$10 Million Professional Negligence
$4.6 Million Wrongful Death
$4.55 Million Boating Accident
$974,628 Premises Liability
Super Lawyers
Justia Lawyer Rating
SF Bar Association
Million Dollar Advocates Forum
avvo rating
San Mateo County Trial Lawyers Association
American Association for Justice Auto Accident Strategy
Consumer Attorneys of California
AV Preeminent

|

Imagine you are a driver who is stopped at an intersection. Out of the blue, another vehicle slams into you from behind. You heard the crash… and now you feel the pain. You probably have a lot of things on your mind in those stressful moments after the crash. One of the first thoughts is probably… what do I do? What can I do? This post will hopefully provide some helpful answers to that and other related questions.

As an example, let’s look at the accident involving P.J., an elderly driver in Salinas. According to a report by The Californian, P.J. was approaching an intersection in Salinas and wanted to turn right. However, as she attempted to turn, she noticed a bicyclist. In order to avoid hitting the bicyclist, P.J. swerved. In so doing, she ended up rear-ending another car at the intersection the report stated.

If you’re injured in crash like that, there are several things you may want to do. First, if you’re pain-free, you may want to take a few moments to record the accident scene with your cell phone. You can take pictures or take video, but only do so after you’ve made sure it is safe to re-enter the crash scene.

Continue reading ›

|

Being injured as a passenger in a single-vehicle accident can be a scary time. You may have suffered extensive, permanent or perhaps even life-altering injuries. You probably have medical bills and have lost time at work. In fact, you may never be able to return to your old job again. However, the driver of your vehicle may have little personal wealth and only minimal insurance coverage. Does that mean that your situation is hopeless? Not necessarily. Depending on the facts surrounding your accident, there may be others who owed you a duty of care and failed to meet it, leading to the injuries you suffered. Proving that may allow you to expand the range of defendants who owe you compensation. To get that full recovery you deserve, give yourself a leg up by retaining a skilled San Mateo injury attorney.

An example of this type of scenario took place in Southern California, and was reported by the Long Beach Post. F.V. was a passenger of a vehicle that was approaching an intersection in Long Beach. The intersection included a ramp and, as the driver navigated the tight turn on the ramp, he hopped the curb and eventually slammed into large landscaping boulders located in the median near the intersection. The accident caused F.V. to suffer serious spinal injuries causing quadriplegia, as well as massive brain damage, according to the report.

Giving these facts a quick glance, you might think that the injured man’s only path for compensation would be suing the driver and the driver’s auto insurance company. F.V.’s attorneys saw something more. F.V. brought an action against the City of Long Beach. That claim asserted that one cause of the accident was the unsafe road conditions that the city created by placing large boulders on the median near the on-ramp.

Continue reading ›

|

Sometimes, the crux of your case will be focused primarily on establishing that the defendant was at fault and is liable for paying you compensation. The defense may contest liability aggressively, arguing that someone else (or no one) was to blame for the injuries. Other times, you may have evidence that makes contesting liability very difficult or nearly impossible and, in some of those cases, the defense may even admit liability.

Even when that happens, your work is not yet done, especially in a wrongful death case. Getting a truly proper judgment means putting on the evidence you need to show just how extensive the loss you suffered truly was. If you’ve lost a loved one due to a driver’s negligent conduct, you have, first and foremost, a hole in your heart and hole in your life that nothing can fill. You probably also have substantial damage to your family’s financial situation, however, especially if your deceased loved one was a primary earner. All of these damages are real and deserve to be compensated. Be sure you take on your case with the aid and representation of a skilled San Mateo wrongful death attorney to get the full award you deserve.

C.P.’s was an example of a case with a tragic loss and a very large jury verdict. As reported by the Ventura County Star, C.P. was jogging along a street in Ventura as part of his training for a marathon race. As C.P. jogged, a driver, S.C., struck him with her vehicle, killing him. The driver had consumed both Xanax and marijuana prior to getting behind the wheel, according to the report.

