Dallas Fort Worth Injury Lawyer Blog

MARSHALL TEXAS- The family of a man killed while working at a Texas sawmill is suing the company for alleged safety violations.

According to the complaint filed Dec. 28 in the Marshall Division of the Eastern District of Texas, the man was employed at Southern Hardwood Co. on Jan. 20, 2007, when he died.
The man was making wooden boards for pallets using a board edger, when the Crosby board edger "shot back" a board into his chest.

The man was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead and the cause of death determined to be from a blunt force trauma to the chest.

Continue reading " Texas Wrongful Death Suit Blames Sawmill's Safety Violations " »

The Texas Medical Board (TMB) is charged with licensing physicians and enforcing the Texas Medical Practices Act. During the 2007 session and interim, TMB has been under intense legislative scrutiny for administrative, enforcement, and licensure issues. Last session, lawmakers increased the agency’s appropriation by $3.4 million — to $18.4 million for the biennium — so it can better manage the backlog of license applications. In exchange, the board was directed to cut the average processing time for a new license to 51 days. TMB reports it has met this goal and initiated an online application process to further speed up licensure.

Continue reading " Texas Medical Board Update " »

Medical malpractice reform enacted five years ago succeeded in cutting the number of lawsuits against doctors and increasing the number of physicians working in Texas.

But state medical board investigators say it also left them with an unbearable workload.

While the Texas Medical Board's staffing increased 28 percent from 112 employees in fiscal 2002 to 143 in fiscal 2008, physician and patient settlements through the board have increased 202 percent, according to the board's statistics.

In next year's legislative session, the TMB will be asking for 11 additional full-time workers to help with investigating and resolving complaints against doctors.

Continue reading " Texas Medical Board Falling Behind On Complaints " »

LEONARD TEXAS— An ambulance collided with a car at a rural North Texas intersection, killing all three people inside the sedan.

Police in Leonard say the ambulance driver failed to see the Chevrolet Malibu before turning onto U.S. Highway 69. The car slammed into the ambulance, sending both vehicles off the road and leaving the ambulance on its side in a ditch.

Continue reading " Ambulance And Car Accident in Leonard, North of Dallas " »

There are 50 items on the nursing jurisprudence examination (NJE). You must correctly answer 75% of the questions to pass the NJE. You will have two (2) hours to complete the NJE. Displayed in the upper right hand corner of the computer screen will be a digital clock and the question number so you can monitor your progress throughout the NJE.

You are permitted to access the Board of Nursing (BON) website and other resource material throughout the exam to locate the answers to questions. The NJE will run in another window, thereby leaving this window open to access reference materials on the BON website.

A Passing Result will be posted and recorded to the BON system when all 50 questions are answered and a minimum of 38 questions are answered correctly. A certificate will be available for printing at the end of the examination process. Once a passing result is recorded, Board Staff will be notified and the jurisprudence exam requirement will be updated as completed in your BON file. Keep the certificate for your records. Do not mail the certificate to the BON.

Continue reading " Texas Nursing Jurisprudence Exam " »

DALLAS, TX.- The Dallas Police Department will begin enforcing the Uninsured Motorist Ordinance with the start of the new year.
Approved by the Dallas City Council on May 28, the new law says that drivers who are stopped for a traffic violation and cannot provide proof of the state-required auto insurance will have their vehicle towed at the owner’s expense.

Currently, uninsured drivers in Dallas are only towed in the event of a traffic accident. The new ordinance extends towing to any traffic violations.

Continue reading " Dallas To Start Towing More Uninsured Motorists " »

Rule Changes Adopted
The board adopted the following rule changes that were published in the Texas Register:

Chapter 163, Licensure, amendments to §163.5, Licensure Documentation.

Chapter 165, Medical Records, amendments to §165.1, Medical Records; §165.5, Transfer and Disposal of Medical Records.

Chapter 166, Physician Registration, amendments to§166.2, Continuing Medical Education; and §166.6, Exemption from Registration Fee for Retired Physician Providing Voluntary Charity Care.

