William D. Kickham
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Harvard University is the crème de la crème of Ivy League schools; an institution that has fostered the best and the brightest.

And now it finds itself caught up in a storm that has to do with a murder in one of its residence halls. And interestingly enough, none of the three men allegedly involved in the Cambridge Massachusetts murder were Harvard students, which has brought about a case of college dormitory negligent security.

Here’s the story. A 21-year-old man named Justin Cosby allegedly entered Kirkland Hall at Harvard University on May 18, 2009. Prosecutors alleged that Mr. Cosby entered the property for the sole purpose of selling a large quantity of marijuana to some people there in the residence hall. A man named Jabrai Copney was convicted in Middlesex Superior Court of the alleged first-degree murder of Mr. Cosby. Mr. Copney was not a Harvard student either, but he had access to Harvard University buildings because he was romantically involved with Harvard Student Brittany Smith, who lived in Lowell House. He apparently lived in Lowell House with Ms. Smith.

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Let’s say you’ve been injured in a Boston car accident, a Dedham slip and fall accident, or a Braintree construction-site accident. You are suffering and you need a lawyer to seek damages for what you believe is negligence on the part of someone who caused you serious injuries. Here’s a little secret that the average person who has never been in this situation doesn’t know:

You can hire a Massachusetts accident lawyer to represent you and pay no upfront fees to that law firm. It will cost you nothing, up front. In fact, you won’t pay ANY legal fees to the Massachusetts personal injury law firm that you hire unless that firm or lawyer wins your case or obtains money for you, to compensate you for your damages. That’s because almost every Massachusetts personal injury attorney is paid on a contingent-fee basis. What this type of fee means, is that if your injury lawyer does not produce a successful outcome for your case by making sure that you are awarded financial damages for your injury, you will not owe him or her any money in professional legal fees. But if the Massachusetts injury lawyer that represents you does achieve a successful outcome, and you are awarded financial damages for your Massachusetts injury, then at the conclusion of the case, the attorney’s firm will be paid a percentage of the gross amount of the award or settlement paid to you.

The standard legal fee that a Massachusetts personal injury lawyer earns in a contingent fee case is one-third (33.3%) of the total settlement or verdict on your behalf. In some categories of high-risk cases, such as products liability or medical negligence/medical malpractice,) the contingent fee can be as much as forty percent (40%,) but that is due to the very expensive nature of these cases, the typically long time it akes to litigate them, and the high risk involved. (For example, medical malpractice cases can be extremely difficult to win, and the attorney representing the plaintiff in such a case bears the risk that he or she will spend an enormous amount of time and money on such a case, and have a jury find against the plaintiff.) In a contingent fee agreement, the attorney will very frequently also agree to advance the costs and expenses of the litigation, which can be considerable. When the case is over, the costs and expenses that have been advanced by the attorney are also dedcuted out of the final award or settlement paid on your behalf.

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As a Westwood, Massachusetts car accident attorney, I’ll restate something I’ve emphasized previously: In Massachusetts (as in almost every other state) the highest statistical odds of a person being injured, involve a motor vehicle accident of some kind, whether it involves a two-car accident in Dedham, or a pedestrian-car accident in Westwood, a car-truck accident, or a car-bike accident, or a Route 128 motorcycle-car accident. Even if you don’t drive a car, your risk of being injured as a pedestrian is relatively high. It’s a fact of modern life.

Aside from just “car accidents,” there is another type of motor vehicle accident that people can be injured in: A bus accident, or MBTA accident. There was just such an accident yesterday in the town where live and practice law, in Westwood, Massachusetts.

There was an MBTA bus crash on East Street in Westwood, but thankfully no one was injured. The Westwood bus accident occurred underneath a commuter rail bridge on East Street in Islington, a section of Westwood. According to local residents, the East Street bridge is the site of accidents on almost a weekly basis. The bridge has a big sign on it warning of low clearance, but apparently that does not deter commercial buses and trucks from driving under it, even if they’re not sure they can make the clearance.

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Weather-wise, we had a beautiful day today in Boston, but it turned tragic for a 5 year-old boy and his family in Dorchester.

Chris Huynh was a struck by a car while crossing a street located in a Vietnamese neighborhood of Dorchester. Family members said the boy was crossing Whitten Street in that neighborhood to see his grandmother. According to witnesses, the boy suddenly emerged from between parked cars on one side of the narrow street, and was struck by an as-yet unidentified woman who was driving her car down the street. Whitten Street is a one-way street, and is extremely narrow, with apparently little to no room for a driver to swerve or take evasive action to avoid hitting a person or a child who might suddenly dart out in front of a moving car. According to neighbors, many children often play on this narrow street, and cars routinely drive far too fast down the street. Several neighbors spoke of several car-bike accidents having occurred there in the past.

Unfortunately, pedestrian-car accidents are nothing new to the Boston area. Many of the streets in this area, not only within the city of Boston but also in many suburbs, are narrow and difficult for car drivers to navigate. Throw in the fact that cars are often parked on one or both sides of streets like this, and this physical set-up is a disaster waiting to happen. As a Boston and Dedham, Massachusetts pedestrian-car accident attorney, I’ve seen far too many accidents like this happen, whether involving two-car accidents, or pedestrians. The resulting car accident injuries can be extremely severe, outcome can often be fatal.

