Following a personal injury, the medical bills are often the easiest part of a settlement to calculate, but they are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to full and complete compensation. A significant part of a settlement or verdict may be a component representing pain and suffering. What is pain and suffering? The law recognizes the right
When someone suffers a serious injury and it is caused by another’s careless or intentional act, a natural sense of justice says that the at-fault party should be partially or fully responsible for the financial consequences. However, the hospitals and other care providers do not care about this – it is the injured party who will receive the out-of-pocket medical
Too often, accidents cause serious or catastrophic bodily harm including dismemberment, disfigurement, organ damage, permanent disability, or even death. These serious injuries impact the lives of not just those injured, but also their closest loved ones who may have depended on the victim for support or may become full-time caregivers. California law recognizes the rights of these parties to recover from
Your neck is a complex structure of spinal bones, joints, tendons, ligaments, muscles, and nerves. Any one of those components can sustain damage in a fall or a motor vehicle accident, leading to severe acute or perhaps even chronic pain. And in some cases, patients need ongoing medical interventions, which may occasionally include surgery. The decision to have surgery is
Expert witnesses are people with specialized knowledge, training, experience or skill. It is this specialized experience that makes them helpful, and often crucial, in a personal injury lawsuit. Ways expert witnesses can help your case There are a couple of ways that expert witnesses can help a personal injury victim prove a case. The testimony of some experts is used
In early October, Stephen Paddock killed 58 people and injured hundreds more when he opened fire from a hotel window in Las Vegas, Nevada. Recently, lawsuits began to be filed against multiple parties, among them the manufacturer of the bump stock that made his AK-47 semiautomatic gun into a weapon that acted like an automatic rifle, and thus capable of
In the aftermath of the October 1, 2017 mass shooting at a country music festival in Las Vegas, the term “bump stock” became a household word and national point of contention. As legislators scramble to find ways to regulate the use of the firearm device, the manufacturer of the bump stock used in the Las Vegas massacre, Slide Fire Solutions,
It has become a regrettable sign of the times that mass shootings occur frequently around the country. From this summer’s shootings in a San Francisco UPS facility to the October 1 rampage in Las Vegas, which targeted a concert attended by many Californians, armed shooters take the lives of innocent bystanders, injure many more, and cause widespread trauma. Often the
Most people associate the appeals process with criminal law matters. In criminal trials, it is only the defendant who has grounds to appeal a judgement, but in civil lawsuits, both parties have the right to appeal a personal injury verdict. In California, as in all states, an appeal must be predicated upon a reversible error in law. It is not
Nationwide reports continue to demonstrate that many serious head injuries including concussions are a direct consequence of injured athletes returning to play too soon. In an attempt to make sports safer and reduce the number of concussion injuries, California broadened its existing “return to play” legislation, effective January 1, 2017. The amended law will apply to all athletes under the
