The Injury Lawyer Directory Blog

Saint Barnabas Corp., the largest healthcare system and second largest employer in New Jersey, is assigned to pay $265 million to settle a few whistleblower lawsuits claiming the hospital chain had systematically inflated charges to Medicare patients so as to receive enhanced reimbursements. This settlement is debated to be the first in a wave of healthcare industry payouts, as many other hospitals are currently facing similar accusations.

Whistleblowers claimed that Saint Barnabas had been abusing a Medicare system which provides extra payments to unusually expensive cases. Those involved as opposition to the fraudulent industry stand to make a comfortable gain in their share of the settlement. Justice Department attorneys have already released that the nine hospitals involved in West Orange, New Jersey "purposefully inflated charges for inpatient and outpatient care to make these cases appear more costly than they actually were."

Saint Barnabas did not admit to wrongdoing in the settlement, but fell into a "corporate integrity agreement", which ensured that it would follow Medicare procedure and protocol much more carefully in the future. Justice Department lawyers did not comment on the amount of payment left to each whistleblower.

If you believe that your employer is inflating Medicare charges or otherwise defrauding the government, please contact a whistleblower attorney today such as Laurie Robbins in Atlanta, Georgia. Robbins & Associates represents individuals who report Medicare and Medicaid fraud and other false claims involving the Federal Government.

A 16 year old boy involved with the Boy Scouts of America was killed by lighting at a summer camp when campers were sent to their campsites during a lightning storm instead of being herded indoors. The outraged parents filed a lawsuit against the Boy Scouts of America over the issue, claiming that the defendants should not have released the 350 scouts into the dangerous weather, jeopardizing many Scouts and tragically terminating their son. The Boy Scouts negligence was the cause of their son's death, parents say. The family and scout leaders involved came to a settlement decision on Thursday, June 15, 2006. Details of the settlement have been kept confidential.

If you or someone you know has been injured by negligence, please feel free to contact a personal injury lawyer specializing in personal injury and negilgence such as Wooten and Honeywell of Orlando, Florida.

Triaminic, a children's cough and cold medicine, was released in patch form from manufacturer Novartis as the patch home remedy becomes a further spreading innovative trend in medicine. However, problems arose immediately as accidental ingestion of these patches became an occurence in households. The patch causes seizures in children when ingested, presumably as a result of quick digestion of a medication intended to be slowly integrated in the human system over a period of time. Eight reports have been filed of such accidental ingestions, including one seizure victim in Canada. Novaris has sold more than 50 million patches in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Central America since their introduction to the market in 2000.

If you or someone you know has been injured by a similar defective product, or if you would just like to know more information, please feel free to contact a personal injury attorney such as Jacoby and Meyers Law Offices in Los Angeles, California.

The new antibiotic Ketek has already had four liver-related deaths connected with it, leading to some questions as to the internal processes of the Food and Drug Administration. Arthur A. Levin, director of the New York based Center for Medical Consumers and member of the drug safety advisory committee at the FDA has called the Ketek/liver failure connection "another example that we should see as a signal that the current system needs reform." He added, "It's not about the FDA doing its job -- it's that the process we have in place, and the authority the FDA has at present, simply aren't up to the task."

The antibiotic Ketek was approved in 2004 for the treatment of serious respiratory inflammations which are now more resistant to older drugs. Government regulators then recognized the danger and potential to damage the liver, but decided the risk was equal to the risk in other respiratory inflammation antibiotic drugs. Then, in North Carolina, questions were raised concerning Ketek as three cases of acute liver failure were reported by Ketek users. The FDA then identified the drug as dangerous in a May 16 memo, stating 12 reported cases of kidney problems including four deaths and one requiring a kidney transplant. It was found that Ketek users did have more liver problems than those who took other medications.

