Philadelphia Personal Injury Attorney Blog - Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis LLP

On July 22, a US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the government may not withhold data on serious car accidents from the public, including journalists, consumer watchdog groups, and defective product injury lawyers.

In 2000, in response to the danger caused by SUV rollovers partly as a result of Firestone tire tread separation, Congress passed a law that manufacturers of tires, cars, motorcycles, and child car seats must report information on defects that cause serious injuries, wrongful deaths, and property damage to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The law was intended to allow the agency to quickly identify defective products. The agency had been keeping this data secret, analyzing it and issuing recalls on its own.

Numerous public safety organizations had filed to see that information, but the NHTSA had kept it secret, but industry lobbying groups, led by the Rubber Manufacturers Association, had fought to keep it secret. They claim that the information, essentially how often certain products are involved in certain types of car accidents, should be considered propriety trade secrets. They also claim that the law is effective without releasing that data to the public and point to the fact that the information has allowed NHTSA to issue recalls earlier than before.

However, public interest groups argued that the effectiveness of the data as a public warning is greatly increased if the public has free access to it. They hailed the ruling, but industry advocates said that the decision would lead to misinformation and hysteria.

If you have been involved in an auto accident that was caused or worsened by a defective auto part, contact an experienced defective product and car accident lawyer at Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP today for a free consultation and case evaluation.

Because ethyl glucuronide (EtG) tests for recent alcohol use have been shown to have so many false positives, people looking to control the habits of their employees are constantly searching for new alternatives to use as a monitoring tool. One recent possibility that has been put forward as another possibility for monitoring alcohol consumption is the fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEE), a product of ethanol metabolism that is incorporated into hair. The goal is that the compound can be used to track alcohol use over a long period of time.

Researchers found that "FAEE hair concentrations can be used as markers for excessive alcohol consumption with relatively high accuracy." However, there is reason to doubt that FAEE will be reliable for anything but the most extreme case. In the study, researchers did find that the average concentration of FAEE in hair was 6.8 ng/mg of hair in fatalities with verified excessive alcohol consumption, compared to 4.0 ng/mg in recovering alcoholics, 0.41 ng/mg in social drinkers, and 0.16 ng/mg for teetotalers. However, there are two main drawbacks to the use of FAEE for testing alcohol consumption. First, there was no agreement between self-reported levels of alcohol consumption and the presence of FAEE along the length of the hair. Second, the variation in concentrations was extreme. Some teetotalers had FAEE levels nearly equivalent to the average for social drinkers.

If you have been fired or suffered other punitive actions at work because of an unreliable test for alcohol, contact an experienced ethyl glucuronide (EtG) lawyer at Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP today for a free initial consultation.

Who will deliver the babies? wonder the residents of New York as many obstetricians begin scaling back that part of their practice. It is a similar fate to what Pennsylvania residents may soon be facing as well, if subsidies for medical malpractice insurance are not renewed and obstetricians find they are unable to make the high level of payments so begin shifting away from that area of practice. So what can be done to make sure women aren't left out in the cold during this stressful moment of their lives.

Home Birth

One option that is advocated by a number of celebrity spokeswomen but is firmly opposed by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) is home births. In home birth, a midwife or nurse-midwife attends the mother at home in attempting to perform what is described as a normal physiologic process. Home birth is represented by advocates as being a life-affirming experience freed from the constrictions of constant monitoring, medication and restraint common in hospital births. They also say that some birth injuries are made more likely by the pressure of the hospital setting and the insistence of Ob/GYNs on more caesarean births. However, according to the official position statement by ACOG, "Despite the rosy picture painted by home birth advocates, a seemingly normal labor and delivery can quickly become life-threatening for both the mother and baby." Birth injuries resulting from complications during pregnancy, whose severity increases as the distress is lengthened can be exacerbated by the necessity of traveling to the hospital.

