Personal Injury Resources

Filing an asbestos lawsuit is not as difficult as it seems to be. If one carefully selects an experienced and expert asbestos lawyer, he/she can easily get a justifiable compensation to meet medical and other expenses related to asbestos diseases. Many asbestos and mesothelioma victims have received large amount of money as compensation from their employer with the help of mesothelioma attorneys. In most of the cases, the asbestos attorneys work on a contingent fee plan for asbestos lawsuits. Herein you have to pay a part of compensation as fee and do not have to pay any fee if you do not get compensation.

“Releasing Merck’s documents would serve the public interest by exposing its wrongful conduct over the years.” Beasley adds. “Clinical tests have proven Vioxx is and was a dangerous drug. It has killed literally thousands of unsuspecting victims who trusted the company and who had no idea that Vioxx caused heart attacks and strokes.”

An article by the Nashua Telegraph on the NH Senate Judiciary Committee's hearing on their proposed medical malpractice bill that would drastically limit the people's ability to obtain medical negligence justice in New Hampshire.

Everyone hates car accidents, but one thing I hate more then car accidents are car accidents that I'm involved in, and the only thing I hate more then car accidents that I'm involved in are car accidents that I'm involved in that I DIDN'T CAUSE!!!!

In the published study, Dr. Lisse reported that five patients taking Vioxx had suffered heart attacks during the trial, compared with one taking naproxen, a difference that did not reach statistical significance. But the paper never mentioned the three additional cardiac deaths of patients taking Vioxx, including the 73-year-old woman.

In 2000, amid rising concerns that its painkiller Vioxx posed heart risks, Merck overruled one of its own scientists after he suggested that a patient in a clinical trial had probably died of a heart attack.

In an e-mail exchange about Vioxx, the company’s most important new drug at the time, a senior Merck scientist repeatedly urged the researcher to change his views about the death “so that we don’t raise concerns.” In later reports to the Food and Drug Administration and in a paper published in 2003, Merck listed the cause of death as “unknown” for the patient, a 73-year-old woman.

Alex Tabarrok and Eric Helland expose the problems with partisan elections of judges. The Vioxx case is an application of their model.

The judge handling the first scheduled wrongful death trial over the pain reliever Vioxx received $60,000 in campaign contributions last year from political action committees funded by the law firm that filed the suit.

Huy began the discussion of the real world dangers of manipulating statistics. (His post is titled Dangerous but true and if i could remember how to link back to it I would.) I was listening to NPR one morning about the time of the Vioxx was being recalled. The program discussed the within-the-company research manipulation that had been done and promoted. While this is an issue more of covering up than manipulation, nontheless the statistics that reached consumers were not the ones found...

Chest pain and dyspnea are the most common symptoms of pleural mesothelioma.(15,16) The chest pain is characteristically nonpleuritic and varies in intensity from mild to incapacitating. Constitutional symptoms such as fever, weight loss and weakness are not uncommon. Despite the proven link between asbestos and mesothelioma, fewer than 50 percent of studied patients relate a definite history of asbestos exposure. This low figure may simply be a matter of inaccurate histories in persons with a disease that has a 20- to 50-year latency period or may reflect exposure to various dusts or chemicals presently unrecognized as etiologic factors, unrecognized incidental exposure or other etiologic mechanisms.

PROVO, UTAH (AP) – One of Utah’s largest personal injury law firm is in the middle of a dispute over debt that could affect their clients. According to court documents, the law firm Gregory, Barton and Swapp is mired in more debt than the firm can repay.

Last, but certainly not least. It isn’t the brightest idea in the world to talk on your cell phone and drive. A 1997 New England Journal of Medicine showed that talking on your cell phone increases your risk of death by 400 percent. Since car accidents are the number one cause of death for most of us, why risk it? Please understand this statistic is unrelated to having a hands free operation; however, in my opinion, even if you aren’t dialing, you are at risk because your focus and concentration is not on the road but on the phone.

Stymied by legal setbacks and a lack of public interest, critics of genetically engineered foods expressed impatience with the federal Food and Drug Administration for putting its regulatory foot down on pharmaceuticals such as Vioxx and Bextra, but keeping its hands off biotechnology.

