If you’re planning on filing a lawsuit, you probably have what you believe to be evidence that you were wronged in some regard. Understanding evidence, however, does take some real legal knowledge. In fact, you may find that, upon meeting with your attorney, they don’t really believe that the things you consider to be evidence […]
Featured
Police Sued Over Privacy Violations
CNN reported that a police department in Washington is facing a lawsuit over violating the rights of inmates. The reporting details that 11 women and 1 man are suing a police department over alleged instances where the inmates—who were all arrested on suspicion of drunk driving—were recorded while they were undressing and using the toilet. […]
Frivolous Lawsuits Get too Much Publicity
The idea behind a lawsuit is to give a person who was wronged because of another person’s negligence away to get compensated. This can include suing manufacturers for putting dangerous products out on the market when they should’ve known better, suing motorists who are prone to driving dangerously and end up hurting or killing someone […]
Dog Bites and Liability
Unfortunately, many dog owners are not responsible with their animals. In fact, it’s quite reasonable to argue that the biggest cause of dog bites has nothing to do with dogs, but with the people who are in charge of taking care of those dogs. There are differences on a state-by-state basis as to how much […]
Daycare Worker Arrested for Raping Children
For parents with children in daycare, a nightmare scenario seems to be unfolding in Ohio. According to NewsOK, a daycare worker has been arrested on two counts of rape. The woman, according to the article, had engaged in sexual conduct with an infant and made a video of herself doing it. Police claim that they […]
Class Action Against LinkedIn Reveals Importance of TOS
If you’ve gotten emails that appear to be from a friend of yours but that were actually from LinkedIn giving a pitch for the website, you’re not alone. In fact, a lawsuit has been filed against the business social networking website alleging that the company breaks into email accounts, uses the contact list to send […]
Can You Sue a Company for Mishandling Your Information?
Today, it’s not uncommon for companies with whom people do very casual business – cellular phone companies, Internet service providers, etc. – to have some very sensitive information about their clients. For example, Social Security numbers are routinely used as forms of identification and many companies require that information in order to open an account. […]
Why Do Personal Injury Attorneys Turn Down Cases?
There are instances when a personal injury attorney may turn down your claim. This may leave you wondering if there is any hope for justice but, keep in mind the fact that civil lawsuits are not really about justice; they’re about compensation. If you’ve been turned down as a client by an attorney, some or […]
How Do You Sue on Behalf of a Child
Some of the largest jury awards are actually handed out to children. These occur in cases involving medical malpractice during birth, car accidents that permanently damage a child and in other cases. Obviously, a child cannot enter into a contract or take any other legal action of their own accord. Parents are the ones who […]
Verizon Settles in Class Action Suit
If you were a Verizon landline customer and paid unauthorized third-party charges on your phone service between April 27, 2005 and February 28, 2012, you may be able to recover that money. The company settled a class action lawsuit that requires them to pay back 100% of certain unauthorized charges. You’ll have the option of filing a Full Payment Claim, which gets you all your money back or to file a Flat Payment Claim, which will give you a refund of $40.
You can also find out if you did pay for such charges. If you’re a member of the class that sued-you would have been notified by mail-you’ll be able to request a summary to see if you’re owed money. Even the attorneys in this case acknowledge that the changes Verizon is implementing will go a long way toward minimizing such problems in the future. Being “slammed” is the slang term for having third-party services added to your phone service without your consent.
What Are Class Actions?
Class actions are lawsuits that involve a large number of claimants who have more or less the same complaint. The case is heard via one representative case, which is why these cases are sometimes called representative actions. These types of claims are common in product liability law. For instance, when many people suffer similar injuries due to defective drugs or medical products, class actions sometimes result. They allow people to get compensated and free up the court system from being overwhelmed by potentially thousands of claims that are very similar.
