Posts Tagged ‘Lawsuits’

Getting hit by a car while walking or riding your bicycle is an awful thought. So the image of a pack of cyclists being run over by a SUV is nothing short of terrifying. Last year, four cyclists were injured in San Francisco’s Mission District after a man in an SUV allegedly ran them down in what the San Francisco Chronicle calls a “six-minute rampage.” The driver, David Mark Clark, now faces four counts of attempted murder, and his attorney has unofficially said Clark will seek an insanity plea. Click through for five more important California bike accident lawsuits.

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People who follow the news in the United States are not strangers to disturbing legal stories that often dominate the headlines. From the Casey Anthony trial that concluded last month, to the Scott Peterson verdict years before, and even the controversial O.J. Simpson murder case nearly 20 years ago, it’s often difficult to avoid the day’s most followed legal stories. But there are thousands of legal stories that go unnoticed each year by much of the general public, or are nearly forgotten years later. In the four following examples, documentary film makers have exposed and revitalized those stories to create powerful documentary films discussing a variety of troubling legal issues. We’ve compiled the trailers for the films Hot Coffee, Capturing the Friedmans, Deliver Us From Evil, and Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father, along with short descriptions and reviews.

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After flubbing their initial response to last September’s massive San Bruno pipeline explosion, utility Pacific Gas & Electric seemed to take responsibility for the accident, and even bought full-page ads in area newspapers proclaiming “We Apologize.” But in court filings this week, PG&E has backtracked, denying any blame for the deadly pipeline explosion and suggesting that other parties were at least partially responsible in order to dodge millions of dollars in damages from more than 100 lawsuits.

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We’ve all used Google Maps to find the best route to our desired location. What originally began as a resource for drivers has since expanded to include directions suggestions for pedestrians, bicyclists, and riders of public transportation. Of course, this raises a number of safety implications, since pedestrians and cyclists are always in more danger than motorists while navigating city streets. But if a pedestrian or cyclist is injured while following Google Maps directions, should they be able to sue the internet search mega conglomerate? A Utah district court ruled recently that Google is not liable since they did not owe the victim a duty, and since the company provides a valuable public service that is applied generally to all consumers.

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To many, California is known for its strong consumer protection laws. That explains why the lawyers for the class action involving unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles sought to use a California law to determine the damages from loss of value to their Toyota vehicle. But late last week, a Santa Ana judge ruled that the 70% of economic damages lawsuits that are outside of California cannot “piggyback” on the state’s law. Instead, lawsuits will likely have to refer to their own state’s consumer laws, which are often much more restrictive than in California.

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It’s been nine months since DePuy Orthopedics issued a recall for its popular brand of metal-on-metal hip implant models, designed for younger patients in need of artificial hips. This week, the Sacramento Bee reports that hip implant recall lawsuits continue to pile up against the Johnson and Johnson subsidiary from patients claiming pain in the wake of hip surgeries. That’s not surprising, as hundreds of patients here in California have reported complications in the form of hip pain and metal particles leaking into their blood stream.

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On the air for more than 20 years, the iconic family cartoon sitcom “The Simpsons” has covered just about every topic you can think of. So it’s no surprise that the show has addressed – and mocked – many legal issues. In fact, The Simpsons has managed to cover personal injury law, sexual harassment, false advertising, criminal law, food safety, copyright law, and more. While the plots of these episodes themselves are hilarious, they wouldn’t be quite as great without shuckster attorney Lionel Hutz (Phil Hartman). We’ve compiled a list of our favorite lawsuits in the Simpsons, in chronological order.

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We wrote yesterday about the new “Dangerous by Design” report by Transportation for America, which found that pedestrian accident deaths make up 51 percent of all San Francisco traffic fatalities, more than four times the national average. The husband of the victim of a 2010 Mission Street bus accident filed a wrongful death lawsuit Monday against San Francisco Muni, saying the driver of a 14 Mission bus was unwrapping a candy bar when she failed to see 49-year-old Scott Whitsett crossing the street. When the operator, Kimberly Faye Johnson, saw Whitsett, she allegedly hit the accelerator instead of the brake by mistake, which led to the collision. This incident marks the newest in a string of serious injuries and wrongful death lawsuits that show a clear need for San Francisco to improve street safety.

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n what has widely been considered a rebuke to plaintiff law firms taking on Toyota for personal injury and economic claims resulting from the company’s unintended acceleration problems, a government study concluded this week that none of these car accidents were the result of electrical malfunctions. Instead, the report said, all unintended acceleration accidents were caused by either driver error or manufacturing problems like sticky accelerator pedals and brake pads. But despite the difficult news, plaintiff law firms are charging ahead with lawsuits against Toyota.

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Late last year, the Food and Drug Administration announced that it would recall hip implants manufactured by DePuy Orthopedics, a division of pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson due to an abnormally high number of hip implant failures, which some predicted could easily surpass 12,000. At the time, DePuy critics were quick to note that the ASR hip implant models hit the market without FDA oversight thanks to a loophole that greenlights a product if it is similar to a device already approved by the agency. Last month, the New York Times published a scathing report about DePuy and the FDA, showing just how easy it was for the J&J subsidiary to put a dangerous product on the market.

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