Mar 10
A wine bottle opener sold through the popular TV shopping channel QVC and manufactured by Sunbeam Products has been voluntarily recalled today by these companies and in conjunction by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).
There have been 52 reports of wine bottles breaking while using this opener and 42% percent of those include some pretty significant injuries including lacerations to hands. Further information can be found from the CPSC notice.
Feb 24
Guess what? Toyota is recalling another 2 million vehicles for accelerator issues. They are really getting good at recalling cars. I won’t bore you with my version of the story so here’s a link .
If you’ve been injured by a faulty / recalled product, give us a call or send us an e-mail .
The US CPSCin conjunction with Lasko Products has issued a recall of over 100,000 portable heaters due to a faulty electrical connection. This recall caught my eye because I have one out on my back porch for all my animals.
Thirty-six reports were received by Lasko of the faulty electrical connection overheating. Luckily, no personal injury has been reported in conjunction with the reports received by Lasko.
Contact Lasko for a free replacement heater. Stop using the defective product immediately.
For all your personal injury and social security needs, please contact the injury team at Harrell & Harrell, PA
Jan 11
Just wanted to share this article I found from the CDC on helping prevent cervical cancer – what they call the preventable gynecologic cancer.
All women are at risk for cervical cancer, occurring mostly in women over age 30. According to CDC, most cases are “easily preventable with regular screening tests and follow-up”.
SCREENING : two tests can help find it early or prevent it altogether
1. Pap test or Pap Smear looks for precancerous cell changes
2. HPV test – detects the virus that can lead to the precancerous cell changes
HPV Vaccines: there are several vaccines available that protect against the types of HPV that most commonly cause cervical cancer. Two are approved by the USFDA – Cervarix and Gardasil.
Other prevention steps
1. Don’t smoke
2. Use condoms
3. Limit your sexual partners
For more information, read the CDC article and/or contact your gynecologist.
Helping to spread the word about the upcoming Ask A Lawyer event to be held tomorrow. Here’s a cut and paste from the Florida Bar’s website detailing the event.
JBA partners with local corporation to offer ‘Ask-A-Lawyer’ – The Jacksonville Bar Association and the Grace and Truth Community Development Corporation have teamed up to offer an “Ask-A-Lawyer” event from 9 a.m. – noon on Saturday, Nov. 6, at Gateway Town Center, 5000 Norwood Ave. Ask-A-Lawyer will be held in conjunction with the Grace and Truth CDC’s Empowerment and Health Fair. Ask-A-Lawyer is a relaxed, convenient place for people to come in and talk about their legal problems. In some cases, legal representation may not be required. In some cases, brief counsel and advice from a licensed attorney may be all the assistance a person needs. Herein lies the inspiration for the JBA Pro Bono Committee’s Ask-A-Lawyer event. During the event, attorneys will conduct individual, 10-to-15-minute consultations. People who participate in Ask-A-Lawyer must sign statements verifying that they understand that the interviewing attorney will not be opening a case. The interviewing attorneys are simply there to provide some legal guidance and information on additional community resources. For matters that may require full representation, persons may be referred to Jacksonville Area Legal Aid or to the Jacksonville Lawyer Referral Service. The participating attorneys have expertise in many areas of law and can provide direction regarding family law matters, employment, landlord/tenant, wills and estates, criminal law, bankruptcy, and foreclosures to name a few.
Oct 7
Who pays your medical bills when you are injured in a Florida car accident?
Most people don’t know that answer until after they are the victim of another driver’s carelessness. They call the at-fault insurance company only to be told to pound sand or some similar response. Then they call an attorney because they are frustrated with the first answer. Sometimes I can sense additional frustration when we ask them for the name of their automobile insurance company and attempt to explain Florida’s No-Fault law. Who does pay your medical bills?
Here’s a copy of an answer to that question which is posted on our website.
Florida is a “no fault insurance” state. Therefore, your own car insurance, under its Personal Injury Protection (PIP) provisions required under Florida law, is the primary or first to pay medical expenses.
Although PIP benefits can vary from policy to policy, typically 80% of your medical expenses up to $10,000 are paid by PIP. The “no fault” concept is designed to make sure your medical bills are quickly paid and a car accident victim does not have to spend time and money fighting over who was at fault for the car accident to get legitimate medical bills paid. These payments by your insurance company DO NOT affect your premiums.
If PIP benefits are used up, various types of health insurance and other programs may then assume responsibility for your medical expenses.
