Head & Brain Injuries

• Falling Down Stairs

  Ken Margolin | February 15, 2007 7:00 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  Falling down a flight of stairs or even a few steps can cause serious injuries. Broken bones, head injury, and other trauma can result. In determining whether a stair injury case should result in a lawsuit, a number of factors need to be determined in addition to the severity of the injury. Stair injury cases are a form of premises liability litigation. Stair design is one factor to be analyzed....

• Big Box Store Head Injury Hazard Continues

  Ken Margolin | February 05, 2007 12:15 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  One of the earliest blogs I wrote on InjuryBoard, entitled "Shop till you're Dropped," pointed out the hazards in big box hardware and home goods stores, from falling overhead objects. Here is a news flash - based on my one store survey this past weekend, nothing has changed. I went to this cavernous home supplies store - you would all recognized its name - to purchase some rug pads. As I...

• 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...

• Blame it on the Trial Lawyers

  Ken Margolin | January 26, 2007 11:15 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  I was thinking the other day about the gripes of the anti-justice forces who would reserve the courts for corporations and the wealthy and who enhance political careers by bashing trial lawyers. If they long for an America of 100 years ago, they have a good reason for their animosity. Want your segregated schools back? Sorry. Brown v. Board of Education took care of that, using trial lawyer...

• Construction Accidents and Unionization

  Ken Margolin | January 23, 2007 3:00 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  A New York Times article at the end of last year reported that the number of construction fatalities more than doubled from the previous twelve month period. The biggest cause of construction deaths was falling, followed by deathfrom falling objects. The OSHA spokesman in New York City noted that non-union workers appeared to be more heavily at risk for death and serious injury. Union workers...

• Significant Plaintiff Recoveries Continue in 2006

  Ken Margolin | January 17, 2007 7:00 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  This week's Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly contained a summary of significant plaintiffs' verdicts and settlements in Massachusetts in 2006. Fifteen jury verdicts equaling or exceeding $1 million were reported, as well as 88 seven figure settlements. A survey of these positive results gives an idea of the current thinking of juries and insurance claims personnel. I will start with the verdicts...

• Liquor Licensee Liability Laws

  Ken Margolin | January 16, 2007 5:00 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  Most states in the US have some form of laws imposing liability on liquor licensees that serve liquor to clearly intoxicated persons who then go out to cause injury or wrongful death to a third party, usually by causing a car crash. The laws are known as "dram shop" acts. Organizations such as MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) have been quite successful in campaigning and lobbying to get...

• The Vocational Expert

  Ken Margolin | January 16, 2007 12:45 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  Success in serious personal injury cases require the plaintiff's lawyer to put together many pieces in a way that makes the jury decide that justice requires a verdict in favor of the plaintiff. One of these pieces is testimony from a vocational expert. Testimony from a vocational expert is called for in any serious accident case in which the injuries permanently impair the plaintiff's ability...

• Fall Down Cases Can Hurt

  Ken Margolin | January 09, 2007 8:40 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  People falling down has provided generations of comedians, from the Three Stooges to Chevy Chase, with material. In real life, there is nothing funny about falling down and being injured because of someone else's carelessness. These cases are typically known as "slip and fall cases." Fellow InjuryBoard lawyer, Benjamin Glass, of Northern Virginia, has written an excellent blog describing some...

• Traumatic Brain Injury Act

  Ken Margolin | January 08, 2007 8:30 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  A decade ago, Congress passed the Traumatic Brain Injury Act of 1996. The legislation reflected a recognition at the highest levels of national leadership that traumatic brain injury (TBI) was an under-recognized problem that affected millions of people. With the legislation, Congress appropriated funds to study the prevalence of TBI and to encourage innovative efforts to reduce the incidence of...