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Medical Malpractice Payments at an All Time Low

Amidst all the talk of so called tort reform and “frivolous lawsuits” comes a study by the Public Citizen, a non profit organization based in Washington D.C. that represents consumer interests through lobbying, litigation, research, and public education. The study illustrates the decline in medical malpractice payments since 1999.
In 2008, the number of malpractice payments was the lowest it’s been since the formation of the federal government’s National Practitioner Data Bank, which has tracked medical malpractice payments since 1990. 2008 was the third consecutive year that medical malpractice payments sunk to an all time low.

Unfortunately, the decline in payments has nothing to do with a reduction in medical errors and everything to do with the increase in the number of victims not being compensated. This also means that there are fewer incentives for doctors and nurses to reduce errors. According to a 1999 study done by the Institute of Medicine entitled “To Err is Human,” an estimated 44,000 to 98,000 hospital patients are killed every year due to avoidable medical mistakes.
Yet fewer than 15,000 malpractice payments were made in 1999. Those numbers DO NOT include the number of patients who suffered serious, non-fatal injuries. The large gap between the victims and the compensated has likely grown larger since 1999, as there is no evidence that any meaningful improvements to medical safety have been made.

In a series of graphs and charts, the Public Citizen thoroughly demonstrates the fall in malpractice payments in the last decade. In five years, there was a loss of 3,336 medical malpractice payments made on behalf of physicians. That means that while the number of victimized patients was rising, the number of those patients being compensated was falling. Studies since the 1970’s show that medical errors greatly outnumber lawsuits.
Perhaps the kind of reform that would greatly reduce the legal liability of our health care system is not the kind of reform that’s needed. It seems that medical errors are shockingly prevalent. Problems should be fixed at their source. Eliminating medical errors, rather than reforming our tort system, should be a goal of priority.

It’s been easy to drum up support for so called tort reform by blaming our health care woes on medical malpractice cases and “junk lawsuits,” but the numbers tell a very different story. In 2006, medical malpractice payments accounted for between .18 and .58 percent of all health care costs. 2006 is the most recent year with all of the necessary information available to make these comparisons.

Medical malpractice is a very serious issue, and something that is affecting patients everyday. Most doctors are wonderful and care tremendously for their patients. They are careful and follow well established rules of the medical profession to prevent errors.
However, a very small minority are not so caring and do not follow the rules. It is the mission of a trial attorney to represent those victimized by medical malpractice and earn them the compensation they deserve.

The trial attorneys at Mininno Law Firm want to help you get the compensation you deserve. If you or a loved one have recently suffered due to medical malpractice, you must act quickly! A two year statute of limitations can prevent you from being able to hold liable those who have harmed you.
Contact the Mininno Law Firm or call us at (856) 833-0600 in New Jersey, or (215) 567-2380 in Philadelphia.

Don't be Fooled, Pressure Ulcers are Preventable

The National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel is an entity that serves as the authoritative voice for improved patient outcomes in pressure ulcer prevention and treatment through public policy, education, and research. On March 3rd of this year, the panel released notice that their recent consensus conference, held at Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland, determined that there are indeed unavoidable pressure ulcers.
The panel was comprised of 24 specialists in medicine, geriatrics, surgery, specialty nursing, physical therapy, and also included dieticians. The panelists concluded that there were two instances in which the development of a pressure ulcer could not be avoided.

1. Refusal of the patient to participate in his or her own pressure ulcer prevention.
2. Certain clinical conditions such as hemodynamic instability (abnormal blood movement) or skin failure.

We at the Mininno Law Firm see these findings certainly as reasons that pressure ulcers do form, but in no way reasons that their formation is unavoidable. From the beginning of treatment, a vital key to pressure ulcer prevention is assessment. Doctors and caretakers must assess the condition and needs of a patient. Following assessment, the next vital step is planning. If it is determined that a patient suffers from hemodynamic instability, they are therefore more susceptible to pressure ulcers, and additional plans must be made to actively prevent those pressure ulcers from forming.
If a patient refuses to be moved or turned, a doctor or caretaker must then implement additional skin protection strategies. The higher the risk, the more attentive their care must be. A patient that refuses to be turned could also be placed on a special pressure distributing mattress that helps prevent bed sores and pressure ulcers.

