Dallas Fort Worth Injury Lawyer Blog

Dallas based dietary supplements seller Mannatech Inc. will return $4 million to customers and its founder will pay a $1 million fine for lying about the health benefits of its products, according to the Texas attorney general’s office.

Attorney General Greg Abbott said the Coppell-based company tricked people into thinking its products would prevent, treat or even cure diseases.

Continue reading " Coppell Texas Mannatech to Pay Millions to Settle Diet-Supplement Lawsuit " »

An Arlington, Texas boy aged 2, who was critically injured in a drunken driving crash last week remained on life support as his parents coped with his devastating prognosis.

Eighty percent of Abdallah Khader’s brain was destroyed in the crash, according to his doctor, Jeff McGlothlin. If Abdallah survives, he will be severely disabled for the rest of his life.

Continue reading " Arlington Texas Family Struggles to Cope After Drunken Driving Crash " »

A California jury has awarded nearly $7 million to a 56-year-old woman who was unknowingly infected with herpes by a 77-year-old man.

The lawsuit alleged that Thomas Redmond knew he had genital herpes for more than 25 years but did not disclose it before his sexual relationship began with Patricia Behr and did not use a condom.

The lawsuit claimed that Behr suffered unnecessary stress and humiliation as a result of the defendant's conduct, which it called "outrageous and beyond the bounds of decency."

Continue reading " California Woman Infected With Herpes Wins Lawsuit " »

Detroit has agreed to pay $2 million to settle a lawsuit over the death of a 67-year-old man in a police lockup.

James Stone, arrested for a parole violation, had a heart attack and died in August 2005 at the police department's Second Precinct. Lawyers for his estate said he complained for hours about chest pain, but no one took him to a hospital.

The case was settled for $2 million before a jury was picked in federal court.

Continue reading " Detroit to Pay $2 M for Wrongful Death " »

A Cleburne family, the Pawliks, whose house exploded after odorless natural gas seeped into their home through a leaking gas main and a faulty air conditioning condensation line, has reached a settlement with Atmos Energy. The terms of the settlement are confidential.

The lawsuit alleged that Atmos did not inspect or maintain the gas lines.

Officials from Atmos Energy also declined to discuss the terms of the settlement. The man’s wife, Hazel, 64, and daughter, Hazel Sanderson, 44, died after being severely burned.

Continue reading " Cleburne Texas Family and Atmos Settle in Gas Explosion " »

On Aug. 20, 2008 a jury awarded nearly $2 million to a man who sustained a lumbar compression burst fracture in a collision with a Federal Express delivery truck.

James Hughes was a passenger in a car going through an intersection when he was struck by the FedEx vehicle.

Hughes' injury is located at the L1 disk, and it will required fusion surgery. He claimed he's in constant pain and he's prevented from performing actions more strenuous than walking for brief periods.

He also claimed his injury forced him to close his business.

The defense argued that a traffic signal malfunction caused the accident, but the jury found FedEx 100 percent liable.

Hughes v. Federal Express Ground Packages System, No. 2:07-cv-00286-CE

Court: U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall

On Aug. 29, 2008 a jury awarded $3.3 million to an emergency medical technician who said her employer transferred her after she complained that she had been sexually assaulted and harassed by a co-worker.

In 2004, Kathy Nieves told management at East Texas Medical Center EMS that she had been harassed at work and assaulted in her home by Jeremy Cox, also an EMT.

Cox denied the allegations and subsequently accused Nieves of harassment. Nieves claimed that in retaliation for her complaints, East Texas reprimanded her, transferred her and precluded her from working in Coffman County.

The defense argued that Nieves and Cox had a consensual sexual relationship and that Nieves was transferred for legitimate business reasons.

The jury sided with Nieves and awarded her $1.8 million for emotional distress and lost wages and $1.5 million for punitive damages.

Nieves v. East Texas Medical Center EMS, No. 69987

Court: 40th District Court, Ellis County

An Indiana woman has been awarded $157 million in a wrongful death lawsuit she filed against the manufacturers of a tree stand that malfunctioned, killing her husband three years ago.

