Every year tens of thousands of California and Los Angeles vehicle drivers are involved in a car accident resulting in injuries to themselves or others. A high percentage of these accidents result in personal injuries. If you have suffered a personal injury you may be entitled to compensation for your injuries. Personal injury cases can become very complicated.
In all automobile accident cases it is essential that steps be taken immediately to preserve evidence, investigate the accident in question, and to enable physicians or other expert witnesses to thoroughly evaluate any injuries. Therefore, is important to choose an experienced personal injury attorney in pursuing a claim to recover for your personal injuries.
Traffic Accidents in Los Angeles and Orange County are the most common types of personal injury cases. Cases involving personal injury resulting from accidents are litigated under the principles of negligence, (link to negligence) unless the state has determined to do away with fault as an issue. The injured plaintiff is required to prove that someone was negligent, that the negligence caused the accident, and that the accident caused the plaintiff's injuries. In some cases your gut feeling may tell you that the other driver, cyclist, or pedestrian acted carelessly, but not what rules they violated.
Types of Car Accident Injuries
Side-impact injuries
A side-impact injury occurs as a result of another vehicle barreling into you from the side. It is the deadliest form of car accidents leaving 10,000 persons dead each year. In a head-on collision you are protected by several feet of steel, engine, and bumper. A side-impact accident leaves only a few inches of door and some window glass between you and the other vehicle.
Every vehicle on the road is required to pass the government implemented side-impact standards. Many people feel these standards are outdated. The government tests have been criticized for failing to test head standards in all vehicles. It uses a dummy representing an average size male that doesn't register head injuries, and its test only looks at what happens when similar size vehicles collide.I was a passenger involved in a car accident and I suffered injuries, can I get recovery for my personal-injury damages?
Passenger Injuries
If you were a passenger in a vehicle involved in an accident, and if you have sustained injury as a result, you are entitled to receive compensation for your injuries. As a passenger, you have a claim against both the driver of the vehicle in which you were riding as well as the drivers of any other vehicles (or any other negligent party) involved in the collision. As a passenger you generally cannot be considered to be at fault or partially at fault for causing an accident unless you do something to cause the accident such as distract the driver.
Paraplegia
Paraplegia is a type of paralysis which affects both the legs and the trunk. Persons affect by paraplegia have no movement in their legs, and are often limited or have no movement in their torso. Paraplegia results from spinal cord injury. (Link to Spinal Cord Injury) Many accident victims are paraplegic as a result of unsafe or defective vehicles.
Paraplegia interrupts sensory messages to the brain so that the affected individual cannot "feel" their affected body parts, and are generally insensitive to pain or heat. As a result, a victim's health and safety is jeopardized because of this inability to differentiate pain. Some victims have damaged nerves resulting in phantom pain and heat sensations. Paraplegia significantly impacts the patient's quality of life by affecting sexual drive, digestive capabilities, bladder control and shortened life expectancy.
Car accidents have often caused the major trauma (link to traumatic brain injury) that result in paraplegia. Vehicles such as SUV's are prone to roll over and do not have adequate roof structure. As a result, the roof crushes and caves in causing spinal cord injuries. Fortunately, there are steps to be taken to reduce such injuries including paraplegia. There are step that auto manufacturers should take to ensure that vehicles are safe and have the best airbags, seatbelts to prevent ejection, sound vehicle design and roof stability
Spinal Injuries
Although the spinal cord is only 18 inches long, and is made up of tiny, delicate nerve cells, a spinal cord injury (SCI) can be a traumatic and devastating injury resulting in a lifetime of pain, suffering and huge medical expenses. At the California Attorney Group, we know how devastating these injuries can be.
An SCI typically involves some type of trauma to the nerve cells that form the spinal cord. As the spinal cord carries messages from the brain to various parts of the body to control functions such as movement, breathing, speaking, and other critical body functions, an injury to the spinal cord disrupts this communication, leading to the impairment of the body's sensory, motor and involuntary reflex functions. Depending upon the nature and extent of the SCI, these disruptions can lead to two devastating conditions: paraplegia (paralysis of the lower portions of the body) or quadriplegia (paralysis of the upper and lower parts of the body).
The principal causes of SCI are automobile accidents [link to Car Accidents, slip and falls [link to Slip and Falls], acts of violence, sports-related injuries, injuries at work, and other incidents that cause injury or compression to the nerve cells of the spinal cord. Approximately 250,000 Americans currently suffer from some form of SCI, and there are about 11,000 new cases annually.
