Your Voice Against JUUL: Getting Involved

JUUL has been the target of many recent, consumer-facing legal battles claiming that JUUL manufacturers have been deceptively marketing their nicotine-packed e-cigarettes to minors. With the increasing numbers of JUUL-related deaths and injuries, consumers are beginning to take a stand. 

Taking on big names like JUUL isn’t an easy feat. And like solving most problems, the first step is coming forward. However, there are reasons some victims are hesitant to get involved with JUUL litigation. 

Fear of striking out with JUUL litigation

For most people, seeking legal help is often the last resort. This fear is rooted in the idea that legal battles are a long, tedious and expensive process. Some people take a step back to avoid the expenses associated with getting legal help. 

Fact or fiction about JUUL litigation

Common misconceptions about legal claims prevent a lot of people from pursuing justice. With our JUUL class action lawsuit, you won’t have to worry about a thing. Let us help you navigate the process of filing a claim while debunking these common myths.

Fear of expensive fees and painfully long processes

While most law firms ask for costly up-front fees, Heninger Garrison Davis does not. In order to achieve the sort of change we’re looking to accomplish, we need your help by telling us about your JUUL experience. 

And after filing an online or phone claim, you’ll be contacted by a member of our staff to document important information about your case. We’ll ask such questions as to when you started smoking JUUL, how you obtained the device, and the side effects you’ve experienced due to JUUL. So the process is actually quite simple and not time-consuming at all.

Our goal is to make this process as smooth as possible. By filing a claim with us, all we’ll need is a few hours of your time. Most of the cases are completed without the need for face to face meetings. If there is a need to meet in person, we’ll come to you.

Fear of losing

“Don’t let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game!” This popular quote sums up your experience with filing a claim against JUUL. We need your voice in order to prevent JUUL Labs from kickstarting addiction and bodily harm to minors across the nation. You will not be charged with hidden fees or follow up appointments.  

JUUL: harmful side effects and intentional youth targeting

Like many social movements, it takes a little bravery and a lot of confidence. There are more than enough reasons to join the thousands of people making their voice count. JUUL Labs produces a product that causes real harm and has chosen the youth marketplace to target. Here are just a few examples of how young people can be affected by JUUL, and deceptive advertising campaigns they employ: 

Discreet design

JUUL takes advantage of its slim design and ease of use to make vaping discreet. Unlike other vape devices, no prior experience or complicated instructions are needed. There aren’t any buttons or settings to adjust – just inhale.

Misleading marketing

JUUL Labs has utilized brightly-colored ads, young models and fruity flavors to reach out directly to young people. Flavors like mango, creme, fruit and cucumber appeal to young smokers, especially the ones who have never smoked a traditional cigarette. 

Harmful chemicals

JUUL products contain a significantly higher dosage of nicotine and benzoic acid compared to traditional cigarettes. Research indicates that 1 JUUL pod is equal to 1 pack of cigarettes. While most e-cigarette brands contain 2.4 percent nicotine, JUUL contains 5 percent. Benzoic acid is a substance known for causing coughs, sore throat, abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting, if exposure is constant. A typical amount of benzoic acid in e-cigarettes would be 0.2 to 2 mg/mL; JUUL contains 44.8 mg/mL. 

While it’s easy to convince a smoker that vaping is the “healthier” option, a 2017 study found that non-smoking adults were four times more likely to start smoking traditional cigarettes after only 18 months of vaping, which includes “JUULing.”

Long-term consequences

Smoking at an early age reduces the activity in the prefrontal cortex of the brain. This area is critical in influencing a person’s cognitive behavior and decision making while leading to increased sensitivity to other drugs and greater impulsivity. Along with brain function, it’s also proven to hinder lung development if started in adolescence.

How to file a free claim against JUUL

If you believe that you or someone you know is a victim of JUUL products, please reach out to us. We are handling JUUL-related personal injury lawsuits at no cost to you. 

