Mississippi Lawyer Blog

Now that the Republicans have gained control of the Mississippi House or Representatives, they are seeking more tort reform. They are doing this even though the doctors' own insurance company say they no longer need any more! Yes, you read that correctly. The CEO of the doctors' insurance company, Medical Assurance Company of Mississippi ("MACM") was quoted in a Clarion Ledger article as follows: "It would be hard for me to argue more tort reform is needed," Mike Houpt said. "We're content with what we have." Yet the Republicans want to lower the caps on damages AND institute a "loser pays" system which would make the loser of a lawsuit pay the other side's cost. Whose agenda are the Republicans pushing?

The "loser pays" idea is simple. Over the course of a lawsuit, each side spends money on such things as depositions, expert witnesses, copying, etc. Costs can easily reach $10,000 in the most "simple" car wreck cases. "Loser pays" would require the "loser" of a lawsuit to pay the other winner's costs as well as their own. So who is this designed to hurt? To a huge company like State Farm, $10,000 is nothing. To the average Mississippian, $10,000 is more than most folks have in savings. There is not way the could afford to pay this which means they would not file a lawsuit for fear of having to pay this kind of money.

Now, keep in mind that the doctors are "content" with what they have. This is the same group who claimed they were being forced out of Mississippi just 10 years ago. Now things are going so well that the doctors are receiving refunds on their insurance premiums and their insurance company is making a huge profit. I wonder if the quality of health care in Mississippi is going up as well? Are the number of deaths and serious injuries due to medical negligence going down? Oh well, who really cares about that. As long as the doctors are making money and forcing us to wait an hour to see them on every visit then things are fine. But, I digress.

The Republican party is not looking out for Mississippi citizens. If they were, they would fight like hell to make sure that anyone who harms a child or an elderly person or who leaves a family without a mother or father (or both) would have to fully compensate that person or their family. Instead, they are looking out for big businesses and insurance companies. Always have, always will. If your child is harmed don't expect the Republicans to care because they will be supporting the people who harmed him/her.

Sound harsh? Well it's not. Tort reform does not protect us from so-called "frivolous lawsuits". Tort reform is designed to protect big business and insurance companies from legitimate lawsuits. "Frivolous lawsuits" scare no one. If any defendant can show me one "frivolous lawsuit" which has ever gone to trial, received a verdict, and then been affirmed on appeal I will have my partner eat his hat. Big business needs protection when their products or actions seriously injure, maim, or kill innocent people and the Republicans are paid handsomely to help them.

Continue reading "More Tort Reform for Mississippi personal injury and medical malpracitce lawsuits? Thank you sir may I have another?" »

In the late 1990's Mississippians were getting Fen Phen prescriptions left and right. The drug was hugely popular. Folks would car pool to their doctors to get these "miraculous" weight loss drugs. So-called "weight loss" clinics opened up all over the state and fen phen was being dispensed like Pez to second graders.

The problem for the most part is that the doctors dispensing these pills never bothered to advise clients of the dangers associated with these drugs like heart valve leakage and primary pulmonary hypertension (PPH) which causes death. Most of the doctors never monitored their patients while they were on the Fen Phen combination to make sure that the drugs were not adversely affecting their health. As a result, many Mississippians and citizens across the country, began experiencing serious heart and lung problems which were associated with Fen Phen. Doctors who failed to properly administer the drugs were sued along with the drug manufacturer. Long standing Products Liability law allowed lawsuits against the entity responsible for pushing the product out to the consumers.

This same pattern repeated itself with other drugs like Propulsid and Rezulin and doctors were sued along with the drug manufacturers. Well, the doctors did not like this to say the least. Tort "Reform" was making its way to Mississippi and the suits against the doctors provided tort "reform" advocates all they needed. There were media reports that lawsuits against doctors in Mississippi were driving doctors out of the state! Malpractice insurance premiums were skyrocketing and it was all because of lawsuits! Dogs and cats were living together, mass hysteria!

With the white jacked doctors out in front, lawmakers passed several pieces of legislation which greatly curbed lawsuits against doctors. This occurred in 2002 and 2004. Since that time, there have been numerous lawsuits against drug companies for creating dangerous drugs but none against the doctors who push the drugs.

