California Injury Blog

Published on: July 27, 2007

Clergy Abuse Cases are Settled for $660 Million

By Brian Chase

The recent settlement reached by the Los Angeles Archdiocese certainly catches our collective breath for the staggering amounts of money involved. At $660 million, it is the largest sexual abuse compensation package negotiated in the country. The settlement resolves over 500 claims of child sexual abuse at the hands of Roman Catholic clergy just before the first of the cases were to start trial.

Is the settlement amount a reflection of how badly the Archdiocese wanted to keep its secrets secret? Was it coincidence that the first of many clergy sex abuse trials was about to start? Before this is over, the Catholic Church and its insurance companies will have paid over a billion dollars in settlements to abuse victims. Apparently it was worth a billion dollars to the Catholic Church to keep their dirty laundry from being aired in public courtrooms with the media hanging on every word.

A report in the Los Angeles Times stated that each of the 508 plaintiffs could receive amounts ranging from just about $100,000 to over $3 million. That is a big spread. How are the individual claims going to be valued? The short answer is, on the relative value of each case, prorated against the entire settlement fund.
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Published on: July 26, 2007

Big Rig Accident Fatal To Bicyclist

By Brian Chase

According to a KCBS news story, an 18-wheel tractor-trailer traveling northbound on 3rd street in San Francisco on July 24, struck and killed a bicyclist as the big rig was making a right turn. Alvaro Aguilera, 39, the bicyclist, was pronounced dead at the Bayview District scene. The big rig and the bicyclist were traveling in the same direction at the time of the accident, about 2:20 p.m., according to Police Sgt. Steve Mannina.

According to Sgt. Mannina, the 45-year-old driver of the 18-wheeler was not arrested or cited. The big rig driver did submit to a voluntary blood test and there has been no determination of fault, according to the Sergeant as reported by KCBS.

Aguilera’s family needs to have their own investigation of this accident done immediately. This doesn’t smell right. They need to hire a trucking accident expert law firm now so that the attorney’s investigators and accident reconstruction experts can gather the evidence before it is altered and then figure this one out. Special attention needs to be given to exactly where and how Aguilera came into contact with the truck and where, exactly, on the roadway the truck was at that very moment of impact.

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Published on: July 25, 2007

Fatal Hit-And-Run Auto/Bicycle Accident

By Brian Chase

A white Toyota Camry struck Jessie Possehl, 15, while he rode bicycle home around 3:00 p.m. Wednesday. Jessie was riding with his brother, 14-year-old Alex Possehl, who was coming home from summer school when the accident occurred. Alex witnessed the collision as the Toyota Camry came around a bend in the 21000 block of River Road in Perris, California and hit his brother head on, according to a report on the Press-Enterprise website.

According to the news report after the bicycle accident, the Camry was left in the middle of River Road and the driver fled on foot, leaving Jessie in the road, according to California Highway Patrol officials. The CHP suspect a local man in his 20s, the son of the owner of the Camry. Investigators are hoping he will turn himself in although they are looking for him.

Jessie died at Inland Regional Medical Center a few hours after the accident. He had been wearing a helmet. Jessie was well liked and fondly remembered.

Please keep Jessie, his family, especially his brother Alex in our prayers and send them good wishes.
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Published on: July 24, 2007

Protecting Pit-Bulls And Ourselves

By Brian Chase

Vicious dogs and especially vicious pit-bulls are a danger to society. My regular readers are familiar with my complaints about the more aggressive and vicious breeds of dogs. I have been unaware of the size, scope and cruelty of the dog fighting under-world.

Recalling a number of vicious Pitbull attacks on our clients, I am wondering if some of those dogs were actually raised for fighting, inadvertently escaped from their owners and took out their pent up hatred of their handlers on the next human being they came in contact with. Could it be that a part of the reason we see so many really serious maulings of people and pets from Pit-bulls is that those particular dogs were from a line intentionally bred for their vicious and aggressive tendencies. Is the sub-society, that supports and participates in dog fighting partially to blame for the increasing number and severity of dog attacks by Pit-bulls in America?

The Human Society of the United States is campaigning the National Football League to punish, Michael Vick, a mega-star NFL player and alleged dogfighter in an appropriate manner. If you would like to weigh in on this matter and let the NFL know how you feel about this issue, the HSUS has made it easy for you, go to:
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Published on: July 23, 2007

Seat Back Failures in Rear-End Crashes Put Our Children At Risk

By Brian Chase

I came across a blog article written by Florida personal injury attorney Sean C. Dominick. The topic of his blog is seatback failure – something very close to my heart, because here at Bisnar Chase Personal Injury Attorneys, we have represented numerous individuals who have suffered heart-rending losses because the front seats in many of our cars touted as “safe” are simply not sturdy enough and collapse in rear-end collisions. And who is most at risk in these crashes that involve seatback failures? Children!

