The Injury Lawyer Blog

An 18-year-old who was arrested on minor charges was sentenced to death by the cold-hearted ignorance of prison guards in Mille Lacs County, Minnesota. The boy, who had lost control of his car, crashing it into a tree, was arrested at his grandmother's house on a warrant for failing to appear in court on an unrelated charge. When he protested that he was ill and needed to see a doctor, the guards ignored him, despite his obvious symptoms, observed by fellow inmates, such as trouble sleeping, lack of appetite, listlessness, and unfocused vision.

When guards finally consented to take him to a doctor, it was discovered he had contracted bacterial meningitis as a complication from a skull fracture and brain injury, and it was too late to save his life.

His mother filed suit on his behalf. The County, fearing an expose on its treatment of prisoners, offered a settlement while admitting no fault in the wrongful death, and the mother, hoping to see the end of the trauma, accepted.

The attorney in the case put the settlement in perspective, saying, "I think this is a tragedy that shouldn't have happened in the first place. I'm hoping the litigation settlement will change policy at the jail so this doesn't happen again." The proper role of litigation is not to achieve money for claimants or lawyers, but to use punitive damages as a stick to keep corporate and governmental entities in line. If you or someone you love has suffered as a result of someone else's negligence, contact the Salt Lake City area personal injury attorneys at G. Eric Nielson & Associates.

The families of twenty-three nursing-home tenants who were killed when the bus they were riding in caught fire, then exploded, have settled their suit with the nursing home.

On September 23, 2005, a busload of tenants was being evacuated from the Brighton Gardens nursing home in the shadow of Hurricane Rita when their bus caught fire. Initially, police thought one of the bus's brakes caught fire, but now it seems it was the rear axle, which was inadequately lubricated, that caught fire. The suit against the bus maker charges this is due to design and manufacturing defects.

The bus filled with smoke as the driver, sheriff's deputies, and good Samaritans rushed to remove the tenants, many of whom could not walk and had to be carried or dragged from the bus. Then, suddenly, the bus was rocked by a series of explosions, which police believe were likely the result of oxygen cylinders on board the bus.

The explosions and the fire left only a charred skeleton of the bus. Fifteen people were able to escape the bus before the explosions. The survivors suffered minor physical injuries—cuts, bruises, and smoke inhalataion—and serious psychological trauma as they called out for loved ones and worried that the person sitting next to them "didn’t make it."

The families of the dead filed two suits, one against the nursing home, the other against the bus manufacturer. The suit against the bus maker is pending.

If you or a loved one has suffered from the neglect or carelessness of a nursing home, you need a lawyer not only to recoup your losses, but to try and ensure that it does not happen again. Contact Salt Lake City personal injury attorneys at G. Eric Nielson & Associates to expose negligent nursing home practices.

Although a new technology has the possibility of saving lives of players suffering head trauma, only two teams in the league are using it.

The CereTom, a portable, cordless scanner that can send its information to radiologists worldwide, can determine the extent of brain injury suffered by a player from a hit on the field. This technology is available at a time when the NFL is seriously reconsidering the way it deals with head trauma. After allegations by New England linebacker Ted Johnson during Super Bowl week that the had been forced to play through head trauma and recent studies showing that players who suffer from concussions are more likely to suffer dementia, the league is trying to determine how to respond to the issue.

"Medical decisions must always take priority over competitive concerns," said NFL commissioner Roger Goodell as he initiated a new program of testing players to establish a baseline of brain activity that can be used as a comparison for tests before a player is sent back to the field.

In the past, the league has always promoted an ethic of get back on the field. Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi thinks this should change. He said, "Sometimes, you gotta be tough. You have to get in there, strap it up and just go. If you've got a bent finger, a hyperextended elbow, tape it up and get back in there. But there are certain things I hope people would differentiate about, to say, 'Hey, I need to slow it down right now.'"

But one wonders whether this isn't all just talk, if the league is unwilling to invest in a tool that can help make exactly the diagnoses they're talking about. One must be especially concerned after the crippling spinal injury suffered by Kevin Everett whether professional football is a team sport or a bloodsport.

