Tag Archives: personal injury attorney

Personal Injury Attorney Tips on Using Expert Witnesses

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Some of the most complicated cases for a personal injury attorney are medical malpractice ones. If you have been involved in such a medical accident and are looking for settlement, know that an expert witness testimony is essential to winning your case. You may have heard about these experts testifying in court, on behalf of the plaintiff, but how efficient are these experts and where to find them? Below are a few tips.

Fact: You Will Need a Medical Expert, No Matter What

Almost all medical malpractice cases rely on the expertise of such an expert. This is because the facts are usually too complex for non-doctors to determine if the patient’s doctor should be held liable for the patient’s injury.  As your personal injury attorney will explain, some states will even require that you get a medical expert’s opinion before you can initiate a lawsuit.

So what can happen if you ignore this rule? Without a medical expert’s opinion, chances are a judge will dismiss the case or decide the case early. This is because the courts generally consider that the technical information the jury must consider in a medical malpractice case is too complicated to sort through without help.  When a jury is involved, they are not required to adopt the expert opinion 100% but they do have to consider the facts.

So, use the help of your specialize attorney to find an expert to testify on your behalf. These experts are usually not cheap and are hard to find but a good lawyer with a proven track record of personal injury cases will be able to recommend someone.

What Can a Medical Expert’s Testimony Establish?

Generally, there are two questions central to any medical malpractice case: did the medical professional follow the general standard of care and did their failure to follow the standard bring about your injury?

A certified medical expert will give their informed opinion as to whether the doctor being sued lived up to that standard or care. There are no hard-and-fast rules about the standard of care in any given field, so the expert may use evidence like medical publications or medical board guidelines to assist. Another important part in the expert’s testimony is the part where that person must explain to the jury how likely it was that the doctor’s incompetence was actually the cause of the injury you suffered.

Who Is Qualified to Be a Medical Expert?

As your expert attorney will tell you, state rules answer to the above question in different ways. But there are a few general rules that do apply. The expert  can be a specialist in a certain area of expertise pertaining to your case.  An expert might qualify as a specialist through a combination of academic and practical experience, or through board certification.

Accidents Attorney Advice about Construction Workers’ Personal Injury

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For an accidents attorney, personal injury cases are the most complex and sometimes hardest to settle. When personal injury occurs at the workplace, the case becomes even more difficult. Nevertheless, the help of a specialized attorney can be crucial in your case. Especially if you work in the construction industry and you are looking to file a claim for personal injury.

Did you know that, besides getting a worker’s compensation, you can also file a civil lawsuit for negligence or product liability?

Below are a few essential tips and a few legal options explained.

The conditions of your workplace injury compensation

If you are injured while doing construction work you are legally eligible for workers’ compensation benefits. The conditions may vary from state to state, but they generally have several elements in common. Among these, the fact that you do not need to prove fault for any party. All you need to be able to prove is that you sustained your injuries at the workplace.

Every accidents attorney will explain that each employer is required to carry workers’ compensation insurance and that through this; your benefits will be paid. Now, a workers’ compensation claim will typically pay for your lost wages, medical treatment and permanent or partial disability.

You can ring a civil lawsuit outside of the workers’ comp

Keep in mind that this legal aspect depends on the rules of the state where the incident occurred and on the particular circumstances of your personal injury. Many construction workers typically work with subcontractors and vendors, which means that often there will be other people on a job site- people like engineers and architects or even suppliers, some of them operating heavy machinery or even driving trucks. If you are injured due to the negligence of one of those persons, you may have a claim for damages against not only that individual, but also that person’s employer.

As a specialized lawyer will explain, these actions traditionally take the form of a classic lawsuit with the same rules and procedures. Success largely depends on you being able to prove a few things:

–          another person had a professional duty to act in a reasonable and safe manner in regards to you; they failed to perform it

–          your injury came as a result of that negligence

Some situations involving professional negligence from another party include: falling from a scaffolding that wasn’t properly erected, badly designed equipment leading to injury, electric shocks happening from defective equipment, reckless driving on the scene, that leads to an accident, the collapse of a structure, toxic leaks or spills due to faulty equipment.

There are many aspects to personal injuries happening in the construction industry, so if you have been injured and are seeking compensation, the best advice anyone can give you is to find legal help.

Personal Injury Attorney Tips: A Few Things about Assault and Battery

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It is a known fact that most personal injury cases are the result of a kind of accident, either a car crash, a negligence situation of a slip and fall incident. This isn’t all to be said about personal injury cases, though. A less more frequent but still very common kind involve intentional torts, that is situations in which one person intended to cause harm to another person.

An accidents attorney will be able to help you file a claim in court, in case you were the victim of such an act, but will your case be going to civil or criminal court? Let us look closer at personal injury claims for intentional tort.

The interesting thing is the same type of conduct can both lead to criminal and civil liability. Legally speaking, battery and assault are part of the intentional torts category. In these situations, they can serve as base for civil lawsuits, usually solved by the perpetrator paying financial damages. But if the case is considered criminal assault, state prosecution will follow, and the attacker can face jail time.

What does “assault and battery” legally entail?

Criminal and civil assault and battery will have almost the same definition. The thing to keep in mind is that every US state has different criminal statuses and these vary slightly in their definition of crimes.

Generally speaking, assault involves action or a threat of action, by which one person puts another person in imminent bodily harm.  Battery is considered the logical result of an assault. Legally speaking, assault turns into battery when physical touching is involved.  For instance, if someone has only raised a fist at you, placing you in imminent punching danger, that person has assaulted you. But if the punch was not thrown and in no way connected to your body, that cannot be considered battery.

