Man Shot by Police 20 Years Ago Denied Award
Darryl Barnes was initially awarded $76.4 million by a jury when he was shot in the back and paralyzed by a police officer 20 years ago. That was then reduced to $8.9 million by a trial judge. Now, Barnes will receive nothing except a bill for $100 for court costs.
The Shooting
On August 22, 1988 in New York, Officer Franz Jerome spotted Barnes running with a Tec-9 semiautomatic pistol. According to prosecutors, Jerome identified himself as a police officer and ordered Barnes to stop, but Barnes kept running. There was a short chase and Barnes fired a shot at Jerome. Jerome fired back, hitting Barnes. Barnes claims he was shot point-blank after he dropped the gun. He alleges he picked up the gun during a fight with two other men and did not see Jerome. He also claims Jerome was not in uniform.
The Aftermath
After 20 years and tens of thousands of dollars spent on court costs, the Court of Appeals refused to hear Barnes' attempt to recoup millions of dollars two different juries ordered the city to pay him. The awards were reversed by a midlevel appeals court. The first appeal brought by the city in 1998 was the result of the city arguing that the trial court excluded evidence that Barnes belonged to an anti-white, anti-police group. This group advocates violent resistance to arrest.
However, in March 2003, Barnes did not show up to the second trial, claiming he was physically and mentally ill. Here, Barnes was awarded $51 million, which the trial judge then reduced to $10.75 million. This second verdict was reversed and dismissed by the appeals judges because Barnes did not appear to prove he was physically and mentally ill.
Barnes' lawyer, Robert Simels is reviewing whether to take the case to the federal level and claims the Court of Appeals upheld a decision that is "1000 percent wrong." On the other hand, the city's top lawyer, Corporation Counsel Michael A. Cardozo, says, "This case became a poster child for the need for tort reform."
Whether or not the actual shooting happened in the way Barnes and his lawyer claim it did, this case has more to do with the way damages are given to those a group of 12 people believe deserve it. We have seen many cases in which city appeals have and the subsequent rulings by judges seem to believe the juries were wrong. But then, that's part of the law of the land, and one the citizens feel is probably just.
If you or a loved one has been seriously injured by a police officer, please contact a personal injury lawyer in your area.
Labels: personal injury, spinal injury
Woman Injured by Intoxicated Doctor Gets $6 Million
When Elizabeth Nelligan visited her primary physician's house for dinner in 2005, she got more than she wanted. Her mother was dating the doctor, Mark Radzicki, at the time, and this was a social visit. However, Radzicki who was allegedly drunk, staggered and stepped onto Nelligan's foot, and then fell on her. Nelligan's foot was beneath her when both she and the doctor fell. X-rays the following day didn't show anything was wrong with her foot, but follow=up X-rays showed a fracture was healing. Nelligan's injury then developed into Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD).
RSD is a chronic neurological disorder whose symptoms include tissue swelling, sensitivity to touch, and burning pain. Since the accident, Nelligan has suffered almost constant pain, dropped out of college, and gave up her plans on becoming a doctor because she feels the demands would make the pain impossible to manage. She was told that she could spend the rest of her life in this kind of pain. There was also a spinal stimulator implanted in her spine to help Nelligan deal with the pain. As a result, Nelligan, now 24 years old and taking pain medication and anti-depressants, sued Radzicki for negligence.
A Hampden (Massachusetts) Superior Court jury awarded Nelligan $5 million and another $1 million in interest on Monday.
If you have been seriously, and perhaps permanently, injured as the result of another party's negligence, please contact an experienced personal injury lawyer in your area.
