Orange County Serious Injury Attorneys - Personal Injury Lawyers - Auto Accident Attorneys for Car, Motorcycle, Bicycle and Big Rig Truck Accidents - Medical & Hospital Negligence and Obstetrical Malpractice Lawyer - Elder Abuse Attorney - Food Poisoning Ecoli HUS and Listeria Lawyer - Mesothelioma Attorney - Product Liability & Drug Product Liability Lawyers - Premises Liability Attorneys Serving Orange County & Southern California.
The Orange County personal injury attorneys of the Henke Law Group welcome you to consider our "Practice Areas" pages specific to your case, our credentials are discussed briefly in the right column and some recent cases in the left column. We are serious injury attorneys and welcome you also to consider our sophisticated approach to representing those who have been seriously injured at our "Serious and Catastrophic Injury Lawyers" page at the top of our Practice Areas menu. On the practice areas pages our Orange County personal injury lawyers discuss in greater detail our specific credentials, track record and approach to each of our practice subject areas. In the menu you will find that we are auto accident lawyers with separate pages discussing car, motorcycle, bicycle and big rig truck accident litigation. Our Orange County medical malpractice attorneys also provide a specific page on obstetrical malpractice and birth injury litigation. Our food poisoning lawyer provides both a general discussion of serious injury food poisoning litigation and specific pages on Ecoli HUS and Listeria lawsuits. Our Orange County toxic tort lawyers also discuss the association of mesothelioma and asbestos exposure on our mesothelioma attorney page. We represent those seriously injured in falls due to defects or failures to maintain commercial, residential and public property, discussed on our Orange County premises liability lawyers page. We will also consider a wide range of product liability cases, from machines to helmets to drug defect litigation and provide a separate pharmaceutical product liability lawyers page. Below we will discuss only very briefly the subject matters of our practice, and here will provide just a few words with regard to attorney Henke's credentials and trial lawyer qualifications. Again, for more detailed information please consider the pages of this site most relevant to the subject matter of your case.
Attorney Ray Henke, is "AV" rated by Martindale & Hubbell, the highest legal ability and ethical standards ratings awarded by this most respected national attorney rating directory. The ratings are determined on the basis of interviews with judges before whom the lawyer has appeared and interviews with other prominent attorneys knowledgeable about the lawyer's legal ability and ethical standards. The "A" in "AV" is described as "very high to preeminent" in "legal ability." The "V" is described as "very high" "general ethical standards." According to Martindale & Hubbell: "AV Peer Review Rating shows that a lawyer has reached the height of professional excellence. He or she has usually practiced law for many years, and is recognized for the highest levels of skill and integrity." Mr. Henke was elected Governor of the Los Angeles Trial Lawyers Association and Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles by the Association's several thousand strong trial lawyer membership; and by the same Association, nominated "Trial Lawyer of the Year." Mr. Henke has obtained numerous million and multimillion dollar jury verdicts and settlements, is listed as one of the "Top Lawyers in America," and a member of the "Million Dollar Advocates Forum." Mr. Henke's cases and trial work have been chronicled in scores of legitimate newspaper articles, from the front page of the New York Times to the front page of the Los Angeles Times, in state and national legal journals, California Lawyer, the National Law Journal, national and international television news segments, Tom Brokaw's NBC Nightly News, CNN, three books, and Henke has testified before Congress at the invitation of the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, inter alia, on the importance of punitive damages. He received his Juris Doctorate from the University of San Francisco Law School, served on the USF Law Review, received the American Jurisprudence Award, and served an externship while at law school with the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Below our Orange County personal injury lawyers will discuss very briefly our practice areas as auto accident lawyers, medical malpractice attorneys, product liability lawyers and pharmcaceutical and medical defivice defect attorneys, elder abuse lawyers, premises liability attorneys and food poisoning lawyers. We welcome you also to consider the more complete discussion of the subject matters of our practice on our "Practice Areas" page. Please also feel welcome to contact us for a free consultation. Simply submit the e-mail "Case Evaluation Request" and one of our highly experienced personal injury trial lawyers will call you to discuss your case and provide our case evaluation and initial recomendations.
Orange County Auto Accident Lawyers - Attorneys for Car, Motorcycle, Bicycle, Big Rig and Commercial Large Truck Accident Cases. Representing the Seriously & Catastrophically Injured.
Our Orange County accident lawyers have provided separate subject matter pages in the practice areas menu denominated auto accident attorneys, motorcycle accident lawyers, bicycle accident attorney, and big rig accident lawyer which we welcome you to consider for a more complete discussion of our credentials and approach to these distinct areas of our practice. You are also invited to consider our "Serious & Catastrophic Injury Lawyers" page at the top of the menu discussing our experience and sophisticated approach to complex serious injury accident litigation. Our Orange County accident lawyer have also provided separate pages discussing our approach to traumatic brain injury, TBI, litigation, as well as paralysis, quadriplegia, paraplegia and other spinal cord injury litigation.