Birthing Centers

Birthing centers, however, may represent an ideal solution for most pregnancies if located proximately to hospitals or attached to a hospital. By providing lower-pressure surroundings for low-risk pregnancies, birthing centers can give women the best of both worlds. A bedroom-like setting with bathroom, shower, and birthing pool, that allows women to set their own pace for their labor while eating, walking, or socializing with friends, is combined with almost immediate access to hospital care should it be required, as it is in about one percent of all low-risk pregnancies. In addition, limiting the practice to only low-risk pregnancies dramatically reduces medical malpractice insurance rates for the centers.

If the pressure on Ob/GYN's continues to increase, we may see more of a move towardbirthing centers as the normal setting for modern births. And that may be a good thing.

If you or someone you love has suffered as a result of a birth injury, contact an experienced birth injury attorney at Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP today for a free initial consultation.

According to a wrongful death lawsuit filed against Halliburton Energy Services, the company's negligent training policies were responsible for the death of a young West Virginia employee. Although the company, which posted 20-30 % growth in earnings overseas last quarter, advertises that it is "one of the world's largest and most safety-conscious providers of oil field services," the lawsuit alleges that the company ordered truck drivers with little experience and no training to train new drivers.

In the incident in question, a driver who had not received training as a trainer took a new driver on an unevaluated route to learn dangerous mountain driving skills including emergency response to brake failure and the use of runaway truck ramps. They were driving a Kenworth tanker loaded with chemicals. The new driver lost control, and the truck overturned, killing the trainer. The trainer and his coworkers had complained that the lack of training given to new drivers and the use of inexperienced drivers to mentor and train new drivers could lead to an increased rate of truck accidents.

The lawsuit was filed by the trainer's father on behalf of the estate and the trainer's young daughter. It alleges that Halliburton's unsafe work practices and violations of known safety standards led to the truck accident and wrongful death.

This complaint finds its place alongside a number of complaints that Halliburton subsidiary KBR followed unsafe work practices in Iraq leading to the wrongful deaths of dozens of employees, including some in a convoy that was used as a decoy.

If you have lost someone you love in a truck accident, contact an experienced Philadelphia truck accident attorney at Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP today for a free initial consultation.

This summer the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued a reminder to drivers that during summer your tires are put under additional stress and this can cause car accidents, especially if your tires are old, worn out, or under-inflated.

The pressure on tires is increased during summer weather, and the additional stress of fully-loaded cars on road trips can lead to a deadly combination. "Protecting you and your family should be your top priority," said the NHTSA Administrator Nicole Nason, and urged everyone to have tires checked before going on the road.

In addition, the NHTSA offers tips for motorists wanting to check out their own tires:

· Inflation: all cars have the proper inflation level for their tires printed inside the driver's door or in the owner's manual.

· Tread: you can check the tread wear level of your tires either by looking for the wear indicators spaced intermittently in the tread grooves or by using the Lincoln's head penny test. In this test, you insert a penny upside down into the tread of the tire with Lincoln's head facing you. If you can see the top of Lincoln's head, you need new tires.

· Age: Tires degrade over time due to chemical changes in the rubber. These changes are not usually visible, but can lead to catastrophic tire failure during periods of stress, such as maneuvering at highway speeds. Check the age of your tire using the identification number printed on the tire. The number begins with the letters DOT, and the last four digits represent the week and year the tire was made. Although there is no knowing exactly when a tire will fail due to age, any tire older than five years can succumb to age-related failure. The NHTSA recommends that tires older than five years be professionally inspected every year. Many manufacturers list 10 years as the maximum service life for tires.

Be sure to check the date on your tires even if you think they're new. As an ongoing defective product lawsuit revealed, many tires are sold years after they are made, meaning that you could be driving around with dangerously old tires that you thought were brand-new.

The exact figures are unavailable, but the NHTSA estimates that as many as 400 wrongful deaths could be avoided every year through proper tire maintenance.

If you have been involved in an accident as a result of defective tires, contact an experienced car accident lawyer at Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP today for a free initial consultation.