A recent article in the Clarion Ledger stated that Pill MIlls were a national epidemic. Prescription drug usage in Mississippi (and across the nation) is staggering. In July alone in Mississippi, there were 536,630 prescriptions for controlled substances filled for more than 31 million pills, according to the Mississippi Board of Pharmacy. Wow.

Continue reading "Did Tort "Reform" Contribute to the Pill Mill Epidemic in Mississippi?" »

As a baseball coach for my son's U8 Coach Pitch team, today's article in the Clarion Ledger concerning a lawsuit against the Louisville Slugger bat company caught my attention. Brandon Patch was pitching for his Helena, Montana American Legion baseball team in 2003. He was struck in the head by a ball and died. He was only 18 years old. The Clarion Ledger article lacked facts so I found the original newspaper article which provided much more detail.

Brandon's family filed suit against Hillerich & Bradsby, the makers of the Louisville Slugger line of bats. A jury ruled against Hillerich & Bradsby and ordered them to pay damages in the amount of $850,000 for Brandon's death. The jury found that the company was responsible for not placing a warning label on the bat. The company appealed the decision but yesterday an appeals court upheld the judgment.

My son and his friends are at the age where a coach pitches the ball to them. The league is aptly named "Coach Pitch". It should be renamed "Coach Pitch, Then Duck"! I cannot tell you the number of times that these 7 year old kids have crushed a baseball that has come within inches of a coach's head. The baseball bats these kids are using are nothing short of rocket launchers. The barrels of the bats are as big as high school or college bats but they make them shorter and lighter for the kids. As a result,the Dads need to be light on their feet.

The technology got so advanced that colleges and other youth baseball governing bodies were forced to pass new legislation to limit the materials in the bats, Bats now have a BPF, bat performance factor, which establishes a method of measuring how a ball jumps off of a bat compared to how a ball rebounds off of a wall at a controlled speed. BPF is simply the increase in the liveliness of a ball hitting a bat compared to throwing a ball against a solid wall (i.e., 20% faster rebound = a BPF of 1.20).

Continue reading "Louisville Slugger Lliable in Wrongful Death " »

Charles R. "Chuck" Mullins handles serious personal injury and products liability cases in Jackson, Hinds County, Mississippi state and federal court. He is currently reviewing Chinese Drywall cases.

Chinese Drywall refers to tainted drywall imported from China which corrodes copper and metal surfaces, often gives off a foul odor, and can make you sick. Not all drywall manufactured in China is bad. A small portion of defective drywall bears the name of a U.S. company. It is unknown whether such drywall was actually manufactured in the U.S. or was made in China and re-branded here. Another possibility is that the U.S drywall is fine, however, it was cross-contaminated by Chinese drywall. Contrary to popular belief, Chinese drywall is not limited to drywall measuring 1/2" according to Lori A. Streit, Ph.D., from Unified Engineering. The same compounds found in Chinese drywall (e.g., strontium sulfide, hydrogen sulfide, carbon disulfide and carbonyl sulfide) have also been found in drywall measuring 5/8" (typically used in ceilings) and 1" drywall.

How can you tell if your home has Chinese Drywall in it? Does your home smell like rotten eggs or ammonia (sometimes a sweetish smell)? Is it more noticeable when entering your home and then seems to dissipate? The level of odor varies greatly in each home as does each person's ability to detect the odor. Of course, the strength of the odor also depends on how much drywall was used in the home. Significantly, some homeowners report no smell, but their home clearly has Chinese drywall. In short, do not rely on your nose alone, particularly since many develop olfactory fatigue after being exposed to Chinese drywall.Chinese drywall corrodes electrical wiring. Check the electrical receptacles in your walls to see if the wires are blackened. Pull off the electrical plate and look inside. Obviously, do not touch anything - you could get shocked. There should be a copper wire inside. The breaker panel should also be checked. Hundreds of millions of sheets of Chinese drywall were imported from 2004 to 2006, but Chinese drywall has recently been found in homes built or remodeled as early as 2001. Accordingly, this phenomenon cannot be explained solely by the shortage of American-manufactured drywall.

The presence of Chinese drywall has been reported in 22 states, including Mississippi and the District of Columbia and is estimated to have been installed in over 100,000 homes in the United States. Unfortunately, this does not paint an accurate picture as most affected homes have a mixture of safe and tainted drywall.

If you suspect that your home has Chinese Drywall installed in it, please call Chuck Mullins at Coxwell & Associates today.