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If you or a loved one was prescribed Yaz birth control pills, you probably believed it would prevent pregnancy, while curing acne, treating premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), and controlling cramps. Why wouldn’t you? That is what the advertisements claimed. What they didn’t say is that Yaz can also cause blood clots in the legs, heart attacks, gall bladder disease and other serious side effects.

For many months, Yaz was advertised as a “golden birth control pill,” while failing to warn of the potentially serious and life-ending side effects. The deceptive advertising practices of the Bayer pharmaceutical company — the maker of Yaz — prompted the Food & Drug Administration to issue a warning. While Yaz commercials did make the correction, for millions of women it was too little, too late.

Deceptive practices by pharmaceutical companies are more common than you think. Yaz is only one example of a drug that can cause more harm than good. Others include, Hydroxycut, Vioxx, Baycol and Fen Phen. Unfortunately, many consumers never know the risks involved with these medications until they suffer the consequences.

Pharmaceutical companies need to be held liable for their actions. Not only is it unfair to lie, deceive and cheat consumers, it also unethical and illegal. Causing someone pain and suffering, possibly even death, is not a laughing matter. It is a serious injustice that must be dealt with in the court of law.

Know that if you are a victim of a Yaz or another defective drug, you have legal options. Some valid claims you may be able to make against a drug company include:

• Failure to warn of the dangerous side effects
• Failure to issue a recall for the dangerous prescription after learning of the serious side effects
• Deceptive marketing and false advertising
• Knowingly encouraging the use of a dangerous and defective prescription drug
• Failure to perform adequate tests and research that would expose the harmful side effects

Also, know that you are not alone. In Pennsylvania, several women have already taken the step to file complaints against Bayer for Yaz side effects. These women, and others like them across the country, suffered a variety of ailments from pulmonary embolisms to gallbladder disease. Several required surgery. In fact, so many people have suffered complications that motions have been filed to consolidate them into a single class action lawsuit, giving the plaintiffs a stronger front against a powerful and heavily represented pharmaceutical company. See this Yaz lawsuit article for more information.

The Yaz birth control pill has cost many women their health, and in some cases, their life. At MyPhillyLawyer, we hope that Bayer and other pharmaceutical companies will open their eyes to the pain and suffering they cause, and stop deceptive advertising practices. In the mean time, our firm will be there to hold pharmaceutical companies accountable and to help recover compensation for our injured clients.

The version of the health care bill that passed the House in early November includes stipulations that may seriously infringe on a woman’s right to choose.

It does this by refusing to put federal money towards any health care program that provides abortion coverage.

Even if a woman pays 100 percent of the healthcare premium with her own money, she would not be able to obtain an abortion under the current health plan. Instead, she would be forced to maintain another, completely independent healthcare plan on the chance that she may become pregnant in the future.

Many have pointed out that this is akin to forcing individuals to maintain a separate plan on the off chance they develop cancer. Unplanned pregnancies are, by their nature, unplanned for, so it seems a bit off that the government would force women into pricey, speculative insurance coverage. Why not disallow individuals covered by the public option to go out into the sun without protective sunscreen?

The stipulation was included in the Stupak-Pitts amendment, which seeks to prohibit the public health care option from providing abortion coverage to any enrollees. While not an open stand against a woman’s right to choose, it seems to be, more or less, an indictment against planned parenthood.

It’s certainly more limiting than the Hyde amendment, which provides that no federal money can be used to fund abortion, except in cases of rape, incest or life-endangerment.

If the Stupak-Pitts amendment makes it through Congress and is included in the final bill, it could prevent many women from seeking abortions through traditional avenues – essentially forcing abortions back into the alley.

Needless to say, the amendment has garnered a strong reaction. Groups such as NARAL Pro-Choice America, the American Civil Liberties Union and women’s rights activists across the country have openly opposed the measure. Many in Congress have also voiced opposition and proposed alternatives to the amendment.

Driving while texting: proposed Pa. law would levy $100 fine

Tired of seeing drivers texting from cellphones and PDAs while they’re behind the wheel of their cars, minivans and trucks?
So are we, as is every other rational person who doesn’t want to get hurt in a vehicle accident due to someone else’s carelessness.
Well, some good news came out of the Pennsylvania State Senate yesterday – a bill passed the Senate by a 44 to 3 vote to fine drivers $100 if they are caught texting as part of a more serious driving offense, according to a story in The Philadelphia Inquirer. The measure now goes on to the State House for action.
At least that’s a start.
But as good as that is, the fine is still too small at $100. Is that really much of a deterrent?
Will that small amount cause a texting driver to think twice? Is it enough of a deterrent to  protect you and your family as you move around Philly on foot or in your car?
Probably not.
Yes, there are certainly more substantial legal actions that can be taken in the event of such injuries, and those are reasonable alternatives.
But here is a case where real penalties with sharper teeth  — a more substantial fine and even a short jail term — could really take a bite out of the careless behavior of a driver who texts while their vehicle is in motion on our streets. Another good step would be to make the violation a primary offense – so they can be stopped by police and ticketed just for texting while driving.
Those penalties would add needed teeth, and make us all safer.
Back in May, our MyPhillyLawyer.com blog raised this very issue as we commented about the very real dangers of driving while talking or texting on cellphones and PDAs. The City of Philadelphia has been fighting for a tougher ban and even passed its own law previously, but was deterred by the state Legislature, which had rejected a statewide ban on cellphone use while driving. The city’s tougher law was quickly made moot due to threatened losses of millions of dollars in state road funding if the city law remained on the books. It was a losing fight for the city, but a good fight for residents.
Let’s hope the House also passes this latest measure regarding texting while driving, at least, and that both sides make it tougher before sending it on to Gov. Rendell.

