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August 31, 2007

Parents file lawsuit over teen’s parasailing death

Two wrongful death lawsuits were recently filed after a 15 year old girl died in a parasailing accident in Florida. The 15 year old girl’s sister was also parasailing with her at the time of the accident, and she suffered serious personal injuries. The two girls were severely injured when they were thrown into the roof of a hotel and several trees. At the time, there was a weather advisory warning of thunderstorms and strong wind. The lawsuits name the company providing the parasailing service, the boat captain, and the Wyndham resort where the family was staying. Through the lawsuits, the parents hope to stimulate increased regulation of companies that offer parasailing.

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Posted In: Amusement Park Accidents , Boating Accidents , Injuries to Minors and Children , Wrongful Death

August 24, 2007

Illinois toy product liability lawsuits against Mattel for recalled toys likely to proceed

Illinois is one of the states where parents of children may be allowed to sue Mattel for recalled toys even where their children have not yet shown physical harm. The Wall Street Journal reports that Illinois and California are states where plaintiffs may be able to demand that companies like Mattel pay for medical tests for children who have been exposed to these dangerous toys by setting up medical-monitoring funds.

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Posted In: Dangerous toys , Toys

August 23, 2007

Fleet Phospho-soda, a popular over-the-counter laxative, may cause kidney damage

Several product liability lawsuits have been filed against C.B. Fleet Co. Inc., the makers of Fleet Phospho-soda for kidney damage and death. The popular over-the-counter laxative is used to flush out patients’ bowels before procedures such as colonoscopies. To date, more than 50 lawsuits have been filed in over 20 states.

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Posted In: pharmaceuticals , pharmaceuticals

August 22, 2007

Nursing Mothers Beware: FDA Warns of Rare Codeine Risk to Infants

The Food and Drug Administration warned that the painkiller codeine, if taken by certain nursing mothers, could potentially pose a risk of overdose to their infants. Doctors treating nursing mothers should prescribe low doses of codeine. Mothers taking codeine should be attentive to signs of excessive sleepiness or limpness in their babies. The FDA will also ask makers of codeine-containing products to put information about the risk into their labels. In particular, infants of women whose bodies process, or metabolize, the drug very quickly may have an increased risk of an overdose, the FDA said. To determine whether a mother is a rapid metabolizer of codeine, a genetic test can be performed.

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Posted In: pharmaceuticals

August 20, 2007

Children susceptible to injuries caused by cough medicine

The Food and Drug Administration recently issued an advisory to warn parents that children under the age of two should not be given cold and cough medicines unless instructed by a doctor in order to prevent injuries. These medicines' labels currently advise receiving instructions from a doctor for children under two before use but many doctors and parents ignore these warnings despite the fact that hundreds of adverse effects and even some deaths have been cause by the medications. It is unclear whether the liability falls on the drug manufacturers, doctors or parents. Critics of this practice have petitioned the FDA to ban marketing the drugs toward children under the age of six but some of the drugs' labels show pictures of infants in diapers. Some critics have gone as far as suggesting that these medicines should no longer be sold over the counter. Drug manufacturers argue that the FDA approved the drugs as safe and effective but this is contested because when the drugs were initially tested the results were only monitored in adults. The studies were decades ago and safety standards have risen significantly. Harmful ingredients in cough medicines include dextomethorphan, which can cause neurological side effects like abnormal movements and hallucinations, and pseudoephedrine, which has been linked to infant deaths, high blood pressure and arrhythmias. Children have been injured by standard doses. Overdoses do occur, however, when parents give children two different medicines with the same ingredients. Sales of the drugs are booming and it is unlikely that restrictions more than requiring stronger wording on labels will be implemented as a result of the investigation.

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Posted In: Injuries to Minors and Children , Medical Malpractice , Products liability , Wrongful Death

August 17, 2007

United States continues to drop in world life expectancy ratings

The United States has been ranked 42nd in life expectancy in the world. There are many different theories regarding why the US continues to slip in the rankings. First, other countries are improving health care, nutrition and lifestyle. In addition, 45 million Americans are without health insurance while most Europeans countries and others have universal health care. The US also has one of the highest percentages of obese people in the world. The infant mortality rate in the US is also not ranked near the top. Some experts claim that improved access to health care could help increase life expectancy. There should also be focus on ways to reduce tobacco use and cholesterol, control blood pressure and blood sugar and reduce Americans' susceptibility to cancer, heart disease and lung disease. Andorra, Japan, Macau, San Marino and Singapore have the highest life expectancies. Western European countries, Australia, Sweden and Canada also have high life expectancies.

