September 2010

Personal injury cases can encompass a variety of injuries. Most of those injuries start with a physical injury such as a back injury from a car accident. Some personal injuries, however, can exist without a predicate physical injury. Take for example emotional distress. While emotional distress can be included as a non-economic damage in a personal injury case where there…

Many personal injury accident cases are settled through negotiations between the plaintiff and defendant long before an actual lawsuit is even prepared. There are times, however, when a personal injury accident case simply cannot be resolved through negotiations and therefore a trial becomes inevitable. When a personal injury accident goes to trial, the outcome is in the hands of 12…

Personal injury accident cases come in many forms. Most people think of a car accident when they think of a personal injury accident but there are an infinite amount of other accidents that can be considered personal injury accidents as well. For example, a dog bite, a fall at a store or injuries suffered in the workplace cam all be…

Most people have heard the term “negligence” before. The most basic definition for the term negligence is “fault” or “blame”. While these explanations are adequate for a simple and quick explanation, negligence is actually much more complicated and complex. Negligence is the basis of the majority of tort claims in the United States. A tort claim is a claim for…

A plaintiff in a personal injury accident case is certainly entitled to represent herself in her quest for compensation for her injuries. There is no law or rule that requires victims to hire counsel to represent them in a personal injury accident. For very minor accidents where the plaintiff received little or no injury, an attorney may truly not be…

At some point or another you have undoubtedly heard about an astronomically high jury award for a personal injury case. Maybe it was the McDonald’s hot coffee case where the jury initially awarded the plaintiff $160,000 in actual damages and $2.7 million in punitive damages (the award was later reduced and the parties eventually came to a secret settlement amount…

Many personal injury accident cases are settled by a mutual agreement long before they make it to a court room. Typically, the plaintiff (injured person) will submit a settlement demand to the defendant for what she feels is a fair settlement amount. The defendant will then either agree to the amount, make a counter offer or reject the demand altogether.…

Frequently, when someone is injured in an accident, their injuries require medical attention. Sometimes the victim just requires and immediate evaluation while other times they require extensive and long-term medical treatment. If the victim has medical insurance then the issue of who will pay the bills-at least initially- is simple. If the victim is uninsured-as is the situation for millions…

The vast majority of personal injury lawsuits are settled without the need to go to trial. Most personal injury lawsuits are relatively straight forward with negligence clear and damages easily assessed. Additionally, the cost for an insurance company to take a case to trial can easily exceed the amount of monetary damages that the plaintiff was willing to settle for…