personal injury litigation

A large number of personal injury claims are based, at least in part, on a theory of negligence. Negligent conduct is conduct that falls below the standards of behavior established by law for the protection of others against unreasonable risk of harm. A person has acted negligently if he or she has departed from the conduct expected of a reasonably prudent person acting under similar circumstances. To use an old logical saw, that ultimately begs the question of who a reasonably prudent person is. To some, the definition of that person comes as a surprise. The reasonably prudent person can sometimes be generalized as “Debbie Do-Gooder”. The reasonably prudent person stops completely at lights and stop signs. They signal a full 100 feet before making…

When a person gets injured, the last thing they are thinking about is how the various insurances interplay with one another. The first thing that should always be focused on is getting the necessary medical treatment. At our firm, we have a textured knowledge of insurance law and how each policy affects the other and we can unwind the confusing mess that a personal injury claim becomes. This allows our clients to focus on the treatment they are receiving, while we focus on getting the right insurance to pay for our client’s medical bills. There are three basic sources for payment of medical bills. The first is obvious, and it the health insurance for our clients. The second is no-fault coverage, and not everyone is…

Most injury cases that are handled by personal injury lawyers are auto accident cases. Auto accidents are by far the most common, as driving a car comes with significant inherent risks. However, there are many other types of cases like slip and falls, trip and falls, dog bites, and other incidents that lead to injuries. While we have addressed slip and falls and our strategy in approaching them, the trip and fall case is often confused with a slip and fall. A trip and fall generally come as a result of some unknown invisible object that causes a person to trip and fall, or dangerously constructed stairway or walkway. In order to properly handle such cases, it is very important to first focus on building…

Getting injured is unfortunate enough as it is, but sometimes someone is hit by a drunk driver, or someone speeding, or someone texting and driving and it can compound the injury. People involved in such accidents can suffer from increased anxiety, and become very fearful of driving after the accident. These folks not only suffer from their injuries, but also from the fact that another person was committing a crime when they were hurt. Ultimately, we get asked, how does this affect my case? The answer, like most in the legal field, is that it depends. Things like crossing a yellow line, speeding through a stoplight or stop sign, or something as simple as failing to yield to oncoming traffic are all violations of the…

Slip and Falls are known as being one of the most difficult areas of personal injury cases to win for Plaintiffs. When a person slips on a spilled drink in a supermarket, the supermarket often blames the person who slipped as being the responsible party. They argue that the victim should have looked where they were going, and often trot out the ineffectual argument that others in the area didn’t fall so it must have been the victim’s fault. These arguments can be tricky to deal with, but often it is easier to overcome these arguments than others. The most difficult thing to overcome in slip and fall cases is often proving the Defendant knew or should have known the spills or hazards were present…

We have talked about the general overview of personal injury cases and some important things to remember when you are involved in a personal injury case. Another question we get a lot when we meet initially with clients is whether the client should have taken pictures or tried to do more to document the scene of the accident. In auto accident cases, most police departments will take pictures of the scene of the accident and the damage to any vehicles in the accident. So, for the most part, some evidence will be saved by the investigating officers. However, there are many ways with which our clients run into unfortunate accidents leading the injury. These range from slip and falls, dog bites, trip and falls, and…

A large part of our personal injury practice at Parnell, Michels & McKay, deals with injuries people sustain in motor vehicle accidents. Bringing those claims to resolution now, more than ever, is a complicated and difficult task. Dr. Arthur Croft of the Spine Research Institute of San Diego (SRISD) is familiar with this difficulty, as he has had many patients of his become overwhelmed by the personal injury claims and litigation process. In his article, titled “Study Confirms Flaws in Standard Defense Strategy for MVC Injury”, he touches on how automobile insurers are doing everything they can to avoid paying personal injury claims. You can read Dr. Croft’s article here. Dr. Croft calls the position All-State Insurance, and others, take as the “three D’s –…