Going to meet an attorney for the first time can be a nerve-wracking experience, especially if you have no idea what to expect. To put your mind at ease before entering an attorney’s office, you should keep these four things in mind:

• Your attorney is a person, just like you.
• Your attorney is there to help you.
• Attorney-Client Privilege means your lawyer must keep what you share in strict confidence (unless you give permission to share it). Be sure to speak candidly about your case.
• If you come prepared, you’ll feel more confident, making the process easier for everyone.

While the first three have to do with your outlook and attitude, the last tip requires a bit more preparation.  So how exactly should you prepare for your meeting with an attorney?

Paperwork

When you’re dealing in legal matters, paperwork is your friend. Be sure to complete any forms your attorney has prepared and sent ahead of your appointment, taking your time to ensure the information is thorough and accurate. Make copies of any important documents or evidence for your records, so that you can leave the originals with your attorney, and be sure to gather anything you think might be pertinent to your case. This will save you and your attorney time and money.

Notes

Notes are an important part of this process. Especially if there are things you need to remember to tell your attorney, or incidents that should be recorded while still fresh in your mind. Make notes of anything you think may be relevant to your legal matter and be sure to type them up and print them out for ease of use by your attorney, saving a copy for yourself at home.

Questions

Because you’ll undoubtedly have questions, concerns and topics you’d like to tackle at your meeting that you don’t want to forget, it’s best to sit down a few days before your meeting and make a list of these questions.  Things may come to mind later, so put your list somewhere convenient, where you can continue to add to it as new questions occur to you.

Be on Time and Stay Focused

Your attorney’s time is valuable. Showing up on time or even a little early, with all of your notes, questions and paperwork demonstrates that you’re ready to aid in this process, and keeps things running smoothly. Let your attorney ask questions and guide the process. Be honest, focused and stay on track and on topic. When your attorney is done, ask any questions and share any notes you may have, taking care to ensure you are clear about next steps.

Meeting with a lawyer for the first time may be something new, but it doesn’t have to be intimidating – especially if you make the necessary preparations. Remember, this is not a situation to be afraid of. Your attorney is on your side, and will be working hard to advocate for you.

All attorneys at Meshbesher & Spence are committed to helping their clients through difficult circumstances, and are dedicated to making sure that each case receives the time, care, and skill necessary. Take a moment to meet them.

Over 40,000 people in the U.S. have received the type of metal on metal hip replacements that have now been recalled. A new study published in the Lancet shows that high early failure rates for all-metal implants may not be relegated to a single design or manufacturer, but instead to an entire class of devices.

If you’ve received a metal on metal hip replacement and you continue to suffer from pain and health complications, you may be having a problem with your hip replacement. As a patient, you have legal rights, and it’s important to do everything you can to help preserve them.

Proper Compensation for Hip Replacement Failures

If you believe that you may be experiencing a metal on metal hip replacement failure, be sure to avoid these six common mistakes that could prevent you from receiving proper compensation.

Poor Medical Record Keeping

The biggest mistake patients make is inaccurate documentation of their medical records. Working with your doctor’s office can be tricky, as they are sometimes hesitant to automatically hand over medical records, but you are legally entitled to obtain a copy. Under Minnesota 2011 Statute “Patient Rights”, your doctor must give you a current copy of your medical records when requested. Review records carefully to check for accuracy, make copies, and keep duplicate copies in locked safe deposit boxes.

Accurately record every doctor’s visit in a journal or notebook, and include conversations with insurance agents or manufacturers. If you suspect metal toxicity or suffer from severe pain due to an implant failure, consult with your physician immediately so you can have proof of your injuries. Medical malpractice suits are lost many times when patients keep poor medical records or don’t even ask for a copy.

Waiver of Medical Liability Before Surgery

When you undergo hip replacement surgery, doctors and implant manufacturers want you to think you sign away your rights when you sign medical liability waivers. But that’s not always the case. Medical mistakes can happen unintentionally. However, a medical waiver cannot protect medical professionals (or manufacturers) if they intentionally put your life in jeopardy and are found negligent.

Settle for the Insurance Pay-Off

Do not sign off on insurance paperwork before you consult with a personal injury attorney. Insurance companies are notorious for offering low or unfair settlement rates when it relates to medical malpractice cases. Even if the offer is tempting, don’t settle or sign off with the insurance company. When you work with a personal injury lawyer, they will help you get the settlement you deserve.