Labels: personal injury
Father Accidentally Kills Own Toddler with Car
An 18-month-old girl was killed 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 one and two 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
Accidents like this are tragic enough when the happen to one family, but what about when another individual is the cause? Driveways are one location, but what about parking lots? If your child has been injured or killed due to negligence, please contact an experienced injury lawyer in your area. Labels: personal injury
For those who suffer medical malpractice, sometimes not even a lawyer will help
I have written before about not all complications as a result of surgery being malpractice. However, one sad feature of our current medical system is that it often doesn't matter whether a person's suffering is caused by medical malpractice or not, it is sometimes impossible to recover damages. Consider the case of an Atlanta woman who had a hysterectomy, a laparoscopic procedure that normally takes about a week to recover from. However, as a result of complications from the procedure, she is still recovering four months later, having spent thousands of dollars out-of-pocket and lost thousands more in wages. The complications are as a result of an expected complication of the surgery, a routine surgical error, the nicking of the ureter, the tube that carries urine from the kidney to the bladder, during the surgery. In many countries, the national health care system takes care of people even when complications arise during surgery. In New Zealand, Sweden, or Canada, the woman's expenses would be covered, both those incurred as a result of the surgery and as a result of the unforeseen complications. However, in the United States, where every medical expense comes out of pocket even when you are insured, the woman's only viable option is filing a lawsuit for compensation. In malpractice and defective drug cases, the legal tort portion of the system is often the only one that seems to work consistently. But not always. When this woman consulted with personal injury lawyers, she found that she had fallen into an unfortunate gap in the only thing we have resembling a safety net. Lawyers refused to take her case because her damages were too low. To personal injury lawyers, $50,000 is a pittance, not worth pursuing. Unfortunately, for most people $50,000 is an unbearable expense. It can wipe out savings, forcing a person to get an additional mortgage, if they don't already have one in this bad mortgage market. If we are seriously considering tort reform, one portion of the reform must work to close this gap, the gap between what most people can afford to pay in the event of medical complications, and what personal injury lawyers are willing to pursue. In the absence of a true safety net, let's at least make the holes in this one a little smaller. Labels: medical malpractice, personal injury, surgical malpractice
Ohio Law Limiting Damages for Pain & Suffering Upheld
The Ohio Supreme Court has upheld a law limiting non-economic damages in tort lawsuits, including pain, suffering, loss of consortium, etc. The 2004 law, known as Senate Bill 80, does not limit easily calculated damages, such as lost wages or medical costs, but it does limit the noneconomic portions of damages to $250,000 or three times the economic damages (up to $500,000), whichever is greater. The law also limits punitive damages for dangerous drugs and hazardous products to only twice the actual economic damages, which is a boon for pharmaceutical companies and manufacturers, who regularly factor catastrophic injury or death to a few individuals against millions or billions of dollars worth of sales. The limitation of punitive damages means that companies will never have to worry about the ramifications of maliciously concealing or manipulating data to put an unsafe product on the market as long as the wrongful deaths caused are quick and cheap, no matter how painful or tragic. The specific case that initiated the ruling was a multi-state mass tort action against Johnson and Johnson, over the Ortho Evra birth control patch, which led to fatal and potentially fatal blood clots in thousands of women. The limitations on the awards in each case make it more imperative than ever that each person who receives an injury as a result of a defective product or drug comes forward to punish the manufacturer and show them they cannot profit off the misery of others. If you or someone you love has suffered as a result of the negligence or wanton misconduct of a manufacturer, contact product liability lawyer Robert W. Kerpsack at Robert W. Kerpsack Co, LPA, to put your lawsuit in motion. Labels: defective pharmaceutical, defective product, noneconomic damages, Ohio, personal injury, wrongful death
$6 million settlement in Big Dig tunnel collapse death
The epoxy supplier whose product was blamed for the fatal tunnel collapse in one of Boston's Big Dig tunnels on July 10, 2006, has agreed to a $6 million settlement. The company, Powers Fasteners, Inc, has said that it informed contractors that its epoxy was unsafe to use for ceiling panels and would pull away over time. Company officials have stated that the epoxy was clearly intended for short-term loading only, and was not a defective product because it was never designed to be used for holding up ceiling tiles for extended periods of time. And, clearly, it was not sufficient to the task, when it failed, allowing 26 tons of concrete ceiling to crash down on cars below, killing one woman, whose husband is the plaintiff in the suit. Any modeler knows these shortcomings of glues, that they are more susceptible to slow failure when put under consistent loads, and it seems only reasonable to assume that the other defendants in the wrongful death lawsuit, all experienced contractors and subcontractors, should have known this, too. However, they did not heed the warning, if they received it, setting the stage for the deadly construction accident in the midst of the country's most expensive highway construction project ever. Despite this settlement, other contractors are continuing to deny responsibility, and the court seems to be agreeing with them, since the epoxy manufacturer was the only one named as a criminal defendant. However, it seems impossible that the contractors and subcontractors who relied on this epoxy to perform a role for which it was clearly unsuited were not also negligent, and we can only hope that they will either step up or be forced to take responsibility for their part in this tragedy. If you or someone you love has been hurt or killed in an automotive or construction accident in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, contact the experienced personal injury lawyers at Pomerantz, Perlberger, & Lewis, LLP today to schedule your free initial consultation. Labels: auto accident, construction accident, defective product, personal injury, wrongful death
