Tennessee Injury Lawyer Blog

Many of us across the country and even the residents here in Tennessee expect our counties and states to live up to certain safety expectations. We expect our roads to be easily accessible, our parks to be family friendly and our drinking water to be safe. Unfortunately for one couple in Benton County this was not the case. High levels of mercury were found in their well and it injured them both.

The Gibsons had their ground and well tested for high mercury levels after having severe blisters and sickness after using the water and taking a shower. The state tested the water and found that the mercury was six times the normal drinkable level. In March of 2009, the state shut down the Gibson’s well.

The Gibson’s are pretty positive that the high mercury levels come from the landfill behind their home that has coal ash in it from TVA’s New Johnsonville steam plant. Trucks brought 100 tons of coal ash to the landfill every day and the Gibson’s claim they were not told about what might happen to them because of it. Reports into this case found that this landfill has had other problems including 2,000 tons of ash dumped on an unlined area of the landfill site. The state gave the company Trans-Ash the ones that run the landfill a fine of $160,000. The spokesperson for the landfill says that this is part of the process for dumping ash and they call it a “wet to dry process”. 1,200 pounds of mercury were found to be put in the landfill by TVA in the last year, some of that was before the new regulations to prevent it from seeping into the ground and in the water. These levels are dangerous and can result in significant injury.

The EPA is reviewing new rules to deal with the proper disposable of coal ash and the Gibsons have hired an environmental attorney to sue Trans-Ash and TVA. The state has made sure they have received safe drinking water from the City of Camden’s water supply.

Continue reading "Coal Ash Landfill and Sickness Lead to Lawsuit" »

The Tennessee Dog at Large statute was drafted generally to protect people who are bitten by a dog that was allowed to run at large. The statute states as follows:

Section 44-8-413. (a) (1) The owner of a dog has a duty to keep that dog under reasonable control at all times, and to keep that dog from running at large. A person who breaches that duty is subject to civil liability for any damages suffered by a person who is injured by the dog while in a public place or lawfully in or on the private property of another.

I recently litigated a case where my client was struck by a car while trying to rescue a dog who was in the road. This created an unusual legal questions. Does the statute apply to the injuries sustained by my client since she was injured by the car and not the dog? In an effort to keep the jury from being instructed that the dog owner's violation of the statute caused the injury the defendant filed a motion to limit the evidence at trial. We responded to the motion arguing the statute did apply to the case and we argued our position to the judge. Unfortunately, cases interpreting the law are few and far between. The cases that applied to our case were old and were drafted when Nashville was a small community. The trial court, however, felt he had to follow these cases until the court of appeals or the legislature changes the law. In so doing, trial court ruled that the statutes only applied to injuries actually caused by contact with the dog. This left us with a simple negligence case and not the additional claim that the dog owner's violation of the statute caused my clients critical injuries.

Although, I did understand the reasoning I believe the statute protects people from any injuries which were caused by the dog running at large. In other words, none of the injuries would have occurred but for the direct event of the dog owner failing to restrain the dog. We no longer live in a day where dogs can safely run free. There is too much traffic and congestion on our cities.

Fortunately for our client we were able to resolve the case just before trial based upon the strength of the remaining negligence case. I now have a similar case where this issue will arise again. I am hopeful that in our new case we can successfully address this issue in the appellate courts.

KBR, formerly Kellogg, Brown, and Root and previously a subsidiary of Halliburton, faces injury lawsuits filed by both military and civilian personnel for burning toxic waste, including asbestos, as a cost-saving means of avoiding proper toxic waste disposal. Since 2003, toxic waste was burned in open-air burn pits that produced thick palls of chemically fetid smoke that, according to the class action lawsuit, endangered or caused long-lasting health problems in a minimum of 100,000 people. (See last month’s TN Injury Law Blog asbestos posting for a local lawsuit involving asbestos exposure through illegal disposal.)

