Florida Injury Attorneys Blog

Lazaro Ramirez-Castro is in prison in a federal corrections facility located in Atlanta but three years ago he apparently slipped and fell in a Manatee jail. Now the 40-year-old is suing the Department of Homeland Security and Manatee Sheriff’s Office due to a slip and fall accident that he says was caused by a leaking toilet that the sheriff’s office was aware of at the time.

Ramirez-Castro alleges he suffered a herniated disk in his back and has had to use a cane since the accident. He claims he was never treated properly following the fall. Ramirez-Castro is scheduled to be released from jail this month according to the report on the Bradenton Herald’s website.

If you or a loved one has been injured due to a slip and fall and are in need of quality legal representation in your case, please contact Personal Injury Attorney Darren Finebloom at 1-800-FIGHT-IT (1-800-344-4848) or online at FightYourInjury.com to discuss the matter. You can also contact Darren via email.

After deliberating for three full days, a jury found St. Petersburg’s All Children’s Hospital 60% responsible for causing brain damage to a then three-month old baby and ordered the Pinellas hospital to pay $11 million. The jury award will go to Sabrina Smith in helping to care for her son who will need a lifetime worth of care due to the brain damage.

Smith, who was living in St. Petersburg in 2000, took her son Daniel to the hospital after he had been suffering from diarrhea and vomiting for days. After a 4 ½ hour stay at the hospital she was told she could take her son home. The next day he could barely breath and by the time she took him back to the hospital he had suffered irreversible brain injury according to a story on TampaBay.com.

If you or a loved one has been the victim of medical malpractice and is in need of quality legal representation in your case, please contact Personal Injury Attorney Darren Finebloom at 1-800-FIGHT-IT (1-800-344-4848) or online at FightYourInjury.com to discuss the matter. You can also contact Darren via email.

Bradenton’s IMG Academy was found negligent by a jury and has to pay the estate of a teenage basketball player $1.5 million after two days of deliberation. In a story on BradentonHerald.com it says the family of Christian Chalita had requested $15 million from the school that caters to students who aspire to become professional athletes.

A Bradenton doctor and local nurse were also found to be negligent for not discovering that Chalita had an irregular shaped heart that may have led to his heart attack and death while he was on a treadmill. The jury found those three parties 54% responsible for the death but also found the young man’s mother 46% responsible since she knew the boy’s father died at 33 of a heart condition that could have been passed on to her son.

If you or a loved one has been the victim of negligence and is in need of quality legal representation in your case, please contact Personal Injury Attorney Darren Finebloom at 1-800-FIGHT-IT (1-800-344-4848) or online at FightYourInjury.com to discuss the matter. You can also contact Darren via email.

Nick Boella, also known as Nick Hogan, will not be required to return to Florida to give a deposition in a negligence lawsuit filed against him and his family by John Graziano who suffered severe brain damage following a car accident the two were involved in. Pinellas-Pasco County Judge W. Douglas Baird said the deposition could wait until December 11 as Boella is currently filming a movie in California.

According to an article on TampaBay.com, Graziano’s lawyers say they have been trying to depose the son of famous wrestler Hulk Hogan for 16 months. According to the article Graziano suffered severe injuries after Boella crashed his car into a tree while street racing in downtown Clearwater. Boella already spent five months in jail for reckless driving and he is now a resident of California.

If you or a loved one has been injured by the negligence of another and are in need of quality representation in your case, please contact Florida Personal Injury Attorney Darren Finebloom at 1-800-FIGHT-IT (1-800-344-4848) or online at FightYourInjury.com to discuss the matter.

A mother of three and registered nurse in Broward County has died following nearly a month on life support while in a coma according to a story on TampaBay.com. Rohie Kah-Orukotan went in for a full liposuction surgery at a Weston spa on September 25 and fell into a coma following the procedure. The 37-year-old died nearly a month later.

The medical examiner in Broward County is waiting for test results to determine a cause of death. Lawyers for the victim, the doctor and the spa were contacted for the story but they did not have much to say. The lawyer for Dr. Omar Brito said his client has experience with the procedure and the lawyer for the spa said they are cooperating fully with the investigation. The lawyer for the family verified that the procedure took place at the Weston MedSpa.

If you or a loved one has been the victim of medical malpractice and are in need of quality legal representation in your case, please contact Florida Personal Injury Attorney Darren Finebloom at 1-800-FIGHT-IT (1-800-344-4848) or online at FightYourInjury.com to discuss the matter. You can also contact Darren via email.

A long-planned lawsuit against Charlotte County Sheriff Bill Cameron was filed last week by Nathan Lee according to a story on the Sarasota Herald Tribune’s website. Lee filed a wrongful death lawsuit accusing the sheriff and his staff of negligence in investigating the abduction of his wife and contributing to Denise Lee’s death.

Lee is asking for $200,000 and he said the lawsuit is about 911 reform and not the financial judgment, which would require a special act by the legislature to collect that amount in damages. Since his wife’s tragic death, Lee has become an advocate for 911 reform asking dispatchers receive better training. Lee’s wife was struggling with her abductor when a passing motorist called 911 but the Charlotte County Sheriff’s never sent a deputy to investigate despite several officers being located nearby. Lee was raped and murdered following the abduction. Her murderer was convicted and the jury recommended he be sentenced to die.

If you or a loved one has been injured by the negligence of another and are in need of quality legal representation in your case, please contact Personal Injury Attorney Darren Finebloom at 1-800-FIGHT-IT (1-800-344-4848) or online at FightYourInjury.com to discuss the matter.

