Accident and Injury Lawyer Blog

This is a time you want your equipment to work

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced a recall of about 18,000 GRIGRI 2 belay devices due to a fall hazard. These belays were recalled because the handle can become stuck in the open position, which disables the brake. There have been seven reports of handles sticking, but, thankfully, no reported injuries.

All of this begs the question: what the heck is a belay? Honestly, I didn't know. A belay device is used by rock climbers to control the climber's safety rope during a fall or while being lowered on the rope. I'm not a big rock climber but I feel authorized to say: this is a big deal.

The first five digits of the serial numbers of devices affected by this recall range from 10326 to 11136. The serial number is engraved on the body of the product underneath and protected by the folded handle. The belay devices are 4 inches in length and 2 inches in width, and come in grey, blue, and orange colors.

Approximately 5,500 Toys R Us swing sets will be recalled because the swing seats can crack or split which obviously poses a risk to children. The swing set is the ironically named Playsafe Dartmouth swing sets were sold exclusively at Toys R Us stores for about $270 from January through May. This swing set involved in the recall has model number 22-PS340, with date codes FSD0115AA and FSD0315AA. (The model number and date code are in the owner's manual.)

Toys R Us does not make these swing sets; Pacific Cycle does. To their credit, Pacific Cycle mentions the recall on their website home page.

Pacific Cycle and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission are telling parents to immediately stop using the swing seats and remove them. Consumers should call Pacific Cycle to receive free replacement seats. Pacific Cycle can be contacted at (877) 564-2261.

Getting a good lawyer when you are injured by the negligence of someone else is important no matter where you are injured.

But having a good lawyer seems particularly important in Texas because the legislature and the courts continue their collaborative effort to conspire against injury victims.

The latest in Texas: the Texas Supreme Court overturned a bad faith verdict against Texas Mutual, the workers' comp insurer. Read this article if for no other reason than to enjoy the silly spin the author puts on it while pumping up Texas Mutual. Newsflash: highlighting that you needed legal maneuvering to get around a bad faith verdict does not change the fact that a jury looked at what you did and thought it constituted bad faith. That may not be something to brag about.

At first glance, I did not think much of reports of a defective home massager, called the ShoulderFlex Massager. How dangerous could this massager really be?

The answer: real serious. The FDA is making this crystal clear by announcing that the ShoulderFlex Massager causes real risk to consumers and has already killed at least one person. Apparently, necklaces, hair or parts of clothing can become caught in part of the machine that rotates, posing a severe strangulation hazard.

No one is using the word "recall." I really don't understand why exactly except that it may be these massagers are off the shelves and already in our homes.

I think there will be very viable lawsuits for the few people who do suffer serious injuries from this massager. If you think you may have a potential case, call 800-553-8082 or use the contact form in the upper right hand corner of this website.

I wrote last week about the whole "settle case over policy limits and sue for bad faith" gambit last week. Here is another opinion from Tampa, Florida where the plaintiffs' accident lawyer did the exact same thing. Sure this one failed too. Still.

Ultimately, the "insured dragged its feet on settlement" is a tough road to hoe.

You can read the full opinion in Machalette v. Southern-Owners Insurance Co. here.

Jury Verdict Research has come out with some new data that underscores how hard it is to rely on verdict statistics in a particular jurisdiction to prove how that venue values cases.

JVR found that the median compensatory award for personal injury trials in Indiana is $25,036 and injured plaintiffs recover damages in 57 percent of cases that go to verdict. This is different - in opposite ways - from the national data. The national median is approximately $40,000 and the nationwide plaintiff recovery probability is 9% less. To be sure, the differences are statistically significant. Are we to believe that juries in Indiana are trusting people who take plaintiffs at their word but just don't think their claims are worth as much? (Actually, this is possible when you think about it.)

But the statistics get even crazier. Indiana awards twice as much for head injuries ($30,000 v. $15,000) as the rest of the country but then awards only half of the national median for shoulder injuries ($25,000 v. $49,418). It makes no sense, really.

New information continues to underscore that these vaginal mesh products are a bad idea. New data suggests that transvaginal bladder suspension surgery utilizing non-absorbable surgical mesh incurs a high risk of permanent injury and provides no significant benefits. So the pain of this surgery and the difficulties these women have faced may have been for naught across the board? It is incredible.

In a recent Safety Communication, the FDA expressed more concern about the potential safety risks of using transvaginal surgical mesh to treat pelvic organ prolapse. The FDA has targeted the medical device as an area of “continuing serious concern.” This warning follows a similar warning issued by the FDA in 2008. Since then, the agency has received 1,503 adverse event reports associated with the use of transvaginal surgical mesh to repair pelvic organ prolapse, nearly five times as many as it received between 2005 and 2007. From this, you are going to see a lot of vaginal mesh lawsuits coming down the pike.