The substantial default judgment, reached by jurors in about an hour, no one representing the defendants -- L & L Enterprises in Hattiesburg, Miss., Ol' Man Tree Stands in Jay, Fla., and TSR Inc. in Pace, Fla. -- showed for the trial.

Carol Simonton filed the civil tort in February 2006, about four months after her husband, Timothy Simonton, was found hanged to death in Parke County, IN.

Continue reading " Indiana Jury Awards $157M in Tree Stand Death " »

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., will pay $17.5 million to settle a lawsuit claiming the company discriminated against African-Americans in recruiting and hiring truck drivers.

The lawsuit was filed in 2004 by Daryal Nelson, who claimed he was rejected for a truck-driver position because of his race. Nelson filed the suit in federal court in Helena, Arkansas, on behalf of all black applicants who believe they were rejected or deterred from applying for the positions because of race. The lawsuit was given class-action, or group, status in May 2007.

Wal-Mart’s motions to dismiss the case or decertify the class were denied last month.

Continue reading " Wal-Mart to Pay $17.5 M Racial Bias Settlement " »

A South Carolina jury has awarded $4.4 million to the parents of a 4-year-old girl who died after suffering brain injury at birth at Piedmont Medical Center.

The jury found that the hospital was at fault in 2003 when it assigned a nurse trainee to monitor expectant mother Robin Wilson, who had arrived at the hospital three days before her scheduled induction, complaining of nausea and vomiting.

Continue reading " SC Jury Awards $4.4M Against Hospital " »

Philip Morris has to pay the widow of a longtime smoker who died of lung cancer $8 million in damages in a case that could affect about 8,000 similar Florida lawsuits.

The six jurors deliberated over two days before returning the award for Elaine Hess, whose husband Stuart Hess died in 1997 at age 55 after decades as a chain smoker.

The award amounts to $3 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages against Richmond, Va.-based Philip Morris USA.

The Hess case was the first to go to trial since the Florida Supreme Court in 2006 voided a $145 billion class-action jury award, which was by far the highest punitive damage award in U.S. history.

Continue reading " Philip Morris to Pay $8 Million to Smoker's Widow " »

A California doctor accused of molesting female patients during medical procedures has been ordered to stop practicing medicine until further notice.

Dr. Peter Chi, has turned in his license, according to the Medical Board of California. He previously had been ordered by a San Joaquin County judge to stay away from the Beauty Renewed Laser Skin Center, where he served as the medical director.

Chi, a cosmetic surgeon, made his first court appearance and is out on $100,000 bail. He has been charged with seven counts of sexual battery by fraud, one count of sexual battery and three counts of rape by a foreign object.

A total of eight women, said that they were violated during cosmetic surgery procedures or postoperative exams at his clinic between September 2007 and December 2008. Most of the women, who were 25 to 39 years old at the time, were unconscious while the molestation occurred.

Continue reading " California Surgeon Charged With Molesting Patients " »

DALLAS — A Bedford infectious-disease specialist has been ordered to pay $7.5 million to a former maintenance man who lost his arms and legs to an MRSA infection.

Judge Jim Jordan ordered Dr. Meenakshi Prabhakar to pay David Fitzgerald after a Dallas County jury found in Fitzgerald's favor in his medical malpractice lawsuit. Prabhakar treated Fitzgerald in 2003 when he developed an infection following surgery at RHD Medical Center in Farmers Branch. Photo courtesy of Dallas Morning News

Continue reading " Dallas Doctor Ordered to Pay Man Who Lost Limbs $7.5M " »

Peanut Corporation of America, the company responsible for the nationwide salmonella outbreak, has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection and will begin liquidating its assets as legal claims pile up against it.

Companies that Lynchburg, Va.-based PCA supplied with peanut products have also filed suit against it, and PCA's insurer, Hartford Casualty Insurance, has filed a lawsuit in an effort to limit its liability.

Continue reading " PCA Peanut Company Files for Bankruptcy Protection " »

An Illinois woman's homeowners insurance will pay $2.5 M to settle a lawsuit brought by a man who was injured in a crash that occurred after an underage drinking party in her home.