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Posted In: Current Issues

August 16, 2007

Wrongful death suit filed by slain teen's family against the City of Chicago

A wrongful death lawsuit has recently been filed against the City of Chicago and the Chicago Police Department by a family whose son was shot by police officers while unarmed. The Chicago police allege that the 18-year-old did, in fact, have a gun. The police are currently reviewing surveillance video taken at the scene. The family and witnesses claim that it only seemed like the teen was carrying a gun because he was trying to hold up his baggy pants. The family's attorney alleged that some witnesses have not come forward because they were intimidated by police. As a result of the shooting there have been local protests and meetings between the Chicago police and clergy. Multiple arrests were made during the protests.

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Posted In: Current Issues , Wrongful Death

August 15, 2007

Lawsuit filed against police in use of Taser

A wrongful death and personal injury lawsuit has been filed by the family of a 42 year old man who died after being tasered by Chicago Police. The lawsuit alleges excessive force in that the man was non-combative when initially taken into Police custody but was later tasered twice, pepper sprayed, and thrown to the floor when he asked to use the bathroom. A spokesperson for the Chicago Police stated that the police had followed procedures for subduing combative persons.

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Click here for a prior post on Taser litigation

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Posted In: Products liability

August 15, 2007

Mattel announces largest toy recall in its history

Just one month after issuing a recall of Sesame Street and Dora the Explorer toys, Mattel has announced a second, even larger recall. This time, the recall targets two types of toys. First, 436,000 die-cast toys from the “Cars” movie are being recalled because they have been found to contain lead paint. Like the toys from the previous recall, these tainted toys were made in China. Mattel states that it is trying to prevent harming children with its products by moving production to Chinese facilities that it owns and controls, instead of having the toys made by Chinese subcontractors. And while this may improve toy safety in terms of lead poisoning, the change would do little to remedy any problems that caused the second part of the recall. Mattel is also recalling 18,200,000 other toys, including some Barbie toys, because they contain small and powerful magnets that can cause personal injuries to minors if swallowed. The magnetized toys were manufactured according to Mattel design specifications.

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Click here for a prior post on the first Mattel recall
Click here for a prior post on the dangers of toys with magnets

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Posted In: Injuries to Minors and Children , Lead Products

August 9, 2007

Six figure settlement in videotape rape case

The Chicago area parents of a minor who videotaped the rape of a 16 year old girl have settled the personal injury lawsuit against them for a six-figure sum. The girl was drunk at a party at the parents’ house when the minor was assaulted by the parents’ child and three other teens. The lawsuit alleged that the parents knew or should have known about the party in their home at which underage teens were drinking.

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Posted In: Injuries to Minors and Children

August 7, 2007

Lawsuits expected from lead in childrens toys

The Consumer Product Safety Commission recently conducted a random sampling survey of 85 pieces of children’s jewelry. The study showed that 20 percent of the toys sampled posed a potential poisoning hazard to young children. Over 95 percent of the 17.9 million pieces of children’s jewelry items pulled from the market since the start of 2005 were imported from China.

The primary poison concern when dealing with imports from China is the metal lead. Jewelry is the most dangerous place for lead because children can swallow a small piece. This can in turn cause acute poisoning, which can lead to respiratory failure, seizures and even death. From 2000 to 2005 over 20,000 children turned up in emergency rooms after ingesting jewelry. Toy jewelry manufactures may face personal injury lawsuits if found negligent in the sale and distribution of children’s toys.

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Posted In: Current Issues , Injuries to Minors and Children , Lead Products , Products liability

August 7, 2007

Lawsuit filed against hospitals that dumped homeless disabled patients on the streets

A lawsuit has been filed against two California hospitals and a transportation service which claims that the defendants dumped patients in downtown Los Angeles. One patient was a paraplegic who las left crawling in a gutter without a wheelchair. The complaint alleged that he was "left to crawl away with his possessions in a bag clenched in his teeth." Another man was homeless and a detoxifying alcoholic. More patients have probably been victims of this practice, but because of mental disorders or disabilities they often do not realize that they have been severely mistreated.

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Posted In: Current Issues

August 6, 2007

Lawsuit filed over defective medical product

Two women have filed product liability lawsuits against the maker of ObTape for personal injuries suffered after the devices were implanted. ObTape is a brand of vaginal sling intended to cure urinary stress incontinence, but the lawsuits alleges that the product instead caused erosion of the vaginal wall, bleeding, lesions, and other complications. Over the course of two years after the device was implanted, one of the women endured 30 hospital visits and three surgeries and continues to suffer from her urinary stress incontinence.

