The Injury Lawyer Directory Blog

Five people died in an auto accident in Tennessee last Friday night. Four out of the five were cheerleaders at a local high school. The SUV carrying the girls crashed into an oncoming vehicle shortly after the girls left their school's football game.

The fatal accident was caused by wet and foggy road conditions. The SUV hydroplaned, flipped on its side and crossed into the oncoming traffic lane. It burst into flames immediately upon hitting an oncoming car.

The girls in the SUV were not wearing their seat belts. All of them died in the accident. The driver of the other car and her 10-month-old child were injured and hospitalized. Another passenger in the car had a miscarriage from injuries sustained in the crash.

It is important to consult an experienced personal injury lawyer after being injured in an auto accident. You might be able to receive compensation for your injuries.

If you have been injured in an auto accident in the Chattanooga, Tennessee area, please contact the law offices of Herbert Thornbury, Esquire today to schedule an initial consultation.

The Mississippi Supreme Court upheld a $4 million verdict in a medical malpractice case against Hospice Ministries and Dr. William Causey, but they reversed the $500,000 award for punitive damages.

The lawsuit was related to an incident in 2001 when Ersel Alllen was misdiagnosed with pancreatic cancer and then given a lethal dose of painkillers. Allen's autopsy revealed that she never in fact had cancer.

According to Allen's attorneys, massive doses of the painkiller Dilaudid led to her death. The attorney representing Dr. Causey and the hospice claims that Allen's death resulted from a number of factors, and would have occurred even if she hadn't taken the painkillers.

Dr. Causey's lawyers appealed the verdict mostly to prevent it from setting a personal injury law precedent. He claims hospice patients often build up a tolerance to their medications and therefore need more potent dosages.

If you have suffered injuries as a result of medical malpractice, it is important to consult an experienced personal injury lawyer who can help you receive fair and proper compensation for your damages.

If you have a medical malpractice claim in the Jackson, Mississippi area, please contact the law offices of Coxwell & Associates, PLLC today to schedule an initial consultation.

A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed against a River Falls Bar for an incident occurring in February 2007. Joseph Roscoe was escorted out of The Library bar by bouncers for being "obviously intoxicated." He was eventually found unconscious in the alley behind the bar and died 10 days later.

The lawsuit is being filed by Roscoe's mother and brother. They claim that the bouncers were negligent in the way they handled the situation by causing Roscoe to trip, stumble, and fall several times. He hit his head on the ground, causing serious injuries that ultimately led to his death.

Employees at the bar deny all negligent behavior. They claim that Roscoe was simply kicked out of the bar for being extremely drunk and causing a ruckus. No criminal charges were filed against the bar.

Roscoe suffered a blood clot in his brain which led to a stroke. He was comatose for awhile before dying in the hospital.

Roscoe's family is seeking to recover damages for his medical expenses and funeral costs, which totaled over $250,000. They are also seeking damages for pain and suffering.

The lawsuit claims that the bar managers were negligent in their hiring and training practices, and in their supervision of their staff.

If you have a wrongful death claim in the Chicago, Illinois area, please contact the law offices of Barry G. Doyle, P.C. today to schedule an initial consultation.

Jesse Schaffer, a 7-year-old boy from Ft. Lupton, CO, was rushed to the hospital by helicopter last weekend after being attacked by a local dog.

Schaffer was playing football with his friends at the time of the incident. He ran behind a shed to retrieve the football and was bitten in the face by the dog. Schaffer needed emergency surgery on his face and head to heal the wounds from the dog bite.

The dog's owners received citations for not having a dog license, not having rabies shots, and for having a dangerous animal. They have expressed concern for Schaffer and have fully cooperated with the investigation.

It is still uncertain what caused the dog to attack the young boy. Schaffer's family has not indicated whether or not they will file a personal injury lawsuit against the dog's owners for the incident.

It is important to consult with an experienced personal injury attorney if you have been attacked by a dog. You may be eligible to collect damages to compensate you for your injuries and emotional trauma.

