Articles Posted in Auto Accidents

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.

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.

We all know that law enforcement officers have many responsibilities to juggle, even while behind the wheels of their police vehicles. They are tasked with doing things that private drivers are not expected to handle. However, we also know that all drivers on the road owe everyone else on the road a duty to maintain a proper lookout while driving. So, what happens if you are injured in an accident involving a distracted driver and that distracted driver turns out to be a law enforcement officer? Regardless of the officer’s position, you may still be able to recover compensation for this accident. Whether the driver who hit and injured you was a police officer or a private citizen, be sure you have a skilled California injury attorney on your side to give you the legal help you need.

Having a knowledgeable legal advocate can help greatly when it comes to getting all of the compensation you deserve. Take, for example, the case of a pair of Southern California plumbers. As reported by noozhawk.com, B.S. and J.H. were traveling through the city of Santa Maria when they experienced a jarring and painful event. Their pickup truck was rear-ended while they were stopped in traffic. The driver behind them did not notice the stopped traffic quickly enough. Although he tried to stop, he could not brake in time. That driver, an officer of the Santa Maria police, was distracted, according to information provided at trial.

According to the report, the driver was not tweeting or surfing Instagram or texting. He was responding to a call and was checking his in-dash computer for suspect information displayed there when the crash occurred. Nevertheless, the officer was distracted and that state of driving while distracted led to his rear-ending B.S. and J.H., the injured men argued in their lawsuit. The city admitted liability.

Your knowledgeable California injury attorney can help in a great many ways after you’ve been hurt in an auto accident. One of the very vital ways in which an experienced injury attorney can assist you greatly is by employing his/her past experiences to help you determine just how much liability each of your opponents has, or how much you might reasonably expect to obtain in compensation from each defendant.

Your attorney can also help you get the information you need to determine whom you should pursue, and how aggressively, when you’re faced with a circumstance where more than one party may be liable for your harm. This information can be imperative, especially when it comes to weighing whether or not to accept a settlement offer you’ve received from an opposing party.

Consider the case of M.A. (Los Angeles Superior Court Case No. BC600875,) who was hurt in a three-vehicle intersection crash in Cerritos. M.A. was on the east-west road, traveling westbound. S.H. was on the same road but headed eastbound. J.E. was moving northbound on the intersecting street. S.H. and J.E., with each alleging that he/she had a green light, passed into the intersection and collided.

In many circumstances, including intersection accidents, if a driver who has the right of way is involved in an accident with a driver who was required to yield the right of way but did not, then the first driver would have a strong case for a civil liability and an award of damages. Typically, the driver who failed to yield would be considered negligent in her operation of her vehicle and would be liable for the injuries and other damages that she caused to the driver with whom she collided.

That, however, is not a certainty, and you should be prepared to litigate your case diligently, even if you were clearly hurt and clearly had the right of way. A driver who might appear to have had the right of way, and be entitled to an award of damages, might not succeed if she also violated the rules of the road, such as by speeding. In that regard, some defendants may try to defeat your case by alleging you committed some violation of the rules of the road and that violation was the real cause of the accident. To protect yourself and your case, be sure you have the skill and knowledge of an experienced California injury attorney on your side.

As an example of this type of case, there’s the injury accident of a woman named J.B. (Los Angeles Superior Court Case Number BC 610177) J.B. was driving across westbound Franklin Avenue in Hollywood near the Magic Castle. H.A. had been traveling eastbound but was stopped while waiting to make a left turn into the driveway of the Magic Castle. Seeing what she thought was an opportunity to get to the driveway, H.A. initiated her left turn. Unfortunately, that put her in the path of J.B. and the vehicles collided.

If your opponent in your auto accident case asked the court to take “judicial notice” of a document, would you know what that meant? Would you know how to respond? Even many very intelligent and educated people would probably answer “no” to those questions. However, these kinds of evidentiary decisions can make or break an injured person’s personal injury lawsuit. That’s why it is so important to have the representation of a skilled California car accident attorney in your case.A dispute over “judicial notice” was at the center of one woman’s recent auto accident case. The accident, in which Marie suffered injuries, happened on May 20, 2014. Whenever you are injured in an auto accident, there is the possibility that there may be multiple people and entities that are liable for the harm you suffered. The facts of your case likely will permit you to sue the driver. If the owner is someone other than the driver, this may represent a second possible defendant. If the driver was “on the job” when the crash occurred, you may also have a claim for liability against the employer.

