The Reeves Law Group

In its final days, the Bush administration is quietly going about making it hard for consumers to sue corporations. Since 2005, the Washington Post reports, lawsuit limits have been mentioned in at least 51 rules proposed or adopted by bureaucratic agencies, and relating to everything from medical products, to railroads. At least 41 of these rules came from the FDA.

Bush has always been an ardent proponent for restrictions on lawsuits, but hasn’t been able to make much headway as President. A hostile Congress doesn’t help. Now it appears that bureaucratic agencies are using the government’s rule-making authority to impose lawsuit restrictions. The agencies are inserting language into rules indicating that the rules pre-empt state laws allowing consumer lawsuits.

There hasn’t been a hue and cry over this, because this isn’t an all out effort by the administration to impose restriction on lawsuits. That step could have resulted in plenty of criticism from consumer advocates, and any such bill would have been sure to meet hostile Democrats in the House. The administration is therefore going about it quietly without a fuss, and rules imposing restrictions in lawsuits have begun to find their way into rules regulating a number of products and services.

Drug labeling and packaging is one such area where the rules have been imposed, and the impact of this rule will be debated in a high profile setting in coming weeks. Hollywood actor Dennis Quaid is to appear before a congressional committee. Quaid and his wife are suing a maker of the blood thinner heparin. Their newborn twins were injected with a massive overdose of the blood thinner while in the hospital. The Quaids say the manufacturer of the heparin was negligent in packaging the bottles of varying dosages in the exact same kind of vial with blue backgrounds. The company that manufactured the heparin, however, claims that since the FDA approved the labeling and packaging of the heparin, it cannot be held liable now for any civil lawsuit that claims money.

Consumer advocates are up in arms against this use of rule-making authority to impose restrictions on customer’s right to sue.

Another high profile case that will come before the Supreme Court involves a drug maker who will try to overturn a $6.8 million award against it. In that case, a woman who had anti-nausea medicine injected into her arm had to have her arm amputated, and successfully sued the company. The company however is defiant, claiming that since the FDA approved the warning label on the drug, it cannot be held liable.

It’s no secret that the FDA’s preemption preamble has resulted in drug companies wining a spate of recent lawsuits. Judges who were inclined to rule for customers against industry previously have shown a tendency to rule for the FDA.

The mother of Jessica and Kelly Uhl, two girls who were killed when their car collided with a vehicle being driven by an Illinois state trooper, says that the wrongful death lawsuit that she has now filed against Trooper Matt Mitchell, the Illinois State Police and the state of Illinois is not about the money, but justice for her daughters.

Kimberley Dorsey has filed a lawsuit claiming $24 million in damages from the trooper accusing him of negligence in the accident.

The accident took place east of St Louis in November of last year. 18-year-old Jessica and 13-year-old Kelly were in a car returning from a holiday photo shoot. On Interstate 64, Mitchell lost control of his cruiser and slammed into the car carrying the girls. They died at the scene.

In the days that followed, a coroner’s jury held that this was a case of reckless homicide. Mitchell at the time of the accident was driving at a speed of 126 miles per hour. Accident reconstruction confirms that the trooper was driving recklessly. The impact of the accident was so severe that Mitchell’s cruiser simply bored through the girls’ car. The engine of the car was found crushed several hundred feet away from where the car finally stopped. The girl’s car at the time of the accident was going at 65 miles per hour.

From the severity of the accident and the instant fatalities, it’s safe to assume that Mitchell will be held accountable for his reckless driving. You don’t cause an accident that manages to sever a car and crush its engine by driving at a reasonable speed. Plus, this isn’t the first time the Illinois state trooper has been involved in a crash. He was involved in two accidents, and in one of these, the state received a $1.7 million judgment against it.

