Shuttlesworth Law Firm, LLC - May 2020

3 HIGH PROFILE MEDICAL PRODUCT LIABILITY LAWSUITS

A LOOK BACK AT THE GREATEST NBA PLAYOFF RUNS IN MODERN HISTORY

No one would dispute that many major corporations have funded, marketed, and distributed incredible technological advancements in the medical field. However, it seems that all too often one of their products does more harm than it does good, and it’s the manufacturer’s fault. Trying to get your just compensation in court, against a team of corporate lawyers, might seem impossible. However, these three settlements prove the opposite. JOHNSON & JOHNSON TALCUM POWDER LAWSUITS These suits are ongoing and shaping up to form one of the largest product liability settlements in US history. Nearly 9,000 parties allege that the company’s signature baby powder contained trace amounts of asbestos and caused THAT PROVE YOU CAN FIGHT THE CORPORATIONS AND WIN

The NBA playoffs typically rule the sporting world from April to June every year, so there’s no better time to take a look back at some of the greatest championship runs in the league’s modern history. THE 1991 CHICAGO BULLS Many Chicago fans remember where they were when the Bulls won their first title in 1991 — in fact, most basketball fans know about this historic title run. The road to the championship took the Michael Jordan-led Bulls through Detroit. Back then, the Detroit Pistons were known as the “Bad Boys” in the NBA, and they won back-to-back championships in 1989 and 1990. But the Bulls — backed by head coach Jim Boylen’s philosophy that every player on the team had value — shut down the Pistons on their route to the championship. The Bulls would go on to beat the Los Angeles Lakers, win their first championship, and cement Michael Jordan’s legacy. THE 2003 LOS ANGELES LAKERS The early 2000s were a prime period for basketball, in large part thanks to Los Angeles Lakers legends Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. In 2003, the Lakers were looking for a repeat victory to make them back-to-back NBA champions. Having gone 15-1 in the playoffs, the Lakers only lost once in the finals. This is even more impressive when you consider that the teams they faced housed six future Hall of Fame players and none had any major injuries. The Lakers would go on to win their second championship in a row and win once again the following year to join the Boston Celtics and the Chicago Bulls as three-peat titleholders. THE 2017 GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS Much like their LA counterparts did in 2003, the Golden State Warriors were undefeated heading into the NBA Finals. Thanks to the addition of superstar Kevin Durant, the team’s regular-season record of 67-15 propelled them into a hot streak in the championships. What’s even more impressive about this season was the Warriors’ plus-13.5 point differential against championship-caliber teams, and they even managed to handily defeat future Hall of Fame player LeBron James when he played for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

them to develop ovarian cancer. In 2018, a U.S. state judge in Missouri awarded one group of 22 women a total of $4.7 billion in damages.

MERCK & CO. VIOXX LAWSUITS Roughly 11 years before the Johnson & Johnson Lawsuits, Merck, a prominent

pharmaceutical company, was forced to pay out settlements to thousands of users of the painkiller Vioxx after studies showed that it doubled a person’s risk of heart attack and stroke if they took it for more than 18 months. In total, Merck paid out $4.85 billion to affected parties. WYETH ‘FEN-PHEN’ LAWSUITS While nearly $5 billion is an unimaginable amount of money — neither of the previous cases come close to the settlements collected in this one. Wyeth, a pharmaceutical company that has since merged with pharma giant Pfizer, produced the diet drugs fenfluramine and phentermine in the mid-1990s. Then in 1997, reports of valvular heart disease and hypertension in people who regularly took “fen-phen” caused thousands of users to sue the company, for a whopping $22 billion. It may feel like it’s impossible to fight giant corporations when they do you wrong, but these cases prove it is possible to fight them and win! And if you have the experienced legal team at Shuttlesworth Law behind you, we’ll do everything in our power to make sure justice is served. Call us at (205) 322-1411.

2 • SHUTTLESWORTHLASSETER.COM

Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker