Monthly Archives September 2012

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Food Recall Hits Fast Food Giants

Burger King and McDonald’s are among the businesses being asked to pull apple slices and pieces from their shelves. Ready Pack Foods announced the voluntary recall of approximately 300,000 cases, according to reporting by NPR. The food supplier’s recall will also affect many different national supermarkets.

The Use-By dates on these products include those that go up to August 20, according to the report.

Listeria

According to the reporting, these products may have been exposed to listeria when they came in contact with contaminated equipment. There have been no illnesses reported and the company undertook the recall on its own. They are a very large producer of prepackaged vegetable and fruit products. The company is, according to Yahoo cited in NPR, among the top four producers of these food products.

Listeria is caused by the listeria monocytogenes bacteria. When someone becomes infected with this bacteria, the symptoms can be very severe. They include vomiting, fever and others that can be deadly to some people.

There are other products associated with this recall, as well. Recalls.gov will give constantly updated information on the recall and whether or not anyone has been injured.

Listeria symptoms are life-and-death issues in some people. If you start to exhibit any of the signs of listeria infection or food poisoning in general, contact a physician. These symptoms can progress quickly and to the point where they are incapacitating.

Liability and Food Products

Food producers can be and have been sued for contaminated food that they put onto the market. You can most certainly file a lawsuit against one if you’ve been injured or if someone has actually died because of contracting an illness that resulted from contaminated food, in some circumstances. Talk to a lawyer about your situation and they may find that suing would be a good option for you.

Liability claims can be complex. They usually include any obvious damages you’ve suffered-such as medical, lost time at work, etc.-but they sometimes include damages that are less obvious in terms of how they’re calculated. Mental anguish, for instance, is sometimes added to a lawsuit because of what a claimant has been put through.

Your attorney will be able to help you work out the damages. Some of the things that people sue for can be a bit confusing, but they are real damages and one of the things an attorney will help you do is to determine the actual economic consequences of what you endured.

If you’ve been poisoned by food that was recalled, contact an attorney. If you have any food that is recalled, always check to see what the manufacturer would have you do with it. If you’re poisoned at a restaurant, be sure to report the incident. It’s not going after the restaurant owner; it’s helping other people to avoid being poisoned at all.

 

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Texas Lawsuit Alleges Drug Test Ordered Before 911 Called

A lawsuit filed by the family of a Texas man who died at his workplace alleges that the employer ordered a drug test before they called 911 for assistance. As reported in the Courthouse News Service, the man ended up suffering a fatal injury at work due to a fall. The lawsuit also alleges that there was no fall protection equipment provided for the man and that he ended up falling to his death as a result of that.

Drug Test Before Paramedics

The lawsuit alleges that, while he was lying on the ground unconscious, the defendant ordered that a drug test be performed on the decedent. This is disputed by the defendant. The death occurred on July 1, 2011. According to the lawsuit, the man ended up falling several feet and was working as a loader at the time.

According to the lawsuit, it was the defendant’s failure to provide immediate medical assistance that ended up leading to the man’s death. It is also alleged by the lawsuit that OSHA violations – namely, the lack of fall protection – also contributed to his death. OSHA regulations hold that any employee working at a height be provided with personal fall protection equipment, a guardrail or another approved device that is designed to arrest their fall in the event that they lose their footing or otherwise come to lose her balance.

The lawsuit is seeking $15 million in wrongful death, gross negligence and punitive damages, according to the report.

Wrongful Death in the Workplace

OSHA and other organizations provide a regulatory framework that is designed to keep people safe at work. In addition to this regulatory framework, employers are also expected to be competent in delivering care to employees when they are injured. In any instance where an employee is injured on the job, performing a drug test on an employee at the hospital is generally standard procedure. In this particular case, the allegation that the employer ordered a drug test before 911 was even called is at the heart of the wrongful death lawsuit.

Wrongful death lawsuits are designed to provide for the family of the deceased individual. In some cases, they take into account the loss of income that the entire family suffers as a result of the loss of their loved one. They may also include – as in the case of this particular lawsuit – punitive damages against an employer or other agency that was proven to have been negligent.

