Sacramento Personal Injury Lawyers Auto Accident Car Motorcycle Bicycle and Big Rig Truck Accident Attorneys Product Liability Lawyers Medical & Obstetrical Malpractice Attorney Drug Defect Lawyer Elder Abuse Attorney Food Poisoning Ecoli HUS Lawyer & Serious Injury Premises Liability Attorneys Serving Sacramento, California.
Our Sacramento serious injury lawyers welcome you to consider our "Practice Areas" page most relevant to your case at which we discuss our credentials and approach to the specific legal subject matters of our practice. Our Sacramento auto accident lawyers provide pages specific to auto, motorcycle, bicycle and big rig truck accident litigation. Our Sacramento product liability lawyers discuss our approach to a range of product defect litigation and provide separate pages for pharmaceutical product liability and current drug defect litigation. Our Sacramento medical malpractice lawyers discuss litigation against health care professionals including physicians and hospitals, and provide a separate page on obstetrical malpractice and birth injury litigation. Our Sacramento elder abuse lawyers discuss elder abandonment and neglect, elder physical, psychological and financial abuse. Our Sacramento premises liability lawyers discuss slip and fall litigation against commercial and residential properly owners and public entities. And our Sacramento food poisoning lawyer provides both a general discussion of individual and outbreak cases as well as separate pages for Ecoli HUS and TTP and Listeria litigation. We also provide a separate page entitled "Serious and Catastrophic Injury Lawyers at the top of our "Practice Areas" menu at which we discuss the complexities of serious injury litigation and our sophisticated approach to the preparation and presentation of such cases. While proving liability may be simple in an auto accident or premises liability case, all serious injury cases are complex and require highly qualified serious injury attorneys to maximize the opportunity that the client will recover his full measure of general and special economic damages. On separate pages of this site we also discuss our approach to traumatic brain injury and paralysis, quadriplegia, paraplegia and spinal cord injury cases. Our serious injury lawyers are highly qualified in the preparation and presentation of every type of serious injury litigation from debilitating internal injuries to catastrophic orthopedic injuries and limb amputations, as well as birth injury and birth defect cases.
Our credentials are also discussed more fully on our particular practice areas pages, and we discuss some of our more recent cases in the left column of the page. Very briefly, 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.
If you have been seriously injured in Sacramento or any county in Northern California as the result of a car, motorcycle, bicycle or big rig truck accident, or as the result of a fall on commercial, residential or public property, or as the result of a product defect or medical malpractice or elder abuse or food poisoning, you are invited to contact our Sacramento personal injury lawyers. Simply submit the "Sacramento Injury Attorney Case Evaluation Request" and one of our highly qualified trial lawyers will contact you to discuss you case, provide our initial case evaluation and recommendations. Our case consultations are entirely free of charge. We are here to serve you.
Sacramento Serious and Catastrophic Personal Injury Lawyers for Auto Accident, Medical Malpractice, Product Liability, Elder Abuse, Premises Liability and Food Poisoning Cases Serving as Attorneys for Sacramento and Northern California.
Some categories of personal injury litigation are inherently complex, such as medical malpractice or pharmaceutical product liability cases. Other cases, on their surface may appear relatively simple, such as auto accident or premises liability litigation. However, all serious injury litigation is complex, regardless of the source of liability and requires a highly qualified trial lawyer to competently prepare and prosecute the litigation to settlement or judgment.
If you were seriously injured, regardless of the nature of the cause of your injuries, our Sacramento personal injury lawyers recommend that you consult our "Serious & Catastrophic Injury Lawyers" page at the top of our "Practice Areas" menu.
Consider the complexity presented by the simplest serious auto accident in which a motorist or motorcyclist or bicyclist is hit from behind with a dozen witnesses all pleased to testify that it was the other driver's fault. The client is brain damaged or quadriplegic, and the other driver has only statutory minimum liability coverage and no assets. First, the case is complex because the proper presentation of the client's general and special damages is complex. Second, it will be the Sacramento auto accident attorney's responsibility to identify all proper defendants in order to identify adequate insurance coverage or assets to compensate the client for the full measure of the client's damages.
