Boston Injury Lawyer Blog

January 4, 2013

CDC Reports 4.2% of Adult Motorists Doze Off While Driving

At Altman & Altman, LLP, our Boston injury lawyers represent clients injured in Massachusetts motor vehicle crashes that were caused by other negligent parties, and although following asleep at the steering wheel might not seem like an intentionally reckless act, if a driver causes an traffic collision as a result, it can be grounds for a Massachusetts personal injury or wrongful death. Auto accidents caused by asleep or drowsy drivers occur more often than one would like to think.

A recent report from the CDC revealed that 4.2% of adults admitted they had fallen asleep while driving at least one time in the last month. Our Boston car accident law firm doesn’t have to tell you that this is the equivalent to having a moving car on the road with no one at the steering wheel.

The report’s findings come from a survey of over 147,000 in DC and 19 states in 2009 and 2010. The report’s lead author, Dr. Wheaton, said that although a 4.2% national average seemed high, the actual number of motorists that actually do fall asleep while operating a more vehicle is more. She noted that the reason for this is sometimes a motorist may doze off for just a couple of seconds and not even realize it. While adult drivers in the 25 to 34 age range were most at risk of falling asleep while driving, senior motorists in the 65 and older age group were the ones least like to nod off. Also, more men drivers than women fell asleep.

December 31, 2012

New Year’s Eve is the Deadliest Time of Year for Boston Pedestrian Accidents

by Altman & Altman

According to the journal Injury Prevention, New Year’s Eve is when people are most at risk for becoming involved in a fatal pedestrian accident. One reason for this is that while inebriated individuals might choose to walk rather than drive, drinking too much alcohol still impairs one’s physical abilities, judgments, and reflexes regardless, making one more prone to involvement in a traffic crash. One option for avoiding such risks might be to take a cab. Another alternative is staying over at wherever you plan to celebrate.

That said, there are Boston pedestrian accidents that occur on New Year’s Eve because a motorist was distracted, multitasking, texting while driving, talking on a cell phone, or drunk. Please contact Altman & Altman, LLP to request your free case evaluation if you were involved in a Massachusetts traffic accident that you believe was caused by another party.

No one wants to start or end the year involved in any type of collision, but it can happen. Because the state follows modified comparative negligence system, an injured party can recover Boston injury compensation compensation as long as his/her fault in causing the incident was 50% or less.

December 30, 2012

First Sandy Hook Lawsuit Seeks $100M for 6-Year-Old Survivor

by Altman & Altman

The personal injury attorney for a 6-year-old girl is asking to sue the state of Connecticut for the psychological and emotional injuries she sustained from the deadly shooting that killed 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The injuries to a minor case seeks $100 million in damages. Generally, permission by this state must be sought before a party can proceed with a civil lawsuit against it.

The plaintiff’s legal team is claiming that her injuries occurred because she was at the school during the shooting and from hearing the screaming, gunfire, and conversations that took place over the intercom as the tragedy unfolded. They believe that the Connecticut Department of Education, the State Board of Education, and the State Commissioner of Education neglected to protect the girl from “foreseeable” harm when it failed to provide her with a safe school setting and had not mandated that the Newton Board of Education and Sandy Hook school have an emergency response plan in place.

The Sandy Hook shooting is considered one of the deadliest mass shootings in our nation’s history. It happened on December 14 when Adam Lanza, 20, went to the school and shot at six adults and 20 kids, ages 6 and 7. He then proceeded to shoot himself. Prior to coming to the school he also killed his mother.

December 27, 2012

Four Major Retailers Recall Over 15,000 Nap Nanny Baby Products Following More Baby Deaths and CPSC Lawsuit

by Altman & Altman

Four large retailers are conducting their own recall 150,000 Nap Nanny baby recliners following. The manufacturer, Baby Matters, LLC is not involved in this latest recall. The sellers include Amazon.com, Diapers.com, Babies R Us/Toys R Us, and Buy Buy Baby.

The move comes just weeks after the CPSC sued Baby matters via an administrative complaint after five infant fatalities involving the Nap Nanny product. In Massachusetts, please contact our Boston child products liability law firm if your son or daughter was injured or killed because of a consumer item.

This latest recall involves the Chill model, the Nap Nanny Generation One, and Nap Nanny Generation Two. It comes two years after the CPSC and Baby Matters jointly recalled about 30,000 Nap Nanny products in 2010. During that recall, available reports had noted one baby death and 22 incidents involving kids falling out of or hanging from a Nap Nanny’s side despite using a harness. Since then, and even after improved instructions and warnings were added, there have been at least four other infant fatalities and another 70 incidents.

December 26, 2012

$6.7M Massachusetts Wrongful Death Award Over Northeastern University’s 2007 Boston Fall Accident in Bar Goes to State’s Supreme Judicial Court

by Altman & Altman

On January 7, oral arguments are scheduled to begin in the appeal of Our House East bar and its owners over a $6.7M Boston stairwell accident death award granted to the family of Northeastern University student Jacob Freeman. The 21-year-old died in 2007 two days after he fell down the stairs leading to the basement of the popular pub and restaurant and sustained a serious head injury. The case is before Massachusetts’s Supreme Judicial Court.

Although the jury found the defendants not liable in Freeman’s fatal Boston fall accident, Judge Elizabeth Fahey ordered the bar and its owners to pay $6.7M in damages. She said that the pub’s failure to get the necessary permit for the stairs was a violation of Massachusett’s consumer protection laws and that there had been a lack of compliance with state building code.

