Jacksonville Personal Injury Blog

Toddler Run Over By SUV In Driveway on Nov 28

It has happened again. A West Palm Beach SUV accident involving a little kid run over in their own driveway by a car whose driver never saw them, according to a FirstCoastNews.com report. In a moment a life is lost, and lives are ruined.

The Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office says the little boy, Sergio Martinez, was riding his tricycle, not in the street, when Rangel Rauda driving a Ford Explorer ran him over. Rauda says she didn’t see the toddler because a parked car was in her way. Little Martinez later died in the hospital. Rauda may be charged.

According to a report by the Washington Post, in Northwest Washington, a 16-month-old boy is fatally hit by his father’s SUV. The mother was putting things in the trunk of her car. That’s how long the toddler had to wander away from her and into the SUV’s path.

Singer Steven Curtis Chapman told People Magazine about the death in his family when a teenage son ran over his five-year-old adopted sister.

Continue reading " Fatal SUV Pedestrian Accident in Driveway Kills Toddler " »

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Posted In: Auto Accidents , Pedestrian Accidents

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Safer U.S. Vehicles in 2009

If you happen to be car shopping, you’ll want to visit the Top Safety Picks list from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The list for 2009 has more domestic cars that ever before. 72 vehicles are on the list, double the number from last year.

“The sheer number of this year’s winners indicates that automakers have made huge strides to improve crash protection,” said Institute president Adrian Lund.

Ford and its Volvo subsidiary are now at the top of the annual list of safest vehicles. Together they won 16 awards. Ford, which had experienced years of unstable SUV Explorers that tended to roll, has now equipped them with electronic stability control (ESC) which makes the vehicles much more road worthy in sudden turns.

At Farah & Farah, we’ve seen too many accidents that result in a rollover and death from an unstable SUV. ESC is a much needed improvement.

Continue reading " Auto Product Liability Lawyers Applaud Domestic Car Makers " »

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Posted In: Auto Accidents , Auto Product Liability , Law & Information

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Pain-Patch Trial Ends in $16.6 Million Award

A trial involving a faulty Duragesic pain-killing patch has concluded with the family of a victim receiving $16.6 million.

The family of Janice DiCosolo, 38, from the Chicago area, was awarded that amount by a 12-person jury on November 17. Johnson & Johnson (J & J) is the parent company of Alza Corp. that makes the patch. The company says it may appeal the decision.

Initially the jurors said they were considering $18 million, but they subtracted out some liability for DiCosolo because she had other medications found in her system.

Janice DiCosolo was the mother of three children who suffered constant pain from a neurological condition, reflex sympathetic dystrophy.

Continue reading " Recalled Duragesic Patch Trial Over Woman's Death Concludes " »

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Posted In: Pharmaceutical Litigation

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Let’s hope this trend from Southwest Florida doesn’t make it to North Florida.

This time a 16-year-old teen is dead after he fell from the trunk of a moving car on which he was “hood surfing.”

Justin Brantley sustained head injuries after falling off the moving Toyota being driver by his friend. Brantley went to Lee Memorial Hospital and was in critical condition. He died the next day after being declared brain dead.

“Hood surfing” is becoming a popular stunt. In this case, there was a teen driver and Brantley was one of two teens riding on the back of the car, according to WINK News.

One of the mothers told the station, that the kids did not think they were hood surfing. They thought what they were doing was harmless. None of the teenagers were impaired during the auto accident.

In a matter of moments how life can change. Our condolences to the families involved and with the hopes that this incident will generate a conversation that cars are not toys and need to be treated with intelligence and a good sense of healthy fear.

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Posted In: Auto Accidents

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It makes sense. Cigarettes cost the state of Florida about $6 billion a year in exorbitant health care costs associated with heart disease, cancers and hospitalizations, according to the Alliance for Healthy Florida Campaign.

Productivity on the job decreases among smokers too. This creates a financial deficit for all Floridians.

Nationally, the CDC estimates smoking-related illness costs all Americans more than $75 billion a year. About 14 percent of all Medicaid expenses are for smoking-related illness. Since cigarette sales contribute the bulk of the state’s tobacco tax income – increasing the tax may offset some of the burden of cigarettes and smoking.

The American Lung Association estimates that a $1 tax increase on a pack of cigarettes would cause four percent to quit smoking. The state’s youth would likely not start because of the cost, at least fewer would.

Continue reading " Florida Tobacco Tax Proposal " »

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Posted In: Law & Information

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Tricks of the Trade

At Farah and Farah, we’ve seen just about every excuse not to pay an insurance claim, except maybe the dog ate the paperwork.

So when the American Association for Justice (AAJ), an association of trial attorneys, came out with Tricks of the Trade, a report that exposes the tactics used inside the insurance industry to keep profits high, even at the expense of their good neighbors, it rang true for us.

This is the fourth in a series of reports on the multi-trilliondollar industry of Big Insurance. Obviously the way they stay big is to pay out the fewest claims they can.

The “Tricks” report reflects what our claims adjusters have experienced in the real world, every excuse imaginable not to pay a claim, hoping they will eventually wear you out.

Continue reading " Auto Accident and Personal Injury Insurance Claims Unfairly Denied, Report Claims " »

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Posted In: Auto Accidents , Insurance Claims

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The father of a son who committed suicide on the Internet this week is “appalled” by the audience that watched his son die and is calling for regulations to oversee the Internet, according to an ABC News Report.

Abraham Biggs, 19, of Pembroke Pines, Florida, took an overdose of medication for bipolar disorder, while a virtual audience of an unknown size egged on the teen. His father now blames the Website operators and those who watched and did nothing.

"I think they are all equally wrong," he said. "It's a person's life that we're talking about. And as a human being, you don't watch someone in trouble and sit back and just watch."

