Mobile phones, nursing homes, credit cards, and now bank accounts that you never even agreed to have opened in your name!? Corporate America is using forced arbitration clauses buried on many of the contracts you agree to every day to close the courthouse door in your face. These oppressive “fine print” clauses, which most people never read, are potent tools used to limit your right to sue and effectively recover against big corporations. Why do they use these clauses?

1. Because they win far more often in front of the arbitrators who get huge volumes of business arbitrating these cases
2. Because people cannot afford to pay for a private judicial system (arbitration costs money unlike the free and open court system)
3. Because the results of arbitrations are secret and corporations won’t suffer bad publicity regardless of the outcome
4. All of the above.

If you guessed “D”, you are absolutely correct. The only way to force Wells Fargo to do the right thing and live up to the promise they have made to Congress is for every consumer to insist on the right to proceed in court instead of being buried in a private arbitration system. If you are a Wells Fargo customer, tell them that you reject any arbitration clause on your account. If they will not agree to strike the clause, MOVE YOUR ACCOUNT!

If you have any questions regarding these issues or believe you have become a victim of forced arbitration clauses, contact our legal team at Shrager, Spivey & Sachs!

According to data gathered by the Bicycle Coalition, in 2016, cars have caused 63 fatalities in Philadelphia. Although this is not significantly more than the amount in earlier years, the proportion involving bicyclists and pedestrians is up to 59%, which is much higher than that in previous years. In just November, four pedestrians suffered fatal injuries in car accidents, and a fifth person was severely injured.

One death occurred when an 8-year-old girl was walking home with her older brother and was hit by a hit-and-run driver. The next occurred when an unidentified 23-year-old male was hit by a drunk driver on Roosevelt Boulevard. Another occurred when two employees of the Lucky Strikes bowling alley were struck by a pickup truck, leaving one dead and one severely injured. The fifth fatality occurred when a young woman was crossing Lehigh Avenue.

Our team of Philadelphia medical malpractice lawyers at Shrager, Spivey & Sachs is pleased to announce that our firm has received the 2017 Best Law Firm Award from Best Lawyers®. Because this award is only presented to a small number of firms every year, such an achievement displays a firm’s ability to handle complicated cases and provide excellent, top-tier representation on behalf of clients.

According to an article published by The Inquirer, the St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in North Philadelphia failed to determine why nine patients sustained fatal injuries during heart surgery. In February, The Inquirer reported that the death rate among infant heart-surgery patients at St. Christopher’s was almost triple the national average. One month later, a three-day surprise inspection took place at the North Philadelphia Hospital.

The report stated that in January, the hospital was ordered to stop performing all non-emergency heart surgeries. The hospital continues to hold pending an internal review. As of now, a submitted plan of correction has been approved by the state, but the procedures have yet to resume.

Jeffrey Jacobs, a leader of a countrywide effort to publicize surgical records as well as a chief of cardiac surgery at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, explains that each fatality in surgery should be carefully examined in order to learn why the fatality occurred and to prevent similar fatalities in the future.

Our team is pleased to announce that Attorney Robert Sachs will be a faculty speaker at the Association for Justice’s Nursing Home Litigation Fundamentals Seminar, which will take place on October 28 and 29 at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center & Hilton Santa Fe Historic Plaza in Santa Fe, New Mexico. This will be the second presentation of the seminar that took place in Philadelphia last spring.

The event is designed for both experienced and new nursing home lawyers and will cover a wide range of issues related to nursing home litigation, including the process from a case evaluation to resolution. Speakers for the event will include former chairs of AAJ’s Nursing Home Litigation Group. While presenters will undoubtedly share information regarding new tactics that can be used during litigation, the presentation will focus on the fundamentals which remain crucial in these types of cases.

Speaking about the upcoming event, Sachs states, “I am pleased to be on the faculty along with some of the top nursing home lawyers in the country. I have been asked to address medication errors.” He adds, “Sadly, I have handled too many cases like this. These cases run the gamut and include everything from criminal actions, to ‘mercy’ killings, to dosage calculation errors, to chemical restraint cases. This is a very active area for nursing home litigation.

