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04/29/2014An accident occurs -- someone close to you is injured or killed. What to do?
Many folks, once they have weathered the immediate storm, decide to hire a lawyer to assist them with investigating the accident and potentially pursuing a claim. As a lawyer with 30 years of experience representing individuals and family members, let me provide some insight into what you should be looking for when selecting a personal injury lawyer.
1. If you have a trusted lawyer, contact that lawyer about referrals. Lawyers generally know the reputations and qualifications of other lawyers and can...
04/26/2014Bad faith is the short-hand term for an insurer failing to act with good faith and deal fairly with one of its insureds. Theoretically, the law expects that a person's insurer will treat them fairly and with good faith - not denying a claim without a reasonable basis. Most insureds expect to be treated fairly by their own insurer.
But we all know that insurers deny claims without a reasonable basis all the time. In the 1980's the Texas Supreme Court decided an opinion with regard to a workers compensation claim. In that case the Court said that an injured worker, who had a workers...
04/22/2014If you are injured in a "tort" claim, you generally have the right to be compensated for your lost wages or lost income due to your inability to work or earn income due to your injury. In other words, if you cannot work due to your injuries, the at-fault party should be responsible to pay your lost income.
Generally, you are entitled to recover your lost income even if you use your sick leave and don't specifically lose any income. This is because you did lose something - the sick time that you would have had otherwise. Each state has its own specific rules about what lost income is...
04/15/2014If you are injured due to an act of negligence or other tort (torts are violations of standards of care that result in injury, such as an injury caused by someone being negligent, a product defect causing an injury or an intentional act such as an assault), you can be awarded damages for the medical bills incurred to treat your injuries, lost wages or income due to your injuries, compensation for your pain and suffering and mental anguish due to your injuries, compensation for any impairment due to your injuries and compensation for any disfigurement resulting from your injuries.
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04/08/2014Many folks wonder what they can obtain as far as compensation when they are in an accident. As usual when it comes to the law, it depends on the specific of the accident.
For example, if you are in an auto collision, you can generally recover damages for the property damage you incur, the medical bills you incur to treat your injuries, the wages or income you lost due to your injuries and compensation for your pain and suffering and mental anguish due to your injuries.
Today I will discuss the property damage aspect of your claim.
If you are in an auto collision and...
04/01/2014Most individuals who hire lawyers to represent them in personal injury claims enter into contingency fee contracts with the lawyer. A contingency fee contract means that the lawyer agrees to represent the person and will be compensated by receiving a portion of any recovery. The lawyer is not paid as the case goes along. Generally, the lawyer advances any costs necessary to pursue the injury claim. The client pays nothing until there is a monetary recovery. If there is no monetary recovery to the client, the lawyer does not get paid. Generally, in that circumstance the lawyer also is not...
03/25/2014If you are classified as a licensee - or social guest - the owner of the premises only owes you the duty to warn you of dangers that the premises owner already knows about. In other words, the premises owner does not owe you a duty to reasonably inspect the premises for dangers. The premises owner can close his eyes to danger and then not be liable if the danger unknown to him because he closed his eyes injures you.
If you are classified as a trespasser, the only duty the premises owner owes to you is not to intentionally injure you. As I said in an earlier post, trespasser in this...
03/18/2014Once you are categorized with regard to your relationship to the premises, the duty of the premises owner to you is known. Then you can attempt to prove your claim.
Today I am going to discuss the most likely premises claim - that of an invitee (business customer) injured while on the business premises.
You are shopping and slip and fall injuring your knee. You call a lawyer wondering if the store is responsible for your medical bills and lost wages.
If the lawyer knows what he or she is doing, the first question asked will be: What caused you to fall? This is because...
03/11/2014I get calls every week from people who have fallen or otherwise been injured due to a premises defect. Generally, these cases are called slip & fall claims. This is because many times a person has fallen due to a slick substance on the floor.
Premises liability claims are difficult claims to successfully pursue in Texas. This is because of the heavy burden on the person injured.
In order to be compensated for their damages, the injured person has to jump through several hoops. First, Texas law puts each person into one of three categories: You are either an invitee, a...
03/04/2014More and more individuals are confronting arbitration clauses when they have disputes. Arbitration clauses are contained in almost all credit card agreements, bank or consumer loan contracts, real estate contracts, and investment related contracts. In fact, it is unusual to find a consumer contract with a business that does NOT contain an arbitration clause.
Arbitration clauses require that most, if not all, disputes that "relate to" the consumer activity be arbitrated --in other words they are resolved outside the judicial system. A major factor in arbitration clauses is that a...