Since the FDA's initial approval, over 5 million prescriptions for Ketek were written. Now the drug has been suggested for the highest possible warning the FDA has to offer, which more than likely will lead to strong discretion when issuing the drug in the future. Concerns with the FDA's internal maintenance of such issues circle around preventing the release of "safe" drugs in the future. While the Food and Drug Administration did install an in-house drug safety board pledged to improve the coordination of emerging problems with drugs, the further release of such drugs as Ketek is clear evidence for many critics that the FDA needs even stricter policies, a more independent and well organized safety office, better funding and databases, and legal powers urging manufacturers to track faulty drug issues.

Two months ago today, workers nationwide celebrated Workers' Memorial Day. The day is assigned to remember the incredible amounts of losses and injuries over the last few decades surffered by struggling workers and unions, as well as rememberance for those who fought for workers' rights. Each year more than 56,000 workers die from job injuries and illnesses and another 6 million are injured, and thanks to efforts from workers and workers' unions stirred by these numbers, significant improvements have been made towards the working condition in this nation.

The very first Workers' Memorial Day was celebrated on April 28th, 1989. The day April 28th was chosen because of the Anniversary of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which falls on that day as well. The date was also chosen as there is a day of similar remembrance for those lost workers in Canada. Trade unionists around the world celebrate April 28th as an International Day of Mourning.

If you or someone you know has been injured on the job, please feel free to contact a personal injury attorney such as Silberstein, Awad and Miklos of New York City, New York.

*Information from www.aflcio.org.

The conclusion Merck & Co. had been relying on for its defense against the pending Vioxx litigation cases has been disproven in a study called APPROVe. The theory that Merck's Vioxx takes 18 months of continuous use before an increase in risk of heart attack or stroke had been a key factor of defense in many of the lawsuits piled against Merck - now that this conclusion has been disproven, Merck's public image has been impaired both in and out of the courts, and its legal battles will be notably more difficult to defend against. There is even a possibility that cases previously won by Merck & Co. could be appealed based on these findings.

After the 2005 APPROVe release stating the withdrawal of this claim, the New England Journal of Medicine corrected their website by removing the statement that it takes 18 months for Vioxx to cause an increase in risk of heart attack and altered the wordings within their documents to say that the 18 month difference can be observed by visual inspection of the mathematic curves, yet holds the statement that the difference is not statistically significant.

Steven Nissen, interim chairman of Cleveland Clinic has publicly noted the fact that it is possible to argue that Vioxx increases chances of heart attacks and stroke after only three months of use.

If you or someone you know has been injured by a defective or dangerous drug like Vioxx, please feel free to contact a personal injury attorney such as Jim S. Adler and Associates in Houston, Texas.

Janet Kelly's story should have been a tale of healing, fun, and merriment with close friends. Instead, she suffered a nightmare beyond that which she already knew. After losing her 18 year old daughter and enduring the hardships of her husband's incapacitating heart attack, Janet and a few close friends and neighbors decided to embark on a relaxing cruise, to help ease her from her mental baggage. This was February, 2000. On the last night of this cruise, Janet was served a drink from the cruise bartender that had been drugged. Janet instantly felt the frightening mental and physical repercussions of the drugs, and was led to a location marked "Crew Members Only" by the bartender, where he raped her in a bathroom stall.

Janet took her situation to the local authorities immediately upon arriving in her home town. They claimed that the FBI had jurisdiction over crimes at sea, so the case was then sent their way. The FBI took months to investigate and interview the bartender, and did not prosecute him on the claim that they did not have enough evidence. They did have evidence in the possession of Janet's clothing, a rape kit, and the bartender's identification, however. Janet was shocked and appalled. She felt extremely let down by her home criminal justice system, so she took her case to civil law. She filed a lawsuit against the cruise company and managed to have the cruise line fire the bartender, finally receiving justice for the malicious acts against her.