What could qualify you to file a claim:

• Addiction – with or without treatment.
• Any person, and especially high school or college students, who have been diagnosed with hypersensitivity pneumonitis, pneumonia or an eosinophilic pneumonia that required medical treatment including hospitalization. JUUL smokers can quickly develop significant pneumonia that may require ICU care including mechanical ventilation. 
• Any person who has developed COPD or advanced asthma after using JUUL products.
• Any person that has a heart attack (myocardial infarction) after using JUUL products.
• Eligible applicants should have never smoked traditional cigarettes prior to smoking JUUL.

If this sounds like you, please fill out an online claim or call 1-800-222-9657 for a free claim evaluation. A member of our staff will reach out to you to discuss your options. You may be entitled to monetary compensation.

Partner with Heninger Garrison Davis to File a Claim Against JUUL

Heninger Garrison Davis is Alabama’s most prolific civil litigation law firm based in Birmingham, AL. We focus on personal injury, business litigation, mass tort, and class action cases. We possess the sophisticated legal skills, financial resources and multi-layered support needed to take on the world’s most powerful corporations. Our team works hard to cut through the complexity, get to the heart of the problem and win what matters the most.

Am I Limited to the Insurance Available After an Injury?

This may be one of the more complicated questions a personal injury lawyer can answer because there are so many factors to consider. Plus, the rules vary widely from one state to another. In general, an insurance company is not required to pay anything more than its policy limit. There are, of course, exceptions.

At Heninger Garrison Davis, LLC, our main focus is to clearly and effectively advise and assist each of our clients to the fullest. This means providing straightforward communications, one-on-one consultations, and a clear path to your goals. Give us a call if you have suffered an injury and need help.

What is Insurance?

To understand your rights under an insurance policy, it is important to fully understand what insurance is. A person or business purchases a certain amount of insurance coverage in the event the person or business harms someone else. It is paid protection. If you hurt someone, your insurance company has a contractual duty to hire lawyers, defend you in court, and pay any judgments against you, up to the limits of coverage that you purchased. Your insurance company has no duties or obligations to the people you hurt.

What Happens if There is Not Enough Insurance?

Whether it is an injured party or an insured party, sometimes the insurance policy is not enough. Say, for instance, you are injured by a drunk driver who carried a small $25,000 policy. But you suffered broken bones and incurred over $50,000 in medical bills. Your injury could be worth far more than the insurance that the drunk driver purchased.

In this situation, if you were to get a judgment against the driver for more than $100,000, the insurance company would be obligated to pay $25,000, and you would have to try to collect the difference from the drunk driver individually. If that person has no financial means to pay, then you could be left undercompensated for your injuries.

Duty to Act in Good Faith

In the example above, the insurance company would be wise to pay the full value of its policy. This is because it has a duty to deal fairly with injured parties and with their own insured. If the insurance company refuses to pay or is unreasonable in handling the claim, they could expose their own insured person to a lawsuit or an excess judgment. This obligation is known as “good faith.”  When insurance companies intentionally delay, use unlawful tactics, or refuse to pay a reasonable sum of money to settle a claim, thereby leaving their own insured party exposed to a judgment, they are said to be acting in “bad faith.” Some states even provide a statutory remedy for going after an insurance company that acts in bad faith.

What is a Bad Faith Lawsuit?

Imagine that you paid your insurance premiums for years and one day you do something stupid and drive while a little intoxicated. You cause an auto accident and seriously injure someone. Your insurance company refuses to resolve the claim fairly, and the injured person sues you. They obtain a sizeable judgment against you, garnish your wages, put a lien on your home, and place you in financial ruin. Now imagine that the injured party had offered to settle the case for the amount of insurance that you had available, but your insurance company took an unreasonable gamble with your future.

This is exactly how insurance companies breach their contractual duties to their clients every day, leaving people exposed even after they pay their premiums year after year.

How to Collect Money for Bad Faith

There are a couple ways this can happen. First, if you are the negligent insured party against whom the insurance company has committed bad faith, you can sue your insurance company for bad faith and breach of contract. This may help you recover compensation for the harm that was caused by the insurance company refusing to honor its obligations.

On the other hand, if you are the injured person who can not collect because of an insurance company’s bad faith, you may be able to get the negligent party to file the lawsuit then “assign” it to you. This just means they agree to give you the money from the bad faith lawsuit in exchange for you not suing them. This allows you to bypass the negligent driver and pursue compensation from the insurance company. By doing this, sometimes there is actually a way to collect more compensation than the value of the insurance policy.

