● Congressional Bill Prevents Health Care Discrimination based on Genetic Testing.

When Reyes would not settle down and continued spitting blood, police used a Taser to knock the 230-pound pitcher to the ground, then shocked him again when he disobeyed commands to remain on the ground.

The result of the school being too overcautious: the girl's knee was damaged even more significantly and her family has notified the school of its intention to sue:

• School Nurse Takes Crutches from Injured Student.  

It seems that these bullies have been harassing the high school student at great lengths, from mugging and robbing him to even going as far as to create a Facebook page to incite further bullying. Check out the story below and let me know if you're wondering what the heck is wrong with the school in question and the parents of the bullies:

•Personal Injury Lawsuit Is Last Resort Against Bullies!

To test out a Taser that he thought was malfunctioning, a Rogers, Arkansas police officer tried to stun the cow with the Taser while friends videotaped the incident.  The officer accidentally shocked himself first when he missed the cow, to the apparent hilarity of the group.

Now he faces a two-week suspension and the department has planned to better account for its Taser cartridges.

My only thought on this is: it's a potential misdemeanor (which won't be charged because of a one-year statute of limitations) for using a Taser on a cow, but perfectly legitimate to use a Taser on a person?  Wouldn't it be a far more worthwhile investigation to redefine standards for Taser use on humans?

The woman was diagnosed with breast cancer and had started chemotherapy treatment to remove the tumor that doctors had found.  However, doctors stopped her treatments and notified her that her bills were going unpaid by the insurance company.

And hers wasn't the only patient's bills that were being unpaid.  Health Net stopped paying on around 1,600 patients, according to the Associated Press, whose accounts were frozen while a third-party review board was initiated to review the cases.

This halt to payment was deemed illegal under California law.  Health Net was also sued by a Los Angeles county attorney for this practice.   Also, Health Net received flak after it was learned several years ago that they were giving bonuses to adjusters who could reject the most number of claims, a policy which Health Net officials claim was reviewed and ended.

And now, they have 9 million reasons why they should review their health coverage practices once again.  Ouch.

900 new cases, including 5 that were set to go to trial in February, were settled recently, leaving the total number of unsettled cases at 1,100.

You can read all the details about the new Zyprexa claims at Total Injury!  Also, don't forget to check out our Articles section for more on defective drug cases and other class action settlements!

Just ask James Srodon of California, who filed a lawsuit with the Cook County Circuit Court, indicating that he was not a "willing" participant with the Blue Man Group during one of their infamous audience participation bits.

The Blue Men used Srodon for a bit in which they used an "esophagus cam" in Srodon's throat and projected footage of the inside of someone's stomach on the stage screen.  Srodon alleges that he did not want to participate, and the Blue Men forced the tube with the camera down his throat, and that the tube was covered in food and other disgusting debris from the theater floor, as well as blue paint from Blue Man hands.

The lawsuit seeks $50,000 for battery, negligence and negligent infliction of emotional distress.  Srodon claimed in the suit that the camera injured his mouth, throat and dental work.

For the latest in injury verdicts from outrageous cases such as these, visit Total Injury's injury verdict page!

No word yet on whether or not people who wear this crazy outfit can be cited for "excited delirium" before they get tased.  In fact, the fashion police might be more appalled by this set of threads than any law enforcement agency.

If you're interested in reading more about tasers and police brutality, check out the Taser page at Total Injury!

Common courtesy (and probably common sense) dictates that if you have to take or make a cell phone call, you should move to a more private location than a bustling retail store.  But in this day and age, don't be surprised if a bit of common courtesy confuses the heck out of people. 

Take the case of Elizabeth Beeland, a holiday shopper who stepped out of a Best Buy to talk on her cell phone, forgetting her credit card at the cashier's desk.  The ever-vigilant Best Buy clerk, surprised by Beeland's beeline for the door, suspected she was fleeing the scene after using a stolen credit card, and called over a police officer to confront her.

According to the police report that officer Claudia Wright filed, when Wright confronted Beeland outside the store, Beeland was "verbally profane, abusive, loud and irate."  After warning her to calm down or face arrest, Wright shocked Beeland with a Taser.  Security video of the incident shows Beeland backing away and trying to avoid the officer, then falling to the ground as the Taser strikes.

Officer Wright was not disciplined for using the Taser on Beeland.  The Chief of Police defended Wright, saying that Beeland was disobeying an officer's orders and that the Taser was a better alternative to another weapon.

Beeland has reportedly hired a lawyer and is looking into the possibility of a lawsuit, since she was not behaving violently or attempting to flee from the officer when she was shocked.

For more unbelievable police brutality, excessive force and Taser shock weapon news stories, visit the personal injury articles page at Total Injury!

