Boston prosecutors may be looking to charge NECC with several crimes, including fraud, violating the FDA act by selling tainted medication, and defrauding Medicare and Medicaid. NECC’s managing pharmacist, Barry Cadden, previously invoked his Fifth Amendment right during questioning by Congress in late 2012.

There are now 70 lawsuits against NECC, and dozens more are winding their way through the system, with an estimated 400 cases against the compounding company. NECC has asked that all the fungal meningitis lawsuits be consolidated before Boston’s U.S. District Judge Dennis Saylor.

Judge Saylor granted a request for a temporary consolidation of one dozen fungal meningitis lawsuits, and advised NECC to preserve all evidence now that the company’s offices and laboratories are shut down.

To date, more than 650 people have been sickened by the tainted steroid shots which inadvertently contained a rare form of fungal meningitis. The lawsuits filed are alleging that NECC produced a defective and dangerous product due to negligent practices and conditions. At least 40 people have died.

In a recent filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Boston, a federal bankruptcy court official stated that “gross mismanagement” by NECC officers led to the fungal meningitis outbreak.

Meanwhile, in early January 2013, attorneys for NECC sent a letter to the janitorial company which provided cleaning services to NECC’s laboratories, demanding that it take legal responsibility for the tainted steroids. UniFirst’s “Uniclean” business provided what NECC’s attorneys characterized as “limited, once-a-month cleaning services” for the compounding company’s cleanroom facilities. UniFirst responded with a statement that the claim was “without merit.”

The cleaning services that were requested by NECC consisted of two UniClean techs cleaning cleanrooms for ninety minutes once a month, using NECC’s own cleansing solutions, UniClean stated. UniClean claims that its services did not have anything to do with NECC’s day-to-day operations, the overall cleanliness of the facilities, or the sterility of the products produced there.

As part of their investigation, inspectors with the CDC and FDA examined other unopened vials manufactured at NECC and found additional bacterial contamination.

John Hale is a Waxahachie personal injury attorney and Ellis County personal injury lawyer helping injury victims near Dallas Texas. Learn more at http://www.hale911.com/

The Pea Pod Travel Crib includes an air mattress that tucks into a closeable envelope built into the dome tent floor. The domed tent is designed to collapse for travel, but when the inflatable mattress is in the tent floor, as designed, there is a space between the floor and the soft wall where the infant’s head can get lodged. It is believed that a 5-month-old baby boy became trapped in such a manner while napping in late 2011. He had his twin sister were placed the Pea Pod Travel Crib. The sister survived. The baby boy died.

The Pea Pod Travel Crib has been on the market since 2005, and approximately 220,000 have been sold nationwide. This recall is the first for KidCo Inc. The company is offering modification kits to travel crib owners which are designed to strengthen the tent sides, and also includes a replacement mattress that is thinner to remove the risk of suffocation.

The company has stated that they believe the safety kit addresses any safety issues the travel crib may have. However, the safety consumer group Kids in Danger has said that they would rather the company issue refunds so that parents can purchase a different item, one tested for sleep safety. A product must be considered a crib, bassinet or play yard to be tested for sleep safety.

The Pea Pod Travel Crib and the PeaPod Plus Travel Beds were manufactured in China and distributed nationwide in stores and by Amazon.com starting in January 2005.

John Hale is a Waxahachie personal injury attorney and Ellis County personal injury lawyer helping injury victims near Dallas Texas. Learn more at http://www.hale911.com/

Litigants are requesting to examine electronic media with growing regularity, including emails, social media information and search engine history. Very little regarding social media is private, something may users forget on a regular basis. Bottom line? If you want something to be private, don’t share it.

