Posted on May 31, 2011 in Our Blog,Public Safety

TriMet is not the only transit agency in the nation with some distracted drivers. A wrongful-death lawsuit was just filed against San Francisco transit agency Muni. In April of 2010 pedestrian Scott Whitsett was killed while crossing Mission Street, a busy street in the city. The suit alleges that the driver of the bus was… read more

Posted on May 27, 2011 in Our Blog,Patient Care

Despite the implementation of new safety procedures designed to reduce medical and surgical errors, the errors continue. This is understandable, of course, since the health care industry is run by humans, and humans make mistakes, but really, there are still more errors than there should be. The Oregonian just reported that a 4-year-old underwent surgery… read more

Posted on May 23, 2011 in Our Blog,Patient Care

Here’s an interesting case. A violent psychiatric patient at Western State Hospital didn’t want non-whites to treat him, so administration complied, assigning only whites and light-skinned attendants to work in that ward. Now the hospital faces a lawsuit filed by nine employees. The employees include both whites and non-whites. The hospital’s policy, the lawsuit claims,… read more

Posted on May 20, 2011 in Our Blog,Patient Care

The popular prescription diabetes drug Avandia will only be available in very limited distribution as of November 18, 2011. Avandia has been on the market for more than a decade, but a 2007 study indicated that it increased heart attack risk in patients with type 2 diabetes by about 40 percent. Also in 2007 David… read more

Posted on May 18, 2011 in General,Our Blog

Michael Ellis died an unnecessary death after being forcefully removed from Club 915 (closed by OLCC). We filed suit against the bar for removing him without his belongings (including his jacket) on one of the coldest nights of the year (temperature reached 18 degrees).

Posted on May 17, 2011 in Our Blog,Patient Care,Patient Death

Children’s Hospital in Seattle seems to be suffering from a few too many nurses making critical errors. Two nurses there have just been charged with unprofessional conduct and violation of the minimum standard of care by the Washington Department of Health. Apparently the errors made by these two nurses were but a few among quite… read more

Posted on May 12, 2011 in Our Blog

Nearly 5 years ago a 210-foot construction crane collapsed in Bellevue, killing one person and seroiusly injuring the crane operator. This week the crane operator, Warren Yeakey, was awarded $1.45 million by a jury for economic and noneconomic damages. The award was considerably less than what Yeakey and his wife asked for in the suit–$12… read more

Posted on May 10, 2011 in Our Blog

A lawsuit was just filed against drug maker Pfizer blaming the company for causing a murder-suicide in Pennsylvania in May 2009. The lawsuit contends that Pfizer’s smoking-cessation drug Chantix caused user Sean Wain to fly into a rage and shoot his wife to death before turning the gun on himself. Wain had been taking Chantix,… read more

Posted on May 6, 2011 in Dental,Our Blog

GlaxoSmithKline, makers of Poligrip denture cream, among many, many other drugs and medicinal products, is reported to have paid some $120 million in the past 9 months to settle claims that some Poligrip products caused neurological problems in some users. Complainants purportedly received more than $1 million per person. Plaintiffs claimed the zinc used in… read more

Posted on May 3, 2011 in Our Blog,Public Safety

Sheriffs in Marin County, CA, may think twice before pulling out their Taser stun guns now. Peter McFarland, a 66-year-old resident of West Marin, just won a $1.9 million settlement against Marin County over a June 2009 incident in which McFarland was shot repeatedly by a stun gun. McFarland sued for use of excessive force…. read more