In the UK, if you're found to have filed a frivolous case, you have to pay all the legal fees. I'm told that works pretty well. But what if the problem isn't necessarily with the filees? This 2002 report by Public Citizen seems to indicate that a significant bulk of claims are filed against repeat offenders. Slightly over half of all medical malpractice claims are made against doctors with two or more claims, and fully 16.5% of those claims are made against those with...

Other clients from whom Tehin stole settlement money included two medical malpractice victims and two claimants in a will contest. (ph)

" "The Washington Post takes a detailed look at a single medical malpractice case--one that began when Dr. Kevin Kearney of Maryland's Eastern Shore urged an 18-year-old mother to have her baby without a Caesarean section. What followed was a complicated delivery resulting in permanent injuries to the child, and a multi-year legal battle, filled with dramatic moments that illustrate how an unreliable system can fail both doctors and patients." "

1. Your attorney should handle asbestos and mesothelioma cases. Asbestos cases are very specialized, and an attorney who is not experienced in them will be at a great disadvantage. Heard, Robins, Cloud, Lubel & Greenwood, LLP has a proven track record of success in representing hundreds of victims of asbestos disease, including those diagnosed with mesothelioma.

Just 5 percent of American doctors are responsible for half the malpractice in the United States, according to a new analysis of federal data by the consumer group Public Citizen.

Isn’t it interesting how Bush is willing to meet with groups who support capping medical malpractice payouts, but has repeatedly refused to meet with patients who have been actual victims of malpractice? Surprised?

Although the association between amphibole asbestos and mesothelioma is indisputable, fewer than 10% of the people exposed to asbestos develop mesothelioma, and fiarly large proportions (up to 50% according to some authors) of the reported cases have no documented exposure to asbestos.

Problems with and/or recalls regarding Vioxx, Celebrex, Bextra, and now Zyprexa have been all over the news. Lawsuits regarding these are popping up all over the Free World, plus France and Canada!

Ridley Inc. expressed some surprise at being included in a class action lawsuit initiated by farmers in several Canadian provinces claiming damages allegedly suffered due to the closing of the U.S. border to Canadian cattle exports in May, 2003 after the discovery of a BSE infected cow in Alberta, Canada.

U.S. District Judge Stanley R. Chesler named four law firms as co-lead counsel for pension funds that owned Merck shares before the company disclosed an internal study linking Vioxx to increased risk of heart attack and stroke.

An article in the New York Times discusses the role of N.Y. Comptroller Alan Hevesi, whose responsibilities include being the sole fiduciary responsible for the New York Common Retirement Fund, which has assets of $120 billion, as the lead plaintiff in securities class action law suits. The Common Retirement Fund was the lead plaintiff in the WorldCom litigation that resulted in settlements of over $6 billion and is currently in trial against Arthur Andersen, the last remaining defendant (see earlier post here). ...

Thomas Sowell has a great column on the Vioxx and Celebrex controversy.

Nothing is 100% safe. And there’s that Dihydrogen Monoxide problem, which probably kills more people every single year than Vioxx and Celebrex combined.

Considering lawyer advertising for your personal injury law practice? Be prepared to commit a sufficient amount of money every month without interruption. Businesses and advertising agencies have long ago realized that whether you’re advertising in a newspaper, magazine, TV or Radio, your ads must be consistently seen by your audience to be effective. Additionally, there are other factors which require sustained, prolonged advertising campaigns. There are good months and bad months for any business, but even more so for a personal injury...

Web sites are inexpensive, however, for personal injury lawyers, web sites work best as an online brochure or for brand building, rather than for obtaining clients from Internet searches. Clients with more serious injuries are usually in a hospital bed or in bed at home without easy access to a computer and will call a telephone number in lawyer advertising they see on TV.

Contrary to reports from those who oppose patients’ rights, data used in this map clearly demonstrate that the number of doctors has risen in every state, every year over the last three years. Moreover, in the five states that recently passed new medical malpractice caps—MS, NV, OH, OK, and TX—premiums still rose at nearly double the rate of states that did not pass a damage cap.

Earlier when the controversy arose with Celebrex, Vioxx and Bextra I made the point (below) that Dr. Ross made here (above).

