Archive for the ‘Legal Updates’ Category

Just how much about your life are you divulging on Facebook, Twitter or MySpace or other social media Web sites every day?

Well, here’s some sobering news: what you say on Facebook or any of the other sites could some day come back to haunt you in a legal proceeding from a divorce case to an accident investigation to a workplace injury settlement.

How so?

Well, it seems that attorneys across the nation are finding that people’s Facebook profiles often offer up lots of fascinating information about their personal lives.

“Forgot to de-friend your wife on Facebook while posting vacation shots of your mistress? Her divorce lawyer will be thrilled,” according to an Associated Press story posted online this week about how divorce lawyers are using personal tidbits found online as part of their cases against estranged spouses. “Oversharing on social networks has led to an overabundance of evidence in divorce cases,” the story continued.  “The American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers says 81% of its members have used or faced evidence plucked from Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and other social networking sites, including YouTube and LinkedIn, over the last five years.”

You have been warned.

But it’s not just divorce cases.

This can happen in all kinds of legal cases.

Let’s say you have a workplace injury and then are home recovering and getting medical treatment. Well, you’d better not be posting photos of your Italy vacation or your visit to a big local amusement park.

Somebody, we can assure you, is watching.

Privacy online is a continuously evolving issue nowadays.

And if you’re not thinking about it as a serious concern yet, it’s about time that you start thinking about how your online presence can affect your life in ways you never imagined.

It’s not just potential impacts involving legal cases.

It also involves potential employers if you are seeking a new job. You can bet they are out there online “Googling” your name and seeing what they come up with about you. Are you a risky hire? Are there embarrassing or negative things that will torpedo your job chances? It’s all out there for others to see.

There are, however, steps you can take to better protect your online privacy.

The San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation offers its top 12 tips to protect your online privacy, which includes:

*Do not reveal personal information inadvertently. Be careful what you post.

*Don’t reveal personal details to strangers or just-met “friends”.  That means leaving out such things as the year of your birth because it can more readily identify you and help identity thieves.

*Remember that YOU decide what information about yourself to reveal, when, why, and to whom.

What’s important to remember is that you ultimately are responsible for the personal information that you place up on social networking Web sites like Facebook.

Be sure that you carefully go through every step of the privacy settings so that you can better protect yourself from divulging information and details that you want to remain private.

Often the default privacy settings on such sites are not very private.  That means that you need to go step-by-step to confirm that they are protecting you and your reputation so that things don’t come back to haunt you.

More and more today, legal cases are involving evidence and discovery garnered from social media Web sites such as Facebook, according to a story last month in The Washington Post. In a case involving two brothers who were badly burned while making repairs in a Wal-Mart store, the defense perused through almost three years of Facebook and MySpace posts to bolster its arguments, the story reported. “David Hersh, the attorney who represented the [men], said such subpoenas have become standard practice in litigation and are ‘meant to discover information that would be embarrassing or might be used adversely even if it has nothing to do with the claim,’” the story said.

“Eben Moglen, a Columbia University law professor and director of Software Freedom Law Center, calls Facebook ‘one big database of hundreds of millions of people containing the kind of information far beyond what the secret police in 20th-century totalitarian regimes had,’” according to the Post.

What this all means is you have to be careful about what you post and what you allow others to post about you.

Your reputation is important to you and you can be hurt faster than you can say  “I’m not worried.”

Find out all you can about protecting your privacy online by reading up on the subject online at Web sites including the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Democracy & Technology.

This is not child’s play.

This is serious stuff and can and will affect you when you least expect it.

Protect yourself now, before it’s too late.

Better to act now than have a future legal case or job offer or other important life event go corkscrewing into the ground in a crash of epic proportions if your personal information is ever used against you.

Life does come at you fast, and it can be even faster and potentially more damaging online.

Don’t be a victim.

If you need legal advice after something like this has already happened to you, be sure to talk with your attorney.

Have fun online, but don’t forget to be careful.

You’re the only one truly watching out for you.