Don't be fooled by talk. If you've suffered a misdiagnosis because of lacking equipment, or a surgical error because your doctor didn't take all the promised precautions, you must act to set things right. Contact an experienced personal injury lawyer at G Eric Nielson and Associates, making doctors put their money where their mouth is in Salt Lake City and surrounding parts of Utah.

In 1999, Lisa Baert went in for a routine tubal ligation, but after complications she suffered brain damage and had to have her hands and feet amputated as well. In a suit that began in 2000, but is only now coming to trial, Baert, her husband, and their children are suing the obstetrician who performed the surgery.

Baert was only 21 when she opted for the surgery, but now she lives in a longer-term-care-home and needs help with daily tasks, including using the toilet and putting on her prosthetic limbs. Her brain damage is sufficiently severe as to prevent her from testifying.

The suit claims not only that the obstetrician failed to inform Baert of the possible risks of the operation, and that he was negligent in performing the operation after learning that Baert was taking anti-depression drugs for postpartum depression.

Two days after the surgery, Baert was rushed back to the hospital, where doctors discovered a puncture in her bowel that was leaking toxins into her body. After several cardiac arrests, doctors were forced to amputate both hands and feet.

The obstetrician's lawyer asserts that Baert herself is at fault, saying that a punctured bowel is a recognized complication for tubal ligation, rather than acknowledging it as a surgical error. The obstetrician claims that Baert should have acted more quickly when she experienced pain, rather than taking another person's prescription pain medication.

It is typical of doctors to try and shift blame onto patients. Any claim that a patient was insufficiently vigilant must pass the test of the doctor's vigilance, for if we cannot count on them to fully inform us of the risks of a procedure, or to use caution and judgment when practicing a voluntary surgery, how can our vigilance possibly overcome their negligence? If you or a loved one has been seriously hurt after trusting yourself to a doctor's care, contact Salt Lake City malpractice attorneys, G. Eric Nelson & Associates to help you put your life together.

In a suit against Guidant Corporation over defective defibrillators, attorneys successfully protected their clients against the action of a corporate subsidiary intended to move the suit from Indiana to federal court. Linda Mason and Ryan Terry are suing Guidant Corporation in their home state, separate from many federal cases involving the same suit. The suit is related to defective defibrillators that suffered from numerous problems, including batteries unable to hold a charge, leading in some cases to heart failure and wrongful death. This suit goes beyond simple malpractice to accusations of deliberate and calculated deception from a corporation that knew its product was defective three years before issuing a recall.

Guidant Corporation, now a subsidiary of Boston Scientific, had announced a settlement of all related federal cases, which were then put on hold while the individual plaintiffs decided whether to accept the settlement or not. Guidant Corporation attempted to use its subsidiary, Minnesota-based Cardiac Pacemakers, which actually manufactured the devices, to force the Mason-Terry case into federal court, where it would be frozen along with other suits.

However, attorneys representing Mason and Terry successfully argued that moving the case would place undue burden on the plaintiffs and cause unnecessary delay by transferring the case to federal court.

Looking at the kinds of maneuverings that go on in these cases, it is clear that if you are thinking about taking on a big corporation, you must proceed with a good lawyer at your side. If you or a loved one has suffered as a result of corporate malfeasance, contact Houston area personal injury lawyers Marc Whitehead & Associates, who can help you maneuver the murky waters of litigation.

In a suit against Guidant Corporation over defective defibrillators, attorneys successfully protected their clients against the action of a corporate subsidiary intended to move the suit from Indiana to federal court. Linda Mason and Ryan Terry are suing Guidant Corporation in their home state, separate from many federal cases involving the same suit. The suit is related to defective defibrillators that suffered from numerous problems, including batteries unable to hold a charge, leading in some cases to heart failure and wrongful death. This suit goes beyond simple malpractice to accusations of deliberate and calculated deception from a corporation that knew its product was defective three years before issuing a recall.

Guidant Corporation, now a subsidiary of Boston Scientific, had announced a settlement of all related federal cases, which were then put on hold while the individual plaintiffs decided whether to accept the settlement or not. Guidant Corporation attempted to use its subsidiary, Minnesota-based Cardiac Pacemakers, which actually manufactured the devices, to force the Mason-Terry case into federal court, where it would be frozen along with other suits.