According to the Fourth Amendment, a litigant has a right to privacy, but whether that includes tweets and Facebook postings, which, by their very nature are to be shared socially, may depend on who is deciding at the time. In Katz v. United States. Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 361, 88 S.Ct. 507, 516-17 (1967), the test of The Fourth Amendment is the “reasonable expectation of privacy:” whether an individual has shown that he or she seeks to preserve something as private, and whether an individual’s expectation of privacy is one that society is prepared to recognize as “reasonable.”

According to Facebook’s terms and conditions, as a user, you own the content you type into your profile and on others’ walls, but Facebook claims ownership of the content governed by Intellectual Property Rights. Photographs or videos posted by Facebook members are not generally covered by a reasonable expectation of privacy, as Facebook owns or co-owns them while they are on Facebook and for some short time thereafter.

Is your expectation of privacy when using Facebook reasonable, or can what you post be used as evidence against you? That may depend on how the judge considers the internet and privacy. If you are facing civil litigation, know that the plaintiff and defendant are typically entitled to anything that is considered reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence, which is a broad definition, to say the least. The evidence does not need to be known to be relevant ahead of time, just “reasonably calculated,” which keeps the door wide open.

While something may be “reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence,” it may not later be admissible in court, but there is no way to know for certain ahead of time.

John Hale is a Waxahachie personal injury attorney and Ellis County personal injury lawyer helping injury victims near Dallas Texas. Learn more at http://www.hale911.com/

According to Dr. Ilisa Bernstein, the acting director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research Office of Compliance, the FDA is examining the way compounding pharmacies are monitored for safety. A compounding pharmacist customizes medication as needed to fit each individual’s need; if a dosage is too large or needs to be delivered without dyes, for example, the pharmacist can combine medications, or “compound” them. Compounding, or combining different items to make a specialty medication, was the standard way all medications were manufactured until the 1950s, when mass production became the norm.

Pharmacies like The New England Compounding Center may compound medications for specific prescriptions, and are usually supervised by that state’s pharmacy boards. The New England Compounding Center has been in the spotlight previously: the FDA looked at their compounding practices in 2006 and stated that the firm’s actions were inconsistent in its compounding practices and acted more like a drug manufacturer.

While compounding production is legally restricted to individual prescriptions, the pharmacy may have mass produced the compounding production, which is why such a large batch was contaminated. The New England Compounding Center where the medication was compounded has recalled more than 17,000 vials of the injectable steroid treatment used for back and joint pain. The fungi which has tainted the steroid includes Aspergillus fumigatus and Exserohilum, and are often found in grass, leaf mold, grass, and old wood.

At this time, it is believed that as many as 14,000 people received the contaminated steroid injections. Some 90 percent of those individuals have been contacted. Multiple investigations are ongoing and Connecticut’s Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut has called for a criminal investigation into the company.

Symptoms of meningitis include fever, headache, and nausea. An infection of the membranes which cover the brain and spinal cord, fungal meningitis must be treated in a timely fashion. It is not contagious.

John Hale is a Waxahachie personal injury attorney and Ellis County personal injury lawyer helping injury victims near Dallas Texas. Learn more at http://www.hale911.com/

BPA has been phased out so thoroughly that the American Chemistry Council (ACC) filed a petition in 2011 calling for an end “approval” by the FDA for BPA, as they feel it is a nonissue. While consumer advocates applaud the FDA’s ban on BPA, there has been concern that it has not been banned in food packaging across the board.

According to Sara Janssen, senior scientist for the National Resource Defense Council’s public health program, the FDA banning was a less than committed effort. “To truly protect the public,” she said in a statement, “the FDA needs to ban BPA from all food packaging. This half-hearted action—taken only after consumers shifted away from BPA in children’s products—is inadequate. The FDA continues to dodge the bigger questions of BPA’s safety.”

The concern about BPA is that it can be consumed inadvertently by leaching into our food and water from the containers holding food and beverages and from plastic tableware, among other things. BPA may leach more readily from some containers more than others, based on the heat of the food or beverage and other factors.

