by Spencer Aronfeld | Jul 28, 2013 | Defective Drugs, Personal Injury News and Safety Resources
As a personal injury lawyer in Miami who sues diabetes drug companies, without question the practice of law has become more complex, difficult, and expensive since I started more than 20 years ago. Today’s lawyers, have to know much more than the law to be successful; they must also master the latest evolutions in internet marketing, technology, and politics. Getting a handle on it all is even more difficult for those of us who not only practice law, but also own and operate our own law firms. Aronfeld Trial Lawyers, my law firm in Miami, opened in 1991–within a week or so of my being admitted to the bar to practice law. When I started working, I did not know what kind of law I wanted to specialize in. I knew I wanted to help people, and I also knew I wanted to be in the courtroom, but I had no clue what personal injury law was, who practiced it, or how it was done. To learn more about my journey from law student to lawyer, please read my book, Make It Your Own Law Firm: The Ultimate Law Student’s Guide to Owning, Managing, and Marketing Your Own Successful Law Firm. INCRETIN MIMETICS AND PANCREATIC DISEASE CASES One of the most interesting things I learned in San Francisco was the growing number of claims being made by people who have developed pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer after taking diabetes drugs in the class known as incretin mimetics. These drugs work by increasing the level of a hormone associated with the glucagon-like peptide-1, and the drugs have been associated with accelerating...
by Spencer Aronfeld | Jun 9, 2013 | Defective Drugs
So far it has cost pharmaceutical giant Medtronics a $2.5 million dollar grant to the prestigious Yale Medical School and its Open Data Access Project (YODA) to conduct an “independent” study to validate the research conducted on its artificial bone generator InFuse. Infuse Bone Stimulator uses a man-made version of human protein to stimulate bone growth. It was originally approved by the FDA to treat degenerative disc disease in the lower spine as well as for oral and dental procedures. Since then it has been used by unsuspecting orthopedic spine surgeons in “off-label” surgeries such as for cervical neck disease. Leer en Español. The investigation is being conducted under the supervision of Dr. Harlan M. Krumholtz–a professor of investigative health and public health. Initially the results of Dr. Krumholtz’s long-awaited investigation were due in February. For some reason they have yet to be released. One reason, I suggest, might be that the research team is having difficulty verifying Medtronic’s pre-market clinical research and corroborate the results in light of the enormous number of reported adverse incidents. Of course, there could be additional explanations. It seems likely that Medtronic will face litigation from thousands of injured patients from across the country. If their legal offensive succeeds, Medtronic’s next few fiscal quarters may be less impressive. MEDTRONIC INVESTIGATED BY SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE YODA’s highly unusual audit of InFuse’s premarket studies comes after investigations by both the United States Justice Department and Senate Finance Committee that began in 2008. They found that Medtronic had illegally recommended that physicians use InFuse for off-label surgeries such as cervical procedures. The Justice Department’s investigation led...
by Spencer Aronfeld | Jun 5, 2013 | Defective Drugs
I am a lawyer in Florida who sues companies that make hip implants and defective drugs and I believe that Federal Preemption is a primary reason we are witnessing the decline and near extinction of jury trials in Florida. Federal Preemption is the legal concept that the laws of the United States that emanate from any Federal branch of the government–such as Congress, the United States Supreme Court, the President, or any of the Federal administrative agencies–have legal superiority over any state, county, or city law. That is, Federal laws supersede local laws and must be followed even when there is a conflict. ARVE Error: id and provider shortcodes attributes are mandatory for old shortcodes. It is recommended to switch to new shortcodes that need only url The procedure for approving and regulating the sale of drugs and medical devices–like artificial hips, vaginal mesh, or Mirena IUDs–falls under the Federal jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration. Pursuant to the concept of preemption, the FDA’s rulings preempt any state or city’s efforts to establish laws that would be contrary to the FDA’s. For instance, if the City of Miami wanted to mandate that makers of a particular drug, like Pradaxa, include a Spanish warning label, the CIty would not have the jurisdiction to make such a demand. To learn more about how the FDA approves drugs read my recent blog for the Huffington Post: “The FDA’s Dangerous Death Race.” ARVE Error: id and provider shortcodes attributes are mandatory for old shortcodes. It is recommended to switch to new shortcodes that need only url The laws that apply to generic...
