Finch McCranie, LLP

New Product Safety Law

Last month, consumer, public interest and scientific groups applauded President Bush for signing product safety reform legislation into law that will overhaul the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).
The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008, was passed overwhelmingly by Congress. The new law will make consumer products safer by requiring that toys and infant products be tested before they are sold, and by banning lead and other harmful chemicals in toys, by creating a comprehensive publicly accessible consumer complaint database, give the CPSC the
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FDA Discloses Drugs Under Investigation

Yesterday, the Food and Drug Administration began posting a list of prescription drugs under investigation for potential safety problems.The first list is a bare-bones compilation naming 20 medications and the potential issue for each. It provides no indication of how widespread or serious the problems might be, leading some consumer advocates to question its usefulness, and prompting industry worries that skittish patients might stop taking a useful medication if they see it listed.
Food and Drug Administration officials said they are trying to walk a
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Georgia Hospitals Perform Poorly

A new website, The Hospital Compare Web, run by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, shows 80 U.S. hospitals listed as top performers in the mortality rates for patients admitted with heart attack, heart failure or pneumonia. No Georgia hospitals were among the best performers. Nine Georgia hospitals rated worse than national norms on death rates for pneumonia or heart failure. The number of poorly performing hospitals in Georgia was higher than any state other than California.
Mortality rates for hospitals across the
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Drugmaker/Doctor Conflict of Interest

Last week, Stanford University announced that it will severely restrict industry financing of doctors’ continuing education at its medical school. The school’s new policy stems from concern about the influence drug companies may have on medical education.
Most doctors in the United States must take annual refresher courses that drug makers have long paid for. While the industry says its money is intended solely to keep doctors up to date, critics charge that companies agree to support only classes that promote their products.
Stanford will
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Byetta deaths

Four more patients have died of pancreatitis after taking the diabetes prescription medication Byetta. The deaths were announced by Eli Lilly & Co. and Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. the companies manufacturing the drug. Several weeks ago, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced two two additional deaths.
While no definite relationship between Byetta and the additional deaths has been proved, according to the companies, they may have to add tougher warnings to prescribing instructions.
Byetta, which has been available in the U.S. since June 2005, is
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Children Cough Medicines Subject To Review

The Food and Drug Administration has announced plans to revise standards for over-the-counter cough and cold medications for children. The FDA said it will change the criteria that have allowed the products to remain on drugstore shelves . This could result in removal of the products from the market.
The FDA action is in response to increasing concerns that the remedies are ineffective and could be unsafe. Specifically, the action is in response to a petition filed in March 2007 by a group of pediatricians
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Spanair JK5022: Abogados especializados en casos de Litigacion Internacional de choques aereosdente aereo

Para representar a las familias de las personas que perdieron la vida en el accidente aereo Spanair JK5022, nuestro bufete juridico esta trabajando con abogados especializados en casos de Litigacion Internacional de choques aereos, ya estan invesigando esta tragedia. Si perdimos familiars en este accidente, estos serian los abogados elegidos para representar a nuestras familias.
Para una consulta gratis, favor de enviar su correo electronico precionando aqui (haga clic aqui).
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Spanair Flight JK5022: To assist the families of persons who died in the airplane

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Preventable Medical Errors Cost $1.47 Billion

In the July 28 issue of Health Services Research, the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) reported that a recently completed study indicates that employers pay out $1.47 billion each year to cover costs for surgical patients incurred from preventable medical errors. The report analyzed data from a nationwide sample of more than 161,00 adult patients who underwent surgery in 2001 and 2002 and were insured by plans provided through their places of employment.
The study focused on 14 preventable errors which included
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Another High Speed Police Chase Case In Clayton County, Georgia:

It was reported by the news media on Friday, August 15, 2008 that an innocent motorist was killed on 8/14 when inadvertently caught up in a high speed police chase in Clayton County, Georgia. While the media reports are sketchy, it appears that the fleeing suspect was speeding and driving in an erratic manner. The police began to chase the driver and during the chase, the suspect struck an innocent motorist who was on a motorcycle. As a result, the motorcyclist was killed.
We do
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Loss Of Chance of Survival Recoveries

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court affirmed a $328,135 jury award to a widow and her son based on her husband’s lost chance of recovery resulting from a doctor’s negligence in not treating his stomach cancer. This ruling based upon the theory of “loss of chance” damages is being applauded by plaintiffs’lawyers.
The court held that the family could recover even though the victim had less than a 50-percent chance of survival when he first sought treatment. The “loss of chance” doctrine eases the burden for
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Drunk Driving Deaths Among Females Shows Alarming Increase

