Dallas Fort Worth Injury Lawyer Blog

As a Dallas, Texas Steven Johnson Syndrome attorney, I am providing this jury verdict against J&J Motrin.

A Pennsylvania jury ruled that a Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) unit must pay $10 million in damages to the family of a 13-year-old girl who suffered skin burns and eye damage after she took Children’s Motrin.

Jurors found J&J’s McNeil Consumer Products unit liable for Brianna Maya’s injuries. Maya, was left blind in one eye and suffered burns over 84 percent of her body after taking Motrin in 2000 when she was 3 1/2.

J&J, and McNeil have faced at least two other jury trials over claims the companies hid the pain relievers’ links to Stevens-Johnson Syndrome, an allergic drug reaction that can leave patients with damaged eyes, blistered mouth and burned skin.

A California jury cleared J&J and McNeil of liability in 2008 for injuries suffered by an 11-year-old girl who took the pain relievers and developed the syndrome. Two years later, a federal jury in Illinois awarded a woman who took Children’s Motrin and suffered similar injuries $3.5 million in damages. A judge threw that award out on procedural grounds.

In the Philadelphia case, Maya's attorney argued that Maya developed a rash, skin lesions, eye infections and lung damage after taking Children’s Motrin in 2000, according to court filings. He contended J&J officials didn’t include a warning on that year’s label alerting consumers the fever medicine can trigger Stevens- Johnson Syndrome.

The companies later warned that ibuprofen, the pain reliever’s active ingredient, could trigger “a severe allergic reaction,” the symptoms of which could include rashes and blisters, according to court filings. The Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas jury found that McNeil was negligent for not providing a proper warning about Children’s Motrin’s risks and that failure was “a factual cause” of the girl’s injuries. The panel rejected claims that the pain reliever was defectively designed or that McNeil officials’ conduct warranted an award of punitive damages.

The case is Maya v. Johnson & Johnson, 002879, February Term 2009, Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County (Philadelphia).

Continue reading "Steven Johnson's Syndrome Verdict Against J&J Motrin" »

The personal injury sage continues. As a Fort Worth Personal Injury attorney I am writing this blog to hopefully provide insight to my readers, about the law works with its byzantine rules and regulations.

The Law and its practical applications are murky at best and we as lawyers have developed our own rituals and our own special language. Because if we spoke in plain English, then it would not be special anymore.

In my last missive I detailed the week before an actual trial that we were getting ready to do on our slip and fall case. The case got continued. Now we are using this opportunity to continue in our siege of the defendants castle. We continue to press our charge and are unrelenting in our skirmishes.

The defendants strategy in every personal injury case, irrespective of the claim, is to first deny the claim, then to deflect the claim ie somebody elses fault and then finally to delay the case going to trial. They hope with this strategy with wear out the plaintiff and make the cost of litigation prohibitively expensive to continue.

This standard strategy is designed to sap the will of the opponent, to make the risk reward ratio tilt in their favor. This tactic may have traction in some quarters especially in the claim is weak or ill founded, but to us it is like waving a red flag to a bull. We are only spurred on, and I have a natural dislike for bullies, and that is what the defense are; bullies by any other name are still bullies, with their repeated denials and rejections of liability and fault.

In this particular instance, we have been at it for over 3 years. The defense is a stubborn lot, mangy and dogged in their delay tactics. We shall prevail, Justice will triumph in the end and the dark forces crushed.

Ultimately the defendants insurance is going to rein them in especially when they have spent more in defending this case than they could have settled it for. They are consumed by over reaching hubris and a lack of common sense. They will ultimately lose this account.

"Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war."

And so it begins, twenty four hours from now, with a drop of the hammer and a cry of "Order, Court now in session," the battle banners would have unfurled with the sounds of trumpets.

As a Fort Worth Personal Injury Attorney, I would like to offer the following insights. As I mentioned in my last posting from the battlefront, we were due in court tomorrow to argue our slip and fall case which just got canceled and set for a new date.

The foul air would have been filled with the clanging of steel, the clashing of shields, the stench of panic and fear permeating the air to be supplemented with whiffs of gunpowder. My friends, this was no ordinary skirmish, but the accumulation of 3 years hard labor. But it was not to be...

My friends that is what a court room feels and sounds like, all shrouded in the fog of war and at the end of the day, one victor and the vanquished. Carnage and havoc for both.
Trials are no easy things and the plaintiffs all want their day in court. It is hard to then explain to them when you get a worse deal at trial that in settlement talks a year earlier.

In this particular battle, the decision to go to war was easy, we had no offers to settle or offers through mediation. Here, if we had failed to press our charge and we lost, what did we lose? We came with nothing and left with nothing. Then the next time the defense would know we spared no quarter, we yielded no ground, and we fought to the last man. Each man died a hero, with sword in hand, a bloody battle indeed.

In this battle dear readers, there are no prisoners.

Continue reading "Fort Worth Personal Injury Attorney Who Will Fight For You 817-900-8439" »

Thirteen workers jump to safety after an explosion on the offshore platform in the Gulf of Mexico. The company, Mariner Energy, says the site's seven active wells have been 'shut in' and are not leaking.

Another offshore oil facility caught fire in the Gulf of Mexico, sending 13 workers into the water to be rescued by boat, and sending enough petroleum into the water to create a mile-long by 100 foot wide sheen, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

Read full story here.

