The Injury Lawyer Blog

When one of the lead attorneys in a $22 million dollar wrongful death lawsuit against Beverly Health and Rehabilitation center spoke at a small gathering in Lexington, Kentucky, he did not expect to be challenged. After all, he was the expert, and had proven to a jury that nursing home neglect was responsible for the premature death of 82-year-old Loren Richards in March of 2002, so when he spoke on the condition of nursing homes in Kentucky, he did not expect to be challenged.

The attorney called nursing homes a "failed experiment," because the system puts profit over the physical and emotional health of residents. He says that because they are run by businessmen, and not by doctors and nurses, they inevitably become good at making money, but poor at taking care of people.

However, a member of the audience charged that this was not so in Kentucky, which has much better nursing home care than most other states. The statement was based on the fact that while, on average, states cite one in four nursing homes each year for serious deficiencies that caused "actual harm" or "immediate jeopardy" to residents, but Kentucky only cites one in ten.

However, the question is, why would this be so? According to advocates for nursing home residents and the attorney, the decreased rate of citations is most likely due to lax inspections rather than actual improved conditions at the nursing homes.

But why would the government decrease its inspection protocols with regard to nursing homes? To give the appearance of improved conditions, an appearance that Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher is banking on as he runs for re-election.

Although nursing homes are ostensibly a tightly-regulated industry, if the government and the industry work together, who can protect the residents who are in a nursing home because they are unable in many ways to help themselves?

There is good news on the horizon for those who have suffered from brain injuries as a result of automobile accidents or other causes. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), a variety of magnetic resonance imaging that shows the water-diffusion gradients in living tissue, has proven useful in studying even relatively mild brain injuries, according to a recently-published study in the journal Brain.

The study was run by Dr. Marilyin Kraus, a professor of psychiatry and neurology at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of medicine, and looked at 37 patients with brain injuries (20 of which were classed as mild and 17 moderate to severe) and 18 healthy volunteers. The subjects were imaged and also asked to take a battery of neuropsychological tests.

The combined testing showed that even patients with no discernible cognitive damage had structural damage in the white matter of the brain. And those with severe brain injuries had much more extensive structural damage. Interestingly, the study shows a different pattern of brain damage than had previously been observed.

Although the cognitive areas of the brain may be functioning normally, when the white matter, which serves as the connective tissue between these cognitive areas, is damaged, the cognitive areas are essentially unplugged and therefore worthless.

This new imaging technique should help those injured in accidents and the insurance companies that cover them by being able to precisely identify the level and type of brain damage suffered during the accident. Until this technique becomes more common, however, we can expect that insurance companies will continue to regard those claiming severe soft tissue injuries with suspicion, as though all such claims were fraudulent. In order to get a fair hearing and compensation for your legitimate injury, contact the personal injury lawyers at the Law Firm of Barry G. Doyle, P.C., helping victims in Chicago, Rockford, Aurora, and surrounding areas.

The mother of a six-year old boy who was killed by a semi truck in an accident on February 15, has filed a $30 million severe injury and wrongful death lawsuit against the driver and the Canadian Trucking company that employed him.

The crash occurred early in the morning of February 15, when the woman and the truck were both traveling on the highway, which was yet to be cleared of ice and snow from a recent storm. As the vehicles approached a traffic back-up, the woman, traveling 20 mph in a 2007 Chevrolet Aveo, and the trucker, traveling 30-40 mph, began to brake. The truck, carrying 40 tons of plywood, became uncontrollable, jackknifed, and crushed the woman's car, killing her son and causing her extensive injuries.

No amount of money can compensate this woman for the loss of her child and all the happy years she had to look forward to. The best this lawsuit can due is help to disincentivize trucking practices such as driving at dangerous speeds. If you have lost someone you love, no lawyer can bring them back, but the experienced truck accident attorneys at the Chicago area Law Offices of Barry G. Doyle, P.C. can make sure those responsible pay for what they have done, and, hopefully, ensure they never do it again. Contact them today.

