William D. Kickham
William D. Kickham
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Imagine this: You get out of a bed one day, with a sore back. You’re in a lot of pain, so you go to see your doctor to assess the problem and help you deal with your pain. He gives you some exercises to perform, and recommends Ibuprofen. And, oh yes, he suggests that he give you a steroid injection in your back to counteract your back pain. Sounds good to you, so you agree.

The next thing you know, you have contracted meningitis, an extremely serious and perhaps fatal inflammation of the lining of the spinal cord and brain.

Unfortunately, the above scenario is no nightmare, but a reality. In the past several days, a multi-state outbreak of fungal meningitis has been traced to a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility located here in our backyard, in Framingham, Massachusetts: The New England Compounding Center. The company is a compounding pharmacy, which means it custom-mixes medications for medical and commercial distribution. As of this posting, this bacterial meningitis outbreak spans nine states and has resulted in the deaths of at least seven people. States that have reported cases include Indiana, Florida, Michigan, Maryland, Minnesota, Ohio, North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee. As the outbreak has spread over the past few days, the New England Compounding Center has recalled not only the particular steroid linked to this outbreak, but all of its current products. Simultaneously, health officials have been working overtime to notify anyone who may have been injected with the drug.

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As a Boston car-bicycle accident lawyer, I know all too well that bicyclists are always exposed to risks when riding on Massachusetts roads. There is always the threat of injury and death from motorists who, for whatever the reason, are unable to share the road with a cyclist, and the poor cyclist ends up as an accident victim or a fatality.

If you’ve driven around Massachusetts lately – or around the country – you may have seen the haunting “makeshift memorials” to killed cyclists that have unexpectedly sprung up. They are called “ghost bike street memorials.” The typical one looks like an older model of a bike, and is painted completely white, tires and all – a stark contrast to its surroundings — and is chained to a tree or to a lamppost, as if to signify that their owner will someday return to ride it. The truth is, the bike’s owner has been killed in a Massachusetts bicycle-car accident. Usually, surrounding the white bicycle are flowers, flags, handwritten notes, and a small plaque to memorialize the killed victim.

Working behind the scenes of these makeshift memorials are people who are affiliated with www.ghostbikes.org. According to their website, Ghost Bikes are memorials for bicyclists who are killed or hit while riding a bicycle on the street. These memorials serve as reminders of the tragedy that took place on an otherwise anonymous street, and serve to showcase cyclists’ right to safe travel. This isn’t a local phenomenon: Ghost Bikes lists 26 countries where they are located, including Poland, Austria, Ukraine and New Zealand. The first ghost bikes were created in 2003 in St. Louis, Missouri. Right now there exist more than 500 ghost bike memorials that have been created in more than 180 locations throughout the world.

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In my view, a good dog really is man’s (and woman’s) best friend — most of the time.

However, if you’ve ever been bitten by a dog – even your own – you know that a dog bite injury is painful and shocking. Victims of dog attacks can experience not only substantial physical injuries, but emotional injuries, as well. To be attacked by an animal can be extremely traumatic (no surprise as the animal is trying to rip your flesh off.) Dog bites can cause very severe lacerations and bleeding, with resulting scarrring and disfigurement. Here are just some of the more common injuries that can result from dog bites:

• Infection that is caused by dog saliva and bacteria from the dog’s mouth • Rabies • Nerve damage • Soft tissue damage • Fractured or broken bones • Arm, chest and leg injuries • Facial injuries • Head Injuries • Torn ligaments • Permanent disfigurement and scarring • Psychological trauma (depression and anxiety)

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Here’s a scenario that could easily happen to you. You and your significant other go out to dinner some evening, all set for a romantic rendezvous. Everything’s great. Dinner is excellent. The company is marvelous. And the wine is award-winning.

Except that when you get back home — or maybe even on your way home — you start to fell terribly ill or perhaps begin to vomit uncontrollably. This actually happened to my poor wife many years ago, after consuming some tainted melon at a restaurant. The melon had gone bad, causing my wife to get sick in public, on a street in Brookline at 11 o’clock in the evening. Afterward, she was unable to go to work for two days.

Has this ever happened to you?

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My wife loves to eat Nutella. She’s constantly on a diet, but every Saturday night she takes half a low-calorie English muffin, toasts it, and smears it with the chocolate-hazelnut spread. A constant dieter, she indulges in this once-a-week treat with a rapture reminiscent of a shipwreck survivor who hasn’t eaten a decent meal in weeks. But Debbi knows all too well that she can’t eat this product every day and still maintain her 112-pound weight. Just two tablespoons of Nutella have 200 calories, 100 of which are fat calories. And the list of ingredients includes sugar and palm oil as its first two ingredients – and these are certainly not the healthiest choices for anyone. Interestingly, the jar of Nutella claims that a nutritious breakfast is made of up a glass of OJ, and Nutella smeared on whole-wheat bread. Debbi would be the first to tell you that if you start eating this every day for breakfast, you’ll wind up in Fat City — despite your goals to be on the road to Sveltesville.

The legal system has also agreed that Nutella isn’t that healthy. Having it marketed increasingly as a balanced breakfast for American children has gotten its manufacturer, Italy’s Ferrero Group (which also makes Ferrero Chocolates and Tic Tacs), into trouble with US courts.

