Personal Injury

January 11, 2010

How Many Texas Yaz Injury Lawsuits Cases Are Out There?a

Several thousand lawsuits could be filed across the United States for serious and deadly injuries allegedly caused by the contraceptive Yaz and related drugs. These lawsuits are consolidated in Southern Illinois federal court, in East St Louis.

U.S. District Chief Judge David Herndon has the task of presiding over the lawsuits against Bayer Corp. The cases allege that the birth-control pills Yaz, Yasmin, and Ocella cause women to suffer increased risks of heart attack, stroke, blood clots, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, gallbladder disease, among other life-threatening complications.

Read the full story here.

Get the Tweet here.

January 11, 2010

Soldiers Fight in the Courts Over Liability in War Zones

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A recent lawsuit brought by a group of Indiana National Guardsman spotlights a controversial legal doctrine that prevents soldiers on active duty from seeking compensation for injuries sustained in war zones.

The guardsman allege that a mission to help clean up a water treatment plant in southern Iraq left them with what they say are potentially fatal illnesses.

Read full Wall St Journal Article here.

January 10, 2010

Woman struck by Metrobus Suing Agency

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A congressional staffer who was hit and critically injured by a Metrobus near Dupont Circle in September is suing the transit agency for $30 million, claiming that Metro should have taken the driver off the road long before the crash.

In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, Amanda Mahnke claims that Metro was negligent in allowing the driver, who had a history of accidents, to continue in her job.

January 9, 2010

Palo Alto Settles Cell Phone Crash Lawsuit for $1.5 M

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Palo Alto has agreed to pay nearly $1.5 million to the victim of a 2006 vehicle crash involving a city worker who was using his cell phone while driving.

Silvio Obregon had asked the city for more than $5 million after the rear-end crash on Oregon Expressway left him with debilitating spinal injuries, according to court documents. He alleged that city worker Rubin Salas ran into him at a red light because he was reaching for his cell phone rather than watching the road.

January 8, 2010

King County WA Pays $7 M to Woman hit by Metro van

by Dr. Shezad Malik

King County WA has agreed to pay $7 million to settle a lawsuit filed by a woman severely injured when a Metro Transit supervisor’s van struck her while she was riding a Vespa scooter to work.

A portion of the settlement cost may be paid by Seattle under a separate indemnification agreement, but no information was immediately available about the terms of the agreement. Seattle was also named as a defendant after King County claimed the Capitol Hill intersection where the accident occurred was unsafe.

January 7, 2010

Judge Approves Settlement for RI Station Fire Victims

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A federal judge approved settlements earmarked for more than 300 victims of the RI 2003 Station nightclub fire and the mechanism through which payments will be made.

The action taken by U.S. District Court Judge Lagueux makes it likely now that the victims of the fourth-deadliest nightclub fire in U.S. history will get money from a $176-million settlement fund in a matter of months.

January 6, 2010

Jury Awards $9.5M in Slip-and-Fall on Ship

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A British fitness instructor who alleged he was injured when he slipped and fell on a wet floor at a cruise ship spa, was awarded $9.5 million by a Miami-Dade Circuit Court jury.

January 5, 2010

Federal Court Limits the Use of Tasers

by Dr. Shezad Malik

In a case that could set the first broad judicial standards for the use of Tasers, a federal appeals court in California has ruled that the police can be held liable for using one of the devices against an unarmed person during a traffic stop.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, based in San Francisco, said the electrically disabling device constituted excessive force when used against an unarmed man who did not pose a threat, and it refused to allow a police officer immunity for its use.

Read the pdf opinion here.

January 4, 2010

VA Woman Sues Pfizer Drug Company Over Breast Cancer

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Tina Griffin says she was never really sick a day in her life, at least not until 2002.

While on a weekend vacation with friends, the Manassas Park resident found a lump in her right breast during her shower. She had been taking Premarin and Prempro, two hormone therapy drugs that have been under scrutiny for potentially causing breast cancer.

January 3, 2010

Patient’s Fall at Mental Hospital Costs Pierce County $1.3 M

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Pierce County WA has agreed to pay $1.3 million to settle a lawsuit involving a mentally disturbed patient who escaped out of a window of a county-owned mental hospital in 2004 and hurt himself jumping onto a concrete fire-escape landing.

According to documents in the case, which was settled Dec. 23 in Pierce County Superior Court, Jeffery Fontinel had been involuntarily committed to the now-closed Puget Sound Hospital in Tacoma.

Fontinel, 27, was in a manic state, court documents say, and was being held in a “seclusion room” on the hospital’s fifth floor.