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Med Mal Lawsuits and Aortic Dissection – The Deadly Condition Often Missed in the Emergency Department

If left untreated, aortic dissection carries a mortality rate nearing 50% within 48 hours of symptom onset. Alarmingly, fewer than half of all cases are correctly diagnosed during the initial emergency department visit. This article, written by Bethany R. Nikitenko and published in The Legal Intelligencer, provides a brief overview of the condition, the standard of care for clinicians …

Mandatory Safety Standard for Nursing Pillows Is Now in Effect

A new federal safety standard that aims to reduce the risks of suffocation, entrapment and falls associated with nursing pillows is now in effect. Nursing pillows are horseshoe-shaped pillows that are designed to fit around an adult’s torso and lift a baby to a more “ergonomic” position for breast or bottle feeding. They are not an infant sleep product, but their …

Mandatory Safety Standard for Infant Loungers and ‘Support Cushions’ Is Now in Effect

A new federal safety standard that aims to reduce the risks of suffocation, entrapment and falls associated with infant loungers and similar pillow-like products is now in effect. Starting on May 5, 2025, manufacturers of infant loungers and other “infant support cushions” must adhere to a mandatory safety standard which was unanimously approved by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) …

U.S. Leads High-Income Countries in Traffic Deaths

The United States leads 27 other high-income countries in its number of pedestrian deaths and overall road traffic deaths, according to a report recently released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The report regards preventable pedestrian accident traffic deaths in the U.S. as a “major public health problem.” Between 2013 and 2022, U.S. pedestrian death rates increased 50 percent …

DOJ Launches Corporate Whistleblower Awards Pilot Program

In 2024, the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division launched the Corporate Whistleblower Awards Pilot Program to combat corporate crime. The Corporate Whistleblower Pilot Program will run through 2027, before being re-evaluated, and is modeled on other successful whistleblower programs like those administered by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The Pilot Program is designed …

Tabletop Fire Pits Can Explode, Cause Serious Burn Injuries and Death

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is warning consumers to immediately stop using alcohol-burning or other liquid fuel tabletop fire pits following two deaths and at least 60 injuries in the past five years. Tabletop fire pits — also called fire pots, miniature fireplaces and personal fireplaces — are small, portable fireplaces that can be placed on a tabletop or …

NHTSA Issues Final Rule for Auto Whistleblower Program

On December 12, 2024, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) published the final rule formalizing its whistleblower program, as required by the Motor Vehicle Safety Whistleblower Act. The final rule deviates little from the rule proposed by NHTSA in April 2023, which addressed definitions of key program terms, tip-filing requirements, award applications, how decisions are made on award applications, …

SEC Obtains Orders for a Record $8.2 Billion in Financial Remedies in Fiscal Year 2024

In fiscal year 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed 583 enforcement actions and obtained orders for $8.2 billion in financial remedies—the most ever obtained by the SEC in a single fiscal year. The $8.2 billion consisted of $6.1 billion in disgorgement and prejudgment interest and $2.1 billion in civil penalties. The SEC also obtained orders barring 124 individuals from serving …

When Fun Toys Kill: The Products Liability Case Against Water Beads

Water beads are sold for children as toys, educational materials, art materials, sensory tools, and as projectiles for “gel blaster” guns. Adults use them as decorative, crafting and gardening supplies. When these small, colorful beads are swallowed by children, they do not simply get digested and pass through a child’s body. Instead, they absorb fluids and expand to many times …

February 27th, 2013

Last April, we shared a blog about the alarming prevalence of school bus accidents in this area as if it were a tragic anomaly. We wrote about stories occurring “in recent months, locally, nationally and even internationally.” These crashes happened at least a year ago, …

February 13th, 2013

On January 16 of this year, this blog published a post about an outbreak of fungal meningitis that has killed 39 people and infected 650 more. Inspectors have traced this event, which has hit the states of Michigan and Tennessee particularly hard, to a pharmaceutical …

February 6th, 2013

2012 saw the 40th anniversary of Title IX, a portion of the Education Amendments of 1972 signed into law by President Richard Nixon. Many regard Title IX as a landmark piece of legislation that helped ensure that women have the same ability as men to …

January 30th, 2013

Recent mass shootings at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, a movie theater in Colorado, a shopping mall in Oregon and an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. have garnered a lot of media attention, but it is worth pointing out that since the shooting in Newtown …

January 23rd, 2013

Korean automakers Hyundai and Kia (owned by the same company, but operated independently) are facing a lawsuit over inflated claims about their vehicles’ fuel efficiency. According to Reuters, the company admitted in November that they “had overstated the fuel efficiency ratings on more than 1 million …

January 16th, 2013

One of the most debilitating conditions a person can face is chronic back pain, and unfortunately a majority of patients who suffer from the condition are not candidates for surgery. Back pain is usually caused by congenital conditions, most notably stenosis or a narrowing of …

January 9th, 2013

This past December, automotive giant Toyota Motor Corporation settled a class action lawsuit filed in 2010 after a recall of many of its vehicles. The settlement totals over $1 billion, and comes in the wake of complaints that the accelerator pedals on some Toyota models became …

January 2nd, 2013

Citron Research, led by noted stock market analyst Andrew Left, has recently published a report on its website predicting that the stock price of Intuitive Surgical, the company behind the da Vinci surgical robot, will drop by more than half in the coming 18 months. …

December 20th, 2012

Earlier this month, the American Tort Reform Association (ATRA) released its annual report of the top “Judicial Hellholes” in the country, those areas in which “frivolous lawsuits” apparently run rampant. According to the media watchdog group Media Matters for America, these are jurisdictions which “corporate …