If you have been the victim of a dog bite in the Denver, Colorado area, please contact the law offices of Burg Simpson Eldredge Hersh & Jardine, P.C. today to schedule an initial consultation.

While you may feel safe knowing that the smoke detectors in your home will alert you of impending fires, you can't always bank on them. Smoke detectors fail to perform all the time, and the results are frequently catastrophic for the family involved.

There are very few defective products that are more dangerous to our lives than a faulty smoke detector. The stakes are just too high. When your smoke detector fails to function properly, you are looking at thousands of dollars of property damage, and potentially serious injuries or even death for one or more family members.

Kidde has been marketing an ionization smoke detector which has malfunctioned on several occasions, leading to numerous injuries and deaths that could have been prevented had the smoke detector worked properly.

Calling this device a "smoke detector" is actually a misnomer. Ionization smoke detectors respond to heat, not smoke. Ionization technology is meant to pick up fast flaming fires that don't give off very much smoke. Frequently, it will not detect slow smoldering, smoky fires. Unfortunately, these are the most common types of fires that start up in your home. Among them are kitchen fires, grease fires, and electrical fires.

To detect these fires, you really need a photoelectric smoke detector. Unfortunately, while Kidde is marketing their ionization smoke detector as a device that will more effectively warn you of fires in your home, the product is not delivering on this promise. The results have been dire in certain situations, leading several families to file defective product lawsuits against Kidde.

If you or a family member has been injured as a result of a defective product, you should contact an experienced personal injury lawyer, preferably one who specializes in defective products claims. Hiring the right attorney will help you receive fair compensation for your losses.

If you have been injured by a defective Kidde ionization smoke detector in the Mobile, Alabama area, please contact the law offices of Long & Waite today to schedule an initial consultation.

A woman has filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against the hospital where she had her tubes tied, claiming they didn't perform the operation correctly.

The woman became pregnant five years after undergoing the procedure. The surgeon who delivered her baby discovered that one of the clips used in the operation had been placed on a ligament instead of the right fallopian tube. The woman also claims that the hospital never performed a necessary servicing of an applicator used in the procedure.

She suffered abdominal scarring as a result of the caesarean birth process. She claims that she has suffered physical and psychological damage as a result of the hospital's negligent actions. She is asking for compensation for costs of raising an unwanted child and loss of wages, as well as for the physical and psychological trauma she has endured.

If you have been the victim of medical malpractice, it is important to consult an experienced personal injury attorney who can help you receive the maximum compensation you are entitled as a result of your damages.

If you have a medical malpractice case in the New York City area, please contact the law offices of Silberstein, Awad & Miklos, P.C. today to schedule and initial consultation.

On October 17, a Florida jury ordered the Citizens Property Insurance Corp. to pay close to $1 million in damages to the Sunglow Condominium Resorts for failure to provide proper coverage after hurricanes Charley and Frances in 2004.

The jury found that the $370,000 Citizens paid out to the condo complex did not nearly come close to fulfilling their financial obligations to cover damage created from the hurricanes. Currently, there are about 2,000 other unresolved claims against Citizens stemming from the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons. In most of these cases, the plaintiffs have argued that Citizens is guilty of lowballing their clients' damage estimates.

After their successful verdict last week, Sunglow plans to file another lawsuit against Citizens for bad faith practices. Since Citizens is a government insurer, they fall in a gray area regarding bad faith claims. At the moment, it is uncertain whether the court will find that they are immune from bad faith claims due to their government insurer status.

While the $950,000 verdict was clearly a victory for the condominium association, it was much less than the $5 million they were asking for. However, this victory should pave the way for similar judgments against Citizens in many of their other pending claims.

The damage and destruction caused by hurricanes result in millions of dollars in property damage across the southeast and Gulf regions each year. Many insurance companies frequently try to minimize their liability by offering clients unfairly low settlements or denying their claim outright due to a technicality. If you feel that your insurance company hasn't dealt fairly with you, it is important to consult an experienced bad faith insurance attorney who can help you receive what is rightfully yours.