The liability of the driver who causes an accident may be simple enough to prove, but all serious injury accident cases are complex and require sophisticated and experienced trial lawyers to properly prepare and litigate. As our Orange County auto accident lawyers discuss on the "Serious & Catastrophic Injury Attorneys" page, the presentation of both general damages and special economic damages is always complex in serious injury litigation. Many personal injuries lawyers conceive of general damages in terms of "pain and suffering," but as our Orange County accident lawyers have come to consider it in the context of most serious and catastrophic injury cases, such as in traumatic brain damage or paralysis cases, often the most poignant measure of general damages will be the plaintiff's "loss of enjoyment of life" damages. In such a case our Orange County accident lawyers consider one approach often useful to present through the testimony of the client, his family and friends, their pictures and home movies, all of the things the client most enjoyed doing during his life before the accident; and then juxtapose against this evidence a professionally produced "Day in the Life" documentary portraying the dignity and courage of the client as he meets all of the difficulties he encounters in his day to day post accident life.
You may also consider on our "Serious & Catastrophic Injury Lawyers" page our approach to the preparation and presentation of past and future medical expenses and past and future loss of earnings. Again, as our Orange County accident lawyers explain, the presentation of special economic damages in serious injury litigation is complex and requires experienced and sophisticated trial counsel. Very briefly, the presentation of future medical expenses involves the participation of several experts, perhaps most importantly the professional "life care planner" and forensic economist. The life care planner will speak to the treating physicians and/or expert specialists selected by the attorney to obtain a comprehensive list of all the medical expenses, doctors visits, surgeries, convalescent care expenses, home nursing or attendant care expenses, replacement prostheses, modified vehicles, and medical supplies, etc., that the client will require over every month of every year for the remainder of the client's "life expectancy." The life care planner will then conduct research to determine the costs of each of the items. The responsible Orange County accident lawyer will then present the "life care plan" to the forensic economist who will then apply specific medical cost inflation statistics with regard to the each of the categories of medical expense and the use general inflation statistics to reduce the total to present cash value.
The presentation of net future loss of earnings in the serious injury case also requires sophisticated preparation involving a number of experts including most importantly the "vocational rehabilitation expert" and again the forensic economist. The analyses recognized by our Orange County accident attorneys as most appropriate to the particular case vary depending upon a number of factors, such as whether the client owned the business or had reasonable opportunities to move up to higher paying positions in the business, but in the simplest case of a wage earner it will involve a comparison of what the client would have earned over the course of his work life expectancy if he had not been injured with what he can reasonably earn in the occupations still available to him. To understand how this is accomplished, please consider our "Serious & Catastrophic Injury Lawyers" page.
One of the most difficult hurdles confronted by the Orange County auto accident lawyer in serious injury cases is the "collectability issue." All too often in serious and catastrophic injury cases the driver who caused the accident will be woefully underinsured and without sufficient assets to pay for the full measure of the client's general and special damages. And here again, while the liability case, meaning who was at fault, may be a simple matter to prove, it requires sophisticated and aggressive Orange County auto accident attorneys to assure that the client will have the best opportunity to identify all potential sources of insurance and assets available to pay the claim.
One example identified in the "Recent Victories" discussed in the left column of this page involved an accident in which a motorcyclist entered an intersection splitting two left turn lanes and was struck, resulting in a lower leg amputation. Our Southern California and Orange County auto accident lawyer, Ray Henke, took the deposition of the law enforcement officer who investigated the accident and elicited his testimony both that it was "not illegal" in California for motorcyclists to split lanes, and that the motorcyclist's having done so was not the cause of the accident. The defendant auto driver, however, had only statutory minimum liability insurance and an asset check showed he had no meaningful assets. He was commuting to a work site at the time of the accident, but under California law, merely commuting to work is insufficient to establish that the driver was operating his vehicle "in the course and scope of his employment." But in the course of discovery our Orange County accident lawyers discovered that the defendant driver was also carrying tools and equipment with him, which is sufficient to render the employer "vicariously liable" for the injuries caused by its employee under "respondeat superior" theory. In this way our Orange County accident lawyers were able to name the employer also as a defendant, rendering its liability and excess policies available to pay the claim, and we were able to obtain for our client a multimillion dollar settlement.
Our sophisticated Orange County auto accident lawyers also have a number of other means of discovering whether there may be additional proper defendants and additional sources of insurance that may be available to fully compensate the seriously injured accident victim. As one example, we are indeed at the forefront of recommending that the defendant driver's cell phone records be obtained to determine whether he might have been engaged in a business related call at the time of the accident. Please consider our "Cell Phone Accident Lawyers" page.
