Boston Personal Injury Attorney Blog

January 22, 2016

New Info on Traumatic Brain Injury

When we think of serious brain injuries, we often think about soldiers returning home from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan and about professional athletes. The new movie Concussion, starring Will Smith, focuses on how repeated hard hits to the head can result in serious concussions. Unlike in the past when we didn’t take concussions all that seriously, we not know they can lead to serious and permanent brain damage or death.

However, as doctors are now learning, a patient does not need to suffer a major head injury to get serious brain damage. In some cases, a hard bump on the head that would normally just hurt for a little while could result in a serious brain injury. This is why you should never refuse medical attention if you suffer an injury. You may not know the full extent of the damage, and, if you wait, you may delay getting necessary treatment. You will also make it harder to succeed in a typical personal injury case, because it may be more difficult to prove your injury was a result of the accident that was someone else’s fault. Continue reading

January 20, 2016

Secret Service Agent Hurt in Recent Accident Left Paralyzed

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

A couple of weeks ago, it was reported that a United States Secret Service advance team was in the New England area preparing for an upcoming visit from presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton when their vehicle was hit by another driver in a head-on collision. Basically, everyone involved in the accident was seriously injured, and one person was killed.

Among the injured was a Secret Service agent who was left paralyzed following the tragic accident. According to a recent news feature from CBS Boston, his fiancé got a call at her Boston home from the 30-year-old agent himself, and he told her that she was the best thing that ever happened to him. He also told her that he can’t feel his legs and that she needed to come get him as soon as possible. Continue reading

January 18, 2016

Espinoza v. Arkansas Valley Adventures: Wrongful Death Cases

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

Espinoza v. Arkansas Valley Adventures, a case from the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, involved a plaintiff who went on a summer rafting trip. Plaintiff hired a guide to take the family on a whitewater rafting trip in the Colorado Rockies. This trip also involved an overnight camping and rafting adventure through a popular stretch of the river known as Brown’s Canyon.

When it was time to go on the trip, she arrived at rafting outfitter’s center and met with other participants who had signed up to go whitewater rafting that day. They were all given basic guidance on what they would need to do and were handed release of liability waivers to sign. Continue reading

January 15, 2016

Sharkey Issaquena Community Hospital v. Anderson: Discovery Requirements in Personal Injury Cases

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

Sharkey Issaquena Community Hospital v. Anderson, a case from the Supreme Court of Mississippi, involved a patient who had a stroke and was seen at defendant’s emergency room. However, plaintiff contends that hospital did not properly diagnose the stroke and discharged him with instructions to see his primary care physician within three days.

As a result of not being given immediate treatment for his stroke, he suffered permanent brain injury and nervous system damage, including loss of function, loss of enjoyment of life, medical bills, and pain and suffering. There were also special damages alleged as part of plaintiff’s action. Continue reading

January 11, 2016

Harrison v. Roitmanm: Infliction of Emotional Distress

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

Harrison v. Roitmanm involved a heavily contested divorce proceeding. As part of his case, husband hired a psychiatrist as an expert to provide a psychiatric analysis of his wife. Even though the doctor had never personally examined or even met plaintiff, the doctor submitted a written report to the judge in which plaintiff was diagnosed with a personality disorder and noted she had serious mental health issues and was not likely to improve.

Following this report, plaintiff filed a lawsuit against doctor in which she alleged that doctor committed medical malpractice by making such a negative diagnosis without ever having met plaintiff. She claimed this diagnosis caused her to suffer emotional distress. In this case, it was both negligent infliction of emotional distress and intentional infliction of emotional distress, as well as one claim of civil conspiracy. She claimed that making such a diagnosis without have personally conducted any sort of examination or even reviewing other doctors’ records was a breach of the applicable standard of care for a medical health professional in the psychiatric field. Continue reading

January 9, 2016

Bradley v. Sugarbaker: Medical Battery Claims

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

In the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, there are negligence-based torts and intentional torts. A negligence tort is the most common type of claim filed in a civil personal injury lawsuit. This is when a defendant is alleged to have owed a duty of care to plaintiff, breached this duty of care, and the breach actually and proximately caused damages to the plaintiff.

