Tucked away near the bottom of today's news is a brief story stating that a Georgia pharmacy is issuing a recall on the drug Avastin, commonly prescribed for macular degeneration. The reason is that the lot in question of this drug has been linked to eye infections. Admittedly, this is not top-of-the-page news even for a personal injury attorney, but it's just another reminder of the way we all take it for granted how the combined power of the threat of lawsuits and regulation makes companies behave in ways that protect all of our safety.
If all the personal injury lawyers in the world dissappeared tomorrow, we know there are lots of people who wouldn't shed a tear. However, it's important to realize that the folks who would be dancing the most vigorous jigs would be owners and investors in large businesses that would no longer have to worry about lawsuits on behalf of injured employees and consumers.
We'd all like to think that simple human decency, plus the threat of bad public relations, would keep responsible parties from placing innocent people in danger. The problem is, without a single personal injury lawyer to file a lawsuit, not only would we lose a gigantic, albeit negative, financial incentive for companies to pay close attention to the safety of their products and workplaces -- we'd even lose the public relations damage a company that doesn't pay attention to safety should suffer. When was the last time you read a news story about a personal injury allegedly caused by a company or organization where a lawsuit by either an individual or a government agency wasn't involved?
Like us or not, if you want to stay safe, you need us.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Friday, March 1, 2013
The Sporting Life
Word that a lawsuit had been filed earlier this week in the aftermath of and incident in which three spectators were injured at the Daytona International Speedway in Florida got us thinking about sports and the law in general. Obviously the vehicle accident lawyer who took the NASCAR case is thinking about the specific legalities that can make the case for the victims, even as representatives of the racetrack will try and argue that the waiver disclaiming responsibility on the back of the ticket absolves them of all responsibility.
Still, there are questions beyond the interesting matter of how much responsibility the owner of a sports venue has for the safety of guests, even when the sport in question carries a small but definite inherent risk for viewers. As an attorney in Los Angeles, we don't hear about NASCAR every day, but football is the nation's sport.
As most readers will probably know, doctors, sports observers, and athletes, as well as personally injury lawyers, have been conducting a very forthright discussion of the dangers to athletes inherent in the game of football in particular. With evidence mounting that the repeated concussions football players suffer can have seriously destructive consequences in regards to both the physical and mental health of athletes, many people are wondering if the sport should even be allowed to continue without truly major alterations to the way the game is played on the professional, collegiate, and high school level.
Of course, as with the Daytona case, the people behind the big business of sports will have to balance the popularity of their current way of doing things against the costs they will be forced to pay out to compensate the victims. In the meantime, lawyers like everyone here at the Law Offices of Burg and Brock will be watching very carefully.
Still, there are questions beyond the interesting matter of how much responsibility the owner of a sports venue has for the safety of guests, even when the sport in question carries a small but definite inherent risk for viewers. As an attorney in Los Angeles, we don't hear about NASCAR every day, but football is the nation's sport.
As most readers will probably know, doctors, sports observers, and athletes, as well as personally injury lawyers, have been conducting a very forthright discussion of the dangers to athletes inherent in the game of football in particular. With evidence mounting that the repeated concussions football players suffer can have seriously destructive consequences in regards to both the physical and mental health of athletes, many people are wondering if the sport should even be allowed to continue without truly major alterations to the way the game is played on the professional, collegiate, and high school level.
Of course, as with the Daytona case, the people behind the big business of sports will have to balance the popularity of their current way of doing things against the costs they will be forced to pay out to compensate the victims. In the meantime, lawyers like everyone here at the Law Offices of Burg and Brock will be watching very carefully.
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