The Federal Drug Administration holds that low levels of BPA, as are currently present in food packaging, do not present a health risk. Currently, Bisphenol A is banned in most consumer packaging in a dozen states including California, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.

John Hale is a Waxahachie personal injury attorney and Ellis County personal injury lawyer helping injury victims near Dallas Texas. Learn more at http://www.hale911.com/

This is something that is clearly underappreciated. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s latest numbers show pedestrians injured in motor vehicle accidents were up 19 percent from a year ago.

Of course, drinking alcohol plays are large part in many wrecks. The NHTSA reports 48 percent of all accidents involved drunk drivers or pedestrians. Residents of the Lone Star State have long reveled in bragging that everything is bigger in Texas, but that unfortunately is also the case when it comes to drunk-driving deaths. Texas leads the country in this dubious category, averaging about 1,000 a year.

Small wonder why the Texas Department of Transportation recently launched “The Faces of Drunk Driving”, detailing the dangers of driving to the public.

But a rapidly emerging factor in traffic accidents is not booze, but cell phones. The National Safety Council states that 23 percent of all vehicle crashes involve cell phone use, causing 1.3 million wrecks across the country. In 2010, well over 3,000 crashes in Texas were attributed to someone being on a cell phone.  Another statistic shows chatting on the phone — or texting — when driving can increase the likelihood of a crash up to 23 times. Even hands-free devices do not help much, as the conversation can have a negative effective on driver concentration.

Distracted driving has become a national issue, with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood recently calling it “a national epidemic.”  Most states ban texting while driving, while a handful prohibit both texting and hand-held cellphone use on the road.

In Texas, the Legislature last year passed a statewide ban on texting while driving. It was already a no-no in Austin and other places, but Gov. Rick Perry vetoed the bill. “(It’s) a government effort to micromanage the behavior of adults,” the Governor said.

Cell-phone use while driving can prove quite costly to the perpetrator.  A Washington Post story said a Florida family was awarded $21 million after a woman was killed in a cell-phone related wreck. And after a Coca Cola sales person plowed into a woman while chatting on the phone and driving, a Texas jury ordered Coca Cola to pay the victim $21 million in damages. She suffered nerve damage to her back in the mishap.

Lawyers are becoming more aggressive in going after people — and their employers  in certain circumstances — regarding these accidents.  And as the dangers of cell-phone use while driving becomes more of an issue to the public, this trend probably will not slow down.

John Hale is a Waxahachie personal injury attorney and Ellis County personal injury lawyer helping injury victims near Dallas Texas. Learn more at http://www.hale911.com/

American Marazzi Tile has an estimated 254 employees in its ceramic wall and floor tile manufacturing facility. The tile company is part of OSHA’s Site-Specific Targeting Program because it has an increased injury and illness rate when compared to other workplaces. It is also now in the Severe Violator Enforcement Program, so it will have to pass follow-up inspections to be compliant with workplace laws.

“This company knowingly failed to implement necessary safety and health programs to protect employees from coming into contact with moving parts of machinery and prevent hearing loss,” said OSHA’s Dallas regional administrator John Hermanson. “It’s the employer’s responsibility to know the hazards and safeguard workers from these hazards in order to provide a working environment free of injuries and illnesses.”

The main violations involved machine guarding hazards, excessive noise levels, and protecting workers when machinery is unexpectedly turned on. Personal protective equipment was inadequate, safety training was not given and continuing education not in place, and energy control procedures were not mandated. Proper storage of hazardous chemicals and other substances were not followed and a bloodborne pathogen program was not instituted.

OSHA statistical data shows that the manufacturing industry has the third highest number of cases involving injuries and illnesses. The average time away from work to heal from an incident was eight days. Only the health care and social assistance and retail trade industries suffered more injuries and illnesses.