Injuries from the illegal burning include chronic asthma, kidney disease, and cancer. Though various toxic chemicals were burned, including lithium batteries, human corpses, paints and solvents, medical supplies, and plastic water bottles, perhaps most alarming in my view as an asbestos lawyer was the quantities of asbestos insulation thrown into the pyres and reports of lung injury. Burning plastic releases dioxins, a known carcinogen. Asbestos inhalation, of course, is a major cause of mesothelioma.

Also alarming is the report that the burn pits are still in operation at Joint Base Balad (formerly Balad Air Base), the largest base in Iraq.

These KBR-operated burn pits were frequently located near soldiers’ and contractors’ quarters and were so thick that visibility through the multi-colored smoke was reduced to only a few meters. Smoke was so bad in some instances that it interfered with our troops’ military mission, compromising base security.

Continue reading "Asbestos Lawsuit News
Military Defense Contractor Faces Class Action Lawsuit" »

Continuing hospital intensive care and an ongoing police investigation are the result of a Augusta, Georgia dog attack of a two-year-old. On July 10, after scaling the chain link fence between his and the neighbor’s house, 4 vicious dogs left the toddler with over 200 stitches and in critical condition after biting him more than 100 times.

County records show that the absentee homeowner had kept up to 15 grown dogs in her backyard in violation of county code restricting this number to 5. (Georgia dog law allows owners eight pets at their residence.) At the time of the dog attacked, six dogs were present at the residence, though only four participated in the dog attack as two dogs were in another fenced area of the house.

Reportedly, the owner of the vicious dogs is in court in a neighboring Georgia county for dogs kept at another her homes. Four leash-law violations are pending against the dogs’ owner. Authorities had previously sized 24 dogs from her Augusta, GA home, some of which were considered too dangerous for adoption.

The adventurous boy may not have scaled the four-foot high fence but been pulled over by the attacking dogs, as the boy never saw anyone climb the fence or had previously attempted the feat. Relatives of the dog-bitten child claim the neighbor’s dogs had escaped on seven different instances and found in their yard.

The boy remains at Medical College of Georgia Hospital, but the boy’s relatives are encouraged that he is moving his arms, legs, and eyes. A local veterinarian is helping officers determine whether the dogs were vaccinated.

No charges are pending related to the attack because the animals were confined to the yard.

While no criminal charges, the Augusta, GA owner of the dogs involved in the dog attack may face civil action.

If a dog bite injury in Georgia or Tennessee has put your child in the hospital or seriously affected his or her life, you may be entitled for compensation of medical bills, including cosmetic surgeries. To learn more, contact the Higgins Firm's Dog Bite Division of our Nashville, TN personal injury law offices.

Tennessee Law Blog is happy to report that, in a follow-up to an earlier TN law blog on defective product eye injuries caused by ReNu with MoistureLoc, the contact lens solution maker Bausch and Lomb has settle over 600 personal injury lawsuits to the tune of $250 million.

As discussed in another previous Tennessee Law Blog, injuries from the tainted contact lens solution were caused by a potentially blinding fungus present in the solution. The potential for fungal infection (Fusarium keratitis) was high, leading to a recall of the product. The CDC had confirmed 180 cases in 35 states as of September 2006. In Tennessee, one Tennessean had to have an eye removed, as did six other people in the U.S. To date, over 700 contact lens wearers have stepped forward with claims to have been exposed to the blinding fungal infection., some of whom have required corneal transplants to preserve vision in one or both eyes.

The culprit, keratitis, is so rare that doctors were at first puzzled by the seeming outbreak, which began in Hong Kong and reached Tennessee and other states by 2006. Eventually, the correlation was made between the potentially blinding infection and the new, multipurpose lens cleaner on the market, MoistureLoc, though the exact mechanics of why this one product caused this particular eye injury remain unclear.

Keratitis sufferers often complain of eye irritation that progresses to sudden searing pain. 2.3 million of our country’s 30 million soft contact lens wearers used MoistureLoc.