Our Orange County accident attorneys also have different strategies for identifying all proper defendants that will vary according to the type of case. Big rig truck and commercial large truck cases often involve serious and catastrophic injuries, however, the truck drivers, unless they are carrying hazardous loads, are required by federal law only to carry $750,000 in liability insurance, again often woefully inadequate to compensate the seriously injured plaintiff for his general and special economic damages. The shippers commonly hire the drivers as "independent contractors" to attempt to avoid liability for the accidents they cause. However, our Orange County big rig truck accident lawyers are knowledgeable about the elements of proof and means of obtaining the proof to establish shipper liability under the legal theories of "negligent entrustment" and "negligent supervision." If you were seriously injured in a big rig truck accident or accident involving a commercial large truck, over 10,000 pounds, our Orange Country big rig truck accident lawyers discuss more fully our approach to the litigation on our "Big Rig Truck Accident Lawyers" page.
If you were seriously injured in a car, motorcycle, bicycle or big rig truck accident, you are welcome to contract our Orange County accident lawyers for a free case consultation. Simply submit the e-mail "Orange County Accident Lawyers Case Evaluation Request" and one of our experienced trial lawyers will contact you to discuss the facts of your case, your injuries and economic damages, and will provide their initial recommendations. Our Southern California and Orange County accident lawyers will consider serious injury accident cases arising throughout California.
Medical Malpractice Lawyers - Hospital Negligence Attorney - Obstetrical Malpractice Lawyer - Birth Injury Attorneys.
Our Orange County medical malpractice lawyers are pleased to consider cases against health care providers in which the potential client has suffered serious and permanent injury and will require substantial future medical expenses and/or will suffer substantial future loss of earnings. Medical malpractice litigation is extremely expensive to properly litigate and our California legislature has seen fit to enact "tort reform" legislation making it very difficult for those injured by the negligence of health care providers to recover meaningful damages for their injuries. In California the victim of medical negligence may recover only $250,000 for general damages, regardless of the seriousness of the injury, even if the victim has been rendered brain damaged or quadriplegic. Unfortunately, as the result, our Orange County medical malpractice lawyers simply are not in the position to consider cases against health care providers unless the potential client also will suffer substantial future economic losses as the result of his injury.
Our highly experienced Southern California and Orange County medical malpractice lawyers discuss a number of our medical malpractice cases in the left column of this page. We also welcome you to consider our separate medical negligence page, and a separate page at which we discuss obstetrical malpractice and birth injury litigation. If you were seriously and permanently injured as the result of medical malpractice or hospital negligence and will suffer substantial future medical expenses and/or substantial past and future earnings losses, you are welcome to contact our Orange County medical malpractice lawyers for a free consultation. Simply fill out the "Medical Malpractice Lawyers Case Evaluation Request."
Orange County Elder Abuse Lawyers - Attorneys for Cases of Elder Physical and Psychological Abuse, Neglect and Abandonment and Elder Financial Abuse - Senior Nursing Home, Convalescent and Retirement Facility Elder Abuse Lawyers in Orange County and Southern California.
Our Orange County elder abuse lawyers represent seniors who have been the victims of elder neglect and abandonment, and physical and psychological abuse by employees of senior nursing homes, convalescent centers and retirement facilities. We also will consider elder financial abuse cases.
Elder physical abuse is defined by our Orange County elder abuse lawyers as willful or intentional mistreatment in the form of beatings, punching or slapping, or it may take the form of improper or uncalled for physical restraint or the denial of food and water, and sometimes even elder sexual abuse by nursing home or senior retirement home staff.
Elder psychological abuse is defined by our Orange County elder abuse lawyers to include verbal assault, threats or intimidation and may include other conduct intended by the nursing home or senior facility employee to instill fear or to humiliate or isolate the elderly person or cause sensory deprivation.
Our Orange County elder abuse lawyers define "elder neglect" as the failure of the nursing home or retirement facility to fulfill its duty of reasonable care to provide for the senior's medical and mental health needs, provide for their personal hygiene and protect the senior from hazards. "Elder abandonment" is defined by our Orange County elder abuse attorneys as the willful or intentional failure of the senior facility to care for the elder.
On our Orange County elder abuse lawyers page we provide some of the things that family members can look for to assess whether their loved one has been the victim of elder physical or psychological abuse, elder neglect or abandonment. It is very important for family members to actively look for evidence of elder abuse because very often, for any number of reasons, the senior may feel that he or she cannot candidly complain about the abuse. If you suspect that your family member may be suffering mistreatment at the hands of the employees of a nursing home or retirement facility it is very important that the abuse be identified quickly and the appropriate measures taken to correct the issue.
Elder financial abuse can take many forms but commonly involves the theft or misuse of the senior's money or theft of his property or may take the form of undue influence in persuading the senior to change his will. It is often the elder's caregivers, the nursing home or retirement facility or its employees, or the senior's fiduciaries, those holding power of attorney, his guardians or conservators, or it may be his accountants or investment advisors, stock or real estate brokers, and sometimes it may also be family members.
