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Auto Accident Question And Answer

IB Contributor — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 14:55:52 GMT

The following is an email I received regarding an automobile accident claim and my reply:

Question submitted:

While waiting at the red light, a young woman in a Toyota 4 runner hit my car in the rear. (Ford Mustang). Farmers Insurance authorized repairs on the same day. The total cost of repairs was $967.93, which included replacement of the rear absorber and bumper cover. At the time of the accident, I felt fine. Within 48hrs, I felt back pain, I tried to self treat. The pain became unbearable, a Kaiser physician documented my upper back tenderness and back pain upon flexion. I was prescribed pain medication and a muscle relaxer. I also received chiropractic treatment. Total bill $1,800. Today, I received a denial letter from Farmers Insurance which states, due to the low impact of the accident, they will not honor my medical claim. Do I have grounds to file a lawsuit? I really suffered after the accident. Please help.

My response:

What you have experienced is par for the course. This is how Farmers handles what they consider to be "low impact" auto accident personal injury claims.

You do have grounds to file a lawsuit. However, that is not really the question. What you really want to know is, "How do I economically recover what I am entitled to for my medical expenses, out of pocket expenses, other recoverable losses as well as "pain & suffering?"

First, what it takes to fight Farmers, through a trial, to rightfully recover what you are entitled to, will cost much more than you could reasonably recover. Farmers will have their team of "expert witness" testify that you could not possibly be injured from this accident. To counter their experts with experts of your own and pay the other necessary litigation costs to complete a trial, you'd be into the case for at least $10,000 to $15,000. I would expect 75% of the jury verdicts for your case, assuming the jury believes your position rather than Farmers, to be in the $4,000 to $8,000 range. You could easily win the case and lose thousands of dollars. Farmers knows this. That's how they get away with denying a claim like yours.

In days past, if Farmers pulled this tactic on you, you could go to trial, win your $4,000 to $8,000 and then sue Farmers for "insurance bad faith" (failure to fairly adjust a legitimate claim). You could seek punitive damages for their despicable conduct. However, our State Supreme Court, reversing previous rulings, struck down a person's ability to punish insurance companies for such tactics. The insurance lobby, probably the strongest lobby in California, continually keeps our law makers from passing any laws that would give people like you an opportunity to hold insurance companies accountable for their "wrongful denial of claims" tactics.

So, what can you reasonably do? Wait. Wait at least a year to see how your injuries heal. Only then will you know the full extent of your injuries. If your injuries and losses are large enough to make economic since to hire an attorney and go to trial, that's what you do. Keep in mind that many back injuries do not fully manifest themselves for many months to years. You have two years from the time of your accident to file a lawsuit.

If you are lucky and your back heals up fine and you have no further problems, first consider yourself fortunate and second, sue the other driver in small claims court. Small claims court is easy and inexpensive. The insurance company can not come in and defend their insured, the negligent driver. No attorneys are allowed in small claims court. I have never heard of an insurance company having their insured bring expert witnesses into trial. Besides, the negligent driver is not likely to know how to present the expert witness testimony. There are a number of websites devoted to teaching you the simple procedures of small claims court. I would expect a small claims judge to award you between $3,600 and the small claims maximum of $7,500.

If you have further questions, contact an attorney from InjuryBoard.com.
Good luck!

John Bisnar
Bisnar Chase LLP

For more information on this subject, please refer to our section on Car and Mototrcycle Accidents.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by IB Contributor

Children's Cold Medicine Recalled Over Dosage Cup

Shannon Weidemann — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 14:32:39 GMT

Over the counter cough and cold medicine has been recalled by Wyeth due to a faulty dosage cup that came with the medicine. The recalled drugs include several Robitussin and Dimetapp brands. The recall comes after an advisory board advised the FDA that cold medications had not been tested on children under the age of six and may not be safe.