In response, the Washington, D.C.-based consumer watchdog group Public Citizen - who has gotten out in front of a lot of these types of problems - has urged the FDA to go beyond their warnings and recall transvaginal mesh in an effort to prevent unnecessary exposure to a device that has the potential to cause serious adverse complications. In their petition, Public Citizen demands three specific actions from the FDA:

1) place an outright ban on the marketing of all currently available non-absorbable surgical mesh products designed and labeled for transvaginal repair of pelvic organ prolapse;

2) order all manufacturers of these products to issue a recall thereof; AND

3) require that any future surgical mesh devices designed to treat pelvic organ prolapse be classified as a class III device, a process that requires a stringent approval process. Many surgical mesh products currently on the market went through the FDAs expedited 510(k) review process, an accelerated method of approval that only requires a medical device to be significantly equal to one already on the market.

The surgical mesh in question is a non-absorbable synthetic material permanently implanted onto existing tissue to reinforce the vaginal wall. It is used to repair pelvic organ prolapse or as a sling to support the bladder and relieve urinary incontinence.

Continue reading " Vaginal Mesh Side Effects Lawsuits " »

The 5th Circuit breathed new life into a defective prosthetic knee case finding that the discovery rule tolled the statute of limitations and Plaintiff could rely on a Texas discovery rule to delay the accrual of her claim.

A Scorpio TS prosthesis was implanted in Plaintiff's right knee on October 2, 2007. Plaintiff filed suit a little more than 3 years later. The Defendant argued that her SOL passed when she began feeling pain in the site. Plaintiff's argument: she did not receive an X-ray and diagnosis from her doctor until later.

Construing facts most favorably to the Plaintiff, the court found that the critical date was when Plaintiff "acquired the knowledge she needed to discover she had a cause of action."

Continue reading " Knee Prosthesis Lawsuit Revived " »

Nissan has been able to largely avoid mention on this blog because they have not had a lot of prolific recalls. That may change.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is apparently received numerous complaints from drivers of Nissan Frontiers, Pathfinders and Xterras who are complaining about transmission failures due to leaking radiator coolant.

Nissan, to their credit, has extended the warranties to cover radiators. But Nissan did not apply the warranty to vehicles with over 80,000 miles. Drivers are reporting that the transmission failures are causing safety issues, like rapid slowing or the inability to safely cross an intersection. It is hard not to imagine car accidents flowing from this type of defect.

There is a recall for all lots of Povidone Iodine Swabsticks, Povidone Iodine Prep Solutions, Povidone Iodine Scrub Solutions, and Povidone Iodine Prep Gel. As if H&P Industries/Triad Group needed more trouble: they are already under heavy scrutiny by the FDA and facing down lawsuits from the bacterial contamination stemming from a recall in December.

Why the recall? Another screw up. The products were made without having procedures designed to prevent objectionable microorganisms, according to the recall notice.

Continue reading " Povidone Recall " »

Dr. Reddy will recall a single lot of its cholesterol lowering drug simvastatin (80 mg) from the US market. It is a labeling screw-up, apparently. Dr. Reddy has recalled more lots of the same drug of different strengths.

Over 60,000 bottles of 10 mg and 40 mg simvastatin will be recalled from the market, the company informed the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA).

Clearly, every recall is important and, over the long haul, you want to be taking the appropriate amount of simvastatin. But is anyone going to get harmed by this? I doubt it.

The CPSC announced a recall of almost 341,000 step stools with storage areas sold at Target. This recall follows an earlier recall in which 206,000 stools were recalled. The stools apparently can break apart and collapse under the weight of users. Target has received 27 reports of stools breaking.

There will not be a lot of lawsuits from this because few people will be injured. But people who are seriously injured will have strong claims because this is a clear product defect: you ought to be able to make a stool that can withstand weight. I can't even imagine Target running from that.

The West Virginia Supreme Court last week dealt with a common problem in car accident cases: the defendant has no coverage. The Plaintiff, who suffered serious injuries, tried to bring a claim against Nationwide Insurance after it disclaimed coverage because the defendant's insurance policy had been canceled. Defendant claimed he did not know the policy was canceled. (They somehow never seem to know.)

Plaintiff in this case was blameless. He was driving a van and struck a sport utility vehicle head-on. He suffered real injuries: a broken femur, concussion, low grade coma, broken nose, broken ribs, bruised shoulder, injured hips, and multiple bruises, cuts and scrapes. Plaintiff files suit and gets a default judgment of over $6 million. Of course, that and a quarter will buy you a turn at the arcade.