According to the most recently available numbers, there were estimates of 1,100 deaths and 1,600 serious injuries in 1990 because of seat back failures in rear-end collisions. And I’ll bet there are many more accidents now and that the majority of the victims are children, whose faces are used shamelessly in vehicle commercials by the very same auto makers who can so easily prevent these seat back collapse deaths if only they had changed the seat back design by applying proven safety measures and technology that have been readily available for decades.

Most of us know that we should keep our young children out of the front seats of our vehicles because of the danger of larger seatbelts and of course, airbags. But is the back seat really safe? Consider this. In a rear-end accident, the mechanism holding up the back of the bucket seat can break causing the seat to collapse back and the occupant to fall back violently. The impact of a front seat passenger’s fall on anyone, especially a child sitting in the back seat could be powerful enough to seriously injure or kill the child. Strangely enough, it’s the child, whose parent conscientiously buckles them in to the rear seat, who is most likely to suffer horrific injuries as a result of these seatback failures.

I absolutely agree with Mr. Dominick who rightly points out that there are no known auto industry “… crash tests (performed) using instrumented dummies to evaluate the forces imposed on children in the rear seat in a collision,” by the auto makers. Again there is the looming question: How can auto makers claim they are designing a safe vehicle when they are not doing the necessary tests to design that safe vehicle? Or maybe as my partner, Brian Chase, believes, they do not need to do the testing, they know what the results will show. Mr. Chase has conducted extensive testing of front seat collapse with instrumented dummies.
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Published on: July 22, 2007

Trucking Company Responsible For Multiple Deaths Could Be Shut Down

By Brian Chase

Every parent knows that losing one child can make you want to crawl up in your bed and not ever get out. What would anyone do if they lost their three children in a freeway truck accident? That pain will likely stay with Chris and Lori Coble of Mission Viejo whose three children — Kyle, 5, Emma, 4, and Katie, 2 – were killed May 4 after a truck loaded with electronic equipment rammed into the family’s minivan on the 5 Freeway.

What do we find out now? According to an investigative news report published by The Orange County Register July 21, federal investigators have found that the trucking company, whose truck was involved in that horrific crash, violated at least 15 safety standards and could be shut down. I think they should be shut down given the serious nature of the violations and the pain they have caused to a dear family and an entire community.

The Register reporter, who obtained this information by filing a request under the Freedom of Information Act, has discovered that the Carson-based K.W. Express allegedly allowed drivers to work before getting results of their pre-employment drug tests; falsified drivers’ hours; failed to come up with a written policy for drug and alcohol abuse; and kept no records for vehicle maintenance or inspection.

Company representatives tell the Register that all deficiencies have been corrected after they had been pointed out and everything’s great! In fact, one spokesman tells the paper that it was an “innocent ignorance of certain requirements.” Innocent ignorance? Are you kidding me? These answers and excuses are and must be completely unacceptable to federal officials. Trucking companies must be made to pay the price for their callous disregard for public safety. Is this the same “innocent ignorance of certain requirements” that contributed to the “innocent ignorance” when one of their trucks crashed into a minivan and killed three children?
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Published on: July 21, 2007

Nursing Home’s Negligence Breaks Invaluable Trust

By Brian Chase

“Trust” is an important word — because if it does not exist, the world will cease to function and everything will come to a standstill. We trust many people to do their jobs every day and every hour of our lives. We entrust our precious children to the care of school bus drivers, who we believe will safely take them to their schools. We trust that the bus or train we board will take us safely to our destinations. And we entrust our elderly loved ones to the care of nursing homes, which we trust will provide the best possible care for them – care that we cannot provide with the limited resources in our homes.

From what I’ve observed, sadly and unfortunately, many nursing homes around the country are breaking that trust. They are not giving their patients the care they need and rightfully deserve. They are not staffing their nursing homes up to standards so their employees have the time, energy and resources to provide the best possible care to their elderly residents.

Here’s one of many examples of this outright breach of trust. According to a news article in the Chicago Tribune, the daughter of an 82-year-old woman sued a nursing home accusing the nursing home of not providing her mother with care and supervision needed to prevent the woman from falling. The incident, according to the lawsuit, led to Minnie Burger’s death. The nursing home was very well aware of Minnie Burger’s problems with falling Continue reading →

Published on: July 20, 2007

One Million Toy Ovens Recalled

By Brian Chase

The toy company Hasbro is doing a repeat recall of one its most popular toys – the Easy- Bake oven. In February, the company recalled 1 million of these toys after they got reports of more than 250 children getting injured by getting their hands or fingers stuck in the ovens.

