Accident and Injury Lawyer Blog

I am getting tired of writing this post. I feel like I write some version of it every month....

The Hannaford supermarket chain, which has stores in New England and New York, is recalling ground beef with a sell-by date of December 17 or earlier, as it may be contaminated with salmonella. The precise amount of beef being recalled is undetermined.

The ground beef recall was made after receiving reports of fourteen ill people, ten of which reported purchasing ground beef at Hannaford stores in Maine, New York, New Hampshire and Vermont between October 12 and November 20. Seven of the fourteen people were hospitalized.

Among the varieties being recalled are Hannaford's regular ground beef and its Taste of Inspirations Angus and Nature's Place brands, with content ranging between 73 percent and 90 percent lean.

The chain has approximately 170 stores in Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and New York, and all the beef affected by the recall has been removed from stores.

Dogs are people too. Pretty much. For many of us.

So we report here on Proctor & Gamble Company has retrieved a single production lot of dry dog food as aflatoxin levels, above the acceptable limit, have been detected. This product has already been retrieved from store shelves.

Aflatoxin is a naturally occurring by-product from the growth of Aspergillus flavus and can be harmful to pets if consumed in significant quantities. Pets who have consumed this product and exhibit symptoms of illness including sluggishness or lethargy combined with a reluctance to eat, vomiting, yellowish tint to the eyes or gums, or diarrhea should be seen by a veterinarian.

The affected dog food is as follows:

• Product Name: Iams ProActive Health Smart Puppy dry dog food with Use By/Expiration Dates of February 5 or February 6, 2013
• Version: 7.0 lb bag; Code Date: 12784177I6; UPC Code: 1901402305
• Version: 8.0 lb bag; Code Date: 12794177D2 and 12794177D3; UPC Code: 1901410208
• Version: 17.5 lb bag; Code Date: 12794177K1 and 12794177K2; UPC Code: 1901401848

The affected product lot was distributed to a limited number of retailers located in the eastern United States: Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Maine, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Virginia. These retailers have already removed this product from store shelves.

While no health effects related to this product have been reported, P&G retrieved this product from the shelves as a precautionary measure. Consumers who purchased the affected dog food should stop using it, discard it, and contact Iams a replacement voucher.

No other dry dog food, dry cat food, dog or cat canned food, biscuits/treats or supplements are affected by this announcement.

Dogs matter. I'm glad Proctor is doing the right thing by making sure our animals are safe.

Mars Food has recalled two date codes of Uncles Ben's Whole Grain White Rice Garden Vegetable, due to an undeclared milk allergen. People who have an allergy or severe sensitivity to milk run the risk of serious or life-threatening allergic reaction if they consume these products.

The recall, affecting ONLY the Whole Grain White Rice Garden Vegetable, affects the 4.7 oz. (133 g) boxes with the following:

• UPC code of 54800 40778
• Best before: 08/12
• Code dates: 133BA4RP06 and 133BB4RP06

An ingredient supplier improperly included an undeclared milk ingredient in the seasoning mix used for this product. As such, consumers with milk allergies are advised not to eat the product, and consumers should return the product to the store where it was purchased for a full refund.

This product was distributed through retail stores in Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Vermont and Wisconsin.

Mars Food US has not received any reports of illness or other consumer complaints related to this matter. No other flavors of Uncle Ben's Whole Grain White Rice or any other Uncle Ben's products are affected.

There is a recall for two carob products made by Simple Foods of Tonawanda sold at health food stores in four states have been recalled because their labels don't mention they contain milk which cause cause life-threatening consequences if you are allergic to milk. The products are "Carob Brown Rice Crunch Squares" and "Carob Mint Miniatures"

These carob products were sold in New York, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Carob is a substitute for chocolate.

The New Hampshire Insurance Commissioner defends a $110 million transfer from New Hampshire's Medical Malpractice Joint Underwriting Association in the Nashua Telegraph. The Commissioner is a defendant in a lawsuit filed by three health care providers regarding this $110 million transfer.

The Maryland Medical Malpractice Lawyer Blog has a post on how health courts are working out in New Hampshire.

Medical malpractice lawyers for a Dartmouth-Hitchcock Clinic emergency-room surgeon who was ordered by Merrimack County Superior Court jurors to pay $1.95 million in a medical malpractice case say they will appeal the jury's decision.

The Plaintiff has been blind since the emergency surgery to repaired his broken leg after a car crash on Interstate 89 in 2003. Plaintiff’s medical malpractice attorney argued at trial that the Plaintiff should have been given blood to stabilize his condition. Because of the blood loss, the nerves in Plaintiff’s brain controlling sight were oxygen-deprived and died, resulting in his blindness.