However, attorneys representing Mason and Terry successfully argued that moving the case would place undue burden on the plaintiffs and cause unnecessary delay by transferring the case to federal court.

Looking at the kinds of maneuverings that go on in these cases, it is clear that if you are thinking about taking on a big corporation, you must proceed with a good lawyer at your side. If you or a loved one has suffered as a result of corporate malfeasance, contact Houston area personal injury lawyers Marc Whitehead & Associates, who can help you maneuver the murky waters of litigation.

As we near the end of Brain Injury Awareness Week in Australia, I'd like to turn things around by talking about brain injuries not as the end, but as the beginning.

In 1994, Milly Parker was a 21-year old accounting student. She had a busy social life, and knew where she wanted to go in life. Then she suffered a traumatic auto accident and woke up in the ICU. She had suffered a traumatic brain injury, and her life would never be the same.

She could no longer study, since the injury had affected her memory and her ability to work with numbers and complex plans. She found socializing traumatic, and working a regular 9-to-5 was nearly impossible. She battled depression for seven years, unable to accept the change her injury had wrought on her. Then she stopped being embarrassed of her brain injury, and stopped focusing on what she couldn't do. By focusing on what she could do, she turned her life around.

Though she had lost her facility with numbers, she had discovered a new creativity. "Having a short attention span is great for coming up with new ideas," she said.

She created a home business selling gourmet dog biscuits called Happy Yappers, which had become a national success in Australia and is growing internationally.

If you or a loved one has suffered from a brain injury, you don't have to think of it as the end, but as the beginning. Don't spend seven years in depression, wandering aimlessly. To help you get the help and support you need, including a just settlement for your injury, contact Houston auto accident lawyers at Kennedy-Hodges, LLC for your free initial consultation.

In an effort to reduce traumatic brain injury (TBI) experienced by soldiers in the field, the US army awarded a near-million-dollar research contract to Lebanon, NH-based Simbex, LLC, to develop a sensor-lined helmet that measures the force of blasts from IEDs, shrapnel, or enemy fire. Because TBI is so common in the ongoing fighting in Iraq, and have the potential to go undetected until they manifest themselves in behavioral changes or short-term memory loss, the army hopes to get technology in the field this year to help understand how it might be prevented.

On August 24, 2007, the army awarded Simbex a contract for $ 932,000 to develop a prototype model that it plans to test against several other competing technologies in upcoming tests. Simbex is a company that specializes in biomechanics, with previous innovations in injury rehabilitation and helmets and support systems that provide real-time impact data for football coaches during games and practice.

TBI has been touted as "the signature injury of the war," both by Harvard University professor Kit Parker, who served with the US Army in Afghanistan from 2002 to 2003, and by Simbex's press material.

Simbex has not yet developed a system for extracting the data collected by the sensors, nor has it even decided which direction it is likely to move, either utilizing radio frequency Identification (RFID) technology currently in use on army bases, or handheld scanners used by medics on the battlefield. The company's football sensors transmit data immediately to a computer located on the sidelines.

This research grant is part of a defense department initiative, the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO).

Unfortunately, TBI is not just a reality of the battlefield. It is a tragic reality for many families whose members suffer injuries at work or on the road. If you or someone you love has suffered a TBI, you don't have to wait for all the data to come in, contact G. Eric Nelson & Associates, Personal Injury Lawyers practicing in Salt Lake City and Northern Utah.

An 18-month-old girl was killed recently when her own father backed over her in front of the family's home. The child wandered out of her home in Ohio and walked behind her father's Chevrolet Suburban as he was backing out of the driveway to go to church. The car struck his daughter, pulling her beneath the sport utility vehicle; she was pronounced dead at a local children's hospital. The man and his family were devout Catholics, and he was on his way to Mass when he ran over his daughter. The child was the youngest of eight in the family.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 2,000 children are treated for injuries suffered when they are struck by a vehicle driving in reverse; two children die each week as a result of these types of car accidents. Most of the victims are between 1-2 years of age. Sadly, the majority of accidents involve a truck or SUV driven by a parent or other close relative.

