Lawyers often joke to clients that it was not like they ran over a group of girl scouts. Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal partner Paul Glad made that common joke a reality when he ran over a group of mothers and children selling Girl Scout cookies in Burlingame, California. A prosecutor has announced that he will not be criminally charged. The managing partner of the San Francisco was taking the painkiller OxyContin under a doctor-proscribed regime, but insists that he was not impaired.
Glad said that he specifically went to the shopping area to buy girl scout cookies. He first parked in a handicapped spot and then got out of the car without putting it into park — resulting in it ramming the adults and children. Holly Rogers, 49, suffered two broken legs and one was amputated above the knee. Her 8-year-old daughter, Caroline Schoustra, also suffered a broken leg.
Deputy DA Sean Gallagher said Glad passed a field sobriety test and that there was little evidence that he was impaired to support a criminal charge.
He still faces a torts lawsuit for millions that charges reckless conduct by Glad and will likely focus on his use of OxyContin. The case could raise some interesting question of whether a field sobriety test is an adequate measure of impaired driving in such cases. While warnings do not specifically refer to a side effect related to driving, it does include a warning about “somnolence” — or “sleepiness, the state of feeling drowsy, ready to fall asleep. ”
He should be prepared for this and any other tort actions — in addition to being the head of the San Francisco office, he is one of the country’s top insurance lawyers.
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Prof. Turley, the label filed with the FDA, and which must be included with the drug, DOES expressly warn against driving.
In the section titled Information for Patients/Caregivers, point 5 states “[p]atients should be advised that OxyContin may impair mental and/or physical ability required for the performance of potentially hazardous tasks (e.g., driving, operating heavy machinery).”
Negligence looks like a winner to me.
Again, another example of double standard justice favoring those in charge.
Does he and Rush have the same Pharmacy?
“The managing partner of the San Francisco was taking the painkiller OxyContin under a doctor-proscribed regime….”
Couldn’t Michael Jackson have made the same statement?