But as it turns out, the incidents have hardly stopped. Since February, there have been about 25 incidents involving serious injuries of a similar nature. Now, Hasbro is recalling 1 million more Easy-Bake ovens, according to an article posted on ABC News’ Web site. According to the ABC article, in the original recall in February, 77 incidents involved burns – 16 involving second and third-degree burns. One 5-year-old girl even had to have her finger amputated as a result of one of these injuries.

But there is also another problem. Consumer Product Safety Commission officials say that consumers have not turned in the defective ovens. Hasbro is saying that one of the reasons Hasbro is reissuing the alert is because it was not heeded the first time. According to the CPSC’s Web site, the latest recalled models include purple and pink Easy-Bake ovens, Model Number 65805. These toys were reportedly made in China and sold after May 2006 at Toys “R” Us, Wal-Mart, Target and other major retail outlets.

Officials say that a lot of parents don’t realize that these toys are not safe for children under 8 years old. The greatest danger of these toys is to smaller children. That’s where they say they see a lot of injuries happen. I am wondering if this is a case of younger siblings playing with a toy intended for their older siblings.
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Published on: July 19, 2007

Clergy Abuse Victims get $660-million Settlement

By Brian Chase

On Monday, an unprecedented event of enormous significance happened in a courtroom at the Los Angeles Superior Court. Cardinal Roger Mahony signed a historic $660-million settlement with more than 500 plaintiffs who alleged that they had suffered sexual abuse in the hands of Roman Catholic priests who served parishes that come under the Los Angeles Archdiocese.

We heard the sound bytes on radio. We read pages and pages of analysis in newspapers and on the Internet in the days leading to the formalizing of this agreement. We saw powerful reactions from victims on television. Hallelujah! We even heard an apology from Cardinal Mahony to the victims who have undergone nothing short of psychological and emotional torture for years if not decades and suffered in silence for most of that time.

The settlement is the largest payout by a diocese, says a news article in the Los Angeles Times’ Web site. But the victims who fought the Roman Catholic Church for five years will tell you that no amount of money or apologies can right the horrendous wrongs these men have done to innocent little children as well as women who trusted and respected these so-called spiritual leaders. But the money is the lowest penalty the diocese can pay to compensate the victims for what they have suffered, the memories and effects of which they will continue to suffer for the rest of their lives.

Yet, the biggest implication of this settlement, far more valuable than the money is the fact that it is a vindication for the victims. It is an admission by the Roman Catholic Church of their wrongdoing. It is confirmation, as one of the attorneys for the victims said, that “they did nothing wrong – it was not their fault.”

Having represented victims of clergy abuse, I know very well that many victims blame themselves for the abuse they endured – and that’s what tortures them and eats them up from within. It’s that sense of guilt that results in their silent suffering, the hiding from the truth, the shame of it all. In many media interviews over the last two days, I heard victims say the same as our clients have said, that the abuse completely messed up their lives; that they became alcoholics, resorted to drug abuse and struggled to come to terms with their sexual identity. Most victims had failed marriages. How does anybody put a price on this type of suffering?
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Published on: July 18, 2007

NAACP Files Lawsuit Alleging Lenders Charged Blacks Higher Rates for Loans

By Brian Chase

Here is the kind of news that really gets me mad and makes me wonder if we are really in the 21st Century. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has filed a lawsuit against some of the biggest lenders in the area accusing them of racial discrimination. Why? Apparently, these lenders have been partial to their white clients giving them favorable loan terms, while burdening black clients with higher-interest subprime loans. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, is seeking class-action status, according to an Associated Press news report.

The lawsuit is also asking that the court order the 11 lenders named in the complaint not to discriminate against blacks, an order which would mandate them to comply with fair housing and credit laws. Well, I thought it was already illegal and unconstitutional to discriminate based on race. Here are some of the alleged offenders – Washington Mutual, Citigroup and Ameriquest Mortgage Co., a unit of Orange County-based ACC Capital Holdings, which is one of the country’s largest sub-prime lenders.

Sub-prime loans attract high-risk borrowers with questionable credit history. Those who get these loans usually wind up with higher interest rates than other borrowers. But the lawsuit maintains that black homeowners who got these loans in 2004 were 30 percent more likely to get slapped with higher interest rates than white borrowers, all other parameters being equal. This is according to a 2006 study by the Center for Responsible Lending. Recently, the Federal Reserve Board also concluded blacks were more likely to pay higher prices for mortgages than whites, according to the suit.

According to an NBC news report, other companies named in the lawsuit are — HSBC Finance Corp.; Bear Sterns Residential Mortgage Corp.; First Franklin Financial Corp.; Lehman Bros. Holdings subsidiary BNC Mortgage Inc.; Accredited Home Lenders Inc.; H&R Block subsidiary Option One Mortgage Corp.; General Electric-owned WMC Mortgage Corp.; and Fremont General Corp.’s Fremont Investment & Loan.
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