The Inhaler He Couldnt Afford, A Too-Spicy Lawsuit & A Stolen Jackpot | Lawyer Up With Lisa Lanier Hardik Pandya [oAtolrmSddO]

Attorney Lisa Lanier of Lanier Law Group Personal Injury and Car Accident Lawyer joins the Two Guys Named Chris show for this week's "Lawyer Up" segment. A 22-year-old walks out of a pharmacy without his inhaler because the price jumped from about $70 to nearly $600. Five days later he is dead. Lisa explains why she believes the pharmacy carries the biggest exposure, and what happens when a warning goes unheeded. When it is your life on the line, you Hire A Heavyweight.

Start with the inhaler, because this is the case that matters. A young man with severe asthma went to fill a prescription he had always paid roughly $70 for. He was told it now cost nearly $600. He could not pay. He left with a rescue inhaler meant to stop an attack already underway, but without the maintenance inhaler that prevents attacks from starting. Five days later he had a severe attack. The rescue inhaler was found empty on his nightstand. His parents sued the pharmacy chain, the insurer, and the pharmacy benefit manager that sets prices between them.

Lisa's read is that the pharmacy has the biggest exposure, and the reason is specific. According to the suit, the insurer contacted the pharmacy and identified three alternatives with $5 copays, telling them to uzbekistan call the prescribing doctor for approval. Pharmacists do this constantly. It did not happen. When a party gets an express warning and a workable solution and acts on neither, the failure is no longer the system's. It is theirs. The defendants dispute the claims, and every case turns on its own facts.

Then the Thai restaurant. A California physician ordered a spicy appetizer, asked for it mild, and now claims the heat permanently injured her throat and nasal passages. The restaurant says the pepper is ground into the meat and cannot be made mild, and the dish is marked. Lisa is skeptical. The plaintiff is representing herself, which often signals she could not drive bc find counsel to take it. California is a strict liability state, so she need not prove negligence, but she must prove the product was defective. California also applies assumption of risk. She went to a papua new guinea Thai restaurant and ordered a dish whose name announces the heat, marked on the menu with a pepper icon. The pepper rates 50,000 to 100,000 Scoville units, hotter than a jalapeo but below a habanero. Ordering heat and then suing over heat is a hard case.

One more. In Canada, a man bought a winning lottery ticket worth millions but had lost his wallet and had no ID, so he put the prize in his girlfriend's name. She collected, then cut him off. Lottery rules treat possession of the ticket as presumed ownership, so the payout stands. His only path is to sue her and prove the underlying agreement: that he bought it, that she was to cash it, and what they agreed she would keep. Proving an oral deal between partners is exactly as hard as it sounds.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS EPISODE

Can a pharmacy be liable for failing to offer a cheaper alternative?

What is strict product liability, and what still has to be proven?

How does assumption of risk defeat a claim?

What happens when someone else cashes your lottery ticket?

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A serious accident or devastating injury can change your quality of life for years, sometimes forever. Whether your injury was caused by negligence, carelessness, or intentional misconduct, the road back is hard, and you shouldn't have to walk it alone.

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