Our Blog - Category: Personal Injury

Yesterday (June 23), Alex Roshal, the manager of the building and safety division for the City of Berkeley, issued a 10-page memo entitled, “Staff Recommendation Related to Library Gardens Balcony Collapse at 2020 Kittredge Street.” The report confirms what was already obvious based on the photographs of ends of the broken wooden cantilevered joists of…

As predicted in our blog previously, it is reported that Berkeley Police Department homicide investigators were at the scene of the deadly balcony collapse. http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Five-dead-8-hurt-in-Berkeley-balcony-collapse-6329902.php The media is reporting that five of the six students who died in tragedy were from Ireland: Olivia Burke, 21, Ireland Eoghan Culligan, 21, Ireland Niccolai Schuster, 21, Ireland Lorcan…

We were saddened to learn of the tragic balcony collapse in Berkeley last night killing six Irish visitors and injuring seven others. Having prosecuted a multitude of similar cases, it would not surprise us if investigations conducted in the upcoming days demonstrated deficiencies either in the design, construction or maintenance of the balcony itself. Tragedies…

Thousands of Americans are stricken with spinal cord injuries every year. A major spinal cord injury changes someone’s life in an instant. Limited treatments are available, and many spinal cord injury victims will face partial or total paralysis for the rest of their lives. However, modern medicine can do some amazing things, and there are…

Back in 2007, toymaker Mattel issued a massive recall concerning toys that contained lead paint. Mattel said that all of the recalled toys had been manufactured by Chinese contractors. Since Mattel had not previously experienced problems with these manufacturers, they did not have stringent oversight procedures in place. After the lead paint issue was brought…

Almost any kind of product can be dangerous if it is released into the stream of commerce with a serious defect. From defective automobiles to dangerous medications, there are any number of products that can become dangerous when quality control is compromised. One does not normally think of furniture as an inherently dangerous category of…

Even in the United States, where there is stringent government oversight of the food industry and a web of strict health codes, food-borne illness, often called “food poisoning”, is still a widespread problem. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, there are an estimated 48 million cases of food-borne illness every year in America….

On July 30, Johnson & Johnson announced that it was pulling one of its laparoscopic surgery tools, the power morcellators from hospitals around the world. A laparoscopic power morcellator is a surgical tool that slices up uteruses and fibroids (common uterine masses) into small pieces so that they can be removed in a minimally invasive…

Authorities have charged a San Francisco Uber Cab driver with assaulting a passenger. The charges add to a growing number of concerns that local residents have with the ridesharing service. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that 28-year-old Daveea Whitmore has been charged with punching a passenger in the hand and hitting him in the chest….

California construction workers face a number of hazards on a daily basis. Although great strides have been taken to prevent construction accidents such as falls or cave-ins, many construction contractors do not adequately protect their teams from toxic dust which may irreparably damage either health. OSHA officials have launched a campaign to reduce the exposure…