How We Help

At Heninger Garrison Davis, LLC, we can help to review the insurance company’s practices to see if they have committed bad faith. These actions are somewhat rare, but when successful, you could obtain sizeable compensation. Never assume that an insurance company knows what it is doing or is acting within the law. Many times they are not. Call us today to schedule a private free consultation to review your options.

 

 

HGD’s Lew Garrison Leads Panel on JUUL Litigation

HGD’s Lew Garrison helped to lead an important panel discussion for the Young Lawyers Section on Friday, November 22 at the Birmingham Bar Center. The first panel focused on Cannabis, Vaping Law, and the 1st Amendment.  Panelists discussed new developments and trends in the law and answered questions from the attendees regarding the JUUL litigation, among other topics. The panel was moderated by Jeanie Sleadd, also from HGD.

 

Five HGD Attorneys Selected to 2019 Mid-South Super Lawyers!

 

Heninger Garrison Davis is proud to announce that Tim Davis, Gayle Douglas, Lew Garrison, Erik Heninger, and Steve Heninger have been selected to the 2019 Mid-South Super Lawyers list. Each year, no more than five percent of the lawyers in the state are selected by the research team at Super Lawyers to receive this honor.

Super Lawyers, a Thomson Reuters business, is a rating service of outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. The annual selections are made using a patented multiphase process that includes a statewide survey of lawyers, an independent research evaluation of candidates and peer reviews by practice area. The result is a credible, comprehensive and diverse listing of exceptional attorneys.

The Super Lawyers lists are published nationwide in Super Lawyers Magazines and in leading city and regional magazines and newspapers across the country. Super Lawyers Magazines also feature editorial profiles of attorneys who embody excellence in the practice of law. For more information about Super Lawyers, visit SuperLawyers.com

HGD’s Jeff Leonard Scores Legal Victory Against Arkansas’s Largest Hospital System

Class Action Lawsuit Tests Baptist Billing Tactic

Originally published in Arkansas Business by Mark Friedman mfriedman@ABPG.com

A little Rock Firefighter recently scored a legal victory against the state’s largest hospital system over how it bills

patients injured by the actions of others. Chief US District Judge D.P. Marshall, Jr. Ruled that the suit, filed by Brian Whitley against Baptist Health of Little Rock, will proceed as a class action. Whitley is represented by Heninger Garrison Davis with Jeff Leonard as lead counsel.

Baptists’s billing strategy, plaintiffs say, can delay and reduce financial settlements to which victims are entitled. Whitley’s suit stems from a car accident in November 2013, in which he was severely injured by a driver going the wrong way on Interstate 440. The firefighter, a North Little Rock resident with health insurance through QualChoice of Little Rock, was taken to Baptist Health Medical Center-Little Rock.

But instead of billing QualChoice for the medical care, Baptist Health filed a medical lien against Whitley. Here’s why: QualChoice would have paid a discounted rate negotiated with Baptist for its insurance customers. The medical lien against Whitley directly could result in a much higher list-price payment from the proceeds of any settlement Whitley would get from the at-fault driver’s insurance.

Whitley sued Baptist Health in 2016 and sought class-action status, accusing the hospital of violating the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. Judge Marshall said the class members will be patients who had health insurance through one of six major providers and from whom Baptist sought to recover the full amount of the bill through other sources, such as the at-fault driver or his liability carrier.

In Whitley’s case, Baptist left a $64,000 lien in place against Whitley, even though it billed QualChoice for his treatment, and QualChoice paid a portion of the bill. The lien prevented Whitley from receiving a $50,000 settlement from the at-fault driver’s insurance carrier. The lien was eventually released, and Whitley received the settlement.

“It’s unclear exactly how many of these patients Baptist treated like Whitley,” Marshall wrote in his 22-page opinion and order filed Sept. 13 in U.S. District Court in Little Rock. More than 6000 people are estimated to be in the class. Baptist Health said in its court filings that first seeking payment from liability insurance carriers rather than a patient’s health insurance company is standard procedure for hospitals, and it did nothing wrong.

