Legal Information and Resources

Last Tuesday, Mitchell Cohen and Jennifer Troast from the Locks Law Firm won a victory in the Appellate Division of the New Jersey Superior Court. Their clients in this case are Spanish nationals who suffered asbestos related disease at the hands of the company Owens Illinois. The case involved more than a dozen consolidated Spanish clients who had worked to repair and renovate American war ships for the U.S. Navy while the ships were docked at a Spanish naval base. In the course of their work, the men encountered an asbestos containing product called Kaylo, a pipe covering or a block insulator, which was manufactured by the company Owens Illinois through 1958. The Kaylo product contained the harmful mineral asbestos. The men have since developed mesothelioma, asbestosis or other asbestos related diseases that can be definitively linked to asbestos exposure and traced back to their time aboard the American war ship. (more…)

Marc P. Weingarten, a Partner in the Philadelphia and New York offices recently made a presentation to a joint meeting of the Kentucky Justice Association (formerly known as the Kentucky Academy of Trial Attorneys) and the Kentucky Defense Counsel. Marc made his presentation, which was entitled “Strategy of Direct and Cross-Examination of Expert Witnesses” on May 16, 2008 in Louisville, Kentucky and it will be presented again on May 30, 2008 in Lexington, Kentucky. Marc’s presentation was part of a day-long seminar to teach lawyers how to try cases. The seminar was called “Trial Strategies and Techniques From Both Sides of the Bar. The concept of this program was unique in that it is one of the few education courses for trial lawyers which is sponsored by both the plaintiff bar as well as the defense bar. Marc used a PowerPoint presentation which was prepared by Philadelphia paralegal Leah Min which included numerous slides as well as a video clip from the movie “My Cousin Vinnie” to demonstrate advanced techniques of direct and cross-examination of expert witnesses. (more…)

Trasylol, generically known as Aprotinin, a drug that was approved for use in cardiac surgery to control bleeding, was removed from the market on May 16, 2008, by its manufacturer, Bayer Pharmaceuticals, after a large Canadian study concluded that patients receiving Trasylol were significantly more likely to die within 30 days of surgery than were patients given Tranexamic Acid, or Aminocaproic Acid. The decision by Bayer came more than two years after a New England Journal of Medicine article in January 2006 concluded that this drug increased the risk of death following heart surgery relative to aminocaproic acid and increased the risk of renal failure, myocardial infarction and stroke compared to lysine analogues. (more…)

New Jersey partner, Jim Pettit, was asked by the State Bar Association Products Liability Section to give a lecture to a group of lawyers on the issue of using demonstrative exhibits in a jury trial. Such exhibits are very persuasive in proving spinal cord injuries and brain injury. Enhanced and enlarged x-ray films can demonstrate before-and-after injuries, and thereby help pinpoint whether an automotive defect caused the injury. Mr. Pettit also spoke on the use of crash test videotapes. These are often produced by vehicle manufacturers which use them to test compliance under Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) promulgated by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA). In a crashworthiness jury trial, the injured plaintiff will face an argument that such testing and videotapes prove their injuries could not be caused by the defectively designed vehicle. Mr. Pettit offered his lawyer-audience ideas on how to counter such a defense.

The Locks Law Firm has been representing people who have been harmed by the carelessness of companies, professionals and other individuals for forty years. We have begun this blog to provide an opportunity to discuss some of the critical issues involving the civil justice system and the protection of individual rights in the United States as well as to introduce our readers to the activities of the firm. (more…)