The Injury Lawyer Directory Blog

Although the situation for medical malpractice victims in Wisconsin has improved, there is still some unfairness in medical malpractice caps. The good news is that the cap has been raised this last month from $445,000 to $750,000, due to the unconstitutional situations left behind by the first cap. The bad news is that victims are still being neglected due to petty, unrealistic fears advertised by the state's physicians.

Advertisement from Wisconsin's doctors say that caps are keeping doctors from the fear of being sued, ensuring a bountiful supply of doctors in the local areas, that health care costs are in danger of skyrocketing without caps, or that the cap takes money from the pockets of attorneys instead of harming the malpractice victims. This is a gross untruth, as has been portrayed in recent studies. Only the victims are hurt by malpractice caps, to extreme degrees. Jessica Greenfield was diabled by medical malpractice in Wisconsin, left without the ability to eat and drink on her own. She now visits the hospital roughly 16 times a year and has been hospitalized 21 times in five years. Jurors stated that her pain was worth $4.25 million, a sum horrifically undershot by the current state malpractice cap. Victims such as Jessica are left to fend for themselves financially, without proper compensation.

The state of Wisconsin has released its own information concerning the unfair situation of malpractice caps on victims:

• Wisconsin's Academy of Trial Lawyers has repeatedly released that there is no evidence that large pain and suffering awards drive doctors away.
• The Wisconsin Insurance Commisioner's Office states that malpractice insurance represents just 0.04% of total health care costs.
• Expansion Management, a company that helps businesses weigh the costs of relocation, claims that Wisconsin is the lowest state in the country in terms of malpractice costs as a proportion of overall medical expenses.

If you or someone you know has been injured by medical malpractice, contact a personal injury lawyer such as Harvey L. Walner and Associates, LTD in Chicago, Illinois.

*Read the Wausau Daily Herald for more information.

According to internal GM memos, deaths resulting from post-collision fuel-tank fires cost the company $2.40 per car, based on the estimate that each life "has a value of $200,000". Improving the design of the car would cost approximately $8.59 per car, yet GM executives chose not to do so.

For about 9 bucks, the Andersons' tragic story would never have happened. On Christmas Eve, 1993, Patricia Anderson was driving her four children home from church services when her car was rear-ended. The other car's front end had forced its way under the rear bumper of Ms. Anderson's car, puncturing her fuel tank in several places. The fuel then ignited, turning the car into an instant inferno. Three of Ms. Anderson's four children suffered burns on more than 60% of their flesh, including eight-year-old Kiontra who tried to get back into the car to save her younger sister.

A 1999 jury found General Motors Corp. had knowingly endangered the lives of their customers in order to cut costs and increase profits. The company was ordered to provide compensation to the Andersons for their horrific burns.

When facing such incredibly defective product damages, it is crucial to have a good personal injury lawyer on your case.

The first step to preventing truck and automobile accidents is to be aware of the dangers at hand. We may think that truck drivers are at fault for accidents due to the impossible task of handling their rig safely, but in reality there are many things the average driver can do to prevent truck and autmobile accidents.

A few of which being:

1. Be aware of the trucker's blind spots. It is very difficult for a trucker to keep all the cars around him in sight, so it's important to give any large truck space.
2. Be careful not to cut off a truck. It might seem normal to get in front of the average vehicle to make a necessary turn, but trucks take as much as three times the amount of time needed to slow down as a normal car. Many accidents have been caused where a car cuts off a truck, and the truck is unable to slow down in time.
3. Be patient when a truck is reversing. It might seem like a strain, but it's always a better idea to let a truck finish reversing, even if it needs to take multiple attempts.

If you've been injured recently and have begun a search for a personal injury lawyer to represent your case, don't feel nervous or overwhelmed by your options. There are six questions you can ask that will almost guarantee your choice of a great personal injury lawyer. Anthony Castelli, a great personal injury lawyer himself, came up with these six questions with the concern that the average victim find the appropriate lawyer for his or her case. He also recommends that one contact about 3-5 local lawyers so as to have a sufficient random sampling of lawyers, ensuring that you get the best that your area has to offer. The six questions are as follows:


1. How many personal injury cases have you tried in front of juries?
2. What kind of experts have you hired for your clients?
3. What percent of your income comes from personal injury cases?
4. Have you handled cases similar to my injury? How many and with what results?
5. Are you willing to advance expenses of litigation?
6. Are you a mamber of any attorney organizations that primarily help injury victims?

The answers to these questions should give you a pretty good idea of who to hire as your attorney. If you have any further questions or concerns, feel free to contact Anthony Castelli in Cincinnati, Ohio.

There is a current debate in Wisconsin circulating around medical malpractice caps and insurance rates. The two sides of the argument are cut fairly cleanly down the middle: either avidly for or against caps. Those in favor of malpractice caps fear that health-care costs are going to soar beyond reason due to incredible losses for health insurance companies in court settlements; those against the caps realize that caps prevent malpractice victims from recieving justified compensation, causing further hardship for the injured. Amitabh Chandra, a Harvard University economist studying the malpractice issue, has a more detailed argument against medical malpractice caps. According the Chandra, "the relationship between [malpractice payments and liability insurance rates] that people have argued is tight is actually very week."

