Virginia and North Carolina offer special amenities to residents and visitors: beautiful oceans, bays and waterways. One of the most popular aquatic pastimes is the use of a personal watercraft (PWC), including jet skis, waverunners, waterbikes and waterscooters, representing a market that has ballooned in the last couple of decades. Unfortunately, the explosive growth has led to more...
According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, 1/3 of all fatal car crashes could be avoided and rollovers could be reduced by 80% if more cars were equipped with electric stability control. ESC brakes individual wheels automatically to keep the vehicle under control.When a driver makes a sudden emergency maneuver or, for example, enters a curve too fast, the vehicle may spin out of...
The New York Times exposes another major pipeline between companies manufacturing drugs and medical devices and the wallets of doctor-researchers. Why don't we just have the drug and medical device companies put all of the doctors on salary? It would make things simpler. Charities Tied to Doctors Get Drug Industry Gifts As she presented research results indicating that a new medical device was...
A good resource for identity theft research and prevention tools has just been organized. This think tank includes a public and private partnership between such organizations as the United States Secret Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, IBM, and Lexis/Nexis Corporation. The identity theft research organization will study all problems associated with identity theft and associated...
JDP at the Products Liability Profs Blog talks about another round of Guidant recalls. Nearly 50,000 pacemakers and defibrillators have been recalled. About half have been implanted, while the...
A 15-month Congressional inquiry into FDA enforcement of the nation's food and drug laws has found a frighteningly sharp decline over the last five years. The number of warning letters to drug companies, medical device makers and others is down 54% from 2000 to 2005. Enforcement actions was down 65%, despite a wave of problems with devices, including implantable defibrillators and pacemakers. ...
The Federal Rail Safety Act (FRSA) was enacted by Congress in the 1970's to improve nationwide railroad safety, and to make sure uniform laws applied to essential railroad safety for trains travelling through multiple states. The idea was that individual states could not enact a hodge podge of different safety rules on basic transport of freight or as to how the railroad track was to be...
Boston Scientific has announced a safety alert regarding some of its pacemakers and cardiac defibrillators. "The specific subset of devices includes INSIGNIA and NEXUS pacemakers, CONTAK RENEWAL TR/TR2 cardiac resynchronization pacemakers, and VENTAK PRIZM 2, VITALITY, AND VITALITY 2 implantable cardioverter defibrillators." An identified issue with a low-voltage capacitor may cause loss of...
Yesterday, I received a call from Ned, a long time lawyer-colleague and friend. He is having some health problems and, as a result, has been watching more daytime TV. He called me to observe that the frequent lawyer commercials by one particular firm were disconcerting. His feeling was that the firm was claiming to have expertise in virtually every type of personal injury claim. Ned found...
Over at the Legal Reader there is a post regarding the damages that can be sought against a lawyer who botches a lawsuit.Illinois Court Limits Awards in Legal Malpractice CasesIn a 4-3 decision that aids lawyers accused of malpractice, the Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday limited the type of damages that clients can receive from attorneys who botch a lawsuit. In a first-of-its-kind case in...
