Ron Miller is an attorney who focuses on serious injury and wrongful death cases involving motor vehicle collisions, medical malpractice, and products and premises liability. If you are looking for a Maryland personal injury attorney for your case, call him today at 800-553-8082.

June 2018 Update:  Abilify lawsuits may be very close to a settlement.  There were three cases set to go to trial in the federal MDL.  They are settled.  These cases may settle soon.  If you have not already brought a claim, contact a lawyer as soon as possible.

What is Requip?

abilify gambling lawsuitsRopinirole, marketed under the name Requip, is a dopamine agonist.  The drug stimulates dopamine receptors and mimics the action of dopamine in the brain.   In 1995, GSK sought to submitted get Requip approved to treat the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.  The FDA approved ropinirole for marketing and distribution for treating symptoms of Parkinson’s disease in 1997.

Jury Verdict Research has some interesting statistics on the value of different types of medical malpractice.

Malpractice cases are among the toughest to pick. We have taken great pride in getting verdicts and settlements in malpractice cases that other lawyers have summarily turned down. It really makes you feel super smart when that happens. But I know we have turned down many seven-figure malpractice cases in the last 10 years. Everyone approaches these cases from various angles and sometimes one malpractice attorney sees what another attorneyaverage injury verdicts does not.

What These Malpractice Statistics Show?

In Duckett-Murray v. Encompass Ins. Co. of Am., Encompass did its best effort to refuse coverage when its insured needed it after thirty years of receiving premiums from its insured.

This has to be the least shocking development since Kim Kardashian’s last divorce.  Listen, unlike a lot of lawyers, I understand when insurance companies fight like crazy in third party claims where the claimant is not their client. But this is a case where the family had been paying premiums for almost 30 years.  When an insurance company loses an appellate case on coverage involving their own insured, they should be ashamed of themselves.  Sure, perhaps it is a close call.  But don’t you want to err in favor of your own client?

Thankfully, the Court of Special Appeals ruled for the victim.  The key take-home lesson here is if there is any question about an umbrella or uninsured coverage, turn over every last stone. Because there is a real good chance you will find a path to move coverage.

subrogation marylandOur plaintiffs’ personal injury lawyers frequently receive calls from defendants who have been involved in auto accidents who do not understand why they are being sued by an insurance company because of an auto accident they had that was not their fault.

Most people involved in an auto accident in Maryland do not realize that if they do not have auto insurance and the accident is their fault, the other party’s insurance company can sue them for the money it paid out in property damage. Many of these callers are surprised when, years later, they receive suit papers for an auto or truck accident in which no one sustained a personal injury, yet they are being sued for thousands of dollars, either for property damage or for medical bills paid by an insurance company.   The insurance company is exercising its right to subrogation, which literally means the insurance company is substituting itself for the actual party involved in the auto accident and collecting the money for the damage done to that individual’s property (for which they have already paid under their insurance contract with that person).

How is this possible?  The insurance company is exercising its right to subrogation, which literally means the insurance company is substituting itself for the actual party involved in the auto accident and collecting the money for the damage done to that individual’s property (for which they have already paid under their insurance contract with that person).

I’ve been waiting patiently for the first tort opinion of 2018.  I’ve muscled through the attorney grievance opinions and criminal cases for 19 days until I finally got one: Davis v. Frostburg Facility Operations LLC. This nursing home fall case is a cautionary tale for lawyers who step outside of their practice areas.

The issue in Davis is the distinction between ordinary negligence claims and professional malpractice claims.  In most cases, you know whether you have a malpractice case or you don’t. You trip and fall on a slippery floor in a hospital; that is not malpractice. The doctor operates on the wrong leg; that is malpractice.  The question is: what do you do when it does not feel like malpractice, but you fear a court might see it differently?  The Maryland Court of Appeals has acknowledged that the phrase “medical injury” can be a bit ambiguous, making it sometimes different to determine whether a case should be started through HCADRO or a Circuit Court.

