The woman who died from the recent accident on 405 Freeway near Sta. Monica was finally identified by the authorities.

Initially, the victim’s identity was withheld pending notification of next of kin. But in recent reports, the vehicle accident victim was identified by the Coroner’s office as Rose Miller, 57-years-old woman. However it was not yet determined which car she was in.

A spokesperson from the Los Angeles Fire Department has said that though it was a three vehicle collision, Miller was the only one that got killed from the accident which happened at around 8:30 in the evening last January 31 at 405 Freeway near Sta. Monica Boulevard.

The three vehicle collision involved a red Volvo, a silver sedan, and a black SUV. The hood mashed in and the SUV landed few yards toward south and fragments from the vehicles were scattered.

The collision created heavy traffic jam on the southbound lane prompting some motorists to use an alternative route. It took several hours for the California Highway Patrol to gather evidences and conduct an investigation to the mangles vehicles. Therefore, traffic started to ease up before dawn.

The main cause of the collision was not yet determined but investigation is on progress.

Each year, the state of California has been a witness to many different vehicle accidents especially within the vicinity of Sta. Monica and victims of vehicle accidents within the said area are lucky for having Sta. Monica personal injury lawyers who are highly skilled in car accident litigations and has established an exceptional record or representing victims for many years.

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Kessler Foundation is one of the biggest public charities when it comes to helping people with disabilities. The organization works to improve the quality of life of disabled people.

Recently, the said charity foundation granted the University of Hawaii a Signature Employment Grant with an amount of $425,000 as a part of more than $2.7 million in 2011 to its Office of Research Services. Since 2005, Kessler has awarded more than $20 million to the innovative employment initiatives.

The grant will support the development of a virtual reality (VR) software application which will be called EmployAble. It aims to help jobseekers to journey across the world of job hunting and adapt to the workplace.  The Virtual Employment Orientation and Support Center will benefit people with disabilities, including veterans and victims of traumatic brain injury. EmployAble will be created by the University’s team of researchers which mostly comprises of disabled persons. The University of Hawaii Center on Disability Studies, Abilicorp and Virtual Ability will collaborate on this project.

Meanwhile, Kessler foundation is also doing its own study about clinical virtual reality for rehabilitation applications.

EmployAble is expected to draw on new components of commercial VR software programs from Multiple User Virtual Environments (MUVE) to Second Life (SL) and Virtual World Simulation (SIM). Employable will simulate workplace social interactions and present generally used assistive technology such as screen readers, captioning video programs, creation of accessible document, presentation programs and use of accessible features like VoiceThread and Adobe Flash and Text-to-speech software

Many disabled persons are suffering from employment disabilities. Through this two year grant provided by Kessler, problem regarding high rate of unemployment and underemployment of disabled people is expected to be resolved.

This project will make an improvement to the quality of life of the people with spinal cord and head injury, multiple sclerosis, stroke and other neurological problems.

It is indeed illegal for a company to reject a job applicant due to a person’s disabilities, but still a lot of employers do and for that, employment disability is becoming a huge problem in the society. Employment discrimination due to an individual’s physical or mental disability is illegal. Under the Americans with Disability Act and Fair Employment and Housing Act, such sort of discrimination is precluded.

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The Los Angeles Fire Department is about to pay nearly $500,000 to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by one of its employees at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

For twenty-six long years, Anthony Almeida served the community of Los Angeles under the Los Angeles Fire Department. In 2007, he filed a sexual harassment lawsuit at the EEOC against the Fire Department.

In his lawsuit, Almeida stated how his fellow worker mocked him, used explicit words and called him sexual nicknames after they learned about the sexual abuse that Almeida suffered from a Catholic Church.

Despite Almeida’s repeated complaint to the management of the said Fire Department, all his efforts were proved null and vain. During their investigation regarding Almeida’s complaint, the EEOC found out that the Fire Department failed to sufficiently accommodate the complaints

It was proven in the lawsuit that the Fire Department violated the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The EEOC found a reasonable cause to believe that a violation of the law occurred.

To avoid further litigations, the Fire Department has agreed to enter a three-year conciliation agreement with the EEOC and Almeida, who is represented by his private lawyer.

Many people do not understand what comprises sexual harassment. In truth and in fact, apart from unwanted touching and comments, sexual harassment and discrimination also include dubious images display, sexual nature comments and gesture even though not totally directed to a person but are made in their presence.

In Almeida’s case, he made a wise decision by securing his own private defender in addition to the protection provided by the EEOC. Having the EEOC which provides extensive protection against harassments and discrimination for all types of employees and having Los Angeles lawyers who have dealt with hundreds of such cases of sexual harassment is a good combination.

