14Oct
What may seem like minor damage to you or your car and property may worsen as time elapses. Your life can be consumed by activities related to the accident at a time when you need to focus on your physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. The other driver’s insurance company may contact you to offer a settlement. How do you know if you should accept it?
Before accepting a settlement, you should make sure that you have the proper information following the accident in order to pursue the right path towards getting the full compensation you are owed. It is in your best interest to gather information to help with your case, including the following:
- Information about the driver at fault, such as name, address, driver’s license number, and license plate number
- Contact information for any witnesses
- Business cards of police officers at the accident scene
- Incident number from the police so you can get your accident report
- The location of the accident, the road conditions, speed limits, weather, and lighting
- Your notes about the accident, how it occurred, what the cars were doing at the time of impact
With this information, a reliable Dallas injury lawyer can really help not only working towards just compensation, but also to give you peace of mind. The right law firm can call on a team of experts—accident reconstructionists, technicians, and specialists—and your witnesses to gather the facts surrounding the accident. While they handle the legal process, you can focus on healing.
A Dallas personal injury law firm will seek to recover the following from your injury claim:
- Current and future medical expenses
- Current and future lost wages
- Pain and suffering
- Car-related expenses, including auto repair, towing, and rental or replacement vehicle
Tags: attorney, attorneys, auto accident, auto accidents, Dallas, Dallas injury lawyer, Dallas personal injury attorney, law, law firm, lawsuit, lawyer, lawyers, Legal Atmosphere, personal injury
08Oct
Brain injuries are extremely dangerous, not only because of the ease with which they can occur, but also because they often go unnoticed for long periods of time after the incident. Brain damage occurs when the head is hit directly with violent force, causing the brain to collide with the skull. This stretches and tears nerve fibers and causes bleeding and bruising in the brain. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) also results when brain material is punctured by skull fragments or external matter.
Because of the relative ease with which our brain can be injured, symptoms of TBI may be missed during an initial evaluation after an injury. While traumatic brain injuries are classed in severity as mild or severe, even mild brain injuries cause severe affects to motor and cognitive abilities. Additionally there is not cure for TBI. That TBI can go undetected after accidents makes it essential to consult with a Los Angeles car accident lawyer following medical treatment to discuss legal options if symptoms begin to show at a later time.
Some symptoms of TBI include:
- Persistent or worsening headache
- Changes in emotional state
- Loss of balance
- Seizures
- Memory loss and sleep disturbances
- Confusion
- Unconsciousness
The affects of traumatic brain injury are complicated and long-term. Initial acute care in an emergency room gives way to surgery, leading to unavoidable short term care, and potential life-time rehabilitative care. Because brain injuries affect cognitive abilities and motor skills, daily activities can become difficult and require assistance in order to learn how to cope with new disabilities. A team of medical professionals skilled with adaptive coping strategies is often required for individuals dealing with permanent disability due to TBI.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), automobile accidents are the second leading cause of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and the leading cause of death from TBI in the United States.
It is the severity and complexity of this injury, added to the costliness of medical treatments that makes it essential to consult with a Los Angeles auto accident attorney.
An experienced personal injury attorney knows an accident that causes traumatic brain injury in its aftermath often gives rise to personal injury claims. TBI requires acute and long-term diagnostic, medical, rehabilitative, psychological, and adaptive assistance for injured individuals and their families. If you are the victim of an auto accident in which you experienced a traumatic brain injury or believe that you might be showing symptoms of TBI because of a recent accident, contact a reliable personal injury lawyer right away.
Tags: attorney, attorneys, auto accidents, law, law firm, lawsuit, lawyer, lawyers, Legal Atmosphere, personal injury, settlement
05Oct
Common Rollover Car Accidents in Los Angeles
Even if a driver was driving carefully and properly belted in the seat, rollovers have the potential to cause fatal or debilitating injuries. Rollovers are caused by faulty vehicle designs, and poor automobile construction aggravates the problem by making injuries from Los Angeles car accidents more severe than they might have been. Over the past couple of decades, cars, especially pickup trucks, vans, and SUVs, have gotten bigger, taller, and more top-heavy, increasing their propensity to rollover in an impact or merely from road handling on a sharp turn or steep incline. Many of these vehicles are also marketed for off-road use on difficult terrain, where a rollover is even more likely.
Even considering design flaws in the vehicle’s suspension, many rollovers could be prevented by installing Electronic Stability Control (ESC) on the vehicle. ESC and computerized traction control technology has been available for decades, and studies show that universal adoption of ESC could reduce car accidents in Los Angeles and fatalities by 35%, or 67% in the case of SUVs. Yet only about half of the vehicles sold in the United States offer this option, which would cost the manufacturer about $100 to add.
The ease with which some car roofs crush on impact is one of the main reasons that rollovers cause nearly one-third of fatalities in Los Angeles auto accidents, wholly out of proportion to the frequency with which cars roll over in a serious car accident in Los Angeles. A roof crush is likely to cause severe head or neck injury, even more so if the occupant of the vehicle is properly restrained with the seat in an upright position. A severe head injury or broken neck within the three top cervical vertebrae is likely to be fatal; if the occupant does survive a roof crush, permanent traumatic brain injury (TBI) or permanent paralysis from a spinal cord injury, including paraplegia or quadriplegia, may result.
A roof crush can be avoided if roofs were simply built stronger by the manufacturer. However, given the relative infrequency of rollovers compared with other car accidents in Los Angeles, automakers often skimp on materials in the roof or fail to provide any structural reinforcement. It is unconscionable that the auto industry would put profits ahead of safety and market cars that cause catastrophic injuries which could be avoided through the use of available technology and safety features.
If you or a loved one has been seriously injured in a rollover car accident, consult with a reliable Los Angeles car accident lawyer as soon as possible. They can help you obtain the financial recovery you need to cope with medical bills and injuries.
Tags: attorney, attorneys, auto accidents, automobile defects, car recalls, car safety, law, law firm, lawsuit, lawyer, lawyers, Legal Atmosphere, personal injury, settlement, vehicle defects
30Sep
If you dress in a style that is different from the mental image people conjure up for a serious claimant, you are going to have a tough time convincing the judge or jury that you are, in fact, a lawyer. Extremes of dress have no place in the courtroom. If you have not read the “dress for success” books, you should do so. Remember, you are essentially selling yourself to the judge and jury and successful salespersons must look good. Personal appearance communicates a lot about a person. Wear a suit, shirt, tie and shoes that go together if you are a man. If you are a woman, wear a nice dress or suit that gives you good coverage with sensible shoes and keep jewelry conservative and simple.
Remember your own physical appearance: Your hair, your beard, your hands, and your make-up. If you look like a “dirtball” or a “floozy”, people are going to think you are a “dirtball” or “floozy”. There is absolutely no reason for anyone to appear disheveled, unkempt, or unclean. All of this sounds very basic. If you show up with your hair in disarray and you have part of your breakfast still in your beard or on your blouse, you are going to have a tough time. You are going to lose a psychological edge whether you are dealing with the court or a jury.
Tricia Dennis is a Chattanooga accident attorney and author of “10 Dos & Don’ts of Auto Accidents“
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