Tennessee Law Blog

Asbestos. For nearly a hundred years in America, this building material and insulator has caused lung damage in construction workers, shipyard and factory workers, mechanics, electricians, and many others in American workforce. And for over three decades, asbestos attorneys have helped victims of this dangerous fiber recover monetary awards to help pay for past and ongoing medical treatment and their loss of good health.

Last week, a new legal precedent was set by Washington State Court of Appeals that would allow victims of nonworkers—such as spouses, children, and others who suffer from the asbestos fibers—to have their day in court.

The injured in this particular asbestos lawsuit was the wife of a paper mill worker who was exposed to the asbestos fibers every time she washed her husband’s uniform using, as she always had, a hand-turned wringer. She was diagnosed four years ago with mesothelioma, a fatal form of lung cancer that caused almost exclusively by asbestos fibers.

Asbestos can be found in a variety of products including fire and heat insulation, automotive brakes, cements, gaskets, floor tiles, and various other products and materials. When these materials are manufactured, installed, shaped, reshaped, or repaired, fibers can come loose and remain airborne for weeks.

Mesothelioma and other asbestos-related injuries do not develop immediately. Sometimes it takes years or decades for the injuries and conditions to manifest. Many times those injured by asbestos will not remember when or how they were exposed. But now those suffering asbestos injuries from their loved one’s workplace exposure have a shot at recovering their losses.

Contact the Higgins firm if you suffer from mesothelioma or suspect other related asbestos injury. Working with experienced asbestos attorneys can help reveal when and how you or a loved one might have been exposed to asbestos fibers.

Walter Klepacz went to sleep last week with a clean conscience and roughly $1.466 million richer.

A few years ago, Klepacz was working as Quality Assurance Manager for Crane, Co., a manufacturer of various machine fittings and parts, when he began asking questions about some shady business practices for obtaining government contracts, honest questions that led him to be fired.

Klepacz knew there were specific regulations regarding government contracts, laws regulating who gets the project and the quality of materials sold to the military and where they were produced, and he knew his employer was bending and sometimes breaking these laws. He knew Crane, Co. knew it was selling substandard valves to the U.S. Navy and other parts that would be used in combat. They also were manufacturing a portion of these substandard parts with materials from outside of the United States in violation of the Berry Amendment and Buy America Act. What Klepacz didn’t know until he met with a workplace lawyer was that not only was his firing illegal but he could also file a lawsuit on behalf of the U.S. to recover the moneys Crane, Co. had made by defrauding the government.

U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth Hoyt found Crane, Co. had acted illegally with its use of government money, and Klepacz was rewarded for his actions as a few dozen brave Americans are every year through whistle blowing and filing a False Claims Act.
Click if you suspect your employer of defrauding the government and would like learn more about filing qui tam cases. We are located in Tennessee but work with firms throughout the country. Click to speak with a workplace lawyer.

A new month, a new Tennessee nursing home facing fined and havingadmittance suspended. The newest culprit is the 15-bed, Hartsville facility Sun Valley Retirement Home. Here, according to the Tennesseanevening edition, residents were treated to soiled linens, potentiallytainted food, improperly administered medications, and inadequatemedical attention and safety precautions.

As readers of the news, we wonder how conditions could get so bad. Assons and daughters, we want the best for our loved ones in another'scare and shudder when we read such reports. As a trial attorney, I'msick and tired (but mainly just sickened) of seeing pictures ofdecubitus ulcers (bedsores) and listening to nursing home managers andstaff pass the responsibility buck between them.

If you have a loved one under the care of another, make sure to alterthe times when you visit your loved one in the nursing home and have aconversation with staff and other residents. Click for more informationon the warning signs of nursing home abuse or click if you need to getin contact with a Nashville nursing home abuse lawyer concerning yourloved one in a negligent Tennessee nursing home

Tennessee Mornings interviewed me with regard to nursing home issues. I have posted a portion of this interview.

Washington Post’s front page is running an article today about how different top dogs at the Food and Drug Administration receive substantial bonuses for, well, not doing their jobs (and for making sure they don’t not do them elsewhere).

Of course, they probably picked the most egregious case to focus on: an employee with the strong credentials of an English major who’d joined the FDA in 2003 as Assistant Commissioner for Counterterrorism Policy and received $44,614 in bonuses (not salary, bonuses) last year, or about 20 times what the FDA investigator who won the agency's top national award last year received. Truth is, the top dogs are giving themselves up to 25% of their salaries in bonuses and throwing scraps to the researchers who protect us. (The kicker is they are still free to leave the agency even if they get these kickbacks.) And herein lies the real story the Washington Post mentions only in passing: safety.

Here’s the single paragraph in the article addressing the bonuses.
“The bonuses were paid during a rough patch at the FDA, encompassing a shortage of flu vaccine and embarrassing recalls of the pain-relieving drug Vioxx and malfunctioning heart defibrillators. Throughout, the agency repeatedly insisted that it lacked the resources to conduct adequate food and drug inspections.”

The entire premise of the bonuses is to retain talent that would otherwise work on the other side of the legal fence, i.e. the pharmaceutical companies where significant profits are made. I’m indifferent about whether or not these bonuses should not simply be part of the researchers’ pay. What chaps my hide is when self-dealing kickbacks keep regulatory agencies and their employees from being able do their jobs. The competition with mega-drug firms isn’t about salaries; it’s about your, my, and our loved ones’ safety.

Click for a list of Defective and Potentially Dangerous Drugs.