New York is potentially facing its biggest obstetrics crisis ever, with ten percent of its obstetricians considering retiring, reducing hours, or moving out of state this year as a result of a new $50,000 surcharge on medical malpractice insurance which they would be forced to pay in addition to the $137,000 in premiums each doctor already pays annually. Others are opting to either stop delivering babies or are joining larger practices where their premiums are absorbed into the costs of the practice premiums.

Of course, insurance premiums are not the only rising cost doctors are contending with in making decisions about the future of their practices, but at nearly $200,000 a year it is a highly visible factor. With a 25 % jump this year and the temptation of a $40,000 annual medical malpractice insurance premium if they do not deliver babies, it is a powerful incentive for doctors to cut that part of their practice.

Why are premiums so high for obstetricians who deliver babies? There are two factors. First, birth injuries are very expensive. A baby born with cerebral palsy as a result of a doctor's error requires a lifetime of care, expensive care. Second, insurance companies want to make a profit. Not only that, but they want their profit to grow every year to keep investors happy. Part of insurance companies' profit comes from premiums, and part of it comes from investments. When investments lose value, as during the current market crisis, insurance companies need to take a little more in premiums.

Medical malpractice insurance is business, and it's big business. Pennsylvania doctors are charged nearly a billion dollars in premiums every year. But what happens to mothers and children caught in the crunch between high-profit business and the need for care? Tomorrow we'll talk about a possible solution.

Obstetricians are doctors that many women feel a powerful bond with, and if a woman suffers an injury, she may feel reluctant to bring a lawsuit. But if you have suffered as a result of an obstetrician's error, you and your child must be taken care of, and unfortunately our system allows you very few options. Please contact an experienced medical malpractice attorney at Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP today for a free consultation.

In neighboring New York, a small nursing home facility was issued an order to immediately shut down because it was considered to pose an imminent danger to the health and safety of its residents. According to the order of the New York Health Department, the facility subjected residents to "abuse and neglect," in numerous instances, leading to one resident being ordered by her doctor to be relocated from the dangerous nursing home.

The proximate complaint that inspired the department's action was an incident following a supposed outbreak of head lice at the facility. The owner of the facility ordered that all residents be inspected for head lice, and the inspection was carried out in summary fashion, with both men and women present, with no privacy for anyone. Then, two of the men were ordered to go to the back patio of the facility, where their hair was cut short by a 15-year-old boy with hair clippers that were not sterilized either before or between shaving the residents.

While residents were being inspected, their clothes were taken "for cleaning," and the residents had to wear sheets and towels in lieu of clothes. Some of them were without clothes for days, and some had only one set of clothing for nearly a month.

In addition, a previous incident came to the attention of inspectors that was even more dangerous. A female resident rose from bed at night to go to the bathroom, but was dizzy, so she slipped and fell, suffering a head injury. She hit her call button, and attendants at the facility came to her room and lifted her into bed, but did not contact her physician about her injury. When the woman fell again the subsequent night, she called her physician directly, and her physician prescribed her with medication and ordered she be moved to the ground floor to prevent accidents.

When home attendants refused to give her medication or move her to the ground floor, her physician ordered she be removed.

As a result of these instances of nursing home abuse and neglect, the home was ordered closed.

If your loved one is suffering as a result of nursing home abuse and neglect, the chances are they are not alone. Protect your loved one and others by contacting an experienced nursing home abuse attorney at Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP today for a free initial consultation.

As a pedestrian struck by a motorist talking on a cell phone, I may be prejudiced, but I believe cell phone use is an automatic strike against you in any car accident lawsuit. There are many studies that implicate cell phone use as a contributing cause of auto accidents, including the Lancet's flagship 2000 study showing cell phone users were 4 times as likely to be involved in accidents and the 2006 University of Utah study that showed cell phone use was as bad as drunken driving in terms of impairing a driver's ability. In contrast, other distractions, such as listening to the radio or eating while driving, are relatively minor. As a result, many states have put bans on using anything but hands-free phones, including Pennsylvania.