Continue reading "Another Louisiana Oil Rig on Fire After Explosion " »

According to OSHA, 4,340 workers died on the job in 2009.

"With every one of these fatalities, the lives of a worker's family members were shattered and forever changed. We can't forget that fact."
-Hilda Solis, Secretary of Labor

Poorly Managed Construction Sites Are Dangerous.

Construction site injuries include:

* Falls
* Struck by falling object
* Struck by laterally moving object or equipment
* Impalement or penetrating injury
* Truck or other motor vehicle accident
* Electrocution
* Explosions
* Burns

Continue reading "Dallas Fort Worth Construction Sites Can Lead to Brain and Spinal Cord Injuries" »

I am proud of our work this week. We just settled another car accident injury claim. My client was minding his own business, one night in Dallas. Somebody plowed into him and rear ended him. The folks who hit him were drunk and tried to run. They were caught by an off duty apartment security guard.

Come to find out they were high as a kite and ready to fly.

Luckily for my client he had minor soft tissue injuries, but he had pre-existing neck problems including cervical neck fusion. Obviously we were concerned that he may have had neck injuries. But after medical evaluation he was cleared of major injuries.

We settled for insurance policy limits.

When you need to help after an injury or accident, you need to find the Dallas Fort Worth Texas personal injury lawyers.

We evaluate and accept cases all over Texas including Houston, Dallas, San Antonio car accidents, auto wrongful death cases, mesothelioma, burn injuries, Accutane side effect bowel disease, Paxil birth defects, brain injuries, 18 wheeler, semi truck, tractor trailer accidents, diesel truck or big rig accidents.

If you have been injured in an accident as a result of the negligence of others,
please call 817-900-8439, 888-210-9693 or Contact Me Online.

A subcontractor trying to install an electrical pole hit a 36-inch natural gas transmission line south of Pecan Plantation today, leading to a huge gas explosion that burned for more than two hours.

Two or three people, most likely workers at the scene of the blast, were missing, officials said, presumably dead..

Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/06/07/2245581/explosion-in-johnson-county-startles.html#my-headlines-default#ixzz0qDv1v6Eb

Continue reading "Massive Pipeline Gas Explosion Hits Johnson County Texas" »

A teenager badly injured when he was shocked by a fallen power line near a state beach in late June has filed a lawsuit against the utility company that operates the wires.

Jacob Kirkendall, a 17-year-old Aptos High student with strong family ties in Los Gatos, names Pacific Gas & Electric Co., as well as the county of Santa Cruz and State Parks, as defendants in the suit.

Read full story here.

Continue reading "Santa Cruz Family Sues Over Burns From Downed Powerlines" »

A Darlington County SC jury returned a verdict of $9 million after finding Progress Energy responsible in the wrongful death of 21-year-old Allen Toney of Hartsville.

According to a press release, the jury awarded Mary Washington, the victim’s mother, $3.5 million in actual damages and $5.5 million in punitive damages. Toney died as the result of being electrocuted by a downed power line.

According to testimony, on May 2, 2003, a storm in the Hartsville area caused a utility pole, owned and maintained by Progress Energy, to fail. The pole, fell at approximately 6:30 p.m., leaving a live power line carrying 13200 volts hanging chest high across the driveway. According to witnesses, at around 9:20 p.m. Toney arrived at the home where he came into contact with the energized power line.

Continue reading "SC Jury Awards $9M Settlement Wrongful Death Case" »

Nearly four years after 23 Bellaire nursing home residents died in a fiery bus while evacuating from Hurricane Rita, their families have reached a settlement awarding them $80 million.

In the chaotic week leading up to Hurricane Rita, Brighton Gardens, a Bellaire nursing home owned by Sunrise Senior Living Services of McLean, Va., quickly ordered buses for its residents and staff so they could evacuate to a sister facility in Dallas. As Rita churned through the Gulf of Mexico on Sept. 23, 2005, nursing home residents and staff boarded two buses provided by Global Limo Inc. of Pharr, Texas.

Continue reading "Texas Hurricane Rita Bus Fire Settlement " »

A Missouri jury recommended that AmerenUE electric company pay the families of three teenagers involved in an electrical accident three years ago for a combined $2.3 million.

On March 18, 2006, Nic Harbison, then 16, Morgan Milfeld and Tim Fitzpatrick, both then 15, and Joshua McClure, then 18, jumped into Spring Lake. Shortly after hitting the water, the teens became immoblized by an electric current.

Nic Harbison drowned, the others were resucitated.

Harbison's father, Jerry Harbison, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against AmerenUE the electric company.

Continue reading "Missouri Jury Orders Electric Company to Pay $2.3 M " »

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" »

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" »

An Army investigation called the electrocution death of a U.S. soldier in Iraq a "negligent homicide" caused by military contractor KBR Inc. and two of its supervisors.

Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, 24, of Pittsburgh, died as a result of negligent homicide because the contractor failed to ensure that "qualified electricians and plumbers" worked on the barracks where the soldier died.

Continue reading "Report: KBR Negligent in Soldier Electrocution" »

GALVESTON, Texas — Massive Hurricane Ike ravaged southeast Texas early Saturday September 13, 2008, battering the coast with driving rain and ferocious wind gusts.

When daylight had arrived, damage was already considered extensive. Thousands of homes and government buildings had flooded, roads were washed out, 2.9 million people lost power and several fires burned unabated as crews could not reach them.

Continue reading "Texas Hurricane Ike Hits" »