Judge in Breivik case, playing cards in court.

   
       Ernst Henning Nielsen, one of the three judges presiding the case of the mass killer from Norway was caught playing cards on his laptop while Mattias Gardell, Swedish religious historian, was addressing court.
It seems, however that the history lesson was not interesting enough for judge Ernst Henning Nielsen who decided to enjoy a game of solitaire before the lunch break.

     The court's first reaction after the cameras caught this goof was to condemn the broadcasters for filming the judge's desk.
 “One of the conditions for broadcasting is that there should be no filming of the judges’ desk. There are notes and documents of a sensitive nature lying there,” said Irene Ramm spokeswoman for the district court. She then came back on a more friendly note : "The judges are attentively following what is being said and what is being presented to the court. There are different ways of staying focused."

    Anders Behring Breivik , age 33 is currently being judged for the attacks on July 22 2011 when he detonated a rigged car near a government building in Oslo. He then debarked on the island of  Utøya where the youth division of the Norvegian Labour Party was organizing a summer camp. Breivik pretended to be a cop and then opened fire killing 69 persons. A total of 77 persons were killed and another 242 were wounded on that tragic day by a man that claims to be leading a holy crusade against multiculturalism and "The muslim invasion" .
    Breivik's intolerance towards muslims may have roots in his early years when he apparently had some problems with some members of the muslim community in his hometown. At 7, his friend's father, Turkish, wrecked his bicycle  and at 15 he had a minor altercation with a Pakistani  underground driver for riding on the outside of a underground car, that ended up with Breivik's being slapped.

    At the moment  the courthouse is trying to establish if the "crusader" is to be sent to a regular prison or an insane asylum. Breivik's has confessed his crimes and denies any responsibility, regarding himself as a hero, but ironically he managed to prove one thing right : terrorism has no religion.

FELA - protecting railroad workers since 1908

        In the late 19 century and the beginning of 20th century the U.S. railroad companies thrived and expanded but the working conditions for the average Joe in this area were a bet with death. The number of deaths and injuries were of the order of thousands, and the victims may have been in the situation of waiting years for verdict in court if the railroad companies fought the decisions.
       Many of them wouldn't even go to court seeking their legal compensation fearing disciplinary action and retaliation.
     
       President Benjamin Harrison once compared the struggle and toil of a railroad worker to that of a soldier on the battlefield.
     "It is a reproach to our civilization that any class of American workmen, should in the pursuit of a necessary and useful vocation, be subjected to a peril of life and limb as great as that of a soldier in time of war".

      Something had to be changed. The gloomy statistics had to draw the attention of the legislation.

     The Federal Employers Liability Act was passed by Congress in 1908 and it meant that railroad workers had the right to sue their employers for  damages if they were injured while doing their job since they were not covered by  regular workers’ compensation laws.
       
       Ever since, FELA was a guardian for a safe working environment, even if conditions have surely changed since the late 1800. FELA also has been protecting workers from the pressure exercised by companies against those who want to seek legal consultation when they feel their rights are violated. 

      As an  example , it's a little known fact that sometimes workers who have sustained injuries are entitled to more than just compensation since their employers will always seek to minimize their costs on the legal battlefield.

     The best advice for a victim of a work accident in the railroad bussiness is to contact an experienced  FELA attorney

   

Cinderella law - no gaming after 12

With the release of Blizzard's new title, the long anticipated Diablo III, our attention goes to one of the largest gaming community.

South Korea can boast itself with one of the richest and most prolific online gaming culture in the world. A study conducted in 2010 by the National Information Society Agency revealed that 8% of South Koreans between the age of 9 and 39 suffer from Internet addiction ,the addiction rate being higher for those between 9 and 12.

This phenomenon reminding of the famous Hikikomori generation of Japan , has come into the attention of the Korean government who last year in November came with a law forbidding children under the age of 16 to play video games after midnight. This is to be carried out by restricting their access to certain gaming servers.

The restriction however is not in effect for mobile games or games that can be found on certain social websites like facebook.

The law went into effect since 20 November and now, in South Korea console services like PlayStation Network and Xbox Live are not allowing kids under 16 to register for game accounts or to login between the hours 12 and 6 am.

Apart from that , the Korean government has been found to be very active in the struggle to prevent internet and gaming addiction for youngsters by holding numerous workshops and offering counseling for students with such problems.