If you believe that you or a loved one has been the victim of elder abuse you are invited to contact our Southern California and Orange County elder abuse lawyers for a free consultation. Simply submit the e-mail "Elder Abuse Lawyers Case Evaluation Request" and we will call you to discuss the facts evidencing the abuse and provide our initial recommendations. We are here to serve you.
Orange County Food Poisoning Lawyers Ecoli HUS and TTP Attorneys Also Representing Those Who Have Suffered Serious Illness and Permanent Damage From Listeria, Campylobacter, Norovirus, Botulism, Salmonella and Shigella - Food Poisoning Outbreak Litigation.
Our Orange County food poisoning lawyers welcome you to consider our separate food poisoning page as well as our separate pages entitled Ecoli HUS Lawyers and Listeria Lawyers in the Practice Areas menu. Our Orange County food poisoning lawyers will consider cases involving exposure to Ecoli, Listeria, Campylobacter, Norovirus, Botulism, Salmonella and Shigella from contaminated food products.
Our Orange County food poisoning lawyer recently obtained one of the largest multimillion verdicts in the nation in an E. coli HUS case. He is a very highly experienced complex trial lawyer who has devoted the past several years to food poisoning litigation, even taking the course to become a "Certified Food Manager" as a part of developing his knowledge of the subject. On our separated food poisoning pages we discuss more fully our credentials as food poisoning lawyers, and our approach to individual litigation and food poisoning outbreak litigation.
If you suffered serious food poisoning illness, we invite you to consider our food poisoning pages and welcome you to submit the "Orange County Food Poisoning Lawyers Case Evaluation Request." Our initial case consultations are entirely free of charge.
Orange County Product Liability Lawyers.
Our Orange County product liability lawyers have provided a separate page on this site at which we discuss our experience and credentials as well as our approach to product liability litigation. We will consider litigation involving serious injuries resulting from a wide range of products. Our Southern California and Orange County product liability lawyers have represented clients who have been injured as the result of products with design defects and manufacturing defects and have prosecuted product liability litigation based on the manufacturer's failure to warn of the dangers associated with the anticipated uses of the product. A few examples include machines which lacked appropriate safety devices to protect against injuries to the operator, helmets which failed to protect against brain injury and death, through ordinary consumer products which have exploded in normal use. As discussed in the following section our Southern California and Orange County lawyers we have also prosecuted a range of pharmaceutical and medical device product liability cases.
If you have been seriously injured as the result of a product defect, we welcome you to contact us for a free consultation. Simply submit the "Orange County Product Liability Lawyers Case Evaluation Request" and one of your experienced product liability trial lawyers will contact you to discuss your case and provide our case evaluation and initial recommendations.
Orange County Pharmaceutical Product Liability Lawyers - Medical Device Defect Attorneys
Our Southern California and Orange County pharmaceutical product liability lawyers are highly experienced and nationally acclaimed specifically for their prosecution of complex drug product defect litigation. Our attorneys have participated in most of the important drug product liability litigation of the past 25 years from Thalidomide and DES to the Dalkon Shield, Bendectin, DPT, breast implant and most recently the Vioxx and Ortho Evra Patch litigation. We have also tried cases involving a variety of fraudulent AIDS drugs and therapies, including Viroxan and Typhoid Vaccine Protocol.
Pharmaceutical product liability cases are extremely complex, requiring the presentation of the liability case through teams of appropriately qualified experts. In the last mentioned AIDS drug cases for example, attorney Ray Henke assembled a team of experts which included Michael Gotlieb, the discoverer of AIDS and cofounder of the American Foundation for AIDS Research, Luc Montagner, the discoverer of HIV and head of France's National AIDS Laboratories, Don Francis, the head of the CDC's first AIDS task force who discovered that AIDS was a sexually transmitted disease, John Curnutte, head of the largest AIDS vaccine project in the world, Roger Detels, chief investigator on the largest AIDS epidemiological study in the world, and a dozen others of the most highly qualified and respected AIDS scientists and physicians.
We invite you to consider our drug product liability lawyer page to learn more about our credentials and the drug and medical device litigation we are currently considering. If you or a loved one was seriously injured as the result of a pharmaceutical or medical device you are welcome to contact our Orange County drug product liability attorneys. Simply submit the "Pharmaceutical Product Liability Lawyer Case Evaluation Request" and one of our attorneys will contact you to discuss your case, provide our case evaluation, and recommendations. Our case consultations are entirely free of charge.
Orange County Premises Liability Lawyers - Attorneys for Serious Injury Slip & Fall Cases Involving Construction Defects or Failures to Maintain Commercial, Residential or Public Property.