– – –

One of Whitley’s attorneys, Jeffrey Leonard of Birmingham, Alabama, quizzed Donna Crutchfield, Baptist’s director of patient financial services, about what would be better financially for the patient – paying a health insurance copay for the treatment or the hospital’s full list amount of the price.

“We bill…the same way every single time, whether the patient is going to owe more or less,” Crutchfield said. “We don’t pay any attention to what ‘s best for the patient financially.”

 

Read the full article here

 

Five HGD Attorneys Selected to Super Lawyers 2019 Mid-South Rising Stars

 

Heninger Garrison Davis is proud to announce that Taylor Bartlett, Mark Ekonen, Drew Haskins, Caroline Hollingsworth, and Jeanie Sleadd have been selected to the Super Lawyers 2019 Mid-South Rising Stars list. Each year, no more than 2.5 percent of the lawyers in the state are selected by the research team at Super Lawyers to receive this honor.

Super Lawyers, a Thomson Reuters business, is a rating service of outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. The annual selections are made using a patented multiphase process that includes a statewide survey of lawyers, an independent research evaluation of candidates and peer reviews by practice area. The result is a credible, comprehensive and diverse listing of exceptional attorneys.

The Super Lawyers lists are published nationwide in Super Lawyers Magazines and in leading city and regional magazines and newspapers across the country. Super Lawyers Magazines also feature editorial profiles of attorneys who embody excellence in the practice of law. For more information about Super Lawyers, visit SuperLawyers.com.

HGD RECOGNIZED IN U.S. NEWS – BEST LAWYERS® 2020 “BEST LAW FIRMS” RANKINGS

WASHINGTON – Nov. 1, 2019 – Heninger Garrison Davis (HGD) is proud to announce that six of the firm’s practices have been recognized by U.S. News – Best Lawyers^® in the 2020 edition of “Best Law Firms”. HGD  received four first-tier rankings in metropolitan regions.

The U.S. News – Best Lawyers^® Best Law Firms rankings are based on a rigorous evaluation process that considers overall firm performance, client and lawyer evaluations, and peer recognition from leading attorneys across the United States. Firms included in the 2020 “Best Law Firms” rankings are recognized for professional excellence with consistently impressive ratings from clients and peers.

The HGD practices recognized in the 2020 edition of “Best Law Firms” include

Metropolitan Tier 1

• Birmingham
• Commercial Litigation
• Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions – Plaintiffs
• Medical Malpractice Law – Plaintiffs
• Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs

Metropolitan Tier 2

• Birmingham
• Product Liability Litigation – Plaintiffs

Metropolitan Tier 3

• Birmingham
• Litigation – Insurance

To be eligible for a ranking, a firm must first have a lawyer recognized in The Best Lawyers in America©, which recognizes the top 5% of private practicing lawyers in the United States. Achieving a tiered ranking signals a unique combination of quality law practice and breadth of legal expertise. “Choosing the right law firm can be a vital decision,” said Tim Smart, executive editor at U.S. News & World Report.

“The rankings draw on U.S. News’ 35 years of experience evaluating complex institutions to help individuals and companies alike make the best decisions.” The 2020 rankings are based on the highest number of participating firms and client votes received on record. Almost 16,000 lawyers provided more than 1,229,000 law firm assessments, and more than 12,000 clients participated providing 107,000 evaluations.

“For the 2020 ‘Best Law Firms’ publication, the evaluation process has remained just as rigorous and discerning as it did when we first started ten years ago.” says Phil Greer, CEO of Best Lawyers. “This year we reviewed 14,931 law firms throughout the United States – across 75 national practice areas – and a total of 2,106 firms received a national law firm ranking. We are proud that the ‘Best Law Firms’ rankings continue to act as an indicator of excellence throughout the legal industry.”

Ranked firms, presented in three tiers, are recognized on a national and regional-based scale. Firms that received a tier designation reflect the highest level of respect a firm can earn among other leading lawyers and clients from the same communities and practice areas. Awards were given in 75 national practice areas and 127 metropolitan practice areas.