Philadelphia Personal Injury Attorney Blog - Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis LLP

In another embarrassing news story for pharmaceutical companies, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning letter to Merck over conditions at its West Point, Pennsylvania plant. The plant had recalled two batches of vaccines in December because there was concern that the vaccines were not sterile.

The warning letter comes after an extensive round of inspections at the plant, from November 26 to January 17. The letter says that it found "significant objectionable conditions" in the manufacturing process for vaccines and drug ingredients at the plant. Then, it said, Merck did not respond appropriately to the concerns, which included a lack of written procedures, tests, or laboratory controls to ensure the purity, strength, quality, or even identity of the drugs it was manufacturing. However, the FDA said the concerns did not represent a safety threat from the products, despite the recalled vaccines in December.

The FDA said the public letters were a useful way to "achieve voluntary compliance" among drug manufacturers, and Merck has pledged that it is "committed to working with the FDA to ensure that all these issues are addressed." However, one wonders at the level of commitment that necessitated the publishing of the letter. And one also wonders whether compliance following a public censure can be considered "voluntary."

If you have been injured by a defective product, the chances are the company will tell you it is "committed" to your safety, too, but this does not mean that they actually are. Contact the experienced product liability attorneys at Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP, today for a free initial consultation and case evaluation.

If you believe you may be the victim of medical malpractice, Pennsylvania law gives you two years to file your claim. You may think this ample time to do some investigation on your own to determine whether or not you have a case. However, without the aid of a lawyer, there are many techniques that hospitals, doctors, and other practitioners can use to derail your investigations and prevent you from ever filing your case.

One of the most commonly used techniques by doctors and hospitals is to delay turning over your medical records. In the event of a request for records from you where a doctor or hospital knows or suspects it may be guilty of malpractice, records may easily be "misplaced." In some cases, patients have found first that records handed over were delayed for as many as five years. In other cases, the records turned over were missing key documents. Under the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), you are guaranteed access to your records, but in practical terms, doctors and hospitals often turn over only a "summary" of your records in response to your request, which may or may not contain the information you need.

If you believe you have suffered as a result of medical malpractice, it is best not to wait or attempt to investigate on your own. The experienced medical malpractice attorneys at Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP know what records you need and how to get them. Contact us today for a free initial consultation and case evaluation.

The Supreme Court has made it more difficult for whistleblowers to share in the proceeds from fraud lawsuits against government contractors. The court recently ruled that James Stone, an 81-year-old retired engineer, may not collect a dime for his role in exposing fraud at the now-closed Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant northwest of Denver, Colorado.

Justice Antonni Scalia said Stone was not an original source of the information that resulted in Rockwell International, now part of aerospace giant Boeing, being ordered to pay the government over $4 million for fraud connected with environmental cleanup at the Rocky Flats Plant.

The company wanted the justices to restrict when an individual can collect for suing on the government’s behalf.

If you or someone you know was a whistleblower and needs legal representation to protect your rights and get you the monetary compensation you deserve, please contact a Philadelphia Qui Tam Attorney at Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis today to schedule your initial consultation.

Accutane (generic isotretinoin), a controversial drug used to treat severe acne, has long been associated with high rates of depression among users. Now, researchers in Britain and the United States believe they have discovered the cause for this Accutane side effect. It seems that Accutane decreases serotonin levels in the brain, which, in turn, can lead to depression and even aggressive behavior.

Introduced in 1982, Accutane has been the subject of controversy for years. It has been associated with psychiatric problems and has been linked to at least 266 cases of suicide in the United States. In addition to its connection with depression, the drug has been associated with myriad other serious side effects. It first garnered attention in the late 1980s for causing severe birth defects. Accutane has also been linked to problems of the liver, kidneys, digestive tract, central nervous system, and pancreas, as well as the cardiovascular, musculoskeletal and auto-immune systems.

Earlier this year, scientists from the University of Bath in conjunction with the University of Texas at Austin conducted experiments on mice that showed that Accutane made the mice behave in ways comparable to depression in humans. Now, in an article published in the journal Experimental Biology and Medicine, those same scientists have revealed a potential mechanism that might link Accutane to reported cases of depression in some patients taking the medication. Using cells cultured in a laboratory, the researchers monitored the effect of Accutane on the chemistry of the cells that produce serotonin. The researchers now say that Accutane could be disrupting the process by which serotonin relays signals between neurons in the brain.