Continue reading " No Coverage Means No Coverage " »

Is This Safe? A Texas Jury Tells Hyundai It Is Not

Plaintiff's lawsuit alleged that the wrongful death of a 19 year-old girl occurred when she was taking a nap in a Hyundai Tucson's front passenger reclining seat and was thrown out of the car due to the negligence of the driver. She was air-lifted to a nearby hospital but died in transport.

The crux of Plaintiff's lawsuit was that Hyundai chose not to use available accident safety technology that would prevent reclining seats from being tilted back more than a 45-degree angle (at least while the car is moving).

Continue reading " Reclining Seat Wrongful Death Verdict Affirmed " »

Our lawyers have began looking at Diflucan lawsuits after the FDA revised its pregnancy rating on this antifungal medication. When taken in large dosages, Diflucan is considered a pregnancy "Category D" drug which means that there is evidence showing a correlation between the use of Diflucan during most of the first trimester of pregnancy and birth defects. These potential Diflucan side effects include birth defects including:

• Oral cleft (cleft palate)
• Short, broad head
• Bowing of the thigh bones
• Thin ribs and long bones
• Congenital heart disease

If your child was born with a birth injury and the child's mother was taking Diflucan during pregnancy, call our law firm for a fee no obligation consultation of your potential suit. Call 800-553-8082 or get a free on-line consultation.

A Minnesota neurosurgeon who won a defense verdict earlier this month just settled another malpractice claim.

The Pareto Principle (or 80-20 rule) says that 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. This rule applies with greater force with doctors who commit malpractice. This neurosurgeon is a clear example: he has had nine medical malpractice cases filed against him during his time at St. Luke’s Hospital in Duluth, Minnesota. He has won some jury trials - malpractice cases are tough - but most of the suits against him have settled out of court.

This doctor, who I don't name because this blog generally does not name names, does not get a break. He has another malpractice trial coming up in November.

No, as much as it would bring joy to some, Martha Stewart has not been recalled since she got out of prison. But the Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced a recall of almost 960,000 cast iron casseroles from the Martha Stewart Collection at Macy's. The coating on these Martha Stewart cast iron casseroles can break or crack, and can fly off as a projectile during use. This poses a burn or laceration hazard to consumers using these products.

Darvocet lawyers have filed a motion to have all Darvocet lawsuits filed under one federal judge. This is called the MDL where the case becomes a sort of class action lawsuit for the purposes of discovery.

The defendants in these cases opposed a class action, arguing that these lawsuits involve multiple individualized fact issues of causation and product identification which will require discovery unique to each lawsuit.

Continue reading " Darvocet MDL: All Federal Cases Sent to Kentucky " »

A wrongful death lawsuit has been brought by the survivors of three people killed in a car accident. The wrinkle in this case is that they have brought a suit against the city of Charlotte and Crescent Resources, accusing them of negligence for not installing a traffic light where the high-speed crash along N.C. 49 occurred two years ago.

Why bring in the governement entities? The families' lost loved ones were not the cause of the accident: the accident was caused by two guys who were racing. The answer in these cases is always the same: inadequate insurance.

The suit claims Charlotte and Crescent Resources, the developer of a community along the highway in southwest Mecklenburg County, created a dangerous intersection and failed to install a traffic light.

These are very tough cases, they really are, although sometimes it becomes painfully obvious that the governement screwed up (here is one example). The one big problem plaintiffs have with a jury: there are already well defined bad guys, two guys driving 100 miles an hour that have been charged with murder.

A former police officer in Philadelphia received a $1.3 million settlement after suffering injuries in what would generously be decribed as a minor car accident. What defines minor? No property damage. None.

The officer was at a stop light when he was rear ended in the kind of car accident that most people walk away from without even exchanging information. In fact, the police officer didn't think he was hurt either. But he claimed to have suffered a pinched nerve in his right arm that ended his career as a police officer. Those guys are well paid which means good economic damages.

The temptation is to blame runaway juries. This case was settled before a mediator.

Was this a worthy case? Ultimately, who knows? But it is a country with 311 million people. There are one in a million, one in ten million type injuries were people suffer very serious injuries in very minor accidents, some of which involve negligence.

You can read more about the case here.

Hello Accident Injury Lawyer Blog. I'm back.

I just got back from vacation and then a trial in Baltimore, Maryland. My partner Laura Zois and I won a $537,000 verdict for our client in a slip and fall case in a Baltimore County school. It does not match the $2.5 million verdict awarded to our clients last week in Rod Gaston's wrongful death medical malpractice case but it is still a good 10 days for Miller & Zois clients.

I'll write more about our trial later and try to put some of the samples from the trial in the help center on our website. We may even order the transcript to post on line because it includes so much of the David Ball/Don Keenan reptile themes that I have talked about on this blog.

