Birmingham Injury Blog

Yahoo! News has posted an article about the rising numbers of injuries caused by Nintendo's Wii. While useful for exercising, Wiis may also be causing a new wave of game related injuries, such as "Wii-itis." Wii-itis can affect the whole body, unlike the previous gamer injury called "Nintendo thumb," as the games physically engage the whole body.

"Before these types of games were introduced, patients typically presented with ligament injuries of the hand from intensive use of [video game] hand-held controls," said Karen A. Eley, a resident and doctoral candidate at a British hospital. "Now, the injuries seem to affect any region of the body."

Falling off the Wii Balance Board seems to be one of the main causes of injury, according to Eley, and although the board is only a few inches from the ground, a mishap can still lead to anything from soft-tissue damage to broken bones. Head injuries can also result from playing Wii games in confined spaces, she said.

The Wii is also the most likely game to injure your pet, as well.

Having said all of this - enjoy your Wii and just use a little common sense when your kids are playing. I know I lost a brand new TV (first new one in 10 years) to a flying Wii controller from my five year old. :)

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Pet owners are usually very loving of their pets - the pets become a member of the family. Let's say someone recklessly runs a stop sign or is speeding and kills your dog that has been with you for years and grown up with your children. Or an elderly person has a dog for a companion for ten years and someone shoots the dog. What can be done?

The traditional response is that at best you can only recover for the value of the dog and any medical or funeral expenses you have to pay. No emotional distress damages.

Mark McAndrew has an interesting post about a Vermont Supreme Court decision where this issue will be tested and explored - can you recover emotional distress damages for pets. In the Vermont case the plaintiff alleges the defendant shot (and killed) the dog with malice.

When there is an update we'll let you know.

My suspicion is that the court will be moved by the plaintiffs but ultimately will not allow for emotional distress damages for the "wrongful death of a dog" due to fears of this opening up too much litigation where large awards could be handed down.

In Alabama where we only allow punitive damages for wrongful death actions (you knew we had to be unique, right?) I don't see our conservative supreme court saying you can get punitive damages against someone who kills your dog. But you never know - could be conversion of personal property which can support punitive damages.....

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The Alabama Injury Lawyer Blog has posted an article about gun safety. Alabama currently ranks as the state with the second most gun related deaths. Louisiana is in first place with 20 injuries per 100,000 people. Alabama has 17 gun related injuries per 100,000 people. Roughly 57% of households in Alabama have firearms.

In general, children under 15 are twelve times more likely to be killed accidentally by a firearm than an adult. American children are also 16 times more likely to be murdered with a firearm than in 25 other industrialized countries.

Some people may say they can’t prevent gun-related homicides involving kids, but there is an area that needs real attention. Deaths from family-owned firearms. Fact: American kids under 15 years old are 11 times more likely to commit suicide using a gun, and nine times more likely to die from a firearm accident than children in those other industrialized countries.

The article goes on to remind people to unload their guns and lock them up when not in use.

Gun owners are the first line of defense against the senseless tragedies we read about in the news every day.

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U.S News has posted an article about a study that showed which states have the worst drivers. The National Drivers Test was given to 5,000 drivers from all 50 states. It "measures basic knowledge of driving laws."

New Jersey had the lowest score last year, but has since moved up to 49th place. New York takes last place making it (officially) the state with the worst drivers. Georgia, California and Hawaii are the rest of the bottom five.

In a press release, GMAC explains, "Results from the 2009 GMAC Insurance National Drivers Test released today found that 20.1 percent of licensed Americans - amounting to roughly 41 million drivers on the road - would not pass a written drivers test exam if taken today." Most of us have trouble, according to the results, with "questions about yellow lights and safe following distances."

Idaho and Wisconsin tied for 1st place, followed by Montana, Kansas and South Dakota.

Alabama ranks exactly in the middle, tied with Nevada for 25th and 26th place.

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John Gamprell of Associated Press has written an article discussing how a day care outside of Little Rock, AK accidentally gave 10 children wiper fluid to drink.

The wiper fluid was accidentally confused with Kool-Aid because of its bright blue color and placed in the refrigerator where it was then served to the children. The 10 children were hospitalized after drinking about an ounce of the fluid. Their conditions never became critical and are expected to make a full recovery.

Carolyn Bynum, the day care owner, voluntarily surrendered her license and must re-apply to open the day care again. No charges were filed because there had been no prior complaints about Bynam's child care.

Let this serve as a warning to us that brightly colored drinks can be confused with hazardous chemicals!

