Liability For Injuries Research Articles

Directors' liability for death or workplace injury

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to focus on the liability of directors and senior officers within organisations (primarily companies but partnerships and sole traderships are considered where appropriate) and primarily focus on workplace settings.Design/methodology/approach – Desk‐based research was carried out.Findings – The scope of the paper is confined to two major aspects of the criminal law – that of manslaughter, both statutory and at common law and also touches on the range of health and safety offences available to the courts. In terms of manslaughter, under the common law, it is gross negligence that is considered.Research limitations/implications – The paper does not attempt an analysis of forms of civil liability but does reflect on the broader relationship between responsibility of directors and company law. The debate over the responsibility of those in leading positions following death or injury to members of the workforce remains a live and problematic one. It is clearly linked to w...

Management of a fire in the operating room

Operating room (OR) fires remain a significant source of liability for anesthesia providers and injury for patients, despite existing practice guidelines and other improvements in operating room safety. Factors contributing to OR fires are well understood and these occurrences are generally preventable. OR personnel must be familiar with the fire triad which consists of a fuel supply, an oxidizing agent, and an ignition source. Existing evidence shows that OR-related fires can result in significant patient complications and malpractice claims. Steps to reduce fires include taking appropriate safety measures before a patient is brought to the OR, taking proper preventive measures during surgery, and effectively managing fire and patient complications when they occur. Decreasing the incidence of fires should be a team effort involving the entire OR personnel, including surgeons, anesthesia providers, nurses, scrub technologists, and administrators. Communication and coordination among members of the OR team is essential to creating a culture of safety.

Employer Civil Liability for Work-Related Psychiatric Injury: Juggling Established Principles and ‘New’ Risks

Employer <i>Civil</i> Liability for Work-Related Psychiatric Injury: Juggling Established Principles and ‘New’ Risks

Characterizing liability for cranial nerve injuries: A detailed analysis of 209 malpractice trials

The potential for adverse events with lasting functional effects makes cranial nerve (CN) injury a target for litigation. Our objective was to comprehensively examine records of malpractice trials and detail issues influencing outcomes. Retrospective analysis. The Westlaw database (Thomson Reuters, New York, NY) was searched for jury verdict reports related to medical malpractice and CN injury. After excluding nonrelevant cases, we examined 209 trials for characteristics including nerve(s) injured, alleged causes of malpractice, demographic information, specialty, and outcome. The most commonly litigated CNs were VII (24.4%) and II (19.6%). Sixty-nine (33.0%) trials resulted in damages awarded. Outcomes varied, ranging from a 29.2% plaintiff success rate for CN XI injury to 48.4% for CN II injury. Plaintiffs had less success with increasing age. Average damages awarded were $1.7 million. The most commonly named defendants were otolaryngologists and general surgeons. Individual considerations varied but commonly included alleged deficits in informed consent (25.4%), unnecessary procedures (14.8%), undergoing additional surgery (25.8%), and untimely recognition of complications (23.9%). Malpractice trials were resolved in the defendant's favor the majority of the time. In cases where plaintiffs were successful, however, awards were considerable, averaging nearly $2 million. Factors influencing case outcome included age, location, perceived deficits in informed consent, allegedly unnecessary surgery, requiring additional surgery to repair a complication, and untimely recognition of complications. Although specific factors should be taken into consideration with each procedure, providing detailed informed consent and communicating with patients regarding expectations may minimize liability.

Cruise / Liability for death and injury / Forum-selection clause

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Vertebral artery injury and third-party liability: the wrongful attack to whiplash injury, L.27/12 (G.U.n.71 del 24.03.12)

Lesions after blunt cervical trauma could be, infrequently, associated with complications that require a discussion under clinical and legal medical point of view. Vertebral artery dissection as a serious consequence of a cervical trauma is a rare complication of patients with blunt injury mechanisms. Artery lesions could be frequently initially unrecognized or they may present a variety of symptoms ranging from a simple pain involving neck to ischemic lesions and cerebral ictus. Arterial dissection can cause ischemic stroke either by thromboemboli forming at the site of injury or as a result of hemodynamic insufficiency due to severe vascular stenosis or occlusion. Vertebral artery injury and third-party liability: the wrongful attack to whiplash injury, L. 27/12 (G.U. n.71 del 24.03.12) www.preventionandresearch.com 311 Oct-Dec 2012|P&R Scientific|Volume 2|N°4 In medical literature several injury hypotheses which may cause a dissection of the arterial walls of vertebral arteries have been analyzed. Among them, repeated micro-traumatism which, acting on already altered wall, cause the dissection. Some jobs or sports are characterized by this risk because they imply frequent and repeated flexoextension movements or head rotations. Also a single minor trauma, such as a blunt cervical trauma following car accident, could cause the dissection of the vertebral arterial wall. The case reported concerns a 43 year-old man who suffered a bruising trauma following a car accident (a bumper-tobumper crash with an articulated lorry). The reported symptomatology consisted of pain along the rachis and on the back on the neck and a diagnosis of cervical whiplash was made. After the worsening of the symptomatology, neurological tests revealed right hemiataxia and dysarthria. Succeeding MRI scanning with angiographic sequences revealed a dissection of the left vertebral artery with a hyperdense lesion of the right cerebellar hemisphere, as an outcome of an infarct in the area of a postero-inferior cerebellar artery. Vertebral artery stretch during trauma is a possible pathogenic mechanism that could explain some aspects of the whiplash symptom complex and serious consequences. At the present this issue shows many controversial points from a pathogenetic point of view. The described uncertainties and the rareness of this kind of injury may explain the “superficiality” of a doctor giving first-aid to a patient with cervical whiplash and “generic” symptoms and it could be related to possible economical benefits consequent from insurance indemnity. However the persistence of symptoms or the negative evolution of the same suggests that it wasn’t the “usual whiplash invented for compensation purposes” and that late complications of an injury of the walls of encephalic arteries must be taken into serious consideration specially under clinical point of view.