In Pennsylvania, unlike New Jersey, you cannot be pulled over for cell phone use, although you can be issued a ticket if you are stopped for another traffic violation. But if you are involved in a car accident while talking on your cell phone, you could find yourself in dire straits. Recently, International Paper Company paid $5.2 million to settle a personal injury lawsuit filed against it after one of its drivers was involved in an accident while talking on a company-issued cell phone.

Remember, Pennsylvania follows a comparative negligence rule, so everything you do that contributes to the accident can potentially reduce your award for the car accident. Worse, if a jury decides your cell phone use makes you 51 % or more liable for the car accident, you will not be able to recover any damages, and, instead, you may find yourself on the receiving end of a lawsuit.

So, for your health and safety, the health and safety of those in the car with you, and to protect yourself from liability, please put your cell phone away while driving.

And if you have been involved in a car accident with a driver on a cell phone, you can be compensated for their risky behavior. You can also make it clear to everyone that the behavior is not only risky, but costly as well. Contact a car accident attorney at Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP, today for a free initial consultation.

A physician witness testified that doctors treating a teen in the emergency room following an auto accident were negligent in releasing him after only two hours. The doctor said, "Two hours is not anywhere close enough" to the necessary period of observation.

In October 2003, the 16-year old boy was taken to the emergency room following his car accident. The teen had complained of chest pain and had seat-belt abrasions across his chest, but he didn't report abdominal pain and his test results seemed normal, so he was released after two hours. The next morning, he was found on his knees slumped over the bed, and was pronounced dead at a local hospital. The cause of death was determined to be a lacerated liver.

The boy's family filed a medical malpractice and wrongful death lawsuit against the two doctors that treated the boy and their hospital. In defense, the doctors' lawyer claims that the liver injury constituted a "hidden injury" that was not evident until after he returned home.

Emergency room errors are common because the doctors and nurses in the ER work long shifts without breaks and are often young practitioners without the seniority to avoid the duty. If you have lost a loved one as a result of an ER error following an auto accident, contact a medical malpractice or auto accident lawyer at Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP today for a free initial consultation.

Last night, a fatal collision tied up southbound Roosevelt Boulevard from about 1 to 7 am. Initially believed to be an accident, this collision that killed one and critically wounded five is now being investigated as not only a wrongful death but also a possible homicide, according to Philadelphia police.

In this case, the driver of one car was pursuing the other, a Ford Crown Victoria. After being struck several times by the pursuing vehicle, the Ford slammed into a pedestrian tunnel entrance, killing one teen and critically injuring the rest of the passengers, two other teens, an adult, and a baby. The pursuing car hit a wall and knocked down a lamp post, critically injuring the driver. Because of the mayhem preceding the crash, debris was scattered across the road, and that, in addition to the serious injuries and the nascent homicide investigation, was responsible for the long delay.

Yesterday's blog entry notwithstanding, this is the third in a string of fatal car accidents in Philadelphia this week. The other crashes were both DUI-related.

If you have been hurt or have lost a loved one in a car accident, contact an experienced car accident attorney at Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP today for a free initial consultation.

Recently, two studies have pointed to the likelihood that higher gas prices would lead to fewer auto accidents and correspondingly reduce the number of auto accident deaths.

The first study was published in March of this year, in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine by University of California at Davis researchers, who used a computer model to study the likely effects of boosted gas prices on auto accident serious injuries and deaths. The model utilized gas prices during 2003 as its source data and projected that for a 20 percent increase in gas prices, we would see approximately 2000 fewer deaths from auto accidents, and 600 fewer deaths from air pollution. With the dramatic increase in gas prices, this model would project a decline of about 6000 auto accident deaths in 2008 versus 2006.

The second study considered only auto accident-related deaths and was presented at a meeting of the American Society of Health Economists in June. This study utilized data on fatalities and gas prices from 1985 to 2006, and it projected that in the overall population, every increase of 10 percent led to a decrease in fatalities of about 2.3 percent. The decline was proportionately higher among younger drivers, with 15-17 year-olds seeing as much as a 6 percent decline in fatalities, and college-aged drivers seeing a decline of 3.2 percent. The authors said they expect to see a decline of about 1000 deaths a month as a result of the decline, although this is not strictly in keeping with their findings, which would actually project a decline of about 600 deaths per month.