The college student died in his father’s bed Wednesday after he told the Internet community that he planned to take his own life.

Some who watched him take a fatal overdose thought Abraham was kidding because he had threatened suicide on the site before. Eventually some people did notify police and Abraham was found by police 12 hours later after his address was tracked down by the Web site.

Abraham Biggs Sr. was at work during this time. He says his son was crying out for help but no one listened, highlighting the need for online regulation.

It’s just another case of a young person sharing his life with an online community, who don’t hesitate to hurt you anonymously.

Consider the precedent setting case underway in Beverly Hills this week of 49-year-old Lori Drew. The case will center on whether Drew violated the rules of MySpace, that say you cannot use the service to intentionally harass and abuse another, but jurors could send her to prison for up to 20 years in jail for her actions that lead to the suicide of 13-year old Megan Meier, according to an ABC News report.

Drew should have known better when she got a teenage friend of the family to pose as “Jose Evans” and befriend Megan Meier, 13, a depressed, suicidal, lonely girl. When “Josh” after several weeks told Megan the world would be a better place without her, she committed suicide.

With a dead teenager, and a community shocked that an adult woman could be so cold and calculating, dropping to the level of a young teen to hear online gossip, prosecutors should have no problem proving criminal intent here.

Continue reading " Internet Crimes: Cyber-bullying " »

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Posted In: Law & Information

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It was a small story with few details in our paper this week.

39-year-old Kimberly Frazier was driving a Chevy Blazer south on U.S. 1 in Flagler County in northeast Florida. She came upon a moving truck being driven by James Wilkes, 50, of Green Cove Springs, west of Jacksonville.

It was broad daylight so no one knows why her vehicle clipped the semi tractor-trailer. It caused her to lose control of the Chevy and overturn. She died at the scene of the Florida auto accident. Frazier was not wearing her seat belt.

In the back seat was a one-year-old child strapped into the SUV. It was one of the last things that Frazier did. The child survived with no reported injuries.

There is no further word on whether this one-year-old, named Hannah Leveile, was her child.

All 50 states require child safety seats, the best defense against the number one killer of children, motor vehicle crashes.

But in Florida, 80 percent of child restraints have been found to be incorrectly installed. Either the harness was misused or the seat was not anchored properly to the car. Sometimes people even put an infant seat in the front of a vehicle which for obvious reasons is a bad idea.

Continue reading " Florida Auto Accident Claims Woman's Life, Baby Survives " »

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Posted In: Auto Accidents

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Frequently our Florida Elder Neglect attorneys are asked whether hiring a home health aide to watch over an elderly loved one, in our home or theirs, is a good idea and what should someone look for.

You should treat the hiring of a home health care person with the same scrutiny as you would for your child.

First – consider what the home health care person is doing for your loved one.

If this person will be responsible for medically-related duties, he or she should be a licensed, certified nursing assistant, or CAN, who will be regulated by a state agency.

A CNA can work for a home health agency. Find out more about their qualifications: or call 850-245-4567.

However, if this person is hired to provide housekeeping, cooking and non-medical services, you may need to conduct your own background check.

In Florida, California, Connecticut, and at least 19 other states, non-medical home health care aides are not required to be licensed, certified nor regulated by a state agency. Criminal background checks are not required.

And that’s where the problems have come in. Stories of nursing home abuse in Florida and neglect of elderly patients in Jacksonville have been in the news, as have stories of identity theft or the theft of personal belongings, drugs or cash.

Be aware that most abuse and neglect cases involve non-medical aides hired to help around the house and that most victims are afraid to report the abuse.

If you are looking for a reputable, reliable home health care person, it’s probably a safer bet to go through an agency; however, be sure to ask the agency what background checks have been done and be sure they include, at a minimum, a state police criminal background check.

Make sure that the agency has run a national criminal database check to the extent it is possible. Some agencies do not have that authorization.

A Medicare or Medicaid home health agency requires training of at least 75 hours and an evaluation program. A licensed-only agency may require additional training above at least 40 hours or a competency test given by the agency.

Continue reading " Choosing Home Health Care Aides " »

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Posted In: Elder Neglect , Nursing Home Abuse

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According to a New York Times article, in an effort to keep everyone safe on the road, Florida changed its law in January 2004 to require all elderly drivers to have their vision tested.

The law seems to be working.

Requiring drivers 80 and older to pass a vision test for license renewal has reduced the numbers of deaths from Florida Auto Accidents involving elderly drivers.

The death rate for drivers 80 or older declined 17 percent after the law was first passed in January 2004.

Researchers from the University of Alabama analyzed data on fatal auto accidents from 2001 to 2006 among all Florida drivers. They then compared those rates to the deaths in auto accident in neighboring Alabama and Georgia. Neither state requires vision tests for the elderly.

While the number of deaths was down among the elderly, in reality 93 percent of the elderly drivers were able to renew their licenses.

Vision re-screening laws appear to be effective, but the unanswered question remains "why."

It could be that since an estimated 7 percent of Florida drivers failed to meet vision standards and were denied renewal of their drivers' license, the laws accomplished their goal. Or it could be that knowing they would fail a vision test, elderly drivers just opted not to renew their license.

"Looking just a little ways down the road- the aging baby boomers, now creeping into their older years, represent the fastest-growing portion of the driving population," said Gerald McGwin Jr., professor of epidemiology, at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

To complicate things further, studies have failed to show a link between seeing well and involvement in Jacksonville, Florida car accidents, or car accidents anywhere for that matter. But you can't always believe the studies. It just makes sense that driving requires good vision.

Continue reading " Vision Test Hopes To Curtail Auto Accidents Involving Elderly Drivers " »

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Posted In: Auto Accidents

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