Missouri Injury Law Blog

In a previous Missouri injury lawyer blog entry, I discussed an Illinois dangerous product personal injury claim we are pursuing on behalf of an Illinois personal injury client. He was struck violently in the face and nose by a log piece that was ejected from a log splitter. See - Illinois Dangerous Product Personal Injury Claim - Log Splitter.

Oftentimes, personal injury claims can be settled favorably prior to a personal injury lawsuit needing to be filed. However, this is an example of a case that the insurance company and I cannot agree on the amount of damages as I believe strongly that my client's several painful nasal surgeries, past and future pain and suffering, and loss of his sense of smell are much more valuable than what they want to pay.

Therefore, personal injury lawyer Ben Sansone of Sansone Law in St Louis Missouri, recently filed a MacCoupin County Illinois products liability claim against the manufacturer of the log splitter and other parties involved in the design and marketing of the defective product. A detailed list of the defective designs making this log splitter a dangerous product when put to a reasonably anticipated use are laid out in our Illinois products liability complaint, described here.

Other examples of personal injury product liability / dangerous product cases our firm has handled or is currently handling:

Illinois Wrongful Death Lawsuit - Products Liability, Illinois Wrongful Death Claim, and Illinois Workers Compensation

Illinois Wrongful Death and Products Liability Lawyer - Work Related Death leads to Illinois Worker's Compensation Case and Products Liability Personal Injury Lawsuit

St Louis Missouri Products Liability Lawsuit - Eye Injury - Caused by Unsafe Toy Manufactured in China

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Posted In: Our Injury Cases , Products Liability / Dangerous Products

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On July 11, 2009 an Olin worker was tragically killed as the result of an Illinois industrial accident. He was operating a table lathe when apparently it inadvertently started causing a metal rod to swing around violently and fatally strike him across the chest. On behalf of the industrial worker's family, St Louis based Illinois personal injury lawyers, Sansone Law, are pursing an Illinois wrongful death claim, an Illinois products liability claim, and a negligent design claim against the table lathe manufacturer. Additionally, an Illinois worker's compensation claim has also been filed on behalf of the family.

Illinois Work Related Death - OSHA Investigating

Tragic death of Illinois worker at Olin Brass

Alton worker death after piece of metal on table lathe came loose, striking him in the chest and causing fatal injuries

Tragic work related Illinois wrongful death of Alton man

OSHA investigating work related death of Alton Illinois worker at Olin Brass

Verdict Reporter

4.5 Million dollar settlement - defective table lathe - products liability lawsuit and wrongful death

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Posted In: Our Injury Cases , Products Liability / Dangerous Products , Workers' Compensation , Wrongful Death

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As many people have heard, Zicam, a popular homeopathic product that claims its use shortens the length of a cold, was the subject of a 12 million dollar class action settlement in 2006, however, the product remained on the market. Now the FDA has issued an advisement cautioning consumers against using Zicam.

Currently, the personal injury lawyers at Sansone Law are representing several individuals for loss of smell and against Zicam. If you believe you have suffered Anosmia (loss of smell) from the use of Zicam you may have a case.

The loss of smell is a very serious and debilitating problem that also practically eliminates someones sense of taste along with their sense of smell due to the interplay between taste and smell. For more detail on Anosmia - loss of smell and it affects see the Anosmia Foundation.

Contact Us Now - Injury Lawyers that handle Zicam Loss of Smell Cases

Zicam and other Homeopathic remedies largly unregulated - Dever Post Article

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Posted In: Our Injury Cases , Products Liability / Dangerous Products

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Currently, I am representing an Illinois personal injury victim that suffered severe injury to his nose after being struck in the face when using a defective log splitter. See - Illinois Products Liability Personal Injury - Nose Injury & Loss of Smell.

My client lost his sense of smell as a direct result of the defective product. The case is currently in settlement negotiations, however, if we are not able to resolve the case we will be proceeding with a lawsuit. This is not a common injury, so a little research revealed some substantial verdicts and settlements wherein loss of smell was a primary injury.

