Archive for February, 2011

By John McNally, founding partner of Hausmann-McNally, S.C.

Wisconsin and Illinois state laws require carbon monoxide detection devices in every home. A few years ago, I would have said this is just another unnecessary, bureaucratic rule. But then, something happened.

In fall of 2000, around 4:45 a.m., my eight-year-old son Jack, came to our bedroom saying he had a headache and felt sick. My wife Susan and I took him into bed with us and went back to sleep. A few minutes later, daughter Carolyn came to our room saying she had a blistering headache. I gave her a drink of water and tucked her back into her bed. When I came back to our bedroom, Susan sat up in bed and said, “it is carbon monoxide!” This was the farthest thing from my mind as our home was, we believed, in good repair.

I went to the lower level where our daughter Laura was sleeping and woke her up. I noticed that our dog Max seemed to be sleeping. When I touched him, he just fell over.
Clearly, we had to get everyone out. Susan called the fire department and politely noted this was not an emergency, but that there was carbon monoxide in our home. I began opening up our windows and front door to bring fresh air into the house.

Minutes later, a whole army of fire fighters and emergency vehicles appeared. They gave everyone in the family oxygen, including the dog who luckily lived with us many more years.
After everyone got out and after the house had been aired out for five minutes or more, the firemen checked the air quality and noted the air in the house contained FOUR TIMES THE LETHAL LIMIT of carbon monoxide. We were told all five of us were 45 minutes away from being dead.

Carbon monoxide (CO) is the leading cause of accidental poisoning deaths in America. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CO poisoning causes more than 400 deaths and 20,000 hospital visits in the U.S. annually. It is often called the “silent killer.”

How easy it would have been to sleep on, to succumb to the poison gas which is odorless, colorless and non-irritating. Carbon monoxide is a by-product of fossil-fuel combustion. An auxiliary heater in our home had gotten plugged up with leaves. Because there was no ventilation, the heat built up and burned out the insides of the heater, causing massive amounts of CO to escape into our home.

The McNally family—minus the two daughters who were safe at the University of Wisconsin in Madison– spent the greater part of the next day at St. Luke’s Hospital, having their blood levels checked for CO. The levels were a tiny fraction below the CO level that would have indicated the need for treatment in a hypobaric chamber.

The result of this experience is the genuine gratitude I have for the fortunate circumstances that alerted us to the danger. As a result, we now have a carbon monoxide monitor hard-wired into our home. It is now state law in Wisconsin and Illinois and in a growing number of municipalities. CO alarms can be purchased rather inexpensively at hardware stores and big box stores like Home Depot and Loews. You can also have them hard-wired to connect with the fire department and/or a monitoring station that will respond if you do not answer their call. Based on what we experienced, we feel it is a good investment.

You don’t forget incidents like this.

Luckily, our story had a happy ending. That is not the case for everyone. CO detectors mandated by the state of Wisconsin, Illinois and many other states and municipalities are low-cost insurance that could save you and your family from a tragic ending.

Facts about Carbon Monoxide:

• The Milwaukee Fire Department responded to 164 confirmed incidents of elevated levels of carbon monoxide in 2010, according to department data.
• In 2009, the latest year for which such statistics are available, hospital emergency rooms in Wisconsin treated 480 patients for CO poisoning, according to the state health department.
• According to data from by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission released in September 2009, between 2004 and 2006, carbon monoxide poisoning deaths in the United States resulting from heating systems and gas water heaters averaged 54 a year.

Laws governing the installation of Carbon monoxide alarms include:

• Wisconsin requires that the owner of a residential dwelling install a functional carbon monoxide detector in the basement of the dwelling and on each floor level except the attic, garage, or storage area of each dwelling unit. Prohibits tampering with these detectors.
• Illinois requires that every dwelling unit shall be equipped with at least one approved carbon monoxide alarm in an operating condition within 15 feet of every room used for sleeping purposes. Every structure that contains more than one dwelling unit shall contain at least one approved carbon monoxide alarm in operating condition within 15 feet of every room used for sleeping purposes.

Landlords have an obligation to keep their rental properties in a safe condition, including installing smoke and carbon monoxide alarms in the appropriate areas. Tenants should make sure these are installed in the dwellings and that they are in working order. If not, the tenant should notify the landlord in writing about the problem and expect that it be fixed in about five working days.

If you have been made ill by carbon monoxide in your rental property, please call our office so we can determine if you have a lawsuit relating to carbon monoxide poisoning. Call our offices at 800-227-6699 to discuss the carbon monoxide issue with one of our representatives. There is no cost or obligation for this visit.

False memories of childhood abuse planted by therapists, jury concludes.

It took 15 years to verdict, but a Madison, Wisconsin jury has awarded a couple whose daughter accused them of abusing her as a child $1 million from the therapists that caused false memories.

A civil lawsuit was brought by parents who claimed that therapists who treated Charlotte Johnson committed professional negligence, that they suggested and reinforced fantastic childhood memories. This included memories that her father raped her, that her mother attempted to drown her and that the family was involved in cults and infanticide. The suit was brought by Charles and Karen Johnson. They were represented by Madison Attorney Bill Smoler, who heads the Madison office of Hausmann-McNally, S.C.

