Monthly Archives: December 2010

December 26, 2010

Boston Faces First Blizzard Since Adoption Of New Legal Rule In Slip-And-Fall Cases

As today’s Globe reminds us (hat tip to Ted Frank at Point of Law for bringing the story to my attention), tonight’s blizzard will be the first large snowfall that we’ve seen since the Supreme Judicial Court abolished the so-called “natural accumulation” rule in a decision that was issued while we were enjoying the warmth [...]

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Posted by Alan H. Crede | Permalink | Email This Post
Posted in Premises Liability, Slip and Fall
December 21, 2010

Medical Malpractice And Car Accidents: A Tale Of Two Public Health Problems

In 2009, 33,963 Americans died in car accidents. 100,000 Americans are killed each year by medical errors. Given the large number of lives lost to both medical malpractice and car accidents, both qualify as important public health problems. But while we are making strides in reducing the number of lives lost in car accidents, a [...]

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Posted by Alan H. Crede | Permalink | Email This Post
Posted in Car Accident, Car Crash, Medical Malpractice, Tort Reformers
December 16, 2010

DePuy A.S.R. Hip Replacement Recall Shows Flaws In FDA Approval Of Medical Implants

As underscored by a story in today’s New York Times, the recent recall of DePuy A.S.R. artificial hips shows how a hole in the FDA’s regulatory framework for medical implants endangers millions of Americans who receive medical implants. DePuy A.S.R. artificial hips were touted as next generation of artificial hips – a new technology that [...]

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Posted by Alan H. Crede | Permalink | Email This Post
Posted in Dangerous and Defective Products, Products Liability
December 15, 2010

Why You Should Steer Clear Of A “Settlement Mill” If You Have A Serious Car Accident Case And Tips On How To Spot One

A recent article by law professor Nora Freeman Engstrom in the Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics explains why personal injury “settlement mills” exist and why, if you have a serious personal injury case, you should make sure that your lawyer is not running a settlement mill (hat tip Point of Law and Drug and Device [...]

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Posted by Alan H. Crede | Permalink | Email This Post
Posted in Car Accident, Car Crash, Truck Accidents
December 10, 2010

Medicare’s Dialysis Program: An Illustration Of Why US Health Care Costs Are So High

Over the past month an article written by Robin Fields and originally printed in Pro Publica has attracted a great deal of attention and earned a reprint in The Atlantic. The article, about Medicare’s dialysis benefit, illustrates the problems at the heart of much of American health care. In 1973, faced with the specter of [...]

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Posted by Alan H. Crede | Permalink | Email This Post
Posted in Medical Malpractice, Tort Reformers
December 9, 2010

ECRI Institute Releases List Of Top Ten Threats To Patient Safety

Last week we blogged about a new study published in The New England Journal of Medicine showing that patient safety has not improved in the ten years since the Institute of Medicine published its famous study showing that medical errors kill 98,000 Americans a year. How to improve patient safey? This week the ECRI Institute [...]

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Posted by Alan H. Crede | Permalink | Email This Post
Posted in Medical Malpractice
December 9, 2010

Link Roundup

A new NHTSA study reveals that, as police drug test increasing numbers of drivers in fatal accidents, the number of drivers found to be intoxicated is increasing. Right now, nearly two-thirds of drivers involved in fatal accidents are drug tested and eighteen percent of those test positive. One-third of drivers killed in fatal car accidents [...]

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Posted by Alan H. Crede | Permalink | Email This Post
Posted in Car Accident, Foodborne Illness, Medical Malpractice