Alaska Injury Lawyers – Common Preparatory Steps for Trial

When someone needs help litigating an Alaska wrongful death lawsuit, the first steps that are taken involve gathering as many facts as possible.  These facts could include any police report that was issued, any witness information or statements, any photographs, any autopsy report that was done and basically anything else that could serve as evidence at trial.

After this evidence has been gathered and experienced Alaska wrongful death lawyers have a clear picture of what happened, it’s often worthwhile to at least explore the possibility of a settlement in hopes of sparing the surviving family members the anguish of a full-blown trial.  However, if a settlement will not be possible, you need the assistance of Alaska injury lawyers who will not hesitate to take a matter to court.

Alaska Wrongful Death Lawsuits – Potential Damages

If an Alaska wrongful death case proceeds to trial, there are several different types of damages that can be sought.  Below are some examples of these damages:

• Medical costs – Many people who are killed are still rushed to the hospital in an attempt to save his or her life, and this generates medical bills.
• Funeral and burial costs – Funerals and burials can cost thousands of dollars, and not everyone has insurance to cover these contingencies.
• Lost income – Courts will analyze the amount of income the person who was killed was generating and add that into the number of years he or she would likely have worked without the sudden death when deciding on a figure.
• Loss of companionship – When a family member is taken suddenly, it can have devastating effects on the survivors.  Alaska law accounts for this loss with these damages.

If you have lost someone you love because of someone else’s faulty actions, you need to concentrate on recovering with your family.  Seek the help of Alaska wrongful death lawyers who have the experience and skill necessary to hold those responsible for your loss accountable.  Contact Barber & Sims today to schedule a free initial consultation.

Suggestions to keep in mind if you need the help of a Las Vegas car accident attorney.

Thousands of auto accidents occur in and around Las Vegas every year, and the majority of them lead to at least one injury.  When this occurs, those who have been wrongfully injured should immediately seek the help of an experienced Las Vegas car accident attorney to make sure that all legal rights and options are properly and accurately explained.  In the meantime, below you’ll find some basic guidelines to consider if you have been involved in an accident that you do not feel is your fault.

Do Not Discuss the Particulars of the Accident

If you’ve been in an auto accident and you and the other driver are able to speak, remember that all you should do is politely offer to exchange contact and insurance information.  Do not, under any circumstances, engage in a debate regarding what you believe led to the incident.  Instead, simply provide your best recollection of the accident to the police officer on the scene who will be completing the accident report.

This same suggestion applies to representatives of insurance companies who contact you in hopes of generating a statement.  Some of these insurance company employees are not getting involved to help you, but rather to work towards limiting their own liability.  In order to avoid making this mistake, you should meet with a Las Vegas accident lawyer who can help you work through this process.

Seek Medical Attention

Many people involved in auto accidents feel that their injuries are minor and do not require medical attention.  For more than one reason, you should obtain such an evaluation even if you do not feel seriously injured.  Some serious injuries do not manifest themselves by way of overt symptoms immediately, and you will also be helped by having a documented record of your injuries if you choose to work with a Las Vegas injury lawyer in order to pursue a legal claim.

Contact a Las Vegas Car Accident Attorney

Perhaps the easiest way to proceed if you’ve been involved in an auto accident in Las Vegas is to secure the help of an experienced Las Vegas accident lawyer.  This will allow you to focus on your recovery and provide you with the peace of mind you need at this point.  Your Las Vegas injury lawyer can handle all of the particulars of your situation so that you don’t have to spend time haggling with defense attorneys and insurance companies.  Contact a Las Vegas car accident attorney today, as many of them offer free initial consultations, and you need specific answers before you move forward.

Florida personal injury cases should be handled by experienced Florida personal injury lawyers.

People are injured because of the negligence for others every day in Florida.  When this situation arises, many who are harmed are not sure where to turn for help.  While every situation that involves negligence, injuries and damages should include advice and guidance from an experienced Florida personal injury attorney, those who find themselves struggling with mounting medical bills, lost income and/or struggle with pain and suffering should keep a few basic tips in mind when considering the pursuit of a legal claim against the party or parties responsible for their injuries.