Our Orange County premises liability lawyers have provided a separate page devoted to the subject of serious injury fall litigation. Premises liability cases can involve anything from a defect in a floor surface or failure to appropriately warn of a change in height of a floor surface, or a hole in a sidewalk, or the failure of a supermarket to clean up a spill after sufficient time to notice of the spill. The basis for liability in premises liability cases is negligence - the failure of the commercial establishment or residential property owner or public entity to use due care for the protection of the public.
Our Orange County premises liability lawyers will consider serious injury slip and fall cases. Liability in the slip and fall case may be simple, but the presentation of damages in the serious injury case is always complex and requires experienced serious injury trial lawyers. If you suffered a serious injury in a fall on commercial, residential or public property you are also welcome to consider our "Serious and Catastrophic Injury Lawyer" page at the top of our Practice Areas menu at which we discuss our sophisticated approach to presenting our clients' general and special economic damages. Our Orange County premises liability lawyers also provide separate pages at which we discuss our approach to traumatic brain injury TBI cases and paralysis, quadriplegia, paraplegia and spinal cord injury cases.
If you have suffered a serious injury in a fall on commercial, residential or public property, you are welcome to contact our Orange County premises liability lawyers for a free case consultation. Simply submit the e-mail "Case Evaluation Request" and one of our experienced premises liability lawyers will call you to discuss your case, your injuries and damages, and will provide our initial case evaluation and recommendations.
*Landmark Jury Verdicts:
$2.5 million dollar jury verdict in a contested liability motorcycle accident case in which California and Orange County auto and motorcycle accident lawyer, Ray Henke's client was "splitting lanes" and was injured turning left between cars in two left turn lanes. The defense attorney took the position that it was the motorcyclist's negligence in splitting lanes that resulted in the accident. Attorney Henke took the deposition of the police officer who investigated the accident and obtained his testimony that it was legal in California to split lanes, including between to left turn lanes, and that in his opinion, Henke's client's having done so was not a contributing factor in the accident. California and Orange County accident attorney, Henke, also established that the defendant auto driver was operating his vehicle in the course an scope of his employment, forming the bases upon which Mr. Henke then named the employer also as a defendant, and was able to recover against the employer's liability and excess insurance policies. Attorney Henke's client suffered a below knee amputation and broken clavicle.
$2.7 million dollar jury verdict in a medical malpractice case in which California and Orange County medical and drug liability attorney, Ray Henke, represented 5 plaintiffs in a single consolidated 4 month trial against their physicians and hospital for conspiracy to defraud them with phony AIDS cures. Mr. Henke's experts in the case included Luc Montagnier, the discoverer of HIV and head of France's National AIDS Laboratories; Michael Gotlieb, the discoverer of AIDS and co-founder of the American Foundation for AIDS Research, Don Francis, the head of the first CDC AIDS Task force and discoverer that AIDS was a sexually transmitted disease, John Curnutte, head of the largest AIDS vaccine project in the world, Roger Detels, Chairman of the Epidemiology Department at UCLA and chief investigator on the largest AIDS epidemiology study in the United States, and a dozen others of the most highly respected AIDS scientists and physicians in the world. These cases were widely chronicled in the legitimate press. Mr. Henke also testified before Congress with regard to these cases, at the invitation of the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the United States House of Representatives.
$3.8 million dollar gross jury verdict in medical malpractice brain injury case. California and Orange County medical malpractice lawyer, Ray Henke's client suffered mild aphasia as the result of strokes caused by emboli from an atrial myxoma, a tumor in the upper left chamber of the heart. Atrial myxomas are the most rare human tumors known to medical science. The patient initially suffered a "fainting spell" which her physicians investigated using EEG's and CT scans and well as an EKG, but failed to perform an echocardiogram of the patient's heart, which would have disclosed the atrial myxoma. The physicians attorney's argument was that atrial myxomas are an "autopsy diagnosis" seen only a handful of times in the medical literature, never before diagnosed in a living person, a diagnosis that most cardiologists had never heard of. At trial, attorney Henke called the defendant internist to the stand as his first witness, and asked politely whether he had "considered atrial myxoma in his differential diagnosis." The physician responded, "Mr. Henke, you don't think of zebras when you hear hoof beats." The internists comment, actually a common physician analogy was rather obviously intended by the defense to hit home to the jury that when confronted with common symptoms, such as a fainting spell, which can occur from many commonly seen etiologies that physicians will look to those common causes of fainting spells, "the horses," not "zebras" such as an atrial myxoma. Attorney Henke thought about the doctor's analogy for a moment and then then asked, "Mitral valve prolapse. It's a 'horse.' Isn't it, Doctor?" The physician responded, "What