News & Articles

For the 8^th time in seven years, the Supreme Court has denied reviewing tobacco verdicts in Florida. Scotusblog.com, the blog of the Supreme Court, writes that this time around tobacco manufacturers asked the court to review 10 petitions in an effort to overturn individual damages verdicts that total more than $64 million. Companies filed all of the petitions on March 28^th and raised questions about violations of constitutional due process. The request was denied by the Court without comment or noted dissents.

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Atlas Roofing Corp. marketed its Chalet Shingles as being durable, reliable and compliant with industry standards. Many customers, however, say they experienced the exact opposite. A class action lawsuit filed by Parker Waichman LLP and its co –counsel alleges that the shingles are vulnerable to premature blistering, cracking and reduced life expectancy. In some cases, customers say that chunks of material fall off from the shingles. The suit alleges that the shingles were designed defectively, allowing moisture to be absorbed; this creates gas bubbles that result in blistering and cracking when expanded by the sun.

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A Florida woman was set on fire when a cell phone battery exploded at a Hialeah gym, CBS Miami reports. Jackie Marinas says she was working out at Planet Fitness when she became the victim of a “freak accident”. “I was going to get some water, I heard the boom,” Marinas told CBS Miami. “I thought it was a firecracker. It sounded kind of loud but then I felt the heat in my arm. Somebody yelled your hair is on fire.”

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A Consumer Reports study found that several hospitals in South Florida scored among the lowest when it came to patient safety rankings, but a few others were among the highest-scoring. The report, which gave a score between 1 and 100 based on five safety categories, compared over 2,500 hospitals nationwide. The categories were mortality, readmission, scanning (scanned twice for the same thing), infection and communication. The scores ranged from a low of 11 to a high of 78.

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A tragic crash in Florida killed a Duke University student and seriously injured another. The group of students was on their way back from a spring break trip, where they spent five days canoeing and camping on the Blackwater River in Florida, when their van was hit by a pickup truck on Friday. In a news release, Duke said that 21-year old Rebecca DeNardis was taken to a hospital in Creview, Florida and pronounced dead. Another student, 21-year old Joao Correia Marques, had to be airlifted to Pensacola hospital, according to Northwest Florida Daily News. Another student remained in a hospital as of Saturday, although Duke did not released information about the student’s identity or their condition.

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