Posts Tagged ‘Personal Injury’

The Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on America happened almost nine long years ago and still the suffering goes on.

Only now are legal settlements nearing for many of the first responders who were injured when they dove into carnage of the World Trade Center towers that day and in the months to follow, recovering the remains of the almost 3,000 victims of the tragedy.

Finally, after a seven-year-long legal fight, a federal judge in New York last week approved a settlement deal, according to a story in The New York Times. Now, at least 95 percent of the 10,000 affected workers, which includes firefighters, police officers, building janitors and volunteers, must agree to the settlement deal by Sept. 30 for it to be finalized, according to the story.

Image credit: © iStockphoto.com/alancrosthwaite

This case spotlights the long legal road that plaintiffs often have to follow in such incidents.

It’s also a great reminder that if you are involved in a legal case where you suffer injuries and monetary losses that it’s imperative for your rights to be represented by a legal team that has your interests at heart.

Whether you suffer from injuries in the workplace, on a cruise ship, in a motor vehicle accident, a train, plane or bus crash, due to medical malpractice or any other kind of injury, you need to be sure that you get the best legal advice and representation that you can find.

The right attorney can help you minimize your mental anguish as your case is pursued through the legal system.

You want to work with an attorney who keeps you informed about your case every single step of the way.

You want to work with a lawyer who tells you every detail about the status of your case, from discussions with the defendants to settlement offers, medical reports and every other facet of your situation.

You want a legal team which you can trust and confide in and openly discuss your case and its status, whenever you need to talk.

And you certainly want to have easy access to discuss your case on your own schedule, with a lawyer who is there to listen and support you.

At MyPhillyLawyer, that is our pledge to you.

We will stand by you as long as it takes, and work through your case with you as a team.

The long legal fights that have involved the first responders from the World Trade Center site stand as a difficult reminder about how long complex legal cases can take to settle.

Similar situations will likely come out of the oil spill debacle in the Gulf of Mexico, where legal cases are sure to drag on for many years as plaintiffs seek damages for injuries, their livelihoods and their properties from BP and others.

If you or your family ever find yourselves in such a situation where you have suffered injuries or damages, remember to pay heed to several key first steps:

*Don’t sign anything. Don’t release your rights to anyone else until you have had a chance to talk with your lawyer.

*Don’t make any statements. Be sure you call your attorney and first discuss with him what happened and how you were injured. Let your attorney deal with everyone else.

*See your doctor and seek medical attention immediately for any injury that you suffer.

Try to maintain records of your injury case, from cell phone photos to a diagram of the accident scene to witness accounts and police incident reports, if available.

Your case is a team effort between you and your lawyer.

Be sure you select a law firm that gives you the confidence to go into your legal fight together, united, with ultimate victory as our collective goal, so that you and your family receive the monetary award that you deserve.

When losing isn’t an option, give the legal team at MyPhillyLawyer a call.

Whatever your needs, MyPhillyLawyer is waiting here to help you to ensure that you have the strongest team that you can put together.

You have our pledge on that.

Have you been injured in an accident? Generally, you only have two years from the date of the accident to file a personal injury claim. It is important that you contact a lawyer right away so as not to miss your opportunity to recover compensation for your injuries.

However, there are some exceptions to this rule. In this month’s video blog, Attorney Dean Weitzman of MyPhillyLawyer explains the exceptions to the general statute of limitations and who they apply to.

Two carriage drivers were sent to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital with serious injuries on Monday morning following a car accident,on Philadelphia’s Independence Mall. The accident occurred at around 10 a.m. when an elderly driver crashed his car into the back of a horse-drawn carriage — one of several stopped at a red light.

The car’s impact forced the carriage across the street, toppling two more carriages in front of it. A number of the horses broke free and bolted, before they were calmed down by passersby. Though scared, scraped and bruised, none of the horses were seriously injured.

However, two carriage drivers suffered serious damage, including head injuries, though both are currently in stable condition and expected to recover. The 70-year-old car driver was also taken to the hospital following the car accident, but has not yet been charged.

The crash sparked renewed calls for carriage bans from the Peace Advocacy Network (PAN), a Philadelphia-based activist group that focuses most of its energy on promoting veganism and animal rights. PAN has long been opposed to Philadelphia’s horse-drawn carriage industry and Monday’s car accident simply added fuel to their fire.

PAN members have already announced plans for a Saturday protest.

While refraining from comment on the animal rights side of the story, it’s worth taking a closer look at services like horse-drawn carriages and asking whether they really belong on today’s city streets. As Monday’s accident showed, it can be very dangerous to carriage drivers — not to mention the horses. Even if you don’t agree with PAN’s morals, it’s hard to fault them for wishing the animals safe conduct on city streets.

Additionally, imagine the outcome if those three carriages had been carrying passengers. Surely, there would have been more injuries. While driver error appears to be the sole cause of this accident, it makes little difference to the individual who has already suffered brain damage or another severe injury.

