Dallas Fort Worth Injury Lawyer Blog

September 3, 2009

Whistleblower Suit Claims Toyota Concealing Evidence in Hundreds of Accidents.

Toyota could face reopened vehicle-rollover lawsuits after allegations by a former in-house lawyer that the automaker concealed and destroyed evidence and conspired to obstruct justice in civil cases.

Dimitrios Biller, a former Toyota corporate lawyer involved in the rollover cases, contends in his lawsuit that the Japanese automaker’s executives “made every effort” to quash investigations from 2004 through 2007. Biller alleges Toyota destroyed data that should have been made available to plaintiffs’ lawyers in 300 product-defect lawsuits.

An attorney who lost one rollover case against Toyota and settled another filed a lawsuit Friday against Toyota alleging unfair practices, fraud and racketeering. “If Mr. Biller’s allegations are true, it should fit into all three of those,” says the lawyer, who is seeking class-action status for the lawsuit.

September 3, 2009

Pfizer Whistleblower’s Ordeal Reaps Rewards

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Taking on corporate giants can feel like tilting at windmills, but John Kopchinski’s six-year legal battle against Pfizer Inc just made him a rich man.

The Gulf War veteran and former Pfizer sales representative will earn more than $51.5 million as a result of his whistleblower lawsuit against the world’s biggest drugmaker and the record penalty the company must pay the U.S. government for its massive marketing transgressions.

September 2, 2009

Pfizer to Pay $2.3 B Agrees to Criminal Plea

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Pfizer Inc agreed to plead guilty to a U.S. criminal charge relating to promotion of its now-withdrawn Bextra pain medicine and will pay a record $2.3 billion to settle allegations it improperly marketed 13 medicines.

The world’s biggest drugmaker was slapped with the huge fines by the U.S. government after being deemed a repeat offender in pitching drugs to patients and doctors for unapproved uses.

Pfizer pleaded guilty in 2004 to an earlier criminal charge of improper sales tactics and its practices have been under U.S. supervision since then.

September 2, 2009

Malpractice Lawsuits From Medical Spa Laser Hair Removal

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Plaintiffs attorneys say medi-spas, where the beauty-conscious go to lose their unwanted facial hair, acne scars and fine lines, are a new litigation hot spot as patients increasingly sue over spa treatments gone wrong.

Laser hair removal in particular is triggering lawsuits, lawyers note, warning that even more litigation is on the horizon as the number of medical spas has soared.

According to the International SPA Association, which represents 3,200 spas globally, medical spas are the fastest growing segment of the spa industry and have quadrupled in numbers in recent years, from 471 in 2004 to 1,804 today.

September 2, 2009

EEOC Delivers Lawsuit Over UPS Medical Leave Policy

by Dr. Shezad Malik

The world’s delivery giant, United Parcel Service, has been receiving some unwanted packages these days from the federal government: lawsuits.

Last weekl, in what the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is calling a “major class lawsuit,” UPS was sued in federal court in Chicago for allegedly denying sufficient medical leave to disabled employees. The Thursday suit claims UPS sets arbitrary deadlines for returning to work after medical treatment — in one case firing an employee who would have exceeded its 12-month leave policy by mere weeks — in violation of federal law.

Just two months ago, UPS settled a religious discrimination lawsuit with the EEOC in Tennessee, in which the company was accused of requiring a 19-year driver to work past sundown on his Sabbath, which violated his beliefs as a member of the United Church of God. UPS denied that it engaged in discrimination, but agreed to pay $23,500 in damages to the employee.

September 2, 2009

Yaz, Yasmin, and Ocella Side Effect Lawsuits Increasing

by Dr. Shezad Malik

At least 50 federal and state lawsuits have been filed against Bayer due to serous side effects associated with Yasmin / Yaz.

Both the drugs are oral contraceptives that contain synthetic versions of the hormones estrogen and progestin, and are associated with side effects including stroke, heart attack, pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis, gallbladder problems, and kidney problems.

