Philadelphia Top Injury Lawyer Blog

In a settlement approved by Philadelphia Common Please Judge Marlene Lachman earlier this month, a New Jersey carpenter was awarded $7.9 million in compensation for life-altering injuries suffered during a construction accident. Contingencies could push the award up to $8.1 million.

While working on exterior trim during construction of a multi-story residential retirement community in Delaware County, carpenter Victor Tavares fell three stories when a guardrail gave way. The fall left the 46-year-old man paralyzed from the lower back down. Tavares' legs were so severely disfigured in the construction accident that he had to undergo 12 surgeries in attempts to repair the most grievous damage to his limbs.

Philadelphia personal injury attorneys sued a group of defendants for nearly $7.2 million on behalf of Tavares and his family. Two rounds of settlement talks, the second mediated by Judge Lachman, led to a last-minute agreement between the parties just hours before jury selection was scheduled to begin.

Philadelphia personal injury construction accidents are complex to litigate. Construction site activities are managed and populated by myriad parties, including site owners, contractors, subcontractors, material suppliers and workers. When Philadelphia construction accidents occur, more than one party at the site often bears responsibility for conditions, materials or negligence that contributed to the accident.

Sorting out the level of responsibility of each party and coming to terms with each party's insurance carrier is a complicated and lengthy process. Considerable investigation may need to be performed to uncover critical facts about the accident. Industry, medical and accident reconstruction experts may need to be consulted. Insurance companies for each involved party have to be dealt with.

\When serious accidents occur on job sites, Philadelphia construction injury attorneys can pursue the accident victim's right to just compensation, allowing the accident victim to concentrate on recovery.

A popular Jamaican resort has settled a fatal personal injury accident case, agreeing to pay the family of Jarred Smith $6.5 million. Smith of Erie, Pennsylvania was killed in July 2006 while playing on an Aqua Jump water trampoline at the Beaches Sandy Bay hotel in Negril, Jamaica. Smith and his family were at the hotel to attend a wedding.

According to Ceola Smith, the young man's mother, Jarred was jumping on the water trampoline when he dove headfirst into the surrounding water. Although Aqua Jump instructions require 10 feet of water for safe use, the resort had situated the water trampoline in water that was only four to five feet deep. Jarred struck his head on the bottom of the seafloor which rendered him quadriplegic. Unable to move, the young man drowned.

Personal injury attorneys arguing wrongful death on behalf of Jarred's family argued that the resort had been negligent in failing to locate the water trampoline in accordance with safety instructions, failing to provide written instructions to guests concerning safe use of the water trampoline and failing to provide an appropriate flotation device which Jarred's mother believed would have saved her son's life. Attorneys for Sandals Resorts International countered by questioning whether the young man had actually struck his head on the seafloor and arguing that the trampoline was designed defectively.

This case points out the complex arguments involved when serious personal injury accidents occur and responsibility for horrendous injuries or death must be assigned. Striving to decrease their client's liability, attorneys for the resort questioned whether the young man's injuries and subsequent death were indeed caused by his dive off the trampoline. They also sought to defuse liability by charging the maker of the trampoline with defective design.

Personal injury accidents demand experienced and aggressive representation by skilled Philadelphia personal injury attorneys to ensure that personal injury accident victims and their families are compensated for their losses.

Two Pennsylvania natural gas workers suffered serious personal injures and were flown to Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre for treatment following a construction accident at a drilling site in northern Pennsylvania. One worker suffered broken ribs and the other suffered lacerations to his skull caused by a flying piece of metal when a pipe coupling blew apart at a Tioga County natural gas well operated by Ultra Resources. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating.

This serious Pennsylvania construction accident comes on the heels of a natural gas well blowout in central Pennsylvania earlier this month. While, fortunately, no one was injured in that construction accident, explosive natural gas and toxic wastewater spewed into the air, polluting nearby land for 16 hours before EOG Resources workers could bring the blowout under control. Safety concerns sparked by the blowout caused Pennsylvania regulators to halt work at 70 other natural gas wells under construction by EOG Resources.

Natural gas drilling is an admittedly hazardous profession which makes adherence to safety standards and practices all that much more vitally important to protect the health and safety of construction workers. As recent incidents illustrate, construction workers face the risk of serious personal injury every time they step on the job site. Companies that fail to protect their workers' safety can be held liable for workers' injuries. Just a few of the many negligent activities that can contribute to Philadelphia construction accidents include:

• Inadequate or incompetent supervision
• Defective or poorly maintained equipment
• Negligent drilling, blasting or tunneling procedures
• Unprotected openings
• Improper scaffolding procedures
• Improper handling of gases or chemicals
• Failure to maintain access areas
• Insufficient bracing or support of structures

The complexity of Philadelphia construction accident claims requires expert investigation by knowledgeable Philadelphia personal injury lawyers experienced in pursuing construction accident claims.

