Articles Posted in Information/Personal Interest

By: A Staff Writer
A watchdog group is questioning a New Jersey court’s decision to seal documents in a high-profile personal injury lawsuit involving a drunk driving incident that left a young girl paralyzed. According to a news release posted on Public Citizen’s Web site, the 1999 case, which brought the issue of holding alcohol vendors and establishments liable in DUI accidents, is now completely buried under this veil of secrecy created by the courts.

The case basically involves an auto accident caused by a drunken fan who left a Giants football game and crashed into a car paralyzing a little girl. The girl’s family filed a personal injury case against the driver as well as the stadium’s beer vendor and won a $105 million jury verdict.

Last year, an appellate court overturned that verdict and everybody watching the case was waiting for the case to go back to trial. But apparently it never got there. And no one knows why or how because the court ordered that all future proceedings in the case be sealed, which means neither the public nor the media can look at the filings.
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By: A Staff Writer
A recent investigation by the Kansas City Star newspaper has found that 1,400 people may have died in head-on or frontal collisions because their front air bags did not deploy. According to an article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, it was a phenomenon that baffled traffic accident investigators.

For example, when Atlanta wife and mother Brooke Katz died three months pregnant, police officers who recall that violent crash also say that they thought it was “curious” that Katz’s 2005 Dodge Caravan’s air bags had not deployed. The Kansas City Star’s investigation reportedly found that this didn’t only happen in Katz’s accident, but happened in hundreds of traffic accidents. In fact, here’s an interesting statistic.

The newspaper found that more people had died over the last six years from air bags not deploying than all those who died from injuries caused by air bags that deployed easily or forcefully. Not only that – the newspaper also reports that only 300 people died since 1990 from forceful deployment of airbags. But the body count is a whopping 1,400 when it came to those who died because their front airbags did not deploy at all. What’s more, the death count rose to 1,900 when the Star took into account side and rear impact crashes.
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Yesterday, we filed a lawsuit against the California Supreme Court and one of its appellate districts. Our suit contends that the courts violated our client’s constitutional rights of due process and equal protection rights.

We filed this lawsuit in connection with a recent Appellate Court decision that went against our client Joshua Hild, a young teenager, who was blinded in his right eye. The injury occurred when a Southern California Edison employee on duty, on Edison property fired a paintball gun at him. She played a very cruel and irresponsible trick on an unsuspecting child.

We contended that the employee was acting in her capacity as an Edison employee when she fired paintballs at Joshua and maintained that Edison was liable for Joshua’s serious injury. He was permanently blinded in the right eye as a result of that injury. A Los Angeles County jury ruled Edison is indeed liable and awarded Joshua $704,633.

But Edison appealed and on June 25, 2007, the California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, issued its unpublished opinion, rejecting the jury’s verdict. Our problem is primarily with the court’s “unpublished verdict.” Why? Let me explain.
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Byline: Carol J. Gibbons, J.D.

Is it just me, or do you also wonder why some of the most talented and accomplished people continue to self destruct? It’s Brandy and Paris and now Kiefer and others who could easily afford to call a cab! According to the LA Times not only was Kiefer Sutherland charged today with two counts of misdemeanor drunk driving, but he is also in danger of having his probation revoked. What is Kiefer on probation for? Drunk driving!

Fortunately, for the driving public when Kiefer faces the judge on October 16th it will be in the courtroom of Judge Michael Sauer. That is the same judge who sentenced Paris Hilton to a little jail time after she violated the terms of her probation for drunk driving. Kiefer could get up to one year in jail for the recent charges and six months on the parole violation.

According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, in 2006 California suffered the loss of 4,236 of its citizens, mothers, fathers, daughters and sons-1779 [42%] of those were alcohol-related.
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By: Carol J. Gibbons, J.D.

Hooray for Congress! Today President Bush signed into law The Prescription Drug User Fee Reauthorization Act (PDUFA), H.R. 3580. According to the American Association for Justice, the Congress passed a new law that creates new federal safety requirements for drug companies, and Congress was very clear that the bill does not change the burden on the drug companies to warn of a drug’s hazards.

Drug companies know more than anyone what the potential risks are of taking their medications. Why don’t they want to inform us of those risks on the label so we will know too? Are they afraid if we make informed decisions that we may not use a particular drug and their sales are negatively affected? We have a right to know the possible side-effects and risks to any medication we put in our bodies! This new law makes it a requirement that all drug manufacturers modify labels as new risk information is known, regardless of whether they have been mandated by the FDA.
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By: Carol J. Gibbons, J.D.
So you are having difficulty in breathing and chest pain, or both. Maybe you are losing weight and have a fever. Could you have the flu, or could it be something much more insidious? Something called Mesothelioma!