Sadly, more of these cruise line incidents happen than one might expect, with 3 out of 4 offenses being sexual, usually involving women under 21. Thanks to people like Janet and hundreds of other international cruise victims, a light is being shed on these issues which could lead to tighter security and less victimization on cruise lines. Emphasis is also being placed on policies concerning consumption of alcohol, employment, jurisdictional investigation, incident reporting, and incident management in the cruise line industry.

If you or someone you know has had an incident like Janet's, or any other kind of cruise ship litigation, please feel free to contact a personal injury attorney such as Best and Anderson Attorneys at Law in Orlando, Florida.

Bernard Burks, a frustrated kidney patient in Sacramento who was registered with Kaiser Permanente, has declaired, "I need a kidney, I need help and I can't wait any longer." Burks has every right to be frustrated. Due to his four year delay in receiving a kidney, there is an increased chance that his body has developed to the point where it will reject the new kidney, having adapted to a system where his body struggles on without the kidney.

Burks was put on a list of patients needing a kidney transplant at UC Davis in 2002. In November of 2004, he was notified that he was being transferred from UC Davis to Kaiser's newly developed kidney transplant program. California attorneys have stated that "this case fits the mold for a huge punitive damage award because so much harm has been done to all these patients waiting for life saving treatment."

In his complaint, Burks is seeking an award of punitive damages from Kaiser as punishment for their corporate policies which have not only hurt him personally, but have affected hundreds of other Kaiser Permanente patients waiting for a kidney transplant.

Vioxx, or rofecoxib, is a drug that was manufactured by Merck & Co. Inc. In 2004, Merck recalled Vioxx because the popular anti-inflammatory drug was linked to dangerous medical conditions like:

• Stroke
• Heart Attack
• Blood Clot
• High Blood Pressure
• Swelling
• Cardiovascular Complications

Since the Vioxx recall, there have been thousands of lawsuits filed against Merck because people have been seriously injured or have even died as a result of taking the dangerous drug.

As with all product liability cases, your Vioxx case is only applicable for the amount of time dictated by the statute of limitations in your state. For many states the statute is only two years from the time you learn that your injuries are the result of the dangerous drug, in other states, the statute of limitations is different.

When a major pharmaceutical company like Merck allows innocent people to come into harms way by releasing a dangerous drug like Vioxx, the must be held accountable. If you or a loved one has been injured because they were prescribed and took Vioxx, then you may still be able to recover compensation for your losses. In fact, Vioxx cases have been settled as recently as April 24, 2006.

If you or someone you know has been injured by dangerous drugs, please contact a personal injury lawyer such as Marc Whitehead and Associates of Houston, Texas.

*Article written by Warren Duff.

The Chrysler unit of DaimlerChrysler recalled 111,687 2003 and 2004 model Jeep Grand Cherokees after episodes where the heated front seats of the SUVs caught fire. There have been 32 reports of ignition and overheating so far, with 15 injuries. At least six lawsuits have been filed by burned owners. And this isn't where the danger ends. National Highway Safety Administration has claimed that Volkswagen has recalled 1998 through 2000 models of its Audi A6 and S6 models, for a second time. A short circuit in their dashboard wiring system may not have been completely fixed after the 2004 recall, officials say.

If you or someone you know has been injured by a defective product or has suffered an automobile accident, please feel free to contact a personal injury attorney such as Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has recently enacted a rule which loosens the restrictions on big oil and energy industries by allowing discharged stormwater from oil and gas fields to flow without the approval of a permit for the responsible party. The stormwater discharge rule is labeled as a political payoff from Republicans to the major industries, with our clean water as a price.

Ernest Angelo, a Texas oil executive, Bush supporter and long-time Republican wrote a letter which holds great interest in environmentalist groups to White House senior adviser Karl Rove. The letter states that an earlier version of the rule was causing oil industries to "openly express doubt as to the merit of electing Republicans when we wind up with this type of stupidity."