Gather as Much Evidence as Possible

The first step towards filing a personal injury claim in Florida should involve gathering as much evidence as you can in order to preserve the record of what caused your injuries.  If or when you decide to meet with Florida personal injury lawyers, this information will be of great help in providing you with sound recommendations and legal advice.

Examples of what you should attempt to keep and organize includes any medical records and/or medical bills that were a result of the incident in question, any and all documentation and correspondence between you and your insurance company and the names and contact information of any witnesses who may have seen the incident that led to your injuries.

Do Not Provide Statements to Outside Parties

In certain situations, particularly those that involve auto accidents, you will almost certainly hear from insurance adjusters who represent both your insurance company and that of the other driver.  When these adjusters contact you to ask for a statement, you would be well-advised to hold off on providing such a statement until you meet with Florida motor vehicle accident lawyers who at the least can help you craft your statement and could even work directly with these other parties should you decide to retain their help.

Contact a Florida Personal Injury Attorney

Overall, if you have been injured by someone else, you are likely dealing with stress and physical pain.  At this point, you need to concentrate on your recovery and should not attempt to burden yourself with learning the ins and outs of Florida personal injury law while negotiating with insurance companies and defense attorneys.

Instead, you should contact Florida personal injury lawyers who will meet with you for a free initial consultation so that you can decide whether or not to allow them to handle your claim for you and free you to focus on getting back into your routine.  Not only will a Florida personal injury attorney be able to manage your situation for you, but he or she will also be able to gather all of the evidence necessary to build your case.

Do the legwork and ask questions to find the California personal injury attorney for you.

People are injured every day, and many of these injuries occur because of the negligence or recklessness of another person or entity.  When these situations arise, many people are not sure where to turn for help.  For many reasons, the best step to take is to seek the help and advice of an experienced California personal injury attorney.  Below are a few suggestions to keep in mind as you work towards finding a California injury attorney who will fight to protect and enforce your legal rights.

Research the Professional Background

15 – 20 years ago, it was difficult to look into the past and experience of any California personal injury lawyer.  However, with the advent of the Internet, such a process can be completed in minutes.  Check to see if a law firm has a Web site.  If so, read more about the California injury attorney you’re considering contacting.  You should also check the California Bar Association’s Web site to see if he or she has had any problems in the past.

Schedule an Initial Consultation

When you decide to contact a California personal injury lawyer, pay attention to the details when you initiate that contact, as this is a quality that will matter to you.  Specifically, pay attention to how quickly your initial consultation is scheduled and whether or not that initial consultation is free.  Most California personal injury attorneys will offer a free initial consultation, and you should not have to take on a financial risk merely to find out if your legal rights need to be enforced.

Ask as Many Questions as You Think are Important

When you arrive for your free initial consultation, remember that this meeting is as much yours as it is the attorney’s in terms of what should be discussed.  Obviously, and California injury attorney will have many questions regarding the incident that led to your injuries, but you should ask questions as well.  Examples of these questions include:

1. How many personal injury cases have you handled?
2. How many of these cases have settled?
3. How many have gone to trial?
4. How many verdicts were issued in your favor?
5. What is your fee arrangement?

These are only example questions, and you should operate under the assumption that there are no ‘bad’ questions to ask.  Ultimately, you need to make a decision that provides you with confidence and comfort, as choosing the proper California personal injury attorney is an extremely important decision.

Take the time to be thorough in your search for California personal injury attorneys who handle car accident and/or motorcycle accident cases.

Traffic accidents occur every day in California, and thousands of people are killed and many more are injured on an annual basis.  If you or someone you love is one of them, the first step you need to take is to secure the help of a California car accident lawyer.  However, the process of finding California personal injury attorneys who are the best fit for you involves more than simply looking for an advertisement in the yellow pages or on television.  Below are some suggestions to keep in mind as you work to protect your legal rights.

Do Your Research

Choosing a California car accident lawyer is an important decision, and one that should not be made with haste.  You owe it to yourself to take some time to learn more about the California personal injury attorneys you intend to contact.  The Internet has served as an invaluable resource for this step.

You can find information regarding a California car accident lawyer’s law firm, past cases and perhaps most importantly his or her professional record with the California Bar Association.  You need to know a little bit about the California personal injury attorneys you contact before you take the next step.