Most consumers believe they should have the right to know of potential hazards when making important decisions about a service – including services as important as their medical care. Unfortunately for patients in Pennsylvania, not all information about the quality of care at state medical facilities is readily available or accessible. This is because the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority, the agency which keeps stats on medical errors and related issues throughout the state, doesn’t allow patients to know the full details behind medical errors, including those resulting in injury or death.

The Medical Care Availability and Reduction of Error Act, which became law in 2002, requires certain information regarding medical errors be kept confidential. Why? Officials state that by maintaining confidentiality and the Patient Safety Authority’s non-punitive stance, more medical facilities are willing to self-report information about “near-misses” and errors. The focus, officials claim, is to promote safety improvement rather than fear.

As elders become physically and mentally incapable of caring for themselves, many people put their elderly loved ones into a nursing home. Nursing homes are designed to provide medical care and various forms of therapy so that the occupants of that nursing home are as healthy as possible despite ages and conditions. Majority of occupants in nursing homes do not need hospital care, but need to be watched over and tended to several times a day. Oftentimes, unfortunately, many nursing homes fail to provide the appropriate services,committing acts of abuse and neglect, which may cause detrimental outcomes for elderly patients.

The Definition of Abuse:

• The Federal nursing home regulations define abuse as a deliberate infliction, unnecessary confinement, intimidation, deprivation of care and service, or punishments that cause physical harm, pain, and mental anguish.

The Definition of Neglect:

• The Federal nursing home regulations define neglect as a failure to provide a resident with the necessary care and service that ensure the resident freedom from harm, pain, and emotional distress.

A recent study published in The BMJ medical journal is shedding light on the serious impact of medical errors in hospitals and other health care settings. According to the study – which was conducted by patient safety researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and published in May – medical errors may now be the third leading cause of death in the United States.

Researchers noted the following about the study:

• Medical errors encompassed a broad category ranging from negligent doctors to issues involving communication and mistakes during patient transfers.
• Medical mistakes cause roughly 251,000 deaths each year – more than strokes, diabetes, respiratory disease, and accidents.
• The numbers equate to an average of 700 deaths every day – and roughly 9.5% of all deaths in the U.S. annually.

The study drew from an analysis of four larger studies that found high rates of error-related fatalities throughout the health care industry. Aside from variance in data and individual circumstances, it ultimately shows that many people are dying from care they are receiving rather than the underlying medical issue for which they are seeking care.

According to an article published by Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, as of last year, medical malpractice jury verdicts dropped significantly. While many individuals in the medical community believe this may come as a relief from increasing insurance premiums, many attorneys believe this is an indication that injured patients are not being provided with opportunities for redress.

Reports state that in the state of Pennsylvania, juries issued verdicts in 449 malpractice cases. Of those medical malpractice cases, 78.4% of those verdicts were decided in favor of the defendant. In 2015, 78.2% of 101 verdicts favored medical professionals and hospitals.

Lawrence Kelly, the president of the Western Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association, explained that the insurers and the medical community has worked diligently to build a jury that is bias when handling these types of medical malpractice cases. Some believe that legislators and jurors are able to convince juries to do so by creating scenarios that allow doctors to abandon entire towns over liability concerns.

At Shrager & Sachs, we care about our community and take pride in getting involved with local organizations. As part of his commitment to the people he serves, Attorney Robert Sachs is involved with the SeniorLAW Center, where he serves as a board member.

Mr. Sachs views his service as a board member of SeniorLaw Center as an adjunct to his nursing home negligence practice. “Over 20 years ago, just after I began working as David Shrager’s partner in 1994, Mr. Shrager encouraged myself and the rest of the firm to become involved in cases on behalf of Pennsylvania’s senior citizens,” said Mr. Sachs. “As a group, Mr. Shrager felt that older Pennsylvanians were horribly underserved regarding legal services. Especially in the context of personal injury litigation, where lawyers traditionally undertake representation on a contingent fee basis, the available damages for one who was no longer working and had a relatively short statistical life expectancy has kept many lawyers from representing older clients.”