January 2005

This winter, scores of Americans, most of them small children or senior citizens, have already or will become deathly ill after eating ground beef boldly labeled “USDA approved.”

The now infamous ConAgra case started with a few sick kids in Colorado and quickly spread coast-to-coast, eventually triggering the recall of nearly 19 million pounds of ground beef tainted with E. coli O157:H7 in July. Now Emmpak Foods recalls 400,000 pounds of tainted ground beef. However, Emmpack Foods is no stranger to E. coli. It recalled 471,000 pounds of ground beef just last May. I guess lightening can strike twice?

What we will learn about the Emmpack Foods recall is that it comes weeks late, after most of that meat has been consumed and 40 Wisconsin residents are sickened. Because these people trusted our government’s food inspections, dozens are ill and some suffered kidney failure and spent days or weeks hooked up to kidney dialysis machines. For some, the long-term prognosis is grim, with the risk of further kidney failure, dialysis, transplants or worse.Continue Reading Put me out of business, please

There’s nothing more American than the county fair. From Washington and California to New York and Texas, countless millions of people are visiting their local fairs to ride the rides, feast on cotton candy and hot dogs, and to visit those cute farm animals.

Unfortunately, some of the visitors to fairs will get very sick. And the sickest ones, most of them small children, may be close to death before their doctors identify the cause – a relatively new strain of deadly bacteria known as E. coli O157:H7.

Most people identify this pathogen with undercooked hamburgers from fast food restaurants. But as a lawyer who has represented thousands of victims of food-borne illness, I have learned that people, especially children, can be infected in a variety of ways – including attending a local county fair or petting zoo.

Any place where people come into contact with farm animals must be considered high risk. The track record speaks for itself. Since 1995, thirteen outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7 have been reported at fairs and petting zoos. Thousands have been sickened. Many escape with a bad case of diarrhea and cramps. But some, mostly kids, have suffered permanent damage to their kidneys.
And some have died.Continue Reading E. coli and the County Fair

We as Americans have grown up being told that our food supply is the safest in the world. However, the CDC estimates that each year over 76 million of us become ill, 300,000 are hospitalized and over 5,000 die, just from eating food contaminated with a food borne pathogen.

In recent years, E. coli outbreaks have been linked to not just ground beef, but also to sprouts, lettuce, apple juice and steaks. Salmonella outbreaks have been traced to foods such as tomatoes, orange juice and cantaloupe. In the last months the largest Hepatitis-A outbreak in United States history has been linked to green onions. Last year, school children in a Chicago suburb were fed chicken fingers contaminated with ammonia. And now, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or “Mad Cow” disease has been discovered at a slaughterhouse in Washington State.

While the incubation period for most food borne pathogens is a matter of days, and human symptoms of hepatitis-A infection frequently do not show up for over a month, symptoms of “Mad Cow,” or the human variant known as Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, may not appear for decades. Because we should not have to worry about the meat we eat today, and the impact that it could have on us days or decades from now, we need stronger and more aggressive regulation and enforcement by the Government, specifically the USDA. This arm of the government must do everything it can to protect the consuming public from tainted product and to protect the US meat industry from economic suicide.Continue Reading What to do about the “Mad Cow”

William Marler is the managing partner in the law firm Marler Clark L.L.P., P.S. Since 1993, Mr. Marler has represented thousands of victims of E. coli, Salmonella, Hepatitis A, Listeria, Shigella, Campylobacter and Norwalk Virus illnesses in over thirty States. As a trial lawyer, Mr. Marler has been involved with several cases of national importance. He represented the children murdered by Wesley Alan Dodd, an escaped Washington State convict; the family of William Louth, who died when a crane collapsed during Kingdome roof repairs; the Terlicker family in its suit against Martin Pang and the City of Seattle stemming from an arson fire; and Brianne Kiner in her $15.6 million E. coli settlement with Jack-in-the-Box. This settlement created a state record for an individual personal injury action. Mr. Marler resolved several other Jack-in-the-Box E. coli cases for more than $2.5 million each.

In May of 1998, he settled the Odwalla Juice E. coli outbreak for the families of children who were severely injured after consuming Odwalla apple juice for $12 million. He represented several children in an E. coli outbreak stemming from E. coli contaminated swimming pool water in Georgia. In 2001 he successfully tried to verdict an E. coli case involving a school lunch program in Washington State. The jury returned a verdict of $4.75 million. He also resolved dozens of E. coli cases in 2003 related to one of the largest meat recalls in United States. Mr. Marler recently settled an E. coli case for a young girl for $11 million. In addition, Mr. Marler has been lead counsel in:

Sheetz Salmonella Outbreak:
www.about-salmonella.com/articles/Sheetz/Sheetz.htm

Paramount Farms Salmonella Outbreak:
www.about-salmonella.com/articles/paramount/paramount.htm

Sequoias E. coli Outbreak:
www.about-ecoli.com/news/sequoias.htm

Chi Chi’s Hepatitis A Outbreak:
http://www.about-hepatitis.com/articles/chichis/chichis.htm

Goldcoast Produce E. coli Outbreak:
http://www.about-ecoli.com/news/goldcoast.htm

Golden Corral Salmonella Outbreak:
www.about-salmonella.com/articles/goldencorral/goldencorral.htm

Habaneros E. coli Outbreak:
http://www.about-ecoli.com/news/habanero.htm

Chili’s Salmonella Outbreak:
www.about-salmonella.com/articles/chilis/chilis.htmContinue Reading William D. Marler, Prominent Food Litigation Lawyer

William D. Marler (http://www.williammarler.com), an attorney at Marler Clark LLP PS (http://www.marlerclark.com) has extensive experience representing victims of bacterial and viral food poisonings. Since 1993, Marler Clark has represented victims of most of the largest foodborne illness outbreaks in the United States, including the 1993 Jack in the Box E. coli, 1998 Odwalla E. coli, 1999 Sun Orchard Salmonella, 2002 ConAgra E. coli and Chili’s Salmonella outbreaks, the 2003 Chi Chi’s Hepatitis A outbreak, and the 2004 Sheetz Salmonella outbreak.
Continue Reading William D. Marler (http://www.williammarler.com)

William Marler is the managing partner in the law firm Marler Clark L.L.P., P.S. Since 1993, Mr. Marler has represented thousands of victims of E. coli, Salmonella, Hepatitis A, Listeria, Shigella, Campylobacter and Norwalk Virus illnesses in over thirty States. As a trial lawyer, Mr. Marler has been involved with several cases of national importance. He represented the children murdered by Wesley Alan Dodd, an escaped Washington State convict; the family of William Louth, who died when a crane collapsed during Kingdome roof repairs; the Terlicker family in its suit against Martin Pang and the City of Seattle stemming from an arson fire; and Brianne Kiner in her $15.6 million E. coli settlement with Jack-in-the-Box. This settlement created a state record for an individual personal injury action. Mr. Marler resolved several other Jack-in-the-Box E. coli cases for more than $2.5 million each. In May of 1998, he settled the Odwalla Juice E. coli outbreak for the families of children who were severely injured after consuming Odwalla apple juice for $12 million. He represented several children in an E. coli outbreak stemming from E. coli contaminated swimming pool water in Georgia. In 2001 he successfully tried to verdict an E. coli case involving a school lunch program in Washington State. The jury returned a verdict of $4.75 million. He also resolved dozens of E. coli cases in 2003 related to one of the largest meat recalls in United States. Mr. Marler recently settled an E. coli case for a young girl for $11 million. In addition, Mr. Marler has been lead counsel in:…….
Continue Reading William Marler Bio