California Injury Blog

Published on: September 29, 2007

KIEFER SUTHERLAND CHARGED WITH DRIVING DRUNK?

By Brian Chase

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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Published on: September 28, 2007

DRUG MANUFACTURERS MUST IDENTIFY RISKS ON THE LABEL

By Brian Chase

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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Published on: September 27, 2007

Illinois Woman Files Class Action Lawsuit Against Maker of Defective Cribs

By Brian Chase

An Illinois woman has filed a class-action lawsuit against Simplicity Inc. and Target Corp. whose cribs were recently recalled because of manufacturing defects that caused the deaths of at least three infants. According to an article in the Chicago Tribune, Amber Spritzer is on a mission to get justice for the parents who have been using these defective products. She herself had, until recently, put her 1-year-old daughter, Briana, to bed in one of these death traps every night.

This is what Spritzer had to tell the Tribune: “My daughter is my life, and I would do anything to protect her and I know that there are millions of parents out there that feel the same way. So if the government won’t protect our children, then I will.”
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Published on: September 26, 2007

Colorado Appellate Court Upholds $11.8 Million Verdict in Colorado Train Accident

By Brian Chase

A Colorado Appellate Court on Thursday upheld an $11.8 million judgment against Union Pacific Railroad after a 2002 train versus car collision in Castle Rock, Colo., severely injured a local teenager. According to a news article in The Denver Business Journal,
Maureen Martin was only 16 years old as she was driving to a high school class on Nov. 12, 2002. Her car reportedly stalled at a grade crossing of the Union Pacific Railroad tracks. Maureen’s boyfriend, who was following her in his truck, tried to push her car off the tracks, but couldn’t do it in time. Maureen’s car got hit by the train.

She was in a coma for two months after the accident. Maureen had suffered severe brain injuries and now after five years, still has slurred speech. The appellate court asked the trial court to look into the matter of whether the girl and her family should get triple the punitive damages originally awarded by the jury, the article said.

The article also says that the particular crossing where the train accident occurred had been “the subject of community debate for years.” In fact, Maureen’s accident was reportedly the fourth at that location since 1980. The lawsuit filed by Maureen and her parents alleged negligence on the part of the railroad and engineer. What was the railroad’s defense? That the train would not have hit Martin’s car if her boyfriend hadn’t tried to push it through the crossing and that Martin could’ve gotten out of the car and escaped when she heard the train’s whistle. Not only that, they said Martin “trespassed” on Union Pacific’s tracks!
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Published on: September 25, 2007

Arizona Funeral Home Under Investigation For Mixing Remains

By Brian Chase

By: Staff Writer

Here’s a story that won’t just make your stomach turn, but make you wonder what the heck is wrong with the world today! A Phoenix funeral home is reportedly under investigation after reports that they cremated a person’s body mixed up with the remains of up to three other people. According to a KPHO TV news report, the Greer Wilson Funeral Home is accused of adding three bags of body parts to be cremated with someone else’s body. The incident reportedly occurred four years ago.

Mixing remains in that manner is not only illegal in this country, but it shows a clear lack of respect for the deceased. What does the funeral home have to say in its defense? Nothing apparently — other than a pretty weak “mea culpa.” An attorney for the funeral home said his clients admit they messed up. During a hearing, funeral home administrators said the incident occurred in 2003 when they found an unlabeled box from a hospital in their cooler with three bags of organs. CBS 5 reportedly confirmed through state records that those organs that were cremated with another body were brains.
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Published on: September 24, 2007

Los Angeles City Council Gives Family of Deceased Motorcyclist $1.15 Million

By Brian Chase

By: Staff Writer

The Los Angeles City Council has voted unanimously to give $1.15 million to the family of a motorcyclist who died after he was struck by a Los Angeles city employee, who was reportedly driving a city vehicle at the time of the accident. According to an article on CBS’ Web site, 26-year-old Mgrdich Hovsep Fidanian of Glendale was traveling south on Barham Boulevard on Oct. 13, 2005 when he was hit by a car that was turning left into a store driveway.

Fidanian’s parents and siblings filed a lawsuit against the city of Los Angles stating that the driver of the car, who worked in the city’s finance department, used his car as a “city mileage vehicle” and was driving the car within the scope of his job as a city employee, according to the CBS news report.

Another aspect of this lawsuit was the issue of the “dangerous road condition” on Barham Boulevard. The family claimed in its lawsuit that the roadway was perilous for drivers and commuters because of trees, signs and elevations, which hampered the view of motorists. The lawsuit also argued that the posted speed limit on Barham Boulevard was too high given all these dangerous conditions. At the time of the crash, Fidanian was driving over the brow of the hill at the top of Barham Boulevard and through two sets of traffic lights, the CBS article said.
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Published on: September 23, 2007

INVISIBLE, BUT DEADLY HAZARDS-WHO WILL HELP THEM NOW?

By Brian Chase

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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Published on: September 22, 2007

INJURED? HELP IS ON THE WAY!

By Brian Chase

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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Published on: September 21, 2007

One Million Defective Cribs Recalled

By Brian Chase

By: Staff Writer

The company that manufactures Simplicity and Graco cribs have recalled about 1 million of the defective products after at least two babies – including one from Citrus Heights, Calif. — reportedly died of suffocation. According to an article in the Los Angeles Times. Keeping with the recent trend with defective or recalled products these cribs were also made in China, further elevating the issue of quality control of imported goods – from food to toys and household products.

These cribs were apparently sold at major retailers all over the United States. One of the crib’s features, a “drop-side” railing, officials say, tends to pull away from the crib mattress causing infants to get trapped in the gap as a result and suffocate. According to a report by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, officials received reports of seven infant entrapments and a total of 55 incidents in these cribs. The report further states that the crib’s design is flawed allowing consumers to unintentionally install the defective drop-side feature upside down. This in turn weakens the hardware and causes the drop-side to detach from the crib creating the dangerous gap. A 9-month-old and another 6-month-old died in exactly such a situation where the drop-side was installed upside down.
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Published on: September 19, 2007

Dole Recalls About 5,000 Bags of E. Coli Tainted Lettuce

By Brian Chase

By: Staff Writer
One year after a widespread E. Coli scare caused by bagged spinach, officials are recalling E. Coli tainted lettuce after some inspectors in Canada found a bag of Dole’s Hearts Delight lettuce contaminated with the bacteria. According to an article posted on NBC’s Web site, so far, no one has reported being sickened by the product. Most of the 5,000 bags with the production code “A24924A” or “A24924B” were sold in the United States and some in Canada. According to official reports, the romaine, green leaf and butter lettuce hearts that went into the bagged blends were grown in California, Colorado and Ohio and then processed in Springfield, Ohio, on Sept. 6.

All the recalled bags have a “best if used by” date of Sept. 19, 2007. Officials are still trying to track down the source and method by which this contamination occurred.

Last year, the spinach scare, also caused by the Dole brand, was said to have caused three deaths. The tainted spinach also reportedly sickened hundreds of people across the country. That contamination, investigators determined, occurred in a Central California cattle ranch neighboring spinach fields owned by Dole’s suppliers. Food safety standards were also strengthened in California after that scare and authorities say they are stumped by the recent scare, saying they don’t know how it may have happened again.
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