San Diego Injury Law Blog

This is an amazing jury verdict. In 2004, Daniel Carlock was scuba diving with Ocean Adventures Dive Co. out of Los Angeles. During a dive near an oil rig, Carlock surfaced about 400 feet from the dive boat when he had trouble equalizing the pressure in his ears. As he tread on the surface of the water, and to his astonishment, his dive boat started to motor away.

As was established in his lawsuit, the dive-master on the boat marked Carlock as present, and then traveled to a different spot, where the group dived again and where (again) the dive-master marked Carlock as present. Meanwhile, Carlock was left floating alone in the foggy and sharky waters about 12 miles off the coast of Long Beach. He testified that he prayed to God to allow him to survive, and after about five hours bobbing in the sea, Boy Scouts passing in a nearby boat spotted him and he was rescued.

That's the case. An obvious case of negligence that certainly warrants a measure of compensation., but $1.68 million?

In his lawsuit, Carlock claimed negligent infliction of emotional distress and fraud. It's not clear what the basis for the fraud claims was, but he would certainly be entitled to damages for emotional distress. It doesn't appear that he suffered any physical harm; although he did claim curiously that it caused him to develop skin cancer. How did the verdict get to be so high? We can only speculate that he had a very good lawyer - Scott Koepke of Los Angeles - and that the defendants were very unlikable. Such a huge award for emotional distress damages is very, very uncommon.

Carlock, of course, was very pleased. He told the LA Times, "It has been an ordeal, but I wanted to seek changes in the scuba industry. Others will benefit."

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

The accident and injury attorneys at Walton Law Firm represent individuals who have been injured in all types of accidents, including car accidents, worksite injuries, nursing home neglect, food poisoning, pedestrian injuries, construction accidents, property injuries, and malpractice matters. Call toll free at (866) 607-1325 or local at (760) 571-5500 for a free and confidential consultation, or fill out an online inquiry.

If you live in San Diego County, there are two certainties: death, and car accidents when it rains. The heavy rains of the last few days have contributed to hundreds of auto accidents, and yesterday in North County there were two dramatic ones.

First, in Carlsbad, two motorists had to be hospitalized after a serious accident on El Camino Real near Cannon. According to reports, yesterday in the late afternoon a van driving southbound on El Camino Real lost control and crossed over into the northbound lanes, driving into the path of a small pickup truck. The truck was spun around and hit by a SUV. The driver of the van, who was at fault for the accident, and the driver of the truck were both seriously injured in the accident, and taken to local hospitals.

The other serious accident occurred on Northbound I-15 when a big rig truck crashed onto of a small vehicle. This accident occurred at nearly the same time as the Carlsbad crash, and also caused injury. According to reports, the big rig lost control in the rain and jack-knifed in the rain, landing on top of a compact car. It spilled gravel across freeway lanes and caused a huge traffic jam. The driver of the small car suffered injuries.

Source: 10News.com

Based in San Diego's North County, the personal injury lawyers at Walton Law Firm represent individuals and families throughout San Diego County who have been impacted in all types of accidents, including auto accidents, motorcycle accidents, pedestrian accidents, bicycle accidents, construction accidents, and property injuries. Call (760) 571-5500 for a free consultation.

Joel Miranda of Santa Ana will spend at least 10 years behind bars for his role in the death of Francisco Aquino, who was walking as a pedestrian when he was fatally struck by Miranda's car. According the news reports, Miranda was driving a truck during the early evening of February 1, 2009 when he was struck by a Mercedes Benz that pushed him into the pedestrian Aquino. Aquino later died at an Orange County hospital.

After the accident, Miranda fled the scene. He was later arrested at his apartment, where authorities found that his blood alcohol level was .23 over an hour after the accident. He was arrested and charged with vehicular manslaughter. But remarkably, this wasn't the first time Miranda had been busted for driving under the influence. It wasn't even his second or third time. This man had prior convictions for drunk driving in 1995, 1997, and 2004, and never served more than a week in jail.

His defense attorney argued that the accident, and the death of Aquino, wasn't the fault of Miranda, but by the driver of the Mercedes Benz, who started the fatal chain of events. The jury of eight women and four men didn't buy it, and convicted Miranda after about seven hours of deliberation.

Source: OC Register

The Southern California accident and injury attorneys at Walton Law Firm represent individuals who have been injured in all types of accidents, including auto accidents, worksite injuries, nursing home neglect, food poisoning, pedestrian injuries, construction accidents, property injuries, and malpractice matters. Call toll free at (866) 607-1325 or local at (760) 571-5500 for a free and confidential consultation, or fill out an online inquiry.

A man driving a Volkswagen Beetle suffered a suspected brain injury when his car collided with a Mazda SUV. The accident occurred shortly after midnight on October 10 at the intersection of Graves Avenue and Pepper Drive, where there is a three-way stop sign at a T-shaped intersection. The victim had to be removed from the Volkswagen by firefighters, and was taken to the hospital with major injuries. The individuals inside the Mazda were not injured, and the cause of the car accident is being investigated.

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Source: 10News.com

The San Diego car accident lawyers at Walton Law Firm represents individuals and families who have been impacted by all types of injury-producing incidents, including auto accidents, wrongful death claims, worksite injuries, elder abuse and neglect, sexual molestation, pedestrian injuries, construction accidents, property injuries, and malpractice matters. Call toll free at (866) 607-1325 or locally at (760) 571-5500 for a free and confidential consultation.

We have all see schlocky television ads for lawyers, but here's a list of lawyer ads that should be given awards for their awfulness. Click here to see several AWFULLY HILLARIOUS LAWYER ADS

But this one definitely has to be the best of the worst:

Source: asylum.com

The accident and injury attorneys at Walton Law Firm represent individuals who have been injured in all types of accidents, including auto accidents, worksite injuries, nursing home neglect, food poisoning, pedestrian injuries, construction accidents, property injuries, and malpractice matters. Call toll free at (866) 607-1325 or local at (760) 571-5500 for a free and confidential consultation, or fill out an online inquiry.