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Pennsylvania Injury Lawyers
An Open Letter to our clients and friends, James Ronca voted one of the Top 100 Lawyers in Pennsylvania and more!
An open letter to our clients and friends
This is the first edition of the SRK newsletter with our new format. In addition to our new format, we are proud to announce that this is the 12 th consecutive year we have sponsored the golf outing for United Cerebral Palsy of Central Pennsylvania. This year’s tournament will take place at the Country Club of Harrisburg on August 1, 2005. Last year the tournament raised over $40,000 for victims of cerebral palsy.
On behalf of Jim, Gerry, and myself, I would like to take this opportunity to invite each and every one of you to participate in this great event for charity. For more information, please call Lisa at (800) 232-6301, or go to our Web site at www.SchmidtKramer.com.
What’s wrong with “tort reform”? The real meaning of “tort reform”: taking away the legal rights of American families
Some federal and state lawmakers want to pass “tort reform,” or litigation limiting, legislation to five insurance companies and corporations more power to overturn the rights that the average citizen has to seek redress for harm through our court system.
If elected officials legislate away our citizens’ right to trial by a jury of their peers in a courtroom, the new power that big insurers and companies will acquire will affect us all.
Lawbreaker protection
By limiting victims’ rights, “tort reform” protects negligent drivers, greedy corporate managers, and polluters by bypassing the effective, centuries-old approach of using citizen juries to hold wrongdoers accountable for the harm they cause to others.
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Wrongdoer defense
“Tort reform” will provide a trump card defense for pharmaceutical companies that market drugs that injure or kill people. It will give manufacturers who sell unsafe products an automatic shield against liability. Reform will even give nursing homes that negligently cause our elderly to suffer a “free pass” form legal action.
Unprotected victims
The most insidious effects of “tort reform” are that our civil justice system will no longer protect those who have been seriously injured or killed by careless medical errors or defective products or drugs…and no one will have the right to hold wrongdoers accountable.
When juries speak, corporate America listens. That’s why…defectively designed cribs no longer strangle infants; flammable children’s pajamas have been taken off the market; once-harmful medical devices have been redesigned; auto fuel systems have been strengthened; cancer causing asbestos no longer poisons homes, schools and workplaces; and farm machinery has safety guards.
A civil justice system MYTH
MYTH
Jurors are not rational. Because they don’t understand the subtleties of law, they get swept away by the emotional pleas of lawyers and their clients. As a result, juries give lawsuit plaintiffs huge punitive damages awards on a regular basis.
FACT
You, your friends, neighbors and coworkers are America’s juries. And you are not irrational. Contrary to common belief, juries rarely award punitive damages. Only 3 of every 100 juries hearing personal injury cases ever award punitive damages. Furthermore, when juries grant punitive damages, the amounts jurors award tend to be small. In fact, the U.S. Department of Justice reports a decreasing trend in payout amounts for personal injury cases. Between 1992 and 2001, the median payment for personal injury cases dropped 56 percent to $28,000.
Red-light runners
In 2002, drivers who ran red lights were responsible for 207,000 crashes, 178,000 injuries and 921 fatalities in the United States. Red-light runners are irresponsible and dangerous drivers who put us all at risk.
The National Campaign to Stop Red Light Running believes that this problem is epidemic, particularly in urban areas.
Here are a couple of injury cases that show the extent of potential injuries and compensation from red-light runners.
Taxi driver—A cab ran a red light striking a motorcyclist. The rider suffered multiple rib fractures, lung contusions, a fractured femur, a dislocated shoulder, chronic pain, numbness, stiffness, and scarring. The parties settled for medical expenses and an additional award for loss of consortium.
Trucker—An oil truck sped through a red light and collided with a car. A passenger suffered a subarachnoid hemorrhage, multiple fractures requiring jaw surgery, a tracheotomy, and memory loss, as well as loss of employment. The parties agreed to a major settlement.
Car power-window safety
Some auto power-window controllers can harm or kill children. For the sake of safety, parents should check whether a child can place a foot, knee, elbow, or hand on any power-window controller and unknowingly raise a window. The windows may injure or choke a child leaning out of the window. According to www.vehicleinjuries.com, seven children died from electric car windows in 2004.
New National Highway Traffic Safety Administration regulations requiring safer window switches in all new cars should help, but won’t go fully into effect until 2008. New switches must be pulled up to raise the window. The problem is that even many newer cars have nonrecessed, door-mounted toggle or rocker controllers that can close the window when a child presses down on them.
For safety, parents should turn off the engine and remove the keys whenever a child is left in a vehicle.
FOR YOUR SAFETY
Recalled product roundup
Here are some recently recalled products you may have in your home or at work:
Philips PC Peripherals has recalled 15,000 Hewlett-Packard (HP) L2035 Flat Panel Monitors. Incorrectly installed back-panel ground clips can electrically shock users.
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., has asked buyers to return 600,000 GE Oval and Double Dish Slow Cookers, which have handles on bases that my break, spill hot food, and burn consumers.
Royal Appliance has recalled 20,000 Dirt Devil Sweeper Vac vacuum cleaners. The vacuum’s rotors can lock and overheat, causing smoke and fire hazards.
Swing-N-Slide Corp. asked consumers to return 72,000 extra-duty and heavy-duty swing seats with defective seat-attachment grommets, which can break and injure users.
American Suzuki Motor Corp. recalled 27,000 2004-2005 Eiger and Vinson ATVs. Incorrectly mounted fuel tanks can leak and burn riders.
Charles E. Schmidt, Jr., senior partner of SRKLaw, recently settled a medical malpractice case in Schuylkill County for $350,000. This case involved an area hospital in which a patient was taken off anesthesia too soon following gallbladder surgery. As a result, the client lost partial sight in both of his eyes. The case was settled prior to trial.
Congratulations to Scott B. Cooper
The Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association recently announced that Scoot B. Cooper of the firm will be the recipient of the George F. Douglas Jr. Amicus Award at is upcoming Summer Convention Awards Dinner. The award was created in 1995 to recognize a member of the organization for outstanding and industrious appellate advocacy on behalf of the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association.
In an appellate case, in which Scott both wrote the brief and argued as amicus on behalf of the organization, the Pennsylvania Superior Court in Ricks v. Nationwide ruled on April 28 2005, that an arbitration panel should have permitted the estate of an injured plaintiff to recover workers’ compensation benefits that were previously paid. The Superior Court reversed the trial court’s order and found that the arbitration panel “clearly violated Section 1722” of the Pennsylvania Motor Vehicle Financial Responsibility Law by preventing the insured from recovering the amount of medical bills paid.
Congratulations to Scott B. Cooper of SRKLaw on the George F. Douglas Jr. Amicus Award for advocacy in appellate court.
Free Consultation
Have you been injured? Contact a Pennsylvania personal injury lawyer at SchmidtKramer today. Our office is located in Harrisburg and we have successfully advocated for clients throughout Pennsylvania, including Camp Hill, Carlisle, Chambersburg, Harrisburg, Juniata, Lancaster, Lebanon, Lewisburg, Lewistown, Mechanicsburg, Palmyra, Perry County, Pottsville, Shippensburg, State College, and York. Complete a FREE Online Consultation Form or call us today.
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Harrisburg, PA 17101
Phone: (717) 232-6300
Fax: (717) 232-6467
1 (800)232-6301
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