Consumer Awareness

By the numbers 2 to 4 Million Hurt – Between 2 to 4 million Americans suffered serious, disabling or fatal injuries after using prescription drugs in 2011, based on estimates from data issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Source: QuarterWatch May 2012, Institute for Safe Medication Practices 80 Percent Generic – Even though nearly 80 percent of all prescriptions written in the United States are filled with generic drugs, the U.S. Supreme Court…

You probably never think twice about filling your prescriptions with generic drugs. They are much cheaper than brand-names, and they perform exactly the same as the original, right? But what if something goes terribly wrong like it did for Karen Bartlett when she took a generic painkiller for shoulder pain? Soon after, two-thirds of Karen’s skin began shedding off. Or Kira Gilbert, who took the generic Darvocet in advance of knee surgery and never woke…

Question: Can a person be successful in a product liability case if he or she did not use a product properly or in accord with the directions on the product? Rich: They certainly may be, yes. And obviously the extent to which a person did not properly use a product may become an issue and may give rise to contributory negligence or assumption of the risk. But what we often see is that a product…

Question: Do I need to have the product to file a product liability case? Rich: For all practical purposes, yes. And I certainly caution consumers to keep and preserve any product that they believe have caused them injury as a result of any defective design. That’s unquestionably the most important aspect of any product liability case. The product is going to be evaluated by us and our experts to determine why the product was defective…

Question: With respect to motor vehicles, what type of incidents might give rise to a product liability case? Rich: We certainly see these cases arising out of what are often just the very basic types of traffic accidents that occur on the highway everyday. You have to keep in mind that vehicles are known and expected to be operated at highway speeds, which in many instances, especially when you get out into some rural areas,…

Richard Burke, a partner at Clifford Law Offices, has a great deal of experience in the area of product liability law in sorting through complex cases that involve when something goes wrong with a product. Which can be anything from unsafe BBQ lighters to children’s games. He spends much of time handling motor vehicle liability cases involving rollovers of SUV’s that can be caused by defects in tires, seats and airbags. Rich was an Assistant…

It was six years ago that the Chicago Tribune did an investigation of hazards from magnetic toys for children that helped touch off the government stiffening standards on the small pieces that can be swallowed by the unaware. At the time, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL) held a public hearing in Chicago on consumer safety. One of the clients of Clifford Law Offices, a mother from the far northern suburbs, Sharon…

Carrageenan is being studied by researchers at the University of Illinois in Chicago and University of Chicago to determine if it has ill effects on some people’s gastrointestinal systems, the Chicago Tribune reported in a recent article (“Food Additive Stirs Calls for Scrutiny,” March 18, 2013). UIC physician and professor Joanne Tobacman has been looking at the health effects of this food additive for years and in 2008 she petitioned the Food and Drug Administration…

Two North Carolina women who are also food bloggers learned about two additives contained in the popular Kraft Macaroni & Cheese that are banned in various European countries yet still are in the product on U.S. store shelves. They started a petition to have the additives removed. So far, more than 220,000 people have signed the petition asking Kraft to remove yellow dye 5 and yellow dye 6 from the popular food. The two women,…