The costs related to SCI can be staggering. More than half of all spinal cord injuries result in quadriplegia, resulting in an average hospital stay of 95 days and approximately $140,000 in medical expenses. For individuals who sustain SCI at the age of 25, the average lifetime medical costs for quadriplegia is $1.35 million. And these figure does not take into account the physical and emotional suffering of the victims, the loss of wages and other income, and the financial and emotional burdens that SCI places on the victims' care givers, who are more often than not close family members of the victim.
Moreover, if you are in a car accident, you could have injuries such as Brain Injuries and Spinal Injuries. It is important for your attorney to understand the possibility of theses injuries and not overlook them. Many unscrupulous attorney's will push to settle their personal injury cases as quickly as possible to generate revenue for themselves. They will overlook symptoms such as simple headaches which could be an indication of a brain injury. {link to brain injury] A poorly timed or crafted settlement can leave you liable for thousands of dollars in medical bills. Our goal at California Attorney Group is to make you whole. This means our first goal is to assure the medical fitness of our clients and settlement of our cases second.
Brain Injuries
Most often brain injuries are caused by serious vehicle accidents, drastic falls, bus or train accidents, amongst other sever accidents. Every 15 seconds someone suffers a brain injury. The impact of a brain injury on someone's life can be devastating, but a brain injury attorney can help lessen the strain the brain injury has caused by recovering damages the brain injury patient is entitled to. Of all the injuries that an individual can suffer, brain related injuries are among the most frightening and the most deadly. At California Attorney Group, we can handle brain injury cases, and we know how traumatic they can be.
There are several different types of traumatic injuries that can damage the brain. A skull fracture occurs when the bone of the skull cracks or breaks. A depressed skull fracture occurs when pieces of the broken skull press into the tissue of the brain. This can cause bruising of the brain tissue, called a contusion. A contusion can also occur in response to shaking of the brain within the confines of the skull. Damage to a major blood vessel within the head can cause a hematoma, or heavy bleeding into or around the brain.
Traumatic Brain Injury
Traumatic brain injury, commonly referred to as TBI is sudden physical damage to the brain. The damage may be caused by the head forcefully hitting an object, such as hitting the wheel, window or dashboard of car (closed head injury) or by something passing through the skull and piercing the brain, such as a bullet or a knife (penetrating head injury). A closed head injury can also be experienced when the brain undergoes severe shaking or twisting, such as whiplash.
The common symptoms among adults are:
low-grade headaches or neck pain that won't go away
having more trouble than usual with mental tasks (e.g., remembering, concentrating, making decisions)
slowness in thinking, speaking, acting, or reading
getting lost or easily confused
feeling tired all the time, lacking energy or motivation
changes in sleeping patterns (sleeping a lot more or having a hard time sleeping) *
feeling light-headed or dizzy, losing your balance
increased sensitivity to sounds, light, or distractions
blurred vision, eyes that tire easily
loss of the sense of smell or taste
ringing in the ears
mood changes (e.g., feeling sad or angry for no reason)
Among children, the symptoms are:
listlessness or tiring easily
irritability or crankiness
changes in eating or sleeping patterns
changes in the way the child plays
changes in performance at school
lack of interest in favorite toys or activities
loss of new skills, such as toilet training
loss of balance, unsteady walking
Brain injuries can result from a number of different causes, with the leading causes being motor vehicle crashes, slips and falls, sports-related injuries strokes, anoxia, tumors, viral infections, degenerative diseases, near drowning, and other conditions not involving external force. Approximately 1 million Americans are treated and released from hospital emergency rooms each year as a result of TBI, and an estimated 5.3 million Americans are living today with some form of TBI-related disability.
Moreover, if you are in a car accident, you could have injuries such as Brain Injuries and Spinal Injuries. It is important for your attorney to understand the possibility of theses injuries and not overlook them. Many unscrupulous attorney's will push to settle their personal injury cases as quickly as possible to generate revenue for themselves. They will overlook symptoms such as simple headaches which could be an indication of a brain injury. A poorly timed or crafted settlement can leave you liable for thousands of dollars in medical bills. Our goal at California Attorney Group is to make you whole. This means our first goal is to assure the medical fitness of our clients and settlement of our cases second.
Michael E. Williams is the Chief Marketing Officer for California Attorney Group. Mr. Williams leads the Firm?s Marketing Department and serves as a consultant to the Firm?s management, practice leaders and partners focusing on business planning and new business development. He has successfully integrated marketing and business development systems, programs and behaviors into the Firm's culture and operations. For more information, visit http://www.californiaattorneygroup.com
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