In the years since, Bausch & Lomb has marketed its older product, ReNu MultiPlus.

In Kentucky, Georgia, or Tennessee, if you have been injured by a defective consumer or medical product, contact the Higgins Firm for a fair, firm assessment of your legal situation. Contact our Nashville-based product liability lawyers online or toll-free at 800.705.2121.

Child victims of dog bites received national media attention this week with the injury of Steelers linebacker James Harrison. Harrison’s 2-year-old son, James Harrison III, spent six days in a children’s hospital after the family dog, a pit bull, bit the boy on the thigh. There appears to be no permanent muscle or nerve damage from the dog bite.

Also injured were the bitten boy’s mother and Harrison’s massage therapist. The latter’s dog bite injury required a medical visit and stitches.

The dog bite incident reportedly occurred when the dog, outside of its pen, became agitated by the boy’s crying. The mother and massage therapist were injured when attempted to remove the attacking dog from the child. According to Harrison, the pit bull had not attacked before.

The pit bull, named Patron, was taken to Animal Control where the animal will be kept in quarantine for 10 days and then put down. Harrison wishes for the pit bull to instead be spared and find a new home with security sufficient to prevent the dog from attacking.

Harrison, famous for his two Super Bowl wins since being drafted to the Steelers in 2002, made news outside the sports arena when he refused to visit the White House with the rest of his Super Bowl XLIII-winning teammates.

Over 1,000 U.S. emergency room annually are from dog bites. Severe dog bites can require weeks of costly hospital treatment and worked missed. Bites on the face or hands or legs can require sutures (stitches) and can leave scars.

If a dog bite injury has left you facing outrageous medical bills or has affected the quality of life of you or another and would like to seek compensation, contact the Higgins Firm's Dog Bite Division of our Nashville, TN personal injury law offices.

The Tennessee Supreme Court has established that a claim for negligent infliction of emotional distress is a separate stand alone cause of action. Okay, so what does that mean and what is the big deal? Generally, each insurance policy has a limit of coverage for each person. If someone is killed in a car wreck the limit for the death may just be $100,000.00 under the insurance. Obviously, if you have lost the family wage earner the family will need all the financial help they can get. As such, it is important to obtain the full recovery under the insurance policies. This seperate cause of action is often a way to increase the recovery.

One way we have been able to increase the policy coverage is under the now recognized separated claim . Specifically, if a person witnesses a tragedy involving a loved one they may be able to recover additional compensation for seeing that tragic loss. This is obviously not going to make up for any emotional loss but it may help recover some of the financial hardship. I know that if something happened to me i want my family to get all they can to help them through life without me.

I have now had a couple of wrongful death cases where we were able to double the financial recovery under this law. It is not available in every Tennessee wrongful death or serious injury case but it is important to look for it. If you have questions about this newly recognized separate claim feel free to give my Tennessee Law Office a call.

Nursing home deaths from abuse or neglect in Tennessee do not always make the nightly news, especially while an investigation is ongoing. Perhaps the recent reporting of nursing home deaths in this week’s news comes on the crest of TN nursing home industry's anti-lawsuit legislation or maybe, finally, nursing home deaths from negligence are being treated with the importance they deserve.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, acting on a Knox County medical examiner’s opinion that her death was caused by poor nursing home treatment, is investigating the possible homicide of Hillcrest North nursing home resident Linda Darlene Carter. Ms. Carter suffered the horrors of dehydration due to inadequate care.

Ms. Carter had been injured in a car crash and had been transferred from the University of Tennessee Medical Center to Hillcrest Healthcare North to recover. Instead, the nursing home allegedly neglected to provide adequate care, namely, she received insufficient hydration for her to live, much less heal from her injuries.

Continue reading "Kentucky and Tennessee Nursing Home Deaths Make News" »

Deaths from defective Medtronic heart devices continue despite recall in 2007. When Medtronic first announced its recall of Sprint Fidelis leads, the company acknowledged five defective device-caused deaths. This month, Medtronic updated its defective Sprint Fidelis death count to thirteen, nine of which due directly to defibrillator failure from faulty Sprint Fidelis leads.

