The Cochran Firm Legal Blog

It has become a sadly familiar story: a man driving a Toyota was attempting to pass another car, when his gas pedal became stuck and his vehicle accelerated wildly out of control. The problem: his car, a 2008 Prius, was not on the list of vehicles recalled for sticky accelerator pedals. In fact, the owner had taken his car into the dealer and was told it hadn't been recalled. The only recall in effect for the Prius was the removal of floor mats, something the driver insists was not the problem.

Shortly after the recall for floor mat entrapment, Toyota announced that it would also call in the affected vehicles to rework the pedal assembly and floor pan to reduce the likelihood of pedal entrapment. This issue had been sidelined as a result of new information about another possible cause for sticky accelerator pedals, prompting a new recall, one that did not include the Prius.

However, the driver's account of his ordeal makes it seem as though a Prius recall may be in order. After the man applied the gas in an attempt to pass another car, the accelerator pedal stuck in the down position and the car accelerated up to nearly 90 miles per hour on a dangerous, curvy section of Interstate 8 in California. The driver called 911 from his cell phone and operators tried to talk him through many ways to stop the car, but nothing seemed to work. The pedal remained mechanically stuck, despite the driver's attempts to pull it up.

The California Highway Patrol sent a car, whose driver instructed the man to apply his brakes and emergency brakes at the same time. This allowed the car to be slowed and shut off.

Fortunately, no one was hurt in this incident, but if you or a loved one has been hurt in an accident caused by a defective vehicle like a Toyota undergoing runaway acceleration, the product liability lawyers at the Los Angeles office of The Cochran Firm are ready to help. Our nationwide network of lawyers is prepared to take on the biggest opponents. Please schedule a free initial consultation today to learn how we can help you.

A Florida appeals court upheld the original verdict in a medication error lawsuit. The family of a cancer patient who died as a result of a prescription error was awarded $33.3 million in compensation.

The victim had been prescribed Warfarin, a blood thinner, for treatment of her breast cancer. The Walgreens pharmacy filled her prescription at 10 times the appropriate dosage. As a result, the victim suffered a stroke and cerebral hemorrhage resulting in permanent bodily injury, disability, and severe pain. She died several years later at the age of 46.

Walgreens appealed the original decision. However, the Second District Court of Appeals ruled the lower court handled the case correctly and ordered Walgreens to pay the damage award to the victim's family.

Pharmacies have a responsibility to provide patients with the correct dosage of their prescribed medication. When a prescription error results in serious injury, the pharmacy may be held liable for any damages suffered. If you have been the victim of a medication error, the medical malpractice lawyers at The Cochran Firm can help you receive the compensation you deserve.

Please contact The Cochran Firm today to schedule your free initial consultation. We serve clients nationwide.

While we can't put a cost on the death toll food-borne illnesses cost thousands of families in this country each year, it appears we can put a number on how much it costs us financially. According to a report by the consumer food safety group, Produce Safety Project, it costs the US $152 billion annually. This is vastly higher than the $35 billion the Agriculture Department said food borne illnesses cost in 1997.

The Produce Safety Project report comes as the US Senate is considering legislation to require more government inspections of food manufacturers and give the Food and Drug Administration more authority to order recalls. The House has already passed a similar measure.

Food-Borne Illness Statistics

According to the government, each year 76 million people are sickened and around 5000 die as a result of food-borne illnesses like E. coli and salmonella. This includes the recent outbreaks that have made headlines, such as the recalls of peppers, peanuts, and spinach. The 2008-2009 recall of peanuts due to salmonella being found in products in 46 states was the largest recall in recent history. Over 700 people were sickened as a result of that contaminated product.

More recently, there have been recalls of salami, onion soup mix, raw cookie dough, and Eggo frozen waffles.

Financial Cost Data

The financial cost of food-borne pathogens was analyzed by an Ohio State University assistant professor of consumer sciences and former FDA economist. The economic losses of this study included the costs of ongoing and emergency care, pain and suffering, and death. This is a broader set of economic data than was previously looked at.

The handful of pathogens examined by the study author all cause cramping, diarrhea, and fever within 12 to 72 hours of contamination. Most people will recover within a week of becoming ill, but serious illnesses including seizures, coma, and paralysis can occur if there is no medical treatment.

The conclusion of this study is that food-borne illnesses are a "serious burden to our society." One US representative said that the high cost is "shocking" and that if people will not find solutions based purely on humanitarian grounds, maybe they will on economic ones.