A few things about civil cases

Civil assault and battery are actually considered torts which means a wrong was done by one party against another, causing some sort of damage. Most of the civil battery cases are the result of an act of negligence. This is why an accidents attorney will explain that in court, a regular tort will not take the intent of the perpetrator into consideration. An intentional tort is a totally different situation and it can usually be at the basis of a criminal case, as they can result in false imprisonment, fraud or slander.

Generally, keep in mind that battery and assault are considered criminal actions when there are actual laws preventing this kind of behavior.  A person can be found non-guilty of such an intentional crime, but can still be found civilly liable and be forced to pay damages arising out of the same incident.

As battery and assault cases are generally considered more difficult, in case you were the victim of such an act, the best thing would be to first contact a specialized personal injury attorney.

How to Find a Good Personal Injury Attorney to Help You with Your Accident Claim

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Sometimes the outcomes of accidents we go through are more serious than we might imagine. This is especially true in personal injury cases where a person’s life is endangered or their ability to continue their life in a normal matter is denied to them. If you are facing a complicated personal injury claim case, don’t make the mistake to believe you could solve this situation on your own. Don’t just turn to any lawyer for professional help; make sure you find someone who has experience with such cases. Below are a few tips on how you can find an accidents attorney specialized in personal injury cases.

Find experienced legal representation by referrals. This may not be too difficult, as it is enough to scour the internet for sites or blogs written by personal injury victims. They will always have at least a name to recommend. Make sure you get the names of several lawyers and meet with each of them to discuss your claim before you decide to hire someone. Another thing to keep in mind is that you might not be accepted right away, so be prepared for rejection.You will be surprised to find out that a lot of accidents attorneys specialized in personal injury cases will not take your case unless it falls within a certain potential recovery amount. Others might reject you just because the claim you have is not crystal clear and your case might bet beaten in court.

Talk to friends and acquaintances. You probably have people in your circle of friends who have been involved in a similar case so they may be able to recommend a good attorney. This doesn’t mean you need to make a decision on a certain lawyer solely based on that recommendation. Different people will have different responses to a lawyer’s style and personality so don’t hire a legal rep until you have actually met them and talked your case with them.

Talk to other attorneys. You probably know or work with at least one lawyer, either for your business, or for other reasons. A professional peer is the best place to seek a referral to an experienced personal injury lawyer. So your lawyer may be able to recommend the best and most affordable accidents attorney.

Contact referral services. If none of the above seems to work contact the local bar association. You will find they have lawyers listed by legal specialty and they are able to recommend the best attorney for your case. Some bar associations will actually screen attorneys and list only those attorneys with particular qualifications and a certain amount of past experience, while other services will list any attorney in good standing with the state bar who maintains liability insurance. Before you choose a lawyer referral service, ask what its qualifications are for including an attorney and how carefully lawyers are screened. 

After you  find a candidate or two, make sure you talk to them in person and inquire a few things about their professional experience.

Some of the questions you need to ask include:

  • How long has the lawyer been in practice?
  • What percentage of the practice involves personal injury cases?
  • Does the lawyer most often represent plaintiffs or defendants?
  • Would the lawyer personally handle your case or pass it along to another — perhaps less experienced — lawyer in the office?

One you have found a suitable accidents attorney, your path to success on wining that personal injury case is half complete. This is why finding a reputable lawyer with a lot of experience is crucial to your case.

How Can an Accidents Attorney Help in Case of Food Poisoning?

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If you have become ill by food poisoning, you may be wondering if you have a case and who can normally help you under such circumstances. Is this a personal injury case and will an accidents attorney be able to help? In most cases, the answer is yes. However, you need to keep in mind the fact that this will depend on the particular circumstances of your illness.

A food or substance poisoning case has to be proven in court so as the liable person, persons or organizations can be brought to justice. As any specialized food poisoning and accidents attorney will explain, delaying the case between actually consuming the substance and the onset of your illness may make it difficult to prove that it was the actual substance that made you sick.

A specialized lawyer will be able to know better what legal theories can actually form the basis of your lawsuit, how a case can be proven and who the liable part in all this is. Below are a few things you need to know about food poisoning claims.

  • A substance or food poisoning lawsuit will fall under the defective product liability claim. This means that you bought or have been offered a defective product that manage to injure you or someone in your family.
  • You should know that many states have adopted extremely strict product liability laws and these can make the job easier for you and your attorney, because they basically relieve you of any burden of proving negligence in producing and distributing a certain product from the manufacturer.
  • In many cases negligence is to blame for substance poisoning and this is a good thing to prove, especially if your case is reported in a state that doesn’t have strict liability laws. The attorney’s role in this case is even more crucial as they will have to prove that in your case, the organization selling you food acted negligently in manufacturing or supplying a contaminated product. The attorney will have to prove the fact that the defendant failed to exercise reasonable care in distributing a contaminated food to the clients.
  •  Another line of defense in a food poisoning case is related to breach of warranties. It is good to know that many states impose a minimum standard on all foodstuff merchandise, and selling products that are in breach of those warranties will actually constitute a legal violation.

As in all accidents that involve hard to prove cases, the toughest thing will be to determine who is actually liable for your food poisoning case. The general rule is that the end- product distributor, in most cases can be the party to blame. However, as your auto accidents attorney will tell you, it is best to try and include any and all parties involved in the chain of distribution of the contaminated food. A good attorney will have the means to research and to track back contamination to its initial source and in case they are successful in determining where the initial contamination came from, you will have more parties that can be made liable for your personal injury.