Articles Posted in personal injury

A family in Tennessee is seeking to recover damages after their little girl suffered injuries while playing on a defective swing set at school – a swing set that had been recalled in 2009 by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Despite the recall, the swing set remained in use on school grounds. The district contends it did not receive notice of the recall. Nearly six years after that recall was initiated, the injury occurred. The swing set broke while the girl was playing on it, causing her to come crashing to the ground. She sustained bruises to her left side, and her parents say the injuries have been ongoing. She’s racked up nearly $5,000 in medical bills and has also incurred pain and suffering.

The district offered to settle for $5,000, but the family is seeking $10,000. The personal injury attorney has indicated she is prepared to take the case to trial, though is hopeful a settlement will be reached prior to that point.
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The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued a $3.4 million fine against an officer store retailer that intentionally failed to report a number of reports of injury allegedly caused by two different models of defective office chairs.

According to a news release from the CPSC, the problem was the seat backs of two different chair models failed. As a result, numerous customers suffered injuries to their backs and elsewhere on their body.

The chairs were manufactured and sold by the office chain store, which is headquartered in Boca Raton, FL.
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As consumers, we trust the products we buy and use are safe as designed and manufactured. Unfortunately, this is too often not the case. From baby cribs to automobiles to construction equipment to medical devices, thousands of people are hurt every year as a result of defective products.

Those injured by dangerous and defective products may explore the possibility of a product liability lawsuit against the entity that designed the product, the manufacturer, the distributor or the maintenance company. Relevant defendants in a case will depend heavily on the underlying facts.

In the recent Florida Supreme Court case of Coba v. Tricam Indus., Inc., the allegedly defective product was a ladder, on which decedent fell, resulting in his death.
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In any premises liability claim, success often hinges on whether the property owner or operator had actual or constructive knowledge of a dangerous condition.

So in the case of a slippery floor, we have to determine whether a property or business owner knew the floor was wet or slippery.

However, it gets a little more complicated in claims alleging liability due to inadequate security or negligent security following a third-party crime. After all, it almost never happens that the property or business owner had actual knowledge of a crime before it takes place.
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A 9-year-old boy and his mother were rushed to the hospital recently after a Fort Lauderdale dog attack that reportedly ended only when a neighbor subdued the animal with his bare hands and a belt.

The boy was “severely injured,” according to responding officers, while his 35-year-old mother suffered a leg wound.

Based on witness reports, the boy was riding his bicycle in the driveway when the pit bull mix dog circled him. The boy fell of his bike and the dog attacked, biting him on his right leg, left arm and shoulder as the boy tried to fight him off. His mother rushed to his aid, and she too suffered bites on her right leg and left arm.
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Florida is renowned for its water sports and boating activities. It’s a huge draw for the millions of tourists who flock to the state each year.

Most people walk away from the experience with a rush of adrenaline and fond memories. However, when negligence during boating results in personal injury, victims can be left with permanent, debilitating losses.

Such was the case for plaintiff in Hodson v. Taylor.. Victim suffered permanent paralysis from the chest down after a water-related accident as a teen. The incident and lawsuit took place in Nebraska, and the Nebraska Supreme Court recently issued a ruling on the case against a number of defendants, affirming summary judgment for one and reversing and remanding against two others. The case can now proceed to trial.
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So many of the products we buy and use every day are manufactured outside the U.S. While these products must adhere to certain safety standards, sometimes they fall short, resulting in injury.

Pursuing litigation against foreign companies can pose challenges, as the recent case of Book v. Voma Tire Corp. et al. illustrated. The case, before the Iowa Supreme Court, almost did not make it to trial, at least where one foreign company was concerned, due to an alleged lack of jurisdiction.

Jurisdiction is the right of a court to oversee a lawsuit against an individual or business. A foreign company may have grounds to assert lack of jurisdiction in state court, although the precedent set in this case means they will be less likely to succeed, at least in Iowa.

Still, it’s important for injury attorneys to closely examine the facts of the case to determine the appropriate court in which to file suit.
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Florida is a welcome respite for visitors from around the world, and the widespread availability of watersports is a major draw. Unfortunately, those who offer excursions such as wakeboarding, parasailing or scuba diving sometimes put profits before people.

That is what was alleged in a horrific July 2013 parasailing accident in which two teen girls, both 17, were left in critical condition after their parasail snapped from the boat while they were in mid-air. The girls continued to soar through the air on 35-mile-an-hour winds that caused them to be thrown against the 13th floor of a condominium complex before they were sent crashing down into the parking lot below, slamming onto the top of a vehicle.

The friends were vacationing from Indiana at the time of the incident.
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Prior to 2010, the burden of proof for plaintiffs in slip-and-fall lawsuits in Florida was much lower. One needed to prove only the plaintiff encountered a slippery foreign substance on the ground, fell as a result and suffered injury.

However, the new statute placed a greater responsibility on the injured person to prove the business knew or should have known about the existence of the substance that proximately caused the fall, and also that the business failed to clean it up.

This has meant slip-and-fall accident claimants have a higher hurdle to overcome in proving their case. However, Florida’s First District Court of Appeal recently ruled in Glaze v. Chick-Fil-A et al. the new statute, F.S. 768.0755, can’t be applied retroactively. That means the old law, F.S. 768.0710, is the applicable law.
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The expectation consumers have when they purchase a product is it will work as stated when used as intended. In the legal world, this is called implied warranty of merchantability, and a breach resulting in injury can be grounds for a personal injury lawsuit.

However, plaintiffs in these product liability lawsuits must be able to prove causation.

In the recent case of Kallal v. CIBA Vision Corp., before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, causation was the primary issue that resulted in affirmation of summary judgment for the defense.
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