You can read more about this story here.

If you have been injured by medical malpractice or in an auto accident in New Hampshire, call 1-800-553-8082 or click here for a free consultation.

My two volume treatise Insurance Settlements is now available from James Publishing. The book discusses how to position a lawyer's car accident, truck accident, medical malpractice or product liability case to the best possible settlement at every step along the way (until the state's high court affirms the judgment).

Click on the James Publishing link. If you have any comments on the book, please email me at ronmiller@millerandzois.com under the subject "Insurance Settlements Comments."

Our lawyers are reviewing Byetta claims after the FDA announced this week that the diabetes drug has been linked to severe pancreatic problems in dozens of patients. On Monday, the FDA warned patients taking Byetta to discontinue use if they develop symptoms of the disorder. Further the FDA said that doctor prescribing Byetta should consider other prescription options for patients with a history of pancreas problems.

Since Byetta was introduced into the United States in 2005, more than 700,000 patients have used the Byetta.

Our lawyers are now exploring potential Byetta lawsuits. If you would like to discuss your case with a Byetta lawyer, call 800-553-8082 or click here for a free consulation/case evaluation (or even to answer any question you may have). For more information on Byetta and the concerns with Byetta, click here.

Last week, Digitek manufacturer Actavis Totowa recalled over 65 different drugs made at their New Jersey manufacturing plant. The list of recalled drugs (in some form or another) includes such generic drugs as Bellamine, Buspirone, Carisoprodol, Oxycodone Meperidine, and Rifampin. This strengthens the conclusion that the New Jersey plant that made these drugs may be the cause of irregularities in Actavis medications.

In April 2008, Actavis recalled Digitek, a drug prescribed to treat heart failure and irregular heartbeat because it was discovered that Digitek tablets appeared to have double the thickness – and likely double the active ingredient – listed on the label. When Digitek is given in abnormally high doses it can lead to digitalis toxicity which, paradoxically, worsens the problems Digitek is intended to treat, causing nausea or lower blood pressure and other side effects from the Digitek overdose that can lead to the increased risk of stroke or a heart attack.

If you would like to speak to a Digitek recall lawyer about a potential Digitek lawsuit, call 1-800-553-8000. For more information on the Digitek overdose recall or a free consultation on your potential Digitek case, click here.

Zimmer's Durom Cup hip implants are likely to be the subject of a good number of lawsuits from patients with the Zimmer implants. But they will not be the only ones. Apparently, Zimmer’s own shareholders may agree that Zimmer left its hip implant on the market way too long. Last week, shareholders of Zimmer stock filed a class action in Indiana. Interestingly, the lawsuit seeks damages for shareholders who purchased stock between January 28, 2008 and July 21, 2008. This tells our Zimmer hip implant recall lawyers that these shareholders believe that Zimmer knew or should have known and issued a recall on or before January 28, 2008.

If your Zimmer Durom hip resurfacing cup was defective, call our Zimmer hip implant lawyers at 1-800-553-8082 or click here for a free consultation.

More information on the Zimmer Hip Implant Recall
History of the Zimmer Durom Cup Hip Implant Recall
More information on the Zimmer hip implant recall lawsuits

Jury Verdict Research(r) study reports that rotator cuff injuries reached a 7-year high in 2006 with a compensatory award median of $72,667. This is almost 50% higher than previous reported settlements and verdicts in rotator cuff injury cases.

Our lawyers have never understood while the national data in these cases was so low. Washington D.C. rotator cuff injuries have averaged well over $100,000 for rotator cuff settlements and verdicts so we have never understood why the national average was as low as it has been. In any event, for whatever reason, rotator cuff verdicts are on the rise.

Our lawyers handle rotator cuff injury cases throughout the United States. Our lawyers have handled scores of rotator cuff injuries in car and truck accidents, typically in side collision or "T-bone" accidents. Our lawyers believe that insurance companies do not give fair value in most rotator cuff injury cases and our lawyers will fight to get you the financial compensation you deserve. Call a rotator cuff lawyer to protect you at 800-553-8082 or click here for a free consultation and case evaulation.

Related Posts

What Is the Value of Your Personal Injury Claim? (how the value of rotator cuff and other person injury settlements are calculated)

Sample Demand Letter (sample letter demanding settlement in a personal injury case)

Handling Your Claim Without a Lawyer (tips and pratfalls)

Lawyers representing Digitek overdose victims have filed nine lawsuits in New Jersey against Actavis Totowa LLL and its parent company Actavis Group, alleging a manufacturing defect in Digitek, namely that some Digitek tablets have contained twice the active ingredient of the drug. Digitek recall lawsuits have also been filed in West Virginia and California.

