South Florida Personal Injury Lawyers

On July 18, 2003, plaintiff Fernando Sanchez, 20, was an employee of a landscaping company cutting a hedge using the Echo HC-2000 hedge clipper in Malvern. Sanchez was a Spanish-speaking Mexican citizen who entered the United States legally with an H-2B visa to work for an employer in the landscaping industry.

Sanchez alleged that while trimming bushes, he lost his balance and released the front handle. The hedge clipper fell 2 feet from his chest to his knees, and in the act of catching his balance, Sanchez’s left hand came in contact with the moving blades of the hedge clipper, resulting in the amputation of two fingers on his left hand.

Sanchez sued Echo Inc. for products liability (design defect and failure to warn). Plaintiff’s counsel argued that Sanchez did nothing unforeseeable or even out of the ordinary to cause the accident, and that the Echo HC2000 was defective in design. This argument was further supported by the plaintiff’s human factors analysis expert.

Plaintiff’s counsel argued that the accident occurred when Sanchez released the front handle of the gasoline-powered hedge clipper when he lost his balance. The unit failed to have a fail-safe design, whereby it continued to run having its double-reciprocating blades moving in the cutting mode when the operator’s hand is removed from the front handle. This is a clear design defect that creates a serious injury potential and a substantial product hazard, counsel argued.

The plaintiff’s design expert opined that Echo failed to design and install a two-hands-necessary control system in the subject hedge clipper and was the cause of Sanchez’s injury. Had the clipper been equipped with an operator’s presence control on the front handle, the engine would turn off upon release of the operator’s hand from the front handle.

Plaintiff’s counsel further argued that defective English-Spanish instructions and warnings on the product and in the operator’s manual failed to adequately instruct the user as to which hands should be on the rear handle and front handle of the hedge clipper.

Echo denied the allegations. Defense counsel contended that the plaintiff was contributorily negligent because he had placed his hands on the incorrect handles and had the blades of the hedge clipper facing his body. Additionally, Sanchez was walking backward and standing on uneven footing at the time of the accident.

Through high-speed videography testing, the defense mechanical engineer, calculated .377 seconds as the actual drop time over the two feet of Sanchez’s chest and knees. Had the hedge clipper been equipped with an operator’s presence control on the front handle, as plaintiff’s counsel suggested, the blade coast-down time after ignition kill would have been 1.15 seconds and, accordingly, the blades would have continued to run .773 seconds after the drop of two feet.

Sanchez’s fingers would still have been injured even with an operator’s presence control, according to defense human factors and warnings expert.

Sanchez was taken to the hospital where he underwent amputation of his middle finger and treatment for a laceration to his distal fourth (ring) finger.

The plaintiff’s physical rehabilitation expert opined that Sanchez lost the ability to use his left hand for fine motor activities and is slower in performing activities than he used to be with the hand. His ability to obtain gainful employment in today’s competitive marketplace has been compromised due to his injuries, said Noble.

He sought $449,084 to $1,305,480 in damages, which included lost wages ($74,998 to $568,484) and future medical expenses ($374,086 to $736,996). He sought an unspecified amount for past and future emotional distress and disfigurement.

Jurors found that the HC-2000 hedge clipper was not defectively designed and that Echo did not fail to provide users of the clipper with all warnings and instructions necessary to make the product safe for its intended use. However, the jury found that the Echo’s conduct was negligent and that Echo’s negligence was a factual cause of Sanchez’s injuries. They also found that Sanchez was negligent, that his negligence was a factual cause of his injuries, and attributed more than 50 percent of the causal negligence to him.

Fatalities from vehicle crashes with deer and other animals have more than doubled over the last 15 years, according to a new study by an auto insurance-funded highway safety group that cites urban sprawl overlapping into deer habitat.

The report by the Highway Loss Data Institute found that 223 people died in animal-vehicle crashes last year, up from 150 in 2000 and 101 in 1993.

Since 1993, Texas had the most deaths from such crashes, with 227, followed by Wisconsin with 123 and Pennsylvania with 112.

The Highway Loss Data Institute and its sister organization, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, looked at both insurance claims and federal crash data. According to the report, most accidents involving animals are with deer.

“Urban sprawl means suburbia and deer habitat intersect in many parts of the country,” said Kim Hazelbaker, the Highway Loss Data Institute’s senior vice president. “If you’re driving in areas where deer are prevalent, the caution flag is out, especially in November.”

The study found that insurance claims for crashes with animals is three times higher in November than it is from January to September.

