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About 1,000 pedestrians are injured in the United States every day by negligent motorists. As an experienced auto accident attorney, Our Law Firm knows that pedestrian accidents can result in catastrophic injuries such as brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, broken bones, paralysis, and even death. All of us are pedestrians at one time or another, and most of the time, we do reach our destinations safely. However, as statistics show, these pedestrian accidents occur more often than they should. The best way to avoid accidents is to be prepared and be aware of vehicles around you as well as your surroundings.
Here are seven valuable tips to avoid tragic pedestrian accidents:
1. Cross only at marked crosswalks or intersections. Some accidents involve pedestrians who are hit by cars while crossing at a location where they are not supposed to be crossing. Always make sure you are legally crossing in a crosswalk or at an intersection. In the event that you are hit and injured while legally crossing, the law protects you. A jury in a civil personal injury case looking at your injury accident is very likely to rule in your favor.
2. See and be seen. You can do so by wearing reflective clothing if you are walking at night or at a busy intersection. Try and stay out of a driver’s blind spot as far as you can. Always carry a flashlight while walking in the dark. And make eye contact with drivers when you cross the street.
3. Remember what you were taught as a child. Look to the left, right and then left again for traffic. Stopping at the curb tells drivers that you intend to cross the street.
4. Please do not drink and attempt to cross a busy street. Using drugs and alcohol severely impairs your judgment. It is extremely dangerous to walk when you have been drinking or when you are under the influence of drugs.
5. Watch your children. Small children should not cross streets by themselves or be allowed to play or walk near traffic.
6. Obey traffic signals. At intersections where the traffic flow is controlled by signals or a traffic officer, pedestrians must obey the signal and not cross against the stop signal unless directed to do so by an officer.
7. In case of bad weather, take care that your umbrella or raincoat does not prevent approaching vehicles from seeing you. Always be visible to drivers.
If you or a loved one has been seriously injured in a pedestrian accident as a result of a negligent driver, please contact our Law Firm for skilled legal representation in your case. We are experienced personal injury attorneys who have been fighting for the rights of injured victims for 25 years. Call us, and we will send you a free brochure about pedestrian accidents. Our attorneys have worked to protect the rights of injury and accident victims for more than 20 years as civil litigators. We work to maintain the family-rooted objective of making a difference to those who have been wronged by another. In the extensive period that we have been litigating injury cases, we have acquired invaluable legal knowledge to assist injury victims and their families in obtaining just compensation for the physical harm and emotional suffering that has befallen upon them at no fault of their own. In acquiring millions of dollars in settlements and verdicts for our clients, our dedication has helped accident victims receive the monetary funds that they need to help pay for expenses associated with their injuries brought on by another individual’s negligence.
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Train Accident Attorneys, personal injury lawyers and accident law firms can be found in every corner of the state. If you search for train accident attorneys today on the internet or on new sites, you will see how personal injury attorneys have either added train accident pages to their websites, or added information about train crashes to existing pages. Attorneys who take such action are quick to recognize that taking such prompt actions can result in their being retained by victims of a train crash and their articles often provide useful information. Often, however, victims of such a crash are wise to take a breath and wait before immediately retaining any such attorney, or even this law firm. Why? Because the investigation of the accident will be performed best not by such attorneys but by the NTSB, the National Transportation Safety Board. Once that report is made public, you can bet that the entity for the party or parties at fault will seek to settle all of the cases in much the same way, whether the injured victims have an attorney or not. The trouble with waiting for such reports, however, is that you only have six months to file a claim against a public entity in Texas. The investigation report may take longer than that to prepare.
Keep in mind an attorney can help ensure that an injured victim receives a fair settlement for his or her injuries or for the loss of a loved one by being organized in preparing what attorneys call a demand package that contains all of the medical bills and records and an analysis of the injured persons claim. If a family has lost a loved one, a demand package is still put together by the attorney representing the family members, only the demand package will also provide an analysis of the loss of economic benefits i. e. the earnings of the loved one and what that loss means to the family members such as the wife and children of the loved one. An attorney can also prevent you from making serious mistakes such as allowing a recorded statement taken by an experienced risk management adjuster. If an injured person or the family of a loved one is unable to put together such a demand package on their own, and it is not a simple task, then it is usually wise for the injured party or the family members to retain an attorney to represent them.