Remember that each time you post something.

The Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on America happened almost nine long years ago and still the suffering goes on.

Only now are legal settlements nearing for many of the first responders who were injured when they dove into carnage of the World Trade Center towers that day and in the months to follow, recovering the remains of the almost 3,000 victims of the tragedy.

Finally, after a seven-year-long legal fight, a federal judge in New York last week approved a settlement deal, according to a story in The New York Times. Now, at least 95 percent of the 10,000 affected workers, which includes firefighters, police officers, building janitors and volunteers, must agree to the settlement deal by Sept. 30 for it to be finalized, according to the story.

This case spotlights the long legal road that plaintiffs often have to follow in such incidents.

It’s also a great reminder that if you are involved in a legal case where you suffer injuries and monetary losses that it’s imperative for your rights to be represented by a legal team that has your interests at heart.

Whether you suffer from injuries in the workplace, on a cruise ship, in a motor vehicle accident, a train, plane or bus crash, due to medical malpractice or any other kind of injury, you need to be sure that you get the best legal advice and representation that you can find.

The right attorney can help you minimize your mental anguish as your case is pursued through the legal system.

You want to work with an attorney who keeps you informed about your case every single step of the way.

You want to work with a lawyer who tells you every detail about the status of your case, from discussions with the defendants to settlement offers, medical reports and every other facet of your situation.

You want a legal team which you can trust and confide in and openly discuss your case and its status, whenever you need to talk.

And you certainly want to have easy access to discuss your case on your own schedule, with a lawyer who is there to listen and support you.

At MyPhillyLawyer, that is our pledge to you.

We will stand by you as long as it takes, and work through your case with you as a team.

The long legal fights that have involved the first responders from the World Trade Center site stand as a difficult reminder about how long complex legal cases can take to settle.

Similar situations will likely come out of the oil spill debacle in the Gulf of Mexico, where legal cases are sure to drag on for many years as plaintiffs seek damages for injuries, their livelihoods and their properties from BP and others.

If you or your family ever find yourselves in such a situation where you have suffered injuries or damages, remember to pay heed to several key first steps:

*Don’t sign anything. Don’t release your rights to anyone else until you have had a chance to talk with your lawyer.

*Don’t make any statements. Be sure you call your attorney and first discuss with him what happened and how you were injured. Let your attorney deal with everyone else.

*See your doctor and seek medical attention immediately for any injury that you suffer.

Try to maintain records of your injury case, from cell phone photos to a diagram of the accident scene to witness accounts and police incident reports, if available.

Your case is a team effort between you and your lawyer.

Be sure you select a law firm that gives you the confidence to go into your legal fight together, united, with ultimate victory as our collective goal, so that you and your family receive the monetary award that you deserve.

When losing isn’t an option, give the legal team at MyPhillyLawyer a call.

Whatever your needs, MyPhillyLawyer is waiting here to help you to ensure that you have the strongest team that you can put together.

You have our pledge on that.

Imagine being at work for 24 hours or more in one stretch and having to maintain your peak performance every long hour and minute.  That’s a tough challenge.

Now imagine that your work involves patient care and life or death decisions as a medical resident in a teaching hospital, with shifts lasting 24 to 30 hours at a time.

That’s how things have been set up in teaching hospitals for years, but it’s not necessarily the best thing for patients.

Well-deserved changes could be coming, though, in the form of new standards from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), which is responsible for the accreditation of medical training programs in the U.S.

In an announcement this week, the group unveiled proposed new standards which would curtail the permissible working hours of medical residents in hospitals to increase their efficiency and better assure the safety and care of the patients they treat.

This is a great idea for healthcare patients across our nation.

It will better protect patients from medical errors made by exhausted young doctors and will mean improved oversight and care for patients.

It could also mean fewer tragic medical malpractice cases that are filed each year by the families of patients who receive care that is laced with errors caused by exhaustion and inexperience.

Those cases should never happen in the first place.