Compared to the previous seven-year period, the period from 2001 to 2007 exhibited a rise of 25% of police brutality incidents, with a rise in convictions of police officers for use of excessive force of 53% (the report was obviously intended to tout its own successes in prosecution).

Nowhere is this more evident than in the nation's arguable police brutality epicenter, Chicago.  With 40% more complaints of police brutality and misconduct than the national average, Chicago has garnered an infamous reputation for police brutality from a public that is becoming increasingly more suspicious of individuals in uniform.

Read a round-up of the most sensational Chicago Police Department police brutality stories of the year at Total Injury!

In one of the most clear-cut cases of insurance fraud possibly ever, a Los Angeles doctor has pleaded guilty to running a scam that's being called "rent-a-patient."

Mamdouh S. Bahna of Bel Air allegedly paid patients to undergo unnecessary procedures so that he could bill insurance companies.  Examples of the surgeries that he would perform include colonoscopies and something called a "sweaty-palm" surgery.  (Surgery always makes my palms sweat, so I'm still waiting for another distinction.)

The lawyers prosecuting the case allege that Bahna defrauded his insurance companies out of $1 million.  As a result of his guilty plea, he'll be put in jail for 58 months and have to pay a $150K fine.

Check out Total Injury for more about insurance companies and the clever and not so clever perpetrators of fraud against them.

The reason for the fine?  It's the THIRD time this year that this mistake has happened at this hospital.  Remarkably, all three wrong-side brain operations were performed by different doctors.  At this point, the latest patient to be mistakenly operated upon is okay, as was the first victim of the botched operation.

However, the second patient tragically died as a result of the surgery in August of this year.  That prompted an investigation into the hospital procedures, which apparently did not correct the problem.

Let's hope the doctors at Rhode Island Hospital have learned their lesson and we won't have to read in the coming months of a fourth flipped surgery victim.

The point of subrogation is to avoid having medical bills paid for twice, once by the insurance company, and then by a defendant who is ordered to pay for medical bills as part of a verdict or settlement of a personal injury case.  However, in practice, it can seem like another way for a personal injury victim to be victimized, this time by their insurance company.

As the Wall Street Journal reports, 52-year-old Deborah Shank was involved in a semi tractor trailer accident seven years ago, which left her with permanent brain damage and confined to a wheelchair.  As part of a settlement with the trucking company, she and her husband received $700,000 to pay for her medical care.

At the time of the accident, Shank was an employee of Walmart, and received their healthcare coverage for medical expenses following the accident.  Whether she knew it or not, a subrogation clause was part of her Walmart health insurance, and after paying out $470,000 for medical coverage, the insurance company aimed to get back the money.

After legal fees and other expenses, the Shanks were left with $417,000, which they set up in a medical expenses fund.  However, Walmart sued them for the money, and though they appealed an initial verdict in Walmart's favor, the Shanks eventually lost the case as well as the money.

What makes it particularly difficult for them is that the money left over from the settlement would not have been enough to pay her medical costs in the first place.  Thus, rather than fairly paying back money for medical expenses that Walmart covered, in their case it was closer to being taken for all they had by Walmart's insurance plan.

Walmart, of course, was perfectly within its legal right, and pursued subrogation to restore funds back to its insurance coverage for the entire employee pool.  However, in this case, the fine print made the Shanks feel more betrayed than compensated when they won their personal injury case.

Pharmaceutical Company Merck & Co. announced an “agreement” of $4.85 billion for pending personal injury suits concerning complications from the arthritis painkiller VIOXX, according to the Associated Press. The decision comes as a surprise to many, since Merck officials announced as recently as last month that the company planned to argue each case individually in court.

The agreement will become official if 85% of the plaintiffs in about 26,000 lawsuits (including 265 class action suits) agree to drop their cases and accept financial compensation.

VIOXX, released in 1999, was wildly popular as a pain reliever for sufferers of arthritis. Merck shocked the country by removing the drug from the market in late 2004, while it was still in its heyday, because of scientific evidence that the drug doubled the risk of heart attack and stroke.

Though Merck maintained that VIOXX was only potentially harmful to those who had used it for more than 18 months, scientists generally dismissed this claim. An estimated 80,000-140,000 heart attacks and strokes have been attributed to the drug, some of which were fatal.

To qualify for receiving settlement money, claimants must have filed their cases by November 8^th  and have proof that they ingested at least 30 pills, that they suffered a heart attack or stroke, and that they began taking the pills at least two weeks prior to the injury. Individual payments will depend on severity of injury and length of time the drug was used.

A defense attorney on the case is reportedly pleased with the decision, which he believes is the largest in the history of the industry. Merck is apparently emphasizing that this is not a class action settlement, but an “agreement,” a distinction which allows the company to admit no fault.

Early predictions suggested that Merck could face $50 billion dollars in legal costs if it chose to argue all the cases pending.