Personal Injury & Wrongful Death

Our Georgia product liability lawyers have been monitoring the Toyota recall due to uncontrolled rapid acceleration. Several weeks ago, Toyota announced the biggest recall in its history. The Japanese automaker issued a safety advisory urging Toyota owners of over 3.8 million cars and trucks to remove driver side mats from their vehicles.

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It seems that everyday when our personal injury lawyers open the paper, we read about another wrongful death in the context of a high speed police chase. Today, we read about another tragic police chase, this one in Montana. The Billings Gazette reported that the family of a Billings nurse killed by a drunken teenager who was fleeing from police has filed a wrongful death and negligence lawsuit, claiming city officers and county deputies violated their own pursuit policies.
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As Georgia injury lawyers, we are well aware that citizens can no longer rely on the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) to be the guardian of public safety when it comes to new drugs that come to market. Every year, the cash rich pharmaceutical companies, with their high powered lobbyist market and sell dangerous drugs and medical devices to the public. The Coalition Against Bayer Dangers, a consumer watchdog group, has demanded an ban of “third generation” contraceptive pills with increased rates of side effects. Studies recently published in the British Medical Journal found that pills which contained the hormones Drospirenone or Desogestrel carry twice the risk of potentially fatal injuries than the second generation medication first used in the 1970’s. The study showed that contraceptive pills such as Yaz and Yasmin, manufactured by Bayer, caused a 6-fold increase in the risk of blood clots, which cause serious injuries such as Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) and Pulmonary Embolism (PE). These pills may also cause gallbladder disease requiring surgical removal. Bayer is the world market leader in hormonal contraceptives. Sales of Yaz and Yasmin were more than one billion dollars last year.
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Nursing home neglect and nursing home negligence leading to the wrongful death or serious injury of the elderly is a growing problem. With the number of aging baby boomers steadily increasing, it is likely to continue to be a problem. Neglect takes many forms. Recently, we read that an Illinois woman involved in a lawsuit over the alleged wrongful death of an 89-year old Alzheimer patient has pleaded guilty to criminal neglect, according to the Chicago Tribune. Sara Wentworth died of hypothermia earlier this year after wandering out of the Arbor Of Itasca Nursing Home in freezing temperatures. Heidi Leon, the nursing assistant on duty at the time, failed to respond when Wentworth triggered an alarm, prosecutors said. A wrongful death lawsuit is currently pending against the facility.

Pleading standards in Federal Courts have been dramatically impacted by two recent United States Supreme Court decisions. These decisions, Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly and Ashcroft v. Iqbal, raised the standard that parties bringing a lawsuit must meet to avoid having their cases dismissed.

At issue is how specific a pleading must be under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Rule 8 requires that a complaint include “a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief.” Rule 12 allows for the dismissal of complaints that are vague or that fail to state a claim. Under Iqbal, a 5-4 decision written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, many courts are now requiring an almost impossible to meet standard demanding specific facts that aren’t often available until the discovery phase.
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As Georgia injury lawyers, we have seen a number of electrocution cases over the years. Some of the electrocutions result in serious injury and many result in death. Electrocution injury can cause many problems which include, tingling, pain, tetany, palpitations, chest pain, respiratory arrest, amnesia, seizures, altered mental state, coma, blistering and wounds. This week we had occasion to investigate the electrocution of a client who is a lineman for an electric utility company. He was seriously injured when he came into contact with a “hot” wire while climbing a pole. Fortunately, he survived; however, he has been seriously and permanently injured. In his case he not only sustained serious burns, but the incident resulted in the amputation of a leg. When electricity passes from any source and into the body it can result in damage including burns. The amount of damage is determined by the strength of the current and the length of exposure. Death from electric currents passing through the body can result from fatal effects on the heart, severe external and/or internal burns or from other organ damage.
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The product liability injury lawyers at Finch McCranie,LLP have handled many wrongful death cases stemming from dangerous products. These products take many different forms. The Associated Press reported this week that full-lenght women’s chenille robes made in Pakistan are being recalled because they are highly flammable and are now linked to nine deaths of women, most of whom were in their 70’s and 80’s. Most of the incidents occurred while the victims were cooking.
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Doctors who have committed crimes are still being paid by taxpayers for doing work for the Food and Drug Administration according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. This work ranges from conducting research for the agency or overseeing the safety of patients in clinical trials. The report takes the FDA to task for slowness in debarring ,( disqualifying ), health professionals who have been convicted of crimes.
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Recently our firm posted a blog about a tragic accident in Georgia where an 11-year old girl lost her life due to an apparent malfunctioning cruise control switch on a Ford Econoline Van. Last week, we noted with great interest that shortly after this tragic event occurred, the Ford Motor Company recalled 4.5 million vehicles over “faulty cruise control switches.” According to the recall, the faulty cruise control switches being recalled could cause a fire in the vehicle which was the stated reason for the recall. Apparently, the cruise control switch is made by Texas Instruments, Inc. and can allegedly cause hydraulic fluid to overheat, smoke and then burn. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has advised Ford drivers to look for possible warning signs of fires including “malfunctioning cruise control systems.” In the tragic case we blogged about, it appears that a cruise control switch may have been malfunctioning prior to catching fire which may have resulted in the wrongful death of a child.
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We read today about a tragic case in which an 11-year old girl was killed in an accident that may have resulted from a defective product. According to news accounts, a 1997 Ford Econoline Van lost control near the intersection of U.S. 441 and Interstate 16 while the van was being operated by the child’s grandfather. The grandfather reported to the Georgia State Patrol that the cruise control had gotten stuck and that he could not cut it off. As the driver took the exit off of 441, he struck the curb, a tire blew out and the result was that the van went across both lanes of traffic on Highway 441 causing it to veer off the roadway and crash down a steep embankment where it hit a tree and caught fire. The Georgia State Patrol is still attempting to corroborate the statements of the grandfather, but given that the fact occurred during midday and the grandfather had no prior medical conditions, it appears that this tragic incident may have occurred as a result of a defective product.
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