Problems in medicine are never as straightforward as the public would like. There is, with any medical intervention, a balancing act. What are the risks involved in the proposed care vs. the risks of alternatives, and what are the benefits of each. In the case of Celebrex and Vioxx (and Bextra for that matter) there appears to be a higher risk of heart problems. But for many arthritis sufferers these were very effective drugs that were also otherwise very well tolerated. Thousands die each year from gastrointestinal...

A group of farmers on Monday filed a $7-billion class-action lawsuit against the federal government, alleging its failure to protect against mad cow disease led to a crisis in the cattle industry.

"The loss of billions of dollars by the Canadian cattle industry was the result of gross incompetence and negligence on the part of the Canadian government," said a statement from the group.

The suit, which represents farmers in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Quebec, says Ottawa lost track of nearly half the 191 cows from Britain that were supposed to be tracked for signs of bovine spongiform encephalopathy to prevent them from being used in cattle food.

The LAT's Doug Smith traces the source of a check his son received for $0.49 from Bank of America as his share of a class action law suit. Just another cost of doing business in America.

OK, I agree it's easy to yuck it up about getting $.49 in payment for damages you never even knew you suffered, or to foam at the mouth over lawyers making unconscionable fees, but wait a sec here - class action lawsuits are the only form of external corporate governance I know of that leave behind an acceptably small footprint.

Even the fallout from the FDA's Vioxx scandal hasn't led to a general clamoring for heads to roll or even a review of its files. The fact that the agency is more concerned with banning Plan B contraceptives and the potential non-implantation of fertilized ova than the deaths of thousands of fully-formed humans has barely caused a ripple in either the press or a change in the Progressive critique of this Administration.

Conflicting sides of the medical malpractice debate have come to an agreement - both oppose new state Senate legislation addressing the issue.

If you wonder how you'll manage arthritis or other chronic pain in the wake of problems with the COX2 inhibitors Bextra, Vioxx, and Celebrex, you'll be interested in this recent study, which found that using a pain reliever like ibuprofen in combination with an acid-reducing drug like Prevacid or Nexium was a safe, effective alternative to COX2 inhibitors. The COX2 inhibitors became big sellers because they don't cause the stomach problems sometimes associated with ordinary pain relievers like aspirin and ibuprofen. If these latest data are...

Merck Asks for a Dismissal in First of Suits Over Vioxx (New York Times)

Merck asked yesterday for the dismissal of the first Vioxx personal injury lawsuit scheduled to come to trial, contending that a man who died of a heart attack after being prescribed Vioxx never took the drug.

Personal Injury law firm reacts to FDA’s demand that Bextra pulled from shelves after studies show increased risk of injury and fatality.

Personal injury law firms such as Weitz & Luxenberg are concentrating on the most serious Bextra and Celebrex-related injuries; heart attacks, strokes, severe skin reactions, Stevens Johnson Syndrome, and death, paying particular attention to the dosage and frequency with which the drugs were taken when evaluating potential lawsuits.

More than a year after it began, the debate over medical malpractice legislation remains plagued by political divisions and seemingly endless complications and twists.

Here's an idea for any politician who wants to do something about skyrocketing premiums for medical malpractice insurance: make sure the doctors who aren't competent to practice get their licenses revoked.

This story has been going around the internet for several days now. Some dumb bimbo art student took a picture of her pubic region and then made a transfer onto the hood of her VW beetle.

She was forced to paint over this display because she was causing car accidents. However, her college art professors thought it was great.

Much of this comes down to trust, namely trust of institutions. To what degree do we trust the intent of agencies, whether public or private? Mostly not. For example, when the Legislatature rejected the proposed Medicaid drug restriction program this past year, it was at least in part because it did not trust the Department of Health to do a fair job with it. In theory, it was a good idea. We might have saved some Medicaid clients from taking Vioxx for example. But reality intervened. The Department of Health and the Administration were not sufficiently trusted to give them that kind of power. Look at what they've done with wheelchairs, deliberately created a bureaucratic morass that actively hurts patients in order to slow things down and save money.

The fact that some medical boards wink at this kind of behavior is another very good reason to oppose any effort to impose caps on the size of medical malpractice awards.