Serotonin is a hormone found in the pineal gland, blood platelets, the digestive tract, and the brain. Serotonin acts both as a chemical messenger that transmits nerve signals between nerve cells and that causes blood vessels to narrow. Changes in the serotonin levels in the brain can alter the mood, and low levels of serotonin have been linked to depression, as well as bipolar disorder and anxiety disorders.

The link between low serotonin levels and Accutane use is further confirmation that this drug causes psychiatric problems – something that has been known for quite a long time. In fact, the manufacture of Accutane, Roche AG, knew about these problems long before they were made public.

A 2004 USA Today article reported that, in the mid-1990s, contrary to advice from its own doctors, Roche executives chose not to issue stronger warnings about Accutane’s depression risks. According to the article, Roche decided against the warnings after its marketing department expressed concern that doing so would hurt sales. At the time, Accutane was one of Roche’s top-selling medications, bringing in more than $1.2 million every year. In 1999, in the face of mounting evidence, the Food & Drug Administration finally required Roche to include a suicide warning on the Accutane package insert.

If you or a loved one has suffered from taking a dangerous drug or from using a defective product in Philadelphia or anywhere in Pennsylvania, please contact the product liability attorneys at Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis today to schedule an initial consultation.

The United States Army is sending soldiers to Afghanistan with high-tech helmets to gather data on the effect of bomb blasts on their brains.

The Army's Program Executive Office (PEO) Soldier has outfitted the helmets of soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division with sensors to gauge the violent shaking that occurs when improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, explode near them, said Brig. Gen. Mark Brown, who leads the office. "It's basically a computer chip in a helmet," Brown said.

So far, 1,145 soldiers have received helmet sensors, according to Debi Dawson, a spokeswoman for PEO Soldier, the office charged with developing and fielding equipment needed for combat. The soldiers are scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan in the spring.

The device is to be checked monthly and can record 527 events, ranging from being dropped to being blasted by a bomb. The sensor weighs 6 ounces, runs on a battery that can last six months and fits on the back of the helmet.

To better measure the causes and effects of traumatic brain injury, the Army is working to establish data on what happens to a soldier's head during an IED blast. The sensor will measure the violent pulse of air after an explosion. Energy from this wave courses through the body, damaging brain cells and other organs.

The helmet device also will measure acceleration, the jolt soldiers get from the explosion. The jolt is one of the primary causes of death from an IED because it can snap the neck. The data is to be downloaded to establish a database on the effects of blasts. Researchers expect to study the information and use it to develop safer helmets.

IEDs are the top cause of brain injuries for U.S. troops, account for almost 80% of all wounds, and are responsible for 60% of those killed.

Troops near IED explosions can suffer perforated eardrums, ringing in the ears, blurred vision and memory lapses.

Soldiers often return to combat after recovering from a concussion or a bruising of the brain. Research shows that such blasts can cause damage deep inside the brain, and the symptoms may remain hidden for years.

If you or a loved one has suffered a traumatic brain injury in the Philadelphia area, please contact Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis today to schedule your initial consultation.

Ever since their 13-year-old daughter Sara was killed when she drove a friend's ATV into a tree, Duane and Cathy Hennarichs wanted to save other children from a similar fate.

A Palm Beach County jury helped their cause on Friday, finding that the family that owned the four-wheeler Sara rode to her death in September 2003 was negligent and ordered them to pay the Hennarichses $3.6 million. The suburban Boca Raton couple said they are hopeful the jury's verdict will spur other ATV owners to realize the perils of letting youngsters ride the vehicles alone.

"We just wanted to make parents realize how dangerous these machines are and that they shouldn't be entrusted to young children without their supervision," Duane Hennarichs said of the lengthy legal battle he and his wife waged since their middle daughter's death. '"This was done for Sara,"' said Cathy Hennarichs, who plans to lobby more actively for tougher regulation via the group Concerned Families for ATV Safety. `"She's going to be saving children, and that's important to me."

John Richards, a Fort Lauderdale attorney who represented Roger and Karen Fina and their son Nicolas, now 17, in the weeklong trial, said he disagreed with the jury's verdict, but no decision has been made as to whether it would be appealed.

'"This was a tragic and unfortunate accident that involved good families and good kids,"' he said.

The Hennarichses claimed that the accident could have been avoided if the Finas had simply heeded the warning stickers on the ATV. The stickers clearly stated that the ATV shouldn't be driven by any one under the age of 16, and that no one should ride with a passenger.

