Miscellaneous | InjuryBoard Boston

Today's Boston Globe, carried an article exposing a growing problem as predictable as it is disgraceful - long term care insurers refusing to pay for long term care when it is finally needed. With people living longer, and many in the baby boomer generation acknowledging that they could one day require nursing home or other long-term care, long term care insurance is a booming business....

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Little has changed since I ran a blog some months ago, on dangerous toys. They are still out there, still for sale, and still marketed to the children most likely to be harmed by them. A number of consumer and advocacy groups put out lists of the year's most dangerous toys. The list by W.A.T.C.H. (world against toys causing harm), of the most dangerous toys of 2006, illustrates the kinds of...

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Massachusetts has not escaped the salmonella outbreak attributed to jars of Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter, that has sickened hundreds of consumers. According to federal officials, lids of peanut jars produced by ConAgra Foods with a product code beginning "2111" may contain the contaminated peanut butter. While a majority of the people known to date to have gotten ill from the peanut...

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Surveys of health club owners and managers reveal that the single most dangerous piece of equipment is the treadmill. It makes sense. Treadmills are powerful machines with moving parts, that can seem to have minds of their own. While most treadmill injuries are minor, such as strains and sprains, some can and have been serious, even catastrophic. In one case, an Indiana jury awarded $9 million...

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A United States Department of Justice survey lists parking garages as the second most likely site of non-violent crimes and the third most likely location of violent crimes (as of 1999). The problem seems especially pronounced in college settings and in urban areas. Floors of unattended vehicles with plenty of places to escape or hide, a general lack of good lighting or consistent security...

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Portable space heaters, while seemingly a convenient option for adding some warmth to a work or living space, are in fact extremely dangerous. It is estimated that electric space heater fatalities account for almost half of all home-heating related deaths. Statistics vary, but the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission cites approximately 25,000 space heater fires per year, as well as 300...

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Last week, an 18 year old woman living in South Paris, Maine, was shot and killed by a hunter, while she was at the edge of the woods a short distance from her home. Every year during hunting season in hunting-intense states - especially deer hunting season - there are fatalities and many more non-fatal gunshot injuries. Residents and visitors of states in which hunting is a tradition, must be...

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In a 19 year period from 1979 through 1998, the federal Center for Disease Control, reports that more than 300 Americans died from dog bite attacks. Giving an idea of the scope of the danger - an astounding 800,000 Americans sought medical care because of dog bites in a single reported year. Most dog attacks involved a lone dog, and not surprisingly, while any breed of dog can bite, pit-bulls,...

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Workers compensation statutes provide a necessary assurance that workers injured on the job will receive compensation while they are out of work, regardless of who was at fault for the injuries. We can't go back to days when injured workers might be on their own to provide for their families if the carelessness of the worker or a co-worker were alleged to have caused the accident. Worker...

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One of the fastest growing areas of tort law is premises security. These cases occur when someone is injured because of a property owner's negligence. Amongst the most significant, and sometimes terrifying, types of dangerous premises cases result from robberies, muggings, or sexual assaults in parking lots or garages.Not every criminal act will give rise to a premises liability lawsuit. A...

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I visited a shipyard yesterday to view a lift machine involved in a client's severe injury. As is always the case on a site visit to a place of heavy construction or machinery, I noticed the many ways a worker could be hurt or killed in an instant. In the shipyard, cranes hoisted muti-ton parts high above. Pipes heavy enough to crush were being rolled into place in an area where workers...

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Whether you celebrate or lament the new Democratic majority in the Congress, one thing is undeniable - federal tort reform legislation will be off the table for now. Tort reform - the view that victims of personal injury from negligence should have restricted access to the courts and fewer rights if they get there, was an issue that divided right down party lines. Many Republicans, especially...

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A lawsuit begins with the filing of the Complaint and the service of a copy of the Complaint with a summons, on the defendant. If the defendant has insurance, there will usually be a delay of approximately 30 days while the insurance company assigns defense counsel. Once the lawyers for all parties are known and the defendant answers the Complaint, the lawsuit begins moving.Massachusetts has a...

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Many clients who are injured delay calling an attorney because they are apprehensive about the process. There is no need to be. An experienced personal injury attorney will put his client at ease and explain every step of the process during the first interview. While the specifics of any individual case vary with the facts, most personal injury lawsuits will follow some or all of the steps...

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Construction is a dangerous job. In a typical year, construction workers suffer more on-the-job fatalities than any other category of employee. Some accidents are inevitable. Many, however, are preventable and are due to contractors or subcontractors cutting corners, gambling with workers' safety in order to gain contracts or maximize their profits.Several categories of hazards account for a...

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