Dallas Fort Worth Injury Lawyer Blog

The Texas Supreme Court threw out a $15.8 million verdict, ruling unanimously that lawyers improperly introduced evidence that a gravel truck driver involved in a 2002 accident that killed four members of a Wise County family was an illegal immigrant.

By repeatedly mentioning the truck driver's immigration status, lawyers for the Hughes family clearly sought to inflame jurors' passions against the driver and his employer, TXI Transportation Co., the court ruled.

Read full story here.

Continue reading "Texas Supreme Court Tosses $15.8 M Verdict in Case Involving Illegal Immigrant" »

The family of a bicyclist killed last year in a collision with a truck in Baltimore has filed a $5 million wrongful-death lawsuit against the driver and his employer.

On Aug. 4, John R. "Jack" Yates, 67, was riding his bike behind a truck when he became caught in the vehicle's rear wheels and was run over as it turned right, police said at the time. Yates died at the scene.

The civil suit, filed in Baltimore Circuit Court on behalf of Yates' wife, son and daughter, alleges negligence by driver Michael Dale Chandler of Severn and his employer, Potts & Callahan Inc., a demolition, excavation and equipment rental company, and seeks compensatory damages.

Read full story here at the Baltimore Sun.

Continue reading "Family of Cyclist Killed in Accident Files $5 M Lawsuit" »

On October 7, 2006, Steven Butler, by his own admission, was drunk and disorderly. He refused an order from a police officer in his hometown to get off a city bus. The officer used his Taser ECD (officially, an "Electronic Control Device") three times.

According to doctors, Butler suffered immediate cardiac arrest. He was revived by emergency medical technicians who happened to be close by, but his attorneys say his brain was deprived of oxygen for as long as 18 minutes. He is now permanently disabled.

Read the full CNN story here.

Continue reading "Tasers Under Investigation After Claims of Death and Injury" »

The family of the man whose Aug. 28 death spurred the first recall of Toyota vehicles for unintended acceleration has filed a products liability and negligence lawsuit against the Japanese automaker.

Mark Saylor, 45, a California Highway Patrol Officer, was killed along with his family after the 2009 Lexus he was driving suddenly accelerated out of control while on Interstate 125 near San Diego.

Read full story here at Law.com

Continue reading "Law Suit Filed in Crash That Prompted First Toyota Recall" »

Family members of a Fort Worth woman killed in a December wreck involving an allegedly intoxicated off-duty Fort Worth police officer filed suit today against the Fort Worth bar at which the officer had been drinking.

At a news conference in Dallas today, the family's attorney said the family of Sonia Baker decided to sue The Pour House not as a quest for money, but to hold such establishments accountable for over-serving patrons and “placing profits ahead of safety.”

The lawsuit is filed under the state’s Dram Shop Act, which allows those who sell alcohol to an obviously intoxicated person to be held liable for resulting damages.

Read the full story here at the Fort Worth Star Telegram.

Continue reading "Family of Fort Worth Woman Killed in Crash Sues Bar That Served Officer" »

In an annual 2009 report released by Bayer, the number of contraceptive lawsuits over Yaz, Yasmin and Ocella has risen to about 1,100 filed cases, and that number will continue to increase as thousands of women are considering claims for serious injuries that have been caused by side effects of the birth control pills.

Included among the claims are five Yasmin and Yaz class action lawsuits; three filed in the United States and two filed in Canada, according to Bayer’s 2009 annual report released late last month.

Read the full Bayer 2009 Report here

Continue reading " Yaz, Yasmin and Ocella 1,100 Birth Control Lawsuits Filed" »

A Fairfax County jury has awarded nearly $3 million to the family of a man who died after his esophagus tore while he was swallowing a piece of steak, finding an Alexandria radiologist liable for misdiagnosing the man's condition as a hiatal hernia.

Large civil jury verdicts are rare in Fairfax, and Virginia's cap on medical malpractice judgments required the jury's award of $2,933,500 to be cut by more than half, to about $1.25 million.

Read full story at the Washington Post.

Continue reading "Fairfax VA Medical Malpractice Wrongful Death Case, Family Awarded $1.25 M" »

For what appears to be the first time, a former resident of Camp Lejeune, N.C., has been permitted to move ahead with a claim against the Marine Corps for years of water contamination that she says led to the development of her non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

The U.S. Department of the Navy, which includes the Marines, this week lost its bid to dismiss the case of Laura J. Jones of Iowa, who lived at Camp Lejeune from 1980 to 1983 as the spouse of a Marine officer.

In 2005, more than two decades after she left North Carolina, Jones was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Continue reading "Judge: Lejeune Resident Can Move Ahead With Injury Claim" »

Monty and Linda Hardy had taken their 2008 Toyota Avalon to a Grapevine dealership "several times" with complaints about uncommanded acceleration but were told there was nothing wrong, their attorney says.

On the day after Christmas, Monty Hardy was driving the Toyota in Southlake when it sped through a T-intersection, barreled through a steel fence, struck a tree and landed upside down in an icy pond. He and all three passengers in the car were killed.

Read full story here at Dallas Morning News

Continue reading "Toyota Owners Took Concerns to Dealership Before Fatal Southlake Crash" »

GlaxoSmithKline Plc rejected allegations that it concealed safety information about its diabetes drug Avandia or acted inappropriately in marketing it, saying a U.S. Senate staff report was inaccurate and incomplete.

The company diligently studied the drug’s safety and effectiveness, and communicated its findings to governments, regulators, scientists and doctors, London-based Glaxo said in a statement.

Read the full Bloomberg story here.

Continue reading "Glaxo Backs Avandia’s Safety Says That US Report Biased " »

The pressure on Toyota Motor Corp. intensified as the company disclosed subpoenas from a federal grand jury and the Securities and Exchange Commission related to sudden acceleration in its cars, while the leaders of a congressional panel accused Toyota of misleading the public about safety problems.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee, in an 11-page letter, previewed issues its members likely will raise at a hearing Tuesday. The letter criticized Toyota for resisting the possibility that electronic defects could be responsible for the reports of unintended acceleration.

Read full story here at the WSJ.

Continue reading "Federal Subpoenas Hit Toyota on the Eve of Hearing " »

The Food and Drug Administration, under fire from a new Senate report questioning the safety of GlaxoSmithKline PLC's diabetes drug Avandia, told doctors that patients taking the medicine should stay on it unless their doctors say otherwise.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D., Conn.), the chairwoman of the House appropriations panel that controls the FDA's budget, said: "I strongly urge the FDA to remove Avandia from the market until a truly independent, science-based advisory panel can evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the drug."

Read full article here at the Wall Street Journal.

Continue reading "FDA Faces More Pressure to Pull Avandia Diabetes Drug" »

A pedestrian wearing a hooded jacket has been killed by a commuter train in Dallas.

The woman walked into a Trinity Railway Express train, which links Dallas and Fort Worth and carries about 10,000 passengers daily, during afternoon rush hour Monday.

Read full story here at the Fort Worth Star Telegram

Continue reading "Texas Woman Dies After Walking Into Train in Dallas" »

Three years ago, Dr.Nissen, a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic, conducted a landmark study that suggested that the best-selling diabetes drug Avandia raised the risk of heart attacks. The study led to a Congressional inquiry, stringent safety warnings, a sharp drop in the drug’s sales of GlaxoSmithKline, Avandia’s maker.

The battle between Dr. Nissen and GlaxoSmithKline was waged from afar in news releases and published papers. But on May 10, 2007, 11 days before Dr. Nissen’s study was published in The New England Journal of Medicine, he and four company executives met face to face in a private meeting whose details have not been disclosed until now.

Read the full article here at the New York Times.

Continue reading "Heart Attack and Heart Failure Side Effects of Avandia Diabetes Drug" »

Tobacco smoke contamination lingering on furniture, clothes and other surfaces, dubbed thirdhand smoke, may react with indoor air chemicals to form potential cancer-causing substances, a study found.

After exposing a piece of paper to smoke, researchers found the sheet had levels of newly formed carcinogens that were 10 times higher after three hours in the presence of an indoor air chemical called nitrous acid commonly emitted by household appliances or cigarette smoke. That means people may face a risk from indoor tobacco smoke in a way that’s never been recognized before, said one of the study’s authors, Lara Gundel.

Read the full Bloomberg article here.

Continue reading "Third hand Smoke Forms Cancer-Causing Residue Indoors" »

Confidential studies by Food and Drug Administration officials recommend that GlaxoSmithKline's Avandia, a diabetes medicine, get pulled from the market because it is linked to heart attacks.

The studies, released as part of a report on Avandia by staff of Senate Finance Committee members Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) and Max Baucus (D., Mont.), also say any head-to-head trial where patients get Avandia and Takeda Pharmaceutical Co.'s diabetes medicine Actos would be "unethical and exploitative." GlaxoSmithKline is currently sponsoring a study, called TIDE, where patients get either Avandia, Actos or other medicines.

Read the full Wall Street Journal Story here

Continue reading "GlaxoSmithKline Knew of Avandia's Cardiac Risks, Senate Report Says" »

Hundreds of people taking Avandia, a diabetes medicine, needlessly suffer heart attacks and heart failure each month, according to confidential government reports that recommend the drug be removed from the market.

The reports, obtained by The New York Times, say that if every diabetic now taking Avandia were instead given a similar pill named Actos, about 500 heart attacks and 300 cases of heart failure would be averted every month because Avandia can hurt the heart. Avandia, intended to treat Type 2 diabetes, is known as rosiglitazone and was linked to 304 deaths during the third quarter of 2009.

Read full New York Times dtory here.

Continue reading "FDA Report Avandia Diabetes Drug Harms Heart" »

Toyota Motor Corp. and U.S. regulators are looking into possible steering problems in the company's popular Corolla compact, the latest quality issue to surface in the wake of two recalls that covered millions of vehicles and forced Toyota to halt U.S. sales of eight models.

The Corolla investigation could start as early as Thursday, said a U.S. Transportation Department official. The inquiry will cover about 500,000 model-year 2009 and 2010 Corollas, officials said.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has received 163 complaints about the steering in Corollas from those model years, according to the safety agency's Web site.

Read the full Wall Street Journal Article here.

Continue reading "U.S. to Probe Toyota Corolla Steering Reports " »

U.S. regulators on Tuesday opened an investigation into whether Toyota Motor Corp acted in a timely way to recall cars for acceleration problems, and the automaker moved to slow its U.S. production to avoid a costly ballooning of inventories.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it had requested production data, consumer complaints and other documents expected to shed light on how and when Toyota learned of problems affecting about 6 million vehicles it has recalled in the United States.

Read full Reuters story here.

Continue reading "U.S. Opens Probe into Toyota Recalls; Output Cut" »

A year after Continental Connection Flight 3407 plunged into a house near Buffalo, killing all 49 people on board and a man in the house, lawyers are preparing to negotiate in dollars and cents the price of raw grief and loss.

Thirty-four lawsuits filed by the husbands, wives and children of passengers demand compensation for negligence, wrongful death and punitive damages from Houston-based Continental Airlines and Colgan Air, the Manassas, Va., regional carrier operating the Feb. 12, 2009, flight. Also named are Colgan parent Pinnacle Airlines of Memphis, Tenn.; Montreal-based Bombardier Aerospace, which made the plane; and FlightSafety International, which helped train the pilots.

Click here to read full story.

Continue reading "Families of Plane Crash Victims Must Put Value on Grief " »

Toyota Motor Corp. vehicles have been linked to 34 deaths by consumers filing complaints with the U.S. government over unexpected acceleration, according to the Transportation Department.

The total jumped by 13 fatalities since Jan. 27 as nine more filings were added to a database the department’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration uses to track deaths, injuries and consumer complaints.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601209&sid=aPso41xXZS60Read the full Bloomberg story here.

Continue reading "Toyota Acceleration Complaints Cite 34 Deaths, U.S. Data Show" »

The wife of the driver of a 2008 Avalon that shot into a pond in Southlake and flipped, killing four people, said she believes quicker action by Toyota could have prevented the tragedy.