Recoverable damages in an auto accident case include general and special or economic damages. Most personal injury lawyers refer to general damages and "pain and suffering." Our Sacramento auto accident attorneys consider that in most serious and catastrophic the most poignant aspect of general damages is "loss of enjoyment of life" damages. The approach of our Sacramento auto accident lawyers will commonly be to present through the testimony of the client, his friends and family, and their photographs and home movies, all of the activities the client enjoyed most in 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 and challenges of his post accident daily life.
Presenting the client's past medical expenses is commonly simple enough, involving nothing more than an accounting of the medical bills from the date of the accident through the date of the settlement conference or trial. The preparation of future medical expenses in serious injury litigation, however, is complex. The primary experts employed by our Sacramento personal injury attorneys are the professional "life care planner" and forensic economist. The life care planner will speak in detail with the treating physicians and expert medical specialists engaged by the lawyers in order to arrive at a list of all the anticipated medical expenses, including physician visits, anticipated surgeries, convalescent care, home nursing services or attendant care, medical equipment, modified vehicles, medical supplies, etc., that the client will require over every month of every year of the remainder of his or her life expectancy. The life care planner will also determine the present costs of each of the items of medical expense. The Sacramento personal injury attorney will then present the resulting "life care plan" to the forensic economist who will apply medical cost inflation statistics for each category of medical expense, and then will apply general inflation statistics to arrive at the present value of the total anticipated medical expense.
The method of calculation of past and future earnings losses varies from case to case and will be determined by the Sacramento personal injury lawyer depending on a variety of factors such as whether the client was self employed, owned his or her own business, or if a salaried employee, whether he was in a business in which it can be proven that he had good prospects of moving up in pay grade. Using the "simplest" case of the daily wage earner, the calculation of past earnings may be as simple as multiplying his daily wage times the number of days from the date of the accident through the date of the settlement conference or trial, assuming that he was totally disabled during that time. The calculation of future wage loss however is always complex, requiring our Sacramento personal injury attorneys in most cases to engage the services of two primary experts, a "vocational rehabilitation expert" and a forensic economist. In California the measure of loss of earnings damages is the "net" loss, so the loss of earnings calculation is a multiple step process. First it must be calculated what the client would have earned over the course of his "work life expectancy" if he had not been injured. Second, it must be calculated what the client will earn or what he could earn over his post accident "work life expectancy" given the professions or trades for which he is still capable of gainful employment. The "vocational rehabilitation expert" will gather information from the treating physicians with regard to the client's physical limitations and gather the information also with regard to the client's education, training and experience and determine what occupations are now foreclosed to the client and what occupations the client may still be able to be gainfully employed. The Sacramento personal injury attorney will then provide the resulting vocational rehabilitation expert's report to the forensic economist who will then apply wage growth statistics first and then general inflation statistics to arrive at the present cash value of the future loss of earnings.
Thus even the simplest liability case, the simple auto accident case as one example, should be seen as not as simple as just proving who ran the red light, if the client has been seriously or catastrophically injured. All serious injury litigation, regardless of the simplicity of the liability, is complex litigation and should be prosecuted by highly qualified and experienced Sacramento serious injury attorneys.
Adding to the complexity of serious injury litigation is the "collectability" issue: Does the defendant have sufficient insurance and/or assets to fully compensate the seriously injured client for the full measure of his or her general and special damages?
Using the case of the car, motorcycle, bicycle or big rig truck accident again, if the client is seriously injured, it becomes the responsibility of the Sacramento accident lawyer to identify all potential sources of liability and assets available to compensate his client. The client's damages may be measured in the millions of dollars, but the defendant auto driver may have only $15/30,000 statutory minimum liability coverage and have no meaningful assets. The big rig or commercial large truck driver, unless he is carrying a hazardous load, may only carry the statutory minimum $750,000 in liability coverage. The appropriately qualified Sacramento serious injury auto accident attorney will then need to identify all additional proper parties.
