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Today, video cameras are seemingly everywhere, whether it is a cell phone, a laptop or tablet, a digital camera or a GoPro. While there are some potentially troubling privacy implications of video cameras’ prevalence, they do sometimes prove invaluable benefits, including possibly providing the key evidence you need to win your motorcycle accident injury case. Whether or not you have video footage among your pieces of evidence, it is essential to have an experienced San Mateo motorcycle accident attorney on your side. Your attorney can help you take the proof you have, whatever that evidence is, and use it to its maximum potential.

Just a few years ago, a person injured in auto accident due to the negligence of another driver might rely on still photographs, eyewitness testimony or the expert opinions of an accident reconstructionist as his evidence. This might be particularly difficult to track down if your accident happened on the freeway. (As an important side note: even if you were hurt in a freeway accident and you don’t have video evidence, you definitely should still consult counsel, as a skilled attorney may still be able to accumulate enough evidence to put together a winning case and get a positive result for you.)

If, however, a jury has live-action video footage of every second of your crash, and every moment leading up to it, you may have an even stronger case. A recently concluded case, which was reported by ABC 7, demonstrated exactly that. M.R. was a motorcyclist traveling along the 405 freeway in Los Angeles County when the driver of a sedan allegedly changed lanes abruptly and without signaling. The sedan driver’s lane change sent M.R. careening across three lanes of traffic and slamming into a flatbed trailer, according to the report.

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Too many times, people associate “slip-and-fall” accidents in a negative way. If this type of harm has never affected you, you may think of these accidents as ones involving trivially injured people exaggerating their injuries. The reality is actually very different. Slip-and-fall accidents often are very seriously harmful things. According to statistics published by the CDC, accidental falls were the #1 cause of injuries requiring hospital ER treatment in 2017. At almost 8.6 million incidents, the number of these falls was almost equal to the second, third and fourth causes combined.

Sounds pretty far from trivial, doesn’t it? So, the next time you’re hurt in a slip-and-fall, don’t dismiss it as nothing. Get the medical care necessary to protect your health and then get the legal representation you need to protect your rights by contacting an experienced San Mateo premises liability attorney.

J.P. was someone who suffered an obviously serious injury in a fall. While at an Asian buffet restaurant in Los Angeles County, J.P. went to the restroom. On his way back to his seat, J.P. slipped, fell and shattered his left knee in multiple places. After the accident, J.P. sued the restraint for premises liability. (Los Angeles Superior Court Case No. BC659957.)

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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has released its fatal vehicle crash statistics and the news for people who use roads while on foot are not good. In 2018, the number of pedestrians killed nationwide rose by 208 to 6,283, which is an increase of 3.4%. The news closer to home was no better. 57 of those 6,283 deaths occurred in the Sacramento region (El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento and Yolo Counties,) with more than 80% of those 57 happening in Sacramento County alone. Additionally, 22 pedestrians have died in San Francisco just in the first eight months of 2019.

There can be many reasons for fatal pedestrian accidents but, many times, driver mistakes are a factor. Maybe the driver was speeding or improperly failed to yield, maybe the driver was distracted, maybe the driver was impaired or… maybe all of the above are true. Whatever the specifics, if you’ve lost a loved one due to a fatal pedestrian accident caused by driver negligence, be sure to contact an experienced San Mateo pedestrian accident attorney to find out what can be done to protect your family.

Urban areas are where the biggest increase in fatal pedestrian accidents have occurred, according to the Sacramento Bee. The report stated that fatal pedestrian accidents have surged by 69% over the last 10 years.

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Federal statistics show that more than 780 bicyclists lost their lives in crashes with cars, trucks or SUVs in 2017. In addition to those 780+ deaths, hundreds of thousands were injured. In many of these accidents, the driver of the car/truck/SUV is solely to blame. The driver may have been speeding, inattentive, distracted, intoxicated or many other things.

Sometimes, though, the true cause for an accident is more complex. Perhaps a traffic signal malfunctioned. Perhaps the intersection contained severely obscured sight lines or maybe there were other design flaws that played a role in the crash. When that happens, you, as the injured bicyclist, may be entitled to recover significant compensation, not only from the driver, but also from the governmental entity responsible for the unsafe road area where your crash took place. To make sure that you are getting a full and fair recovery that holds accountable all those responsible, be sure that you have a knowledgeable San Mateo bicycle accident attorney on your side.

A non-fatal, though nevertheless tragic, accident from Santa Clara County is an example of this kind of incident. As San Jose Inside reported, two boys – a 6-year-old on a scooter and a 13-year-old on a bicycle – were hit by an SUV as the boys crossed a street to go watch a 4th of July fireworks show. The 6-year-old was thrown some 30 feet through the air and suffered several fractures, including compound ones. The 13-year-old fared much worse, being dragged by the SUV for 30+ feet and suffering multiple seizures. The accident also inflicted a severe traumatic brain injury on the boy that, according to the family’s attorney, would “require special medical care and educational support for the rest of his life,” according to San Jose Inside.

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Sometimes, being injured by a driver who experienced a medical emergency can be an extremely harmful thing to your injury case. Sudden and unforeseeable medical traumas that impair a driver’s ability to operate his vehicle safely are often chalked up alongside “acts of God” as things where no one is negligent, and no one is liable.

Other times, though, this medical evidence may be something that actually strengthens your case or gives you more opportunities for seeking the compensation you need. To make sure you are getting all the relevant information for your case, and putting it your maximum advantage, be sure you have an experienced San Mateo wrongful death attorney on your side. When a driver experiences a medical emergency or trauma that was unexpected and that the impaired driver couldn’t have anticipated, that is one thing, and it may hurt your case. When, however, the driver has a history of experiencing impairment-causing symptoms due to an existing (and known) medical disorder, then that is a very different circumstance entirely.