In a tragic bus accident Wednesday afternoon, a 6-year-old greater Philadelphia area boy was struck and run over by the school bus that had just dropped him off outside his home. The boy was struck just moments after stepping off the bus. Only a few days of school remained for the first grader at Pickering Valley Elementary School in Upper Uwchlan, Pennsylvania, located slightly northwest of Philadelphia. The young boy suffered severe, life-threatening personal injuries in the bus accident and was flown by helicopter to A.I. DuPont Children's Hospital in Wilmington, Delaware. Following surgery for his injuries, the 6-year-old remains hospitalized in critical condition.

Details of the bus accident are still under investigation, but Upper Uwchlan police Chief John DeMarco told Chester County Daily Local News that he does not expect the bus driver to face criminal charges in the accident. Police said the bus driver was driving at or below the posted 25 mph speed limit. Downingtown Area School District spokeswoman Patricia McGlone characterized the accident as "unavoidable" and told reporters, "We don't believe that the driver was at fault." However, no details concerning the accident or explaining exactly how the young boy was struck and run over have been released to the public.

The distraught bus driver, an employee of Wolfington Bus Co., has been unable to return to her job. The bus involved in the accident has been removed from service pending investigation. The bus company has assigned a veteran relief driver to drive the route until school ends next week and has placed a safety coordinator on board.

A tragedy for all concerned, it is in highly emotional accidents like this one that the highly honed investigative skills of an experienced Philadelphia personal injury attorney can be particularly beneficial in protecting the rights of accident victims and obtaining the largest possible settlement in the fastest possible time.

Up until 10 years ago security guards patrolled Philadelphia's SEPTA rail yards 24 hours a day to protect SEPTA property and keep wayward pedestrians from danger. Had SEPTA kept those security guards on patrol at its Wayne Junction rail yards in Germantown, an 11-year-old Philadelphia boy would probably still be alive, said a former SEPTA security officer.

Jewels Angelo was electrocuted and killed Saturday when he entered SEPTA's unguarded Germantown rail yard and touched an electrified mechanism on top of a train car. Former security guard David Waters, who patrolled the rail yard in the 1990s, said that had security guards still been in place, they would have kept the boy from entering the dangerous Philadelphia rail yard and most likely would have been able to save his life.

According to Waters, 250 to 300 security guards provided overnight security at Philadelphia-area SEPTA transit stations in the 1990s. A decade later, financial problems shut down the security operation. Currently, the transit company has a team of roving guards that patrol SEPTA stations. A SEPTA spokesman said the transit company has no plans to reinstate guards at Philadelphia rail yards, despite the presence of hazardous equipment capable of inflicting severe personal injuries.

Utilities, transit authorities, manufacturers, business firms, commercial establishments, retail stores, even homeowners have a public safety responsibility to protect Philadelphia residents from coming to harm on their property. When a person suffers serious personal injury or is the victim of a wrongful death as a result of negligence, the victim's family can file to recover damages. If you believe someone in your family has been the victim of a wrongful death, contact an experienced Philadelphia personal injury attorney for a free case evaluation.

What is your hand worth? Is your right hand worth more than your left hand? You can function with one hand, but what if you earn your living by typing on a computer keyboard? Can you still provide for your family if you only have the use of one hand? Will your employer fire you if you can't produce at the same rate as someone with two functioning hands? No one in Philadelphia likes to think about these things, but people lose a hand or the use of a hand or other body part every day in tragic construction accidents, car accidents, truck accidents and motorcycle accidents.

Insurance companies that insure Philadelphia businesses and residents spend thousands of hours pouring over statistics to arrive at the cost of a limb or an eye or a person's ability to sit or stand or walk. Using complicated calculations, insurance companies decide what they will pay the victim of a Philadelphia personal injury accident if the person loses a body part or the use of a limb or if he loses the ability to perform a basic human function such as walking.

Insurance companies tend to be one size fits all. Without a legal push, they are generally unwilling to factor in the importance of lost function to the individual and his family. Without a legal push, insurance companies are usually uninterested in how the loss will impact the individual's personal and family life. Without a legal push, they are often indifferent to how loss of use will affect an individual's ability to support himself and his family now and into the future. Experienced Philadelphia personal injury lawyers supply that push.

Philadelphia personal injury attorneys fight for the rights and needs of Philadelphia personal injury accident victims. If you are the victim of an accident, don't accept the insurance company's offered settlement without first talking to an experienced Philadelphia personal injury lawyer.