In the days following the accident, it became crystal clear to the Illinois State Police that Mitchell had been driving recklessly at high speeds, and yet they hid this fact from the girls’ parents. Every time they asked for answers about the accident that killed their children, they were stonewalled, their attorney says. Mitchell has claimed that he was on his way to help at an accident scene, and holes have been found with that story too. The accident was under control by other police, and there was no need for him to be driving at the speed he was.

For now, Mitchell is free on bond but has been relived of his duties.

To lose one child would be heartbreaking enough; to lose two in the exact same instant is more than any parent should have to bear. We hope that the family of the Uhl girls gets the compensation that they deserve. Like they stress, it wouldn’t be about the money, but about holding the state troopers responsible for their actions.

On the surface of it, it seems like it’s really not something to be overly concerned about. But add the possibility that it could be the harbinger of more serious dangers, and you begin to take the squeaking very seriously indeed. Many patients who have been fitted with ceramic hips are beginning to discover that their new hip squeaks as they walk, bend, or engage in otherwise routine behavior.

The squeaking is definitely an embarrassment, and patients who have been fitted with the hips complain that they feel humiliated, and have been subjected to strange looks and ridicule because of the noise that emanates from the hip.

The ceramic chip, at the time of its introduction, was touted a breakthrough in artificial hip technology. These chips, which tens of thousands of Americans are walking about now wearing, were hailed as being more durable that conventional steel hips.

Stryker, a medical products company, has been at the center of a growing storm that threatens to get louder by the day. While hips made of any kind of material can be prone to the occasional squeak, the number of instances of squeaking in these new ceramic hips by Stryker has been unusually large. Stryker itself denies that the problems are that huge. One researcher, James D. Antonio, who was involved in the clinical trials prior to the approval for the hips, says, that he has only every heard of 4 cases where the squeaking occurred. In other studies, the incidence of squeaking is far higher. In one study of 1500 patients with these ceramic hips, squeaking was seen in 49 cases.

The entire issue reeks of a hurry to get a less than perfect product approved by the FDA in light of the potential profits. When you consider that a patient pays $45,000 and upwards for a ceramic hip, you would assume that he or she would receive a hip that would squeak as minimally as possible! A rate of 3 percent of squeaking hips out of all the hips that are currently fitted is an alarming figure. Patients should be assured that when they have paid top dollar for a ceramic hip in this country, they can use them without having to undergo embarrassment because of the squeaking noise.

There is also the fear of more dangerous defects in the hips that the squeak is only a symptom of. There is still much we don’t know about these artificial hips, and the possibility of a ceramic hip smashing into smithereens inside the body, and doctors being unable to find every last shred of smashed ceramic is not an unreal one. It makes sense that the squeaking would be a sign of wear and tear or some other such dangerous problem. And all the while, Stryker and their team of doctors insist that there is nothing to worry about, and that the hips are perfectly safe to use.

In the real world, things squeak when they are worn out, old or need to be repaired – a frightening thought when the thing that might need repair is fitted inside your hip. Stryker is currently fighting lawsuits filed by patients with ceramic hips.

If you have suffered the adverse side effects of a dangerous medical product, you need the help of an experienced California personal injury attorney. Contact a lawyer at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

Popping out of the tower for a break mid-duty, taking their eyes away from the runway while there was a helicopter still on the strip, and in general, fumbling through their duties like amateurs on the first day at the job – this was how air traffic controllers at the Torrance Aircraft acted on the day of the 2003 helicopter crash that killed two, and left one pilot seriously injured. That was also the gist of the argument for the attorneys for Gavin Heyworth, the pilot who survived the crash, and a judge has now held that the United States Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration was 100 percent liable for the accident

On the afternoon of November 6, 2003, Gavin Heyworth, a 22-year-old student pilot, who had just returned from Marine duty in Iraq, prepared for a solo flight at the Torrance Municipal Airport, Zameperini field. The airport is a popular training ground for new pilots, and air traffic controllers and pilots rely on sight as the airport tower lacks a radar.

On the day of the crash, the tower was understaffed, with just three of the air traffic controllers manning their positions. You would think that with a shortage of staff, the ones at their position would be more vigilant to make up for the missing pair of hands.

