You’re a hard worker. You have been working hard all year, accumulating your paid time-off or your vacation days so you can take that much-deserved vacation. But one day, through no fault of your own, you’re injured by the negligence of another. It may be a car accident, a slip/trip and fall, a bicycle accident, and [...]
Joint and Several Liability for Personal Injury Cases: What happens if you are injured by two or more people? Who compensates you for your injuries? Is it just one person or is it divided between all the people that caused your injuries? Will you be compensated 100%? What happens if one defendant doesn’t have enough funds [...]
A Recent Victory for Undocumented Injured Victims: AB 2159 was approved and signed by Governor Jerry Brown on August 17, 2016. It essentially overturns about 30 years of case law that allowed defendants to escape paying full compensation to an injured victim who happened to be an illegal immigrant. The bill states, "[I]n civil actions for [...]
Is the at-fault party legally required evidence preservation? No. California Law does not require evidence preservation from anybody. The California Supreme Court ruled that there is no separate tort for intentional spoliation or destruction of evidence, i.e. valid legal reason to sue. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center v. Superior Court (1998) 18 Cal.4th 1. The Court held that [...]
Street Lights in Auto Accidents: Is a public entity liable for injuries to a party involved in a motor vehicle accident, when it fails to install or maintain street lights in an operable condition? The general answer is no. Under Government Code 835, a public entity is liable for an injury caused by a dangerous condition [...]
Mandatory Uninsured or Underinsured Motorist Coverage Have you ever been hit by a driver that is uninsured? Have you ever been a victim of a hit and run? What happens now? You report it to your insurance and they say something like, “Sorry, but you didn’t purchase Uninsured Motorist Coverage, so we can’t cover you.” Your [...]
Imagine you are driving and you are hit by another car and it takes off, but you are unable to identify that owner or driver or vehicle. What happens then? Are you covered by your own insurance? Who pays for your property damage? Who pays for your medical treatment if you are injured? This is the Hit [...]
Commercial Host Civil Liability for Selling Alcohol: When a patron leaves a bar, restaurant, or liquor store drunk and later causes injuries to you, is the commercial establishment legally liable? First, because of the political and ethical hot topic that has occurred around drinking and driving, we discuss a brief history of the law. Prior to [...]
Is It Illegal to Withhold Medical Records? Sometimes we need our medical records for various confidential reasons. Other times, we need it for our personal injury case. The difficulty maybe obtaining the medical record from a medical provider. The medical provider may have many reasons for doing so, they are overwhelmed, they are too busy, they [...]
Can an amusement park be held liable for your injuries while you were on an amusement park ride? Amusement park liability explained. We all have been to the amusement parks for what else, amusement. We take our children, family, and we go with our friends. It’s supposed to be a good time. A time to just [...]
