Florida Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

This tragic products liability accident occurred shortly before Christmas in Belle Glade, Florida as our victim was operating a sugar cane harvester manufactured and sold by a large equipment company. He was employed by one of the major sugar cane harvesting concerns in South Florida.

While the victim was operating this harvester, it became jammed with sugar cane, a common and well-known occurrence for this machine. Our victim exited the operator’s cab with the harvester running, in order to dislodge the cane, as he and others have been required to do in the past. While attempting to pull the lodged cane from the machine, the victim’s right hand suddenly became caught in a adjacent drive chain. This unfortunately caused the amputation of his right thumb and the majority of his right index finger.

Our victim was driven to the emergency room at the hospital in Belle Glade by his supervisor immediately following this incident. However, there were no available trauma surgeons on staff at the hospital to perform the necessary surgery. Therefore, he was transported to the trauma center at a hospital in West Palm Beach, Florida where he underwent debridement and lavage of his wounds. Several days later a right groin flap was required to be inset on the wound site. After several more days of observation, he was released from the hospital. To this date of course, he must live without his dominant right thumb and index finger.

The victim in this case sought the assistance of Attorney Richard D. Schuler. Mr. Schuler investigated this case thoroughly and enlisted the aid of an expert safety engineer to inspect the sugar cane harvester in question. After much discussion and research, a complaint was filed against the manufacturer of the sugar cane harvester listing the following defects:

• That there was no proper guarding designed into the machine to prevent the hands of the user from being caught in an adjacent drive chain of the machine;
• That there was no “dead man switch” designed within accessible reach of the machine so that the machine could be turned off if an operator’s hands were pulled into the machine;
• That the safety devices for stopping the machine were inoperable such that the machine would not shut off when the “stop button” was activated;
• That there were no options available with the machine to prevent a human being’s hands from being dragged into the adjacent drive chain of the machine while trying to dislodge the jammed sugar cane;
• That there were insufficient and inadequate warnings posted on the machine regarding its danger;
• That there was no stop or kill switch to stop the machine, even after the power source was cut off, so that shutting off the power to the machine would actually be detrimental to the operator, since the operator could then not be extricated from the drive chain of the machine;
• That the machine was not designed with the ability to reverse the chain so that jammed cane could be extricated without manual intervention;
• That the machine was negligently designed in that frequent cane stalk jams occurred because of lack of guarding, thus necessitating manual intervention in an area where machine parts were moving.

Continue reading " Operator of Sugar Cane Harvester in Belle Glade, Florida " »

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Posted In: Products Liability

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Many people say attorneys are only in it for the money – and of course, they are – money for the little boy who fell off his bicycle and incurred brain damage as a result, then not given the proper treatment by the hospital so that he is left with permanent damage; money for the young mother involved in an automobile accident who is no longer able to care for her family the way she has in the past; money for the college student on her way to classes on her moped who is backed over by a beverage truck and spends several months in the hospital; and money for the grand-mother who was involved in a boat explosion and received severe burns over 52% of her body.

Unfortunately, these scenarios are all too common, and someone has to be there to look out for the individuals, because insurance companies are in business to make money for insurance companies and not to pay money out on claims. The insurance companies hold out because they know the great majority of people won’t file claims, and generally, if there is no attorney involved, will walk away with the small amount the insurance company is willing to pay them for severe and substantial injuries.

Sure, attorneys do make money on most cases, eventually. Attorneys take a chance by spending their own money to obtain these recoveries through investigating the merits of these tragedies for their clients, and, if no money is obtained for the client, the attorney does not only not get paid, but may lose the money it takes to investigate the case. Many cases take several years of investigation and a lot of hard work to bring to a conclusion. During that time, the attorney is making no money on the case if it is a contingency case, and in addition, is footing all the bills for the investigation as well. This can accumulate to several thousand dollars, and if it is a case such as a large medical malpractice case, sometimes it can be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars when all is said and done.

A good law firm is dedicated to protecting the individual’s right to obtain the compensation they are rightfully due and attempting to make that individual as whole as possible at the conclusion of their case. A good law firm will provide the initial consultation at no charge and will not take a fee unless a recovery is made for the individual. Schuler, Halvorson and Weisser is such a law firm. They genuinely care about an individual’s rights and securing a successful settlement or prevailing in a jury trial on behalf of that individual and they will work diligently toward that end.

So yes, attorneys are in it for the money – the money they can obtain on behalf of their clients so that they can get the medical care and treatment they need, the money to help them get back to where they were, as much as possible, before tragedy entered their lives.

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Posted In: SHW Newsletter Articles

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This Florida truck accident case took place early one morning as this young mother and her five year old son were in their Jeep heading down a street in West Palm Beach when suddenly, a delivery truck pulled out in front of her and she had no way of avoiding the collision. The front end of her Jeep impacted the driver’s side of the delivery truck and her Jeep was deemed a total loss.

This mother and son were transported via fire rescue to a local hospital. The mother was suffering from injuries to her left shoulder, neck and back as a result of this heavy impact crash. Since that time, she has had cervical and lumbar surgeries and continues to have pain and headaches on a daily basis. Sadly, at the time of the accident, she was pregnant and lost her baby shortly after this crash occurred.