Au contraire. At one point, Cynthia Issa, one of the controllers, left on a break, and left another controller, Edward Weber, alone to handle things. Weber gave Heyworth the all clear to take off, and noticed that things were getting too busy to handle alone. He called Issa back from her break. She got back to her position, and from the taped recordings of their conversations during the moments before the crash, it’s clear that there was a lot of fumbling and messing up. Heyworth was given the all clear to ascend just when another helicopter with two people on board was beginning to descend. Because of the position of the two copters, neither of the 2 pilots could see each other. They relied on instructions from the tower, which it is now apparent, was being staffed with negligent and careless controllers. Weber, it was made clear, was looking away from the scene in the moments before the crash.

When the crash occurred, Heyworth’s copter crashed into the rotor of the other copter, and that machine fell to the ground killing both people inside. Heyworth’s copter auto rotated for a while before crashing to the ground. The impact was severe enough to sustain severe injures to the lower part of his body. Heyworth remained hospitalized and in a coma for six weeks. To date, he has great pain and difficulty walking.

Last year, Heyworth field a lawsuit against the FAA holding it liable for the crash. The FAA reported with allegations that Heyworth did not respond to instructions during the ascent. Now a ruling has vindicated Heyworth’s stand.

The amount for compensation to be paid to Heyworth’s and the families for the trauma is yet to be fixed. For the amount of pain and suffering that Heyworth has been forced to undergo, and the loss of two men through now fault of their own, and solely because of the ineptitude of the air traffic controllers, we hope they receive the compensation that’s due to them.

If you have been injured or a loved has been killed in a helicopter crash or any other aviation accident, you need the help of an experienced California personal injury attorney. Contact a lawyer at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

All his life, Joseph Richardson was used to making sure that his loved ones were safe. His brother remembers how he always watched out for him when they were kids, protecting him from neighborhood bullies. On Monday evening, all of Richardson’s protective instincts would be called again to the fore, this time to protect his daughter. As usual, he didn’t flinch. The “bully” here was – who else? - a drunk driver, and in the couple of seconds before Richardson died, he was able to raise his 4-year-old daughter to safety. He died from injuries sustained in the crash, while his daughter, Kaniyah, survived.

The father and daughter duo, Chicago residents, were walking to a McDonalds restaurant, when a Chevy Cavalier lost control and jumped the curb. The car careened towards them, and in the split second that he had to act, Richardson managed to raise Kaniyah to safety. It was too late to save himself, however. The car slammed against him with full impact, pinning him against the wrought iron fence. He died instantly. Kaniyah is listed as being in critical condition, and is at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

The man driving the car was 32-year-old Angelo Thomas. He has been charged with two felony counts of aggravated driving and driving under the influence. He has also been charged with driving without a valid license and without insurance.

Thomas seems to have missed the bus when he was required to take traffic safety classes. He was way over the alcohol limit when the accident took place. According to the results of toxicology reports, his blood alcohol limit was .135, well above the legal limit of .08. If that want enough, he had also been swigging beer at the time of the crash.

A bond of $900,000 has been set for Thomas.

Richardson has three kids who have now been left fatherless, thanks to Angelo Thomas. His family will obviously need support at this time of need. Calling for Thomas’ head is all very well, but this man wrecked a family apart and he deserves punishment that will pinch.

This is one of those cases where you thank our justice system for civil lawsuits. With just two counts of aggravated driving under him, there’s a fair chance Thomas will get out of jail – if he is convicted – in a few years time. A few years in jail with murderers, rapists, and all kinds of other charming personalities is hardly a fitting way to deal with drunken drivers like Angelo Thomas. A civil lawsuit would, on the other hand, not only help Richardson’s now fatherless children and his wife recover their lives back, but also financially cripple Thomas to a point where he is forced to sober up.

