When you are researching for a personal injury law firm, there are many things you need to take into consideration as far as which law firm is right for you.
1. Does the Law Firm have a good track record? Can they provide you with information that will make you feel confident that they will handle your case appropriately?
2. What fees are associated with the Law Firm? Are they straight forward with you as far as fees go?
3. Have they been doing this for a while? The most experienced Lawyers and Law Firms are the ones to look for.
4. Do they specialize in their area of practice? In many states a trial lawyer also known as a "Certified Specialist" is a key in representing you.
5. Are there any steps you should take after you hire a Law Firm? Does the Law Firm give you advice on how to handle insurance companies calling you? Medical bills?
So often, you just don't know if it is the right fit until after they have represented you for awhile. At that time, key items such as 1) can you get your questions answered timely, 2) are you allowed access to your attorney and 3) do they return your communications are all indications that they are the right firm for you.
Anyone can look good on paper. You need to feel comfortable that the firm is not only capable of handling your case, but that they indeed continue to handle it professionally in continuing communications with you. Follow these steps in order to help protect yourself and to make sure you have the right Personal Injury Law Firm representing you.
In the world of Personal Injury Law, there are thousands of
different ways people can find reputable law firms and attorneys
for their legal needs.
At times, you hear many stories about the legal world, some fact, some
fiction. It can get confusing. So,
how do you decipher everything you hear and separate fact from fiction?
We’ve come up with 12 of the most common myths that Personal
Injury Lawyers deal with on a daily basis. These are the facts. Know what
you’re getting yourself into when looking for the right law firm to represent
you.
Myth #1: All
personal injury lawyers have the same form of training and experience. MYTH.
The truer statement is that most
attorneys who try to handle personal injury cases do not know what they are
doing. How can you tell the difference?
Myth #2: Any
lawyer who has gone to law school and passed the bar exam can take a case to
trial. MYTH.
The great majority of attorneys
have never even been in a courtroom. You need to ask: How many
cases have you tried? If the answer is “very few, because we settle most
of our cases”, don’t walk, run. Personal injury trial attorneys actually
TRY cases in court. They are not afraid to challenge the low offers from
insurance companies, and have proven that they will FIGHT. At the end of
the day, who do you think the insurance companies are most afraid of? The
attorneys who are willing to fight, or the attorneys who assure their clients
that they settle all of their cases?
Myth #3: All
personal injury lawyers and cases end up in trial.
MYTH.
The truth is, only about 3% of
cases ever make it to trial. But, in is crucial that the insurance
company know that you are willing to take it there.
Myth #4:
Lawyers who practice "criminal law" and "real estate" law
can also do Personal injury law without a problem!
MYTH.
Okay. They think they
can. But really, do you want a real estate lawyer handling your serious
personal injury case? Are you comfortable with that? Why, if the
specialists in personal injury law cost the same, would you use someone who
dabbles in personal injury?
Myth #5: Personal Injury Lawyers you see on T.V. are always successful. How else can
they afford those T.V. commercials? MYTH.
Define success. Makes a
lot of money? Gets good results for their clients? Other?
Most TV lawyers do not take
cases to court. They cannot afford to do it. They spend all of
their money on advertising to get cases in, and do not have the budget for
hiring the best trial lawyers to actually fight the cases. Do you think
insurance companies don’t know this? You are wrong. They very much
know this.
Myth #6: Personal Injury Lawyers who advertise on T.V., Billboards, and the Yellow pages
are always the best lawyers to choose. DEPENDS.
It depends on what you
want. A quick check, perhaps for a fraction of what you might really be
entitled to?
Myth #7: The
bar association determines whether a lawyer can advertise that he is a
“personal injury specialist.” FACT.
Only attorneys who are Certified
Specialists in Personal Injury and Wrongful Death can advertise that they are
“specialists” in this area of the law. The State Bar of Arizona monitors
this very closely.
