Dallas Fort Worth Injury Lawyer Blog

BP PLC said Friday that it would honor all "legitimate claims" for damages stemming from the Louisiana oil spill, as the company's stock continued to fall amid investors' concerns about potential litigation and a total clean-up bill that could run well into the billions of dollars.

The disaster was set in motion when the Deepwater Horizon, which had been leased by BP to drill a well in the Gulf of Mexico, caught fire and sank, killing 11 crew members. BP's efforts to stop the flow of oil from the well have failed.

The company is spending about $6 million a day on the clean-up, but those costs are expected to escalate with the oil making landfall. Analyst estimates of BP's total costs stemming from the disaster range from around $2.5 billion to $8 billion. BP says it is self-insured.

Read the full Wall Street Article Here.

Continue reading " BP's Escalating Costs Put Investors on Edge " »

British Petroleum downplayed the possibility of a catastrophic accident at an offshore rig that exploded, causing the worst U.S. oil spill in decades along the Gulf Coast and endangering shoreline habitat.

In its 2009 exploration plan and environmental impact analysis for the well, BP suggested it was unlikely, or virtually impossible, for an accident to occur that would lead to a giant crude oil spill and serious damage to beaches, fish and mammals.

At least 1.6 million gallons of oil have spilled so far since the April 20 explosion that killed 11 workers, according to Coast Guard estimates.

Read the full AP story here.

Continue reading " BP Document: No Plan For Major Oil Spill " »

Bayer recently released its Annual Report for 2009. The report is 274 pages long. Here are the highlights:

* By Bayer's count, as of February 15, 2010, about 1,100 lawsuits were filed against it by women injured by Yaz or Yasmin.

* Yaz and Yasmin are Bayer’s best-selling pharmaceutical products for at least the second year in a row.

Continue reading " 1,100 Yaz and Yasmin Lawsuits Filed and New Versions of Yaz and Yasmin Birth Control " »

It’s looking much more likely that the oil spill from a BP well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico will have political ramifications in the U.S.

The situation in the Gulf deteriorated again as the U.S. Coastguard revealed that oil is gushing from the damaged well five times faster than previously thought. A change in prevailing winds means the growing oil slick is likely to reach land on Friday, despite BP’s massive efforts to contain it.

Read the full Wall St Story here.

Continue reading " Political Consequences Loom As Gulf Oil Slick Spreads Faster " »

The plaintiff' attorneys are starting to circle the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Attorneys have filed a class action on Thursday over damages caused by the drilling rig that exploded on April 20.

The suit, Cooper v. BP plc, was filed in the Eastern District of Louisiana on behalf of Louisiana shrimpers, fisherman and commercial boaters who claim the oil spill is hurting their livelihood.

Read the full story here at the National Law Journal.

Continue reading " Class Action Lawsuits Filed Over Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill " »

The White House escalated its response Thursday to the growing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and a local official said the massive slick is projected to reach the Louisiana coast late Thursday.

The oil "is already in state waters" and will reach the Pass-a-Loutre Wildlife Management Area, near the southernmost tip of the state later Thursday, Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser said after a meeting with council members and a congressman to discuss the emergency.

The prospects for slowing the spread of the oil appear dim, and the slick threatens to cause significant environmental damage and disruption to business along the Gulf Coast.

Read the full Wall St Journal story here.

Continue reading " Oil Slick Nears Coast as U.S. Escalates Response " »

Two new federal lawsuits are filed over the oil spill that is currently spewing crude into the Gulf of Mexico after an explosion on one of BP PLC’s offshore rigs. Both lawsuits were filed in the Eastern District of Louisiana.

The first was filed on behalf of two Louisiana commercial shrimpers Acy J. Cooper and Ronnie Louis Anderson, who allege that the spill “is causing dangerous environmental contamination of the Gulf of Mexico and its shorelines, threatening Louisiana’s sensitive wetlands and estuarine areas” and it “will continue to cause loss of revenue to persons (and businesses) who are being prevented from using the Gulf of Mexico and Louisiana’s Coastal Zone for diverse activities, including work and to earn a living.”

Read the full WSJ story here.

Continue reading " Gulf Oil Spill Law Suits Start " »

Accutane® (isotretinoin or roaccutane) is considered by many dermatologists to be the strongest, most effective weapon against persistent, severe acne.

