Archive for category denver accident lawyer
Car Accidents Caused by Tire or Brake Failure
Posted by denverheat in Colorado personal injury attorney, Denver personal injury lawyer, colorado injury lawyer, colorado personal injury, criminal defense attorney denver, denver accident lawyer, denver divorce lawyer, denver injury lawyer, denver law firm, find a denver law firm, hiring a denver dui attorney, motorcycle injury lawyer on August 22nd, 2010
Accidents Caused by Brake Failure Could be an Intentional Tort
Motor vehicles are some of the most dangerous things out there. Death by motor vehicle is one of the most common forms of death in the industrialized world. Common causes for car accidents are people just spend so much time in vehicles, but also include those who break the law and have poor maintenance.
Cars, trucks and motorcycles share one thing in common when it comes to a Denver car accident. All have all of their weight supported by tires. When you think that only a small portion of the tire is in contact with the ground at all times it will not surprise you to find that over a quarter of all Denver motorcycle accidents come from problems with tires or brakes. If you have been injured in a car crash or motorcycle accident that was a result of damaged or improperly maintained tires, you may have legal recourse to sue.
There could be several different parties that were responsible for the brakes or tires. If you had an injury from a car crash involving failed brakes or tires, the negligent parties could include the driver, brake manufacturer, the mechanic, or the employer of the driver. If it was a truck accident, the trucking company might be liable for and personal injury in Denver.
Because there could be multiple liable parties, each one will probably try to shift blame and get another company’s insurance to pay for the accident. However it is possible to sue multiple parties and it is possible that several people were to blame for the accident. If you are suing multiple people it might be prudent to hire a Denver injury attorney to avoid being caught in the run-around.
If the brake manufacturer was at fault, you have a good chance of being awarded a settlement because of strict laws regarding braking systems. Truck brakes especially are regulated by the federal government to have a certain braking power. If the brakes on the car that hit you does not meet these standards you could claim the manufacturer did not design the brakes well or that there was a manufacturing defect. These kinds of cases fall more under product liability than personal injury.
If the trucking company failed to provide regular maintenance on the brakes you could sue. Some truckers even de-power the front brakes on purpose to reduce the cost of brake replacement. It seems crazy but some truckers would rather use the trailer brakes and the transmission to slow down. Choosing a dangerous thing like unhooking the brakes just for a little cost savings might actually result in an intentional tort instead of a personal injury negligence case. If this happened you could sue both the driver and the trucking company that allowed this to happen.
Keep A Colorado Injury Attorney in your Stack of Business Cards
Posted by hawkeye11 in Colorado personal injury attorney, denver accident lawyer, denver injury attorney, denver injury lawyer on July 28th, 2010
I know the common attitude towards driving is “I won’t get in an accident”, especially in men but the truth is most accidents are not single vehicle accidents. This means a car accident will involve more than one person so even if you think you are the best driver in the world, someone else could cause a car accident that you are involved in.
In 2009, Car accidents cost each American more than $1,000 a year; $164.2 billion is the total cost each year across the United States.
Here are a few more shocking car accident statistics:
- There are more than six million car accidents each year in the United States.
- The leading cause of death for individuals between 2 and 34 years old is motor vehicle crashes.
- A person dies in a car accident every 12 minutes and each year car crashes kill 40,000 people.
- Over 25% of all drivers were involved in an auto accident in a five-year period.
- Someone is injured by a car crash every 14 seconds and about two million of the people injured in car accidents each year suffer permanent injuries.
With this all being said, it is important to know a Colorado personal injury attorney before you find yourself in a four car accident on I-25. If you or a family member is in a car accident and needs to get medical attention you do not want to spend time calling around or researching online for a Denver injury attorney in the state of mind you are in. This is why we recommend you find a personal injury lawyer before you need one. Find one that you are comfortable with, that treats you well and will be there when you need them. Get their business card and keep it in your wallet. You never know when you could be driving down the road and someone blows through a stop sign and t-bones you and your family.
Workplace Injury
Posted by denverheat in Denver Attorney Finder, Denver personal injury lawyer, denver accident lawyer, find a denver law firm, personal injury, personal injury attorney on June 16th, 2010
Injured Worker
Large corporations go a long way to make sure they do not get drug into any legal battles for workplace injuries. The institution that corporations have created to insulate them is called worker’s compensation insurance. If you have been injured on the job your boss will most likely tell you that you must make your claim through worker’s comp. This is true… in most situations.
For certain exceptions you may be able to sue your employer. If your employer acted on purpose to cause your injury then he can of course be sued. If he does not carry worker’s comp, depending on the state you may sue him directly or go through a state fund for uninsured injuries. Any injuries caused by a 3rd party’s actions or negligence can also be sued. Examples are injuries from defective products or toxic substances.