Continue reading " Texas Medical Board Implements New Rules " »

Since its last board meeting, the Texas Medical Board took disciplinary action against 59 licensed physicians. The actions included 13 violations based on quality of care; two actions based on unprofessional conduct; three actions based on violations of probation or prior orders; three actions based on other states’ actions; six actions based on inadequate medical records; four actions based on impairment due to alcohol or drugs or mental/physical condition; two actions based on nontherapeutic prescribing; two actions based on failure to properly supervise or delegate; one action based on a criminal conviction; three voluntary surrenders; two violations of failure to obtain required continuing medical education; two administrative agreed orders; and 12 licensees agreed to enter into administrative orders with the board for minimal statutory violations.

Continue reading " Texas Medical Board Disciplines 59 Doctors and Issues 479 Physician Licenses " »

TEXAS-Johnson County officials are concerned about "mud" spills, the mess that some companies leave behind when waste is hauled away from drilling sites.

When trucks loaded with the mud used in the gas drilling process travel too fast along county roads, some of it spills out, and county officials are sometimes left to clean up the mess.

The Johnson County’s emergency management coordinator, said cleanup costs are mounting, and the problem is also plaguing other counties in the Barnett Shale.

The mud contains lubricants and toxic chemicals used to make the drill bit turn more easily. When mud spills onto roadways, it is like ice, sometimes leading to serious accidents.

Continue reading " Texas Roadway Hazards From Trucks Leaving Gas Well Sites " »

DALLAS — Four people, including a 14-month-old toddler, died in accidents on icy roadways as a wintry storm moved through Texas over the past week.

Authorities blamed icy roads for all four traffic fatalities. In three of the four deadly accidents, Monday night and early Tuesday, the drivers of the vehicles were speeding on slick roads, officials said.

Continue reading " 4 Die On Icy North Texas Roads " »

Driver fatigue is responsible for up to 40% of all accidents caused by semi-truck drivers. Data from the Deptartment of Transportation show that driver fatigue causes as many as 750 deaths and nearly 200,000 injuries on an annual basis.

Under the current rules, a driver must be allowed 10 hours off duty is he has been driving for more than 11 hours and/or has been "on duty" for up to 14 hours. In addition to this daily rule is a weekly rule that requires drivers to stop operating their truck if they have been "on-duty" for either 60 hours in a 7 day period or 70 hours in an 8 day period.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has fought unsuccesfuly to tighten these rules and avoid the driver fatigue that has caused so many accidents and injured so many people.

Continue reading " Heavy Truck Accidents Caused By Fatigue " »

The family of a man who died at a San Francisco jail has filed a $10 million federal civil rights lawsuit against the city, saying sheriff's officials ignored prisoners' pleas that he needed medical help in the hours before he died.

The 48 year old man, died in his cell, a day after he was booked on suspicion of possession of drugs for sale following his arrest.

Five inmates have alleged that jail staffers did not respond to prisoners' pleas for the man to be treated by a doctor after he complained of feeling ill.

The man's death was listed as accidental, the result of a heart attack caused by acute drug intoxication, the medical examiner's office said.

The wrongful-death suit filed on behalf of man's family Friday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco claims that jail staffers failed to recognize that the man was undergoing opiate withdrawal. He told staffers and other inmates that he "felt like he was dying," the suit said.

Continue reading " Family of Inmate Who Died Sues S.F. for $10 M " »

A $10 million settlement has been reached involving personal injury claims filed over a Jan. 2 charter bus crash that killed one person and injured dozens more near Victoria, Texas.

The settlement which included the family of the man who died and 44 passengers was reached with the driver, owners and managers of the bus company.

A 55-year-old Houston man, died when the bus traveling from Monterrey, Mexico, to Houston veered off U.S. 59 near Victoria and flipped on its side. Dozens were injured. Forty-four of the passengers filed personal injury claims.

Continue reading " Settlement: Victoria Texas Bus Crash " »

The family of a child who died in a Winnie the Pooh bassinet has sued the Walt Disney Co., alleging the company allowed sales of the bassinets despite a flawed design that had been linked to another baby's death.

The bassinet had a drop-down side for easy access, but the design created a gap where babies could slide through and hang to death. The child was 6 months old when she was strangled.

Shortly after the child's death, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission directed retailers to stop selling the bassinets, which were manufactured by Simplicity Inc. Disney's consumer products division licensed its Winnie the Pooh name and image to Simplicity.

