Articles Tagged with California personal injury attorney

Anytime another party’s negligence or intentional wrongdoing results in another person suffering a serious or deadly injury, it may be possible to file a personal injury lawsuit or a wrongful death claim in Carlsbad. Yet given that personal injury law is such a broad area of the law, it can be confusing to distinguish between and among different kinds of personal injury cases and their required elements. For example, does a plaintiff need to prove something other than negligence in order to win certain types of personal injury cases? Does negligence look different depending upon the particular type of personal injury claim the plaintiff is pursuing? Our Carlsbad personal injury attorneys can provide you with examples about the differences among personal injury lawsuits. 

Motor Vehicle Collision Claims

Many motor vehicle collision cases—including car crashes, truck accidents, motorcycle accidents, and pedestrian and bicycle accidents—begin with insurance claims. These accidents can also result in motor vehicle accident lawsuits that require the injured plaintiff to prove that the at-fault driver was negligent. In a typical traffic collision case, negligence means failing to observe the level of care behind the wheel that a reasonable person would under the circumstances.

Nobody expects their bedroom furniture to cause serious injury or death, yet accidents involving bedroom furniture occur more frequently than you might think. For example, certain dressers have been subject to recalls after tipping over and causing fatal injuries to children caught underneath them. Certain types of beds, too, have been known to cause serious and debilitating injuries. Although a Murphy bed might seem like a great solution for a small space, these particular types of beds are much more dangerous than others. And the injury risks associated with these beds have been well-documented, yet consumers continue to purchase and use them. What do you need to know about Murphy beds and personal injuries in Rancho Bernardo?

Murphy Beds Cause Broken Bones and Amputations

As the Sleep Foundation points out, Murphy beds are especially popular for people in urban areas where “space is at a premium.” In small rooms and apartments, it is precisely what gives Murphy beds their “relatively small footprint” that makes them so hazardous. Indeed, Murphy beds have mechanisms that allow them to be folded up into the wall, and then pulled down again when it is time for sleeping. Accordingly, “people who live in small apartments have long looked to Murphy beds to provide a sleeping arrangement that doesn’t sacrifice space.”

Catastrophic injuries can happen in nearly any type of accident in Poway, and spinal cord injuries (SCIs) are no different. In most situations, spinal cord injuries are classified as catastrophic because they result in severe and often permanent disabilities. As the Mayo Clinic explains, spinal cord injuries include any type of injuries that result in “damage to any part of the spinal cord or nerves at the end of the spinal canal,” which typically result in “permanent changes in strength, sensation and other body functions below the site of the injury.” Most medical professionals classify spinal cord injuries as “complete,” in which there is a total loss of feeling below the spinal cord injury, and “incomplete,” in which a person has some functions below the site of the injury. 

In many kinds of accidents that lead to spinal cord injuries, another party’s negligence is to blame for the accident. What kinds of accidents most commonly result in these injuries?

Motor Vehicle Collisions

Whether you have traveled to Escondido from a state far from California or you are a California resident and have simply planned a weekend trip to Southern California to spend time at the beach with your family, keep in mind that serious and deadly injuries can happen at hotels. While you might be prepared for the possibility of a car crash while you are traveling on the freeway, and although you may be taking precautions to prevent a drowning accident at the beach, you should know that hotels and motels can be dangerous places, too. When hotel or motel negligence results in a serious personal injury, you may be able to file a claim for financial compensation with assistance from an Escondido personal injury lawyer. In the meantime, the following are three things to know about hotel injuries in Escondido. 

Hotel Negligence Can Result in Many Types of Injuries

There are many different types of injuries that can result from hotel or motel negligence. For example, you or your child might sustain a serious injury as a result of a drowning accident near an unattended hotel or motel pool. Or you or another guest might sustain a serious injury in a slip and fall accident resulting from damaged flooring or a broken outdoor light that the hotel maintenance staff failed to replace. Slips and falls at hotels and motels can also occur in breakfast areas, at bars, and around pool decks due to liquid spills. At the same time, hotels may also be responsible for third-party assaults that happen because of negligent security—such as a hotel’s failure to repair a damaged door lock or window in your room. 

Hotel and motel hot tubs in Vista can pose a wide variety of risks to guests, from injuries caused by slips and falls around the hot tub to burn injury risks to drowning accident hazards for younger children or intoxicated guests. Yet it can be difficult to know whether an injury you sustained in or around a Vista hotel hot tub was the result of the hotel’s negligence, and thus whether you may be eligible to file a personal injury lawsuit. A recent hot tub accident lawsuit in California reported in Courtroom View Network emphasizes that these cases can be complicated, and it is essential to have an experienced Vista personal injury lawyer on your side. 