Regardless of the number of people or entities you are suing, it is important to act with all due speed. If you file your lawsuit after the deadline (the “statute of limitations”) has expired, you are not entitled to any compensation, no matter how strong your proof is. So what do you do if you are reaching the end of the statute of limitations period, and you don’t know the identities of some people who could be liable?

In Marie’s case, she sued on May 12, 2016. She sued Evelyn, who was the driver who hit her. She also sued Eduardo and “Does 1 to 100,” who allegedly were the owners of the vehicle and who negligently entrusted the auto to Evelyn prior to the crash. (The law permits you to sue “John Doe,” ‘Jane Doe,” or “Does 1 to X” if you have identified a potentially liable party but do not know that party’s name.)

If you’ve been hurt in an accident in California in which another driver was making a left-hand turn, whether the accident took place in an intersection or elsewhere, the facts of your case may place you in a very strong position to recover compensation for your injuries. Making a left-hand turn is a potentially dangerous maneuver, so the law places a substantial onus on the left-turning driver to wait until she is sure it is safe before making that turn. Regardless of the precise details, if you’ve been hurt in an auto accident in Northern California, you should be sure to retain a skilled California car accident attorney to handle your case.A case from Los Angeles County Superior Court (Case No. BC615394) was an example of a successful left-turn injury lawsuit. The accident was a two-vehicle collision. C.H. was traveling across El Segundo Boulevard when she attempted a left turn. V.H., a maintenance supervisor for the City of Los Angeles, was headed straight in the opposite direction. The two vehicles crashed, and V.H. was hurt.

In California, if you were hit by a left-turning driver, and your traffic signal was green, the odds of success for you can be quite high. The only ways that the left-turning driver can establish that you were actually the one at fault for the accident are to show that you were speeding, that some sort of sudden emergency caused her to slow or stop her turn (which prevented her from clearing the intersection in time), or that your light was actually red, rather than green.

Thus, if you have proof that the other driver was turning left, that you weren’t speeding, and that you didn’t run a red light, you have a strong case with regard to responsibility. Just because you have a strong case when it comes to fault does not mean that you are “home free” with regard to achieving a successful result. There are still other litigation tools that the left-turning driver can use to try to avoid being held liable.

Health insurance is an everyday part of life for many of us. The Affordable Care Act was passed and signed into law due to the federal government’s recognition of just how interwoven health insurance is with health care in this country. One of those aspects in which health insurance interweaves with health care is the idea of an insurer’s “network” and a treatment carrying different prices, depending on whether the provider was “in network” or “out of network.” Thus, what if you are significantly injured in an auto accident? You likely will require a substantial amount of medical care, but, if you sue and receive compensation for your injuries, you won’t be responsible for paying the bills you rack up. Are you still responsible for limiting yourself to providers within your network? If you’ve been injured in an auto accident and find yourself in need of answers to these and other questions, contact a knowledgeable California truck accident attorney to discuss your options.

A recent case involving an injured passenger named Dave explored this scenario and provided some helpful guidance for people injured in California vehicle accidents. Dave was injured in a Ventura County auto accident caused by Jose, who was, at the time of the accident, an employee of an organics company. The RV driven by Dave’s wife developed a flat tire on a freeway, and the semi truck driven by Jose slammed into the rear of the RV, causing serious injuries to Dave’s face, teeth, neck, and lower back. He ultimately underwent a three-level spinal fusion surgery to address his back problems. Dave had insurance, and his insurer had a “network” of preferred providers. Dave, however, decided to seek care from providers who were outside his plan.

Eventually, Dave sued the organics company for Jose’s negligent driving. In his case, Dave sought a substantial award of medical expense damages. At trial, the injured man had documented proof of the medical bills he had amassed. At the trial’s end, the jury ruled in favor of Dave and awarded him $3.6 million in damages, including $269,000 in past medical expenses. With regard to medical expense damages, the jury awarded Dave the full billed amount that he established in his case.