Ernest Angelo and Karl Rove have been hunting partners for quite some time. The men first met when Angelo was managing Ronald Reagan's presidental campaign in Texas in 1980. Angelo was also mayor of Texas when Bush was running a Texas-based oil firm...

Could the letter have been a hint to a close friend? Rove's response remains suspicious, wherein he forwarded the letter along to top White House environmental advisors, sending along a handwritten note to an aide directing him to "get a response ASAP". Later, Rove wrote Angelo that there was a "keen awareness" concerning not only environmental issues but also "economic, energy, and small business impacts" of the rule. And now we have the resulting rule, dismissing the major oil industries from needing a permit to allow toxic waste to poison the local environment. The big industries are happy with the shortened list of fees, and the Republicans are happy to keep major industries at hand.

If you or someone you know has been injured by a toxic substance or would like to know more information about toxic torts, please feel free to contact a personal injury attorney such as Marc Whitehead and Associates in Houston, Texas.

*Article information taken from LA Times June 13, 2006 release.

Can you imagine waking up from a serious surgical procedure and having your surgeon tell you he's removed the wrong kidney? Many of us think up these things as a humorous horror story, not expecting any kind of realism for the experience in this nation. But the situation was all too real for Goldie Claude, 86 years old of Tennessee, who is now fighting in a medical malpractice suit for compensation from a painful experience.

Claude, who was supposed to have her left kidney removed, had her right kidney removed after a fluke CAT scan led doctors to the wrong conclusion. Thus the resulting horrifying wake-up. "He said, 'I'm very sorry, I took out the wrong kidney.'," according to Claude.

The hospital in question claims to be conducting an internal review.

If you or someone you know has suffered a similar medical malpractice travesty, please feel free to contact a personal injury attorney such as Robbins and Associates Attorneys at Law in Atlanta, Georgia.

In the sunny state of Florida, motorcycle accident deaths have been on a steady incline since Governor Jeb Bush repealed the state mandate requiring helmets to all motorcycle riders over five years ago. The two years before the helmet mandate repeal saw only 22 motorcycle accident deaths, while an estimated 250 deaths have been reported for 2004 alone. It has also been noted that when compared to the logged 270 helmetless riders recorded in the 90's, when it was illegal, the numbers have risen about 67% to 432 helmetless riders in 2004. Add that to an 87% increase in registration of motorcycles since the repeal of motorcycle helmet laws, and the increased fatality doesn't come as any wonder. The issue has currently resurfaced due to helmet-free advocate and Pittsburgh Steelers Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger's motorcycle accident, which resulted in a broken nose, jaw, and several missing teeth, requiring a seven hour surgical procedure for recovery.

If you or someone you know has been injured in a motorcycle accident, please feel free to contact a personal injury lawyer such as Bruce L. Scheiner of Florida.

A review is currently in the process from the U.S. Justice Department where the deaths of 180 people from the electro-shock of stun guns in the police force. The review was proposed last year, and is expected to last through until next year. It is initially focusing on 30 deaths. Although most of the deaths being studied were within the past four years, one of the cases studied occurred twenty years ago.

The study will be enlisting the help of such organizations as the American College of Pathologists, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Association of Medical Examiners. Investigators are aiming to study a variety of factors which could result in death due to stun gun use, such as weight, age, drug use, and the phenomena of 'excited delirium', wherein the bodily functions shut down due to sensory overload.

The company in charge of mass producing the stun guns to American police agencies, Taser International, has marketed their products as a safer alternative to lethal force, saving the lives of police and suspect alike. Despite this claim, Taser faces 49 lawsuits claiming wrongful death or personal injury, with another 20 lawsuits dismissed.

If you or someone you know has been injured due to a defective product, or suffered from a wrongful death, please feel free to contact a personal injury lawyer such as Marc Whitehead of Houston, Texas.

In what was meant to be a fun class trip to Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, Illinois, Keely Vercellotti fell out of the water ride "The Tornado" and suffered a serious head injury resulting in short term memory loss. She has no memory of the incident, and her mother has said of her daughter, "She's not my normal kid."

