The FDA has issued a Class I recall for Medtronic’s Synergy Cranial and StealthStation S7 Cranial Software after concluding that the software could not function accurately during brain surgeries.
The Synergy Cranial and StealthStation S7 Cranial Software were designed to precisely locate various anatomical structures in the brain in order to aid surgeons attempting the delicate procedures of brain surgery. According to the FDA recall announcement, the software’s biopsy depth gauge can become desynchronized with the rest of the device and cause inaccurate readings.
According to the FDA, this error can lead to a prolonged procedure, additional surgical procedures, aborted procedures, tissue injury, hemorrhage, permanent tissue damage, neurological injury, or death.
This recall will affect 943 devices distributed between May 1, 2019 and October 29, 2021. Medtronic sent a notice to healthcare providers relating to the potential inaccuracy with information for contacting Medtronic Technical Services.
If you or a loved one have been injured by a medical device, you may be eligible to join one of the many medical device lawsuits filed by consumers like you who have suffered. In order to do so, you will need a mass torts attorney.
An experienced mass torts attorney can help you join mass actions and advocate for your needs. Additionally, a mass torts attorney can not only advocate for your case but also withdraw you from a settlement if it doesn’t serve your needs.
The best place to find a mass torts attorney is Attorney at Law.
At AAL, our nationwide network of attorneys and law firms can match you with a local mass torts attorney in your area. Our partners have the resources, legal expertise, and experience to fight against the largest corporations in the nation and emerge victorious.
In addition to a distinguished case record, our partners also excel in client care. The biggest source of stress for many clients is the concern of costs. Lawsuits can be financially draining. However, to take the stress away, AAL exclusively partners with law firms that work on contingency.
Under a contingency system, clients will not have to pay anything upfront and, if the lawsuit doesn’t succeed, clients never pay anything.
Don’t wait. Contact AAL today for a free, no-obligation consultation and begin your journey to justice.
As of Nov. 19, 2021, a consolidation of over 1,800 Zantac lawsuits in multidistrict litigation (MDL) was pending. Individuals who filed Zantac lawsuits claimed they had taken the popular heartburn drug for years, and as a result, they developed cancer.
In April 2020, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) requested all manufacturers of prescription and over-the-counter Zantac, also known as ranitidine, remove the drug from the market after testing by the agency and a third party detected the presence of a cancer-causing compound, nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), in some samples.
Some individuals who have filed Zantac lawsuits did so before the recall was issued. Approximately two months before the recall was issued, Zantac lawsuits that were filed in federal court were consolidated and assigned to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
The judge overseeing the MDL, Robin L. Rosenberg, issued a pretrial order on Nov. 19, 2021 that included instructions to the parties to select 200 cases as part of the discovery pre-trial process, New York Injury Law News reported.
These first test cases, or bellwether trials, are scheduled for summer 2023. Plaintiffs selected for the first test cases must be Florida residents, where the MDL is assigned.
Unlike other mass torts in which the plaintiffs all have a similar type of cancer such as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in Roundup cancer litigation, plaintiffs in the Zantac MDL have several different types of cancer, including stomach, bladder, prostate, colorectal and pancreatic.
By August 1, 2022, the final list of eligible plaintiffs will be chosen by the parties involved in the MDL. Although Judge Rosenberg set the first bellwether trial for sometime in the summer of 2023, she indicated that the first trial could start sooner, per New York Injury Law News.
If you or a family member have been harmed by Zantac or any other consumer product, the best way to receive your deserved compensation is with the assistance of Attorney at Law.
At AAL, our nationwide network of attorneys and law firms can match you with an attorney who has the experience and resources necessary to pursue your product liability case to its fullest extent.
Our partners focus on the client experience and treat your case with the urgency it needs. Additionally, our partners work on contingency for all product liability cases. That means if you don’t win, you don’t pay.
Don’t wait. Contact AAL today for a free, no-obligation consultation and begin your journey to better financial, physical and emotional health.
On Dec. 13, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a request by Johnson & Johnson—the world’s largest manufacturer of healthcare products—to shield its talc-containing consumer products from failure-to-warn lawsuits.
The Supreme Court Justices turned away the appeal without comment. Justices Alito and Kavanaugh did not take part in the rejection. Though there was no comment from either Justice as to why it has been speculated that there may have been a conflict of interest; the Alito family owns stock in Johnson & Johnson and Justice Kavanaugh’s father was a cosmetic-industry lobbyist.
More than 38,000 individuals have filed lawsuits against J&J over claims that its talc products caused them to develop cancer. Previous juries have found that when female plaintiffs frequently applied talc to their genital area over the course of many years, it led to them developing ovarian cancer.
Plaintiffs in other talc cancer trials have claimed that unintentionally inhaling fine talc particulates from talc powder caused them to develop mesothelioma, a cancer that develops in the lining of the lungs.
J&J recently tried to resolve talc lawsuits by creating a new subunit of the company that would hold the talc liabilities in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. According to Bloomberg.com, the company is hoping to put an end to talc litigation with a trust of at least $2 billion.
Attorneys for J&J have argued that because federal labeling laws do not require a cancer warning label on talc products, all talc lawsuits against the company for failure to warn have no merit.