Recovery for Psychiatric Injury in Canada: A Tale of Two Cases

Mustapha v. Culligan of Canada Ltd [2008] 2 SCR 114 was the Supreme Court of Canada’s first opportunity for more than 50 years to restate the principles of liability for psychiatric injury as applied in Canada. However, McLachlin CJ’s economically worded judgment did not go into the issues in any detail. In the recent case of Healey v. Lakeridge Health Corp 2011 ONCA 55, the Ontario Court of Appeal had to resolve an ambiguity in McLachlin CJ’s judgment: the plaintiffs argued that it had lowered the recognisable psychiatric illness threshold, but the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld the orthodox view. Healey, however, affirms another distinctive trend seemingly initiated by Mustapha: to treat issues of psychiatric injury under the heading of remoteness rather than duty.

Liability for Injury to Professional Player When Playing as a National Soccer Team

Liability for Injury to Professional Player When Playing as a National Soccer Team

Liability for Injury Resulting from a Premise: A Study on Who Will Be Liable for it in Islamic Law of Tort, Lebanon Civil Code and Sudan Transaction Civil Code

Liability for Injury Resulting from a Premise: A Study on Who Will Be Liable for it in Islamic Law of Tort, Lebanon Civil Code and Sudan Transaction Civil Code

The Rise of Contingent Fee Representation in Patent Litigation

It is well known that contingent representation is on the rise in patent litigation. But why? And what are the lawyers in the field like? Although scholars have studied contingent litigation in other contexts — such as medical malpractice, personal injury, and products liability litigation — patent litigation has received almost no attention. This gap in the literature is unsettling because patent litigation is different from these other fields of contingent litigation in important and interesting ways. These differences include: patent litigation is much more uncertain; the costs of litigating claims are usually significantly higher; and patents, including their underlying infringement claims, are freely assignable. Absent in most other contingent litigation contexts, these characteristics of patent litigation shed light on the broader topics of litigation and contingency relationships in general.Drawing upon several sources of data, including in-depth interviews with over forty lawyers involved in contingent representation in patent litigation and examination of over forty contingent fee agreements, this Article provides the first comprehensive analysis of the rapid evolution of contingent representation in patent law. The development of contingent representation includes top-tier litigation firms recently transitioning to taking on high value contingent cases, small entrants representing plaintiffs in lower value cases, and numerous general practice firms experimenting with contingent patent litigation. These diverse players each select and litigate cases using varied methods, resulting in different levels of risk and reward. The Article uses the study of these players to discuss how and why attorney-client contingent relationships established in the nascent marketplace of patent contingent litigation differ from other types of contingent litigation, and what patent law can teach about contingent representation in general. It also lays the foundation for future quantitative research comparing the results of contingent and hourly billing representation.

Mixed‐sided individuals with neuroticism sustain more unintentional injuries in India

Previous research has shown a positive association between unintentional injury liability and non-right-handedness (especially mixed-handedness). Research has also shown neuroticism to be one of the main predictors of unintentional injuries. In the present study we investigated the relationship of the three variables--frequency of unintentional injuries, side bias, and neuroticism. Further, the study aimed at extending the findings of previous studies establishing a relationship between non-right-handedness and unintentional injuries to a similar pattern in other domains of side bias--footedness, eyedness, and earedness. Data were collected from a large sample (N = 3474) using the side bias questionnaire, the shorter version of Maudsley's Personality Inventory, and an unintentional injury checklist. Results revealed positive correlations between the frequency of unintentional injuries and mixed-sidedness, followed by left-sidedness and right-sidedness in each of the four domains of side bias. Furthermore, an increase in the frequency of unintentional injuries was observed for mixed-sided and left-sided individuals with higher levels of neuroticism.

Abstract P282: Medical Professional Liability Claims Involving Cardiologists: A Descriptive Study of 4,527 Cases

Objectives: In this study we present data which describe a large cohort of closed cardiovascular medical professional liability claims. The purpose of this report is to provide information for cardiologists which will be useful in improving the quality of cardiovascular care and in reducing the incidence of patient injury and the consequent frequency of medical professional liability claims. Background: In 1985 The Physician Insurers Association of America (PIAA) established the Data Sharing Project, a registry of medical professional liability claims. This registry contains data voluntarily submitted by participating PIAA member professional liability insurance companies describing 239,756 closed claims through 2008. The registry is maintained for educational programs to improved quality of care and to reduce patient injury and consequent medical professional liability claims. Methods: Descriptive techniques are used to present summary information for the medical cardiovascular claims in the PIAA registry. Results: Of 239,756 closed claims, 4,527 (1.9%) involve cardiologists. Of the 4,527 closed claims, 836 (18.5%) resulted in an indemnity payment, and the average indemnity payment for these cases was $251,024. In the entire database, 29.5% of closed claims were paid, and the average indemnity payment was $209,156. The most prevalent allegation among cardiovascular closed claims was diagnostic error (931 cases, 20.6% of all closed claims), and the most prevalent diagnosis was acute myocardial infarction, representing 105 of 931 cases of diagnostic error (11.3% of diagnostic error closed claims.) The average indemnity paid for errors in diagnosis was $306,273. Aortic aneurysms and dissections, while relatively infrequent as clinical events, represent a substantial medical professional liability diagnostic error risk because of the high percentage of paid claims (38.2%), and the high average indemnity payment of $444,859. Conclusions: Medical professional liability issues are common and are important to all practicing cardiologists. Detailed knowledge of risks associated with liability claims should assist practicing cardiologists in improving quality of care, reducing patient injury and reducing the incidence of claims.

A generalized beta copula with applications in modeling multivariate long-tailed data

This work proposes a new copula class that we call the MGB2 copula. The new copula originates from extracting the dependence function of the multivariate GB2 distribution (MGB2) whose marginals follow the univariate generalized beta distribution of the second kind (GB2). The MGB2 copula can capture non-elliptical and asymmetric dependencies among marginal coordinates and provides a simple formulation for multi-dimensional applications. This new class features positive tail dependence in the upper tail and tail independence in the lower tail. Furthermore, it includes some well-known copula classes, such as the Gaussian copula, as special or limiting cases. To illustrate the usefulness of the MGB2 copula, we build a trivariate MGB2 copula model of bodily injury liability closed claims. Extended GB2 distributions are chosen to accommodate the right-skewness and the long-tailedness of the outcome variables. For the regression component, location parameters with continuous predictors are introduced using a nonlinear additive function. For comparison purposes, we also consider the Gumbel and t copulas, alternatives that capture the upper tail dependence. The paper introduces a conditional plot graphical tool for assessing the validation of the MGB2 copula. Quantitative and graphical assessment of the goodness of fit demonstrate the advantages of the MGB2 copula over the other copulas.

Nova prava putnika u komunitarnom železničkom pravu

In December 2009 within the framework of the Third Railway Package a new European Parliament and Council Regulation no. 1371/2007 on International Rail Passenger's Rights and Obligations entered into force. The main goal of this Regulation was to regulate provisions for several essential problems: information of passengers, question concerning ticketing, care of passengers with handicaps and restricted mobility, definition and control of quality standards, liability for personal injury, for loss and damage to baggage and for delays. Those new rules had to be adopted in accordance with existing international law on carriage by rail, namely CIV Uniform Rules of Convention concerning International Carriage by Rail (COTIF Convention) which last revision entered into force mid-2006. This article analysis the essential solutions of the mentioned Regulation in attempt to point up especially new rights of passengers with handicaps and restricted mobility and pay attention to the high standards that Serbia must fulfill in the process of integration in EU in this domain.

Challenging the Concepts of Damage in Tort Law with Shock Injury

Abstract: The case of Yearworth decided by the Court of Appeals of England and Wales (2009) put the application of tort law and contract law to the test in several respects. A claim was brought by a number of men who had undergone treatment for cancer and therefore stored their sperm, which was negligently destroyed by the hospital, causing the men a psychiatric injury. It is thus a case of shock injury suffered consequential to an initial harm. However, what has been destroyed: a body part that constitutes a personal injury or damage to property? In addition, how is liability for a shock injury in such a case or other cases delimited? I argue that the assessment cannot be driven by an introspective definition of the concepts of harm. Instead, it is necessary to grasp the nature of the initial harm caused by the tortfeasor - including the rights (or protected interests) and duties related to that initial harm - and the normative correlation to the final personal injury (shock injury) suffered by the injured person. A model for making that assessment is presented here from a Swedish tort law perspective on shock injuries consequential to the destruction of biological material and property in general.