$500,000 awarded to man who loses sense of smell as result of a fall down an Elevator shaft (http://www.siaccident.com/CM/Custom/Results.asp)

$1.2 MILLION. Recovery for emotional difficulties and loss of sense of smell and taste
Plaintiff carpenter fell six-feet from a scaffold, striking his head on the floor. Although diagnostic tests, including an MRI, did not show a brain injury, the plaintiff's family noticed a change in his behavior, and he complained of emotional difficulties and a loss of sense of smell and taste. (http://www.accidentslawyernewyork.com/verdicts-settlements)

$850,000 obtained for plaintiff
Woman strikes head in a car accident causing frontal subdural hematoma resulting in loss of sense of smell.
(http://www.gellerandsiegel.com/CM/Custom/Verdicts-Settlements.asp )

$12,000,000.00 ZICAM maker settles lawsuit over User’s Loss of Smell

Class action lawsuit alleging varying loss of smell for about 300 users.
(http://www.thedenverchannel.com/7newsinvestigates/6279576/detail.html)

$600,000 products liability settlement for loss of smell
Truck driver whose primary injury was the loss of his sense of smell. The truck driver claimed a design defect in a milk truck because it failed to provide a grab handle on the rear driver's side of the truck.
(http://www.marylandinjurylawyerblog.com/2006/06/600000_settlement_in_products.html )

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Posted In: Our Injury Cases , Injury Law , Products Liability / Dangerous Products

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Currently we are handling a St. Louis Missouri personal injury truck accident case that involved a commercial truck driver whose truck was being repaired so his employer a Missouri trucking company rented a similar commercial truck from Penske truck rental. The large sleeper cabin in the back of the semi-truck did not have adequate safety equipment or padding for the sleeping or resting passenger who is often the secondary or relief commercial truck driver. The tractor trailer was involved in large truck accident outside of St Louis Missouri while my client was asleep in the back. He suffered serious personal injury while traveling through Illinois, mainly several cervical fractures from the Illinois truck crash, because the sleeper cabin had no padding and no way to secure a sleeping truck driver. Thus, he contacted us, top St Louis injury lawyers.

As a St Louis personal injury lawyer handling large truck accidents, I see this as a truck accident case against the liable driver, but also a Missouri products liability and a Missouri negligent maintenance case for the truck rental company's failure to have and maintain proper truck safety and security for the truck driver resting in the cabin.

I have handled cases in the past regarding rental cars being improperly maintained as they are often abused and the rental company wants to put as little maintenance money in them as possible to boost profit margins. This is a recipe for disaster, as someone is inevitably going to suffer serious personal injury as a result of the negligent truck maintenance.

Recently U-Haul incurred a judgment of $84 million as the result of serious personal injury to a man who was run over by a truck that he rented from U-Haul. The man parked the truck on a slight incline and when the parking brake failed the truck ran him over causing severe personal injuries, including a broken pelvis preventing him from walking ever again. The rental truck personal injury lawyers discovered the truck brakes to be defective and total lack of maintenance after several hundred thousand miles of rental truck driving.

The problem is the total lack of maintenance. For example, I was able to get a great settlement for a client regarding an Illinois bus accident lawsuit after he stepped in front of a Greyhound bus from in between parked cars, however, the Greyhound bus brakes were malfunctioning and the driver was unable to stop to avoid the collision. See - Illinois Bus Accident Injury Lawyer Lawsuit Settlement.

If you or someone you know rent a truck make sure to drive carefully and check to make sure the truck is operating properly. If you or someone you know are the victim of an unfortunate truck accident personal injury in St Louis Missouri or anywhere in Missouri or Illinois, call us, Missouri truck accident lawyers and Illinois truck accident lawyers.

St Louis Personal Injury Attorneys

Illinois Truck Accident and Injury Lawyer

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Posted In: Truck Accidents , Products Liability / Dangerous Products

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Recently I settled an Illinois Workers Compensation case for $500,000, see Illinois Work Comp Death Case Settlement. Now that the Illinois worker's compensation case is resolved I am pursuing an Illinois products liability death lawsuit resulting from a improperly manufactured or designed cantilever that did not close and thus failed to prevent the worker from falling to his untimely death. A good Illinois personal injury lawyer must look beyond just the worker's compensation liability and investigate other potential defendants and theories of legal liability that allow the client to recovery beyond workers compensation, as the amount recoverable is limited by regulation.

