- Maryland Family Files $207 Million Federal Lawsuit For Teen’s Wrongful Death at Reform School
Posted May 15, 2008, 2:21 pm by Lebowitz & Mzhen
In Baltimore, the family of Isaiah Simmons III, 17, has filed a $207 million wrongful death lawsuit against the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services, the Bowling Brook Preparatory School, and seven counselors at the now-closed private reform school. Simmons died in January 2007 following a confrontation with counselors at the juvenile offenders' school located in Carroll County, Maryland. Simmons's family is accusing all the defendants of negligence leading to the 17-year-old's "slow,...
- Dennis Quaid Testifies Before Congress on Heparin and Preemption
Posted May 15, 2008, 12:41 pm by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.
Dennis Quaid testified yesterday before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform considering the reversal of the Riegel v. Medtronic Supreme Court decision finding that state tort claims regarding medical devices were preempted if the FDA granted pre-market approval for the medical device. Dennis Quaid told Congress on Wednesday that taking away the right to sue pharmaceutical companies would turn consumers into "uninformed and uncompensated lab rats." Quaid emotionally described...
- International Conference on Jury Trials and Art Theft
Posted May 14, 2008, 3:09 pm by Paul Mark Sandler
Art theft and jury trials were the topics of a conference in Bilbao, Spain hosted last week by the UIA (Union Internationale des Avocats) and the ABA Litigation and Criminal Law Sections. If you've the time to attend such international gatherings, I recommend them. In learning about the legal systems in other countries, you come away with a better understanding of your own. You also get to meet attorneys you otherwise wouldn't. The night of May 9, the Bilbao Bar Association hosted attendees to...
- VISA BULLETIN FOR JUNE 2008
Posted May 14, 2008, 12:19 pm
Availability of immigrant numbers during June. Only applicants who have a priority date earlier than the cut-off date may be allotted a number. FAMILY-SPONSORED PREFERENCES First: Unmarried Sons and Daughters of Citizens: 23,400 plus any numbers not required for fourth preference. Second: Spouses and Children, and Unmarried Sons and Daughters of Permanent Residents: 114,200, plus the number (if any) by which the worldwide family preference level exceeds 226,000, and any unused first preference...
- New Judge: Baltimore County Prosecutor Susan H. Hazlett Picked For Harford County District Court
Posted May 14, 2008, 10:10 am by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.
Governor O'Malley has named Baltimore County prosecutor Susan H. Hazlett to the Harford County District Court bench.
- USCIS ANNOUNCES ENHANCEMENTS TO E-VERIFY PROGRAM
Posted May 14, 2008, 9:21 am
On May 5, 2008, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced improvements to the E-Verify employment authorization program that will reduce a mismatch rate for naturalized citizens, while also streamlining and increasing the effectiveness of the overall program. "Less than one percent of all work-authorized employees receive a tentative non-confirmation through E-Verify," said USCIS Acting Director Jonathan Scharfen. "While this is a very small percentage, we believe every...
- USCIS Releases Projected Naturalization Processing Times For Local Offices
Posted May 14, 2008, 9:04 am
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released on April 2008 the projected times for local offices to complete processing of applications for citizenship from individuals who filed during the summer of 2008. July 2007, USCIS received 460,000 applications for naturalization. That was three times the record for any previous month. For the year 2007, USCIS received 1.4 million naturalization applications, almost double the normal annual volume. The processing times listed below provide...
- Oregon Surpreme Court Find Emergency Instruction Reversable Error
Posted May 14, 2008, 7:47 am by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.
In an auto accident case stemming from an accident on Route 22 in Linn County, the trial court gave the following jury instruction: "People who are suddenly placed in a position of peril through no negligence of their own, and who are compelled to act without opportunity for reflection, are not negligent if they make a choice that a reasonably careful person placed in such a position might make, even though they do not make the wisest choice" The Oregon Supreme Court ruled that it is always...
- New York Medical Malpractice Lawyer Cap on Fees
Posted May 14, 2008, 7:39 am by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.
New York limits an attorneys medical malpractice contingent fee in a medical, dental or podiatric malpractice case to 30 percent of the first $ 250,000 of the sum recovered; 25 percent of the next $ 250,000 recovered; 20 percent of the next $ 500,000 recovered; 15 percent of the next $ 250,000 of the sum recovered; 10 percent of any amount recovered over $ 1,250,000. While contingency fees vary from malpractice lawyer to malpractice lawyer, 40% is a common fee in medical malpractice cases. So...
- Former Supreme Court Nominee Robert Bork Settles Slip and Fall Accident Lawsuit With Yale Club
Posted May 13, 2008, 5:14 pm by Lebowitz & Mzhen
Former Yale Law School Professor Robert Bork has agreed to a $1 million slip and fall lawsuit he had filed for injuries he suffered at the Yale Club of New York City in 2006. The details of the settlement are confidential. Bork injured himself at the alumni social club when he fell while stepping onto a dais to make a speech. He filed the million-dollar lawsuit because he said that the club acted negligently when it failed to provide him stairs or a handrail that he could use while mounting the...