The five year old son suffered a severely fractured jaw as a rear seat passenger. He was seated in the center seat with his lap belt on. His face still flew forward and hit the center console in between the two seats after this sudden stop. He was also transported to the local hospital after the crash, but had to be transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami due to the severity of his fractures. The medical records detail the hardware that had to be used to correct his mandibular fracture. One of the significant side effects of the injuries suffered by this young boy is that his smile is now crooked, and while this may not be a big deal to a five year old, it certainly will be important to him in years to come.

At the time of this accident, the mother in this case was working two jobs and lost both of them due to the amount of time she had to miss from work for her injuries and surgeries and caring for the injuries of her son.

Attorney Steven W. Halvorson and Attorney Richard D. Schuler were asked to represent this young mother and son regarding this accident and were successful in obtaining a very substantial settlement for both mother and son without the necessity of a trial.

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Posted In: Truck Accidents

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According to statistics, between 44,000 to 98,000 Americans die in hospitals each year due to preventable medical errors.

The victim in this medical negligence case was a young 39 year old mother of three children who went to the emergency room of a hospital in Cape Coral, Florida after fever for two days, with her highest temperature being 104 degrees. She also had diarrhea, nausea without vomiting, and abdominal cramps in the bilateral mid to lower abdomen. She also complained of a painful lump on the left side of her neck that had come up over the past two weeks but had become painful in the last couple of days.

After examination and some minor testing, she was given prescriptions for Bactrim for infection and Paregoric for the diarrhea and advised to take Ibuprofen and to follow-up with her primary physician the following morning. It should be noted that some blood work had been ordered and then canceled, no EKG was ordered and no chest x-ray or abdominal x-rays were ordered.

The next morning, her husband stated that she did not rest well, she had chills and her temperature was 96.8. Her husband then called the emergency room, spoke with one of the nurses on duty and informed her of the events of the previous evening and that her temperature went from 104 to 96.8 within 10 hours. The nurse stated that he did not need to bring her back in to the emergency room because the temperature drop was just an effect of this medication.

Next the victim attempted to make an appointment with her primary care physician and was informed that she could not get in to see him for three days. Her husband then attempted to get an appointment for her to see his physician, but they could not see her for two days. The victim also tried to make an appointment with a third physician to no avail. The husband confirmed that he told these individuals on the phone that the victim had been to the hospital, the prescriptions she had been given and the symptoms she had. Still, no one was able to see her on that day.

About six o’clock that evening, because they could not get in to see a physician and she was steadily getting worse, her husband once again took her to the emergency room. The nurses attempted to take her blood pressure three times in triage and were unable to get a blood pressure reading. After the third time, she was taken back into a room immediately, a series of x-rays were taken, she was given antibiotics intravenously and a CAT scan of her abdomen was performed. After obtaining the results of the CAT scan, one of the emergency room physicians informed them that she would either be taken for surgery or placed in ICU for observation.

Continue reading " In Cape Coral, Florida, Young Mother of Three Dies Due to Medical Negligence " »

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Posted In: Medical Malpractice

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While attending an alternative music concert at a local entertainment complex, the victim in this Florida premises liability case suffered serious and permanent injuries as he was watching one of the bands playing on the stage. All of a sudden, a crowd surfer literally fell out of the sky on top of the victim collapsing his knee and causing him to fall to the ground.

At the time of the incident, this young man heard and felt his knee pop out of place. Fortunately, he was able to pop it back into place on his own and was treated initially in the medics tent at the concert. Subsequently, due to excruciating pain, weakness, swelling and stiffness, he was seen by an orthopedic surgeon who performed arthroscopic surgery for derangement of the right knee. Regrettably, even though he tolerated the procedure fairly well, his post-op recovery was hindered with continued swelling in his knee, and stabbing sensations along the side of his knee and sinovitis.

Unfortunately, despite aggressive physical therapy and rehabilitation on the knee post-surgery, the victim remained extremely symptomatic and a second arthroscopic surgery had to be performed. Even after his second arthroscopic knee surgery, he continues to have significant ongoing pain and symptomology. During one of his later visits to his orthopedic surgeon, he was prescribed a hinged knee brace and his physician advised him that he should not work for the following month. More recently, this same physician also advised him that he will undoubtedly require a total knee replacement of his right knee at some point in the future.

The total value of his past, present and future medical expenses claim, broken down to present day value, would be between $100,000.00 to $200,000.00. He also sustained a substantial loss of income and loss of future earning capacity.

Understandably, this young victim and his family have been devastated by his serious injuries and a young man’s life has been forever changed as a result of this senseless injury.

This young man and his family sought the assistance of Attorney Richard D. Schuler in this matter. Mr. Schuler’s investigation indicated that there was inadequate security at this entertainment complex, and that the security provided was not properly trained in crowd control and the prevention of body surfing or other irresponsible behavior on the part of its patrons.

Mr. Schuler was successful in obtaining a very substantial settlement for this young man who will now be able to obtain the medical help he needs presently and in the future. He will also be able to continue to pursue his career as a chef after having received his certificate of completion for culinary arts.

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Posted In: Premises Liability Litigation

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