by Kevin O'Keefe A lot of people have the impression that if something goes wrong with a medical procedure, it's easy to sue your doctor for big bucks. But medical malpractice cases are, in fact, extremely tough to win. In deciding if your case is worth pursuing, you must consider: Liability Damages Who would pay those damages Liability To determine if someone is liable - that is, legally responsible - for your injuries, you need to figure out if a health care provider was negligent and if so, whether that negligence caused your injury. Just because your case turned out poorly doesn't necessarily mean that a doctor was negligent. The key factors in determining negligence are: The accepted standard of care - what is the accepted method of care for doctors in this particular circumstance tempered by what is common within the geographic area. A rural doctor's resources will often not be as extensive as a metropolitan hospital Whether that standard was followed If the standard of care wasn't followed, whether not following that standard caused the injury. Negligence can occur at various stages. A health care provider may: Misdiagnose a problem Fail to treat the injury or illness properly Administer the wrong medication Fail to adequately inform a patient about the risks of a procedure or about alternative treatments Even if you can prove that a doctor was negligent, you don't have a case unless you can document that the negligence caused your injury or worsened your condition. In a case involving misdiagnosis of cancer that caused a patient's death, for instance, the health care provider may argue that the illness was terminal and that nothing could have been done anyway. Damages If you establish liability you are entitled to damages, which can include compensation for medical bills, lost ...

If you are searching for information regarding a personal injury claim, you can find just what you need online. You can read about car crash claims, medical negligence and what your time limit is for filing your claim. Maybe you had an accident at work and so you should know that your employer is responsible by law to make sure the work area is a safe place. Of course nobody plans on being injured at work but it still happens, and more often than you might think. When any workplace is unsafe, it is just a matter of time before an employee slips or is hurt by a falling object or on faulty work equipment. If this has happened to you, then you should know you can find information online that you might not be aware of. Every worker must come to work knowing they are safe, but when an accident at work takes place, you must know who to go to for help with your claim. A personal injury claim can get you compensation for the days of work you miss while at home healing. It will also cover you for your pain and suffering if the injury was caused by the fault of someone else. It is wise to know your rights when something like this happens. It is true that most people have no idea how to file a claim until that day comes where they are faced with the need. Online there are also many frequently asked questions that you can read and see if you can get some answers that way. This will also show you that you are not alone in your search as others before you have felt the same way. Take time to educate yourself so you understand all the details ...

Philadelphia fails breathalyzer test in 1,100 cases March 24, 2011|By DANA DiFILIPPO, difilid@phillynews.com 215-854-5934   Philadelphia police have discovered that four breathalyzer machines routinely used to test motorists for alcohol and drug impairment were improperly calibrated, throwing at least 1,147 recent or ongoing DUI cases into uncertainty. "We screwed up, folks. We screwed up, plain and simple, and now we're paying for it," Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey said yesterday morning at a news conference at police headquarters. District Attorney Seth Williams promised that anyone whose case included evidence from the improperly calibrated machines will be permitted a retrial. His office is mailing letters to affected defendants. This comes at a time when court officials are crusading to cut a crippling backlog in a clogged court system in which some cases linger in limbo for months or even years. None of those at yesterday's news conference dared guess how much the retrials - or possible lawsuits - could cost the cash-strapped city. "Our interest is justice, not merely convictions," Williams said. The breathalyzer blunder irked both drunk-driver defenders, who questioned whether innocent people have been wrongly jailed or punished, and activists against drunk-driving, who worry that the mess could give hundreds of drunk drivers a free pass. "[Criminal] consequences are based on the [Breathalyzer] readings, and if you have readings based on a badly calibrated machine, you could affect not only innocents, but someone could get a more severe penalty than they deserve," said Joseph Kelly, the Port Richmond-based DUI attorney who alerted police to the problem late last month after finding the discrepancy in a client's paperwork. "They could lose their [driver's] license or go to jail because of a [faulty] machine that should have never been used." But Carol Heimerl, a victims' advocate with the Philadelphia chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, countered: "Certainly we don't want licenses ...

State Sen. Bundgaard involved in domestic violence incident by Connie Cone Sexton - Feb. 26, 2011 10:07 PM The Arizona Republic Scott Bundgaard, the majority leader of the Arizona state Senate, was briefly taken into custody on suspicion of domestic violence Friday but was released because he was immune to arrest under rules of the Arizona state Constitution. Aubry Ballard, who Phoenix police said is his girlfriend and was involved in a fight with Bundgaard, was arrested on one count of assault. Bundgaard, R-Peoria, and Ballard had minor injuries, said Phoenix police Sgt. Tommy Thompson. Thompson said police responded to a call at about 11:20 p.m. Friday of a man pulling a woman out of a gold vehicle, which was stopped northbound next to the median on Arizona 51, just south of Cactus Road. When officers arrived, they said Bundgaard, 43, and Ballard, 34, his passenger, showed marks of a physical altercation, "which constituted an act of domestic violence," Thompson said. After being taken into custody, Bundgaard told officers that because he is an Arizona state senator, he is immune from arrest. Thompson said the department confirmed Bundgaard's statement and he was not arrested. The case will be submitted to the prosecutor's office for review. The immunity was not a "trump card," Thompson said. "The only thing it did was not allow him to be booked into jail." In an interview Saturday evening, Bundgaard said he had not been involved in a domestic violence incident Friday and has never been accused of domestic violence. "It's not acceptable to assault anyone for any reason," he said. Bundgaard said he had been dating Ballard about seven months and said she had attacked him. Bundgaard said he had participated Friday in a National Kidney Foundation of Arizona charity event, Dancing with the Stars Arizona 2011. As he was leaving, he said his girlfriend accused ...

Too drunk? Your car won't go along for the ride. By Ashley Halsey III Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, January 7, 2011; 10:51 PM The technology developed in the past decade to sniff out terrorist bombs eventually could be used to combat another scourge: drunk drivers. Researchers funded by auto manufacturers and federal safety regulators are working on sensory devices - to be installed as standard equipment on all new vehicles - that would keep a vehicle from starting if the driver has had too much to drink. "We're five to seven years away from being able to integrate this into cars," said Robert Strassburger, vice president for safety for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a trade group for the world's major auto companies. The new technology would not require that the driver blow into a tube, like the interlock devices some states require after drunken-driving convictions. Instead, either a passive set of sensors permanently installed in the vehicles or touch-sensitive contact points on a key fob or starter button would immediately register the level of alcohol in the bloodstream. Less clear is whether such technology - which presumes that all drivers are potential drunks - will antagonize some car buyers, and it's uncertain how much it would cost. But that's a marketing problem for down the road. Alcohol was a factor in 10,839 highway deaths in 2009. In the past two decades, it accounted for 268,442 deaths. And 10 percent of people in the United States recently admitted to being drunk behind the wheel in the past year, a poll found. Drunken driving "remains the leading cause of fatalities on America's roads, killing more than 10,000 people in 2009," said David Strickland, administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The "technology presents a new opportunity for us to dramatically lower drunk-driving deaths and has the potential to ...