It is a derivative of Vitamin A, and the drug works by reducing the skin's production of oil.

A current Black Box warning on Accutane cautions consumers about its potential to harm unborn children. Additional serious side effects associated with Accutane use include depression, colitis, and liver disease. Roche Pharmaceuticals, the manufacturer of Accutane, has been named in thousands of lawsuits filed by patients who experienced severe side effects or whose loved ones experienced adverse reactions following Accutane use.

Continue reading " Dallas Accutane Lawsuits Update " »

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., the second-biggest U.S. cigarette maker, must pay $46.3 million to the widow of a Florida man who died from lung cancer in 1995, according to a Florida jury.

Six state-court jurors in Gainesville voted unanimously in favor of the widow of Frank Townsend, who started smoking at age 13 or 14, according to Greg Prysock, who represented Lyantie Townsend in the case.

The verdict is the latest in favor of a smoker or family member in the state following a 2006 Florida Supreme Court decision in the “Engle” case, which allowed individual smoker lawsuits after the court decertified a statewide class-action case.

Read the full story here.

Continue reading " R.J. Reynolds Loses $46.3 Million Smoker's Verdict " »

The family of a firefighter trainee killed during a training exercise has sued the city of Baltimore for her suffering and death.

The mother and two children of Racheal Wilson, 29, who had been with the fire department three months, allege in their $35 million lawsuit that the exercise was conducted in violation of dozens of federal requirements.

In February 2007, Wilson was sent with other cadets into a burning rowhouse in which instructors had set seven fires, although national guidelines allow only one. The cadets weren't properly prepared, nor was an evacuation plan drawn up, the lawsuit alleges. Wilson was given inadequate breathing equipment and clothing that didn't protect her from the extreme heat, the suit maintains, with allegations based on an independent investigation of incident.

Read full story here.

Continue reading " Fire Trainee's Family Sues For Her Wrongful Death " »

For almost 20 years, federal law has required hospitals and medical boards to report doctors they discipline -- for medical incompetence, unprofessional conduct, and substandard care to the National Practitioner Data Bank.

It was designed to protect the public from bad doctors, particularly those who move to another hospital or another state to try to hide their mistakes.

The Data Bank allows hospitals and other medical organizations to see a doctor's disciplinary record before hiring him or her -- with a single, simple check instead of having to contact medical boards in every state.

Read the full story here.

Continue reading " U.S. hospitals Are Not Reporting Disciplinary Action to National Databank " »

Three women from Texas have filed Nuvaring blood clot lawsuits against Organon and Merck & Co., the drug makers, alleging that the popular birth control ring caused them to suffer from a deep vein thrombosis (DVT), pulmonary embolism and other injuries.

The Nuvaring lawsuits were filed on March 26 in the Marshall division of the Eastern District of Texas by Stephanie Huckabee, Amber Dawn Morgan and Christina Renee Pritchard. The women allege that the manufacturers failed to warn consumers about the risk of blood clots from side effects of NuvaRing.

Read full story here.

Continue reading " Texas NuvaRing Blood Clot Lawsuits Filed Over DVT and Pulmonary Embolism " »

The Texas Medical Board finally has taken away Dr. William Olmsted's license.

Olmsted made headlines last year after the board let him keep practicing even though a Dallas County judge had put him on probation for molesting a girl. The child psychiatrist was ordered to start treating men only, to get a psychiatric evaluation of his own, to take "professional boundaries" courses, and to pay a $5,000 fine.

Read the full story here.

Continue reading " Dr. William Olmsted, Dallas Child Psychiatrist on Probation for Molestation Loses Medical License " »

An Arlington airman lost his legs in a botched gallbladder surgery at a military hospital in California.

Colton Read had been having stomach problems while stationed at Beale Air Force Base near Sacramento, Calif. He agreed to have laparoscopic gallbladder surgery.

During the procedure, an instrument being threaded through his belly nicked his aorta and cut off blood flow to his legs. He was moved from the David Grant Medical Center at Travis Air Force Base to the University of California Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. Surgeons there had to amputate both legs.

A 1950 Supreme Court decision known as the Feres Doctrine does not allow military personnel or their families to collect damages from military doctors for negligence or malpractice.

Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/04/17/2122240/arlington-airman-getting-life.html#ixzz0lhc6g4KW

Continue reading " Arlington Texas Airman Getting Life Back on Track After Losing Legs " »

A 25-year-old Mexican man filed suit alleging that Cardinal Roger Mahony of the Los Angeles Archdiocese and a Mexican cardinal conspired to hide a priest's 20-plus years of child sexual abuse, exposing dozens more young victims to rape by a known pedophile.

The complaint filed in federal court in Los Angeles relies on a U.S. law, more than 200 years old, that allows foreign victims of human rights abuses to bring their perpetrators to justice in U.S. courts. The civil suit is the first known to use the Alien Tort Claims Act of 1789 to demand a jury trial and compensation for sexual offenses committed abroad by clergy, attorneys said.

Read full story here at the LA Times

Continue reading " Suit Alleges Cardinal Mahony Conspired to Hide Priest’s Sexual Abuse of Children " »

A Mississippi jury has awarded $15 million to a 71 year-old oil industry worker who developed asbestosis after years of handling bags of product containing 99 percent asbestos.

Plaintiff Troy Lofton, who testified at trial with tubes in his nose and ears and holding an oxygen bottle that assists his breathing 24 hours a day, alleged that ConocoPhillips manufactured a dangerous product while knowing of its dangers.

The case is only the third to go to trial of over 700 pending cases involving oilfield workers who developed lung cancer, asbestosis or mesothelioma after handling products made by ConocoPhillips or its subsidiaries.

Among the evidence at trial was a handwritten document indicating that the company had weighed the cost of personal injury lawsuits against the profits of continuing to sell asbestos.

Read full story here.

Continue reading " Jury Awards $15M Asbestos Verdict : Dallas Texas Mesothelioma Attorney " »

Attorneys filed a lawsuit against the governing body of U.S. competitive swimming and a suburban swim coach whom they claim had a sexual relationship with a teenage swimmer.

The claims are the latest against USA swimming, which has come under fire recently for its handling of alleged sexual abuse cases.

The lawsuit filed in a Jackson County, Mo. court accuses Robert D. Mirande groomed the teen for a sexual relationship -- even providing her alcohol -- and ultimately had ''inappropriate sexual contact'' with her between the summer of 2006 and winter of 2007.

Read full story here.

Continue reading " Missouri Suit Alleges Sex Abuse in Youth Swimming " »

Bayer releases two studies it commissioned as proof that the drugs are safe, but other studies have found that contraceptives like Yaz and Yasmin increase the risk of blood clots more than other types of birth control pills.

Yasmin, first marketed in 2001, and Yaz, introduced in 2006, are made with a synthetic progestin called drospirenone. Two 2009 studies published in The British Medical Journal have called drospirenone's safety into question.

One study, which looked at blood clot risks in healthy Danish women ages 15 to 49, found that of 4,213 cases of various kinds of blood clots reported between 1995 and 2005, more than 2,000 occurred in women who used oral contraceptives. Contraceptive pills made with the synthetic progestins desogestrel, gestodone and drospirenone all had a higher risk of blood clots compared to those made with an older form of progestin called levonorgestrel.

Continue reading " Bayer Insists That Yaz and Yasmin Are Safe: Dallas Yaz Lawyer " »

Don't ignore flashing lights, bells and other warnings when approaching railroad crossings.

And in Burleson, officials were working to get that message across.

After three fatalities at railroad crossings in about a year, the Burleson Police Department, along with the Union Pacific Railroad, conducted an enforcement operation at the Alsbury Boulevard and Renfro Street crossings in Burleson. Nine drivers were cited for ignoring the warning signals, receiving a ticket that carries a $176 fine.

Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/04/15/2118783/burleson-cracks-down-on-illegal.html#ixzz0lKdK2ch5

Continue reading " Burleson Texas Cracks Down on Illegal Train Crossings After Wrongful Deaths " »

A Denton County grand jury returned a murder indictment against a chronic drunken driver on charges that he drove drunk again on Easter and caused a wreck, killing two members of an Argyle family and seriously injuring three others.

John Patrick Barton, 30, is accused of causing the wreck on Interstate 35E in Lewisville that killed Kandace Hull, 33, and her 13-year-old daughter, Autumn Caudle.

Critically injured were Hull's husband, Anthony Hull, and their two other children, ages 12 and 16.

Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/04/15/2118917/suspected-dwi-crash-on-easter.html#storylink=omni_popular#ixzz0lKRIIzys

Continue reading " Suspected DWI Crash Results in Murder Indictment in Denton County Texas " »

Students at Crowley High School mourned the loss of sophomore Germain Harris II, who died in a car wreck.

Harris, 16, died after his car struck a sign pole in front of an Arby's restaurant in the 3800 block of Altamesa Boulevard in southwest Fort Worth. The wreck happened at about 10:20 p.m.

The 1992 Lexus coupe was traveling at a "high rate of speed," said Sgt. Pedro Criado, a Fort Worth police spokesman.

Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/04/16/2121090/crowley-high-school-mourns-death.html#ixzz0lKGU8DSm

Continue reading " Crowley Texas High School Mourns Death of Student in Car Crash " »

Federal regulators say the drugmaker Pfizer has failed to correct problems with its testing procedures that resulted in overdoses of several children during a company trial.

The Food and Drug Administration issued a warning letter saying Pfizer did not properly monitor physicians testing an experimental medication, which the agency did not name. A Pfizer spokeswoman said the drug is Geodon, which the company was studying for children with bipolar disorder.

The trial was completed in July 2007 and the FDA is now considering whether to approve the pill for children.

The FDA warning letter, posted online, follows up on problems first cited in 2006, when 26 pediatric patients in a company trial received overdoses of the psychiatric drug. Despite Pfizer retraining the physicians, FDA says three additional overdoses occurred in 2007.

Read full AP story here.

Continue reading " FDA Warns Pfizer For Lax Oversight of Geodon Drug Study " »

Two years ago, 4-year-old Colin Holst drowned in a Life Time Fitness swimming pool surrounded by adults and lifeguards.

After being hit with a $25 million wrongful death lawsuit by Colin's parents, Life Time is suing Colin's mother and two of her friends, accusing them of trespassing, fraud and breach of contract. The company claims that Jana Holst, Jennie Stafford and Deborah Stack did not follow the gym's guest policy and that the women should pay damages, court costs and all other expenses related to the lawsuits surrounding Colin's death.

Read full story here.

Continue reading " Life Time Fitness Company Sues Mother of Drowned Boy " »

Many lawsuits have been filed against the pharmaceutical companies associated with the birth control product NUVARING® in the United States.

NUVARING® is a birth control product that releases two synthetic hormones, etonogestrel (a progestin) and ethinyl estradiol (an estrogen), into the woman’s body.

The lawsuit complaints allege that the parties named as defendants, which includes Organon USA, Inc., Organon Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc., Organon International, Inc., Akzo Nobel NV, Organon Biosciences, N.V., and Schering-Plough Corporation, not only knew about the potential side effects associated with NUVARING®, but concealed those risks from the public, including the FDA during the approval process.

Continue reading " NUVARING® Manufacturers and Distributors Sued for Wrongful Death " »

The widow of a Cintas Corp. worker who died after falling into an industrial dryer in Tulsa has settled her wrongful death lawsuit against the nation's largest uniform supplier, according to federal court records.

The settlement with the Cincinnati-based company came four days before a federal trial was to begin in Tulsa, details of the settlement were confidential.

Read full AP story here.

Continue reading " Settlement Reached in Cintas Wrongful Death Case " »

Robert Eglet's client, is infected with hepatitis C, and his Las Vegas law firm going head to head with one of the largest drugmakers in the world and its international law firm.

It's a battle that began more than two years ago after local health officials announced a hepatitis C outbreak linked to Las Vegas endoscopy clinics. Investigators said the outbreak was caused by nurse anesthetists who were reusing single-dose vials of anesthetic between patients at the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada and its sister clinics.

Read full story here.

Continue reading " ENDOSCOPY CENTER OUTBREAK: Hepatitis C case goes to trial " »

A St Louis police officer and the bar that served her alcohol have agreed to pay a total of $2.255 million — the limit of their insurance policies — to compensate the families of four young people killed and one man injured in a traffic crash in Des Peres last year.

A wrongful-death lawsuit, brought by the survivor and the dead victims' families, claimed that Officer Christine L. Miller, who was off duty, drank "a high quantity" of alcohol that night at O'Leary's Restaurant & Bar, and then drove her car into oncoming traffic.

Read the full story here.