The defendants, however, are appealing the award. They contend that seeing as jury did not find them liable for Freeman’s fatal fall, Fahey’s decision to impose damages was a mistake. They also maintain that customers were not allowed on the stairs. Meantime, the Massachusetts premises liability lawyers of Freeman’s family remain adamant that the judge’s decision to issue the award was a well-thought-out ruling.

December 22, 2012

Whistleblower Lawsuit Accuses Dialysis Company DaVita Inc. of Overbilling Medicare and Medicaid by Hundreds of Millions of Dollars

by Altman & Altman

Two men have filed a whistleblower case in what may be one of the largest incidents of Medicare fraud in the country’s history. The plaintiffs are Dr. Alon Vainer, a dialysis clinics medical director, and nurse Daniel Barbir. They contend that their employer, dialysis company DaVita Inc., overbilled Medicaid and Medicare by hundreds of millions of dollars between 2003 and 2010 for the purpose of making a profit.

According to Vainer and Barbir, the Medicare/Medicaid billing fraud took place at over 1,800 clinics that treated tens of thousands of patients. Per CNN, Vainer said that for example, with the drug Venofor only part of a 100 milligram vial would be administered to a patient, while the rest of it would be disposed of (while the company billed the government based on use of the entire vial) and the same would be done with other100-milligram vials of Venofor. The more vials that were used, the more money DaVita was able to make off its alleged scam.

Barbir and Vainer claim that they attempted to get this practice stopped but were told to back off and keep following protocols. Barbir eventually left the company while Vainer, who stayed on, said his medical directorship wasn’t renewed as punishment.

December 19, 2012

Massachusetts Wrongful Death/Personal Injury Lawsuit Blaming Lax Supervision at Gillette Stadium for Drunken Driving Crash Will Go to Trial

by Altman & Altman

Nearly four and a half years after a Massachusetts car crash killed two friends and injured a third on the night of the 2008 New England County Music Festival, a Norfolk Superior Court judge says that the families’ Foxborough, MA persona injury/wrongful death lawsuit can go to trial. The defendants had sought to have the case dismissed.

The catastrophic crash occurred after the three women, 24-year-old Norton resident Nina Houlihan, 19-year-old Mansfield resident Alexa Latteo, and 20-year-old Milton resident Debra Davis drank alcohol at the Gillette Stadium parking lot during the music event. They later crashed their car into a tree about a mile away from the site.

Latteo, who had been driving, died from her Foxborough, Massachusetts motor vehicle accident injuries, as did Milton. Houlihan survived with injuries. She and the Davis family later filed a civil case against Kraft Group, which owns the stadium, as well as several affiliated entities, including security firm TeamOps LLC, NPS LLC, and FXP LLC. The friends reportedly were tailgating “all day” at the Stadium even though they didn’t have tickets to the event.

December 17, 2012

A Decrease in Massachusetts Highway Deaths Doesn’t Mean Boston Car Drivers Get to Be Less Vigilant

by Altman & Altman

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the number of US highway deaths in 2011 went down to their lowest level since 1949 at 32,367 fatalities-a 1.9% drop from last year. The 2011 decline is a continuing trend over the last six years, which has lead to a 26% drop in traffic deaths since 2005.

In this state last year, Massachusetts traffic fatalities went down from 347 deaths in 2010 to 337. Nationwide, other significant 2011 statistics included:

• A 4.6% drop in the number of light truck and passenger car occupant deaths.

December 15, 2012

Whistleblower Lawsuit Accuses Deutsche Bank of Securities Violations

by Altman & Altman

Ex-Deutsche Bank quantitative risk analyst Dr. Ben-Artzi has filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the financial firm. He claims that the bank accurately report its credit derivatives portfolio’s value and that he made his concerns known internally. Ben Artzi is one of three whistleblowers accusing Deutsche Bank of improper reporting to hide $12B in losses. He says that that he decided to notify enforcement authorities because the problem was not addressed or corrected by the firm.

Per his claims, between 2007 and 2010 Deutche Bank, the biggest holder of LSS trades at the time, did not give proper value to the gap option part of its Leveraged Super Senior tranches of credit derivatives portfolio and, as a result, who knows how many investors were hurt. Failure to give proper value to the trades, Ben-Artzi contends, caused the bank to continue projecting the image that it was doing a better job of handling the global economic crisis than other financial firms.

In addition to notifying the Securities and Exchange Commission of these alleged violations through its Whistleblower Program, Ben-Artzi has filed a retaliation complaint with the Labor Department claiming violations of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act’s whistleblower protection provisions. Ben-Artzi says that as he made his way up the chain of command at the bank to try to get the valuation problems remedied, he began to experience isolation and hostility on the job, was not allowed to access records he needed to perform his duties, and lost certain responsibilities as well as a degree of autonomy. He also claims that when he came back from paternity leave last year, Deutsche Bank told him that is position had been transferred to Europe, and he was laid off without being offered the offered the opportunity to transfer or find a new position within the company.

December 14, 2012

Sandy Hook Elementary School Massacre Leaves At Least 27 Dead

by Altman & Altman

A tragic shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut has claimed the lives of at least 20 kids between the ages of 5 and 10, and seven adults, including shooter Adam Lanza, 20. One other victim was hurt. According to the media, Lanza shot at his victims in two rooms before firing on himself. He had multiple fire arms with him.

Lanza’s mother is among the deceased. Her body was found at the home she shared with him. At Altman & Altman, LLP the thoughts of our Boston injury lawyers are with the with the victims, their families, and the rest of the community there at this time during what is being called the second deadliest school shootings in our nation’s history. The campus shooting at Virginia Tech in 2007 had 32 fatalities. 15 were killed, including the two shooters, at the The Columbine High School shooting.

Massachusetts School Accidents and Crimes