One example of a recent case is identified in the left column of this page, in which attorney Henke's client was a motorcyclist who entered an intersection splitting lanes between two cars in adjoining left turn lanes. The motorcyclist suffered a lower leg amputation. The driver of the car that struck him carried only statutory minimum liability coverage. In discovery it was determined that the driver was on his way to work at the time of the accident, but according to California law, accidents occurring while "commuting" to work do not render the employer liable. However, we also discovered that the driver was transporting equipment and tools to the work site, and this was sufficient to render the employer vicariously liable for the injuries under "respondeat superior" theory. The client's case was resolved for a multimillion dollar settlement.
Our California and Sacramento auto accident attorneys are at the forefront of urging all auto accident lawyers to consider also the utility of using cell phone records to establish employer vicarious liability. You may read about our strategy on our "Cell Phone Accident Lawyers" page. There are a host of other strategies which may also be available in the particular serious injury case to solve the "collectability issue," such as in cases where there is a roadway hazard that contributed to the accident. In such cases the public entity responsible for the construction or maintenance of the roadway may be named as a defendant in the litigation.
Our Sacramento big rig truck accident lawyers have specific strategies to overcome the "collectability" hurdle in commercial large truck litigation. The shippers will commonly hire the truck drivers as "independent contractors" to attempt to avoid company liability for the injuries their truckers cause. Our Sacramento big rig truck accident lawyers, however, are knowledgeable about the federal and California laws regulating trucking, from the weight of loads, to the manner of securing loads, to the number of hours truck drivers can operate their vehicles between 8 hour rest periods. The shippers can be held liable for violating these laws, and they can also be held liable under theories of "negligent entrustment" and "negligent supervision." We have provided a separate page on this site "Sacramento Big Rig Truck Accident Lawyers" which discusses our strategies in commercial large truck litigation in more detail.
Again, any case, even the most "simple" auto, motorcycle, bicycle or big rig truck accident case, or indeed, even the simplest premises liability case, is complex if the client has been seriously injured. And serious injury litigation requires appropriately qualified Sacramento personal injury attorneys to maximize the opportunity to obtain full compensation for the client's general and special damages.
If you were seriously injured in Sacramento or Northern California as the result of a car, motorcycle, bicycle or big rig truck accident, or as the result of a slip and fall, or as the result of medical malpractice or a defective drug or medical device, you are welcome to contact our Sacramento serious injury attorneys. Simply submit the "Sacramento personal injury lawyers" case evaluation form, and one of our experience Sacramento lawyers will contact you to discuss your case and provide our recommendations. Case consultations are entirely free of charge. We welcome the opportunity to speak with you.
Sacramento Medical Malpractice Lawyers and Hospital Negligence Attorneys. Obstetrical Malpractice Lawyers for Birth Injury, Brain Damage, Cerebral Palsy, Brachial Plexus Injury, Erb's Palsy.
Our Sacramento medical malpractice lawyers are pleased to consider cases against health care providers which have resulted in serious and permanent injury, and substantial future medical expenses or substantial loss of earnings. The cases must also involve clear variance by the health care provider from the applicable standards of medical care.
Our Sacramento medical malpractice attorneys have arrived at our office policy that we must limit our consideration of medical negligence cases to cases in which there is "permanent injury and substantial economic damage" in part because of the expense required to properly litigate medical malpractice litigation, and because the State of California has seen fit to limit the "general damages" which victims of medical negligence can obtain. This "tort reform" legislation, enacted in 1975 at the prompting of the medical and physicians insurance lobbies, limits recoverable general damages in cases against health care professionals to $250,000; and that "cap" on general damages applies regardless of the severity of the injury. The victim of medical malpractice still can, however, recover his or her full measure of "economic" damages, including past and future medical expenses and past and future earnings losses; and where such losses are substantial, our Sacramento personal injury lawyers consider that the malpractice litigation may fit our case intake criteria.
Our California and Sacramento medical malpractice lawyers are highly qualified and experienced trial lawyers with many years experience prosecuting physician, hospital and health care provider negligence cases. Some examples of our medical malpractice cases are discussed in the left column of this page. California and Sacramento medical malpractice attorney, Ray Henke, is nationally acclaimed for his trial work specifically in medical negligence cases. His cases and trial work specifically in medical and drug cases have been the subject of California and national legal journal articles, California Lawyer, and the National Law Journal. His medical malpractice and hospital negligence cases have been chronicled in legitimate newspapers from the front page of the New York times to the front page of the Los Angeles Times, from the Washington Post to the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner.
