Insurance companies do not think the way you and I think. But, by understanding how insurance adjusters think and what is important to them, you can maximize how much money you receive in a personal injury case. The goal of this post is to show you how to get more money from the insurance adjuster.
Insurance adjusters are trained to rip you off.
The popular infant formula Similac has recently been the subject of numerous product liability lawsuits filed around the country over the last 12 months.
There are two big lawsuits pending involving Similac:
Bellwether trials are basically “test” cases in large mass tort litigation involving thousands of plaintiffs. When you have thousands of individual plaintiffs bringing similar claims (usually product liability) it is not physically possible to take every case to trial.
Instead, a handful of sample cases are tried to give everyone involved in the litigation a clear idea of the settlement compensation payouts victims should receive. These trials are bellwether trials.
In this post, we will explain the bellwether process in mass tort multidistrict litigation (MDL) cases. We will examine the role of bellwether trials and how individual cases are selected to serve as bellwether cases.
In Webb v. Giant of Maryland LLC, the Maryland Court of Appeals (COA) was asked to revisit the decision of the Court of Special Appeals (COSA).
The issue was whether the grocery store could be liable for an injury caused by a Pepsi delivery driver while stocking shelves at the store. The Pepsi delivery driver was an independent contractor and not a store employee of Giant. So the question was whether Giant still be liable for the Pepsi driver’s acts based on the level of control they had over him inside the store.
The Maryland Court of Appeal affirmed the decision of COSA holding that Giant could not be held liable because the store did not exercise the necessary high level of control over the Pepsi driver.
While Bayer continues to settle large blocks of Roundup lawsuits, another Roundup jury trial is currently underway in California. Following a COVID delay, the trial in the case of plaintiff Donnetta Stephens has now converted to a virtual proceeding, making it one of the first “trials by zoom” in U.S. history.
This post, written on October 26, 2021, and updated on December 20, 2021, offers a snapshot of the latest Roundup lawsuit and its impact on settlement amounts in Phase Two (post-settlement) of the Roundup litigation.
[December 10, 2021 Update: The 4th Roundup lawsuit to go trial resulted in a defense verdict for Bayer this week in the case of Donnetta Stephens v. Monsanto. Stephens was a woman in her 70s who claimed that she used Roundup regularly in her garden for years and was subsequently diagnosed with lymphoma. The trial, as we discuss below, had to be held entirely by Zoom video conferencing (one of the first-ever “Zoom trials”) because of continuing COVID restrictions in California.
In this post, our Baltimore personal injury lawyers will discuss lawsuits involving bus accidents and taxi accidents. More bus, taxi, and MTA accidents happen in Baltimore City than in any other part of Maryland. The obvious reason for this is the urban geography and social demographics of Baltimore make bus and taxi transportation more common than in other areas. (In 2021, we are obviously seeing tons of Uber and Lyft cases.)
Bus transportation on MTA is the primary means of public transportation in Baltimore. Our subway and light rail systems are very limited which makes MTA buses the only viable option for most people in the city. Our accident lawyers have handled a number of major accident cases involving MTA buses over the years.
Lawyers are now jumping on NEC lawsuits that alleged baby formulas made from cow milk, such as Enfamil and Similac, pose a danger to premature infants because they greatly increase the risk of a dangerous infection called necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). Our attorneys are going after these potential lawsuits as well because we think they might produce large settlements and verdicts.
Over the last 12 months, numerous product liability lawsuits have been filed against the manufacturer of Similac (Abbott Laboratories, Inc.) and the maker of Enfamil (Mead Johnson Nutrition). These NEC formula lawsuits accuse the defendants of deliberately failing to warn about the risk of NEC.
Mass tort historians, if such a thing exists, will tell you that first cases filed in an eventually successful mass tort end in disaster. One of the first infant formula NEC lawsuits was Ferry v. Mead Johnson & Co., et al. (3:20-cv-00099) which was filed in Connecticut state court and removed to the U.S. District Court for Connecticut because of diversity jurisdiction.
If you are bringing a birth injury lawsuit, you find out pretty quickly that the birth injury lawsuit process is a complicated maze. It is a lot to absorb. I wrote this post to explain to you what you can expect when you file a birth injury lawsuit.
Each birth injury malpractice lawsuit involves unique facts and circumstances, but they all go through the same process in the court system. Understanding this process and what to expect during each stage can help you feel more comfortable and eliminate some of the anxiety that often comes with being a plaintiff.
Bringing a birth injury lawsuit in Maryland can be mentally and emotionally difficult for most parents. Having a good birth injury lawyer that cares and understands what getting justice for your child is all about can make a huge difference. This page will walk through the progression of a birth injury lawsuit from begging to end.
Bayer will pull Round-Up off the market in January 2023. This post is about how this will impact the settlement amounts in future Roundup lawsuits that are not in the initial settlement.
Ever since its acquisition of Monsanto back in 2016, Bayer has been besieged by a growing tide of Roundup lawsuits. The lawsuits allege that prolonged exposure to the active ingredient in Roundup, glyphosate, can cause cancer. Bayer has steadfastly defended the safety of its iconic weed killer product. But last week the company made a drastic shift when it announced that glyphosate-based Roundup will be pulled from the retail market starting January 2023.
Why leave the product on the market for another year? It is hard to defend. Bayer seems to desperately not want to make it seems like a recall. I’m-not-actually-doing-this-thing-that-I’m-it-seems-like-I’m-doing.
In Ford v. Edmondson Village Shopping Center Holdings, LLC , Maryland Appellate Court examined the question of a landlord’s responsibility in protecting tenants from criminal acts committed by third parties on the landlord’s property.
Thankfully, the court found that an employee of a commercial tenant is considered to have the same legal status on the leased property as the employer-tenant itself, which is that of a tenant rather than a business invitee. This means employees of the tenant can bring negligent security lawsuits in Maryland.
