Severely Hurt in a Youth Baseball Game, Teen Victim Gets $14.5 Million Settlement
By Dean I Weitzman, Esq. on August 23rd, 2012
It was just a baseball hit toward him during a youth baseball game in 2008, but the moment the pitch came off the batter's metal bat, it changed the life of a teenaged pitcher, striking him hard in the chest, and almost instantly stopping his heart. The victim, now 18, suffered severe brain damage because his brain was without oxygen for 15 to 20 minutes after the ball struck him, according to a recent Associated...
Battle Continues Over Pennsylvania’s Voter ID Law: What It Means for Voters
By Dean I Weitzman, Esq. on August 15th, 2012
The controversial five-month-old Pennsylvania law that requires voters to show valid photo ID in order to cast their ballots at the polls was upheld this week by a state Commonwealth Court judge, but the battle is likely far from being over. In a 70-page opinion, Judge Robert Simpson Jr. upheld the law, saying that it would not be an unfair or unconstitutional burden on voters in the Commonwealth, according to a story in The Pittsburgh...
Tragic Fatal Ohio Car Crash Involving 16-year-old Driver a Somber Reminder to Our Teens
By Dean I Weitzman, Esq. on August 10th, 2012
All the five friends and band mates wanted to do was to take a break from their high school marching band practice and grab a bite to eat together before getting back to their musical work. Instead, tragedy struck when their car, being driven by a 16-year-old by in the group, went off the road about 18 miles west of Columbus, Ohio, struck a fence and rolled at least once, according to a story in...
Hurt on the Job: $3.75 Million Settlement to Woman Injured By Tractor-Trailer at Work
By Dean I Weitzman, Esq. on August 7th, 2012
In her job as a security guard at the Penn Terminals port in Eddystone in Delaware County, Susan Sawyer’s job was to make sure that tractor-trailers traveling through the facility matched the records for incoming and outgoing freight. But one day in August 2008, a tractor-trailer driver operating his vehicle in the terminal was distracted as he used a cell phone and drove with his dog on his lap while he was exiting the port’s...
DUI Driver and Bar Sued by Widow of Philadelphia Cop Killed in Wrong-way I-95 Crash
By Dean I Weitzman, Esq. on August 5th, 2012
Philadelphia Police Officer Brian Lorenzo was simply riding home from work on his police motorcycle early in the morning July 8 on northbound I-95 near Cottman Avenue when he was hit head-on by a car being driven the wrong way on the highway. The high-speed impact of the crash as the southbound car struck Lorenzo’s police motorcycle instantly killed Lorenzo, a 23-year veteran of the police department and father of three children. He was a...
Parent Alert: Child Car Seats Have Expiration Dates – What You Need to Know to Protect Your Children
By Dean I Weitzman, Esq. on August 3rd, 2012
Parents often pass along their children's car safety seats to be used by others as their children outgrow them. That may seem like a kind practice, but it turns out to be a very unsafe idea. Car seats actually are manufactured with a finite lifespan in mind and include a sticker that lists an expiration date, usually five to six years after the date the seat was built. "There is a reason why car seats...
Post-Tonsillectomy Complications Led to Child’s Brain Injury, Jury Awards $1.2 Million Award
By Dean I Weitzman, Esq. on July 28th, 2012
With their 11-month-old son regularly having breathing problems while he slept, his parents took him to a doctor for help. After a detailed sleep study to learn what was ailing the baby, the doctor then recommended and performed surgery to remove the baby’s tonsils and adenoids. Following the surgery, however, the infant stopped breathing while recovering in the pediatric unit at Harrisburg Hospital. The lack of oxygen that followed caused an anoxic brain injury, and...
Injured During Job Interview, Fall Victim Receives $8.25 Million Settlement
By Dean I Weitzman, Esq. on July 27th, 2012
Across the U.S., falls are the leading cause of worker fatalities in the construction industry, according to the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) in the U.S. Department of Labor. About 150 to 200 workers are killed each year and another 100,000 are injured in falls at construction sites, the agency says. Not all such injuries actually occur when a worker is on a job, however. Recently, an $8.75 million settlement was reached in the...
Work Zone Crash Kills 6 in NY: What We Can Learn From Such Tragedies
By Dean I Weitzman, Esq. on July 20th, 2012
A tractor-trailer barreling down a work-congested highway in upstate New York failed to slow down and smashed into several vehicles July 19, killing six people and leaving lots of questions about what happened. The tractor-trailer caused a chain-reaction collision that prompted an SUV to burst into flames and at least two other vehicles to be struck, according to a story from The Associated Press (AP). Five people died in the SU, including the driver, Laurie...