All Topics

• Salmonella Discovered in Frozen Cat Food

  Scott Smith | February 22, 2007 4:38 PM | 0 CommentsColumbus, OH

  Wild Kitty cat food, a frozen raw product, was discovered contaminated with salmonella according to the Food and Drug Administration. Because cats can become infected with salmonella and humans can be infected by handling the cat food, the FDA warned pet owners not to purchase the product. Wild Kitty cat food is made by a small company in Kennebunkport, Maine and sold at pet stores in several...

• The Myth of Tort Reform

  Scott Smith | February 16, 2007 10:48 AM | 0 CommentsColumbus, OH

  Constantly looking for a scape goat, big business, big media and insurance companies have targeted trial lawyers and injured persons seeking compensation as villains who negatively effect the economy. Regardless of the propaganda that constantly spews from the Chamber of Commerce, there is a continuous outpouring of evidence that the cost of personal injury automobile insurance litigation and...

• Astrology and Car Crashes

  Scott Smith | January 24, 2007 4:42 PM | 0 CommentsColumbus, OH

  Website InsuranceHotline.com, conducted a study that demonstrated individuals with certain zodiac signs were more likely to be involved in car crashes, yet another example of the insurance industry's arbitrary and less than sophisticated means of determining auto insurance rates. InsuranaceHotline.com quotes drivers on insurance rates and conducted a study that included 100,000 North Americans...

• Hospital Errors in Minnesota on the Rise

  Scott Smith | January 22, 2007 12:57 PM | 0 CommentsColumbus, OH

  For the second straight year Minnesota hospitals reported medical errors resulting in death rose from the previous year. Overall the death toll from medical negligence showed a 50% increase in the number of "adverse events" reported by hospitals and centers for surgery between October 2005 and October 2006 citing to the Annual Minnesota State Report.The program Minnesota has in place a...

• Runaway Verdicts or Runaway Insurance Profits

  Scott Smith | January 19, 2007 11:29 AM | 0 CommentsColumbus, OH

  Most of America is badly misinformed about what is really happening in our Courts and hospitals. Is the nation experiencing a plethora of runaway verdicts or is there really a run on insurance profits? Are we losing doctors due to high insurance premiums caused by frivolous lawsuits or is the insurance industry fooling us all?Surprisingly, the facts are clear. As a representative example, in...

• Insurance Law Intimidates Emergency Room Doctors from Alcohol and Drug Testing

  Scott Smith | January 18, 2007 11:23 AM | 0 CommentsColumbus, OH

  Because a 1953 Ohio insurance law permits health insurance companies to deny claims for injuries that result from alcohol or drug use, emergency room doctors and nurses don't test patients for fear the costs of the procedure would be denied. Accordingly, many hospitals don't routinely test patients for drug or alcohol use and won't until the law is overturned. Of course, if the ingestion of...

• Allstate's Dirty Hands

  Scott Smith | January 04, 2007 7:57 AM | 0 CommentsColumbus, OH

  For years Allstate Insurance has claimed you are in good hands if you are an insured with their company. However, this mantra belies Allstate's deceptive claims practices and defiance of Court Orders. In the early 1990s Allstate retained the services of McKinsey and Company in reengineering its auto accident insurance claims operations. The story of Allstate's scorched earth claims practice...

• New Law Reduces Ohio Consumers Damage Claims

  Scott Smith | January 03, 2007 4:50 PM | 0 CommentsColumbus, OH

  What the Ohio Supreme Court giveth, the Ohio legislature taketh away. A recent Ohio Supreme Court Decision confirmed that Ohio's Consumer Sales Practice Act (CSPA), a thirty year old consumer protection law, allowed defrauded consumers to sue for non-economic damages like stress, aggravation and humiliation when unfairly taken advantage of by a business. Whitaker v. N.T. Automotive, Inc. 111...

• Study Reveals Use of Cell Phone Causes Auto Crashes

  Scott Smith | December 13, 2006 4:40 PM | 0 CommentsColumbus, OH

  A study recently released by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety and the Virginia Technical Transportation Institute found that a driver's odds of being involved in an automobile crash or nearly crashing are twice as high when the driver looks away from the road for 2 seconds or longer. The study revealed distracted driving is nearly as serious a factor as impaired driving or speeding in...

• Study Shows Long Hospital Shifts and Sleep Deprivation Cause Deaths in Hospitals

  Scott Smith | December 12, 2006 4:36 PM | 0 CommentsColumbus, OH

  A recent Harvard Medical School study found long hospital shifts and sleep deprivation resulted in fatigue related mistakes and increased harm to patients by 700%. Residents who worked five marathon shifts (24 hours or longer) in a single month directly correlated with making errors that in turn increased the risk of death by 300%.The study included the fact that medical residents are regularly...