Norfolk-Portsmouth Personal Injury Lawyer - lawsuit

GM Aims to Shirk Responsibility with Current or Pending Lawsuits

John Cooper — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:47:00 GMT

General Motors Corp. is currently re-organizing itself and plans to emerge as a new company post-Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company will be aptly named “New GM.” Unfortunately, this “new” company is still utilizing old tactics to free itself from legal liability.

Any lawsuit currently filed against GM will only be able to seek retribution via “Old GM,” which will essentially be a collection of bad assets and debt with little-to-no chance of a plaintiff securing any financial compensation for personal injury, according to the Associated Press.

However, the new GM will assume any future product liability claims. This means if the seatbelt in your GM vehicle fails to work after the new company emerges from bankruptcy, you can file a claim. But if your seatbelt failed to work and you filed a claim two months ago, you’re basically left in the lurch dealing with the ram shackled, destitute GM of yesteryear.

If this bankruptcy plan is executed, it will set a terrible precedent. Companies could use Chapter 11 as a means to avoid legal liability with pending, or active lawsuits.

In GM’s original bankruptcy plan, they had the audacity to propose leaving all legal liabilities behind after selling its "good" assets to the new, government-owned company. If GM had their way, future car-accident victims would have been unable to sue and be categorized as “unsecured creditors,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

As an injury lawyer with 20 years of experience representing clients who’ve been injured in car accidents, I’m glad GM will be obligated to take on future product liability claims but it’s outrageous that current, or pending, lawsuits with victims dealing with severe injuries will be left with little recourse for proper compensation.

About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper Lewis & Appleton personal injury law firm is based in Virginia (VA), near the NE North Carolina (NC) border and handles car,truck,railroad, and medical negligence cases and more. Our lawyers proudly edit the Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard, and Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard as a pro bono public information service. Lawyers licensed in: VA, NC, SC, WV, DC, KY.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by John Cooper

Virginia Lawsuits Against Doctors and Hospitals for Medical Errors are not a Main Reason for High Health Insurance Costs

Jim Lewis — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:00:00 GMT

Anyone in Virginia Beach/Norfolk, Virginia (VA) who watches the news knows that the country has an extremely expensive medical system that doesn’t always deliver quality care. In figuring out the solutions, some of the loudest voices are the lobbyists for the doctors, hospitals and health insurance companies who often try to blame injury lawyers and medical malpractice actions as the reason for “defensive medicine” and higher healthcare costs. However, this argument has been shown to be false by various researchers who have studied the problem. Healthcare costs and health insurance premiums continue to rise whether the state is like North Carolina where there are no medical malpractice caps or the state is like Virginia where there are unfair limits as to the maximum award no matter what the harms are caused by medical errors.

In fact, Virginia lawyers making claims against the medical insurers for doctors and hospitals tend to increase the quality of care and decrease medical mistakes by weeding out incompetent and forcing health care providers to obey the medical guidelines. For example, some hospitals have been adopting better pre-surgical procedures, at least in part because of preventable errors pointed out by lawyers for patients who were victims of past errors. In Virginia Beach now most operative reports show a pause before the procedure begins to make sure that the hospital is operating on the right patient and that the surgeon and nurses know what procedure is to be performed and on what body part. By checking these things the hospital staff make sure that their operating rooms are not making obvious mistakes like doing a procedure on the left knee when they are supposed to be doing it on the right knee of the patient. When consumers and lawyers stand up and demand that changes be made, good things happen both in terms of improving health outcomes and making sure that families who have been harmed get restitution from those who were at fault.

To read more about how medical malpractice lawyers are part of the solution, not the problem, please click here.

About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper, Lewis & Appleton personal My injury lawfirm (VA-NC law offices) edits the injury law blogs Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard, as well as the Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard as a pro bono service to consumers. Lawyers licensed in: VA, NC, SC, WV, DC, KY, who handle car, truck, railroad, and medical negligence cases and more.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Jim Lewis

Social Networking Can Have Devastating Impact on Car Accident Cases in Virginia

John Cooper — Tue, 26 May 2009 09:18:06 GMT

I have become a fan of LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter as a way to stay in touch with old school friends and help market my injury practice in Norfolk/Virginia Beach, Virginia (VA). The public needs to be aware of the harm that they can cause to themselves by using these sites to post sensitive or private information in the situation where they are involved in a serious injury lawsuit. Once you post something on the internet it is there forever and open to anyone including the big insurance company who is fighting against you on your car wreck claim. The whole job of an insurance claims representative is to pay you as little as they can on your accident case, while the insurer’s sales agents take in as many premium dollars as they can from you and the person who is at-fault in causing the collision that hurt you.

