By: Darrell Castle Nursing home abuse is often associated with the staff members and caretakers as the offenders, but a growing and serious problem is resident-on-resident abuse and the staff is often oblivious. Nearly one in five people living in a nursing home is involved in at least one aggressive encounter each month, according to a Cornell University study. The same study found that of more than 2,000 residents: 16% were involved in verbal incidents such as cursing, screaming or yelling 6% were involved in physical violence, including hitting, kicking or biting 1% were involved in sexual encounters such as exposing one’s genitals, touching other residents or attempting to gain sexual favors These incidents result in physical conditions like bruises,
Struggling with catastrophic debt and budget shortfalls, Memphis has hired a consulting firm to help the city determine a stronger financial plan. According to The Commercial Appeal, the city will pay the firm Public Financial Management 300,000 to present a five-year financial plan and strategy for the city. That strategy, city leaders hope, will help Memphis stick to the proposed plan. Following the plan has proven to be a problem in the past, as Memphis recently paid Deloitte $600,000 for an efficiency study the city never used. The city council is hopeful that the project will save Memphis well over $300,000 and make the high price tag worth it. It might. But critics have pointed out that because Public Financial
Xarelto Connected to Major Health Issues Video Transcript Hello this is Darrell Castle and I’m an attorney listened to practice law in the state of Tennessee, and on this video I want to talk to you about a very dangerous drug called Xarelto. Xarelto is an anti-coagulant drug that’s been prescribed to millions of people for atrial fibrillation and other clotting problems. It’s been associated with uncontrolled bleeding, gastrointestinal bleeding, brain hemorrhage and even death. All anti-coagulants carry a certain risk of bleeding. But the difference is for Xarelto, there is no known antidote for the bleeding. In other words, if you’re on Xarelto and you start bleeding, there is no way to stop it. There is no KNOWN way
By: Darrell Castle There are two categories for damages in a personal injury case – compensatory and punitive. Punitive damages are intended to deter the defendant and anyone else from similar events. These damages send a clear message out to the public that these actions won’t be permitted and caution needs to be exercised. A good example of this is a recent Actos (a diabetes medication linked to causing bladder cancer) verdict. Takeda Pharmaceutical Company and Eli Lilly & Company were ordered to pay $9 billion in punitive damages. But that verdict will most-likely be reduced due to a US Supreme Court ruling that punitive verdicts must be proportional to compensatory verdicts, which was $1.5 million in this case. However,
By: Darrell Castle If your child was attacked by a neighbor’s dog, you should contact a personal injury attorney today. When a dog attacks an adult, there’s a 12% chance he or she will need medical attention. Replace the adult with a child, and that number increases to 26%. Painful rabies shots, stitches, and – in some cases – plastic surgery are needed when a dog attacks a child. Not only do those treatments result in expensive medical bills, but children are likely to live with physical and mental trauma for many years after a dog attack as well. If it wasn’t your dog that attacked the child, then your family shouldn’t have to foot the bill. Instead, your family
If you’re trying to research workers’ comp payments online, you may see a lot of conflicting answers about when the benefits will actually pay. That is because workers’ compensation laws vary from state-to-state. Our attorneys practice workers’ compensation in and around Memphis, so we can tell you what the specific Tennessee laws regulate in regards to your workers’ comp claim. In Tennessee you don’t receive workers’ compensation benefits until 14 days after you left due to injury. In the meantime, many companies offer sick benefits to help cover the first 2 weeks of your lost time. After that, your workers’ compensation benefits would cover 2/3 your average weekly wages for the rest of the time while you recoup from your
In February, Wal-Mart announced a wage increase for 40% of its workers. But in September, a lot of workers found out the hard way how Wal-Mart plans to pay for those wage increases. Wal-Mart slashed the hours of many of its employees, right around the start of the school season. It makes you wonder: what was the point? For the lowest paid workers, getting a raise could make a huge difference. But if they can’t work the same hours as before, doesn’t the raise just get cancelled out? Unfortunately, this is happening for workers all over my city of Memphis, Tennessee, and across the United States. Salary increases get a company some great press, and then no one hears about the
What type of Social Security Disability income are you receiving? Video Transcript: If you’re receiving Social Security Disability benefits and you have a personal injury claim, how does that affect it? Hi, I’m Darrell Castle and I’m an attorney licensed to practice law in the state of Tennessee, and the answer to that question is that it depends on the type of disability income that you’re getting. If you’re getting SSI, then that’s a little bit different than if you’re getting Social Security Disability income. SSI is like a welfare program. It’s like an entitlement program to be blunt about it. It is a benefit program and if you receive additional income, there might be a penalty. There might be
The Basics of Car Repossession Obviously if the repo man comes and repossesses your car, that means you owed some money. You weren’t making payments and fell behind on your bill. But when exactly can a repo man come and take your car? And how can he do it? When Do Car Repossessions Happen? When you default on your car payment — or fail to make a payment — your creditor has the right to repossess it. Whether you missed one payment, two payments or three. It doesn’t matter. Once you fall behind, the creditor has the right to take it back. And here in Tennessee, there’s no real legal process. We have what is called “self help repossession.” The