San Mateo Injury Lawyers Blog — Page 2 of 26 — Published by San Mateo, California Injury Attorneys — Law Offices of Galine, Frye, Fitting & Frangos

A California Motorcyclist Recovers $23M in Damages After a Catastrophic Accident Ended in a Leg Amputation

March 16, 2021 | Law Offices of Galine, Frye, Fitting & Frangos

Catastrophic injury accidents are undeniably traumatizing. One day, you are an “ordinary” person living an “ordinary” life and then, in the blink of an eye, all of that is taken away. When that happens, you may have endured excruciating pain. Your injuries may prevent you from ever again doing the jobs you’d done all your life, and they may forever alter what you are able to do for your family. These kinds of accidents — and the massive harm they cause — may create a need for especially large amounts of compensation to address all of the damage done. If that kind of accident has impacted you, be sure you have the right San Mateo vehicle accident attorney on your side to help you get all the compensation you deserve.

S.R. was one of those catastrophically injured people. The 40-year-old husband and hotel housekeeping worker was driving his motorcycle in Studio City when a Dodge Ram pickup truck crashed into him at an intersection. Excruciating pain forced him to lay his bike down on the pavement, according to mynewsla.com.

Despite doctors’ best efforts, they were unable to save S.R.’s foot and lower leg. He underwent a below-the-knee amputation roughly a week after the crash, according to the report.

A Tale of Two Outcomes: What a Pair of California Injury Cases Can Teach About the Importance of Good Legal Representation

March 5, 2021 | Law Offices of Galine, Frye, Fitting & Frangos

Statistics show that people who hire an attorney to handle their accident case come away better for it. The Insurance Research Council found that of the people injured in auto accidents who subsequently sued and settled, the settlements achieved by people with attorneys were more than triple the size of the settlements obtained by people without attorneys. In short, while retaining legal representation may seem daunting at first, you’ll likely find that you can’t afford not to have a skilled San Mateo injury attorney on your side.

To get an idea of what a huge difference this can make, let’s look at a pair of California cases. One was a 2015 Santa Monica bus accident in which the Court of Appeal issued a ruling earlier this year. The other was a more recent bus accident in Fresno.

In some ways, the cases were exceptionally similar. As noted above, both occurred aboard buses. Both of those buses were city-owned. Both of the injured passengers were people who utilized the assistance of wheelchairs, and both were hurt when their bus drivers hit the brakes suddenly and that abrupt braking sent them tumbling from their wheelchairs onto the floor of their buses.

How a Southern California Mother Managed to Revive Her Case Against a Local Government Following Her Son’s Fatal Bicycle Accident

February 25, 2021 | Law Offices of Galine, Frye, Fitting & Frangos

We write frequently in this blog about identifying all of the people and/or entities who are potentially liable to you in a personal injury lawsuit. It’s hard to overstate just how important this can be, especially if you’ve suffered extensive harm. If you have suffered millions of dollars in damages, then you need to get more than just a few thousand dollars. However, a few thousand dollars may be all you get if you’re proceeding only against a driver with very few assets and a minimum-coverage auto insurance policy. That’s where a skilled San Mateo injury attorney helps, as wecan put our extensive experience and knowledge of the law to work potentially finding entities or people who have possible liability to you that you would not have identified.

Another way this can help is if the driver who hurt you (or killed your loved one) didn’t do anything wrong at all. If that’s true, then that driver isn’t liable and owes you nothing. However, that doesn’t mean there may not still be others out there against whom you can bring a successful legal action.

A tragic bicycle accident case from Southern California is a good example of how this works. An engineer from Redondo Beach was bicycling through Rancho Palos Verdes when his bicycle crashed into a big-rig truck from a major moving company. According to a bikinginla.com report, the moving truck made a right turn on a green light and the bicyclist “apparently rounded a blind curve” and was unable to stop before hitting the semi-truck. The bicyclist died at the scene.