Class Action Lawsuit

Don’t make the mistake of joining a class action lawsuit. It may sound like a good idea at first, but in the end you will likely receive a meager settlement. Most of the money in class action suits is awarded to the lawyers and not to the victims.

You Think Your Case Isn’t Worthwhile

Don’t assume that your personal injury case isn’t worthwhile. If you maintain accurate medical records and legitimately suffer major injuries as a result of negligence, a personal injury attorney can assist you with the process. He or she will able to determine what you fairly deserve, including monetary reimbursement for medical expenses and pain and suffering.

You Wait Too Long to Contact a Lawyer or Assume You Can’t Afford One

Sometimes you wait too long to find a lawyer, or think that you can’t afford a personal injury attorney. If you delay your case, you risk losing out on key evidence – i.e. keeping proper medical documentation and records – and missing crucial deadlines such as the statute of limitations.

Don’t assume you can’t afford a personal injury lawyer. Most lawyers won’t charge you fees until your lawsuit is settled and will only take a percentage from your settlement.

Do you have questions about your legal rights concerning a metal on metal hip replacement failure? Our personal injury attorneys at Meshbesher & Spence are here to help and get you the compensation you deserve.

For more information, visit our hip replacement blog post or our article, The DePuy ASR Hip: Perhaps the Greatest Disaster in Orthopedic History.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is scheduled to discuss whether or not to make metal-on-metal hip implants subject to more rigorous testing at a two-day expert advisory panel meeting on June 27-28, 2012.

Metal-on-Metal Hip Replacement Controversy

After years of controversy surrounding these implants, the FDA is starting to take the issue seriously. Numerous studies of metal-on-metal hip replacements show a higher failure rate than implants made of other materials, including a recent study released by the National Joint Registry of England and Wales. It showed that, after five years, 6% of metal-on-metal hip replacements needed additional surgery to replace or repair them, as compared to roughly 2% of people with ceramic or plastic systems. Last May, the FDA ordered manufacturers of metal-on-metal implants to collect more safety data on the devices, including data related to metal ion concentrations in the blood stream.

Common patient complaints with metal-on-metal hip replacement failure include:

• Metal breaks from constant weight-bearing stress
• Fractures near the artificial joint
• Artificial joint dislocation and instability
• Loosening of the attachment between the bone and artificial device
• Pain, stiffness, and infection due to loosening of attachment between device and bone.

Metal-on-Metal Hip Replacement, Metallosis, and Cancer

Outside of the high failure rate for these metal-on-metal replacements, there is a potentially more serious problem. The design of the systems leaves the metal ball and cup to abrade against one another, causing particles of chromium and cobalt to shed from the parts and enter the patients’ tissues and bloodstream.

This build-up of metal debris in the soft tissues is called metallosis, and can lead to the formation of pseudocysts (collections of fluid and dead tissue), which can destroy the surrounding muscle and bone.

In addition, recent studies link cobalt and chromium debris to an increase in the risk of cancer (particularly in the kidneys and bladder), and an increase in the risk of genetic damage.

The capper on all of this is that companies like DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc., a subsidiary of global giant Johnson & Johnson, have known this for years and have only recently decided to recall the ASR hip system from the U.S. marketplace (while still marketing the hip system to patients overseas).

What You Can Do if You’ve Had a Metal-on-Metal Hip Replacement

The problem with metal-on-metal hip implants is not limited to the DePuy ASR implant. If you were implanted with another device, including the DePuy Pinnacle hip, Zimmer Durom cup, or other metal-on-metal device, please visit our page on Defective Hip Replacement Recalls & Hip Surgery Lawsuits for more information, and contact us for a free consultation.

According to a recent study, poor people are less likely than people with more money to file a medical malpractice complaint. This finding contradicts the “unconscious bias” possessed by many doctors who wrongly think that low-income patients are more likely to sue.

The researchers of the study say that this type of bias might make a doctor less willing to treat low-income patients out of fear of not getting paid, or provide medical care of a lower quality than what would be given to a patient with more money.

The research team looked at social and medical studies to determine the difference in medical malpractice claims and litigation rates among patients that are socially disadvantaged compared to those that are not. The study recommends that physicians become more culturally competent, which could help them better relate to or treat someone belonging to a different ethnicity, race, socioeconomic status, sex, or sexual orientation.