The products are being removed because they come with a dosing cup that does not mark the half-teaspoon level recommended for children aged 2 through 5 years old, according to Wyeth Consumer Healthcare, a division of the Madison, N.J.-based drugmaker.
"There's nothing wrong with the products," said Wyeth spokesman Doug Petkus.

The company is hoping to have new packaging and dosage cups out in a few months. Consumers are advised they do not need to return the product for a refund.

For more information on this subject, please refer to the section on Drugs, Medical Devices and Implants.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Shannon Weidemann

Man Dies in Long Beach Car Accident

Shannon Weidemann — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 13:55:06 GMT

A 24-year-old man from Anaheim was killed in a car accident on the Long Beach Freeway on Saturday. He was a passenger in a Camry that hit a tree. The 18-year-old driver was believed to be driving under the influence when he lost control of the vehicle.

As he approached the overpass at about 70 mph, Arvizu swerved to the right to enter the transition lane and lost control of the Camry.
The car went over a raised concrete divider, down an embankment and hit a tree, the report said.

The other passenger in the car was hurt and taken to a local hospital to be treated for her injuries. The driver was uninjured in the car accident. He has been arrested following the accident.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Shannon Weidemann

Person Dies in San Jose Car Accident

Shannon Weidemann — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 12:12:38 GMT

One person died and another two were injured in a car accident on Interstate Highway 280. The three car accident happened during Thursday morning rush hour traffic. The car accident happened in San Jose at Race Street and ended with one car on fire.

At about 7:38 a.m. the three-car accident was reported to the CHP. Several drivers who passed the scene reported seeing a black Toyota Camry as far back as Wolfe Road in Cupertino traveling at speeds up to 100 mph and at times traveling in the center divider, according to CHP Officer Todd Thibodeau.
At about 11 a.m. a completely burned-out Honda sat ripped open like a tin can, facing the wrong direction. A yellow tarp flapped in the wind, partially melted to the wreckage of the victim's Honda. Glass crunched under investigators feet as they measured skid marks on the pavement. A third car, a Mazda 626, had already been removed from the scene.

According to the California Highway Patrol the two people who were hurt only had minor injuries. They are still investigating the accident.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Shannon Weidemann

Is This The Basis For A Lawsuit?

IB Contributor — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 13:52:10 GMT

The following is an email I received regarding the basis of a lawsuit and my reply.

Question submitted: I prepared a packaged food product in a steel bowl. When I ate it I found glass in my mouth. I found a splinter of glass and a glass chip. I slightly cut the inside of my mouth. Is this the basis for a lawsuit?

This was my answer: Any harm done can be the basis for a lawsuit. A violation of your right to "free speech" by a governmental agency can be the basis for a lawsuit, even though you have suffered no personal injury or economic harm. An injury inflected upon you by someone's negligence can be the basis for a lawsuit. A trespass to your property can be the basis of a lawsuit.

I am going to assume that your real questions is either, "What can I do about a piece of glass in the food product I purchased?" or "Can I sue and recover money for suffering a slight cut in my mouth from a piece of glass in a food product?"

What can you do? Write to maker of the food product and send them the glass. Let them know what happened so they can do something about it on their end. Write a press release describing your experience in order to warn others. Write a blog article and broadcast your experience on the internet. Go to the manager of the store where you purchased the food product and let them know about your experience so they can investigate the matter.

Keep this thought in mind, if you want to leave your option open to actually sue the manufacturer of the food product, you need to keep the pieces of glass. The glass is your evidence. It is crucial evidence. Without it, you turn a difficult case into a nearly impossible case. Preservation of evidence is paramount in any lawsuit.

Can I sue and recover money? Ask yourself, realistically, "what was the harm done to me?" Not what could have happened. You could have been killed in a traffic accident yesterday, fortunately you were not. You can not sue all the drivers in the world who "might have" injured you yesterday.

