November 22, 2008

Former Jacksonville construction superintendent says he warned of potential disaster

consts.jpegA former construction superintendent at the collapsed Berkman Plaza 2 parking garage said he told his bosses about safety concerns involving the support cables months before the deadly Jacksonville construction accident.

Superintendent, Greg Roberts, said a key project engineer warned Choate Construction that support cables designed to strengthen a beam holding up the garage were “not going to work.”

Willie Edwards III, was killed when the building collapsed Dec. 6 while construction crews poured concrete for the sixth story.

Roberts, who left the project when he was asked to resign in July 2007, said he contacted attorneys representing Edwards’ family “so that everything would come out” about events preceding the collapse.

Choate Construction Co., the company Roberts worked for, said last month that the collapse was caused by design problems that had nothing to do with Choate employees. The company said in a news release that it had hired two forensic engineering firms to analyze the collapse, and both found no wrongdoing by Choate.

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November 19, 2008

Correctional Officer files intent to sue for rape at Duval County Jail

jail.jpegA Jacksonville correctional officer raped at knifepoint by an inmate at the Duval County jail notified the Sheriff’s Office this morning that she intends to sue the department for failing to follow its own policies procedures designed to protect her. The big question in her case is if she will be allowed to go forward with this Jacksonville lawsuit against her employer or will worker's compensation be her only legal remedy.

Worker's compensation is a system designed to compensate workers injured on the job without regard to fault. Most employers are required by law to participate in the workers compensation system. Benefits under workers' compensation are very limited and provide partial wage replacement and all medically necessary treatment. Workers' compensation is the injured employee's exclusive remedy. When employers properly obtain workers' compensation insurance for their employees, the law allows them almost complete immunity from lawsuits brought by their employees against them. Under Florida Statute 440.11 an employee can only sue his employer if that employee can prove in court that the employer has engaged in any intentional act that causes harm or is substantially certain to result in injury or death to the employee.

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November 14, 2008

Funeral home tries to cover up burying the wrong body

icasks.jpeg Funeral homes in Florida and around the country continue to make burial mistakes. Schrader Funeral Home in St. Louis mistakenly buried 80-year-old Frederick Schnabel and instead of admitting their mistake tried to cover it up.

It took awhile to convince the funeral home of the mistake.

Before the wake, an employee came in with a makeup kit to see if doing some touchups would help.

"They tried to convince us that they can just fix it," said one of Schnabel's two daughters, Jeani Ward of Ballwin. "I said, 'No, the body is not Dad.' We had to try to convince Schrader's it wasn't Dad. That was the hardest part."

Finally, the man's shirt was unbuttoned to check for the scars from Schnabel's open-heart surgery. The man in the casket had none.

On Friday, the funeral home declined to talk to the Post-Dispatch, referring questions to the Fleishman-Hillard public relations firm. The firm said Schrader "deeply regrets the extraordinary mistake" and said it was the first of its kind in the funeral home's 140-year history.

Schrader Funeral Home also refunded the cost of both funerals and "at its own expense, provided completely new, second funerals including caskets, ministers, police escorts, floral arrangements, transportation and burial services," the firm said.

And finally, Schrader has implemented a new rule: Bodies must have identification tags before coming to the funeral home.

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November 10, 2008

Florida Supreme Court makes it easier for Jacksonville employees hurt on the job

work.jpegThe Florida Supreme Court recently declared the Worker's Compensation Law, enacted by the Florida Legislature in 2003, to be ambiguous. finding that claimant's attorneys are entitled to recover a "reasonable” attorney’s fee. This decision will allow Jacksonville workers injured on the job and in the entire state of Florida to hire lawyers to assist them when their worker's compensation carrier fails to live up to their obligations to provide medical and lost wage benefits.

The prior law resulted in injured claimants having great difficulty pursuing claims to pursue desperately needed Workers’ Compensation benefits, when they were wrongfully delayed or denied. Those difficulties allowed many insurance companies to improperly treat the injured workers without fear of being sued. Now, carriers will have to think twice before denying or delaying an injured worker's rightful benefits.

