- Bob Carroll | April 30, 2006 7:26 PM |
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Nursing Home & Elder AbuseUnderstaffing at nursing homes appears to be the underlying reason for continued problems and abuses according to a just-released national report examining nursing home abuse and neglect. The story is from FortWayne.com:Report IDs roots of elderly neglect"The Faces of Neglect: Behind the Closed Doors of Nursing Homes," commissioned by the National Citizens Coalition for Nursing Home Reform,...
- Bob Carroll | April 30, 2006 9:44 AM |
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Medical MalpracticeIf it were possible to focus our attention on one really big issue in medical care would frivolous lawsuits be anywhere near the top of the list? Not according to Frivolous lawsuits? Pfft!, a post by Marie Carnes at Disarranging Mine. Marie, who says she has been a legal secretary for both plaintiff and defense lawyers for 30 years, has only seen one lawsuit that should never have been filed....
- Bob Carroll | April 30, 2006 6:30 AM |
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MiscellaneousLet's take a test. Are any of these recent jury verdicts the result of a frivolous lawsuit? Are any of the awards an indication of a runaway jury announcing a lottery winner?Personally, I feel each of these million dollar verdicts appears to be reasonable. If you feel differently, leave a comment. A jury in New York awarded the mother of a baby who suffered severe brain damage at birth $29.3...
- Bob Carroll | April 28, 2006 8:14 AM |
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Defective & Dangerous ProductsMy fellow InjuryBoard Blogger, Joe Saunders, and I are mentioned in the same news article in today's St. Pete Times detailing the widening concerns about serious eye problems associated with the use of ReNu with MoistureLoc contact lens solution. Our prior blog postings on this tragic situation were among the earliest in the country. Eye fungus sparking lawsuits Sixty of the 186 cases of a rare...
- Bob Carroll | April 27, 2006 6:38 AM |
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Medical MalpracticeMichael Kaplen, at the Brain Injury News and Information Blog, posts an excellent article, Patient Rights: Exposing the Myths Surrounding Medical Malpractice. I hope Michael will understand why I feel the need to publish so many excerpts below.In a new book entitled, The Medical Malpractice Myth,Tom Baker, Connecticut Mutual Professor of Law and director of the Insurance Center at the...
- Bob Carroll | April 26, 2006 7:57 AM |
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Medical MalpracticeLas Vegas, protector of patient rights? You got it. From the Las Vegas Sun comes a message for all of us in Florida. Editorial: Signing your rights away Preserve access to courts for consumers, including those who are seeing doctorsA Las Vegas Sun story on Monday recounted the ordeal of a local woman who went more than two years without an obstetrician/gynecologist after being dropped by her...
- Bob Carroll | April 25, 2006 6:37 PM |
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FDA & Prescription DrugsSo you think the Plaintiff Lawyers are the ones who put on the big show?"Merck's defense of Vioxx is beginning to look ugly - and costing the company millions in legal fees and punitive damages. But make no mistake, the company's fight-every-case strategy is still its only rational option.""Imagine the drugmaker, if you will, as a 90-pound weakling outnumbered in a bar-fight. It's to the...
- Bob Carroll | April 25, 2006 9:06 AM |
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FDA & Prescription DrugsA GAO report had harsh and unsettling words to say about the FDA. A year after announcing reforms, the FDA still doesn't have a reliable system to keep track of developing problems, a federal report says.The Government Accountability Office found that a new Drug Safety Oversight Board and other FDA initiatives were "unlikely to address all the gaps" in the agency's system for monitoring the...
- Bob Carroll | April 25, 2006 8:48 AM |
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Workplace DiscriminationOver at the HR Cafe there is an open letter to the human resources folks who determine who is an exempt versus a non-exempt employee in terms of entitlement to overtime wages.Dear HR Executive:It's been nearly two years since the DOL released broad changes in the overtime regulations, and you'd think people would be confident they're in compliance. But, as the most recent B21 survey of HR execs...