by Spencer Aronfeld | Jun 2, 2013 | Defective Drugs
Are jury trials in personal injury, medical malpractice, and recalled prescription drug and medical device cases in Florida nearly extinct? Over the next several posts we will examine the reasons for the nearly-extinct jury trial. Our first post starts with pre-suit settlement strategy. ARVE Error: id and provider shortcodes attributes are mandatory for old shortcodes. It is recommended to switch to new shortcodes that need only url Many people, including me, an experienced civil trial lawyer in Miami, somehow believe that if they were ever hurt by a person or product, they would have the right to obtain justice through the law by presenting their case to a jury of their peers. A jury trial, I thought and hoped, would always be available to me and my clients to right a wrong, and to force accountability onto the shoulders of someone or something trying to evade their responsibility for harming me or my clients, by resolving the dispute in a civilized manner. I went to law school in the late 1980s. Admittedly my exposure to the law before I started studying it was through movies such as The Verdict and late afternoon reruns of Perry Mason and Matlock. I did not really know how a jury trial worked and–but for one brilliant young prosecutor named Scott F. Kotler, who volunteered to coach me during our mock trial competitions in law school, and who has since become my dear friend and is now a top criminal defense lawyer in Miami–not one of my law professors had probably ever seen a jury in their lives. As my law career began, I...
by Spencer Aronfeld | May 28, 2013 | Defective Drugs
In this installment of “How and Why to Change a Personal Injury Lawyer in Mid Case” we consider perhaps the most common question I am asked: how to fire a lawyer after a contingency fee contract has been signed in a personal injury claim like for a recalled hip implant case, car wreck, falling at Disney or on a cruise. It is a relatively simple process: usually one simply writes the lawyer a letter stating that you are officially terminating the contract; however the consequences depend on several factors, including how long the lawyer has been retained and how far the lawyer has taken the case. ARVE Error: id and provider shortcodes attributes are mandatory for old shortcodes. It is recommended to switch to new shortcodes that need only url The Florida Bar, for example, specifically notes in the mandatory Statement of Clients’ Rights in Contingency Fee Cases aka The Client Bill of Rights that every client and lawyer is required to sign that it is permissible to terminate without consequence the contract with a lawyer within the three business days of the lawyer’s being retained. And for most lawyers and in many cases, probably little or nothing has been done in those three days. But not always. I have had, over the last twenty years of representing people for car accidents, slip and falls, and even hospital injury claims, actually settled cases within 72 hours of representation. Unfortunately for me, it does not happen as often as I would like, but in some specific circumstances, such as very serious or fatal accidents, with a limited or verified and...
by Spencer Aronfeld | May 19, 2013 | Defective Drugs
It’s good news, but it comes late for thousands of Americans implanted with metal-on-metal hip artificial hip replacements: De Puy, a division of Johnson and Johnson, the manufacturer of both its Articular Surface Replacement (ASR) and Pinnacle models, has announced that it will stop making metal-on metal (MOM) hip implants. MOM hip implants are designed and manufactured to have the cup, ball, and shell all made from cobalt-chromium-molybdenum alloys. En Español. Most problems have been caused by the friction of the metal ball rubbing, fretting, and corroding inside the metal cup, which typically occurs during walking or running. Soft tissue damage may lead to pain, implant loosening, device failure, and the need for revision surgery (a surgical procedure where the implant is removed and another is put in its place). Moreover, some of the metal ions released can enter the bloodstream and travel to other parts of the body, where they may cause symptoms or illnesses elsewhere in the body (systemic reactions). ARVE Error: id and provider shortcodes attributes are mandatory for old shortcodes. It is recommended to switch to new shortcodes that need only url When this happens, microscopic shards of metal are discharged into the soft tissues, causing inflammation, pain, bone loss, swelling and pseudo tumors. According to an FDA Safety Communication, metal fragments can also be released from other parts of the implant where the implant components connect. This is sometimes referred to as an “adverse local tissue reaction (ALTR)” or an “adverse reaction to metal debris (ARMD).” Initially De Puy recalled the ASR model after receiving a large number of patient complaints and reports of...
