’ plight for justice.
Nicaragua is a country where such legislation exists. In 2001, the Nicaraguan legislature passed local law 364, which provides a forum to process, adjudicate and compensate for toxic tort injuries and damages caused by the foreign multinational corporations against Nicaraguan citizens that occurred between the 1960’s and the 1980’s. To this date no payments have been made to the injured workers.
Now, says Dominguez, “The injured Nicaraguan workers shall finally get their day in court. It is only a matter of where, since the defendants no longer have a place to hide from a just and fair adjudication.
This case may set legal precedent and be an example for all nations that multinational corporations may be held accountable for misdeeds and wrongdoing to injured, damaged and defrauded nationals.”
As part of his activities regarding this case, Dominguez shall visit Nicaragua on April 19th, 2004 to meet with the Nicaraguan Presidential Commission appointed by President Bolaños to oversee the health and welfare of the injured workers involved in this case.
Juan J. Dominguez is available for comment at (213) 388-7788; (800) 877-7773.
|
|
|
|
|
