Youhaverights.com Legal Topics Podcast

On March 16, 2007, Bear Stearns (BSC) agreed to be acquired by JP Morgan Chase for a mere $2.00 per share. This came after an announcement on March 14, 2008 that JP Morgan Chase was part of a bail out package to keep Bear Stearns from going bankrupt. Just days before the bailout was announced, Bear Stearns executives publicly downplayed the companies troubles in an apparent fraudulent attempt to instill investor confidence. The decline of Bear Stearns stock price and subsequent sale is one of the sharpest declines for a blue chip stock ever. On March, 12, 2008 the stock was trading at $61.58 and just four days later Bear Stearns, with apparently no other options but bankruptcy, agreed to be purchased for $2.00 per share.

The Yamaha Rhino ATV has been associated with a high number of rollover accidents. Serious design flaws in the Yamaha Rhino have made it top heavy and prone to rollover and have caused deaths, tibia and leg breaks, and amputations.

On November 5, 2007 Bayer AG announced they were removing their blood clotting drug Trasylol (aprotinin) from the market worldwide. While Bayer said the recall was not yet permanent, it is the first time the company publically acknowledged that the drug may be dangerous. Bayer AG said they decided to remove Trasylol from the market after a Canadian study revealed that the drug increased the risk of kidney damage, heart attack, stroke and death and was not more effective than competing medications. However, this recently released study was not the first study that clearly illustrated the risks of Trasylol. In January 2006 a prominent medical journal published the results of two older studies which both showed the dangers or Trasylol. One of these studies was an internal Bayer AG study that was not presented to the FDA. CBS recently reported on their popular program 60 minutes that a researcher estimates that 22,000 patients could have been saved if the FDA removed the heart surgery drug Trasylol two years ago,

The Food and Drug Administration has warned that the popular drug Botox has been linked to dangerous botulism symptoms, which has resulted in an unspecified number of deaths. Botox is best known as an anti-wrinkle treatment, but the drug is also approved to treat select neurological conditions and excessive sweating. The drug is also commonly used off-label (non-approved used) for the treatment of muscle spasticity in cerebral palsy patients. In its warning, the FDA said that the deaths it was investigating occurred in children who had cerebral palsy.

Chantix is a prescription anti-smoking drug manufactured by Pfizer, one of the biggest pharmaceutical giants in our society today. Smoking has been referred to as a silent killer in our society. It has claimed the lives of countless people, and over the years there have been a variety of different techniques developed and used to try and help people kick their smoking habit. Pfizer has been very aggressive in their attempts to promote Chantix. They have come out with commercials on television that try to reach out to the consumer and persuade them to use Chantix. Their message however does not sufficiently inform the consumer that by using Chantix a person can end up causing deadly harm to him or herself. Their message does not properly convey the risks of this medication.

Mesothelioma is a very serious condition. If you or a loved one have been diagnosed with mesothelioma, you should find out as much as you can about this life changing condition. Mark & Associates aims to provide you with important information regarding asbestos and mesothelioma.

Preemption has the ability to impact our health care system more than any other and it's barely being discussed. You can't turn on the news these days without hearing about the economy, the environment, the war and about health care but you've not heard about preemption and it is time for some public discussion about it. Preemption is a legal defense that the manufacturers of drugs and medical devices try to raise in lawsuits in order to shield themselves from any liability. Medical device and drug manufacturers frequently try to claim that the FDA's approval of a device or a drug grants them immunity, complete immunity, from being held accountable in cases when their products injured or kill people.

Avandia is a popular diabetes drug manufactured and marketed by the pharmaceutical company Glaxo Smith Kline. Avandia was approved by the FDA in May of 1999 and has emerged as one of the top-selling drugs in the United States. Several medical reports have linked Avandia to serious side effects including, heart attacks, congestive heart failure and bone fractures.

On October 15, 2007 Medtronic notified doctors and patients that it was removing its Sprint Fidelis defibrillator leads from the market. The company issued the recall after it received numerous reports of fractures in the Sprint Fidelis leads. A defibrillator lead is used to connect a defibrillator or a pacemaker to the heart, and any fracture in the lead can result in unnecessary shocks. The recall involved four specific model numbers: 6930, 6931, 6948, 6949. The leads were implanted in approximately 268,000 patients.

Maritime injury claims fall under a very complex area of U.S. law. Depending on how a worker is classified can determine the size of the financial recovery. For this reason it is essential to speak with a lawyer before filing any claim or agreeing to any settlement. There are also very short filing deadlines under maritime law, so time is of the essence.

In MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) or MRA (Magnetic Resonance Angiography) scans, patients may be injected with a gadolinium-based contrast agent which can lead to a life-threatening skin disorder in kidney patients. Because kidney failure patients may be unable to filter the gadolinium out of their systems, a recently identified disorder called Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis / Nephrogenic Fibrosing Dermotherapy (NSF/NFD) may develop.

FDA records show that as far back as 2002, Davol Bard began to receive complaints about broken rings in the extra large versions of the patch. Davol initially blamed the broken devices on doctors improperly folding the patches for placement during hernia repair. It was not until December 2005 that Davol ran tests and realized that the broken rings were not due to doctor error, but rather failure at the ring weld. In 2006, the FDA found that Davol was tracking complaints about the hernia patch improperly and that adverse reports were understated.

Americans purchase disability insurance to provide financial assistance when they need it the most. Disability insurance benefits are intended to replace between 40 to 60 percent of an individual’s gross income if they (s)he is unable to work for an extended period of time. Unfortunately, many legitimate disability claims are often unfairly denied by the disability insurance companies.