Despite the Medtronic recall, the device remains in use. Many patients with Medtronic's Sprint Fidelis leads face the difficult decision of to keep the prolific recalled device. One reason the medical device's danger is so widespread is the delay in recalling Sprint Fidelis leads from market. Medtronic waited until 2007 for issuing their Sprint Fidelis recall; this despite FDA officials receiving reports of the device’s defective equipment as early as 2004. By year-end 2005, FDA had received 30 complaints about the device. Whether Medtronic knew of that defects in the Sprint Fidelis posed safety problems remains open to question.

Continue reading "Medtronic Sprint Fidelis Deaths –
13 Admitted Fatalities from Defective Heart Device" »

Recalls, recalls, recalls--FDA officials were busy working with manufacturers of dangerous medical devices last week to inform the public of potentially injurious medical products it has decided must be removed from market. Included in these FDA recalls were Baxter International’s Colleague Volumetric Infusion Pumps and Covidien’s tracheostomy tubes for children. Excluded from these FDA recalls was immediate action to protect patient safety and health.

Serious injury and death have been reported caused by Baxter International’s defective Colleague infusion pumps. These medical devices are used to deliver regular, controlled amounts of medication or other fluids to patients.

Continue reading "FDA Recalls Two Defective Medical Devices
Baxter Infusion Pumps and Covidien Pediatric Trach Tubes" »

Everyone knows the lawyer's role in a personal injury or wrongful death case. However, it is important to remember that the client can play an important role in maximizing the success of the case. When I meet with my client, I will explain to them how they can make me a better attorney on their case.

Here are a few ways my clients help me succeed:

1. Tell me EVERYTHING about your case. Tell me the good and the bad. If I don't know about the weakness of your case (and almost every case has some weakness) than I can't deal with it. Remember, I am your lawyer and what you tell me is privileged.

2. Keep me up to date on your case. Let me know how your injury is progressing, medical treatment is proceeding, etc. I need to know what is going on. A simple email is often enough to keep me up-to-date.

3. Be organized for our meetings. Keep notes to discuss issues, new information, witnesses, etc.

4. LISTEN TO ME. You hired me for a reason. Listen to my advice. You will probably have only one lawsuit in your life and I have had thousands. Take advantage of my experience. We are on the same side, and I will do everything I can for you.

If you have any questions about a serious injury case, you may have feel free to give me a call. We work on cases throughout Tennessee, Kentucky, and Georgia.

Recent events make it imperative that people who are injured in train wrecks need to act extremely fast to preserve video evidence. Routinely, railroad companies keep surveillance footage of their tracks and trains as they run routes. This surveillance footage can be invaluable to a person attempting to establish what happened in any particular train collision with a vehicle or pedestrian. Oftentimes, the event unfolds quickly, the train is big, and moving at a very high rate of speed. Due to these circumstances it is often very difficult for witnesses or individuals on the scene to determine what happened or even for the authorities to recreate the scenario in their investigation of the matter. To further complicate matters, railroads like CSX Transportation have a policy in place that video surveillance footage is taped over 96 hours after it’s initially shot. Further, there is no policy in place by the railroad companies to preserve any footage even if the collision involves a fatality.

This is amply illustrated in the case of a Nashville resident who was found dead on the train tracks in East Nashville on May 31, 2008. According to an article in the Tennessean, Michael Redbear’s body was discovered on the train tracks at 9:00 a.m. when a passing railroad conductor saw the body and called 911. CSX officials reviewed their train logs and determined that potentially five trains passed over the body of Mr. Redbear after he was on the tracks. Unfortunately, CSX failed to act quickly to preserve any footage from the event that lead to the demise of Mr. Redbear. The only video that they were able to salvage and turn over to the authorities showed that at least one train passed over his body after he was already killed. This means that despite the fact that they have video surveillance available, they knew of a fatality where someone was likely killed on their tracks, they were alerted of the fatality on the morning it was discovered, CSX failed to preserve any tapes that could show what happened.