You experienced a slight cut in your mouth. Ask yourself, if you had been summoned for jury duty, spent three days at the court house and heard a guy tell your story of finding class in food product, experienced a slight cut in his mouth and now was asking for money for the experience, would you have an attitude about the mandatory use of your three days of time to sit on jury duty? Would you have an attitude about the costs to our judicial system for the court house, the court employees, the judges time, the time of the rest of the jurors? What would you award the man with the slight cut in his mouth?

If you had an attorney representing you in such a case, I would be wondering if this was the most meaningful cause the attorney had to take up. I would wonder why would an educated professional person be pursuing such a trivial matter and why didn't he/she bring some sense and economic reality to the situation. I would be embarrassed for the attorney. I be appalled that someone in my profession would waste taxpayer's resources on such a trivial matter. There are much better causes to pursue. My license says "Attorney and Counselor at Law". This is a situation for the "Counselor" part.

Now, if I knew thousands of people who were having similar experience as you and the manufacturer of the food product was callously allowing glass to be packed into their products, I would want to represent every injured person in a class action lawsuit and teach manufacturer and the food processing industry a lesson that you can not get away with that kind of negligence. I'd make them pay. Many times a lawsuit is the most efficient way to get the attention of big business.

Bottom line from an economic point of view, the costs of time, money and emotion to pursue such a case is not justified by the expected outcome, in my opinion.

If something inside you just has to file a lawsuit about this situation, go to small claims court. There are a number of websites that provide really good guides on how to file and present a small claims case.

Keep in mind that all legal claims have time limits within which specific action must be taken to preserve your rights. Preservation of evidence is crucial to any properly processed legal claim. Further, every attorney you consult with will have a different opinion, a different approach and a different criteria for the causes they pursue. I always suggest getting a second opinion.

As I wrote this response, something dawned on me. If the person asking this question is my first year of law school Torts professor checking up on me or my first year of law school daughter testing her dad, let me give a law school exam type answer......

A food product manufacturer has a duty to present their product in a reasonably safe manner for the purpose intended. Since the product is designed to be ingested by human beings, the duty to keep foreign and/or dangerous objects out of the product is very high. A splinter of glass and/or a glass chip in the food product, I conclude, is a breach of that duty. The food product manufacturer's duty runs to any reasonably foreseeable user of the product, who uses the product in any reasonably foreseeable manner. Thus the manufacturer has breached his duty to provide a safe product to this end user. Since the end user actually suffered injury, a slight cut, he/she is entitled to recover for the damages suffered. Technically, there is a basis for a lawsuit.

My law school, Pepperdine and my daughter's law school, NYU, do not teach classes in common sense or basic economics. They presume their students posses such knowledge prior to starting law school.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by IB Contributor

No Criminal Charges in Fatal Truck Accident

IB Contributor — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 06:31:09 GMT

Truck accident takes eight lives.

We underestimate the power of distraction. The gadgets that we feel compelled to carry around with us - the mobile phones, iPhones, BlackBerries and Palm Pilots -- can cost lives if we are not conscience of when we use them.

Take for instance this truck driver who tried to recharge his cell phone as he was driving on an Indiana toll road. He rammed right into stopped traffic, killing eight people, according to an news report posted on MSNBC's. But Elkhart County prosecutors have decided not to slap criminal charges on 32-year-old Leonardo Cooksey, although they have no doubts that he was negligent in his actions.

"Inadvertence alone, while an indication of negligent conduct, does not rise to the level of criminal liability, notwithstanding a catastrophic result," Prosecutor Curtis T. Hill Jr. told reporters. Cooksey, an Illinois resident, was traveling 62 mph in a 65 mph zone at the time of the crash. Investigators determined that Cooksey was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs and had been on the road for less than three hours before the accident happened. State investigators also found that he tried to apply the brakes before he rammed into traffic, which was snarled on the toll road because of another crash that had occurred hours earlier near a construction site, the article said.

Two vehicles were crushed beyond recognition after the crash. Five out of six people in a pickup truck that was struck died. Two others in a Jeep Cherokee were also killed as was the driver of another pickup truck that went off the road. Victims' family members are understandably angry at the outcome of the case. Cooksey's truck was registered to New England Motor Freight of Elizabeth, N.J., the news report said.