Sara, an eighth-grader at Eagles Landing Middle School in suburban Boca Raton, had borrowed Nicolas' ATV and was riding with another youth when she lost control of the vehicle and was thrown headfirst into a tree in the gated Tierra Del Rey North community. She died of head injuries three hours later at Delray Medical Center. The other youth sustained minor injuries.

If you or a loved one has suffered a serious personal injury or death due to someone else’s negligence in Philadelphia or anywhere in Pennsylvania, please contact the personal injury lawyers at Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis today to schedule your initial consultation.

Healthgrades.com, a website that provides reports on physicians, including disciplinary actions, board certification, education, and representative opinions from patients, conducted a study on the cost of medical errors to Medicare. The study found that patient safety incidents cost the program $8.8 billion from 2004-2006, and resulted in 238,337 preventable deaths. It found that the overall incidence rate was 3 %, with the number of incidents over 1.1 million over the three year period.

The good news in the study is that the overall death rate for Medicare patients as a result of the incidents decreased by nearly 5 % over the period, although many types of incidents increased in frequency. The most common patient safety incidents were bed sores, failure to rescue, and post-operative respiratory failure, which accounted for over 63 % of incidents. The study also found that the quality of care varied widely by hospital, with the best hospitals experiencing a 43 % lower incidence rate than the worst-performing hospitals.

If you have suffered as a result of medical malpractice, you need an advocate who can get you just compensation. Contact the experienced medical malpractice attorneys at Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP today for a free initial consultation.

The Connecticut Supreme Court overturned a $41.4 million jury award to a man paralyzed in a construction accident in 1994. The man was working on a construction site when a poorly welded steel beam broke loose and struck him, fracturing his spine and ribs. According to his attorney, the man is unable to move his limbs below his chest, but he can still feel the pain of his injury.

The man sued the general contractor on the site, Sardoni Skanska Construction Company, and in December 2005 received the $41.4 million award, which included $32.1 million in damages for the man and his wife, and the remainder in interest, attorney fees, and costs.

The man was only able to sue Sardoni Skanska after a 2003 Supreme Court ruling that decided employees of independent subcontractors could sue general contractors if they could establish a "legal and factual basis" for the general contractor's liability.

The key in this case is that the Connecticut Supreme Court decided that the beam was not the general contractor's responsibility, but the responsibility of subcontractor Berlin Steel Construction, which employed the injured worker, meaning that the man is only eligible for workers' compensation.

Liability in construction site injury cases can be very difficult and confusing. To make sure you properly navigate the perils of filing such a case, you need an experienced construction site injury lawyer. Contact Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP, today, for a free initial consultation.

Nail guns cause over 100 accidents a day in the United States, many of them resulting in serious personal injuries, including traumatic brain injury and spine injuries, and, in some cases wrongful death. For those people suffering as a result of the accidents, the cost of nail gun design seems insufferably high, but nail gun manufacturers write it off as part of the cost of doing business.

One of the main reasons why some nail guns are highly dangerous is that they can be set to what is known as a contact trip mode, in which it only requires an impact on the front of the gun to cause the gun to fire a nail once the trigger is depressed. This allows a worker to hold the trigger down and hit the gun against the surface to be nailed, firing nails into the surface very quickly. However, the ease of the firing is also responsible for between 65 and 69 % of all nail gun injuries, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Nail guns are also made that do not have the contact trip mode, known as sequential firing nail guns. However, most contractors utilize the contact trip models.

Although many lawsuits have been brought against nail gun manufacturers, the manufacturers continue to make the contact trip nail guns because they are popular among employers seeking to maximize worker productivity, even at the cost of the safety of a construction site.

Perhaps, then, the contractors may be the best angle to attack this problem. If you believe your employer is making your workplace dangerous, you have the right to contact OSHA, and report him or her while enjoying qui tam protection.

But if you have already been injured and need help filing your workers' compensation claim or if you have lost a loved one and want to file a wrongful death suit, contact the construction accident attorneys at Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP today for a free initial consultation.

According to statistics released by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, the number of medical malpractice cases filed in the state fell for the third consecutive year, although it does not represent a significant decline from 2006. The number of cases filed in 2007 was 1617, whereas in 2006 there were 1693 cases filed, roughly a 5 % drop. The decline is, however, a 40 % drop from the number of cases filed in 2002, 2904.

The drop is being attributed to the Medical Care Availability and Reduction of Error (MCARE) Act, which put additional burdens on lawyers filing cases. In addition, the percentage of cases decided in favor of the defendant has also increased, with the percentage of cases awarded multimillion dollar awards has also decreased.

