THE INJURY LAWYER DIRECTORY BLOG

A school bus accident in Barrow County, Georgia last week brings focus to questions about school bus safety. The collision occurred on an afternoon route when the bus was rear ended by a passenger vehicle. The driver of the passenger vehicle had to be extracted and was transported to a local hospital. Three children on the bus were also transported to the hospital with non life-threatening injuries.

For the parent of a child who rides a bus to school, reports like this can be unsettling. Each time there is an accident that injures a child, the discussion escalates about school bus safety. All 50 states have laws requiring children to be restrained in passenger autos but only New York, New Jersey and Florida have state laws requiring lap belts in school buses.

Seat belts may not be required but the National Highway Transportation Safety Association (NHTSA) endorses a designed safety feature called “compartmentalization.” Full-sized school buses are designed with high, thickly padded bench seats placed closely together. This creates a pocket designed to protect the passengers in the event of a collision. The NHTSA contends that compartmentalization is adequate protection for passengers.

When you put your child on a school bus, it is reasonable to expect that every person and organization involved has a responsibility for their safe transport and is doing their best. But, accidents happen and children do get hurt.

If you have a child who has been injured in a school bus accident, please contact the Atlanta, Georgia bus accident attorneys at Robbins & Associates, P.C. today to schedule your free initial consultation.

On October 20, 2010 the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with Graco Children’s Products, Inc. of Atlanta, Georgia, announced a voluntary recall of about 2 million strollers

The defective product recall was initiated due to the risk of entrapment and strangulation of the child using it. Graco and the commission received four reports of infant strangulation deaths prompting the recall. Another five infants were reported to have received minor injuries (cuts & bruises), and one had difficulty breathing.

The stroller models included in this recall are the Graco Quattro Tour™ and MetroLite™. The Quattro Tour™ models were manufactured prior to November, 2006 and the MetroLite™ prior to July, 2007. Each of these models was manufactured prior to the implementation of the January, 2008 voluntary industry standard which addresses the height of the opening between the seat and stroller tray.

By issuing the recall, the Consumer Product Safety Commission advises consumers to stop using the recalled products immediately. The recall also makes it illegal to resell or attempt to resell the recalled models. To find out if you have one of the recalled models, you can visit the commission’s recall announcement for a list of the affected models. An experienced defective product attorney can help you file your claim.

If your child has been injured by this defective product in the Jacksonville, Florida area, please contact the attorneys at Hardesty Tyde Green & Ashton, P.A. today to schedule your free consultation today.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that approximately 4.5 million Americans suffer from dog bite injuries each year. One in five of these injuries require medical attention.

Because of the high number of fatalities resulting from dog bites, Texas has responded by revising its laws. The revisions eliminate the “one free bite” provision and are designed to help future victims of dog bites and animal attacks.

The new law is nicknamed “Lillian’s Law” in memory of Lillian Stiles. Lillian is a 76-year-old woman that was killed by her neighbor’s six dogs while riding her lawn mower. Under Lillian’s Law, a person may be held criminally responsible if they:

• With criminal negligence fail to secure the dog and the dog makes an unprovoked attack on another person not on the owner’s property, causing serious bodily injury or death to the victim
• Know the dog is a “dangerous dog” and the dog makes an unprovoked attack that causes serious bodily harm or death to another person and occurs somewhere other than an enclosure in which the dog is kept

States enacting tougher legislation to protect the public from animal attacks is definitely a step in the right direction. These laws should hopefully improve safety as well as hold dog owners accountable for the actions of their pet.

If you’ve been injured by a dog bite or other animal attack in the Denver, Colorado area, please contact the attorneys at Burg, Simpson, Eldredge, Hersh & Jardine today to schedule your free initial consultation.

The recent death of an infant due to a medication error while in the care of the Seattle Children’s Hospital brings fresh attention to an issue that continues to impact families across America.

In this case, the infant in Washington was being transported in anticipation of a transplant when a staff member issued medication without permission and in violation of the hospital’s policy. The medication error, combined with another medical mistake that was not fatal, caused the hospital to suspend all non-emergency surgeries for a full day to allow the staff to review patient safety practices, identify weaknesses and establish immediate corrections.

