Randy Barnhart

Dumping Defective Hip Implants Overseas

The Trial Lawyer, A Magazine for Trial Lawyers & a Voice for Justice, re-reported an important article in the N.Y. Times about how non-FDA-approved hip implants were shipped off-shore instead. Here's an excerpt demonstrating the typical shift-the-blame stance taken by manufacturing conglomerates regarding the risks of their defective products:

Before the recall, DePuy long defended the articular surface replacement device, saying that any failures associated with it reflected failures by surgeons to properly implant the hip cup. The surgeons who performed the study of the resurfacing version of the device that was rejected by the F.D.A. were handpicked by DePuy and included the model’s designers.

Dr. Antoni Nargol, an orthopedic surgeon in England who worked on the study that DePuy submitted to the F.D.A. and later became a critic of the device, said in a telephone interview that the company had never informed him that its application for approval in the United States had been rejected.

Thousands of people now face pain and injury due to defective hip implants. Contact the firm if you have questions about the safety of your hip implant and your legal rights.

Recall: Power X Bike Chain Defect - Product Liability

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.  It is illegal to resell or attempt to resell a recalled consumer product.

Hazard: The bicycle chain can break, causing a rider to lose control and fall.

Incidents/Injuries: The firm is aware of 11 reports of incidents, including 9 reports of injuries, including lacerations and contusions.

Description: This recall involves “NEXT”-branded men’s 26-inch hybrid bicycles. The bicycles are red or orange. “Power X” and “Suspension” are printed on the frame. Model numbers LBH2611M and LBH2611M2 are included in this recall. The model number is located on the frame between the pedals.

Sold at Walmart from February 2011 through July 2011 for about $100.

Stop using the recalled bicycle and contact the company for a free repair.

Consumer Contact: Bridgeway International at (877) 934-3228 - or visit the firm’s website at www.powerxbike.com.

 

 

NEXT BRANDED BICYCLES SOLD AT WAL-MART

 

The 26-inch bicycles are red or orange and “Power X” and “Suspension” are printed on the frame. 

 

Model Numbers:  LBH2611M and LBH2611M2

 

Bicycles were sold from February 2011 through approximately July 2011 with manufacturing Date Codes between 20110101 to 20110420 (January 1, 2011 and April 20, 2011)

 

 

 

 

Stop using the NEXT Power X bicycle immediately.  Inspect the manufacturing label on the bottom of the bicycle frame. If you have a bicycle that was manufactured between January 1, 2011 and April 20, 2011, please contact Bridgeway International for a free repair.

Target Recalls Children's Lamps - Laceration and Fire Hazards

Hazard: Lamps can overheat, causing the adhesive inside the lamp socket to melt and migrate into the bulb area of the socket. The cooled glue can adhere to the light bulb base and make the bulb difficult to remove which can result in a broken light bulb, posing a risk of laceration to consumers. Melted flammable glue that migrates onto the electrical components of the lamp poses a risk of fire.

Incidents/Injuries: Target has received six reports of glue on the lamp socket melting and migrating into the bulb area of the socket. No injuries have been reported.

via www.cpsc.gov

Defective Strollers Recalled - Risk of Amputation

From the CPSC website:

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed. It is illegal to resell or attempt to resell a recalled consumer product.

Name of Product: Maclaren Strollers
Units: About one million
Distributor: Maclaren USA, Inc., of South Norwalk, Conn.
Hazard: The stroller's hinge mechanism poses a fingertip amputation and laceration hazard to the child when the consumer is unfolding/opening the stroller.
Incidents/Injuries: The firm has received 15 reports of children placing their finger in the stroller's hinge mechanism, resulting in 12 reports of fingertip amputations in the United States.
Description: This recall involves all Maclaren single and double umbrella strollers. The word "Maclaren" is printed on the stroller.
Sold at: Babies "R" Us, Target and other juvenile product and mass merchandise retailers nationwide from 1999 through November 2009 for between $100 and $360.
Manufactured in: China
Remedy: Consumers should immediately stop using these recalled strollers and contact Maclaren USA to receive a free repair kit.
Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact Maclaren USA toll-free at (877) 688-2326 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday or visit the Maclaren firm's web site.

Clip-on Chairs - Defective!

Toyota Fined Again by NHTSA

On December 20, 2010, NHTSA announced new and larger fines against Toyota for its failure to handle recalls properly:

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today announced that Toyota Motor Corporation has agreed to pay an additional $32.425 million in civil penalties as the result of two separate investigations into the automaker's handling of auto recalls. Toyota will pay the maximum fines allowable under the law - $16.375 million in one case and $16.050 million in the other - in response to the Department's assertion that it failed to comply with the requirements of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act for reporting safety defects to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

...