- Bob Carroll | April 25, 2006 4:32 AM |
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Automobile AccidentsLess than a week ago I was having a conversation with a relative who thought it would be economical and good for the country for her to buy a very small electric car, about the size and weight of a golf cart, to use for all of her family's local driving. She felt that 95% of her time on the road was spent no more than 5 miles from home.It would be a wonderful idea if virtually all of the other...
- Bob Carroll | April 23, 2006 5:42 PM |
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MiscellaneousWe all know hospital care can be expensive. Kemp Roberts has seen just how expensive after his planned five day hospitalization was extended to almost five months as a result of improper care. So what is any fair-minded health care facility to do when something like this happens? The answer, apparently, is to sue the patient/victim who almost died five times while running up his huge bill.The...
- Bob Carroll | April 22, 2006 5:21 AM |
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MiscellaneousFairfax, Virginia attorney Ben Glass, who is blogging on the InjuryBoard.com network, posts a story about the over-zealous defense attorneys who may not have heard of free speech.Doctors' Lawyers Want Web Site Shut Down I could not have made this story up!. My friend, New York Medical Malpractice Attorney Gerry Oginski has a terrific consumer oriented medical malpractice website. He, like I,...
- Bob Carroll | April 21, 2006 3:55 PM |
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Medical MalpracticeAn Editorial in USA Today is not apt to make you feel good about your next visit to the hospital. Surgical screw-ups are a small part of a much larger patient-safety problem in hospitals.Incidents such as bedsores, post-operative infections and failure to diagnose and treat conditions that develop in the hospital continued to plague American hospitals, according to a new study of Medicare...
- Bob Carroll | April 21, 2006 6:45 AM |
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Automobile AccidentsA new study by the government has confirmed what all of us have expected for some time. Study: Distraction Behind Most Car Crashes Cell phone use while driving a car is a major cause of accidents. Ditto any other activities that take a driver's attention from the roadway ahead.My clients have been injured by multitasking drivers in over half of my automobile collision cases for the last...
- Bob Carroll | April 20, 2006 7:29 AM |
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MiscellaneousDEA AGENT SHOOTS OWN FOOT - Go straight to the video & watch it to the end.
- Bob Carroll | April 20, 2006 7:04 AM |
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Medical MalpracticeI think I would like Dr. Fred Ernst. He gave a talk in Alabama recently that should have been on national television. The Birmingham News article, excerpted below, hits the main point - patients have to ask questions and, then, even more questions. Maybe a doctor can comment on this proactive approach to health care.Patients urged to ask doctors questions In an era of medical errors, people...
- Bob Carroll | April 20, 2006 6:35 AM |
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Automobile AccidentsRemember the word association games where you say a word and I have to say the first word that pops into my head. After representing injured persons for 37 years there is only one association that tragically jumps into my mind whenever I hear that someone was ejected from an automobile in an accident - death or very serious injury. And, sadly, the ejection is almost always because the person...
- Bob Carroll | April 19, 2006 4:10 PM |
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Defective & Dangerous ProductsFlorida may be leading the nation in the number of people complaining of experiencing eye problems as a result of using ReNu with MoistureLoc contact lens solution. That is the word from the Miami Herald today. Attorneys throughout the state are receiving calls from worried contact lens wearers who suspect that they may have the fungal infection that has been associated with the Bausch & Lomb...
- Bob Carroll | April 19, 2006 4:36 AM |
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FDA & Prescription DrugsEvelyn Pringle is a columnist for Independent Media TV and an investigative journalist focused on exposing corruption in government. She has just posted a well-researched article on Accutane and its trail of misery, particularly for pregnant women. According to the March of Dimes Foundation, birth defects known to be associated with Accutane include: hydrocephaly (enlargement of the...
- Bob Carroll | April 18, 2006 6:10 PM |
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MiscellaneousA doctor who supports a single-payer system for health care in America - Dr. Benjamin Brewer - has posted his manifesto on the internet. I have to admire his courage, but he is about to be Hillaried. A Doctor's RX for our broken health care system The solution that would really put health-care dollars, and providers, to their best use would be a single-payer system -- namely, government-funded...
