When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that’s amoré.  But when a hot dog hits you in the eye at a sporting event, that’s a lawsuit. A renegade sausage, a man in a fuzzy lion costume, and an unlucky sports fan in the wrong place at the wrong time are some of the characters involved in one of the wackiest headlines to appear in personal injury lawsuit news in quite some time.

Jim Croomer was enjoying a night out at a Kansas City Royals baseball game last September. Croomer had what he thought were perfect seats — six rows up from the dugout along the action-packed third baseline. During a lighthearted break in the game, the Royals’ lion mascot, Sluggerrr, climbed atop the third base dugout and began firing hot dogs into the crowd from a cannon. Next, the mascot began hurling wieners to the fans by hand, and that’s when things got ugly. As Sluggerrr attempted a fancy, backwards toss, Jim Croomer alleges that the flying frank fell short of its target and hit him right in the eye.

Despite how humorous the event might seem, Croomer’s lawsuit against the Kansas City Royals, filed early in February of 2010, is no joke. He claims the hot dog caused a detached retina, and that he has had to undergo several surgeries. The faux lion is not personally named in the lawsuit, but Jim Croomer’s legal team does target the Kansas City Royals for liability because the mascot was acting in the course and scope of his employment at the time.

It will certainly be up to the Kansas City courts to review all of the facts involved in this case, but sports fans could also learn a thing or two from the record. For example, when you see a lion armed with hot dogs, be prepared to duck.

Related Content:  Oakland, CA Personal Injury Lawyer

Good news for people who are frustrated by food and drug companies making claims about their products.

Dannon Yogurt was ordered to pay $45 Million in a Class Action case brought in Federal Court on behalf of Dannon’s customers.  The complaint focused on Dannon’s ACTIVIA and DANACTIVE yogurts that had been advertised as being “clinically” & “scientifically” proven to regulate digestion and boost immune systems.

The Federal Judge ruled that Dannon had not adequately proven their claims.  Besides the monetary damages, Dannon is being ordered to change its labeling and advertising for the products.

At first blush, some observers thought the award amount was high for a “food labeling” class action.  However, when one considers that Dannon sold these yogurts at a 30% higher price than their other products based on the false benefits, it is easy to understand why the courts came down so hard on Dannon.

Consumers who purchased Activia or DanActive in the past two years are entitled to receive settlement payments of between $15-$100.   Payments over $30 will require receipts, but for payments between $15-$30 receipts are not required.

The website allows consumers to enter in the date, location, specific product & cost of their related purchases.   If the total cost is more than $30, then you must submit the receipts.

Related Websites:

Dannon Settlement Website

California Class Action Attorneys

As Chrysler minivans prepare for a recall, somewhere Toyota executives are breathing a sigh of relief.  Some of the heat Toyota is feeling will be lifted as over 350,000 Chrysler minivans are recalled in a safety campaign launched by the automaker and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.  The defect in the minivans could be fatal for drivers in colder climates.

The minivans in question are models made between 2005 and 2006, the extremely popular Grand Caravan, Dodge Caravan, and Chrysler Town & Country.   All three models are being recalled for airbag issues.  The recall will only affect models that were sold in 28 “salt belt states,” as well as parts of Canada, where winter conditions require salting of the roads and highways.  In states with severe weather conditions and rough roads, airbag sensors in the minivans can crack causing them to get wet or damaged and putting the lives of drivers and passengers at risk. When the sensors are wet, the airbag might become inactive causing it to fail to deploy.  Chrysler insists that this recall is a precautionary measure and notes that the minivans are all equipped with warning lights that will alert drivers of any malfunction. So far, no accidents or injuries caused by the malfunctioning airbags have been reported.

While it is unclear if this airbag issue is the first of many for Chrysler, it is certain that tougher standards for automakers and recall mania will continue. Even if it is a huge pain for big car companies, this is great news for drivers concerned with feeling safe on the road.

Related:  Oakland, CA Defective Products Lawyer

Sufferes of diabetes thought they found a golden ticket in Avandia.  Backed with big bucks’ promotion and relentless advertising, Avandia appeared to be a friend to people with diabetes.  Sold as a diabetes management drug, Avandia was pushed on websites like diabetes.com and diabetesmanagment.com, which are sites owned by their maker, GlaxoSmithKline.  The sales skyrocketed and doctors across the country prescribed Avandia to millions.  Yet Advandia wasn’t all it appeared to be.  Two years of investigations and questions about the drug quietly simmered in the background.  GlaxoSmithKline has seen its stock drop this week and the Food and Drug Administration has called for an advisory committee to meet in July to discuss the safety of Avandia.  So what happened to the diabetes wonder drug?

