THE INJURY LAWYER DIRECTORY BLOG

There have been two new brands of eggs added to the recent egg recall sweeping across the United States due to a salmonella scare. Wright County Egg released a statement on Wednesday that it was initiating a voluntary recall of Cardenas Market and Trafficanda Egg Ranch brand eggs. Approximately 380 million of the 550 million recalled eggs to date have been manufactured by Wright County Egg.

There have been confirmed cases of Salmonella enteritidis illnesses associated with the egg shells of both Cardenas Market and Trafficanda Egg Ranch eggs.

The Cardenas Market eggs were distributed to Cardenas Market stores in California and Nevada and were packaged in 60-egg cases over-wrapped with plastic. Recalled eggs are labeled with plant number 1026 and have Julian dates from 136 to 228.

The Trafficanda Egg Ranch eggs were distributed to grocery stores and food service companies in California. They came packaged in 12-egg cartons, 20-egg over-wrapped packages, and 60-egg over-wrapped packages. Recalled eggs have plant numbers 1026, 1413, 1720, 1942, and 1946 and Julian dates ranging from 136 to 229.

You can visit the website of the Egg Safety Center for a complete list of recalled eggs including their expiration dates and brands.

It is important to consult an experienced defective product
attorney if you have suffered an illness from the contaminated eggs. You may be entitled to receive compensation for your damages.

If you have a contaminated egg claim in the Atlanta, Georgia area, please contact the Atlanta defective product attorneys at Robbins & Associates today to schedule your free initial consultation.

Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that Zemco Industries has recalled roughly 380,000 pounds of deli meat due which may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogene bacteria. Listeria monocytogenes may result in a potentially fatal disease called listeriosis.

Listeriosis, while very uncommon, can result in the following symptoms:

• High fever
• Severe headaches
• Neck stiffness
• Nausea
• Miscarriages and stillbirths
• Potentially fatal infections

In general, healthy people are at less of a risk of developing listeriosis. It is more common in infants, elderly people, and those with autoimmune diseases such as HIV.

The recalled deli meat is sold at Wal-Marts nationwide. The products include:

• 25.5-pound cases of “Marketside Grab and Go Sandwiches – Black Forest Ham with Natural Juices Coated with Caramel Color” with the number 17800 1300
• 28.49-pound cases of “Marketside Grab and Go Sandwiches Hot Ham, Hard Salami, Pepperoni, Sandwich Peppers” with the number 17803 1300
• 32.67-pound cases of “Marketside Grab and Go Sandwiches Virginia Brand Ham with Natural Juices, Made in New York, Fully Cooked Bacon, Sandwich Pickles, Sandwich Peppers” with the number 17804 1300
• 25.5-pound cases of “Marketside Grab and Go Sandwiches Angus Roast Beef Coated Caramel Color” with number 17805 1300

The recalled meats were produced between June 18 and July 2. The “Use By” dates range from August 20 to September 10. Only Marketside Grab and Go sandwiches have been recalled. Individual packages of deli meat are not involved. You can return the recalled meat to Wal-Mart for a full refund.

If you have suffered an illness or injury from eating this recalled meat, an experienced defective product attorney can help you receive compensation for your damages.

If you have a defective product claim in the Ft. Lauderdale, Florida area, please contact
the attorneys at Ellis, Ged & Bodden today to schedule your free initial consultation.

According to the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission (USCPSC), Lan Enterprises, maker of the Zooper stroller, has received just approximately 185 reports of a frame latch problem that can result in the expensive stroller to unexpectedly collapse. About 4,000 strollers will be recalled. The Zooper Tango double strollers were sold at retailers such as Babies “R” Us in 2007 and 2008 and cost around $400.00.

In one of the reported incident, a 13-month-old boy and a three-year-old boy received scrapes and bruises when their Zooper stroller hit a curb and collapsed.
The models recalled are:

• SL808B
• SL808F

If you own a Zooper stroller, you should stop using immediately and contact Zooper USA or visit www.zooper.com for a repair kit.

