Chicago Injury Lawyer Blog

The Food and Drug Administration is “cracking down on baby food manufacturers and other companies for misleading nutrition labeling on their products, the beginning of a larger effort to set stricter standards for the labels” (M. Jalonick, AP Washington, 3/5). Recent warning letters sent to 17 food companies highlighted unauthorized claims made regarding health and nutrient content.

The agency communicated to big name companies including Nestle/Gerber, Beech-nut, First Juice, Inc., Want Want Foods, and PBM products. Although there is nothing wrong per se with the baby food, the agency is concerned that labels on the products make claims regarding heath and nutrition that are not empirically supportable.
The agency said back in October “that nutritional labels from food manufacturers may be misleading consumers about the actual health benefits of cereal, crackers and other processed foods and sent a letter to companies saying it would begin cracking down on inaccurate food labeling. On Wednesday, the agency said it would soon propose new guidelines for calorie and nutrient labeling on the front of food packages.”

In response to the letters, companies have fifteen days to propose solutions to the label issues. As a products liability attorney in Chicago, I am pleased that the FDA is addressing these labeling issues quickly.

As a products liability and medical malpractice attorney, I am intrigued by the new study regarding a new stroke prevention option.

A recent study unleashes promising news finding that “people with narrowed neck arteries that could lead to a stroke can be safely treated with less drastic option” than the current surgical procedure. (AP M.Marchione, 2/26).

Medical professionals assert that hundreds of thousands of Americans could benefit each year because the new artery opening stent, which is a “mesh tube that props the blood vessel open,” will replace the expensive and drastic surgical option.

Although not without complications, the risks both during and after the stent procedure appear to be relatively less drastic than the surgical alternative.

This week, “the nation's largest tobacco maker is asking the Supreme Court to throw out court rulings holding that the industry illegally concealed the dangers of cigarette smoking” (AP Washington, 2/19). Several other tobacco companies and the Obama administration, who is seeking billions from the tobacco industry, are expected to file separate appeals soon.”

The court papers assert that the Supreme Court should review a federal Court of Appeals ruling upholding (largely) a trial court finding that the “industry engaged in racketeering and fraud.” Phillip Morris USA who manufactures Marlboro cigarettes and more than a dozen other brands vehemently denies any wrongdoing.

As a personal injury attorney with experience in tobacco related tort and product liability cases, I sincerely hope the Supreme Court holds tobacco makers responsible for all the damage, pain, and suffering they have caused to so many people.

As a personal injury attorney in Chicago, who has seen the effects of radiation gone bad, I fully support the FDA in their new initiative to rein in radiation overdoses.
In response to a problem that has becoming increasingly apparent for decades, “the Food and Drug Administration is working with doctors and medical manufacturers to reduce unnecessary radiation exposure from medical scans.” (2/9 Washington, AP).

The FDA says it will soon require manufacturers of CT scanners and other imaging machines to include safety controls that prevent patients from receiving excessive radiation doses. This initiative is part of a multifaceted scheme to reduce radiation-based injuries.

One study discovered that “the average American's total radiation exposure has nearly doubled since 1980, largely because of CT scans, according to recent studies.” Whereas medical radiation used to account for one-sixth of the population’s total exposure, it now accounts for more than half.

New technology is allowing the Food and Drug Administration to utilize an automated system to sort through millions of foreign shipments and identify food and drugs that are most likely to be contaminated and dangerous to consumers (AP for Findlaw, 2/4).

This promising new system, aptly called PREDICT, “will help inspectors target shipments for inspection that pose the greatest risk" by assigning a risk-based score to each imported container. The score is based on factors such as the “contents of the shipment, country of origin, and the manufacturer’s safety record.” Although at this point, the inspections are often random and only a small percentage is inspected at this early stage, the FDA hopes to have PREDICT implemented nation wide sometime in the spring of 2010.

As a products liability lawyer, I am encouraged by the utilization of this new technology. I am hopeful that the FDA will act swiftly in implementing this promising program on a nation wide basis.

At Hurley, McKenna, & Mertz, we are well aware of the trauma that accompanies wrongful death of children in foster care, as we have both experience and success with such cases. A recent article in the University of La Verne Law Review authored by Daniel Pollack and Gary L. Popham, Jr. illustrates the severity of the cases involving wrongful death of foster children (Pollack and Popham, LaVerne Law Review, Vol 31:1). Please feel free to e-mail dpollack@yu.edu for a pdf copy of the article.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports that an estimated 1,460 children died from abuse or neglect during the fiscal year 2005. This shockingly large number is only the tip of the ice burg when it comes to foster care issues. However, it is difficult to generalize a problem such as wrongful death of foster children since state laws regarding who can bring suit and what damages may be sought vary from state to state. Furthermore, while the goal of foster care is to “provide a stable, nurturing, and non-institutionalized environment” for children who have been removed from their biological parents, the system of foster care has proven to be notoriously hard to monitor adequately. Sadly, sixty percent of children who enter foster care do so as a result of abuse or neglect from their biological parents. For some of these children, the abuse and neglect only continues.