Dangerous drivers pose a threat to all of us, but the threat is even greater for those traveling by horse-drawn carriage — without any sort of protection. Certainly, you could argue that the danger posed to horse-drawn carriages is no worse than that posed to bikers and pedestrians, and, to be sure, that is a valid point.

But how many variables do we want out there on Philadelphia streets? It’s not an easy question, but one worth considering.

Read the full article here.

If you have full coverage auto insurance, this means you have comprehensive, collision and theft insurance for your car. However, it does not mean you will receive all of the coverage you can purchase.

In this month’s video blog, Dean Weitzman of MyPhillyLawyer explains the difference between full coverage and full tort. He explains why you should make sure to have full tort in order to protect you and your family in the event of a serious car accident.

For more information, please contact the firm at 866-920-0352 for a free initial consultation.

Are you willing to give up your rights to be compensated fully for ALL of the damages caused by another?

If you are injured in an accident, you can be sure that you want to recover every dollar you are entitled to for your treatment and for your pain and suffering.

But insurance companies for years have been trying to fight you tooth and nail to minimize what they pay out to you for pain and suffering due to your injuries so they can maximize their profits at your expense.

This is why we are constantly being bombarded in the legal world with proposals for caps on pain and suffering awards for injured people – a maximum dollar amount that can be paid to injury victims based on numbers pulled out of a hat, rather than on reality. Those proposals come from insurance companies and their very active, highly-paid lobbyists, who want to keep the money from you so they can keep it for themselves.

Image credit: © iStockphoto.com/stuartbur

Caps are not fair for injury victims. They say that your pain and suffering, no matter how severe or long-term, has a finite value and that your case is not worth any more than the arbitrary figures designated by the caps. Such caps are only good for the insurance companies.

Caps have been introduced under the argument that they’re helping to control escalating health-care costs. But that’s not true. The costs of actual health care aren’t changing via such caps. The “savings” are only being seen in the payouts by insurance companies that are trying to pay out as little as possible to injury victims. That’s an insult to the victims.

Insurance companies argue that caps help them control costs for everyone by stopping inflated damage awards. If that were the case and if those lower payouts were saving them money, why don’t we all see lower insurance premiums as a result? Because they’re pocketing the savings to fatten their own wallets, all at the expense of victims who are seriously injured in accidents and are being limited by unfair caps on their damage awards.

If a cap on pain and suffering awards is set at $250,000, for instance, then an injury victim would be limited to only that amount for their case in their lifetime, even if their injuries were so severe from burns, a vehicle crash or other catastrophic event that they could no longer work. That is outrageous.

How about if we turn the whole world of injury payments upside down and put the onus on the real perpetrators? What if you are a victim of medical malpractice and are severely injured due to an error by your doctor or hospital? Then why not create a $250,000 maximum payment cap for your injuries from the insurance company, and force the errant doctor and hospital to pay for any and all medical treatment above that for the rest of your life? Then the ones who actually caused your grievous injuries are being forced to remember it each day because they’ll have to pay for your care. That might make it more real for them the next time they treat a patient.

In states across the nation, this issue of damage caps and their legality is being reviewed. A $500,000 cap on medical malpractice damage awards imposed several years ago in Illinois was struck down last month by the Illinois Supreme Court, according to a story in BusinessWeek.  The court found that “the limits set by the Legislature violate the state constitution’s separation of powers principle,” the story said.

This is a key theme in the fight in Congress today as the health care reform proposals continue to be batted around between Congress and the White House. Many Republicans in Congress continue to argue that such damage caps are a good way to rein in health costs. Well, that may sound like a great sound bite, but that will change the minute you are involved in a serious accident or are the victim of medical malpractice. That’s when you’ll realize that your rights are being limited all in the name of “solving the nation’s health care crisis.”

Instead, caps of pain and suffering damage awards are arbitrary and protect only the insurance companies, doctors and hospitals. They are not looking out for the victims of such tragedies. Instead, it’s an attempt to deprive innocent victims of their day in court.

Yes, as a personal injury attorney, I do have a vested interest in this emotional topic. But that doesn’t make my premise wrong. When you take away the rights of the individual in favor of a corporation, which is what damage caps are doing, then I can never side with the corporation. An individual’s rights are paramount to those of the insurance companies. I am not ashamed to say that.

After hearing all the evidence and rendering a decision, if a jury verdict is too high after a trial, there are natural controls to fix that problem and make the award fairer. The trial judge can lower the award, as can state Superior Court and Supreme Court judges, if necessary.

We don’t need caps. That’s a red herring.

If your child has been injured during the birthing process, you may be entitled to financial compensation for their medical care. You may also receive compensation for suffering and loss of quality of life due to the birth injury.

In this month’s video blog, attorney Dean Weitzman of MyPhillyLawyer lists the three most common ways a birth injury occurs. He also emphasizes the firm’s role in securing compensation so that parents can maximize their child’s potential.