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Our email newsletter, the Mesriani Law Digest – January edition has been released.  One of the articles there talks about What California Drivers Should Know to Avoid Accidents during this Rainy Season – and this is of course to avoid personal injuries.

Rains bring about slippery roads and poor visibility which do not only cause accidents by themselves, but also aggravate common causes of car accidents.

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The Horseshoe Casino in Cincinnati is likely to face construction liability claim after it collapsed and injured several workers.

According to police and emergency crews who responded, the incident happened at around 8:00 a.m. on Friday.

Workers who have witnessed the accident said that while   their co-workers were pouring a 60×60 feet bay of concrete, a steel portion of the structure collapsed. As a result, a concrete fell 25 feet down to their co-workers.

A total of 24 workers who sustained injuries were rushed to various hospitals in Ohio via ambulance and private vehicles. Twenty injured workers were taken to University hospital; two were delivered to Good Samaritan Hospital, and one to Bethesda North Hospital. Meanwhile, no fatalities were reported, and all injuries sustained by the victims were all minor, according to the hospitals’ representatives. The victims were released from the hospital on the same day as their injuries were minor – lacerations and broken bones.

The incident was first investigated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) followed by the Cincinnati City Building Department.

The casino officials were present in the accident site during the investigation, while, Rock Gaming, LCC with Steven Rosenthal expressed their sympathy to the victims. In a press release, they conveyed that the operation in the construction site will only resume after the OSHA pronounce safety and security of the workplace.

The extensive field of construction liability involves complex laws and procedures, and requires substantial expertise to get the best results. An expert Los Angeles attorney who possesses sufficient experience in dealing with similar case would be best to consult.

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A municipal court judge in Longview, Texas ruled over on two pit bulls last Friday after an animal attack incident.

The said animal attack happened at 2300 block of South 12th Street at about 1:10 in the afternoon last January 6 when an animal control officer named Jacqueline Lynch was trying to take a free pit bull into custody at the residence. According to a Longview dispatcher’s report, as Lynch was taking the pit bull, another pit bull from the backyard jumped off to her and both dogs attacked her. Lynch ran to a house across the street owned by the 72-year old Helen Williams to seek protection.

Lynch sustained dog bites on her hands according to Longview Development Services Director Kevin Cummings.

The town officials are determining which of the two dogs bit Lynch. Either dog was quarantined for ten days. The dogs were brought to the Humane Society of Northeast Texas.

Williams said that the dogs’ owner is out of town. Lynch further added that she had seen those two dogs several times while their owner was training them to hunt for raccoons. Some other witnesses from the neighborhood agreed that the dogs show aggressiveness beforehand but, to their knowledge, had not attacked any humans.

The court judge declared the pit bulls “dangerous” and they can only be returned to their owner once they meet certain conditions.

Though people hate to think negative things about their own pets or those of others, the truth still remains that even the gentlest cat or mildest dog can attack anybody and can cause an injury.

An animal attack may be less common than a vehicle accident. However, it doesn’t mean that it can never cause serious injuries. Therefore, a Los Angeles dog bite lawyer is always reminding the residents especially dog owners to be more responsible in breeding and training their dogs.

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A jury awarded the family of a former Windham supervisor with more than a million dollars for a wrongful death claim filed against an Albany hospital last Thursday.

Thomas P. Meeham had been one of the known supervisors in Windham, New York and was re-elected as a town official nineteen times. While doing his role as a public servant with the community, Meehan also worked as a carpenter until he came into Albany Medical Center Hospital for a hip replacement on November 11, 2009.

The day after his surgery, Meehan still managed to walk but over the next two days, he had experienced events of dyspnea, a condition referring to the difficulty in breathing. He died the following day.

The family’s wrongful death attorney said those symptoms that Meehan had experienced are a sign that he is in the early stage of having pulmonary embolism. It is a condition wherein the main artery of the lung or one of its branches is blocked by a substance that has traveled through the bloodstream from somewhere else in the body. A blood clot from the deep veins in the legs usually cause pulmonary embolism.

In their lawsuit, the family affirmed that Meehan’s attending physician – Dr. Aniko Felligi failed to request scans that could have determined the blood clots. Meehan could have survived from his seizure if he was administered with an anticoagulant.

The jury granted the family with a total of $1.4 million for economic damages, which included the decedent’s future earnings and the value of tasks he may have done.

The award value for the family’s wrongful death claim is higher than expected and the Los Angeles injury attorneys see the court’s decision engaging.

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