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Farah and Farah, P.A.
By Eddie Farah on October 31, 2008 The Florida-Georgia game weekend started on a dangerous note for four fans aboard a boat that exploded in the Intracoastal Waterway.
Two people were reportedly thrown from the boat when it exploded while two others stayed onboard. The boat never made it back to the marina, instead it burned into a crisp.
The explosion occurred as the boat was refueling near the Palm Cover Marina on Beach Boulevard. Fortunately, a good citizen pulled the folks from the burning wreck. The burns are said to be serious for the folks hospitalized.
Everyone was in town for the Saturday Florida-Georgia game, though at this time they are not identified.
The Coast Guard has no idea what happened. Still, they sent out a warning asking boaters to use extra caution.
A boat can explode if there is a mechanical problem or if fuel is put into the wrong hole. In this case, it was, then flushed out with water.
By Eddie Farah on October 30, 2008 Consumers might want to check their children’s candies this Halloween since melamine contaminated chocolates have found their way into Canada from China.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says it’s taking aggressive action to inspect food, candy and other imports from China.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has pulled Sherwood’s Milk Chocolate Pirate’s Gold Coins made in China because they tested positive for melamine, an industrial chemical that humans do not need to consume.
It’s the same chemical that has sickened 50,000 Chinese children that we heard very little about during the Summer Olympics in China.
The gold coins are distributed through Costco in Canada.
Sherwood Brands, the maker, is based in Rockville, Maryland, also makes lollipops, bubble gum and other confections made in China which say “may contain milk”. The company has not returned media calls.
The National Confectioners Association reports that less than one percent of candies sold in the U.S. are imported from China, but this guy, Mike Mozart, says he’s found a bunch of candy from China this season and he’s made a Youtube video to tell everyone about it.
Don’t worry - the FDA says it’s conducting testing of imported foods.
Well, you probably should worry. Check your children’s candy to see if any is made in China. If it is- throw it away- no questions asked!
By Eddie Farah on October 27, 2008 Coming up next week is an issue that affects all Americans who take any kind of drug- virtually all of us.
The case is Wyeth v. Levine and it will be before the U.S. Supreme Court on November 3rd. Now a prestigious medical journal is taking the side of consumers, which puts them squarely against the pharmaceutical industry. That’s a rare position for doctors to take.
In this case, Diana Levine, 62, was given a Wyeth drug for a migraine after she was taken to an emergency room. The Wyeth drug was a secondary drug given to minimize nausea. Now Levine wishes she had opted for the nausea.
Wyeth’s label doesn’t warn against administering the drug as she received it, through something called an IV push. The drug turned her arm gangrenous then she lost much of her right arm, a terrible tragedy for a musician.
Read the rest »
By Eddie Farah on October 25, 2008 The tragic death of a five-year-old boy who suffered an asthma attack at the beginning of school last year has resulted in a wrongful death lawsuit.
Trenton Stokes died in August 2007. It was his fourth day of kindergarten at Orange Park Elementary School.
His mother, Rita Stokes had met with school officials to talk about her son’s condition including the principal, her son’s teacher, the school nurse and PE coach. They were told how to recognize Trenton’s asthma attacks and to keep medication with the teacher with the boy at all times.
Unfortunately when Trenton had an attack on the playground August 24th, his teacher didn’t have the medication with her, even after he asked for it. He collapsed and died.
An asthma attack has to be addressed immediately and it is not predictable. Even prepared with that information, the school failed to take care of the little boy. A spokeswoman for Clay County schools says the school acted responsibly but the child did not make it.
Both sides cannot be telling the truth. No doubt the facts will be sorted out at trail. The lawsuit was filed in the 7th Judicial Circuit court. We are sorry for the tragic passing of this little boy.
By Eddie Farah on October 25, 2008 The Florida Supreme Court ruled this week that a lawyer representing an injured worker is entitled to “reasonable” fees.
Ever since a controversial 2003 reform of the state’s workers’ compensation law, lawyer’s fees have been capped. That means most lawyers understandably shy away from workers’ comp cases. We at Farah and Farah do not.
The state Supreme Court ruled 5-0 in the case of Emma Murray vs. Mariner Health Care.
Murray, a nurse in her late 50s, was injured hoisting a patient in a nursing home. Her employer’s insurance carrier denied her claim. They said her condition was pre-existing.
