The family of a mentally ill man who fell 20 feet from a hospital window reached a $1.3 million settlement with Pierce County, Wash. The inadequate supervision lawsuit filed by the family alleged that Puget Sound Hospital should have better supervised the victim, who suffered serious and multiple fractures from the fall.
If you have a potential inadequate supervision lawsuit, call 800-553-8082 or get a free online consultation.
A Saratoga County, Washington jury awarded $43.5 million last week to a woman who sued the former Bellevue Maternity Hospital in Niskayuna for severe brain damage she suffered during her birth in 1984.
While the Plaintiff is blessed with above-average intelligence with a degree from Arizona State University, she uses a wheelchair and lacks motor skills due to the brain damage from cerebral palsy.
How does a cerebral palsy case with such tremendous upside go to trial? Defendant's cerebral palsy lawyer reportedly turned down a high/low of $2 million/$300,000. Usually, cerebral palsy cases go to trial because one side miscalculates, which appears to be the case by the hospital in this case.
You can read more about this case here.
An Oatmeal recall is not something anyone would expect. But here we are. There is an oatmeal recall for some oatmeal products made with instant nonfat dried milk, whey protein, fruit stabilizers, and gums (thickening agents) manufactured by Plainview Milk Products Cooperative. The fear is that these recallled oatmeal products might be contaminated with salmonella.
In addition to Malt-O-Meal Hearty Traditions Maple & Brown Sugar Instant Oatmeal and other brands of instant oatmeal, other recall oatmeal products include some brands of non-fat dried milk powder, other drink mix products, and butter flavored toppings from Kroger. If you have any of these recalled products, get rid of them.
They oatmeal at issue comes in 13.8-ounce boxes with 10 instant oatmeal packets. It was distributed in stores in Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.
Our lawyers are not handling oatmeal recall cases. Although obviously it is early, our lawyers do not think a lot of lawsuits are going to come out of this oatmeal recall.
Medical personnel responding to a 8 year-old's injuries by an exploding cannon at a Fourth of July celebration in Washington were negligent in his death, according to a Complaint filed by his family's malpractice lawyers. The lawsuit alleges that the responders were improperly trained and should not have canceled a previously requested medical airlift. The boy died after being struck by shrapnel from an 18-inch cannon fired by his grandfather.
These are tough cases because the laws in most jurisdictions are set up to give medical personnel responding to an emergency more discretion. I don't agree with this - like emergency room doctors, the law takes into account the exigency of the moment. In Washington, gross negligence is required to bring a claim against emergency personnel.
Related Posts:
Article on Case From Seattle Times (story on lawsuit)
Maryland Lawsuits Regarding Emergency Vehicles (immunity from liability provided in Maryland accident and medical malpractice cases)
Max Myers' Washington Injury Lawyer Blog report on a $4.2 million verdict in King County jury in a birth injury case.
Extendicare, a group of Washington nursing homes, is the defendant in a nursing home lawsuit alleging it took on way too many patients to provide adaquate care. Paintiffs' nursing home also say that Extendicare violated a Washington law that bars nursing homes from making its clients sign a form waiving liability for Extendicare's negligence.
Plaintiffs in this nursing home case a man whose daughter died at Aldercrest Health & Rehabilitation Center in Edmonds and two other residents.
You can find the article here.
The Washington Supreme Court this week overruled a trial court’s summary judgment against the family of a man whose brain was harvested for mental-health research when he died can pursue a lawsuit against the county medical examiner, and the Stanley Medical Research Institute of Maryland.
The case involves a man who tragically died heart problems in 2003 shortly after his 21st birthday. Obviously a young man who cared about other people, he was an organ donor. His parents consented to provide brain tissue to the nonprofit. Instead of taking a small tissue sample, however, the King County Medical Examiner's office – presumably by accident - provided the young man’s entire brain.
The injury to the family is the emotional distress the taking of the brain caused them. I could not possibly feel more for this family. There is nothing worse than burying your child. But I do not support this lawsuit.
The Court of Appeals of Washington in Shoemake v. Ferrer, 182 P.3rd 992 (2008) considered an interested argument by a defendant in a legal malpractice case. The Defendant lawyers blew a statute of limitations by two days in a serious head on car accident collusion case with a drug driver. This was a guy that really needed a car accident lawyer in Washington that was competent to handle his case.
The problem was that he apparently did not find a competent car accident attorney. Instead, he found a lawyer that ignored State’s Farm’s $ 100,000 offer to pay on Plaintiff’s uninsured motorist claim because he was “was unsure of the legal ramifications of accepting that payment.” The lesson, as always: if you are not qualified to handle a serious car accident case, don’t to it. So many lawyers who don’t handle car accident claims regularly think that they can. It sounds so easy, they think. It is not.
But that is not what is interesting about the case. What is interesting is the Defendant contended successfully to the trial judge that the negligent car accident lawyers were entitled to have the damages awarded reduced by the amount stated in the lawyer’s contingency fee agreement with the client.
That’s pretty outrageous when you think about it. What these lawyers are arguing is that the client, who got creamed by a drunk driver, should have to pay the 40% contingency fee twice, once to him and once to the lawyer he had to sure for legal malpractice. This would knock the victim’s recovery back to 36%. Insane.
The Washington Court of Appeals in Shoemake agreed, citing supporting case law in California, Colorado, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota that the client should not be required to pay attorneys’ fees twice for the same recovery.
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)
Washington medical malpractice lawyers filed a lawsuit against the University of Washington medical center alleging that staff doctors committed malpractice by failing to releasing a suicidal patient. Plaintiff's medical malpractice complaint, according to the Seattle Post, states that the hospital staff negligently released the student in spite of the fact that he was hospitalized for cutting his own wrists and said that he had thoughts of committing suicide by jumping from a bridge or building. The student died two days later after jumping from 16th floor of an office.
From the medical malpractice lawyers' perspective, these are, on their face, pretty good facts for a suicide/keep hospitalized case. But suicide malpractice cases are very complicated and a full reading of the plaintiff’s decedent's medical records would be required to know if this is a viable medical malpractice case. One this we know already: it is an awful tragedy that could have been avoided. Whether that rises to negligence to the hospital is an entirely different question.
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.
Welcome to our blog covering injury law and policy throughout the United States.