The US Attorney General's Office announced yesterday that it had assessed a fine of $373 million against oil firm BP. This includes a fine of $ 50 million against the firm for a 2005 refinery explosion that killed 15 people and injured 170 more. The fine for the explosion was only for the company's one-time violation of the Clean Air Act, and does not include any workers' compensation settlements or wrongful death lawsuits, which are currently going forward. The government has not raised any charges on the unsafe practices at the plant, despite the fact that secret company memos show several managers knew about the risk.

The company was fined much more stringently in the case of a fraud to manipulate propane prices by four BP employees. Fines against the company in this case came to a total of $ 303 million.

In a similar set of bad news, the company reported that production difficulties had seriously affected its profits this year, decreasing its quarterly profit from July through September were down to $3.88 billion, compared to profits of $6.88 billion last year, partly as a result of increased safety costs following the 2005 blast.

If you or someone you love has been hurt or killed working under unsafe conditions while the company posts huge profits, contact the Law Offices of Barry G. Doyle, P.C, a Chicago personal injury lawyer who will discuss your case during a free initial consultation.

Nursing homes are typically very busy places and are likely to get busier and more numerous as the baby boom generation ages and needs elder care. Although most medical professionals are caring and reliable, some are less so, whether for personal reasons, their own medical reasons, or because they handle the stress of overwork poorly.

Your loved one in a nursing home is highly dependent on good daily care. This includes more than just a good diet and a clean bed. Many nursing home patients need help with every basic human function, and this can put a heavy load some days on the rushed staff. Understaffing is common in nursing homes. If you have a loved one in such a place, and are wondering whether they are receiving adequate care, there are some things you can do.

Visit more often. Visit irregularly. Take notes when you visit. Talk to your loved one and learn as much as you can from them about their daily care. Talk to other patients about how they like being there, and how the staff treats them. Examine your family member’s clothing, bedding, and skin. Check to see if they have a carafe of water next to their bed. Try to get a moment with one of the nurses, to chat and learn what their day is like.

If you notice signs of neglect or abuse, speak with the nursing home administrator. If you live in the Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, or Ft. Lauderdale areas, contact Ellis, Ged & Bodden, P.A., to set up a free initial consultation. They have a lot of experience in nursing home negligence.

A jury decided that the death of a Boca Raton woman in childbirth in 2003 was "unpredictable" and "unpreventable," and not the product of medical negligence, as a lawsuit charged.

Although the woman was previously healthy, she was forced to have an emergency Caesarean when her water broke a month early and her baby was in the breach position. Attorneys for the plaintiff charged that the woman suffered wrongful death as a result of anesthesia-related complications, while the defense asserted that the woman died as a result of amniotic fluid embolism, a severe allergic reaction to fetal fluids in her blood.

Upon hearing the jury's verdict, the attorney for the plaintiff gave a revealing sour grapes statement: "They bought into the fiction of [amniotic fluid embolism]. I don't believe there is such a thing." However, amniotic fluid embolism is a well-documented medical condition with a high mortality rate. It is important for lawyers, even personal injury lawyers, to remember that despite their experience they are not doctors.

If you or a loved one has suffered as a result of medical negligence, get in touch with an experienced personal injury lawyer who knows the limits of his knowledge and will bring trusted medical experts in on your case. Contact the law firm of Barry G. Doyle, P.C, today for a complimentary evaluation of your case.

Pursuant to my previous blog enrty on the failure of air bags to deploy, General Motors settled a lawsuit brought against it over injuries she sustained in a 2003 crash in Texas when the air bags in her 1996 GMC Sonoma didn't deploy.

The lawsuit charged that the failure to deploy was not due to a mechanical defect, but to a design defect in the product, a short cut taken by engineers at GM to avoid inappropriate deployments that can also lead to injuries. When an expert witness came forward with testimony that GM had deliberately raised the crash speed thresholds too high to protect passengers in potentially life-threatening automobile accidents.

The plaintiff in the case had hit a guardrail while traveling 33 mph, a potentially lethal speed according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) figures, but her airbag did not deploy. Partly as a result, she suffered injuries to her ribs, knee, and spine.

GM maintains that its own experts would have stated that the rise in crash speed thresholds was necessary to avoid inappropriate air bag deployments and therefore actually reduced injuries, but it decided to settle the case before putting its experts on the stand.