A Northern California Driver’s Alleged Road Rage Has Left One Person Dead and Another Injured

February 21, 2021 | Law Offices of Galine, Frye, Fitting & Frangos

A senseless act in Sunnyvale left a man dead and a woman injured, according to a KPIX report. A driver and his passenger were shot in what police believed was an act of road rage. Road rage is a danger to everyone on the road as it often leads those consumed by it to do dangerous things, with crashes, injuries, and sometimes deaths occurring as a result. If you’ve been hurt in a road rage accident, then the law may entitle you to recover a substantial sum in compensation. To help you in the pursuit of your legal action, an experienced San Mateo car accident attorney can help guide you effectively along the way.

In the Sunnyvale accident, a 23-year-old man apparently experienced road rage due to the driving of a 20-year-old man nearby. The former raced in front of the latter and slammed on his brakes. The younger man crashed into the rear of the vehicle in front of him. The 23-year-old man approached the rear vehicle and fired several shots that killed the 20-year-old man and injured his female passenger, according to reports.

Road rage is a massive problem, including here in Northern California. According to SafeMotorist, road rage triggered a total of 218 murders and 12,610 injuries nationwide over a period of seven years. The Insurance Information Institute found that, from 2003 to 2007, more than one-half (56%) of all fatal accidents involved at least one driver driving aggressively.

An Allegedly Impaired Driver Triggers a Multi-Vehicle Crash in Northern California that Kills One Pedestrian

February 14, 2021 | Law Offices of Galine, Frye, Fitting & Frangos

When you lose a loved one due to the negligent or reckless conduct of another, you are doubtlessly traumatized. You may be in shock. You may feel at a loss for what to do. Even in this overwhelming circumstance, after you’ve taken the time to take care of yourself and your family, take the time to contact a knowledgeable San Mateo wrongful death attorney. Your family has suffered an invaluable personal loss, but has also suffered an economic loss, as well. The right legal action can help with the financial damage this accident has caused.

A terrible auto accident near San Francisco State University likely traumatized the many people impacted by it, but undeniably altered the trajectories of at least two lives – the survivors of the one man who was killed in the crash.

Just before 8:00 am one early February morning, an eight-car pile-up occurred in the northbound lanes of Lake Merced Boulevard, according to a KTVU report. The crash caused five non-life-threatening injuries. The driver who caused the accident was an intoxicated person behind the wheel of a stolen car, according to police. A sixth person, a pedestrian who was out for a jog, was killed in the crash, leaving behind a wife and three-year-old child.

Why Delayed Symptoms After a California Car Accident Happen and What They Mean for You

February 4, 2021 | Law Offices of Galine, Frye, Fitting & Frangos

Back on New Year’s Day, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s website published some useful information that knowledgeable San Mateo car accident attorneys, as well as those who’ve been in a crash, already know: that the injuries you suffer in an accident – even a low-speed one – will not always trigger immediately apparent symptoms.

Sometimes, it may take days or even weeks for the symptoms to appear. Our bodies are programmed, in the immediate aftermath of serious trauma, to dump large amounts of adrenaline into our systems. That adrenaline helps our bodies deal with the blow we’ve just been dealt. That physiological reaction may also cause certain people not to feel pain for an extended period of time.

The reality is that each person is unique, and each person’s body’s responses to a crash are also unique. Just because Person A experiences significant pain almost immediately after their crash while Person B takes days or weeks for their problems to lead to the perception of pain doesn’t automatically make Person B’s harm any less authentic or any less serious.

Making Sure that Your California Auto Accident Lawsuit Includes Everyone Who Might Be Liable to You

January 30, 2021 | Law Offices of Galine, Frye, Fitting & Frangos

As future attorneys, many law students train in something called “issue spotting,” which means identifying and understanding all of the potential legal issues within a complex set of facts and then comprehending how to apply the law to those facts. That’s important because, when you as a client hire an attorney, that’s what you want: a knowledgeable and insightful professional who can take the jumbled ball of facts that you provide to him/her and decipher all of the claims, arguments and legal maneuvers that those facts make available to you. This is what an experienced San Mateo car accident attorney does every day, and why having that kind of legal representation can pay massive dividends for your injury case.

