Dallas Fort Worth Injury Lawyer Blog

April 18, 2010

Officer, Bar, Pay $2.255 M to Settle Suit in Crash That Killed 4

A St Louis police officer and the bar that served her alcohol have agreed to pay a total of $2.255 million — the limit of their insurance policies — to compensate the families of four young people killed and one man injured in a traffic crash in Des Peres last year.

A wrongful-death lawsuit, brought by the survivor and the dead victims’ families, claimed that Officer Christine L. Miller, who was off duty, drank “a high quantity” of alcohol that night at O’Leary’s Restaurant & Bar, and then drove her car into oncoming traffic.

Read the full story here.

April 17, 2010

Toyota Recalls 600,000 Sienna Minivans

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Toyota is recalling 600,000 Sienna minivans from the 1998 to 2010 model years because the cable that holds tight the spare tire can rust and break, allowing the tire to fall off the minivan and onto the road.

Toyota says that it has no knowledge of injuries or accidents because of the defect. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it has received six complaints of spare tires falling off of Siennas.The recall is for Siennas in 20 “cold-climate” states.

While the company has not yet decided on a fix, officials say they will be sending letters out to owners, letting them know that dealers will inspect the cable for them. If you have questions, you can call Toyota at (800) 331-4331.

April 17, 2010

Jury Awards $3M Damages in Mesothelioma Lawsuit

by Dr. Shezad Malik

An Illinois maker of asbestos-laden shipboard parts was hit with a $2.99 million verdict brought by the spouse of a former Navy sailor who died a year ago of asbestos-related cancer.

After a 12-day trial in Newport News Circuit Court, a seven-member jury sided with the wife of Robert Hardick, a former Navy petty officer who was exposed to asbestos on Navy ships between the 1950s and the 1970s.

Read full story here.

April 17, 2010

Yaz, Yasmin, Ocella Concerns Bring Lawsuits But Few Answers

by Dr. Shezad Malik

When the oral contraceptives Yasmin and Yaz came on the market in 2001 and 2006, respectively, they were thought to be safer than other birth control pills because they contained a different kind of synthetic progestin.

But in the lawsuits against the pills’ maker, Bayer HealthCare, plaintiff attorneys claim that the progestin contained in the pills, drospirenone, is the cause of health problems, including deep vein thrombosis (blood clots in the deep veins), strokes, heart attacks and gallbladder disease.

Read the full story here at the LA Times.

April 16, 2010

U.S. Judge Sets Toyota Suits

by Dr. Shezad Malik

The federal judge handling the lawsuits against Toyota Motor Corp over cars that raced out of control has set the first court hearing on the combined litigation for next month.

Lawyers for Toyota will face off May 13 before U.S. District Judge James Selna in Santa Ana, California, against attorneys representing over 100 lawsuits consisting of consumer fraud class actions and personal injury claims against the Japanese automaker.

Read the full story here.

April 15, 2010

Bayer Told to Revise Yaz, Yasmin Marketing Materials

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Federal regulators are requiring Bayer Healthcare to revise its marketing materials for Yaz and Yasmin to reflect new safety information that was recently added to the drugs’ labels. In a letter to Bayer dated April 7, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) said revisions must include “prominent disclosure of the important new safety information.”
Bayer announced that it was updating the “Warning” sections of the Yaz and Yasmin labels to include additional information about the risk of blood clots associated with the birth control pills. The new information is based on two large, multiyear studies of more than 120,000 women taking contraceptives in the U.S. and the U.K., Bayer said.

Read the full story here.

April 15, 2010

Tests Detect Barnett Shale Emissions Toxins in Dish Residents

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Tests on blood and urine samples taken from residents by state health officials in January have found the same toxic compounds in people’s bodies that have been detected in the air and water here.

The results showed that exposure is occurring, according to Louisiana chemist Wilma Subra.

“Clearly, it’s connecting the dots – which we didn’t want to happen,” Subra said.

Read full story here.

April 14, 2010

Toyota Halts Lexus SUV Sales After Safety Warning

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Toyota Motor Corp has suspended sales of a new Lexus SUV in the U.S. market to investigate the risk for rollover accidents in the latest blow to the reputation of the world’s largest automaker.

Toyota took the unusual action of stopping sales of the 2010 Lexus GX 460 after Consumer Reports urged shoppers not to buy the sport utility vehicle, calling it a “safety risk” because of a potential handling problem in certain turns.

Read full Reuters story here.

April 13, 2010

Dallas Texas Barnett Shale Facilities Release Toxic Emissions

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Plumes of toxic, smog-causing chemicals from Barnett Shale natural-gas operations are so common that inspectors find them nearly every time they look, a Dallas Morning News examination of government records shows.

What’s more, the inspectors have rarely looked.

Hundreds of pages of documents obtained by The News under federal and state open-records laws, plus other reports and studies, reveal a pattern of emissions of toxic compounds, often including cancer-causing benzene, from Barnett Shale facilities.

Read the full story here.

April 13, 2010

Childrens Hospital Sued Over Issue of Consent for Infant’s Surgery

by Dr. Shezad Malik

When a doctor at Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles called in 2007 to tell Eduardo Rivas that his 6-month-old son needed surgery to repair double hernias, Rivas was not sure what he should do.

Nathan had been born four months premature. His mother, Rivas’ wife, had died of breast cancer soon after his birth. Rivas had to decide on his own.

What happened next is at the root of a civil lawsuit filed by Rivas against the hospital and two of his son’s doctors. Rivas, a Spanish speaker, last week told the jury hearing the case in Los Angeles County Superior Court that he never consented to surgery that he says left his son brain-damaged.

Read the full story here.