If you or a loved one has been injured by a defective product, please contact an experienced product liability attorney in your area today.

According to California Highway Patrol spokesman, Mario Lopez, the driver of the truck that crashed into a crowd of spectators, killing eight and injuring almost a dozen, will not face criminal charges. Lopez explained that the event was what is called a “sanctioned event,” and California vehicle codes do not apply at these types of off-road events. The horrifying truck accident that, at first, only halted the race for an hour but was later canceled when the true carnage was actually realized, took place in California’s Mojave Desert Saturday night.

According to event rules, spectators are supposed to stand at least 100 feet back from the course, but videos and pictures from that night clearly show people standing within just feet of the vehicles on the track. Several spectators said though they admitted the crash was terrible, they know the risks when they attend these events.

Brett Sloppy, the driver of the truck, apologized to the families of the victims on his Facebook page and thanked his friends for sticking by him through “these tragic times.”

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has been charged with investigating the accident to explore possible safety violations the night of the truck accident.

If you or a loved one has been injured or killed in a truck accident in the Fort Myers, Florida area, please contact the Fort Myers truck accident attorneys at Lusk, Drasites, Tolisano & Smith, P.A. today to schedule a confidential, no-cost consultation.

Walt Disney World is currently facing a wrongful death lawsuit after Austin Wuennenberg, a 21-year-old monorail driver at their Orlando theme park, died in a monorail accident on July 5, 2009. The accident occurred when another monorail backed into the one being driven by Wuennenberg. His family claims the Disney Corporation was negligent in taking the precautions necessary to avoid the fatal accident.

The wrongful death lawsuit alleges Walt Disney World’s actions were negligent in several ways:

• The monorail cockpit had “virtually no bracing or frame support whatsoever, and Disney officials knew a collision was certain to…injure or kill anyone in it.”
• On the night of the accident, the monorail operations manager was directing monorails by radio while he ate dinner at a Perkins restaurant near the resort instead of from the control tower at Disney’s Transportation and Ticket Center.
• Had the operations manager been in the control tower, he would have had access to a closed-circuit video monitor showing the track switch was in the wrong position and another computer monitor which would have confirmed this information.
• In the control tower, the manager would have also had a direct line of site, alerting him to the fact that the monorail which crashed into Wuennenberg’s was not on the right track.
• A monorail maintenance employee failed to flip the track switch, yet he informed the manager that he had done so. This error directly resulted in both monorails being on the same track.
• The automatic crash avoidance system was disengaged on both monorails so that the other driver could move his train onto a different track. Had these systems been engaged, they most likely would have prevented the accident.
• Had an employee been in the control tower, the collision could have been avoided by simply pushing a button to stop the monorails.

Any one of these actions would constitute negligence on the part of Walt Disney World. The fact that all of these negligent actions may have occurred simultaneously is inexcusable. Since the accident, Walt Disney World has altered their monorail operating procedures in order to prevent a similar accident from taking place.

If you have a wrongful death claim in the Orlando, Florida area, please contact the Orlando wrongful death lawyers at Colling, Gilbert, Wright & Carter today to schedule your free initial consultation.

The federal government has decided to intervene in a whistleblower case against St. Jude Medical Inc. The case is being brought by a former employee who alleges the company paid illegal kickbacks to doctors, hospitals, and other healthcare providers to persuade them to use their heart device products. These healthcare providers then submitted claims to Medicare and other federal programs to receive reimbursement for these devices.

The whistleblower, Charles Donigian, also claims St. Jude repeatedly violated anti-kickback laws by paying medical professionals “sham fees” for false clinical research studies and by providing healthcare providers and their families with “entertainment gifts, travel, vacations, temporary staff, tickets to sporting events, and ‘educational’ events at luxury resorts.”

