Personal Injury Roundup No. 39 (6/05/09)

Happy birthday today to both my Dad (62) and my brother (34).  In torts...

Reform, Legislation, Policy

• Ted Frank on the "tort tax"  (Overlawyered)
• GM and Chrysler products liability claims (Day on Torts) (The Pop Tort)

New Lawsuits

• Beaumont, TX man files suit alleging surgeon left a needle inside his body that perforated his bladder.  (Southeast Texas Record)
• A Girl Scout and her mom filed suit against a prominent San Francisco litigator, alleging that he failed to put his car into park before stepping out of it.  The car hit the two of them while they were selling Girl Scout cookies.  Both plaintiffs suffered severe leg injuries; the mother's left leg was amputated above the knee.  (San Francisco Chronicle)

Trials, Settlements and Other Ends

• Walter Olson reports that the San Francisco Zoo has settled with the brothers injured in a tiger attack on Christmas Day 2007.  (Overlawyered)
• Injured longshoreman avoids removal to federal court; receives $5M in damages. (VLW Blog)
• Lackawanna County, PA woman receives $1.88 M in failure-to-diagnose cancer case on behalf of her late husband.  (Scranton Times-Tribune)

Damages

• $4M awarded in Maryland cerebral palsy lawsuit (AboutLawsuits.com)
• Finger amputation pain-and-suffering awards range from $85,000 to $2M (Hochfelder/New York Injury Cases Blog)

Appeals    

• Washington Supreme Court holds that strict liability applies retroactively to all claims, such as from asbestos exposure, that occurred prior to the adoption of strict liability in the state.   Download Opinion 80728-1[1] [PDF]  It should be noted that Ohio reached the opposite result in DiCenzo v. A-Best Prods. Co., Inc., 897 N.E.2d 132 (Ohio 2008), cert. denied, 2009 WL 185427 (U.S. Mar. 30, 2009).

Miscellaneous

          Ron Miller on "Personal Injury Verdicts and the Recession"

Thanks to Mark Behrens.

--CJR