Linda Hardy's husband, Monty, was behind the wheel of his car that landed upside down in a small pond in Southlake.

Read full story here at WFAA

Continue reading "WFAA: Wife of Southlake Texas Driver Who Died Slams Toyota " »

Federal investigators found scores of problems at UC Irvine Medical Center during a fall inspection that again put the troubled hospital's Medicare funding at risk, according to report released Thursday.

In an 85-page report on their surprise October inspection, regulators said they observed poor oversight and mistakes by UCI doctors, nurses and pharmacists, leading to inadequate care that in some cases harmed patients.

Read full story here at the Los Angeles Times.

Continue reading "More Medical Malpractice Problems Discovered at UCI Medical Center" »

The company vigorously denies that its vehicles' acceleration problems might stem from an electronic or software glitch. But it remains an open question, and any such finding would be devastating.

In the nearly five months since it launched a string of recalls to stop its cars from accelerating out of control, Toyota Motor Corp. has been adamant about one thing: It's not the electronics.

Company officials first put the blame on floor mats that could entrap the accelerator, later amending that to include gas pedals themselves that could stick.

Read the full story here at the Los Angeles Times

Continue reading "Toyota Car Recall: Now Electronics Questions" »

A Colorado man has fought mostly unsuccessfully to get his concerns heard since his wife's Prius car accident in 2006.

Before his wife's Prius suddenly accelerated uncontrollably to 90 miles per hour on a mountain highway, you'd have been hard-pressed to find a bigger fan of Toyota than Ted James.

A middle-school science teacher and ardent environmentalist, James got a Prius for his wife, Elizabeth, and a Corolla for himself.

Read the full story here at the Los Angeles Times.

Continue reading "Colorado Man's Crusade to Bring Attention to Defective Toyota Cars" »

Former regulators hired by Toyota Motor Corp. helped end at least four U.S. investigations of unintended acceleration by company vehicles in the last decade, warding off possible recalls, court and government records show.

Christopher Tinto, vice president of regulatory affairs in Toyota’s Washington office, and Christopher Santucci, who works for Tinto, helped persuade the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to end probes including those of 2002-2003 Toyota Camrys and Solaras, court documents show. Both men joined Toyota directly from NHTSA, Tinto in 1994 and Santucci in 2003.

Read full Bloomberg story here.

Continue reading "Ex NHTSA Regulators Hired by Toyota Helped Halt Investigations" »

Four Toyota Motor Corp. units were named as defendants in a racketeering lawsuit that claims the companies collaborated to sell cars they knew were unsafe.

The lawsuit, filed Feb. 8 in federal court in Covington, Kentucky, targets Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Inc., as well units that produce Toyota’s Camry and Avalon models and handle leasing and engineering.

Read the full Bloomberg story here.

Continue reading "Toyota Units Named in Suit Claiming Racketeering " »

Legal expenses and damages could add billions to Toyota's recall costs, with dozens of suits pending over injuries and deaths and at least 30 seeking class-action status over lost use of vehicles.

Toyota Motor Corp.'s massive recalls for acceleration and braking problems are creating a huge legal liability for the company -- and Toyota owners may share in the pain.

Toyota faces dozens of lawsuits over injuries and deaths attributed to safety problems, with many more suits expected. Lawyers and legal experts said the lawsuits could be particularly expensive for the automaker if plaintiffs prove that Toyota was aware of problems but failed to correct them.

Read full story here at the Los Angeles Times

Continue reading "Toyota Faces Massive Legal Liability From Defective Cars" »

Two defibrillator brands made by Boston Scientific Corp. have a design flaw that can result in the devices delivering potentially life-threatening shocks to the hearts of patients, authors of a medical journal article say.

The defect can cause the Cognis and Teligen brand defibrillators to deliver the shocks when they aren't needed in the many patients who get the devices implanted just under the skin, according to an article in the journal HeartRhythm. The potential malfunction, while appearing to be extremely rare, could in theory affect any of the more than 90,000 devices implanted, said the authors. They advised physicians to look for the problem should the devices malfunction.

Read the full story here at the Wall Street Journal

Continue reading "Boston Scientific Defibrillator Safety Questioned " »

A Jefferson County jury has found Christus St. Mary Hospital negligent in its treatment of a 41-year-old woman who died of a heart attack within hours of an emergency room visit.

In the verdict, filed Jan. 21, the jury found that the Port Arthur hospital along with Dr. Michael Peterson committed “willful or wanton negligence,” in their treatment of Stacy Meaux.

The jury awarded a combined $1.3 million in damages to Meaux; her mother, Mary Ann, Licatino; and her two children.

Limitations on the amount of money that can be awarded for mental anguish pain and medical malpractice will limit this to $250,000 per defendant.

Read the article here

Toyota said that its dealers are working overtime to fix sticking gas pedals on some 2.1 million recalled vehicles at a rate of 50,000 per day and have so far repaired 225,000 cars.

Toyota recalled 3.8 million vehicles last fall to repair what it called floor-mat "entrapment" of the gas pedal, and an additional 2.1 million cars last month to fix what it calls an unrelated sticky-gas-pedal problem.

Read the full story here at the Washington Post.

Continue reading "Toyota to Fix Gas Pedals as Lawsuits Increase" »

The parents and daughter of a man killed in a car crash have sued the bar that allegedly sold alcohol to the driver who was not only drunk, but also underage.

Michael Slay Chapman died on Nov. 27 when the vehicle in which he was riding was struck by a vehicle driven by Bo Pillsbury. Before the incident, the 19-year-old Pillsbury had been drinking at the Dixie Dance Hall in Beaumont's Crockett Street Entertainment District.

Chapman's parents, Wayne and Teresa Chapman, and his daughter, Zoe Jane Chapman, filed a lawsuit against Dixie Host Ltd. on Feb. 1 in Jefferson County District Court.

"Despite being obviously intoxicated and/or showing obvious signs of intoxication that a reasonable person, especially a provider of alcohol should recognize, employees of Defendant continued to serve Bo Pillsbury alcohol," the suit states.

"After drinking for an extended period of time at the Dixie Dance Hall, Bo Pillsbury was allowed to leave the premises and drive away. As he was driving in an intoxicated state, Bo Pillsbury lost control of his vehicle and struck a vehicle in which Michael Slay Chapman was a passenger."

Read the full story here.

Continue reading "Family of Crash Victim Sues Dixie Dance Hall for Serving Drinks to Driver " »

Bayer Healthcare Corp. clearly stated its oral contraceptives Yasmin and Yaz contained possible side effects, the pills' maker said in response to lawsuits.

More than 50 women in Indianapolis have filed suit against the company, joining dozens of women nationwide who allege the birth control pills caused heart attacks, strokes, blood clots and other health problems, The Indianapolis Star reported Monday.

Read full story here.

A power plant under construction in central Connecticut exploded with earthquake force that shook homes as workers purged natural gas lines in preparation for the plant to open this year. At least five people were killed and more than two dozen were injured as a section of the plant collapsed and burned.

Witnesses said the explosion at the Kleen Energy Systems plant in Middletown, 15 miles south of Hartford, occurred at 11:17 a.m. in a thundering convulsion of flames and smoke seen for miles around.

Read the full New York Times story here.

Continue reading "5 Dead in Connecticut Power Plant Blast " »

More than 50 women claim in lawsuits filed in Indianapolis that they suffered strokes, heart attacks or other serious health problems while taking the birth control pills Yasmin or Yaz, manufactured by Bayer Healthcare Corp.

Across the nation, dozens of lawsuits have been filed in the past few months by women claiming similar health problems after taking the pills.

Read full story here.

Continue reading "Indiana Women sue Bayer over Yasmin pill" »

Toyota has told dealers it's preparing a plan to repair the brakes on thousands of hybrid Prius cars in the U.S.

In a message sent last night to dealers, a Toyota group vice president, Bob Carter, said the company is working on a plan and will disclose more details early next week. More than 100 drivers of 2010 Prius cars have complained that their brakes seemed to fail momentarily when they were driving on bumpy roads. The U.S. government says the problem is suspected in four crashes and two minor injuries.

Read full story at the Los Angeles Times

Continue reading "Toyota Preparing to Announce Prius Fix " »

Faced with an unprecedented recall of millions of vehicles and rivals swooping in on its customers, the public relations machine at Toyota Motor Corp -- one of the most savvy brand-creators in Asia -- is floundering.

Toyota has consistently played down recurring complaints of unintended acceleration, breaking what PR experts said is the cardinal rule in crisis management: assume the worst.

Read full article here.

Continue reading "Toyota Grapples With Huge Car Recall" »

A Cincinnati couple has filed a lawsuit against Toyota charging fraud and negligence over a safety issue involving gas pedals that has caused a massive auto recall.

The lawsuit, filed in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court, seeks class-action status on behalf of all Ohio residents who have bought or leased vehicles Toyota-manufactured vehicles subject to the recall. Attorney Chesley, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Hugh and Pamela Cox, said Wednesday that the class could involve thousands of Ohio residents.

Read full story here Fort Worth Star Telegram.

Continue reading "Ohio Couple Files Lawsuit Against Toyota Over Recall " »

The trip was one that Guadalupe Alberto had made many times before, just a few miles through her neighborhood to the small grocery store her family had owned for years.

It was a Saturday afternoon, April 2008, and Mrs. Alberto, a 77-year-old former autoworker, was driving her 2005 Toyota Camry. Within blocks of her home, witnesses told police, the car accelerated out of control, jumped a curb and flew through the air before crashing into a tree. Mrs. Alberto was killed instantly.

Read the rest of the NY Times article here.

Continue reading "More Crashes Adds toToyota’s Problems" »

Toyota Motor Corp. said it knew previously about complaints related to the brakes of its Prius hybrid car and Thursday expanded a safety probe to all its hybrid models.

The Japanese auto maker said it found and corrected problems with its new 2010 Prius hybrid and said it did not try to "cover up" the glitch. But the disclosure and the expansion of its investigation to include such models as its Lexus HS250h and Sai luxury hybrid sedans comes amid intensifying government and public scrutiny of the world's No. 1 auto maker by vehicle sales.

Read the full story here at the Wall Street Journal.

Continue reading "Toyota Investigates Brakes on All Hybrids After Problems With Prius " »

Legal attacks against Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc. increased this week following fresh reports of product-safety defects afflicting some of the most popular vehicles in the automaker's fleet.

Toyota announced on Jan. 26 that it would stop selling eight models because of accelerator pedals that can stick in the depressed position, causing the cars to speed up out of control. The company has recalled 2.3 million vehicles with that problem. Earlier, Toyota recalled another 4.2 million vehicles, blaming a problem with floor mats.

Read full story here.

Continue reading "Lawsuits Beginning to Pile Up Against Toyota Dallas Car Accident Attorney" »

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood advised owners of recalled vehicles to stop driving their cars, later characterizing the remark as a misstatement.

LaHood's explosive comment at a House of Representatives hearing fueled new confusion over how consumers should respond to a January recall of 2.4 million cars and trucks due to
faulty accelerator pedals.

Read breaking news here

Continue reading "US Transport Secretary Comment Shakes Toyota" »

News 8 has confirmed that a sticking accelerator is being investigated as one possible cause of a crash in Southlake in December that killed four people driving in a Toyota Avalon.

Recently, Toyota issued an extensive recall of close to 3 million vehicles for that very reason.

Read full story here.

Continue reading "Update Southlake Toyota Wrongful Death Car Crash" »

The family of a Houston woman whose car smashed into a cement wall, killing her on impact, filed what is likely the third acceleration-related wrongful death lawsuit against Toyota in the nation.

Trina Harris, a 34-year-old mother of two, died on impact when her 2009 Toyota Corolla slammed into an East Hardy Toll Road cement divider, leaving no skid marks.

Her husband, filed a lawsuit against Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., gas pedal maker CTS Corp. and Fred Haas Toyota World, which leased her the car.

Read the full story here.

In response to a nationwide recall of approximately 5.3 million Toyota vehicles for defective accelerator pedals, plaintiff's attorneys have filed three lawsuits in New Orleans asking Toyota to return profits it made from the sale of the vehicles.

