Imagine that you had hip replacement surgery only to discover that your new, all-metal hip had been recalled. That is the nightmare facing virtually 30,000 patients right now in the U.S., leading to thousands of medical malpractice lawsuits.

The real issue in this case is that the hip manufacturer appears to have withheld the findings in a Food & Drug Administration (FDA) report about safety issues with the hip. This happened long before the recall.

A Johnson & Johnson subsidiary, DePuy Orthopaedics, made a decision not to publicize the agency’s findings to doctors, patients and ...

As a member of the Board of Governors and Leaders Forum of the American Association for Justice (AAJ), I am so very proud of our most recent victory in successfully fighting forced arbitration.

The AAJ’s public affairs and communications teams were successful in squelching the efforts of The Carlyle Group, a private equity firm, to eliminate investor lawsuits! Carlyle filed with the SEC on January 10 to go public, and those IPO filings included a mandatory arbitration clause. As a result of the AAJ’s efforts, Carlyle backed down.

Make no mistake: this is an important victory for the ...

The National Transportation Safety Board issued a report on February 14, 2012, finding a Canadian railroad at fault for a train derailment in 2009 near Rockford, Illinois, that led to a woman’s death.

In the report, the Canadian National Railway was cited for its “inadequate emergency communication procedures,” which prevented it from notifying one of its trains about a track washout. The train derailed, causing 19 of its ethanol-laden tank cars to slide off the tracks and explode. A Rockford woman who was in a car nearby died, and her pregnant daughter lost her unborn child.

The ...

If you’re among the thousands of Chicago renters who prefer high-rise living, you’ll be glad to know that the city has posted fire safety information online for hundreds of older residential towers.

The step was taken in the wake of a Lake Shore Drive high-rise fire in December that took the life of a young woman. The owners of the building where she lived had not submitted an acceptable plan to the city that would meet tougher safety standards enacted after a 2003 fire killed six people locked in a stairwell in the Cook County Administration Building.

The decision to post the reports ...

Each year, trucking accidents kill or seriously injure thousands of unsuspecting motorists. Every day, there are an estimated 90 people in the U.S. who are killed or injured in a trucking accident.

Accidents involving big rigs happen for many reasons, including driver fatigue, tailgating, careless driving, speeding or faulty equipment. The victims typically are the drivers of cars, motorcycles, and other smaller vehicles that weren’t built to withstand a serious brush with large trucks.  Ironically, many of the truck drivers end up walking away without a scratch, while the ...

Traumatic brain injuries (TBI) are a major public health problem. It especially affects male adolescents and young adults aged 15 to 24, as well as older adults of both sexes aged 75 and older. Children aged 5 and younger are also at high risk.

What is TBI? A form of acquired brain injury, it occurs when a sudden trauma causes damage to the brain. The damage can be confined to one or more areas of the brain and can result from a closed head injury or a penetrating head injury. A closed injury occurs when the head suddenly and violently hits an object, but the object does not break through the skull. A ...