All Topics

• 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...

• Liquor Liability for Serving Drinks to Minors

  Ken Margolin | January 11, 2007 9:30 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts just ruled that commercial establishments that serve drinks to underage persons (under 21 in Massachusetts) have a higher level of liability than when they serve to legal age, intoxicated patrons. The case, decided on January 9, 2007, is Nunez v. Carrabba' Italian Grille, Inc. The plaintiff, a 19 year old, spent a night drinking heavily at Carrabba's...

• Elevator Accidents

  Ken Margolin | January 05, 2007 7:00 AM | 1 CommentBoston, MA

  Elevators are often described as the safest means of travel. I don't know if that is true, though it may well be, given the untold numbers of times elevators go up and down across America on any given day. Nevertheless, elevators are machines and like all machines, they can and do fail. The reality of a free-falling elevator can be as frightening as the nightmare. The occupant is completely...

• Preventing Drowning Deaths

  Ken Margolin | June 04, 2007 7:00 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  You may have read the sad story last week, of the two toddlers who left their house, wandered down to a nearby pool, and drowned while their babysitter slept. The purpose of this blog is not to speculate on blame in that tragedy. It reminds us that summer season is here and with it, comes too many drowning deaths that could have been prevented. As was illustrated by the death of the two little...

• Communication Breakdown Results in Death - Medical Malpractice Settlement

  Ken Margolin | May 09, 2007 9:00 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  Failures to communicate continue to bedevil the medical profession. Patient deaths and injuries due to communication breakdowns are especially tragic, because the preventative measure, was often as simple as picking up a telephone or sending a note. In an era of multi-million dollar technology and advanced bioscience, person-to-person communication remains a cornerstone of good medical care....

• Charitable Immunity - a Failed Principle

  Ken Margolin | April 17, 2007 11:05 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  Most catastrophic instances of medical malpractice, are due as much to systemic failures, as to the negligence of any individual. Yet, you will never see a hospital as a defendant in a Massachusetts malpractice jury trial. The hospital - almost all in Massachusetts are non-profit corporations - will not have been named in the lawsuit, or will have been dropped before trial. Regardless of the...

• Fake Studies for Medical Malpractice Defense

  Ken Margolin | April 09, 2007 11:20 AM | 2 CommentsBoston, MA

  Today's Boston Globe carried an article with the title, "Bed sores aren't always a sign of negligent care." Having written blogs on this site, suggesting that severe pressures sores are usually caused by nursing home negligence, I read the Globe piece carefully (the law firm of Stark & Stark, has an excellent blog on the subject). My radar went up when I read the sentence that "[T[he sentiment...

• Winter Driving Accidents

  Ken Margolin | February 14, 2007 1:15 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  While the northeast of the country experiences nasty winter weather, from 2 feet of snow to frozen precipitation, it's a good time to remember the added responsibility on anyone who drives in the winter. Most serious highway accidents in winter conditions are the direct result of driver negligence. The most frequent cause of fatal car crashes in winter is the same as other times of year - speed;...

• Failure to Warn

  Ken Margolin | January 29, 2007 2:15 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  Tools and machines, simple and complex, carry risks. Manufacturers have an obligation to design their products to eliminate the most obvious risks, for example, placing effective hand guards on power tools. Obviously, though, the ways in which tools and machines may be used are many. Mechanical design safety measures have some practical limits, not the least of which is financial. One the...

• Rituxan Deaths

  Ken Margolin | December 19, 2006 12:00 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  Biogen Idec, Inc., the manufacturer of the drug, Rituxan, just issued to an alert to doctors, warning that two patients taking Rituxan died of the fatal brain disease, "progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy" (PML). Both patients who died were being treated experimentally with the drug, for lupus. While Rituxan is approved by the Food and Drug Administration, only for treatment of rheumatoid...