If you have a bad faith insurance claim in the Orlando, Florida area, please contact the law offices of Colling Gilbert Wright & Carter today to schedule an initial consultation.

The Philadelphia VA Medical Center has recently come under investigation after errors were discovered in the treatment plans administered to cancer patients.

The hospital has been running a treatment program for veterans suffering from prostate cancer since 2002. To date, 114 patients have been treated under this program, which was suspended last spring when an error in treatment procedures was detected.

The men in the program were undergoing brachytherapy, a process where iodine pellets are implanted in the prostate to destroy the cancer cells. This treatment is generally reserved for low-risk cases of prostate cancer.

Last spring, officials discovered that one patient had received a radiation dosage that was considerably lower than what was prescribed. This sparked an investigation into the hospital's practices, which found that 55 of the 114 cancer patients received a dosage that was less than 80% of what was recommended.

The 55 men who received substandard treatment have been informed of the medical error. Currently, VA doctors are reviewing their medical histories to see if any additional measures need to be taken to mitigate possible damage caused by the treatment error.

To date, two men in the program have died. However, a hospital spokesman has stated that both deaths were not caused by their prostate cancer or by their treatment. Currently, there have not been any medical malpractice lawsuits filed by any of the veterans or their families.

If you have a medical malpractice claim in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area, please contact the law firm of Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis LLP today for an initial consultation.

A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed against former Louisiana police officer Scott Nugent, Louisiana city officials, and Taser International in relation to a police brutality incident last January.

Baron Pikes, a 21-year-old from Winnfield, LA, died of cardiac arrest brought on by multiple taser shots. Pike was tasered nine times by police officer Scott Nugent before his heart gave out. Each taser blast pumped 50,000 volts of electricity into Pikes, who was in handcuffs before ever receiving the first shot.

Nugent was arresting Pikes on a drug possession charge. Winn Parish District Attorney Chris Nevils has charged Nugent with manslaughter, claiming that he used unnecessary force on Pikes by continuously administering taser shots after he had subdued his suspect. Nugent also failed to secure medical attention for Pikes after he collapsed. He was dismissed from the police force after the incident.

This is not the first time that police officers around the country have faced criticism for excessive use of tasers. While they were provided to police officers as a method of protection against hostile and potentially armed suspects, there have been many allegations of police abuse in conjunction with these weapons.

The wrongful death lawsuit was filed by Pikes' wife. He had a four-year-old child who will now grow up fatherless.

If you know someone who has been the victim of a wrongful death case in the Houston, Texas area, please contact the law offices of Kennedy Hodges, L.L.P. today for an initial consultation.

The Hueneme school district in Ventura County, California has been sued in relation to a shooting at one of its middle schools last February.

Larry King, a 15-year-old eighth-grader at E.O. Green Junior High School, was shot and killed by a classmate, Brandon McInerney last winter. McInerny was charged as an adult for murder and committing a hate crime. He pleaded not guilty to the charges last week.

King's parents and brother have filed a personal injury claim against the school district for failing to enforce the dress code. The school allowed King, a gay teenager, to wear makeup and feminine clothing at school. King's family insists that their son's attire brought needless attention to his sexual orientation and contributed to the events leading to his murder.

King's parents have argued that teachers and administrators knew that Larry received abuse from other students as a result of his sexual orientation. They are claiming that the school didn't take the proper steps to prevent this abuse. Their negligence in part led to the violent incident that ended in Larry's wrongful death last February.

If you have a wrongful death case in the Phoenix, Arizona area, please contact the law offices of Snyder & Wenner, P.C. today for an initial consultation.

Pfizer Inc. has recently reached a settlement for the legal claims against two of their products, Celebrex and Bextra. They will pay $894 million, avoiding litigation on many of the claims against these two painkillers for causing heart attacks and strokes.

There were about 8,000 lawsuits filed against Pfizer after Vioxx, a similar drug made by a competitor, was recalled for producing the same side effects in 2004. Pfizer pulled Bextra from the market in 2005 after it was found to cause a rare skin condition. Celebrex, however, remains on the market to this day and pulls in over $2.3 billion a year for the pharmaceutical company.