- Bob Carroll | April 18, 2006 6:39 AM |
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Property Owner's Liability (Slip & Fall)The hurricane season is not yet upon us, but a hurricane of a different sort has injured a young boy at Cypress Gardens. The parents of a 13-old boy who fell from a roller coaster ride at Cypress Gardens Adventure Park are suing the amusement theme park for negligence. On Feb. 25, 2006, Martin Llamas fell off the Triple Hurricane -- a $2 million wooden roller coaster in operation since...
- Bob Carroll | April 18, 2006 6:18 AM |
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Nursing Home & Elder AbuseEvery week I learn of an injury inflicted upon an elderly resident of a nursing home or assisted living facility in the State of Florida. Abuse and negligence often are the cause. When that is the case there is a need for our firm and other personal injury attorneys to step up and provide assistance. The effort frequently involves the filing of a claim for compensation. There are other...
- Bob Carroll | April 17, 2006 5:57 AM |
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FDA & Prescription DrugsWe now live in a global economy. What happens in Asia can impact us in America. Bausch & Lomb apparently thought that what happens in Asia stays in Asia. According to the International Herald Tribune "clusters of Fusarium keratitis, the eye infection, began surfacing in Asia as far back as November" in connection with the use of Bausch's ReNu With MoistureLoc solution. Why did Bausch wait...
- Bob Carroll | April 14, 2006 11:38 PM |
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FDA & Prescription DrugsThe FDA is confusing the nation's doctors with its drug advisories. As a result, the doctors are turning to private companies who may be more interested in earning a buck than educating the doctors. Lost in this mess is the patient who takes the drugs prescribed by the confused doctors being helped by the private shills. Does this make you feel safe taking that new prescription to the...
- Bob Carroll | April 12, 2006 7:56 AM |
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Medical MalpracticeFoolish me - I thought the so-called "tort reform" effort in the Florida Legislature to restrict expert witnesses in medical malpractice cases to Florida doctors (or the chosen few who are certified as acceptable witnesses) was intended to dry-up the pool of experts willing to testify on behalf of injured patients. After all, if all potential medical experts had to come from the State of...
- Bob Carroll | April 12, 2006 6:06 AM |
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MiscellaneousOne of the best things about blogging on InjuryBoard.com is working with the terrific attorneys who are part of the InjuryBoard network of civil trial lawyers. This week I worked with my fellow InjuryBoard.com attorney-blogger, Joe Saunders, to settle two injury claims that arose out of the same accident. Joe and I each represented a passenger in a very serious automobile accident which left...
- Bob Carroll | April 11, 2006 7:34 PM |
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FDA & Prescription DrugsWhen eye infections may be caused by a contact lens solution the manufacturer of the solution has to blink. That is just what Bausch & Lomb did when the real possibility of a link between its contact lens solution, ReNu, and a serious eye infection was raised. The manufacturer has stopped the sale of its product while the investigation by the FDA continues. Vision loss can be the end result...
- Bob Carroll | April 11, 2006 6:46 AM |
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MiscellaneousYesterday something very unusual happened. An insurance company paid an amount in excess of its limits in a voluntary settlement before a lawsuit was filed. In most of my claims on behalf of injured victims the upper limit of a settlement is the amount of the insurance coverage available. This is unfortunate because my clients often have damages which would justify a jury verdict above the...
- Bob Carroll | April 11, 2006 6:18 AM |
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MiscellaneousBedbugs and punitive damages make, as they say, strange bedfellows. However, over at The Benjo Blog there is an extensive quotation from a federal circuit court opinion in a bedbug case that educates us all on the rationale for punitive damages. The excerpt below is just a teaser - the full quotation is worth a side trip. Posner on Punitive DamagesWe must consider why punitive damages are...
- Bob Carroll | April 10, 2006 8:42 AM |
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Workplace InjuriesVisitors to the theme parks of Florida may not appreciate the pain and suffering going on under those character costumes. The word from China is that being Mickey or Pluto is not a walk in the park. In Florida, the Workers' Compensation law requires that the employer provide a safe workplace. If costumed characters are regularly experiencing physical problems, which may be the case, I would...
