Massachusetts Personal Injury Attorney to Lead Trial Lawyers Group

SAN FRANCISCO (Legal Newsline) July 31, 2009 -- Personal injury attorney Anthony Tarricone of Hamilton, Mass., has been eleced president of the trial lawyers group, American Association of Justice. Tarricone is a partner at the aviation law firm of Kreindler & Kreindler LLP. See full article here: Trial Lawyers

$6 Million Verdict Survives Judge's Error on Mid-Trial Jury Discussions

$6 Million Verdict Survives Judge's Error on Mid-Trial Jury Discussions

By Sheri Qualters
The National Law Journal
July 21, 2009

Here is a pointer to an important decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court regarding jury predeliberation discussions as found on Law.com ...

The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts' July 16 unanimous ruling in Kelly v. Foxboro Realty Associates LLC, heard by six of the court's seven justices, said that the trial judge committed an error by allowing jurors to talk about evidence by themselves during a trial despite one side's objection. But the opinion, authored by Associate Justice Robert J. Cordy, also upheld the judgment and said the judge's decision to allow the juror discussions didn't harm the defendant's case.

Read the full article here...

Danvers firm faces criminal charge in '05 death of woman - The Boston Globe

Amusment Co. faces criminal charge in climbing wall death

From the Boston Globe: Danvers firm faces criminal charge
A Danvers-based company was indicted yesterday in the 2005 death of a Saugus woman, who fell from an inflatable climbing wall, in a rare case of an amusement ride company being charged criminally in the state.
Read full article on Boston.com

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Big Dig contractor pleads guilty - The Boston Globe

Big Dig contractor pleads guilty - The Boston Globe

"The largest contractor on the Big Dig [Modern Continental] pleaded guilty yesterday to 39 federal charges of overbilling and lying about construction defects on the project, but prosecutors dropped five other charges that had implicated the company in the fatal 2006 collapse of the ceiling of the Interstate 90 tunnel."

Click to read complete news article at Boston.com.

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Massachusetts Ranks Third in Avg. Size of Medical Malpractice Claims Paid

The average amount for a medical malpractice claim paid in Massachusetts for 2007 is $530,963. This is the third highest avg. claim paid in the nation according to statistics compiled by The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, whose statehealthfacts.org web site. The two states ranking higher than Massachusetts in avg. size of claim paid are Wyoming and Illinois with $641,692 and $634,971 per claim avg.

The web site offers comparative statistics on medical malpractice claims paid in all 50 states. Leading the pack in total dollars paid is New York state with $674,683,750 (an average of $441,547 per claim paid). Massachusetts ranks 7th in total claim dollars paid with $148,669,500.

The table below offers data on the top ten state's in average amount of medical malpractice claims paid (2007)...
For more information, see the Kaiser web site, click on: med mal claims paid data.

Errors test openness at Beth Israel Deaconess - The Boston Globe

Errors test openness at Beth Israel Deaconess - The Boston Globe

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Jury Verdict is $13.5M for Family of Dana-Farber Cancer Patient Undergoing Experimental Chemotherapy

OK, more on the $13.5M medical malpractice lawsuit involving a women who died of a "massive flesh-eating bacteria infection" while undergoing experimental chemotherapy treatment at Dana-Farber hospital in Boston, MA. (I used the handy Share This tool which allows me to quickly post it to this site, but doesn't allow adding more info.)

The original news story on the wrongful death jury award is here in this Boston Globe article.
Plaintiff attorney for the family of the woman was Robert Higgins, from medical malpractice powerhouse Lubin & Meyer. The woman was receiving chemotherapy every two weeks instead of the standard regimen of once every three weeks for Ewing's sarcoma. Said Higgins in a report in the Boston Herald, "her death could have been prevented if doctors had investigated the cause of chronic diarrhea that surfaced during treatment for a tumor behind her knee."

Earlier this year, Higgins was the attorney in another jury award for $14.5M related to a woman who died from a medical error after surgery for thyroid surgery at Brockton Hospital.

Here are some more links to coverage of the verdict including the Dana-Farber response:
Dana-Farber chief reacts to $13.5m award in patients' death
Family of Dana-Farber cancer patient gets $13.5M - Boston Herald

$13.5m awarded in hospital death - The Boston Globe

$13.5m awarded in hospital death - The Boston Globe

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Pfizer Settlement Restricts Drug Marketing

Law.com carries this article on the recent $60 million settlement between pharmaceutical company Pfizer with 33 states attorneys general: Pfizer Settlement Over Marketing of Celebrex Contains Far-Reaching Restrictions.

According to the article, the settlement over the company's alleged off-label marketing of pain medication Bextra and arthritis drug Celebrex "includes a sweeping list of new marketing and advertising restrictions for the pharmaceutical company."

"...Pfizer has agreed to stop the following activities: giving incentives to sales staff to promote off-label drug use and paying doctors to spend time with Pfizer sales representatives; using grant money to promote use of Pfizer's drugs; "ghost writing" articles and studies for a named author outside of the company; and giving doctors drug samples to encourage off-label prescribing."

Read the full article at: Pfizer settlement.

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said in a statement:

"While we are pleased with the monetary payment and plan to use these funds to improve the health and welfare of Massachusetts residents, it is the comprehensive injunctive relief that will ensure that Pfizer, the world's largest drug manufacturer, can no longer deceptively promote its products."

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Poisoning is #1 Accident in Massachusetts

This Forbes.com article credits Massachusetts with an interesting distinction -- in the state, poisoning has eclipsed car crashes as the number one cause of accidental death. According to the article, America's Accident Capitals...

"In the past five years, more people have died in the U.S. from accidental poisoning than any other form of unintentional death except for motor vehicle accidents.... In Massachusetts, poisoning replaced motor vehicle accidents as the No. 1 cause of unintentional death in 2005. Ditto for Washington, D.C."

The article names prescription drugs as the culprit especially prescription drugs quoting a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) study...

"The combined evidence seems to indicate that the increase in poisoning mortality is primarily among adults (ages 20 to 64) of both sexes, and is mainly attributable to abuse of opioid analgesics."

See the article for more details.

Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, 18 Businesses Pay $28M Wrongful Death Settlement In Big Dig Death | AHN | October 5, 2008

This article goes into more detail on the Big Dig $28M Settlement and notes that all 18 defendents were insured by AIG. Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, 18 Businesses Pay $28M Wrongful Death Settlement In Big Dig Death | AHN | October 5, 2008

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Big Dig Wrongful Death Lawsuit Settlement Is $28 Million

According to today's Boston Globe, the family of the woman who was crushed to death by falling ceiling tiles' in the "Big Dig" tunnel accident have reached the final settlement in lawsuits related to the death. In an article headlined, Family to get $28m in Big Dig death:

"Milena Del Valle's family agreed to accept a total of $18.1 million yesterday from construction contractor Modern Continental, project manager Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff, six smaller companies, and the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, according to the family's lawyers."

Previously, the family had settled with two other defendents for $10 million, bringing the total settlement to $28m.

Attorney Andrew Meyer Comments on Big Dig Settlement

While awaiting a settlement in the wrongful death personal injury lawsuit of Milena Del Valle, Emily Rooney turns to Boston personal injury lawyer Andrew Meyer to explain how such a process works and what to expect in compensatory and punitive damages. Meyer is founding parter of law firm Lubin & Meyer, Boston, MA. Below is an excerpt from their conversation.

Massachusetts Personal Injury News

Just setting up this site to collect and filter news and trends related to Personal Injury Law in Massachusetts. Stay tuned for more...