All Topics

• Elderly Drivers a Growing Problem?

  Randy Walton | November 03, 2007 8:33 AM | 0 CommentsSan Diego County, CA

  We're all aware that the aging baby-boomer generation is creating all kinds of societal concerns such as the solvency of social security, the increase in health care costs, and the availability of nursing home care. But what about all the elderly drivers that will be on the road?A few months about I counseled a client in her 80s who was being prosecuted for vehicular manslaughter. She had run...

• Nursing Home Advocates Rip Governor's Veto

  Randy Walton | November 01, 2007 10:11 AM | 0 CommentsSan Diego County, CA

  Advocates for nursing home residents were stunned by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's veto of a bill that would have required state nursing home inspectors to complete complaint investigations of abuse and neglect in a timely manner. The bill, which required that investigations be completed in 40 days, had broad support in Sacramento. "I think its garbage," said Pat McGinnis, executive director...

• A Ghoulish Story of Dependent Adult Abuse

  Randy Walton | October 31, 2007 11:21 AM | 0 CommentsSan Diego County, CA

  This Halloween a San Luis Obispo transplant surgeon is accused of dependent adult abuse after allegedly prescribing excessive painkillers and sedatives to expedite the death of a 25-year-old patient with the hope of harvesting his organs.Prosecutors say Dr. Hootan Roozrokh ordered massive doses of drugs to speed the death of 25-year-old Ruben Navarro last year. Navarro was taken to Sierra Vista...

• This Halloween Stay Safe (and Classy) San Diego

  Randy Walton | October 29, 2007 9:26 AM | 0 CommentsSan Diego County, CA

  The Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued its annual reminders to parents as to how to have a fun, but safe Halloween. I can't speak for the rest of the country, but Halloween in San Diego now looks more and more like Christmas. Driving around there are lights on houses, artificial pumpkins, and large inflatable ghosts and witches dot every other yard. By the way, what's up with those...

• San Diego Fire Victims Must Not Be Afraid To Ask Insurance Questions

  Randy Walton | October 25, 2007 1:53 PM | 0 CommentsSan Diego County, CA

  Like a few hundred thousand other San Diegans, I spent Sunday night in a grocery store parking lot with my neighbors, and Monday night in a hotel room after being ordered to leave my home because of the encroaching wildfires. I'm one of the lucky ones. Unlike about 1,500 other San Diego County residents, I got to take my wife and kids back to a home that, except for ash and soot, and a bit of...

• Bill to Protect Nursing Home Abuse Victims Vetoed

  Randy Walton | October 19, 2007 8:22 PM | 0 CommentsSan Diego County, CA

  Only hours before it would become law, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed AB 399, a popular assembly bill that would have required the California Department of Public Health to complete investigations of nursing home neglect and abuse complaints within reasonable time limits and to notify complainants of findings. According to the California Advocates of Nursing Home Reform (CANHR), abuse...

• Nursing Home Neglect: Medicare Patients Not Receiving Quality Care

  Randy Walton | October 17, 2007 10:39 AM | 0 CommentsSan Diego County, CA

  A UCLA study has revealed that vulnerable elderly patients receive only 65 percent of the tests and other diagnostic evaluations and treatments for a number of conditions, including heart disease and diabetes.The research was gathered from 100,258 community-dwelling geriatric residents in 19 California counties. All the patients studied were enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid, and all a mean...

• Insurance Companies Cheat Victims, Increase Profits

  Randy Walton | October 16, 2007 11:32 AM | 0 CommentsSan Diego County, CA

  Thousands of Americans are learning a sad insurance secret the hard way, when there's a disaster, insurance companies homeowners count on to protect them from financial ruin routinely pay less in insurance claims than what the insurance policies promise. Bloomberg News has reported that in the last 12 years, insurance company net income has soared, recording record profits, while paying less to...

• Three Die in Fiery Truck Accident

  Randy Walton | October 15, 2007 10:43 AM | 0 CommentsSan Diego County, CA

  A fiery truck accident on Interstate 5 killed three people and injured at least ten last Friday evening. The chain-reaction accident occurred on southbound lanes near Santa Clarita, closing the southbound lanes.The Los Angeles Times reported that the accident occurred inside a southbound tunnel that is used primarily by big-rig truckers and caused a fire that was so intense that firefighters...

• Personal Injury: Production Company Sued As Pretend Military Training Turns Real

  Randy Walton | October 12, 2007 9:24 AM | 0 CommentsSan Diego County, CA

  Jesse Klinger was an 18-year-old Marine when he arrived at Camp Pendleton from some training before being deployed to the Middle East. One of the training exercises was designed to simulate the ordeal of interrogation by the enemy, and included actors playing the role of interrogator.During the mock interrogation, Klingler's mouth was gagged, he was blindfolded and his wrists and ankles were...