As I write this a combination of sadness, despair and anger comes over me. This is another one of those situations that no one can fix. It isn't a broken arm that a skilled doctor can repair and the body will heal. It isn't simply a totaled car that can be replaced. It is mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and children that have been lost. There is no adequate way to fix the problems, replace what has been lost or compensate the victims.

Without our system of laws and judicial system, I could see the families of the victims lynching the driver. No, I am not advocating such barbaric actions. It's just something has to be done to hold this driver, Leonardo Cooksey, and his employer, New England Motor Freight of Elizabeth, N.J., accountable for the harm they have inflicted. How can a professional truck driver allow himself to get distracted when he's driving a humongous vehicle and then strike and kill eight people? Certainly our justice system will hold him accountable? Based upon this news story, it sounds like there will be no criminal charges.....that makes me angry and I don't even know these people.

There are many skilled and caring personal injury attorneys that the families will be able to turn to for guidance, representation and to hold the responsible parties accountable. At least the driver was on the job and driving a commercial vehicle, which means that their should be enough insurance and assets to at least partially compensate the victims financially. If this accident had been caused by a non-commercial vehicle, the families of these accident victims most likely would not have any chance at significant compensation. Generally, non-commercial vehicles do not care enough insurance to adequately compensate victims in a situation like this. We see it every day.

If I had been contacted by the family members of the people killed in this incident, one of the first things I would do would be to check out the company that owned the truck, New England Motor Freight of Elizabeth, N.J. I would at least have some good news for the families of the victims. The company certainly appears to be big enough to have enough assets to fairly compensate all of the victims and pay for all the damages caused by their negligent driver. See their website at http://www.nemf.com.

As personal injury attorneys, we see how injuries devastate families and lives, every day. We know the pain and suffering our clients go through, the shattered lives and the lost dreams. We're honored to be able to do what we can and use our knowledge and expertise to help put our clients' lives back together, while enduring the constant attacks by "tort deformers" and politicians trying to protect wrongdoers from being held accountable by attacking our work, our profession, our laws and our justice system.

The best personal injury lawyers will provide a free, confidential consultation to anyone who has been injured or lost a family member. Do not hesitate to call on us or any personal injury expert law firm across the country for assistance after an accident. Although survivors are dealing with a lot, getting a legal team on board early can make a huge difference in the end.

The New England Motor Freight of Elizabeth, N.J. already has their attorneys and investigators working this accident. They are doing whatever they can to protect themselves. If you were injured in this accident or lost a loved one to it, get a free consultation with an expert personal injury firm immediately. Our prayers and our hearts go out to the victims, all of them.

For more information on this subject, please refer to our section on Tractor-Trailer Accidents.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by IB Contributor

Appallingly unsanitary conditions at produce market

IB Contributor — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 21:52:30 GMT

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is demanding that the county's public health director come up with a long-term plan to ensure the sanitary operation of the Seventh Street Produce Market.

The market, where thousands of Southern California restaurants get their fruits and vegetables from, was the subject of a lengthy hidden-camera investigation by NBC4's reporters Joel Grover and Matt Goldberg. Their report, which was aired in early February, revealed the most shocking truths.

The hidden camera footage showed rats scampering through the market, vendors urinating near the produce cartons, raw sewage gushing from an open pipe and splashing on to produce and workers leaving a restroom with no soap or hot water and then handling produce.

Several large restaurants, including International House of Pancakes (IHOP) and the Johnny Rockets chain, use produce from this market. An analysis of the produce from the market done by NBC found that it contained high levels of E. Coli, fecal bacteria and listeria.

This produce also goes to trendier restaurants such as Sushi of Naples in Pasadena and Long Beach as well as smaller eateries such as Pita Pita, also in Pasadena. Both restaurants have said they've stopped purchasing their produce from this market.