Pressure ulcers are a dire affliction that must be promptly treated as they could quickly cause other serious complications to a patient’s health. If you or a loved one is suffering or has suffered from the formation of a bedsore or pressure ulcer, do not hesitate to call for help. The trial lawyers at Mininno Law Office are here to provide the help and representation you’ll need to be compensated.
Contact us or call us at (856) 833-0600 in New Jersey or (215) 567-2380 in Philadelphia.

Trial Lawyers have Made for Safer Vehicles

Recently, so called Tort Reform has been a major topic of discussion. Tort Reform has a very large following of pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, HMO’s, and defective food and beverage companies. These billion dollar corporations spend their profits on lobbyist and marketing campaigns in order to convince us all that most lawsuits brought to court are “frivolous,” and that payouts are “outlandish.”
This so called Tort Reform aims to restrict lawful recoveries for victims of things like medical malpractice, nursing home abuse, or defective product injuries. It also aims to make it harder to hold accountable companies that cause harm to consumers.

But if it wasn’t for trial lawyers and their litigation of these “frivolous” cases, the vehicles that we drive would not be what they are today. Cars today are loaded with countless safety features that, before litigation, did not exist. Below are 11 features of your vehicle that were improved after a court deemed it mandatory.

1. Gas Tanks – Manufacturers, like GM and Ford, designed vehicles with defective gas tank placement. The placement caused fires and explosions, even in the most minor collisions. Due to litigation, gas tanks are now universally located within rigid frames.

2. Door Handles – Ford’s own engineers cited that their paddle style door handles accidently opened in collisions. Ford continued to cover up the problem, until finally a court held them accountable and forced them to fix the issue.

3. SUV Stability – SUV stability has always been an issue. Ford’s rollover rate, at one time, was twice that of any other SUV. After injury and death, litigation increased emphasis on the development of Electronic Stability Control.

4. Airbags – Airbags have been being designed since the 1950’s, but by 1988, only 2% of new cars were made with them. Eventually, courts made in mandatory to manufacturer all new vehicles with airbags.

5. Faulty “Park” – Ford and Chrysler both experienced issues with transmissions that slipped out of Park and caused cars to roll away. In Ford’s instance, it caused the death of a pregnant woman trying to save the life of her four year old daughter inside the rolling minivan. Ford fixed the error after being held liable twice in court. Chrysler continued to ignore the problem until litigation forced a recall of over 1 million affected vehicles.

6. Tires – Firestone and Goodyear tried to hide defective tire problems for years before courts finally held them accountable. Firestone tires were responsible for 271 deaths before they were finally recalled.

7. Side-impact Protection – a police officer was paralyzed after a low-speed side impact collision. The court found that the absence of side protection was a vehicle defect. Now all cars are equipped with side-impact protection.

8. Weak Seats – Seats were not made strong enough and were collapsing during collisions, killing rear passengers. It was litigation that forced manufacturers to begin installing stronger seats in all vehicles.

9. Seatbelts – Court cases did a lot in bringing to light the dangers of inferior seatbelts, or no seatbelts at all. For example, Chryslers Gen 3 seatbelt was installed in over 14 million cars and proven to unlatch in accidents. Litigation forced Chrysler to redesign both seats and seatbelts.

10. Power Windows – Power windows became more common, and so too did associated injury and death. Children were especially susceptible because of accidently hitting the rocker style switch that moved the window up or down. The inexpensive solution would have been to replace the rocker style with a lift up style. The solution was ignored to cut costs until litigation forced universal acceptance of the safer switch.