The lawsuits state that the accelerator mechanism of the vehicles can become stuck in a depressed position and fail to return or return slowly to the idle position causing, "extreme, uncontrollable and inherently dangerous acceleration."

The Toyota models affected by the January recall include the 2009-2010 RAV4, 2009-2010 Corolla, 2009-2010 Matrix, 2009-2010 Pontiac Vibe, 2010 Highlander, 2007-2010 Tundra, 2008-2010 Sequoia and the 2007-2010 Camry.

Read the full story here.

Continue reading "Class Actions Against Toyota Over Gas Pedals Filed in New Orleans " »

– Toyota Motor Corp is facing a growing number lawsuits from consumers who complain their vehicles suddenly accelerate or may do so, and want the world's largest automaker to pay for it.

Last week, Toyota stopped selling eight models in the United States and Canada, including its popular Camry and Corolla, because of possible unintended acceleration.

Some 8 million vehicles are up for repair worldwide over problems including alleged faulty accelerator pedals made by the supplier CTS Corp, and the possibility that floor mats could jam the accelerator pedal.

Read the full story here Yahoo.com

Continue reading "Toyota's Huge Problem: Product Liability Lawsuits" »

The 911 call came at 6:35 p.m. on Aug. 28 from a car that was speeding out of control on Highway 125 near San Diego.

The caller, a male voice, was panic-stricken: “We’re in a Lexus ... we’re going north on 125 and our accelerator is stuck ... we’re in trouble ... there’s no brakes ... we’re approaching the intersection ... hold on ... hold on and pray ... pray ...”

The call ended with the sound of a crash.

Read the full story here.

The family of Kristen Spears alleges an overdose of the drug manufactured by Irvine-based Allergan Inc. killed her at age 7.

Spears started getting Botox injections at the age of 6 -- not to smooth furrows in her brow, but to calm spasms in her legs.

The girl was born with severe cerebral palsy, and Botox, best known as a face-lift-in-a-syringe, can relax contorted muscles and sometimes help young patients walk without surgery.

Read full story here.

Continue reading "Allergan Trial Will Focus on Botox's Safety in Cerebral Palsy Treatments" »

European and American drug regulators had two starkly different reactions this week to data on an obesity drug. The raw data from the study indicated that people with certain health problems who took the prescription diet drug Meridia had more heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular problems than people getting a placebo.

Continue reading "Heart Patients Warned Against Using Meridia, an Anti-Obesity Drug " »

Florida smokers who lose personal-injury suits against tobacco companies could be on the hook for the opposition's attorney fees under a settlement strategy being pursued by cigarette makers.

Tobacco companies have been offering the state's 8,000 smoker plaintiffs minuscule amounts of money -- typically $500 to $2,500 -- to settle wrongful death and negligence cases potentially worth millions of dollars. The catch: Florida law says plaintiffs who obtain a significantly smaller judgment than a rejected settlement offer must pay the other side's attorney fees.

Continue reading "Big Tobacco Strategy Scares Off Potential Plaintiffs" »

Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals has significant product liability claims over its oral contraceptive Yaz and its alleged dangerous side effects.

Yaz, Yasmin, and the generic version Ocella have all come under attack for their overstated benefits and minimized risks. Experts predict that more than 25,000 cases could eventually be filed by women alleging dangerous side effects from using the prescription contraceptive.

Read the latest minutes from the Southern Illinois MDL court.
Download file

Continue reading "Yaz MDL Lawsuit: Dallas Texas Yaz Attorney" »

Three personal injury lawsuits were filed against Pfizer Inc last week, claiming its smoking cessation drug Chantix caused attempted suicides and death.

The lawsuits, filed in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan, claim that at the time the plaintiffs took Chantix, Pfizer did not tell doctors and patients about dangers it allegedly knew were related to the drug, including depression and thoughts of suicide.

Continue reading "Lawsuits Claim Chantix led to Attempted Suicide and Death" »

In Pennsylvania's first precedent-setting decision regarding hormone replacement therapy mass tort litigation, the Superior Court has revived a plaintiff's lawsuit by finding that the plaintiff was entitled to an exception to the two-year statute of limitations because she couldn't have reasonably known of an alleged link between her breast cancer and HRT drugs before the publication of a widely publicized study.

Continue reading "Pa. Court Revives Plaintiff Verdict in Hormone-Replacement Case" »

A law firm representing the estate of a boy who drowned in a Kalispell MT septic tank has filed suit against developers, engineers and a small-town water and sewer district, charging negligence in the accidental death of 3-year-old Loic Rogers.

The companies that manufactured the tank and its lid were named in previous suits, and attorneys said an earlier complaint was made against the homeowner.

Continue reading "Wrongful Death Lawsuits Filed Over Boy's Death in Septic Tank" »

Baxter International Inc., which recalled its blood thinner heparin amid reports of allergic reactions and deaths in 2008, faces at least 30 lawsuits in Chicago by injured people or their estates.

As many as 300 product-liability complaints may be filed in the Illinois state court, according to plaintiffs’ attorney Allen Schwartz. His law firm and two others are working to comply with a judge’s order last year to convert an aggregate lawsuit to individual claims against the Deerfield, Illinois-based company.

Continue reading "Baxter Faces New Lawsuits Over Tainted Heparin" »

- Baxter International Inc., which recalled its blood thinner heparin amid reports of allergic reactions and deaths in 2008, faces at least 30 lawsuits in Chicago by injured people or their estates.

As many as 300 product-liability complaints may be filed in the Illinois state court, according to plaintiffs’ attorney Allen Schwartz of Kralovec, Jambois & Schwartz.

Continue reading "Baxter Faces Dozens of New Suits Over Tainted Heparin " »

Once the power blinked out, Althea LaCoste's lungs were on their own.

She struggled to breathe without the help of a respirator, and even a team of nurses hand-bagging air into her ailing lungs couldn't save her, according to court documents. LaCoste, 73, died before she could be evacuated from Pendleton Memorial Methodist Hospital in the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina.

LaCoste's death 4½ years ago is at the center of a civil lawsuit being heard here that could have far-reaching implications for hospitals across the country. The lawsuit against Methodist Hospital is the first civil suit alleging negligence of a hospital staff in Katrina's aftermath.

Continue reading "Katrina Negligence Lawsuit Has Implications for all Hospitals" »

The maker of a popular treatment for severe acne will get a new trial, 10 months after the New Jersey Appellate Division struck down a $2.6 million verdict against it.

Hoffman-LaRoche, Inc., maker of Accutane, is alleged to have caused inflammatory bowel disease in some of the drug's users in a multi-district litigation proceeding in Atlantic County Superior Court. Andrew McCarrell was awarded $2.6 million in his lawsuit in 2007.

Continue reading "New Accutane Trial to Begin in New Jersey" »

Byetta (exenatide) is a type 2 diabetes drug that is used to control blood sugar levels. It is part of a class of medications known as incretin mimetics, which imitate natural hormones that lower blood glucose levels. Last month, the FDA expanded the use of Byetta to a stand-alone diabetes treatment, but insisted that warnings about the risk of pancreatitis from Byetta be added to the label and will require additional studies.

Continue reading "Byetta Lawsuit Update Dallas Texas Attorney" »

YAZ is the Bayer Health Care brand name for the combination of drospirenone and ethinyl estradiol.

Each monthly prescription contains 24 active pills and 4 inactive pills. YAZ was widely prescribed for regulating menstrual periods, minimizing premenstrual syndrome (PMS), treating premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), preventing pregnancy, decreasing irritability and moodiness,and curing mild to moderate acne.

Very little information was available to the public regarding serious side effects until recently and YAZ quickly became the most prescribed oral contraceptive in the United States.

Continue reading "Do You Have a Texas Yaz Birth Control Claim?" »

In 2006, Yaz was approved by the FDA as treatment for premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD). It was the first birth control pill to gain such approval and women sufferers of severe PMS looked forward to relief from symptoms that affected their overall enjoyment of life.

About 5% of women suffer from premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), These women suffer from depression and anxiety. Yaz apparently relieves much of this and has been very popular since its introduction.

Then reports began to surface about the side effects...

Continue reading "Dallas Texas Yaz Gallbladder Disease" »

Several thousand lawsuits could be filed across the United States for serious and deadly injuries allegedly caused by the contraceptive Yaz and related drugs. These lawsuits are consolidated in Southern Illinois federal court, in East St Louis.

U.S. District Chief Judge David Herndon has the task of presiding over the lawsuits against Bayer Corp. The cases allege that the birth-control pills Yaz, Yasmin, and Ocella cause women to suffer increased risks of heart attack, stroke, blood clots, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, gallbladder disease, among other life-threatening complications.

Read the full story here.
Get the Tweet here.

Continue reading "How Many Texas Yaz Injury Lawsuits Cases Are Out There?a" »

Palo Alto has agreed to pay nearly $1.5 million to the victim of a 2006 vehicle crash involving a city worker who was using his cell phone while driving.

Silvio Obregon had asked the city for more than $5 million after the rear-end crash on Oregon Expressway left him with debilitating spinal injuries, according to court documents. He alleged that city worker Rubin Salas ran into him at a red light because he was reaching for his cell phone rather than watching the road.

Continue reading "Palo Alto Settles Cell Phone Crash Lawsuit for $1.5 M " »

A federal judge approved settlements earmarked for more than 300 victims of the RI 2003 Station nightclub fire and the mechanism through which payments will be made.

The action taken by U.S. District Court Judge Lagueux makes it likely now that the victims of the fourth-deadliest nightclub fire in U.S. history will get money from a $176-million settlement fund in a matter of months.

Continue reading "Judge Approves Settlement for RI Station Fire Victims" »

A Pfizer Inc. unit must face a $1.5 million damage award over one of its menopause drugs, a Pennsylvania appeals court ruled.

A Philadelphia trial judge erred in throwing out the jury verdict against Pfizer’s Pharmacia & Upjohn unit, the Pennsylvania Superior Court ruled today. The appellate court reinstated the damage award to Merle Simon, who contends Upjohn’s hormone-replacement drug Provera helped cause her breast cancer.

Continue reading "Pfizer Must Face Menopause-Drug Punitive Award" »

In a case that could set the first broad judicial standards for the use of Tasers, a federal appeals court in California has ruled that the police can be held liable for using one of the devices against an unarmed person during a traffic stop.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, based in San Francisco, said the electrically disabling device constituted excessive force when used against an unarmed man who did not pose a threat, and it refused to allow a police officer immunity for its use.

Read the pdf opinion here.

Continue reading "Federal Court Limits the Use of Tasers " »

Four people died in December just after Christmas after their car flipped over into a six-foot-deep pond in Southlake.

Just before 11:20 a.m., the Toyota sedan drove through the intersection of Lonesome Dove Road and Burney Lane, crashed into a metal fence, hit a tree, and landed upside-down in a pond on the grounds of a mansion.

Read full story here.

Continue reading "Four Dead After Toyota Car Crashes Into Southlake Pond " »

Fairleigh Dickinson University is not liable for the death of a junior who fell from a fourth-floor dorm window in 2005 after a night of heavy drinking, and won’t have to pay his parents a prior jury award of $260,000, a state appeals court has ruled.

An appellate decision reversed a Morris County jury verdict last year that found the college and student, Keith Orzech, 21, were equally responsible for his death in 2005. Instead, a three-judge panel ruled the university in Madison-Florham Park has immunity from liability under state law.

Continue reading "N.J. Appeals Court Reverses $260K Wrongful Death Judgment " »

Federal judge Herndon, who is presiding over the consolidated MDL litigation over Yaz and Yasmin birth control product liability cases, indicated that both sides in the case are working to move the litigation at a fast pace, which is keeping with the Court’s desire for the cases to “move along efficiently and effectively.”

In September, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation ordered that all federal court Yaz litigation and Yasmin litigation, involving claims that the popular birth control pills increase the risk of blood clots and other injuries, be consolidated and coordinated for pretrial litigation in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois as part of an MDL, or multidistrict litigation.

Read all of the orders and progress of the MDL cases here.