Using the internet and Googling a car accident victim is just another tool in the insurance defense lawyer’s arsenal of weapons against you. If they can find anything that goes against your credibility before the jury on one of these sites, it can be a disaster for your case. The insurance industry already uses the computer to be able to go back and track every car accident or claim that ever occurred in your lifetime through their data banks. Now with people putting up their own private information on these websites, the insurers can have a field day looking through the social networking posts to find some way to attack you and make you seem less deserving of compensation. To read more about it, click here for a library article posted on one of our law firm’s sites.

About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper Lewis & Appleton personal injury law firm is based in Virginia (VA), near the NE North Carolina (NC) border and handles car,truck,railroad, and medical negligence cases and more. Our lawyers proudly edit the Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard, and Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard as a pro bono public information service. Lawyers licensed in: VA, NC, SC, WV, DC, KY.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by John Cooper

Chesapeake Water Supply Contaminated With Fly Ash

Emily Mapp Brannon — Sun, 24 May 2009 14:10:00 GMT

A legal battle persists between 400 residents of Chesapeake, Virginia (VA) and Dominion Power due to fly ash contaminating the water supply surrounding the Battlefield Golf Course.

Dominion Power developed the golf course and used 1.5 million tons of fly ash as the foundation of the course, according to wvec.com. The residents claim the fly ash contaminated the well water and they are forced to bathe and brush their teeth in boiled water while only being able to drink purified water.

The lawsuit brought against Dominion by Chesapeake, Virginia (VA) residents is for over $1 billion dollars.

The lawsuit is legitimate considering in December of 2001, just a few months before fly ash first arrived at the Battlefield Golf Course, Dominion consultant URS Corp. reported that building the course on top of fly ash may pose environmental risks, according to The Virginian-Pilot.

Instead of spending money at that time to extend the public water lines around the course, Dominion officials put together "sophisticated" tests with enhanced modeling. The results found that using fly ash mixed with a type of binding agent should protect the groundwater, according to a consultant. Clearly Dominion failed to consider that should and will offer two completely different levels of assuredness.

The Environmental Protection Agency tested the water and studies revealed increased levels of arsenic, lead, manganese, chromium and other contaminants in groundwater under the golf course, according to The Virginian-Pilot.

Ironically, Dominion wound up spending $6 million dollars to extend the public water drinking lines in the area after concern was raised by Chesapeake residents.

My colleague John Cooper wrote an article about the toxic metal contaminants in the Chesapeake, Virginia (VA) water supply.

As a personal injury attorney, I get so frustrated when big corporations abuse their power and endanger the lives of innocent people. The contaminants found in the water supply in Chesapeake, Virginia (VA) are outrageous and the legal fight must continue. Dominion Power needs to be held accountable for their irresponsible actions.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Emily Mapp Brannon

Personal Injury Law: Hospitals and Clinics Hit With Increased Infection Injury Malpractice Cases-The Standards Are Rising

Rick Shapiro — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 12:01:30 GMT

Personal Injury Lawsuits: Hospitals and Clinics Adjust To Increase in Infection Injury Malpractice Cases

Medical malpractice lawsuits are on the rise against hospital and other clinics for victims of serious or life-threatening infections-infections that could have been prevented. Most importantly, juries are holding the hospitals responsible for failing to prevent the resulting infections, according to a December 2008 Lawyers USA article, outlining many settlements or verdicts.

For example, the article referred to a November 6, 2008 jury verdict of $13.5 million to a Massachusetts woman who died of an infection caused by flesh-being bacteria after she underwent cancer treatment. Historically, many medical malpractice lawyers have refused to accept personal injury cases relating to infection contraction, because infection can be a known complication of most surgeries and procedures. However, where circumstances can be shown that prove a hospital or clinic violate a specific standard of care directed to avoiding infection, it seems that juries are paying attention and penalizing hospitals for the careless or negligent conduct. The rising standards are based on CDC recommendations, and the "Joint Commission" compendium of infection safeguards--for the full article by my personal injury/medical malpractice trial attorney-partner Jim Lewis, please click here.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Rick Shapiro