- Bob Carroll | April 09, 2006 7:04 AM |
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Medical MalpracticeBad things can happen in dentist's chairs. Sometimes, when they are really bad, they end up in a dental malpractice lawsuit.Excerpts from the Connecticut Post article:Dentist ordered to pay $130,000 BRIDGEPORT -- A Superior Court jury Thursday ordered a Westport dentist to pay more that $130,000 to a West Haven woman who brought a malpractice claim against him.The six-member jury deliberated...
- Bob Carroll | April 09, 2006 6:12 AM |
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MiscellaneousThe mishandling of human bodies and cremated ashes continues to occur in the funeral industry. Surviving relatives, who are emotionally vulnerable after a loved one has passed away, are understandably not taking it anymore. My personal experience in Florida has involved the mix-up of two unrelated bodies, lost cremains, failure to refrigerate remains, unconscionable delay in cremation and...
- Bob Carroll | April 07, 2006 8:13 AM |
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Defective & Dangerous ProductsBefore the Taser was invented, law enforcement officers were able to subdue unarmed persons with various well-recognized techniques, some of which I learned during my training as an FBI Agent in the mid 1960's. These techniques almost always accomplished their purpose without causing any serious injury. Enter the Taser. With the new, supposedly non-lethal, weapon now being used against both...
- Bob Carroll | April 06, 2006 5:32 PM |
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MiscellaneousThe Unnamed Associate has a post at Legal Underground that caught my eye. She starts off saying "I'm going to complain about people complaining about lawyers." To which I respond, "You go, girl!"...there's a giant billboard depicting a man in a suit with wads of cash stuffed into his mouth. The caption reads, "Please don't feed the trial lawyers," and the billboard is sponsored by the...
- Bob Carroll | April 06, 2006 6:24 AM |
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FDA & Prescription DrugsThe Vioxx litigation continues to produce verdicts. Some strongly favor the victims of this withdrawn drug. Others in favor of the manufacturer. My observation would be that the manufacturer cannot win enough of the cases to make it worthwhile to try all or even many of the cases. A running account of all trials so far has been created by AP and is posted at Boston.com.The most recent...
- Bob Carroll | April 05, 2006 7:22 AM |
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MiscellaneousWhile doing some recreational web surfing I came across the phrase, Voyage of Discovery, which I had not read for many years. It was probably in a high school history class when I last considered its meaning.I googled the phrase and noted that Lewis & Clark were the predominant hits. I would have thought some of the early European voyages to the New World would have topped the list. From the...
- Bob Carroll | April 04, 2006 6:30 AM |
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MiscellaneousConservatism is now being defined as a crusade to reform tort litigation. Being conservative used to mean protecting the right of the wrongfully injured to redress in our civil courts, preserving trial by a jury of fellow citizens, the development of the common law on a case by case basis over 100's of years and respect for the work of both plaintiff and defense attorneys. The new conservatism...
- Bob Carroll | April 02, 2006 7:30 AM |
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Medical MalpracticeThe attorney for the injured patient was trying to settle the medical malpractice case for the amount of the doctor's insurance, $200,000. The insurance company drew the line at $50,000. (And, only employed one defense attorney to defend two physicians with conflicting stories to tell.) Now, the insurance company will have to pay $7.9 Million. Could this explain the high cost of medical...
- Bob Carroll | April 01, 2006 6:52 AM |
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MiscellaneousHow can an organization call itself FreedomWorks Florida and continuously lobby for the interests of large corporations? This week FreedomWorks Florida is sounding the trumpet because it has succeeded in its effort to abolish the legal doctrine of joint and several liability in the Florida civil justice system. By its own statements Freedom Works aligns itself with the "deep pockets" of the...
- Bob Carroll | April 01, 2006 6:33 AM |
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Wrongful DeathAs a result of some recent litigation our health clubs, gyms and other exercise facilities may be safer. Among the treadmills and weights there may be a defibrillator. Why a defibrillator? Because it can save a life. Because gyms now know it should be part of their safety equipment and service.Overlawyered feels gyms do not need defibrillators:Gym didn't have defibrillator...so a Florida...