Massachusetts updates in category: Head & Brain Injuries

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...

Continue article

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...

Continue article

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...

Continue article

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...

Continue article

For many clients injured in a car accident, the first question asked of the attorney after "is there cream for the coffee," is "how much is my case worth?" That question is always a fair one, but not always easily answered at the beginning of a case. In any personal injury case, value depends on both tangible and intangible elements, many of which, especially the intangible, will not be known...

Continue article

Every year, the United States Department of Labor publishes a census of occupational injuries. The census gives some insight into the types of jobs in which workers are most at risk. It is a starting point for analysis of work injuries, why they happen, and how to prevent them. In 2005, there were 5,702 fatal job-related injuries reported in the United States. This translated to a rate of 4.1...

Continue article

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...

Continue article

Favorable results in Massachusetts cases of serious personal injury continue to make the news. Severable substantial settlements were reported this week in the Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly newspaper. A car accident resulting in a closed head injury and multiple fractures to a young mother, resulted in a mediated $750,000 settlement. In another car crash case involving a closed head injury, this...

Continue article

In a typical year, nearly 750 bicycle riders nationwide may die in car-bicycle crashes. Thousands more cyclists are injured, some with serious traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, or other life-threatening harm. Many drivers are hostile to cyclists, resentful if their ride is slowed down for a few moments by a bicycle in front of them, or if they have to move over a foot to give the...

Continue article

More than 700,000 people suffer strokes each year. Currently, there is only one drug on the market, TPA, approved in 1996 to treat and protect the brain from strokes. Subsequent efforts to introduce a better drug have failed--more than 100 times, in fact, since 1996. TPA's side-effects include brain hemorrhaging and it is only effective if administered within 3 hours of the onset of stroke....

Continue article

An ongoing theme on this blog site is the hazards of construction work and the justifiable liability for companies that negligently put workers at risk. Two more significant settlements were reported this week in Massachusetts, resulting from serious accidents at construction sites. In the first case, an ironworker fell to his death from a scaffolding 65 feet in the air. A piece of structural...

Continue article

Three significant personal injury settlements were reported in this week's Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly newspaper. Two of the cases were construction accident cases. In one, a worker suffered a crushed foot when a jersey barrier tipped over on him while he was removing temporary wooden railings and installing jersey barriers alongside the highway. While the employer could not be sued because of...

Continue article

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is a leading cause of death and disability among Americans. TBI kills 50,000 people per year and it is estimated that over 5 million Americans are afflicted with TBI-related health problems. TBI most commonly occurs from traffic or sports accidents and falls. In any personal injury case involving definite or potential trauma to the head, the possibility of brain...

Continue article

When attorneys handle a case involving paralysis or other catastrophic injuries, one of the biggest challenges is effectively portraying their impact on the client's life. Words are powerful, but go only so far. One of the most effective tools available to the trial lawyer is the day in the life video. These videos show more dramatically than any verbal description, the difficulties posed by the...

Continue article

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...

Continue article