Accident and Injury Lawyer Blog

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal of $82.6 million verdict against Ford Motor Company. In the appeal, Ford's product liability lawyers argued that Ford should not have to pay $55 million in punitive damages awarded in a Ford Explorer rollover lawsuit because the design met federal safety standards.

No question, $82 million is a chunk of change. But Plaintiff was paralyzed in the crash. All of us would take being able to walk over $82 million.

The jury obviously was sending Ford a message in this case.

You can now find cases on line on Google.

An Illinois jury awarded $22.3 million to the parents of a boy whose leg was amputated soon after birth at a Chicago area hospital. According to the medical malpractice lawsuit against the hosptial, the injury was caused by the hospital's doctors failing to meet the standard of care in treating a congenital heart problem that required a shunt procedure. In addition to the loss of his leg, the boy suffers from cognitive deficiencies and developmental delays.

One favorite - and legitimate - tactic of defendants at trial is to point to "empty chairs", someone not a party to the trial. The empty chair are either potential defendants that were not or could not be sued or defendants that settled before trial.

The Texas Supreme Court offers its thoughts on this issue this week in a case involving the lawsuits stemming from the bondfire deaths that killed 12 people before a Texas A&M game 10 years ago.

The Nebraska Supreme Court has has agreed that a lawsuit arising from injuries suffered by a woman whose family purchased a used car from a car dealer that allegedly failed to inspect the car. The court held that under these facts, the dealer was obligated to warn consumers about potential defects.

The Cerebral Palsy Birth Injury Lawyer Blog has a post today about how cerebral palsy is being treated with stem cell research. How incredible it would be if there was a cure down the road? Some much has changed in so many areas of medicine over the last 10 years. Maybe putting a major dent or even eradicating the effects of cerebral palsy will one day be possible....

A federal court in Georgia ruled that Rule 53 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure prohibits “tweeting” from the courtroom.

The court basically found that Federal Rule 53 that prohibits photographs prohibits tweeting. Earlier this year, a Kansas court went the other way on this, ruling that a reporter could tweet a racketeering trial.

Personally, I this the call in Kansas was a better one. At some point, we all need to face - like it or not - this is 2009.

Every week, it seems a new state reports declining medical malpractice premiums. Today is Ohio's day.

The FDA is now looking to make inroads to reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries caused by drug dosage errors, according to the Los Angeles Times. The FDA plan - called the Safe Use Initiative - looks to identify drugs and medical situations that commonly result in misuse of medication.

Is this a good idea? Well, 1.5 million people every year are victims of medication errors, according to a 2006 report by the Institute of Medicine.

The Drug Recall Lawyer Blog on the settlement the $41.5 million Vytorin and Zetia class action lawsuit.

Rhode Island health officials have ordered the Rhode Island Hospital, the state's largest hospital, to pay $150,000 and install video monitoring equipment in every operating room after the fifth - three of which were brain surgeries - wrong-site surgery incident since 2007. These are just the ones that we know about.

The Rhode Island Hospital has been fined in the past for wrong-site surgeries. But fines, and I'm sure lawsuits, do not seem to be making much of a change in behavior.

Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein put our a press release on a Yaz lawsuit last month involving a 33 year-old woman who brought a state court claim in New Jersey.

Plaintiffs' Yaz lawyers allege in the lawsuit that Yaz is a dangerous prescription drug sold without appropriate warnings about the risk of serious injuries. In this case, Plaintiff's lawsuit claims that Bayer improperly advertised and over-promoted Yaz for treating acne while knowing that the risks of using Yaz for this purpose outweighed any benefits Yaz could bring. Obviously, there are other drug on the market that would seem to have a more favorable safety profile than Yaz.

The press release quotes the the Plaintiff bringing the Yaz lawsuit:

Several months later, I developed sharp pains in my left shoulder and had difficulty breathing," Atkinson continued. "I went to my doctor for an examination. Testing revealed multiple blood clots in both lungs. I was hospitalized immediately. Fortunately, the treatments eliminated the blood clots, but only one month later I was diagnosed with gallstones. I then had to undergo gall bladder surgery in January 2009. I have suffered months of anxiety and nausea related to these medical procedures and drugs given to treat the adverse side effects I developed from taking Yaz."

Accordingly, Plaintiff's lawsuit alleges that she never would have "developed blood clots, been hospitalized, or forced to undergo numerous medical tests, procedures, and gall bladder surgery" if Bayer had presented honestly the risk associated with using Yaz as an acne medication.

If you or someone you love has used Yasmin/Yaz/Ocella and has suffered from blood clots, stroke, DVT, heart attack or gallbladder injury, or you are lawyer with a Yasmin/Yaz case for which you would like to involve co-counsel or you think might be a candidate for a lawsuit or future potential global settlement, please call one of our Yasmin/Yaz attorneys at 800-553-8082 or get a free no obligation Internet consultation for your potential Yasmin/Yaz lawsuit.

A federal judge in Atlanta has been asked to sanction the Atlanta Police Department for withholding internal documents during the discovery phase of wrongful death case, according to an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The lawsuit in the case, filed by the wrongful death lawyers of the relative of a 92-year-old woman killed in a 2006 police raid, alleges claims that the Atlanta department tried to cover up the existence a quota system used for arrests and warrants.

Our firm handles malpractice, product liability and auto accident cases in Atlanta. If you need an Atlanta personal injury lawyer, call 800-553-8082 or click here for a free consultation.