The short answer is that GSK and the FDA have conflicting reports to just how dangerous Advandia can be.  The FDA is under fire for allowing clinical trials of the drug after scientists concluded that Avandia had caused over 80,000 heart attacks from 1999 to 2007, while GSK insists that the proper clinical trials have proven that Avandia is safe.  A Senate committee is currently probing the British pharmaceutical company as well.  Until the FDA’s committee findings however, the agency has informed patients currently using the drug to continue to do so unless their doctors advise them to stop.

Consumer advocates and legal experts however are advising that questions be asked and that the responsible parties be held accountable for a drug that could potentially cause heart attacks. Lawsuits involving wrongful death and injury regarding Avandia have been popping up in courthouse across the country for the past few years.  While the committees continue to meet and the drug companies continue to battle with the FDA, lives of patients hang in the balance.  In short, anything promising to be a wonder drug should be approached cautiously.

Related Information:  California Pharmaceutical Liability Attorney

Whether you’ve simply been stranded on the tarmac for hours at a time or your life has been affected by an unforeseen airplane crash or accident, we can all agree that something needs to be done to protect passengers. In fact, ask your co-workers or friends and you’re sure to hear one or several airline nightmare stories. So perhaps the time for a Passenger’s Bill of Rights has arrived. Over ten years in the making, The Passenger’s Bill of Rights is either the best thing to happen to air travel since honey roasted peanuts or it is a classic case of “too little, too late.” It all depends on whom you ask.

The bill of rights, endorsed and pushed by President Obama, restricts airlines from keeping passengers tapped on a grounded flight for more than three hours and mandates that the airlines must provide adequate food, water and restrooms for all passengers on board. Airlines who choose to ignore the new rules, which are expected to go into affect on April 29th, will be slapped with a steep $27,000 fine. Frequent fliers are clearly the ones who stand to gain here as do aviation crash attorneys if the airlines do not play by the rules. Many business travelers have long waited for changes in the industry and have wasted too many hours stuck somewhere when they could be working or returning home. Others, though, think these changes aren’t enough, and the protections for passengers need to go even further.

The airlines, as you can imagine, are none too thrilled with The Passenger’s Bill of Rights. Many airlines, like Southwest, have already begun fighting back by implementing premature cancellations of scheduled flights during harsh weather conditions to avoid a possible fine in the future. This is sure to cause even more drama at the already anxiety-infused airports of today. The debate of what exactly is best for travelers is sure to rage on over the next several months.

When it comes to the care hospitals provide, most of us share a pretty simple philosophy: we don’t like going but we assume that we’ll leave feeling better . We collectively trust doctors, nurses, technicians, drug companies, and insurance providers in exchange for results and peace of mind. Naturally, there are some fatal conditions that are beyond the control of doctors and this is the unspoken risk we all face long before we walk through the hospital doors.  Rarely, the unthinkable happens; due to the care provided at the hospital patients are exposed to something that has worsened their health and, in some cases, even caused death.

For over two hundred-fifty patients at Cedars-Sinai, the worst-case scenario has happened. Late last year, officials discovered that patients who went in to the renowned hospital to have CT brain scans used to diagnose strokes, were exposed to dangerously high levels of radiation.  For a procedure so routine, the finding is quite alarming. Roughly eighty of the patients who had been administered the overdose of radiation experienced temporary hair loss. Overdoses of radiation have also been known to cause eye problems, skin irritation and flaky scalp.

Many lawsuits around the country have been filed against hospitals in cases of CT brain scan and radiation overdoses. In December 2009, a lawsuit was filed in Huntsville, Alabama against GE Healthcare, the manufacturer of CT equipment, citing radiation overdose during routine CT scans administered at the Huntsville Hospital. Other suits have targeted hospitals for improper use of the scanning equipment claiming that the hospital staff was under trained on the CT scanners. Ultimately, judges and juries will decide who or what is truly at fault for the radiation overdoses. The legal and medical communities will, hopefully, work together to save future patients from exiting the hospital with more problems than they walked in with.