You could look at Danny Espinoza and feel a trifle sorry for him. The man is paralyzed from his neck down, and can’t eat, sit up, or do any of the things we take for granted without help. All he does all day is lie in bed, being fed and cared for by his caregiver and his mother. Until you realize that this man killed a woman taking part in what was most probably a street race.

Danny is waiting to be sentenced in a vehicular manslaughter case arising from his accident two years ago that killed 69-year-old Dorothy Anne Walter, and left the 25-year-old engineer paralyzed, due to a spinal cord injury.

On the evening of March 5, 2006, Danny, a Bakersfield resident, celebrated his birthday with his parents, and then left for home. He was in his Ford Mustang, and was stopped at a red light. Waiting at the traffic signal was a Porsche and a Corvette. Although the police haven’t been able to piece together the exact chain of events, this much is clear. When the light tuned green, the three cars, including Danny’s Mustang, revved up their speed, and sped off down the road. The police suspect and the prosecution claims, that this was the beginning of a street race. Danny’s car reached 90 mph. Coming up in the opposite direction was Walters. As they approached, Danny lost control of his car and hit a tree. He then careened across the lanes and hit Walter’s car. The damage to her car was so extensive; she had to be extricated by paramedic personnel using the Jaws of Life. She was taken to a hospital, where she died about an hour later.

As for Danny, he ended up in his wrecked car with the seat belt wound tightly around his neck. His heart stopped, and he spent the next month in a hospital, oblivious to the world around him in a deep coma. When he emerged from the coma a month later, he remembered nothing of the accident and nothing of at least 4 months prior to the accident. He was diagnosed as quadriplegic because of his severe spinal cord injuries, and now relies on round the clock care for his needs. He uses special blow and suck devices to use his computer mouse, play World of Warcraft games and chat on forums.

This is where you begin to stop feeling sorry for Espinoza.

Dorothy Walters can’t go chatting on online forums. She can’t play World of Warcraft, even if she wanted to. She can’t chat with her family, can’t hug them, can’t hold them, will never be able to say goodbye to them the way everybody does, and all this because Danny Espinoza took it on himself to use his car as a weapon, and the street as his battleground. We can’t feel sorry for every person who gets injured in an accident that they cause themselves by their stupidity. That’s like saying a homicidal maniac can go on a shooting rampage, then shoot himself in the foot and expect sympathy and special treatment.

The prosecution and Walter’s family has been vocal about seeking the full six-year sentence for Danny. We hope they get their wish.

If you have been injured in a car accident, you need the help of an experienced California personal injury attorney. Contact a lawyer at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

A long time criminal investigator with the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office became the victim of a drunk driving accident on Thursday night. 53-year-old Laura Cleaves of Santa Ynez died at the scene from fatal injures sustained at the crash.

Cleaves was in her car on Highway 154, when her vehicle was struck by a Mercedes Benz driven by 22-year-old Ashley Johnigan. According to reports, Ashley had just been pulled over by cops on suspicion of drunk driving. As the cops pulled up behind the Mercedes and got out of their vehicle to talk to the woman, she sped off towards Highways 154. Just a few minutes later, the Mercedes struck the Dodge that was carrying Cleaves. According to the California Highway Patrol, Ashley illegally crossed the yellow lanes and struck Laura’s car head on.

After hitting Cleaves, Ashley reportedly drove on and hit a Ford. The driver of that car and Ashley suffered minor injuries.

Laura Cleaves was a highly respected supervising investigator at the Santa Barbara County district attorney’s Lompoc office. In a career that began in 1984, she served as a district attorneys office investigator, and dealt with complex cases that involved transgressions by public officials and theft. She had several famous cases to her credit. It was she, for instance, who did much of the groundwork that led to the conviction of Sylvia Vasquez, the day care provider who ran a foster home full of abuse and neglect. She was known for her dogged pursuit of cases that even federal law enforcement agencies had given up on. She remained to the end a devoted wife and mother. Her presence at the DA’s office will be sorely missed.