Can we then expect the malpractice rates to fall? No. Although the increase in rates has slowed, insurance companies are loath to lower rates, and, though awards have been falling nationally for several years, the insurance rates are remaining largely constant.

A report by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, which purports to disprove the theory that insurance companies are gouging doctors, actually proves the opposite: that insurance companies have been, and continue to, gouge doctors. The report, published in May 2006, shows that medical malpractice insurance rates do track awards. However, to make the two graphs overlap, one must use twice the scale for insurance rates. Thus, though the average award reached its peak around $6,000 per doctor, the insurance rates average about $12,000 per doctor. And a regional breakdown shows that even greater disparities exist in many localities. A graph intended to show the straight-line correlation between the amount of medical malpractice awards and the insurance premiums does show a very rough correlation. However, while the awards per doctor scale runs up to $10,000, the scale for premiums runs up to $50,000. That means that many doctors can immediately see an 80% reduction in the cost of medical malpractice suits by just banding together and paying out of pocket rather than paying for medical malpractice insurance. Perhaps that's where they should put their resources, instead of lobbying for tort reform.

If you or a loved one has been hurt as a result of a negligence of a doctor, do not hesitate to seek redress of your wrongs. The civil court system is set up for the protection of patients, and the cost of medical malpractice to doctors is far less than the cost of medical malpractice insurance. Contact the experienced medical malpractice attorneys at Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP today for a free initial consultation and case evaluation.

US Senators Mel Martinez (R-FL) and Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI) last week introduced a bill that would prevent nursing homes from forcing patients to sign arbitration agreements upon entering the home. These agreements take away a patient's right to sue in the event that he or she suffers as a result of nursing home abuse or neglect.

The senators feel that the agreements represent an abuse of the Federal Arbitration Act of 1925, in which the government provides an alternate means of conflict resolution. By forcing patients to sign the agreement prior to entry into the nursing home, the facilities are effectively taking away the right of "one of our nation's most vulnerable populations" to access the civil justice system for redress of wrongs. The bill states that nursing home tenants may still voluntarily enter into arbitration agreements after the dispute arises, taking away the corporate nursing home's greater leverage for coercing patients prior to entry.

If you or a loved one has suffered as a result of nursing home abuse or neglect, contact the experienced attorneys at Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP today for a free evaluation of your case.

Although nursing homes may claim the increase in lawsuits against them is driven by "greedy lawyers," the truth is that the abuse of elderly people, especially in nursing homes, is on the rise, or, at least, is becoming increasingly reported and measured. Citations issued for nursing homes putting residents in "imminent jeopardy" rose by 22 % from 2000 to 2006. While nursing home lobbyists are trying to achieve legislative protection, you should work to protect yourself or your family members from abuse at nursing homes.

The first step in preventing elder abuse is choosing a good nursing home. Consult our page on nursing home issues and carefully evaluate your choices to pick a nursing home that will properly care for your loved one. One resource to utilize is Nursing Home Compare, a statistical database for finding and comparing nursing homes provided by the National Center on Elder Abuse, a division of the US Department of Health and Human Services. Nursing Home Compare includes numerous statistics, including important quality of care indicators like percent of residents who have pressure sores, were physically restrained, were depressed or anxious, acquired a urinary tract infection, and many others.

If your loved one is unlucky enough to suffer abuse at a nursing home, you can contact Pennsylvania's Elder Abuse Unit, created in August 2006 using their hotline number: 1-866-623-2137. The unit handles neglect, physical abuse, mental or emotional abuse, and financial fraud or exploitation. The unit acts as a nerve center to communicate among and coordinate the numerous state agencies that work to remedy and prosecute elder abuse.

Once you have contacted the Elder Abuse Unit, it is time to start your own action to make sure that the care facility pays for the abuse they have done to you or your loved one. Contact the experienced nursing home abuse lawyers at Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP today for a free initial consultation.

Trampolines bounced onto the scene over twenty years ago and have become extremely popular in recent years. Along with the popularity of trampolines has come a huge number of injuries, some very serious, related to these backyard staples. What has been perceived as wholesome, healthy fun can actually be quite dangerous. A full-size trampoline can bounce someone up to 20 feet in the air, depending on height and weight. That is as high as a two story building, so imagine the pain and injury that could involved with falling that far.

