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Wrongful Death
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Personal Injury
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Overtime Claims
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Dog Attacks
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Car Accidents
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This is checklist
will help you determine if it is worth your while to talk to an
attorney. If you answer yes to
any of the following questions, you likely have a good personal injury
case and are encouraged to call our office.
1. Where you
injured? Or did your lose a child, spouse, or parent?
If you were not injured, you
do not have a personal injury claim.
If your car or truck or even bicycle is damaged you have a
property damage claim. If you lost
a child, spouse, or parent, you would have a wrongful death claim if
certain criteria are satisfied. If
you suffer a cut or a scar on your face as a result of someone elses fault or an animal attack, including a dog attack, you would have a personal injury claim.
2. If you were
injured, did you lose time from work or did your business take a loss as
a result of a car or truck accident or any other type of accident?
If you lose time from work or
lost business income, you must have medical proof, that your doctor or physical
therapist took you off work.
Generally speaking a chiropractor’s opinion does not carry
much weight and any time taken off work following a chiropractor’s
advice is questionable, but a chiropractor’s opinion is preferred
no opinion. If you are claiming a
loss of business, you must be able to document it. You need to show financial statements
that prove the claim. Handwritten
notes saying you lost $10,000 in income is not likely to be
sufficient. An appointment book
showing cancelled jobs by name with customer names and phone numbers
would probably be sufficient.
3. Did you seek
medical attention for your injuries?
You are required to mitigate
your damages. Meaning you are required to take care of yourself and minimize the
time required to heal. This is
done by seeking prompt medical attention.
Five days waiting is okay, three weeks is not. Medical treatment will also document
your injuries and is the evidence that will prove your injuries.
4. Do you have
medical bills?
If you have no medical bills,
it is unlikely that you will have a good case. Small medical bills will help very
little. If you sought care with a
chiropractor, you will likely have big bills, but too much care is not
going to enhance
the value of a case. Chiropractor
bills actually hurt your case in most instances if the bills exceed 26
visits and whenever the amount of the bill exceeds $3,000.00.
5. Were your
injuries caused by someone else’s fault?
If you caused your injuries
yourself, there is no liability.
The question to ask your self is where my injuries caused because
of my own foolishness or carelessness or someone else? Eating
contaminated food after first tasting it and then continuing to it, even
though you know something is wrong, would be your own fault.
6. Do you know
who caused your injuries?
In many car and truck
accidents, a claim can be made for hit and run, but only if you have
proper insurance. In all other
cases including car and truck accidents you are required to know who you
are suing. If driver A slams into
driver B and pushes
B into you, then A would be fault. In a slip and fall case at a
supermarket, it may be the supermarket that is fault, or it may be
someone else. If you have a grape
that has been sitting on the floor for 30 minutes, the store is likely
liable, because they should have known better, but if another customer
dropped it 2 second before you got there, then it is the other customer
that was foolish or careless. If
your spouse is electrocuted and dies following exposed live wires left by
an electrician, you would likely have a claim against the electrician
that did the work. If dog bites
you and you don’t know who the owner is, you would likely not have
a claim. If your cat trips you as
you climb down the stairs and you break a leg because the banister gave
in, you would likely not have a good claim.
7. Did you suffer
moderate to severe injuries?
Where you hospitalized? Did
you fracture a femur? Did you lose the eye sight in one of your
eyes? Did you suffer a herniated
disc? Are you just sore throughout
your body? Does your neck hurt a lot?
Most car and truck accident victims claim severe neck pain, but
these whiplash injuries are considered typical and minor. These injuries are also very difficult
to prove, because there is no objective medical exam readily available to
prove it. The greater the injury
and the more objective the injury the better your case.
8. Is the
responsible party able to pay for damages?
Is the responsible party a
business, or does the other party have insurance or a lot of assets? If not, then it becomes difficult to
collect and expensive to litigate.
A recovery is possible, but most of the money paid out will go to
attorneys and court fees.
9.
If you were injured in a car accident, where you insured or where you a
passenger?
Under California law your
rights to recovery are limited if you did not have insurance when driving
a vehicle.
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