fromCanada Mexico Bermuda or the Caribbean

3, 2007.The complaint claims the State Department's failure to meet its obligationforced travelers nationwide to cancel travel plans.According to reports, Americans experienced extensive passport delaysthroughout 2007 as new passport requirements came into effect requiringcitizens to present a passport for air travel when entering the U.S. fromCanada, Mexico, Bermuda or the Caribbean.According to the complaint, the DOS received between six and 10 millionapplications from December 2006 until June 2007 and about half of thoseincluded expedite fees."The DOS knew the passport changes would bring thousands of applicationscoming in at once and should have better prepared itself with additional staffto deal with requests from travelers," said Berman.In early June 2007, the DOS announced in a document to Congress that itwould refund expedite fees to individuals who did not receive their passportswithin 14 days. However, it made no statement regarding passports takinglonger than three days to process.The complaint claims the DOS required residents affected by the backlog tosend a written application for a refund instead of using its own records thatclearly indicate the date the application arrived and the date of readiness ormailing.This lawsuit seeks to recover the expedite fee for all individuals whosepassports were not processed within three business days.All residents who paid the $60 fee for expedited service and whosepassports were not processed within three business days are eligible to jointhis suit This includes all passport applicants from Aug 7, 2001 untilpresent.The suit, filed in U.S District Court in San Francisco on Aug. 7, 2007,alleges that the government breached its contracts with class members.You can learn more about this case and sign up at http:// Hagens Berman Sobol ShapiroHagens Berman Sobol Shapiro is based in Seattle with offices in Chicago,Cambridge, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Francisco and New York. Since 1993, ithas developed a nationally recognized practice in class-action and complexlitigation. Among recent successes, HBSS negotiated a $300 million settlementin the DRAM memory antitrust litigation, one of the largest anti-trustsettlements in history; a $340 million recovery on behalf of Enron employees;more than $200 million in proposed settlements in the Average Wholesale PriceLitigation; a $150 million settlement involving charges of illegally inflatedcharges for the drug Lupron, and served as co-counsel on the Visa/Mastercardlitigation which resulted in a $3 billion settlement, the largest anti-trustsettlement to date.

HBSS served as counsel in an $850 million WashingtonPublic Power Supply settlement and represented Washington and 12 other statesagainst the tobacco industry that resulted in the largest settlement inhistory. For a complete listing of HBSS cases, visit http:// CONTACTS: Steve Berman (206) 623-7292 Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro Mark Firmani (206) 443-9357 Firmani Associates Inc. SOURCEHagens Berman Sobol ShapiroSteve Berman of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro, 1-206-623-7292,; or Mark Firmani of Firmani Associates Inc.,1-206-443-9357, , for Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro. Reaches Online Audience about Preventive Maintenance PracticesBETHESDA, Md., Jan.

5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ The Car Care Council haslaunched a digital version of its popular Car Care Guide that can be easilyaccessed through the council's Web site at and the direct link http://"The digital version of the Car Care Guide serves as a quick, online referencefor consumers to find preventive maintenance information," said Rich White,executive director, Car Care Council. "The Car Care Guide has been a hugesuccess since it was first introduced in 2006. We've since printed more thantwo million copies of the booklet. During this past year because consumerswere hanging onto their vehicles and looking for fuel efficiency advice, wesaw a huge increase in the number of requests for the guide from individualconsumers.

By creating and offering an online version the council will notonly save considerable money on postage and handling, but we can reach a muchlarger audience of vehicle owners."The Car Care Guide was designed with two purposes in mind: one to promote andprovide information to motorists through the consumer media and the Web site;two, to respond to requests from repair shop owners and parts storecounterpersons for credible third-party vehicle maintenance information foruse at the point-of-sale with customers. The Car Care Guide uses easy-to-understand everyday language, instead oftechnical automotive jargon, and fits easily in a glove box. The guide coversthe most common preventive maintenance occasions and procedures that need tobe performed to keep cars safe, dependable and efficient. It also includesdescriptions of 12 major vehicle systems and parts, and a list of questions toask when maintenance or repair procedures are being done on a car. A Car CareChecklist reminds motorists what vehicle systems need to be maintained andwhen service or repair should be performed.