Personal Injury

Tamiflu Dangers For Children

Last Friday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a safety review of Tamiflu, manufactured by Roche, and Relenza, manufactured by Glaxo Smith Kline. Both of these drugs are designed to mitigate the effects of the flu. The review addresses the potential dangerous effect these drugs can have on children.
The FDA began reviewing Tamiflu in 2005 after it received reports of children experiencing neurological problems, including hallucinations and convulsions. Twenty five patients under the age of 21, most of them in Japan, have died
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ATV Dangers – Units Recalled

Late last week, Baja Motor Sports of Phoenix in conjunction with the Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a recall for 16,000 all terrain vehicles marketed for children as young as 12. The Baja 90, Baja Wilderness 90 and Baja Wilderness 90U four-wheel ATVs were recalled because they are missing a tire pressure gauge and a flagpole mounting bracket. Although neither the CPSC nor the company reported any injuries, they did consider the lack of the items to be a potential danger. These particular vehicles were
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Dangerous Toy Lawsuit Filed By California

This week, California’s Attorney General filed a lawsuit against 20 companies implicated in the various lead-tainted toy recalls of 2007. Among the companies named in the lawsuit are Mattel, Fisher-Price, Toys R Us, Wal-Mart, Target, Sears, K B Toys, Costco Wholesale, Eveready Battery Company, K-Mart, and Marvel Entertainment.
The lawsuit alleges that the companies violated the California Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 since they failed to notify customers of toys in the marketplace that contained high concentrations of lead. Although the
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Cell Phones- Driving Dangers

Our serious injury lawyers are frequently litigating car collision cases in which the driver causing the serious injury was using a cell phone while operating the vehicle.
Research has consistently shown that operating an automobile while talking on a cell phone, either hand-held or hands-free, increases the risk of an accident by three to four times that normally experienced by attentive drivers. The general consensus of the scientific community is that there is little, if any, difference in crash rates involving hands-free versus hand-held cell
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Serious Dangers from Toys – Will It Ever End?

Many of you have already read press reports about the recall of over 4 million children’s craft kits because they contain beads coated with a chemical that turns into a dangerous drug if ingested. We have previously blogged about problems with Chinese manufactured toys and the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
In light of the massive recalls of these extremely dangerous toys, one has to wonder why these toys reached the shelves of stores in the first place. Many consumer advocates are now contending that these
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Structured Settlements in Serious Injury Cases

When a client is so seriously injured that they may not be able to work again at the same job and will likely incur future medical costs, it may be prudent for the client to consider a structured settlement as opposed to a lump sum cash settlement if one is offered. Our attorneys have handled many serious injury cases where a structured settlement has truly been in the best interests of our client. This is particularly so in the context of cases where the client
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Life Care Plans for the Catastrophically Injured Child

One of the many difficulties faced by attorneys who work on serious injury cases arises in the context of a catastrophic injury case involving a child. Many times, due to limitations on the extent of their medical knowledge, the doctors treating the child cannot always give an accurate prognosis for the child. Thus, it can be difficult when a child has been seriously injured to accurately predict how the injuries will manifest themselves as the child grows older. In some very sad cases, of course,
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Drug Liability Issues Raised By Questionable Relationships Between Doctors and Drug Companies

In many of the medical negligence and pharmaceutical liability cases our lawyers handle, we find numerous perks being provided to prescribing physicians by drug companies.
The New England Journal of Medicine, the most prestigious medical journal in the country, has published an article concerning the relationship between doctors and drug companies. The article reports that several United States Senators have introduced a bill in the United States Congress that would require manufacturers of drugs and medical devices with annual revenues of more than $100 million
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Pharmacy Error Kills Small Child

On June 15 of this year, we wrote an article on this blog about how pharmacy errors were causing serious injuries and wrongful deaths at an alarming rate on a nationwide basis. The problem about which we wrote unfortunately was the topic of a headline article in the news today concerning the death of a 3-year old child in Gainesville, Florida. This child died from a medication overdose. Instead of receiving the prescribed dose of a medication ordered by the doctor, the pharmacy gave him
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Dangerous Products Litigation – Trouble at the CPSC

Every year our lawyers handle many cases involving unsafe products which are subject to recalls issued by the The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Tragically, many of these cases involve the deaths of young children and infants.
The CPSC is the federal agency which is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of serious injury or death from more than 15,000 types of consumer products under the agency’s jurisdiction. Deaths, injuries and property damage due to consumer product incidents cost the nation more than
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Complications Of Bad Back Cases