Continue reading "Dallas Texas Yasmin Yaz MDL Litigation Gaining Momentum" »

A Times investigation shows the world's largest automaker has delayed recalls and attempted to blame human error in cases where owners claimed vehicle defects.

During a routine test on its Sienna minivan in April 2003, Toyota Motor Corp. engineers discovered that a plastic panel could come loose and cause the gas pedal to stick, potentially making the vehicle accelerate out of control.

The automaker redesigned the part and by that June every 2004 model year Sienna off the assembly line came with the new panel. Toyota did not notify tens of thousands of people who had already bought vans with the old panel.

Read the full story here.

Continue reading "Toyota did not Disclose Potential Safety Problems" »

A Suffolk County jury found that two doctors at Children’s Hospital Boston - one of them the hospital’s former physician in chief - had caused the death of a 3-year-old Pennsylvania boy and voted to award his parents $15 million in damages.

The actual damage award will be less because of an agreement reached by the parties before the verdict.

Continue reading "Jury Finds That Doctors’ Errors Led to Boy’s Wrongful Death" »

The family of a New York jazz musician who drowned trying to save a rabbi's wife in treacherous riptides off Miami Beach has won $5 million in damages in a decade-old case that had raised serious liability issues for seaside communities that don't provide lifeguards at public beaches.

U.S. District Judge Gold ordered Delaware-based Monticello Insurance Co. to pay damages to the wife of Zachary Breaux. The insurance carrier had refused to pay, even though the family's lawyer and the city of Miami Beach had negotiated a settlement.

Gold also ordered the insurance company to pay $750,000 in damages to the husband of a New York school secretary, Eugenie Poleyeff, whom Breaux tried to save during a midwinter vacation in 1997. The city also negotiated that settlement, but the insurer had refused to pay.

Continue reading "Miami Beach Wrongful Death Drowning Victim Gets $5M" »

American women in the 1990s were told they could help their bodies ward off major illness by taking menopausal hormone drugs. Some medical associations said so. Many gynecologists and physicians said so. Respected medical journals said so, too.

Along the way, television commercials positioned hormone drugs as treatments for more than hot flashes and night sweats — just two of the better-known symptoms of menopause, which is technically defined as commencing one year after a woman’s last menstrual cycle.

One commercial about estrogen loss by the drug maker Wyeth discussed research into connections between menopause and heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease and blindness.

Continue reading "Prempro Litigation and Menopause" »

GlaxoSmithKline Plc has paid almost $1 billion to resolve lawsuits over Paxil since it introduced the antidepressant in 1993, including about $390 million for suicides or attempted suicides said to be linked to the drug, according to court records and people familiar with the cases.

As part of the total, Glaxo, so far has paid $200 million to settle Paxil addiction and birth-defect cases and $400 million to end antitrust, fraud and design claims, according to the people and court records.

Continue reading "Glaxo Said to Have Paid $1 Billion in Paxil Suits " »

Janie Vinson was apparently so ill with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease that the 79-year-old woman's family told the medical staff at Albany, Ga.'s Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital not to try to cure her, but to simply keep her comfortable until she died.

A Dougherty County jury awarded her daughter $3 million for medical malpractice claims resulting from Vinson's death in March 2002 after she was given what a plaintiff's expert said was too much morphine too quickly.

Vinson had been in the hospital for more than a week when she suffered respiratory arrest on March 18, 2002. Vinson had stopped breathing by the time a nurse arrived to her room. The nurse called a "code" and the emergency pulmonary team, led by Dr. Thomas Ungarino, responded, but by the time they arrived, Vinson was breathing again.

Continue reading "Daughter Awarded $3 M After Death of Mom Who Had Do-Not-Resuscitate Order " »

After 13 hours of intensifying pain, two trips to the emergency room and two CT scans, doctors finally found what was ailing Lottie Green.

In her left lung, the pulmonologist told her, was the largest blood clot they had ever seen and there were others in her right lung as well, she said.

Soon after the 41-year-old Bethesda, Md., resident was released from a hospital last month, Ms. Green joined hundreds of other women in lawsuits against Germany's Bayer AG, the maker of the popular oral contraceptive Yaz.

Continue reading "Fort Worth Texas Yaz Yasmin Birth Control Lawsuit Update" »

The U.S. Food & Drug Administration is weighing further regulation of three drugs used to create high-contrast images on MRI scans, based on a new analysis that suggests they carry a higher risk of causing a rare, but potentially fatal disease.

The issue, marks a setback for GE Healthcare (GE), which contends that its product is no riskier than competing imaging drugs. FDA reviewers said GE's drug, Omniscan, had a disproportionately high number of reports of the disease compared with its peers.

Continue reading "FDA Review Says MRI Imaging Drugs That Contain Gadolinium Riskier for Kidney Patients " »

A consumer advocacy group is petitioning the government to ban the weight loss pill Meridia because a recent study suggests it increases risk of heart attack, stroke and death.

A letter Thursday from Public Citizen calls on the Food and Drug Administration to pull Abbott Laboratories' drug from the U.S. market, where it is used by roughly a quarter million people.

Preliminary results from a 10,000-patient study — known as the SCOUT study — showed a slightly higher risk of heart-related problems in patients taking Meridia, also called sibutramine, compared with a dummy pill. Patients in the study were older than 55, overweight with a history of heart disease or diabetes.

Continue reading "Public Citizen Asks FDA to Ban Weight Loss Pill" »

A funeral is set for a retired Indiana National Guard commander who testified in October that exposure to a lethal carcinogen in Iraq caused his cancer.

Lt. Col. James C. Gentry, 52, Williams, Ind., died of lung cancer. His death is a marker in a pending federal lawsuit; his life inspired a federal bill working its way through Congress.

Continue reading "Guard Commander Said KBR Carcinogen Caused his Cancer" »

Once upon a time, asbestos was practically everywhere. Because the material causes devastating forms of cancer and lung disease, huge product-liability litigation sprung up. That led to huge settlements, which led to the establishment of huge trusts, created to assure payment to millions of current and future claimants.

Some $20 billion now resides in these 40 or so trusts, set up by Johns Manville Corp., Owens Corning and other former makers and sellers of asbestos. But who’s overseeing the trusts? Is the money getting spent properly? In short, are the trusts working as designed?

Continue reading "Asbestos Mesothelioma Payout System is Being Questioned" »

A jury has awarded $89 million in damages to the family of a man killed in a 2008 crash with a drunken driver, and to the man's fiancée and daughter.

"The eye-popping numbers were the jury's attempt to send a message the only way they could," said attorney Mark Bronson, who won the case after a one-day trial in Franklin County Circuit Court.

He said he doubts his clients will ever see a fraction of the money. But he said the jury's disgust with drunken driving was unmistakable.

Continue reading "Jury Awards $89 M Against Drunken Driver for Wrongful Death Car Crash" »

The head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission conceded that the agency “hasn’t been acting as quickly as it should” on crib safety problems.

More than 2.1 million drop-side cribs by Stork Craft Manufacturing of Canada are being recalled following reports of four infant suffocations. The CPSC said the recall involves 1.2 million cribs in the United States and almost 1 million in Canada, where Stork Craft is based. Sales of the cribs being recalled go back to 1993 and nearly 150,000 of the cribs carry the Fisher-Price logo.

Continue reading "Federal Safety Regulators Announce New Crib Recall" »

A Florida jury ordered cigarette maker Philip Morris USA to pay $300 million in damages to a 61-year-old ex-smoker named Cindy Naugle who is wheelchair-bound by emphysema.

The Broward Circuit Court jury assessed $56.6 million in past and future medical expenses against the company, part of Altria Group Inc, as well as $244 million in punitive damages.

The verdict is the largest of the so-called Engle progeny cases that have been tried so far, both sides said.

Philip Morris will seek further review of the verdict because of "numerous erroneous rulings by the trial judge," Philip Morris spokesman Murray Garnick said in a statement.

Continue reading "Philip Morris Ordered to Pay $300 M to Smoker" »

A federal judge has denied a request by Cintas Corp. for summary judgment in a 2007 wrongful death lawsuit in Tulsa, a ruling that paves the way for a jury to hear the case against the nation's largest uniform supplier next year.

U.S. District Judge Claire Eagan wrote in a 31-page opinion that there is ''conflicting evidence'' whether Cintas managers knew workers in company laundries were breaking safety rules to save time, but did nothing to stop them.

Eagan wrote that videotape evidence taken from the Tulsa plant ''shows employees routinely disregarding Cintas' safety procedures.''

Amalia Diaz Torres is suing Cincinnati-based Cintas, claiming the company's plant managers knew about -- and even encouraged -- the dangerous working practices that led to the death of her husband, Eleazar Torres-Gomez, in 2007.

Continue reading "Trial to Proceed in Cintas Wrongful Death Lawsuit" »

An Albemarle County, Va jury awarded $5.25 million to the parents and sibling of a 16-year-old county girl who was killed in a car accident in 2008.

The jury found that Don B. Swisher Trucking Corp., McCann Delivery Service and Kenneth Barbour were negligent when Barbour hit Sydney Aichs’ 1999 Chevrolet Cavalier with a tractor-trailer while running a red light on May 9, 2008.

Continue reading "Jury Awards $5.25M in Va Teenager Wrongful Death" »

Maximiliano Calcaño is 2 and was born with no arms. Maximiliano's mother, Anajai Calcaño, lives in a small house with no indoor plumbing in a rural village in northern Dominican Republic, not far from where coal ash generated by Virginia-based AES Corp. wound up at the edge of the sea.

More than 50,000 tons of coal ash laden with heavy metals was left at a port abutting local homes for years while the company, politicians, prosecutors, environmental activists and bureaucrats argued -- and residents got sick.

Continue reading "Dominican Republic blames U.S.Power Company for Birth Defects" »

The husband and estate of a woman who developed blood clots and died shortly after undergoing outpatient knee surgery have been awarded more than $6 million.

In December of 2003, Ruby Quarles, 42, was referred by her primary care physician at Fort Benning's Martin Army Community Hospital to an orthopedic surgeon to investigate complaints of worsening pain in her left knee, according to trial documents.

The surgeon, Dr.McKenzie, gave Quarles an injection for the pain and ordered physical therapy; during a follow-up visit in January 2004, McKenzie ordered an MRI to determine whether Quarles might have a tear in the cartilage of her knee.

The MRI indicated a "cartilaginous loose body" behind Quarles' knee, according to the pre-trial order, and on Jan. 29 she underwent less than an hour of arthroscopic surgery at Doctors Hospital. McKenzie did not find any loose cartilage or other damage, and that afternoon Quarles' daughter, Frances, took her home.

Continue reading "Widower Awarded $6 M in Medical Malpractice Trial" »

Traffic deaths on U.S. roads reached a record low in the first half of 2009, according to projections released Oct. 9. Estimates show that 16,626 people died in traffic crashes between January and June –- a 7 percent decline from 17,871 for the same period last year. Projected figures for the period also show a record low fatality rate of 1.15 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, down from 1.23 deaths during the same period in 2008.

Read the Texas Car Accident report here.

Automobile accidents, auto collisions, car accidents, car crashes, or car wrecks, motor vehicle fender benders are an unfortunate fact of life. Auto accidents can be caused by any number of reasons including: Driver negligence, Driver impairment, Driver recklessness, Defective automobiles or parts and Dangerous road conditions.

Continue reading "Dallas Texas Car and Trucking Accident Lawsuit Update" »

There is progress to report in the Yaz and Yasmin multidistrict litigation (MDL No. 2100) currently underway in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois. Judge David Herndon, who is overseeing the Yaz and Yasmin MDL, has appointed members to the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee.

The Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee was appointed by Judge Herndon in an Order dated November 10, 2009.

Dr Shezad Malik will be working closely with the members of the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee.

Continue reading "Dallas Yaz Lawsuit Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee Appointed" »

KTLA TV in Los Angeles just ran an investigation and news article into Yaz and Yasmin side effects that folks may be interesting in watching.

Click here for the link.

Read the full article here.