11. Roof Strength – The strength of car roofs was known to be in need of improvement, but only litigation actually made it happen.

Thanks to these cases being brought to court by trial lawyers, judges and juries were able to hold the right parties responsible for unnecessary injury and death, and also reverse the problems to prevent future loss. Trial Attorneys are essential to maintain a balance between consumers and manufacturers.

If you or a loved one feel you have been wronged by a medical malpractice, insurance company, or defective product manufacturer, you’ll need a trial attorney. The trial attorneys at Mininno Law Firm are here to help. Contact us or call (856) 833-0600 in New Jersey, or (215) 567-2380 in Philadelphia.

Are You Insured by the Worst Insurance Company in America?

A short time ago, we posted a blog about homeowners’ insurance, and things homeowners should know before filing a large claim. It got us to thinking. What else is wrong the insurance industry? Why are there so many bad faith insurers out there? Why do we have to feel so threatened by companies we pay to protect us? Why do you need a New Jersey trial lawyer to protect you against an insurance carrier?

In a report done by the American Association for Justice, the top ten worst insurance companies for consumers have been discovered. After lengthy research into court documents, reports filed by both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Securities Exchange Commission, country wide news accounts, and testimony from former agents and adjusters, the AAJ has provided a great deal of information that will ebb our faith in some of the nations leading insurance companies.

The List

10. Liberty Mutual
9. Torchmark
8. UnitedHealth
7. Farmers
6. WellPoint
5. Conseco
4. State Farm
3. AIG
2. Unum
1. Allstate

Reporting each discretion of each bad faith insurance company would take quite some time, so we’ll talk about the one company that stood out above the rest, Allstate Insurance Company. Perhaps it was their mission that set them off on the wrong course. According to CEO Thomas Wilson, “[their] obligation is to earn a return for [their] shareholders.” Said differently, “We put profits over the people we are supposed to insure.”
Unfortunately, shareholders (mostly large financial institutions and hedge funds) and policyholders (the little guys) are not the same people, and while corporate shareholders may be earning profits , many times policyholders are being cheated. Publicly, Allstate’s slick advertising campaign claims their insured will be put you in “good hands.” Privately, agents are trained to employ “boxing gloves,” an aggressive litigation strategy that aims to deny claims at all costs.

They use a secret claims evaluation software called “Colossus” to make lowball offers to victimized customers looking to receive the help they’ve been paying for. Adjusters are trained in the “3 D’s,” to deny, delay, and defend. A common tactic is to employ a “sit and wait” strategy, which Allstate’s research knows increases likelihood that claimants will just give up. Adjusters say they were rewarded for keeping payments low, even if they had to lie to their clients to do so. Adjusters were even rewarded for such actions! For example, one former adjustor told the AAJ that he won a prize (i.e., a portable refrigerator) for wrongfully trying to deny fire claims by blaming arson.

Complaints to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners against Allstate amount to a number greater than almost all of its major competitors. After Hurricane Katrina, the Louisiana Department of Insurance received approximately 1,200 complaints against Allstate, almost double its competitor State Farm, and State Farm held a larger share of the market!

Maryland fined Allstate upwards of 18 million dollars after they raised premiums and changed coverage without alerting policy holders. In Texas, Allstate has to pay 70 million dollars to homeowners after overcharging for insurance. In Florida, Allstate is in trouble with regulators because they’ve dropped over 400,000 customers since 2004, and it appears to be because they are homeowners’-insurance-only customers. Florida law prohibits this practice.

So why work so hard to rip people off? To boost the bottom line of course!
Allstate profited $4.6 billion in 2007. It’s CEO, Thomas Wilson, made $10.7 million that year. His predecessor, Edward Libby, made $18.8 million, plus an additional $25.4 million in retirement benefits. The less they payout, the more they take in.