Myth #8: The Personal
Injury Lawyer who you see on T.V. or on billboards will be the one who handles
your case. Hahahahahahahaha.
Next question.
Myth #9: Insurance
companies will always treat you fairly after an accident. MYTH.
They will certainly try to make
you think that they will do this. They will try to lull you to sleep believing
this. Don’t believe it.
Myth #10: You must
always appear in court in order to receive compensation for your injury. MYTH.
Only about 3% of cases ever make
it to trial. The FACT is, you give yourself the best chance of settling
by making the insurance company know that you are serious about going to
court. How do you do this? Hire a trial lawyer who is a Certified
Specialist in Personal Injury and Wrongful Death.
Myth #11: All personal
injury cases take 6 months to years to settle.
MYTH.
There is no exact
timetable. Every case is different.
Myth #12: Personal
Injury cases and compensation are easy money for anyone.
MYTH.
Many people think that.
The attorneys who dabble in this area of the law think that. The real
personal injury specialists know much different. These cases take a great
deal of time, investigation and work to get the best results for the
clients. Don’t be fooled into thinking it is “easy money”. These
days, it is anything but that.
We hope by including these myths and facts, that it will help you decide which route is the best one to take for you if you're involved in an accident of any sort. Please remember to always pay attention to what Law Firm you are talking to. Make sure they are representing you for all the right reasons.
Chrysler Group LLC’s decision to fix some of the 2.7 million
sport-utility vehicles linked to 51 deaths in post-crash fires averts what
could have been the biggest showdown with U.S. regulators in three decades over
a safety defect.
Chrysler, based in Auburn Hills, Michigan, said in a statement
yesterday it reached an agreement with the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration for a “voluntary”campaign on Jeep Grand Cherokee
and Jeep Liberty vehicles with fuel tanks mounted behind the rear axles. The
company, in a letter to NHTSA yesterday, said the vehicles in question are “safe”.
“I’m sure they had some legal experts say that with the
preponderance of the evidence, it was going to be very hard to tip the scales
in their favor given the deference courts give government regulatory agencies,”
said David Kelly, an acting NHTSA administrator during the George W. Bush
administration who’s now a transportation safety consultant.
Chrysler on June 4 said it would refuse NHTSA’s request to
recall the 2.7 million vehicles in question because they didn’t pose a safety
risk. Had the company held that position by yesterday’s deadline to respond to
the regulator, the standoff could have proceeded to a public hearing and
possibly to court.
The auto-safety advocate who pushed the company and U.S.
regulator to look at the Jeeps today told Chrysler its intended fix, involving
installation or replacement of trailer hitches, is “woefully inadequate” and
said it should recall more vehicles.
What tipped the
balance here? Chrysler acting out of the “goodness of heart”?
Perhaps it has
sooooo much money that it doesn’t know what else to spend it on?
Or, perhaps,
the threat of being sued for 51 people dying, and the likelihood of many more
similar circumstances, brought Chrysler to the table of rationality and good
sense.
Keep in
mind—the next time anyone suggests that lawyers are “ruining America”, that it
is the lawyers that help keep America safe.
Think about
this. If you could do whatever you wanted to, if you could market crappy,
unsafe products that injure people without any fear or threat of
responsibility, who in their profit-minded business model would spend much
effort making products as safe as they can be? The answer: No
one.
Lawyers, and
the “promise” of lawsuits and holding the wrongdoers financially responsible
for their misconduct, are a very real deterrent to the manufacturers of America
in deciding the safety consequences of their products. Keep that in
mind—next time someone suggests that America cannot compete because of the
safety laws that exist in this country.
"We're asking for pedestrians to
take the extra time to walk down to a intersection and cross safely in marked
or unmarked crosswalks. We're also asking vehicles to be more aware of pedestrians
crossing the roadway, and to yield to them
properly," says Phoenix Police Lt. Matt Giordano.