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Posted In: Products liability

August 3, 2007

12 year old dies after getting electrocuted by air conditioner

A Chicago area teen died last night after being electrocuted by an air conditioner. The police believe that the boy was injured while hopping fences with his friends. The boy fell onto the air conditioning unit on a neighbor's property, and this apparently led to the boy being electrocuted. The boy was found unresponsive at approximately 10:30pm, and died about an hour later at Holy Cross Hospital.

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Posted In: Injuries to Minors and Children , Land Owner liability

August 3, 2007

Taser litigation record weaker than advertised

Taser International, Inc., the company that makes the electric stun guns boasts that its success records in product liability suits is a result of its no-settlement strategy and its refusal to back down from a legal fight. However, of the 52 product liability suits that it claims as victories, 10 of those cases were actually settled and not either dismissed or resulting in a verdict in the company’s favor. Although this fact seems to belie Taser’s brash claims that “Taser doesn’t settle,” representatives from the stun gun company reason that they would consider a settlement a victory for the company if the settlement amount is less than the costs of litigation.

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Posted In: Products liability

August 2, 2007

New Chinese product safety issue: recall on nearly 1 million Fisher-Price toys

Concerns about the safety of children and product liability have led Fisher-Price to recall almost one million plastic toys. The recall was "fast-tracked", which means the company was able to prevent two-thirds of the toys from even making to store shelves. Suspect toys should be kept away from children. Owners of a recalled toy will receive a voucher for another product of the same value.

Call Mattel's recall line at 800.916.4498
Click here to see pictures of the recalled toys

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Posted In: Injuries to Minors and Children , Products liability

August 2, 2007

Mattel recalls 967,000 toys with lead paint

After discovering that toys made by its manufacturers in China were tainted with lead paint, Mattel has issued a recall of almost one million of its products in order to prevent personal injuries to minors. Many of the affected toys include some of Mattel’s most popular selling items, including toys that feature Sesame Street and Nickelodeon characters. Although Mattel claims that it has been able to keep 2/3 of the tainted products off the shelves by contacting its distributors and retailers, that leaves nearly 300,000 products in the homes of children. Consumers can identify the toys by looking for date codes from 109-7LF to 187-7LF on the packaging.

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Click here for the Mattel press release

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Posted In: Injuries to Minors and Children , Lead Products , Products liability

August 1, 2007

Levin & Perconti sponsors American Constitution Society’s national convention

This weekend, the American Constitution Society, ACS, held it’s national convention in Washington, D.C. The American Constitution Society is one of the nation’s leading progressive legal organizations composed of lawyers, law students, judges, policymakers and other concerned individuals.

Levin & Perconti was a law firm sponsor of this event.

For more information about ACS and to view the video taped panel discussions from the conference, click here.

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Posted In: Levin & Perconti in the Community , Medical Malpractice , Tort Reform

August 1, 2007

Chicago teenager killed by CTA Brown line

A 17-year-old male was killed late Tuesday night after falling onto the Chicago Transit Authority's Brown line tracks. Witnesses said the man went around the gates and fell into the oncoming path of a Brown line train. The CTA has made a recent push towards safety after some serious injuries and lawsuits have occurred. Obviously, further improvements need to be employed to prevent such terrible tragedies.

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Posted In: Train Accidents

August 1, 2007

Second lawsuit filed in Chicago park fight

A second lawsuit has been filed in the aftermath of a fight occurring in Chicago’s Durkin Park, this time with the family of two teens suing the city for personal injuries caused by failing to respond to 911 calls. When a fight broke out in Durkin Park last month, there was a 26 minute delay between when 911 calls were first received and when authorities were actually dispatched to the scene of the fight. As a result of this delay, the fight escalated, leaving one teen unconscious. The teens in the lawsuit were injured while attending to the unconscious teen when a 15 year old drove an SUV into the teens. One of the teens was injured and suffered a broken foot and injuries all over his head and body.

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Click here for a prior post on Durkin Park

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Posted In: Injuries to Minors and Children , Pedestrian

« July 2007 | | September 2007 »

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The purpose of this blog is to deliver news and information that is relevant to our areas of practice. The news and information reported on this blog represent the legal actions of attorneys throughout the United States. Our firm does not claim to represent plaintiffs in all of the lawsuits, settlements, and jury verdicts reported, only those noted as Levin & Perconti cases.

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