New Jersey Trial lawyers

New Jersey Trial lawyers are a necessity to you if you are being cheated by your insurance company. While bad faith insurance companies work ‘round the clock to limit your recoveries, New Jersey Trial lawyers work ‘round the clock to increase your recoveries.
If you are currently being low-balled by your insurance company for damages they should be covering, call the New Jersey Trial lawyers at Mininno Law Firm. They are here to help you receive the compensation you need and deserve. Contact us or call (856) 833-0600 in New Jersey, or (215) 567-2380 in Philadelphia.

Taishan Gypsum Victims awarded $2.6 Million – Money They May Never See

Previously, we posted a blog about foreign manufacturers who manufacture defective products without consequence; specifically, Chinese drywall manufacturer Taishan Gypsum. The company has exported an estimated 10 million pounds of drywall to the United States through ports in Florida and New York.
According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, nearly 3,000 complaints have been filed against the company, involving complications and property damage caused by the drywall. Tests have shown that the damage was caused by sulfur emissions from the gypsum board.

“These emissions have caused significant amounts of property damage to homes built with the Chinese made material. Reported damage includes that of HVAC systems, smoke detectors, electrical wiring, and metal plumbing components. The emissions have been linked to metal corrosion. They cause a sulfurous odor that permeates the house, and may be the cause of eye, respiratory, and sinus problems.”

This Thursday, April 8, 2010, U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon awarded 2.6 million dollars to 7 Virginia families whose homes will have to be virtually rebuilt due to the damage caused by the defective drywall. Judge Fallon’s summary judgment details the extensive amounts of gutting that will be required to remove traces and side effects of the dry wall. All drywall must be removed, and copper pipes, electrical wiring, appliances, cabinets, trim, molding, countertops, hardwood floors, and bathroom fixtures will need to be replaced.
Unfortunately, lawsuits were limited solely to property damages, and did not address the probable effects of sulfur emissions to the health of homeowners.

But homeowners are less concerned with recoveries only including property damage, and more concerned that the likelihood they will receive their compensation is almost non-existent. With no international laws or regulations in place legally holding Taishan Gypsum responsible for the defective drywall and the damages it caused, there is no way to ensure payment. Foreign manufacturers do not have to honor civil lawsuit decisions from the United States regarding their defective products.
Taishan Gypsum never responded to any one of the lawsuits filed against them, nor did they send anyone to represent them in the U.S. federal court. It is unclear to the plaintiffs what will happen with the money owed them. Plaintiff attorneys have proposed seizing Taishan Gypsum inventory on U.S. soil, and on ships in U.S. waters, but no decisions regarding any further action have been made.

Taishan Gypsum is just one of many cross-border liability cases that have not seen or will not see a resolution due to lack of international regulations. Defective product manufacturers in The United States are held liable for their defects, and so too should manufacturers out of the country. There is currently a motion to pass the Foreign Manufacturers’ Legal Accountability Act which would force foreign manufacturers, like Taishan Gypsum, to honor decisions made in US civil trials, and to be responsible for their defective products.

If you have suffered damage, injury, or loss due to a defective product in New Jersey, whether it be manufactured in the United States or overseas, the New Jersey defective product lawyers at Mininno Law Firm want to help you. Contact us or call (856) 833-0600 in New Jersey or (215) 567-2380 in Philadelphia.

What You Don’t Know About Homeowner’s Insurance

Homeowners Insurance is a necessity if you want to own a home. But when it’s time to call upon it, it’s a migraine headache. Everyday, homeowners file claims to their insurance companies, hoping that the premiums they’ve been paying will afford them the coverage they need. All too often, insurance companies employ bad faith insurance claim settlement tactics that will withhold or greatly reduce payments to policy holders. It seems that insurance companies are not hoping to help people as much as they are hoping to make a buck.

And it’s a shame that most will not find out about this until tragedy befalls their home, and it’s time to file that claim. Below are nine secrets of homeowner’s insurance companies that will help if you ever have to call upon yours. In some of these instances, an insurance claims attorney will be necessary to make sure you are not being “ripped off” by your insurance company, and that you are indeed being compensated appropriately.