do you mean?" Mr. Henke clarified, "Well mitral valve prolapse occurs in about 6 percent of a randomly selected population of females Mrs. Z's age. It's a 'horse' isn't it?" After being instructed by the Judge to answer the question, the physician reluctantly responded, "Yes, It's a horse." Henke continued, "Mitral Stenosis, Doctor, it's a 'horse,' isn't it?" The internist responded "Okay, yes, it's a 'horse'". Again Henke then asked, "Idiopathic subaortic stenosis, Docor, it's a 'horse' isn't it?" The physician again had to acknowledge "Yes." Henke then completed the circle with the internist's analogy, "Well then Doctor, upon hearing the 'hoof beats,' Mrs. Z's symptoms, if you had just thought 'horse,' atrial myxoma, mitral stenosis or idiopathic subaortic stenosis, and 'turned your head in the direction of the hoof beats,' done an echocardiogram, you would have seen the 'Zebra,' wouldn't you have doctor?" Again the physician was forced to acknowledge "Yes." The physician's zebra remark followed by attorney Henke's quick analysis of the fallacy of the analogy, and indeed its utility in demonstrating the physician's negligence, by his own analogy, was cited by the jurors in interviews following the trial as the pivotal point in the trial which resulted in their liability verdict for Mr. Henke's client. This case and this particular interchange between Mr. Henke and the defendant physician, formed the subject for a chapter in the book "Medical Malpractice, Solving the Crisis" by Frank Edwards, M.D., Holt & Co. The case and interrogation was also the subject of a legal journal article published in "Forum" the journal of the California Trial Lawyers Association. You may consider our qualifications, and indeed our national acclaim as seasoned, superior personal injury trial lawyers in complex litigation, discussed in the center and right hand column of this page.
$1.5 million dollar settlement in a birth injury case involving a drug which California and Orange County drug product liability lawyer, Ray Henke claimed was the probable cause of the child's birth injuries, based upon the facts that the child's mother's Santa Clara county obstetrician provided her a sedative during early pregnancy. Mr. Henke's firm obtained possession of a list of physicians, which included the mother's obstetrician, who served as "investigators" in clinical trials involving a drug which was later determined to have been a very powerful teratogen; and the child was born with limb defects typical of the kind of birth defects which were caused by the particular teratogen. The settlement was achieved despite the fact that the medical records were unavailable 20 years after the birth and retirement of the obstetrician; and the mother did not recall the name of the sedative which was provided to her. California and Diego medical malpractice lawyer, Ray Henke, also obtained a $100,000 settlement from the physician who provided her the sedative. The statutes of limitation had long passed by the time the client contacted Mr. Henke's office. Attorney Henke was however able to overcome the statute of limitations, over the demurrers of both the pharmaceutical company and physician, by successfully alleging that they had "intentionally concealed" from the public and from the child's mother that they had distributed the drug.
*State Bar of California Disclaimer: The results obtained in the cases listed were dependent upon the facts of the cases, and the results will differ in other cases based on different facts
$2.5 million dollar jury verdict in a contested liability motorcycle accident case in which California and Orange County auto and motorcycle accident lawyer, Ray Henke's client was "splitting lanes" and was injured turning left between cars in two left turn lanes. The defense attorney took the position that it was the motorcyclist's negligence in splitting lanes that resulted in the accident. Attorney Henke took the deposition of the police officer who investigated the accident and obtained his testimony that it was legal in California to split lanes, including between to left turn lanes, and that in his opinion, Henke's client's having done so was not a contributing factor in the accident. California and Orange County accident attorney, Henke, also established that the defendant auto driver was operating his vehicle in the course an scope of his employment, forming the bases upon which Mr. Henke then named the employer also as a defendant, and was able to recover against the employer's liability and excess insurance policies. Attorney Henke's client suffered a below knee amputation and broken clavicle.
$2.7 million dollar jury verdict in a medical malpractice case in which California and Orange County medical and drug liability attorney, Ray Henke, represented 5 plaintiffs in a single consolidated 4 month trial against their physicians and hospital for conspiracy to defraud them with phony AIDS cures. Mr. Henke's experts in the case included Luc Montagnier, the discoverer of HIV and head of France's National AIDS Laboratories; Michael Gotlieb, the discoverer of AIDS and co-founder of the American Foundation for AIDS Research, Don Francis, the head of the first CDC AIDS Task force and discoverer that AIDS was a sexually transmitted disease, John Curnutte, head of the largest AIDS vaccine project in the world, Roger Detels, Chairman of the Epidemiology Department at UCLA and chief investigator on the largest AIDS epidemiology study in the United States, and a dozen others of the most highly respected AIDS scientists and physicians in the world. These cases were widely chronicled in the legitimate press. Mr. Henke also testified before Congress with regard to these cases, at the invitation of the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the United States House of Representatives.