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November 1, 2008

Preventing Jacksonville Car Accidents: New Software poised to block drivers from using a cell phone while driving

bus.jpg Aeriliss Mobility, a Canadian software company, announced Monday that it has developed software called DriveAssistT that will detect whether a cell phone is moving at car speeds. When that happens, the software will alert the cellular network, telling it to hold calls and text messages until the drive is over. Each year hundreds of people are serious in Florida automobile accidents caused by drivers talking on cell phones.

The software doesn't completely block incoming calls. Callers will hear a message saying the person they're calling appears to be driving. They can hit a button to leave an emergency voice mail, which is put through immediately.

Several states, including New York and California, have introduced laws against talking on a cell phone while driving, but they still allow the use of hands-free devices like Bluetooth headsets. However, studies have shown that hands-free devices may not help. It appears that it is the distraction of dialing or talking that is dangerous, rather than the act of taking a hand off the wheel.

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October 26, 2008

Neptune Society charged with misleading consumers about pre-need cremations

The Neptune Society is one of the largest providers of cremation services in the country. The Neptune Society performs Florida cremations and in nine other states. In Colorado the cremation service is accused of misleading customers and overcharging them.
seaes.jpeg The head of the national cremation broker being investigated by the Colorado Division of Insurance denied any wrongdoing Wednesday.

Jim Ford, the chief operating officer of Neptune Management Corporation, said in a statement: "We are, and always have been, in full compliance with the rules and regulations in every state in which we do business."

After a Colorado Springs funeral home owner complained about Neptune's practices in April, and a Neptune customer complained in July, insurance division officials launched an investigation.

That investigation resulted in charges alleging Neptune "misled consumers and manipulated prepaid, preneed funeral accounts in order to skirt Colorado law and maximize profits," according to a division release.

Colorado law states the company was supposed to put 75 percent of customer's prepaid funeral services in a trust fund. The investigation revealed in some cases less than 35 percent of the money was put into a trust and that the company inflated charges for upfront merchandise such as urns by as much as 1,300 percent, according to the Division.

The company is a leader in the cremation business and has offices in 10 states.

"The Neptune Society takes this complaint very seriously because we care about our customers first and foremost," Ford said.

Neptune officials have been ordered to appear before the division Oct. 24 to answer charges. The company could be fined up to $5 million and have its Colorado license suspended or revoked.

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October 20, 2008

MyKey may prevent Jacksonville Automobile Accidents

Florida parents may want to look at the new MyKey device to prevent Jacksonville automobile accidents involving teens. Ford Motor Co. is giving families a new way to limit how teenagers act behind the wheel.081006_MyKey.jpg Starting with select 2010 models to be introduced next year, Ford will include a programmable ignition key as a no-cost, standard option that restricts maximum speeds and offers additional safety alerts.

The MyKey device allows parents to restrict certain drivers to no more than 80 miles per hour as well as allow the vehicle to shut off the radio's volume automatically when the driver hasn't buckled a seatbelt in.

The new device can also be configured to sound chimes at 45, 55 or 65 miles per hour depending on how much parents may want to warn -- or bother -- their children about excessive speed.

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October 10, 2008

Another Florida Funeral Home sued for fraud

A class action lawsuit has been filed in which potentially thousands of customers who purchased "pre-need" contracts for burial services at Rubin Memorial in West Palm Beach Florida have been defrauded by the Florida funeral home in its attempt to overcharge them for out-of-state costs related to burial services, an action that is prohibited by Florida law.
gufuneral.jpeg The class action alleges that Rubin Memorial created entirely false invoices, often doubling the prices of estimated services, and passed them off to consumers, while pocketing the difference. The scheme involved Rubin Memorial scanning the invoices received from out-of-state funeral homes and altering the invoices on a computer.
If you or a family member have been the victim of funeral home abuse or funeral home fraud make sure to call an experienced funeral home lawyer.