As expected, the Internet community didn't greet this law very well. Blogs and forums have attacked the initiative calling it "idiotic","waste of time and money" and identifying it as discriminating.

Same should have been expected by the Korea Association of Game Industry which has stated that this law enforces " excessive prohibition" and prepared a legal retaliation.


Cultural solidarity organization MoonHwaYunDae also appealed to the Constitutional Court trying , without success to stop this law .

Parents stood pretty much on the same side arguing that they should have the right to educate their children as they see fit and have the last word about what time they want to allow their kid to play.


Lawyer Lee Byung-chan representing the parents in this matter stated that the "cinderella law " violates the right to happiness and discriminates gaming as a leisure activity against other such as television.

In my opinion this law is indeed a peculiar case, the one you might be expecting to see in North Korea than in South Korea, but let us analyze the situation a little. The law blocks the access of children under the age of 16 on online gaming servers after midnight. It is not prohibitive as it is mostly restrictive but why is such a restriction needed?
I'm 26 and I used to play video games myself,( even though online games weren't as much as a thing when I was a kid as they are now)  and I still play them know, as an young adult. I had my share of "gaming nights" with my buddies, but that happened mostly when I was in high school and the rebellious part kicked in. What I don't remember is my parents coming to my room at 3 in the morning and finding me glued to the screen while playing Nintendo. If I did that , not only I would have got into serious problems , but I'd also be way to tired to wake up at 7 AM and go to school.

As a grown man, fully independent and supporting myself I still won't pull an gaming all-niter when I have to be at work in the morning because I learned to be responsible at home.  I do agree, it's the parent's own business at what time he decides it's ok for his kid to be playing, but I hardly imagine a parent having absolutely no problem with his under 16 offspring being online , playing until morning especially if he has to be up for school in a few hours.

Internet addiction is a real thing. Gaming addiction is a real thing and I could make a whole blogs about cases all over the world where gaming addiction lead to seclusion , unsocial behavior, and in some extreme cases real violence and murder. I'm not saying games are bad but when a kid gets so involved in an virtual environment so much that it has negative effects on his real life, maybe his parents should be there to teach him about being responsible in managing his time. Maybe that is why such a law is needed , because the  ones that should prevent this problem from happening are not doing their job.

Lawyer of the day

    My last article was about a car accident and today I just stumbled across an interesting article from earlier this year, the kind of article you could say restores faith to humanity.
   On February 07 this year, personal injury lawyer Melinda Helbock, also   founding partner of The Law Offices of Melinda J. Helbock, a well known law firm in San Diego , California, announced that she will be offering free legal advice for people affected by car accidents occurred in San Diego. This can only be seen as a good news for all drivers in San Diego who know have someone to turn to when found in unfortunate events.

    Melinda Helbock has proven herself as an excellent attorney in her over 17 years of trial experience. Member of  he San Diego Bar Association and the American Association of Justice, she received her law degree at the  California Western School of Law, and quickly became known through the community for her dedication and kindness in helping people who have entered her office.
   
      Indeed, the warm, family atmosphere at   Melinda J. Helbock, A.P.C  is not what you would usually see in a law firm and the trained staff as well as the collaboration with a whole network of law specialists  throughout the country has helped it provide high quality legal service for nearly 20 years.
       Melinda J. Helbock, A.P.C covers areas of practice such as:       

          

• -Civil Litigation
• -Business Litigation
• -Corporate Law
• -Personal Injury
• -Asbestos Litigation
• -Pharmaceutical Litigation
• -Real Estate Law
• -Worker's Compensation
• -Entertainment Law
• -Pro-Bono Representation
• -Employment Law
• -Intellectual Property Law
• -Bankruptcy Law
• -Family Law
• -Probate Law
• -Wills & Estates

     But Melinda is not only a great lawyer. Loving wife and mother of two boys, she is also a very active member of community. You might wonder how does she manages to get all these things done ? Yet she is constantly volunteering for organizations like :

• Encinitas County Day, volunteer
• Alzheimer's patient, volunteer caregiver
• ELL Minor B's Nationals 2010, team mom
• ELL Rookies Grasshoppers 2010, co-team mom
• Encinitas Little League Rookies Sidewinders 2009, team mom

It seems californians can only be proud with such a true pillar of comunity. All I say is that if I ever have a car accident in San Diego , I sure know who to call.