A recent accident case from Southern California is a good example of what we mean. In that case, a man’s car broke down on the 405 freeway in Los Angeles County. The man coasted his disabled vehicle onto the shoulder of the freeway. He then called his automobile club for roadside assistance.

After more than two hours on the shoulder of the freeway, the man still had not received assistance. As he continued to wait, an unlicensed driver spun out of control, ran onto the shoulder of the freeway and rear-ended the man, causing him to suffer significant injuries.

How a Skilled California Attorney Can Help You Avoid Having Second Thoughts About that Case Settlement You Authorized

January 22, 2021 | Law Offices of Galine, Frye, Fitting & Frangos

There are almost countless ways that an experienced San Mateo personal injury attorney can help you after you’ve been hurt in an accident. Your attorney can be essential as you litigate at trial. Your attorney also can be just as (if not more) instrumental when it comes time to engage in the settlement process.

An experienced attorney will be able to advise you, based on his/her past cases and other knowledge, what your case is approximately worth. That can be key as you seek not to shortchange yourself by making a settlement offer that’s too low. It can also be vital in determining whether an offer from the other side is a low-ball one or a fair one.

Furthermore, your knowledgeable attorney can help when it comes to the timing of making an offer, the timing of accepting or rejecting an offer from the other side and the conditions you place within an offer. As a recent premises liability case shows, these issues of conditions and timing matter more than you might think.

A Fatal Crash is a Tragic Reminder of the Dangers Motorcyclists Across California Face

January 13, 2021 | Law Offices of Galine, Frye, Fitting & Frangos

The rate of fatal accidents involving at least one motorcycle has been going up for decades. Statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) show that people on motorcycles are, per mile driven, roughly 28 times more likely to die on board their bikes as compared to people in cars, trucks or SUVs. Many times, those accidents occur through no fault of the motorcyclist involved. If you’ve been hurt in a crash while you were aboard a motorcycle, don’t wait to take action. Reach out promptly to contact an experienced San Mateo motorcycle accident attorney.

One of the more commonly occurring situations that can place a motorcyclist in danger of severe harm is a vehicle whose driver is coming in the opposite direction and contemplating a left turn. If that car, truck or SUV driver goes ahead and turns in front of you, your choices may be few… with none of them good.

You may have to choose between swerving, laying your bike down or trying to stop. All of these options create the possibility of your being thrown from your bike, which places you in serious danger of major injury or death. These include severe road rash, broken bones, brain injury or being run over by another vehicle.

The Importance of Pain and Suffering Damages When It Comes to Getting Full and Fair Compensation for Your Auto Accident Injuries in California

January 7, 2021 | Law Offices of Galine, Frye, Fitting & Frangos

Some people have an unfortunate tendency to view “pain and suffering” damages as somehow less legitimate – mostly just the stuff of shrewd lawyers’ fancy legal arguments and overly sympathetic jurors. Anyone who has been substantially injured in an auto accident – or knows someone who has been – knows that this simply isn’t true. An auto accident injury has the potential to affect you negatively for the remainder of your life. The totality of the harm you suffered in that auto accident is greater than just the amount of income you lost (and will lose) and the sum of your medical bills. When it comes time to seek all of the damages that you deserve, be sure you’ve sought out a skilled San Mateo car accident attorney.

Many times, the totality of your pain and suffering harm (also called “non-economic damages” in California) will exceed your “economic” losses like lost earnings and medical expenses, and perhaps exceed it by a lot. For example, last year, the state Supreme Court ruled on a case where the jury awarded $1.8 million in economic damages and $3 million in non-economic damages. Although the net verdict was a smaller sum, the high court ruled in favor of the trial court outcome.

A trial court case from Southern California (Orange County Ct. Case No.30-2019-01055888) is another good example. The injured driver was a 48-year-old woman who was rear-ended as she traveled to the mall. The woman suffered a cervical soft-tissue injury in her neck.