If you or a loved one has become ill from eating contaminated food, please contact the Cochran Firm to speak with our experienced defective product attorneys. We serve clients nationwide.

Boston Scientific's Guidant division was charged on Thursday by the US Department of Justice for reportedly not fully disclosing problems with implantable heart defibrillators. These misdemeanor charges come three months after Boston Scientific and the Department of Justice reached a nearly $300 million agreement to settle an investigation into the Guidant defibrillators. Both the DoJ and Boston Scientific claim the latest charges are part of the settlement and that a plea agreement has already been signed, and will be filed later on.

Guidant discovered in 2002 that one of its models, the Ventak Prizm 2 DR, was defective. The device arced, keeping it from responding correctly when a patient suffered an irregular heart rhythm. Though the design was changed, Guidant admitted that the safety and effectiveness of the device was not affected. In 2004, there were problems with two other Guidant devices. The DoJ says that a patient's death that year was the result of a short circuit in their heart device.

Guidant allegedly knew that the instructions responding to a short circuit were misleading and false. They sent out a product update after this, but Guidant broke the law by not notifying the FDA about the change within ten days.

Class I recalls were then issued for all three Guidant devices in June 2005. This is the most serious type of recall since there is a reasonable chance that the defective device can cause serious injury or death.

Boston Scientific acquired Guidant in 2006, beating out Johnson & Johnson.

If you or a loved one has been seriously injured by a defective medical device, please contact the experienced personal injury attorneys at the Cochran Firm for an initial case consultation. We serve clients nationwide.

A 35-year-old mother and her 10-year-old son were killed in an auto accident on a snowy highway in Pennsylvania on Tuesday. The father was taken to the hospital in critical condition.

The auto accident occurred heading eastbound on Interstate 80 late in the afternoon. The woman's SUV lost control in the snowy conditions and went down an embankment. The mother and her son died at the scene of the accident. Two others were in the accident, including an infant. They were taken to the hospital for treatment, but there is no update on their condition.

Snowy weather and winter driving conditions often increase the likelihood of an auto accident, making highway driving much more dangerous during this time of the year. It is important to reduce your speed on snowy and icy roads, especially when visibility is poor. Also, by driving more defensively, you will be better able to react to the hazardous conditions on the road, such as skidding vehicles and collisions.

If you have been injured in an auto accident caused by the negligence of another driver, the experienced auto accident attorneys at The Cochran Firm can help you receive the compensation you deserve. Please contact
our auto accident attorneys today to schedule your initial consultation. The Cochran Firm serves clients nationwide.

A little more than a week after the announcement of a Harvard University study on the risks of Avandia, The New York
Times is reporting that the FDA plans to consider removing the popular but potentially deadly diabetes drug from the market. The Times cites confidential reports by a number of doctors that recommend the drug be removed from the market, reports that say as many as 300 heart failures a month could be prevented by switching people to a different diabetes drug, Actos. One report definitively recommends that "Rosiglitazone [the active ingredient in Avandia] should be removed from the market." The reports stress that the drug offers no real benefits for the increased risk, making it an unnecessarily dangerous drug.

However, the agency is not in complete agreement. Apparently, there is an internal battle in the agency over the safety of Avandia, despite the mounting evidence of Avandia's heart attack risk. To resolve the dispute, FDA scientists have scheduled a meeting for later this year to make recommendations about the drug.

Pressure may be mounting for the agency to do something. Yesterday, the US Senate issued the results of its two-year investigation into the conduct of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the drug company that manufactures and markets Avandia. The damning report says that GSK tried to intimidate scientists and deliberately misrepresent medical data to protect the profitability of the blockbuster drug, whose worldwide sales peaked at $3.2 billion in 2006. Concurrently, the FDA issued its own statement, stressing that guidelines for the drug's use have not changed and that people should not stop taking Avandia without first talking to their doctors.

GSK denies that it has ever tried to intimidate scientists, saying instead that it "welcomes and supports open and independent scientific debate about its products," and adds that 164 independent clinical trials have failed to find an association between Avandia and heart attacks. However, as new studies continue to pile up, they all seem to point to one conclusion: Avandia increases the risk of heart attacks, something the US Senate says GSK knew and tried to suppress.

If you have been injured by a pharmaceutical drug like Avandia, you are facing a tough battle against a multibillion-dollar, multinational corporation like GlaxoSmithKline. You can improve your odds of success by working with a nationwide network of lawyers that has significant resources and experience with pharmaceutical injury lawsuits. The Cochran Firm is such a law firm, and we are dedicated to fighting for you. For a free case evaluation, please call or email us today.