An animal rights group from California, In Defense of Animals, is challenging a Pennsylvania corner over his ruling that the death of circus worker Andrew Anderton was an accident. Luzerne County coroner John Corcoran ruled that Dumbo, a female African elephant, accidentally kicked his handler, killing him, while the Irem Shrine Circus was performing in Wilkes Barre last week. The animal rights group claims that while the handler's death may have been an accident, the kick was not.

According to an article appearing in the online edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Joyce Poole, spokeswoman for In Defense of Animals, said in her letter to the Pennsylvania coroner:

"With a body weighing six tons elephants are extremely careful and rarely do anything by accident. They have superior sense of hearing, an incredible sense of smell and they are able to detect minute vibrations via their feet. Dumbo would have known that Anderson was approaching her from behind; she would have been able to smell, feel and hear him."

In its letter, the animal right's group makes the argument that confining and chaining elephants creates stress that leads the animals to attack. The group claims that since 1990, elephant attacks in the U.S. have killed 14 people and injured 135.

Depending on your stance on animal rights, this story may seem silly or not, but the elephant is unlikely to be charged, To protect the legal rights of the deceased circus handler's family, Philadelphia personal injury lawyers would have to investigate the exact circumstances surrounding the accident as well as workplace safety issues and circus policies and practices that might have led to this tragic personal injury accident. Philadelphia personal injury attorneys are experts in digging through the emotional hysteria that surrounds fatal workplace accident to determine the facts and the fault of the accident.

In the wake of two frightening negligence episodes at two different day care centers, Philadelphia parents may be wondering how safe their children are when they drop them off at day care.

Day care owners and county health officials in Vancouver, Washington are being criticized for failing to close a day care facility after several children were hospitalized and a four-year-old boy died from a deadly strain of E. coli bacteria. Particularly dangerous to young children, E. coli bacteria is found in the intestinal tract and can cause bloody diarrhea, dehydration and death. The county finally ordered the facility closed more than two weeks after the first hospitalization. County officials said they delayed closing the day care center from concern that working parents would place their children at other facilities, exposing additional children to infection.

Closer to home, childcare workers at a church-operated day care facility in Cincinnati, Ohio have been accused of giving children melatonin, an over-the counter dietary supplement, at nap time to make them sleep. Melatonin is a hormone produced in the brain that controls sleep and wake cycles. Sold over the counter as a dietary supplement, melatonin is not approved nor regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Parents became concerned when their children seemed groggy when they picked them up at the day care facility. Among the parents who have filed a personal injury lawsuit against the church and day care workers are new parents of a 6-month-old infant. Parents say children were fed the drug in pieces of candy just before their scheduled nap.

Philadelphia parents should exercise vigilance about the day care facilities they select for their children and be alert to possible negligence. If you have reason to be concerned about the health or safety provided by your child's day care facility, a Philadelphia personal injury attorney can provide a free case evaluation.

New federal rules targeting lead paint dust highlight a serious personal injury threat for Philadelphia residents contemplating a home remodeling project. Beginning April 22, new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules will require that all contractors be certified and trained in safe methods for reducing job site dust. The new rules apply to any remodeling or construction job with the potential to release paint dust into the air. Training and new safety measures are expected to add $8 to $167 to the cost of interior remodeling projects, more for exterior jobs.

From window replacement to major projects like a room addition or kitchen rehab, most remodeling projects create large quantities of construction dust. In homes painted with lead paint, even if that paint has been covered over with lead-free paint, construction dust will include particles of lead from old paint. When breathed in, these lead particles can cause brain damage; behavioral, learning and growth difficulties; hearing problems; and headaches in still developing children. Lead dust can cause reproductive problems in adults, nerve disorders, muscle and joint pain, high blood pressure and memory loss. Although lead paint was outlawed in 1978, the EPA has linked many recent cases of lead poisoning personal injury to remodeling projects.

Nearly all Philadelphia homes built before 1940 (87%) were painted with lead paint. From 1940 to 1960 as newer paint formulas were developed, the EPA estimates that lead paint was used in 69% percent of homes. That figure dropped to 24% from 1961 to 1978 as the dangers of lead paint were discovered. Since its discontinuation in 1978 no U.S. homes have been contaminated with lead paint. However, particularly in older homes, the danger of serious personal injury persists when old paint is uncovered during remodeling.

When they check into a Philadelphia hospital, people expect the treatment they receive to make them better. But sometimes patients are exposed to virulent bacteria during the course of treatment that can not only make them sicker, it can kill them. C. diff is the latest infectious bacteria to pose a medical malpractice threat to patients in Philadelphia hospitals and nursing homes. The spread of dangerous C. diff bacteria is a problem not just in Philadelphia but in hospital and health care facilities nationwide.

