Washington DC Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

Archive for September, 2009

Whistleblower gets $51.5 million

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

As many of you know, the law firm of Chaikin, Sherman, Cammarata & Siegel, P.C. is currently involved in a significant whistleblower case and considers themselves “your whistleblower law firm”. Click here to read our special 4th of July newsletter regarding the history of the whistleblower act and our activity in this arena.

Now comes the story of John Kopchinski who exposed problems with Pfizer’s painkiller, Bextra, and will receive more than $51.5 million from the settlement. Mr. Kopchinski will earn more than $51.5 million as a result of his whistleblower lawsuit against the world’s biggest drug maker and the record penalty that the company must pay the U.S. government for its massive marketing transgression. Mr. Kopchinski said in a statement:

In the army I was expected to protect people at all costs. At Pfizer,
I was expected to increase profits at all costs, even when sales meant
endangering lives. I couldn’t do that.

Mr. Kopchinski was fired by Pfizer in March, 2003, two years before the company removed Bextra from the market because of concerns that were raised over the risks of heart attacks and strokes. Mr. Kopchinski and five other whistleblowers were awarded more than $102 million in payments from the U.S. government under the False Claims Act through which individuals can reap rewards for exposing corporate wrongdoing.

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Pfizer Settles Qui Tam/False Claims Act Claim for $1 Billion

Friday, September 25th, 2009

Last month, the United States Department of Justice announced that Pfizer, Inc agreed to pay $1 billion to resolve a qui tam/False Claims Act case. This is the largest qui tam/False Claims Act settlement in history. A qui tam case is a case that allows a private citizen (the whistleblower) who knows of fraud committed against the United States to file a lawsuit to recover the losses caused by the government fraud. The False Claims Act provides large financial incentives to citizen whistleblowers to report government fraud. In the instance case there were a total of six employee whistleblowers (or qui tam relators) who filed lawsuits under the Federal False Claims Act. The civil portion of this settlement was $1 billion which resolves the claims made by the whistleblowers under the False Claims Act. The company will also pay criminal fines of $1.195 billion. This is also the largest criminal fine ever imposed in the United States. In addition, Pharmacia & Upjohn, a Pfizer subsidiary will pay $105 million in criminal penalties, for a total criminal settlement of $1.3 billion. The total settlement, civil and criminal, is $2.3 billion. The six individual whistleblowers will share more than $102 million in relator’s fees, pursuant to the False Claims Act.

The allegations were that Pfizer illegally promoted four drugs (the most notable drug being the anti-inflammatory drug Bextra), caused false claims to be submitted to government healthcare programs for uses of the drug, other than those approved by the FDA, and provided kickbacks to doctors to induce them to prescribe these drugs.

In January, 2009, Eli Lilly and Company settled similar claims for $800 million, regarding its marketing of the drug Zyprexa for $800 million. These cases demonstrated the courageousness of the whistleblowers who come forward to report these frauds. The whistleblower lawyers at Chaikin, Sherman Cammarata and Siegel, P.C. are proud to represent these individuals. If you know of government waste or fraud, contact us.

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Statistics regarding injuries and deaths as a result of trucking companies failing to comply with safety regulations.

Monday, September 21st, 2009

More than 4,000 people die every year in collisions with trucks and 80,000 more are seriously injured. Trucks take up 4% of all passenger vehicles on U.S. roads. They are involved in 12% of all motor vehicle fatalities. The vast majority of people killed in accidents with trucks are drivers and passengers of the cars that get hit.

Many of the trucks that share the road with American families are “rigged for disaster” according to AAJ President Anthony Tarricone.

While the number of trucks currently operating with safety violations is shocking, the analysis is likely just the tip of the iceberg. Many deadly accidents involving unsafe trucks are never recorded as safety violations. A 2005 Government Accountability Office (GAO) study found that nearly one-third of commercial motor vehicle crashes that states are required to report to the federal government were never recorded. Additionally, state crash reports were not always accurate.

