Many people get hurt doing simple things that people do often. For example, an accident while driving a car or a trip and fall while walking. However, some catastrophic injuries happen in ways that most people are not commonly aware of.

For example, many people have never heard of “Gadolinium”. Nor have many people heard of the great harm attributed to Gadolinium.

Gadolinium has been used as a contrast agent in MRI studies. Use of Gadolinium has been linked to a terrible disease, nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF).

Here is information from the FDA about Gadolinium.

When someone has a significant change in health, even if it is not brought on by something as obvious as a car accident or an unfortunate encounter with a tripping hazard, it is an excellent idea to speak with an experienced personal injury lawyer.

From time to time, there have been reports of cases which have a seemingly absurd quality.

For example, a man sued 1-800-FLOWERS claiming they wrongly sent flowers to his wife, instead of the intended recipient, his girlfriend.

A while back, the $54 million dollar lawsuit over lost pants at the dry cleaner got a lot of attention.

Some media outlets and special interest groups use headlines and sound bites pertaining to such cases to demean trial lawyers and the work we do.

Without addressing the merits or lack of merits of the cases mentioned above, I respectfully offer to you some thoughts I’ve had reading such stories while representing real accident victims over the past two decades.

The reason I get to sleep soundly at night is that we represent real people who have had real accidents.  We never have to worry that our badly injured clients are being “frivolous” by seeking simple fairness.

A person paralyzed from the waist down or a person who breaks a leg and has a metal rod surgically installed, because someone else was careless, is not initiating a frivolous claim. Even a person who “only” has terrible pain every time they turn their head for half a year, because someone else crashed into the rear of their stopped car, has a serious claim.

One of the most well known “sound bite / headline” attacks by the anti-injured people special interest groups is the case of the spilled hot coffee at McDonalds. The most important thing I’ve learned in analyzing any case, and it very much applies to the McDonalds coffee case, is the foolishness of judging the case by a mere (potentially and/or intentionally,) misleading headline or sound bite.

A more careful examination of the McDonalds hot coffee case is instructive. (If you follow the link, please scroll down to the paragraph titled: “Myth: Lawsuits are out of control. Someone even sued because they spilled hot coffee on their lap!” )

Special interest groups like the insurance industry may want to portray injured plaintiffs as greedy fakers, and characterize members of the community who want to set things right with a fair outcome as mindless, “runaway juries.” That is why it is so important that we keep up the fight for those who have suffered real injuries.