What a racket.

Private companies come in to operate two juvenile detention facilities in Luzerne County and Butler County. Then two Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas judges allegedly accept kickbacks from the juvenile detention facilities to send juveniles for lengthy, profitable stays, regardless of the facts of the legal cases against the kids.

It’s like a bad made-for-TV movie script.

But the worst part of it is, that’s exactly what federal prosecutors say actually happened. The Pennsylvania Federal District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania has since ordered that a special master be appointed to get to the bottom of the sordid mess and make recommendations to resolve the injustices that have occurred.

The two judges, Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and Michael T. Conahan pleaded guilty in February to charges of corruption and tax fraud, according to a story in The Philadelphia Inquirer. The two are going to spend the next seven years in jail, but now the legal wheels are rolling to figure out the status of the kids who got enmeshed in the judges’ scheme.

This is so outrageous, so incomprehensible, that it boggles the mind.

The juveniles involved were taken in to a system that was tilted against them from the start, no matter what the “facts” were in each of their cases.

There must be a higher accounting, a higher responsibility for judges in our court system.

So now, what’s needed?

These children, and their families, who have been illegally detained by these corrupt, evil judges, must be compensated for their grave losses. They lost their freedom. They were taken away and locked up under bogus punishments. Their rights were violated by the very judges who were supposed to protect them.

Money damages resulting from successful lawsuits can’t give them back that lost time in juvenile detention, but it is the only way these children and their families can be compensated for some of the pain and suffering they have endured. This must never happen again, and justice must be served for every child who was unfairly and illegally victimized by these former judges. Someone must be held accountable. It is our responsibility to these kids.

A careening car, four young victims – was it a police chase?

Even as the police investigation continues, questions persist in the deaths of three young children and a 22-year-old woman in Philadelphia’s Feltonville neighborhood on June 10, where an attempted vehicle stop by police resulted in a vehicle chase, a fleeing car and a tragedy that has rocked the city. According to an account of the crash in The Philadelphia Inquirer, officers were responding to a 9-1-1 report about a motorcyclist who was attacked by two men in a gray Pontiac Grand Am. One of the men stole the victim’s motorcycle while the man was stopped at an intersection, then fled as the Pontiac was driven away simultaneously by an accomplice. Soon after police got the report, an officer pulled up behind the car nearby and pursued it, according to the newspaper. Read the rest of this entry »

A person talking (and especially texting) on his cell phone is as impaired as one who drives while intoxicated. Both impairments are equally dangerous for others on the road and can, and often do, result in catastrophic injuries. We have handled many cases where subpoenaed cell phone records demonstrate that the at-fault drivers were using their phones during the accident. In one such case, we even proved that a local clergy person was using his cell phone at the time that he crashed into our client’s car. The impact was so severe that he caused our client to sustain life threatening injuries that required emergency surgery. This was a prime example of what happens when we take our eyes off the road, for even seconds, to use our cell phone. Recently, there has been a spate of mass transit operators who have caused multiple casualties while texting and driving.

Philadelphia’s valiant City Council took the bull by the horns recently when Pennsylvania’s legislators rejected a statewide ban on hand held cell phone use while driving. That statewide ban had been proposed by a forward thinking young legislator named Josh Shapiro, a Democrat from Montgomery County. Shapiro was willing to take a stance against the cell phone industry that few others were willing to join. Once the statewide ban went down in defeat Philly took matters into its own hands as Mayor Michael Nutter signed a citywide ban on the use of hand held cell phones while behind the wheel. For a thorough review of the proposed new law see my article recently cited in Findlaw.

Unfortunately, it seems Philly may not be able to lead where the state refuses to follow. It is crucial for our state to uphold consistency in its driving laws as people motor across the Commonwealth. And the Commonwealth’s legislators have made that imminently clear, when they recently enacted a law in response to the City’s ban, which essentially deprives Philadelphia of over 90 million dollars in state aid yearly should Philadelphia actually go ahead with the proposed ban. This may cause Philly’s ban to be more of an afterthought than an enforceable law. While I believe that Mayor Nutter and the good folks in City Council have the right idea, for the time being we may simply need to continue relying on the protection provided by trial lawyers, who will continue to subpoena cell phone records in the aftermath of accidents and punish the wrongdoers financially.