The father of a 12-year-old autistic girl that was attacked by a Sarasota Police dog has filed a law suit against the City of Sarasota and the police officer who was the dog’s handler. Ray Berk is asking for more than the $15,000 the city already offered him. The family is seeking at least $89,000 after their daughter received 14 stitches and has permanent physical and mental scarring from the incident according to her family.

The girl, Angela Berk, was riding a scooter behind K-9 officer Sean Gleason’s cruiser as he was putting his dog Aries in the car for their shift. The German Sheppard attacked the young girl before the officer could get the dog called off the young girl. The family is claiming the dog was not handled properly and an expert quoted in a story on HeraldTribune.com agrees with the family’s claim.

If you or a loved one has been injured by the negligence of another and are in need of quality legal representation in your case, please contact Personal Injury Attorney Darren Finebloom at 1-800-FIGHT-IT (1-800-344-4848) or online at FightYourInjury.com to discuss the matter. You can also email Darren personally.

An 18-year-old wrestler at Countryside High has filed a lawsuit against the Pinellas County School Board claiming they failed to provide a safe environment as reported on TampaBay.com. Richard Serra is seeking damages in excess of $15,000 for injuries he suffered which included a fractured skull, broken rib and broken collar bone that required surgery.

According to the plaintiff and Clearwater Police, Serra and another student met out in a school hallway and began to wrestle. As the second student went to throw Serra over his shoulder, he collapsed under the weight of the 18-year-old and lost his grip. The student who injured Serra and who was not named in the article, was suspended for 15 days.

If you or a loved one has been injured by no fault of your own and are in need of quality legal representation in your case, please contact Personal Injury Attorney Darren Finebloom at 1-800-FIGHT-IT (1-800-344-4848) or online at FightYourInjury.com to discuss the matter. You can also email Darren.

Powder Puff football games are supposed to be a fun role-reversal where the cheerleaders take the field and the football players don pom-poms. Unfortunately one such event in Brooksville, Florida turned tragic Monday night. According to a story on TBO.com, Hernando County Fire Rescue reported a 16-year-old cheerleader was seriously injured during the football game and was rushed via helicopter to Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg.

The girl is a student at Nature Coast High School and she apparently collided with another girl and suffered what is being characterized as a serious head injury. The fire department was called at 8:25 p.m. and reported that the girl was unresponsive. It is unknown if the girls were wearing any protective equipment or if they were playing tackle or touch football.

If you or a loved one has been injured by no fault of your own and are in need of quality legal representation in your case, please contact Personal Injury Attorney Darren Finebloom at 1-800-FIGHT-IT (1-800-344-4848) or online at FightYourInjury.com to discuss the matter.

Clearwater’s Tiffany Weindel is at Bayfront Medical Center with serious injuries following a fall from a seventh-story balcony at a Treasure Island hotel. According to TampaBay.com and based on a report from the Treasure Island Police, the 38-year-old was at the Bilmar Beach Resort when she fell from a balcony and landed on a second-floor overhang.

Reports say that Weindel was not a guest at the hotel and she was apparently alone at the time of the fall. At this point police do not suspect foul play. The hotel, located on Gulf Boulevard, was not quoted in the story concerning the fall.

If you or a loved one has been injured in a fall and are in need of quality representation in your case, please contact Personal Injury Attorney Darren Finebloom at 1-800-FIGHT-IT (1-800-344-4848) or online at FightYourInjury.com to discuss the matter. You can also contact Darren via email.

A Jacksonville Police Officer is currently serving a five-day suspension for violating police chase rules and wrongly firing shots. An Associated Press article on the Bradenton Herald website reported that Jose Gonzalez fired 10 shots while pursuing a robbery suspect with none of the shots hitting the target.

Gonzalez disobeyed direct orders during the chase and his gunshots hit two uninvolved vehicles and a home. At this point there has been no report of innocent bystanders being injured due to the officer’s negligence during the police chase.

If you or a loved one has been injured by the negligence of another and are in need of quality representation in your case, please contact Personal Injury Attorney Darren Finebloom at 1-800-FIGHT-IT (1-800-344-4848) or online at FightYourInjury.com to discuss the matter.

Broward General Medical Center has sent a letter to 1,851 patients who may have been exposed to HIV and hepatitis by the negligence of one nurse according to an Associated Press story on the Bradenton Herald website. The hospital claims the risk of infection is low but has advised the 1,800 patients to get tested.

The nurse has resigned and been reported for reusing tubing and saline bags during cardiac stress tests. The hospital was alerted to the problem by a patient who called in anonymously. The time frame for the patients that received the letter runs from early 2004 until September of this year.

If you or a loved one has been injured by the gross negligence of a company and are in need of quality legal representation in your case, please contact Personal Injury Attorney Darren Finebloom at 1-800-FIGHT-IT (1-800-344-4848) or online at FightYourInjury.com to discuss the matter.

A Tampa judge has ruled a lawsuit brought versus defense contractor Raytheon a class-action according to a story on the Tampa Tribune website. The lawsuit was filed by a group of homeowners who lived near the now-vacant Raytheon plant in St. Petersburg. They claim underground waste from the plant has caused a decreased value on nearly 1,400 privately owned parcels of land.

The ruling will allow hundreds of residents to now file for damages against the giant defense contractor. Raytheon is in the midst of a 25-year clean-up in the area but residents claim there are 1,350 land parcels that have been tainted with cancer-causing chemicals.

If you or a loved one is in need of quality representation in your personal injury case, please contact Personal Injury Attorney Darren Finebloom at 1-800-FIGHT-IT (1800-344-4848) or online at FightYourInjury.com to discuss the matter. You can also contact Darren via email.