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Getting exercise is important. Especially since statistics warn that in about 12 years, 42% of the American population will be obese. That is one scary statistic. That said, I’m all for everything that gets men, women and children out there, exercising.

Jumping on a trampoline can be a great way to stay in shape. Unfortunately, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission just this week recalled about 92,000 Sportspower BouncePro 14′ trampolines that were sold exclusively at Walmart. The hazard is that the netting that surrounds these trampolines can break, allowing children to fall through the netting and suffer a personal injury.

Already, Sportspower has received reports of 17 of the nets breaking, resulting in 11 injuries that include broken bones, back and neck injuries and contusions. Any customer who owns a Sportspower defective trampoline should stop using it immediately and contact Sportspower to receive replacement black netting for it. The recall hotline is (888) 965-0565.

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Oh those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer. Those days of soda, and pretzels, and beer.

But there’s one thing singer Nat King Cole forgot. Summer always bring with it swimming pools – and inevitably – and sometimes tragically – serious swimming pool accidents. That can involve everything from diving into the shallow end of the pool, causing brain injuries and death, to slipping on concrete surfaces, to fatal drowning accidents.

I’ve written several previous blog posts about how swimming pools bring with them inherent risks of serious personal injuries. The risks of swimming pool injuries are very high. This is an area of law known as “premises liability” or “product liability.” The pool might be an in-ground/built-in, or an above-ground portable. It often makes little difference. As a Dedham/Boston accident lawyer, I can assure you pools can be very dangerous – if not deadly.

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In the past few years, closer attention has been paid in this state to a series of Massachusetts car accidents that involved older drivers.

So, as a Boston/Dedham auto accident attorney, I’m happy to report that last week Massachusetts state health regulators approved rules that define when an older person is too cognitively or functionally impaired to drive safely. The regulations were based on advice from medical specialists and public hearings.

The new rules give health care providers guidance in evaluating when an older person should stop driving and relinquish his or her car keys.The new rules are expected to take effect in a few weeks. The decision to relinquish the car keys will based on “observations or evidence of the actual effect” that an impairment may have on someone’s ability to drive safely.

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As a Dedham/Boston car accident attorney, I’ve said this before, and it’s worth saying again. Being injured in a car accident is, according to statistics, one of the most likely events to happen in your life. That’s the unpleasant, inconvenient truth. Other than being the best driver you can be, there’s not much you can do about this. There are so many motor vehicles on our roads that vehicular and pedestrian accidents are bound to occur. When they do, there’s two tons of steel and glass hitting your car (or perhaps you directly, in a Massachusetts pedestrian-car accident) with tremendous force. Car accidents are usually very violent, and can be very traumatic, if not fatal.

Those statistics bore out again today, with the death of Fenway Park announcer Carl Beane. Mr. Beane, 59, was driving his Suzuki SUV in Sturbridge on the afternoon of Wednesday, May 9, when it crossed the double lines in the road. His car hit a tree and a wall. He was the only one in his car, and the only person in the crash. According to initial reports, Mr. Beane apparently suffered a heart attack while driving his car, and died.

Nearby, at the Hemlock Ridge Golf Course, golfers alerted police of the crash. Currently the Sturbridge car crash is being investigated by, among others, the Worcester District Attorney’s Office.

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The world of Cinnamon Spice, Pink Basket Case, and Rum Raisin may not be so rosy.

Welcome to the world of lipsticks, nail polishes, and blushes. Women use these products all the time; and most women love them. In fact, cosmetics is a $7 billion-dollar industry – that’s the amount that women in the USA spend on cosmetics annually.

Yet, cosmetics are not regulated by the U. S. Department of Agriculture or the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Which means that it’s really up to the consumer to decipher which cosmetics are good and bad for you. Cosmetics are filled with all kinds of ingredients, including chemicals, color, and minerals, and unless you’re a dermatologist, it’s hard to figure out the good, the bad, and the ugly. One way to decipher the details might be to read websites devoted to cosmetics safety such as the Beautypedia website published by Paula Begoun, the “Cosmetics Cop. ” Ms. Begoun, who quotes from all of the dermatology and biology trade journals, rates all brands of comsetics and tells her readers what to try and what to avoid, based on their ingredients. (Note: I’m not endorsing Ms. Begoun’s website here, only noting its availability.)

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File this case under “Be careful what nursing home you choose for your loved ones.”

Here’s the story. An 82-year-old woman, who was confined to a wheelchair, and also had advanced dementia and impaired decision-making abilities, was admitted to a nursing home for care.

While there, staff members became increasingly suspicious that the woman was receiving inappropriate physical contact from a younger male resident. Some witnessed the young man touching her and having inappropriate physical contact with her. However, staff members who witnessed the improprieties were allegedly told to literally “keep their eyes shut.” As it turns out, the young male resident sexually molested the woman on several occasions.

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