The proposed new standards include several major improvements, such as reducing the maximum work shift of a resident from 24 hours down to 16 hours in one stint.

Long hours by these young doctors-in-training have long been a hazard of their work and lead to sleep deprivation and other health issues, according to critics.

An earlier round of similar rules changes made back in 2003 that began to recognize these hazards would be improved upon with the new proposals, according to an Associated Press story this week.

“The proposal slightly revises regulations adopted seven years ago and would have the biggest impact on interns — new doctors in their first year of residency training programs in hospitals after graduating from medical school,” the AP story reported. “They would be more closely supervised by experienced doctors and the maximum length of their work shifts would be cut from 24 hours to 16 hours. Maximum work shifts would remain 24 hours for residents in their second year and beyond. Maximum work weeks would remain at 80 hours for all hospital residents. All residents and their supervisors also would be required to explain their roles to patients and explain that supervisors are ultimately in charge of their care.”

All of these proposals are excellent and will go far – if hospitals and medical facilities adhere to them – to improve patient care and reduce tragic treatment errors.

For you and your family members, these are important changes that can have meaningful impacts if you have to be treated in a hospital.

How large an impact will this have on medical residents and hospitals around the nation?

According to the ACGME,  one in every five doctors in the U.S. today is a medical resident or a fellow, which means that the impact will be noticeable.

The ACGME is accepting comments on the proposals for 45 days and will then submit a final draft for the recommended standards to its board in September, according to the group.

Hospitals say they are worried that the proposed cutbacks in hours would mean shortages of doctors and increases in costs for bringing in additional medical staff.  Some critics argue that the proposals don’t go far enough and will still lead to exhausted doctors who are more prone to making mistakes.

At MyPhillyLawyer, we feel that the proposals are yet another important step to fine tune and improve the healthcare treatment system in the U.S.

We support these changes and hope that the ACGME continues to lead the way in its role in increasing patient safety and reducing medical mistakes in the years to come.

These kinds of improvements can’t come soon enough.

Just ask a family member who has had to sue for medical malpractice after a loved one has been seriously injured or died from errant treatment by a rushed or exhausted doctor.

Those kinds of tragedies are something that no one should ever have to endure.

Being a patient in a hospital can help extend your life through excellent medical care, but at the same time, hospitals can be one of the most dangerous places to get a life-threatening infection that can complicate your treatment.

A new state report from the Pennsylvania Department of Health concludes that 25,914 patients undergoing surgeries and other treatments in hospitals last year had their conditions complicated by infections they picked up during their stays, according to a blog post today in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

That’s a lot of infections and a lot of patients who are often made sicker than they were when they went in to the hospitals.

In the meantime, more can and should be done to stop this problem to better protect patients and reduce health costs.

The report for the first time covers a full year of infection data from 250 hospitals in the Commonwealth, breaking it down by individual facilities, according to the Inquirer story.

For prospective patients, the data can show what the post-surgery infection rates are in a wide range of hospitals across Pennsylvania, while for the institutions, the report can serve as a yardstick to continue to work to reduce this troublesome problem.

Patients certainly shouldn’t be sicker after their surgery than they were before they came in, due to infections they pick up while in the hospital.

That’s just outrageous in today’s world.

Patients can sue and take legal action in such cases to obtain deserved monetary awards, but they simply shouldn’t have to go through such increased pain and suffering in the first place.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta estimates that 1.7 million healthcare-related infection cases occur in hospitals each year across the nation, including 99,000 deaths. The national statistics break down with 32% of the cases being related to urinary tract infections, while another 22% are surgical site infections. Some 15% are pneumonia (lung infections), while 14% are bloodstream infections.

In the new Pennsylvania report, the figures are a bit different. Here, the most common infection complications came from surgeries, with 6,277 cases, or 23.7%, based on data collected by the CDC. Urinary tract infections  made up 6,145 cases, while gastrointestinal infections made up 4,848 cases and bloodstream infections totaled 3,271 cases.

