High-Stacked Merchandise in Warehouse Stores Can Cause Serious Injuries

Wal-Mart, Home Depot and other stores save enormous amounts of money by doing away with warehouses and simply stacking their merchandise high above the aisles. The only problem is that sometimes this merchandise falls on unwary customers.

There have been tens of thousands of such accidents over the past decade. While most of them don’t result in serious injuries, some do.

A 150-pound hot water heater fell off a 16-foot shelf at a Home Depot in Boise, Idaho, and struck a pregnant woman in the head. Some 3,000 pounds of asphalt roofing shingles fell on a man at a Home

Depot in Las Vegas. In Colorado, a seven-pound box fell on a woman at a Kmart, but that was enough to require surgery for a head injury.

Wal-Mart recently paid over $11 million to end a lawsuit brought by a man who was knocked unconscious by falling boxes and suffered brain damage.

Stores often blame the victim or other customers for causing the accidents, but others say that the stores are courting disaster by stocking heavy merchandise high above customers’ heads without proper restraints.

Doctor Is Liable for Not Giving Elderly Man Enough Painkillers

For the first time in history, a doctor has been held liable for not prescribing adequate medication for pain.

A California jury awarded $1.5 million to the family of an 85-year-old man whose doctor didn’t give him enough painkillers over a few days as he lay dying of lung cancer.

The man’s family claimed the doctor gave him Demerol instead of high-powered morphine even though he was in agonizing pain. The family also claimed the doctor gave him painkillers only when he complained, and didn’t consult the patient or his family about their options regarding pain medication.

Some experts say that lack of pain medication is a widespread problem. A

study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that 40 percent of nursing home patients with acute or chronic pain are not getting relief.

One reason for this is that in the past, many doctors were disciplined for overprescribing pain medication and creating a risk that the patient would become addicted.

But in the last 10 years, scientific studies have shown it is generally better to treat the pain and that addiction rarely happens, especially when the patient is terminally ill.

Toxic Mold in Buildings Is Making People Sick

"Toxic mold" in buildings is causing disease, and people are suing over it.

Anytime there is water penetration in a building, there is the potential for mold. Exposure to mold can cause respiratory problems, skin rashes and headaches. In some cases, it can cause lung disease, memory loss and even brain damage.

As a result of mold, people are bringing legal claims against builders, contractors, architects, building owners, building managers, employers and insurance companies.

A judge in Texas recently upheld a $32 million verdict against an insurance company that failed to repair a plumbing leak that caused mold to spread. A similar case in California resulted in an $18 million verdict, although it was later reduced to $2.5 million and is on appeal.

In Martin County, Fla., a moldy courthouse made employees sick. The

builders were hit with an $11.5 million verdict.

A number of claims have been brought by people whose homes were built with synthetic stucco. This material consists of a layer of styrofoam nailed or glued to the exterior plywood, then a layer of fiberglass mesh covered with a base coat and topped with a finish coat.

Synthetic stucco is comparable in price to real stucco, and it provides better insulation and is more crack-resistant. The problem is that if water gets behind the styrofoam layer, it has nowhere to go and ends up rotting the plywood and studs behind it, often resulting in mold problems.

It’s expected that mold claims will become much more frequent as more becomes known about the causes and effects of different kinds of mold.

Lying About Someone On the Web Is Not Okay

Some people believe the Internet is like the Wild West, and that you can say anything you want about anyone without getting in trouble. But that’s not true.

The Internet is no different from a newspaper or other publication. If someone posts something on the Internet that’s false and derogatory, they can be sued for it.

In the first such case to go to trial, a jury in Santa Clara, Calif., recently awarded $775,000 in damages for a "cybersmear."

The case involved two ex-employees who posted more than 14,000 messages over three years, many of them claiming

that their former bosses were incompetent, had extramarital affairs, had mental problems, and videotaped company bathrooms.

The ex-employees claimed they were protected by the right to "free speech" in the First Amendment. But while the First Amendment protects honest expressions of opinion, it doesn’t protect people who lie in order to damage someone’s reputation.

The verdict shows that this principle holds true regardless of whether you attack someone in a newspaper or in a chat room.

Compulsive Gamblers Turn the Tables on Casinos

Casinos have often been criticized for taking advantage of compulsive gamblers. So some of them have started to do something about it. They’ve started programs where gamblers can ask them not to send them promotional literature or "freebies" that could tempt them into returning to a bad habit.

That’s great –– but what if the casino doesn’t live up to its end of the bargain, and starts targeting the gambler anyway?

In two recent cases, the gamblers sued the casinos for breaking their word.

The casinos settled for a confidential amount. Both cases arose in Louisiana.

In one case, a former Louisiana Tech football star claimed that even though he asked the casino to leave him alone, casino executives approached him at times when he was vulnerable –– in one case, at his mother’s funeral.

Ordinarily, you can’t sue a casino for taking your money if you lose. But these cases were different because the casinos weren’t being sued for accepting a wager; they were being sued for breaking a promise.