Articles Tagged with California lawyer

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Yuba City Power Restoration After Rainy Day Collision

PG&E has restored power for over 1,600 customers after Monday’s outage. The cause of this outage was linked to a broken power line after a vehicle collided with a pole. The driver of the vehicle was said to be traveling at an unsafe speed for rainy conditions.

Many employees drive company vehicles either to and from work or for specific company related tasks. Wrongful death claims can be brought against a driver’s employer if the negligent act of the employee occurred in the scope of employment. For this reason, it is vital in every wrongful death case to have only a wrongful death attorney investigate whether the negligent driver was in the scope of employment.

Employer Liability for Employee Actions

tipmJeep Grand Cherokee SUVs have been having some TIPM problems lately. The TIPM is the Totally Integrated Power Module. The most notable issue with the Grand Cherokee’s TIPM is the fuel relay. When the TIPM’s fuel relay fails the SUV may stop receiving fuel. This can cause irritating problems such as the vehicle not starting, or the fuel pump staying on which drains the battery while you are not using the vehicle. At this point, we are monitoring the situation. We have heard rumors that failing TIPMs may cause more serious problems such as fuel starvation while the vehicle is in motion. Improper airbag deployment is another possibility that we are monitoring. Of course, any of these issues could lead to a serious injury, or worse.

If you have been injured in a car accident due to fuel related problems or improper airbag deployment it is important that you do not tamper with the vehicle and contact us as soon as possible. Your first call should be to the attorney. Insurance companies will also act quickly to get in touch with you but it will always be in your best interest to get a free consultation from the automobile accident experts at The Edward A Smith Law Offices. Call us any time at 916-921-6400 or visit our automobile accidents page.

Although the dangers of exposure to asbestos fibers has now been well-known for many years, the several different diseases that may result may not be. In addition to malignant mesothelioma — a cancer that appears in the mesothelial tissues lining the lungs, peritoneum, pericardium, and chest cavity — other cancers of the lungs, kidneys, and gastrointestinal tract have also been connected to asbestos. Asbestos fiber inhalation is also the direct cause of asbestosis, a condition in which the lung tissues become increasingly scarred, seriously reducing lung function.

Malignant mesothelioma is a very devastating diagnosis — most people diagnosed with this cancer die within 12 months of receiving their diagnosis. This is not to say victims of this disease should be without hope. For example, famous scientist Stephen Jay Gould lived for more than 20 years after his mesothelioma diagnosis, eventually succumbing to an unrelated condition. While certainly grim, malignant mesothelioma diagnoses are still relatively rare.

hazmatAnyone who watched an older building being torn down or remodeled in recent years will have become familiar with the sight of workers performing asbestos testing and remediation. Buildings constructed in the middle part of the 20th century very commonly used asbestos in a variety of building materials because of its fireproofing performance. It was also used as fireproofing material in a number of other industries, such as shipbuilding, beginning early in the 20th Century, but becoming increasingly prevalent from the 1940s forward.

Malignant mesothelioma is a relatively rare form of cancer that appears most commonly in the pleural lining between the lungs and the chest wall. Only in recent decades has the strong connection between most pleural mesotheliomas and workplace exposure to asbestos become well-established and recognized.  Although cancer in the pleural lining had occasionally been observed and described by doctors for hundreds of years, it wasn’t until the early 1900s that doctors began to recognize these as “primary” cancers — that is, cancers originating actually in the lungs, rather than spreading as “secondary” tumors from cancers beginning in other locations.

Compared with larger motor vehicles like trucks and automobiles, motorcycles can expose their users to substantially greater danger of injury from collisions simply because of their smaller size and lesser degree of driver protection from the physical forces of a vehicle impact. The most crucial piece of safety equipment in most motorcycle accidents is the helmet.

While there are obviously good reasons of safety for wearing a helmet while riding on a motorcycle, there are also specific legal requirements. In California, these requirements are governed by Vehicle Code Sections 27802 and 27803. The first of these sections refers to the Federal Safety Standards from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that helmets used by motorcyclists in California must meet, and it prohibits the sale in California of helmets that don’t meet these federal standards. The federal standards clearly state, “The purpose . . . is to reduce deaths and injuries to motorcyclists . . .” and, “This standard applies to all helmets designed for use by motorcyclists. . . .”helmetstandards

DO NOT … select an attorney who is does not have specific experience with personal injury cases.  An attorney who does wills, trusts, bankruptcy or real estate will in all likelihood have no experience with personal injury cases.  Personal injury law is complicated and involves many rules and practices unique to the subject. You are risking the value of your claim if you choose an attorney without experience and specialization in personal injury law.

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DO NOT select an attorney who does not go to trials, arbitrations, or mediations.  Most attorneys who advertise that they handle personal injury cases have never seen the inside of a courtroom. Having the ability to see a case to trial is important because insurance companies are aggressively trying to save money and their goal is to force a settlement.  If the insurance company is aware that your attorney never goes to trial, they will take advantage of this and make very low offers to settle your case.  An attorney without trial experience is known to be bluffing, which allows the insurance companies to see his bluff.  The attorney without trial experience will pressure  you to accept less once she determines the insurance company is not going to increase its low offer.  If your attorney is unable or unwilling to push the case to trial, and the insurance company is aware of this, it will harm the value of your case.

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Crash! You are in the wrong place at the wrong time, and through no fault of your own find yourself on the side of the road, injured, with a damaged vehicle, because some other driver was negligent. The experience is frightening, and you may be in pain and confused. Luckily, you find out that the negligent driver has insurance, and you are properly insured, so you figure the process of getting your car fixed and your medical bills taken care of will be fairly simple. I mean, that is what you pay the insurance company for, right? Unfortunately, today may be just the beginning of months, even years, of inconvenience and frustration.

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Dealing with the Insurance Company

When a person who has been in an auto accident calls a personal injury lawyer, the lawyer or his staff will conduct a short interview to get the facts of the situation. In short, this will include questions regarding the facts surrounding how the collision occurred, where it occurred, the injuries and the treatment a person has obtained since the date of accident until the phone call. If a police report was taken, the office will also request the Traffic Collision Report number.

car accident.PNGThe personal injury attorney’s office will also ask questions regarding auto insurance coverage – both of the person who caused the accident and the insurance coverage of the injured party. Often, an injured party will readily report to the personal injury lawyer the auto insurance coverage of the person at fault. However, at times some injured parties resent questions when asked to provide information regarding their own auto insurance coverage.

At times, injuries and/or the medical appointments required to heal from the injuries, can cause a person to sustain a wage loss as part of their personal injury claim. A larger wage loss claim may exist when the injuries a person sustains does not allow them to return to their previous vocation. Not all wage loss claims are equal. This is especially true when a person is self-employed.

Often, proving lost wages for a self-employed person can be difficult. However, it can be done.

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