One reason poor people are not as likely to file a complaint is that they believe they lack the resources to bring a claim.  Our Minnesota injury lawyers want you to know that your first consultation with Meshbesher & Spence is free.  Should you decide to work with an attorney, you will only have to pay legal fees if a settlement or verdict is reached, and that amount will come from the money you recover and not out of your own pocket.

It is the patient that suffers when medical mistakes are made or inadequate medical care is provided.  Do not be intimated about exploring your legal options or worry that filing a Minnesota medical malpractice case is an action that you cannot afford.

Poor Patients Less Likely to Sue Doctors, Analysis Shows, US News, February 28, 2012

Tens of thousands are injured and, on average, over 1,000 construction workers die each year while on job sites according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). While some of these injuries are simply unfortunate accidents, many of them could have been prevented with the proper training and safety precautions.

Assumed Safety in Workplace

While it is human nature to believe that your safety needs have been taken care of for you in the workplace, the truth is that negligence, carelessness and improper adherence to safety regulations by coworkers or management could be putting you at risk.

Don’t assume that your coworkers have had the proper training, that the equipment is functioning correctly, and that you are not in danger.

Proper Safety and Liability

Remember, even if training and equipment appear to be as they should, forgetting to do regular maintenance of dangerous or heavy equipment and not properly marking potentially hazardous areas can leave employees in precarious circumstances.

Also, even if you or your coworkers have been working on a particular machine for years and years, in order to fulfill your obligation under OSHA, MSHA or the rules of civil liability known as Tort Law, all operators must have identifiable and verifiable training on the machine or equipment.

With roughly 150,000 construction site accidents reported every year by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it pays to make certain your safety needs are properly met on the construction site.

According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the potential hazards for workers in construction include:

• Falls (from heights)
• Trench collapse
• Scaffold collapse
• Electric shock and arc flash/arc blast
• Failure to use proper personal protective equipment
• Repetitive motion injuries

Falls: How to avoid being a casualty of the #1 safety issue on construction sites

• Make sure that any scaffolding has been inspected by the proper personnel before you use it.
• Wear the proper safety gear: a hard hat (at all times) and sturdy shoes with nonslip soles.
• Watch out for co-workers on the scaffold, as well as those below.
• Move cautiously and slowly when working on any scaffold – use common sense.
• Speak to your supervisor if you’re unsure about the safety of working conditions on the scaffold.
• Don’t overload your scaffold or take unnecessary chances with your safety.
• Keep all unnecessary materials or debris cleared off the scaffold.
• Be sure to steer clear of scaffolding when using a forklift or other heavy equipment.
• Clean your materials off of the scaffold platform at the end of the day.
• Do not use an outdoor scaffold in unsafe weather conditions.

For more information on how to keep yourself and your site safe, visit OSHA’s Pocket Guide for a detailed list of safety solutions and practical advice on how to avoid deadly accidents like these.

If you’ve been seriously injured in an accident at a construction site, don’t hesitate to call the experienced attorneys at Meshbesher & Spence to help ensure that you are adequately compensated for your injuries and emotional suffering.

Would you be surprised to learn there is a powerful lobby working to limit your access to the legal system?  It happens to be the same lobby working to convince the American people that all lawsuits filed against corporations are frivolous and take away jobs.  If you’ve heard propaganda like this, chances are it was funded by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; specifically, the powerful corporations that make up its Institute for Legal Reform (ILR).

In a new eye-opening report  “Do As I Say, Not As I Sue,”  the American Association for Justice (AAJ) shows the hypocrisy of 10 of the largest and most influential corporate members of the ILR.  These are companies that regularly use the legal system to advance their own agendas (often through lawsuits that would be judged as frivolous by any standard), while at the same time advocating legislation that would close the courthouse doors to anyone seeking to hold major corporations  accountable for their own wrongdoing.

Some of the examples we found particularly amusing and egregious:

• FedEx sues man who built furniture such as a bed and a chair from their boxes.
• Caterpillar, one of ILR’s board members, sued Disney because it felt the depiction of bulldozers in the straight-to-video movie George of the Jungle 2 was overly villainous.
• Johnson & Johnson used the civil justice system to take on the Red Cross for using the red cross symbol on disaster relief kits.