Johnny Rockets issued a statement right away that the company would no longer buy any of its fruits or vegetables from that market, but IHOP told the television station that workers thoroughly wash all produce before using it.

The investigation also found that health officials with the Los Angeles County Health Department, started cleaning up this mess only after they found out that NBC was out there looking into this matter. Health Department records show a history of violations at the market, but officials did nothing about it, Grover says in his report.

Here are some interesting words that came out of the health inspector's mouth, which were captured by the hidden cameras.

"Inspector: We're diligently enforcing, what we we've supposed to been doing all along.
Grover: The fact that NBC is coming kind of gave us a heads up, huh?" another person asked.
Inspector: Yeah.
Grover: Would you want to eat food from this place?" Grover asked Powell.
Inspector: I would have a definite concern about food emanating from this facility," Powell replied."

To put it mildly, this is appalling. I applaud the NBC4 affiliate for exposing these horrible conditions for everyone in Southern California to see. It only proves that if only we're all able to see where our fruits and vegetables come from and how our food is prepared, we would hesitate to eat out at all and most if not all restaurants will have to shut down.

This report also makes me question the grades the county health department bestows on a restaurant. Sure, their kitchen may be clean and their restaurant may have earned the highest "A" grade from health inspectors. But where is their produce coming from? The health department has clearly dropped the ball when it comes to protecting the people who pay their salaries. And some of them have openly demonstrated through that television show that they don't care.

So here's to those backyard gardeners who grow some of their own. Anyone can grow tomatoes if you have some sunlight and a little room. Cucumbers, basil and snow peas are easy as well.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by IB Contributor

Customer Sues Big Lots For Slip and Fall

Chrissie Cole — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 09:44:00 GMT

A woman visiting a Big Lots store in Granite City claims she was injured when she slipped and fell on water that was on the floor near the service desk.

The lawsuit, filed by Donna Young, seeks in excess of $100,000 from the store and its manager claiming the defendants were careless in negligent.

While visiting the store on March 1, 2006, Young slipped and fell causing her to suffer diverse internal and external injuries according to the complaint filed February 18 in Madison County Circuit Court.

The suit claims she has suffered permanent injuries, medical expenses and lost wages amongst other things.

For more information on slip and fall accidents, please visit our Property Owner’s Liability Help Center where you can ready safety and prevention articles as well as what to do if you are involved in a slip and fall accident.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Chrissie Cole

Ohio Man Hit by Train While Texting on Phone

Shannon Weidemann — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 18:18:39 GMT

A man was trying to cross the railroad tracks in Elmwood Place, Ohio while using his cell phone to send a text message. He missed one train but didn't see the train coming down the other set of tracks. He was hit by the second train. The railroad accident happened on Monday morning.

Witnesses said the man waited for a southbound train to pass, put his head down and started walking across the tracks.
The man apparently did not see or hear a northbound train as it approached, witnesses said.

The man was hurt and taken to a local hospital for treatment. His condition is unknown. The police are investigating the accident.

For more information on this subject matter, please refer to the section on Mass Transit Accidents.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Shannon Weidemann

Gold Line Train Hits Car at Crossing

Shannon Weidemann — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 12:55:54 GMT

A Gold Line commuter train running between Los Angeles and Pasadena hit an SUV at a crossing on Friday. The driver of the SUV was hurt in the train accident, as well as five other people. The accident happened at Avenue 50 and Marmion Way. Authorities believe the woman was trying to beat the train. There are flashing lights and bells at the train crossing and they were working at the time of the accident.

"We don't know why she did not stop at the gate," said V.J. Khawani, director of corporate safety for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. "Why do people go through red traffic signals and not stop? I really don't know."

The SUV caught on fire and the driver had to be pulled to safety by good samaritans. The woman is reported to be in stable condition at a local hospital.

If you would like to read more about train accidents, please visit InjuryBoard's Train Accidents information page.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Shannon Weidemann