The case arising from a fatal East Bay crash that claimed the lives of 51-year-old E.P. and her 72-year-old mother was an example of the latter. The women were killed in Contra Costa County when another driver broadsided the women’s SUV at an intersection. The other driver, J.H., ran a red light and was going 62 mph in a 45-mph zone at the time of the crash. J.H. wasn’t drunk, wasn’t street racing and wasn’t texting. What he was, according to his lawyers in his criminal case, was experiencing a seizure that caused him to lose control and speed through the red light.

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When a family loses a child due to the negligence of others, there are many feelings they will feel. One of the feelings they may encounter is a desire for some good to come out of the tragedy. That may be a central motivation for pursuing a civil lawsuit. No amount of money will ever replace their lost child, but a successful jury verdict and award of damages may be just the thing to motivate those responsible to make needed changes, with those changes averting similar tragedies in the future.

Whatever needs inspire you to pursue your wrongful death or personal injury action, be sure you have legal representation from an experienced San Mateo personal injury attorney, who can help guide you to the specific goals you have.

A tragic real-life example of these concepts played out recently in Southern California. A.D. was a 14-year-old student at a San Bernardino County high school in March 2016 he was involved in his fatal accident. According to a Daily Press report, the student was crossing an intersection adjacent to his school when a Ford SUV crashed into him, killing him.

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As you may know if you’ve attended certain events, property owners and event organizers sometimes may seek to use forms with titles like “release and waiver of liability” to limit their possibility of having pay damages for injury accidents that occur on their properties. If you are someone entering a property whose owner is requiring such a form, it is extremely important to make sure you understand exactly what you’re signing before you sign it.

However, even if you did sign, even if it is enforceable and even if it is broad in its coverage, that doesn’t mean that you are completely without options if you’re hurt while on that property. A recent ruling in a Northern California accident case is a good reminder that possibilities for success in a premises liability case can still exist, even in the face of a signed waiver. To discover what options you have for recovering the compensation you need, talk to an experienced San Mateo personal injury attorney right away.

The injured person in that recent accident case was G.V., an attendee at a two-day motorcycle race held in a remote part of San Benito County. He was there to watch his grandson participate in the race. When the grandfather and grandson entered, race organizers had each man sign a “Release and Waiver of Liability” form.

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Sometimes, in your auto accident injury case, the question isn’t if you have a case for holding the defendant liable, because the defense has already admitted liability. The question isn’t even whether or not you’ve incurred a substantial amount of damages, because the defense has admitted that, too. The question, then, for some injured people, is “exactly how extensive are my damages and how much compensation should I reasonably expect for them?” Being able to assess these things accurately matters a great deal if you’re in an injury lawsuit in California.

In California, there’s a law that says that, if you reject a statutory settlement offer and the jury awards you less 75% of what was offered, then you lose the ability to recover certain costs and fees and may be on the hook for paying some of the defense’s costs and fees. In other words, it is very, very important, when you receive a statutory settlement offer from the defense, that you have the ability to differentiate a fair offer from a low one. This is a key area where the right San Mateo car accident attorney can help. Your knowledgeable attorney can use his/her wealth of experiences in past cases to help you spot a fair offer… or an unfair one.

T.B. was a woman facing those kinds of questions in her case (Orange County Superior Court Case No. 30-2016-00861733-CU-PA-CJC.) She was a passenger in vehicle that was involved in a major accident. T.B.’s driver reportedly improperly turned left against a red arrow. The accident totaled both vehicles.

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Did you know that, based on one study, auto accident injury plaintiffs have some of the highest rates of success with juries, winning roughly 2/3 of the time? Of course, simply obtaining a “judgment for plaintiff” may not be enough if the jury awards you only a tiny amount of damages. Sometimes, you’re injured in an auto accident but (thankfully) escape without any catastrophic injuries. You may have had no broken bones and no torn ligaments, and may have needed only a few months of medical treatment. You might, therefore, have assumed that, even if you won, your case was not “worth” all that much in terms of compensation.

Occasionally, a jury verdict comes along that serves as a good reminder about the peril of assuming. Recently, there was a San Diego woman who, despite injuries like those listed above, recovered a six-figure award of damages. The lesson of this outcome? Don’t assume. Instead, be sure you talk to an experienced San Mateo injury attorney and get a seasoned pro’s analysis of what your case is really worth.

In that recent Southern California case (San Diego Superior Court Case No. 37-2017-00001440-CU-PA-CTL), 27-year-old P.N. was stopped at an intersection in La Jolla waiting for her light to turn green. As she remained stopped, another driver who was turning left at the same intersection lost control and crashed into P.N.’s vehicle.

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According to NHTSA statistics, distracted driving remains a major problem on U.S. roads, resulting in 3,166 deaths in 2017 alone. Distracted driving may lead to driving behaviors that can be particularly injurious, such as slamming into a stopped vehicle at full speed, veering into an oncoming lane of travel or barreling through a clearly red traffic light.

When you’re seriously hurt as a result of a distracted driver, you need to know where to turn find out how to go about getting back on your feet and getting fully compensated for the losses you’ve suffered (and will suffer.) Start by reaching out to an experienced San Mateo car accident attorney.

Anyone can file a personal injury lawsuit and potentially work out a settlement. One of the keys to a genuine success in a personal injury accident is not just “getting paid,” but knowing what your case is really worth and being sure that the payment you get is a fair one. That’s especially true in California, where there is an “offer of settlement” statute (Section 998). Make the mistake of rejecting a fair 998 settlement offer and you may find yourself paying some of the fees and costs of the defense. Make the mistake of accepting a lowball 998 offer and you may find yourself receiving too little money for your needs.

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