To avoid this tragic type of car accident, you should:

Walk all the way around your vehicle before driving it
Know where your children are; make sure they're in full view
Explain to children that parked cars might move and that even though they can see the car, the driver may not see them
Teach children to never play around or behind any vehicle
Always set your emergency brake
Keep toys and bikes off the driveway and away from vehicles
Never leave children alone around cars
Keep keys away from a child's reach
Keep vehicles locked at all times
Never leave children unattended in or around vehicles

If you or a loved one has suffered a personal injury in Illinois as a result of a car accident in Chicago or anywhere else in the Illinois area, please contact a Chicago auto accident lawyer from the Law Offices of Barry G. Doyle, P.C. today to schedule your initial consultation.

The parents of two high school seniors who died in a car crash allege their sons were left along the side of the road for several hours after police overlooked them while investigating the accident. Brandon Smith and Dominique Green, both 18, were killed in the single-vehicle accident this weekend in Gary, Indiana, and two other occupants survived the crash and told emergency workers over and over that two of their friends were still at the crash site.

Brandon's father, Arthur Smith, said the police refused to listen to the two surviving boys and did not look for his son and Green. Mr. Smith found the boys' bodies himself when he went to the scene of the accident.

Mr. Smith: "It took me all of five minutes to find the boys dead. They were right there. I just saw my son. I saw my baby."

Gary Police Department Commander Samuel Roberts told the Post-Tribune that the officer who responded to the accident did not deviate from departmental procedures. He could not explain why the two teens were left along the roadside and said he did not yet know all the details of the case.

Jacquelyn Green said she is not blaming anyone for her son's death. But she said that if Arthur Smith was able to find the boys in a matter of minutes, police should easily have been able to find them much sooner. Mourners held a vigil at the accident scene late Saturday, with some saying that the boys may not have died if police found them sooner.

If you or a loved one has been injured or killed in an automobile accident in Chicago or anywhere in Illinois, please contact a Chicago auto accident attorney at the Law Offices of Barry G. Doyle, P.C. today to schedule an initial consultation.

For four decades, Florida drivers have experienced the benefit of the state's no-fault auto insurance system, but on October 1, they are likely to see a new system come into place. Not because lawmakers decided to pass a new law, but because they failed to vote on it, despite calls from at least seventy percent of the state's voters to keep the system in place.

Renewal of the law was set to be debated and voted on in a special session of the state assembly that was to begin on September 18 but has since been canceled. Proponents of the law decried the move, saying the law protects both people and property.

Under no-fault law, insurance companies are required to cover at least $10,000 of medical expenses from injuries incurred in an automobile accident, regardless of who is deemed at fault. This includes injuries sustained by a pedestrian hit by a motor vehicle. Without this coverage, the nearly twenty percent of all Floridians without health insurance will be unable to access treatment, meaning that initially minor injuries could lead to major lifelong ailments, conditions, and medical bills.

Without the no-fault law, the only way for many people to recover their expenses will be through litigation, leading to additional court costs and legal fees for all.

Obviously, the government does not have the best interest of its motorists at heart. Therefore, if you've been involved in an automobile accident, you need an advocate who will seek to get you the compensation you need to make sure your minor injuries don't turn into lifelong conditions. If you or someone you love has been involved in a motor vehicle accident in Texas, contact Houston area personal injury attorney Marc Whitehead.

Charles B. Lewitzke, an 81-year-old Milwaukee man, has filed a case in the U.S. District Court in Wisconsin's Eastern District. He is seeking unspecified damages from Helen of Troy Ltd., an El Paso, Texas company that owns and markets Brut Cologne, and Unilever Home & Personal Care USA, of New Jersey, a division of Conopco Inc., which had previously owned the product. He also is suing Wal-Mart Stores East, LP, which is where he bought two Brut products, a lotion and deodorant spray.

According to court filings, Lewitzke was burned while camping with family members on Memorial Day in 2004 in Wisconsin Dells, a popular resort area outside of Madison.