If you have been injured in an automobile accident in which your car's airbags did not deploy, but should have, contact the experienced personal injury attorneys at Houston, Texas-area firm Kennedy-Hodges, LLP, who are prepared to discuss your claim in a free consultation, and who will never take a fee unless they win your case.

For the 100 injured in the collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minnesota, survival was just the beginning. Consider the couple Brad and Paula Coulter, both of whom were in the car with their daughters when the bridge collapsed beneath them. He suffered a spinal chord injury, well, several broken vertebrae, but escaped paralysis. She, on the other hand, suffered a serious brain injury, and the road to recovery for her goes over several key bridges.

Not the least of which is the question of how to fund her medical treatment, with neither her nor her husband working and their combined medical bills expected to exceed $ 1 million. And the state of Minnesota, who is the only party that can be held legally responsible, has a liability cap of barely $ 1 million dollars, or $10,000 per injured person, not to mention the families of the 13 dead. $10,000 is not very much in medical expenses, and it is not at all able to make up for time off from work, and especially not for those who lost a wage earner. What can be done?

The state is eager to avoid lifting the cap on its liability, even for an event so tragic as this, and one where they are clearly the only ones who could have prevented the accident. This is no 9/11, where unforeseen forces suddenly swept out of the wings to exact terrible vengeance for deeds we never considered wrong; this is a simple engineering problem: so much weight on so much concrete and steel over so much time. The state, by waiting until the last minute to conduct the repairs, and by granting permits to overweight trucks to drive over this and numerous other bridges in the state, set itself up for this disaster, and something must be done to hold the legislators, the inspectors, the transportation secretary individually responsible.

If you know someone who has been hurt in an automobile accident as a result of faulty road design and is willing to try and hold all parties responsible, contact an experienced personal injury attorney at Kennedy Hodges, LLP in the Houston, Texas area.

Although the deaths of people caused by airbags firing inappropriately caused congressional action that led to the development of so-called "smart airbags," it is likely that these new models are even more defective than the old ones. Non-deploying airbags are culpable in many more deaths than improperly deploying ones.

According to research done by Kansas City Star reporters, only 300 people have died as a result of improper airbag deployment since 1990, while 1400 people have died in crashes where airbags failed to deploy in just the five year period between 2001 and 2006. Although not all the persons killed in these crashes would have been saved had their air bags deployed, the numbers are still astounding.

We depend on the safety equipment installed in our vehicles to protect us and our loved ones in the event of an automobile accident. Automotive companies aggressively market the safety features on their vehicles, especially various airbags that are named standard as opposed to optional features. But if the airbags are defective and fail to deploy, leading to critical injuries or wrongful deaths, the automobile companies are building their profit on false promises, and trading our safety for their bottom line.

If you have been injured, or if you have lost someone you love, in an automobile accident in which the air bags failed to deploy, contact the law firm of Marc Whitehead & Associates, LLP, serving Houston, Baytown, and Galveston, who can help you get compensation for your loss.

Apparently, defective tires are responsible for more than just SUV accidents, or so said an Illinois jury which awarded $15 million to a woman disfigured and suffering for a brain injury after a May 26, 2002 motorcycle accident on Interstate 55. The jury concluded that the accident was caused by a defect in the Goodyear Dunlop motorcycle tires on the bike she was riding.

When the tire suddenly deflated, the driver lost control of the bike, which flipped, throwing the woman into the air. The driver was relatively unhurt, but the woman, who was wearing a helmet, struck her head on the pavement and suffered severe brain trauma.

The woman was in and out of a coma for over two months. She currently suffers from partial paralysis and requires around-the-clock care.

A spokesman for Goodyear admitted sympathy for the woman, but claimed the tire failure was due to underinflation of the tire and overloading of the bike. The company is reviewing the verdict and contemplating its next course of action.

If you or someone you love has suffered as a result of a defective tire or other product, contact an experienced product liability lawyer at Phoenix, Arizona firm Snyder & Wenner, P.C., who accept cases of this nature nationwide.