Look for and Ask About Specific Experience

Obviously, there are several different types of traffic accidents that occur, and you should ask the California personal injury attorneys with whom you meet what sort of experience they have in terms of cases.  If you have been in an auto accident, you should seek the help of an attorney who has experience with auto accident cases.  If you’ve been in a motorcycle accident, you need the help of experienced motorcycle injury lawyers, as there are different scenarios and specifics that tend to be involved with different sorts of vehicles.

Don’t Hesitate to Ask Other Tough Questions

Whether you seek the help of a California car accident lawyer or a motorcycle accident lawyer, you need to be prepared to ask specific questions during your initial consultation with the attorney.  Find out how many accident cases they’ve handled, how many have settled, how many have gone to trial and finally how many cases they’ve won.  You will be working closely with your attorney for an undetermined amount of time, and you need to feel extremely comfortable with your decision.  Most of all, you need to get the process started, so contact California personal injury attorneys today to make sure that your legal rights are properly protected and enforced.

Our Motorcycle Accident Lawyers Identify the Most Common Causes of Multi-Vehicle Motorcycle Accidents.

What our motorcycle accident lawyers often find in jury selection is that the ordinary juror has the misperception that motorcycle riders are risk takers, and so they come into the case with the initial bias toward the assumption that negligence on the part of the motorcyclist is most likely the cause of the accident. However, according to the extensive research conducted by our motorcycle accident attorneys the most common cause of multi-vehicle motorcycle accidents is the inattention and negligence of the other driver, most commonly an auto driver.

What our motorcycle accident lawyers discovered upon reviewing the research, including the landmark study conducted by Harry Hurt of the University of Southern California, is that the most common causes of motorcycle accidents is auto driver inattention, specifically either in pulling out from a side street or turning left from the opposite direction into the motorcyclists right of way. According to our motorcycle accident attorneys research, two-thirds of all multi-vehicle motorcycle accidents are solely the fault of the auto driver, meaning without any fault on the part of the motorcyclist. And two-thirds of that number, or fifty percent of the total number of motorcycle accidents are due to auto driver inattention, again either “not seeing” the oncoming motorcyclist as the auto driver enters a street from a side street or “not seeing” the motorcyclist as the auto driver turns left into the motorcyclists right of way from the opposite direction. The auto driver’s explanation is almost always that he or she didn’t “see” the oncoming motorcyclist.

Our motorcycle accident lawyers have done original research to determine why it is that auto drivers don’t “see” motorcycles. For many years the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, NHTSA, took the position that auto drivers didn’t see motorcyclists because of a “lack of conspicuity” of the motorcycle. In our motorcycle accident lawyers opinion that was just a cop out by NHTSA, essentially an excuse for not doing what would be required in order to retrain auto drivers to “look” for motorcyclists when they engage in the driving behaviors most likely to result in auto accidents. All “lack of conspicuity” does for NHTSA is to shift the fault of two-thirds of all motorcycle accidents from the auto drivers who fail to “see” the motorcycle, over to the size of the motorcycle. But every motorcyclist knows that for a car to present a hazard to us that we can’t avoid either by braking or by swerving, the auto driver must out right in front of us, from a very short distance. Our motorcycle accident lawyers are convinced that “lack of conspicuity” of the motorcycle simply cannot account for auto drivers failing to “see” us at the short distance that would be required for them to create a hazard we can’t brake to avoid or swerve around.

Instead, what our motorcycle accident attorneys original research suggests is that the mental mechanism responsible for the auto drivers failure to “see” us at these short distances is an “inattentional blindness,” a widely accepted mental perception phenomenon widely discussed in the scientific literature. There are a number of factors leading to “inattentional blindness” that our motorcycle accident lawyers believe are responsible for the auto drivers failure to “see” oncoming motorcyclists. The two most prominent, in our motorcycle attorneys view, are “expectation” and “relevance.” The reason why auto drivers don’t “see” oncoming motorcycles is in part because they don’t “expect” to see a motorcycle, just because motorcycles are a less prevalent mode of transportation, and the science discloses that we are much more likely to “see” what we expect to see. The second reason why auto drivers don’t “see” motorcycles, on the basis of our motorcycle accident lawyers research, is that auto drivers just don’t see us as being as “relevant” as an oncoming car, truck or bus. We don’t pose a threat to the auto driver’s life in the same way that an oncoming car, truck or bus would pose such a threat, and therefore, in the competition for limited conscious attention, the oncoming motorcycle will not draw the auto drivers attention in the same way a larger vehicle would.