It is California law that in order to present a medical malpractice case the lawyer must establish that the health care provider varied from the applicable standards of medical care by appropriately qualified expert testimony. California and Sacramento medical malpractice attorney, Ray Henke, takes pride in the quality of the teams of experts he has used to succeed in medical negligence litigation. In one AIDS medical fraud case, he designated as his experts Michael Gotlieb, the discoverer of AIDS and cofounder of the American Foundation for AIDS Research; Luc Montagnier, the discover of HIV and head of France's National AIDS Laboratories; Don Francis, the head of the CDC's first AIDS task force and the epidemiologist who discovered that AIDS was a sexually transmitted disease; John Curnutte, the head of the largest AIDS vaccine study in the world, Roger Detels, the chief investigator on the largest epidemiological study in the world, and a dozen others of the most highly regarded AIDS scientists and medical experts.
If you were seriously injured as the result of the negligence of a health care professional, and anticipate that you will incur substantial future medical expense and/or substantial past and future earnings losses, our Sacramento medical malpractice lawyers welcome you to contact us. Simply submit the "Sacramento Medical Malpractice Attorneys Case Evaluation Request" and one of our highly qualified Sacramento medical negligence lawyers will call you to discuss your case, provide our initial case evaluation and recommendations. Our case initial case consultations are free of charge. We welcome the opportunity to speak with you.
Sacramento Elder Abuse Lawyers - Attorneys Representing Seniors Who Have Suffered From Elder Neglect or Abandonment or Physical or Psychological Abuse By Nursing Home, Convalescent Center or Retirement Facility Employees.
Our Sacramento elder abuse lawyers provide a separate page in which we discuss the various categories of elder abuse, and describe the symptoms or common manifestations of elder abuse so that family members can identify the mistreatment and hopefully resolve the issue before the senior suffers serious injury. Where it appears that the senior has suffered serious injury as the result of abuse by a senior convalescent center or retirement facility, we welcome you to contact our Sacramento elder abuse attorneys for a free consultation. Simply submit the "Elder Abuse Lawyers Case Evaluation Request" and one of our Sacramento lawyers will call you to discuss the case and offer our recommendations.
Very briefly our Sacramento elder abuse lawyers will discuss the several categories of senior mistreatment.
"Elder neglect," as our Sacramento elder abuse lawyers define it, is the failure of the nursing home or senior facility to fulfill its duty to use reasonable care to provide for the senior's medical or mental health needs, including to provide for the elder's personal hygiene and to protect the elder from hazards to his or her health.
"Elder abandonment," as our Sacramento elder abuse attorneys define it, is the willful or intentional failure of the nursing home or retirement facility to care for the elder.
"Elder physical abuse," as defined by our Sacramento elder abuse lawyers, is the willful or intentional physical mistreatment of the elder by employees of the senior facility, and may include beatings or slapping, or unwarranted physical restraint, or the denial of food or water, and any sexual abuse would also fall within this category.
"Elder psychological abuse," as defined by our Sacramento elder abuse attorneys, refers to the willful or intentional infliction of mental or emotional abuse by employees of a nursing home or retirement facility, and can take many forms including threats or verbal humiliation, and may include isolation or conduct which results in sensory deprivation.
Again, if you are a family member who suspects that your loved one may be suffering from abuse by employees of a nursing home or retirement facility, we strongly recommend that you consider our "Sacramento Elder Abuse Lawyers" page for a more complete discussion of the various categories of elder mistreatment and the signs and symptoms of elder abuse you should look for.
