All Topics

• A Medical Malpractice Claim Lost

  Ken Margolin | August 21, 2007 3:15 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  A couple of weeks ago, a Suffolk County Superior Court jury in Boston, rejected the claim of former New England Patriots offensive coordinator, Charlie Weis, that doctors botched his gastric bypass surgery. The defense verdict came at the end of the second trial of the case. The first jury hearing the case was deadlocked, leading to a mistrial. Weis had claimed that his surgeons allowed...

• The Power of Exhibits

  Ken Margolin | August 20, 2007 11:15 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  I wonder if anyone has ever calculated the number of words per hour spoken during the average jury trial. The right words, used the right way, can evoke the most powerful of images, associations, and emotions. Words can also drone on and become little more than background noise to the listener. The lawyer trying a case involving catastrophic personal injury, has a challenge. He may need to...

• The Expert Witness Industry

  Ken Margolin | August 15, 2007 2:45 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  Many serious personal injury cases, and pretty much all products liability and medical malpractice actions, require expert witnesses. The experts testify on topics including the mechanism of injury, industry standards or medical standard of care, the plaintiff's medical condition, economic loss, and others. Local experts may not want to testify against a professional or company in their own...

• Cell Phone Driving Fatalities

  Ken Margolin | August 07, 2007 4:10 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  If the sight of the driver to your right on the interstate, chatting away on his cell phone gets you angry, you've got a right to be. Various studies have shown that driving while talking on a cell phone can be as dangerous as driving with a blood alcohol level over the legal limit. Estimates of the number of U.S. traffic fatalities caused by cell phone talking while driving are generally in the...

• Wrong Site Surgeries

  Ken Margolin | August 06, 2007 4:10 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  An article in Saturday's Boston Globe illustrated the gap that sometimes exists between written procedures and implementation. The article also highlighted the ongoing danger from surgeries on the wrong part of a patient's body. Five hundred fifty-two cases of wrong-site surgery have been reported by American hospitals since 1995; there are undoubtedly many unreported cases. The incident covered...

• $160 Million Nursing Home Abuse Verdict

  Ken Margolin | August 02, 2007 7:00 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  Corporate nursing home officials who bank on jurors discounting residents' injuries from nursing home abuse, because of their age or pre-existing illness, may think again after a $160 million dollar verdict in Texas. The victim of the abuse was an 81 year old resident of the Comanche Trail Nursing Home in Big Spring, Texas. Nursing home personnel assigned him a new roommate who was mentally ill...

• Home Depot's Falling Merchandise

  Ken Margolin | August 01, 2007 3:30 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  Obtaining data on the number of people injured at big box stores such as Home Depot, is difficult. The information is guarded like state secrets. Data generated in litigation, however, has revealed that the big box giant, Home Depot, has had an ongoing problem with falling merchandise killing and maiming customers. One lawsuit revealed that in the late 1990s and early 2000s, more than 2,200...

• A Victory Against Trucking Fatalities

  Ken Margolin | July 25, 2007 12:45 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  The federal Appeals Court of the D.C. Circuit, struck down new rules of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, that would have allowed big rig truckers to drive many more consecutive hours. The case was brought by Public Citizen, a public safety advocacy group, and other groups formed to protect the public against tired truckers. The Appeals Court held that the federal agency had not...

• Can I Sue if I Receive Workers Compensation?

  Ken Margolin | July 20, 2007 3:30 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  I have been asked this question many times over the years by clients who have received serious personal injuries at work. Workers compensation pays the injured employee regardless of whether the employer or anyone else was negligent, and even if the employee's own negligence contributed to his injuries. Worker compensation laws are essential, but they are something of a devil's bargain. The...

• Hasbro Easy Bake Oven Recall

  Ken Margolin | July 19, 2007 4:50 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  Underscoring the continued hazards to children, created by poorly designed toys, Hasbro recalled its Easy Bake Oven. Nearly a million of the toys have been manufactured. The oven is intended for young children. It is a small plastic replica of a real oven, electrically powered, that heats up internally to as hot as 400 degrees farenheit! No surprise - children have been getting burned - and...