The campaign reminds people not to cross in
the middle of the block and to be careful around bus stops and the light rail. It
also reminds drivers to yield for people in crosswalks.
"Every year the city of Phoenix
responds to more than 500 collisions involving pedestrians. More than 300
involve injuries to pedestrians and over 40 of those involve fatal injuries to
pedestrians," says Giordano. "They
see their bus, their train over there, quick little jog over there. They are
mistaken. What they don't see is a car about to turn that we don't see and that
car isn't expecting to see pedestrians 10 feet in front of them in the
road," says Phoenix Police Lt. Adrian Ruiz.
The three week program starts June 17
with a week of educating pedestrians and drivers. It will be followed
with two weeks of enforcement efforts.
What a great
program! I cannot tell you how many times I see people crossing the road,
less then 100 feet from the intersection/marked crosswalk. I want to
scream at them!! I point it out to my wife and kids every time I see it,
“Don’t ever do that!!”
Drivers are not
trained to look for people in at mid-block. They are much more tuned in
to the corners and at crosswalks. Let’s hope this new program makes a
difference.
Using voice commands to send text messages and emails from
behind the wheel, which is marketed as a safer alternative for drivers,
actually can be more distracting and dangerous than simply talking on a
cellphone, a new AAA study found. Does it also rank as high as those who are disctrated by texting and driving?
Automakers have been trying to excite new car buyers, especially younger ones,
with dashboard "infotainment systems" that let drivers use voice
commands do things like turning on windshield wipers, posting Facebook messages
or ordering pizza. The pitch has been that hands-free devices are safer because
they enable drivers to keep their hands on the wheel and their eyes on the
road.
But talking on a hands-free phone isn't significantly safer for drivers than
talking on a hand-held phone, and using hands-free devices that translate
speech into text is the most distracting of all, researchers found.
Speech-to-text systems that enable drivers to send, scroll through, or delete
email and text messages required greater concentration by drivers than other
potentially distracting activities examined in the study like talking on the
phone, talking to a passenger, listening to a book on tape or listening to the
radio.
The greater the concentration required to perform a task, the more likely a
driver is to develop what researchers call "tunnel vision" or
"inattention blindness." Drivers will stop scanning the roadway or
ignore their side and review mirrors. Instead, they look straight ahead, but
fail to see what's in front of them, like red lights and pedestrians.
"People aren't seeing what they need to see to drive. That's the scariest
part to me," said Peter Kissinger, president and CEO of the AAA Foundation
for Traffic Safety, the group's safety research arm. "Police accident
investigative reports are filled with comments like the `looked, but did not
see.' That's what drivers tell them. We used to think they were lying, but now
we know that's actually true."
There are about 9 million cars and trucks on the road with infotainment
systems, and that will jump to about 62 million vehicles by 2018, AAA
spokeswoman Yolanda Cade said, citing automotive industry research. At the same
time, drivers tell the AAA they believe phones and other devices are safe to
use behind the wheel if they are hands-free, she said.
"We believe there is a public safety crisis looming," Cade said.
"We hope this study will change some widely held misconceptions by
motorists."
AAA officials who briefed automakers, safety advocates and the National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration on the study's findings said they want to limit
in-vehicle, voice-driven technologies to "core driving tasks."
The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers was skeptical. "We are extremely
concerned that it could send a misleading message, since it suggests that
hand-held and hands-free devices are equally risky," the association said
in a statement.
The automakers' trade group said the AAA study focuses only on the mental
distraction posed by using a device and ignores the visual and manual aspects
of hand-held versus hands-free systems that are integrated into cars.
Other studies have also compared hand-held and hands-free phone use, finding they
are equally risky or nearly so. But a recent National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration study of drivers' real world driving experiences found hand-held
phone use was less safe than hands-free.