Our Digitek recall lawyers are reviewing these Digitek overdose cases in all 50 states expecting that a consolidated class action lawsuit will be appropriate (as opposed to this scatting of individual cases). If you want to discuss your case with one of our Digitek lawyers call us at 800-553-8082 for a free consultation or click here for a free Internet consultation.

The Georgia Injury Lawyer Blog has a post on how some people are still not wearing seat belts, citing fatality statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that found that more than two-thirds of young people killed in nighttime car crashes were not wearing a seat belt.

The good news is that seat belt use is still rising; total belt use rose 1% to 82% in 2007. Still, three states - Arkansas, Massachusetts and New Hampshire - have less than 70% of vehicle occupants wearing seat belts. As we mentioned in a post last week, New Hampshire still does not require motorcycle occupants to wear a helmet. New Hampshire needs to heed its motto: "Life safe or die." (Or something like that.)

The Eagle Tribune from the "Live Free or Die" state of New Hampshire has an interesting article on motorcycle helmets and New Hampshire's refusal to implement mandatory helmet laws.

In a few days, Motorcycle Week kicks off 300,000 visitors from June 14 to 22. If the average person spends $1,000, that is a $300 million dollar infusion in the economy. I would suspect Motorcycle Week would go elsewhere if New Hampshire changed their law, which would have a lot of pro-business lobbyist up in arms. But 27 people died in 2003 (the most recent data I have seen) in New Hampshire in motorcycle accidents. How many of those people were not wearing helmets?

The most serious accident cases our accident lawyers see disproportionately involve motorcycle accidents. At some point, New Hampshire needs to give up Motorcycle Week in exchange for Living Motorcyclist Future, $300 million or no.

A recent Nashua Telegraph article suggests the venue in which the suit is tried plays a pivotal role in its outcome in New Hampshire. According to newspaper’s data, not only is New Hampshire a more conservative state compared to the national average but the degree of a jury’s defense-friendliness fluctuates wildly from county to county.

The Telegraph compiled data from four major courts in the state: Merrimack County, Rockingham County, and Hillsborough County (dividing Hillsborough into Nashua and Manchester). They discovered that while juries found in favor of plaintiffs in 53 percent of the cases filed in the countries 75 most populous counties, only 41 percent of cases tried in Nashua and 44 percent in Manchester resulted in successful plaintiffs. Merrimack County and Rockingham County tended more towards the national average, weighing in at 52 percent and 49 percent respectively. The difference between Nashua and the national average is even more striking when it comes to medical malpractice cases. According to a New Hampshire Bureau of Justice study, 26 percent of medical malpractice cases find in favor of the Plaintiff, however only 13 percent of the medical malpractice cases filed in Nashua end favorably for the plaintiff. Actually, favorably is misleading: the average jury verdict was $7,000 in the three cases I which the plaintiff prevail. In a medical malpractice case, the real scorecard shows this a loss. These verdicts will cover about 1/10 of the expenses incurred by the New Hampshire medical malpractice lawyer that tried the case.

The study also showed that New Hampshire juries are conservative when they do decide in favor of the Plaintiff. Although awards reach at least $1 million dollars in 8 percent of jury awards nationally, Nashua has seen just one verdict over $1 million, and none of the other New Hampshire counties in the study come close to the 8 percent marker. One-fifth of the awards in Nashua are for $5,000 or less, and less than 30 percent ever exceed $50,000.

According to the data, New Hampshire, and Nashua in particular, seem to be somewhat anti-Plaintiff, but it is important to look at the data carefully. In some cases, the Telegraph calculated the average jury award in the New Hampshire courts but only reported on the national median for similar cases, making it a little more difficult to make a true comparison. Also, as noted by the Telegraph, not all cases are characterized the same, again making comparison tricky. For example, some courts characterize “slip and fall” accidents as a separate type of case while others lump them in under the broader “personal injury” category. Ultimately, some venues have a certain personality when it comes to favoring defendants over plaintiffs and vice versa, but the picture is not quite as clear as these number would suggest.

Overall, according to study last year by a company called Jury Verdict Research, the median compensatory award in personal injury cases that go to trial in New Hampshire trials in New Hampshire is $45,000 and plaintiffs received a financial recovery in 63% of these personal injury cases. This compares very favorably to the national median verdict is $38,461 and the nationwide plaintiff recovery rate of 55%.

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