October 4, 2008

Hope for Jacksonville accident victims with chronic pain

Unfortunately many of my Jacksonville automobile accident clients have had to undergo surgery to have an obtrusive spinal cord stimulator placed in their backs. Adam Hammond, a former member of the U.S. Army's "Golden Knights" Parachute Team, has become the first recipient of the Eon Mini—the world's smallest spinal cord stimulator. After suffering a broken femur, a shattered pelvis and a severed spine in an epic parachute fail a few years ago, it seemed that Hammond would be condemned to a life of severe chronic pain. Doctors hoped that implanting the new Eon Mini would offer a solution by delivering repeated mild electrical impulses to the spinal cord. So far, Hammond claims that the device offers "significant pain relief" and that he was able to "walk twice as far" as he could previously.
thumb160x_eon-mini.jpgSpinal cord simulators are nothing new, but the size of the Eon Mini combined with the fact that it is easily recharged make it a viable solution for people with severe back problems or other chronic conditions caused by automobile accidents and serious falls.

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September 30, 2008

Move Over Florida: Preventing Florida accidents involving police and emergency vehicles

icops.jpeg representing a car accident victim the other day in Jacksonville Traffic Court, I noticed a man there who received a citation for not moving over a lane as he passed a parked Florida Highway Patrol vehicle. The man defended that he did not know of the law. I’m sure that many people are not aware of the law. I recently heard about a campaign to crack-down on violators of the move over law, but wasn’t aware the law had been in effect for so long. The law was enacted in 2002. The law requires you to move one lane away from parked law enforcement or emergency vehicles with flashing lights. If that is not possible, the motorist is required to slow down 20 mph under the speed limit while passing the vehicle. The law also applies to construction workers on the side of the road.

During the Move Over Florida enforcement wave, nearly 1,500 warnings and citations were issued. I was surprised to learn that over 1,793 law enforcement vehicles were hit during the five year period 1996-2000. These Florida accidents resulted in hundreds of injuries and 5 deaths. Law enforcement and other public safety worker’s jobs are dangerous enough without having to worry about getting hit by a passing car. Next time you pass a stopped emergency vehicle with its lights on, remember to either move a lane over or slow down by 20 mph.

September 20, 2008

Jacksonville Car Accident Victims Can No Longer Sue Rental Car Companies

rentals.jpeg
The U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled that the federal law eliminating vicarious liability for rental car companies nationwide is fully constitutional. In what is certainly bad news for those injured in Jacksonville car accidents caused by the negligence of rental car drivers, Federal Law now definitively prevents any such personal injury cases against those rental car companies. While the United States Congress previously enacted the so-called Graves Amendment, a number of lower courts in Florida had found the amendment to be unconstitutional.

However, last month, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which essentially oversees all cases in the Southeastern United States, issued a ruling that the Graves Amendment is constitutional. This ruling, for all intensive purposes, puts an end to all such personal injury and wrongful death cases against all rental car companies.

September 16, 2008

Text Messaging Engineer may have been cause of LA Metrolink Crash. A lesson for Jacksonville and Florida Drivers

metro.jpeg
As a Jacksonville accident attorney I have represented victims who were injured when another driving was text messaging. The NTSB is currently investigating whether or not text messaging may have played a part in the tragic head-on Metrolink train collision last Friday in LA that has claimed 26 lives. So far, they have confirmed that the engineer, who was among those killed, failed to stop at the final red signal. However, two teens have come forward saying that they received text messages from him shortly before the incident Why an adult engineer is texting teenagers is weird—but the teens claim that they befriended the engineer after expressing interest in his work, often contacting him with questions about his job.

Obviously, making judgments about whether or not text messaging was behind the crash is a bit premature at this point—but phone records from both the teens and the engineer will go a long way in determining a cause. But one thing is certain—had the proper safety technology been in place, the train would have automatically stopped when it did not respond to the signal.