The automobile brings freedom to the American teenager. It can also bring stupidity. Car accidents are the leading cause of death among teens. Driving with a friend doubles your risk of getting in a wreck, and talking on that cell phone slows your reaction time to that of a 70-year-old. Don't check your brains at the car door: Wear your seatbelt. Drive the speed limit (I'm still learning that one). Look both ways. Red means stop. Showing off puts your stupidity on display. And donuts? Stick to eating them. (

The suit, filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, alleges that DirectRevenue LLC "unlawfully used and damaged plaintiffs' computers to make money for themselves while willfully disregarding plaintiffs' rights to use and enjoy their personal property."

According to the suit, the spyware infiltrated users' computers to learn their Internet browsing habits and track their Internet use.

Pfizer has withdrawn the COX-2 inhibitor Bextra off the market under FDA pressure. They are also putting a “black box” warning on their older drug Celebrex, which is now the only COX-2 inhibitor left on the U.S. market, since Merck withdrew Vioxx last year under similar pressure.

The fact that the information is not yet public is part of the problem. It appears that the FDA would rather have you suffer indescribable pain and be bedridden with arthritis (for example), than have you run a slight risk of a heart attack. (A risk which you might be able to mitigate with exercise, that you can’t get without athritis medicine.) Or to put it a different way, they’d rather you die of a bleeding ulcer from taking too much aspirin or ibuprofen, than die of a heart attack from taking Bextra or Vioxx. I don’t doubt...

First person I thought of was my ex, a guy who could be called the king of car accidents in that little circle of friends of mine. I wish he could be there to tell me what to do next. Then I almost laughed out loud after 2 seconds, because I just realized that he should be on the plane to London at that moment. How inconvenient. Otherwise I would definitely call him, although we have not talked on the phone for some time.

"Too cozy" is how Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa referred to the relationship between the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and pharmaceutical companies in the aftermath of the Vioxx debacle. Although the FDA admits no substantive lapse in vigilance, congressional pressure and consumer outrage are forcing officials to rethink the agency's role and perhaps even the drug approval process itself.

Since October 2004, Manhattan personal injury firm Weitz & Luxenberg has accepted new clients who have been seriously injured by the pain reducing medication Bextra. Bextra was prescribed to millions of Americans to treat the pain associated with arthritis, menstrual discomfort, and other ailments. Now, in light of the Food and Drug Administration’s demand that Bextra’s manufacturer, Pfizer, pull the drug from the market, the firm anticipates an increase in individuals seeking to file suit to get compensation for their injuries.

I ran out of Bextra a couple weeks ago, and began looking for a replacement anti-inflammatory, on the reasonable basis that (1) the chemically-similar Vioxx had already been withdrawn from the market and (2) the third of the COX-2 inhibitors in general use, Celebrex, never did much for me.

Product liability is the set of legal rules that identifies the one responsible for defective or dangerous products. It is based on the principle that a person who manufactures or sells a product has a big responsibility, not only to the person who buys the product, but also to anyone else who might reasonably come into contact with it. If you have been injured by a dangerous consumer product, you’ll have an easier time to recover compensation for the damages it has brought you than those who are injured in other ways because of the product liability law. You also need the aid of an experienced defective product lawyer in pursuing your lawsuit.

Jamster, a ringtone and mobile content sales company, has been sued for false advertising. The suit which was filed in San Diego states that Jamster falsely advertises that users can get a free ringtone. In reality said ringtones cost $1.99.

Jamster is the U.S. name of Jamba, a German mobile content provider that VeriSign acquired in June 2004. VeriSign is no stranger to consumer wrath. T-Mobile USA and Cingular Wireless are also named on the suit, presumedly because they allow Jamster to bill for "free" services.

In the latest controversy over a risky pain killer, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Latest News about Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Thursday asked the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Latest News about Pfizer to withdraw Bextra from the market because of the increased risk of heart attacks and strokes.

European regulators have also asked the company to remove the product from apothecary shelves.

The FDA said the "overall risk versus benefit profile for the drug is unfavorable." Pfizer said it will obey with the request but "respectfully disagrees" with the FDA's assessment.

Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised that the tribute to Johnnie Cochran on his firm's website contains a "Vioxx Alert" and a new-case form that takes up as much column space as the tribute itself.