The settlement between the woman, whose teenage daughters hosted the party, and George Baldwin, 22, was approved by the judge in Lake County Circuit Court.

In 2006, Baldwin, then a 19-year-old Lake Forest High School graduate, went to the woman's home with a friend, William Klairmont, then 18 and also from Lake Forest. They were visiting Pfeifer's daughters, and all drank beer in the girls' bedroom.

Klairmont was intoxicated when he drove home and lost control of his car. Baldwin, a passenger, was injured with resulting paralysis.

Continue reading " Man Paralyzed in Crash After Underage Drinking Party Settles Lawsuit " »

Stacy Rojas was declared brain dead one month before Zoe Rojas' birth. The mother was kept on life support to save their daughter's life. Two days after Zoe was born, Mr. Rojas said goodbye to his wife forever.

Continue reading " Dallas Medical Malpractice Case Settles " »

Texas health officials ordered a recall of every product ever shipped from a Plainview peanut processing plant since March 2005 after inspectors discovered contamination.

Inspectors found dead rodents, rodent excrement and bird feathers in a crawl space above a food production area at the Peanut Corp. of America’s Plainview plant, according to authorities from the Texas Department of State Health Services.

The plant’s air handling system was not completely sealed and was pulling debris from the infested crawl space onto exposed food products in production areas.

Continue reading " All Peanut Products From Texas Plant Are Recalled " »

A federal court has ordered Taser International to pay $1.4 million to lawyers for the family of a California man who died after police officers repeatedly shocked him with stun guns.

Continue reading " Court Awards $1.4M in Taser Lawsuit " »

The Florida doctor's license was revoked in the case of a teenager who planned to have an abortion but instead gave birth to a baby she says was killed when clinic staffers put it into a plastic bag and threw it in the trash.

The doctor, Pierre Jean-Jacques Renelique, was not present when the baby was born, but the Florida Medical Board upheld Department of Health allegations that he falsified medical records, inappropriately delegated tasks to unlicensed personnel and committed malpractice.

Continue reading " Florida Doctor Loses License in Live Birth Abortion Case " »

According to federal drug officials, many doctors may lose their ability to prescribe 24 popular narcotics as part of a new effort to reduce the deaths and injuries that result from these medications inappropriate use.

A new control program will result in restrictions on the prescribing, dispensing and distribution of extended-release opioids like OxyContin, fentanyl patches, methadone tablets and some morphine tablets.

Continue reading " F.D.A. to Restrict Prescriptions of Narcotics " »

Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals has just introduced a new $20 million advertising campaign for Yaz, the most popular birth control pill in the United States.

But the television ads, are not typical spots promoting the benefits of a prescription drug. Instead, they warn that nobody should take Yaz hoping that it will also cure pimples or premenstrual syndrome.

As part of an unusual crackdown on deceptive consumer drug advertising, the Food and Drug Administration and the attorneys general of 27 states have required Bayer to run these new ads to correct previous Yaz marketing.

Continue reading " Yaz Birth Control Pill and Advertising " »

At its February 5-6 meeting, the Texas Medical Board took disciplinary action against 32 licensed physicians; in addition, the board has issued one temporary suspension since its last meeting.

The actions included 11 violations based on quality of care; seven actions based on unprofessional conduct; one mediated agreed order modifying a prior order; three actions based on other states’ actions; four actions based on inadequate medical records violations; two actions based on impairment due to alcohol or drugs or mental/physical condition; one advertising violation; and four voluntary surrenders. The board also accepted the voluntary surrender of one surgical assistant’s license.

At its February 5-6 meeting, the Texas Medical Board issued 399 physician licenses.

For further information click here.

A woman aged 18, went to an abortion clinic outside Miami and paid $1,200 for the doctor to terminate her 23-week pregnancy.

Three days later, she sat in a reclining chair, medicated get her ready for the procedure.

The doctor did not arrive in time. According to the woman and the Florida Department of Health, she went into labor and delivered a live baby girl.