From a practical standpoint, this means that people who are injured at the hands of the railroad need to act quickly to preserve their evidence. 96 hours, or four short days, is all that the railroad company will keep surveillance tapes. Despite this being easily accomplished, railroad companies do not have a policy in place to insure that video surveillance tapes are kept when there is a horrific injury or death involved. They apparently make no effort in the first 96 hours to locate and preserve the tapes. Is it because that would be a burdensome chore or because they do not want people to see what actually happened or if they are at fault? This is a classic exmaple of why we make preserving evidence a priority on all of our cases.

The day before Thanksgiving, and many of us are rushing to write our blogs and last minute correspondences before we board a commercial airline and trust our lives to those tin birds whose wings don’t flap. But I feel safe flying. As Superman says in the movies, “Statistically speaking, it's still the safest way to travel.”

But human error can and does occur.

When this human error leads to aviation accidents that inevitably lead to wrongful death or catastrophic injury, a personal injury attorney can help survivors find a monetary form of compensation for the loss of life or loss of quality of life from an aviation crash.

Personal injury attorneys--such as myself who make our living assisting injured clients recover losses from the negligence of another--rarely use the expression “automobile accidents” except in mixed company. Rather, the more accurate expression plaintiff’s attorneys use is “automobile collisions.” An accident implies an unexpected event or no-fault mistake, something beyond the power to control. Accidents rarely happen. Some entity is usually responsible for the crash. This is especially true in aviation “accidents.”

No two airplane crashes are identical. Various factors from pilot error to defective airplane equipment can be responsible for an airplane tragedy. Determining what factor was responsible--whether it was air traffic controller negligence or improper maintenance or something else responsible for the airplane "accident"--requires skilled legal investigation and knowledge of the aviation industry.

The Nashville Law Offices of Higgins, Himmelberg & Piliponis represents injured clients throughout Tennessee who have suffered serious neck or spinal injuries, disability, or wrongful death from aviation accidents caused by operator error, defective airplane equipment, or other negligence.

The last thing I want is for you to see gremlins out on the wings of your jet.

I wish you the safest of travels during this, the airlines’ busiest, time of the year. But if you have suffered injury from a crash or other aviation accident, HHP has the legal resources to help Tennesseans win damages that will help ease the pain when life is abruptly, permanently changed. Do not accept an insurance company’s settlement without first speaking with me or another Tennessee aviation accident attorney.

For a free consultation, contact Attorney Jim Higgins, Tennessee aviation accident lawyer online or call 615.353.0930.

Next month I will be flying to New York with my client and two witnesses to arbitrate a case that occurred in Tennessee. We have to argue this case out of state and pay thousands of dollars to a private arbitrator chosen by the company that injured my client. We have to arbitrate this case because my client unknowingly entered into an arbitration agreement when he signed up for services with the company. My client gave little thought to the arbitration clause because his needs were urgent and he trusted the company. If he only knew now what he knew then he would have never signed the agreement.

This week congress will be reviewing the laws surrounding arbitration agreements. Arbitrations were originally thought to be a great answer to an overcrowded court system. Unfortunately, big companies are using the agreements to discourage claims and put victims in an unfair positions. Now instead of having a claim resolved by a jury of your peers, people are forced to pay thousands of dollars to arbitrate any claim. This leaves many without any recourse. So be careful next time you are asked to sign an arbitration agreement. If you have questions with regard to an arbitration clause give us a call.

Yesterday Claudia Pinto writing for the Tennessean reported what Nashville personal injury lawyers have known for almost a decade now: toxic mold is a big problem in Tennessee.