The suit, filed in California state court in Los Angeles, raises questions about a common practice in the nursery products industry: Are companies that license their names and characters to other manufacturers responsible when those products turn out to be deadly?

Continue reading " Family Sues Disney Over Defective Product Death " »

An appeal by Hanford contractors, has been rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court clearing the way for a settlement with almost 2,000 people exposed to radiation during the Manhattan Project and the early years of the Cold War.

The contractors - E.I. Du Pont De Nemours & Co., General Electric Co. and UNC Nuclear Industries Inc. - were challenging a ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last spring that sided largely with the plaintiffs.

The people exposed to radiation lived in eastern Washington, eastern Oregon and Idaho, down wind of the Hanford nuclear reservation, as the U.S. government was developing the first atomic bombs in the 1940s. They have spent nearly two decades trying to win compensation for thyroid cancer and other conditions that they say were caused by the exposure.

Continue reading " Supreme Court Rejects Appeal by Hanford Contractors " »

Merck is considering an appeal after a Texas state appeals court reversed its own prior dismissal of a $7.75 M judgment in a Vioxx personal injury lawsuit against the drugmaker.

A three-judge panel of the Texas 4th Court of Appeals ruled there should be a new trial in the case. The plaintiff, a longtime smoker with a history of heart disease, died of a heart attack in 2001 after taking Vioxx briefly.

The three judges sent the case back to the original trial court, where a jury in 2006 had awarded $32 million to the man's widow. That amount was cut to about $7.75 million under a Texas law limiting damages.

Continue reading " Texas Court Orders New Vioxx Trial " »

A Los Angeles jury has ordered Kaiser Permanante to pay $7.5 million in punitive damages to a radiologist who was forced to resign from one the company's hospitals in 2006 after complaining about patient care.

The jury's decision means Kaiser owes the doctor a combined $11.4 million. The same panel earlier in the week awarded the doctor $3.9 million in compensatory damages.

Kaiser says it will appeal the decision, saying it was "shocked and disappointed by the verdict."

Continue reading " Doctor Awarded $11.4 M For Wrongful Termination " »

A Florida man, who is suing two Broward County doctors for malpractice in a rare case allowing a punitive damages claim.

The man claims his plastic surgeon later lied about his detached role in the botched surgery, created two sets of medical records to hide the truth and still billed his insurance company for performing surgery.

The Broward Circuit Judge issued an order in July putting punitive damages in play, and Florida's 4th District Court of Appeal on Sept. 29 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari on the issue. The trial is set for March 2.

Continue reading " Florida Med-Mal Case With Punitive Damages Claim " »

A panel of the Texas Medical Board temporarily restricted the license of a doctor based in Conroe, after determining that the doctor’s unrestricted practice of medicine presents a continuing threat to the public welfare.

The action was based on the panel’s findings that the doctor was responsible for violations in the standard of care, nontherapeutic prescribing, prescribing to persons who were known or should have been known to be engaged in substance abuse or diversion, and his failing to adequately supervise the activities of persons operating under his supervision. These findings were made as the result of a criminal investigation involving patients who had obtained narcotics prescriptions from clinics under the doctor's medical direction.

Continue reading " Texas Medical Board Temporarily Restricts Doctor's License " »

The U.S. government must pay $8.6 million in damages because a military doctor at Scott Air Force Base failed to diagnose a case of flesh-eating bacteria according to a federal magistrate judge's ruling.

The former wife of an Air Force captain, testified that she sought treatment at the base hospital emergency room for pain and swelling in her right arm in 2002.

According to court documents, the doctor was concerned the woman was a drug addict wanting a prescription, advised her to go home and take Motrin.

A month later, the situation got progressively worse and the woman was taken to the emergency room. The woman was then diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis, a strep infection that decays soft tissue.

Continue reading " Scott AFB Doctor Liable in $8.6 M Judgment " »

More than a decade ago, Massachusetts became the first state to mandate its medical board to post physician profiles online. Patients could find a physician's hospital affiliations, hospital and medical board disciplinary actions, medical malpractice payments and other data.

The Massachusetts board's idea to display physician data on an easily accessible Web site was novel in 1996. Many physicians were skeptical in the beginning, resulting in a heated debate of how to post information that was useful to the public and fair to doctors.