Better reporting of in-hospital infection cases is a great start, but improved procedures and infection prevention practices is also necessary to ensure patient safety.

As a health care consumer, you have a right to expect to go into a hospital and come out feeling better, not getting sicker, due to your stay.

In the event you get an in-hospital infection during a hospital stay, be sure that you seek legal help and advice to help protect your legal standing and your family.

So what can you do as a health care consumer to avoid getting such an infection in the first place?

You can search online and investigate your local hospitals and get their rates of such infections before you ever set foot in the place.

Here are some great tips from the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s Clean Hands Save Lives Program:

*Choose a good hospital and a healthcare provider you trust.

*Ask your surgeon lots of detailed questions about your risk for infection and means of prevention.

*If you smoke and you’re going to need surgery, stop smoking well before your scheduled surgery date. Patients who smoke are three times more likely to develop a surgical site infection as nonsmokers, and have significantly slower recoveries and longer hospital stays.

*If you are overweight, try to lose weight before having surgery. People who are at a healthy weight will have a lower risk of infection following surgery.

*If you have diabetes, talk to your healthcare provider about ways to control your blood sugar before, during and after any hospital stay. High blood sugar levels have been found to increase the risk of getting an infection. Be sure to inform your doctor of any medications you are taking.

*Ask your healthcare provider about showering or bathing with chlorhexidine soap three to five days before surgery. This can help remove any dangerous bacteria you may be carrying on your skin.

*Tell your doctor about any medications you are taking, including vitamins, herbal medicines, and over-the-counter medications.

*When possible, treat any existing infections you may have before having any type of surgical procedure. This includes all infections, not just those near the portion of your body undergoing surgery.

*While in the hospital, wash your hands often and carefully. The simple act of washing your hands is perhaps the single most effective way you can avoid getting an infection. It’s equally important to help your doctors, nurses, and other medical staff to remember to wash their hands as well.

*Make sure hospital staff cleans and disinfects any surfaces or equipment you may come in contact with, such as bed rails, sinks, and medical equipment. A common source of bacteria are stethoscopes, which caregivers often do not clean between patients. Before your doctor or nurse uses a stethoscope, ask that it be cleaned with alcohol.

*Ask anyone who is coughing to wear a mask or stay at least six feet away from you. This will help reduce your risk of getting an infection that is transmitted through the air. If possible, have family and friends postpone visits if they are feeling ill.

*Watch for proper catheter use, and ask about your options. Catheters are long, thin flexible tubes that are inserted in your body to deliver or remove fluids. Because they enter through the skin or a body opening, they can allow infections to enter your body. Ask your doctor about the benefits of using a catheter that is coated with antibiotics or silver-chlorhexidine to reduce infections. Try to avoid a urinary tract catheter if possible, as this is one of the most common sources of infection.

*Avoid touching your hands to your mouth, nose, or eyes, or setting food or utensils on the furniture or bed. Some types of germs can live for many days on surfaces and can cause infections if they get into your nose, eyes, or mouth.

*If you have an IV, make sure that it’s cleaned properly when inserted and removed, and that it’s changed every 3 to 4 days. The person treating you should clean your skin where the IV is inserted, and should be wearing clean gloves. If any redness appears, alert hospital staff immediately.

*Remind your doctor that you may need to take an antibiotic before having surgery. For many surgeries, you should receive an antibiotic an hour or so before your surgery to help prevent a surgical site infection. If you don’t receive an antibiotic before your surgery, ask your doctor whether one is necessary.

*Remember that there are some things beyond your control and expertise. You’ve researched your healthcare provider, and reviewed infection rates at different hospitals. You’ve been an active participant in your medical care, paying close attention, and not hesitating to ask questions or let someone know if you think something may be wrong. Now you can know that you have done everything in your power to protect yourself from hospital infection. Remember, in most cases, your healthcare providers are trying their best to prevent infection as well.

Arming yourself with information is a key to making sure that you receive excellent medical care and a bright post-operative, infection-free future after your hospital procedures. Lots of related information is available at the state Department of Health Web site.