Having the hospital respond by interrupting operations for a brief period to try to ensure that more errors didn’t happen may have been the right decision. However, at least one hospital staff member had already made a decision that led to the wrongful death of a child. The hospital’s response was too late, at least in this medical malpractice case.

If you or a loved one has been hurt due to a medication error in the Dallas, Texas area, please contact the medical malpractice attorneys at Polewski & Associates today to schedule your free initial consultation.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal from Pfizer regarding the status of several defective drug claims related to their hormone replacement treatments. The ruling allows 123 women who developed breast cancer from taking these drugs to sue the pharmaceutical company in a Minnesota state court.

The appeal filed by Pfizer attempted to restore a federal trial court decision which dismissed 116 of the plaintiffs because their claims duplicated prior lawsuits. The issue being examined in this case hinged on the rules governing a corporation’s ability to change the jurisdiction of lawsuits from plaintiff-friendly state courts to federal courts. The Supreme Court ruled that the trial court judge erred in dismissing the 116 plaintiffs. Instead, the appropriate action was to remand the entire matter back to the Minnesota state courts where the claims were initially filed.

Pfizer’s menopause drugs were consumed by more than 6 million women in order to treat symptoms such as hot flashes and mood swings. However, a 2002 study indicated a link between these drugs and an increased risk of cancer. Pfizer has since faced several defective drug claims from women who have developed cancer after taking these drugs.

If you have a defective drug claim in the Oklahoma City area, please contact the attorneys at Stipe Injury Law today to schedule your free initial consultation.

An 8-day-old infant was circumcised in a Miami, Florida hospital without the informed consent of the parents. According to the mother, she told the staff at South Miami Hospital on a number of occasions that the child was not to be circumcised.

The baby, who was being cared for in the intensive care unit (ICU), was taken from the ICU to perform the surgery. Although the baby didn’t suffer any complications from the surgery, the mother said that the damage had already been done.

When the error came to light, the hospital issued a statement saying the baby’s circumcision was an “unfortunate mistake” caused by a misread consent form. The doctor and nurses informed the family what had happened. The hospital said that the procedure was performed following appropriate surgical guidelines but that in light of the error, new procedures were implemented to ensure the mistake will not happen again.

An attorney representing the family said “they went and they did an unnecessary, unwanted surgical procedure on this child without the parents’ permission.” He further stated that the procedure constitutes more than medical malpractice; it is a battery and human rights violation with lifelong consequences.

If you or a loved one has been injured due to medical negligence in the West Palm Beach, Florida area, please contact experienced medical malpractice attorney Craig Goldenfarb today to schedule your free initial consultation.

After nearly a year of reviewing the safety record of Abbott Laboratories’ prescription weight-loss drug Meridia (sibutramine), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a full defective drug recall Friday, asking the pharmaceutical manufacturer to remove the drug from pharmacy shelves. Meridia has been banned in Europe for almost a year, beginning shortly after research entitled SCOUT (Sibutramine Cardiovascular OUtcomes Trial) was published in December 2009.

SCOUT found that Meridia increased the risk of heart attack and stroke by 16% while providing very little weight-loss benefit over a placebo. The FDA began its Meridia safety review soon after SCOUT’s findings became public. The FDA issued a communication to doctors and patients advising against continuing to prescribe or use Meridia concurrently with the Meridia recall announcement.

Abbott Laboratories, manufacturer of Meridia, issued a press release asserting the pharmaceutical company’s position that Meridia is not dangerous and that the SCOUT results were in conflict with the drug maker’s internal Meridia pharmaceutical trials. Abbot Laboratories has said the company will fully comply with the Meridia defective drug recall even though it disagrees with the FDA’s findings.

Ever since the SCOUT report came out, watchdog and consumer advocacy groups like Public Citizen have been petitioning the FDA to recall Meridia due to the risk of serious heart events. Public Citizen also petitioned for Meridia’s removal from the market back in 2002. Both requests were denied by the FDA.

