A judge decided today to dismiss two lawsuits against Dole by a group of Nicaraguan plantation workers. The lawsuits claimed that Dole exposed workers to pesticide that rendered them sterile during the 1970s. However, over the past three days, the judge heard evidence that showed that the lawyers for the workers were bribing workers and Nicaraguan judges to help their case.
Dole attorney Scott Edelman calls the lawsuit “blatant fraud” and the story is something “you expect to read in a novel.” Unfortunately, the fraud surrounding this lawsuit may mean that if people were actually hurt, we’ll never know.
Dole lost a …read more

We are an opinionated bunch here at the Business Channel so this month we’ve got some debates going on between blogs known as the Odd Blog Couple. Liz at Business and Blogging and I are tackling the question of how to handle companies which engage in potentially harmful behaviors.
Companies which engage in potentially harmful behaviors with results such as environmental dangers or distribution of unsafe products often simply pay a fine as damages and move on. Should the punishment for these behaviors include a public mea culpa?
My understanding of the term mea culpa is to take responsibility, to say it …read more