In a study Chandra ran last year, five states where malpractice payments increased 20% in the 1990's showed a decrease of 2% in liability insurance rates. According to Chandra, the reason that Wisconsin's liability insurance rates fell 40% while malpractice payments remained flat is because insurance companies use many factors to set rates: these multiple factors include things like underpriced premiums during harsh competition which leads to raised rates, as Chandra believes is the case for Wisconsin. Chandra called the doctors' argument that liability insurance rates become unbearable without caps "fundamentally dishonest".

If you are suffering from medical malpractice and have concerns about medical malpractice caps, feel free to contact a well informed personal injury lawyer, such as Jim S. Adler and Associates in Houston, Texas.

Although innovative in comfortable design, medication patches are proving to be riskier than the public had originally thought. Patches for such remedial uses as motion-sickness control have been around for the past 25 years, but newer designs have been raising a bit of a conundrum. New studies are showing that there is an increased danger to the patches when they are heated - someone taking a bath, for example, is speeding up their blood flow and therefore increasing the amount of medication their body is taking. This is potentially lethal in certain drugs, and with a new anti-depressant patch fresh into the market the level of concern elevates further. There have been issues with patches such as Ortho Evra concerning estrogen levels in women; with an increase to this problem with heat we may be seeing a small correlation between death rates in warmer climates with the amount of patches being used. The patches have already killed eight people in 2004 and three in 2003, causing suspicion of the patches in more than 30 cases where patients were hospitalized, disabled or left with a life-threatening complication.

Many of the heat-related concerns with medical patch safety encircle the drug fentanyl, but not exclusively. Daytrana, a controversial ADHD patch for children, and Ortho Evra are still being kept under close watch. Scientists are working hard to continue the improvement of the patches so as to uphold their remarkable convenience for consumers, but nothing will be declaired "perfect" for quite some time. If you or someone you know has been injured by a defective product, contact a personal injury lawyer such as Trantolo and Trantolo of Hartford, Connecticut.

According to an article in the People Over Profits Grassroots Action Center website, Americans for Insurance Reform (AIR) has released a study validating the rumor among consumers that rising insurance rates will be put to rest when the insurance investment cycle has stabilized, regardless of the enactment of tort reform laws.

A study performed by AIR in 2002 introduced the idea that insurance industries and doctors have been convinced that patients who file medical malpractice lawsuits drain money from insurers as cases award more and more money to injured consumers. Insurers say the money drain forces them to raise insurance rates, pull out of the market, or limit an injured consumer's ability to sue in court.

The fact of the matter is that medical malpractice insurance premiums are reacting to a natural economic cycle that has nothing to do with the legal system. As the new study conducted by AIR (Released February 27, 2006) states, the average rate hike for doctors over the past six months has been 0%. We are at the end of a "hard market" and going back into a "soft market". Due to swings in the economic market such as stock market crashes, interest rates, or even the level of insurers' investment income there have been peaks of "hard market" times before: once in the mid 1970's and again in the mid 1980's. We are now experiencing the soft end of a hard market from 2002.

This is all good news for the consumer, because this new evidence proves that there is no need to rush into quick legislative fixes or limits on patients' rights. "Caps" instituted by tort reform laws are one of these such limits. Tort reform caps have been dangerous to the consumer in the past, often resulting in insufficient compensation for their losses.

If you have been injured due to medical malpractice and are seeking a personal injury lawyer, look no further than Jacoby and Meyers of San Diego, California.

For more information concerning medical malpractice insurance rates, try reading:

• "Study: Medical Malpractice rates cool, no crisis exists" @ http://www.peopleoverprofits.org
• "Insurance 'Crisis' Officially Over - Medical Malpractice Rates Have Been Stable for a Year" Feb. 27, 2006 Report @ http://www.insurance-reform.org
  
• "Medical Malpractice Insurance: Stable Losses/Unstable Rates" Oct. 10, 2002 Report @ http://www.insurance-reform.org
  

As discussed in a previous blog entry, there has been a problem with paint companies manufacturing cheap lead paint to the masses in Rhode Island for decades. The lead in the paint can lead to lead poisoning, which can result in numerous devastating results, including brain damage and behavioural disorders. The problematic situation has been taken to new heights with recent events, concerning three paint companies and their incredible deliberation in manufacturing the deadly substance.

Sherwin-Williams Co., NL Industries Inc. and Millennium Holdings LLC, all of whom were involved in the previous entry, have known since 1978 that not only is lead paint illegal, it's highly dangerous to the consumer. They have continued to market the paint regardless of this knowledge, and have even advertised with the implication that lead paint has positive health benefits. On February 22, 2006, a jury in "the ocean state" ruled that the companies must take charge for the elimination of lead contamination in over 300,000 homes as expiation for their negligence.

If you have been damaged by this or other cases of toxic exposure, premises liability or product liability take it upon yourself to seek justice and contact a renouned personal injury lawyer, such as Trantolo and Trantolo Attorneys at Law in Hartford, Connecticut.


*Photo taken from an article in jurist.law.pitt.edu.