A defense against the eggshell plaintiff rule is the crumbling skull rule. The crumbling skull rule seeks to rebut the eggshell plaintiff rule by alleging that the harm incurred by the victim was inevitable and the defendant’s actions only had a minimal effect upon the already deteriorating circumstances. For example, a dying patient is treated improperly by a doctor. Under the crumbling skull rule, the doctor would still not be liable for the death of the patient because the doctor’s negligence was not the cause of the patient’s death or deteriorating health, but rather the patient’s deterioration was the inevitable result of his pre-existing illness.   The crumbling skull rule seeks to deny causation between the defendant’s actions and the victim’s injuries.

Last year, the Colgan Air crash near Buffalo, New York opened a can of airline safety worms – poor pilot training, low salaries, pilot fatigue and other safety issues that impact commuter airline safety.  Lawmakers cried foul, and passengers were horrified to discover that these small regional airlines are often operated by pilots who may have barely had enough rest before entering the cockpit.  In the aftermath of that fatal crash that killed 50, the Federal Aviation Administration set up a program of remedial measures to enhance commuter airline safety and prevent crashes.

This week, the agency announced that it has been able to enhance safety at these airlines. In a report released on Tuesday, the FAA said that this enhanced safety was the result of increased federal oversight of pilot training and efforts by airlines to identify problem pilots. The agency has been especially concerned over the issue of inexperienced and poorly trained pilots at these regional carriers. Its report now says that 90 percent of regional carriers have some kind of procedures in place to identify and track “weak” pilots. The report says eight airlines failed to have such procedures in place, but most of these airlines have either shut down operations since last year or have merged with other airlines.

Aviation accident lawyers may also be encouraged to know that the FAA is working with pilot unions to address issues of pilot distractions in the cockpit. After the Colgan crash, voice recorders recovered from the wreckage showed that the two pilots had been engaged in idle banter just before the crash. The agency is hoping that commuter airlines can develop and strengthen professional standards for pilots in the cockpit. The FAA also says it is looking at the major national carriers to share best practices and safety data with their regional partners.

Of course it’s far too early to tell if the FAA’s optimism is well-placed. It’s barely a year since the Colgan crash when the public realized what plane crash lawyers have long been aware of – that these airlines are often staffed with ill trained, inexperienced and underpaid pilots. These are deeply entrenched systemic problems that may not disappear over 11 months of federal oversight.

With more than 300,000 people expected to descend on Las Vegas this New Year’s Eve, law enforcement agencies and car accident lawyers are gearing up for an increase in auto accident rates.

New Year’s Eve is probably the single biggest party night in Vegas, and law enforcement officers are being reallocated to specific areas in the Las Vegas Boulevard and enjoining areas. They will be looking for motorists driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. The Metro Traffic Unit will be out in full force on New Year’s Eve with every single officer being called for patrolling duties.

Given the large number of revelers that will flood the city over the weekend and the great potential for alcohol related accidents and injuries, police are taking extraordinary steps to crack down on impaired motorists and keep as many of them off the roads as possible. They have even contracted the services of a medical specialist to draw out blood, so that they can test for blood alcohol levels on the spot. This year, the Metro Traffic Unit will not have the Nevada Highway Patrol helping with crackdown efforts on the streets of Las Vegas.  Instead NHP troopers will be patrolling the highways.

So far, it seems to have been a comparatively safe holiday season in Las Vegas. Police say the number of arrests for DUI was up, and the number of drunk driving crashes had actually dropped.

With New Year’s just around the corner, Las Vegas personal injury lawyers would  also advise revelers to party responsibly. Our city has a well established limo and designated driver industry that offers driver services to intoxicated partiers. Elsewhere in the country, designated driver companies have seen a mixed amount of success, because of the high insurance costs and other upkeep expenses. However, in the party capital of the US, the industry has boomed, fueled by heavy demand for such services. This means that it should be easy for you to find a designated driver service or a limo service that will ferry you to and from your party destination safely

Early Thursday morning an argument took place in downtown Los Angeles between two women.  The details of that argument are not yet clear but Police are looking for assistance to fill in the gaps.  What they do know is that a women was struck by a vehicle and dragged for about a half a mile before she stopped the car.  The only reason she stopped was because she was being pulled over by Police.

This is an extreme example but people are hit by cars all the time. Populated cities like Los Angeles, New York and Las Vegas are especially susceptible due to the high number of pedestrians on the streets.  Even though pedestrians have the right of way, a collision tends to be very one sided.  Always assume that the driver doesn’t see you.  In many cases they may not.  Distracted driving is on the rise and almost everyone is guilty of it at some point and time.  Cell phones have made talking on the phone, texting and checking email so easy that people think they can do it anywhere, including their speeding cars.