- Judge Lamdin's Suspension by the Maryland Court of Appeals
Posted May 13, 2008, 2:40 pm by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.
In December, I wrote about concerns that had been raised regarding Baltimore County Bruce S. Lamdin's conduct on the bench. Today, the Maryland Court of Appeals suspended Judge Lamdin for 30 days. The court's opinion provides over a dozen comments for which Judge Lamdin was disciplined. The comments seem to fall in one of five categories: (1) Disparaging children - Judge Lamdin said that he does not like children and does not want them in his courtroom. You cannot tell from the transcript...
- Doctor Files Medical Malpractice Lawsuit
Posted May 13, 2008, 11:44 am by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.
In the Maryland Lawyer Blog a few weeks back, I wrote about what I thought was the primary fuel to the tort reform engine: people do not expect to be the victims of an accident that is the result of the negligence of someone else, and they certainly do not expect to be victims of medical malpractice. Statistically, they are right. The odds were in favor of a West Virginia gynecologist when he went in for abdominal surgery last month. But after his surgery, the gynecologist developed an...
- Stryker Hip Implants: More Reports of Problems
Posted May 13, 2008, 11:22 am by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.
The New York Times ran an article yesterday aptly titled, "It Must Be Bob. I Hear His Hip Squeaking," discussing people with hip implants, largely Stryker hip implants, who were told to try new ceramic hip implants. The Stryker hip implants and their sister implants were promoted as being much more durable than the previous generation of hip implants. But their hips soon began to squeak, raising concerns that the noises were not just embarrassing and uncomfortable, but foreboding of more...
- CDC Posts Updated Immunization Recommendations for People 18 Years of Age and Younger
Posted May 13, 2008, 12:14 am
The 2008 edition of the schedule of recommended immunizations for people 18 years of age and younger has been posted by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) -- a division of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The advisory committee releases new recommendations annually to reflect changes in vaccine formulations and current recommendations for the use of licensed vaccines. This summer, don't wait until the last few busy weeks before fall school...
- Missouri Nursing Home Verdict
Posted May 12, 2008, 3:16 pm by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.
Missouri Lawyers' Weekly reports on a nursing home case involving a respiratory therapist who allegedly caused the death of a 79 year-old resident at Scenic View Nursing in Herculeaneum, Missouri. The respiratory therapist had a suspended license and was charged with second degree involuntary manslaughter in connection to the patient's death. He entered an Alford plea and was sentenced to four years in jail. Additionally, the therapist had been previously reprimanded four times for removing...
- Admissions Suspended at Three Tennesse Nursing Homes
Posted May 12, 2008, 1:22 pm by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.
ABC24 in Memphis, Tennessee reports that three nursing homes in Tennessee have been fined and suspended from accepting further admissions. Tennessee Department of Heath officials have fined and suspended admissions of residents to Dove Health & Rehabilitation in Collierville, Claiborne County Nursing Home in Taxwell, and Hillcrest-West Nursing Home in Knoxville for a variety of infractions.
- Congress Looks at Riegel v. Medtronic
Posted May 12, 2008, 12:30 pm by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.
On Wednesday, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform begins hearings on the reversal of the Riegel v. Medtronic holding that state tort claims regarding medical devices were preempted if the FDA granted pre-market approval for a medical device. Pharmaceutical drug manufacturers have been on a real hot streak of late before this conservative Supreme Court. They are looking to extend their streak by asking the Supreme Court to extend the preemption umbrella to pharmaceutical drugs...
- Legal News/Blogosphere Week in Review
Posted May 12, 2008, 9:38 am by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.
I like to blog on Monday but given my figurative post-Mother's Day weekend hangover, I decided to review the original stories/opinions of others as opposed to venturing to offer my own: The Baltimore Sun had an interesting article on allegations of bizarre misconduct by a Nevada judge in a bizarre story with a lot of interesting six degrees of separation subplots. That Baltimore Sun also reports that former Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork settling his lawsuit against the Yale Club after his...
- May is National Stroke Awareness Month: Recognition of Stroke Signs and Symptoms Lacking in U.S.
Posted May 12, 2008, 7:14 am
A recent survey conducted in 13 states and the District of Columbia has indicated that most people lack awareness of the 5 most common stroke symptoms. According to researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that lack of awareness could lead to critical delays in life-saving treatment. Prompt treatment following the onset of a stroke is critical in saving brain tissue and improving functional outcomes for survivors. Approximately 72,000 people participated in this most...
- Finding Opportunities in Divorce
Posted May 12, 2008, 6:35 am by James J. Gross
"Divorce creates opportunities," writes Michelle Odessey today in her Real Estate Investing Blog. She is talking about the opportunity to buy a house at a bargain price because it is being sold due to a divorce. Sometimes, the parties are selling the house by agreement. Sometimes, when the parties cannot agree, a trustee will sell the house in a public auction on the courthouse steps. "While you may not feel good about divorce in general" says Odessey, "when you're able to keep an eye on legal...