Continue reading ›

|

The headlines, regrettably, are numerous and gut-wrenching and, just as bad, they just seem to keep coming. In mid-March, a 70-year-old woman from Newark died in Fremont. The compact sedan in which she was a passenger was hit by an allegedly drunk driver behind the wheel of a minivan. Also in mid-March, a driver allegedly drove drunk, blew through a red light in Sacramento County and slammed into a compact sedan, killing a 9-year-old boy and injuring his mother. In early March, a Sacramento man received a 125-year sentence for his role in an East Bay crash that left two brothers and their respective teenage sons all dead.

These accidents are horrifying and, in many cases, the criminal legal system punishes the wrongdoers. However, what about the loved ones left behind? What about the losses that they have incurred as a result of these terrible acts? While, without question, no amount of cash settlement or damages award can ever take the place of the love and companionship of a lost family member or someone else dear to your heart, that undeniable truth in no way diminishes another unavoidable fact: the misconduct of these drivers inflicts serious harm on their victims’ families, that much of that harm is financial in nature and the families should be entitled to seek compensation in court for those losses.

There are two ways that a surviving loved one can go about pursuing a civil claim for damages. If the drunk driver was convicted of driving while intoxicated, then that criminal case history helps your civil case. You can pursue your case as a negligence per se action. That means that the defendant violated a statute or regulation, that the violation caused the harm you’ve alleged and that the harm resulted from the defendant’s particular conduct in engaging in actions that the law was designed to prevent. As you can see, if the drunk driver who killed your loved one has been convicted of both driving while intoxicated and drunk-driving-related homicide, then that criminal case gives you most all the proof you need for liability in this type of case.

Continue reading ›

|

One of the most important decisions you’ll have to make as a plaintiff in a personal injury lawsuit is whether to settle your case in exchange for a specified settlement payment, or to pursue your case all the way to a verdict, leading to the less-certain outcome decided by a jury or judge. While a settlement may offer greater certainty and immediacy, it may still be unwise if the settlement offer simply is too low.

Another thing to consider when weighing the relative merits of settling or litigating is a statute called Code of Civil Procedure Section 998. This settlement is meant to motivate parties to settle their cases. However, if you choose not to settle and your outcome at trial is successful enough, that success may open the door to recovering even more. Making the “right” call on settling versus litigating is one of the most critical choices you’ll make and just one among many vital decisions where having the advice and counsel of a skilled San Mateo injury attorney can benefit you immeasurably.

Section 998 offers are sometimes described as settlement offers “with teeth.” For defendants, the law means that, if they make a valid 998 offer that the plaintiff refuses, and if the jury awards the plaintiff an amount less than the settlement offer (or if the jury returns a defense verdict), then the defense can obtain an award forcing the plaintiff to pay a potentially significant amount of costs and attorneys’ fees.

Continue reading ›

|

Being hurt in an auto accident is almost always a stressful time. You probably have many questions. How will I pay all these medical bills? What do I do if I have to miss work for an extended period of time? These and other things likely race through your mind. Instead of shouldering this burden on your own, reach out to a knowledgeable San Mateo injury attorney, who can give you the representation you need to get the compensation you deserve.

While not in San Mateo, here’s a recent example from Northern California. Back in January, the Sacramento Bee reported on a settlement of a lawsuit between an injured driver and the City of Sacramento. According to the report, 64-year-old R.D. was driving southbound on Riverside Boulevard near the Sacramento Zoo when he slowed to make a left-hand turn. When R.D. slowed down, the driver of a city animal control truck, who was immediately behind R.D., apparently did not notice and crashed into the rear end of the man’s SUV. According to the Bee, the impact was substantial enough that it spun the SUV around, sent it through a fence and into the lawn of a nearby home.

A city spokesman told the Bee that, as of the time of the case’s settlement, the driver of the animal control truck no longer worked for the city.

Continue reading ›

|

Bicyclists have certain obligations when they take to the roads. They are required to observe the rules of the road, for example. Additionally, when a road has a bike lane and a bicyclist is traveling slower than vehicle traffic, the bicyclist is required to use that bike lane. This, of course, presents its own potential issue. What if you, as a bicyclist, are using the bike lane as required by the law and you encounter unsafe conditions in your bike lane, which eventually cause you to crash and suffer injuries? What legal options do you have? Whether you’re hurt in a bicycle accident like this or in a different way, you need answers. Be sure to get them from an experienced San Mateo injury attorney.