Recent Hotel Hot Tub Accident Lawsuit in California

A parent recently filed a lawsuit against a Howard Johnson hotel in California, according to the Courtroom View Network, after her daughter suffered a serious traumatic brain injury (TBI) in a hotel hot tub accident. The case involved the child’s near-drowning, and the mother alleged that the hotel was negligent because its hot tub was “too easily accessible for children,” and because “the hotel didn’t take adequate safety precautions to protect children playing in the facility.” The hotel argued that the plaintiff’s failure to supervise her daughter was actually the cause of the TBI the child sustained in the hot tub. The jury agreed with the hotel, and the case ultimately ended in a settlement, but it makes clear that the hotel likely would have been responsible if the circumstances were slightly different.

When we leave our homes to run an errand or to head into work, we do not anticipate suffering a serious injury in an accident. Yet accidents and personal injuries happen more often than you might think in San Marcos, and it can be difficult to seek the financial compensation you deserve if you have not taken necessary steps ahead of time to preserve your right to file a claim and to gather necessary evidence to support your case. Whether you are involved in a motor vehicle collision or a slip and fall, the following are general steps you should take after a personal injury in San Marcos in order to be eligible for financial compensation. 

Document the Scene of the Accident

Whether you were injured in a car accident or in a trip and fall in a hotel or restaurant, it is essential to document the scene of the accident. If you have your smartphone, take photos from many different distances and angles to provide a clear sense of the scene, making sure to include images of property damage and injuries.

If you were injured in an accident in Carlsbad or in another incident that resulted in a serious personal injury, you may be thinking about your options for seeking financial compensation. If you were harmed in a motor vehicle collision, you could be eligible to seek financial compensation by filing an auto insurance claim before you need to move onto thinking about a lawsuit. Or, if you were injured at work, you could be eligible to obtain medical benefits and money to cover lost wages by filing a workers’ compensation claim. For other types of accidents, the first step may be to file a personal injury lawsuit against the at-fault party. 

Whether you have already gone through another claims or benefits process, or you are getting started quickly on your personal injury lawsuit, it is important to understand how comparative fault may affect the outcome of your lawsuit.

What is Comparative Fault? 

Just how dangerous are cell phones when it comes to causing distracted driving crashes in Valley Center? According to a recent report released by Cambridge Mobile Telematics, cell phones are much more dangerous than many of us assume. Even if drivers keep their phones away most of the time while they are driving, a high percentage of motorists will use their phone at least once or twice while behind the wheel. Some motorists assume it is relatively safe to check email or send a text message while sitting at a stop light or in heavy traffic. Others assume that quickly updating the navigation system on a smartphone will not result in any permanent consequences. 

Yet according to the Cambridge Mobile Telematics, more than 40% of all drivers in the U.S. are distracted by their phones while driving at any given point during daylight hours. Since it is not yet possible to know with certainty whether a collision was caused by a distracted driver, the new report intimates that cell phone-related distractions may cause many more serious and fatal traffic collisions than we would like to believe.

Distracted Driving Crashes can be Avoided, but We Need to do More

After a serious injury in a Rancho Bernardo accident, it can be difficult to think about anything beyond the physical and financial repercussions of your injury. You are likely scheduling medical appointments for treatment or surgery, and trying to recover physically from your injury. At the same time, you are likely having trouble paying your bills if your injury has prevented you from working. You may be thinking about filing a claim for compensation, but you might be putting it off until your injuries heal enough for you to begin focusing on a complex insurance claim or a personal injury lawsuit. Yet it is critical to keep in mind that you will only have a certain amount of time to file your lawsuit. 

The amount of time you have to file a claim is known as the statute of limitations, and it can vary depending upon the type of injury you have suffered and the identity of the responsible party. We want to provide you with more information about the statute of limitations in personal injury claims in California, and to urge you to seek advice from a Rancho Bernardo personal injury lawyer as soon as you can.

Most Personal Injury Claims Will Need to be Filed Within Two Years

Slips and falls can happen in many different ways and for many different reasons in and around Encinitas. Whether you got hurt in a slip and fall accident due to a liquid spill at a restaurant, or your child suffered a concussion in a slip and fall injury on a pool deck at a Southern California hotel, it is important to speak with an experienced Encinitas personal injury lawyer to learn more about your options for filing a claim for financial compensation. Yet you may be concerned that your own fault could prevent you from obtaining compensation after a slip and fall. For example, you might be thinking, “Even though that restaurant or grocery store did not clean up the liquid spill on the floor that caused my injuries, I was distracted because I was walking while texting on my smartphone.” Or, for instance, you might be wondering, “If my child slipped on a slick area of a hotel walkway, is the hotel still liable even if my child was running at the time?”

 
Here is what you need to keep in mind: California uses a “pure comparative fault” rule when it comes to determining damages in a personal injury claim, which is beneficial for plaintiffs who may be partially at fault. However, you should also know that, even if the possibility of your own fault is raised, you may be able to show that you are not responsible for your injuries. The following are steps you should take if you are concerned you are partially at fault for a slip and fall injury in Encinitas or elsewhere in Southern California.

 
Document the Scene Where the Slip and Fall Happened

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