Continue reading " Officer, Bar, Pay $2.255 M to Settle Suit in Crash That Killed 4 " »

Toyota is recalling 600,000 Sienna minivans from the 1998 to 2010 model years because the cable that holds tight the spare tire can rust and break, allowing the tire to fall off the minivan and onto the road.

Toyota says that it has no knowledge of injuries or accidents because of the defect. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it has received six complaints of spare tires falling off of Siennas.The recall is for Siennas in 20 “cold-climate” states.

While the company has not yet decided on a fix, officials say they will be sending letters out to owners, letting them know that dealers will inspect the cable for them. If you have questions, you can call Toyota at (800) 331-4331.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/04/17/1584334/toyota-recalls-600000-sienna-minivans.html#ixzz0lOKQbdSh

An Illinois maker of asbestos-laden shipboard parts was hit with a $2.99 million verdict brought by the spouse of a former Navy sailor who died a year ago of asbestos-related cancer.

After a 12-day trial in Newport News Circuit Court, a seven-member jury sided with the wife of Robert Hardick, a former Navy petty officer who was exposed to asbestos on Navy ships between the 1950s and the 1970s.

Read full story here.

Continue reading " Jury Awards $3M Damages in Mesothelioma Lawsuit " »

When the oral contraceptives Yasmin and Yaz came on the market in 2001 and 2006, respectively, they were thought to be safer than other birth control pills because they contained a different kind of synthetic progestin.

But in the lawsuits against the pills' maker, Bayer HealthCare, plaintiff attorneys claim that the progestin contained in the pills, drospirenone, is the cause of health problems, including deep vein thrombosis (blood clots in the deep veins), strokes, heart attacks and gallbladder disease.

Read the full story here at the LA Times.

Continue reading " Yaz, Yasmin, Ocella Concerns Bring Lawsuits But Few Answers " »

The federal judge handling the lawsuits against Toyota Motor Corp over cars that raced out of control has set the first court hearing on the combined litigation for next month.

Lawyers for Toyota will face off May 13 before U.S. District Judge James Selna in Santa Ana, California, against attorneys representing over 100 lawsuits consisting of consumer fraud class actions and personal injury claims against the Japanese automaker.

Read the full story here.

Continue reading " U.S. Judge Sets Toyota Suits " »

Federal regulators are requiring Bayer Healthcare to revise its marketing materials for Yaz and Yasmin to reflect new safety information that was recently added to the drugs’ labels. In a letter to Bayer dated April 7, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) said revisions must include “prominent disclosure of the important new safety information.”

Bayer announced that it was updating the “Warning” sections of the Yaz and Yasmin labels to include additional information about the risk of blood clots associated with the birth control pills. The new information is based on two large, multiyear studies of more than 120,000 women taking contraceptives in the U.S. and the U.K., Bayer said.

Read the full story here.

Continue reading " Bayer Told to Revise Yaz, Yasmin Marketing Materials " »

Tests on blood and urine samples taken from residents by state health officials in January have found the same toxic compounds in people's bodies that have been detected in the air and water here.

The results showed that exposure is occurring, according to Louisiana chemist Wilma Subra.

"Clearly, it's connecting the dots – which we didn't want to happen," Subra said.

Read full story here.

Continue reading " Tests Detect Barnett Shale Emissions Toxins in Dish Residents " »

Toyota Motor Corp has suspended sales of a new Lexus SUV in the U.S. market to investigate the risk for rollover accidents in the latest blow to the reputation of the world's largest automaker.

Toyota took the unusual action of stopping sales of the 2010 Lexus GX 460 after Consumer Reports urged shoppers not to buy the sport utility vehicle, calling it a "safety risk" because of a potential handling problem in certain turns.

Read full Reuters story here.

Continue reading " Toyota Halts Lexus SUV Sales After Safety Warning " »

Plumes of toxic, smog-causing chemicals from Barnett Shale natural-gas operations are so common that inspectors find them nearly every time they look, a Dallas Morning News examination of government records shows.

What's more, the inspectors have rarely looked.

Hundreds of pages of documents obtained by The News under federal and state open-records laws, plus other reports and studies, reveal a pattern of emissions of toxic compounds, often including cancer-causing benzene, from Barnett Shale facilities.

Read the full story here.

