Tag: motor vehicle accidents
Proximate Cause: Personal Injury Claim Causation Requirement
In a famous case, a commuter runs for a train that’s just started rolling. The man sprints across the platform. A conductor on the train reaches out, pulling the man. Another railroad employee on the platform pushes him onto the train. A wrapped package falls out of the man’s hands onto […]
Discovery in Civil Litigation
A “search for the truth” is the idea behind the discovery phase of civil law suits. Hollywood keeps movie viewers in suspense, telling a tale but holding back on a final nugget of truth until a secret witness shows up in court at the end revealing “the truth”. Forget all […]
Cell Phones and Accidents: Is Legal Cell Phone Use Negligence?
Motor vehicle accidents happen more often than not due to driver inattention. Jabbering on the cell phone, texting, eating, drinking, turning to communicate with passengers, daydreaming and many other distractions reduce driver attention. Unfortunate but true, tragedies like this are not uncommon. More people are using phones every day as […]
LIENS ON PERSONAL INJURY CASES
Like locks on a gate, liens prevent final settlement of personal injury cases until they are addressed. Government liens, private liens, statutory liens and others lock down settlement until dealt with. Medicare & Medicaid Liens Medicare & Medicaid, by statute, have liens on injury cases where accident related bills have […]
Independent Medical Examination in Personal Injury: the “IME”
Independent Medical Examination is anything but independent. The exams, also called an “IME” are also not medical examinations in the sense of a physician performing an unbiased examination seeking clinical findings for the purpose of healing. IMEs are set up by insurance companies solely for insurance company purposes. So, the correct […]
PERSONAL INJURY: CAUSATION AND NEGLIGENCE
An unbroken chain must connect cause-and-effect between an accident and an injury in any case. It may seem obvious. But, causation is a fundamental element underlying every claim of negligence. As the question below shows, the critical legal element of causation must never be overlooked: Attorney Myers: My wife had […]
PERSONAL INJURY: Reasonable Person Standard
Negligence happens when a person does one of two things: Fails to do something that a reasonable person would do, guided upon those considerations which ordinarily regulate the conduct of human affairs; or Does something that reasonable person would not do. Common law evolves slowly. The reasonable man concept is […]
Can a Personal Injury Case be Reopened After Settlement?
Question: When symptoms come back years after an accident is it too late to file a claim? My niece was in a car accident four years ago and broke her neck. She received a settlement check and her medicals bills were paid. Now, she is experiencing renewed pain and she […]
HE SAID SHE SAID CASES – EVIDENCE & CREDIBILITY
He said she said. People label disputes this way, questioning how cases like this can ever resolve. But, there’s more to it. The question overlooks the reality of court testimony. Courts highly value testimony. Testimony is Evidence in He Said She Said What witnesses say under oath is evidence. Under scrutiny of cross-examination, the […]
PERSONAL INJURY “Eggshell Skull Doctrine”
The “eggshell skull doctrine” is a time-honored legal concept. It explains what happens when a person with a preexisting medical condition is injured in an accident. In an actual case a person suffered a rare genetic condition in which their skull was as thin and brittle as an eggshell. […]