Perhaps the reader recalls two years ago the Nashville firefighters who came down with toxic mold-related health problems and were awarded three-quarters of a million dollars for their loss of work and quality of life. If not, it’s time to refresh Tennesseans’ memories like Ms. Pinto did yesterday in her article “Unhealthy Mold Easily Takes Hold in Tennessee Homes.”

The subject of the Tennessean article was a Madison, TN woman suffering from “frequent headaches, sinus infections and bouts of bronchitis” and who did not realize the “black mold” growing in her home was the cause. Toxic mold is a bit of a misnomer as the mold itself is not toxic. Instead, its mycotoxins, certain chemicals the mold has developed to kill other molds and prevent them from growing nearby, that are. The most common toxic mold is black mold, which is a dark green or black-green mold better classified by its Latin name Stachybotrys chartarum (formerly called Stachybotrys atra).

Apparently The Metro Health Department receives “roughly 25 calls a month from people who want guidance on how to rid their homes of the fungus.” Memphis is particularly hard hit by this health hazard. Common culprits promoting mold growth are humidity, leaky pipes, and flooding—all of which we have too much of in Memphis.

Other side effects of toxic mold include fatigue, sinus problems, migranes, nosebleeds, and a persistent cough. According to The Tennessean article, the Madison woman never got sick before moving into her mold-infested house. Her health problems have cost her plenty over the past four years of doctor’s visits and medicine.

Contact us if you suspect your illness is due to toxic mold exposure. HHP accepts clients throughout Tennessee.

Okay, first of all let me be clear. I love dogs. All types and sizes. I have always had dogs and always will. However, I also think it is only fair to society that I be completely responsible for my dogs. Like any animal they can be unpredictable at times. No matter how well we think we know them they may act different around strangers. That is why I support the new proposed tougher dog liability law.

Each year approximate a dozen people nationwide die from dog bites, according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Also, according to the State Health Department in 2005 over 7,000 Tennesseans sought treatment for dog bites, and an additional 188 were hospitalized.
Currently under Tennessee law a person must know that there dog is dangerous before they can be held responsible. I think if we are going to have an animal then we are responsible for its actions no matter how unexpected they may be. One of the proposed laws would allow dog owners to be prosecuted for the first time their animals damage property or injure someone, including if the incident happens on their own property. There would be exceptions for dogs protecting owners from real danger.

What do cigarettes, car exhaust, tire-manufacturing plants, and burning buildings all have in common? In addition to smelling awful, the fumes they all emit contain benzene, a common industry chemical that scientists are increasingly implicating as a cause of leukemia and other deadly diseases.

It has long been known that individuals working in factories that use or produce benzene have a high risk of acquiring terminal diseases, but a recent study at the University of Cincinnati reveals a new group of uniformed men and women whose exposure to cancer-causing toxins rivals that of gas station attendants, plastic producers, and detergent manufacturers—our childhood heroes, the firefighters.

An interdisciplinary team of medical researchers at the University of Cincinnati compared cancer rates of firefighters to those of workers in other fields. This review of 32 studies revealed that there are 100% more cases of testicular cancer and 50% more cases of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and multiple myeloma among firefighters than among employees of other industries, and the soot, formaldehyde, benzene, and other cancer-causing chemicals found in burning buildings are to blame.

The Nashville Fire Department, alone, employs over 1000 personnel, the majority of whom regularly take in these toxins through their skin and lungs. The results of the Cincinnati study make it clear that many of these hundreds of local workers are at risk of developing painful illnesses with poor prognoses.

It is thus imperative that our local and national fire departments develop protective equipment to minimize their employees’ contact with benzene and other harmful chemicals. By doing so, they will not only minimize the possibility of facing a workers’ compensation lawsuit, but avoid the guilt that comes along with passively promoting life-threatening conditions.

Firefighters must play a role in protecting their own health, as well; in addition to washing their skin and uniforms thoroughly and regularly, it may be up to the men and women who put themselves in the line of fire to hold their employers to the highest safety standards possible.