But a recent ruling by the Mississippi Supreme Court found that even though J&J’s talc products did not receive an FDA-mandated cancer warning label after two citizen petitions, it does not grant J&J pre-emption from liability.
Talc products are sourced by crushing talcum mineral into a fine powder. In nature, talcum lies in close proximity to asbestos, which is a cancer-causing mineral. In April 2021, a materials scientist that testified in a talc mesothelioma trial claimed that asbestos contamination in talc is unavoidable due to the fact that the minerals are located next to each other.
Because of declining sales and perhaps because of the negative publicity over talc lawsuits, J&J pulled its talc products from North American stores last year. In June 2021, the company faced another setback at the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court, when its petition to review a $2.1 billion talc damage award to 20 female cancer sufferers was denied.
If you or a family member have been harmed by talcum powder or any other consumer product, the best way to receive your fair share of compensation is with the assistance of Attorney at Law.
At AAL, our nationwide network of attorneys and law firms can match you with a local attorney who has the experience and resources necessary to pursue your product liability case to its fullest extent.
Our partners focus on the client experience and treat your case with the urgency it needs. Additionally, our partners work on contingency for all product liability cases. That means if you don’t win, you don’t pay.
Don’t wait. Contact AAL today for a free, no-obligation consultation and begin your journey to better financial, physical and emotional health.
After the introduction of e-cigarettes to the market approximately a decade ago, many people became concerned about the risks posed by vaping nicotine. As lawsuits have piled up against e-cigarette manufacturers, the main concern has been companies like Juul Labs advertising to minors. There are, however, other concerns about e-cigarettes beyond the risk of juvenile addiction.
One of the other major dangers posed by e-cigarettes is a physical design defect: spontaneous explosion. These explosions, dubbed “thermal runaways” by a 2019 study in Cureus, are triggered by the presence of a lithium battery that powers the e-cigarette.
According to the study, thermal runaways occur when the lithium battery overheats and the internal temperature of the battery increases to a dangerously high point, causing a fire and explosion. Thermal runaways can be triggered by a number of circumstances, including:
No matter the cause, the consequences of thermal runaways can be disastrous. Since 2018, multiple reports have been filed of severe burns on the thighs or groins of users who kept the device in their pocket. Other users experienced thermal runaways while in use, shattering jaws and scalding faces.
This issue has escalated to the point that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has a page dedicated to avoiding thermal runaways. One infographic on the FDA page offers five steps to avoiding an e-cigarette explosion. Those tips are:
While these tips can be helpful to protecting consumer safety, the manufacturers of e-cigarettes should have been the ones to warn about thermal runaways and designed their products to be incapable of detonating during the course of use. This failure to predict foreseeable incidents that would transform an e-cigarette into an explosive device has been the subject of multiple lawsuits.
If you or a loved one have been injured by an e-cigarette explosion, you may be eligible to join these lawsuits. In order to do so, you will need a mass torts attorney.
An experienced mass torts attorney can help you join mass actions and advocate for your needs. Additionally, a mass torts attorney can not only advocate for your case, but also withdraw you from a settlement if it doesn’t serve your needs.
The best place to find a mass torts attorney is Attorney at Law.
At AAL, our nationwide network of attorneys and law firms can match you with a local mass torts attorney in your area. Our partners have the resources, legal expertise, and experience to fight against the largest corporations in the nation and emerge victorious.
In addition to a distinguished case record, our partners also excel in client care. The biggest source of stress for many clients is the concern of costs. Lawsuits can be financially draining. However, to take the stress away, AAL exclusively partners with law firms that work on contingency.
Under a contingency system, clients will not have to pay anything upfront and, if the lawsuit doesn’t succeed, clients never pay anything.
Don’t wait. Contact AAL today for a free, no-obligation consultation and begin your journey to justice.
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center has been fined $4.5 million by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for its role in the deaths of two nurses. UTSW was accused of failing to properly monitor and secure the highly-addictive narcotic fentanyl.
This settlement marks the largest civil payment in Texas and the second-largest payment in the history of the country. The investigation lasted three years as a joint operation between the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The DOJ alleged that over the course of five years, UTSW employees diverted controlled substances, including fentanyl, from UTSW’s Clements University Hospital and Zale Lipshy Pavilion. Additionally, UTSW failed to record the theft or significant loss of the drugs in a timely manner. This is not only a violation of the Controlled Substances Act but also a violation of the hospital's obligations as a DEA registrant.
These violations led to the overdose and death of two nurses: one in 2016 and another in 2018.
The story of UTSW goes to show that anyone can become addicted to opioids if they are not carefully and correctly managed. If you or a loved one have suffered injury or death from opioids, you may be able to recover financial compensation. In order to receive compensation, you will need the help of a mass torts attorney.
An experienced mass torts attorney can join your case with a multidistrict litigation and advocate on your behalf. Not only can a mass torts attorney help with your case, they can evaluate any settlement offers and withdraw you from the settlement if it doesn’t serve you.
The best place to find a good mass torts attorney is Attorney at Law.