The family charged that the doctor and nurses at the Orthopedic & Sports Medicine Center were negligent in their aftercare, failing to properly monitor the man and also failing to properly notify the family about potential complications and side effects of the medication he was receiving. They also contend that his pain control problems should have resulted in his hospitalization rather than simply a prescription for stronger pain medication—medication that killed him, according to a coroner's report.

Although the care providers settled the suit, they failed to acknowledge responsibility. The doctor, citing compassion for the family's loss, "simply wanted to purchase peace," according to his lawyer.

Of course, this case shows that the time to address concerns about a doctor's care are immediately, rather than having to address them in a wrongful death case four years later. But if you and your loved ones have suffered as a result of medical malpractice or medical negligence, contact an experienced medical malpractice attorney at the law firm of Marc Whitehead and Associates, accepting cases in the Houston, Galveston, and Baytown areas.

Last week, the Indiana Court of Appeals upheld the worker's compensation claim of a stripper who suffered a spinal injury while doing a pole dance in the Shangri-La West club in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The injury occurred on December 20, 2001, and caused her to experience neck pain and numbness. She later underwent surgery for a herniated disc.

She said she reported the injury to her employers, but they have denied all knowledge of the injury. Suffering continuing problems and trying to cover her medical bills, the stripper filed a worker's compensation claim in 2003, receiving a verdict in her favor for a total amount of $10,000, a relatively modest sum by worker's compensation standards, but one which was appealed by the employer.

Furthermore, the appeals court ordered an investigation into whether the dancer should receive double compensation because the club did not have worker's compensation insurance at the time, something described as a temporary oversight by the club's owner.

This case, although unusual, reminds us that no matter what our line of work, the possibility for injury exists, as well as the possibility that our employer will fight tooth and nail to deny our reasonable claims for compensation. In order to make sure your personal injury does not lead to undue expenses, contact an experienced worker's compensation lawyer at the law firm of Marc Whitehead & Associates, LLP.

A recent study by the University of Pennsylvania shows that welders who work in confined spaces risk losing their sense of smell due to exposure to chemicals evaporated by the welding torch. Using the University of Pennsylvania's "scratch and sniff" Smell Identification Test (UPSIT), researchers found that the majority (88%) of welders performed more poorly than the control group.

Along with this, researchers found that all welders had elevated levels of manganese from welding rods in their blood. Manganese is a known toxin that causes brain injury, leading to impaired control of body movements and emotions. However, the loss of smell was not correlated with either elevated manganese levels or with neuropsychological damage, meaning that it was an entirely separate toxic effect of the workplace.

If you have long worked at a job where you are exposed to toxic fumes or other causes that have led to a workplace injury or disability, you need an experienced worker's compensation lawyer. In the Houston area, consult the website of Personal Injury Attorney Marc Whitehead, esq.

Among the many tactics insurance companies are trying on for size in an effort to squeeze profits from auto accident victims, among the worst is simply pretending that relevant policies do not exist. For example, a 29-year-old graphic designer and waitress from Marietta, GA, was involved in an accident in 1996. Her car was hit head-on by an SUV, fracturing her skull and crushing her face. However, she was not told for over two years that the driver of the other vehicle had $1 million in umbrella coverage for both home and auto accidents from State Farm Insurance. As she struggled to pay medical bills, she sought help from a lawyer, who was able to force the company to disclose the coverage.

This goes far beyond claims that recently decreased injury payouts are because the insurance companies are seeking to minimize fraud in soft-tissue injury claims. Obviously, the woman was not making a fraudulent claim, she had suffered a catastrophic injury, and obviously the insurance company concealed the pertinent policy.

State Farm claims that the failure to reveal the policy is due to incomplete computer files and internal miscommunication, but statistics show that in 70% of cases, State Farm concealed the existence of this form of policy. Statistically, it seems unlikely that this could possibly be due to any simple error. Rather, it seems part of a systematic attempt to minimize payouts, already admitted by the company.

If you or a loved one has been involved in an injury accident, the new insurance company policies make it necessary that you get a lawyer to follow-up. No matter what settlement you are offered, the odds are that more is being withheld. Contact Kennedy Hodges, LLP today to get an experienced personal injury lawyer in the Houston, Texas area.