Individual Claims Against a Company
Quite frequently, consumers have individual claims against a service provider or manufacturer that aren’t mirrored in other claims. In these cases, a product liability lawyer might be able to help. There are three broad ways in which a product or service can be defective. They are:
· Defective in that it did not perform as advertised
· Defective in that it was manufactured in a way that made it useless or dangerous
· Defective in that it was designed in a way that made it useless or dangerous
Where services are concerned, there are sometimes discrepancies between what is advertised and reality that bring about lawsuits. For instance, if your Internet speed was advertised as being of a certain quality but it never delivered, you may have an opportunity to file a lawsuit against the provider.
Talking to an Attorney
A Houston product liability attorney may be able to help you if you’re in a situation where you paid for something that was useless, dangerous or not as advertised. If you’ve been charged for goods that you never ordered, you may also have a claim. Talk to an attorney to learn more.
Call us for a FREE consultation at 713-771-5453
Semi Driver May Face Charges in Houston County Crash
A semi driver may face criminal negligent homicide charges from an accident that resulted in the death of the driver of a passenger vehicle. The accident occurred at a construction zone, where four vehicles were already stopped. The semi driver, according to a report on KTRE, failed to apply brakes in time, slamming into the last of the vehicles and causing a chain reaction accident. In total, one driver died and six other people nearby were injured.
Negligence
Legally, negligence involves failing to take an action that would’ve prevented somebody from coming to harm or taking an action that caused somebody to come to harm. In instances where negligence involves a vehicle, nobody is expecting an everyday driver to be possessed of the type of skills that you would expect of a police officer or a professional driver. Negligence involves the types of actions or inaction that would apply to the average person.
In instances where negligence causes a death or injury, filing a civil lawsuit is an option for the parties that were injured, or their families, if somebody happened to lose their life as the result of the accident.
Accidents that involve negligence on the part of a semi driver are particularly deadly. In instances where a semi collides with passenger vehicles, there is very little chance that any of the drivers of those passenger vehicles are going to escape unharmed. Simply because of the mass of a semi, the amount of inertia it generates when it is moving at speed is incredible. No matter how sturdy a passenger vehicle may be, most of them will not stand a chance against that kind of force and that is precisely why accidents involving semis are so deadly.
Trucker or Company?
If you have been injured by a semi, your lawyer may recommend that you sue the trucking company for which the driver worked, the driver themselves or both. There are instances where the truck driver happens to be the one who was negligent and where they are solely responsible for having caused the accident. There are also cases where the trucking company was negligent in maintaining their equipment or in providing adequate rest time for their drivers, thereby being a party to the accident that occurred. An attorney is the only one who can really figure out where negligence may apply and who is responsible for it.
Filing a Lawsuit
There are essentially two types of lawsuits that come out of accidents involving semis where somebody is hurt. If you are injured, you’ll be looking at a personal injury lawsuit and, unfortunately, if somebody happened to die, you may find yourself talking to an attorney about filing a wrongful death claim. A Houston personal injury attorney can help you with either type of claim. The first step is arranging for a consultation with a personal injury attorney so that you can tell them the situation. Don’t worry if you don’t remember everything that happened, which is common in these situations. Attorneys have the technology and the knowledge required to reconstruct accidents if necessary.
Call us for a FREE consultation at 713-771-5453
When Medical Malpractice May Apply
Medical malpractice lawsuits are sometimes the only ways that the victims of malpractice or their survivors have to get compensation for the negligence of a doctor or a healthcare facility. Understanding when medical negligence may be an issue is imperative. The number one thing to remember is that, if you even suspect negligence, you should talk to an attorney about the matter as soon as possible. Here, however, are some things that you may want to consider.
Failure to Diagnose
Almost half of the medical malpractice claims filed every year involve failure to diagnose in one form or another. It’s important to understand how failure to diagnose can affect a patient.
Failure to diagnose can occur in scenarios that involve a regular visit to a doctor or an emergency room visit. The main thing these claims generally involve is that the doctor missed something that they should’ve caught and, because of that, their patient was brought to harm. An example would be an emergency room doctor failing to diagnose a serious trauma injury that later went on to cause the victim a great deal of financial and personal harm.