In an effort to lower risks and complications that lead to hospitalization or death for asthma sufferers, the Food and Drug Administration has called for limits to four of these drugs. The manufacturers for Advair, Foradil, Serevent, and Symbicort must now add warning labels to their product on these long-lasting bronchial drugs.

The asthma medication contains long-acting beta agonists, called LABAs, as well as inhaled corticosteroids. The FDA has urged physicians to move away from LABAs and use only corticosteroids or other asthma-relieving medication on their patients. If patients cannot control their asthma in any other way, they should use LABAs for the shortest amount of time possible. The FDA states LABAs should never be used to treat asthma alone in adults and children. The agency states that around 95% of LABA users combine products to treat their asthma.

In addition to treating the asthma of millions of people, LABAs are also used to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and bronchial spasms due to exercise.

Clinical trials show that LABAs carry an increased risk of actually aggravating asthma symptoms. They relax bronchial muscles to allow more air flow, and provide immediate relief to asthma sufferers. However, they do not address the underlying inflammation, which can lead to life-threatening conditions.

While the FDA has told manufacturers to add warning labels, they do not advocate pulling LABAs. Instead, they say the products are useful, but a conservative approach should be used to treat America's nearly 23 million asthma sufferers.

If you or a loved one has been injured due to a defective pharmaceutical, please contact the experienced personal injury attorneys at the Cochran Firm. We serve clients nationwide.

A 19-year-old girl killed two people in a drunk driving auto accident just outside of Las Vegas. The crash occurred on Tuesday at about noon.

When police arrived at the scene, they noticed the driver had a strong smell of alcohol on her breath and bloodshot eyes. The girl's speech was slurred, and she could not perform standard field sobriety tests. When tested, her blood alcohol content was .267, more than three times the legal limit.

Prior to the fatal auto accident, the girl was involved in a hit-and-run with another vehicle. That vehicle's driver followed her while he notified the police. He said she appeared to be falling asleep at the wheel, and she was crossing over lane lines and hit a median. She eventually crashed into an SUV, killing both people in the vehicle. One victim was ejected from the SUV, and the other had to be pulled out by firefighters.

If you have been seriously injured in an auto accident caused by a drunk driver, the attorneys at The Cochran Firm can help you receive the compensation you deserve. Please contact our auto accident lawyers today to schedule your free initial consultation. We serve clients nationwide.

The Chad Youth Enhancement Center in Ashland, Tennessee recently settled a wrongful death lawsuit with the mother of Manny Leach, a Philadelphia teenager who died while residing in the juvenile detention center. Leach's death resulted from an incident where two guards allegedly used an inappropriate choke hold while attempting to restrain him.

Leach was the second teenager to die at Chad. The juvenile detention center has been criticized by officials from several states due to numerous incidents where treatment of residents was deemed overly harsh. Leach's lawyers claimed that Chad has a history of using excessive force in restraining residents, failing to comply with state reporting requirements for injured residents, and improperly screening, training, and disciplining its employees. The lawsuit also claims that the two men responsible for Leach's death, Randall Rae and Milton Francis, should never have been hired, were never adequately trained, and should have been disciplined or terminated for previous incidents.

During the incident resulting in Leach's death, Rae threw the teenager to the ground, pinned his arms behind his back, and started choking him. Eventually, Francis arrived at the scene and assisted in restraining Leach. By the time a nurse arrived, Leach was not breathing and had no pulse. The entire incident was documented on a surveillance camera.

While a medical examiner ruled Leach's death a homicide, a Tennessee grand jury failed to bring charges against Rae and Francis.

Chad agreed to settle for $10.5 million before the case went to trial. However, there was no admission of liability as part of the settlement agreement.

If you have lost a loved one as a result of the negligent actions of another, please contact
the wrongful death attorneys at The Cochran Firm today to schedule your free initial consultation. We serve clients nationwide.

Four people robbed and beat a 15-year-old girl last month in a bus tunnel in Seattle, Washington while three unarmed security guards did nothing to stop it. The whole incident was caught on surveillance video, and shows the victim on the ground as she is repeatedly kicked in the head.

It's maddening enough that the three security guards did nothing, but even more so that they were actually following orders. As the girl sought out protection from the guards during the attack, she figured they'd help her. According to the guards' orders, their job is simply to "observe and report" to police. While police did show up, they came after the robbery and attack.