As part of the settlement, Pfizer is required to pay $60 million to 33 states and the District of Columbia for allegations of illegally promoting Bextra. They will also pay $89 million to cover consumer fraud lawsuits.

This settlement is considerably less than the $4.85 billion Merck paid to resolve their cases involving Vioxx.

Last November, a U.S. District Judge ruled that there wasn't enough scientific evidence to prove that Celebrex led to heart attacks or strokes at a 200 milligram dosage, even though one study had already proven that a 400 milligram dosage triples your chance of heart attack and stroke. This ruling crippled the cases against Celebrex and paved the way for Pfizer to settle the Bextra cases.

The pharmaceutical company didn't admit to any wrongdoing in the settlement.

If you have suffered an injury or illness as the result of a defective drug in the Tulsa and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma area, please contact the law offices of Carr & Carr today for an initial consultation.

The state of Pennsylvania has enacted a series of laws that clearly outline the responsibilities of owners of dangerous dogs, and the consequences for failing to abide by them.

Pennsylvania has set up the following criteria for classifying a dog as "dangerous." The dog has either:

• Severely injured a human without being provoked
  
• Killed or severely injured a domestic animal without being provoked
  
• Attacked a human without being provoked
  
• Been used to commit a crime
  

Furthermore, the dog must either have a history of or a propensity for attacking humans without provocation. If your dog is involved in one violent incident, you can be held liable for harboring a dangerous dog.

Pennsylvania law identifies two different people as being potentially liable in a dangerous dog case -- the owner and the keeper. You are considered a keeper of a dangerous dog if you have it in your possession and allow it to stay on your property.

Harboring a dangerous dog is both a civil and criminal offense. If your dog attacks and injures a person or an animal, you can be held liable in a personal injury lawsuit. If it can be proven that you intended your dog to attack, you will face a criminal misdemeanor charge as well.

You are legally allowed to keep a dangerous dog as long as you follow certain guidelines. You must pay a fee and register the dog with the state. You will need to prove that your house contains an enclosed area for the dog. You will need to carry at least $50,000 in liability insurance. If your dog runs away, attacks someone, or is sold, you must inform the police within 24 hours.

If you have been attacked by a dangerous dog, you should consult an experienced dog bite attorney immediately. You may be entitled to collect damages to compensate you for your loss.

If you have been injured by a dangerous dog, please visit the Personal Injury Lawyer Directory to schedule a consultation with a personal injury attorney in your area.

A Myrtle Beach grand jury has indicted a local man on felony DUI and reckless homicide charges in relation to an accident occurring on May 11.

On the night of the accident, the local man hit two people on a motorcycle at the corner of Kings Highway and Wild Wood Dunes Trail. The man was driving a brand new Ford pickup truck. The motorcycle driver, Angelo Gonzalez, was killed in the accident. His girlfriend, Suzie Reader, was seriously injured in the crash.

The pickup truck driver made a left turn, cutting off the motorcycle and causing the crash. The truck driver fled the accident scene immediately, returning on foot later in the evening while police were still investigating the crash.

The man failed to inform the police that he had been involved in the accident. However, a witness who was still at the scene identified him as the driver of the pickup. The man admitted to having two or three drinks at a party earlier in the night.

The police administered a field sobriety test on the man, which he failed. His blood alcohol level was determined to be .15.

This is the second time this man has been involved in a fatal auto accident. Previously, he hit a 21-year-old college student as he was walking across the street. While he was never charged in that incident, the student's family suspected he was drinking when he hit their son.

The family collected $25,000 in a personal injury lawsuit as a result of their son's death in the auto accident.

If you have been injured in a motor vehicle accident in the Charlotte, North Carolina area, please contact the law office of Robert J. Dewey, P.A. today for an initial consultation.

The New York State Health Department concluded that Stony Brook University Medical Center failed to diagnose a heart condition in one of their patients, leading to his untimely death.