At AAL, our nationwide network of attorneys and law firms can match you with an experienced mass torts attorney in your area. Our partners have the resources, legal expertise, and experience to take on the largest corporations in the nation.
In addition to a distinguished case record, our partners also excel in client care. The number one cause of anxiety for clients during a lawsuit is the cost. That’s why at AAL, we only partner with law firms that take mass tort cases on contingency.
By taking mass tort cases on contingency, clients pay nothing upfront or during the duration of the case. Instead, the client only pays a portion of the winnings from the winning verdict. That means that if you don’t win, you don’t pay.
Don’t wait. Contact AAL today for a free, no-obligation consultation and begin your journey to justice.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office has issued sentencing in the case of Verna Mae Lewis, a doctor who was found guilty of recklessly overprescribing schedule II drugs. The 70-year-old pleaded guilty, and as part of that agreement has had all medical licenses and registrations revoked, never to be reinstated.
According to U.S. Attorney Christopher R. Kavanaugh, “Ms. Lewis violated her patients’ trust by placing her own greed before their very real needs.”
Lewis prescribed high dosages of morphine, oxycodone, and hydromorphone without medical justification, medical examination, supporting records, diagnostic studies, and in direct defiance of guidelines laid out by the U.S. Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the Virginia Board of Medicine.
Lewis prescribed opioids to patients with a history of substance abuse, overdoses, and illicit drug use. According to the U.S. Attorneys, Lewis made $523,000 from illegally overprescribing opioids to patients who didn’t need them or were at high risk to abuse them.
Lewis was sentenced to three years in jail, $10,000 in fines, and $500,000 in forfeiture amounts. Kavanaugh said, “this significant sentence sends a strong message that our office will continue to investigate and prosecute any in the health care system who seek to illegally profit from the opioid crisis.”
If you or a loved one have suffered injury or death from opioids, you may be able to recover financial compensation. In order to receive compensation, you will need the help of a mass torts attorney.
An experienced mass torts attorney can join your case with a multidistrict litigation and advocate on your behalf. Not only can a mass torts attorney help with your case, they can evaluate any settlement offers and withdraw you from the settlement if it doesn’t serve you.
The best place to find a good mass torts attorney is Attorney at Law.
At AAL, our nationwide network of attorneys and law firms can match you with an experienced mass torts attorney in your area. Our partners have the resources, legal expertise, and experience to take on the largest corporations in the nation.
In addition to a distinguished case record, our partners also excel in client care. The number one cause of anxiety for clients during a lawsuit is the cost. That’s why at AAL, we only partner with law firms that take mass tort cases on contingency.
By taking mass tort cases on contingency, clients pay nothing upfront or during the duration of the case. Instead, the client only pays a portion of the winnings from the winning verdict. That means that if you don’t win, you don’t pay.
Don’t wait. Contact AAL today for a free, no-obligation consultation and begin your journey to justice.
After executing a “Texas Two-Step” that allowed them to split off their talc lawsuit liability to a shell company, then placing that shell company into bankruptcy in North Carolina, Johnson & Johnson are having their bankruptcy case returned to New Jersey.
The move comes on the heels of a decision by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Craig Whitley who declared a 60-day stay on talcum powder litigation against Johnson & Johnson. This stay applies to all lawsuits filed against the subsidiary, as well as 38,000 lawsuits filed against Johnson & Johnson itself.
Critics of the stay argue that it gives Johnson & Johnson an unfair level of protection against lawsuits, effectively gaining all the protections of Chapter 11 bankruptcy without having to declare bankruptcy. Initially, Judge Whitley had excluded the non-bankrupt Johnson & Johnson from the lawsuit protection, but after being offered more evidence, extended the bankruptcy protection to the parent company as well.
Johnson & Johnson’s attorneys have not been entirely pleased, however. The attorneys representing the bankrupt subsidiary LTL Management strongly preferred keeping the litigation in North Carolina under Whitley, whom they called the leading expert on their Texas Two-Step strategy. One Johnson & Johnson bankruptcy attorney, Greg Gordon, said the change of venue could give critics an opportunity to block the whole procedure because New Jersey federal law may be more favorable to plaintiffs.
If you or a loved one have developed ovarian cancer after using Johnson & Johnson’s talcum powder, you may be entitled to pursue a claim. In order to join the mass tort lawsuits already active, you will need a mass torts attorney. An experienced mass torts attorney can advocate for your case and even withdraw you from a settlement that is not in your best interest.
The best place to find a mass torts attorney is Attorney at Law.
At AAL, our nationwide network of law firms and attorneys allows us to match you with a mass torts attorney in your area. Our partners have the resources, legal expertise, and experience to take on the biggest corporations in the nation and emerge victorious.
In addition to a distinguished case record, our partners also excel in client care. Mass tort cases can drag on for years, and many clients worry about the cost of litigation. That’s why the law firms that AAL partners with take cases on contingency.
Under the contingency system, the law firm will charge nothing upfront and only agree to take a flat percentage of the award. That guarantees that the clients get their compensation, and it means that if you don’t win, you don’t pay anything.
Don’t wait. Contact AAL today for a free, no-obligation consultation and begin your journey to justice.