A jury in Dane County Circuit Court ruled for the parents and awarded them $1 million on January 22. Defendants were Heartland Counseling Services in Madison, Madison therapist Kay Phillips, and Oconomowoc therapist Jeff Hollowell. The jury found Hollowell and Phillips negligent. A third therapist named in the suit was not found negligent. A case against Rogers Memorial Hospital was settled out of court prior to the verdict. Johnson v. Rogers Memorial Hosp., No. 96-CV-1228 (Dane County)

Before joining Hausmann-McNally, much of Smoler’s career was devoted to false memory cases. He has achieved multimillion-dollar wins in false memory cases. In one, he won $5 million for a family who obtained the medical records for their daughter upon her death, even though the daughter had maintained until she died that her parents physically and sexually abused her as a child. In two others, the patients retracted what they once believed were repressed memories of abuse, that they later came to realize were false. Smoler has argued five cases before the Wisconsin Supreme Court in the past 10 years. The cases resulted in new rights for people who were victims of practitioners implanting false memories of childhood abuse. Delores Sawyer et al vs H Berit Midelfort MD, No. 97-1969 (Eau Claire County)

One reason the case dragged on was that Charlotte Johnson maintains that the abuse actually happened. She opposed the release of her medical records to her parents. That was one of the issues Smoler took to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which in 2005 allowed her parents limited access to the records. That precedent-setting case was possibly the only case in the nation in which the parents of a living patient had successfully taken a case to trial against the will of the patient.

Smoler blames recovered memory therapy, which he said is “wacko stuff.”

The fact that false memories of childhood abuse can be implanted by therapists, whether delibera,tely or unwittingly, has been known for years. While there is strong evidence that therapists can implant false memories, there is strong opposition to the theory from people who maintain these memories are real and were repressed by individuals who wanted to bury horrific secrets of childhood. The Johnson’s daughter has never recanted her accusations and opposed her parents’ lawsuit.

Dr. Johnson, a physician, is a former University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty member who also served as a hospital Chief of Staff. His wife is a former psychiatric nurse. The Johnsons claimed that Charlotte’s treatment was negligent and thereby caused them emotional distress.

“The one thing that’s unusual and that sets this case apart is the patient wants nothing to do with the lawsuit, is not a party, has raised no complaints whatsoever against the therapists,” said attorney David McFarlane, who represented the treatment providers.

“This case is about whether or not things went wildly astray when common sense wasn’t used,” Bill Smoler, the parents’ attorney, said in his closing statement. “Instead of dealing with legitimate issues that Charlotte had, this therapy went off into who knows where.”

Despite the defendants investing huge sums of money to defeat this case (including hiring five national experts, numerous attorneys and staff) and despite the fact Smoler did not have Charlotte Johnson’s cooperation. Smoler, his legal assistant and two local experts convinced the jury of the defendants’ negligence.

Reportedly and tragically, the Johnson’s daughter Charlotte has had virtually no contact with her parents since 1993.

Resourceful Attorney Gets Client 16 Times What Allstate Offers

COLUMBUS, OHIO–A good part of the law business involves dealing with insurance companies. Many times, the insurance company will low-ball a client and make an absurdly low offer which they hope the client will take. Clients without legal representation may fall for the insurance company’s offer to settle quickly, say that the case isn’t worth much, or claim that injuries were pre-existing conditions. Have no doubts, most insurance companies would rather pay you less than more, and would prefer to pay you nothing if they could get away with it. That includes your own insurance company.

A major victory over an unreasonably low offer involved Hausmann-McNally Attorney J. Scott Bowman, who represented a client injured in an automobile accident.  After the accident, she was unable to get the surgery she needed because she did not have health insurance. It didn’t help that Allstate dragged its feet by refusing to make a fair settlement.

The 36-year old woman was injured by an automobile driver who failed to yield at a stop sign. Injuries included tear to her ACL as well as cervical, thoracic and lumbar sprains/strains. Medical bills were projected to top $20,000. Bowman also showed she had lost wages in the amount of $12,000 to $13,000.

Aside from the bad publicity Allstate garners for not adequately paying claims, Bowman had to go before a jury and, during a three-day trial, proved that his client’s injuries and medical bills were worth a whole lot more than Allstate offered her. Allstate’s final offer was $4,181!

After hearing both sides, the jury awarded Bowman’s client $70,124, almost all of what he had asked for. The case was written up in the Winter 2011 issue of the Columbus (Ohio) Lawyers Quarterly.

Interesting news of the Allstate company’s strategy on claims can be seen on the Web site: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_18/b3982072.htm

Their slogan might be “You’re in Good Hands with Allstate,” but this client believes she was in far better hands with Hausmann-McNally, a personal injury law firm that really looks after their clients’ interests.

Bowman is managing attorney for Hausmann-McNally’s Columbus, Ohio office.