$3.8 million dollar gross jury verdict in medical malpractice brain injury case. California and Orange County medical malpractice lawyer, Ray Henke's client suffered mild aphasia as the result of strokes caused by emboli from an atrial myxoma, a tumor in the upper left chamber of the heart. Atrial myxomas are the most rare human tumors known to medical science. The patient initially suffered a "fainting spell" which her physicians investigated using EEG's and CT scans and well as an EKG, but failed to perform an echocardiogram of the patient's heart, which would have disclosed the atrial myxoma. The physicians attorney's argument was that atrial myxomas are an "autopsy diagnosis" seen only a handful of times in the medical literature, never before diagnosed in a living person, a diagnosis that most cardiologists had never heard of. At trial, attorney Henke called the defendant internist to the stand as his first witness, and asked politely whether he had "considered atrial myxoma in his differential diagnosis." The physician responded, "Mr. Henke, you don't think of zebras when you hear hoof beats." The internists comment, actually a common physician analogy was rather obviously intended by the defense to hit home to the jury that when confronted with common symptoms, such as a fainting spell, which can occur from many commonly seen etiologies that physicians will look to those common causes of fainting spells, "the horses," not "zebras" such as an atrial myxoma. Attorney Henke thought about the doctor's analogy for a moment and then then asked, "Mitral valve prolapse. It's a 'horse.' Isn't it, Doctor?" The physician responded, "What do you mean?" Mr. Henke clarified, "Well mitral valve prolapse occurs in about 6 percent of a randomly selected population of females Mrs. Z's age. It's a 'horse' isn't it?" After being instructed by the Judge to answer the question, the physician reluctantly responded, "Yes, It's a horse." Henke continued, "Mitral Stenosis, Doctor, it's a 'horse,' isn't it?" The internist responded "Okay, yes, it's a 'horse'". Again Henke then asked, "Idiopathic subaortic stenosis, Docor, it's a 'horse' isn't it?" The physician again had to acknowledge "Yes." Henke then completed the circle with the internist's analogy, "Well then Doctor, upon hearing the 'hoof beats,' Mrs. Z's symptoms, if you had just thought 'horse,' atrial myxoma, mitral stenosis or idiopathic subaortic stenosis, and 'turned your head in the direction of the hoof beats,' done an echocardiogram, you would have seen the 'Zebra,' wouldn't you have doctor?" Again the physician was forced to acknowledge "Yes." The physician's zebra remark followed by attorney Henke's quick analysis of the fallacy of the analogy, and indeed its utility in demonstrating the physician's negligence, by his own analogy, was cited by the jurors in interviews following the trial as the pivotal point in the trial which resulted in their liability verdict for Mr. Henke's client. This case and this particular interchange between Mr. Henke and the defendant physician, formed the subject for a chapter in the book "Medical Malpractice, Solving the Crisis" by Frank Edwards, M.D., Holt & Co. The case and interrogation was also the subject of a legal journal article published in "Forum" the journal of the California Trial Lawyers Association. You may consider our qualifications, and indeed our national acclaim as seasoned, superior personal injury trial lawyers in complex litigation, discussed in the center and right hand column of this page.
$1.5 million dollar settlement in a birth injury case involving a drug which California and Orange County drug product liability lawyer, Ray Henke claimed was the probable cause of the child's birth injuries, based upon the facts that the child's mother's Santa Clara county obstetrician provided her a sedative during early pregnancy. Mr. Henke's firm obtained possession of a list of physicians, which included the mother's obstetrician, who served as "investigators" in clinical trials involving a drug which was later determined to have been a very powerful teratogen; and the child was born with limb defects typical of the kind of birth defects which were caused by the particular teratogen. The settlement was achieved despite the fact that the medical records were unavailable 20 years after the birth and retirement of the obstetrician; and the mother did not recall the name of the sedative which was provided to her. California and Diego medical malpractice lawyer, Ray Henke, also obtained a $100,000 settlement from the physician who provided her the sedative. The statutes of limitation had long passed by the time the client contacted Mr. Henke's office. Attorney Henke was however able to overcome the statute of limitations, over the demurrers of both the pharmaceutical company and physician, by successfully alleging that they had "intentionally concealed" from the public and from the child's mother that they had distributed the drug.
*State Bar of California Disclaimer: The results obtained in the cases listed were dependent upon the facts of the cases, and the results will differ in other cases based on different facts
Driving Under the Influence of Cell Conversation Results in DUI Level Driving Impairment And a 4 fold Increased Likelihood that the Driver will Cause an Accident.
Read California and Orange County serious injury auto accident lawyer, Ray Henke's scientific review article. As knowledgeable California cell phone accident lawyers we can investigate to establish that the other driver was on his cell phone. The evidence can make the difference in a contested liability car, motorcycle or bicycle accident case.
Where our serious injury San Fancisco auto motorcycle and bicycle accident lawyers can establish that the other driver was engaged in a business call we can bring his employer in as a defendant and recover against the employer's assets and insurance coverage.