 

Paper cup stops truck

     A community was appalled last week in Texas, after truck driver  Richard Bolduc was involved in a very unlikely truck accident. 
    Richard was driving  at approximately at 62 mph on U.S. 271 near Bogota, TX, hauling shingles from Shreveport   when an object shattered his windshield rendering him practically blind from the explosion. As Richard declared his first thought was that his phone exploded but luckily, he managed to stop the truck in time, avoiding a potential collision in traffic. 

    It seems that the mysterious object was nothing more than a plain paper medium sized soda cup from Burger King, thrown out the window by of an oncoming car. 
    State trooper Ryan Case who responded to the scene said that he found the paper cup , but threw it in the ditch as he did not believe it could have any correlation with accident. He then found pieces from it scattered around the impact area. 
       It does seem unlikely that such a harmless object as a paper cup could provoke that amount of damage to a truck. We are not talking about cracking a windshield , we are talking about going through it with such a force it made shattered it. Can a paper cup do that?

      I did some research on the internet and discovered how this question was already given an answer by the Myth Busters two years ago in one of their episodes. If you want to see for yourself here is the link :
http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/mythbusters-soda-cup-killer-angle-2.html


       Driver Richard Bolduc is currently recovering after sustaining serious injuries to his face, eyes and back. Fortunately, even though a specialist had to recover paper fragments from his eyes he is not in danger of blinding. Bolduc live as far as 600 miles from where the accident happened, however, the community was more than helpful. Bolduc is currently staying with pastor Donnie Childer, former truck driver himself and his wife Dana. They took care of Bolduc and his truck and also drove him to hospital after they were called in by driver  Mitch Cannon who was behind Richard when the accident happened.
     
     The Childers also made sure to call Richard's wife and let her about her husbands situation and that he is OK. Jennifer Balduc, mother of two girls with special needs declared that it would have been extremely hard without the help of the friendly people in Bogota. Even though doctors can say at the moment if Richard is going to be able to drive again, Jennifer is just happy that her husband is alive. 


     Now that is a heart warming story about kindness and how there are still people out there ready to jump and give a helping hand to their fellows in need, but it could also be looked as an alarm call for drivers everywhere to be more responsible on the road. It this case a simple gesture as throwing a paper cup out the window could have cost a man's life and maybe even lead to a traffic collision increasing the number of victims. Each year truck accidents alone clai 5000 lives in US. Maybe is time to raise awareness,because everyone knows accidents are best to be avoided than dealt with.
      In the unfortunate case of a truck accident or any type of car accident whatsoever it's best to remember that you can seek compensation. A consultation with a truck accident lawyer may help you.

Dumbest lawsuits ever

     We all heard of frivolous lawsuits, lawsuits that from the start have little to no chance of winning mostly due to their lack of legal merit and their absurdity, but things go way beyond with some cases that simply redefine the word ridiculous. Here are some of this cases:

Man vs Jackass 

      Former Bob Craft from Montana , changed his name to Jack Ass in 1997 to raise awareness, he says about the dangers of drunk driving.  He most probably had a shock when a TV show with the same name was aired in 2000 on MTV featuring a group of young men doing some dangerous stunts , so he did what any reasonable man would do - sued the heck out of them for 10 million dollars. He motivated his actions by saying that they stoled his name and defamed his good character.
     Now let's digest that for a moment. There's this guy changing his name to Jack Ass and then claiming somebody defamed his good character. I guess he was really making the term "jackass" a respectable name before MTV came along.

Christopher Roller vs Magicians

     We all love magic tricks and magicians. They challenge our imagination with their fantastic numbers but in the end we all know it's all just an illusion. Or is it?  Christopher Roller from  Minnesota claims otherwise as he believes the old "hand is quicker than the eye" does not apply to famous performers David Blaine and David Copperfield who may in fact , as he claims , use godly powers. He demands that they reveal their secrets or pay him 10% of their income for life. Why? Because, as he states he is actually God and those pesky magicians are using his power. And I thought it was all just smoke and mirrors.

Women vs Police...dog?

Police brutality is a serious matter and people are entitled to defend themselves and bring those responsible in court unless those responsible require a leash. This is a case of a woman in  Detroit who was bitten by a police dog . Most probably she could have had a strong case here unless she decided to file her suit against poor agent K9 Scruffy himself. The judge dismissed the lawsuit as being frivolous and also fined the plaintiff .
Talking about things that turn around and bite you in the...