Nursing Home Abuse Citations Up 22%
From 2000 to 2006, citations for nursing homes putting residents in "imminent jeopardy" rose by 22%. Imminent jeopardy means that patients were suffering from physical abuse, injurious falls, malnutrition, bedsores, left unmedicated, and other potentially fatal circumstances. The statistics are according to the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which regulates nursing homes. However, officials point out that the increase in citations does not necessarily mean that nursing home conditions have worsened. In fact, it may be a sign that better care is on the horizon. The increased citation level is partly a measure of increased frequency of inspections. However, the inspectors did reveal almost 2,000 such violations last year, meaning that thousands of patients were put in harm's way by their nursing homes. Unfortunately, although the inspection system was put in place to protect residents, the increased level of citations does not appear to be improving the quality of care, as the level of citations this year seems to be roughly the same as last. Part of the ineffectualness of the inspections may be that the level of fines is too low. Perhaps the only way to correct the dangerous practices of nursing homes is to make endangering residents unprofitable. If someone you love has been put in imminent jeopardy by a nursing home in the Chicago area, contact the experienced nursing home abuse lawyer Barry G. Doyle, to really penalize these harmful practices. Labels: nursing home abuse, personal injury, wrongful death
Golf balls rain regret on house purchase
A family in Ventura County, California, is trying to get their purchase of a $2.1 million house rescinded because the house suffers a daily rain of potentially deadly golf balls. When the man mows his lawn, he dons a suit of improvised gear to protect himself against severe brain and spinal injury from falling golf balls. He points out that his ability to work would be seriously impaired by any such injury. In addition, the family does not let their dog or children out into the yard—which had been one of the selling points for the house—because of the as many as 28 balls which fall into their lawn on a daily basis. Although some may blame the family for buying the house near the fairway of a tight hole without properly evaluating the slice of the course's average golfer, misrepresentation of a property is a serious problem when one is considering purchasing real estate. If you feel you have been mislead as to the character of a property you purchased in the Denver, Colorado area, contact the experienced real estate lawyers at Zakhem | Atherton, LLC today to learn what options you might have. Labels: brain injury, personal injury, real estate
First Lawsuit Filed in Nov 30 Chicago Train Accident
It is common to hear about truck accidents and auto accidents, but far less common are train accidents. However, when they occur, they can be serious. On November 30, just such an accident occurred on Chicago's South Side, causing 60 people on an Amtrak train to suffer injuries when it struck a Norfolk Southern freight train. Although the speed limit on the track is normally 79 mph, a warning signal told the driver to slow down to 15 mph due to the presence of another train on the track. However, the driver slowed to only 40 mph, and even after applying the emergency brakes, the Amtrak train was still traveling 35 mph when it struck the freight train. Now the first lawsuit over this Chicago train accident has been filed. Six members of a Michigan family who were riding the train to come to Chicago for shopping and holiday sightseeing were all injured in the crash. The senior member of the family, suffered a minor brain injury and other severe injuries when the crash occurred. He had just risen from his seat, but the other five members of the family, who were seated, suffered far more minor injuries. The Michigan family hired a Chicago area personal injury lawyer to sue both Amtrak and Norfolk Southern for negligence leading to the crash, including poor communication, excessive speed, and other factors. If you or someone you love was injured in this needless accident, contact the Law Firm of Barry G. Doyle, P.C, where an experienced Chicago accident attorney will handle your claim and make sure you do not suffer more than you have already suffered. Labels: chicago, personal injury, train accident
Imprint of License Plate, Logo Brings Semi-Truck Operator to Settle Lawsuit
Two men who were injured when their pickup was run off the road by an 18-wheeler, then insulted with a ticket that accused them of being at fault, received a $900,000 dollar settlement when the trucking company realized the men could prove they were not at fault. On December 5, 2004, the two men were driving their pickup on interstate 295 in Florida, when they were rear-ended by a tractor-trailer owned and operated by L & S Logistics Services. The men were left in the woods in their inverted pickup. Then, when they were rescued by paramedics and being taken to the hospital for treatment of their severe injuries, a sate trooper came in and issued a ticket to the driver. However, the men refused to accept this, and they hired a personal injury lawyer to prove they were not at fault for the crash. In examining the trailer they were towing the night of the crash, they found that the semi truck's logo, its grill, and license plate had left an impression on the trailer's doors. Then they discovered that the driver's license had been suspended 11 times and had been involved in 4 previous accidents while driving a tractor-trailer. Furthermore, the trucking company had destroyed evidence of the crash, and the judge was considering punitive damages when the trucking company decided to settle. This kind of driver should not be allowed to be on the road, and if you have been injured in an automobile accident with a semi truck, it is entirely possible the driver that hit you has hurt other people, and will continue hurting people unless you can get them off the road and penalize the trucking company that put them out there. To stop this vicious cycle, contact the trucking accident injury lawyers at The Law Offices of Barry G. Doyle, P.C. today to get Labels: personal injury, truck accident
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