The second investigation completed today resulted in a $16.050 million fine. In that case, NHTSA investigated whether Toyota properly notified the agency of a safety defect in several Toyota models that could result in the loss of steering control. In 2004, Toyota conducted a recall in Japan for Hilux trucks with steering relay rods prone to fatigue cracking and breaking, causing the vehicle to lose steering control. At that time, Toyota informed NHTSA that the safety defect was isolated to vehicles in Japan and that the company had not received similar field information within the United States. In 2005, however, Toyota informed NHTSA that the steering relay rod defect was present in several models sold in the U.S. and conducted a recall for nearly one million vehicles. Then, in May 2010, NHTSA was alerted to additional information, including complaints from U.S. consumers, that Toyota had not disclosed when Toyota initially notified NHTSA that a U.S. recall was unnecessary.

But what is human safety really worth to Toyota? Compare the $32 million in fines thus far with Toyota's quarterly profits: for example, "the world's largest auto maker by sales, posted a net profit of 153.2 billion yen ($1.68 billion) in the three months through December" of last year! {source}

For Toyota, loss of and injury to human life is easily affordable.

Consumer groups: Type of van in NY crash unstable

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. – A church van that blew a tire and rolled over on the New York state Thruway, killing six people, is a type that some consumer groups have been calling unsafe for nearly a decade.

Public Citizen and Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety both told The Associated Press on Monday in response to a question that they have been pushing for years for recalls, retrofits and redesigns of 15-passenger vans on the grounds that they are unstable.

via news.yahoo.com

See more on my 15-passenger van accident attorney microblog.

Ford's m.o. is to blame the tire, which of course could also be defective, but even with a defective tire and a blowout, the van if safely made with no defect in its architecture, should not have rolled over. In a case in California involving a Ford 15-passenger van in which I and my co-counsel have just recently filed a complaint, a rear Cooper tire failed and the van rolled over resulting in death and severe injuries. Isn't it time to get these murderous machines off the road for good?

15-passenger van accident

The 15-passenger van is so unstable and thus fundamentally defective that it strains the mind why such things are allowed to exist. Here it is on the showroom floor:

Here it is rolled over:

Yes, this 15-passenger van also had a defective tire which resulted in a tread separation at highway speed. Still, the van should have been and could have been manufactured not to rollover even with a tire tread separation. Please, don't get in these death traps. If I never get another one these cases because there are no more of these rollover vans on the road then I'll know that my past work in holding the manufacturers of these 15-passenger vans accountable was worth it.

Lawsuit Compensation for Bodily Injury - Healing, Not Just About Money

Too often, the media and news (actually, entertainment) pundits disparage the legal system and trial lawyers for "lawsuit abuse." The reports are rarely neutral or objective; more typically, such are well-orchestrated campaigns by interest groups or ideologues.

In one of my cases, currently on appeal by the defendant in the Tenth Circuit, my client was injured on account of a defective seat belt. She is now in a wheel-chair. For her catastrophic injuries, the jury awarded her $4.5 million. Will the money make her walk again? Not in and of itself, of course, but it may help, even if indirectly, we must hope.

Why? Check this recent news item as blogged by Scientific American:

Researchers have been searching for decades for a way to mend damage to the spinal cord, an injury that can lead to life-long paralysis. Even the smallest of breaks in these crucial central nerve fibers can result in the loss of leg, arm and other bodily functions. ...

A new study, ... demonstrates that voluntary movement can be reestablished in mice with spinal cord damage after removing a common enzyme that regulates the neuronal cell growth. ...

The removed enzyme PTEN, a phosphatase and tensin homolog, helps to dictate activity in the mTOR pathway, which plays a role in cell growth. During maturation, PTEN is activated, halting cell regeneration, but after removing it from a group of experimental mice with spinal cord injury, the neurons grew as they did in the development phase.

The researchers propose that "neuronal growth competence is dependent on the capability of new protein synthesis, which provides building blocks for axonal regrowth." Restarting the mTOR pathway, what the authors term a "'rejuvenation' strategy," could "be widely applicable for promoting successful regeneration following many types of injuries or traumas in the adult [central nervous system]."

Reestablishing this communication across those broken synapses could be life-changing for the millions of people who live with spinal cord injury across the world....

Perhaps this research will benefit my client.  There is always hope. Healing, perhaps walking again...that's what legitimate personal injury lawsuits against manufacturers of defective products are all about.