“The months with the most crash deaths coincide with fall breeding season,” said Anne McCartt, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s senior vice president for research.

The Governors Highway Safety Association cautioned that the numbers need to be looked at in context, citing the more than 12,000 drunk driving deaths each year.

“Deer crashes are a small highway safety problem in terms of total deaths,” said the group’s spokesman, Jonathan Adkins. “This problem is perceived to be a lot more common than the reality.”

Adkins said there are no proven countermeasures, other than fencing, “which is extremely expensive and not practical. Our message to motorists is to slow down, particularly at dusk and on rural roads.”

In 2004 study, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that fencing, combined with underpasses and overpasses, can be an effective way to prevent deer-vehicles crashes.

As to the size of the problem, McCartt said, “I agree that the number doesn’t compare to the number of people killed in alcohol-related crashes, but it is going up. We’re not suggesting it’s of the same magnitude, but they do result in injuries and death.”

The overall number of animal-vehicle crashes is also on the rise. The report says that State Farm Insurance Co., the nation’s largest car insurer, has estimated 1.2 million claims industrywide for crashes with animals over a 12-month period ending June 30 of this year. State Farm says that claims for those types of crashes have increased nearly 15 percent over the last five years.

Emily Wereschagin filed a civil lawsuit against The United Cerebral Palsy Association (UCP) and others for the wrongful death of her five year old daughter. Anyah Glossinger, a blind five year old girl with autism, died during her participation in a swim program sponsored by The UCP of the Inland Empire, in Cathedral City, California.

In addition to the UCP, the lawsuit names the following people and organizations as defendants:

• The UCP Dennis James Center
• The UCP Little Bridges Program
• Palm Springs Unified School District
• Angel View Crippled Children’s Foundation, Inc.
• California Department of Social Services
• Riverside County
• the State of California

A Swim Program for Children with Disabilities

Anyah was in the UCP’s “Little Bridges Program” at the UCP Dennis James Center in Cathedral City, California in early 2008. She and two other children with special needs were doing swimming exercises under the supervision of three aides — Elva Lerma, Mariana Lerma, and Sixto Mitre.

Slipped Out of a Floatation Device

Anyah slipped out of the floatation device she’d been given and sank to the bottom of the pool. She was rescued from the pool but died the next day. Her mother’s legal action alleges that negligence on the part of all of the defendants was the cause of her daughter’s death.

None of the health aides are facing criminal charges. The local authorities’ investigation of the incident concluded that Anyah’s death was an accident. The lawsuit contends — among other things — that the UCP failed to appropriately hire and train its staff.

The United Cerebral Palsy Association

The UCP is a national charity that has served the disabled for more than 55 years, helping children and adults with cerebral palsy be more independent and productive. Every day in the U.S., the UCP assists more than 170,000 people become better integrated in society.

A deadly wrong-way crash shut down the westbound lanes of the Sawgrass expressway at University Drive early Friday morning.

Two people were killed when a pick-up truck and a car collided head-on at 2:30 am.

The westbound lanes between University Drive and Coral Ridge Drive were shut down for several hours.

The road has since been cleared.

This week in Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin a verdict was announced in a lawsuit that awarded more than $11 million dollars to a family whose son suffered brain injuries during birth that was the result of negligent care by the two nurses present. The family claimed that negligence was very apparent when the mother was giving birth citing that one of the nurses misread the “fetal monitoring strips” which were indicating that the infant was in distress and needed help immediately. If the nurse had read the strips properly she would have known that it was imperative that the baby to be delivered as soon as possible. The family was awarded damages for a variety of reasons ranging from past and future health care expenses, to the loss of companionship for the parents. Types of incidents are becoming far too common where another persons life is permanently damaged as the result of the negligence of another. This type of incident is considered medical malpractice. Medical malpractice suits can be filed for a variety of different reasons including misdiagnoses’ of patients and medical errors caused by nurses or doctors. Thousands of patients every year come in contact with medical malpractice and many choose not to do anything about it. Although filing a lawsuit may be uncomfortable, it is something that is very important to do if you or a loved one was a victim of medical malpractice. This is because many hospitals are sliding under the radar when it comes to reporting these accidents, and not reporting them at all.

The University of Minnesota thinks it has jabbed its way into the record books.

More than 60 trained personnel dispensed 11,538 flu shots during a nine-hour period Tuesday at four locations around the campus in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

They hope that puts them in the Guinness World Records book for the most flu shots given in a single day. The old record was 3,271, set in November of 2006 in Sanford, Fla.