This was not a woman who, in any way, deserved to go out like this. Laura had many years of service left in her, and should have had the privilege of seeing her career through to retirement. She deserved to have the peace of a happy retired life spending time with the family – time that she missed when she was so nobly serving the county. Instead, she has gone before her time because a rash 22-year-old either didn’t listen to or didn’t care for the first lesson of driving on the streets – don’t drink and drive.

As we write this, Ashley Jernigan has been let out on bail. This is a woman who needs to be locked up for her own good, if not for others. She’s just managed to cause a horrific crash and a death, besides minor injuries to another driver and all in a night’s work. At the age of 22, she already has one death to her credit. If the investigations are not dealt with properly and Ms Johnigan goes unpunished, there will be more chances for her to cause more injuries and harm to others.

The California State Attorney General’s Office will be handling the investigation into the matter.

Patients at Texas’ psychiatric hospitals face a grim reality, and an even grimmer future. Tales of abuse have been rampant across the state’s 10 mental hospitals, and as many as 70 employees have been fired in the last three years alone for abuse of mental patients. Apart from the ones who have had their services terminated, hundreds more have been suspended for abuse of patients. Many of the abuse cases are sexual in nature, while overmedication, restraining with padlocks and plain simple negligence are also widely reported.

According to an analysis by Dallas Morning News, abuse has even taken on the form of violence and beatings. One patient was manhandled by an employee, and dragged by his hair and feet. Another female patient was sexually abused by an employee.

The state’s mental hospitals, as well as the juvenile centers and disabled people’s homes, are all suffering from a malaise that covers all forms of neglect and abuse. As expected, there are plenty of fingers pointing in all directions, most notably the lack of funds. State run hospitals have suffered from chronic lack of funding, insiders say, resulting in the pathetic state of the hospitals. Sadly, the first persons who get dropped from the priority list when cash begins to get tight are the mental patients and the disabled, the most vulnerable of our society. It’s a cold reality.

The abuse at the state’s mental hospitals is even more disturbing than abuse of disabled persons or juveniles because these people very rarely have a strong support system of friends and family. They are usually not in very close contact with their family. Their mental status also makes it hard for them to remain on the radar of public consciousness. Their families have in many cases given up on them because of the chronic cycles of homelessness and incarceration that these people experience. Left to the mercy of the staff, many patients are coming to the stark realization that life within these walls is far from safe and comforting. It’s in many ways crueler than the realities outside.

Mental health advocates complain of the lack of funding. Over the past few years, at least $100 million in mental health funding has been cut in the state budget.

The parents of Jason Evans are looking for reasons for their son’s death, since lack of funding is a poor excuse. The 34-year-old bipolar disorder patient was found dead at a hospital a few days after he checked himself in. The cause of death is supposedly “natural,” but his parents suspect an intentional overdose on the part of the staff.

Lack of funding is a problem across health institutions in many parts of the country, but we cannot use that as an excuse to neglect and abuse mental patients. Because workers are over stressed or over burdened is no reason to take their frustrations out on helpless patients. Many of these incidents border on torture – one patient was hit on the head with a clipboard, and then kicked repeatedly. Another was tackled to the floor and had injuries to his face. We would cause a hue and cry over the treatment of animals in this fashion – it would be shameful if we maintained a frozen silence when human beings are treated this way.

If you have a loved one who has been the victim of abuse or neglect at an assisted living facility, you need the help of an experienced California personal injury attorney. Contact a lawyer at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

It’s a good thing there are civil lawsuits in this country for victims who have been let down by the system. One such victim, a 17-year-old girl who has had her rape allegations against a group of boys thrown out, has now filed a civil lawsuit against the boys.

The unidentified victim was gang raped by a group of De Anza College baseball players at a co-ed party held at a baseball player’s house. She was drunk at the time of the rape, and the incident only came to light when three of her friends barged into the room and found her. She was apparently unconscious and was being raped, while at least eight other men stood around and watched.

