Some describe it as a mysterious "crop circle" on their Hitachi LCD television screen, according to the class-action lawsuit filed by attorneys at Heygood, Orr, Reyes, Pearson & Bartolomei. For other owners of the high-dollar TV, the problem is "blobs" or "blooms" of color, haze, dots and other anomalies. While they can't agree on a single descriptor, many owners of the nearly $4,000 Hitachi's 50V500A model LCD rear projection television are less than satisfied. In fact, owners of the set are fighting mad over their treatment from Hitachi. Dallas resident Anthony Partida and the law firm of Heygood, Orr, Reyes, Pearson & Bartolomei are taking the matter in their own hands, mounting a class-action lawsuit against the American subsidiary of Japanese consumer electronics giant. The lawsuit charges that Hitachi has known about the defect since early 2005, but the company has continued to sell the model.

"Hitachi has been more than willing to take people's money for these TV sets and they should be more than willing to fix them," says Heygood Orr attorney Eric D. Pearson. "In some cases, people paid $4,500 or more for these TVs. You can't take that kind of money and deliver a defective product.