(openPR) - CHICAGO, Illinois, January 22, 2008: An Illinois court granted preliminary approval to a nationwide class action settlement today, resolving the claims of hundreds of thousands of people who bought Thomas & Friends toys allegedly contaminated with lead paint. The settlement, which is valued at over $30 million, also guarantees that RC2 Corporation – the manufacturer of the popular children’s toys – will implement a battery of safeguards to ensure that its toys are suitable for children to play with in the future.

“In recent months, moms and dads from around the country have learned that they cannot assume that their children’s toys are safe simply because they came from the shelves of large retailers. This settlement is an important step towards ensuring that this is a problem of the past,” explained Jay Edelson of KamberEdelson, LLC, who, along with his partner Scott A. Kamber, and William Audet of Audet & Partners, LLP, were appointed to represent the class as lead counsel.

The settlement was joined by lawyers who filed similar class actions in Florida, California, New Jersey and Tennessee.

The Court also appointed Gino L. DiVito of Tabet, DiVito, and Rothstein, LLC as part of the leadership group representing the class. DiVito formerly served as both a circuit court and appellate judge in Illinois and, prior to that, was a Cook County assistant state's attorney.

Under the settlement agreement, eligible class members can receive full cash refunds or replacement toys with an additional “bonus” toy. The settlement also provides for $100,000 to go to an appropriate not-for-profit organization.

The parties have established a website at thomastrainsettlement.com to provide additional details about the settlement. That site will be operational by no later than January 25, 2008.

KamberEdelson, LLC and Audet & Partners, LLP also serve as co-lead counsel in the federal class action lawsuits involving the recent contaminated pet food recalls.

Jay Edelson
KamberEdelson, LLC
312-589-6370
jedelson@kamberedelson.com

In 2007, two nationally recognized plaintiffs' class action firms - Blim & Edelson, LLC and Kamber & Associates, LLC - joined to form KamberEdelson, LLC. With lawyers in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, we recognize our clients’ needs for a truly national litigation firm committed to fighting for their rights across the United States and around the world.

KamberEdelson focuses its practice on all types of plaintiff's-side class and mass actions, and has eight primary practice areas:

o "New technology" class actions;
o Privacy class actions;
o Securities class actions;
o Mass tort class and mass actions;
o Consumer class actions;
o Insurance class actions;
o Antitrust cases; and
o International arbitration

The firm's cases frequently involve important legal issues, and regularly receive attention from local, national, and international media. Our cases and attorneys have been reported in the Chicago Tribune, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the LA Times, the National Law Journal, by the Reuters, Associated Press and UPI news services, and BBC International. Our attorneys have appeared on numerous national television and radio programs, including on ABC World News, CNN, Fox News, NPR, and CBS Radio, as well as television and radio programs outside of the United States. We have also been called upon to give congressional testimony and other assistance in hearings involving our cases.