The Santa Clara District Attorney’s office spent almost a year investigating the matter, but finally came to the conclusion that there wasn’t enough evidence for criminal charges. They made the decision not to prosecute the young men, saying the evidence was too slim. It didn’t help matters that the girl didn’t remember the rape. The women who barged into the room and witnessed the accident apparently didn’t see the men’s faces.

The young men who were in the room at the time of the rape seem to have given varying accounts of what happened, ruining the DA’s case further.

The result of all this was a terse announcement by the Santa Clara District Attorney’s Office that “reprehensible” behavior had taken place at a player’s home on March 3, 2007, but it was impossible to find out what exactly happened.

The teen has now filed a lawsuit accusing the nine former players and another man at the party of men of sexually assaulting her. The charges include rape, false imprisonment, and violation of her privacy. The violation of privacy charge stems from the videotapes of the rape that the perpetrators reportedly circulated among their friends.

It now stands to the civil courts to give this young girl justice. After having suffered one of the most heinous crimes that could be committed, it must be frustrating to not even have the opportunity to face your torturers in court and accuse them of the crime. While we understand the hesitation in filing criminal charges against the perpetrators because of the lack of solid evidence, it still doesn’t help the young girl to know that these men could get away with scarring her for the rest of her life. It also sends a negative message to other rape victims.

Everybody, from the investigators to the district attorney’s office, seems to agree that there was rape committed that night at the party. But the way things work, the victim will probably not have her chance at justice from a criminal court. The video that the boys made so arrogantly could prove to be their nemesis. It will probably be used in the plaintiff’s arguments when the civil lawsuit comes up for hearing.

If have been the victim of a sexual assault, you need the help of an experienced California personal injury lawyer. Contact an attorney at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

The parents of a 17-year-old boy, who was injured in a truck accident when he was 14, have been awarded a total settlement of $15.07 million by the Southern California Gas Company (Sempra). The accident involved a Sempra truck and the car in which the boy, Kyle Tilton, was riding.

The accident took place on November 2nd 2005 in Yucca Valley, California. Kyle was in a car being driven by his mother, Charlotte Tilton. His mother made a left turn at Twenty Nine Palms Highway in Joshua Tree. A Sempra truck, driven by Darryl Whitley, ran a red light and slammed into the vehicle.

The side of the car that Kyle was sitting took the full force of the accident. He suffered various injuries – including head injuries, fractured ribs, collapsed spleen and liver, and multiple pelvic factures, beside other injuries. He was unresponsive at the scene, and spent the next few days at the hospital. He was in intensive care for 8 days. His mother, Charlotte, suffered only minor injures. Kyle hasn’t completely recovered from his injuries. He continues to undergo brain rehabilitation therapy, and although his quality of life has improved, there is a long way to go before the now 17-year-old boy can hope to have a full life again.

The family bought a lawsuit against Sempras. The company fought its liability until the very first day of trial, and refused to offer a sum that could be acceptable by the family in order to settle. The matter then went to jury, and now the verdict has come back in favor of the plaintiffs. $3.57 million was awarded to Kyle for his medical expenses in the future, which are expected to be huge. A sum of $1.07 million has been paid for his future loss of earning, and $10 million has been awarded for his pain and suffering. The jury also awarded Kyle $1.34 million for his past medical expenses and $21,960 in past family services. His mother, Charlotte, who cited emotional distress at witnessing the near death for her son, also has a claim in the lawsuit. She has been given $270,000 for her pain.

Sempra insists that the only reason they allowed the case to go to trial is because they had conflict with the cost of caring for Kyle. The jury had obviously no such conflict. They have awarded the boy more than $3 million for his future medical expenses. Kyle’s parents are satisfied with the verdict, and hope to use the money to further his rehabilitation therapy so he can gain back control of his life.

If you have been injured in a car accident, you need the help of an experienced California personal injury attorney. Contact a lawyer at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.