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Trucking Companies Make the Roadway Dangerous for Nearly 30 Million Americans

Friday, September 18th, 2009

Nearly 30 million Americans travel U.S. roads during the Labor Day holiday. An analysis of government data reveals that over 20,000 motor carrier companies violated safety regulations operating over 200,000 trucks. The American Association of Justice (hereafter “AAJ”) has found, by reviewing a massive amount of data, that commuters are sharing roads with trucks that have incurred thousands of safety violations – such as defective brakes, bald tires, loads that dangerously exceed weight limits, drivers with little or no training, and drivers with drug and alcohol dependencies. AAJ obtained data on the safety performance of trucking companies through the Motor Carrier Management Information System which is maintained by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

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AAJ Reviews Data Obtained by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration & Finds Trucking Companies Failed to Adhere to Safety Requirements

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

The American Association of Justice (hereafter “AAJ”), the national organization of trial lawyers, obtained over a million lines of data on the safety performance of U.S. trucking companies through the motor carrier management information system, a system maintained by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The results were astounding. There were over 28,000 trucking companies with safety violations, representing over 2,000 trucks, which are currently operating within the United States. AAJ commuters are sharing the roads with trucks that have incurred thousands of safety violations – such as defective brakes, bad tires, loads that dangerously exceed weight limits, drivers with little or no training, and drivers with drug and alcohol dependencies. The effects of these violations are deadly. While truck accidents occur for a variety of reasons, many are preventable. Trucking companies violate safety standards to cut corners and maximize profits.

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Your Access to Justice Should Not Be Part of the Health Care Reform Bill

Monday, September 14th, 2009

As the health care debate continues on in Congress, there has been discussion that there should be some form of medical malpractice reform in the bill. There are many independent studies that show that malpractice lawsuits contribute a tiny fraction to the cost of healthcare. Thus, the cost of taking away injured patients rights, is not likely to improve the quality of our health care system or produce any savings. Forty-eight states have already enacted medical malpractice reform measures, but restricting these patients rights has not done anything to improve the health care system or reduce costs. What is clear is that opportunists, such as malpractice insurance companies, and lobbyists supporting doctors and hospitals see the need for real health care reform as an opportunity to take away individual’s rights. We should not allow this to happen. Injured patients’ rights cannot not be a bargaining chip. The goal of this health care reform is to make sure that every American has access to quality, low-cost health care. It is not about limiting the legal rights of innocent patients harmed by medical negligence.

Reducing the accountability of doctors and hospitals when mistakes are made will not improve health care. In fact, it only makes it worse, and results in us all losing faith and trust in the system. This is not a republican vs. democrat issue. This is a civil rights issue – this is about each and every citizen’s access to justice. We at Chaikin, Sherman, Cammarata & Siegel urge you all to contact your representatives in congress and tell them that your individual rights are not on the table.

by Allan M. Siegel, Esq.

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Chaikin, Sherman, Cammarata & Siegel, P.C. Award Ethiopian Heritage College Scholarship to Ida Daniel

Wednesday, September 9th, 2009

On August 26, 2009, the law firm of Chaikin, Sherman, Cammarata & Siegel, P.C. made its first ever presentation of the Chaikin, Sherman, Cammarata & Siegel Ethiopian Heritage College Scholarship to Ms. Ida Daniel. Ms. Daniel will be attending the University of Maryland. Ms. Daniel was the most qualified applicant among approximately 60 individuals who applied for the scholarship.
The Chaikin, Sherman, Cammarata & Siegel Ethiopian Heritage College Scholarship provides $1,000 each year that an individual is at an accredited two or four year college upon demonstration of continued academic success. We are proud to have had the opportunity to present this award to Ms. Daniel and look forward to watching her successful college and professional career develop.