Continue reading "KTLA: Yaz, Yasmin Birth Control Users Report Serious Problems " »

A slip and fall accident is a type of personal injury claim that occurs when an individual slips and falls on another person’s property. It is based on the breach of duty that the owner of the property was negligent in failing to correct the dangerous condition that caused the slip and fall.

The term Premises Liability is used when assigning responsibility for injuries caused by the defective design or maintenance of property, including private homes, public buildings, and anywhere a person would have a reasonable expectation of safety.

"Negligence" means failure to use ordinary care to provide a safe place and to reduce or eliminate an unreasonable risk of harm created by the condition or use of a place, equipment or procedures.

Continue reading "Dallas Texas Slip and Fall Attorney Update" »

- Toyota Motor Corp. has failed to correct a problem with the throttle control system on some of its vehicles, causing them to suddenly accelerate, lawyers for consumers said in a lawsuit.

Los Angeles residents Seong Bae Choi and Chris Chan Park, who claim they experienced multiple instances of unintended acceleration, filed the suit as a class action on Nov. 5, seeking to represent all U.S. owners of certain Toyota and Lexus models.

Toyota last month said it would recall as many as 3.8 million vehicles including Lexus ES luxury cars, Camry sedans and Prius hybrids over a potential flaw in which floor mats shifting out of position could jam the accelerator pedal. The mats aren’t the problem, according to the plaintiff’s lawyer.

Continue reading "Toyota Lawsuits by Consumers Over Sudden Acceleration of Vehicles" »

The New Jersey judiciary is considering a request from Passaic County judge for mass tort status for suits alleging strokes and other serious health problems from the oral contraceptives Yaz, Yasmin and Ocella.

With 13 suits filed in his court, Assignment Judge Donald Volkert Jr. wrote to Acting Administrative Director of the Courts Glenn Grant on Oct. 22 that "the case management and potential trial of this particular litigation would place a fairly substantial strain on our already limited resources."

There are 26 suits against the contraceptives' manufacturers pending in other counties, and Volkert said plaintiffs lawyers have told him the number could reach 1,000.

In a notice to the bar, the Administrative Office of the Courts says it will accept public comments until Dec. 31 on the proposal to centralize the cases in Atlantic, Bergen or Middlesex counties, where mass torts are heard.

Continue reading "Dallas Texas Yaz Update: Mass Tort Status for Suits Over Yaz, Yasmin" »

Smokers who want to quit and think a good first step is to switch to light or low-tar cigarettes are making a big mistake. A study has found that those smokers instead have about a 50% lower chance of giving up smoking.

The research, published in the November issue of Tobacco Control, analyzed survey data from about 31,000 smokers who were asked whether they had switched to a milder or low-tar brand of cigarettes and the reasons for the switch. They were queried about whether they had tried to give up smoking and if they could currently call themselves nonsmokers. Those who switched brands were 58% more likely to have attempted to give up smoking than those who stayed with one brand but were 60% less likely to successfully quit.

Continue reading "Light Cigarettes may not help Smokers Quit" »

A Sacramento jury set an eye-popping standard on the cost of radio station contests that kill and the resulting loss of a mother's love and a wife's companionship.

The tab for Entercom Sacramento LLC came to $16,577,118 in the water-intoxication death of Jennifer Lea Strange in a contest put on by radio station KDND "The End" (107.9 FM).

Such was the award rendered by a Sacramento Superior Court jury of seven men and five women in the trial to settle a wrongful death lawsuit filed on behalf of Strange's survivors. The 28-year-old woman died Jan. 12, 2007, after she participated in KDND's "Hold Your Wee for a Wii" contest.

Continue reading "Jury Awards $16.6 M for Mom's Wrongful death in Radio Contest" »

Pfizer Inc. must pay about $75 million in punitive damages to an Illinois woman who developed cancer after taking one of the drugmaker’s menopause treatments.

A Philadelphia jury ordered Pfizer’s Wyeth unit on Oct. 26 to pay the bad-conduct award, which is about 20 times larger than the $3.7 million in actual damages the panel awarded to Connie Barton over her use of Wyeth’s Prempro menopause drug, according to people with direct knowledge of the verdict.

A judge ordered Barton’s punitive-damage award sealed at Wyeth’s request until the trial of another Prempro lawsuit in the same courthouse is completed. Lawyers in that case say jurors won’t start deliberating on that suit’s claims for another three weeks.

Continue reading "Pfizer Jury to Award $75 M Prempro Verdict to Woman " »

Donna Scroggin had a hormone replacement product liability suit against Wyeth and Upjohn and at the spring 2008 trial her claim that the drug companies failed to warn of the increased risk of breast cancer resulting from their estrogen and progestin products, a federal district court jury awarded the breast cancer survivor $2.75 million in compensatory damages. In the second phase of trial, the jury hit Upjohn with about $8 million in punitive damages, and Wyeth with $19 million.

After post-trial motions, the judge upheld the jury's liability finding and $2.75 million compensatory damages verdict against Wyeth and Upjohn. But he struck the testimony of Scroggin's punitive damages expert and vacated the punitive damages awards against the drug companies.

Read the opinion here.

Continue reading "Wyeth to Face New Trial on Punitive Damages in Prempro Hormone Replacement Case" »

The widow of a Volusia County Fla firefighter who died when a tree fell on him during a brush-fire training exercise is suing the county Fire Services department for wrongful death.

County firefighter John Curry was with the department nine months and attending his first training with a wildfire team when he was killed.

Volusia County Fire Services knew that using untrained firefighters to cut down trees was dangerous, according to the complaint filed, and failed to protect Curry from his death.

Continue reading "Widow Files Wrongful Death Suit Over Fatal Training Exercise " »

The family of the 9-year-old boy who drowned in a city pool is seeking $15 million from the city, according to a wrongful death claim filed in City Hall.

Jameson Auciel, died on Aug. 20, three days after he was pulled unconscious from the McGrane Pool in Providence city’s West End.

Jameson had been floating face down in the 3- to 4-foot public pool. His cousin, Gamaelle Bazelais, 8, was also found floating face down and unconscious in the pool. Both were rushed to Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Providence.

Continue reading "Family of Child who Drowned Files a Wrongful Death Lawsuit" »

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced the largest fine in its history of $87 million in penalties against the oil giant BP for failing to correct safety problems identified after a 2005 explosion that killed 15 workers at its Texas City, Tex. refinery.

The fine is more than four times the size of any previous OSHA sanction. Federal officials said the penalty was the result of BP’s failure to comply in hundreds of instances with a 2005 agreement to fix safety hazards at the refinery, the nation’s third-largest.

OSHA issued 271 notifications to BP for failing to correct hazards at the Texas City refinery over the four-year period since the explosion. As a result, OSHA, which is part of the Labor Department, is issuing fines of $56.7 million. In addition, OSHA also identified 439 “willful and egregious” violations of industry-accepted safety controls at the refinery. Those violations will lead to $30.7 million in additional fines

Continue reading "BP Faces Fine for ’05 Refinery Wrongful Death Explosion" »

After 12 hours of deliberation, a jury sided with the parents of baseball pitcher Brandon Patch in a civil suit over the player's death during a 2003 game in Helena.

Aluminum bat maker Hillerich & Bradsby Co. failed to provide adequate warning as to the dangers of the bat used by a Helena Senators player during the game, according to at least eight of the 12 Lewis and Clark County jurors.

Hillerich & Bradsby Co. was ordered to pay $792,000 to Patch's estate, which is represented by his mother, Debbie Patch, who filed the suit.

Continue reading "Bat Maker Found Liable for Player's Wrongful Death" »

Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Eli Lilly & Co. said safety warnings were strengthened for their diabetes drug Byetta relating to the risks of pancreatitis and the medicine’s use by patients with severe kidney disease.

Patients with “severe kidney problems” shouldn’t take Byetta and the treatment should be “used with caution” in people who have had a kidney transplant, San Diego-based Amylin and Indianapolis-based Lilly said in a statement. The companies also said U.S. regulators approved the use of the drug as a stand-alone medication for adults with Type 2 diabetes.

Six patients taking Byetta died in August 2008 from pancreatitis, an inflamed pancreas. A safety alert was issued by the Food and Drug Administration though Amylin said no evidence directly linked the drug to the deaths. The revised language reflects the concerns raised by the FDA a year ago, according to Amylin’s medical director.

Continue reading "Amylin, Lilly’s Byetta Gets Stronger Safety Warning " »

A drug designed to fight anemia appears to double the risk of stroke in patients with diabetes and kidney disease without substantially improving their quality of life, a new study finds.

Darbepoetin alfa, marketed as Aranesp and known as an erythropoiesis-stimulating agent (ESA), is often prescribed for diabetic patients with chronic kidney disease and mild anemia.

"The benefits we assumed we would have by treating anemia were less striking and the risks were more striking," said lead researcher Dr. Marc A. Pfeffer, a professor of medicine in the cardiovascular division of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

"This provides new data for doctors and patients to make their own risk-benefit assessment," he said. "There was a perception that treating anemia would make people feel so much better that we'll take risks, but the benefit in quality of life was not as great as we thought, and there was a clear doubling of your risk for a stroke."

Continue reading "Anemia Drug Raises Stroke Risk in Kidney Patients" »

The widow of a LA firefighter who was killed last year while on duty has sued the fire department and the city for allegedly causing his death by refusing to replace outdated equipment.

Ralph Arabie, a 30-year veteran of the David Crockett Steam Fire Company No. 1, was killed in September 2008 at the station when the hydraulic boom of a 1965 aerial device struck and pinned his head to the back of one of the station's trucks. He was pronounced dead at the scene of blunt force trauma to the head.

The lawsuit, filed alleges that Arabie was killed because the city and station failed to "properly maintain an already over aged fire truck," and "replace overly-aged hydraulic components."

Jan Arabie is suing for damages including the loss of her spouse, loss of support, mental anguish and emotional distress.

Continue reading "Firefighter's Widow Alleges Department Failed to Properly Maintain Equipment." »

The 3rd District Court of Appeal reversed a $24.2 million verdict Wednesday, striking a Miami-Dade jury award to a Weston, Fla., surgeon who claimed asbestos exposure caused his terminal cancer.

In a unanimous unsigned opinion, the three-judge panel remanded the products liability lawsuit by Dr. Stephen Guilder against Honeywell International and ordered a new trial.

Guilder won one of the highest compensatory damage awards against a single defendant in a mesothelioma case in April 2008. He died before the appeal was decided.

He claimed he developed the rare peritoneal mesothelioma from exposure to asbestos by remodeling an attic, working in road construction and repairing cars in the 1970s and 1980s.

Continue reading "Appeals Court Reverses $24.2 M Verdict in Asbestos Mesothelioma Case" »

Trial is set to begin in Michigan in a lawsuit that claims a company is liable for three deaths caused by a company employee who was driving drunk.

Thomas Wellinger, who had been sent from his office at UGS Corp. to seek medical attention, drove his vehicle at 70 mph into a car driven by Judith Weinstein, killing her and her two sons, ages 9 and 12. Her husband, Gary Weinstein of Farmington Hills, Mich., claims in a wrongful-death suit that USG Corp. had a duty not to let Wellinger leave the premises.

Continue reading "Lawsuit Claims That Company is Liabe for Drunk Employee Car Crash" »

A Pfizer Inc. unit must pay an undisclosed amount of punitive damages to an Illinois woman who developed breast cancer after taking one of the drugmaker’s menopause treatments, according to a Philadelphia jury.

Jurors deliberated 25 minutes before finding Pfizer’s Wyeth subsidiary was responsible for paying an award to Connie Barton. The specific amount of the award was sealed by the trial judge immediately after it was returned.

Continue reading "Pfizer Unit’s Prempro Punitive Damages Verdict Remains Secret " »

The state’s high court said that cigarette maker Philip Morris USA may have to pay for diagnostic chest exams so smokers can get early warning they have developed lung cancer, possibly opening a new front in tobacco liability lawsuits.

In a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Judicial Court said Massachusetts law has an antiquated definition of negligence. Historically, plaintiffs had to show explicit injury, such as a broken leg, before the other party can be ordered to pay for diagnostic tests.

