Pennsylvania Law Monitor : Pennsylvania Lawyer & Attorney : Stark & Stark Law Firm : Yardley, Philadelphia, New York, New Jersey

I’ve previously blogged about how various social mediums, Facebook in particular, can dramatically affect your marriage and your divorce. As I advise all my clients, we live in a very public world these days, the internet has opened windows into peoples’ lives; privacy is scarce. What you post online while alone at your computer is a message for the entire world to read.

A wife in New York was recently reminded of this. The wife was seeking permanent alimony from her husband due a disability which prevented her from working. Her claim was quickly rejected when her husband was able to introduce evidence of her being paid to belly dance. How did the husband find out? The wife was blogging about it on the internet. Even worse, when asked by a friend on Facebook why she wasn’t posting pictures of herself dancing, the wife replied, “Gotta be careful what goes online, pookies. The ex would love to fry me with that.” 

And fried she was. The Court substantially slashed her alimony award, both in amount and duration, and awarded husband legal fees for wife’s tactics.

Lessons?
If you or someone you know is going through the divorce process, be sure to consult with an attorney experienced in the role social media plays in divorce cases. With the various number of social media outlets available to almost anyone these days, it's crucial to your case that you have someone on your side who will ensure that your rights, interests and privacy is protected.

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The Courts in Pennsylvania do allow the Learned Intermediary Rule to be pled in certain circumstances in products liability cases. One of the areas is in the physicians’ prescribing of drugs. The Learned Intermediary Rule in these contexts is usually invoked in cases where a drug manufacturer is being sued when someone taking the drug suffers injury due to a side effect of the medication. In those situations the pharmaceutical companies must show that they provided adequate warnings to various prescribing physicians during the relevant time period, and it is the burden of the Plaintiff to prove that the manufacturer failed to provide adequate warnings to the prescribing physicians.

In a recent case in Philadelphia County Blyth v. GlaxoSmithKline, a factual twist to the Court’s application of this rule came into play. The Plaintiff in this matter, Marsha Blyth, a resident of South Carolina, was taking Paxil at the time that she became pregnant with her daughter, Anna Blyth, in 1995. The evidence showed that Ms. Blyth stopped using Paxil within a matter of weeks after conception. Anna Blyth was born with three congenital heart defects which the Plaintiffs were alleging was one of the known potential side effects of Paxil.

The factual anomaly that ultimately cost the Plaintiffs any chance of recovery in this matter against GlaxosSmithKline was that the Plaintiff’s physician, Dr. Claud Hackney, died in 2001. Further, in the interim, his medical records as to the Plaintiff and her daughter had been destroyed. The defense argued successfully that the doctor’s testimony is essential because a Plaintiff suing prescription drug manufacturers must show under the Learned Intermediary Rule that a manufacturer failed to provide adequate warning to the prescribing physicians.

The Court considered the fact that the Plaintiffs would be at a complete loss of any positive facts illustrating Dr. Hackney’s anticipated actions in face of different Paxil drug labeling, and therefore could not prove that Dr. Hackney had not been provided adequate warnings by the manufacturer of the prescription he prescribed.

The Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Gary Glazer came to the ultimate conclusion that Summary Judgment was proper, as to drug the manufacturer in this case, due to the fact that evidence that a different warning label would have changed the decision of a purpose of a person prescribing the medication is required in pharmaceutical products liability actions. This was further true in this case, since the doctor was deceased and could not testify as to his decision making process and the potential impact of warning accompanying the risk of using of using Paxil on the doctor’s decision.

Therefore, in this case, due to the unfortunate factual circumstance of the treating doctor being deceased and being unable to acquire his knowledge as to these circumstances, the Plaintiffs in this case were unable to overcome the defense of the Learned Intermediary Rule. The case is currently pending in the Pennsylvania Superior Court.

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Running 10 miles through cold, wet, muddy conditions; navigating obstacles which include dodging live electrical wires, sprinting through “Fire Walks,” and crossing muddy pits by climbing across “Funky Monkey” bars which have been greased with butter at random intervals; does this sound like a fun way to spend your weekend? For many people, it does. Last weekend at Bear Creek, Pennsylvania, approximately 10,000 people came out to compete in the Tough Mudder race, which included the events described above, plus about a dozen more. Unfortunately for many participants, races such as these may also include serious injuries.