A Douglas County, Georgia woman has been charged with criminal offenses involving drunk driving after a collision early last Monday morning resulted in two deaths of innocent motorists. The Atlanta press reported that Natasha Searcy, 22, was driving drunk in her 1998 Pontiac when she crossed the center line, striking a car driven by 25-year-old Ashley Ingalsbe.
Searcy has been charged with vehicular homicide in the first and second degrees, driving under the influence, not having insurance and failure to maintain lane, and was
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Danger Warning For Weight Loss Drugs

Our Georgia attorneys frequently receive calls about dangerous drugs which seem to be routinely marketed to unsuspecting consumers and health care professionals. Recently, weight-loss drugs made by mega-manufacturers GlaxoSmithKline Plc and Roche Holding AG were linked to at least 32 reports of serious liver injury from 1999 to October 2008.
The Food and Drug Administration has posted a notice on its web site advising consumers taking Glaxo’s over-the-counter drug Alli or Roche’s prescription Xenical to consult a doctor if they experience weakness, fever, jaundice
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Bassinet Warnings Renewed After Georgia Death

Last September a 2 month old child in Demorest, Georgia, died after being suffocated when she became trapped in a pocket of fabric not securely fastened to her bassinet. In January of this year, a 6 month old child in Fort Worth, Texas, died when a fabric flap on her basinett was undone and she became trapped between exposed bars in the bassinet.
Both children died after getting trapped in previously recalled bassinets manufactured by Simplicity. These deaths follow two prior deaths in 2008 under
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Another Unfair Mandatory Arbitration Clause Bites The Dust

Another bank with a large presence in Georgia has bowed to pressure from consumers and consumer advocacy groups and abandoned the unfair practice of mandatory arbitration. Bank of America Corp. announced it will stop requiring that disputes with its credit card holders and banking and lending customers be settled by binding arbitration.
As we have written before, many consumers are unaware that card agreements typically include a clause that waives a card holder’s right to sue. Lenders instead use arbitration to go after delinquent accounts
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Health Insurer MIsleading Practices Exposed

A health insurer which sells policies in Georgia and other states has been subjected to a major fine and other sanctions by the state of New York, after New York officials accused it of leaving patients with huge hospital bills.
The American Medical and Life Insurance Co., advertising through an intermediary called Cinergy, markets health insurance as a lower cost option for the uninsured and underinsured. It was pitched as costing just $5 a day, or the cost of a hamburger or pack of cigarettes.
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Police Pursuits and Death to the Innocent: The Police Don’t Get It

We read this week the tragic news of eight (8) deaths in a police chase in California. According to news accounts, the police were trying to stop a Dodge Neon over alleged traffic infractions when the pursuit began. Is it worth risking the death penalty to innocent members of the motoring public to catch a traffic violator? There is nothing in the news accounts indicating that this violator was known to the police to be violent. Nonetheless, even though police chases present much greater
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Jury Awards Woman $4 Million For Doctor’s Negligence In Emergency Room

Georgia injury lawyers representing victims of medical malpractice are still disheartened about the so-called “tort reform” that the Georgia Legislature has enacted in the last two or three years. Most Georgia citizens have no idea that they have given virtual immunity to Georgia emergency room physicians. If you are a patient in a Georgia hospital emergency room and you are seriously injured or meet your death as a result of an emergency room doctor’s negligence or medical malpractice, you cannot
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FDA Announces Reforms To Protect Consumers

Many Georgians were affected by the recent salmonella outbreak related to peanut butter. Some were sickened by the defective product and others lost jobs in the peanut processing plant that became ground zero for the recall. Now, the Food and Drug Administration has announced it is moving towards stronger, more aggressive and much faster responses to enforcing the laws and regulations that govern the safety of drugs, medical devices and much of the U.S. food supply,
New FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg has been in office
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Second Georgia Motorcycle Accident In A Week Seriously Injures Biker

For the second time this week a man has been seriously injured in a Georgia motorcycle accident. A Tennessee man who is a member of the Steelehorseman motorcycle club in Nashville was on his way to the National Biker Roundup at the Atlanta Motor Speedway when the accident occurred on I-7 S at State Route 92 in Atlanta. He was airlifted to Grady Hospital where he is being treated for his injuries. The accident is under investigation. Yesterday’s motorcycle accident resulted in the
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Police Chases and Russian Roulette: Death Penalty for the Innocent

We read today about a deadly police chase which occurred over the weekend which is both tragic but also unbelievable. In this particular case, the police were chasing a 20-year old male in Pennsylvania allegedly for driving a vehicle which was reported as stolen. During the high speed pursuit which ensued, the police chased this individual through, according to news accounts, “39 stop signs and/or stop lights.” In other words, during this pursuit, the police witnessed this individual as a result of the high speed
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