A California man whose wife died at her son's 10^th birthday party has continued to press the paintball industry for warnings long after receiving $8 million from a paintball gun manufacturer. He is even returning to court with a new lawsuit. "I will not stop until there is good public warning out there. I'm going to keep fighting the fight," said Mark Contois.

Contois' wife, Colette, died in 2004 at the end of a day of fun with her husband, their son, and his friends. Per standard procedure, the players were disassembling their guns after the outing when a safety valve on the CO2 canister that propels the paintballs came loose and the canister flew into Colette's head. She died on the spot in the arms of her husband as her son watched.

Contois said that although his wife had researched the possible dangers of the sport, she believed information put forth by the industry stating that all serious risks involved could be countered with the proper use of safety equipment. What she did not know is that the year before a 15-year-old had died from exactly the same failure that would take her life.

Contois had sued the manufacturer of the gun, National Paintball Supply, and agreed to an $8 million settlement, as long as the company issued safety warnings about this particular defect through its website and through its retailers. But after the settlement, National Paintball Supply was bought by Kee Action Sports, which has not issued any warnings. Although Contois admits that there have been some modifications to the design since his wife's death, he is uncertain of the sport's safety, and he is also concerned about the thousands of older-style guns still in use.

Kee Action Sports claims to be unaware of the lawsuit.

This case is an ideal example of how one man's wrongful death suit can be a boon to us all. Product liability does not just affect you and your family: it affects us all, and it is your responsibility to make sure that dangerous defects do not claim even one more life. If you or someone you love has suffered from a defective product, contact an experienced product liability lawyer at Marc Whitehead and Associates, protecting consumers in Houston, Texas.

In Bridgeport, Connecticut, a Superior Court awarded more than $16 million to the family of a man who died of a heart attack more than a decade ago.

The jury made the award to the estate and widow of the Stamford, Connecticut man, a truck driver who was working three jobs to support his family and attain early retirement, who died in 1994 of an undiagnosed heart condition. The family accused the Stamford Medical Group of failing to diagnose and treat his cardiac disease.

The lawyer for the estate called the award one of the largest wrongful death verdicts in the state's history. "It's a validation of the injustice that was done by the negligent taking of a good man's life. This was going to be the time to enjoy the fruits of all those hard years working," the lawyer said.

The attorney for the defendant has denied that there was any medical malpractice, but he would, wouldn't he?

If someone you know has been cheated of not only their hard work, but also their life by the negligence of a doctor or hospital, you must not sit back and suffer in silence. You need to employ an experienced medical malpractice lawyer who can not only compensate you in some measure for your loss, but also force the negligent parties to admit their fault. In the Salt Lake City, Utah area, contact G. Eric Nielson & Associates, LLC.

A woman from Clay, NY was awarded $3.25 million in damages three years after the motorcycle accident that gave her a concussion. Although the woman was initially treated for cuts and bruises, she began suffering headaches, nausea, and vomiting the following day. A neurosurgeon later determined that she had suffered extensive brain injuries.

The woman was riding on the motorcycle with a man on June 4, 2004. While stopped at a light, a car rammed them from behind, throwing the woman off the bike and into the air. She landed on the road, while the man was dragged with the motorcycle a short distance.

Despite trying for years to recover from the accident, the woman was unable to return to work, and sought damages to help cover her medical expenses, damages which were awarded by the jury in the amount of $3.25 million. The man on the motorcycle with her suffered a broken leg.

The Illinois State Supreme Court has approved a test program that forces parties involved in two counties to seek mediation as a first step before going to trial. The hope is that the plan will reduce the number of trials that clog the courts, and reduce legal costs for both doctors and patients.

The rule applies to all medical malpractice cases in Madison and Bond county, Illinois, but if it proves successful, it may serve as a model for all cases state- and nation-wide. In the process, the lawyers on both sides will pick a mediator or judge on the case. If the mediator can come up with a mutually-agreeable settlement, the case will not have to go to trial.

The rule is an attempt to stem flagrant class-action lawsuits, which have been growing at an alarming rate in the state, so alarming that the state legislature passed a law capping the amount that might be awarded for "pain and suffering."