Man Vs Anheuser-Busch

This one is a classic. We all find ourselves being influenced by ads on TV into buying some products promising to make our life better, but a man in Michigan really got a rough deal. In 1990, a Budweiser ad showed two beautiful women appearing from thin air in front of two truck drivers after they consumed the mentioned beer. Our guy went ahead and bought a case of beer, drank it, but surprise, no woman materialized in front of him. He sued the company for false advertising, but the court dismissed the suit. Weird enough last time I drank a full case of beer I saw two women in front of me. Unfortunately they were my girlfriend and they weren't very happy.

Man vs Himself

You know those moments when you do something really stupid and just want to punch yourself in the the face? Well Robert Lee Brock imprisoned for grand larceny and breaking-and-entering went a step ahead and tried to sue himself . Robert claimed that he was drunk at the time he committed those crimes which he states , was against his religious beliefs.He claimed he had violated his civil liberties and sued himself for 5 million bucks. Unfortunately as he was imprisoned at the time and unable to produce an income he demanded that the state should pay him the sum.
Still a better  use of tax -payers money than what we see today.


There you have it , some of the most ridiculous lawsuits of all time. Let me know if you liked this article in the comment section bellow and if you want me to continue the list.

Pradaxa Injury - Boehringer Ingelheim plays dumb

     This month it seems I've written a lot about medical problems and medical lawsuits. And now I find myself writing about another miracle drug that has been proved to do more harm than good in a lot of cases. Before that though , I must clarify that I am not under no circumstance advertising these pharmaceutical products ,nor am I trying to give them a bad name. A lot of people have been taking them and it improved their condition, but however there is still a great number of patients who have been complaining of some serious side-effects. Side-effects that in some cases put their life in danger.

     Pradaxa is an anticoagulant mainly used for treating pacients with  atrial fibrillation, a heart condition that leads to abnormal heart beats. Without treating, atrial fibrillation could lead to blood clots and strokes so an anticoagulant drug could mean the difference between life and death for those unfortunate to have this condition. 



     Pradaxa was released in 2010 , brought on the market by   Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals and it quickly gain popularity over its predecesor and competitior, Warfarin, mainly for being more user-friendly as the patient does not need to do regular blood test or have any food restrictions. 
     
     However, the magic did not last long after it have been reported that Pradaxa may have some fatal side-effects as severe bleeding injuries were in patients who were taking Pradaxa, injuries that sometime lead to death. FDA was flooded with reports of victims suffering from internal bleedings after using the anticoagulant drug and by the second  quarter of 2011, the number of deaths sky-rocketed to 117.
     Symptomes included: 

            • Severe headaches
            • Repeated nosebleeds
            • Constant fatigue
            • Weakening or swelling in the body’s joints, arms, hands, legs, ankles or feet
            • Feeling dizzy
            • Unusual bruises or bleeding, particularly in the gums
            • Vomiting blood
            • Coughing up blood
            • Menstrual or vaginal bleeding that is heavier than normal

      Keep in mind that the FDA approved Pradaxa in October 2010 and here we are, less than a year later , 117 people died.  
     Despite this,  Boehringer Ingelheim, the pharmaceutical company responsible for Pradaxa ,  dabigatran by its chemical name, indirectly dismissed any accusation, by saying that Pradaxa is as safe as any anticoagulant drug on the market and the risk it's similar for any other blood thinner. I must admit, I'm not a doctor,or a pharmacist, but seeing as Pradaxa's popularity was mainly based on the "user-friendly" part I'm a little confused of how this drug has the same potential risk of its competitors that require some serious medical tests before administering. But like I said, I'm not an expert.

      To make things worse, while other blood thinners drugs had an antidote, Pradaxa had no such thing even though this thing was actually marketed as a good thing. The logic? Pradaxa is better , more efficient and also easier to use. 

       And things go further . This year, in January, a study conducted by researchers at the Cleveland Clinic and involving 30514 patients proved that the use of Pradaxa lead to a 33 percent higher risk of heart attack. 

       Wasn't Pradaxa supposed to do just the opposite? 
        So, where's   Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals reaction? I guess as a cynical guy that I am the only thing I could do is point out the fact that maybe, striking deals with the victims cost a lot less than retreating the product of the market. 

         If what lead you to this article was the fact that you  or someone you know dealt with some serious problem because of Pradaxa the only thing I could recommend you is to seek the advice of a Pradaxa injury lawyer