Advertised as a way to get children to eat a healthy breakfast, Ferrero insinuated that Nutella was healthy when, in fact, it has about as much nutritional value as a candy bar. Or so claimed several consumers – mothers — who sued the company’s US unit. As part of its settlement of two class-action suits, Ferrero U.S.A. Inc. has reimbursed consumers for up to five jars (at $4 a jar). In addition, Ferrero agreed to modify the Nutella label, modify certain marketing statements about Nutella, create new television ads, and change the Nutella website.

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As a Westwood accident attorney, I see many cases of negligence, wrongful death, and motor vehicle accidents. Yet, many people mistakenly believe, “It could never happen to me.” I don’t know why so many people have that attitude, because life is unexpected, and injuries can happen almost everywhere, every day, and especially when you least expect it.

I’m still shaking my head at the hit-and-run car-pedestrian accident on Washington Street by Roche Brothers in Westwood that occurred this summer. Every time I drive on that road, I think of the innocent victim. The woman who was struck by the car was listed in critical condition, and her dog, which she was walking, was killed. You can read my previous blog post on this subject, which I wrote about, on June 19.

Today my sympathies go out to the middle-aged man who officials say was apparently trespassing on the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Commuter Rail tracks between the Islington and Norwood Depot train stations. He was struck and killed by an outbound train, in Norwood, on August 30, according to officials.

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Yesterday, a bicyclist was killed by a car driver in Wellesley. The victim was identified as Alexander Motsenigos, a Wellesley resident.

Mr. Motsenigos was hit by a car near the intersection of Weston Road and Linden Street, just before 2:00 PM on Friday. He was taken to Newton Wellesley Hospital, where efforts to save his life failed. Mr. Motsenigos was wearing a bicycle safety helmet when he was struck, police said. He was 41 years old. As of the time of this post, I do not know whether Mr. Motsenigos was married, had children, or other personal details.

Beyond the “God, that’s terrible” reaction this story produces, it gets worse. Much worse. According to Wellesley Police Department, this was a hit and run accident: The driver of the car that struck this man just took off – left him lying in the road, dying. That’s hard to imagine, isn’t it? Yet, on an anecdotal level at least, this inhuman behavior appears to be occurring with increased frequency. Just a couple of months ago, here in my own town of Westwood, a woman was hit and gravely injured on Washington Street, in the Islington neighborhood of town. The driver left her lying in the road, alongside her dog, which had been killed in the collision.

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Here are two words every consumer needs to remember: product liability. What does this term mean? It means that if you are injured or harmed by using a particular product – be it a defective swimming pool slide, a defectively manufactured car, or a certain kind of food that might have dangerous particles in it — you have the right to sue the manufacturer for product liability. “Product liability” is a legal term, and it’s used interchangeably with “defective products.” Here’s a recent development in Massachusetts in this area of practice:

A Fall River, Massachusetts food manufacturer has recalled 4,000 pounds of soup because consumers apparently found pieces of plastic in various cans of soup. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that soup products that were made by Blount Fine Foods, and which were sold at Wegmans supermarkets in Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia, were being recalled for safety reasons.

The following products, which all carried the Wegmans Food Markets private label, are being recalled:

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As a Dedham-Westwood accident lawyer, I’ve been legal counsel for injury victims in countless cases. Many times, these cases can be settled through the process of what is called mediation. Most civil disputes can be mediated, including those that have to do with contracts, leases, small business, employment, and divorce. This post, though, will discuss mediation in the context of personal injury litigation.

First, exactly what is mediation? It is the process by which the opposing parties in a lawsuit or injury claim agree to select a mutually agreeable third party “neutral”, called (appropriately) a mediator, who will study briefs and supporting materials that both sides submit, and attempt to bring the parties to a mutually satisfactory resolution to the dispute or claim involved. Licensed mediators in Massachusetts are attorneys who are required to undergo extensive specialty training and certification before they are allowed to hold themselves out as “mediators.” Most all mediators in Massachusetts belong to a professional specialty organization, such as the American Arbitration Association.

In the process of mediation, you and the defendant (represented 99% of the time by a lawyer for a liability insurance company that insures the defendant) try to work out a solution prior to litigating the matter in court, before a jury or judge. The process involves the mediator meeting first jointly with both parties, then separating them into respective conference rooms, so that he or she can meet privately to discuss each party’s positions in candor. (The parties are separated, after meeting initially together, to prevent arguing and a breakdown in communications, as these discussions can often become tense.) The mediator then “shuttles” back and forth between the parties, attempting to bring each side closer to an acceptable resolution. I remember long ago, when I was 20 years old, the first professional job I ever had was as a complaint mediator in the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office – in the Consumer Protection Division. I loved it.

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To help victims of car-truck accidents, we have prepared a FREE Injury and Accident Tip Sheet entitled “The Top 10 Tips If You Suffer A Personal Injury In Massachusetts.” It will outline the right steps you need to take if you have been injured in a car-truck accident in Massachusetts, and are unsure of what steps to take. We know most people will find this article extremely helpful. Click here to download this FREE document.

As with car accident cases or car-pedestrian accident cases, it is standard legal practice in truck-car accident cases that there are no legal fees paid upfront to the law firm that represents you. These types of cases are billed on a contingent-fee basis, which is standard in the legal industry. This means that the law firm representing you is not paid any professional legal fees unless the firm successfully recovers financial damages for you at the end of the case — through a jury verdict following a trial, or through a settlement instead of a trial.

In other words, you have nothing to lose in contacting a qualified law firm if you have been involved in a Massachusetts car-truck accident.