Dr Shezad Malik Law Firm has offices based in Fort Worth and Dallas and represents people who have suffered catastrophic and serious personal injuries including wrongful death, caused by the negligence or recklessness of others. We specialize in Personal Injury trial litigation and focus our energy and efforts on those we represent.

Articles Posted in Personal Injury

An electrician from Grant City, injured when he fell through a hole in a fueling pier at the St. George Ferry Terminal almost six years ago, has settled his civil lawsuit for $1 million.

Russell Menicucci suffered back and neck injuries in the Dec. 2, 2003, accident, said his lawyer, Andrew John Calcagno. Those injuries have prevented him from returning to work, the attorney said.

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An Indiana jury has awarded $5 million to a Mooresville woman still experiencing ill effects from a misdiagnosis nearly a decade ago at Methodist Hospital.

Roxxanna Smith, then 18, arrived at the emergency room in July 2000 with a ruptured diaphragm after playing softball. But through a series of miscommunications about what was shown by X-rays, her lawyers said, doctors instead diagnosed a urinary tract infection and muscle strain — and sent Smith home.

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The Environmental Protection Agency declared its first-ever “public health emergency,” saying the federal government will funnel $6 million to provide medical care for people sickened by asbestos from a mine in northwest Montana.

The declaration applies to the towns of Libby and Troy, where for decades workers dug for vermiculite, a mineral used in insulation. They were unknowingly poisoning themselves: The vermiculite was contaminated with a toxic form of asbestos, which workers carried home on their clothes.

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The wrongful death civil trial over a 2005 fatal brawl in a McDonald’s parking lot hit a stumbling block when the judge dismissed the jury picked to hear the case.

Attorneys agreed on a six-member jury, but since then lawyers on the plaintiff’s side uncovered facts about three of the jurors, including old arrests the jurors did not list on their questionnaires.

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While investigators scour the Atlantic for clues to the cause of the crash of Air France Flight 447, lawyers in Brazil, France and the U.S. are taking steps to determine the proper forum for any lawsuits.

Sophie Bottai, whose client was the first granted victim status in a French criminal probe, said the nation’s courts should review any claims as many passengers were French as were the airline and the airplane, an Airbus SAS A330-200.

“The plane is French, the carrier is French,” said Bottai, representing a 38-year-old Frenchman’s family, who she said wishes to remain anonymous. “The jurisdiction is French.”
Debate over jurisdiction issues may get even more heated with families making the ultimate decision based on where they can receive the most compensation. In addition to where the claims are filed, the amount of any award depends on the victim’s age, family status and work situation, according to lawyers specializing in aviation disasters.

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The acne remedy Accutane, a synthetic form of vitamin A used to treat serious forms of acne that can cause scarring, has been the subject of extensive litigation because of a long list of side effects including inflammatory bowel disease, suicide, and birth defects.

The U.S. manufacturer of Accutane, Hoffman La Roche, is part of the international conglomerate known as “The La Roche Group,” with affiliates in 150 countries. “The La Roche Group” is estimated to be the seventh largest pharmaceutical company in the world. Accutane is one of Hoffman La Roche’s top sellers with estimated annual sales of $1.2 billion. Accutane is also one of the 3 drugs on the market with the most reports of adverse side effects, and this has led to extensive litigation. Lawsuits have been brought against Hoffman La Roche for alleged adverse reactions caused by Accutane including gastrointestinal disorders, suicides, and birth defects.

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The family of a retired Navy sailor who died of cancer triggered by asbestos fibers he inhaled on the job decades ago has won $1.2 million in its lawsuit against a ship-parts manufacturer.

Gerald Gray died in April after suffering from mesothelioma. His death, at age 75, came five weeks before the trial was to begin against John Crane Inc., an Illinois maker of gaskets and other parts used on ships Gray repaired.

The Newport News Circuit Court jury ruled against five manufacturers for a total of $4 million, assigning a percentage of blame to each. John Crane fought the case, and was apportioned 30 percent, or $1.2 million.

Federal drug regulators warned consumers to stop using Zicam, a popular homeopathic cold remedy, because it could damage or destroy their sense of smell.

The Food and Drug Administration received 130 reports from consumers and doctors of people losing their sense of smell after using one of the Zicam nasal products, which include Zicam Cold Remedy and Zicam Cold Remedy Swabs. The reports date to 1999, when Matrixx Initiatives of Scottsdale, Ariz., first introduced the products.

In 2006, Matrixx paid $12 million to settle 340 lawsuits from Zicam users who claimed that the product destroyed their sense of smell, a condition known as anosmia. Hundreds more such suits have since been filed.

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A Darlington County SC jury returned a verdict of $9 million after finding Progress Energy responsible in the wrongful death of 21-year-old Allen Toney of Hartsville.

According to a press release, the jury awarded Mary Washington, the victim’s mother, $3.5 million in actual damages and $5.5 million in punitive damages. Toney died as the result of being electrocuted by a downed power line.

According to testimony, on May 2, 2003, a storm in the Hartsville area caused a utility pole, owned and maintained by Progress Energy, to fail. The pole, fell at approximately 6:30 p.m., leaving a live power line carrying 13200 volts hanging chest high across the driveway. According to witnesses, at around 9:20 p.m. Toney arrived at the home where he came into contact with the energized power line.

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The Eleventh Circuit ruled on Wednesday on an interesting and provocative case. In an unpublished opinion, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed a trial court’s grant of summary judgment in a case in which the mother of a 17 year-old who committed suicide in 2000 sued Hoffman-La Roche, Inc. The plaintiff alleged that Accutane, an acne drug made by Hoffman-LaRoche caused the suicide. Click here for reports from BNET Pharma and the Drug and Device Blog, respectively.

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