The truth is that auto accident rates are proportional to miles driven. If you drive, you will be in an accident, sooner or later, and unfortunately that accident could lead to the wrongful death of a loved one. If you have been in an auto accident, contact an auto accident lawyer at Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP today for a free initial consultation.

In an Australian home, the basest form of nursing home neglect may have killed as many as 10. In the New South Wales nursing home, residents were served old food that led to an outbreak of gastroenteritis. The outbreak was the result of Clostridium perfringens, bacteria that grows in old food, especially old meat. The infection causes diarrhea and abdominal cramps, which can exacerbate the dehydration often experienced by neglected nursing home residents. More intense infections can cause gaseous expansion in the intestines, leading to intestinal damage and even death from toxic shock.

80 residents at the home complained of symptoms, and during the outbreak 10 residents died. It is unclear how many of the residents that died during the outbreak actually died as a result of their infection, but many of those whose death seems to be not directly caused by the gastroenteritis had symptoms before their death and may have been weakened by the disease.

Although food inspectors at the nursing home have declared that there is no ongoing risk at this home, the risk for nursing home populations is always ongoing. With weakened immune systems, nursing home residents are susceptible to any number of food poisoning types, including Salmonella varieties, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Clostridium botulinum. In selecting a nursing home, make sure to check out the cafeteria facilities in depth, including inquiring about any past outbreaks.

If your loved one has been hurt as a result of food poisoning at a nursing home, contact the experienced nursing home neglect lawyers at Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP today for a free initial consultation.

Last week, the fight between Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell and the state Legislature over health care claimed another victim. The Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHCCC) shut down last week because the Legislature tied its reauthorization bill to renewing doctors' subsidies for medical malpractice insurance, something Governor Rendell said he would not do unless the Legislature authorized his proposed expansion of state-subsidized health care coverage to include small business owners and working Pennsylvanians earning up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level.

The PHCCC is an agency that collects data on the health care system in Pennsylvania, and issues reports on state health care statistics, including hospital finances, the average length of hospitalization for patients, as well as rates of mortality, infection, complication, and readmission for various populations. Although Senator Pat Vance and other Republican Senators questioned the governor's statutory authority to close down the agency, the governor's office said that the agency was no longer authorized when its charter expired. All but two of the agency's 45 employees were released as part of the shut down, and some have voiced concerns about the future of the millions of records stored by the agency.

Many have advised hospitals to continue collecting statistics in the hopes that the agency may reopen, but if you have been hurt as a result of doctor's negligence, you know that more than statistics are at stake. The monitoring of hospitals and the publication of information on negligent doctors is important. Even without the agency, though, you can make your case known. Contact the experienced medical malpractice lawyers at Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP, today for a free initial consultation.

Advocates of Ethyl Glucuronide (EtG) testing for alcohol use promote it as a tool for preventing or intervening at an early date in situations of alcohol abuse where you may be a danger to yourself or others. However, if you are being forced to perform EtG tests on a regular basis at work, you understand that these tests are a method of intimidation and are backed up by a constant threat of losing your job.

If you are being subject to EtG testing, you should know that it gives a high rate of false positives. The test does not actually test for alcohol, but, instead, it tests what is known as a biomarker for alcohol. Ethyl Glucuronide is a metabolic product of alcohol. Alcohol itself is quickly metabolized by the body, making it very difficult for people who want to control your behavior to get what they consider reliable measures of your habits. Most previous biomarkers of alcohol use indicated high levels of abuse, such as heavy drinking for several consecutive days.