1. A claim for a total loss can cost less than rebuilding a damaged house. Just like a car, why pay more to fix it when you could pay less to get it new?

2. If you have a mortgage, checks will be made out to both you and your mortgage bank. You’ll have to endorse the check and hand it over to your lien holder. The money sits in escrow (money limbo), until repairs are made. Typically, they’ll release the money to you in installments over the course of reconstruction. It’s a way for mortgage companies to protect their investments. You’ll have to front the money for repairs, and then be reimbursed.

3. Don’t sign a release on your home insurance claim. Insurance companies will try to have you have sign a release as quickly as possible to close the claim and relieve them of any future responsibilities to you regarding this particular claim. It would be a good idea to have an insurance claims attorney review the release, to make sure you are not being cheated. When dealing with insurance companies, you want someone on your side. The quicker they ask you to sign, the likelier it is you’re dealing with a bad faith insurer.

4. Don’t cash any checks marked “full and final settlement.” Endorsing and cashing this check is the same as signing a release. Again, it would be intelligent to have an insurance claims attorney review the payout. Very often, an insurance claims attorney can fight to get you more money!

5. Don’t let your insurance company replace your Pottery Barn stuff with Wal-Mart stuff. You want to keep good records of everything you own. Keeping receipts with your tax information is an excellent idea. When your insurance company tells you they’ll give you $25 for a $150 table, you want the receipt proving what you paid. You are entitled to payment for exactly what you owned, not something that looks like it. (Attempting to do this is also a sign of a bad faith insurer).

6. Condo owners need coverage! It’s a wide misbelief that the condo association’s insurance will cover property damage or liability, but that’s only true for common areas. If you want your space and your things insured, you will need your own policy.

7. If you are forced to leave your home, don’t sleep at a shelter. Meridian insurance company is required to cover your “additional living expenses.” Stay at a hotel! In many cases, you’ll have to front the money and be reimbursed later. But if this is something you are not monetarily capable of, an insurance claims attorney will fight to get you that money immediately.

8. After a widespread disaster, insurance companies will bring in out of state claims adjusters to assess damages. An adjuster from the southern United States will not be accustomed to local building costs in New York City. You have every right to have a public claims adjuster come out to assess your damages if you feel you are not being compensated rightly. An insurance claims attorney will help you if your insurance company is not willing to comply.

9. Many times, people will settle for less than the total cost of damages because of the length of time the process can take. Insurance companies know this! They will issue checks for actual cash value of your belongings rather than replacement costs. DO NOT SETTLE FOR LESS THAN WHAT YOUR PROPERTY IS WORTH! An insurance claims attorney will help you receive the money you are due.

Filing an insurance claim and collecting payment can be a lengthy, tiresome process. Typically, you should be ready for a fight. All too often, insurance companies employing bad faith insurance claim settlement practices are looking to pay out the least amount possible, regardless of what you need and deserve. That is why an insurance claims attorney is an excellent resource to have on your side.

If you are currently in a battle with your insurance company because of an accident that has befallen your home, the team at Mininno Law Firm wants to help you. Contact us or call at (856) 833-0600 in New Jersey or (215) 567-2380 in Philadelphia.

CPSC: Defective Products Recalled This March

Below is a list of defective products that the Consumer Product Safety Commission has recalled this March. Each product in the list is linked to its detail page on the CPSC website. There you can find model numbers, hazards, and injury reports.

Keep your families safe! Discontinue use of these defective products immediately. Contact the manufacturer to claim a refund, or to receive your improved replacement.

If you or a loved one has suffered due to a complication arising from one of these defective, recalled products, a defective product lawyer will offer the help you need to receive the compensation you deserve.

Essay Contest – Win a $500 scholarship!

