Florida legislators have created this bill because they are concerned about the high rate of Florida teen drivers who text-message while driving or talk on their cell phones.  Many of these teens text-message and cause serious accidents or engage in some other activity that takes their eyes off of the road.  Automobile accidents are the leading cause of death for U.S. teenagers.  Several states across the United States have already adopted similar laws, which prohibit teenage drivers from using their cell phones or other electronic wireless communication device.

If you are a parent of a teenager, you are probably already worried about your child talking on the cell phone and causing a serious car crash.  Only time will tell if this Florida legislation will be able to prevent the number of auto accidents caused by cell phones and teenage drivers.

For more information about this proposed Florida law, read the article “Proposed Cell Phone Ban for Teenagers.”

The Social Security office will send you a notice before a scheduled review.  You will be requested to appear in the local office.  During your appointment, questions will be asked regarding your current condition and if you have experienced any improvement.  They will also ask for the names, addresses and phone numbers of your physicians, hospitals and other providers.  The information will be used to obtain and analyze your medical records.

The Florida Disability Determination Services is responsible for making disability decisions regarding Florida residents for the Social Security Administration.  This agency will determine if you are able to work and if they believe your condition has improved, your disability benefits will stop.

If you are unhappy with the decision, you have the right to appeal.  You should contact an experienced Florida Social Security attorney, such as David Benenfeld, if you choose to make an appeal.  There are levels in the disability appeal process and it is a good idea to have someone helping you who understands the procedures. 

There is a great article, titled How Your Disability Is Reviewed, that talks about the details of a review and how to dispute the decision.

The results of the study indicate that insurance companies could save an average of $114,000 per claim or $670,000 for severe injuries by offering quick settlements instead of going to court.  It was also estimated that the insurance companies could save $32,000 in legal expenses and approximately $211,000 for severe injury cases.

This study illustrates that both the defendant and plaintiff can benefit from an early settlement.  The insurance company stands to save hundreds of thousands of dollars while the plaintiff doesn?t have to wait as long for compensation.

If you ask most Florida personal injury attorneys, you will find that they have represented many cases where the insurance company rejected a reasonable offer before the case went to trial.  In the end, the insurance company often had to pay a settlement after the jury found the defendant liable for the plaintiff?s injuries.  So, the question remains ? why would an insurance company not settle immediately after an injured person files a claim?  One theory is that by not offering immediate settlements, the insurance company is able to discourage more claims from other injured parties.

In Florida, you must be 21 years old to possess or consume alcohol.  Contrary to popular belief, there is no "parental consent" exception to this law.  Many people believe that their kids are allowed to enjoy a drink with dinner as long as they are in their own home and have their permission.  This is not true.

If you are hosting a party where you are serving your own and your neighbors children alcohol, you are doing so at your own peril and may be charged with serving alcohol to a person under the age of 21.  If prosecuted, you may be required to serve 60 days in jail and pay up to a $500 fine for each child served. 

For more on Florida's alcohol liability laws, check out our article here.

We've all noticed the way that a seat belt locks up when you break too hard.  Well, the third row seats do not perform this function.  According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the seat belt webbing is not adequately secured by the automatic locking retractor device, which allows the "seat belt webbing to spool out during normal driving."  The loose belt "could affect the stability of a child restraint." 

In short, in a collision, even if you've done everything to properly strap your child into his or her safety seat, the seat itself may leave the passenger row and cause injury.

Owners of the 2008 Highlander and Highlander hybrid can call Toyota at 1-800-331-4331 and Toyota dealers will provide installation of new seat belts for free.

The concern is that that fatigue and sleeplessness from sleep apnea makes trucking even more dangerous.  Trucks can weigh several tons when fully loaded and are very hard to stop in emergency situations. 

People become more susceptible to sleep apnea when they have certain physical features, such as excessive weight.  Having a BMI of 30 or higher puts individuals at risk for developing sleep apnea.