As our motorcycle accident lawyers will describe in other articles on the “solution to the obscene incidence of motorcycle accidents,” the real answers to reducing motorcyclist injuries is to focus on reducing accident, specifically by “motorcycle awareness” programs, also on retraining auto drivers to look for motorcycles, particularly when entering intersections and turning left at intersections, and then, more severe criminal penalties for auto drivers who commit “right of way violations” that result in the injury or death of a motorcyclist. In the foregoing ways our motorcycle accident attorneys suggest that the auto driver can be led to “expect” the oncoming motorcyclist, and to see the oncoming motorcyclist as “relevant.”

Ray Henke is a Motorcyclist, Motorcycle Accident Lawyer, and Lead Trial Attorney for the Henke Law Group.

Accident Lawyers Require Particular Experience for Auto, Motorcycle, Bicycle, Commercial and Big Rig Truck Lawsuits, Also Attorneys for Cell Phone Accident Liability, And Serious Injury Claims Such as Traumatic Brain Injury and Paralysis.

The job of the accident attorney is often thought to be no more complicated than demonstrating who ran the red light. In fact, accident litigation can be highly complex, indeed every serious injury lawsuit is complex, involving numerous experts solely to demonstrate general and economic damages. Furthermore, very different factors may determine liability in motorcycle and bicycle accident cases, cases in which a party was engaged in cell conversation at the time, cases involving violation of the federal and state regulations governing large commercial and big rig trucks. Solving the “collectability” problem to assure full compensation in serious injury litigation can involve a number of different strategies to establish vicarious liability upon others which the accident lawyer must adapt specifically for auto accident and big rig truck accident cases.

Accident lawyers require a breadth of knowledge to effectively represent those injured in bicycle and motorcycle accident lawsuits, the latter often requiring experience with single track physics and the unique dangers of auto driver inattention to the smaller vehicles, particularly when entering or turning left at intersections, accounting for fully 2/3 of multi-vehicle motorcycle accidents without any negligence on the part of the motorcyclist. Bicycle accident attorneys must similarly be cognizant of the dangers posed to bicyclists as the result, for example, of not being able to “command a lane,” and so their vulnerability to parked auto drivers who may open their doors into the path of a bicyclist or pull out into traffic without recognizing that a bicycle is approaching. Our accident lawyers have provided separate pages for “Motorcycle Accident Lawsuits” and “Bicycle Accident Lawsuits” where the reader can learn more about the unique challenges that accident lawyers face in single track vehicle accident litigation.

Commercial and big rig truck accident lawyers also must have a breadth of specific knowledge to competently evaluate, prepare and prosecute truck accident lawsuits. Big truck accident attorneys need to become fully knowledgeable about the federal and state laws governing a broad host of safety requirements from the permissible weight of loads and how freight must be secured to the hours that big rig truck drivers may operate their vehicles between rest periods, the logs that must be kept, and the responsibilities of shippers. Because the driver will often have inadequate insurance to compensate the more seriously injured, and because most freight companies hire commercial and big rig truck drivers as “independent contractors” in order to attempt to limit their liability for the negligence of the driver, large commercial truck and big rig truck lawyers must establish the shipper’s liability on legal theories such as “negligent entrustment,” and “negligent supervision,” as examples. Our big rig truck accident lawyers explain more fully these concepts on our “Commercial and Big Rig Accident Lawsuits” page, but the shipping companies may be liable, for example, for negligent entrustment, for their negligence in failing to screen out drivers who lack drivers licenses or who were inadequately trained or who have a history of accidents or alcohol abuse. Negligent supervision would include failures to adequately inspect the trucks or freight, the manner by which freight is secured, as well as failing to maintain logs of driver hours, all of which may involve violations of federal or state law.

