When a jury finds that a wrongdoer is responsible for the victim’s injury, then the Judge will ask the jury to decide how much money will compensate the victim for his injuries.  The law refers to the compensation award as “damages” and has divided them into two categories: economic and non-economic.

Economic injuries/damages include:

·        Past medical expenses — the reasonable cost of reasonably necessary medical care related to the victim’s injury.

·        Future medical expenses — the reasonable cost of reasonably necessary medical care for the victim’s medical care in the future

·        Loss of earning capacity – Past and future  loss of  – the reasonable value of the victim’s loss of the ability to earn money as a result of the injury

Non-Economic injuries/damages include:

·        Pain and suffering as previously discussed here.

·        Loss of consortium — loss of a spouse’s companionship and services discussed in more detail here.

The spouse of a victim who has been physically injured may be entitled to compensation from whoever caused the injury. The spouse may be compensated for the following  losses of family relationship also known as "loss of consortium":

  • love, 
  • companionship,
  • comfort, 
  • care,
  • assistance,
  • protection,
  • affection,
  • society,
  • moral support,
  • enjoyment of sexual relations
  • or the ability to have children. 

The wrongdoer who caused the injury need not compensate the victim’s spouse for any of the following:

  • The loss of financial support from the victim,
  • Personal services, such as nursing, that the spouse has provided or will provide to the victim, or
  • Any loss of earnings that the spouse has suffered by giving up employment to take care of the victim.

In California the following individuals may not recover for  the family relationship or "societal" losses due to  their loved one’s injury.

  • A parent may not recover relationship losses for injury to his or her child,
  • Unmarried cohabitants may not recover damages for societal loss.

In the unfortunate situation where a married couple separates after the accident, the spouse of the victim may seek limited compensation (ie. the loss of assistance in parenting). 

Today a consumer rights group reports on the risks of blood clots, strokes, and heart attacks that Yaz and Yasmin pose to women using these birth control pills.  The California-based group, called The Civil Justice Research Project, also reports on the the federal lawsuits that have been filed against Bayer by the hundreds of women who have suffered serious injury after taking Yaz.  The story mentions our co-counsel on the Yaz cases, A.J. De Bartolemeo of Girard Gibbs, and quotes Mike Danko:

Bayer just isn’t telling women what they need to know.  No woman would take Yaz if she knew that it was no more effective than other birth control pills but was more risky.

The article talks about the "corrective" ad campaign the FDA required Bayer to run, noting that — at least  according to some — Bayer’s corrective commercials were "too confusing and jargon-filled to be effective." The article links to one of the commercials.

The Consumer Attorneys of California (formerly called The Trial Lawyers of California), named my partner Trial Attorney of the Year Finalist for 2009 in honor of our work for a brain injured client in the case of Burdett v. Teledyne Continental Motors.  The Trial Lawyers Association presented a video about the case at its annual convention awards dinner in San Francisco.

One would assume that if a TBI victim cannot remember the injury producing event, he cannot suffer flashbacks or nightmares re-experiencing the event. Right? Wrong.

Indeed, a diagnosis of a TBI generally requires a loss of consciousness. But the victim’s loss of consciousnesss does not shield him from post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.  Apparently PTSD can occur after a TBI, but the TBI may alter the symptoms’ development.  A TBI victim’s symptoms may relate to events that just preceded his loss of consciousness, or to events that occurred immediately after.  The symptoms may even relate to details about the trauma-producing event itself that the victim learned about later in his recovery.

 

Even after the physical injuries have healed, an accident victim may still suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).  She may continue to experience flashbacks, nightmares, or daydreams in which the traumatic event is replayed again and again. The person may also suffer an abnormally intense “startle response” – like a rush of anxiety that bursts from her brain and shoots to her fingertips accompanied by a rapid heart rate. Other symptoms of PTSD may include impaired memory and difficulty concentrating and insomnia (or even a fear of sleeping due to the nightmares). The trauma of the accident disrupts various intellectual and emotional processes. It is sometimes referred to as "a normal reaction to abnormal event."

PTSD symptoms are among those that may be included in an award for pain and suffering as discussed here.
 

We’re excited to report that The Danko Law Firm has teamed up with the Yaz lawyers at Girard Gibbs LLP in San Francisco to jointly represent the victims of Yaz and Yasmin in lawsuits against Bayer.  Girard Gibbs is a nationally known class action firm with a long history of representing those harmed due to the wrongdoing of large corporations.

Together we’ve launched a new blog to help spread the word about the dangers of these drugs and to provide information about the pending lawsuit.

Follow our Yaz blogging at the new site, Yaz On Trial.

The legal talk show Lawyer2Lawyer invited Mike Danko and an FDA expLawyer2Lawyer Podcastsert, Professor James T. O’Reilly from the University of Cincinnati College of Law, to discuss Yaz and the Yaz lawsuits.  Mike talked about the lawsuits while Professor O’Reilly provided his insights on what the FDA does and, more importantly, does not do when approving a drug for the market.

Bayer was invited to come on the show but didn’t accept.

It is an interesting discussion that can be heard on line.

The San Francisco Daily Journal has reported on the status of the Yaz litigation.  The paper interviewed a number of Yaz lawyers, including Mike Danko.   Susan Galinis spoke about her lawsuit:

I’m hoping to get the word out to other women about how dangerous that drug is. . It devastated my whole life.

As usual, Bayer delined comment about its drug, except to offer the usual lawyer-speak:

Bayer’s oral contraceptives have been and continue to be extensively studied worldwide and are safe and effective when used according to product labeling.

The trendy Yaz and Yasmin birth control pills are unlike any others because they contain a new synthetic hormone, drospirenone. Bayer has aggressively marketed the drugs, especially to young Yazwomen, as a cure for everything from acne to pre-menstrual syndrome. Unfortunately, Bayer did not adequately test the drug before bringing it to market, and it now ignores two studies on Dutch and Danish women suggesting that the drugs are more dangerous than other birth control pills that don’t contain the synthetic hormone. 

Women who take Yaz or Yasmin have suffered a list of harmful side effects. One of the most common is blood clots. Blood clots may lead to debilitating strokes, pulmonary emboli and heart attacks. Women on Yaz or Yasmin have also been stricken by disease and damage to the gallbladder, liver, and pancreas, among other conditions.

The Food and Drug Administration has now decided that Bayer’s television commercials were misleading, because they undersold the risks of the drug while at the same time overstating its benefits. In addition, the consumer protection group Public Citizen warns all women against using either Yaz or Yasmin, and instead suggests sticking to a pill that does not contain drospirenone.

Yaz and Yasmin are no more effective than traditional birth control drugs, but they appear to be more dangerous. Nonetheless, because of Bayer’s aggressive and misleading advertising, they are now Bayer’s most popular drugs. In fact, the drugs are the most popular birth control pills in the world. Last year alone, Bayer sold $1.8 billion worth of Yaz and Yasmin .

Not surprisingly, with that type of money on the line, Bayer continues to promote the drugs, regardless of their risks.