The Mininno Law Office has sponsored an essay contest this year for 20 area high schools.
The topic: “Why Plaintiff’s Trial Lawyers are Good for Society.” The winning entrant will receive a $500 scholarship courtesy of John Mininno, Esq.

We’ve received five intelligent, thought provoking, well-written essays. Now we need your help! Our judges are having trouble determining a winner. In order to assist them, we’d like you to tell us which essay is your favorite, and WHY! Perhaps one of our participants has an idea that you agree with? Perhaps one of our participants taught you something in their essay that you did not know?

Voting and commenting can continue until midnight April 30th. We appreciate your help, and to all of the participants, good luck!

Our entrants:

Scott Bass – West Deptford High School
Leyla Renee Wirtz – Bordentown Regional High School
Nia Holston – Timber Creek Regional High School
Jessica Dochney – Haddon Township High School
Albertine L. Shain – Bordentown Regional High School

Medical Malpractice – inevitable human error or very preventable negligence?

We all agree that there are too many medical malpractice lawsuits in courtrooms around the country. The reason for this is simple. While most doctors and medical staff are well trained and professional, every day, some medical care workers prescribe the wrong medication, misdiagnose patients, perform the wrong procedure, and even operate on the wrong part of the body. Overworked and underpaid nurses and aides make simple mistakes that harm patients. Surprisingly, the most common cases of medical malpractice involve preventable falls and preventable bed sores.

In 2008, New Jersey hospitals reported 533 incidents of error. These blunders included patient falls, bed sores, and foreign objects left inside patients after surgery. Of these 533 errors reported in New Jersey in 2008, 40% of them were patient falls. The typical falling patients were elderly women between the ages of 81 and 90. Fractures to arms and legs were the most commonly reoccurring injuries resulting from falls, while 9% of the falls resulted in death. Seventy-one percent of the falls happened in the patient’s rooms, usually while the patient was trying to get to the bathroom. Some may argue that these falls are hardly medical malpractice cases, and simply accidents. Those people are wrong. These “accidents” are preventable and someone must be held accountable. Fall prevention must be high priority for health care facilities housing high-risk fall patients, and hospital staffs should be educated about those patients. Perhaps better lit pathways to private bathrooms, or rails that patients could hold onto while walking could reduce fall rates. We send our loved ones to the hospital in hopes that the doctors and nurses will be able to treat their ailments and return them back to health. Those doctors and nurses are paid to care for and watch over our parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. Should it not then be a nurse’s job to know that the 82 year old woman in room 104 is at risk of falling, and therefore check on her more regularly?

In addition to preventable falls, bed sores and pressure ulcers are also among the most frequently reported errors, and a grave cause for concern. The medical evidence overwhelmingly shows that there is no reason that any nursing home or hospital patient that is being properly cared for ever develop a bed sore or pressure ulcer. They are simply a sign of negligence and inadequate care-taking, and both count as medical malpractice. Bed sores and pressure ulcers result in unnecessary and preventable suffering, infection, and other serious complications, that otherwise would not have to be dealt with. Some sick patients can not take a minute infection that a bed sore can cause, and that minute infection than becomes fatal. Preventative measures should be taken to avoid these awful afflictions. Those measures include repositioning the patient every two hours, inspecting the parts of the body most prone to bedsores, cleaning skin that becomes moistened from perspiration, excrement, or wound drainage, changing sheets frequently, and keeping patients hydrated.

Asking medical personnel to prevent over 200 sick patients from falling and sustaining serious and possibly fatal injuries is far from asking doctors to be perfect. Demanding that nurses and nurses’ aides be more attentive to bed ridden patients to prevent painful and dangerous bedsores is not outrageous. Negligence, inadequate care taking, and inattentiveness are all cases of medical malpractice.
If you or a loved one has suffered due to medical malpractice in New Jersey or Philadelphia, Mininno Law Firm is here to help you get the compensation you are owed. Call (856) 833-0600 in New Jersey, or (215) 567-2380 in Philadelphia.