What happened next has shocked people on both sides of the abortion debate: One of the clinic's owners, who has no medical license, cut the infant's umbilical cord. The woman placed the baby in a plastic biohazard bag and threw it out.

Continue reading " Botched Abortion Leads to National Shock " »

A new study finds that almost a quarter of a sample of people exposed to toxic dust after the 9/11 attack in New York City still suffer from diminished lung capacity.

The rate of lung problems is about 2.5 times more than would be expected in people who smoke, according to co-author Dr. Jacqueline Moline, director of the World Trade Center Medical Monitoring and Treatment Program Clinical Center.

Continue reading " Aftermath of 9/11 " »

More workers are being let go as corporate layoffs have accelerated in recent weeks. And more often, people are looking around and complaining that they have been unfairly or improperly dismissed.

Former employees of Lehman Brothers, say they were not given the required 60 days’ pay before their jobs vanished, while Dell is being sued over allegations of age and sex discrimination against workers.

Continue reading " Layoffs Lead To Employee Lawsuits " »

A N.J., judge has blocked an attempt to dismiss a toxic-tort suit over a mercury-contaminated building, rejecting defense arguments that the plaintiff's expert proofs of emotional distress were inadmissible net opinions.

In Schley v. General Electric Co., L-251-07, former owners and residents of 722 Grand St. in Hoboken, N.J., seek damages from GE, a previous owner. The plaintiffs claim physical injury and emotional distress allegedly caused by contamination so severe that authorities ordered them to evacuate the building.

Continue reading " Emotional-Distress Suit Against GE Over Toxic Building " »

The LA City Council agreed to pay nearly $13 million to people injured or mistreated in a May Day melee in MacArthur Park, bringing to more than $30 million the money spent over the last two weeks to settle lawsuits alleging LAPD misconduct.

For the LAPD, the $12.85-million payout -- covering most of the claims by immigration demonstrators and bystanders injured May 1, 2007, in MacArthur Park -- has a few strings attached.

Continue reading " Los Angeles to Pay $13 M to Settle May Day Melee Lawsuits " »

A Travis County jury has awarded a woman $900,000 after finding that she was fired from her job at a state civil rights agency for complaining about discrimination against minorities at the agency.

The jury arrived at the verdict after a six-day trial in a lawsuit that Marilou Morrison filed against the Texas Commission on Human Rights and the Texas Workforce Commission.

The agency that is supposed to enforce civil rights is being hit with basically a million dollar judgment for violating the very statutes they are required to enforce.

Continue reading " Texas Workforce Commission Loses Suit For Wrongful Termination " »

A peanut processing plant in Texas run by the Peanut Corp. of America, which is being investigated for a national salmonella outbreak, operated for years uninspected and unlicensed by Texas health officials.

The Peanut Corp. of America plant in Plainview was never inspected until after the company fell under investigation by the Food and Drug Administration.

Once inspectors learned about the Texas plant, they found no sign of salmonella there. This finding raises questions; how it could have operated unlicensed for nearly four years and about the adequacy of government efforts to keep the nation's food supply safe. Texas is among states where the FDA relies on state inspectors to oversee food safety.

Continue reading " Texas Peanut Plant Under Investigation " »

Independent water quality tests conducted by environmental activists show high levels of arsenic and other toxins in river water near the site of a massive coal ash spill in Tennessee and several miles downstream.

The samples were collected about one to two weeks after 1.1 billion gallons of ash sludge and water breached an earthen containment area at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston Fossil Plant, about 40 miles west of Knoxville. No one was seriously injured in the spill, but several residents were displaced.

Continue reading " More Toxins in River Near TVA Ash Spill " »

Federal health officials opened a criminal investigation into the Georgia peanut-processing plant at the center of the national salmonella outbreak.

The investigation into Peanut Corp. of America follows reports of poor sanitation practices and inspections that found the company sold contaminated peanut products to food makers.

At least 529 people have been sickened as a result of the outbreak, and at least eight might have died because of it. More than 430 products have been recalled.