The promise of EtG is that it can, supposedly, tell whether you had even one drink last night. It is this sensitivity that makes it desirable for enforces of work teetotaler policies. However, this sensitivity comes with a price. EtG presence can also indicate that you had chicken Marsala last night, had a pickle with your sandwich at lunch, or even used a lotion or hand sanitizer and inhaled alcohol fumes. In fact, the common tests for EtG indicate the presence of 100, 250, 500, or 1000 ng/ml of EtG in urine, but merely inhaling alcohol fumes can give an EtG rate of 700 ng/ml, and incidental exposure to alcohol can lead to EtG levels of up to 1500 ng/ml.

Advocates of testing claim that you can avoid inhaling fumes with "simple effort," but for nurses and other health care professionals, sanitizing the hands and using cleaning products which may give off alcohol fumes is not optional. This leads to an extremely high rate of false positives, which can precipitate unjust punitive action, or even lead to wrongful termination.

If you have suffered disciplinary action at work or been fired as a result of an EtG test, know that there is no scientific evidence to justify that action, and you may be entitled to compensation. Contact the experienced Ethyl Glucuronide lawyers at Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP, today for a free initial consultation and case evaluation.

Insurance companies use many tactics to attempt to get off with paying the least amount possible for your automobile accident. Here are some of the tactics they use:

Offering Cash Up Front--many insurers know that a big lump of cash can cloud the judgment of accident victims. They count on your response of "think of what I can do with that money," to keep you from really tallying up all your costs from the accident. Be assured that whatever they offer up front is below both what they are willing to pay and what you deserve.

Getting You to Settle All Bills at the Same Time--one of the ways insurance companies try to reduce their costs is by getting you to settle your medical claim the same time you settle your auto claim. But if you suffered a serious injury as a result of your accident, the chances are that your medical bills are not all in, yet. It is easy to tell what's wrong with a car--it's a lot harder to tell what's wrong with a human being. Don't settle until you really know the extent of your injuries.

Trying to Get You to Take Blame--Insurance reps from the other driver will call you to try and get you to say something that will magnify your fault in the accident. Not talking to them can damage your claim, but make sure you discuss only the bare, truthful facts of the accident. Do not elaborate, embellish, postulate, or surmise about anything you do not know to be true.

Denying Coverage--Auto insurance companies will sometimes try to get you to take injuries on your own health insurance, rather than their coverage. However, they should pay first and only then should the payment be applied to your health insurance. Also, they may not inform you if one or more of the other drivers has umbrella coverage, or if more than one policy may cover damage, as in a truck accident, where the trucker, shipping company, freight loader, maintenance company, etc. may have insurance policies that are pertinent to your accident.

Homogenizing Your Injury--Insurance companies think they know what everything costs. They have a database that tells them so. But your serious injury may not be like the other ones in their database, even if it has the same name. If your injury requires special treatment, the insurance company may try to get you to share the cost, but you don't have to accept their estimate.

Discounting Your Pain--Don't forget the pain and suffering you incurred as a result of the accident. You are entitled to compensation for what you went through, above and beyond the mere cost of medical treatment. This includes loss of time with your family, and any recreational activities you missed as a result of your accident. Insurance companies may also politely ignore the fact that you missed work while recovering. Don't let them. Take account of lost time in terms of not only wages but vacation / sick leave days lost.

Denying that You Should Talk to a Lawyer--If you suffered any injuries in your accident, even just pain and stiffness, you should see a doctor. And if you see a doctor, you should see a lawyer to make sure you are getting full compensation from the insurance company. The main weapon insurance companies have in their arsenal for lowballing claims is your presumed ignorance of what compensation you deserve. An experienced lawyer, on the other hand, knows how much you deserve and can do their utmost to get every penny for you.

If you have been hurt in an automobile or truck accident, contact the experienced vehicle accident lawyers at Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP today for a free initial consultation and case evaluation.

In 2003, a Wisconsin man filed a medical malpractice claim against his doctors and the clinic that employed them for failing to diagnose a cancer that ended up killing him. When he died, his wife filed an amended complaint on behalf of his estate, changing the complaint to include wrongful death, and in that complaint, her lawyer explicitly named the insurance company, Physicians Insurance Company (PIC), and delivered the complaint in person to the vice president of claims for the company, demanding a response in writing within 45 days.

