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....

• 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...

• PET Scan Aids Large Brain Injury Settlement

  Ken Margolin | August 29, 2007 1:40 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  This week's Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, reported a $3.3 million dollar settlement in a brain injury case. The plaintiff was a contractor in his mid-40s, who was allegedly struck by an improperly secured piece of equipment, while climbing a ladder in a poorly-lit area of the water supply tunnel project on which he was working. After the blow, he complained of headaches, hypersensitivity to...

• 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...

• Real Tort Reform

  Ken Margolin | December 17, 2006 12:30 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  I grudgingly give credit where it is due. The insurance, big corporate cabal, has run one of the most brilliant public relations campaign in the history of duping the American public. Their first ploy was the one most essential in any media campaign - they captured the linguistic high ground. Everyone believes in reform in the abstract, and the forces who want to eliminate the rights of...

• 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...

• The Voir Dire Debate

  Ken Margolin | November 08, 2006 7:00 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  Voir dire is the process whereby potential jurors are questioned before they are selected, to probe for biases that might impair their ability to impartially judge the facts. Voir dire has been described in a "Law Day" outline of the American Bar Association, as "one of the most important aspects of any trial." Massachusetts is one of only a few states in the country in which voir dire is not...

• Hospital Falls

  Ken Margolin | September 17, 2007 3:45 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  A great deal of attention has been paid lately - rightfully so - to the subject of infections contracted in hospitals. Less focus has been placed on another source of serious and preventable injuries in hospitals - falls. The result of a fall down injury in a hospital may be severe. Patients are ill and often debilitated or disoriented to begin with. If a patient's condition presents any...

• 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...

• Mediation of Personal Injury Cases

  Ken Margolin | May 31, 2007 7:00 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  Clients often ask me if "my case will have to go to court?" By that question, they mean, will it have to be tried before a jury, or will it settle "out of court." Most clients, even those who appreciate that they could get significantly more money with a verdict than through settlement, prefer the surety of a settlement over the high stakes gamble of a big score vs. nothing. Sometimes a case...