Writing for the court, Justice Spina said that such legal thinking must change. “We must adapt to the growing recognition that exposure to toxic substances and radiation may cause substantial injury, which should be compensable, even if the full effects are not immediately apparent,’’ he wrote.

Continue reading "Philip Morris Has to Fund Medical Monitoring Tests for Smokers" »

A fatal accident in San Diego raises the question: Might a vehicle's complex electronic features make it hard for drivers to react quickly when accelerating out of control?

The 2009 Lexus ES 350 shot through suburban San Diego like a runaway missile, weaving at 120 miles an hour through rush hour freeway traffic as flames flashed from under the car.

At the wheel, veteran California Highway Patrol Officer Mark Saylor desperately tried to control the 272-horsepower engine that was roaring at full throttle as his wife, teenage daughter and brother-in-law were gripped by fear.

"We’re in trouble. . . . There’s no brakes," Saylor's brother-in-law Chris Lastrella told a police dispatcher over a cellphone. Moments later, frantic shrieks filled the car as it slammed into another vehicle and then careened into a dirt embankment, killing all four aboard.

Continue reading "Toyota's runaway-car worries may not stop at floor mats" »

A recent Illinois Supreme Court ruling is a victory for patient-physician confidentiality and protects doctors from unwarranted liability exposure, according to physicians.

On Sept. 24, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that a group of physicians and other health care professionals did not have a duty to prevent the murder of the wife of a mentally ill patient they treated.

Continue reading "Illinois Supreme Court Rules Doctors Owed no Duty to Nonpatient" »

A $14M settlement has been reached with family members of a flight nurse and a paramedic who died last year when an emergency medical services helicopter crashed into the Laguna Madre, Texas.

The settlement resolves a lawsuit that family members of Raul Garcia, 40, and Michael Sanchez, 39, filed against Metro Aviation Inc., the company that operated the Eurocopter AS350, and South Texas Emergency Care Foundation.

Continue reading "$14 M Settlement in Wrongful Death Case From EMS Copter Crash" »

A Philadelphia jury has issued a $13.5 million verdict against Lasko Products Inc., a West Chester fan manufacturer, after a defective fan motor sparked a 2005 house fire in Mount Airy that killed a 7-year-old boy.

The award was issued after a 13-day trial in the death of Joshua Foster, who was killed on June 14, 2005, when a fan in his mother's bedroom triggered a blaze in the home. The child died of burns and smoke inhalation.

The fire was caused by a faulty Chinese-made motor in the portable fan, built in 2000, and the defect in the model was discovered in 1999.

Continue reading "Jury Awards $13.5 M in Product Liability Faulty-Fan Death" »

Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. engaged in a "staggering" pattern of misconduct aimed at covering up its role in the deaths of four young people whose car collided with a train largely because a crossing gate wasn't working properly.

To punish the railroad, which allegedly began destroying evidence within minutes of the 2003 accident, Judge Maas awarded $4 million to the victims' families and their attorneys. The award comes on top of $21.6 million from a jury that placed 90 percent of the blame for the accident on Burlington Northern.

"When encountering conduct as egregious as that of BNSF, this court ... has a duty to impose sanctions of a sufficient severity in order to deter future misconduct of the same caliber," Maas ruled.

Continue reading "BNSF Railroad's Penalty of $25.6 M for Trial Misconduct " »

A trial date has been set in the case against Wal-Mart in the death of a Chadron, Neb., woman.

David Lehman sued the corporation shortly after his wife, Julie, died after falling in the Chadron store. The case, filed in Dawes County District Court was removed to the U.S. District Court, which has scheduled a trial for Feb. 16.

Julie Lehman was in Wal-Mart July 21 with her son, Steffan, 17, when she slipped on a wet floor in the automotive cleaning products aisle on her way to the restroom. Julie received her initial diagnosis and treatment at the Chadron Community Hospital before being flown to Rapid City Regional to have a massive blood clot in her brain surgically removed. Julie never woke up after surgery and died July 27.

Continue reading "Trial Set in Wrongful Death of Wal-Mart Slip and Fall" »

After years of foot dragging, Metrolink has spent $30 million to settle most of the lawsuits arising from the 2005 Glendale train crash that killed 11 and injured about 180, according to plaintiffs' attorneys.

Among those settlements are two injury cases, one for $5 million and the other for $3.8 million, and two wrongful death cases in which the heirs will receive $3.5 million for each claim. One of those cases involves payments to the family of a sheriff's deputy killed in the crash.

Continue reading "Metrolink Pays Out $30 M in 2005 Crash Settlements" »

The family of an 86-year-old Boston woman who died after she fell from an operating table following hip surgery has settled a wrongful death lawsuit with Boston Medical Center.

The family’s lawyer, Meyer, said the hospital agreed to pay $900,000.

Meyer said the case exposed gaps in operating room procedures and hopefully will prevent future tragedies.

Continue reading "Hospital Settles After Patient’s Fall in Operating Room" »

Under rules to be proposed this week, the Department of Veterans Affairs plans to add Parkinson’s disease, ischemic heart disease and hairy-cell leukemia to the growing list of illnesses presumed to have been caused by Agent Orange, the toxic defoliant used widely in Vietnam.

The proposal will make it substantially easier for thousands of veterans to claim that those ailments were the direct result of their service in Vietnam, thereby for them to receive monthly disability checks and health care services from the department.

The new policy will apply to some 2.1 million veterans who set foot in Vietnam during the war, including those who came after the military stopped using Agent Orange in 1970. It will not apply to sailors on deep-water ships, though the department plans to study the effects of Agent Orange on the Navy.

Continue reading "New Rules Opens Toxic Injury Health Claims to Agent Orange " »

The United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation issued its order on October 1, 2009, establishing MDL No. 2100 for individual lawsuits filed by women who have been injured as a result of their ingestion of Yasmin, Yaz and Ocella oral contraceptive products. All of the cases pending in federal courts will be transferred to the Southern District of Illinois. The initial transfer order includes 32 cases that have been filed by patients in California, Georgia, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, and Wisconsin.

All of the cases involve allegations that the popular birth control pills containing the new progestin drospirenone increase the risk of serious life-threatening health problems, such as heart attacks, strokes, pulmonary embolisms, deep vein thrombosis, gallbladder disease and sudden death from Yaz or Yasmin.

Continue reading "Dallas Texas Yaz Lawsuits and Side Effects" »

Yaz, manufactured by Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals, Inc., is a combination birth control pill containing drospirenone and ethinyl estradiol. Yaz is marketed not only as a contraceptive pill, but as a proven treatment for premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), a condition with severe emotional and physical premenstrual symptoms. Yaz also is marketed as an effective treatment for moderate acne.

The YAZ birth control pill, manufactured and marketed by Bayer Pharmaceuticals has been linked to a number of serious, life-threatening side effects.

There is a limited period of time in which to bring a Texas Yaz lawsuit. This time period is referred to as a “statute of limitations”. If Yaz lawsuits are not filed before the statutory deadline you may lose the right to bring a claim for compensation.

A statute of limitations is a law that limits the amount of time a person has to file a lawsuit. There are several factors that affect the statutory deadline for filing your Yaz lawsuit. Some of these factors include:

The state where the injury occurred, the type of injury, the state where the lawsuit is filed, the age of the person bringing the lawsuit, whether the claim is a wrongful death lawsuit.

Continue reading "Statute of Limitations for Texas Yaz Product Liability Lawsuits" »

A panel of judges ordered that all federal lawsuits over problems with Yaz and Yasmin birth control pills will be consolidated into an MDL, or multidistrict litigation, for pretrial proceedings in the Southern District of Illinois.

This is not a Yaz / Yasmin class action. Each Yaz lawsuit or Yasmin lawsuit will remain an individual claim and if a settlement is not agreed upon during pretrial litigation, each plaintiff will still have a jury will determine the amount of damages they are entitled to in their case.

Read the JPML Order here.

MDL No. 2100 -- IN RE: Yasmin and Yaz (Drospirenone) Marketing and Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation -- Assigned To Southern District of Illinois.

Continue reading "Yaz / Yasmin MDL Consolidation Update" »

It was August, 2008, when 24-year-old Tanya Hayes began to experience breathlessness and what her family described as a “nasty, hard cough.” Tanya ignored the symptoms until one afternoon when she collapsed in a car park in her hometown of Melbourne, Australia. Five hours later, she was pronounced dead of a pulmonary embolism.

According to the head of the emergency room that treated Ms. Hayes, her death was the result of “blood clotting caused by factors related to taking the oral contraceptive pill.”

What her family did not discover until later is that the fine print on the package of pills she was taking, known as Yasmin, lists “breathlessness” as a "very rare . . . very serious side effect.”

Continue reading "Deaths Linked To Yaz and Yasmin Birth Control Pill" »

Less than 14 months after a devastating apartment blaze along the Conshohocken riverfront set back one of the nation's most successful revivals of an aging town, a $36.3 million settlement has been reached to end all fire-related litigation.

Of that, $27 million will go toward rebuilding the two destroyed Riverwalk apartment buildings, which housed 189 units. The remainder will be shared among the displaced tenants, with amounts depending on individual losses.

Continue reading "Settlement For Philadelphia Apartment-Fire Litigation" »

GlaxoSmithKline Plc must pay $2.5 M over claims that its Paxil antidepressant caused birth defects, a Pennsylvania jury concluded in the first of 600 such cases to come to trial.

Jurors in state court in Philadelphia deliberated about seven hours over two days before finding Glaxo failed to properly warn doctors and pregnant users of Paxil’s risk. The panel awarded $2.5 million in compensatory damages to the family of Lyam Kilker. The 3-year-old was born with heart defects his mother blamed on the drug.

Continue reading "Glaxo Ordered to Pay $2.5 M for Paxil Birth Defect Lawsuit " »

Two pension funds for firefighters and city employees in Pennsylvania have filed a lawsuit against Bayer, saying that the drug maker hid health risks and misrepresented the effectiveness of its popular birth control pills Yaz and Yasmin. The complaint joins hundreds of other lawsuits pending against the pharmaceutical company over problems with Yaz and Yasmin.

The Yaz / Yasmin lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania by the Philadelphia Firefighters Union Local No. 22 Health and Welfare Fund, and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, District Council 47 Health and Welfare Fund. The funds accuse Bayer of unlawfully promoting Yaz to mislead investors about the value of the company, concealing the drug’s increased risks of blood clots, strokes, heart attacks, gallbladder disease, pulmonary embolisms and deep vein thrombosis (DVT).

Continue reading "Yasmin and Yaz Side Effects Were Concealed to Boost Sales" »

The College’s request to end a lawsuit filed after the death of Christina Porter ’06 was denied by a federal judge last week. Porter passed away on Jan. 16, 2005, less than a year after sustaining severe head injuries while taking a skiing class at the Dartmouth Skiway.

The court’s ruling came in response to Dartmouth’s request for summary judgment, in which the judge decides the case without a trial.

Porter was enrolled in a beginning ski class to complete her physical education requirement. During a lesson on Feb. 3, 2004, she skied into a tree and was rushed to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. She remained in a coma for the next six months, and passed away the following January due to complications from her injuries.

Continue reading "Dartmouth Student Ski Personal Injury Lawsuit can Proceed" »

The city of South Gate has paid out $18 million to settle lawsuits filed by a group of officers who said they faced racially-motivated discrimination, harassment and retaliation in the aftermath of the ouster of a Latino police official in 2002, according to the officers' attorney.

Sixteen police officers filed suits against South Gate, a working-class, predominantly Latino city with an annual budget of about $100 million, alleging that they were subjected to racial slurs and false internal affairs investigations, unfairly disciplined, and passed up for promotions. Many said they were discriminated because of their association with Rick Lopez, a former acting police chief.

Continue reading "City Settles Police Employment Discrimination Suits for $18 M" »

The parents of a grad student killed by a drunken driver will file suit against the Queens cafe where her killer got liquored up before the horrific accident.

"All those responsible for the wrongful death should be held accountable," said lawyer Sanford Rubenstein, who represents the family of victim Panayiota Demetriou.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages from the Cavo Cafe Lounge on 31st Ave. in Astoria for serving Daryush Omar alcohol "up to and past the point of intoxication."

