Examples of common birth injuries resulting from malpractice range from brain injury that may result in impaired or delayed motor development or intellectual disability through to Erbs palsy and other brachial plexus injury. For a more complete discussion of the full range of birth injuries, their causes, and the obstetrical malpractice lawyer’s strategies for discovering the physician’s or hospital staff’s culpability in causing the injuries, please consider our Obstetrical Malpractice Lawyers and Birth Injury Attorneys page. Here we will discuss brain injuries which may not become apparent to parents immediately at birth, indeed commonly not resulting in parental concern until the baby fails to meet his or her expected milestones and in cases of mild intellectual disability may not be diagnosed until the child enters school. Brain injuries sustained at birth may be due to a number of causes, including oxygen deprivation, hypoxia, anoxia, or traumatic brain injury. There are a number of failures of hospital staff and obstetricians which can lead to brain injury. The hospital staff may not properly or timely apply fetal monitoring or fail to properly assess fetal distress, or they may fail to act sufficiently quickly to alert the mother’s obstetrician or the appropriate specialists to deliver the baby by cesarean section before the baby sustains brain damage. The obstetrician may fail to recognize fetal distress or delay delivery including by cesarean section to assure that the baby’s brain is not deprived of oxygen. (more…)

September 21, 2009: San Francisco
Traumatic Brain Injury, Trucking Accident: $49,123,375.87

Recognizing the staggering costs of healthcare associated with traumatic brain injury, a San Jose jury awarded Drew Dakota Bianchi $49,123,375.87 late Monday afternoon. The verdict followed a hotly contested five-week trial involving two truck drivers who collided on State Route 152 (Pacheco Pass), one of whom thereafter struck the car in which plaintiff was a passenger.

Plaintiff, Drew Dakota Bianchi, was a 21-year-old passenger in a Toyota Avalon, when, on May 3, 2007, he was struck by a Peterbilt truck driven by defendant, Samuel Bimbela. Evidence at trial established that Mr. Bimbela, driving his Peterbilt truck, and codefendant Mr. Michael Demma, driving a Gordon Trucking 18-wheel big rig, struck each other at or near the centerline on State Route 152. No pre-impact evasive maneuvers were undertaken by either driver.

Mr. Bianchi, whose injuries necessitate a lifetime of 24/7 care, brought suit against both truck drivers/trucking companies, as well as the State of California.

The jury, recognizing the devastating cost of future care for an individual sustaining traumatic brain injury, awarded $3.4 million in past medical expenses, $27.6 million in future medical expenses, $4.5 million for future lost wages, and $13.5 million in general damages.

The jury attributed fault in the amount of 35% to Gordon Trucking/Michael Demma, 60% to Samuel Bhnbela, and 5% to the State of California.

The verdict is thought to be one of the highest non-punitive verdicts in the State of California for an individual sustaining traumatic brain injury.

Plaintiff was represented by Randall H. Scarlett of San Francisco, California and Thomas Wm. Malone of Atlanta, Georgia. Mr. Scarlett dedicates his career to individuals sustaining brain injury. He actively serves as a Board Member on the California Brain Injury Association, and dedicates both his professional and personal life to improving the lives of those sustaining traumatic brain injury.

Accident Lawyers Require Particular Experience for Auto, Motorcycle, Bicycle, Commercial and Big Rig Truck Lawsuits, Also Attorneys for Cell Phone Accident Liability, And Serious Injury Claims Such as Traumatic Brain Injury and Paralysis.

The job of the accident attorney is often thought to be no more complicated than demonstrating who ran the red light. In fact, accident litigation can be highly complex, indeed every serious injury lawsuit is complex, involving numerous experts solely to demonstrate general and economic damages. Furthermore, very different factors may determine liability in motorcycle and bicycle accident cases, cases in which a party was engaged in cell conversation at the time, cases involving violation of the federal and state regulations governing large commercial and big rig trucks. Solving the “collectability” problem to assure full compensation in serious injury litigation can involve a number of different strategies to establish vicarious liability upon others which the accident lawyer must adapt specifically for auto accident and big rig truck accident cases. (more…)

By Ray Henke, a Motorcycle Accident Lawyer, Biker Rights Advocate and founder of Motorcyclists Against Dumb Drivers

The objective of our motorcycling community should be first and foremost to attempt to increase our safety on our American roads and highways. The solution is first to identify the principle causes of motorcycle accidents, and then to arrive at means to reduce the incidence of motorcycle accidents resulting from those causes. What the largest study of motorcycle accidents demonstrates is that two-thirds of all motorcycle accidents result from the inattention and negligence of auto drivers, two-thirds of that number, or fifty percent of the total resulting when the auto driver pulls out from a side street into an intersection or turns left at an intersection into the motorcyclist’s right of way. (more…)

When physicians refer to traumatic brain injury, or TBI, they mean a closed head brain injury from an impact to the head or “diffuse axonal shearing” from a rotational acceleration and deceleration, the rotational movement of the head and brain resulting in a sliding of brain layers. Cavitaton can also commonly result in traumatic brain injury, the formation of microscopic bubbles from the rapid movement of the brain, which then can burst, causing brain damage as the brain moves back into place.

For TBI lawyers all traumatic brain injury is serious, and this is certainly true for those who suffer traumatic brain injury. However, medical doctors commonly characterize TBI as mild, moderate and severe, not to diminish the seriousness of “mild” TBI but to have a diagnostic framework with commonly understood terms. (more…)

Environmental and Toxic Tort Law cases in California are often one and the same. In an age when the carelessness of large corporations seems endless and the public has awoken to environmental dangers such as global warming and pollution of groundwater, such cases can not only provide a measure of redress to injured plaintiffs but also assist in the fight against what some entities would do to our planet in the name of profit. (more…)

Paraplegia is the loss of movement of the lower part of the body, essentially from the waist down. While quadriplegia is the loss of movement of a person’s arms and legs and essentially, the loss of control of muscles from the neck down, paraplegia is still the result of major damage to a person’s spine. (more…)

An Auto or Motorcycle Accident can cause paralysis, which is the result that occurs when the brain or spinal cord is disconnected with the body. The resultant loss of muscle function for one or more muscle groups makes it impossible to control the muscles that move that part of the body. This type of accident occurs far too often in California and in other states. (more…)

Like snowflakes, or so they say, every brain is different. Brain injuries have just as many variations. Brain injuries can be severe or mild, permanent or temporary, immediate or arise some time after a trauma. Persons with brain injuries may not realize that they have them or may shrug off the damage that can be caused by a concussion, a blow from a trauma or accident, or even from the heat. (more…)