Continue reading " Dallas Texas Barnett Shale Facilities Release Toxic Emissions " »

When a doctor at Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles called in 2007 to tell Eduardo Rivas that his 6-month-old son needed surgery to repair double hernias, Rivas was not sure what he should do.

Nathan had been born four months premature. His mother, Rivas' wife, had died of breast cancer soon after his birth. Rivas had to decide on his own.

What happened next is at the root of a civil lawsuit filed by Rivas against the hospital and two of his son's doctors. Rivas, a Spanish speaker, last week told the jury hearing the case in Los Angeles County Superior Court that he never consented to surgery that he says left his son brain-damaged.

Read the full story here.

Continue reading " Childrens Hospital Sued Over Issue of Consent for Infant's Surgery " »

New safety information regarding the risk of blood clots has been added to the labels of Yaz and Yasmin, Bayer Healthcare’s popular birth control pills. The label update comes as Bayer faces at least 1,100 lawsuits filed by women who claim to have been injured by either Yaz or Yasmin.

Yaz and Yasmin are both made with a type of progestin called drospirenone, making them different from many other oral contraceptives.

Read the full story here.

Continue reading " Yaz, Yasmin Label Updated to Included Information on Blood Clots " »

NuvaRing, a contraceptive device marketed by Organon Pharmaceuticals and Merck & Co., has been named in some 300 product liability lawsuits. The lawsuits claim that NuvaRing caused plaintiffs to suffer serious, life-threatening blood clots.

NuvaRing is a transparent, flexible vaginal ring that provides month-long birth control by emitting a continuous dose of estrogen and progestin for 21 days. The device releases a combination of ethinyl estradiol, a form of the hormone estrogen, and etonogestral. Nuvaring is marketed as providing the same efficacy as birth control pills but more convenient by offering month-long protection.

Read the full story here.

Continue reading " NuvaRing Named in 300 Product Liability Lawsuits " »

A federal appellate court has upheld a lower court ruling dismissing the first product liability lawsuit among thousands alleging British drugmaker AstraZeneca PLC's antipsychotic drug Seroquel triggered a patient's diabetes.

A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida had correctly dismissed the case brought by Linda Guinn, a former legal secretary from Palm Bay, Fla., in her early 60s.

Read the full story here.

Continue reading " Appeals Court Upholds Dismissal of Lawsuit Alleging Seroquel Caused Diabetes " »

A Philadelphia Common Pleas Court jury awarded $89 million to family members of passengers killed in a Youngstown, Ohio, plane crash and a survivor, finding that the manufacturer of the plane's engine had concealed information about a faulty carburetor that caused the crash.

The six-seat Piper Cherokee, built in 1968, crashed shortly after takeoff following a refueling stop in Youngstown in 1999.

Read the full story here.

Continue reading " Phila. Jury Awards $89 M in Plane Crash " »

The parents of a 7-year-old girl killed by a falling concrete slab last year allege in a lawsuit that the slab was part of a sanitary sewer structure built by the city and later abandoned.

Ryan and Amanda Crow are seeking damages against the city for the death of their daughter, Macie Crow, and injuries to their son, 9-year-old Jordan Crow. The children were playing in a deteriorated concrete structure in a ravine near their home when part of the structure collapsed.

City officials said at the time that they did not know what the structure had been but speculated that it was part of a long-abandoned industrial site. The lawsuit says it was part of a sanitary sewer built by the city in 1978.

Read the full story here.

Continue reading " Lawsuit Filed Over Wrongful Death of 7-Year-Old " »

The Texas Supreme Court upheld a $1.48 million judgment in favor of a man injured in a barroom brawl nine years ago at a Lake Conroe resort.

The state's high court said the Del Lago Golf Resort & Conference Center did not take reasonable action to protect patrons of the Grandstand Bar when a violent confrontation grew for more than 90 minutes between a wedding party and a Sigma Chi fraternity reunion.

“Tension at the bar turned into cursing, cursing led to threats, threats grew into pushing and all of the above culminated in a full-scale brawl,” Justice Don Willett wrote for the court majority. “Del Lago observed, but did nothing to reduce, this persistent hostility, and while the antagonism may have ebbed and flowed over those 90 minutes, the liquor simply flowed.”

Read full story here.

