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.
We blogged on Thursday about the initial lawsuits getting filed over the huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Those suits, however, are likely to turn out to represent just the tip of the iceberg in regard to the legal trouble likely facing a host of defendants, including BP, Transocean Offshore Deepwater Drilling, and others.
The results of a new study found that the side effects of Accutane, an acne drug that is also known as generic isotretinoin, increases the risk of developing inflammatory bowel problems.
The study, conducted by the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, was published March 30 in the American Journal of Gastroenterology. Researchers say they found that the use of Accutane increased the risk of developing ulcerative colitis by a factor of four.
Researchers looked at data from 87 health insurance plans and found nearly 8,200 people who had been diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), that includes ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.
Researchers found that those taking Accutane were four times more likely to develop ulcerative colitis, and they also determined that the chance of developing the bowel disorder increased in relation to the Accutane dosage, strengthening the evidence of a causal relationship.
As oil edged toward the Louisiana coast, fears continued to grow that the leak from the seabed oil well could spiral out of control. One official at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said the oil flow could grow from the current estimate of 5,000 barrels a day to “an order of magnitude higher than that.”
BP officials said they did everything possible, and a review of the response suggests it may be too simplistic to place all the blame on the oil company. The federal government also had opportunities to move more quickly, but did not do so while it waited for a resolution to the spreading spill from BP, which was leasing the drilling rig that exploded in flames on April 20 and sank two days later. Eleven workers are missing and presumed dead.
BP PLC said Friday that it would honor all “legitimate claims” for damages stemming from the Louisiana oil spill, as the company’s stock continued to fall amid investors’ concerns about potential litigation and a total clean-up bill that could run well into the billions of dollars.
The disaster was set in motion when the Deepwater Horizon, which had been leased by BP to drill a well in the Gulf of Mexico, caught fire and sank, killing 11 crew members. BP’s efforts to stop the flow of oil from the well have failed.
The company is spending about $6 million a day on the clean-up, but those costs are expected to escalate with the oil making landfall. Analyst estimates of BP’s total costs stemming from the disaster range from around $2.5 billion to $8 billion. BP says it is self-insured.
British Petroleum downplayed the possibility of a catastrophic accident at an offshore rig that exploded, causing the worst U.S. oil spill in decades along the Gulf Coast and endangering shoreline habitat.
In its 2009 exploration plan and environmental impact analysis for the well, BP suggested it was unlikely, or virtually impossible, for an accident to occur that would lead to a giant crude oil spill and serious damage to beaches, fish and mammals.
At least 1.6 million gallons of oil have spilled so far since the April 20 explosion that killed 11 workers, according to Coast Guard estimates.
Bayer recently released its Annual Report for 2009. The report is 274 pages long. Here are the highlights:
* By Bayer’s count, as of February 15, 2010, about 1,100 lawsuits were filed against it by women injured by Yaz or Yasmin.
* Yaz and Yasmin are Bayer’s best-selling pharmaceutical products for at least the second year in a row.
It’s looking much more likely that the oil spill from a BP well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico will have political ramifications in the U.S.
The situation in the Gulf deteriorated again as the U.S. Coastguard revealed that oil is gushing from the damaged well five times faster than previously thought. A change in prevailing winds means the growing oil slick is likely to reach land on Friday, despite BP’s massive efforts to contain it.
The plaintiff’ attorneys are starting to circle the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Attorneys have filed a class action on Thursday over damages caused by the drilling rig that exploded on April 20.
The suit, Cooper v. BP plc, was filed in the Eastern District of Louisiana on behalf of Louisiana shrimpers, fisherman and commercial boaters who claim the oil spill is hurting their livelihood.
The White House escalated its response Thursday to the growing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and a local official said the massive slick is projected to reach the Louisiana coast late Thursday.
The oil “is already in state waters” and will reach the Pass-a-Loutre Wildlife Management Area, near the southernmost tip of the state later Thursday, Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser said after a meeting with council members and a congressman to discuss the emergency.
The prospects for slowing the spread of the oil appear dim, and the slick threatens to cause significant environmental damage and disruption to business along the Gulf Coast.
Two new federal lawsuits are filed over the oil spill that is currently spewing crude into the Gulf of Mexico after an explosion on one of BP PLC’s offshore rigs. Both lawsuits were filed in the Eastern District of Louisiana.
The first was filed on behalf of two Louisiana commercial shrimpers Acy J. Cooper and Ronnie Louis Anderson, who allege that the spill “is causing dangerous environmental contamination of the Gulf of Mexico and its shorelines, threatening Louisiana’s sensitive wetlands and estuarine areas” and it “will continue to cause loss of revenue to persons (and businesses) who are being prevented from using the Gulf of Mexico and Louisiana’s Coastal Zone for diverse activities, including work and to earn a living.”
Read the full WSJ story here.
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