William Gonzalez, a 6-year-old boy, was treated by Stony Brook Medical Center on three separate occasions in August and September of 2007. William had been vomiting regularly and was unable to hold down any food. His parents originally brought him to Brookhaven Memorial Hospital, where he was diagnosed with gastrointestinal reflux. Brookhaven then referred Gonzalez to Stony Brook for further treatment.

Stony Brook saw Gonzalez three times, and each time treated him for stomach problems, when in fact he was suffering from a heart condition. On his second visit to Stony Brook, an abdominal x-ray revealed that Gonzalez had an enlarged heart. However, the hospital has no documentation that this condition was dealt with at the time.

On September 11, his third and final trip to the hospital, Gonzalez received a chest x-ray which verified the enlarged heart condition. Several hours later, Gonzalez was dead.

The state report indicated that Stony Brook failed to check his heart until it was too late to save his life. It also criticized the hospital for not evaluating all possible causes of his vomiting problems. Ultimately, Stony Brook Medical Center was found to have provided inadequate treatment of Gonzalez's condition.

This is not the first time Stony Brook Medical Center has been accused of medical malpractice. In 2006, four families accused the hospital of misdiagnosing their children's heart conditions as a reflux issue. State investigations of these claims failed to find sufficient evidence against the hospital to warrant a law suit.

If you have been the victim of medical malpractice in the Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, and Long Island areas, please contact Silberstein, Awad & Miklos, P.C. today for an initial consultation.

On Saturday, October 11, a tank at the Indspec Chemical Corp. plant in Petrolia, Pennyslvania overflowed releasing a toxic liquid. The chemical, olueum, is similar in composition to sulfuric acid. It evaporated into a toxic cloud that spread through the town. Approximately 2,500 people fled Petrolia. Three people were injured from the chemical.

Oleum has the potential to cause serious respiratory damage and skin burns. Residents living within two miles of the accident were warned of the potential dangers and urged to evacuate. Those who left Petrolia went to shelters in neighboring towns. It is still uncertain when they will be able to return home.

Currently, there are no reports of injuries at the chemical plant. The crew on duty did an excellent job of containing the spill. Saturday night, the chemical cloud could be seen moving westward through the town. All residents who chose not to evacuate were told to stay in their houses, shutting all doors, windows, and vents. Any air systems pulling in air from outside were expressly ordered to be shut off, and fires were forbidden in fireplaces.

It is still uncertain whether or not the three injured people will file a personal injury lawsuit against the chemical plant.

If you have been the victim of an accident caused by someone else's negligence in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area, please contact the law offices of Pomerantz Perlburger & Lewis LLP today to schedule an initial consultation.

Mike Herrera, a 58-year-old restaurant owner in Dallas, died of a heart attack after waiting 19 hours in the emergency room before seeing a doctor.

Mike went to Parkland Memorial Hospital with stabbing pains in his stomach. At the time of his arrival, 164 people were in the emergency room waiting to see a doctor. Over the next 19 hours, 180 more people would wait patiently for treatment in the ER.

By the time Herrera was able to see a doctor, he had gone into cardiac arrest. Doctors spent over two hours trying to save his life, but ultimately there was nothing they could do. The medical staff claimed they did everything in their power to save Herrera's life, and argued that had he been examined sooner, they might have sent him home without treatment.

Parkland Memorial Hospital has had a long history of emergency room problems related to overcrowding. In 2004, one in ten patients left the emergency room without seeing a doctor. Since then, that figure has increased to one in five. Parkland Memorial claims that this problem stems from a lack of beds.

The autopsy determined that clogged arteries were the ultimate cause of Herrera's death, although his diabetes and morbid obesity played a role as well. His family contends that had he been examined more promptly, he most likely would have survived the heart attack.

If you live in the Beaumont, Orange, and Port Arthur, Texas area and have a medical malpractice claim, please contact the law offices of Bush Lewis P.L.L.C. today for an initial consultation.

The Beebe Medical Center in Lewes, Delaware, is being sued for medical malpractice in a case where they declared a living woman dead.