What injury victims and family members should not do, however, is rush to hire the first attorney whose website pops up when searching for information on a disaster such as a train crash. Take your time, meet with a sampling of attorneys who handle such cases, and then hire the attorney you are most comfortable with and with whom you have the most confidence. While expensive offices can mean a measure of success on the part of the law firm, an attorney with the drive and energy to focus on your case can be worth more than a law firm full of attorneys in comfortable surroundings. You needn’t be concerned that your case may be affected by new legislation now being considered to require positive train controls into effect that would automatically stop trains that are on a collision course. If it is reported that one of the train engineers was texting on a cell phone at or shortly before the time of the accident, this will be a major piece of evidence in determining fault on the respective parties and in determining what entities pay what percentage of the settlement amounts. Keep in mind that it is also a good idea to have an attorney who is not representing other claimants in the accident. This is to ensure that there is no conflict of interest and that your interests, and not those of an attorney’s other clients, are the attorney’s first and foremost concern.
On October 2, 2008, Federal Regulators issued an emergency order banning the use of all cell phones and other electronic devices by rail workers. On October 16, 2008, President Bush signed the Railroad Safety Improvement Act of 2008, requiring Positive Train Control automated braking systems for Class 1 railroads and passenger railroads by the end of 2015. If you have been injured in a personal injury or train accident, we have the knowledge and resources to be your Train Accident Lawyer on your case. If you have been injured in a train accident or personal injury accident of any kind, call our Law Office and learn how we can assist you. We have the knowledge and resources to represent you as your Train Accident Lawyer.
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A good portion of our society believes that our justice system is out of control. There have been dozens and dozens of reports by the media over the years about how some person received millions of dollars from a jury for what, at first blush, appears to be a minor injury or insignificant dispute. The McDonald’s Coffee Case comes to mind. Yet, the common misperception among the public that the justice system is a lottery where all you have to do is feign serious injury and the insurance company will pay you large amounts of cash to go away, is a myth.
Early in my career, I used to get extremely mad about this common myth. I would often see that good, honest, and trustworthy people who were somehow harmed by another person’s negligence were then royally scr***d again by the insurance company when it came time to resolve the claim. In fact, most of my clients tell me that they are shocked at how hard and nasty the insurance company will fight to defeat legitimate accident injury claims. And when I say a legitimate claim, I’m talking about an accident that was clearly caused by someone else and where the injuries are fairly serious (surgery, broken bones, brain injury, etc. ). It is partly because of this common misperception among the public about accident claims that I chose to start an Accident Attorney blog and write about my experience as an attorney who represents people who have been seriously harmed by another.
Here is a perfect example of how unreasonable an insurance company can act. It involves a case that I’m working on right now. I represent a 55-year-old woman who was injured in a rear-end accident about 4 years ago. To maintain confidentiality, I will call this woman Jane. Jane is a very nice hard-working woman. She’s been married for nearly 20 years and has two grown children. This client is what I would call my typical client. That is, Jane is an honest, hard-working citizen who was injured through no fault of her own. Jane’s injuries started out as a typical whiplash injury. The insurance industry likes to call this type of injury a soft tissue injury to suggest that the injury is extremely minor and insignificant because it only involves the soft tissues. In my experience, the insurance companies fight whiplash injuries very hard. They hire all kinds of medical experts to state that these injuries usually heal within 4 to 6 weeks, so any treatment or problems beyond this time frame are not related to the accident.
In any event, Jane’s whiplash injury progressively got worse over the years. She received all kinds of different treatments to help resolve her pain and make a full recovery. This included numerous family doctor consultations, physical therapy, massage therapy, x-rays, injections, medications, MRI scans, and consultations with many different specialists about what was causing her symptoms. It was not until more than one year following the accident that a cervical MRI was ordered. The scan showed some disc abnormalities. More physical therapy and medications were ordered. Then another MRI was ordered a few years later when Janes’s symptoms were getting worse, and the injury was severely impacting her daily activities. This second MRI showed a C4-5 disc angulation or what may also be referred to as a disc collapse in the middle of her cervical spine. Jane consulted with 3 different surgeons who all stated that she needed immediate surgery or risk paralysis. The disc collapse also caused her cervical spine to curve in the opposite direction, which is called Kyphosis. The doctors told Jane that she needed a complicated procedure where they fused three vertebrae together and inserted a cage and titanium plates to stabilize her spine so the abnormal curvature could be reversed and that her spinal cord would not be damaged. All of Jane’s doctors (at least 8 different doctors), including her surgeon, have stated that the problem was initially caused by the auto accident years earlier. The C4-5 disc collapse started out minor, and then as time progressed, it got worse to the point that Janes’s spinal cord became precariously close to being permanently damaged. Jane’s medical bills are approximately $230,000, which includes the surgery and facility bill of $190,000. Fortunately, the other driver was an insurance agent for State Farm and had $2.1 Million in auto coverage through her employer.