It’s important to remember that, if you deliberately concealed information from a doctor that may have led to them making the correct diagnosis, medical malpractice may not apply. For instance, if you were suffering all of the symptoms of diabetes and didn’t tell your physician and the physician didn’t run any tests to determine whether or not you had diabetes, it would be very difficult to argue that the physician is at all responsible for that. Failure to diagnose applies when the doctor should have known but did not.
Wrong Treatments
The incorrect treatment or surgery for a condition can end up causing a great deal of harm to patients. Being given the wrong treatment is one of the most common reasons that people file a medical malpractice claim. Not only may the treatment itself – particularly if it is a surgery – cause the patient to go through pain and suffering, loss of wages, physical harm, mental trauma and other hardships, it may cause the condition they actually had to worsen. If your physician has ordered an incorrect treatment for you and if you have suffered because of it, you should speak with an attorney.
What if You Don’t Know?
Again, speaking with an attorney is the best move if you’re not sure whether or not you were the victim of medical malpractice. A Houston medical malpractice attorney will be able to listen to your story and determine if it seems like medical malpractice was an issue in how you came to harm. This area of the law is particularly complex and, in Texas, it has been changed in recent years. You’ll want to make certain that you find an attorney who understands this law to a very exacting degree and who is willing to sit down and listen to you during a consultation. Consultations are usually free, so there’s no harm in calling an attorney and asking if you could meet with them.
Call us for a FREE consultation at 713-771-5453
Distracted Driving an Epidemic, Says CDC
Distracted driving has reached epidemic proportions, according to a survey released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in June of 2012. According to this survey, over 55 percent of high school seniors acknowledged that they had sent messages via text or e-mail while they were driving. The same survey said that approximately 40 percent of high school juniors had also e-mailed or texted while they were driving.
Distracted driving is rapidly becoming one of the worst threats on the road. In the second or two it takes to look down at the screen of a cellular phone, a car can travel a significant distance and, of course, that car may end up plowing into somebody in front of them or into a pedestrian crossing the road.
Tech Cures and Failures
According to an Associated Press report, the industry has responded to problems with people driving while distracted by releasing a range of cell phone apps that are designed to curb this behavior. Rather than relying upon the driver’s own sense of responsibility, these apps turn off or reduce the volume on cellular devices when they detect that they are moving at vehicle speeds. Results of these apps have been mixed, though they have proven somewhat popular.
At the same time that the technology sector is attempting to address this problem with new apps, the Transportation Department is looking to law enforcement. Hoping that a combination of public service messages and increased law enforcement will curb the problem, the Department is planning on spending millions in California and Delaware to address this issue, according to the same Associated Press reports.
Sensible Solutions
In Texas, there are restrictions on teenage drivers using cellular phones while they are in cars. There is no statewide ban on texting as of yet, however. Using cellular phones has long known to be dangerous when behind the wheel. Obviously, the easiest solution to this problem is to either turn your cellular phone off when you’re driving or to use a hands-free device. There are conflicting studies, however, where the safety of hands-free devices is concerned. Some of them maintain that there is an increase in safety when utilizing a hands-free device and others have found that there is no appreciable difference between the levels of distraction experienced by drivers utilizing hands-free devices as compared to those using a cellular phone with their hands.
Negligent Drivers
Driving while distracted, in some cases, may be determined to be a form of negligence by a jury. Drivers who have their vehicles wrecked or who suffer personal injuries because of a driver who was distracted by a cellular phone or any other electronic device may wish to contact an attorney about the matter. Rather than footing the entire bill for the repairs and the medical expenses yourself, an attorney may be able to present you with an option to file a lawsuit, which could win you significant compensation and, possibly, enough to more than pay for the damages and injuries that you suffered as a result of the other driver’s negligence.
Call us for a FREE consultation at 713-771-5453
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.
Call us for a FREE consultation at 713-771-5453
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.
Call us for a FREE consultation at 713-771-5453
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.
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.
Call us for a FREE consultation at 713-771-5453
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.
Call us for a FREE consultation at 713-771-5453
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.
Call us for a FREE consultation at 713-771-5453
Checking...
Ouch! There was a server error.
Retry »
Retry »
Sending message...
FREE Case Review
Fill in the form below for a FREE, No Obligation Case Review