"It has worked out reasonably well," said Massachusetts Medical Society President. "It is an opportunity for patients to step up and see information such as where a physician has received training, whether they are board certified, whether they have malpractice suits against them and whether or not the suit falls in what one might expect in that specialty."

Continue reading " State Medical Boards Want Transparency " »

The family of a man killed in a stampede by holiday shoppers filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Wal-Mart Stores Inc, seeking unspecified damages.

Shoppers on New York's Long Island broke down doors and surged into the Valley Stream Wal-Mart, the day after Thanksgiving, known as "Black Friday," traditionally the busiest retail shopping day of the year.

The 34 year old man, was knocked to the ground and trampled to death. He had been assigned to cover security as an independent contractor.

Continue reading " Wal-Mart Sued by Family of Trampled Man " »

Medical device maker Medtronic Inc. said it did not encourage the unapproved use of its spinal implant, which a new lawsuit is blaming for the death of a California woman.

The lawsuit, filed by the woman's family in Los Angeles, said her death was caused by use of the Infuse spinal graft in her neck. The device is approved only for use in lower-back surgery and some oral and dental procedures.

The woman's surgery took place in August, a month after the Food and Drug Administration warned that use of Infuse for neck surgeries had led to problems swallowing, breathing and speaking.

Continue reading " Medtronic Lawsuit Over Spinal Implant " »

The parents of a 7-year-old boy who died after contracting West Nile virus from a transfusion of tainted blood asked the Florida Supreme Court to restore an $8 million jury verdict against a blood bank.

The Court have been asked to decide whether all blood banks are covered by Florida's medical malpractice statutes, which include special procedures and limits on damages and attorney fees, rather than general negligence laws.

The American Red Cross and two national blood bank associations are participating in the case through a written "friend-of-the-court" argument that sided with the defendant, LifeSouth Community Blood Centers Inc.

Continue reading " Lawsuit in Florida Blood Bank Death " »

W.R. Grace & Co. has agreed to pay up to $140 million to settle a class action lawsuit from its use of an attic-insulating product that contained asbestos.

The chemicals maker company will pay $30 million cash into a trust fund, an additional $30 million cash after three years, and make up to 10 additional annual payments of $8 million if certain conditions are met.

The payouts stem from the company's sale of Zonolite attic insulation, a loose-fill vermiculite product that can contain naturally occurring asbestos. Zonolite was installed in millions of homes throughout the U.S. and Canada. The hundreds of thousands of lawsuits filed against the product pushed W.R. Grace into bankruptcy protection in 2001.

Continue reading " W.R. Grace to Settle Asbestos Case " »

A security guard who was fired after failing a hearing test was awarded $257,048 in a disability discrimination lawsuit against the U.S. Attorney General.

The man aged 61, lost his job at the federal courthouse in Victoria because he could not pass the required hearing test. He sued under the Americans with Disabilities Act, alleging a U.S. Marshal Service rule that banned use of hearing aids during testing was discriminatory.

Continue reading " Fired Security Guard Awarded $257K in Disability Discrimination " »

A Texas judge has overturned his previous $16.2 million judgment against the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, which was sued by the parents of a pledge who died allegedly after a hazing event at the University of Texas.

The judge has accepted the fraternity's explanation that the failure to respond to the lawsuit was an accident, and the lawsuit will now proceed.

Continue reading " Judgment Overturned in Texas Hazing Case " »

A Kansas jury awarded $23.5 million in a lawsuit stemming from injuries in a semitrailer accident in New Mexico.

The U.S. District Judge reduced the actual award to nearly $15.3 million because the jury decided the driver of the other truck was only 65 percent at fault.

The truck driver tested positive for methamphetamine while driving a truck for Swift Transportation.

Continue reading " $23.5 M for Injuries From Semis Collision " »

A federal investigation has found that Texas is failing to protect disabled residents who are living in large state facilities, from possible lapses in health care.

The U.S. Justice Department said in a report that deficiencies in staffing put residents in 13 facilities at risk of abuse and neglect .

The probe concluded that serious problems and deficiencies in care currently exist throughout the facilities where nearly 5,000 vulnerable Texans live.

"We have concluded that numerous conditions and practices at the facilities violate the constitutional and federal statutory rights of their residents," said an assistant attorney general in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division.

Continue reading " Texas Failing to Protect Patients From Abuse And Neglect " »