Click on the following link to read a copy of Ms. Daniel’s extraordinary essay: /Ida%20Daniel%27s%20essay.pdf

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Metro’s Crash in 2004 had the Same Failures of Crashworthiness as the 2009 Catastrophe

Monday, September 7th, 2009

As previously reported in these blogs, the last car of Train 703 in the 2004 crash sustained damage vastly disproportionate to the damage sustained by the lead car of Train 105. A fundamental flaw in the crashworthiness of the structural design of the 1000-series car body was discovered by the NTSB. In the 2004 crash, the last rail car of Train 703 telescoped and overrode the leading end of the first rail car of Train 105, sustaining a catastrophic loss of approximately 34 feet of survival space in the passenger compartment. However, the collision post of the lead car of Train 105 remained intact, and the operator’s cab was not compromised.

In 2009, a similar “telescoping and overriding” of one train’s car over the car of another train took place. In short, the Woodley Park collision was a precursor to the 2009 collision. The 2009 catastrophe was totally avoidable and should never have caused the injuries and deaths that took place.

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NTSB 2004 Report Warns of the Dangers that Resulted in the 2009 Catastrophe

Friday, September 4th, 2009

On November 3, 2004, Metro Train 703 collided with Metro Train 105 at the Woodley Park Zoo/Adams Morgan station in Washington, D.C. Train 703 was travelling outbound on the red line going uphill between Woodley Park Zoo/Adams Morgan and the Cleveland Park underground stations when it began to roll backward. It then struck Train 105 at a speed of approximately 36 mph. Train 703 wasn’t carrying any passengers but Train 105 had approximately 70 passengers on board. Of those, approximately 20 people were taken to local hospitals. Property damage approximated $3.5 million. The National Transportation and Safety Board investigated this collision and found that “[t]he last car of Train 703 sustained damage that was vastly disproportionate to that sustained by the lead car of Train 105. The car body structure of car 105 in-board collision post failed which demonstrates a fundamental fail in the crashworthiness structural design in the 1000-series car body.” The National Safety Board concluded the failure of the car body under-frame of the 1000-series Metrorail cars make them susceptible to telescoping and “potentially subject to a catastrophic compromise of the occupant survival space.” The disaster that took place on June 22, 2009 was clearly foreseeable.

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CSCS has Represented Injured Victims of Each of the Last Three D.C. Metropolitan Area Train Crashes

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009

When a CSX/Amtrak train derailed in Kensington, MD, numerous individuals were injured. The law firm of Chaikin, Sherman, Cammarata & Siegel, P.C. successfully represented one of those injured victims. In 2004, when a Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (Metro) train crashed into another train, again, the law firm of Chaikin, Sherman, Cammarata & Siegel, P.C. successfully represented one of the injured victims. It was that crash that led to a National Transportation and Safety Board investigation which yielded the result that some of Metro’s train cars were not crash-worthy.

Five years later, in June, 2009, Metro failed to replace and/or remove the cars that were not crashworthy that they were warned about, hoping that another crash would not take place. Unfortunately, as we all know, a terribly tragic crash did take place in which nine people died and over a hundred people were injured. Again, the law firm of Chaikin, Sherman, Cammarata & Siegel, P.C. with its experienced train accident lawyers were selected to serve as counsel seeking justice on behalf of the death of one of the individuals on the train. We cannot know for certain, however we believe that we are the only law firm in Washington, D.C. that has successfully represented an injured victim of a train crash in each of the three past accidents that have taken place in this decade.

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Washington DC Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

Archive for September, 2009

Whistleblower gets $51.5 million

Pfizer Settles Qui Tam/False Claims Act Claim for $1 Billion

Statistics regarding injuries and deaths as a result of trucking companies failing to comply with safety regulations.

Trucking Companies Make the Roadway Dangerous for Nearly 30 Million Americans

AAJ Reviews Data Obtained by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration & Finds Trucking Companies Failed to Adhere to Safety Requirements

Your Access to Justice Should Not Be Part of the Health Care Reform Bill

Chaikin, Sherman, Cammarata & Siegel, P.C. Award Ethiopian Heritage College Scholarship to Ida Daniel

Metro’s Crash in 2004 had the Same Failures of Crashworthiness as the 2009 Catastrophe

NTSB 2004 Report Warns of the Dangers that Resulted in the 2009 Catastrophe

CSCS has Represented Injured Victims of Each of the Last Three D.C. Metropolitan Area Train Crashes