An Austin, Texas lawyer has filed a lawsuit over injuries he suffered at a local concert in March when a mechanical arm and video camera crashed into the crowd. The plaintiff was knocked unconscious in the incident, and claims he suffered head injuries that make it impossible for him to continue practicing law. The suit names the camera operator, the South by Southwest festival and the sponsor of the concert as defendants.

Hotel heir Barron Hilton will pay $4.9 million to a former gas station attendant in California who was hit by Hilton’s car during a drunk driving accident in 2008. When Hilton was arrested, he had a blood-alcohol-content level of 0.14 and was 18 years old. The attorney for the man injured said he suffered permanent disabilities because of the incident.

A class-action lawsuit was filed last week against General Motors that claims the company failed to fix a defect in hundreds of thousands of Chevy Impalas sold in 2007 and 2008. The lawsuit claims a defect in the vehicles causes the rear tires to become misaligned and easily worn down. GM fixed the defect in all Impalas used for police work, but failed to address the problem in the more-than 423,000 cars owned by civilians.

Two Austin, Texas, residents have filed a lawsuit against the W Hotel and its operator after panels of glass fell 20 stories into the pool area, injuring the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs claim that weeks later they are “still removing glass from their bodies.” According to the lawsuit, the hotel was aware of potential problems with the glass before the incident, but had done nothing to ensure safety of its guests.

Chrysler has issued a recall of more than 11,000 vehicles manufactured this year due to problems with the steering column. The recall includes the 2011 model Jeep Wrangler, Liberty, Compass and Patriot, as well as the Dodge Journey, Avenger, Nitro and Caliber, and the Chrysler Town & Country. The company reported that during a front-end collision, the steering column may not be able to support the “occupant loads,” increasing the potential for serious injury.

An Iowa family has filed a lawsuit against Mercy Medical Center and two local doctors for failing to notice the signs of abuse in their adopted son. The boy was brought into the hospital in July 2009 by his biological parents with “a bleeding brain and at least 15 old and new rib fractures” caused by abuse. Just three weeks earlier, the boy was in the same hospital with a broken arm, and the suit alleges doctors declined to look for any additional injuries or probe into the true cause of the injury. The brain bleed left the child severely brain damaged.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced the recall of 24,000 toy Military Copters, manufactured by Excite USA, due to a laceration risk. The agency said that the blades on the toy can come off during use and cause potential injury to the user. There have been three injuries reported, two of which resulted in lacerations.

A refrigeration and HVAC company has agreed to a $1.5 million settlement over the death of scientist at the University of Washington in a car accident two years ago. One of the HVAC company vans made an illegal U-turn on a Seattle street, striking the victim, who was riding his bicycle, and ran over him.

Hewlett-Packard has announced a recall of 162,600 Lithium-ion batteries used in laptops due to a risk of overheating and injury. The company said that since a similar recall was issued in May of last year, there have been 40 reports of batteries that have overheated and ruptured, in some cases causing severe burns. In total, HP has recalled 286,600 laptop batteries since May 2009.