Landing in an awkward position or falling off the trampoline can lead to fractures, head injuries, dislocations, sprains, and bruises. There have been reported cases of trampoline-related paralysis and even death. According to Dr. Eric Watson of the Orthopedic Institute, fractures most often occur in the arms and elbow, but knees and ankles are susceptible to injuries, also. The most serious injuries often occur when athletes such as divers, gymnasts and cheerleaders are using the trampoline for training or conditioning.

According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, trampoline injuries nearly tripled in less than a decade from an estimated 37,500 in 1991 to well over 100,000 in 2001. Currently, there are approximately 246,875 medically treated trampoline injuries each year in the United States. The commission has received reports of 11 deaths relating to trampoline use since 1990, and those victims ranged in age from 3 to 43. Six of those victims were between the ages of 12 and 19. Most trips to the ER are the result of colliding with other jumpers, falling on the trampolines springs or frame, falling off the trampoline or attempting somersaults and other dangerous stunts.

If there is a flaw in the design of a trampoline or a defect of some kind, injuries can be very serious.

If you or a loved one has suffered a serious personal injury in Pennsylvania, please visit the website of a Philadelphia personal injury attorney from the law firm of Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis.

Although workers' compensation laws in most states prevents you from suing your employer if you sustain an accident on the job, it does not limit your ability to sue others who may be responsible for your injuries. Consider, for example, the case of a California man who was working as a diesel mechanic at Stewart International Airport in 2001. A sprinkler system was being installed at the airport, and one of the sprinkler pipes broke loose. Under pressure, the pipe flew loose, striking the mechanic. It fractured his pelvis in multiple places, necessitating eight-inch bolts be installed to hold the bone together, and giving him a permanent limp.

The general contractor, The Pike Company, Inc, had been cited for OSHA violations in 1998 at the construction site of a new wing on a New York State prison, where prompt government action fortunately preempted a construction site accident. After two days of negotiations, Pike and its subcontractor, SRI Fire Sprinkler Corporation, agreed to the $3 million settlement.

If you have been injured while on the job, worker's compensation may not be the only or best route for you to take in pursuit of compensation. Contact the experienced personal injury lawyers at Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP, for a free initial consultation and case evaluation.

Forbes.com made a list of the worst places in America to get sued depending on the type of litigation you are facing, and our fair city, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania showed up on the list. However, despite the claims of defense lawyers and insurance companies, Philadelphia was not named the worst place to be defending against a medical malpractice or personal injury lawsuit (those are Miami/Dade County, Florida and Starr County, Texas, respectively). Instead, the city was cited as the worst place to be hit with a libel lawsuit. The city of Brotherly Love has no tolerance for the printing of false, defamatory stories, and in 1990 judges in the city dealt a then-record libel award of $32 million against the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The list, mostly compiled for entertainment purposes (like the website's previous list of the country’s most sinful cities), was generated by a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a New York think tank. Walter K. Olson, "America's leading authority on over-litigation," generated the list by looking both at benchmark cases and at the overall pattern of litigation.

What some call over-litigation, however, we consider to be merely protecting the rights of both those who have suffered and those who may suffer if dangerous practices are allowed to be continued. If you or a loved one has been injured as a result of someone else’s negligence, contact the personal injury attorneys at Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP today for a free initial consultation.

A judge has upheld a jury verdict for $24 million against Amtrak and Norfolk Southern in the premises liability case of two teens who were severely burned by high-voltage wires after trespassing and climbing atop a railway car parked in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Although the teens were trespassing, the judge ruled that Amtrak had put them and potentially others "in grave peril" by leaving the 12,000 volt catenary wires switched on and leaving rail cars with attached ladders parked under them for upwards of four days at a time without posting any warning signs.

The boys’ lawyer pointed out that this was no ordinary slip-and-fall case. If, for example, the boys had fallen off a ladder and injured themselves, that would have constituted a foreseeable consequence of their trespassing, and would not have merited any damages, but a possibly deadly electrical shock was something else, something resulting from the negligence bordering on willful misconduct of Amtrak, which should have been tipped off to the presence of trespassers by graffiti in the area, and either shut off the electricity in the wires when not in use, or posted warnings.

Although Pennsylvania law limits the legal rights of people trespassing, there are still circumstances for which property owners should be held accountable. If you have been hurt as a result of the negligence of a property owner, contact the experienced premises liability attorneys at Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP today for a free initial consultation.

