Accidents happen.  Sometimes an accident could have been prevented – and was caused by the carelessness of another.  When an accident is caused by someone else’s negligence, then the negligent party (the one who didn’t act carefully enough) can be held responsible when a person is injured as a result.    However, sometimes an accident is truly just an accident – it wasn’t reasonably preventable, everyone involved behaved pretty responsibly, etc.  While it might not seem like anyone could be held responsible for an accident that’s “just an accident,” you’d be surprised at how much liability could actually be involved…  Sometimes the owner of property is legally responsible for an accident that occured on his or her property simply because a dangerous condition existed.  Sometimes a product manufacturer is legally responsible for defects in a product that caused harm to someone simply because the product is considered dangerous.  There are many different ways a person may be held responsible for another’s injuries. 

Take a look at LawInfo’s Free Legal Resource Center for more information – we’ve recently updated our section devoted to the issue of “fault” when a person is injured.  Specifically, we’ve added a new video on the topic to help explain this sometimes complicated matter.  To learn more and watch the videos, click the following:

I was injured in an accident… now what?

Who is responsible when a person is injured?

What does the term “liable” mean?

What does the term “reasonable person” mean?

What is negligence?

What is strict liability?

How do you know if you have a personal injury claim?

What financial compensation can I get in a personal injury claim?

Hiring the right personal injury attorney

If you’ve just been in an accident, or been injured by someone, you might be wondering whether or not you should hire a lawyer.  If your injuries are very minor, such as a bruise or a little embarrassment, you might not need a lawyer, but it doesn’t hurt to contact one just in case you have a bigger legal claim than you think! 

If you’ve suffered moderate to severe injuries, you should definitely consult an attorney for assistance.  Did you know that in most cases a good attorney can help you get compensation for your injuries without even having to go to court? Most personal injury lawsuits are based on good fact-finding and steadfast negotiation more so than on black-and-white laws. Attorneys know these rules and the tricks other lawyers use to try to get around them.  For instance, do you know which questions the other side can, and can’t, ask you?  Probably not…  But lawyers are trained on these matters and can raise appropriate objections when necessary to prevent you from having to respond when you don’t need to.  While this sounds simple enough, many a case has been won or lost on simple facts.  

Also, when it comes to negotiating a settlement on your own, you will almost always fare worse than if you had a lawyer’s help.  Experienced attorneys know the average settlement range for similar injuries in the courts in your area.  Also, they know how the laws would be treated in your particular case and how such circumstances would either entitle you to more or less than the average award. 

Finally – let the pros handle the process.  Lawyers know the legal process like the backs of their hands.  Usually, you don’t.   So going it alone would be like going from your neighborhood kickboxing class to the boxing championships…    While there certainly isn’t anything wrong with being an amateur, when your legal rights are at stake your odds of prevailing are best protected if you go heavyweight-t0-heavyweight. 

At the end of the day, talk to an attorney in the beginning to figure out how best to protect your legal rights. So schedule an initial consultation – most times they’re free. 

Learn more about accidents and injuries in LawInfo’s Free Legal Resource Center.

Believe me, I know how much pain medication can help when you’ve been injured.  Being able to obtain your prescription over the Internet through an online pharmacy can not only come in pretty darn handy, but undoubtedly makes valuable medications accessible to those who ordinarily are not able to physically go to a neighborhood pharmacy.  The problem, though, is that some of these online pharmacies are legitimate (and legal)… and some are not. 

On the illegal side, cyber-criminals use the Internet to set up phony online pharmacies and illegally distribute controlled substances.  Typically, these illegal pharmacies don’t sell a variety of prescription drugs, but rather almost exclusively sell controlled substances like hydrocodone – the generic drug for Vicodin.   The target consumer isn’t the little old lady in need of her blood pressure medication.  Rather – these companies are out for profit through illegally distributing addictive narcotics. 

Such illegal operations inevitably lead to tragedy.  Take the case of Ryan Haight.  Ryan Thomas Haight  purchased narcotics over the internet.  He had never seen the medical doctor on the Internet who prescribed him the drugs, nor had he visited the Internet pharmacy that mailed him the drugs.  A few months after ordering those drugs, Ryan Haight overdosed and died on February 12, 2001.  He was only 17 when he purchased them… and just barely 18 when he died.

According to the US Department of Justice website, a lot of people don’t realize that many of the drugs you can buy on the Internet are counterfeit and often are manufactured in other countries. Some of the prescription drugs are apparently even heroin-based so buyers become addicted to them and continue to purchase more.

