DRIVERS with pre-existing medical conditions are dying on Queensland roads at the rate of almost one a week, despite laws meant to reduce the risk they pose.

Since the introduction of Jet's Law in March 2006, more than 121,000 drivers have reported their medical conditions to police and Queensland Transport.

But this year 25 drivers have died on the roads as a result of medical episodes such as heart attacks, epileptic fits and hypoglycemic (low blood-sugar) seizures.

CABOOLTURE law firm Shine Lawyers has been honoured for its entrepreneurial spirit after being named as a finalist in the 2008 Telstra Queensland business awards.

GOLD Coast law firm Shine Lawyers has been honoured for its entrepreneurial spirit after being named as a finalist in the 2008 Telstra Queensland Business Awards.

The leading plaintiff law firm is in the dinning to be named the 2008 Telstra Queensland Business of the Year when the awards are announced to the public on September 12.

RESIDENTS living on top of an old mine shaft are suing the State Government, saying their homes are crumbling down around them.

Two families from Collingwood Park, Ipswich, are taking legal action claiming financial and psychological trauma caused by mine subsidence.

Home owners near a collapsed mine in the Ipswich area west of Brisbane are preparing to sue the Queensland government, claiming psychological damage and associated losses.

More than 20 houses in Collingwood Park developed cracks and became destabilised in April when an old coalmine under the suburb collapsed. Residents have been unable to sell the houses since.

THE survivor of an horrific car crash at Burbank in Brisbane's south has called for better monitoring of drivers with medical conditions.

Sharon Whitchurch almost died in the 2006 head-on collision while the other driver, a diabetic man, was unhurt.

DOUBTS over whether Pope Benedict XVI will offer sexual abuse victims an apology have enraged Australian victims of abuse by clergymen.

Erin Brockovich has joined West Australian residents to examine the merits of a court case against mining giant Alcoa.

About 160 Yarloop residents have complained of respiratory problems, skin irritation, sore throats and eyes, extreme fatigue, mental dysfunction, stomach upset, blood noses, cancers and organ failure in the past 11 years. They claim emissions from Alcoa's Wagerup refinery are causing the effects.

CELEBRATED US environmental activist Erin Brockovich visited Perth last week.

Ms Brockovich became a household name worldwide when she took on a Californian power company for polluting the a water supply and had an Oscar-winning film made about her campaign.

US environmental campaigner Erin Brockovich has joined West Australian residents to examine the merits of a court case against mining giant Alcoa.

About 160 Yarloop residents have complained of respiratory problems, skin irritation, sore throats and eyes, extreme fatigue, mental dysfunction, stomach upset, bleeding noses, cancers and organ failure in the past 11 years. They claim emissions from Alcoa's Wagerup refinery are causing the ill effects.

US environmental campaigner Erin Brockovich has joined West Australian residents to examine the merits of a court case against mining giant Alcoa.

About 160 Yarloop residents have complained of respiratory problems, skin irritation, sore throats and eyes, fatigue, mental dysfunction, cancers and organ failure over 11-year period.

UNITED States environmental crusader Erin Brockovich is fronting a campaign by a small Australian bush community to sue aluminium giant Alcoa over poisoning claims.

Ms Brockovich has teamed with lawyers to review claims by residents of the town of Yarloop, 100km south of Perth, that the Wagerup refinery is making them sick.

Erin Brockovich, the public health crusader who triumphed over big industry in the United States, then had a movie named about her, is backing residents who say that Alcoa is poisoning their communities of Yarloop, Hamel and Cookernup, 125 kilometres south of Perth.

In the movie, Erin Brockovich, played by Julia Roberts, uncovered a conspiracy involving contaminated water which was making local residents sick. She helped to secure the largest settlement in United States history- 333 million dollars.

US environmental campaigner Erin Brockovich has joined West Australian residents to examine the merits of a court case against mining giant Alcoa.

About 160 Yarloop residents have complained of respiratory problems, skin irritation, sore throats and eyes, extreme fatigue, mental dysfunction, stomach upset, blood noses, cancers and organ failure in the last 11 years.

Erin Brockovich, the American environmental activist who helped Californians win a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against a big power company, is supporting residents of an Australian town in what she believes may be a similar case.

Ms Brockovich is working with an Australian law firm on a possible class action against Alcoa, an international mining giant. The inhabitants of Yarloop, a small community south of Perth, suffer from a range of health problems that they attribute to emissions from an Alcoa bauxite refinery.

US public health crusader Erin Brockovich is at the centre of a bid to sue Alcoa over allegedly poisoning communities near its Wagerup refinery, 125km south of Perth.

Brockovich's triumphs over big industry were made famous in the movie that starred Julia Roberts.

US environmental crusader Erin Brockovich is heading a campaign by a small bush community to sue aluminium giant Alcoa over poisoning claims.

Ms Brockovich has teamed with lawyers to review claims by residents of the town of Yarloop, 100km south of Perth, that the Wagerup refinery is making them sick.

PERTH - US environmental campaigner Erin Brockovich has joined West Australian residents to examine the merits of a court case against mining giant Alcoa.

About 160 Yarloop residents have complained of respiratory problems, skin irritation, sore throats and eyes, extreme fatigue, mental dysfunction, stomach upset, blood noses, cancers and organ failure in the last 11 years.

Blockbuster-movie heroine Erin Brockovich came to Australia this week to help some small-town residents in a fight against big business. Barbara McMahon reports.

FOR 11 years the residents of a tiny community have been plagued by illnesses they claim are caused by pollution from the local refinery. People suffer nosebleeds, nausea, skin rashes and other symptoms. Then along comes a crusading lawyer willing to stand up to the corporate giant that owns the refinery, bringing the plight of the townsfolk to worldwide attention.

A BRISBANE law firm is working with US environmental crusader Erin Brockovich in a case that reads like a sequel to the Hollywood movie of her life.

Simon Morrison of Shine Lawyers has teamed up with the American to seek compensation for residents who believe they have been poisoned by the Alcoa alumina refinery at Wagerup in Western Australia.

AFTER two years of chronic earaches and nose bleeds, Cameron Auxer has had enough of living near Alcoa's Wagerup refinery, south of Perth.

But she can't leave because she and partner Vince Puccio are committed to fighting for compensation, along with other locals who believe the alumina refinery soon to be the world's largest has been damaging the health of residents for more than a decade.

ENVIRONMENT crusader Erin Brockovich thinks the pollution from Alcoa's Wagerup alumina refinery is so bad she refuses to visit the people who have been fighting to stop the mining giant for more than a decade.

In the nine years since her anti-pollution campaign was made famous in a film that won Julia Roberts an Oscar, Ms Brockovich says this is her first case outside the US.

Morrison succeeds Canberra's Richard Faulks as ALA head, becoming the third Queenslander to fill the role. Rob Davis and Peter Carter previously served as president of the ALA from 2001-2003 and 1997-1999 respectively.

Taking on the insurance giants in a bid to improve people's rights to claim injury compensation would be at the head of the Alliance's 2006 mission, he said.

The name Shine Roche McGowan is no more after the leading plaintiff personal injuries firm changed its name to Shine Lawyers last week. The firm, which celebrated its 30th birthday at a gala bash at Brisbane's City Hall on Friday 31 March, surprised the 400 guests in attendance with the announcement of their new corporate identity.