The official number will be released on Wednesday.

University students, faculty, staff and their dependents were eligible to receive the free vaccination Tuesday.

Ed Ehlinger, director and chief public health officer at the university’s Boynton Health Service, declared the event “a wonderful success.”

In the race to build a better artificial heart, French scientists have turned to technology from satellites and airplanes to create a heart that they say responds better to the human body.

So far, the new device, shown at a news conference in Paris on Monday, has only been tested in animals. Its makers hope it might one day help people survive without needing a human heart transplant.

American companies have already produced artificial hearts, and scientists in Japan and South Korea are also working on versions.

But the French artificial heart is the first to be able to determine its patients’ needs and respond accordingly. And its maker is a subsidiary of the parent company of Airbus, the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co., or EADS.

“It’s the same principle in the airplane as in the body,” said Patrick Coulombier, chief operating officer of Carmat, the manufacturer.

Coulombier said the same tiny sensors that measure air pressure and altitude in an airplane or satellite are also in the artificial heart, detecting things like the heart’s pumping speed and the pressure on its walls.

That should allow the device to respond immediately if the patient needs more or less blood. The heart is expected to cost about $192,140. The most advanced U.S. artificial heart, made by the U.S. company Abiomed, sells for up to $250,000.

Abiomed was aware of the French project but declared itself ahead in the race.

“Our artificial heart has already been implanted in patients and is FDA-approved,” said Aimee Maillett, a company spokeswoman. On average, Abiomed’s heart has extended patients’ lives by about five months.

Few details are available about the artificial hearts being developed in Japan and South Korea because the scientists have not published their work widely.

Previous artificial hearts have been unable to automatically vary their pumping speed. The French heart is also the most lifelike, with two pumps to send blood into the lungs and the rest of the body, just like a real heart. Past artificial hearts have only had one pump.

The heart was tested in sheep, in some cases for three to six months to see how the animals’ bodies would adjust to the artificial organ. Researchers did not test how long it would keep the animals alive. Laboratory experiments tested the heart in various scenarios, including, for example, when a hypothetical patient was exercising and suddenly needed more blood.

“This could be a bases-loaded home run if it works,” said Dr. Douglas Zipes, past president of the American College of Cardiology and professor of cardiology at Indiana University. Zipes was not linked to the French research.

The French model is made from natural materials including polymer and pig tissue, which have already been used in heart valves implanted into people.

Those have not caused any problems like rejection or clotting, commonly seen with artificial hearts or devices. That makes some doctors optimistic that a heart partially constructed from the same tissues could spare patients lifelong anti-rejection and anti-clotting medicines.

The artificial heart would initially be for patients who had suffered a massive heart attack or who had heart failure, but might eventually be used in patients were are not that sick. French doctors hope to start tests in humans in the next two years.

Heart disease is the world’s top killer. According to the American Heart Association, about 2,200 heart transplants were performed in the U.S. in 2006, and the waiting list is long.

While previous artificial hearts have mainly acted to buy time until a real heart becomes available, Dr. Ottavio Alfieri, a professor of cardiac surgery at Raffaele University Hospital in Milan and spokesman for the European Society of Cardiology, said the French heart might work in the longer term.

Experts warned that many past attempts to replace the human heart have failed.

“Virtually all devices that have been implanted in humans, no matter how well designed, have been associated with unforeseen complications,” said Dr. Tim Gardner, president of the American Heart Association.

“This is a high-risk area with a lot of problems,” said Dr. Karl Swedberg, a cardiologist at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. He doubted the new artificial heart could be used to alleviate the shortage in donors, since it was very expensive and would still require a major operation.

“An artificial heart is an interesting idea, but we should focus on the established treatments we already have,” Swedberg said.

Plaintiffs won in more than half of state court civil trials in 2005 and were more likely to get a favorable verdict in bench than jury trials, according to a new U.S. Department of Justice report.

Plaintiffs won in 56 percent of all general civil trial cases. Judges ruled in their favor in 68 percent of the cases, while juries favored the plaintiffs 54 percent of the time.

The report was released Tuesday by the Bureau of Justice Statistics at the U.S. Department of Justice. The study is the first nationally representative measure of general civil bench and jury trials in state courts.

The report found that plaintiffs were awarded an estimated $6 billion in compensatory and punitive damages, with the final median damage award of $28,000. More than 14 percent of plaintiff winners were awarded damages of more than $250,000, while about 4 percent got more than $1 million.