Fight Began as Menacing Elsewhere

The entire incident actually began in a nearby Macy's. Police saw the beginning of events unfold there, and kicked out the alleged robbers and the victim. The victim reports she even asked the officers to escort her to the bus tunnel, but the officers refused. When she went to the tunnel and sought out the guards, she was followed by the group, jumped, beaten and robbed. The victim says she lost consciousness during the attack, but refused going to a doctor for treatment.

One of the four people arrested, an 18-year-old man, claims the situation began when the victim pepper sprayed another person in his group earlier in the evening.

A Seattle police spokesman states that if the officers realized what was going to happen, they would have put the girl in a cab and paid for her to safely get home. A King County Sheriff's deputy said the guards not only followed their training, but were right in doing so. He states, "It was a violent fight, and they were outnumbered by this pack of people 3 to 1."

Four attackers versus three guards with police backup counts as "outnumbered" in Seattle?

Contracted Security Guards

The security guards are employees of Olympic Security Services, Inc., which has a contract with Metro Transit and the King County Sheriff's Office. Their duties are to help customers, report suspicious objects, equipment problems, and disruptive behavior. After this, the company is revising its contract to add when it is appropriate for their employees to intervene. Other options may be to hire armed guards.

The main attacker, a juvenile girl, faces over two years in juvenile detention. An 18-year-old faced 36 to 48 months in prison, and two 20-year-olds face 31 to 41 months in prison.

It is assumed by the public that security guards are there to do more than watch and report when things go wrong. In this case, there may have been a want on the security guards' part to intervene, but they were not allowed. Still, if these people can't save a 15-year-old girl from being severely beaten, what good are they?

If you or a loved one has been assaulted in a public place that should be safe, please contact the premises liability attorneys at the Cochran Firm. We serve clients nationwide.

Late Monday night, a driver heading south on US 27 in Broward County lost control of his semi truck carrying sheep, pigs, goats, and chickens. The truck then jackknifed across the highway and stalled. Instead of setting up reflective triangles, the driver either left the scene of the accident or attempted to signal other drivers with a flashlight (reports are contradictory). When another truck came south, it either did not see the truck or the signal or was unable to stop. It struck the truck and trailer in a deadly truck accident unlike anything seen in Broward County, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

The driver of the second truck and dozens of animals were killed. Dozens more animals were wounded. Truck parts and wounded animals lay strewn across southbound US 27. As emergency crews arrived, the surviving animals cried out in pain and confusion. Those that could still move were running around randomly. Groups of animals headed north and south. Some escaped into the everglades, and could be heard bleating overnight. Emergency crews, animal control, and volunteers helped to gather the animals. Some were placed in a temporary corral until they could be removed to a nearby farm. In addition to those killed immediately, many were badly wounded and had to be euthanized. Overall, as many as 100 animals may have died at the scene. Animal bodies were heaped alongside the road, which remained closed through the morning. Most escaped animals are believed to have been caught, but drivers are still urged to use caution.

This deadly truck accident could have been prevented. There is no information as to why the first truck driver lost control of his truck and entered a jackknife. Why did this driver not protect the area with reflective triangles, trying instead to use a flashlight to warn the oncoming driver? Some reports indicated that the driver was transporting animals to his own farm, and that he may have been a less experienced truck driver. His inexperience may have contributed to the jackknife and his questionable measures to alert the oncoming truck.

If you lost a loved one in a truck accident that could have been prevented, the lawyers of the Miami, Florida office of The Cochran Firm can help. Please contact us today for a free initial consultation.

A group of Harvard researchers recently released a study to be published by the American Diabetes Association that lends support to the mounting allegations against the drug Avandia. The study, which analyzed clinical care data from 26,375 diabetes patients between 2000 and 2006, found that diabetic patients taking Avandia suffered more than twice as many heart attacks as patients taking other diabetes medications.

This figure is higher than the study sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline, the pharmaceutical company that produces Avandia. The GlaxoSmithKline study revealed that Avandia users have a 35-41% greater likelihood of suffering a heart attack compared with users of other diabetes medications.

The Harvard study provides compelling evidence that taking Avandia does in fact place a patient at a greater risk for heart attacks. Yet surprisingly, Avandia has not been taken off the market.

More than 13,000 Avandia users have filed pharmaceutical injury lawsuits against the company after suffering heart attacks and other serious injuries caused by taking the dangerous drug. The lawsuits claim that GlaxoSmithKline failed to adequately warn patients of the increased risk of heart attack, heart failure, and stroke.

If you have suffered a serious injury as a result of taking Avandia, the defective drug lawyers at The Cochran Firm can help you receive the compensation you deserve. Please contact us today to schedule your free initial consultation. The Cochran Firm serves clients nationwide.