Murray didn’t get rich here. Her Port Charlotte lawyer won $3,244 in back wages and medical costs and Mariner Health had to pay her court costs which amounted to $648 for 80 hours of work. That is about $8 an hour. Read the rest »
By Eddie Farah on October 24, 2008 An 8-month-old child has died after becoming entrapped and suffocating in a Delta Enterprise Co. drop side crib, so nearly 1.6 million cribs are being recalled.
The death was due to a safety peg that was not installed. This allowed the crib locks to become disengaged and detach creating a hazardous gap. That apparently led to the entrapment and suffocation of the baby. And there was another baby reported to have died, but there are no details.
The Delta Enterprise Corp. of New York cribs are manufactured in Taiwan or Indonesia and have the drop side hardware design. The model numbers are listed on the Consumer Product Safety Commission web site.
Unfortunately many cribs are never recalled, but remain in people’s homes, in day care centers or are resold in second-hand stores. Read the rest »
By Eddie Farah on October 23, 2008 The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety finds that antilock brakes on motorcycles could save lives.
Antilock brakes are already found on cars and trucks. Typically they are found on touring bikes and a limited number of motorcycles. They add a cost of about $1,000.
Without them, riders who need to stop their bikes abruptly can lock up the wheels or fishtail. The Insurance Institute found that equipping motorcycles with them resulted in a 38 percent lower crash rate.
The Institute studied eight motorcycles with antilock brakes and found there were 6.6 fatal crashes per 10,000 registered motorcycles without antilock in 2005 and 2006. The bikes with antilocks had a 4.1 per 10,000 fatal crash rate. A second study found antilock brakes reduced collision claims by 21 percent. Read the rest »
By Eddie Farah on October 18, 2008 NHTSA, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, issued new rules this week that will improve the nation’s 474,000 school buses. Seat and shoulder belts will be required on small school buses. The requirement will also change seat backs making them four inches higher to 24 inches in all new buses.
Seats must also come equipped with safety latches that can be flipped up or removed without resorting to special tools. That’s the good news.
But there is a huge gap here. What about the large school buses that most children ride in? NHTSA has not resolved that question, despite the fact that all of the research shows that children would be made safer.
Instead NHTSA sets standards for seat belts on large school buses. Five major studies over the past decade have shown seat belts are needed on large school buses. But the Secretary of Transportation, Mary E. Peters said that putting seat belts on larger buses can limit capacity and force more students to walk or ride in cars.
“The last thing we want to do is force parents to choose other, less safe ways of getting their children to school,” she said.
Putting seat belts where people sit will make them less safe? NHTSA says more kids are actually hurt around school buses than inside them, but seat belts on school buses would impact about 1,900 crash injuries each year.
Public Citizen doesn’t like the omission of seat belts from large buses and Joan Claybrook, who was the administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration from 1977-81, says Public Citizen objects to NHTSAs plans to immunize manufacturers from personal injury liability. Read the rest »
By Eddie Farah on October 17, 2008 The mother of a 13-year-old Jacksonville girl killed by a stray bullet has settled her lawsuit against the apartment complex where they lived.
Tina Williams filed the lawsuit against Hartwood Place Apartments in Jacksonville. She claimed if the apartments had better security her daughter, Shenice Holmes would be alive today.
There had been a dozen violent crimes around and in the complex, including two cases where bullets were fired into apartments. Shenice was killed as she read a book on her bed. Read the rest »
By Eddie Farah on October 16, 2008 As forclosures hit record numbers across the country comes news that once again Florida ranks near the top – the number three spot nationwide.
According to Foreclosures.com, the Sunshine State was topped only by Nevada and Arizona.
• Nevada 77.8 filings per 1,000 households
• Arizona 74.6 filings per 1,000 households
• Florida 64.2 filings per 1,000 households
Earlier this year, Florida had the eighth highest foreclosure rate in the nation with one foreclosure for every 73 households.
Four states besides Florida – California, Michigan, Texas and Colorado, accounted for almost 66 percent of the foreclosures for the month of September, CNN reports.
This dubious distinction puts South Florida foreclosures at nearly double the rate of a year ago. Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach Counties are worst hit, up from one-third to doubling.
Federal help to stop foreclosures are being discussed but it’s too early to see if the feds will help minimize and mitigate the foreclosure rate for anxious homeowners. Nationwide the foreclosure rate has left nearly 750,000 people without homes this year. Read the rest »
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