Clostridium difficile (C. diff) is a common cause of bacterial colon infections linked to antibiotic use. Antibiotics interfere with the normal bacteria in the bowel, allowing the growth of C. diff. Because most patients who contract C. diff exhibit no symptoms, the infection is difficult to diagnose, often delaying appropriate treatment.

According to a recent report, C. diff has surpassed MRSA, a deadly drug-resistant staph infection, as the most common infection contracted in hospitals and nursing homes. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 6,432 Americans died from C. diff in 2007, the most recent figures available. That's more than an 800% increase from 2006 when 793 Americans died from C. diff. The rapid increase and spread of C. diff in Philadelphia and other U.S. hospitals and nursing homes has public health officials on high alert. Of considerable concern is the increasing virulence of this bacterial infection.

CDC audits of infection prevention programs have shown marked decrease in the incidence of C. diff when hospitals increased vigilance about staff hand washing, surface cleaning and the isolation of infected patients. If you or someone you love has been the victim of hospital negligence and been exposed to C. diff, an experienced medical malpractice attorney can review your case and inform you of your legal rights.

Auto safety issues seem to be making Philadelphia headlines daily. Honda yesterday announced a recall of Element and Odyssey models to repair squishy brakes. A vehicle stability assist modulator connected to the brake assembly appears to be faulty and has been linked by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to several car accidents. The recall comes on the heels of Honda's recall of nearly half a million vehicles for malfunctioning air bags that can burst and cause serious personal injury, peppering vehicle occupants with metal fragments.

Toyota's acceleration problems continue to worry Philadelphia car owners and baffle federal regulators. Despite several repair efforts, sudden acceleration on Toyota vehicles remains a problem. Federal regulators are now investigating whether cosmic rays from space, known to affect airplane and space shuttle systems, might be interfering with car computer systems. NHTSA has also tracked fatal acceleration car accidents to Ford and Chrysler vehicles.

In their nationally syndicated column Car Talk, Tom and Ray Magliozzi advise drivers to shift their car into neutral if the gas pedal sticks or the car starts to accelerate on its own. Shifting into neutral disengages the engine from the wheels so that even if the engine continues to rev, the car will slow down and eventually stop. Shifting into neutral is preferable to turning off the key because it allows the driver to maintain control of the car. In neutral, the power steering, power brakes, ABS and other vehicle systems continue to work. Turning off the key shuts down all these systems and can activate the steering wheel lock, giving the driver absolutely no control over the runaway vehicle.

If you are in a car accident caused by uncontrollable acceleration or vehicle malfunction, a personal injury attorney can provide a free case evaluation and advise you of your legal rights.

A personal injury suit at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio should serve as a warning to Philadelphia residents and business owners who may be coping with roof damage suffered during the winter. Last spring a water leak in one of the university's buildings saturated the ceiling. Workers used high speed fans to dry the ceiling. Two OSU workers and their families are now suing the university, claiming that they were exposed to a dangerous fungus during the ceiling repair procedure which caused them to suffer serious personal injury.

Both workers contracted histoplasmosis last spring, a sometimes fatal fungal disease of the lungs. Histoplasmosis can cause fever, chills, chest pains, fatigue, cough, permanent scarring of the lungs and chronic respiratory problems. If the fungus attacks other organs, histoplasmosis can be fatal.

Commonly found in bird and bat droppings, histoplasmosis is transmitted when pulverized droppings are stirred into the air and breathed in. The OSU victims claim that the university knew the roof space above the leaking ceiling had been infested by birds and bats and that the fans used to dry the ceiling introduced histoplasmosis fungus into the air breathed by the workers. Both workers said they experienced intense pain during their illnesses, and one worker had to have a section of lung removed. Tests performed on a ceiling tile confirmed the presence of histoplasmosis fungus.

The university denies any negligence in performing repairs or protecting its employees. A court will decide the matter, but it is a cautionary tale for Philadelphia business owners and residents who may have experienced water damage to roofs during the heavy icing that damaged many Philadelphia buildings this winter. If you fear exposure to histoplasmosis or other diseases that may have resulted from building damage or repair, a Philadelphia personal injury attorney can review your case.

A hospital stay is fraught with worry and anxiety for both the patient and his or her family. But when a patient is discharged, there's a reasonable expectation that the patient is on the road to recovery and is being sent home with the medications and instructions that will promote full recovery. According to a new study by the Commonwealth Fund, a private New York research group, hospitals are not meeting expectations when they discharge patients and too many Philadelphia patients are winding up right back in the hospital as a result.