When is there more to recover than just work comp? In the above case, the clients came to me because their first lawyer refused to pursue the products liability case and just wanted to represent them on the Illinois work comp case. The products liability case in this matter is what is known as a 3rd party claim. Generally, workers' compensation statutes and regulations prevent any other recovery by an injured worker or his family other than from work comp insurance through the work comp courts. Recovery is limited and regulated. However, when another party besides the employer is at fault there may exist a third party personal injury case. Many lawyers just want the work comp case and do not want to pursue the other parties, if you find yourself in this situation call me, because we always look into that possibility, and in the above case lead to an Illinois personal injury products liability wrongful death case. As in the above case, the original Illinois work comp attorney refused to take the products liability case, through investigation we have discovered that the cantilever is defective and thus the family has a claim worth potentially millions of dollars. Fortunately, they contacted me and we were able to explore these options and find a wrongful death products liability case.

What is a products liability case? A products liability case is simply as case wherein a defective product caused personal injury. In the above case, the cantilever malfunctioned or was improperly designed as it failed to close, allowing the lanyard to come unhooked from a water tower and allow the worker to fall, causing his unfortunate death. The specific cause of the malfunction I cannot get into at this point, however, as the picture to the right demonstrates, the cantilever fails to close and leaves over a one inch gap. Therefore, based on the facts and witness testimony regarding the fall it will show that had the clip closed all the way the lanyard would not have come unhooked and the worker would not have fallen from the top of the water tower and died. The defect is the libility, the circumstances leading to the fall are the causation, and the death is the damages, the three general requirements for a successful Missouri or Illinois personal injury lawsuit that an injury lawyer looks for.

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Posted In: Our Injury Cases , Products Liability / Dangerous Products , Workers' Compensation

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In a recent Missouri personal injury post I discussed a St Louis Missouri products liability personal injury lawsuit I have brought on behalf of my client, a young girl, that suffered a serious eye injury when playing with a toy knife that was unreasonably sharp. For fact details see: St Louis Missouri Personal Injury Lawsuit Eye Injury - Dangerous Product - Toy Knife.

The primary eye injury was a serious laceration to the front of her eye that cut through the cornea and the iris. This required several surgeries, first to sew up the laceration then a cataract occurred and a lens implant became necessary as well. As a result, this young girl will suffer vision problems for the rest of her life as well as an over-dependence on her uninjured eye. To the right is a detailed rendition of the injury as well as part of the medical surgical procedure to repair the eye.

What is the value of an eye injury? A Missouri and Illinois personal injury attorney bases that on many factors, the primary ones being the past and future medical bills and costs. Also, past or future lost wages. These are damages that are referred to as "special damages", meaning that they can be specifically calculated. Additional damages are pain and suffering, often referred to as "non economic damages" or loss of enjoyment of life. These are non economic damages as there is not a receipt, bill, or specific price tag attached with this type of damage. The non economic damages awarded by one jury may be very different than the damages awarded by another jury; assuming both find liability to be clear. This is the area of damages that separates top Missouri personal injury lawyers from the rest.

Similar eye injury related personal injury lawsuits have settled for several hundred thousand dollars and more. Other cases where blindness becomes an issue have settled or had a verdict in the millions. In the case above, I believe my client's injury is valued close to $500,000. This is based on the general amounts of the verdicts and settlements for similar type cases across the country as well as my evaluation of the case based on liability, medical damages, future problems, and general pain and suffering. Fortunately, my client did not suffer blindness and will be able to lead a normal and healthy life.

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Posted In: Our Injury Cases , Products Liability / Dangerous Products

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While working for Phoenix Fabricators my client's late husband, Jason, was repairing weld lines on a water tower in Arkansas. He lost his footing and his lanyard and safety clip failed, allowing him to fall to a tragic and untimely death. The surviving spouse and children settled the Illinois workers compensation claim, and have a cause of action against the lanyard manufacturer through a wrongful death products liability lawsuit. The employer was found by OSHA to have violated several regulations including failure to have safety nets among several other serious violations. Unfortunately, in most cases and in this current case, worker's compensation is the sole remedy available to an employee against their employer for injuries sustained on the job. This does not prevent us from filing a lawsuit against any responsible or negligent 3rd party.

Generally, the location of the injury or death dictates the applicable law, so in this case, Arkansas work comp law presumptively applied. However, under Arkansas law this wrongful death case would be capped at about $200,000, an amount that is disgustingly inadequate for the death of a young man. However, Under Illinois worker's compensation law the wrongful death the cap is much higher, therefore, the work comp claim was filed in Illinois seeking work comp benefits pursuant to Illinois law. We argued that Illinois work comp law applied because the decedent was an Illinois resident and was hired over the phone while he was at his home in Illinois.

