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In this morning's Star Tribune was the sad story of a 10-year-old boy, Gavin Sutton, who was killed last Sunday near his home when the four wheeled ATV he was driving rolled over on him. The Todd County Sheriff reported that the boy was legally operating the vehicle because he was on private property. The sheriff also noted that the boy was "experienced on this vehicle", was wearing a helmet, and was traveling at a slow rate of speed.

In today's Star Tribune there was a follow-up article to one earlier this week about a boating accident on Lake of the Woods last Sunday. In the earlier article mentioned that three friends were out boating and two of them died as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning. There was some question as to how this could of happened. That is answered in today's article. It turns out that the boat's owner (who died in the accident) had jury rigged the exhaust system of the boat due to a leak.

ALEC is the American Legislative Exchange Council. A pretty benign sounding name. It's purposes, however, are anything but benign.  It is a political group funded by large corporations. It's job is to create model legislation to promote the aims of its supporters, and then wine and dine state legislators to get them to introduce such legislation and get it passed. The sorts of bills that ALEC advocates are the anti-consumer sort of legislation popular in some state legislatures.

Just last weekend the local news and the Star Tribune reported on a terribly tragic accident on a farm just west of the Twin Cities. A man and his five-year-old grandson were riding on grandpa's tractor when it tipped over, killing them both. The most recent statistical evidence I have seen rates farming as the second most dangerous occupation in America, second only to underground coal mining!

In today's Star Tribune there was a short article reporting that two more motorcyclists were killed on Minnesota roads this past weekend. This is a disturbing trend. The past two deaths bring 231 the total number of motorcyclists killed so far this year in Minnesota. When you consider that real motorcycling season didn't start until sometime in May, you begin to appreciate how dangerous it can be. Of the two most recent deaths, one motorcyclist was wearing a helmet and the other was not.

Mild traumatic brain injury, also commonly referred to as a concussion, is oftentimes mild to anyone who is not experiencing it. But to someone who is afflicted with a permanent brain injury, even if classified as "mild", calling it mild is insulting. In March 2012 the Star Tribune reported the following statistics:

The Minnesota Association for Justice, an organization composed of plaintiff's trial lawyers, regularly lobbies the state legislature to protect consumer's rights. Because consumers are our primary clients, as opposed to insurance companies, we can usually expect a fairly receptive audience in the legislature. This past session we were able to get the legislature to pass, and the governor to sign, a bill which puts some restrictions on what are known as "exculpatory clauses" in contracts.

Just last Sunday 60 Minutes did a segment on the recent outbreak of fungal meningitis caused by tainted steroid medication from the New England Compounding Center. I believe they reported 40 deaths to date and hundreds or thousands of innocent victims suffering from the effects of these infections.In most cases when an injured person sues or makes a claim for negligence they need to prove that the other party was, in fact, negligent and that negligence was the cause of the injury.

I got a call yesterday from a woman who was involved in 2 car crashes within about 30 days. One of the insurance companies for the at fault driver had approached her with a settlement offer and she wanted to know if I thought it was a good idea for her to accept that offer. It would be, in most cases, a huge mistake to do that because it can be very difficult in some cases (most cases) to separate out the effects of one accident from another when they are so close in time.

I got a call earlier this week from a fellow whose brother had been in a car accident here in Anoka County about a month ago and was laid up at home with severe low back pain ever since. This fellow kept asking me what I thought his brother should settle his case for. I explained that it was way too soon to give any kind of an intelligent opinion on something like that. At this point in time all we really know is that his brother has severe low back pain.