There are also investigative techniques that accident lawyers should follow including, for example, subpoenaing the cell phone records of the other drivers because all too often the other driver may not be seen to be using his cell phone while driving, and may not volunteer the information to the investigating police. Appropriately educated accident lawyers will be aware of the epidemiological and controlled experimental studies which have demonstrated that a driver while engaged in cell conversation is four times more likely to get into an accident. In a “he said, she said” accident, with no independent witness or where the independent witnesses are split, demonstrating that one party was under the influence of cell conversation may become persuasive evidence of liability. Often of crucial importance where the driver of the other car has insufficient liability coverage to compensate the victim, cell phone records identifying the other party to the call can provide the answer to the “collectability” problem. For example, if the driver was found to have been in conversation with his employer or secretary or a potential client or otherwise engaged in a business call at the time of the accident, the accident lawyer can assert “respondeat superior” liability to name the employer as a defendant in the lawsuit, permitting his client to recover against the employer’s insurance and assets.

Finally every serious injury case is complex litigation, involving the investigation and development of the evidence of the client’s general damages, which some lawyers refer to as “pain and suffering,” but which in most serious injury cases, in their largest part may be more accurately characterized as “loss of enjoyment of life” damages. Some injuries may be catastrophic, and our accident lawyers have provided specific information with regard to the presentation of “Traumatic Brain Injury Lawsuits” and “Quadriplegia, Paraplegia and Spinal Cord Injury Cases.” The qualified accident lawyer will commonly present damages in a serious injury case first through the testimony of his client, family members and friends with regard to the types of activities that the client enjoyed doing before his accident, juxtaposed against a professionally produced “Day in the Life” film, in which the client is accurately shown courageously meeting the huge challenges presented even to do the simplest things in his post-accident everyday life. In serious injury litigation, the accident lawyer must also have extensive experience presenting past and future economic damages, including medical and loss of earnings claims. Our accident lawyers provide a “Serious Injury Damages” page in which we discuss more fully the preparation and presentation of catastrophic injury cases. In almost every serious injury case the accident lawyer will be required to engage a host of experts, from physicians to “life care managers” to “rehabilitation experts” to forensic economists to establish the present value of the future medical expenses and projected loss of earnings.

So while the general public may have the impression that the accident lawyer’s job is no more complicated than proving who ran the red light, the truth is different. Accident litigation is as varied as the vehicles on the road, almost always complex, and can be particularly complex where the lawyer must learn single track vehicle physics, or assert the net of federal and state laws to trap a freight shipper despite its every effort to insulate itself from truck driver liability, as an example, or to assure that the seriously injured client is fully compensated for the full specter of his general and economic damages.

The manufacturer of Digitek, Actavis Totowa LLC, issued a nationwide Class 1 recall of all strengths of Digitek tablets on April 25, 2008. The Class 1 recall was issued on the basis that the product poses a substantial risk of serious injury or death.The Digitek tablets were distributed by UDL Laboratories, under a UDL label and by Mylan Pharmaceuticals, with a “Bertek” label. For information with regard to the Digitek litigation The following is a summary of the basis for liability against Activis for the manufacturing defect which is believed to result in patient injury and death. For complete information with regard to the Digitek litigation you may refer to our Digitek pharmaceutical product liability lawyers discussion of the respective merits of class action lawsuits and individual lawsuits against the manufacturer.

Digitek is the Actavis brand name for Digoxin tablets, commonly prescribed as treatment for abnormal heart rhythms and heart failure. The manufacturer issued the Class 1 national recall because Digitek tablets were distributed to pharmacies with double the thickness and it is presumed, twice the indicated dosage of the active ingredient. The Food and Drug administration has received adverse reaction reports of illness and injury resulting from ingestion of Digitek tablets, and many others have come forward across the nation with symptoms typical of digitalis toxicity. Our pharmaceutical product liability lawyers have arrived at the conclusion that the double strength Digitek tablets pose the serious risk of toxicity, including the risk of death, particularly in patients with renal failure and those who are on dialysis.

It appears from the notice of Class 1 recall that the Digitek manufacturer has acknowledged the manufacturing defect, specifically the inclusion of twice the indicated dosage of the drug, which is also, in our opinion, persuasive evidence of manufacturer negligence. The high dosages of Digitek can result in Digitalis toxicity, which can lead to low blood pressure, cardiac instability, bradycardia, meaning a slow heartbeat, and death, often presenting also with nausea, vomiting, and dizziness.

