This happens more than you might expect. Each year, there are over 57 million medical office visits, and 40 million emergency room visits related to injuries. A tremendous amount of malpractice happens during those visits. According to John Hopkins, 795,000 patients each year will suffer serious harm from a misdiagnosis alone. Medication errors and health care-associated infections are also leading causes of harm to patients. Roughly, 250,000 patients will die from medical errors. So, what happens when you get injured by a vicious dog or injured in a car wreck, and then a medical professional makes a mistake that makes it worse? Continue reading
Articles Posted in Damages in Death Cases
Would You Settle for Less?
Part of our job is to attempt to keep up with what our opponents (the insurance industry and their lawyers) are thinking and doing. One of the many ways we try to do that is by reading insurance industry publications such as Claims Journal. In a recent Claims Journal article, the author interviewed Harish Kapur, CEO of Across America Insurance Services. Mr. Kapur’s comments are nothing new to us, but they are a good reminder to anyone who is considering filing a personal injury or wrongful death claim. Here are three key take-aways:
- The insurance companies handle injury claims all day-every day, while this is hopefully your one and only injury claim.
Mr. Kapur bragged about his “crack team of in-house adjusters” and how they “have to know everything about the file.” The insurance adjusters know what information is critical. They know how to ask questions and frame the narrative during a recorded statement. They are trained how to interview witnesses and scour the internet for information on you.
Car Accidents: Three New Statistics and One Important Piece of Advice
Despite decades of public safety campaigns, drunk driving is on the rise. According to recent data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the most recent data shows nearly 14,000 people lost their lives to drunk driving in the last data year, a nearly 15% increase over the prior year. Drunk driving accidents account for almost 1/3 of all traffic related deaths. Continue reading
“We’re Not the Suing Family”
Kristen Chenoweth, the Emmy and Tony winning actress, has a new book out, and this week she has been giving interviews to promote it. In the interviews, she has talked at length about the serious injuries she sustained in an accident on the set of the television show “The Good Wife.” Lighting equipment on the set fell and hit her causing a fractured skull, a fractured rib and nose, broken teeth and other long-lasting injuries. Chenoweth’s Dad counseled her to get legal representation. She did not. She now regrets it. Here are some things you should think about if you are hurt in an accident and are reluctant to seek legal representation. Continue reading
I Want a Lawyer and a Sandwich. Oh, and I Want to Update My Facebook Status
It is fascinating to see what some people search for on the internet. “I want a lawyer and a sandwich” is commonly searched because of a popular line in the 2011 movie titled Blitz. A sassy criminal suspect delivers the line in response to being placed in police custody. Of course, most internet searches focus on more routine and basic legal issues such as “When do I need a lawyer for a car accident?” and “How do I hire a lawyer with no money?” and “Can anyone be your lawyer?” We have rounded up some of the most common questions and answered them. Read on. Continue reading
How To Win an Accident Case?
If you have Googled “How to Win an Accident Case” or “How Much Can I Sue for in an Accident Case” or “How to File an Accident Lawsuit” or anything similar to these types of searches, please proceed with extreme caution. If you were in an accident with very minor, fully resolved injuries (like your neck was a little sore for a couple of days and without any medical intervention it completely improved), you do not need a lawyer. But anything beyond that, you really should, at a minimum, consult an injury lawyer. Now let us tell you why. Continue reading
Bad Accidents and Good Fortune
Last week, author Seth Godin wrote a blog post about good and bad accidents and, to be honest, we keep thinking about it. Perhaps Seth’s article has stuck with us because at the Law Offices of John Day, our award-winning lawyers see bad accidents and their lasting aftermath every single day. Quite frankly, it can get you down. Needless injuries and deaths caused by carelessness can be hard to stomach day in and day out. So what keeps us going? Good fortune. Or as Seth put it, good accidents. In follow-up to Thanksgiving, we thought we would share some with you. Continue reading
Radical Listening
A recent New York Times article discussed how the health care industry was attempting to teach medical professionals the art of “radical listening”. What is radical listening? And why is it so important especially for professionals like doctors and lawyers. Continue reading
How Will the Pandemic Affect Jury Awards?
Let’s face it, the pandemic is leaving an indelible mark on almost everything, so there is no reason to believe jury awards in injury and death cases will be any different. Jury and trial consulting firms have been conducting surveys since the inception of the pandemic and they have some theories on how the pandemic will affect the amount of jury awards, how it will impact medical malpractice cases and whether it will generally be better for the defendant or the injury victim.
June 11th – National Make Life Beautiful Day
Well, we could all certainly use some more beauty in our lives these days. We often think of beauty as a physical attribute but it is so much more. Kindness is beautiful, justice is beautiful, truth is beautiful, courage is beautiful and so many more things. In honor of National Make Life Beautiful Day, we wanted to announce another give-away from our office. On June 27th, we are going to be giving away 1,000 washable cloth masks from the parking lot of our Murfreesboro office. Just drive through and get a free mask. More details are below. In addition, below are some easy suggestions on how you could make life beautiful tomorrow, and we would love for you to comment with some suggestions of your own. Continue reading