 |
|
Posts Tagged ‘lawyer’
Tuesday, July 12th, 2011
When you are injured at the workplace you may be entitled to workers compensation, but you may have additional claims that may be worth much more than your workers compensation claim.
Example 1: You work on a construction site and you are using a nail gun. While you are using the nail gun, the gun misfires and sends the nail backwards through the back of the gun. The nail hits you in the eye and you are permanently disabled and cannot ever work again.
In example 1, you obviously have a workers compensation claim against your employer because you were injured while on the job, but you also have a products liability case where you can sue the manufacturer of the nail gun because the product was defective.
Example 2: You work as a delivery person. You deliver bread to grocery stores. You exit your delivery truck, retrieve your bread from the rear of the truck. You begin to walk into the grocery store and you slip and fall on ice right outside of the main entrance of the grocery store. Due to the injury, you are permanently disabled and can no longer work.
In example 2, you obviously have a workers compensation claim against your employer, but you also have a slip and fall case grounded in a general negligence theory against the owner of the grocery store.
The point of these examples is that an experienced lawyer, like the attorneys at the Philadelphia, PA personal injury law firm of Levin & Zeiger LLP can help you navigate through any of the murky waters that may arise in your workers compensation case. Contact us now to get started for a free consultation at 215.825.5183.
Tags: construction site accident, lawyer, personal injury, philadelphia, prodcuts liability, slip and fall, workers compensation
Posted in construction site accident, products liability, slip and fall, workers compensation | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 5th, 2011
Potential clients often ask us whether they should hire a lawyer for their car accident case. They feel as though they were hurt, but not too badly. They car was damaged, but not too badly. They have insurance, but they don’t want to use it because of fear their premiums will go up. They are scared to go into a courtroom and go to trial because of some type of stage fear and missing time at work. Lawyers seem expensive. How can someone decide whether to hire a lawyer with all of these factors hanging over their head in the thought process?
Obviously we are lawyers, so our answer is going to be that you should always hire a lawyer if you were in a car accident, no matter how minor. However, my answer will be geared more towards minor car accidents where an injury did occur.
Let’s start with the “expense” of hiring a lawyer. In fact, it costs you nothing to hire a lawyer in your car accident case. We do all of our car accident cases on a contingent basis. That means that our clients don’t ever pay us a dime. We only get paid a fee if and when we recover for our clients. If we do not recover for our clients, we never get paid. The money that we spend on prosecuting the case is only reimbursed to us if we recover for our clients.
Regarding injuries, if you are injured in a car accident case, you probably have no idea the extent of your injury. Sometimes, the most minor fender benders can cause catastrophic injuries that do not show signs of the injuries for days or weeks after the accident. By hiring a lawyer, the lawyer should make sure that you are properly checked-out for all of your injuries to ensure that your medical needs will be met.
Your car should be repaired and you should be made whole. If the accident wasn’t your fault, why should you incur the expense of repairing it? When car accidents happen, someone has to foot the bill for the repairs to your vehicle–why should it be you? By hiring a car accident lawyer, your bills will get paid on your case and your car will be repaired. If you go at it alone, you will foot the bill for the car accident, or at least the deductible, and you may have to take your car to your insurance company’s mechanic.
If you are not at fault in the car accident, your premiums may not go up. Period. I often hear people complain that they are scared to have a case regarding a car accident because they are worried their premiums will go up. Not only is this position a complete myth, its illegal and in bad faith for an insurance company to raise your rates if you are not at fault in a car accident.
Lastly, going to trial. At the Philadelphia car accident law firm of Levin & Zeiger LLP, we have lawyers that go to trial often. However, most minor car accident cases settle because the lawyers on the defense side understand that we will go to trial on our clients’ cases no matter how big or small. Accordingly, on a small car accident case, the chance of going to trial is less than 5%–not much of a risk. Even if your case does go to trial, our seasoned team of trial lawyers will prepare your for court and dissipate all of your fears.
In conclusion, hiring a lawyer in your car accident case is a must. Contact us now at 215.825.5183 for a free consultation to discuss your matter and get started with your recovery.
Tags: bills, car accident, injuries, insurance, lawyer, premiums, trial
Posted in car accidents | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 17th, 2010
Now that we have established that you have a police brutality civil rights case, the next question is: how much is my case worth?
This is the hardest question to answer. Everyone thinks their case is worth a million bucks, but most cases aren’t worth close to that amount. Also, in some cases, people may want declaratory relief, which I will save for a later post (meaning the courts force the government to change a policy).
When I look at a police brutality case for financial damages I ask many questions in my assessment:
- What were the extent of the physical injuries? Was there a hospital visit? How much is the hospital bill? What happened at the hospital? What were you treated for: gun shot wound, concussion, broken bones, stitches, etc? Is there any continuing treatment: are you in physical therapy as a result of the injury? If you were incarcerated, did the prison give you medical treatment? When you were released from custody, did you take yourself to the hospital? Is there a diagnosis that had you been given treatment in custody, you would not have the same injury, or would the injury have been not as bad?
- What was the true outcome of the criminal case? How did the criminal case resolve? How much did you pay a criminal lawyer to represent you in the criminal case?
- Were you incarcerated for any period of time as a result of the false arrest? What was the length of time? Was the length of time related only to this instant case, or was the length of your incarcerated due to other issues plus this case?
- Did you miss any time at work? Did you lose your job?
- Has the police officer every done this before?
- Is what happened to you something that happens to people all the time and the city or county should have changed a policy that would have prevented this incident?
- Compared to other instances of police misconduct, how outrageous is your case? Are the actions of the police officer unique in the instant case?
There are many other factors that we look at when trying to assess damages in civil rights cases, but this should be enough to give you an idea of basics.
We have prosecuted very small cases where police are simply confiscating cell phones and destroying them because people are video taping police conduct. We have also prosecuted some very big cases where people have been shot by the police. All of these civil rights cases have value, but analyzing a case’s value is dependent on all of the factors listed above.
Tags: case worth, civil rights, civil rights case, concussion, criminal case, criminal lawyer, damages, declaratory relief, false arrest, financial damages, gun shot wound, lawyer, million bucks, physical injuries, physical therapy, police brutality, police misconduct, police officer, stitches
Posted in civil rights, police brutality | No Comments »
Wednesday, August 4th, 2010
When does a serious police brutality case exist? Can I sue the Police?
Every lawyer may tell you a different answer to this question, but we focus our attention on what happened in the intial incident, was an arrest made, and if so what is the outcome of the criminal matter. Often times, our clients hire us to represent them both for the criminal matter and the police brutality matter to ensure continuity throughout the representation.
If a person is convicted of a crime in the criminal matter, we look at the conviction. If someone is charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault, simple assault, reckless endangerment, and possession of a small amount of marijuana, and are found not guilty of all charges, the person mostly likely can pursue a police brutality action. If the person is acquitted of all charges except the marijuana, then they can still have a police brutality action in state court. However, if they are convicted of attempted murder and aggravated assault, they most likely do not have a righteous police brutality matter.
We want to know what happened, what role did the potential plaintiff play in the incident? In other words, who should be held liable for the acts that occurred: the police officer, the city or town in which the incident occurred, or the potential plaintiff. We closely look to the acts of the parties involved and try to discern who is at fault.
Tags: attempted murder, criminal matter, lawyer, marijuana, plaintiff, police brutality case, police officer, reckless endangerment, simple assault
Posted in civil rights | No Comments »
|
|
|
|
|