Earlier this week, Toyota announced that over seven million vehicles were affected by the defective gas pedal situation. Now, the auto company has announced that the 2010 Prius has problems of its own. Rather than the gas pedal, the Prius has problems with its antilock braking system. Consumers report trouble braking on uneven or slick surfaces, even at low speed, which increases the likelihood of an accident. So far, no one has reported an accident due to brake malfunctions.

The Prius, touted as the flagship vehicle for Toyota, has a waiting list of interested consumers for the green technology and advanced engineering. The Prius, according to an auto industry analyst and Prius owner, should be the company's "gold standard;" the vehicle that will probably one of the top vehicles purchased globally into the foreseeable future. However, it has joined Toyota's other models in the defective automobile category until this problem can be cleared up.

The Prius brake problem is not part of the mounting problem with the gas pedal. While that defective part was manufactured in the US, the brake pedal for the Prius is manufactured in Japan. As of this writing, there are less than 150 reported problems with the brakes.

There are virtually no reports of trouble with the brakes on 2004-2009 Prius models. One reason may be because the 2010 Prius has a new kind of regenerative brake system. Regenerative braking uses energy from the wheels to recharge the vehicle's battery. Hybrid vehicles, including the Prius, use a variety of electronic systems that combine conventional brake pads with regenerative braking, but stopping the vehicle uses brake pads more than the regenerative system.

The braking problem with the Prius, as well as the gas pedal problem on eight other models put Toyota in a position where it must defend its safety record, once one of the safest records around.

If you or a loved one has been injured in an auto accident due to a defective part, please contact the experienced personal injury attorneys at the Cochran Firm. We serve clients nationwide.

In a rare blunt assessment, the National Transportation Safety Board said the pilot was to blame for the crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407 on February 12 of last year, killing 50 people, including one on the ground. Investigators said that the pilot responded "with startle and confusion," wasting crucial seconds before acting. Then, when the pilot acted, he acted inappropriately, worsening the situation and dooming the plane. In addition, the copilot did not either call out the situation to alert the pilot to appropriate action or perform appropriate action to override the pilot to prevent the aviation accident.

Investigators agreed that the crash of Flight 3407, owned and operated by Colgan Air, Inc., was caused by a stall, and to correct a stall the pilot should have pushed the control column forward, while calling out "stall," but instead he pulled back. The copilot also did not call out the stall, and she did not push the control column forward, overriding the pilot. Investigators say the pilot had 27 seconds between when the stall warning occurred and the plane's recorders stopped, probably on impact.

Investigators said that the pilot and copilot were too casual and relaxed about the flight, and maintained a constant stream of dialogue, in violation of aviation's general consensus on a "sterile cockpit" where conversation is kept to a minimum. One of the investigators said, "It was as if the flight was just a means for the captain to conduct a conversation with this young first officer." Investigators blamed this constant conversation for reducing the awareness of the pilots to the plane's situation. The conversation made them slow to respond and led them to squander vital seconds before responding to the situation.

In addition, it was revealed that the pilot had previously had problems with the exact situation that led to the crash of Flight 3407. Before joining Colgan, the pilot had failed three pilot tests, although he only disclosed one on his application. In addition, he had failed two similar tests during his career at Colgan. His performance on these failed tests indicated that he had trouble with landing stalls, the situation that occurred and led to the crash of Flight 3407. Colgan argues that because the pilot concealed two failed tests on his application, they did not have sufficient prior knowledge of the pilot's poor performance. Three failed flight tests seem sufficient rationale for a pilot to be removed from rotation for retraining until he can pass a test.

People who lost loved ones in the crash of Flight 3407 say that the Federal Aviation Administration maintains two separate standards of safety: one for the major carriers, and another for regional carriers, who carry as much as 25% of all passengers in the United States. They say that regional airlines like Colgan should not be allowed to operate as wildcatters, skirting safety rules to cut corners and costs to improve profits.

NTSB board members expressed concern about "bottom feeders" in the airline industry that do not actually adopt the safety protocols. Instead announcing an intent to adopt protocols, file plans, and have a good safety plan in principal or on paper, but never actually implemented. Small carriers balk at the expense of safety equipment, since it diminishes their profits to equip many small planes.

If you lost a loved one in this or another airline accident, your wrongful death lawsuit can help draw attention to the full costs of violating safety protocols. The Cochran Firm stands ready to represent you in action against all those who could have and should have done something to prevent the accident. Please contact us today for a free initial consultation.