Sacramento Product Liability Lawyers & Pharmaceutical Defect Product Liability Attorneys
Our California and Sacramento product liability lawyers and drug and medical device defect attorneys have provided a number of subject area pages which we welcome to consider if you have been seriously injured as the result of a product defect. Our California and Sacrament product liability lawyers have represented clients in a wide variety of product defect cases, from cases involving machines which fail to incorporate safety mechanisms to permit safe use, to exploding cans, to defective helmets which fail to provide adequate protection against head injury, through most of the major drug and medical device product liability cases of the past 25 years. Our Sacramento attorneys invite you to consider our product liability lawyers page. We also invite you to consider our Sacramento pharmaceutical product liability attorneys page, and the specific drug and medical device pages discussing current litigation. You may also be interested in our approach to serious injury litigation generally, at our "Serious and Catastrophic Injury Lawyers" page at the top of our "Practice Areas" menu.
If you have been seriously injured as the result of any product defect you are welcome to contact our Sacramento product liability attorneys or Sacramento drug and medical device product liability lawyers by submitting the "Sacramento Product Liability Lawyers Case Evaluation Request." We will call you to discuss your case and offer our initial case evaluation and recommendations. Our initial case consultations are entirely free of charge. We welcome the opportunity to speak with you.
Food Poisoning Lawyers - Ecoli HUS Attorneys - Listeria Lawyer - Also Considering Cases Involving Serious Illness Resulting From Salmonella Shigella, Botulism, Campylobacter and Norovirus.
Our California and Sacramento food poisoning lawyers welcome you to consider our discussion of our approach to serious injury food poisoning cases on our practice areas pages devoted to these subjects. You may consider our general qualifications as food poisoning attorneys at our "Food Poisoning Lawyers" page in our "Practice Areas" menu. Our California and Sacramento food poisoning lawyer also provides specific pages devoted to specific bacterial exposures from contaminated foods. For example, you may consider our separate pages discussing Listeria and E. coli illness and our Sacramento Listeria Attorneys and Sacramento Ecoli HUS Lawyers pages. One of our Ecoli HUS lawyers recently obtained one of the largest settlements in the United States in an E. coli Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome case, and you are welcome to consider our credentials generally as California and Sacramento food poisoning attorneys on each of these pages.
If you suffered serious illness as the result of exposure to E. coli bacteria or Listeria, or Shigella, Botulism, Salmonella, Campylobacter or Norovirus from a contaminated food product, or if you have suffered illness in a food poisoning "outbreak" you are welcomed to contact our California and Sacramento food poisoning lawyers for a free case consultation. Simply submit the e-mail "Case Evaluation Request" and one of our highly qualified Sacramento food poisoning lawyers will call you to discuss your case, provide our case evaluation and recommendations. Our Sacramento food poisoning attorneys welcome the opportunity to speak with you.
Sacramento Premises Liability Lawyers - Slip & Fall Attorneys for Those Seriously Injured As the Result of Falls Due to Premises or Property Defects or Failure to Maintain Commercial, Residential or Public Property or Premises.
If you have been seriously injured as the result of a fall on commercial, residential or public property due to a defect in property, or due to a failure to adequately or timely maintain the premises, you are invited to consider our Sacramento Premises Liability Lawyers page on this site. Our serious injury Sacramento slip and fall attorneys also invite you to consider our "Serious & Catastrophic Injury Attorneys" page to learn about our approach to serious and catastrophic injury litigation generally. If you have suffered quadriplegia, paraplegia or other spinal cord injury or damage, you are welcomed to consider also our Sacramento Paralysis and Spinal Cord Injury Lawyers page. If as the result of your fall you suffered brain damage, you are invited to consider our Sacramento Traumatic Brain Injury Attorneys - TBI Lawyers page.
Our Sacramento premises liability lawyers will consider a wide variety of serious injury fall cases, which might involve defects in public side walks or the failure of a supermarket to timely clean up a liquid spill, or a defect in residential apartment complex common area carpeting leading to the fall. Falls resulting in serious injuries can result from every manner of defect or failure adequately to maintain commercial, residential and public property, and while the liability in the case may be simple and straightforward, the preparation and presentation of damages in the serious injury case is always complex, and you should want to retain highly qualified and experienced Sacramento serious injury attorneys.
If you suffered a fall on commercial, residential or public property and were seriously injured, we welcome you to contact us for a case consultation. Simply submit the e-mail "Sacramento Premises Liability Lawyers Case Evaluation Request" and we will call you to discuss your case, your injuries, your economic damages, past and future medical expenses and past and future earnings losses, and provide our case evaluation and recommendations. Our case consultations are entirely free of charge.