The Commonwealth Fund study found that preventable medical errors and negligent hospital discharge procedures forced more than 13,000 elderly and disabled of Pennsylvania patients to be readmitted within 30 days of hospital discharge. The two most common medical errors were sending patients home without required antibiotic prescriptions and not providing written post-hospital care instructions to patients at the time of discharge. Lack of follow up procedures to insure that patients were taking required medication and that they were correctly following post-hospitalization instructions was also cited as a frequent contributor to hospital readmission.

According to the Commonwealth Fund, preventable hospital mistakes cost Medicare and taxpayers approximately $12 billion each year. Medicare and several federal health care reform bills would tie hospital payments to readmission rates, paying less to hospitals that showed a higher incidence of patient readmission. In the Commonwealth Fund study, Pennsylvania hospitals showed a preventable readmission rate of 19.7%, at the high end of the national median.

The conditions most likely to require hospital readmission were: heart failure, pulmonary disease, pneumonia. cardiac stent placement and major hip or knee surgery. When Philadelphia hospital personnel fail to provide proper medication or patient care instructions at discharge, necessitating readmission, a case for medical malpractice can be made. Patients have been known to suffer serious personal injury complications and even die from these preventable medical errors.

While no medical malpractice suit has been filed and no charges of negligence or wrongful death have been made, the shocking death of powerful Pennsylvania Congressman John Murtha following routine gallbladder surgery serves as a reminder of the many risks and potential opportunities for error during any surgical procedure, no matter how minor. At 77, Representative Murtha's age may have increased his risk; but even so, life-threatening complications from gallbladder surgery are exceedingly rare. More than half a million Americans have their gallbladders removed without incident every year. But, as with all surgical procedures, there are always risks.

As a doctor labors with laparoscopic instruments to pull a swollen, inflamed gallbladder through a tiny incision in the patient's abdomen, the doctor can mistakenly cut into the patient's intestine, liver or bile duct. If the hole is undiscovered, infection can set in. If the surgeon tears even the tiniest hole in the intestine during gallbladder surgery, massive, life-threatening infection can set in quickly as bacteria-laden waste from the intestine leaks into the sterile environment of the abdomen. This is apparently what happened to Representative Murtha. Although his family has refused to comment on his death, a family friend confided to reporters that when the Representative died he was battling a major infection caused by damage to his intestine during gallbladder surgery.

A surgical accident, even one that takes a life, does not always indicate negligence or medical malpractice. Each case is unique and must be carefully reviewed. Philadelphia personal injury lawyers with an expertise in medical malpractice have the knowledge and professional resources to thoroughly investigate the possibility of physician negligence or surgical error when patients are injured or die as a result of surgical complications. If you believe you or someone you love has been the victim of a surgical error or medical malpractice, an experienced Philadelphia personal injury attorney can review your case and apprise you of your legal options.

The latest Disney movie The Princess and the Frog was a Christmas holiday hit. Merchandising tie-ins have been popular sellers with young girls and their parents, so the recent finding of high levels of toxic metal in themed jewelry sent shock waves through Philadelphia homes and retailers. High levels of the toxic metal cadmium were found in Chinese-made The Princess and the Frog pendants being sold exclusively at Wal-Mart stores. The discovery comes on the heels of the Christmas recall of Chinese-made cadmium-laced children's jewelry at Wal-Mart and Claire's stores.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, which began testing children's metal jewelry for cadmium after the December scare, announced the voluntary recall of 55,000 Chinese-made pendants by Rhode Island jewelry company FAF Inc. Cadmium is a known carcinogen that, like lead, can hinder children's brain development, although federal regulations do not currently require testing for cadmium in children's jewelry nor do they set a maximum limit on the amount of cadmium in a product. In response to the recall, Disney acted to require cadmium testing of all products bearing its brand and halt in production and distribution of products when cadmium is detected. Philadelphia Wal-Marts voluntarily pulled The Princess and the Frog children's jewelry from shelves and will provide a refund or replacement product for affected items returned to their stores.

Chinese whistle blowers say they noticed factories substituting toxic cadmium for non-toxic zinc around 2003 when cadmium prices dropped significantly. Chinese manufacturers preferred cadmium not only because they could save money on the cost of raw materials for making children's and fashion jewelry for foreign markets but because the metal was malleable at lower temperatures, ensuring cheaper production costs. Congress is now considering legislation that would ban cadmium from children's jewelry and toys.

When Philadelphia children suffer personal injury from toxic toys or defective products, Philadelphia personal injury lawyers can initiate product liability suits to bring manufacturers and distributors to account and protect the public and our children.