He washed and shaved in a bathroom on the campgrounds and applied Brut lotion to his face, neck and chest with his hands. He also used the aerosol deodorant. He then went to a fire pit to cook breakfast. His face, neck and chest ignited while he was starting the cooking fire, his lawsuit says.

Lewitzke's attorney, Michael Hanrahan, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that his client suffered burns on 30 percent of his body and underwent three skin grafts.

He claims that the Burt products and their packaging were the direct cause of Lewitzke's injuries and were defective because they were "unreasonably dangerous." The suit also says the products' labeling was unsafe because it should have warned about the danger of fires, and the manufacturers should have tried to minimize that risk.

Attorneys claim that Brut's manufacturers and companies selling the products should be held liable for Lewitzke's injuries, medical expenses, and the pain and disability he has suffered, the lawsuit argues.

If you or a loved one has suffered due to a defective product in Chicago or anywhere in Illinois, please contact Aurora product liability lawyer Barry G. Doyle, P.C. today to schedule your initial consultation.

A couple in Pike County, Mississippi filed a lawsuit against the school district and driver operating the bus on which their son was injured in an accident along with 16 other students. On October 16, Rontel Robinson Jr. was riding to school on a rainy morning. The bus was traveling south when it collided with a chicken-laden truck owned by Sanderson Farms.

Seventeen students were sent to Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center, although five were apparently uninjured. Most of the other twelve had suffered only bumps and bruises, but Rontel, AKA "Zeke", was transferred to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson amid concerns that the accident had caused internal bleeding from his spleen and damaged his spine near the neck.

The bus was struck on the side where Rontel was sitting, then rolled over. When the bus rolled, Rontel was thrown from his seat and briefly lost consciousness. When he came to, he rushed to help the rest of the students off the bus, not realizing he was hurt until later.

If you or a loved one has been hurt in an automobile accident, contact Houston area accident attorneys at Kennedy Hodges L.L.P.

Kevin Everett, the Buffalo Bills tight end who suffered a cervical spine injury in Sunday's game against the Denver Broncos, made remarkable progress Tuesday. In contrast to the grim prognosis given Monday, Everett made voluntary movements with his arms and legs. Neurosurgeon Dr. Barth Green, said that such recovery so quickly meant he was likely to fully recover.

Still, the future is uncertain. Even with what Dr. Green calls "totally spectacular, totally unexpected" progress, Everett's full recovery is only described as "feasible." Furthermore, even if he recovers, the process is likely to be a long one, forcing the Bills to do without his blocking and tackling expertise.

Fortunately, his contract specifies thorough coverage of medical expenses, and compensation for missed work. After all, he's a professional football player. Unfortunately, many of us are not so lucky, and if we suffer an injury, our employer or our insurance company may expect us to pay out-of-pocket expenses and take our time off without pay.

If you or someone you love has suffered a spinal injury and find yourself in this unfair situation in the Chicago, Illinois area, please contact an experienced personal injury lawyer at the Law Offices of Barry Doyle, P.C.

A teenager from the Chicago area, Thomas Foust, is being called a hero after he saved an elderly woman from being hit by two trains. Foust and two friends pulled the woman from her car after it got stuck on train tracks in the northern Chicago suburb of Glenview, Illinois.

Foust was driving behind the woman Saturday night when her car turned onto the tracks and just stopped. Foust, who is a lifeguard, put his car in park and jumped out. He and his friends ran up to the woman's car and got her door open. They unclipped her seatbelt and pulled her to safety. They were ten feet away from the woman's car when the train hit six seconds later.

Shattered glass and debris flew all around, and Foust and his friends shielded the woman from getting hit. The first train to hit the woman's car was an Amtrak train headed to Milwaukee, and the impact of that train spun her car onto an adjacent track where another train traveling from Milwaukee to Chicago hit it a second time.

If you or a loved one has been involved in a train accident in Chicago or anywhere in Illinois, please contact an experienced Chicago train accident attorney at the Law Offices of Barry G. Doyle, P.C. today to schedule your initial consultation.