The reason injured workers often end up hiring a Denver injury lawyer is because worker’s comp benefits for permanent disability are low and do not take pain and suffering into account. If you were injured by a piece of defective equipment you may have a claim, especially if the manufacturer knew about the defect and did not say anything. If you can prove they knew then they will have to compensate for injuries, lost wages and opportunities, and suffering. If you were injured by a product at work, you can recover both workers comp and damages from the company that made the defective device. Consider consulting with accident or Denver motorcycle attorney to find out exactly where you stand in a case. If you know of a piece of equipment that is dangerous and still used by a company you should notify the Labor Department’s Occupational Health and Safety Administration.
Sicknesses from toxic workplace substances is a very bad situation because the total effect of the problems often does not show up until much later. These latent injuries are hard to prove but it can be done, especially when the link between the substance and the disease is well documented. As opposed to mechanical injuries where you could use a Denver accident lawyer, poisonous workplaces are often handled by attorneys who specialize in these toxic torts, and have experience in connecting cause and effect. The most common industrial toxic substances are things like asbestos, silica and radium.
Acute or readily apparent toxic injuries are things like burnt lungs in a smelting factory. These are easier to prove and you may be able to sue your employer, the manufacturer of the substance, and any safety or handling equipment companies that were negligent. And remember, if the company injures you on purpose or has not insurance you can still sue in civil court.
Writing a Demand Letter for Insurance
Posted by denverheat in Denver personal injury lawyer, denver accident lawyer, denver injury attorney, denver injury lawyer on June 16th, 2010
Demand Letter from an Accident Attorney
The importance of a good demand letter in accident settlement negotiations with insurance companies cannot be understated, because the demand letter is the piece of information the insurance company refers to in all arguments. The demand letter is a document explaining the case and what you are owed from your point of view. Therefore it should cover the specific extent of your injuries, how much those injuries cost in terms of treatment and loss, and why the other party is liable for those injuries. The letter ends with an amount you demand to settle the case.
Because it is from your point of view, you should make a point of sitting down with a good Denver personal injury lawyer to include all the strongest pieces of evidence in your case. Review all of the details of the accident involving injury, fault, and disruption of personal life. To get the largest settlement, there a few things you should really concentrate on being as air-tight as possible. Liability must be proven. You need to show why the insured person or organization was at fault; why they had a duty of care and how they violated that. A good way to show that is to do a big picture walkthrough of how the accident actually occurred.
Never admit to any fault. It is the insurance company’s job to apply comparative negligence and reduce your award if they can show you were partially at fault. As a tried and true Denver car accident attorney once told me, consider how your negligence effects the total settlement, but do not admit fault. Comparative negligence laws can erase or significantly reduce your award if the case went to court.
Be specific about your injuries without exaggerating. This usually requires some medical documentation. It is recommended to go into detail about pain and how the injuries have changed your life, but any perceived exaggeration brings the risk of the company bringing out the big injury law lawyers. A motorcycle injury case can go below the cost of medical bills. They may even decide to ignore your case all together if they believe you are faking.
The last step to the demand letter is to make the actual demand. Put in a number that is around double what you expect, because the company will try to negotiate you down. Put all supporting documents into the case that you refer to. Especially important are eyewitness testimony, medical bills, and other lost receipts.
Insurance Settlement Negotiation
Posted by denverheat in Denver Attorney, Denver personal injury lawyer, denver accident lawyer, personal injury, personal injury attorney on June 16th, 2010
The process of negotiating for a settlement- whether it be for an injury, car crash or malpractice – is essentially the same. Motorcycle accidents often cause horrible personal injury cases, but they follow the same pattern. Once you submit a demand letter the next step is negotiation.
Before the negotiation begins, you must submit a demand letter tot he insurance companies laying out your claim with supporting evidence. If you are lucky then the next step is just a few calls with your insurance company and your personal injury lawyer. These insurance companies negotiate like this all the time so it is no sweat for them. Treat it like a business deal as emotionless as possible to stay on your senses.
In the call, you and the adjuster will argue by going over the strong and weak points of each side’s proposal. The adjuster’s job is to low-ball you with a settlement lower than the one in your demand letter. Your job is to counter with an offer in between the demand price and the adjuster’s offer. If you get a reservation of rights letter, it does not necessarily mean you have to run off to the best Denver injury attorney you can find. This is just a letter that protects the insurance company by saying that entering into negotiations does not necessarily mean that they will pay or are liable.
Your best protection from a insurance adjuster is preparation. You want to go into the negotiations with a figure in mind of the minimum you will accept. You do not tell the adjuster this number, but you will use it to help determine what you do in the negotiations. If they start off with a number already near your minimum that is good news and you can try to adjust that number to get more. If they point out some holes in your case that might make it hard to argue in court, you and your Denver accident attorney may have to revise downward.
Nerves of steel are not required, but self control is. Do not just jump at the first offer because it is probably just a ploy to see how little it will take to placate you. If you were involved in a serious Denver personal injury case, you need to stay strong in negotiations, because once the settlement is over the case can never be re-opened. You want to stay emotionless, but emphasize emotional points that would be likely to get a jury crying to open the defendant’s pocketbook.