In May, 2007, Judith Johnson went to the Beebe Medical Center believing she had indigestion. In reality, she was having a heart attack. Shortly after arriving, Judith went into cardiac arrest. The hospital staff gave her multiple medicines and synchronized shocks, but failed to provide her with supplemental oxygen.

According to the medical records, she never regained her pulse and was declared dead. However, someone working at the morgue noticed that the newly arrived corpse was still breathing.

Judith has suffered permanent brain damage as a result of the incident. While she can still walk and talk, she currently experiences liver damage, chest pain, memory loss, speech deficits, altered personality, seizures, and permanent neurological injury.

The Johnsons are seeking both punitive and compensatory damages from the hospital and medical staff for the way they handled Judith's case.

The hospital insists that while rare, there have been other cases where a person has spontaneously returned to life after being declared dead.

If you have a medical malpractice claim in the Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia area, please contact Chaikin, Sherman, Cammarata, & Siegel P.C. today for an initial consultation.

A mother and daughter were rescued from a carnival ride just outside of Daytona Beach, Florida on October 4. One woman watched the incident for over 10 minutes, fearing that the woman would lose her grip and fall at any minute.

Sherri Pinkerton and her daughter Gracie were dangling 35 feet above the ground from the carnival's "Crazy Bus" ride. Sherri grabbed hold of her daughter for as long as she could, but eventually she was unable to maintain her grip on the ride while holding Gracie. She eventually let go and Gracie started clutching at her shirt.

Fearing that they would both fall to their death, Sherri pried her daughter's grip loose, allowing her to fall to the ground where several other carnival-goers were there to catch her. Sherri continued to hang on for dear life until firefighters came and rescued her with a ladder. There were six other children still inside the ride when she was rescued.

Sherri and Gracie were exiting the ride when it suddenly lifted off the ground, forcing the two to hang on to the side of the ride. Currently, it is uncertain whether the incident was due to a malfunction in the ride or an error by the operator.

If you have suffered an amusement park accident in the Jacksonville, Florida area, please contact Hardesty Tyde Green & Ashton, P.A. to schedule your initial consultation.

A recent study indicates that traffic deaths occur more frequently on days when we have a presidential election. The study analyzes auto accident statistics on presidential election days from the 1976 election to the present compared with other Tuesdays in October and November.

On average, there are 24 more fatal auto accidents during voting hours on presidential election days than on ordinary Tuesdays. Furthermore, 800 more people have suffered serious injuries in car crashes on Election Day. Overall, the study indicates that you are 18% more likely to be part of a fatal motor vehicle accident on Election Day.

Surprisingly, there have been increased incidents of accidents on each presidential election since 1976. It's not as if there were one or two elections that produced drastically more accidents than the others.

Speculation over the cause of this trend has produced few viable explanations. The most likely reason behind these findings is that many people are rushing to get to the polls from work. Since the polls are often located at unfamiliar locations, this could cause many drivers to be distracted.

This doesn't mean that you should refrain from exercising your right to vote. However, it might be safer to walk to the polls.

If you have been involved in an auto accident in the West Palm Beach, Florida area, please contact the law offices of Ellis, Ged & Bodden P.A. today for an initial consultation.

Police were investigating a child abuse complaint in a Maryland home when they stumbled upon the frozen remains of two girls. Their adoptive mother claims that the girls have been the freezer for at least 7 months. They were 9 and 11 years old.

Police came to the house following up on a case regarding a 7-year-old runaway. She had been found roaming the neighborhood in a blood-and-feces-soaked shirt. She had several injuries
and was very hungry.

The mother is currently being charged with first-degree child abuse in the case of the 7-year-old-girl. Pending an autopsy of the two frozen girls, she may face homicide charges as well.

A neighbor found the young girl on the street. When he asked if she was OK, she told him that her mother "beats me to death all the time." The girl had escaped from her house by jumping out of a second floor window. Her mother had recently beaten her with a shoe. She had sores and lesions on her buttocks and thighs, bruises on her hands and lips, and strangulation marks around her neck, most likely caused some type of rope.

If you know someone who has been a victim of child abuse in the Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia area, please contact the experienced attorneys at Stipe & Belote, LLP today.