Vercellotti, ten years old, went on the ride with her friend Dylan Lovelace, who remembers the incident well. According to Lovelace, the pair went once to each side of the ride before falling out of the top and careening to the pavement. The 3 inch gash on Keely's forehead caused blood to flow over the both of them, providing a very traumatic and frightening experience. People in charge at Great America claim that they have no idea how this incident could have occured, and claim that Keely is the first to have ever suffered an injury due to the defective ride. However, hospital staff and paramedics reported at least ten injuries due to the ride to her mother, who was frantic upon hearing about the incident. According to Jim Taylor, the public relations manager at the Six Flags amusement park, claimed that Keely's injury was "minor". "Wow, wow, unbelievable," said Mrs. Vercellotti.

If you or someone you know has been injured due to faulty mechanisms such as The Tornado at Six Flags, feel free to contact a personal injury lawyer such as Wooten & Honeywell in Orlando, Florida as soon as possible.

John Caballero was working dutifully in an oil field in Victoria, Texas when a gas well he was testing exploded, scalping him and tossing him 30 feet in the air. He suffered brain damage, loss of his sense of hearing and vision, broken vertebrae in his spinal column, crushed appendages, and a hip dislocation. John had been a strong family man, a triathelete hoping to compete in an upcoming "Ironman" triathalon, but now he will spend the rest of his days crippled by this tragic incident. The company responsible for ensuring the safety of the gas wells was Esenjay Petroleum Corp., who was eventually charged with punitive damages. John Caballero gracefully absolved these charges, provided that Esenjay establish a safety program preventing similar tragedies. Caballero was given compensation for his injuries and further medical care without pressing charges against the Petroleum company for gross negligence.

If you or someone you know has been injured by negligence, please contact a personal injury lawyer such as Marc Whitehead and Associates in Houston, Texas.

On September 21, 2005, five-year-old Christian Stratton died 20 minutes after being taken off of life support, brain-dead from injuries to the spinal cord. Only two days before, Christian's father had rushed the child to the emergency room after a bad fall where the head hit the side of a car door, and then the pavement. The child seemed normal, although in pain, with only a slightly swollen bruise on the side of his head. The child went through extensive procedures to ensure there was no traumatic injury regardless, as a part of a standard procedure, but the doctor neglected to do two things that could have saved young Christian's life.

The doctor should have secured the neck with a collar and checked the cervical spine for any injury. Later that same day, Christian's father found him limp, cold, blue, and unbreathing in his crib. After extensive CPR, a frightening rush to the hospital, and a helicopter ride to a more advanced medical center, x-rays proved that Christian had a large traumatic separation between the second and third vertabrae of his cervical spinal column. The bruising in this area induced a large swelling in the spinal cord, blocking blood from reaching the brain and causing irreperable damage to the brain. If the doctor had cleared the cervical spine as he should have, Christian's complications would have been properly treated, and he would not have died.

Not only did the medical malpractice incident leave a child dead and a family mourning, but it left costs behind which should be compensated for. In Christian's hometown of Atlanta, Georgia there is a looming "tort reform" bill which protects negligent doctors and hospitals from having to pay out to injured families. This is often done by designating a cache of money for malpractice victims in a medical malpractice cap, which is nearly always far from fair compensation.

If you or someone you know has been injured due to a medical malpractice incident or if you would simply like to find out more about tort reform, feel free to contact a personal injury lawyer such as Robbins and Associates in Atlanta, Georgia.

While it may be true that cholesterol reducing drugs can save countless lives by preventing stroke and heart attack deaths, the ones it does injure deserve attention and due compensation. Two lawsuits filed last week claim that Pfizer's drug Lipitor causes severe lasting damages to the muscle and nervous systems, including memory loss.