The FDA recall of Meridia has significant implications for anyone who has suffered a pharmaceutical injury such as heart attack or stroke after taking Meridia. The Meridia recall will raise the profile of Meridia pharmaceutical injuries in the media, which may prompt more Meridia defective drug injury victims to come forward. In addition, the FDA’s decision to remove Meridia from the market adds legitimacy to current and future Meridia drug injury lawsuits and Meridia wrongful death lawsuits.

If you or someone you know has had a heart attack, stroke, or other serious heart event after taking Meridia, please contact us to find a qualified personal injury lawyer in your state.

A three vehicle accident on I-25 in Denver, Colorado left a woman in critical condition with injuries that were sustained from colliding with cargo being carried on a flatbed semi-trailer. The injured woman was driving an SUV and following a semi-trailer that carried steel beams. When traffic slowed suddenly, the SUV struck a beam that extended beyond the rear of the trailer. The beam crashed through the windshield of the SUV causing serious head injuries to the driver. The SUV was also struck from behind by a third vehicle involved in the collision.

Fewer than 9% of highway accidents involve commercial trucks. However, shifting cargo or cargo that falls from a commercial truck is one of the causes of truck accidents that can seriously injure passenger vehicle occupants. Cargo dangerously protruding from a commercial vehicle can also cause serious injury in the event of an accident.

In this situation, the truck accident may have resulted in less serious or even no injury if not for the beam protruding from the trailer bed. Investigating all of the facts of a trucking accident is essential to ensuring that the injured parties receive the compensation they deserve.

If you have a truck accident claim in the Denver, Colorado area, please contact the lawyers at Hull & Zimmerman today to schedule your free initial consultation.

A nursing home in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin recently agreed to a settlement of more than $2 million dollars to resolve a wrongful death lawsuit.

Cynthia Wilms was a patient at the Willows Nursing and Rehabilitation Center after having hip replacement surgery on July 30, 2007. The lawsuit claimed that the nursing home staff failed to treat her surgical wound correctly resulting in her death. Wilms, 72, was a wife, mother, grandmother and piano teacher. Her condition worsened as her surgical wound developed a common and treatable staph infection. The lawsuit alleged that no one at the understaffed nursing home called a doctor or took appropriate steps to treat the infection.

This incident brings attention to the all too common issues of nursing home neglect caused by inadequate staffing and training of nursing home personnel. The Wilms family didn’t know that the facility they chose for Cynthia had a history of violations and had been listed by the federal government as one of the 54 worst nursing homes in the nation.

The Wilms family had to persevere through more than three years of the legal process before finally receiving a judgment in their loved one’s death. The parent company that owns the Willows Nursing and Rehabilitation Center emphasized that the settlement includes no admission of liability on their part.

If you live in the Phoenix, Arizona area and have lost a loved one due to neglect while in the care of a nursing home, please contact the Arizona nursing home abuse attorneys at Cullan & Cullan, M.D., J.D. today to schedule your free initial consultation.

This week is National Drive Safely to Work Week. The purpose of this observance is to promote awareness of the rules of the road in an attempt to make our nation’s roads safer for all motorists. A variety of different vehicles must co-exist with each other on the roads, and drivers face a growing number of distractions with the many hand-held technology devices on the market today. As a result, a staggering 115 people die every day in motor vehicle accidents. The creators of National Drive Safely to Work Week hope to cut this figure substantially through their efforts.

I hope I’m not the only person who has a problem with such a silly observance. In my mind, when I see an event entitled National Drive Safely to Work Week, it implies to me that the actions of drivers who are a bit more relaxed and negligent in their pursuit of driver safety during the other 51 weeks of the year will be condoned. To me, that is not acceptable.

The way I see it, every day should be Drive Safely to Work Day. If we touted the importance of safe driving throughout the year rather than during one week in October, we may actually go a lot farther towards reducing the number of car accidents occurring on a daily basis. I am not trying to belittle the importance of driver safety by blasting this observance. Rather, I am trying to make the statement that the observance belittles the importance of driver safety. It is time that all drivers take this responsibility more seriously every day of their lives.

If you have a car accident claim in West Virginia, please contact the auto accident attorneys at Jan Dils & Jim Leach today to schedule your free initial consultation.