Injury & Accident Law

Blame Game Begins in Bridge Tragedy

Although it’s too early to know exactly what caused Wednesday’s horrific rush-hour collapse of the Interstate 35-W bridge in Minneapolis, fingers are pointing in various directions, and some are thinking about possible litigation. Likely potential targets would include state and federal government entities and private contractors responsible for constructing and…

Aug 3, 2007 7:50 PM CDT

FL Fed’l Suit Over Brazilian Plane Crash

A federal lawsuit filed in Florida is reportedly the first litigation over a July 17 airline crash in Sao Paulo that killed 199 people in the worst aviation disaster in Brazil’s history. The suit was filed on behalf of Ricardo Tazoe, a 35-year-old Peruvian who worked for a Miami bank…

Jul 31, 2007 6:59 PM CDT

TB Attorney Released, Not Contagious

An Atlanta trial lawyer who caused an international scare by traveling in May, against medical advice, with what was then thought to be a highly dangerous form of TB has been successfully treated and released. While Andrew Speaker is not completely cured, he does not pose a health risk to…

Jul 27, 2007 12:58 AM CDT

$6 Million Rollover Verdict

A Florida jury has awarded $6 million to a man injured in a rollover of a 1993 Ford Aerostar van. The jury found that the van’s roof was defectively designed, causing it to collapse in the accident five years ago, the Daily Business Review reports. Plaintiff Julian Felipe suffered a…

Jul 26, 2007 1:28 PM CDT

Major Jacksonville PI Firm is Splitting Up

Two longtime law partners in Jacksonville, Fla., have agreed to an amicable split, saying that their plaintiff personal injury firm had grown so large they were essentially officing together rather than practicing together. Woody Wilner and Robert Spohrer now plan to dissolve the firm they formed in 1991 and go…

Jul 26, 2007 12:40 AM CDT

Woman Sues Fidel Castro in Dad’s Death

It isn’t every day that a U.S. court has to figure out how to serve a complaint on Fidel Castro–not to mention his brother, Raul, the Republic of Cuba and the Cuban army. So Justice Nancy Mills, who sits in Waldo County Superior Court in Maine, took a little time…

Jul 24, 2007 7:47 PM CDT

Proposed Bill Targets ‘Bye-Bye Syndrome’

It happens so often that there’s a name for it: bye-bye syndrome. A small child, eager to say goodbye to a beloved relative or friend, rushes up to a car backing out of the driveway and is run over and killed. Some 200 people throughout the country are killed in…

Jul 23, 2007 10:07 PM CDT

Would-Be Bar Dancer Sues Tavern

A woman who fell and crushed her ankle while attempting to dance on top of the bar at an Illinois tavern has sued the establishment for damages. Amy Mueller, a patron in her twenties, has sued Samy’s Bar and Grill, in Joliet, over the May 19, 2006 incident, contending that…

Jul 23, 2007 6:03 PM CDT

No Insurance, No Lawyers: No Problem

Nobody was insured, and no lawyers were involved. But, unusual as it may seem for Americans accustomed to the U.S. system, a recent auto accident in Iraq was settled the same day. The drivers involved were seated on sofas in the local police chief’s office, and tea was served as…

Jul 18, 2007 9:12 PM CDT

Waiver Doesn’t Protect Pool

The California Supreme Court ruled yesterday that liability waivers don’t protect recreation programs if they commit gross negligence. The ruling was the first by the court to address whether recreation providers may protect themselves from suit, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The court ruled in the case of a 14-year-old…

Jul 17, 2007 4:00 PM CDT

Tort Trial Here for Deaths in Colombia

War-torn Colombia is the most dangerous country in the world in which to be a labor union member: Well over 2,000 trade unionists have been killed there since 1991, according to Amnesty International. The killings are apparently at least in part attributable to a four-decades-old war between leftist guerrillas, the…

Jul 13, 2007 6:59 PM CDT

First Banana Workers Get US Court Trial

It has been some 30 years since thousands of banana workers in Central America claim to have been exposed to carcinogenic pesticides on plantations there. Intended to kill worms infesting the roots of banana trees, the pesticides dripped from the leaves onto unprotected workers and leached into the water supply…

Jul 9, 2007 6:00 PM CDT

Sept 11 Lawyer to Run VA Tech Fund

How to spend some $7 million donated to Virginia Tech after a student killed 32 and injured dozens more in an on-campus shooting massacre in April will be determined, at least in part, by a Washington, D.C., lawyer. Kenneth R. Feinberg, who was in charge of disbursing a $7 billion…

Jul 6, 2007 12:32 AM CDT

Slain Victim’s Kin Own OJ Book Rights

A highly controversial book authored by fallen football hero O.J. Simpson that some considered his confession to the 1994 murders of his former wife, Nicole, and a male companion, Ron Goldman, is now likely to be published after all. But if so the profits will go not to O.J. Simpson’s…

Jul 3, 2007 6:52 PM CDT

Big, Big Bucks at Issue in ‘Big Dig’ Case?

Attorneys on both sides are still jockeying for position in the so-called Big Dig tort case in Boston. But plaintiff lawyers reportedly could be seeking a settlement in the neighborhood of $500 million in a tort claim over a woman crushed to death when the ceiling of the ill-fated tunnel…

Jun 27, 2007 10:06 PM CDT