*Landmark Jury Verdicts:
$3.8 million dollar gross jury verdict in medical malpractice brain injury case. California and Sacramento 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.
$2.7 million dollar jury verdict in a medical malpractice case in which California and Sacramento 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.
$2.5 million dollar jury verdict in a contested liability motorcycle accident case in which California and Sacramento 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 Sacramento 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.
$1.5 million dollar settlement in a birth injury case involving a drug which California and Sacramento 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
$3.8 million dollar gross jury verdict in medical malpractice brain injury case. California and Sacramento 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.
$2.7 million dollar jury verdict in a medical malpractice case in which California and Sacramento 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.
$2.5 million dollar jury verdict in a contested liability motorcycle accident case in which California and Sacramento 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 Sacramento 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.
$1.5 million dollar settlement in a birth injury case involving a drug which California and Sacramento 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 Phone Conversation Results in DUI Level Driving Impairment And a 4 fold Increased Likelihood that the Driver will Cause an Accident.
Read California and Sacramento 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 Sacramento auto motorcycle and bicycle accident lawyers can establish that the other driver was engaged in a business call, the driver's employer can be named as an additional defendant, and the employer is rendered vicariously liable for the injuries sustained, and recovery can be obtained also against the employer's assets and insurance coverage.
California and Sacramento 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 widely republished 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, Sacramento auto accident attorney, Ray Henke, provides the abundant scientific evidence that it is not "holding" the cell phone which results 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 Sacramento auto accident attorney obtain the cell phone records of the other driver in every contested liability case, and particularly in any serious injury case in which it appears that the other driver lacks sufficient insurance coverage or assets to fully compensate the plaintiff for his injuries and full measure of his damages. As California and Sacramento auto accident lawyer, Ray Henke explains, in the contested liability car or motorcycle or bicycle accident case, the evidence of the other driver's cell phone use in the moments immediately 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 client for his injuries and damages, it is essential that the Sacramento auto accident lawyer obtain the cell phone records and that appropriate depositions be taken of the defendant and the other party to the cell 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 appropriately qualified Sacramento cell phone auto accident lawyer name the driver's employer as a defendant in the accident litigation, "vicariously liable" for the injuries caused by its employee in the "course and scope of his employment." In this manner the Sacramento auto accident lawyer may assure that his client will have the best opportunity to be fully compensated up to the limits of the employer's insurance policy, and indeed, the employer's assets would be available to execute against. You may read more on our Sacramento Cell Phone Accident Lawyers page.
Read California and Sacramento 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 Sacramento auto motorcycle and bicycle accident lawyers can establish that the other driver was engaged in a business call, the driver's employer can be named as an additional defendant, and the employer is rendered vicariously liable for the injuries sustained, and recovery can be obtained also against the employer's assets and insurance coverage.
California and Sacramento 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 widely republished 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, Sacramento auto accident attorney, Ray Henke, provides the abundant scientific evidence that it is not "holding" the cell phone which results 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 Sacramento auto accident attorney obtain the cell phone records of the other driver in every contested liability case, and particularly in any serious injury case in which it appears that the other driver lacks sufficient insurance coverage or assets to fully compensate the plaintiff for his injuries and full measure of his damages. As California and Sacramento auto accident lawyer, Ray Henke explains, in the contested liability car or motorcycle or bicycle accident case, the evidence of the other driver's cell phone use in the moments immediately 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 client for his injuries and damages, it is essential that the Sacramento auto accident lawyer obtain the cell phone records and that appropriate depositions be taken of the defendant and the other party to the cell 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 appropriately qualified Sacramento cell phone auto accident lawyer name the driver's employer as a defendant in the accident litigation, "vicariously liable" for the injuries caused by its employee in the "course and scope of his employment." In this manner the Sacramento auto accident lawyer may assure that his client will have the best opportunity to be fully compensated up to the limits of the employer's insurance policy, and indeed, the employer's assets would be available to execute against. You may read more on our Sacramento Cell Phone Accident Lawyers page.
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