An intentional tort can be something like assault and battery where the tortfeasor intentionally injures the plaintiff. However, there is a different kind of intentional tort in the concept of medical malpractice known as medical battery. Essentially, whenever you go into the hospital for a medical procedure, you must give your informed consent. If you do not give your consent, then the doctor has no right to treat you. If he or she has not consented, the contact would be considered offensive or harmful, and this would constitute a medical battery. Continue reading

January 6, 2016

Woman Killed at Ski Resort in “Spruce Trap”

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

While this hasn’t been much of a winter for most of the country, it has been getting a little colder in the New England area, including in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. One of the winter activities that is quite popular in our region is going to the ski slopes for skiing or snowboarding. While there is no question that skiing or snowboarding is an inherently dangerous activity, especially for those who are inexperienced, a ski resort is still required to take whatever reasonable steps it can to prevent foreseeable injury to foreseeable persons and property

Preventing foreseeable injury to foreseeable persons and property is the duty of care owed under the common law definition of negligence in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. One issue that arises in these cases is that, whenever you go to a ski area, you are often required to sign a waiver of any and all liability. This is either done when you sign an electronic signature pad, such as you do when picking up a prescription at your local pharmacy, or it is actually printed on the back of your lift ticket. They say that by affixing the lift ticket to your jacket, you are agreeing to the conditions of the waiver. Continue reading

January 4, 2016

Davis v. S. Nassau Communities Hospital: Medical Malpractice and Third Party Plaintiffs

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

Davis v. S. Nassau Communities Hospital, a case from the New York Court of Appeals, involved a patient who went to defendant’s emergency room for treatment for a painful medical condition. Court records indicate that she drove herself to the hospital. When she arrived and was treated by doctors, she was given a narcotic opioid-based painkiller and Ativan. Ativan is a benzodiazepine like Valium or Xanax. She was given her medication at around 11 a.m.

The common side effects for Ativan are dizziness, sedation, disorientation, and weakness. An expert testifying for plaintiff said the effect of Ativan was both hypnotic and sedative. The expert also testified about Dilaudid, which was the painkiller given to patient. This medication causes impairment of the ability to perform certain activities and makes it dangerous to drive a car. The drug also contains an insert in the package, which says ambulatory patients (leaving the same day) should be cautioned about the dangers of driving. Continue reading

January 2, 2016

Accidental Shooting at Gun Show Results in Serious Personal Injury

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

With all the recent gun violence around the world, we have once again been hearing about efforts to increase gun control restrictions in the United States, and we have been hearing from those who oppose gun control. Regardless of one’s personal feelings on gun control, there is no question that guns are a big issue in the country, as well as big business. Even in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, where there have been substantial gun control laws for many years, there are still many residents who strongly support one’s right to own firearms.

There are still many guns sold in our state, and some of those of guns are sold at gun shows held at conference centers and hotels across the Commonwealth. At the shows, buyers can look at guns and firearms-related products, and, if they have a valid Firearms ID card, or FID card, they may purchase certain firearms. While anyone is allowed to show up at these events with their own firearm, assuming they have a permit, they are supposed to not carry around any loaded weapons to prevent a serious personal injury or death. Continue reading

December 29, 2015

Massachusetts Non-Profit Trains Dogs to Help Veterans with Brain Injury

by Jeffrey S. Glassman

Any personal injury lawsuit filed in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts often involves significantly more complexity than other types lawsuits if a plaintiff suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI). It doesn’t matter whether the lawsuit is filed under a negligence-based theory or intention torts-based theory, such as assault and battery, because, regardless of causation, proving damages will require extensive medical documentation and expert testimony.

One of the reasons for this is that, despite all doctors have learned about the human brain and traumatic brain injury in the last decade or so, there is still much doctors and researchers do not understand. However, there is no question that there have been tremendous strides in the fields of neurology and neurosurgery, and this is largely due the large number of serious brain injury cases during recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. While war and injuries are clearly nothing new, this war marks the first time in our history that the military had the technology to effectively evacuate many of the casualties and get them in an operating room within a matter of minutes or hours. In past wars, such as Vietnam, the wounded soldiers were not evacuated in time and died from their injures. Today, we have many more survivors, but that often means survivors with a traumatic brain injury. Continue reading