Maryland Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

A six person jury found three cigarette companies responsible for the cancer death of a Florida woman. The woman had begun smoking in 1953 at the age of 15 and died in 1995.
The lawyer who was representing her three children stated , "She started smoking in an era when cigarette advertising was pervasive, on TV-- in its infancy - in print media and on radio."
The verdict follows a series of losses by the tobacco industry after a ruling by the State Supreme Court in a tobacco class action case. In the decision the high court decertified a statewide class of addicted smokers and permitted individual suits to go forward.
Jurors reached the verdict after less than a four hour deliberation.
The jury awarded the victims family $ 15 million in compensatory damages. Jurors assigned 35 % of the responsibility to the victim for her death; 15% to one cigarette company and 20% to the other one. Jurors also assessed $2.5 million in punitive damages each cigarette company.
In most of the post-Engle cases the compensatory portion of the award has been reduced by the plantiff percentage of responsibility as found by the jurors. The issue hasn't yet been resolved in this case.
The Supreme Court upheld many of the factual findings of the jury trial in the past case including finding that the cigarette companies conspired to conceal information about the addictiveness of smoking and that cigarettes are an unreasonably dangerous product. The Supreme Court further ruled that these findings would apply in all future individual trials. The cigarette companies believe this ruling denies them rights to a fair trial.
The tobacco companies Sr. Vice President and general counsel said " We believe this verdict should be reversed because the court's trial plan improperly eliminated any requirement that plantiff prove that the companies did anything wrong to recover damages."
A spokesman for the tobacco company said they were disappointed and plan to appeal.
If your family members or loved ones have been a victim of a wrongful death call my offices located in Baltimore and Rockville, Maryland at 1-800 -320-0080 or email me at jostad@verizon.net for a free consultation.

A jury has found an aluminum bat maker liable for failure to provide adequate warnings as to the dangers of the bat used by a player during a game which resulted in another player's death. The company was ordered to pay $792,000 to deceased estate for the loss of earnings he would have made, and pain suffered before his death.

The 18-year-old boy was playing in a baseball game when another player hit a ball with an aluminum bat. The ball then hit the victim in his temple. He died four hours later. His parents argued that aluminum bats are more dangerous than wooden bats because they allow players to swing the bat harder and faster. The Plaintiff's attorney said that the average time needed by a pitcher to defend a batted ball is 400 milliseconds and the victim only had 378 milliseconds to respond. Witnesses to the incident testified that they were unable to see the ball between the time that it was struck by the batter until it hit victim.

Sports injuries and sometimes fatalities are the most horrible tragedies that any parent or family may have to go through as a result of a company/manufacturers' negligence. The injuries and their causality are very difficult to overcome and with the aid of the right expert knowledgable in these fields a positive outcome may be possible.

If you or a loved one has been subjected to these types of injuries please contact me at my Rockville or baltimore offices at (800) 320-0080 for a free consultation.

The parents of two 18-year-old cousins are suing a hotel owner and employee for wrongful death after their daughters were killed in a fire. The suit alleges that a maintenance man, who worked and lived at the hotel even though his work visa was expired, left his room with incense burning for about 30 minutes. When he returned the room was on fire. The employee tried to extinguish the flames with a small fire extinguisher that didn't work and then went to look for another extinguisher. By the time he returned the fire was too big to extinguish. The girls were trapped in their room and died in the fire.

The parents allege that the employee and motel management failed to properly respond to the fire, failed to maintain fire extinguishers at the motel, failed to notify authorities of the fire fast enough and failed to warn guests. The suit also is against other defendants, whose identities were unknown to the plaintiff, including the motel's insurance company, any entity that did maintenance or repair work at the motel and the manufacturer and/or distributor of the fire extinguisher that failed to work.

These types of lawsuits require extensive research and investigation and require the assistance of many experts to determine the causes of the injury and negligence. We regularly employ experts and investigators to fully and appropriately evaluate cases that we take in our office before any action is taken to determine the best and most economically viable avenue to prosecute cases similar to this or yours. If you or a loved one has been injured by negligence of another call for a free consultation.

For all your legal needs or inquiries call my offices located in Baltimore and Rockville, Maryland at (800)320-0080 for an appointment and immdeiate answers.

A national retail store settled a lawsuit for $7 million for an injury resulting from a faulty automatic door. A senior citizen, was walking into the retail store in Illinois when the automatic door malfunctioned knocking her to the floor. When she fell, she hit her head and then was struck again by the door as it continued opening and closing. The victim argued that the retailer had failed to inspect and maintain the doors and didn't follow the safety guidelines provided by the manufacturer. They also argued that the door did not have any way to turn off the system's fail-safe system and wasn't designed to make and noise or alert employees that it was malfunctioning.

Due to the accident, the victim received brain injuries that resulted in cognitive defects and deficits. She was required to move into a nursing home due to her injuries. Prior to the accident, the victim had been caring for her 59-year-old daughter, who has special needs. Since the accident, she was unable to continue caring for her daughter.

If you or a loved one has been injured as a result of another persons negligence contact my office in Rockville or Baltimore for a free initial consultation and case evaluation.