I was running an errand for my employer last week and was in car wreck. The other driver ran a red light and broad-sided me. My car was totaled and I spent three days in the hospital. What are my rights?
You have two potential claims. First, you have a worker’s compensation claim because you were injured in the course of employment (assuming your employer has five or more employees).
Second, you have a claim against the driver of the other car. This is called a "tort" claim.
I need to hire a lawyer in a personal injury case. Should I take age into consideration? I am worried about hiring a law who lacks experience.
I happen to think that 53 is a perfect age for a personal injury or wrongful death lawyer. In a couple weeks, I will think that 54 is the perfect age.
Seriously, age is a relevant factor, but age can be misleading in several respects. I remember about 25 years ago I was hired in a case and the opposing lawyer was at least 20 years older than I was. He was confident and forceful and attempted to use his age as an advantage. I looked him up in a legal directory and found out that he finished law school two years after I did – he attended law school after finishing another career.
I hurt my back at work. I told my boss about it and he told me to go to the doctor. The doctor said I needed to take off work for at least one week. When I told my boss that he got angry and fired me. What are my rights?
First, you still have a right to worker’s compensation benefits (assuming your employer has five or more employees and thus is covered by the worker’s compensation program.)
Second, you may have a claim for retaliatory discharge. An employer cannot fire you for seeking or obtaining the benefits you are entitled to receive under the worker’s compensation law.
When I go on the Internet there seems to be lots of websites that will give me a list of lawyers. Are they good places to go to find a lawyer to help me in a personal injury or wrongful death case?
Well, there is nothing particularly wrong with them. However, you need to know that lawyers are constantly solicited by these websites and often pay money to be listed on them. Thus, on many of these sites, the fact that an attorney is listed says very little about the lawyer’s knowledge, experience, reputation or ethics.
There are several notable exceptions. First, the American College of Trial Lawyers is a fine place to start if you are looking for a civil or criminal trial lawyer. This is an invitation-only, highly selective organization that is regarded as the most elite organization of trial lawyers in this country.
I was in a car wreck last week. I spent five days in the hospital and am now recovering at home. I am getting a couple calls a day from the insurance adjuster for the driver that hit me. The message he left for me is that he wants to take a statement from me about how the wreck happened. Should I talk to him and give him a statement?
We do not recommend that our clients give a statement to the other driver’s insurance company. There are several exceptions to this general rule, but even then we do not permit our clients to give a statement without adequate preparation for the interview.
We do not prepare our clients by telling them what to say or encouraging them to lie. In fact, just the opposite is true: we encourage our clients to tell the truth about the circumstances giving rise to the wreck, the nature and extent of their injuries, and everything else. Preparation is necessary because insurance adjusters are trained in asking questions, and may ask questions in such a way that the unprepared witness will make mistakes. These statements are almost always tape-recorded and can be used against the person in court.
We just reached a settlement of my truck wreck case. Medicare is going to get a check for over $20,000? My lawyer says we have to pay Medicare this money because Medicare paid most of my medical bills. Is that right?
Yes. Medicare has a legal right to be re-paid from the money you receive. Medicare reduces the amount of money it is owed by a pro rata share of the attorneys fees and expenses incurred in obtaining the settlement. Under extraordinary circumstances Medicare will reduce the amount it is owed by an even greater amount..
I was hurt in a car wreck and hurt my back. The insurance adjuster for the other driver wants to know if I ever had any back pain in my life before the wreck. I don’t think this is any of her business. Can the insurance find out this information about my medical history?
No, she cannot, unless you tell her or you sign a medical authorization which gives her the right to look at your medical and pharmacy records.
However, your prior medical history that is related to the injuries you claim in the wreck is relevant in resolving your claim, and if you don’t give the insurance company the right to see your medical records you will have difficulty getting your bills paid and getting the other compensation the law permits you to recover. The insurance company wants to determine whether you had any prior complaint or injury to the same body part. It also wants to see if you have any other medical condition that it can argued contributed to the accident or can otherwise be used to diminish the value of your case.
My child has been injured. How long do I have to bring a lawsuit on behalf of my child?
Under the law in Tennessee, there are time limits on which any person can bring a lawsuit against another. The general rule is that a child has until one year after his or her eighteenth birthday to bring a lawsuit to recover for a personal injury. Some people argue, however, that a parent’s claim for medical expenses incurred on behalf of the child must be filed by the parent within one year of the incident causing the injury, and thus it makes sense to consult with a lawyer promptly about any injury to your child that you believe was caused by someone else’s negligence.
If the child was injured as a result of medical malpractice, different rules apply. Medical malpractice claims are subject to a statute of repose. A statute of repose imposes an absolute time limit for bringing a claim regardless of the age of the injured person. The statute of repose for bringing a medical malpractice claim is three years. This means that a medical malpractice claim must be initiated within three years of the date of the malpractice regardless of the age of the injured person. Therefore, for example, a medical malpractice claim for a child injured during birth must be initiated within three years of the date of the birth of the child. There are certain other types of lawsuits where a minor must take legal action before his or her 19th birthday.
My car was t-boned at a local intersection. The guy that hit me ran the red light – and admitted that he did so – but he police officer didn’t even give him a ticket! Why was the guy not given a ticket? Did the other driver pay the police officer off?
No, the other driver did not pay off the police officer. Police officers have discretion about when they write a ticket, and sometimes they simply choose not to do so. I must confess that I don’t always understand why tickets are issued in some cases and not in others, but I think it highly, highly unlikely that a police officer would take money not to write a ticket.
The fact that no ticket was written will almost certainly not hurt your case, especially if the police report indicates that the other driver admitted fault. A statement by a police officer in a police report that the other driver admitted fault will carry a lot of weight with his insurance company as it decides whether or not to promptly resolve the claim.
I am in the process of trying to hire a personal injury lawyer. In doing my research I find that some lawyers describe various cases on their website but state that the amounts of the settlements are confidential. Why do they do that?
Because an agreement has been made with the insurance company that paid the money that the amount of the settlement is confidential. In my experience, defendants and insurance companies who settle a case for significant money often demand that the settlement be kept confidential – they simply don’t want anyone to know how much they paid.
A lawyer whose client has a confidential settlement is duty-bound not to disclose the amount of the settlement to anyone. Thus, the lawyer will who wants potential clients to know what type of experience he or she has will do a brief summary of the case and simply state that the amount of the settlement was confidential.
