Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

California Doctor Took Nude Patient Photos

June 6, 2015 | by Moseley Collins

The latest story from a San Diego-area health center has patients all over California worried about their privacy when they visit hospitals and clinics. The state medical board investigators turned over detailed court documents on October 23, 2014, revealing their findings regarding a volunteer doctor who they suspect has snapped over 1,300 sexually explicit photos of female patients with his camera phone.

It’s a bad day for privacy, that’s for sure.

California-Doctor-Took-Nude-Patient-Photos The doctor, endocrinologist Jeffrey J. Abrams, is now suspended from that clinic, but at the time of this writing, he still holds his state medical license and hasn’t been arrested.

California DUI School

June 3, 2015 | by Moseley Collins

All drivers convicted of a DUI in California must enroll in DUI school. Enrollment must be complete within 21 days of the sentencing. The provider of DUI program instruction must be licensed by the state and provide services in person only. There are several classes available online but California does not recognize them. However, there are over 250 in person providers in the state and most are readily available. All require an order from the court or a license suspension from the DMV.

California-DUI-School DUI charges can often be reduced to a wet reckless charge. A wet reckless charge is a reckless driving offense with a calculable amount of alcohol in the blood of the driver. It must be a very small amount and the reckless behavior cannot be of any serious type. If you’re DUI has been reduced to a wet reckless charge you must enroll in a DUI school, wet reckless program for a total of 12 hours.

The next most serious charge that requires DUI school is the first time offender program. A first time DUI offender with a blood alcohol level of under .20 percent will be required to enroll in at least 30 hours of an appropriate DUI program involving both drugs and alcohol issues. Thirty hours is approximately a 3 month course. If the judge decides the sentence should be stricter than average, the program can be extended to 6 or even 9 months. If a first time DUI offender has a blood alcohol percentage of above .20 percent, a 9 month or 60 hour course must be completed to satisfy the court.

Brain Shunt Complications – What You Need To Know To Protect Yourself

June 1, 2015 | by Moseley Collins

Unfortunately, nothing is perfect in the medical field including medical providers, medications, medical devices and medical treatments. While medical providers and manufacturers of medical devices strive to provide the best services and products to patients, there will be complications and negligence in the medical field.

Brain-Shunt-Complications Brain shunts are commonly used to treat hydrocephalus. When the brain shunt fails or develops complications, it can be terrifying for the patient and his or her family. Our medical malpractice attorneys have extensive experience helping clients determine if the brain shunt complications were due to a preventable and unavoidable malfunction or failure of the brain shunt.

Common Signs that a Brain Shunt is Malfunctioning

Auto Accidents With Pedestrians Involved

May 28, 2015 | by Moseley Collins

Picture this: you are driving through your town late on a Saturday night. Suddenly, something comes out into the road. It’s a person. You try to swerve, but it’s too late. You know you have made contact.

Auto-Accidents-With-Pedestrians-Involved That is almost exactly what happened on January 17, 2015. A 73-year-old woman was walking in her town of Gatesville, Texas. When she tried to cross the street, a silver car driven by a 17-year-old boy hit her. When the police, EMS and fire department arrived, they pronounced her dead at the scene.

Whether you are driving on the highway or through a school zone, you always need to be on the lookout for pedestrians. Though it is unlikely that someone would want to try and cross a busy highway, you never know who might get out of their car on the side of the road. Hitting a pedestrian will land you in boiling hot water and can lead to both civil and criminal lawsuits. Therefore, you need to be very careful when driving anywhere you suspect pedestrians may be more common.

Auto Accidents Are Top Cause of Teen Deaths in US

May 24, 2015 | by Moseley Collins

To most parents, there is nothing more terrifying than letting a teenager get his or her license and start driving. Parents tend to imagine every possible worst-case scenario – the car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, a drunk driver hits the teen’s vehicle – and really, they have cause to worry.

A new report states that auto accidents are actually the number one killer of teenagers in the United States, beating out both homicide and suicide. The study, which was funded by the General Motors Foundation, says that both drivers and passengers are at risk.

The report was mostly based off a national survey that looked at 1,000 teenagers between the ages of 13 and 19. According to the report’s findings, 2,439 teenagers died in 2012 due to auto accidents on U.S. roads. Of those teenagers, about 56 percent of them were driving at the time, and 44 percent of them were passengers at the time. The study also found that more than half of those killed did not put on a seat belt.

Are Sacramento School Zones Safe?

May 20, 2015 | by Moseley Collins

Whenever you see the yellow diamond-shaped sign with two black figures crossing a road, you know you’ve entered a school zone. Typically the speed limit drops, and drivers need to be extra cautious to avoid hitting any parents and children when school is in session.