Please feel free to contact us for answers to many other questions you may have regarding your car accident or injuries suffered in your car accident.
How do these two topics relate to each other? Here’s a summary by our attorney Mark Papa of a memo sent to all the Social Security Administartive Law Judges from their boss:
An August 9, 2010 memorandum from the Chief Administrative Law Judge to all Administrative Law Judges (ALJ) titled Receipt of Unemployment Insurance Benefits by Claimant Applying for Disability Benefits-REMINDER reiterates the following:
Again, an application for or the receipt of unemployment benefits is evidence that an ALJ will consider in deciding an SSD claim. This memorandum instructs ALJs to “look at the totality of the circumstances in determining the significance of the application for unemployment benefits and related efforts to obtain employment.”
Please contact Harrell and Harrell, PA to discuss this and any other issues you may have with your Social Security Disability and/or Supplemental Security Income claim.
The US Department of Transportation held its second annual distracted driving summit yesterday. All the pertinent facts can be found through the government’s official website at www.distraction.gov.
I won’t bore you with the statistics that their related studies show other than to say distracted driving is on the rise and the number of distractions are constantly increasing. Automobile manufacturers are making important safety changes in an effort to minimize potential distractions but ultimately the onus is on us to combat these distractions and prevent car accidents.
Texting and teenagers seem to be the most obvious target of concern but from my own observations during my drive to work on the roads of Jacksonville (study to be rel’d at a later date), texting and just basic cell phone use is by no means just a teenage problem. Yes the teenagers are not as experienced behind the wheel but neither are a lot of you adults out there. It only takes a moment to completely change your life, your family’s life or that of a complete stranger and their friends and family. In less than 6 hours one day this week, I read about three tragic accidents that lead to untimely deaths on our local roads and highways. Not all were caused by distractions but we may never know if distracted driving played a role in any of those car accidents.
Hang up and drive is the best solution. Pull over and take that important call or read that e-mail. Unless you are carrying the nuclear football it can wait. In my humble opinion, it’s only going to get worse as our smart phones and mobile devices get even more advanced.
Cell phones are not the only common driving distractions. Here’s a sample list of other common distractions:
Please take some time to think about your normal driving routine and maybe even write a list of your own distractions you create every day. Share and compare with other drivers in your household and workplace and let’s make Jacksonville a safer place to drive.
Here’s a quick link to FAQ’s about the recently recalled hip implants by Depuy, a Johnson and Johnson subsidiary.
Click here for other patient related information regarding the recent hip implant recall. You can also visit the manufacturer’s website to learn even more.
If you, a loved one, friend or co-worker has been affected by this recall please contact us at www.harrellandharrell.com so we may assist.
Don’t settle for less than you deserve!
Aug 24
By now almost all of our First Coast area schools are back in session and that means lots more traffic and those bothersome school zones with those pesky blinking yellow lights and slow speed limits . Speeding through a school zone or being distracted by a cell phone is a quick way to seriously hurt or even kill someone. You’re not really going to get to work much faster than you would by being patient and observing all the traffic laws.
I was reminded of this today by reading a news article this morning of a bicyclist run over by a woman turning into a school. I’m sure neither of them wanted to be in an accident and no one intentionally tried to harm someone. A few extra seconds to make sure there is no one in harm’s way will do us all some good.
A few years back, a teacher died as a result of a car accident in a school parking lot in our neighborhood. The vehicle was going no more than 10 mph but the teacher was in the wrong place at the wrong time and landed right on her head.
At the end of last school year, I was almost an eye witness to a young elementary school girl being run over by a car while crossing in a crosswalk with our regular crossing guard holding her big red stop sign up in the air. The crossing guard always waits until traffic is completely stopped in a ll 4 directions before letting the kids come anywhere near the roadway. Not this time, she looked all 3 ways but had her back turned to the car directly in front of me when she let this poor child cross the road. As you should expect, the let’s say 3rd grader did not even look for traffic. Why ? – she thinks the crossing guard has done that just like she always does. The driver of the Ford Explorer missed this child by inches and I had my heart drop like a rock. The child, the guard and the driver all stopped in their tracks for several minutes to fully realize what they thankfully avoided. I patiently waited and said a quick prayer of thanks that I did not witness a gruesome crash.
After doing this job for 15 years, I could bore you to death with literally thousands of horrific accident stories. Let’s all try to take that extra moment, drive a little slower and make sure we look all 4 ways before proceeding through our school zones. Your day and someone else’s will be much better as a result.