Three years after using Lipitor, 60-year-old Charles M. Wilson of Atlanta, Georgia suffered burning sensations in his hands and feet, a loss of balance, and periods of extreme fatigue or memory loss. Michael Mazzariello of New York, 47, claimed that the defective drug caused him impairing muscle damage and extensive memory loss. Reports in scientific literature have suggested a link between statins, the group of cholesterol reducing drugs to which Lipitor belongs, and peripheral neuropathy, a type of nerve damage.

If you or someone you know has been injured by a defective drug such as Lipitor, please feel free to contact a personal injury attorney such as Robbins and Associates in Atlanta, Georgia.

Union members may be being taken advantage of by sweet words and cheap employers in a new way as a concept called "behavioural safety" is being introduced into the workplace. The idea behind behavioral safety is that the workers are responsible of preventing and taking care of any accident that may or may not occur. This lets industry employers off the hook from having to pay injury liability as well as identifying safety hazards in the work place and dishing out the money to have them removed. The program is also rewarding those workers who get injured less frequently, meaning that many workers will hesitate from reporting health issues. With workers not telling anyone how they feel, their injury will go untreated and the hazard will remain in place.

The illusion of safety is being created by allowing the union members to feel in control of their own well-being. By showing numerical data on safety statistics and awarding rising safety rates, the union workers feel as though their safety is stable in the hands of their employers, and always on the rise. Prizes for good health such as new cars and vacations are very tempting, and few realize the dangers of negative reactions to injuries until it happens. The injured worker, facing a boss who praises the incredible safety of his firm, may keep quiet his pain for fear that his work would be affected. An accident may mean that your shift loses its bonus. The workers may fail to notice that such benefits as toxic use reduction are being taken away in favor of the workers watching out for themselves.

Health and safety coordinator for the union federation Massachusetts AFL-CIO, Nancy Lessin, has offered advice to North American unions in order to counter the dangers of behavioural safety policies, such as:

• Offering a comprehensive worksite health and safety program intense on identifying and eliminating work hazards.
• Supporting engineering controls that do not require the workers to provide health protection for themselves.
• Proposing prizes for workers who target serious work related hazards or supply ideas with how to be rid of them.

If you or someone you know has been injured in the workplace, or if you would like to find more information, please feel free to contact a personal injury lawyer such as Silberstein, Awad, and Miklos in New York, New York.

*Information on behavioural safety programs provided from Hazards Publications, LTD.

Guidant Corp. has been recently exposed to have written a letter issuing a warning to doctors of the electrical malfunction in many Guidant defibrillators which could fail to supply the pulse needed to restore natural heartbeat. Instead of sending the important document, the debrillator company performed a routine "product update". Guidant officals are documented as being concerned with causing "undue alarm" with the warning letter, thus the change in communications strategy. From a June 2005 meeting discussing product recalls, it is stated that Guidant executives expressed to regulators that there was a "low risk" of further problems from the electric flaw in defibrillators, despite two patient deaths.

If you or someone you know has been injured by a defective product such as Guidant defibrillators, please contact a personal injury lawyer.

On Beach Boulevard in Mississippi, there are numerous messages painted on scrap wood depicting the locals' opinions of their flood insurance. A favorite example of such signs is "Katrina: Act of God. State Farm: Work of the devil." People on the affected coastline of Katrina's wake have been abandoned by their insurance agencies as damage compensation payments required of companies such as State Farm grow massive. Private insurer losses are estimated at about $40 to $60 billion due to Katrina damages, making history as the costliest catastrophe ever to occur in the U.S.

Facing this massive amount of due payments, many insurance companies such as State Farm neglect their customers in an act of bad faith by denying them compensation based on ludicrous claims. Such a case happened with Joe De Benvenuitti and his family, who had $250,000 in flood damage and a "total replacement value" hurricane policy through State Farm. Their flood program paid them in the full $250,000 but State Farm claimed that it was the 140 mph winds that took out the De Benvenuitti's home, ignoring the 30-foot storm surge, which their policies didn't cover. The De Benvenuitti's $700,000 damages are far from being compensated.