Strict Liability for Medical Injuries? The Impact of Increasing Malpractice Liability on Obstetrician Behavior: Evidence from Taiwan

Policy makers and academics have long debated the existence and extent of defensive medicine in the face of medical malpractice liability pressure. In this paper, I investigate how physicians’ test-ordering behavior and propensity to perform cesarean sections were affected first by a series of court rulings in Taiwan that increased physicians’ liability risks, and then by a subsequent amendment to the law that reversed the courts’ rulings. I find that physicians faced with higher malpractice pressure increased laboratory tests as expected but unexpectedly reduced cesarean sections. The reduction in cesarean deliveries may be due to the fact that liability risks were more closely aligned with physicians’ standard of care after the court rulings. After the law was amended to negate the court decisions, physicians reversed their previous behavior, reducing laboratory tests and increasing cesarean deliveries. This pattern of behavior strongly suggests that physicians in Taiwan practice defensive medicine.

Regionalization Findings in the National Report Card of the State of Emergency Medicine

The National Report Card on the State of Emergency Medicine (2009 edition) evaluated the conditions under which emergency care is delivered in each of the 50 states and compared those conditions between the states. The Report Card ranked states in five major categories: access to emergency care, quality and patient safety environment, public health and injury prevention, liability environment, and disaster preparedness. Three of those categories are particularly relevant to regionalization: access to emergency care, quality and patient safety environment, and disaster-preparedness. Within these categories, there was great variability between states in the distribution, planning, infrastructure, and available personnel for emergency care. Effective regionalization may require additional resources or a redistribution of existing resources within and among the states.

Wicks and Sheehan v State Rail Authority: Yet Another Public Policy Dilemma

In Wicks v State Rail Authority of New South Wales; Sheehan v State Rail Authority of New South Wales [2010] HCA 22, the Australian High Court grappled with provisions of New South Wales legislation limiting claims for damages for mental harm. The Civil Liability Act 2002 (NSW) limits claims by plaintiffs for damages for pure mental harm, resulting from harm to another person, which in turn was caused by the defendant. The creation of this restriction was one of a number of tort reforms passed by parliaments around Australia. The High Court's consideration of the case highlights the difficult policy questions involved in determining liability for psychiatric injury. The decision also demonstrates that Australia does not have a coherent national approach to claims for damages for pure mental harm resulting from negligence.

Liability for Harm Caused by Things

Though they are based on these common inspirations, the regimes of liability for things vary throughout Europe. In certain areas, EC legislation or international conventions have induced the development of harmonized regimes, as in the cases of products liability, liability for injury resulting from commercial aviation, and liability for accidents involving nuclear plants. Yet, the European regimes cover a broad spectrum of approaches to strict liability, from attaching strict liability to the mere control over an object or facility (as in the French notion of custodial liability) to the rebuttable presumption of fault on the part of the defendant-owner (as in the German view of liability for injury due to defective buildings) to the application of a highly fact-specific analysis for statutory liability (as in the English reliance on the Occupiers’ Liability Acts). For example, the principle of fault-based liability is so well entrenched in German and English law that regimes of liability not based on personal wrongful conduct are framed as exceptions that must be introduced by the legislature. French law has taken a different course, with the French Cour de cassation establishing liability for things under one’s garde as a general regime of liability without fault (Article 1384 CCfr), next to the general clause of liability based on fault (Article 1382 C. Civ). The present chapter begins with an analysis focused on the legal systems of Germany, France and England (Part I). Despite the limits of this admittedly limited and conventional choice, it will be adhered to because the laws of these jurisdictions remain useful representatives of three main approaches to liability for things in Europe. The inquiry will then target the current rules proposed by the European Group on Tort Law as well as those proposed by the Study Group for a European Civil Code (Part II). The chapter will conclude with an assessment of the convergence that such rules may be able to achieve, as well as their desirability and political feasibility (Part III).

Hand and Wrist Malpractice Claims in the Netherlands: 1993-2008

We analysed hand and wrist injury and disorder related liability claims in the Netherlands to identify causes and to contribute to the prevention of such claims. Data was collected from 743 hand and wrist claims filed between 1993 and 2007. Consultants were involved in 417 claims (56.1%). Treatment in the emergency department (ED) accounted for 64.9% of these 287 claims involved residents (59.5%). The majority of accepted claims in the ED included treatment by general surgeons (89.2%). The percentage of accepted claims was highest in the general surgery group (26.4%). Of accepted claims in the ED which involved a resident, 93.2% involved a general surgery resident. Better training and supervision is indicated. This paper supports hand injury treatment by adequately trained surgeons and preferably, where possible, by a trained hand surgeon.