The work being done to reduce healthcare-related infections is certainly helping, according to the latest statistics. Previously, figures tallied by the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council found that there were 30,237 cases of healthcare-related infections in Pennsylvania hospitals in 2006 and 27,949 infections in 2007 – both higher than the 2009 figures released today. The reporting of such infection cases was mandated under a new state law, Act 52, in 2007.

Things are getting better slowly, but we still have a long way to go.

Be sure to talk with a lawyer if you believe you are the victim of such an infection during a medical procedure so you can protect yourself and your family.

Behind almost every news event, there seems to always be some scammer who is trying to find tricky ways to steal money from unsuspecting elderly victims.

We read about examples like this almost every day in the newspaper.

Older people get visits at their front doors from someone who says they won a contest and have to pay a fee to collect their prizes.

Or an e-mail will arrive promising riches or describing how to make claims for old, forgotten bank balances.

Maybe it’s a request for money for some organization, like a Gulf of Mexico oil spill relief fund or food for needy children.

The reasons can be compelling and often senior citizens jump in – only to learn later that they are the victims of a heart-breaking and often bank balance-depleting scam at the hands of thieves.

The scary thing is that this isn’t just happening to elderly people in your communities.

It can also happen, or has happened, to elderly members of your own family, from your mother or father to aunts, uncles or grandparents.

But there’s plenty you can do to help prevent and fight these kinds of deceptive practices.

In a MarketWatch News Service story yesterday in The Philadelphia Inquirer, these kinds of scams were described in detail with helpful tips for how you can help protect elderly people from these scenarios.

The statistics are amazing. “More than 7.3 million older Americans – one out of every five citizens over the age of 65 – already have been victimized by a financial swindle, according to a survey released as part of World Elder Abuse Awareness Day” last week, the story said.

To fight this trend, awareness is key.

To do that, more people have to get involved to provide assistance, including helping to oversee money and how their bills are paid, as well as having discussions about questionable payments and services that might be found in their checkbooks, the story said.

One new idea is to get medical professional involved, since they are often seen and trusted by elderly patients who are being treated for medical ailments.

A new program that’s getting underway does just that – as well as helps link intervening medical professionals with government agencies who can help get things back in order after scams, investment fraud and other types of what is being called “financial abuse” aimed at senior citizens, according to the MarketWatch story.

These are great ideas, and a great start, but this also has to start within our family units, too.

We need to each be more aware of these kinds of financial frauds that take huge advantage of our elderly relatives and friends and take pains to talk with them about these kinds of threats to help protect them.

That means helping them by discussing these kinds of frauds with them to make them more aware of some of the scams that are out there, and reminding them not to jump into such arrangements without discussing them with you or an outside resource, such as an attorney.

As our relatives get older and are less analytical about such offers that come in, via e-mail, telephone or even through home visits by a stranger, we need to reassure them that there is nothing wrong with calling us in to ask about such offers and get a second opinion before handing over a check.

New issues come up as we get older, including discussions about giving someone else the power of attorney for legal, medical and business matters, and that can also be part of the discussion when mapping out a strategy to better protect your loved ones.

The FBI offers a long list of tips to help fight this nasty problem.

Among them:

*Check out unfamiliar companies or organizations.

*Confirm that bills you receive are actually for services that were rendered, and not for fraudulent “ghost” services.

*Don’t do business with door-to-door or telephone salespeople who claim that their services are free.

*Buy online drug prescriptions only from verified vendors, not through unsolicited advertisements.

*Don’t buy something under pressure. If it’s “only available right now,” then walk away.

The FBI fraud list is all-encompassing, from funeral expense scams to anti-aging medical frauds to reverse mortgage scams, all which can cause huge emotional and financial pain for those who can be cheated out of their life savings.

These are often family issues.

You can take the lead and begin these discussions in your own family.

Tell your relatives that you care and want to help them protect themselves from these kinds of financial abuses.