If you have been injured in the workplace and you believe that your employer was negligent in either not following OSHA regulations or because they didn’t provide you with adequate care after the fact, you should speak with an attorney. The best thing to do, however, is to make certain that you don’t end up in one of these situations in the first place. Learn the OSHA regulations that apply to your work and make certain that your employer follows them. If they do not and you are injured, an attorney may be able to set the situation right for you.

 

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Malpractice and Practitioners

If you go to a hospital, you’ll be handled by many different people and many of those people will belong to different departments. It’s important to understand that malpractice lawsuits can be brought against individuals other than your attending physician. For example, an article in Diagnostic Imaging details a claim that was brought against a radiologist, which is likely not the first person that somebody who has been the victim of medical malpractice would think to sue.

Failure to Communicate

In the claim detailed in the article, a radiologist was sued for malpractice in 2011 in Pennsylvania due to failing to communicate important information to the patient. The patient had one chest x-ray done, which showed, according to the article, increased density in the lungs.

The problem came after a second x-ray was recommended and taken. The results of that x-ray was never given to the patient, who ended up suffering with inoperable lung cancer.

In order for patients receive quality, competent care, all of the different departments within a healthcare facility have to communicate with one another, and with that the patient, effectively. In some instances, situations where hospital staff does not communicate with one another can end up in disaster, as is detailed in the case above.

Suing

If you’re considering filing a lawsuit for medical malpractice, you may actually wonder whom it is you would sue. You may know that you got treated poorly by healthcare a facility, but speaking with the lawyer may reveal surprising information about who would ultimately be as possible for the negligence that caused you to suffer. In some cases, it may be the radiologist. It may also be the healthcare facility itself, an ER technician who did not take enough time to notice that you had a serious problem or someone else involved in your healthcare who failed you.

There are limitations on how long you have to file a medical malpractice claim after the incident has occurred. If you believe that you may have been the victim of medical malpractice, you should speak with an attorney, whether or not you’re even considering suing. Attorneys generally offer free consultations and, at those consultations, they’ll be able to get any of their questions answered and to see if there is information that they need to follow up on. They can determine from this whether or not it seems logical for you to sue and why.

If it’s unclear how a healthcare provider failed you, ask an attorney what they think. Even if it doesn’t persuade you to go ahead and sue or convince you not to sue at all, you’ll at least have an expert opinion to work with when you decide whether or not a healthcare facility or someone within it owes you compensation.

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Wrongful Death Lawsuit Implicates Houston Men’s Club

A men’s club located in Houston has been sued over the 2011 death of a high school senior. In the lawsuit, it is alleged that the club encouraged employees to over serve clients, creating a situation that led to the death.

The victim died as a result of a car accident in which the driver, who had allegedly left the club extremely intoxicated, ended up driving at very high speeds, causing the accident and the death. According to YourHoustonNews.com, the lawsuit alleges that the driver was already obviously intoxicated but received more drinks at the club when he should’ve been cut off.

Understanding Negligence

According to the report, this particular wrongful death lawsuit also implicates the driver of the vehicle, who has already been convicted of criminal charges related to the accident. When a car accident occurs because of the negligence of an individual or an establishment, it is sometimes possible to go after all of the parties involved, rather than lying all of the blame at the feet of one of the parties. In this case, the lawsuit alleges that both the establishment and the driver were negligent and, because of that, brought about the death of the victim.

Suing for Over Serving

If you were injured by a drunk driver who was served too much alcohol at an establishment, your attorney may recommend going after that establishment. There are some clubs and bars that do have policies that do encourage their employees to over serve clients. When somebody is already intoxicated, their judgment is impaired. This is why responsible establishments take very seriously the requirement that they cut somebody off when they’ve had too much to drink. Their patron, even if they don’t believe that cutting them off is appropriate, may be so intoxicated that they have no idea how drunk they already are.

Talking to an Attorney

It’s not always easy to determine who was negligent in a way that led to the death or injury of another individual. Attorneys can help you with this, however. Attorneys can conduct investigations, reconstruct accidents and determine where and when negligent actions were taken or when reasonable actions were not taken and how all of that played into an injury or death that should’ve never happened at all.

If you’re not certain who exactly the negligent party was but you did suffer an injury or death as the result of an accident, be sure to contact a Houston attorney about the matter. They are the only people that will be completely on your side in these matters and will take the time to determine when and how someone may have acted or failed to act and how that played into you being the victim of an injury.