Now, you would probably think that State Farm would do the right thing and offer a reasonable amount of compensation to take care of Janes’s past and future medical bills, plus include some amount to compensate her for having a painful, permanent, and dangerous spine injury. Not. Instead, State Farm went fishing into Janes’s prior medical history. Jane, in her early 50s, obviously had some prior injuries and doctor visits over the years. State Farm found out that Jane injured her neck at work while lifting boxes about 3 years before the accident. Even though Jane’s doctors determined that the injury was a minor strain that fully resolved within 6-8 mos. , State Farm found this injury highly significant. State Farm also discovered that Jane injured her lower back at work, moving furniture about a year before the accident. Even though Janes’s doctor stated under oath that this lower back injury had nothing to do with her neck, State Farm found it significant that Janes’s massage therapist following this injury stated that she had neck tightness along with lower back pain. Jane’s last massage therapy for her lower back injury ended more than 6 months before the auto accident. But State Farm didn’t care. It hired a well-known defense medical expert (he’s admitted to earning more than $3 Million over the past 15+ years working for insurance companies and against injured victims) to state that Jane’s auto accident injury was mild, should have resolved within 8 weeks, and that her current problem and resulting surgery was all entirely due to Janes pre-existing cervical spine condition. It did not matter to State Farm that this expert was the only expert out of 8+ reputable doctors who held these opinions. Jane and I participated in mediation last week with State Farm in an effort to resolve the case short of a jury trial. You would think that State Farm might offer an amount that most would think was close to being reasonable. Nope. State Farm’s final offer was $50,000. Not even enough to cover 25% of Jane’s medical bills to date. Add to this fact that Jane has now incurred over $20,000 in litigation costs (doesn’t include attorney fees), and you can see that Janes’s only real option is to go to trial.
The insurance industry wants the public to believe that most trials involving injuries are necessary because the victims and their lawyers unreasonably demand millions of dollars to settle. I just don’t see that in my line of work. In fact, it is usually the other way around. The insurance company offers such an unreasonably low settlement that the victim is left with only one real option: try the case in court and let a jury decide. Jane’s case is a perfect example of this. I am an attorney who brings over 15 years of practical yet innovative experience to personal injury cases. My continued success has afforded me notable recognition not only for my expertise but, more significantly, for integrating his expertise with a keen understanding of the client’s vision and his strong relationship-driven approach to serving clients.
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Best Rated Accident Attorneys – Should I Find a Medical Malpractice Attorney?
Many healthcare providers, like doctors, are responsible for providing the best care. If a doctor hurts the patient when they are under care, a patient may want to seriously consider hiring a medical malpractice lawyer and discuss how they can make a claim. Before consulting an attorney, you should find out what to expect here!
How Medical Malpractice Lawyers Work:
A malpractice attorney can assist you through many kinds of claims or settlement processes if you have ever been disabled or injured because of the negligence of the doctor. Similarly, a doctor could also hire a malpractice lawyer against you if they are accused of a doctor’s negligence.
How Do I Know If I Need to Consult a Lawyer?
You may want to look for a medical malpractice lawyer if you have suffered through an infection in the doctor’s office. Have you ever been hurt in a surgery? Anesthesia went wrong. Your doctor failed to diagnose a disease or injury. Doctors gave you the wrong prescriptions. The patient hasn’t been informed about any possible consequences or risks.
How Much Does It Cost to Hire a Malpractice Lawyer?
Not all lawyers charge the same. But most malpractice lawyers charge on a contingency rule. You may not need to pay any amount upfront, but you will pay a percentage if the case is in favor of you. Some of the lawyers charge contingency using different sliding scales according to the amount you are going to sue for.
What to Expect from Working with Malpractice Lawyer
You may be able to claim for lost wages and medical bills if it is possible to prove the fault of your healthcare professional. It can be done either in court, through a judge, or settling off the court with negotiations between lawyers.
What Does Contingency Basis Mean?
Most malpractice suits are handled on a contingency basis, meaning that the lawyers do not get paid unless there is a recovery for the client. From that recovery, the lawyer’s fee is subtracted, and then the costs advanced by the lawyer must be repaid from the plaintiff’s share of the recovery. Most cases will also involve one or more liens from the plaintiff’s insurance carrier, and these, too, must be paid from the plaintiff’s share of the recovery. If paying the attorney’s fees, costs, and liens would leave the plaintiff with little to no money, that is obviously not a good outcome for anyone (including the lawyers, believe it or not). Experienced medical malpractice lawyers should have an idea of how much a case will cost in terms of expenses as well as a general idea of what the case will be worth, and can usually do a rough analysis of these numbers very early in the investigation.