Lawsuits have been filed against Bayer, the manufacturer of Yaz and Yasmin, alleging the company failed to adequately warn patients and physicians of the increased risk of serious adverse effects from Yaz Birth Control Medication. In certain cases, women have died due to these adverse effects of Yaz Birth Control.

September 1, 2009

Fort Worth Texas Asbestos Mesothelioma Lawsuits

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Asbestos is well recognized as a health hazard and is highly regulated. An estimated 1.3 million employees in the construction and general industry face significant asbestos exposure on the job. Heaviest exposures occur in the construction industry, particularly during the removal of asbestos during renovation or demolition.

Employees are also likely to be exposed during the manufacture of asbestos products (such as textiles, friction products, insulation, and other building materials) and during automotive brake and clutch repair work.

September 1, 2009

Florida Teen Sustained Brain Injury in Crash With School Bus

by Dr. Shezad Malik

On Sept. 22, 2006, plaintiff Marcus Button, 16, a student, was a front-seat passenger in his friend’s sedan that was heading east on State Road 54. At the intersection at Meadow Pointe Boulevard where there was no traffic signal, a Pasco County School bus made a left turn and struck the sedan. Marcus sustained a brain injury. Investigators found that the bus driver was at fault.

Individually and as Marcus’ parents, Mark and Robin Button sued Pasco County School Board for the bus driver’s negligence.

Plaintiff’s counsel stated that the bus driver violated state law in not yielding the right of way. Investigators determined that the bus driver was at fault. Plaintiff’s counsel also pointed to the bus driver’s deposition testimony in which he stated that he never saw the plaintiff’s vehicle.

Defense counsel presented an accident reconstructionist who stated that the driver of Button’s vehicle had ample time to observe and avoid the bus.

September 1, 2009

Summary Judgment For Manufacturer in Pain Pump Litigation

by Dr. Shezad Malik

A federal court has granted summary judgment to the defendant. Kilpatrick v. Breg, Inc., No. 4:08-cv-10052 (S.D. Fla. 6/26/09), in what appears to be the first substantive decision to come out of the multiple suits alleging that a pain pump medical device damages patients.

Judge Michael Moore ruled in favor of medical device manufacturer Breg, finding that the plaintiff, who alleged damage to his shoulder cartilage, did not provide enough reliable expert evidence to link the condition to the defendant’s shoulder pain pump.

Plaintiff Kilpatrick underwent arthroscopic shoulder surgery in 2004 after an orthopedic specialist discovered a tear in his shoulder socket. To help with post-operative pain, the surgeon inserted a pain pump into plaintiff’s shoulder, which would allow the doctor to administer an anesthetic via a catheter in the patient’s arm.

The surgeon injected bupivacaine into the pump’s attached catheter and further filled it with 100 ccs of anesthetic, which was to be delivered into Kilpatrick’s shoulder over the next 48 hours.

Plaintiff alleges that he began experiencing severe pain in his shoulder in 2006. An orthopedic surgeon diagnosed the pain as glenohumeral chondrolysis, a deterioration of the cartilage, and Kilpatrick underwent shoulder replacement surgery.

He then brought suit, alleging negligence, strict products liability, and violations of Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. Kilpatrick claimed that using the Breg pain pump to administer local anesthetic directly into his shoulder joint caused him to develop post-arthroscopic glenohumeral chondrolysis.

September 1, 2009

Medical Malpractice Victims Awarded $11M

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Two teenage sisters have been awarded $11 million in a malpractice lawsuit against a prominent New York pediatrician who failed to take steps to prevent the girls from being repeatedly sexually assaulted by their half-brother when they were children in Lake Placid.

An eight-member jury in U.S. District Court ruled against Dr. Patricia Monroe and her workplace, Adirondack Internal Medicine and Pediatric, ending a federal case rooted in horrific abuse dating back more than nine years.

The older sister, now 18, will receive $6 million, the 16-year-old younger sister $5 million, according to a news release issued by Albany attorneys Pamela Nichols and Stephen Coffey, who represented the victims. He noted they were “never offered a dime” to the settle the case, which dates to 2002.