Federal investigators began looking into these allegations about five years ago. In December 2009, the government declined to intervene in the case. However, in the past seven months, investigators have interviewed additional witnesses and reviewed more documents. With this additional evidence, the government now believes it has a strong case, which has prompted them to intervene. The case will be filed with a federal court in Boston.

St. Jude Medical Inc. denies the allegations and plans to fight the charges in court. In June, St. Jude settled a separate whistleblower action for $3.7 million. That case claimed the manufacturer paid illegal kickbacks to hospitals in Kentucky and Ohio to improve sales of their heart devices.

Whistleblower claims, also called qui tam cases, provide individuals with knowledge of fraud committed against the government to file suit on behalf of the government to recover the defrauded funds. If the lawsuit is successful, the whistleblower can receive a percentage of the recovered funds as a whistleblower reward.

If you have knowledge of fraud committed against the government, please contact the Washington, D.C. qui tam lawyers at Chaikin, Sherman, Cammarata & Siegel, P.C. today to schedule your free initial consultation.

A recent analysis of drug trials, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, indicates that studies are much more likely to show positive results (indicating that the drug worked) when they are funded by the pharmaceutical industry.

There were 546 drug trials reviewed as part of this analysis, generating the following data:

• 85% of industry-funded trials reported positive outcomes
• 50% of government-funded trials reported positive outcomes
• 72% of trials funded by nonprofits or non-federal organizations reported positive results
• In studies funded by nonprofits and non-federal organizations, 85% of studies receiving contributions from the pharmaceutical industry produced positive outcomes compared to 61% of studies that did not receive any financial contributions from the pharmaceutical industry

The study also indicated a significant disparity among the length of time it takes for the results of studies to be published:

• 32% of industry-funded studies were published within two years of the study’s completion
• 54% of government-funded trials were published within two years of the study’s completion
• 56% of nonprofit and non-federal trials were completed within two years of the study’s completion

Publishing the results of these studies in a timely manner prevents manipulating data or selectively publishing some results while withholding others.

It is clear that consumers must evaluate the source of a study’s financial backing when determining its validity. Pharmaceutical companies have a great deal at stake with drugs that make it to the clinical testing phase. Often, they have already invested millions if not billions of dollars in the development of these drugs, and they stand to make billions once they are approved. It is unfortunate that such a strong bias exists in the outcome of these clinical trials. It is clear that in some cases, the pharmaceutical industry may be placing profits above the safety of consumers.

If you have been injured as a result of taking a dangerous or defective drug, you may be entitled to receive compensation for your damages. It is important to consult with an experienced pharmaceutical injury lawyer who can advise you on the best way to proceed with your claim.

If you have a defective drug claim, please contact the nationwide pharmaceutical injury lawyers at Schlichter, Bogard & Denton today to schedule your free initial consultation.

An Ohio couple was involved in a fatal motorcycle accident over the weekend. The husband died in the accident, while the wife was life-flighted to a hospital in Toledo. She remains in serious condition.

The motorcycle accident occurred at approximately 11 pm. The man lost control of the bike, and both riders were ejected in the process. While the man was lying on the road, he was hit by a pickup truck. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The motorcycle accident is still under investigation. Neither rider was wearing a helmet at the time of the crash, and alcohol is suspected to have played a role in the incident.

Due to the lack of protection afforded by motorcycles, injuries sustained in motorcycle accidents are often very severe, resulting in broken bones, brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, paralysis, and even death. It is important to always wear a helmet and operate your motorcycle with extreme caution to reduce your risk of an accident.

If you have been injured in a motorcycle accident caused by the negligence of another driver, you may be entitled to receive compensation for your damages. An experienced motorcycle accident attorney can assist you with filing your claim.

If you have a motorcycle accident claim in the Columbus, Ohio area, please contact experienced Ohio motorcycle accident attorney Robert W. Kerpsack today to schedule your free initial consultation.