www.charlesjeromeware.com. " Here to make a difference."
Charles Jerome Ware, Attorneys & Counselors, is a Maryland-based national lead-paint
poisoning defense law firm. The firm is highly-regarded and well-respected for its successful representation of property owners and landlords in Baltimore lead paint cases. For an initial courtesy consultation contact us at charlesjeromeware@msn.com, (410) 720-6129 or (410) 730-5016.
A number of fundamental shifts are occurring in the world of lead exposure litigation.
On the regulatory side, the Centers for Disease Control are eliminating the use of the term "blood level of concern " and replacing it with the term " reference value" due to increasing evidence that there is no blood lead level without deleterious effects. Rather, the evidence consistently correlates even low blood lead levels with IQ, attention-related behaviors, and poor academic achievements.
To identify children with elevated blood lead levels, the CDC has adopted a "reference value" based on the 97.5th percentile of the blood lead levels distribution among children one to 5 years of age, which is currently 5 ug/dL. This reduction from the previous standard of 10 ug/dL will likely encourage the plaintiff's bar to pursue lead exposure cases at lower levels of exposure.
Fortunately, in recent years the defense bar has been successful in educating the judiciary on lead issues. There is a growing recognition among courts that other factors (e.g., socioeconomic factors, family history, and heredity) play a role in a child's neuropsychological development and that evidence of these factors is relevant and admissible. As a result, courts are beginning to allow discovery of health, IQ and education information from non-party family members --- material that can prove critical to the successful defense of a lead paint exposure claim.
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