The trial proceeded, but the defense lawyer for the doctors and the clinic did not include any mention of the insurance company as a codefendant on responses. The doctors won their case.

PIC, however, did not respond to the complaint until 8 months after it was presented. When it did respond, the wife and her lawyer moved for summary judgment against PIC because it had not made a timely response to the complaint, and a circuit court judge awarded them the full amount of their complaint, $801,760. PIC appealed the judgment, saying it should be not found in default because its absence from any and all documents was the result of a clerical error. Instead, the appeals court found that the reason for the personal delivery of the complaint to PIC was due to the defense lawyer's reluctance to accept the complaint on behalf of PIC, which meant that the omission of PIC's name from defense documents was not simply a clerical error. The appeals court affirmed the circuit court's judgment.

In appealing to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, PIC admitted it was in default, but said that its liability was limited to that of its insureds, and since they won their case, its liability should be limited. However, the Supreme Court said that under Wisconsin law (as in many states) the insurance company is directly liable, meaning that the insureds are not necessary parties to any action against the company. PIC also claimed that it should be able to use its insureds' denial of negligence as a shield, but the Supreme Court decided that PIC's failure to respond in a timely fashion exposed it to a judgment by default irrespective of its insureds' denial of negligence. PIC also argued that it should be granted a minor penalty rather than default judgment in the interest of justice, but the Supreme Court said that justice was only served by granting extensions for filing to defendants who had "reasonable grounds for noncompliance with the statutory time period," but PIC had no such reasons. Other arguments which attempted to draw on case law in other states were similarly dismissed by the Supreme Court as being irrelevant because PIC had direct liability instead of vicarious liability.

This case reveals the importance of choosing the right lawyer. Whether a defendant or plaintiff, the right lawyer can find and exploit the law to your best advantage.

If you have suffered as a result of the negligence of a doctor, clinic, or hospital, contact the experienced medical malpractice lawyers at Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP today for a free initial consultation and case evaluation.

Microprocessors can have the advantage of being able to do what no human being could do: dedicate its entire existence to performing one tiny, precise task with tireless devotion for days, weeks, even years. However, these so-called thinking machines are incapable of actual thought, and can only do exactly as they are told, which means that the instructions to them must be extremely precise and accurate. Errors in these instructions can lead to a deadly combination of defective products and medical malpractice.

For example, the FDA recalled the software for Medtronic's implantable infusion pumps in 2004 because the software caused the pump to deliver fatal overdoses to patients. Software designed for use in a blood bank that does not correlate all risk factors. Software used at medical testing sites was recalled because it mismatched test results and specimens. And software designed to control culture tests would allow culture bottles to be removed before the culture had sufficient time to grow, allowing infections to go undiagnosed.

However, these errors in software can be prevented. So-called forensic software that can diagnose the coding errors, but many companies do not use it because of the expense. Instead, they would rather issue the code, then find errors as a result of the injuries or deaths caused.

Do not let them use your body as a debugging device. If you have suffered as a result of faulty medical device software, contact the experienced product liability lawyers at Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP today for a free initial consultation and case evaluation.

A New York jury awarded a mother and her child $19.6 million for a birth injury that happened in 1998. The mother, who had been looking forward to her first child after eight years of trying to have a baby, but found the birth at St. Vincent's Medical Center in Manhattan to be a nightmare. The baby was high in the birth canal, and the mother's lawyer said that the doctors should have realized the only option was an emergency c-section.

Instead, the hospital resident tugged on the baby with forceps for 23 minutes before finally getting him through the birth canal. The baby was born lifeless and oxygen-deprived and had to have emergency resuscitation, but the anesthesiologist inserted a breathing tube into the boy's stomach. The mother suffered a tear in her vaginal area that reached her rectum, but one of the doctors attempting to repair the damage left the room, and the remaining doctor badly botched the repair, leaving the mother with an injury that continues to be painful.