As reported by the Fresno Bee, D.B. and M.R. were two bicyclists in Fresno County who found themselves in the position of traveling down a bike lane that became treacherous. They were among seven members of the Fresno Cycling Club out for a Sunday morning ride northeast of the city. As the road dropped into a descent, D.B. and M.R. hit an area where the bike lane was covered in sand and gravel.

M.R., who was in front, was unable to stop before hitting the debris. She wiped out and fell into the northbound travel lane, where a passing vehicle struck her. She suffered a broken arm and dislocated shoulder joint, which eventually necessitated two surgeries. D.B. wiped out, too. He suffered a broken wrist and broken finger, requiring surgery to address the finger injury, the Bee reported.

Continue reading ›

|

In any civil case, you, as the plaintiff, are going to have one version of the facts of the case. The defense is very often going to have a version of the facts that differs, many times dramatically, from your version. The key to success, then, is having stronger proof that makes your version of the facts more credible. In other words, find the evidence you need to debunk the defense’s theory of the case and you may be well on your way to a successful outcome. When it comes to acquiring and interpreting the information you need for your case, be sure to rely on representation from a skilled San Mateo injury attorney.

As reported by trucking publication landlinemag.com, K.G. was a spouse having to deal with an unthinkable trauma: her husband had died in a vehicle accident. Prior to the accident, a commercial truck driver had parked his big rig alongside the shoulder of the transition lane between two freeways in Pomona. Before he could move his truck, a box truck slammed into the semi. Allegedly, another driver cut off the box truck and the box truck driver swerved to avoid that collision, only to crash into the corner of the semi.

The accident left both the semi driver and K.G.’s husband, who was a passenger in the box truck, dead. K.G. sued the trucking company that employed the deceased driver, alleging that the driver was negligent in parking where he did and that his negligence caused the crash and the box truck passenger’s fatal injuries. (Los Angeles Superior Court Case No. BC536714.)

Continue reading ›

|

Your injury accident may present many challenges for you. The accident may have inflicted a variety of types of harm upon you and your family. When that happens, you need a skilled San Mateo injury attorney working for you to get you an award that covers all of the different types of damages that you have suffered. Whether through judgment or settlement, your knowledgeable attorney can help you get a result that you need.

A case recently reported by the Fresno Bee was an example of that kind of accident. J.S.G. was roughly 15 minutes away from work on May 1, 2017 when his commute ended prematurely. At an intersection in Tulare County, J.S.G.’s passenger sedan and a van collided. By coincidence, the driver of the van was employed by the same company that employed J.S.G. The van was hauling a trailer that was loaded down with ladders and portable toilets, according to the report.

Allegedly, the crash occurred because the van’s driver failed to come to a complete stop at the intersection. He suffered a traumatic brain injury, along with significant injuries to his neck and back. According to the injured driver, he had undergone neck and back surgeries to address those injuries and continued to need therapy, the Bee reported.

Continue reading ›

|

When it comes to legal questions, a very common (and often very wise) answer you’ll get from a prudent lawyer is, “It depends.” That’s because many legal outcomes really do depend on the unique facts of a particular case. For example, in many instances, you cannot recover from a driver’s employer if the driver was using the employer’s vehicle but was dealing with personal matters at the time of the crash. But that’s not always true; sometimes you can recover. In short, don’t assume – seek out knowledgeable advice from a skilled San Mateo injury attorney about the options your case presents.

As an illustration of the “It depends” concept, take the case of R.M., who was hurt while riding as a passenger in a pickup truck that his father was driving. The father was driving down a rural, county-maintained road when the truck left the roadway and crashed down an embankment, rolling over. R.M. was not wearing a seatbelt and suffered serious injuries in the accident.

At the time of the accident, the road was undergoing a resurfacing project but, unbeknownst to the driver, the project had not been completed. The father’s employer owned the pickup truck, but the father was engaged in personal affairs, not company business, when the accident happened.

Continue reading ›