Omar, 25, got behind the wheel of his car in the early-morning hours of Nov. 16, 2008, and later barreled through a red light.

Continue reading "DWI: Wrongful Death Dram Shop Lawsuit AllegesThat Driver Plied With Liquor " »

GlaxoSmithKline Plc, the U.K.’s largest drugmaker, complied with all U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulations in testing and monitoring Paxil, according to a former employee for the agency.

Glaxo reported to the FDA on a regular basis and supplied animal toxicology studies that didn’t indicate the drug could cause birth defects, Judith Jones testified as an expert witness for the company. Jones spent eight years in the FDA’s post- marketing surveillance and drug safety group.

“The FDA was provided all of the reports that GlaxoSmithKline had received on a regular basis and they specifically did not identify a signal,” Jones told jurors in state court. “They provided all the necessary information to the FDA.”

Jones testified toward the end of the first trial over claims Paxil causes birth defects. Michelle David blames her Paxil use for her 3-year-old son’s life-threatening heart defects. She accuses the company of withholding information from consumers and regulators about the risk of birth defects and failing to properly test Paxil.

Continue reading "Glaxo Claims to Have Complied With FDA Rules on Paxil" »

After drinking a gallon and a half of water, Jennifer Strange's thinking would have been so impaired by the time she left a radio station on the day she died that she might as well have been drunk, according to a doctor who testified.

If medical personnel had been on site at the time she left the studios of KDND "The End" 107.9, they could have advised her that she needed a doctor's care and she likely would have survived, Dr. George Alan Kaysen testified.

Kaysen said hyponatremia, or acute water intoxication, can be easily treated with an intravenous sodium drip.

Continue reading "Wrongful Death: Water-Drinking Radio Contestant" »

For a 15-year-old, or anybody else, Michael Blankenship had already been through a lot when he arrived at Seattle Children's hospital for some routine dental work.

What left him dead, was the painkiller-laced patch -- meant to ameliorate chronic pain in cancer patients and others -- that was prescribed to Blankenship.

Discharged to his mother's home the day of the March 9 tooth extraction, Blankenship was found dead in his bed the following morning. According to a civil suit filed earlier this month in King County Superior Court, a medical examiner found Blankenship had died from a drug overdose caused by the fentanyl patch.

Continue reading "Teen's Fatal Overdose Blamed on Fentanyl Patch" »

A WI Brown County jury awarded the survivors of a deceased farm worker $3.7 million in a medical malpractice lawsuit.

Gustavo Espinal-Santos died Jan. 1, 2004, after contracting blastomycosis, a fungal infection often transmitted through water or soil.

Espinal-Santos twice visited the Bellin Family Medical Center in Bonduel in December 2003 complaining of illness. Espinal-Santos was seen by physician assistants who determined he had pneumonia. He said they failed to run basic diagnostic tests, specifically X-rays.

Continue reading "$3.7M Awarded in Medical Malpractice Lawsuit" »

The parents of a bicyclist who was struck and killed by a drunken driver in December 2006 have settled their lawsuit against the driver and the bar that served her for slightly more than $1 million.

Berky's agreed to pay Barbara Nordlund and Robert L'Ecuyer $1 million in the death of Paul L'Ecuyer, and Melissa Arrington's insurance company agreed to pay $25,000 — one day before the case was to go to trial in Pima County Superior Court, said plaintiff's attorney John Osborne.

Continue reading "Bar And Insurance Company to Pay More Than $1M in Wrongful Death Case" »

Thousands of sickened 9/11 recovery workers whose legal claims have been barred because of missed deadlines can now join a massive group suing New York City under a law signed by Gov. David A. Paterson, officials said.

The law immediately allows more than 3,000 Ground Zero workers to revive lawsuits that were thrown out by a federal judge in July on the technical ground that they were not filed within 90 days of the workers' conditions being diagnosed.

Continue reading "9/11 Workers Can Now Sue Over Illnesses" »

Bayer AG, Germany’s largest drugmaker, was sued by two Pennsylvania pension funds and accused of misrepresenting the safety and effectiveness of the Yaz contraceptive to boost sales.

Bayer unlawfully promoted the drug from March 2006 to March 2009 by concealing side effects including blood clots, heart attacks and pulmonary embolisms, two health and welfare funds for firefighters and city employees said in a federal court complaint made public today in Philadelphia.

The Yasmin family of birth control pills, known as Yaz, Yasmin and Yasminelle, were Bayer’s top-selling drugs last year, bringing in about $1.8 billion, a 17 percent increase over 2007.

Continue reading "Bayer Sued, Accused of Hiding Yaz Risk to Boost Sales " »

The New York Times reported September 25 on the controversy surrounding Yaz and Yasmin, two popular birth control pills (BCPs).

The controversy is a result of the marketing and manufacturing processes identified by the Food and Drug Administration. The major concern is whether these medications increase the risk of blood clots.

Yaz and Yasmin use both estrogens and progestins to prevent ovulation. Estimates are that at baseline about 1 women in 10,000 will have a blood clot this year; that number increases to about 3 women in 10,000 if they are taking BCPs.

Also the fact is that more than 50 women in 10,000 will get a blood clot due to pregnancy.

Continue reading "Yaz and Yasmin: Get the Medical Facts " »

Several lawsuits filed on behalf of women who were injured or killed by the popular birth control drugs Yaz and Yasmin will be consolidated into a multidistrict litigation group in the Southern District of Illinois, a federal judicial panel has ruled.

A total of 32 federal lawsuits have been filed against Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals Inc., the maker of Yaz and Yasmin. The two contraceptives use different doses of the same hormone, drospirenone, which has been linked to increased levels of potassium in the blood and many user deaths and serious injuries.

From 2004 to 2008, there were at least 50 deaths in the United States associated with the use of Yaz, the Food and Drug Administration has said. Women taking the drug have reported suffering heart attack, stroke, pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis and other types of blood clotting, and gallbladder disease.

Continue reading "Yaz/Yasmin Product Liability And Injury Lawsuits to be Consolidated in Illinois" »

The Supreme Court of New Jersey backed a $4.5 million award to the widow of a man who suffered heart problems after using Merck's painkiller Vioxx, ending of the last unresolved lawsuits related to the drug.

The court dismissed Merck's appeal and upheld the award in the case McDarby v. Merck, according to the law firm Weitz & Luxenberg. The firm said the ruling was issued on May 7. A jury found that Merck and Co. failed to warn patient John McDarby about Vioxx's cardiac risks, which later caused the drug to be taken off the market.

Continue reading "NJ Court Upholds $4.5M Judgment in Vioxx Case" »

The parents of an 18-year-old suburban Boca Raton cheerleader who died last year after breast augmentation surgery called for a ban on the use of general anesthesia at outpatient surgical centers.

Such centers are not equipped to deal with emergencies such as the one that ultimately killed their daughter Stephanie, both Joanne and Thomas Kuleba said during a news conference.

Continue reading "Family of Cheerleader Files Wrongful Death Lawsuit Against Plastic Surgeon " »

Asbestos lawsuits are filed by plaintiffs who have suffered as the result of asbestos-related illness. Plaintiffs in asbestos lawsuits can include the victims of asbestos exposure, or their families or loved ones. Defendants against asbestos lawsuits are those parties considered responsible for the asbestos exposure. In the past, targets of asbestos lawsuits have included:

* Employers
* Asbestos manufacturers
* Asbestos installers
* Landlords
* Leasing agents

Continue reading "Dallas Texas Asbestos Lawsuits" »

A new Yaz lawsuit was filed this week against Bayer Pharmaceuticals by a woman who alleges the popular birth control pill caused her to suffer pulmonary emboli and deep vein thrombosis (DVT), leaving her with permanent injuries.

Anna Butler of Kansas filed the product liability lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, which is at least the 75th federal lawsuit over Yaz or Yasmin oral contraceptives.

Continue reading "Yaz Lawsuit Alleges Pulmonary Emboli and DVT from Birth Control Pill" »

A huge fire last year at a sugar refinery near Savannah, Ga., that killed 14 workers and injured 36 more was “entirely preventable,” a federal official said Thursday as the results of an investigation into the fire’s causes were released.

The owner of the plant, the Imperial Sugar Company, and the plant’s managers knew for decades about the hazards of sugar dust but failed to take the necessary precautions, according to the report, issued by the Chemical Safety Board, which investigates industrial chemical accidents.

Continue reading "Report Cites Lack of Precautions in 2008 Sugar Plant Fire " »

The bankruptcy court judge overseeing certain Chrysler assets has approved a $24 million settlement in the death of a California longshoreman run over by a Dodge pickup.

The settlement comes more than two years after a Los Angeles Superior Court jury awarded damages of more than $55 million to the family of Richard Mraz. The family argued the automaker had failed to fix and adequately warn consumers about a transmission defect that made it appear trucks were in park position, when they actually were between gears.

Continue reading "Court Approves $24 M Wrongful Death Settlement Involving Chrysler Pickup" »

YAZ (3 mg drospirenone/20 mcg ethinyl estradiol) is an oral contraceptive (OC) which is the first pill to combine 20 mcg of ethinyl estradiol (EE) with the so-called "fourth generation" progestin drospirenone (DRSP). YAZ was approved by the FDA in March 2006.

A study called the International Active Surveillance Study of Women Taking Oral Contraceptives (INAS-OC), which was started in August 2005 and continues to date, is intended to evaluate the risk of those cardiovascular side effects for women who use DRSP/EE birth control pills like YAZ.

The study was funded with an unrestricted grant from Bayer Schering Pharma AG. Dr. Dinger has disclosed no relevant financial relationships.

Continue reading "Birth Control Pill YAZ Is Subject Of Ongoing Safety Study " »

A new study has found that the type of progestin used in the Yaz birth control pill is associated with more blood clots than other forms of the hormone. The study is published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).

Lawsuits have been filed around the U.S. by women who say they suffered serious side effects from Yaz.. The women involved in these lawsuits claim they experienced serious blood clots, including deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism, as well as strokes. Yaz has also allegedly been associated with heart attacks and deaths in young women

Continue reading "Dutch Study Reports Yaz DSRP Ingredient Increases Blood Clot Risk" »

Merck & Co. is paying claims by the families of more than 3,100 users of its Vioxx painkiller who died of heart attacks or strokes blamed on the drug, according to a law firm administering a $4.85 billion settlement fund.

The fund will pay about 3,000 claims for heart attack deaths and at least 122 strokes, according to BrownGreer LLP, a claims administrator appointed by both sides. Merck introduced Vioxx in 1999 and withdrew it in 2004 when a study showed the drug doubled the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Merck set up the fund, which covers claims of death and lesser injuries, in 2007 after reserving $1.9 billion to fight 26,600 Vioxx suits.

Continue reading "Merck Paying More Than 3,100 Death Claims in Vioxx Settlement " »

Bayer AG, Germany’s largest drugmaker, said its Yaz contraceptive is part of an investigation by a Swiss health regulator into the death of a young woman who took the pill.

The Swissmedic agency and an investigative judge are looking into the case of the woman, who died from the effects of pulmonary embolism, Bayer’s Swiss health unit said in a statement posted on its Web site yesterday. Bayer is cooperating with the authorities, the company said.

Continue reading "Bayer Yaz Death Probed By Swiss Agency" »

As Reported in the NY Times. Read the full article here.
The oral contraceptives Yaz and Yasmin are the top-selling pharmaceutical line for Bayer HealthCare, largely as a result of marketing that presents them as much more than mere pregnancy prevention.

Yaz, in particular, the top-selling birth control pill in the United States, owes much of its popularity to multimillion-dollar ad campaigns that have promoted the drug as a quality-of-life treatment to combat acne and severe premenstrual depression.

Continue reading "Bayer and Lawsuits Involving Yaz and Yasmin" »

Switzerland's medicines supervisor has said it will investigate allegations an oral contraceptive contributed to a fatal lung embolism in a woman.

The embolism occurred ten months after the woman starting taking Yaz birth control pills produced by German firm Bayer. She died in mid-September. Swissmedic announced on Friday it would look into suspicions of a possible link.