After years of lobbying Congress for stricter laws, we now have the Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act of 2008, which goes into effect Monday, April 13. These regulations apply to the sale of controlled substances, not other medications, and are intended to prevent the illegal diversion of controlled substances.   The regulations are not intended to hamper legitimate online pharmacies, but to crack down on the illegal ones.   The statute adds several new provisions to the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) including:

• New definitions, such as “online pharmacy” and “deliver, distribute, or dispense by means of the Internet”;
• A requirement of at least one face-to-face patient medical evaluation prior to issuance of a controlled substance prescription;
• Registration requirements for online pharmacies;
• Internet pharmacy website disclosure information requirements; and
• Prescription reporting requirements for online pharmacies.

If you’ve suffered an injury after taking a drug you ordered online, or if you have more questions about this matter don’t hestitate to contact an attorney.  The doctor who prescribed those drugs to Ryan Haight was held liable in court to the family for his participation in the illegal online pharmacy.  Contact an attorney in your are to learn more about your legal rights and the laws that protect you.

For more information, you can read the DEA Press Release.

The FDA announced on Monday that nearly 30 weight-loss products containing unlisted and possibly dangerous ingredients attributed to heart attacks and strokes are available to consumers online. The appetite-suppressing products, which are available in pill-form, are advertised as “natural” fat busters but may contain a known carcinogen and other adverse chemicals.

“These tainted weight loss products pose a great risk to public health because they contain undeclared ingredients and in some cases prescription drugs in amounts that greatly exceed their maximum recommended dosages,” said Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA’s drug evaluation center.

Many of the drugs in question contain sibutramine, a powerful appetite suppressant that is chemically related to amphetamines. Sibutramine use has been attributed to heart attacks, strokes, heart palpitations and other problems. The FDA also found phenolphthalein in some of the diet products; a chemical which is now being withdrawn from the market because of cancer risks.

The problem the FDA notes is that none of these diet drugs list the toxic ingredients on the label. “Consumers have no way of knowing that these products contain powerful drugs that can cause serious health consequences,” Woodcock said. The FDA is considering filing criminal charges against some of the drug manufacturers for not complying with the FDA’s requests for recalls.

The weight-loss products in question are:

Fatloss Slimming, 2 Day Diet, 3x Slimming Power, 5x Imelda Perfect Slimming, 3 Day Diet Japan Lingzhi, 24 Hours Diet, 7 Diet Day/Night Formula, 7 Day Herbal Slim, 8 Factor Diet, 999 Fitness Essence, Extrim Plus and GMP, Imelda Perfect Slim, Lida DaiDaihua, Miaozi Slim Capsules, Perfect Slim, Perfect Slim 5x, Phyto Shape, ProSlim Plus, Royal Slimming Formula, Slim 3 in 1, Slim Express 360, Slimtech, Somotrin, Superslim, TripleSlim, Zhen de Shou, and Venom Hyperdrive 3.0.

For more information, visit http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2008/NEW01933.html.

Federal health officials announced Thursday they will add the strongest safety warning, a black box label, to prescription drugs used to cleanse the bowel before colonoscopies. The new warning label will apply to Visicol and OsmoPrep tablets, known as oral phosphate products, made by Salix Pharmaceuticals. The black box label warns patients who suffer from dehydration and kidney disease, or those who take medications that affect the kidneys, to take strong precautions when using these medicines.

The FDA said that it has received more than 20 reports of a rare but serious form of kidney failure among patients taking the drugs. The FDA first warned doctors and patients about potential kidney risks with the medications in 2006.

The FDA said they are also concerned about the kidney risks from over-the-counter bowel-cleansing medications, such as Fleet Phospho-soda, made by C.B. Fleet Company Inc. While non-prescription products cannot receive black boxed warnings, FDA officials said they plan to require stricter labeling on over-the-counter phosphate drugs.

A person injured by a defective or dangerous product may be eligible to file a lawsuit for product liability. Damages can be recovered under one of the following categories: strict products liability; negligence or breach of warranty.

If you or a loved one has taken Visicol or OsmoPrep, please visit with your physician immediately. If you have suffered kidney damage from taking these drugs, you may be eligible for compensation. To learn more, contact a qualified personal injury attorney in your area today.

Two teenage girls who worked at Good Samaritan Society Nursing Home in Albert Lea, Minneapolis, are being charged with nursing home abuse, reported authorities on Thursday. 19-year-old Brianna Broitzman and 18-year-old Ashton Larson are accused of taunting, spitting upon, poking and groping the genitals of residents who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia disorders in the home.

Broitzman and Larson, who worked as part-time nurse’s aides at the home, are being charged as adults. Four other teens who worked with them are being charged as juveniles for failing to report the incidents.

Broitzman and Larson’s charges include assault, abuse of a vulnerable adult by a caregiver, abuse of a vulnerable adult with sexual contact, disorderly conduct and failing to report suspected maltreatment. All of these charges are gross misdemeanors.