Ray Henke, Principle trial attorney, California Digitek Pharmaceutical Product Liability Lawyers Group

By Ray Henke, a motorcycle accident lawyer and member of Bikers of Lesser Tolerance, California

Freedom fighters joined to form BOLT of North Carolina and are currently bringing nonviolent civil disobedience and constitutional court challenge to the streets and courts of the state in response to the enactment of North Carolina’s new helmet law.

The North Carolina helmet law, which went into effect on January 1, 2008, is the same law that NTSB is recommending to state legislatures nationwide, with the insurance industry and medical lobbies throwing their weight behind the NTSB recommendations. The law requires motorcyclists to wear helmets compliant with the federal motorcycle safety helmet standards set forth at FMVSS 218. The North Carolina law, and all other state laws requiring riders to ride with helmets that meet FMVSS 218 plainly are incapable of being understood by the ordinarily intelligent person, and are certainly incapable of being applied, except incompetently, subjectively, arbitrarily, and discriminatorily by law enforcement officers. FMVSS 218 is just a list of laboratory procedures and arbitrary impact criteria. You have to be an engineer to understand it, and you have to have the laboratory equipment to apply it. Such laws are unconstitutional because the due process clause of the United States Constitution requires that law be comprehensible specifically so that the citizenry can know what is prohibited, and to avoid arbitrary and discriminatory application of the law by police and the judiciary. You are invited to learn more about the motorcycle lawyers perspective on the Constitutional defects in helmet laws.

The BOLT of North Carolina freedom fighters refuse to be constrained by this unconstitutionally vague legislation. They are holding protest rallies all over the state with a frequency and drawing numbers of bikers refusing to abide the law that has not been witnessed anywhere in the United States in decades. They have sponsored already over a dozen helmet protest rides, in which the riders make their own choices whether to wear helmets. And if they ride with helmets, they make their own choices as to the kinds of headgear they wear, undeterred by North Carolina’s attempt to force them to wear the riding hat specified by this new state biker dress code. The BOLT of North Carolina riders have been joined in their protest by individual bikers numbering over 500, angered by the state’s intrusion upon their freedom, coming from all over North Carolina. According to the Director of BOLT of North Carolina, Janice MacKay, “The next acts of civil disobedience in North Carolina are the 2nd Annual East Coast Helmet Protest on May 18th, followed by the Maggie Valley Freedom Ride on NC Bikers Freedom Ride Day, June 12th, and the WNC Freedom Ride in Asheville from Buncombe County to Henderson County on June 21st.”

It is expected that BOLT of North Carolina will also hold a freedom ride “in solidarity” with BOLT of California, and ABATE of California, organized by BOLT member, Red Barron. Two years ago the San Diego police laid in wait for the participants, setting up roadblocks and issuing helmet tickets. This past year, the police stayed their distance. Similarly in North Carolina, notwithstanding the threats of law enforcement to strictly enforce the new helmet law, Ms. MacKay reports that it is difficult to obtain a helmet ticket without riding back and forth outside the state police headquarters in Raleigh.

If North Carolina will rise to the challenge to enforce the law, BOLT of North Carolina hopes to clog the traffic courts at an average cost to the state of $872 per helmet citation trial, also requiring the law enforcement officers to appear and explain upon what incompetent basis they issued the tickets, providing the evidentiary basis for the initial constitutional challenge that the FMVSS 218 based law cannot be understood by the biker or cop and therefore is unconstitutionally vague.

At the same time, BOLT of the North Carolina is active in the legislature, with a no compromise helmet law repeal bill recently drafted and distributed to all North Carolina legislators by Jan MacKay. BOLT is also actively opposing the Street Gang Act and other legislation often employed by law enforcement arbitrarily and discriminatorily against bikers who chose to wear colors.

This article is provided by Ray Henke, a California lawyer, founder of Motorcyclists Against Dumb Drivers, and co-moderator of Bruce & Ray’s Biker Forum, also a member of Bikers of Lesser Tolerance, and contributor to Biker, Born to Ride and Thunder Road magazines.