A Woodstock, Illinois nursing home has been the subject of scandal and controversy. The nursing home is being investigated for six suspicious deaths occurring in 2006.

Two former employees may face criminal charges for the deaths. The primary charge they are facing is neglect.

The investigation has revealed that a former nurse administered "medication cocktails" to patients whom she believed had lived long enough or who were simply too difficult to take care of. These cocktails resulted in the deaths of several residents. At the moment, the identity of the nurse involved is still a secret.

Currently, the state of care provided to our country's elderly is in complete disarray. A recent study has found that over 90% of the nation's nursing homes are guilty of some form of abuse or neglect.

While there certainly are reprehensible examples of abuse such as the one mentioned above, the vast majority are the result of understaffing issues. Most of the nursing home abuse and neglect issues in our country stem from the fact that many facilities simply don't have an adequate staff to properly care for their residents.

The rampant abuse found in nursing homes today must be dealt with in a serious manner. If you have a family member who has been a victim of such abuse, you must seek the help of a lawyer experienced in dealing with nursing home abuse and neglect cases. The only way we are going to ensure that our elderly receive the level of care that they deserve is by holding nursing homes legally accountable for their actions.

If you have a relative who is suffering from nursing home abuse and neglect in the Chicago, Illinois area, please contact the law offices of Barry G. Doyle, P.C. today for an initial consultation.

Cephalon, Inc., a major drug manufacturing company in the United States, settled a lawsuit in which they were charged with "off-label" marketing of their pharmaceuticals. "Off-label" marketing refers to the practice of marketing a drug for a use other than what it received FDA approval for.

Cephalon will pay $425 million to the federal government for their transgressions. They will also be responsible for paying $12 million in interest, $6.15 million to the state of Connecticut and $700,000 to the state of Massachusetts to cover the cost of investigations into these allegations.

The pharmaceutical company marketed three drugs for uses that they were not approved for. They marketed Actiq, a very addictive narcotic substance only approved for cancer patients, for migraines. They also marketed Gabitril, a drug used to treat epilepsy, for anxiety, insomnia, and pain. The third drug, Provigil, is a narcolepsy drug. Cephalon marketed this drug for fatigue.

While doctors can legally prescribe drugs for uses other than what the FDA has approved, it is illegal for pharmaceutical companies to market their products in such a way.

If you think that you have a product liability case and you live in the Houston, Texas area, please contact the law offices of Kennedy Hodges, L.L.P. today for an initial consultation. Their experienced staff can help ensure that you receive fair compensation for your damages.

A federal report issued earlier this week declared that over 90% of nursing homes across the country were cited with violations of federal health and safety codes in 2007. According to the report, for-profit homes were the worst offenders, racking up more violations than their non-profit counterparts.

Daniel R. Levinson, inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services, stated that 17% of nursing homes had deficiencies that harmed patients or put them in "immediate jeopardy." Some of the most commonly cited violations included bedsores, medication mix-ups, malnutrition, and abuse and neglect of patients.

The inspector general's report indicated that 94% of for-profit nursing homes were cited for violations, while 88% of nonprofit homes and 91% of government homes received citations. For-profit nursing homes also had the highest average number of violations per home.

The proportion of nursing homes cited for deficiency violations varied from state to state. Rhode Island registered the lowest percentage of homes cited for violations (76%) while in Alaska, Idaho, Wyoming, and the District of Columbia, 100% of the nursing homes had major violations.

Clearly, our country's nursing homes are not adequately serving our elderly. Levinson claims that many homes fail to provide proper care due to understaffing issues. Most of the homes that were evaluated as providing better care had higher staff/patient ratios.

If you have a family member who has been a victim of nursing home abuse and neglect, you have rights. It is important to consult an experienced personal injury lawyer to make sure that your relative is fairly compensated for any wrongdoings and damages committed by the nursing home.

If your loved one has been a victim of nursing home abuse or neglect in the Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia area, please contact the law offices of Chaikin, Sherman, Cammarata, & Siegel P.C. today for an initial consultation.