These lawsuits can sound ridiculous, but they have one thing in common: the companies that are filing them have a Constitutional right to do so. The hypocrisy of these companies is that even as they file these lawsuits, they are members of the ILR’s board, whose sole purpose is to deny regular people their jury trial rights, especially when they are severely harmed or killed by the companies’ products and services.

If you’d like to get the full story, and not just the version the Chamber of Commerce has paid money for you to hear, we encourage you to read the AAJ’s report.

The study is aptly titled “Death By Mistake” and reveals the failure of the medical community to meet the challenge put forth by the Federal Government a decade ago to cut the number of these errors in half.  The goal was to do so within five years.  An additional five years later and rather than reducing the incidents of medical malpractice, it appears that the situation has gotten worse.

A few of the more alarming findings of the Hearst investigation:

• 20 states have no medical error reporting at all, five states have voluntary reporting systems and five are developing reporting systems

• Of the 20 states that require medical error reporting, hospitals report only a tiny percentage of their mistakes, standards vary wildly and enforcement is often nonexistent

• In terms of public disclosure, 45 states currently do not release hospital-specific information

• Only 17 states have systematic adverse-event reporting systems that are transparent enough to be useful to consumers

Despite the fact that malpractice litigation and payments are at historic lows, according to the federal government’s National Practitioner Data Bank, proponents of limiting patients’ rights continue to incorrectly blame ideas like “runaway jury awards” and “defensive medicine” for the nation’s escalating health care costs.

Bailing out negligent doctors does nothing to reduce the cost of healthcare and doesn’t protect patients from harm.

The Help Efficient, Accessible, Low-cost, Timely Healthcare Act of 2011 (H.R. 5) is a bill before Congress which would allow for sweeping immunity from accountability for the health industry – including doctors, nursing home operators, medical device manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies and hospitals.

The bill imposes an arbitrary and inhumane $250,000 cap on non-economic damages that compensate patients for the pain and suffering that accompany any loss of normal functions, such as blindness, paralysis, loss of sexual function, disfigurement and loss of fertility. H.R. 5’s one-size-fits-all cap is most harmful to the catastrophically injured as well as patients who aren’t high earners, such as children and seniors.

This bill has been considered in committee and referred to the House as a whole.  Instead of debating proposals that  inflict more pain on injured patients, we believe Congress should consider ways to reduce the astounding number of medical errors and ensure that the health industry provides quality care.

If a medical error has seriously injured you or someone in your family, we encourage you to contact an attorney at Meshbesher & Spence for a free consultation about your legal rights.

The Hot Coffee movie reveals what actually happened to Stella Liebeck, the Albuquerque, New Mexico woman who spilled coffee on herself and sued McDonald’s, while exploring how and why the case garnered so much media attention, who funded the effort and to what end. In the film, filmmaker Susan Saladoff tells what happened to Liebeck after the case was decided. And as she explained to The Salt Lake Tribune, she made the film to change people’s perceptions about the lawsuit:

“If asked to name a frivolous lawsuit, most people would name the McDonald’s coffee case, believing that a woman was driving her car, spilled coffee on herself, was not seriously injured, and won millions of dollars. Every one of those [ideas] is incorrect. She was not driving; she was in a parked car; she suffered third-degree burns requiring skin grafting and surgery; the judge reduced the award to a fraction of the jury’s verdict; and then the parties settled for an undisclosed amount.”

Saladoff uses Liebeck’s story, along with the stories of three others, to explain that corporations are limiting people’s access to the court system by creating the perception that lawsuits like Liebeck’s are frivolous. The film is riveting, provokes laughter and tears, and highlights some of the problems our justice system has developed as a result of “tort reform.” The tort reform movement is a disservice to many in that it gives corporations power over individuals and their rights to trial.

The film simply expresses several somewhat complicated topics in an understandable and debate-provoking manner:

• Caps on damages
• Arbitration clauses
• Judicial elections funded by corporate interests
• Public relations campaigns which have distorted the average citizen’s right to a jury trial when they are injured by another’s negligence.

The producer of the documentary, Susan Saladoff, had this to say about the film:
“The hope is that people are watching this film and getting angry and wanting to do something. Nobody wants to talk about mandatory arbitration. Nobody wants to talk about tort reform. These words are like blah blah blah, boring boring boring, until something happens to you or a family member or a close friend.”

Hot Coffee Official Trailer