The answer is simple.  Just file suit under the Health Claims Act.  It can’t hurt.  But many Maryland lawyers — usually those that have not felt the weight of the nuances and technicalities of the HCA on their shoulders — choose a different path.

tax cut beerEarly Saturday morning, the United States Senate passed a bill that, if enacted, will be a boon for car accident lawyers in Maryland and around the country.  The Senate’s tax reform bill included language which would decrease the federal alcohol excise taxes by 16 percent and lead to steep cuts in the cost of beer, wine, and liquor.  It is a “car accident lawyer jobs bill” although sources tell me this is not the official title of the bill.

The newly passed Senate’s bill would, for example, cut the federal taxes on beer from $7.00 to $3.50 per barrel on the first 60,000 barrels and from $18.00 to $16.00 per barrel on the next six million barrels. I am unfamiliar with how big a barrel is, but I know that it will cut the cost of buying alcohol.

Fewer people die in drunk driving accidents than when I was a kid.  Even though billions of dollars have been spent trying to eradicate drunk driving, we have gained little ground.  Every year, over 10,000 people die in drunk driving accidents.  That is not the half of it.  About 88,000 deaths every year are because of alcohol, which makes it the third leading cause of preventable deaths after smoking and poor diet/lack of exercise.  But we are not talking about just deaths.  Alcohol destroys families and leads to crime, illness, and non-fatal car accidents.  Not for nothing for those who are excited about the ostensible economic benefits of this tax plan, alcohol use slows down economic productivity and leads to job losses.

We have been handling more and more nursing home cases in the last few years.  How much is a nursing home case worth in Maryland? Well, nursing homes think a strong liability nursing home death case in Maryland is worth between $200,000 and $250,000.

We disagree.  Strongly.  This disagreement is bound to come to a head soon.

Let me explain.

I can’t say I’m a fan of any car insurance companies in Maryland.  Some are worse than others.  Here is my “Top 5 Worst Auto Insurance Companies to Deal With” list in personal injury cases.

#1 GEICO

GEICO has the largest market share in Maryland.  We see GEICO regularly. So that familiarity breeds contempt.

Why They Are Awfulgeico maryland

GEICO makes the worst pre-suit offers of the big six insurance companies (State Farm, Allstate, Nationwide, USAA, Erie).  So there’s that.

GEICO’s new generation of adjusters are increasingly condescending, laughing at demands, and other histrionics that are very grating. You would never see the old school GEICO adjusters who are almost invariably professional and likable, even when I disagree with them (I’m Facebook friends with GEICO adjusters who I used to fight with in the old days.)

GEICO almost always put more money on a case when a suit has been filed. By then,  the claim is switched over to a litigation adjuster who is more likely to be a seasoned adjuster who can really value the case.   So the original adjuster never has to put his or her tail between his legs and increase the offer they once thought was hysterical.  Instead, these pre-suit adjusters are already on the phone telling another attorney or victim how silly their claim is.  These neophyte adjusters are firmly ensconced in their bubble and are never forced to face reality.   Continue reading

Calls to our law firm by bedsore victims and their families have ballooned in recent months.  We have a few more law firms sending all of their nursing home cases to us and our Internet presence has increased the number of calls we get directly from victims.

There are a lot of questions about how bedsore cases and which cases typically get compensation, the type of cases our firm will take, and what really is the deal with bed sore cases.

I try to address some more common questions below.

I stumbled across a just brutal 9th Circuit opinion in S.H. v. United States earlier this year. This case reversed a $10 million verdict in a birth injury case, finding that the foreign country exception bars plaintiffs’ Federal Tort Claims Act (“FTCA”) malpractice claims against the military doctors who treated the mother and child.

birth injury military parentsFacts of S.H. v. United States

A U.S. Air Force Master Sergeant is transferred to Spain.  I don’t know if he wanted to go to Spain, but it does not really matter, right? He was ordered to go to Spain. Before leaving for Spain, they go to Andrews Air Force Base so the military can verify that the family is medically suitable to travel overseas.  At Andrews, he and his wife learn they are pregnant with their third child.  She had experienced two prior preterm deliveries and a miscarriage in the past.

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