Widow Receives $3.1 Million Settlement from 2010 Megabus Crash That Killed Her Husband
By Dean I Weitzman, Esq. on July 12th, 2013
At least six victims and families of victims in the Sept. 11, 2010, fatal crash of a double-decker Megabus have received settlements of up to $3.1 million to compensate them after the tragedy that took four lives on Onondaga Lake Parkway near Syracuse, N.Y. The widow of one of the victims, Ashwani Mehta, received a $3.1 million settlement in 2012, while Candice Burks, another passenger in the bus, was awarded $677,000 in compensatory damages and...
Virginia Family Awarded $14 Million in Damages from Hyundai For Son’s Car Crash Injuries
By Dean I Weitzman, Esq. on July 3rd, 2013
The family of a 16-year-old driver in Virginia was awarded $14 million in damages by a Virginia jury after the side airbag in the car the boy was driving one night in February 2010 failed to deploy after he crashed the vehicle. In its verdict, the jury ruled that Hyundai Motor America, which sold the 2008 Hyundai Tiburon the teen was driving that night, "breached the implied warranty of merchantability, meaning the company made a...
Berks County Jury Awards $1.7 Million Verdict to Family of Infant Who Died After A Medical Misdiagnosis
By Dean I Weitzman, Esq. on June 28th, 2013
When the family of a three-month-old girl brought her into the emergency room of Reading Hospital and Medical Center in Reading, Berks County, on Dec. 16, 2007, the baby was suffering from a 103-degree fever. The infant, Emma Takacs, was seen by a doctor who diagnosed her with a middle-ear infection, prescribed an antibiotic and discharged her, according to a June 25 story in The Legal Intelligencer. The next morning, the baby was found to...
Why Medical Malpractice “Reforms” Hurt Patients and Benefit Insurance Companies
By Dean I Weitzman, Esq. on June 21st, 2013
Supporters of medical malpractice reform have for years pointed to huge court verdicts to plaintiffs and rising insurance rates for doctors as two prime reasons for why such reforms are needed. The problem with those claims, though, is that they are just not true. Yet these lies and innuendo continue because those are the messages being communicated by insurance companies and their lackeys. A new report in the journal, CHEST, the official publication of the...
Philadelphia Building Collapse Tragedy: Lessons Learned
By Dean I Weitzman, Esq. on June 14th, 2013
As a decrepit building next door was being demolished as part of a renovation project, a Salvation Army thrift store on Market Street in Center City Philadelphia collapsed, trapping dozens of innocent victims under bricks, girders, wood and other heavy building materials. That disaster on June 5, 2013 has changed the lives of dozens of families. Six people inside the Salvation Army thrift store were killed by the falling materials, according to a story in...
Bensalem Man Receives $19 Million Jury Award After Car Crash That Resulted in Leg Amputation
By Dean I Weitzman, Esq. on June 7th, 2013
A suburban Philadelphia man who lost a leg following a 2009 car crash has received a $19.1 million award from a Philadelphia Common Pleas Court jury. Patrick Hennessey of Bensalem, Bucks County, who was 24 at the time of the incident on July 26, 2009, was severely injured as he helped to push a disabled car to the side of the northbound Roosevelt Boulevard in Philadelphia, according to a May 28 story in The Pennsylvania...
How Inadequate Auto Insurance Leaves Drivers Financially Vulnerable
By Dean I Weitzman, Esq. on May 24th, 2013
Let's say that you're driving along and minding your own business when suddenly your vehicle is struck broadside by another vehicle that ran a red light. The police are summoned as you sit there assessing your injuries and pains, but at least, you think, you have adequate insurance coverage that will take care of your medical care, personal needs and your recovery. The problem with that scenario, though, becomes very real if the other driver...
Beware When Buying Small SUVs: Many Are Performing Poorly in Certain U.S. Frontal Crash Tests
By Dean I Weitzman, Esq. on May 17th, 2013
When you buy a new or used vehicle for your family, you likely shop for good fuel mileage, roominess and perhaps most importantly – safety and crashworthiness. The problem, though, is that your expectations may not meet the real-world safety and crash-worthiness of some of the vehicles out there, especially if you are shopping for a small SUV. In new tests by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), only two widely-available small SUV models...
A Limousine, A Wedding Party, 5 Deaths, A Tragedy on A Bridge
By Dean I Weitzman, Esq. on May 10th, 2013
It was to be a fun, celebratory, fabulous night celebrating a recent wedding with friends by taking a limousine ride to a gala evening at a local hotel outside San Francisco. Instead, the new bride and four of her best friends died on the night of May 4 when a flash fire broke out inside the moving limousine, causing them to be overcome by dense smoke and flames. The horrific fire spared four other women...