State courts handled nearly 27,000 civil cases through bench or jury trials. Sixty-one percent of them involved a tort claim, and the most common tort claim involved motor vehicle accidents.

Out of the 14,000 civil trials that went in the plaintiffs’ favor, punitive damages were awarded in about 5 percent of the cases, with $64,000 as the median punitive damages award.

The report also pointed to a major drop in the number of civil trials, with numbers decreasing by 52 percent from 1992 to 2005 in the nation’s 75 most populous counties. In these counties, the median final award also decreased, from $72,000 in 1992, to $43,000 in 2005.

But some tort cases did see higher awards. In products liability trials, median awards were five times higher in 2005 and median medical malpractice awards more than doubled, from $280,000 in 1992 to $682,000 in 2005.

Can a comic’s jokes be the basis of a defamation suit? Or is the comic protected by the First Amendment? These are some of the interesting questions that are beginning to take shape in the tabloid-ready dispute between megastar Jerry Seinfeld and a not-so-famous cookbook author.

The case started earlier this year when Missy Chase Lapine, author of ” The Sneaky Chef,” sued Seinfeld’s wife, Jessica Seinfeld. Lapine claimed that Seinfeld had plagiarized The Sneaky Chef when she wrote her own book on how to get kids to eat their vegetables, “Deceptively Delicious.” Lapine sued Jessica Seinfeld for copyright and trademark infringement. But she also sued Jerry Seinfeld for defamation, citing some of his comments about her on “The Late Show with David Letterman.”

Among other things, Seinfeld told Letterman that “one of the fun facts of celebrity life is that wackos will wait in the woodwork to pop out,” adding that “many three-named people do become assassins.” [Seinfeld didn’t note that another fun fact of celebrity life is that your wife gets to plug her book on Oprah, and then thank Oprah for the appearance with about $16,000 worth of shoes.

In an affidavit filed this week in federal court in New York, Lapine described the pain and suffering she had endured at the hands of the Seinfelds. “I never felt so frightened and vulnerable as the day my daughter, seven years old, came home from school and asked, ‘Mom, what is an assassin?’ in reference to Jerry Seinfeld calling me an assassin,” she wrote.

Orin Snyder who represents the Seinfelds, gave The Am Law Daily the following statement in response: “As a comedian, Jerry has a right under the First Amendment to tell jokes. Ms. Lapine, on the other hand, was not joking when she maliciously accused Jessica Seinfeld, who has young children, of plagiarism, a charge that is demonstrably false. Jessica didn’t copy anything and this entire case is no more than a cynical publicity stunt. It is obvious that the inclusion of Jerry in this lawsuit is designed purely for media consumption and only demonstrates that the copyright case is bogus.”

In its motion to dismiss the defamation claim, filed over the summer, Gibson Dunn makes compelling arguments, noting that Seinfeld’s statements were opinions, which “are absolutely privileged and shielded form claims of defamation under the First Amendment.” The Gibson brief also argued that under Supreme Court precedent the type of statements Seinfeld made are grounds for an allegation of slander, not defamation, yet Lapine had failed to plead “either special damages or language that is slanderous per se.”

In a brief conversation, Snyder amplified his position. “Courts have protected far more harsh and inflammatory language than the relatively mild and humorous comments that Jerry made,” said Snyder. “This is not a remotely close call.”

The Am Law Daily called Lapine’s lawyer, Howard Miller but didn’t hear back.

Recently in a suburb outside of Boston, Massachusetts a 16 year old sophomore in high school was killed when the truck he was riding in rolled over twice before slamming into a tree. It was later found that the driver, 18 year old Chris Barrow, was intoxicated at the time of the accident after evidence was found of alcohol at the crash site. After the accident Chris Barrow was airlifted to a Boston hospital and remained there in critical condition for the weeks to follow. Drinking and driving is become a huge problem in our society especially with high school students. These students are too young to know the effects the alcohol has on their body and feel invincible after consuming it, as a result of this the death rates of high school students attributed to drinking and driving are rising. One way that these accidents can be prevented is by parents talking to their children about the dangers of drinking, many children will try to escape the conversation because it makes them uncomfortable but you have to make them listen to it, it will save lives. This car accident may have been prevented if these young teenager’s parents had taken the time to discuss the dangers of drinking and driving. If you or a loved one has been in a car accident with a driver who was under the influence of alcohol it is important that you hire a lawyer to press charges, this not only will help you through the grieving process but will also create awareness about the problem that alcohol has on our society.