A tractor-trailer involved in a fatality accident northeast of Pittsburgh in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, was cleared of mechanical problems by state inspectors yesterday. The crash, which occurred March 26, killed a 17-year-old Ford City High School cheerleader. She was driving her car and crossed into the path of the tractor-trailer, which was carrying a steel coil weighing upward of 20 tons. Two passengers, both 8^th-grade boys, were taken to the hospital but were released within two days of the accident. The trucker, who suffered a head injury, was released the day following the accident, and is not yet being charged in connection with the accident.

Investigators are now seeking to determine whether the steel coil, which broke loose during the accident, crushing the cab of the truck before landing on the car, had been properly secured. Lab tests are being conducted to determine the strength of the chains used to secure the steel coil.

Tractor-trailer trucks are tightly regulated because they carry so many possibilities for fatal accidents, including not only their size and weight, but the weight of their cargo. If you have lost a loved one in a tractor-trailer accident, contact the experienced truck accident lawyers at Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP today for a free initial consultation.

In one of those little ironies of life, a UK man died on the motorcycle he was planning to sell after taking it in to be valued. On the way home from the appraiser’s office, the man, who was being followed by his wife in her car, suddenly lost control of his bike and crashed and died. According to witnesses, including his wife, he was driving at a safe speed, and no conclusive cause for the accident was given by police.

The accident serves as a reminder that most motorcycle accidents occur within just a few miles of home, and at relatively low speeds, but they can still be deadly. Sometimes, accidents like this one are of causes that cannot be determined, but more often the accident is the fault of a motorist or truck drive. If you or a loved one has suffered as a result of a motorcycle accident, contact the experienced accident attorneys at the law firm of Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP.

Trying to show that their smiley face isn’t really just a facade for a huge, soulless, money-grubbing multinational corporation, Wal-Mart has decided to stop pursuing its case against a former employee who suffered severe brain injury in an accident with a semi truck. The woman, whose story has become famous, received a million-dollar award in a lawsuit against the trucking company after two years of legal wrangling. After fees and two years of expenses were paid, about $417,000 was left in the woman’s trust for her future care.

However, at this point, Wal-Mart decided to sue the woman for the $470,000 its health care insurance had already paid for her care. The retail giant’s insurance policy has a clause that allows the company to get any money received by policyholders as a result of a lawsuit. The courts decided that the company was within its contractual rights to sue, but awarded it only the amount of money that was left in the woman’s trust for her care.

Once this story was reported, however, the resulting outcry caused the retail giant decided to back off, and Wal-Mart now claims that its health care policy allows for "greater discretion" in individual cases. However, the truth is that Wal-Mart could always have shown discretion in not pursuing this case. It seems that in these modern days, discretion is no longer the better part of valor, and only vigilance serves. As long as its actions went unseen, Wal-Mart was prepared to take away the last penny of a former employee crippled in an accident.

If you have suffered a traumatic brain injury, it is unlikely that any corporation, whether your employer, your insurer, or the trucking company that caused the accident, will give you anything that you do not force them to yield. You need a strong advocate on your side. Contact the law firm of Pommerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP today for a free initial consultation.

WPVI in Philadelphia ran a story on the expanding role of mediation in settling medical malpractice claims in Pennsylvania. Specifically, the story referenced the mediation program at Abington Memorial Hospital in Montgomery County, which we had discussed a few weeks ago. The program for mediation still seems like a good idea, and the article promotes it. However, the article also begins with the statement, “Over the past three years Pennsylvania has lost more than 16-hundred doctors. Many left because the skyrocketing number of medical malpractice lawsuits made getting malpractice insurance too expensive.” This article assumes two things, first that the loss of doctors is due to the cost of medical malpractice insurance, which seems unlikely because Pennsylvania, unlike many other states, has an abatement for doctors for the cost of their medical malpractice insurance.

Second, the article assumes that the relationship between claims made against doctors and the medical malpractice insurance rates is cause and effect. This claim also seems to be untrue. According to a study conducted by a former Missouri insurance commissioner, from 2000-2004, the amount paid out by medical malpractice insurance companies for claims remained essentially flat, while medical malpractice insurance premiums went up by over 120 percent.

The conclusion: Yes, medical malpractice insurance rates are going up, and maybe doctors are leaving the state because of it. But is this the fault of medical malpractice claims and payouts? It certainly does not seem so.

If you have received poor care as a result of a doctor’s negligence or incompetence, you need to make a claim to protect others from receiving the same poor care. To learn how, contact the medical malpractice lawyers at Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP today for a free initial consultation.