The symptoms of Mesothelioma can be confused with so many other diseases, and the onset of this deadly form of lung cancer can occur even up to thirty (30) years after exposure to asbestos. And, Mesothelioma does not just visit itself upon the person directly exposed to asbestos but can also affect family members by secondary exposure. In fact, there have been over 100 identified deaths of family members from mesothelioma in the United States. Exposure to asbestos for as short a time period as one to two months may cause mesothelioma to develop 30+ years later. Exposure may have occurred in the workplace when handling asbestos fibers or materials composed of asbestos or at home just by living in the close quarters with asbestos.
Source: National Cancer Institute
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By: Carol J. Gibbons, J.D.

A lot of things have happened in the last sixty some odd years, not the least of which was the joining together of nine plaintiff’s lawyers dedicated to making certain injured people would have their day in court regardless of status or financial means. They stood up for the everyday person and fought giants! Because we live in America, it can sometimes be easy to take our justice system and our courts for granted, but protecting victims’ rights to a jury trial is a vital part of advocacy and those rights are threatened every day.

Thankfully, back in 1946, those nine lawyers took their pledge to protect victims’ rights seriously! Because of their dogged determination, those nine lawyers, the group once called the National Association of Claimants’ Compensation Attorneys, has grown to a membership of 56,000 members worldwide. Today the group is known, fittingly, as The American Association for Justice, and its numbers include not only dedicated attorneys but law professors, paralegals and law students all with a single focus-to educate and advocate. At the center of their purpose is to promote fairness and justice for injured people and to safeguard victim’s rights – especially the right to a jury trial as envisioned by the Seventh Amendment!

It should be obvious to all that a person who is a victim, who is injured, may not in the best position to fight for their rights. For this reason it is imperative that the courthouse doors remain open to legal advocates who have the knowledge and skill to fight for those who have been injured. But, in some circles there has been discussion about the use of ‘judicial resources’ and ‘caps’ on awards, and whether or not it is necessary to provide every victim an opportunity to be heard by a jury and compensated. And, what about those large awards that are said to continue to drive up the cost of malpractice insurance? Say what? Maybe mandatory, binding arbitration would be the way to preserve the courts resources for more serious matters-like maybe strictly business vs. business litigation? I THINK NOT!
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At last, a bill that bans teenagers from using cell phones while driving. This was a long time coming. According to a bill signed off by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger last week, California’s youngest drivers – those under 18 — can’t chat, can’t text-message, use laptops, pagers, walkie-talkies, handheld computers or even use a hands-free device while on the road, a news report by the Associated Press stated. This new law, which in my opinion should be enforced on adult drivers as well, will take effect July 1, 2008 – the same day another law requiring adult drivers to use hands-free goes into effect.

The new law for drivers ages 16 and 17 was prompted by the intense popularity of text messaging in these age groups, the AP report said. The governor, while announcing his support for SB 33, said the purpose of the legislation is to “eliminate any extra distractions so they can focus on paying attention to the road and being good drivers.” Violators will be fined $20 for the first offense and $50 for subsequent offenses, the article stated. The only exception is for someone who is making an emergency call.
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In what may be considered one of the most significant safety regulations in recent decades, federal regulators have said that all auto makers must equip their vehicles with side curtain air bags by the year 2013. According to the Detroit News, these airbags mandated by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration that provide head and torso protection in dangerous side-impact crashes could save 311 lives and prevent 361 serious injuries in just one year.

The NHTSA estimates that the new rules will add about $33 to the cost of a vehicle. According to the Detroit News article, side impact crashes account for 9 percent of crashes, but more than 20 percent of auto fatalities. As part of the new regulations, auto makers must also conduct a new crash test that simulates a car hitting a pole at 20 mph at a 75-degree angle and demonstrate protection for front and rear passengers. And for the first time, NHTSA will mandate head protection for rear seat passengers in any crash. Moreover, a study last year by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found head-protecting air bags reduced driver deaths by 52 percent in sport utility vehicles and 37 percent in passenger cars.

According to safety experts, this air bag regulation will essentially require a side window curtain air bag for head protection and a separate air bag to protect the thorax, which will help keep occupants in vehicles during rollovers and side-impact crashes. Complying with the regulation will add $243 to the cost of a vehicle, but NHTSA says the net cost increase is $33 per vehicle, or $560 million annually, based on improvements automakers were planning to do anyway.
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Your rights to a class action lawsuit cannot be bullied away from you.

It is not OK to put “unconscionable” clauses in your contract that take away the right of the public to band together as a group and sue you, and the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco agreed, setting the stage for a class action lawsuit against Cingular Wireless in Los Angeles.

In Cingular’s case they gave the consumers contracts to sign that included clauses that were detrimental to them, but that did not allow any negotiation of the terms. Additionally, they threatened some former AT&T customers with early termination fees if they did not sign on the dotted line.
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