This past weekend was likely the busiest shopping weekend of the year in the United States. Unfortunately, not all retailers ensured their customers’ safety as the weekend progressed. Negligent security, inadequate crowd control and slipping hazards affected shoppers in various locations nationwide. For those who were injured in shopping malls, large retail outlets and independent stores, the consequences of their injuries could affect them for months and even years into the future.

If you were injured this past weekend in a shopping establishment, it is important that you contact a personal injury attorney experienced in premises liability matters. But please do not wait to seek medical attention until after you meet with your attorney. If you are injured, you should seek any treatment you need in order to give yourself the best shot possible at healing. In addition, this treatment will likely be used as evidence to support your premises liability claim.

Late last month, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made two key decisions regarding prescription painkillers. One decision involved recommending more strict controls on the distribution of potentially addictive painkillers. The other decision involved the approval of a particularly strong, single-ingredient prescription painkiller. In many ways, these decisions seem to pursue conflicting regulatory goals.

The FDA is charged with a number of regulatory priorities. Among these priorities are ensuring the safety of prescription drugs, recalling medications due to prescription drug defects and ensuring the availability of safe and effective drugs within the marketplace. Sometimes, these goals clash. It seems that the FDA’s prescription painkiller agenda is being colored by overlapping aims.

Upton Sinclair’s novel “The Jungle” inspired a revolution in federal protections for consumers. The piece, which was published in 1906, is set in Chicago’s meatpacking district. After both the public and president Theodore Roosevelt read the book and were repulsed by its portrayal, enough outrage was voiced that the system was forever changed. What many Americans might not know though, is that consumer protections that began with the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act are arguably as important today as they were more than a century ago.

When dangerous and defective products find their way onto store shelves, consumers tend to suffer. Sometimes consumers who come into contact with these items suffer only minor injuries. However, use of other products has made consumers violently ill, has caused them great injury and has resulted in death. We write all too often about the ways in which dangerous and defective drugs, medical devices and consumer products can change people’s lives forever.

Whether you plan to host a party or to hand out candy to little ghosts and goblins this holiday, it is important that you plan ahead in order to prevent anyone visiting your property from becoming injured. Even if you do not plan to open your doors to any visitors this Halloween, you could be held liable under the theory of premises liability for any harm that befalls kids and adults who may believe that you are home and wish to offer them candy after they ring your doorbell.

If you are hosting a party, please take special care to ensure that no minors are served alcohol and that no adults are over-served. Even though you are not the individual consuming the alcohol, you could be held liable for supplying alcohol to underage persons and you could be held liable if over-served adults cause harm to others while intoxicated.