For people who want more of a challenge than traditional races like a 5K or the Broad Street Run, events like the Tough Mudder, Muddy Buddy, and Warrior Dash have started to appear across the country. These competitions offer a new twist: a long, grueling race course, filled with mud, cold water, fire, and other obstacles limited only by the organizers’ imaginations. Unfortunately, while competitors at these races expect to find a tough but enjoyable race course, some participants may end up getting seriously injured. For instance, at the recent Tough Mudder in Bear Creek, Pennsylvania, the Funky Monkey was reportedly shut down after participants suffered injuries including sprained or broken ankles and broken legs. There were reports of dozens of injuries which required medical assistance.

Participants who are seriously injured at a race may require extensive medical treatment, may miss work, and may suffer injuries which never fully heal. Unfortunately for competitors who have been injured, these events generally require participants to sign a waiver releasing the organizers from any liability. A release, or exculpatory clause, may prevent a person from recovering their damages in a lawsuit, even in cases of negligence. If you have been injured while competing in a race, sporting event, or other recreational activity, you should consult with one of Stark & Stark’s experienced personal injury lawyers regarding your rights.

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The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has announced that it was awarding $10 million to develop and test new approaches to fight hospital-acquired infections, according to the March 14, 2011 Milwaukee Wisconsin Sentinel. The awards were given to five academic medical centers to explore matters such as:

• The use of combinations of bleach and ultraviolet light to clean hospital rooms and prevent infection
• New tests that help distinguish patients who need antibiotics from those who don't.
• Methods that can help doctors anticipate when medical devices being used to treat a patient are on the verge of causing an infection.
• Treating patients with living microorganisms that are harmless to the patient but compete with harmful germs.

One of the recipients is the University of Pennsylvania, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Adult and Pediatric Epicenter Network.

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A Bucks County Police Officer recently recovered almost $300,000 for injuries that he suffered in a car accident. The Police Officer was on his way to work when another driver pulled out in front of him and struck his car. The Officer suffered serious injuries and had to be airlifted to a Philadelphia Hospital when it was determined that he had fractured his neck. 

After four months of intense rehabilitation, the Police Officer was able to return to work. The driver of the other vehicle only had $100,000 worth of car insurance. This policy was given to the Police Officer. Fortunately, the Police Officer also had under-insurance coverage on his auto policy. Through this policy, I was able to recover an additional $200,000 for the Police Officer from his own auto insurance carrier.

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More and more, workers are being forced to drive their own vehicles when performing during working hours in order to perform work activities and duties. However, less and less, employers are providing little or no protection for employees if they are involved in an accident.

This post is final installment in a nine part series discussing what you should know when driving your car during work. This installment will discuss what you should do if your workers' compensation carrier attempts to be paid back from monies you received under other policies of insurance. (You can view previous posts in this series online here)

Under certain circumstances, the workers’ compensation carrier who paid medical and/or wage loss benefits to you may have a right to be paid back if you receive monetary compensation from another source. However, this right to be paid back is limited. An experienced workers’ compensation and personal injury attorney can review your claims and determine if pay back is required and what amount must be paid back.

As you can see what appears to be a simple motor vehicle accident during work can turn into something very complicated.  If you do not carefully identify and coordinate the benefits you are entitled to, you can lose significant sums of money and benefits.

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Your Social Security retirement benefits are based on your average earnings over your work lifetime.  For most retirees, that means that Social Security will average your 35 highest years of earnings.  Years in which you have low or no earnings may be counted to bring the total years of earnings up to 35.  Every year, 3 months before your birthday, Social Security send you a Social Security Statement which lists the approximate amount of monthly benefits you would receive at various retirement ages.

If you receive a retirement pension from your employer, it should not effect your monthly Social Security benefit as your employer should have paid social security taxes based upon your wage.  However, pensions based on work that is not covered by Social Security (federal civil service and some state, local or foreign government systems) probably will reduce the amount of your monthly benefit.

If you work after you start receiving Social Security retirement benefits, you still need to pay Social Security and medicare taxes on your earnings. 

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