Continue reading " Texas High Court Upholds $1.48 M for Brawl Injuries " »

A record $5.2 million cash settlement for malpractice and mandated changes in procedure at Albany Medical Center Hospital have not brought closure to family members who watched Diane Rizk McCabe, 32, of Rotterdam, bleed to death over the course of 15 hours following a mishandled Caesarean section delivery of her second child on Sept. 3, 2007.

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=918008&TextPage=1#ixzz0kH0JlFZ3

Continue reading " Settlement Approved in NY Malpractice Lawsuit " »

The mother of a 17-year-old girl killed in a hit-and-run accident in Escondido, California is suing the woman accused of the teenager’s death for $25 million.

The wrongful-death lawsuit, filed in Vista Superior Court, alleges that Tiffany St. Ives, 54, may have been under the influence of drugs or alcohol when she struck Marlene Resendiz with her car while the girl was crossing a street on Nov. 24, 2007.

Read the full story here.

Continue reading " Wrongful Death Lawsuit Filed Over Fatal Hit-And-Run Crash " »

The families of two north Mississippi girls killed in a 2008 accident have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the maker of an all-terrain vehicle.

Melissa and Richard Lee Bates and Aundria and Thomas Dilworth filed the suit in Gwinnett County, Ga., against Yamaha Motor Corp. and Yamaha Motor Manufacturing Corp. of America.

The lawsuit claims multiple design and engineering flaws contributed to the deaths of the two 11-year-old girls.

Emily Bates and Lauren Dilworth were riding a Yamaha Rhino ATV when it flipped as it went off the pavement in a subdivision near Olive Branch.

The lawsuit does not seek a specific dollar amount.

Read more: http://www.sunherald.com/2010/04/01/2070467/miss-families-sue-over-deaths.html#ixzz0kBe0ezix

For 14 years until just last month, GlaxoSmithKline sold a denture cream called Super Poligrip that contained high levels of zinc.

The zinc helped with adhesion and was probably safe so long as people used moderate amounts of cream. Indeed, the human body needs small amounts of zinc to function. But some people ended up using much larger amounts, and they began to develop the kind of nerve damage associated with excess zinc.

Read the full New York Times story here.

Continue reading " Poligrip and Fixodent Litigation Update " »

Five years after alerting authorities that she was gang-raped in Iraq, KBR/Halliburton employee Jamie Leigh Jones will finally get her day in court.

After fighting tooth-and-nail in the lower courts to keep the case from going to trial, KBR announced that it was dropping its Supreme Court appeal in the case.

This was less than two weeks after it was awarded a new $2.3 billion logistics contract by the Army. Jones, who says she was raped by coworkers and then imprisoned in a shipping container for three days by KBR staffers, had been barred from pursuing her sexual harassment case in the courts by a provision in her employee contract: The fine print said all such issues must be resolved via the company's own binding arbitration process.

Read the full story here.

Continue reading " KBR Being Brought to Justice " »

The head of a Roman Catholic order that specialized in the treatment of pedophile priests visited with then-Pope Paul VI nearly 50 years ago and followed up with a letter recommending the removal of pedophile priests from ministry, according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Associated Press.

In the Aug. 27, 1963, letter, the head of the New Mexico-based Servants of the Holy Paraclete tells the pope he recommends removing pedophile priests from active ministry and strongly urges defrocking repeat offenders.

Read full story here at the New York Times

Continue reading " Vatican Knew of Clergy Child Abuse for Decades " »

Michael Jackson's doctor is "hanging on by a thread" and must be allowed to continue practicing medicine in order to pay for his defense on a manslaughter charge in the pop star's death, the physician's lawyers said in court papers.

Responding to a bid by the California attorney general to suspend Dr. Conrad Murray's medical license pending trial, attorneys Ed Chernoff and Joseph Low said that the effect would be devastating to the doctor who already faces a slew of financial problems.

Read full story here.

Continue reading " Michael Jackson Doctor Fights to Keep Medical License " »

An Oregon judge on Tuesday more than doubled the punitive damages the Boy Scouts of America could face if the organization loses a lawsuit filed by a man who was molested by a Scout leader in the early 1980s.

Judge John Wittmayer agreed to the plaintiff’s request to increase possible punitive damages to $25 million from $10 million, and the total damages sought in the lawsuit to $29 million.

Read full story here.

Continue reading " Possible Punitive Damages Doubled in Boy Scouts Sex Abuse Case. " »