If found guilty, Broitzman and Larson “most likely will face suspended jail sentences and probation, so they’d have the threat of jail hanging over them if they get in more trouble,” Attorney Craig Nelson told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis.

Mark Anderson, administrator at the Good Samaritan Society home said the past few months “have been difficult for the staff, the home’s residents and their families. We are just really thankful that the proceedings are moving forward and hopefully can see some closure to this whole process.”

As many of today’s nursing homes are under-funded and understaffed, a disturbing incidence of neglect and abuse is being reported. Injuries sustained by nursing home residents due to neglect and abuse often involve the inappropriate use of physical restraints, joint contractors, overuse of sedatives, unnecessary use of urinary catheters, loss of mobility, pressure sores and lack of nutrition with weight loss.

Nursing home abuse is devastating, extremely unnecessary and completely illegal. If you feel you or a loved one has been the victim of nursing home abuse, or if you have lost a loved one due to wrongful death caused by nursing home abuse, you are not alone and you do have legal rights. Contact the authorities immediately if you or your loved one is still in danger. After the threat of personal safety is relieved, contact an experienced nursing home abuse attorney to discuss your litigation options.

Due to the financial meltdown felt by millions of Americans across this country, the number of people acting as their own lawyers is on the rise. In the past, less complicated cases such as uncontested divorces or small claims were often filed by parties serving as their own attorney. But in this tough economy, even those tied up in child custody cases, complex lawsuits and complicated bankruptcies are representing themselves as well. “It’s not just that poor people can’t afford lawyers. This is really a middle-class phenomenon,” said Sue Talia, a judge from Danville, California.

The result of this legal trend is causing court systems to clog with filings from people unfamiliar with the legal process. Sadly, some of these pro se litigants, as they are being called, are making mistakes with expensive and permanent consequences. “Courts are absolutely inundated with people who do not understand the procedures,” said Talia. “It is a disaster for high-volume courts, because an inordinate amount of their clerks’ time is spent trying to make sure that the procedures are correctly followed.”

Luckily, there is self-help Web sites (such as LawInfo) and desks at court offices that offer standard legal forms for such things as simple divorces. The American Bar Association is encouraging all states to set up such self-help desks and adopt standardized forms to help cut legal costs. Also, volunteer lawyers are available in some states to give legal advice to those who cannot afford legal counsel. Further, a majority of states promote a growing legal trend known as “unbundling,” in which an attorney handles just part of a contract, lawsuit or other litigation for a small fee, rather than taking on an entire case.

Despite these tough economic times, however, there are situations where hiring a lawyer is not only imperative for your case, but critical to your fundamental freedom, such as fighting a criminal charge. Matters like this leave no room for penny-pinching. For more information, contact a qualified attorney in your area today for an initial (and usually free) consultation to discuss the specifics of your case.

If you’ve been injured, arrested, or sued, you’re probably wondering how much it would cost to hire a lawyer. Or you might not even TRY to hire a lawyer because you just assume that it’s too expensive, or that you could probably get by on your own.  This is, unfortunately, all too common.  In fact, a lot of people who DO hire lawyers have learned their lesson by getting burned the first time. 

The good news is  this – many attorneys offer free consultations.  So, there is no reason, other than a bit of your time, to meet with a lawyer and let them tell you how they could help you.  Also, most personal injury attorneys work on what’s called a ‘contingency fee basis.”  This means you don’t have to have a lot of money to hire a lawyer.  The lawyer will not charge you legal fees upfront, but will take his or her fees out of whatever settlement or award you receive.  Usually, the attorney takes a percentage of the recovery.  And.. if you loose the case, then the attorney doesn’t get a fee either.  Although, keep in mind the costs incurred for the lawsuit are ordinarily the client’s responsibility, either way it turns out. 

Or, another way to think about it is this… what would it cost you NOT to hire a lawyer?  What consequences could you suffer by not having proper legal advice or representation?  While in minor cases, you might be able to successfully resolve the matter yourself, for cases in which anything valuable is at stake (your freedom, your health, your money, your pain and suffering), the consequences of not hiring a lawyer could be devastating. 

Take the example of a debt collections case.  Many people don’t hire a lawyer because they figure they’re already in debt, how much worse could a lawsuit really make it?  Trust me, it can be worse.  Having a judgment for a debt owned and unpaid is another negative on your credit report.  Also, that creditor may have been willing to negotiate if you got a lawyer involved, because a lawyer knows better how to deal with creditors and what risks they take in pursuing a collection against you. 