The jury returned the medical malpractice verdict after only one day's deliberation at the end of a three-week trial.

The birth of a child should be a joyous occasion, but a doctor's error can turn it into a tragedy. If your bundle of joy has been hurt by a doctor's malpractice, contact the experienced medical malpractice attorneys at Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP today for a free initial consultation and case evaluation.

Wal-Mart has been trying to shake off its reputation as a heartless corporation guilty of numerous counts of employment discrimination and trying to squeeze as much profit as possible by not letting its employees rise above the poverty line. This action should help.

Major corporations Wal-Mart and Tyson Food have joined a lawsuit that attempts to keep a Pine Bluff, Arkansas police officer from getting workers' compensation after he was shot in the ankle and knocked unconscious after patting down a suspect.

On March 1, 2003, the officer was patting down a suspect, who then stuck a gun in his stomach. The officer struggled for the gun, but received a gunshot wound to his left ankle, then was knocked unconscious with a blow to the head. He has claimed that he suffered neurological damage from the blow and that he walks with a limp as a result of the gunshot wound. These statements form the basis of his claim to receive workers' compensation for his injuries.

However, his claim was denied by the Workers' Compensation Commission, saying that there was no objective evidence showing that he sustained permanent physical impairment. Doctors selected by the police department and the Workers' Compensation Commission say there is no impairment, but another doctor says there is. The appeals court has twice overturned the Commission's findings, saying that the presence of bullet fragments constituted objective evidence.

The large corporations are involved because they want to weigh in on the issue. They fear that if the officer's case is found in his favor, they may have to respect the opinions of doctors other than the few carefully chosen shills that can be reliably counted on to ignore evidence and deny the claims of anyone, even a former chief of police shot in the line of duty.

It is surprising that Wal-Mart would make such a public move against workers' rights following the recent row over their attempt to take the last penny of a brain-damaged employee earlier this year.

If you have suffered a work-related injury, contact the experienced workers' compensation lawyers at Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP today for a free initial consultation and case evaluation.

Dr. Jayant Patel is a case in point that relatively few doctors are responsible for many of the serious errors leading to patient injuries. Dr. Patel received his early training overseas, but did intern work in New York before being granted a license to practice in the United States. He began to practice in New York, but was cited for "his moral unfitness to practice medicine," evidenced by his tendency to operate on patients without examining them. He then moved to Portland, where he was hired partly on the basis of recommendations from supervisors who knew him as an intern. While in Portland, his practice was increasingly restricted as a result of complaints and medical malpractice lawsuits. He was cited for "gross or repeated acts of negligence." At least three patients are reported to have died as a result of his gross negligence, but his license was not revoked, only restricted.

Patel then moved back to New York, and, with favorable letters of recommendation from doctors in Oregon, he secured employment at another hospital until 2001, when his license was revoked.

Then in 2003 he was hired by an Australian hospital on the basis of this curriculum vitae. Apparently, they did not check his service record, but instead promoted him to head of surgery. While in Australia, over 20 formal complaints were made against the doctor, and he is suspected of being responsible for as many as 87 patient deaths at the hospital. But instead of turning him over to the authorities, the hospital that employed him bought him a ticket back to the United States, again with a letter of endorsement. Finally, in the United States, he was arrested on 16 charges, including three counts of manslaughter.

You can read elsewhere about the botched surgeries he performed, but what I am interested in is how Dr. Patel was coddled from hospital to hospital with endorsements from his fellow doctors. It is a failure to supervise of the worst possible kind that doctors not only allowed him to continue practicing, but fostered his incompetence, leading to the suffering of thousands more individuals. If the medical profession will not police itself, someone else must step in.

You can be part of that policing mechanism. Medical malpractice lawsuits can lead to doctors' licenses being revoked or restricted. If you have suffered as a result of a doctor's negligence or gross incompetence, contact the experienced medical malpractice lawyers at Pomerantz, Perlberger, and Lewis, LLP, today for a free initial case evaluation.