If you or someone you know has been injured due to insurer's bad faith, please contact a personal injury lawyer.

In the recent bill to Senate considering the asbestos compensation fund, there has been some expanding of the people allowed to receive a portion of the fund based on the manner in which they were poisoned. The asbestos shaken into the air during the 9/11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina severely harmed many rescue workers and volunteers who were close to the incidents, and this new expansion of the bill allowed them to benefit from their injuries. The limits of the bill are still extending outward as new adjustments are in consideration.

Now people may be able to benefit from the fund based on the type of injury they received. A recent study provided evidence that asbestos poisoning can also cause cancer of the larynx, with a possibility of also damaging the stomach and colon. The carcinogenic substance had already been widely known for its connection with lung cancer and mesothelioma, situations which were taken into account in the development of the bill. The Senate Judiciary Committee will meet tomorrow to consider revising the ever-expanding bill.

The bill could mean problems for the American public, however, as the scope of victims allowed to benefit from the $140 billion fund grows. This compensation cache may be bursting at the seams from the pressure, allowing many injured people to slip through uncompensated, injured, and suffering. Without an available court venue to justify themselves in, victims of asbestos may only receive what unconnected government officials think they should.

If you or someone you know has been injured by a toxic substance such as asbestos or lead paint, please feel free to contact a personal injury lawyer.

While 9/11 may have gone from the elephant in the room to the passe of societal interest, it is still a major concern for those left victimized from the tragedy. According to asbestos victims' groups in New York City and the surrounding area, the collapse of the World Trade Centers released tons of toxic asbestos fibers into the atmosphere, harming the rescue and recovery teams invovled by inflicting respiratory ailments. Similar claims have been suggested about incidents such as Hurricane Katrina.

A group of sponsors in legislation for compensation to U.S. asbestos victims claimed on May 26, 2006 that a bill has been expanded to include those who have been injured by asbestos due to such incidents as 9/11 or hurricanes like Hurricane Katrina. Efforts are currently being revived for a Senate vote on the bill aiming to create a $140 billion fund for those injured by asbestos.

While this motion is undeniably beneficial to those injured by asbestos exposure by way of tragic disaster, there may be some question as to whether the trust fund will be able to properly support the incredible mass of people who have been injured by asbestos, now amplified with the inclusion of more victims. There is also some speculation as to whether the bill's new acceptance would cause more severely injured victims, such as those who have been exposed to the substance for long durations of time, to be denied the total of their former compensation with the influx of prospects. If asbestos injury suits are removed from the courts in course of this accepting but limited fund, many injured people may not be able to argue their case to receive their full compensation.

If you or someone you know has been injured by asbestos poisoning, feel free to contact a personal injury lawyer such as Silberstein, Awad, and Miklos in New York, New York for a consultation.

In shockingly obvious proportions, phychiatric drugs are being favored upon most in studies conducted by their manufacturer, versus non-associated companies or competing industries. Although there is no legitimate proof that the companies are weighting their studies in their favor, the numbers are highly suspicious. As a generalized ratio, eight of ten studies conducted by the drug manufacturer will show positive results, while only five of ten same such studies conducted by outside sources would show positive results for the same drug, and only three of ten studies would show positive results for the drug from competing drug manufacturers.

This could mean dramatic loss of taxpayers money as sources such as Medicare dish out your dollars to pay for psychiatric drugs. While the industries do tend to push for the best drugs available, as the better drugs would obviously have the better test results, there is still some speculation as to the credibility of these contradictory scores. Is it safe to put our trust and our funds in medication which is potentially favored based on manufacturer bias instead of scientific data?

If you or someone you know has been injured by harmful drugs or defective products, contact a personal injury lawyer such as the Hameroff Law Firm, P.C., in Tuscon, Arizona.

