If you can believe it, the first month of 2013 will soon come to a close. With that, I thought now was as good a time as ever to take a brief look back to 2012 from the personal injury side of things. Let’s review 2012’s top personal injury law stories.
Last year, we saw many interesting developments in personal injury law. Of course, there were new personal injury protection (PIP) rules implemented by the state of New Jersey, which may cause medical practices to refuse new PIP claims due to higher caps.
Additionally, we saw the ever-growing role that the internet and social media are playing in our lives with a case out of Monroe County. According to Tort Talk’s Daniel E. Cummins, “Judge David J. Williamson of the Monroe County Court of Common Pleas granted a defendant’s motion to compel the plaintiff to allow for social media discovery.” Judge Williamson reasoned that an individual should not have an expectation of privacy with regard to his or her social media activity given that “[t]hose who elect to use social media, and place things on the internet for viewing, sharing and use with others, waives an expectation of privacy.”
Among other notable articles and cases, we saw the tragedy of Newtown, CT and the debate that ensued over gun control. One law blog explained that a lawyer for one of the survivors of the shooting even “asked the State of Connecticut to allow a $100 million negligent security claim for [the victim’s] benefit.”
Lastly, there was also the case brought on by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission in December “against Baby Matters, a manufacturer of infant furniture owned by Comcast SportsNet reporter Leslie Gudel,” per Philly.com’s Andrew Eisner.
Eisner goes on to explain that “[t]he complaint alleges that the Nap Nanny Generation One and Two and Chill models contain design defects posing substantial risk of injury and death to infants.” And as a result, “five infants have died since 2010” and the commission apparently received “more than 70 additional incident reports of children nearly falling out of the recliner.”
With 2012 securely in the rearview mirror, I look forward to what 2013 brings. Please let me know your take on the articles and cases I shared above by commenting below. You can also visit the Fegley Law Facebook page and share your thoughts there as well. Make sure to “LIKE” our page too!
If you have a personal injury matter, please call our Yardley office at 215-493-8287 or send us an email HERE. We will be glad to help.