Researchers at the University of Utah who conducted the study for the AAA
measured the brainwaves, eye movement, driving performance and other indicators
of 32 university students as they drove and performed a variety of secondary
tasks, ranging from listening to music to sending emails. Cameras were mounted inside
the car to track drivers' eye and head movements. A device that drivers pressed
was used to record their reaction time to red and green lights introduced to
their field of vision. Drivers were fitted with a special skull cap to record
their brain activity.
The students were tested while not driving, while driving in a simulator and
while driving a car on a 3-mile loop through a suburban Salt Lake City
neighborhood with stop signs and stoplights. A researcher with a backup braking
system accompanied the students in the test car.
One reason using voice commands is so much more distracting for drivers, even
though they aren't using their hands, is that they often require more
concentration than simply speaking to another person, said University of Utah
psychology professor David Strayer, an expert on cognitive distraction and lead
author of the study. Talking to a computer requires far greater precision than
talking to a person, he said. Otherwise, "Call home" may get you Home
Depot.
Synthetic computer voices can be harder to understand than human voices, also
requiring more attention. The computers used in the study were exceptionally
high-fidelity systems that made no errors, but the systems in cars aren't as
good, Strayer said. He said that means the study probably underestimates the
concentration required of drivers, and thus the ability of speech-to-text
systems to distract them.
Another difference: In phone conversations, a person who is listening will give
indications that they agree with what the speaker has said or have heard what
was said. Computers don't provide that feedback.
"The complexity of trying to say something that is coherent when there is
no feedback is much more difficult," Strayer said.
A simple, quick voice command to turn on windshield wipers isn't very
distracting, he said. But concentrating on creating a text message and trying
to get it right takes a great deal more mental effort and time.
"The more complex and the longer those interactions are, the more likely
you are going to have impairments when you're driving," Strayer said.
Children of all ages love the water. When you spend time
with them in the backyard pool or at the lake, you are making memories together
that will last a lifetime. Sadly, across the United States, child
drownings are still a leading cause of injury and death. The risk is even
higher in Arizona, a state ranked second in the nation for child drownings.
Below are some very important tips in helping keep you and your
loved ones safe at all times while enjoying the water. Supervision is the best
defense to drownings, but the tips below can also help.
Barriers
Make sure your pool or spa has an effective barrier, such as a
fence to help guard against unauthorized access.
Your pool or spa should have a barrier regardless of whether they
are covered.
Door and windows leading to the pool areas should be locked.
Fence gates should have self-closing, self-latching
mechanisms. Latches need to be out of reach of young
children.
Watch
Never leave your child unattended in or near a swimming pool, hot
tub, spa, not even for a second.
Keep toys, tricycles, and other children's play things away from
the pool or spa.
Don't consider your children to be "drownproof" because
they have taken swimming lessons.
Don't allow barriers, such as fences or walls, give you a false
sense of security regarding your child's safety. There is No substitute
for adult supervision.
Learn
Learn how to administer CPR, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, and
other lifesaving techniques. To administer CPR correctly you must be
properly trained.
Know how to contact your local emergency medical
services. Install a phone or keep a cordless phone in the pool or spa
area. Post the emergency number in an easy to see place.
Learn to swim and teach age appropriate children to swim.
Other Pool
Safety Tips
Do not allow children to play in or around the pool area.
Mount life saving devices near the pool.
Keep tables, chairs and ladders away from pool fences.
Check placement of doggie doors for direct access to pool area.
Post your local emergency number on the phone. Think about
installing a phone near the pool area.
If you
find a child in any source of water...
Yell for help and pull the child out of the water.
Call 9-1-1 or your local emergency number immediately!
Begin CPR if you are trained.
If you are not trained to administer CPR, follow the instructions
from the 9-1-1 operator until help arrives.
With the weather on the rise, and summer break is in session for most children, it is very important that we mantain a safe communication with them regarding the rules of swimming. Pool drownings in Arizona happen more often than almost every other state in America. Let's be sure to stay aware of where our children are at all times when the pool gates are open.