It is unclear what the FMCSA plans to do with the results of the testing.  Will the agency prevent those who are prone to sleep apnea from driving?  Would they require treatment for the disorder? 

Smokers in the class action suit must have been diagnosed with a smoking-related illness before 11/21/1996.  "Smoking-related illness" includes lung cancer, chronic pulmonary disease, emphysema, and several others.

This case has been pending before the court for over 14 years.  It began with a class action filing against Big Tobacco in 1994 and proceeded to trial in 2000.  At trial, a Florida jury handed down a landmark $145 billion verdict which was later overturned.  However, in 2001, Big Tobacco realized that they woudl eventually be on the hook for a large sum of money and began the trust fund for the victims.

In order to be eligible for a distribution from the Engle Trust Fund, plaintiffs must be registered by June 16, 2008.

The bill is similar to the ban on pit bulls in Miami-Dade that has been in effect for the last twenty years.

The new bill would amend current Florida Dog Bite Law.  Under the current law, municipalities are not able to ban specific breeds, but owners are held accountable for any damage done by their dogs.

But this bill misses the point.  Florida should be encouraging responsible dog ownership, instead of banning certain breeds of dogs.  Yes, some dogs are more aggressive than others, but if the owners who love these dogs can take responsible steps to keep their dogs from attacking humans or other dogs, the legislature wouldn't have to address this problem. 

The article, "Prevalence of Pain in Patients 1 Year After Major Trauma," tracked the progress of over 3,000 patients at 69 different hospitals across the united states who had been admitted because of acute trauma.  Results showed that 12 months after the injury, 62.7% of patients still reported some injury-related pain. 

Perhaps most importantly for the purposes of litigation, pain at 3 months was predictive of high levels of pain at 12 months.  This means that a quick settlement with the insurance company after only three months can cause you to be undercompensated for your pain and suffering. 

For years, the insurance defense bar has railed against plaintiff claims of "soft tissue damage," but this article provides proof that car crash pain stays with victims for a long time.

Unlike fact witnesses, experts are allowed to offer "opinion testimony."  For instance, while a fact witness would only be permitted to tell a jury that he saw a red Mustang run a red light and collide with a green minivan, the mechanical expert would be able to offer an opinion about the Mustang's break system.  Additionally, the plaintiff and defense would each call witnesses to give their opinions about the recovery of the plaintiff.

But what happens when one of those experts lies in court?

In a deposition for a medical malpractice trial, Miami heart surgeon Dr. Alex Zakharia lied about his credentials.  Dr. Zakharia was testifying on behalf of a man suing the Veteran's Administration and testified that he had extensive experience in coronary bypass surgeries.  However, a quick check with the records at the Miami Heart Institute and Cedars Medical Center, where Zakharia worked, revealed no such thing.

Zakharia was subsequently indicted on fraud and perjury charges.  As part of his plea agreement, he was to give up his medical license.  But Zakharia had a change of heart about whether he would surrender the license.  After he failed to turn in his license, U.S. District Court Judge Paul Borman sentenced Zakharia to 30 dayas in a South Florida halfway house, a year of probation, and a fine of $100,000.  Zakharia quickly made plans to surrender the license in order to avoid further sanctions.

The lesson here is two-fold.  The first should be obvious: If you've sworn an oath to tell the truth - do so.  Don't exagerate your credentials to make yourself more appealing to a jury.

The second lesson is for the lawyers: You must follow up with your expert witnesses to ensure that they do actually meet the qualifications that they espouse.  The plaintiff's lawyer in this case could simply have requested documentation of Zakharia's surgeries.  The consequences are too great to risk being fooled by a doctor.

The lawsuit, which can be read here, alleges that State Farm and more than 15 co-defendants conspired to defraud over a million dollars by creating thousands of fraudulent documents for the purpose of denying claims.  The suit also alleges that State Farm has been paying excessive fees and kick-backs to the independent medical examiners in exchange for the sham reports.

