Articles Posted in Personal Injury

The answer, to some degree, depends on the circumstances of your particular accident. However, there are some general guidelines that should help you determine what to do after you have been injured. Not every situation will be covered here, but this should help make the process a little less stressful and confusing.

What you do following an automobile accident is illustrative of many other situations in which you’ve been injured as the result of another’s negligence.

Let’s focus on automobile collisions in which you believe the other driver is at fault. If you are still at the accident scene, and your physical condition allows it, make sure you exchange insurance information with the other driver. By doing so you are already protecting yourself in case you need to recover for any injuries or property damage. Unless the damage to you and your vehicle is obviously inconsequential, you should next make sure some law enforcement agency responds to the scene and makes a report.

More often than not the responding officer or deputy will interview the involved parties and any possible witnesses. Do your best to be very clear about what happened. If the incident report finds the other driver at fault you will stand a better chance of recovering for your injuries. Most reports are available within two weeks of the accident. Do yourself a favor and get a copy of the report as soon as possible. If you contact an attorney to seek representation, that report will help the attorney evaluate your case.

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Could you imagine sitting in your lovely little Store, tending to customers or stocking the shelves with your newest products. You’re just Minding your own business, and having a regular day, when suddenly a van drives through the front door of your store. Glass shatters everywhere, Products are smashed under the tires of the van, and possibly someone is horribly injured by the van as well. To most people this sounds more like a nightmare than something that could actually happen to someone, but that wasn’t the case for two women in Sacramento CA. This nightmare became a reality when The two women were sitting in their Hair Salon working a normal day, when a man ran his van into the front window.

According to an article on New10.net:

The van careened through the front door of the salon connected to the Tops ‘n Bottoms clothing store on the 5200 block of Fruitridge Road around 3 p.m. Saturday, Sacramento police Sgt. Norm Leong said.

Christmas Eve a house exploded in Rancho Cordova, right off Highway 50 between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe. One elderly man was killed and five other people were injured. As a Sacramento Personal Injury Lawyer and a resident of this area, it is very alarming when a home mysteriously blows up, a home that could have easily been mine or a family members. To lose your home is a very tragic and difficult thing to have to deal with, I personally have had to go through a house fire explosion. Though ours was a complete mystery, there has been some speculation that this Rancho Cordova house explosion could of been the result of a gas leak.

According to CBS 13 News:

The explosion sent three victims to the University of California, Davis medical complex in Sacramento in critical condition.

You tend to not notice linesman working on telephone poles as it is a common sight, just part of the landscape here in Sacramento, California, as you drive by.

Most of today’s line work takes place out of a bucket truck or on ladders but there are still a lot of folks climbing poles to keep the utility systems running everyday.

It is a dangerous job. Interestingly, those linesmen who work at lower altitudes like telephone lines at 20 feet above the ground, have more falling accidents than their power line brothers who work at 40 feet and higher. The explanation is that the lower height linesmen become more careless and take more shortcuts to get the job done.

In any case, whenever any linesman falls, as soon as the lineman reports the accident to the supervisor (assuming they are not already in an emergency room) the linesman is sent off to see a doctor. Even when the linesman says they feel fine, no problems, the company insists on sending them to be checked by a doctor. They do this because they, the company, know that an expert opinion is absolutely necessary to ensure that no damage has been done to the employee. Most linesmen are not physicians and are not experienced enough to make the call.

Are these companies simply pro-employee or are they simply doing what is necessary to ensure employee productivity and avoid legal exposure? Most likely they are all of these things. Constructing and maintaining aerial utility lines are their business and they know what they need to do to be successful.

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What are the legal issues involved when someone breaks an arm? Well that depends on a lot of things, a lot of variables. For example:

• A 12-year-old boy breaks his arm and cannot go swimming for 4 weeks. (Inconvenience or Disability?)
• A 29-year-old man breaks his arm and can not ride his motorcycle (or stick shift car). His motorcycle is his only means of transportation to get to his job. He is off work for 4 weeks and during that time his job is taken by another. (Inconvenience or Disability?)
• A 22-year-old administrative assistant breaks her right arm and cannot use her right hand to type or operate her computer mouse. She must shift to her left hand. Her productivity is cut in half until her arm heals. (Inconvenience or Disability?)

• A 68-year-old breaks an arm which invites infection during the healing process. The infection leads to complications which last for the next 12 months. Daily assistance is now required for cooking, cleaning and personal hygiene. (Inconvenience or Disability?)

So you see it really does depend on a lot of variables. But wait, there are even more variables, like who is responsible for the broken arm?

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