California and Orange County auto accident attorney, Henke, has reviewed all the scientific literature on the effect of cell phone use to impair driver attention, and has prepared a scientific review article discussing the epidemiological and controlled experimental literature. Driving under the influence of cell conversation renders the driver DUI level driving impaired and results in a four fold increased likelihood that the driver will cause an accident. Contrary to popular belief, Orange County auto accident attorney, Ray Henke, provides the abundant and consistent scientific evidence that it is not "holding" the cell phone which resulting the impairment. It is the diversion of conscious attention to the internal-cognitive tasks associated with the give and take of the cell conversation away from the external-visual tasks essential for safe driving. Indeed, it matters not whether the motorist is driving under the influence of handheld or hands-free cell conversation, the impairment and the 4 fold increased likelihood that the driver will cause an accident are precisely the same. Yes, California and a number of other states have enacted handheld laws; unfortunately that is just a function of politics. The scientists are not in dispute. All agree that driving under the influence of any cell phone results in the identical DUI level driving impairment.
It is important that the appropriately qualified Orange County auto accident lawyer obtain the cell phone records of the other driver in every contested liability case, and especially in any serious injury case in which it appears that the other driver lacks sufficient insurance coverage to fully compensate the plaintiff for his injuries and full measure of his damages. As California and Orange County auto accident lawyer, Ray Henke explains, in the contested liability car, motorcycle or bicycle accident case, the evidence of the other party's cell phone use in the moments prior to the accident may snatch victory from the mouth of defeat. In the most common serious injury auto accident case in which the other driver lacks sufficient insurance to fully compensate the plaintiff for his injuries and damages, it is essential that the Orange County auto accident lawyer obtain the cell phone records and appropriate depositions taken of the defendant and the other party to the call to determine whether the other driver was engaged in a business call in the moments leading up to the accident. If he was, then the knowledgeable Orange County cell phone auto accident lawyer can bring the employer into the litigation as a defendant "vicariously liable" for the injuries caused by its employee in the "course and scope of his employment." In this way the Orange County auto accident lawyer may assure that the plaintiff will be fully compensated up to the limits of the employers insurance policy, and indeed, the employer's assets would be available to execute against.
Read California and Orange County serious injury auto accident lawyer, Ray Henke's scientific review article. As knowledgeable California cell phone accident lawyers we can investigate to establish that the other driver was on his cell phone. The evidence can make the difference in a contested liability car, motorcycle or bicycle accident case.
Where our serious injury San Fancisco auto motorcycle and bicycle accident lawyers can establish that the other driver was engaged in a business call we can bring his employer in as a defendant and recover against the employer's assets and insurance coverage.
California and Orange County auto accident attorney, Henke, has reviewed all the scientific literature on the effect of cell phone use to impair driver attention, and has prepared a scientific review article discussing the epidemiological and controlled experimental literature. Driving under the influence of cell conversation renders the driver DUI level driving impaired and results in a four fold increased likelihood that the driver will cause an accident. Contrary to popular belief, Orange County auto accident attorney, Ray Henke, provides the abundant and consistent scientific evidence that it is not "holding" the cell phone which resulting the impairment. It is the diversion of conscious attention to the internal-cognitive tasks associated with the give and take of the cell conversation away from the external-visual tasks essential for safe driving. Indeed, it matters not whether the motorist is driving under the influence of handheld or hands-free cell conversation, the impairment and the 4 fold increased likelihood that the driver will cause an accident are precisely the same. Yes, California and a number of other states have enacted handheld laws; unfortunately that is just a function of politics. The scientists are not in dispute. All agree that driving under the influence of any cell phone results in the identical DUI level driving impairment.
It is important that the appropriately qualified Orange County auto accident lawyer obtain the cell phone records of the other driver in every contested liability case, and especially in any serious injury case in which it appears that the other driver lacks sufficient insurance coverage to fully compensate the plaintiff for his injuries and full measure of his damages. As California and Orange County auto accident lawyer, Ray Henke explains, in the contested liability car, motorcycle or bicycle accident case, the evidence of the other party's cell phone use in the moments prior to the accident may snatch victory from the mouth of defeat. In the most common serious injury auto accident case in which the other driver lacks sufficient insurance to fully compensate the plaintiff for his injuries and damages, it is essential that the Orange County auto accident lawyer obtain the cell phone records and appropriate depositions taken of the defendant and the other party to the call to determine whether the other driver was engaged in a business call in the moments leading up to the accident. If he was, then the knowledgeable Orange County cell phone auto accident lawyer can bring the employer into the litigation as a defendant "vicariously liable" for the injuries caused by its employee in the "course and scope of his employment." In this way the Orange County auto accident lawyer may assure that the plaintiff will be fully compensated up to the limits of the employers insurance policy, and indeed, the employer's assets would be available to execute against.
©2008 The Ray Henke Law Group