The plaintiff in the lawsuit, interestingly, is not a State Farm customer, but another New York physician.  He claims that his constitutional rights were violated by State Farm because State Farm made it known that if physicians did not provide sufficient denials within the evaluation reports, State Farm would stop using those doctors for IME services.

The lawsuit was brought under the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization (RICO) Act.  RICO, which was initially drafted to to make it easier to prosecute organized crime, allows private parties to sue for damage to their business or property if they can prove a "criminal enterprise." 

The ban lasted all of two days.  On Thursday, the First District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee, Florida, upheld a lower court?s stay on the ban.   OIR now has ten days to respond with arguments as to why the stay should be lifted.

Allstate is refusing to turn over the McKinsey documents, which many plaintiff?s lawyers believe contain a plan for summarily denying valid insurance claims in an effort to become a more profitable company.

McCarty?s anger with Allstate is understandable, as the corporation is willing to incur millions of dollars in sanctions in the Missouri litigation, but is not willing to do anything to make homeowner?s insurance more affordable in Florida.

Desmopressin is an antidiuretic that comes in both pill form and as a nasal spray.  The drug acts in the kidneys to reduce the amount of urine produced at night. 

It is currently unclear whether the use of desmopressin caused the two patients' deaths or any of the other seizures.

In addition to prescriptions for bed-wetting, the drug can be used to control bleeding due to surgery, injuries, or menstral periods in patients with certain diseases (hemophilia A or type 1 von Willebrand disease).

The FDA has issued the following advice to patients currently taking desmopressin:

• Tell your doctor about all drugs you are currently taking.


• Tell your doctor if you have a history of hyponatremia.


• Supervise the use of intranasal desmopressin in children.


• Restrict fluid intake from one hour before to eight hours after taking desmopressin.


• Call the doctor immediately if the patient's water intake changes.


• Call the doctor immediately if hyponatremia symptoms occur.

Fentanyl is only supposed to be prescribed for chronic pain in people used to narcotics, like cancer patients.  When prescribed to the wrong patient, however, the patch can cause trouble breathing and an overdose can cause death.

Doctors have been prescribing the patch for headaches and post-surgical pain, causing the FDA to issue a warning about improper patch use.  A similar warning was issued back in 2005, following an investigation into 120 fentanyl-related deaths.

The FDA?s warnings were as follows:

   Fentanyl patches can cause severe trouble breathing. Get emergency help if you have trouble breathing or extreme drowsiness with slowed breathing; feel faint, dizzy, confused; or have other unusual symptoms. They can be signs that you were prescribed too high a dose or took too much.

   Fentanyl patches are only for round-the-clock pain that is moderate to severe and expected to last for weeks. They are not for sudden, occasional or mild pain, or pain after surgery.

   The patches should not be your first narcotic painkiller.

   Ask your doctor how often to apply the patch, whether to reapply one that has fallen off and how to replace it. Doing any of that wrong can cause an accidental overdose.

   Do not use heating pads, electric blankets, saunas or heated waterbeds, take very hot baths or sunbathe while wearing a fentanyl patch. Heat may increase the drug?s absorption, causing a life-threatening overdose. Call a doctor right away if body temperature becomes higher than 102 degrees while wearing a patch.

Academic studies, however, tell a very different story about driver fatigue.  Dr. Paul Jovanis, a professor of civil engineering at Penn State, found that the rate of accident increases tremendously in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh hour that the driver is on the road.  In fact, Jovanis found that accidents are more than twice as likely to occur in the driver's tenth hour, than in his first.

Only three months ago, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia struck down an 11 hour driving limit and 34 hour restart period, stating that the FMCSA had not adequately explained the reasons behind giving truckers the extra hour.

The FMCSA is also working to develop a way that hours of service may be recorded electronically.  This will prevent drivers from squeezing in extra hours.