Whether or not school zones in Sacramento are safe depends almost exclusively on the drivers and the attention to the road. Most research concludes that each year roughly 100 children are killed on their way to or from school, and another 25,000 are injured in accidents around school zones.

Of course, children should be taught how to stop, look and listen when crossing the street, and many school districts employ crossing guards to get children safely across the street. However, neither of those factors excuse a negligent, distracted driver who is speeding through a school zone.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Driverless Cars

May 20, 2015 | by Moseley Collins

How cool would it be to never have to drive your car again? Some people are lucky enough to experience this now. They have chauffeurs or private drivers to handle the task, but what about the regular, average Joes out there? What if you never had to worrying about making your morning commute because your car would simply drive you itself?

Self-driving vehicles are quickly becoming the new frontier of technology, capturing the minds of those in Silicon Valley, but the actual implementation of driverless cars might need to wait a generation or two. In a recent survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, 48 percent of Americans said that they would ride in driverless cars. More than half of urban and suburban citizens said they were at least interested in this technology, and a whopping 59 percent of college graduates in the U.S. said they would be willing to give it a try.

Before you know it, seeing a driverless car on the road could become part of your normal routine. You might even own one! Here is what you need to know about the driverless car phenomenon.

Explosive Car Accidents

May 18, 2015 | by Moseley Collins

When a car crash suddenly goes from bad to explosive, there is little you or any other bystander can do about it. One evening around 10 pm in 2002, a California man driving a black Ferrari at high speeds suddenly lost control of his vehicle and went veering off to the left where the car struck several trees on a grassy median and then went into the other lanes before finally stopping. After that horrific crash, the car caught on fire.

Luckily, the driver and his passenger were just able to make it out of the car before it was inflamed, and no one else was injured. The Ferrari did not hit any other vehicles.

While rare, cars catching on fire are highly dangerous and definitely something you want to avoid, but do you know what to do if something like this does happen to your car? Let us tell you what you should know if you ever find yourself in this situation. Of course, every situation will be unique, but if you generally know what to do and what not to do, you’ll be ready for the emergency.

The Benefit of Uninsured Motorist Coverage

May 16, 2015 | by Moseley Collins

Personal injury lawsuits can really do a number on your finances. When you are hit by another driver, usually you will rely on their insurance to pay for the damages to your car as well as any medical fees. If the driver is uninsured, you will probably go after the driver with a personal injury lawsuit, but no matter what, it will cost you plenty of time and energy.

Some states are better than others when it comes to personal injury and safety. WalletHub.com rated all 50 states plus the District of Columbia in order from the riskiest states that will hit your wallet the hardest (#1) to the most lenient states that may save you money but not protection (#51). To judge the level of safety, the site looked at the level of auto insurance required for drivers.

Auto accidents are one of the leading causes for many personal injury lawsuits, and not all states require drivers to have enough insurance to cover damages. That means if another car in the state with the least strict laws hits you, there’s a good chance you will end up paying for your own damages, unless you chose to go after that driver in a personal injury lawsuit.

Arroyo Grande California Nursing Home Sued

May 15, 2015 | by Moseley Collins

An Arroyo Grande nursing home, Casa Rosa Elder Care, is being sued after a 91 year old patient, Claire Trubo, fell and called for help for nearly three hours as she lay battered, bruised and bleeding, before the nursing home attendant woke from a nap and came to her assistance. The suit claims the nursing home is understaffed due to their placing money above patient care in their priority list.

Arroyo Grande-California-Nursing-Home-Sued The trouble started in October of 2013 when Ms. Trubo was first admitted to the elder care facility. The staff was made aware at that time of the patients need to be assisted to and from the bathroom. In an instance prior to the fall, the nursing home neglect lawsuit cites she was escorted to the bathroom, only to be left for over 20 minutes before being escorted back. When she brought the matter to the attention of authority, she was told to use the bathroom, i.e. defecate and urinate, in her bed and wait to be cleaned up. Administration was involved at that point and Ms. Rosa’s family was assured the behavior was unacceptable and would not happen again.

On a separate occasion, two days later, Ms. Trubo rang her buzzer but received no assistance. She waited an additional 20 minutes before walking to the bathroom alone, making it without incident. She used the bathroom and then pulled the assistance chain next to the toilet. Again, she waited 20 minutes without assistance or recognition. She attempted to walk back to her bed without assistance when she fell. With no handrail to grasp and too far from the assistance chain, she yelled for assistance. It was three hours before assistance arrived.