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In a bizarre event, a Colorado man was issued a $22 ticket for jaywalking as he helped two older ladies cross the street on February 20. The man, Jim Moffet, was struck by an oncoming vehicle and sustained rather severe injuries- broken bones, bleeding in the brain, a possibly ruptured spleen, and a dislocated shoulder. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/good_samaritan_ticketed;_ylt=AgWmisK7pH22AlcaCdP8iJ0DW7oF
The ticket was later withdrawn by the State Patrol “after examining…the circumstances.” The patrol also said that jaywalking, while for a good purpose, was a large contributor in the accident. The other people involved in the incident, another man who helped and the two ladies, were also initially ticketed for jaywalking. Those citations have also been dropped, but the suit Moffet filed against the driver of the vehicle that struck still stands.

We understand the law is to be enforced but it strikes us as ludicrous to ticket a man who helped two older ladies across a street and almost died – glad some common sense appeared and the tickets disappeared.

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The Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer Blog posted an article involving the minimum vehicle standards that auto makers are made to comply to. The article , by Robert Kreisman,attributes relaxed vehicle standards to the increase of fatalities in rollover auto accidents.

The same standard was in use from 1973 to 2005 and required that the roof of a car had to withstand 1.5 times its own weight, or 5000 pounds, whichever is less. Either way, the roof was so weak that a person inside the vehicle in a rollover crash would have been severely injured or killed.

A proposition was raised in 2005 that the standard be raised from 1.5 times the vehicle’s weight to 2.5 times. The limit on the amount of roof crush was also eliminated from the previous 5 inches. The complete new standard was expected to be completed by Fall 2008, but the NHTSA filed for an extension until December 15, 2008. No rule has been adopted, as of yet. We will keep you posted on any further developments on this important issue.

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Matt Elofson of the Dothan Eagle reported recently that the fatalities in Alabama due to car and truck wrecks has declined:

Alabama Governor Bob Riley said last month in a statement that early numbers showed about a 17 percent decrease in fatal crashes across Alabama over the same period. Riley said 2008 became the safest year to travel in more than two decades with 633 people killed during traffic crashes investigated by state troopers. There were 766 people killed in 2007 on Alabama highways investigated by state troopers.
According to a statement from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, early estimates showed fatalities across the country to have dropped by about 10 percent in 2008. Those estimates showed 31,110 people died on the nation’s roads from January to October 2008, compared to 34,502 in 2007, during that same 10-month time period.

There are several reasons given for this - higher gas prices and a crackdown on speeding and not wearing seat belts.

Its obvious but when we don't speed and when we wear our seat belts, fewer fatalities happen.

Let's all put into practice what we know and drive safer while wearing our seat-belts.

(Thanks to the Alabama Injury Attorney Blog for alerting us to this interesting article).

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Posted In: Car Wreck , Interesting News , Truck Wreck

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The American Association For Justice has released a report on the top ten worst insurance companies in America. This is a lengthy report that we recommend you review.

If you live in Alabama and are having any issues with insurance companies, please feel free to contact us.

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On Tuesday a jury returned a verdict in Montgomery, Alabama, in favor of the State of Alabama against GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis for $114 million. Read more of this fascinating story at the Beasley Allen website here.

Here are some more articles about this verdict that the Beasley firm obtained on behalf of Alabama - a news conference is set for today and the Attorney General has issued a press release about this verdict.

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The Directorship has its "Boardroom Intelligence" which ranks the states according to their friendliness towards big business. According to this tort reform document, here is the summary of Alabama, ranked 41st in the nation:

Despite ranking 41st this year, Alabama’s liability climate is neutral for growth and job creation. Alabama has a rule-of-law Supreme Court majority and the legislature has enacted significant legislative liability reforms. The state has fallen backward in overall monetary tort losses, dropping to sixth worst among the states. An anti-reform majority controls the state legislature.

The Supreme Court rule-of-law majority has been weakened somewhat by the election of two activist justices, including Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb. Activist Deborah Bell Paseur and rule-of -law appellate court Judge Gregory Shaw are running for an open seat on the Supreme Court. The outcome of the race does not threaten the rule-of-law majority; however, a win by Paseur would continue to weaken that majority. The plaintiffs’ bar will seek to undo the transformation
of the state from “tort hell” in the early 1990s to a rule-of-law state. Retiring Justice Harold See, former Chief Justice Perry Hooper, and former Attorney General Bill Pryor led this rule-of-law transformation.

Alabama remains a state to watch.

We disagree with this assessment - if anything our state has swung too far in favor of businesses but it is interesting to see what the tort reformers think about us.

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Forbes magazine has a interesting discussion on Montgomery plaintiff's attorney Jere Beasley. We recommend that you read this - it is a fascinating discussion of how Beasley started with nothing 30 years ago and now is considered the best trial lawyer in the South and one of the best, if not the best, in the country. While some of the other prominent plaintiff's attorneys have fallen due to misconduct, we have never heard of anything like that with Beasley. People may criticize him but no one has questioned his integrity. This article also mentions the great work Andy Birchfield has done with drug litigation. Congratulations to Beasley and his firm for their good work.

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