A concussion is a type of traumatic brain
injury (also called a “TBI”), caused by a bump, blow or jolt to the head
that can change the way your brain normally works. Concussions can occur from a
fall or a blow to the body that causes the head and brain to move quickly back
and forth.
Health care professionals may describe a concussion as a “mild” brain injury
because concussions are usually not life-threatening. A
“mild brain injury” is like being a “little bit pregnant”. When you are
talking about the brain, it is no laughing matter.
Traumatic Brain Injuries can be some of the most over looked injuries when
someone is involved in an incident that causes
injury. Whether it being from a motorcycle or car accident, a slip and
fall accident or other, the damage can be serious. In many cases may
not even realize the damage until
it’s too late.
What should you do if you suffer a Traumatic Brain Injury after an accident?
People with even a mild concussion need
to be seen by a health care professional. If you or someone you know has symptoms following a traumatic event, your health care professional can refer you to a
neurologist, neuropsychologist, neurosurgeon or specialist in rehabilitation
(such as a speech or vertigo pathologist).
Getting help soon after the injury by trained specialists may speed recovery.
If your injury was sustained due to someone else’s negligence, it will be
important to get in touch with an Attorney who is experienced in handling TBI cases.
Every year, at least 1.7 million TBIs occur,
either as an isolated injury or in conjunction with
other injuries. TBI is a contributing factor to a third (30.5%) of all
injury-related deaths in the United States. About 75% of TBIs that occur each
year are concussions or other forms of mild TBI.
Remember, a TBI is something that should never be taken lightly. It requires attention.
Voice-to-text is just as dangerous as manual texting in
a car, a new study has found.
Driver response times were "significantly
delayed" no matter which texting method was used, said the Texas
Transportation Institute study.
The study, which looked at the use of Siri for the
iPhone and Vlingo for Android, is said to be the first of its kind.
Voice-to-text is just as dangerous as manual texting in a car, a new study
has found.
Driver response times were "significantly delayed" no matter which
texting method was used, said the Texas Transportation Institute study. The
study looked at voice-to-text applications, including Siri for the iPhone and
Vlingo for Android.
The study, which was released on Tuesday, is said to be the first of its
kind to compare voice-to-text and manual texting on a handheld device in an
actual driving environment. Researchers looked at the performance of 43 drivers
in a 2009 Ford
Explorer on a closed course.
"Texting drivers may believe they're being more careful when they use
the voice-to-text method, but new research findings suggest that those
applications offer no real safety advantage over manual texting,"
researchers said.
Drivers took about twice as long to react as they did when they weren't
texting.
"For most tasks, manual texting required slightly less time than the
voice-to-text method, but driver performance was roughly the same with
both," researchers said. "Drivers felt less safe when they were
texting, but felt safer when using a voice-to-text application than when
texting manually, even though driving performance suffered equally with both
methods."
The U.S. Department of Transportation calls distracted driving a dangerous
epidemic on America's roads. In 2010 alone, over 3,000 people were killed in
distracted-driving crashes.
Just say no. Don't do it. A big temptation, but it can wait.
It is truly essential in Arizona to contact an experienced
slip and fall attorney if you have suffered a slip and fall accident in a store
or supermarket. Slip and fall accidents are common--so common in fact
that people injured in slip and fall accidents may not know that they may have
a right to compensation for their injuries. As such, it is essential to
consult an an experienced slip and fall attorney to see whether you may have a
valid claim.
Liability for a slip and fall accident depends on a number
of factors. Why was the injured party on the premises? A social
guest? A business patron? A trespasser?
The answer to these questions determine the standard of care the owner
of the premises needs to follow. An experienced slip and fall attorney can
explain how the answers to these questions determine whether or not you have a
good case.
When a person is invited onto the property for a social
purpose, the owner owes a duty. In a purely social settings, the owner of
the premises is liable for any concealed conditions which the owner knows about
in advance. This means that the possessor must protect his guests from
any traps that he knows of on his property. This standard does not
really apply to a supermarket patron, as they are not a social guest.