In serious injury cases, usually arising from tractor-trailer collisions or automobile accidents, it is not uncommon to see clients with serious back injuries which create a host of physical and mental problems for the innocent victim. If someone is rear-ended by a tractor-trailer, as an example, and suffers a significant back injury requiring a fusion or other surgical procedure, it is not uncommon at all for such a client to develop leg problems, hip problems and other associated maladies. The mental stress
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Attacking “Independent” Experts For Bias In A Personal Injury Case

As we have written before, it is becoming increasingly necessary that plaintiff’s counsel be prepared to attack the veracity and credibility of so-called “independent” experts in personal injury cases. Insurance companies and defense law firms routinely retain medical “experts” to testify that plaintiffs are not injured at all or have only suffered minor injuries. They do this by examining diagnostic tests and/or by offering testimony that the test results do not substantiate a traumatic injury. Such testimony can be extremely misleading because oftentimes a clinical
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How Insurance Companies Attack Bad Back Claims

Increasingly we are seeing a trend that started many years ago but continues today. This involves the use of so-called “independent” experts to provide testimony in personal injury cases to the effect that the claimant has suffered no injury at all or, if any injury, only a minor one. Insurance companies employ so-called “independent” medical examiners to review radiology films, many times, so that a radiologist can testify that based upon an examination of the film, there is no evidence of trauma seen, thus the
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Bicycle Accidents On The Rise

We read this past week an article in the paper about the increasing number of cyclists hit by automobiles under a variety of different circumstances typically involving gross negligence by the driver. In one reported case, the driver was on her cell phone and hit the cyclist from the rear while speeding. In another case, a drunk driver ran over a cyclist. In another reported case, a speeding motorist hit the cyclist on the shoulder of the road, killing him.
During the summer, of course,
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The Importance of Stackable Uninsured/Underinsured Insurance Coverage

We have written before about the importance of uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage. This past week we resolved a case for a client that is a classic demonstration of why it is so very important that uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage be purchased at the time one acquires liability insurance coverage for their own vehicle.
In the case we mentioned, a young lady was hit by a driver who was clearly negligent. Unfortunately, the driver of the vehicle that injured our client had only the minimum limits of liability
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Professional Service In A Personal Injury Case

For any innocent victim of a car accident where an at fault driver runs a stop sign, crosses the centerline or otherwise seriously injuries an innocent motorist, one of the essential ingredients of professional legal services for the victim is personal interaction between the victim and their attorney. In a serious case the innocent victim/client will need an attorney. Due to mass marketing, however, in many cases, clients may go to law firms where most of their interaction is not with attorneys but with lower
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What is Stackable Uninsured/Underinsured Insurance Coverage

When one purchases an automobile insurance policy from their insurance agent, the real reason that the policy is being purchased is to comply with Georgia law, which requires that all automobile drivers have minimum limits of liability insurance in the amount of $25,000.00 per person, $50,000.00 per accident. What this means is that if a driver is to drive lawfully under our laws, one must be financially responsible. If one runs a stop sign and injures another individual and breaks their leg, as an example,
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Most Dangerous Intersections For Motorcycles

Our Atlanta attorneys frequently litigate motorcycle accident cases. Our experience over many years shows that in almost all cases the motorcyclist was not at fault.
Recently, the Atlanta media reported a case in which a young man was fatally injured in the Little Five Points district when the scooter he was driving was hit from behind by a vehicle.
Allstate insurance company has conducted a study of the most dangerous intersections in Atlanta for motorcycle riders.
The data indicates that the intersection of 14th Street
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Deadliest Months For Teen Drivers Begin

As teens begin summer vacations, a disturbing warning has been issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
The latest data from U.S. Department of Transportation’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System show that the deadliest days of the year for teens ages 15-19 are in the months of May, June, July and August. During these four months, nearly twice as many teens died on the roads each day as compared to the rest of the year – for an average of nearly 16 deaths per day (15.9)
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Pedestrian Accidents

We read in the paper this week news articles about various traffic incidents involving pedestrians. In one case a drunk driver hit a pedestrian who was walking in a crosswalk at an intersection. The drunk driver apparently ran the stop sign running over and killing the pedestrian. In another case, again, a pedestrian was in a crosswalk and a driver simply failed to pay attention to the situation and ran over the pedestrian, seriously injuring the victim.
Big cities are dangerous because there are many
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