Workers who suffer an injury on the job should speak with a personal injury attorney to seek compensation for medical bills, pain and suffering, and lost wages. A skilled attorney knows what it takes to prove liability and establish a value for the damages incurred. Most personal injury lawyers will take a case on a contingency fee basis. In other words, they only get paid if they obtain a settlement or verdict on your behalf. Typically, attorneys offer a free initial consultation to discuss injury cases.

John Hale is a Waxahachie personal injury attorney and Ellis County personal injury lawyer helping injury victims near Dallas, Texas. Learn more at http://www.hale911.com/

“But there is, by now, a number of studies that indicate that pedestrian distraction is real,” said professor of environmental psychology Richard Wener from the Polytechnic Institute of New York University. “It’s very much like driving a car and being on a cellphone. You’re much more likely to miss something around you…The likelihood of an accident being really bad or fatal is higher when you’re not protected by 2 tons of steel.”

Poor roadway design, a long-time culprit in pedestrian injury cases, remains an area of concern for experts. Roads are being built wider for increased traffic. With more people living in suburban areas and wider roads to accommodate traffic, accidents involving pedestrians continue to increase. Areas that have missing sidewalks, no safe crossings, poor lighting and no enforcement of traffic rules for pedestrians also increase risk of pedestrian injury.

But by far the most dangerous factor threatening pedestrians is alcohol consumption. Drunk drivers and pedestrians were involved in 48 percent of fatalities, the NHTSA reports. Trying to be safe by walking instead of driving while drunk is not the solution. If you have had one too many, you should call a cab or a friend who can safely get you home.

The NHTSA attributes some of the increase in pedestrian injury to high gas prices. As the price of gas increases so does foot traffic. This is particularly true in urban areas. So as more people hit the street, more people get hit. Sometimes life just comes at you hard and fast and there isn’t much you can do about it. Oftentimes, however, accidents can be avoided by looking both ways before crossing traffic and by never assuming that a driver is paying attention or will yield the right-of-way to pedestrians.

PEDSAFE, an organization that works to improve pedestrian safety and mobility, advocates that auto drivers need to watch their speed and brake for pedestrians. Pedestrians should also take the same precautions that drivers do to stay safe when going to their destination. Pedestrians need to put away hand-held devices when walking to work, for exercise, or getting to their destination and be mindful of other modes of transportation around them.

John Hale is a Waxahachie personal injury attorney and Ellis County personal injury lawyer helping injury victims near Dallas Texas. Learn more at http://www.hale911.com/.

Crashes even happen when someone is using a hands-free device, the NTSB noted, as anything that distracts a driver for a few seconds has the potential to cause an accident. Smartphones, tablets, and infotainment devices in vehicles are tempting drivers to multitask while on the road.

“It’s about cognitive distraction,” said NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman. “It’s about not being engaged at the task at hand. Lives are being lost in the blink of an eye. You can’t take it back, you can’t have a do over, and you can’t rewind.”

Along with NTSB’s recommendation, it encourages states to utilize the NHTSA guidelines for high-visibility enforcement and targeted campaigns to educate drivers about this recommendation, increased enforcement, and penalties drivers could face if caught. Last year, more than 3,000 people died in distracted driving incidents. Being aware of your friend’s latest Facebook post, text, or chatting is not worth risking a life, safe driving advocates say.

The NTSB reports that distracted driving occurs in all modes of transportation. From passenger car drivers, to truckers, and even train engineers and pilots, distractions from phones and other devices have caused deadly accidents. A recent study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute shows that the risk of an accident is 163 times more likely when a driver is texting, surfing the Internet, or emailing.

“The data is clear; the time to act is now,” said Hersman. “How many more lives will be lost before we, as a society, change our attitudes about the deadliness of distractions?”

The best prevention against distracted driving accidents is to turn your phone off when you are behind the wheel. This way you are not tempted to use it. If it must stay on, many cellphone providers are starting to provide apps that send callers an “away message” if you are driving. If you are still too curious, lock your phone in the trunk or glove compartment so that it is hard to get to.