They are called an invitee.
When the owner holds the building open to the public for a
business purpose, the owner must not only protect from artificial and natural
conditions that are concealed and known to the owner, but also from any
artificial or natural conditions that could have been discovered through a
reasonable inspection. This is the classic slip and fall liability
case. Where another patron dropped a bottle of water, the owner of the
premises may be expected to find and protect other patrons from that hazardous
condition.
Lastly,
there may be no liability to the owner of premises for the injury of a
trespasser. This is because when a person shuts his or her property off
to the public, the law will not punish that person when one wrongfully wrongly
enters that property and becomes injured. So, if a slip and fall accident
occurs after a store has closed, for example, a court may not hold the owner
liable for the injury. (And, just because you fall at Walmart does not
mean that you will have a case. Walmart is subject to the same standards
and protections of every other business in Arizona.)
If you have suffered an injury in a slip and
fall accident, consult an experienced slip and fall attorney in Arizona.
Look for experience, look for a proven trial lawyer, find a certified
specialist in personal injury who knows and understands the basis of liability
in Arizona for a slip and fall case. Find a certified specialist who will
help you get the answers and recovery you are entitled. Call the Zachar
Law Firm today for a free, no obligation consultation at (602) 494-4800.
Boating safety officials hope a
new life jacket loaner program will help continue a steady decline in the the
number of serious and fatal boat accidents on Arizona lakes.
Officials from several agencies,
including Arizona Game and Fish Department and Maricopa County Sheriff’s
Office, used Memorial Day weekend to kick off the new program, in which
officers patrolling lakes will keep life vests on board to loan to boaters who
don’t have sufficient life jackets of their own.
Kevin Bergersen, the boating law
administrator for the game and fish department, said under the program people
now will be able to stay out on the water if they don’t have life vests, and in
some cases may avoid citation.
“It also prevents a tragedy from
occurring before it even starts,” Bergersen said.
State and
federal law requires that every boat have a properly sized and fitted life
jacket for every person on board, and children 12 years old and under must wear
a life jacket while the boat is underway. It also requires that each boat have
a throwable floating rescue device, like a ringed buoy, and a fire
extinguisher. Boat
operators without the required safety equipment will be cited, which carries a
monetary fine. The amount varies based on how many safety devices were missing
and is calculated per item.
In the past two decades, the
average number of annual Arizona boat accidents has dropped from about 450 to
180, while the average number of fatalities has decreased from about 10 to 4,
Bergersen said.
The game and fish department and
Sheriff’s Office partnered with multiple organizations, including Stearns Inc.,
U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary and Air Methods, the parent company of Native Air
and Life Net, to launch the life-jacket loaner program.
Air Methods donated $1,000 to pay
for about 100 life vests from Stearns that law enforcement officers from the
Sheriff’s Office and game and fish department will use for the loaner program.
“This is an effort to prevent
that sobering statistic of drowning. We want to knock that down to zero,”
Bergersen said. “If you get these grassroots safety projects across the state,
you can continue these downward boat accident curves that we’ve been
experiencing.”
The program is an expansion of
similar ones at Lake Havasu and along the Colorado River that have been around
for about four years, he said. There also is a life jacket exchange program at
Lake Havasu in which people can trade in old life jackets for new ones.
Most offenders could qualify to
take a boat safety education class in lieu of paying the fine.
Officials said the intent behind
the life jacket loaner program and offering boat safety courses is to educate
people so they can be safer on the water.
Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office
lake patrol Cmdr. Russ Skinner said enforcement can be very challenging because
a lot of people don’t know the rules and regulations for waterways, which often
leads to boating accidents and fatalities.
“We would much rather educate
than have to enforce,” Skinner said. “We can save a life hopefully in the
future and (the) bottom line is we want to keep the waterways safe in Arizona
and Maricopa County.”