This was a really fun case to try and it reminds me of why we do what we do. But I'm glad to be back to my usual routine which includes regularly posting to this blog.

GM will recall approximately 14,000 Chevy Impala and Buick Lacrosse sedans due to problems that could cause a car accident.

The Impalas were recalled to fix a problem with the power-steering hose that could cause fluid leaks. The Lacrosse vehicles were recalled to correct an error in the electronic stability-control systems that may cause the system to activate when it shouldn't, potentially resulting in a car accident.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has settled allegations it has made against Perfect Fitness.

Apparently, the only thing perfect about Perfect Fitness is that it is based in a perfect town of Sausalito, California - on the other side of the bay from San Francisco.

Apparently, Perfect Fitness made a defective product. Okay. It happens. But Perfect Fitness allegedly tested and knew the equipment was defective following re-testing of the handle design and still left it on the market.

You can read more here.

Johnson & Johnson will settle a misdemeanor criminal charge involving the marketing of its psychiatric drug Risperdal.

J&J said in a regulatory filing that the agreement related to an allegation that the company promoted Risperdal for unapproved uses. The agreement, which has not been finalized, was disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The settlement amount was not disclosed. You can read more at CNBC here.

Michele Simon writes an interesting post for Food Safety News with a title that caught my eye: Why the Meat Industry Sells Salmonella.

Ms. Simon writes about how companies that poison our food talk about what they have done:

Sounds like defense-lawyer speak. Using the passive voice, "it is regrettable" but not taking responsibility with the more direct "we regret." And "may have become ill"- to be sure not to admit any fault despite ample evidence it was their meat. Worst of all, the dismissive "for anyone who did, we are truly sorry," is offensive to families whose loved ones have real names, and aren't just "anyone."

I think it is really good, insightful piece. I'm really interested in the food safety issues and I write about them a lot on this blog. Our law firm does not actually handle food poisioning cases.

A Jury Verdict Research study found that the average personal injury verdict in California is 1,635,327. The median, which takes out huge verdicts like one in the study for over $100 million, is California.

California juries are tougher on liability: plaintiffs receive damages in 45 percent of cases that go to trial.

Indiana juries are more likely to issue a plaintiffs' verdict, at least according to a recent Jury Verdict Research report that found that plaintiffs win damages in 57% of Indiana jury trials. The median money award for personal injury trials in Indiana is $25,036.

The Indiana comparisons to the national data are interesting: plaintiffs receive damages in 48% of cases that go to trial. So Indiana is more likely to find for the plaintiff. But they award less: the national median is $40,000. (Remember, this is a median, not an average, which excludes, by definition, large verdicts.)

Statistics mislead - there are a thousand clichés to prove it. Interstate comparisons are even more challenging because they are based on results created by different variables. States with higher thresholds to get a jury trial in the first place should - on average - be higher. But these statistics are still interesting.

Transpecos Foods has issued a recall for Hill Country Fare Cream Cheese Jalapeno Bites. The recall was initiated after it was learned that these jalapeno bites were distributed in packaging that did not reveal the presence of soy allergens.

Actually, the FDA calls it an in-depth label review. Really? How in-depth did it have to be exactly?

You can find more information on this recall here.

The two monsters of quality car making over the last 20 years - Honda and Toyota - are struggling. Toyota's problems are well chronicled. Now Honda...

Honda will recall 2.49 million cars, small SUVs and minivans around the world, including its signature of quality, the Honda Accord. This recall, which includes 1.5 million cars in the U.S., is to repair a software problem that could damage the transmission.

• From Consumer Reports: Ground turkey is the source of a salmonella outbreak. Toy keys may cause a choking hazard. Toyota is recalling the 2011 Lexus RX 350 because of brake problems.
• Some dry cat food is being recalled due to salmonella.
• Could something used in road gravel lead to mesothelioma?
• A Los Angeles jury has awarded $17 million to the mother of a blind man who fell between two train cars after he mistook the space for a door.
• A $5 million verdict for an Illinois man abused by a priest decades ago will stand.
• A St. Louis jury has awarded $38.5 million in compensatory damages and $320 million in punitive damages in a case involving lead poisoning from a lead smelter.
• This ought to go without saying, but don't let your dog sit on your lap while you drive. Also, don't take pictures of him while you drive.
• Do toilets explode?

Bravo Sports will recall 159,000 pogo sticks due to fall and laceration hazards. Apparently, "the bottom rubber tip attached to the pogo stick frame can wear out prematurely, posing a fall hazard to consumers. Also, the end caps on the handlebars can come off, exposing sharp edges." There have been nine reports of injuries associated with the products.

I'm amazed people are using their pogo sticks enough to wear out. I thought a pogo stick was something you bought, did twice, and stuck in the garage.