Victims of a distracted driving accident do have rights to go after the person that caused the accident. An experienced personal injury attorney can help you get compensation for medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, and other related costs. There is no need to suffer alone in silence. This is your opportunity to inform your community about the risk of distracted driving and to help make a difference.

John Hale is a Waxahachie personal injury attorney and Ellis County personal injury lawyer helping injury victims near Dallas, Texas. Learn more at http://www.hale911.com/.

When a truck accident occurs, serious and deadly results are an unfortunate consequence. Every month, news headlines are filled with accidents involving drivers who are distracted, DUI, did not get adequate rest, or were not driving vehicles that were properly maintained or inspected. Car drivers must also be mindful of how to share the road with a semi truck. As these big rigs have blind spots where it can make driving too close to them a deadly occurrence, drivers need to be extra careful. The right side “no zone” is especially dangerous as these vehicles make wide right turns and are unable to see you if your vehicle is in this blind spot.

Tractor trailers also take a lot longer to stop than a normal vehicle. You do not want to dart around them, pass in front of the truck, or try to squeeze in just to get to your destination faster. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) advises that drivers should check that the entire front part of the big rig is in the rear-view mirror before you pull in front of them.

As the commercial vehicle safety standards are increasing in the big rig industry, there is still more to be done to protect auto drivers from the harm that can be caused by them. The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) recently finished its Brake Safety Week. From the CVSA’s weeklong inspection it found that brakes are still the number one defect. Proper adjustment and brake maintenance is crucial to having a safe vehicle.

The CVSA also sponsors the Operation Safe Driver campaign. This involves discouraging distracted driving. Use of cellphones for chatting or texting, messing with a GPS system, or even eating while driving a big rig can have deadly consequences. “We will not rest until all drivers are thinking safety first, every trip, every time,” said FMCSA Administrator Anne S. Ferro.

For automobile drivers and passengers who are dealing with the aftermath of a serious big rig accident, it is critically important to seek legal advice to take care of medical and financial concerns.

John Hale is a Waxahachie personal injury attorney and Ellis County personal injury lawyer helping injury victims near Dallas, Texas. Learn more at http://www.hale911.com/.

The website has already received 305,000 plus visits, so the word is getting out about the site as a resource for recalls and a way for consumers to alert authorities about products that could injury or kill someone. One manufacturer is currently going to great lengths to keep its potentially dangerous product out of the database.

In that case, the manufacturer wants to prevent the CPSC from posting the harm its product has caused. It wants to seal this case that the CPSC is reviewing. The consumer advocacy group Public Citizen objects to this motion to seal as it violates the public’s right to learn about potentially dangerous products.

“A challenge to an important product safety law should not proceed in secret just because the company wants to avoid bad publicity about one of its products,” said Public Citizen’s attorney Scott Michelman. “The public has a strong interest in the outcome of this lawsuit and a correspondingly strong right to learn who is involved, what arguments the company makes and the basis for the court’s decision.”

Depending on how the court decides, it could set a precedent about keeping product reports from the public spotlight. If ruled in the manufacturer’s favor, which many do not want to occur, it could compromise the CPSC database. The database was originally called for in the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 after massive recalls of children’s products.

The CPSC does alert companies when a complaint is made to it. Companies have an opportunity to show the complaint is inaccurate to have it removed from the database. Otherwise, the CPSC is required by law to post a complaint within 20 business days of its receipt.

“This database is a critical tool for consumers to read and report safety complaints about the products we buy,” said Consumers Union senior policy counsel Ami Gadhia. “We’re opposed to any effort that could jeopardize this database and lead to unsafe products being kept secret from the public.”

A manufacturer can be held liable for a serious injury or wrongful death it causes with a defective product.

John Hale is a Waxahachie personal injury attorney and Ellis County personal injury lawyer helping injury victims near Dallas, Texas. Learn more at http://www.hale911.com/.