Bayer could not comment on the case but said it would take any possible link seriously. It expressed sympathy with the woman's family, saying her death was tragic regardless of whether there was a connection to its contraceptive pill.

Continue reading "Yaz Birth Control Link to Embolism Investigated" »

Yasmin (also known as Yaz/drospirenone/ethinyl Estradiol. Generic : Ocella) is a birth control pill developed and manufactured by Bayer, AG. The medicine works by disrupting a woman's natural menstrual cycle and providing a daily dose of hormones to regulate a new menstrual cycle.

Bayer AG has been involved in a few discussions with the Food and Drug Administration over questionable advertising campaigns seeming to suggest that Yasmin/Yaz has less side effects than other contraceptive medications.

Recent reports indicate that dangerous side effects could occur in women with preexisting conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, or obesity.

Continue reading "Texas Yaz, Yasmin and Ocella Birth Control Lawsuit Update" »

A Brooklyn man brought to Maimonides Medical Center with chest pains in July 2008 endured what his family now calls a tragedy of errors that led to his death.

Jacob Goldbrenner was sent to the Brooklyn hospital's cardiac catheterization lab so doctors could treat his ailing heart. But they couldn't find the key to the lab.

They couldn't locate an anesthesiologist. And then one doctor couldn't even find the lab itself, according to a lawsuit filed last week in Brooklyn Supreme Court.

Minutes turned to hours as the 52-year-old clothing salesman's condition worsened.

"We all felt a sense of desperation and frustration," said Baruch Goldbrenner, 27, who watched his father's health deteriorate.

Continue reading "Medical Malpractice: Hospital Negligent in Wrongful Death Lawsuit" »

Doctors should prescribe the birth- control pills that are the least likely to cause blood clots, according to a study of more than 3,000 women published in the British Medical Journal.

Oral contraceptives containing levonorgestrel and a low dose of estrogen, such as Bayer AG’s Microgynon 30, were associated with the lowest risk of blood clots in the leg or lungs, researchers at Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands found. Birth-control pills containing desogestrel, cyproterone acetate or drospirenone carried about 1.5 to 2 times the risk of clots, they found.

Continue reading "Women Should Take Safest Birth-Control Pill" »

U.S. health regulators have warned drugmaker Bayer over quality control issues at a plant that makes the key ingredient in Yaz and other popular birth control drugs.

In a warning letter posted online Tuesday, the Food and Drug Administration said its inspectors uncovered testing problems at the company's plant in Berghamen, Germany, during a March visit.

FDA inspectors said the company measured the quality of its drug ingredients based on an average of several samples, instead of reporting individual tests results.

Continue reading "FDA Warns Bayer Maker of Yaz and Yasmin" »

Relatives of a Texas musician who died in 2007 after acting bizarrely while taking the smoking-cessation drug Chantix have filed a lawsuit against the drug’s maker, Pfizer, accusing the company of failing to warn of suicidal thoughts and other dangerous psychiatric side effects associated with the medication.

The death of Carter Albrecht on September 3, 2007 became an example of reports of dangerous complications seen in people taking Chantix. Albrecht, a well-known Dallas musician and member of Edie Brickell & the New Bohemians, was fatally shot by a neighbor after the guitarist started banging on the windows of the neighbor’s house in the middle of the night.

Albrecht’s family claimed the strange and violent behavior was totally out of character for Albrecht and blamed his condition on Chantix, which caused severe hallucinations, vivid nightmares, and violent, unpredictable behavior.

Continue reading "Family of Texas Musician Who Died On Stop-Smoking Drug Chantix Sues Maker" »

The YAZ birth control pill, manufactured and marketed by Bayer Pharmaceuticals has been linked to a number of serious, life-threatening side effects. Yaz, which is nearly identical to Yasmin birth control, is a newer type of oral contraceptive sold by Bayer. It has been aggressively marketed without adequate warnings about potentially life-threatening side effects.

Yaz, a birth control pill linked to blood clots, heart attacks and strokes, has been the subject of a misleading marketing campaign.

Deceptive Yaz commercials prompted the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) to issue Bayer a warning letter, and the company was forced to correct its false advertising.

Bayer's Yaz campaign not only made false claims about the benefits of the drug, it also downplayed the serious side effects - including life-threatening blood clots - known to be associated with Yaz. Because of Bayer's false advertising, millions of women took Yaz without being fully aware of the drug's health risks.

Continue reading "Yasmin and Yaz Blood Clots Lawsuits" »

The hearing on the Petition to consolidate the Yaz, Yasmin and Ocella product liability litigation in the Northern District of Ohio has been set for September 24, 2009 in Richmond, Virginia.

The hearing will be held before the Judicial Panel on Multi -District Litigation. If the case is consolidated as an "MDL" case it will be sent to a single judge for case management purposes. For a detailed explanation of the workings and purpose of an MDL you may go to our earlier blog article.

Continue reading "Yaz Yasmin MDL Hearing Set for September 24, 2009" »

A Dallas attorney says he will file Tuesday to reopen 15 lawsuits involving rollover accidents as a result of allegations by a former Toyota lawyer that the company withheld or destroyed crash safety data it should have disclosed in up to 300 civil lawsuits.

Lawyer Todd Tracy says he will seek to reopen the cases on the basis of fraud and racketeering if Toyota (TM) deleted or didn't hand over files as required.

Tracy is one of several lawyers revisiting cases in light of allegations made by former Toyota lawyer Dimitrios Biller in his suit against the company. He was involved in cases involving rollovers. Lawyer Richard McCune of Redlands, Calif., filed last week to reopen two cases and sought class-action status. Attorney Tab Turner of Little Rock says he's watching to see if it makes sense to reopen some of his rollover cases.

Continue reading "Dallas Attorney Plans to Reopen 15 Toyota Lawsuits" »

The state orders the medical centers to pay $25,000 each in administrative penalties for incidents that in some cases led to death or injury.

Six Southern California hospitals have been fined $25,000 each in administrative penalties for serious violations that, in some cases, led to death or serious injury, according to state Department of Public Health officials.

Children's Hospital of Orange County was fined because its nursing staff failed to ensure appropriate drainage after a child's neurological procedure in November, an oversight that led to severe brain injury.

Dr. Maria Minon, the hospital's chief medical officer, said the hospital "very much" regrets the incident and has adjusted protocols for patient care, increased staff training and added layers of checks and balances to minimize the chance of it occurring again.

Continue reading "6 Southern California Hospitals Fined For Serious Violations" »

Yasmin/Yaz have been associated with deep vein thrombosis (blood clots), pulmonary embolism, strokes, heart attacks and, as a result of these health consequences, death.

Yasmin/Yaz lawsuits allege product liability, negligence and failure to warn claims against Bayer. There has been in recent months new medical articles have come out regarding Yasmin and Yaz.

Below is a summary of what is out there. The venous thrombotic risk of oral contraceptives, effects of oestrogen dose and progestogen type: results of the MEGA case-control study, BMJ 2009;339:b2921.

Continue reading "Yaz Lawsuits and Side Effects" »

The family of a mentally ill man who died after he was shocked twice with a Taser fired by a Fort Worth police officer filed a federal lawsuit against the city and the police officer.

In the lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Fort Worth by the parents of Michael Patrick Jacobs Jr., the family is suing for damages in excess of $75,000 from the city and Cpl. Stephanie A. Phillips, the officer who deployed the Taser. Jacobs, 24, died in police custody April 18.

Last week Tarrant County Medical Examiner Nizam Peerwani ruled Jacobs’ death a homicide, saying that his death was caused after being shocked by the Taser for 54 seconds, "overstimulating his nervous system." A Taser issues 50,000 volts with each shock that can temporarily immobilize a person.

Continue reading "Family of Man Killed by Taser Files Wrongful Death Lawsuit" »

The widow of a man who drowned during a nudist party at a Penn Hills pool in 2007 has settled a wrongful death suit brought against the pool owner for $246,000.

The family of Ronald E. Daugherty sued Olympic Swim and Health Club earlier this year in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court, saying the facility violated state law by not providing a lifeguard for a party held by the West Penn Naturist nudist club.

Mr. Daugherty, a 72-year-old retiree, drowned on April 14, 2007.

His death went unnoticed in the media, although the medical examiner's office and Penn Hills police investigated. The cause of death was ruled accidental.

Continue reading "Wrongful Death Lawsuit Filed After Man Died During Nudist Party " »

Toyota could face reopened vehicle-rollover lawsuits after allegations by a former in-house lawyer that the automaker concealed and destroyed evidence and conspired to obstruct justice in civil cases.

Dimitrios Biller, a former Toyota corporate lawyer involved in the rollover cases, contends in his lawsuit that the Japanese automaker's executives "made every effort" to quash investigations from 2004 through 2007. Biller alleges Toyota destroyed data that should have been made available to plaintiffs' lawyers in 300 product-defect lawsuits.

An attorney who lost one rollover case against Toyota and settled another filed a lawsuit Friday against Toyota alleging unfair practices, fraud and racketeering. "If Mr. Biller's allegations are true, it should fit into all three of those," says the lawyer, who is seeking class-action status for the lawsuit.

Continue reading "Whistleblower Suit Claims Toyota Concealing Evidence in Hundreds of Accidents." »

At least 50 federal and state lawsuits have been filed against Bayer due to serous side effects associated with Yasmin / Yaz.

Both the drugs are oral contraceptives that contain synthetic versions of the hormones estrogen and progestin, and are associated with side effects including stroke, heart attack, pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis, gallbladder problems, and kidney problems.

Lawsuits have been filed against Bayer, the manufacturer of Yaz and Yasmin, alleging the company failed to adequately warn patients and physicians of the increased risk of serious adverse effects from Yaz Birth Control Medication. In certain cases, women have died due to these adverse effects of Yaz Birth Control.

Continue reading "Yaz, Yasmin, and Ocella Side Effect Lawsuits Increasing" »

Asbestos is well recognized as a health hazard and is highly regulated. An estimated 1.3 million employees in the construction and general industry face significant asbestos exposure on the job. Heaviest exposures occur in the construction industry, particularly during the removal of asbestos during renovation or demolition.

Employees are also likely to be exposed during the manufacture of asbestos products (such as textiles, friction products, insulation, and other building materials) and during automotive brake and clutch repair work.

Continue reading "Fort Worth Texas Asbestos Mesothelioma Lawsuits" »

One of the more recent contraceptive pills to come out on the market and which became quite popular very quickly was the Yaz pill which is manufactured by Bayer. Yaz claimed that it could treat moderate acne and that it would treat the symptoms of premenstrual dysphoric disorder.

However, Yaz may not be as safe or as beneficial as it claims. A new British report has outlined the risks and problems associated with Yaz. While all oral contraceptives carry a risk of causing blood clots in those who take them, Yaz seems to have an increased risk of these clots. While the dosage of hormones in a birth control pill has been known to affect the occurrence of blood clots, it also appears to be that the type of hormone may increase risk as well. Nearly all oral contraceptive pills contain estrogen and progestin and the lowest doses of estrogen correspond with the lowest risk for blood clots.

Continue reading "New Study Shows Yaz Birth Control Pill Carries Greater Risk of Blood Clots" »

As a general rule, all hormonal birth control medications are associated with side effects and health risks, and the oral contraceptive pills YAZ, Yasmin, and Ocella are no exception.

Blood clots can cause serious side effects; stroke, heart attack, pulmonary embolism, and deep vein thrombosis.

A blood clot, or thrombosis, which begins in one part of the body can become an embolus, a blood clot that travels in the bloodstream. This embolus can migrate into any organ but usually migrates into the lungs, heart, or brain.

A deep vein thrombosis, or DVT, is a thrombosis which most commonly forms in the lower legs' calf veins. A pulmonary embolism, or PE is a thrombosis which forms in or has moved into the lungs. Thrombosis which develops in the heart can break off and migrate to the brain leading to strokes.

Read new British Medical Journal article on Oral Contraceptives and Thromboembolism

Continue reading "Mechanisms for Yaz, Yasmin And Ocella Blood Clots In Women" »