On May 30th of this year, it was admitted in Vioxx-related lawsuits by drug manufacturer Merck & Co. that its report in early 2005 of an 18 month time frame of Vioxx use in patients before heart complications became apparent. The statistical analysis test did not support this theory.

As Merck is facing 11,500 lawsuits related to Vioxx, the 18 month issue is crucial to the company, as well as the 20 million Vioxx victims in America. As part of their previous arguments, Merck argued that Vioxx only caused heart problems when used consistently for over 18 months. This seemed incredibly unlikely when it was proven in two of three lost cases (out of a total of five tried Vioxx cases so far) that the victim suffered heart problems in less than 18 months of Vioxx use. Merck's false theory was based on the initial study named "Approve", wherein 2,600 Vioxx patients were tested for the prevention of colon polyps.

In the Approve study it was noted that twice as many Vioxx patients suffered heart attacks as those taking sugar pills and other placebos. According to Merck, it was apparent that most of the heart attacks came after using Vioxx for 18 months. The major error of their analysis lay in the fact that they had also stated, conjunctively, that there was no extra risk of heart problems with Vioxx before 18 months.

If you or someone you know has been injured by Vioxx or other defective products, please contact a personal injury attorney such as Wooten, Honeywell, Kimbrough, Gibson, Doherty & Normand in Orlando, Florida.

The community group BUILD (Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development) has been after Honeywell International Inc., a New Jersey-based manufacturing company, to spend millions of dollars in the removal of chromium from a shipping center on the Baltimore waterfront. The chromium intoxicating the Maryland coastline is waste from a chrome factory, long since relocated. The chrome factory dumped its chromium under the Dundalk Marine Terminal, filling the local wetlands.

In regards to the $400 million dollar cleanup of the same carcinogen in Jersey City, co-chairman of BUILD Bishop Douglas Miles said, "We deserve the same thing as New Jersey - a permanent cleanup, regardless of the cost.... Maryland should be demanding a cleanup for the sake of the workers who are at this terminal every day, for the sake of the people who live in the community nearby." The non-profit organization BUILD has retained attorney Peter Angelos' law firm to aid their venture against Honeywell International, which has been forced to clean up many other chromium deposits in the past.

On April 5th, after efforts from Maryland environmental and transportation officials, the state entered into an agreement with Honeywell International which involved a schedule for the development of ideas on improvement, such as improving an asphalt cap on the area for containment of the toxic substance, thorough removal of the chemical, or leaving the site alone. James F. Ports Jr., deputy secretary of the Maryland Department of Transportation stated that "We are going to do what is most efficient and effective to protect the environment and the citizens of Maryland."

If you are interested in learning more information about Maryland chromium deposits or toxic tort cases, or if you have been injured due to outside causes, feel free to contact personal injury lawyer Peter S. Angelos of Baltimore, Maryland.

Seven-year-old Graeme Baker tragically lost her life when a defective drain held her prisoner underwater at a high school graduation party in June of 2006. It was supposed to be a happy day for the Bakers - a passion on of a family member into the next phase of life. The moment was smited forever by the folly of a simple defective product.

Her mother, Nancy Baker, looked at the family spa during the recreations and saw her daughter trapped, her eyes pinched tightly shut as her limbs were lost helplessly to the current of the drainage system. Nancy tried to pull her daughter out of the drain but was powerless to the force of hundreds of pounds of suction. When two adults were finally able to loose Graeme's body from the drain, the pipes cracked from the pressure.

There have been many similar incidents where manufacturers of a product allow for defects in their drain design or neglect simple safety measures such as a drain cover. As a result of court settlement, the Baker family was able to establish an educational program on pool safety and bring the dangers of entrapment into public notice.

If you or someone you know has been injured in a similar case of product liability, please feel free to contact a personal injury lawyer.

*Picture from ATLA's website.