Defective Product information is a necessity

Each day a defective product manufacturer quietly pays off another victim in a secret settlement that no one will ever learn about. These Court approved secrecy agreements hide vital information concerning public health and safety. How? Companies manufacturing defective products will only pay for the harms they cause if the victims agree to secrecy. Why do negligent product manufacturers insist on secrecy? Because makers of unsafe products such as medicines, airplanes, baby cribs, or car tires, realize that consumers would not buy these products if the products dangerous aspects were known to consumers. Below are just a few examples of the harm that secret product liability settlements cause.

In 1996, a mother gave her 7 year old son the recommended dosage of an over-the-counter children’s medicine to treat an ear infection. Hours later the boy suffered a hemorrhagic stroke (a stroke that involves bleeding on and outside of the brain) and fell into a permanent coma. Three years of life support and failed rehabilitation attempts followed before the boy died. Later, doctors concluded that the boy’s stroke was caused by an ingredient in the medicine called phenylopropanolamine. The unsafe ingredient has since been banned by the FDA and removed from the number of over-the-counter medicines in which it was found. But before this little boy took the medicine, similar lawsuits had been filed against the negligent drug manufacturer. All of these claims should have been in the public record; however each of these defective product suits was quietly and secretly settled. Had information about the unsafe drug been made public, that boy would be a young man today.

In 2003, three Texas businessmen died when their Cessna Caravan airplane, being flown by a professional pilot, crashed due to a defective deicing mechanism. This mechanism, when working properly, removes built up ice from the wings and exterior of the plane. Ice on the wings and the airframe disrupt airflow, and can seriously affect flight, as it did in this case. During this product liability lawsuit, the plaintiff’s lawyers found concealed evidence that proved that Cessna knew its deicing system was both defective and unsafe before the plane was ever certified by the Federal Aviation Administration. When this damning evidence was found, Cessna agreed to compensate the families of the three men but only after insisting that the families agree to secrecy in order to be fairly compensated. As part of the settlement agreement, Cessna demanded its documents back and these documents were never made public. To this day, Cessna has not addressed the deicing defect in a number of its aircraft, most of which still take flight. The National Transportation Safety Board has reported 6 fatal crashes and 1 serious injury crash since the crash in 2003 that, the attorneys have claimed, involve the same defective deicing mechanism. The most recent Cessna Caravan crash that resulted from the alleged same deicing defect was October 7, 2007 in Washington State. It killed the pilot and 9 passengers.

In May of 1998, Linda Ginzel and Boaz Keysar lost their son Danny when he strangled to death after his Playskool crib collapsed. Linda and Boaz later found out that 3 secret settlements were made in product liability cases involving the same defect in the same crib. Manufacturers Kolcraft and Hasbro fought to make it 4 secret settlements, but fortunately Linda and Boaz were able to successfully deny the request, allowing news of the defective, collapsing crib to be made public.

The most well known case of of a secret settlement causing harm involved tire manufacturer Firestone 6.5 million defective tires that Fireston manufactured. Evidence linked these defective tires to car crashes occurring over a 7 year time frame. By October 2001, after the defective tires had finally been recalled, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration determined that the defective tires had been the cause of at least 271 deaths. Most of those product liability cases were settled secretly.

Manufacturers must not only be held liable for their defective products, but must also be required to make news of these product defects public! These products have caused the death of far too many lives, and who knows how many lives could have been saved had news of product defects been made public sooner. Product liability cases should never be settled secretly, especially when the health and safety of men, women, and children is at stake. If you or a loved one have suffered injury or loss due to a defective product, you need help. The Civil Trial Attorneys at Mininno Law Office are here to help you. Call (856) 833-0600 in New Jersey or (215) 567-2380 in Philadelphia.

The List

New Jersey Trial lawyers

Children’s Product Recalls

Clothing Recalls

Home Goods/Tools/Electronics Recalls