SUV speeding

Judge Allows Class Action Lawsuit to Proceed Against Toyota

There has been an onslaught of lawsuits against Toyota in recent years due to design flaws with some of its vehicles. Most recently, two auto product liability lawsuits were filed in August 2010 against Toyota in which the plaintiffs cited six different incidents between 2003 and 2010 involving sudden acceleration and claimed that the automaker […]

Surgeons performing operation

Surgical Errors Continue to Persist in High Numbers

The recent report published in the Archives of Surgery in October 2010 paints a grim picture regarding surgical errors. According to the report, there is a “persisting high frequency of surgical ‘never events, or errors that are entirely preventable and should never occur, despite the fact that hospitals must abide by a universal protocol of […]

Operation taking place

510(k) Premarket Clearance Requirements for Medical Devices

When a manufacturer wishes to introduce a new medical device or reintroduce a device that will be significantly changed or modified to the extent that its safety or effectiveness could be affected, the manufacturer must provide the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with a Premarket Notification (PMA) in the form of a 510(k) submission […]

Red law book with gavel

Can Personal Injury Law Trump Workers’ Compensation Law for Some Workplace Injuries?

There’s an interesting lawsuit pending in Florida that addresses just this issue. The lawsuit, Janowski v. Publix, may not be permitted to go forward based upon a Florida statute enacted in 2003, which effectively prevents any lawsuit by injured workers against their employers. However, the plaintiff’s attorney contends that the 2003 statute is unconstitutional to […]

White casket being carried

Wrongful Death Claim Filed As a Result of Massey Mine Blast

Last month a tragic explosion in a Massey coal mine in West Virginia resulted in the deaths of 29 coal miners. In mid-April, as reported in this New York Times article, the first wrongful death lawsuit was filed on behalf of a widow of one of the miners. Marlene Griffith alleged in the lawsuit that […]

Hospital building

Wrongful Death Compensation Calculations

Ronald Miller at the Maryland Personal Injury Lawyer blog recently discussed an interesting Chicago Law Review article, Dollars and Death, 72 U. Chi. L. Rev. 537 (2005). The article is authored by Eric Posner (Judge Richard Posner’s son) and Cass Sunstein. In the article, the authors examine ways to make wrongful death compensation more uniform […]