Another example – getting arrested.  Too often, those charged with crimes try to go it alone, thinking they’ll figure it out as they go along.  Wrong!  Getting a lawyer involved as early in the process is crucial to protecting your rights. Law enforcement, including the prosecuting attorney, are highly skilled at getting criminal defendants to talk.  Most times, you unwittingly say something that ruins your chances of getting a plea deal.  If you have an attorney speak for you, that won’t happen.  Also, an attorney may even be able to get the case dropped or the charges reduced early on… making everything else easier for you. 

Finally, if you’ve been in an accident, most times it is not in your best interest to talk to that nice insurance adjuster.  Their job is to make you think the settlement they offer you is a “good deal”… but the insurance adjuster, no matter how nice they seem, is looking out for the insurance company’s best interest – not yours.  Only an attorney would know what a “good deal” is under the law given your situation. 
 So, please, if you’ve suffered an injury, are facing criminal charges, are involved in a lawsuit, or have any other legal matter pending, don’t possibly jeopardize your rights.   Contact an attorney and ask about an initial consultation.  Only make the decision NOT to hire a lawyer after you know what a lawyer can do for you. 

Good luck!

If you know or are close to an elderly man or woman, chances are you have seen them pop a pill before or after dining, heard them mention that their medication costs are too high, and/or have seen their bathroom or kitchen cabinets overflowing with small, orange prescription bottles.

Polypharmacy (the use of multiple meds) is most common among people over age 65, about one-fifth of whom take at least 10 medications a week. Although multiple medications can treat or ease many ailments, overmedication can worsen some conditions and cause troubling side effects that need to be treated with even more drugs. This overmedication among older Americans is developing into a vicious cycle and a growing, unexamined problem in modern-day health care. “Overmedication is a true medical epidemic,” says Armon B. Neel Jr., PharmD, a clinical pharmacist in Georgia. “It’s completely out of hand.”

The Institute of Medicine estimates that at least 1.5 million drug overdoses occur in the U.S. every year, thousands of which are fatal. Studies indicate that about one-third of these adverse drug reactions occur among senior citizens—and that 42% of these fatal accidents were caused by a lethal combination of drugs. Sadly, when elderly patients first start to recognize signs of a possible adverse reaction to their overmedication; e.g. memory lapse, fatigue, abdominal pain, swelling, or other ailments, doctors often mistake these physical responses as signs of a worsening disease…and prescribe more drugs to combat the symptoms. This can lead to a “prescribing cascade,” says Jeffrey Delafuente, FCCP, a professor of pharmacy at Virginia Commonwealth University. “The solution is to perform a proper diagnosis and reduce the number of drugs. Adding more just exacerbates the problem.”

Improper treatment of a patient by a physician is the leading cause of medical malpractice. There can be a variety of circumstances in which a patient is misdiagnosed and subjected to improper treatment and preventable procedures—such as wrong limb amputation, wrong organ operation/transplant, inappropriate administration of chemotherapy, and excessive medication prescriptions.

If you believe you or a loved has suffered from medical malpractice of any kind, including being overly-medicated, or if you have lost a loved one due to wrongful death from medical malpractice, contact a qualified medical malpractice attorney in your area today for more information or to discuss the specifics of your case.

Just about every injured person is very concerned about the potential damages that could be won in a lawsuit.  The question is even more difficult when contemplating taking an out-of-court settlement or taking the case all the way to trial.  Attorneys are skilled at advising clients about the possible outcomes and perhaps even estimating a damages award.  However, no attorney has a crystal ball and taking a case to trial can certainly be less than predictable.  Lucky for us the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), conducted a study of over 27,000 lawsuits in 2005 to determine the trends in civil court lawsuits and awards.

The BJS study is the first nationally representative report about general civil lawsuits before a judge or a jury in state courts.  The report discusses the types of civil cases that usually end up going to trial, the differences between cases tried before judges or juries, the trending in plaintiffs’ win rates, and the median amount of damages awarded.  “Median” is the middle value in the total number of items analyzed.  Thus, half of the lawsuits returned higher awards than the median and half of the lawsuits returned lower awards than the median.  At any rate, it is a useful resource showing the trends in lawsuit verdicts and awards. 

The report shows that plaintiffs won more than 50% of the time in state court civil trials and took home a median damages award $28,000. Less than 5% of all plaintiff winners won an award of $1,000,000 or more.  The median damages award in federal court was reported at over $200,000.  The cases with the highest estimated median damage awards included medical malpractice ($600,000) and product liability ($350,000) cases. Product liability cases and medical malpractice cases have seen the highest increases in jury awards.  The findings were recently published in a BJS press release.  A summary of the findings can be found here.

If you’ve been injured in an automobile accident or by a defective product, if you think you might be the victim of medical malpractice, if you have a real property dispute, or if you have another litigation matter, contact an attorney in your area for more information about your legal options.  The amount of damages you could recover will depend greatly on the specifics of your case.