Nursing Homes Must Be Safe

In January, police arrested a nurse on suspicion of sexual assault of an incapacitated nursing home patient in Phoenix. In May, a jury awarded $7.5 million to a family of a disabled elderly woman who was sexually assaulted by another patient at a Pennsylvania nursing home. In Florida, a mother is currently suing her daughter's former care facility, alleging her profoundly disabled daughter, age 23, was raped, impregnated and injured while in the facility. With baby boomers retiring at record rates, our society needs a new model for operating, managing, and investigating nursing homes. We
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Your Rights on the Not-so-Friendly Skies

A man was dragged from his seat on a United Airlines flight by airport security officers. Footage taken by another passenger shows the officers forcibly removing the man and dragging him by his arms down the aisle and out of the plane. The man was pulled out because he refused to leave the flight to make room for United Airlines employees after airline personnel asked him to involuntarily exit the plane. The federal Transportation Department is investigating United Airlines to determine whether the company followed proper procedure in removing passengers from an overbooked flight. According
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About high volume, big advertising law firms — one writer’s view.

In the article, “Run of the Mill Justice” Nora Freeman Engstrom of Stanford Law School interviewed lawyers and paralegals at high volume law firms, and analyzed their not-infrequent disciplinary files. Her conclusion is surprising, but logical:  high volume "settlement mill" law firms work because insurance companies, which pay the bills, like them. Insurance companies might be choosing to cooperate with settlement mills, in part because settlement mills appear willing to settle the largest claims — which present the highest chance of a catastrophic verdict — at an attractive discou
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What to do about Facebook Posts

We represent a young woman I’ll call “Gertrude.” Gertrude was injured in a collision a couple of years ago. She had fairly serious low back injuries which caused her pain for well over a year and which still cause occasional pain and discomfort depending on her level of activity. We sued the driver who caused the accident. As is typical, the other driver’s insurance company hired a lawyer to defend the case. The case proceeded through discovery, with both sides exchanging documents, medical records, and other information about the claim. Experts were hired by both sides to review
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