The main advantage for victims is the relative speed of the proceedings. Mediation would occur within ninety days of the deposition by plaintiffs and defendants. It would also reduce costs all around, as well as the emotional duress both patients and doctors suffer over the course of the trial.

Mediation, of course, would not eliminate the need for lawyers, but would make their jobs easier. In fact, the plan has met a favorable response from lawyers, who are happy to settle their cases sooner, which is always the lawyer's goal.

If you or someone you love has suffered from the careless negligence of a doctor or hospital, you need representation to make sure you are duly compensated. If you are in the Salt Lake City, Utah area, contact one of the skilled medical malpractice lawyers at G. Eric Nielson & Associates to get help.

The warning states that patients with severe kidney dysfunction who receive the agents are at risk for developing a debilitating and potentially fatal disease known as nephrogenic system fibrosis (NSF) or nephrogenic fibrosing dermopathy (NFD). NSF causes the skin to become tight and rigid, making it difficult for sufferers to bend their joints. It can also lead to fibrosis in internal organs that may lead to organ failure.

Although worldwide there are only 200 cases reported annually, 25 cases were reported in the specific group of gadolinium-enhanced MRI patients with severe kidney dysfunction in Denmark and Austria. How many cases that are yet to be linked to this cause are unknown.

Patients who received an MRI or MRA and begin to feel tightening or swelling of the skin, an alteration in skin texture, muscle weakness, deep bone pain, or skin lesions should immediately contact a doctor.

A full list of NSF symptoms can be found at the website of Burg Simpson Eldredge Hersh and Jardine, P.C, attorneys at law, accepting cases nationwide for Gadolinium dye-caused cases of NSF. The attorneys at Burg Simpson are experts in NSF, an emerging systematic disorder first identified in 2000. If you are suffering from this new and terrifying illness, contact an attorney that can help you. Contact Burg-Simpson today.

An ambulance driver put himself on the wrong side of the equation in a crash last year as he drove through a red light, striking a car in cross-traffic and killing the driver.

In a Pennsylvania suburb outside of Pittsburgh, the ambulance, which was not en route to an emergency call, and did not have its sirens on, when it drove through a red light. According to witnesses on the scene, the ambulance dodged around one vehicle and struck another, a Ford Bronco driven by a prison guard, who was not wearing his seat belt and died of blunt force trauma to the head.

The driver of the ambulance and his passenger were returning to base from a call. He entered a plea of not guilty to charges of vehicular homicide and reckless driving. His lawyer claims that he did not express "conscious disregard" of traffic laws, and that he was simply "negligent," but not, in the words of the law, grossly so. The lawyer pointed to the driver's previously clean record and police data that neither vehicle was speeding.

In response, the district attorney argued that anyone who goes through a red light at a busy intersection is "grossly negligent." He pointed out that "There's a risk someone's going to be hit and could be killed," to which I would have to agree.

Some of the worst crimes in our society are when those who we trust to save lives turn around and take them instead. In these cases, it is especially crucial to make sure that medical personnel are not negligent in their duty. If you or someone you love has suffered at the hands of a negligent medical professional, contact a personal injury attorney at the law firm of G. Eric Nielson & Associates, serving the Salt Lake City area.

In talking about a recent motorcycle accident, George Clooney and girlfriend Sarah Larson were able to laugh it up. Although Clooney admitted that his work contract explicitly stated he was not to be on his bike during his current project, the movie star was unapologetic and gave only a mischievous grin.

Both Clooney and Larson were wearing helmets at the time so avoided brain injuries, although Larson did suffer a broken toe. Both also suffered bruises and road rash. The crash occurred when Clooney illegally attempted to pass a car on the right.

Although sore, Clooney was thankful that his injuries would not affect the shooting schedule of his current film, knowing that the injuries were not eligible for workman's compensation.

If you've been involved in a traffic accident with a car, or a truck or public bus, chances are you are not so lucky as this megastar. If you or a loved one has suffered catastrophic injury or even death as a result of a traffic accident, contact the Phoenix area experienced personal injury attorneys at Snyder & Wenner, P.C. today.