 

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Fosamax Linked to Fractures According to Study

Fosamax may be linked to atypical femur fractures, according to a study. The Archives of Internal Medicine published a study in May of 2012 that showed a link between bisphosphonate drugs and fractures. Fosamax has already been implicated in over 3,000 lawsuits, according to an article published in the Wall Street Journal. The lawsuits have in common allegations that using the drug caused patients to suffer bone decay and fractures.

Osteonecrosis

Osteonecrosis of the jaw is one of the most common reasons that people have elected to sue over Fosamax. This drug is used to treat postmenopausal osteoporosis and has been in use since it was approved in 1995 by the FDA. The potential risks of this drug have been making it into the news more frequently of late. According to an article in the TimesUnion, there are 3,100 product liability lawsuits that have been filed against Merck and Co. by patients treated with this drug.

The study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine linked the drug specifically to femoral fractures. These are among the most painful and debilitating fractures that an individual can suffer. The drug is also used to treat Paget’s disease, which means that an entire other group of patients aside from those suffering from postmenopausal osteoporosis may have been affected.

Litigation and Damages

One of the options for people who have been injured by a defective drug is to pursue a lawsuit, as over 3,000 people have already decided to do in the case of Fosamax. Patients who suffer serious conditions such as broken bones or osteonecrosis may find themselves unable to work or, predictably, facing even higher medical expenses than they would have expected, even if they were already diagnosed with a serious conditions such as osteoporosis.

The first step in finding out whether or not you might be able to sue for damages caused by a defective drug is to speak with an attorney. Whether you are considering suing over damages from Fosamax or another drug, the attorney may be already aware of many other cases that have been filed over the same product. If this is the case, they may well be able to help you, but you’ll have to meet with them to determine whether or not this is true in your situation.

Settlements

There are cases where pharmaceutical companies or other manufacturers of defective products may offer you a settlement. Make certain that you speak with an attorney before you accept any such settlement. If they do offer a settlement, it may be because they believed that you would win if you brought your case to court and, because of that, they are trying to avoid having to pay even more money in a jury award and court costs than they would have to pay for a settlement. The settlement may be a good deal for you, but you’ll definitely want to get the advice of an attorney before you go ahead and accept one in exchange for not filing a lawsuit.

 

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Investigating Auto Crashes

If you’ve engaged the services of a Houston personal injury attorney to represent you in a lawsuit related to a car accident, there will be an investigation involved. The attorney will need to collect evidence to back up your claim, and, to accomplish this, they will use their own investigators. This is much different than a police investigation in a very important way.

What the Police Want

When the police or other law enforcement agencies investigate an accident, they’re looking for criminal infractions. They’re not interested in whether or not the other driver was negligent, unless that negligence was somehow actually criminal.

The police are very good investigators and they have the forensic abilities required to reconstruct accidents very accurately. This helps them to determine whether or not one of the drivers involved did something that was in direct violation of criminal law and that led to the accident. What they find out in the course of their investigation may contribute to your case, but it will not be done on your behalf.

What Your Attorney Wants

Your attorney will specifically be interested in negligence. Your attorney, among other things, is trying to determine where financial responsibility for the accident lies. They will have investigators look at the circumstances of the accident and the scene of the accident to collect any evidence that may be available that bolsters your case.

Your attorney may find out that, for instance, the other driver didn’t check an intersection before they started to cross it, that they failed to check for vehicles before they backed out of their driveway or that they were negligent in some other regard that was directly a cause of your accident.

In some cases, your attorney will actually create a computer simulation of the accident so that they can review what happened. This will sometimes reveal where negligence played a role in you coming to harm.

Starting the Investigation

The very first part of this investigation will usually take place at your consultation with a Houston personal injury attorney. They’ll need to sit down with you and get as much information as you can give them about what happened. Don’t worry if you don’t remember exactly how the accident occurred. This is common, particularly in cases where the victim may have suffered a head injury.

If the attorney determines that you likely do have good cause to file a lawsuit and that they want to represent you, they will gather a great deal of evidence, including that which comes from their investigations into the scene of the accident. All of this evidence will be used to argue your case before a jury as convincingly as possible and, if you win, to help you get the largest possible jury award or settlement you can.

 

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