Buffalo Bills' tight end Kevin Everett was seriously injured during the opening game of the football season when he sustained a cervical spine injury when he ducked his head while driving into Denver Bronco's Domenik Hixon during a kick-off. Everett lay on the field unconscious for fifteen minutes and then was taken to an area hospital by ambulance where he underwent a four-hour surgery on Sunday.

Everettt is now in intensive care at Buffalo's Millard Fillmore Gates Hospital and will be sedated for the next 2 days. Doctors are not sure about whether or not the player will be paralyzed. The team's doctor will be providing updates on the injured player's condition throughout the coming weeks.

Replays show Everett twitching for a few seconds as he attempted to get up before falling back to the ground. He had his eyes open but showed no further signs of movement during the next 15 minutes as the team's medical staff and emergency personnel carefully placed him on a backboard and put him in an ambulance on the field.

If you or a loved one has suffered a spinal cord injury in Chicago, please call an experienced Illinois spinal cord injury attorney at the Law Offices of Barry G. Doyle, P.C. today to schedule your initial consultation.

A Bronx, New York jury has awarded the mother of a convicted drug dealer $10 million for the wrongful death of her son at the hands of a New York police officer. According to the jury's verdict, Officer Louis Rivera was "100% responsible" for the shooting death of an unarmed man who was shot in the left temple during a struggle with the officer in March 2000.

The six-person jury determined that the officer used excessive force during a scuffle with 23-year-old Malcolm Ferguson. Officer Rivera was canvassing a building in the Bronx in plainclothes when the scuffle occurred. At the time of the shooting, Ferguson had six bags of heroin on his person and was on parole for a 1995 conviction for selling drugs. Ferguson's arrest record showed at least eight other arrests.

If a loved one has died due to the negligence or wrongdoing of another, please visit the website of Chicago's experienced Wrongful Death Attorney Harvey L. Walner & Associates, LTD.

A jury recently awarded a Florida man nearly $8.2 million in damages from Allstate car insurance company but has to wait for another jury to decide whether or not he can collect. John Clements was blowing leaves on a sidewalk when a truck jumped the sidewalk and plowed into him in November 2004. Clements suffered a broken neck, brain hemorrhages and herniated discs in his neck and back; he was hospitalized for six days.

Clements received $100,000 from the driver of the truck's insurer, but when he tried to get his insurance company, Allstate, to pay him the $100,000 it owed for underinsured motorist coverage, the company refused to pay, which prompted the lawsuit.

Legally, Allstate is obligated to pay Clements the maximum coverage his underinsured motorist policy allows ($100,000), but when an insurance company should have paid a claim but didn't, you can sue the company for bad faith. That is how Clements won the $8.2 million. His lawyers must now convince the second jury that Allstate should have paid Clements the $100,000 in underinsured motorist damages so he can collect the award.

If you or a loved one has been injured or killed in a car accident in Philadelphia, please contact a Philadelphia Car Accident Lawyer at Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis today to schedule your initial consultation.

Mesothelioma is a form of cancer that is almost always caused by previous exposure to asbestos. With this disease, malignant cells develop in the mesothelium, a protective lining that covers most of the body's internal organs. Its most common site is the outer lining of the lungs and chest cavity, but it may also occur in the lining of the abdominal cavity or the pericardium (sac surrounding the heart).

Most people who develop mesothelioma worked on jobs where they inhaled asbestos or have been exposed to asbestos dust or fiber in other ways. There is no association between mesolthelioma and smoking. Mesothelioma is diagnosed in 3,000 Americans a year and is 100% fatal.

Tens of thousands of workers are dying young and being robbed of their golden years due to this terrible type of lung cancer that has, for decades, been overlooked by researchers and has been swept under the rug by companies who wanted to hide information about this dangerous mineral.

Mesothelioma has long baffled doctors and researchers because they just don't know why, in some people, the disease is triggered and other people can work their entire lives around it and never get sick.

A typical mesothelioma settlement is at least six figures and sometimes well over $1 million.

If you or a loved one has suffered or died due to asbestos-related mesothelioma, please visit the website of mesothelioma lawyer Peter G. Angelos, serving clients in Baltimore, Philadelphia and Delaware.