Evelyn Pesante was the biological mother of four-year-old Angelica who was killed while in foster care. Ms. Pesante brought a wrongful death suit seeking damages for pain and suffering. Angelica and her half brothers were removed form Ms. Pesante’s care as a result of neglect and placed in foster homes. While in foster care, Angelica was severely injured by her foster parent’s thirteen-year-old, 180-pound son who tackled the four year old causing her to lacerate and rupture a liver. After receiving no medical care and essentially bleeding to death internally, Angelica became disoriented and fell down the stairs in the home, causing her death. This is only one case, but the article goes on do describe many other cases that are just as disheartening.

Such irresponsible foster care is a nationwide problem. As a Chicago personal injury attorney who has argued a similar case in Illinois, I am outraged that abuse and neglect is a continuous problem in foster care situations. For many of these children, abuse and neglect is all they have ever known, something we simply cannot tolerate.

Although drivers distracted by cell phone use has received a lot of notoriety lately, most people don’t consider the effect cell phones have on pedestrians. The boom of mobile devices that not only allow users to talk, but also to text and to surf the internet opened a new world to the new age multitasker. The new distracted walking phenomenon has made crowded city sidewalks perilous for the average commuter.

One such unlucky pedestrian, 25 year old Tiffany Briggs, was “lost in conversation” when she ran into a parked truck (New York Times, Matt Richtel, 1/17). Although distracted walking accidents tend to be much less serious than their driving counterparts, they can be serious and they are increasing dramatically. In 2008, just over a thousand pedestrians made emergency room visits because of walking while talking or texting. An Ohio State University study concluded that the 2008 emergency room visits were two fold the 2007 visits.

As car and truck accident attorneys in Chicago who fight through the city sidewalks filled with distracted walkers in a daily basis, we at Hurley, McKenna & Mertz urge all people to be careful when walking as well as driving, for their own safety as well as the safety of others.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials are reminding parents this holiday season to beware of imported toys that may either be dangerous to children or in violation of copyright laws (12/24 Miami AP for FindLaw). Although customs officials intercept many dangerous and illegal products, some inevitably get on the market unnoticed and an influx of imported toys occurs for the holiday season. Last year, 1,000 shipments of products were seized, the majority of which came from China.

Items commonly intercepted include, “black toy guns that could be easily confused for real firearms, yellow toy ducks with lead paint and bright green, frog-shaped lighters without safety mechanisms.”

As a Chicago attorney with experience in products liability related personal injuries, I too urge all consumers to purchase products carefully, especially during the hectic holiday season and first of the year sales.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a recall this week of “more than 50 million Roman-style shares and roll-up blinds because of the risk children may be strangled by the cords” (12/17, AP for FindLaw).

To date, The CPSC says five deaths and 16 near-strangulations have resulted from Roman shades, in addition to three deaths connected to roll-up blinds.”

As a chicago personal injury attorney, I join the commission and the industry in urging parents to ensure all shades and blinds in their homes have no accessible cords. Cordless window coverings are recommended for all homes where children live or visit.

The World Heath Organization said Wednesday, “Tobacco use kills at least 5 million people every year, a figure that could rise if countries don't take stronger measures to combat smoking” (12/11, M.Cheng, AP London for FindLaw).

This is a world-wide problem as a new WHO report on tobacco use and control, “said nearly 95 percent of the global population is unprotected by laws banning smoking. WHO said secondhand smoking kills about 600,000 people every year. The report describes countries' various strategies to curb smoking, including protecting people from smoke, enforcing bans on tobacco advertising, and raising taxes on tobacco products. Those were included in a package of six strategies WHO unveiled last year, but less than 10 percent of the world's population is covered by any single measure.”

As an Chicago attorney who specializes in personal injury cases, and who has seen many tobacco related cases, I fully support the WHO in their mission to tackle tobacco problems world-wide. As Doublas Bettcher, director of WHO’s Tobacco-Free Initiative, said, "People need more than to be told that tobacco is bad for human health…they need their governments to implement the WHO Framework Convention."

Mark Stephan, a client of Hurley McKenna & Mertz, fractured his neck when the wheel on his bicycle came off unexpectedly on a Chicago area roadway. Since then he has inspired our firm and the world with his relentless drive to teach himself to walk again. Mark Stephan embodies the American spirit. He simply will never quit. We are proud to work for this man.

Check out Mark Stephan's inspiring story as told by Mike Leonard on the Today Show.

If you have been following Hurley McKenna & Mertz client Mark Stephan's courageous fight to learn to walk again then you should look at this video of Mark leaving the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. Although his neck was broken in several places and his limbs were not responding, as soon as Mark was able to speak again after coming out of a coma he said he would walk out of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago some day. Well that day came on December 22, 2007. True to his word Mark walked out of the RIC.