If the adjuster gives you a low but not unreasonable offer- go forward with negotiations. If the offer is completely unreasonable they are probably just testing you so ask why it is so low and go over every point they give on why. Once you have reached a agreeable number, put that into writing with a letter to the insurance company stating the amount, what that amount covers and when you expect payment.
denver injury lawyer
Defenses in Personal Injury Law
Posted by denverheat in Denver Attorney, Denver personal injury lawyer, criminal defense attorney denver, denver accident lawyer, denver law firm, personal injury, personal injury attorney on June 1st, 2010
Personal injury is an area of law with potentially huge sums awarded. A permanently debilitating injury will change a person’s life forever, and that means a liable party must pay for those changes. Whether you have been injured and need to know the possible defenses to your case, or you are building a defense yourself, here are some common things the defense will bring up.
Personal injury defenses usually focus on the plaintiff’s role in the injury, and their inaction afterward.
Who is Liable in a Car Accident?
The first, and most common defense based on the plaintiff’s actions before the action is that the plaintiff was the one responsible. Whether you choose to settle the case before it goes to court, or you try and go to court with a Denver personal injury attorney, the compensation awarded is likely to be effected if the plaintiff is proven to have any fault in the incident. In some cases where the activity involved was obviously dangerous, a court may rule you assumed the risk and therefore have no claim. Some examples where an injury would be considered an assumed risk are auto racing and skydiving. Contact sports are also usually exempt, as long as the injury occurred during what would have been considered a normal phase of the game. A light pole falling on a player is therefore not an assumed risk, and the stadium owner would be liable.
Your state may follow comparative negligence or contributory negligence law. In comparative negligence, the court uses a formula to determine the percentage of fault in the accident. So if the plaintiff was found to be 40% at fault, they will only recover 60% of the damages caused, or 100-40%. So if you were involved in a motorcycle accident on 1-25 in Denver and the total damage suffered was found to be $30,000, you would end up with only $18,000. If you believe you were partially at fault, and the amount of money at stake is large, it is imperative that you contact a Denver accident lawyer to help you argue your side. Most states use this system, but they may use pure comparative negligence, which allows the the plaintiff to recover damages even if they were 99% at fault, while the modified system caps the compensation at 50% at fault. In other words, in the modified comparative negligence system, plaintiffs must be less at fault than defendants to receive an award.
Luckily for plaintiffs, Colorado is not a contributory negligence state. In contributory negligence states, if the injured party is at all at fault, they cannot recover any damages. Since Colorado does not follow contributory law, your Denver injury lawyer will still have a chance to recover some damages even if you were partially at fault.
There are a few other ways to get out of personal injury lawsuits because of plaintiff actions afterwards that are not actually defenses. Waiting beyond the statue of limitations makes lawsuits invalid. Also not clearly linking each claim of cause and effect from the defendant’s action (or inaction) to your injury will make the argument groundless. In other words, you must prove the defendant had a duty to repair a bridge, and their failure to repair the bridge caused it to collapse, injuring your hand. Just saying they owned the bridge and your hand got injured during the collapse does not go far enough. If the plaintiff did not do a good job repairing damages, the defendant may not have to pay for the consequences of inaction.
Finding A Denver Personal Injury Lawyer
Posted by hantge11 in Denver personal injury lawyer, denver accident lawyer, denver injury attorney, personal injury attorney on June 1st, 2010
If you have sustained a strong-arm injury due to someone else’s neglect, you are going to want to receive fair compensation for your injuries. A Denver personal injury attorney can help you through with the vocalize process. Make sure that you hire the right type of attorney for your type of injury. You have to move beyond all the advertisement and the lure of a free consultation or that you won’t pay unless you collect a solving. There are other ways for you to chance the names of personal injury attorneys.
One of the most effective ways of gathering names of personal injury lawyers that you can consultation is through a referral from a ally or colleague. Just make sure that they are aware of your necessarily. An attorney specializing in divorce cases has a different expertness than an auto accident lawyer. If you currently have or know a lawyer, it is a good idea to ask for a recommendation from that person. The phone book will provide a list of personal injury attorneys in your area. Research those names on the Internet and through your local bar association.
With a list of plausible Denver accident lawyers in hand, it is time to begin the interview process. Here are some questions that you should make sure to ask. Do you practice anything other than personal injury? Ideally, you want to hire an attorney that specializes in your type of injury. For example, you might want to find a lawyer who specializes in car accidents. Have you ever been in remission, fined, or sanctioned? Be careful of using a lawyer who has broken the law. How many trials have you done? Have you picked a jury? What is your rate of winning cases? The prospective lawyer should be able to demonstrate a history of with success prosecuting these types of cases. Who will be handling my case? How many cases do you take on? Don’t assume that the person you talk to will be the one who will handle all the work. How long will the case take? Make sure that the lawyer is inclined to spend as long as it takes, especially if the case needs to go to court.
There are many more questions you will want your Denver injury attorney to answer. A good attorney will make sure that you know or so all the questions you should have. Look for someone who is willing to spend the necessary time to both educate and embody you.
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