This allowed us to convince the worker's compensation insurer to agree that Illinois law may very well apply and lead to a favorable worker's compensation settlement of $500,000.00 present cash value. The decent was entitled to payments over a number of years which would have amounted to more than $1,000,000.00.

The 3rd Party Case: We are currently pursuing the manufacturer of the defective lanyard for a negligence and products liability/wrongful death case for the death of our client's husband. This will allow us to recover damages in excess of worker's compensation's limited remedies that are capped by regulation in favor of employers. This case against the lanyard manufacturer is a multi million dollar case to compensate my client and her family for the death of her husband and her children's father.

ILLINOIS WORKER'S COMPENSATION & WRONGFUL DEATH CASE - Initial Blog Entry

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Posted In: Verdicts & Settlements , Products Liability / Dangerous Products , Workers' Compensation , Wrongful Death

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An Illinois personal injury case has arisen from my client's use of a Fisch Electric Log Splitter. As you can see from the picture to the right, the electric motor and plunger engagement lever must each be operated by a separate hand and must each be held down during the log splitting process, forcing the user into a prone position with their face as a prime target for any ejected log pieces. The picture demonstrates the prone position the operator must be in as the right hand holds down the electric motor switch and the left hand holds down the plunger lever; both must be held down during operation.

What safety measures are in place? Wearing safety goggles which do not protect the face. What safety measures should be in place? Simple, a metal guard, an operation switch that allows the operator to step away from the machine while splitting the logs, a longer plunger handle allowing distance from the splitter bed and not forcing the operators face to held in a dangerous position prone to serious personal injury. Any one of these design suggestions by themselves or in combination would likely prevent many injuries.

In the current Illinois products liability injury case I am handling, the log piece violently jumped out of the splitter bed and struck my client in the face as he was forced to remain in the prone position during operation with no safety guard. He was knocked unconscious and soon after waking up was taken to the local emergency room. He ended up with a severely broken nose along with several contusions and lacerations to his face. He has recently undergone his initial surgery to reconstruct and repair his nose and the doctors are expecting the recovery process to require several surgeries due to the nature and extent of the facial injuries.

We are currently accepting log splitter injury cases and lawsuits nationwide. If you or a loved one have been injured or killed by this type of log splitter or one similar to it please contact us.

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Missouri Products Liability Lawsuit - Brown v. Toys-R-Us, Inc. My client, Essence, is a young girl that suffered a severe injury to her eye from a surprising source, a toy. A toy kitchen set called "Lil Chef" kitchen set, The box strongly implies it was made by Toys-R-Us and has their company info on the box, additionally, nowhere does it indicate it was made in China. However, after filing a products liability lawsuit against Toys-R-Us, in St Louis Missouri, their lawyers are now trying to point the finger at a currently unknown Chinese toy manufacturer. They are attempting to add them as a third party defendant, thus they can argue that if they are liable then the Chinese company (third party defendant) should be liable to them for any judgment against Toys-R-Us.

What is wrong with this toy? The kitchen set is marketed for kids around 4-6 years old and includes plastic toy knifes. These toy knifes are serrated, stiff, rigid, and sharp. Essence was play cutting string when the toy knife cut through the string and stabbed her in the eye. The toy is unreasonably dangerous as its characteristics described above are not only unnecessary for a toy knife, but are absolutely dangerous in the hands of very young children. The injury resulted in a cut and bruised cornea severely debilitating her eye sight. Essence has been forced to undergo eye surgery and her doctors believe she will need surgery when she gets older and that she has a permanent injury to her eye that will result in eyesight problems for the rest of her life. Eye injury information.

Under Missouri injury law, Essence is entitled to her past medical bills (about $40,000),her future medical bills (yet to be determined) and her past and future pain and suffering, which included her permanent disability to her eye.

This personal injury /products liability toy lawsuit is another example of the flurry of defective and dangerous toys from China. Recent research is showing that despite all the recalls numerous dangerous toys from China are on the US store shelves.

This holiday season be careful, watch for the made in China labels on toys, however, if you are unfortunate enough to buy a toy made in China but it is not disclosed and a loved one is injured you have an option, call us, as we are experienced products liability and dangerous toy lawyers based in St Louis Missouri and covering all of Missouri and Illinois.

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Posted In: Our Injury Cases , Injury Law , Products Liability / Dangerous Products

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