Category: TV Programs & News Stories

As reported by Courtroom View Network, in a wrongful death case involving a 22-year-old mother of two, “Trent Speckhals’ closing argument emphasized the importance of non-economic damages and helped deliver a hefty award. Fatima Bird died in a late night, 2008 head-on wreck with Otis South, a drunk driver traveling the wrong way on I-20 in Douglas County, Georgia. Speckhals added Bird’s potentially most tragic loss fell with the life she would never share with her children, who were 2 and 10 months old when their mother died. ‘She’s never going to hear the four most beautiful words a mother could hear,’ Speckhals said. ‘She never got to hear, I love you, Mommy.’”

The jury returned a verdict for $5.35 million.

http://blog.cvn.com/video-trent-speckhals-closing-delivers-5m-verdict-for-life-that-will-never-be

Trent discusses a verdict where the jury ordered a strip club to pay $1.75 million for a fatal crash involving a drunk driver whose blood alcohol was nearly five times the legal limit.

Read More

A Georgia jury returned a verdict of $500,000 against a Doctor who caused a terminal cancer patient’s premature death. The doctor gave confusing and improper directions on how to take the chemotherapy medication and wrote the prescription for more pills than were needed, resulting in an overdose.The Pharmacist and Pharmacy in the case reached a confidential settlement with the patient’s survivors before it went to trial.

“We continue to see the same errors over and over. [They’re] typically the result of pharmacists being too rushed, too busy, filling too many prescriptions and the use of [pharmacy] techs that really don’t have the training and the ability that a pharmacist would,” Speckhals said. “That’s one of the sad things, shocking things about it. It continues to happen at an alarming rate.”

Story in USA Today | Story on 11alive.com

Trent noted that his clients, who were victims of Pharmacy Prescription Errors and Malpractice, had settled their cases confidentially.

Learn More

Trent explained to Diane Sawyer and Brian Ross that, “a lot of the people working in the pharmacy have about the same level of training as someone that would be working in fast food…Forgetting to put your fries in the bag isn’t going to lead to any harm, but obviously we’re dealing with something much more serious with medicine.”  ABC also showed testimony from a case Trent handled where the pharmacy technicians admitted that they were not being trained, were overworked, and were afraid to even take time to go to the bathroom.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/walgreens-told-pay-285-mil-teen-pharmacy-techs/story?id=9977262&page=3

Trent noted that his clients, who were victims of Pharmacy Prescription Errors and Malpractice, had settled their cases confidentially.

http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local/the-harm-in-pharmacy-misfills/nQS63/

A Georgia jury returned a verdict of $500,000 against a Doctor who caused a terminal cancer patient’s premature death. The doctor gave confusing and improper directions on how to take the chemotherapy medication and wrote the prescription for more pills than were needed, resulting in an overdose.

The Pharmacist and Pharmacy in the case reached a confidential settlement with the patient’s survivors before it went to trial.

“Until the medical community decides to self-regulate to avoid these easily preventable prescription errors that they have long been aware of, patients must take precautions in order to not fall prey to sloppy prescription writing and filling practices that may cause serious injury or prove fatal,” said Trent Speckhals, the lead attorney who tried the case in Atlanta. “Unfortunately, some doctors and pharmacies do not do all that they should to ensure that prescriptions are accurate. We all must therefore take action to protect ourselves and our families from dangerous drug errors.”

A Georgia Judge ruled that Georgia’s medical malpractice cap on non-economic damages was unconstitutional.  As Trent Speckhals, who was one of the lead attorneys handling the case explained, “Judge Arrington’s decision addressed several aspects of caps on damages that could not pass Constitutional muster.  His ruling addresses this state’s—and this nation’s—fundamental value of a citizen’s right to trial by jury. His commonsense ruling balances the rights of all Georgians, young and old, rich and poor, and restores the guarantees set forth in our Constitution.”

http://georgiajustice.blogspot.com/2008_10_01_archive.html