Understanding Medical Malpractice Laws
Understanding Medical Malpractice Laws is key to success in your case. Personal injury from medical malpractice may occur from negligence, error, failure to diagnose or any action or inaction that may have caused a harmful event or condition. In the field of medicine, there is a standard of care protocol that guides a physician or healthcare provider in diagnosing, treating, and caring for a patient. In the field of medical malpractice law, the term, standard of care, is often used when scrutinizing a medical malpractice case.
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The term pro bono is short for the Latin pro bono publico, which means for the public good. The term generally refers to free services that a professional provides to poverty-stricken clients, non-profit groups or charitable organizations. For some individuals, it’s difficult to afford a lawyer to advise them or defend them in a civil case. Unlike in criminal cases, you’re not appointed a lawyer if you can’t afford one. In these cases, there are various options for how an individual can find a pro bono lawyer who will defend/advise a person for free or for a small fee. A fee significantly lower than that of a regular-priced lawyer. For many lawyers, putting at least 50 hrs a year into free services isn’t a hard task, and some enjoy doing it.
It’s finding a service that is more of a challenge. But to make your search easier, there are many pro bono services that are offered throughout the nation. Specific offices that concentrate on pro bono services. In these cases, these organizations may have income restrictions in order to receive a free service. There is always an option. We can help find the best attorneys who practice Pro Bono service. Contact us for more information.
DUI Attorney
Preparing to meet a potential DUI attorney is a good way to know what you want ahead of time. Many lawyers are willing to meet potential clients at a preliminary meeting, called an initial consultation. You can accomplish several things that this meeting, including:
* Telling the lawyer more about your legal situation
* Questioning the lawyer about his skills, background, experience, suggested legal strategy for your case and legal fees
Deciding whether to hire the attorney
Most lawyers don’t charge for the initial consultation but double-check when you make the appointment. To make the most of the meeting, there are a few things you should do to prepare. You’ll want to make a written list of questions to ask the lawyer. Understand that the lawyer may not feel comfortable giving you specific legal advice until after you’ve hired him. Instead, focus on the lawyer’s legal background, experience handling DUI cases, and legal fees. You can also ask the lawyer how he generally handles cases similar to yours. Bring writing material to the meeting, so you can take notes as you interview the attorney. You’ll also want to bring any documents related to your DUI charges. These will help the lawyer better understand the charges and the prosecutor’s case against you.
Selecting an Attorney
After you’ve met with each DUI lawyer you’re considering, it’s time to select one to handle your case. There may be one attorney who stands out from the rest, which will make your decision an easy one. If you’re torn between a couple of lawyers, ask yourself:
* Which attorney made me feel most comfortable?
* Who had the best experience and legal background to handle my case?
* Which attorney suggested the most appropriate strategy?
* Whose legal fees can I afford?
* Which attorney do I trust to do the best job?
Family Pro Bono Attorney Tips
Finding a reliable family law attorney can be a complicated task. Here are some tips:
1. Tap your network: Personal recommendations work best for locating a lawyer right for your family. Find a friend, relative, or acquaintance who knows or has dealt with a family attorney. You can also use online social networks or lawyer-rating services to find an attorney who suits your budget and criteria.
2. Family law cases are not your typical run-of-the-mill cases. Because of the sensitive nature of such cases, family lawyers need to be experienced, trustworthy, and skillful. Make sure that the recommended lawyer understands your situation thoroughly.
3. Talk to your attorney: Explain your case and circumstances. See if the attorney asks intelligent questions and seems genuinely interested in your case. If he or she seems disinterested or evasive, then it is best not to continue with that lawyer.
4. Minimize Exposure while you are looking for an Attorney: Avoid conflict with the opposing party and do not let the other party know you are seeking the services of an attorney. Many times, people get into problems with their spouse/significant other that result in domestic violence situations, criminal charges, domestic violence injunctions, the moving or hiding of assets, and the moving or hiding of children. If there is a domestic violence injunction in place, whether temporary or permanent, do not contact the other party via any means, including contact through 3rd parties. If there is a situation involving law enforcement, try not to be angry or upset. Do not use vulgar profanities or engage in name-calling. Do not make unnecessary threats. Do not destroy or deface property or clothing. Do not threaten to hurt the other party’s pets.
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