Talk to experts in your area, including your local Office of Aging, mental health professionals, doctors, nurses and other health care workers who assist your elderly relatives and friends on a regular basis.

And be sure to discuss these important issues with an attorney, too, to provide comfort and protection for the people you love.

Prevention is a critical key to keeping your loved ones from becoming victims of these kinds of insidious crimes.

It’s time to have those discussions and plan such strategies now.

Trying to recover stolen money, property and other items is much harder once they are gone.

Just open a newspaper and read some of the sad stories about elderly residents who were scammed out of everything that they had.

Don’t let that kind of heartbreak come to your family.

Imagine you are driving in traffic on a public street and another driver cuts you off.

Imagine going to a sporting event and watching a player on your favorite team doing something that really irks you, like dropping a ball.

Or imagine walking down a street on the sidewalk and having an outrageously loud vehicle drive by, disturbing the peace.

How would you react to any of these scenarios?

You might angrily yell something out, and it’s likely not going to be “Happy Birthday!”

Well, if you plan on letting your true feelings be known and yelling out some curse words, then you’d better not do it in the presence of some of Pennsylvania’s law enforcement officers.

Here in the Commonwealth, more than 750 people were ticketed last year alone by Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) troopers for using profane language, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania (ACLUP).

What, weren’t any real crimes being committed at those times that could have truly been worth the focus and attention of our men and women in blue? The troopers needed to really nail some baddies who cursed out loud, rather than tracking down thieves, killers, speeders or drunk drivers?

Talk about insanity.

At least the ACLUP sees the ridiculousness of these citations. In an announcement yesterday, the ACLUP declared that it is filing separate lawsuits against the PSP and the Mahanoy City Police department in Schuylkill County for citing two state residents for using profane speech.

Cursing in public or even using a profane hand gesture, the ACLUP argues, should not be punishable by a citation and fine, but is in fact free speech.

That’s absolutely right.

It may not be nice to hear, and it may not be acceptable to others or welcome, but free speech is free speech, even if it is someone using profanity to make a point.

“Police should be focused on protecting public safety, not enforcing manners,” said Marieke Tuthill, a legal fellow with the ACLU of Pennsylvania, in the group’s press release. “It may not be polite to swear at someone, but it’s certainly not a crime.”

One of the lawsuits filed against the state police involves a Luzerne County woman who apparently cursed at a friend on a motorcycle when he shouted an insult and swerved close to her as he rode by on a public road in 2008, according to the ACLUP. The woman “responded by calling the motorcyclist an ‘a**hole.’” She later reported the motorcyclist’s actions to the state police, who did cite the motorist but also cited her for yelling the obscenity. She challenged the ticket in court before a district magistrate and won.

The punishment for such a “crime” if convicted is up to 90 days in jail and a fine up to $300.

The other case involved a Mahanoy City resident who was double-parked while delivering pizzas in late 2008. When he got back to his car, according to the ACLUP, he cursed at a local police officer who was writing him a parking ticket, calling him a “f***ing a**hole,” according to the lawsuit. The officer then cited him again, this time with disorderly conduct for use of obscenity. He was arrested and briefly jailed, according to the ACLUP, then was later found not guilty by a district magistrate.

Such incidents are apparently common in Pennsylvania, where the group has successfully defended about a dozen individuals in connection with such “crimes,” according to the ACLUP.  Pittsburgh police paid a $50,000 settlement in 2009 after an investigation showed that they had cited people for profanity more than 200 times over a four-year period.

“Unfortunately many police departments in the commonwealth do not seem to be getting the message that swearing is not a crime,” said Tuthill of the ACLUP. “The courts have repeatedly found that profanity, unlike obscenity, is protected speech. We will continue bringing lawsuits until this illegal practice is stopped.”

We have free speech in this country, and that’s one of our critical rights, even if it is sometimes distasteful to someone else.

Certainly our police officers have more important things to do with their time on the clock than cite our citizens for cursing.

A more preposterous waste of police time likely does not exist.