What is a a Shoulder Injury Related to Vaccine Administration?
In this podcast, our vaccine attorney, Ryan Truesdale, explains what SIRVA is and how vaccine claims are handled.
Transcript:
Jon Groth:
All right. This is interesting. We had a couple people who called in this week with vaccine injuries, shoulder injury as the result of vaccine administration. Ryan, did I say that right?
Ryan Truesdale:
Related to vaccine administration.
Jon Groth:
Oh, I got it wrong. Shoulder injury related to vax injury. Gosh, shoulder injury related to vaccine administration. SIRVA injuries.
Ryan Truesdale:
Yeah. One of the first times we ever recorded together, I blanked out entirely on that acronym. So, I know it a little bit.
Jon Groth:
There we go. But, there were cases that are over in your division, in the vaccine division, of the law firm here. It just reminded me that we need to talk more about this because it still is continuing to be fascinating to me that there is this court of federal claims that has money out there that’s paying for people’s injuries related to a vaccine administration. Do you recall with these new clients that came in, what kind of vaccines did they get?
Ryan Truesdale:
I believe they were all flu shots.
Jon Groth:
So, all flu shots. I guess, where is the flu shot administered? Here, you don’t have to say yes or no, but I’m going to put you on the spot here, Seth, because you’re here too.
Jon Groth:
Let me just introduce everybody, sorry. Ryan Truesdale is here with us. One of our attorneys in our vaccine division and handles our wrongful death in nursing home cases. They’re really complex cases. Then Seth, one of our law clerks, is here too. So, have you ever gotten a flu shot, Seth?
Seth:
Yes.
Jon Groth:
Where did you get it administered?
Seth:
Target?
Jon Groth:
No, where on your body?
Seth:
Oh, in my arm.
Jon Groth:
In your arm.
Ryan Truesdale:
He’s not wrong, Jon.
Jon Groth:
But no, that’s true. It’s a bad question. Bad question. But that’s a good point, so it can be the Target pharmacy, which I think is maybe CVS.
Ryan Truesdale:
Yes.
Ryan Truesdale:
I was going to say, yeah, it’s not limited to just flu. There’s actually a whole table. So the pneumonia shot, like PREVNAR, for example, is a popular one. Actually, we have a client out in Russia right now that had that. But flu is the most common one, just because everybody gets it. But like, chicken pox, pretty much anything you can think of is on the table. As long as it’s on the table, you’re able to get compensation on these things. The first thing is, this a covered shot? Then when we know it’s on the table, there are specific injuries that are on it as well, as well as time limits. So then, we can compare. A shoulder injury, for example, a SIRVA. What we do is, first we see “flu shot,” that’s on the table. Now the next thing we have to do is, when did the injury start after getting the shot? If it’s within 48 hours, now that’s another thing that we can check. The next thing is going to be, was there surgery or did it last for six months or more? As long as you hit one of those, you’re then able to say, well, now they’re entitled to compensation. Meaning that if you want to look at liability, we’re saying that flu shot is what caused this shoulder injury.
Jon Groth:
Who do you ask for for compensation?
Ryan Truesdale:
We file a claim to the US Court of Federal Claims and it’s through that. There is a fund that is put aside that’s basically consisting of taxes that are put on every single vaccine. So, you bring the claim through that court and then you start talking the chief special master or the special master, depending on what type of injury it is. They’re very highly specialized. Again, if we’re at a point now where you’ve checked all those boxes, we’re able to prove entitlement to become solely a damages conversation. That’s going to be talking to… They go by “the respondents,” but the federal government over, based upon case law, what is adequate compensation? That’s something very, very different from a typical civil injury, a civil lawsuit. If you’re in a car accident, for example, if you went to court saying, “Hey, this last person in this car accident got this much money. The judge is going to say, “Who cares? Let’s let a jury decide.”
Ryan Truesdale:
In the US Court of Federal Claims, when we bring these vaccine claims, it’s very heavily based upon case law and we use that to determine what is fair for our clients that got these injuries. Just to be clear, SIRVA is just the most common injury, but there’s a lot of things available. Guillain-Barre syndrome, for example, things like that. Just pretty much anything you can think of. There’s wrongful death cases because a person goes into anaphylactic shock because they have a vaccine. Now, it’s important to say that doesn’t happen with every shot. People, keep getting your shots because ultimately, the statistics are on your side. But if anything goes wrong, there are options available.
Jon Groth:
It’s very interesting.
Seth:
So with vaccine injuries, that people are sustaining from getting these vaccines, are they easily connected to the vaccine itself? Or how does that correlation work?
Ryan Truesdale:
That’s one of those, it all depends. I’ve been talking primarily about these SIRVA claims just because it’s the easiest one to understand. So again, you kind of want to look at this checklist. If you can show that a person has no preexisting conditions, so they don’t have a shoulder issue prior, and within 48 hours of receiving this shot, they have a problem and it lasts for six months. The government just concedes at that point. “They’re entitled. Let’s just talk about damages at this point.”
Jon Groth:
So then, it’s your job to make sure we have all the damages on the table.
Ryan Truesdale:
Well, right. All the damages on the table, knowing the case law, knowing where they should fall, what is fair and what’s not. I’ll always tell my client, “Here’s what the proffer is at this point. If we want, we can fight it and this is what I think the results will be.” I definitely put the damages on the table and I also make sure that the client understands exactly what they can get and what they should be going for.
Jon Groth:
So Seth, do you know? A typical car accident case, a car crash case, how are attorneys paid from that case?
Seth:
Are you speaking on contingency as you mean by that?
Jon Groth:
Contingency, yes. So, they’re paid contingency. Let’s say there’s an offer of $10,000. The typical law firm would have a contingency of what percentage of that $10,000?
Seth:
One third.
Jon Groth:
So, the client would get potentially $6,700 approximately of the $10,000 if there were no medical bills that were needed to get paid out of that. So on a vaccine injury case, Ryan, how are attorney’s fees paid and how much of the offer from the US government from that fund will go in the client’s pocket?
Ryan Truesdale:
Well, that’s the best part about this program. The federal government pays 100% of my attorney fees. So therefore, in the scenario you gave of $10,000 and the client. You have to take the attorney fees and that out, they don’t get the $10,000. Here if a proffer is made or an offer, whatever it may be, 100% of that money goes in the client’s pocket and that’s tax free. That’s all to them, whatever that offer proffer, stipulation, whatever it is may be. The federal government then, on its own in a separate way, pays my attorney fees. So, at no point does a client ever have to pay me anything. Costs are even paid by them also, so they get 100% of what the proffer, offer, stipulation is.
Jon Groth:
Interesting. It’s really no risk for the client to come and talk to you about a vaccine injury, and it’s something where you can not only educate them, but you could get them compensation if they meet all the elements on the table. All right. Well, thank you very much for a topic on the fly. I appreciate us being able to go through this. I think what we want to do is make sure we have more information for Samster Konkel & Safran, skslawyers.com, so we can educate people about these kind of injuries, because this is something like we said before, not many lawyers know about it.
