Personal Injury

Published on: December 15, 2009

Premises Liability and Guests

While we may not realize it, the most dangerous thing that can happen is to be involved in a slip and fall accident on someone else’s property. If negligence plays a part in the cause of the accident, a lawsuit may follow.

It’s interesting in a way to note that people are quite upset about the thought of being victims of violent crime; fear of getting trapped in an elevator; live in horror of a plane crash; or of dying in a vicious hurricane. While these things can and do happen, they don’t happen as often as people taking a hard tumble on someone’s improperly maintained property. “In other words, often the most dangerous things to people on a personal injury level are those that happen as the result of a slip, trip and fall on another person’s premises. This usually happens when people least expect it as well,” commented Stephen Ozcomert, an Atlanta personal injury attorney.

When dealing with premises liability law, a property owner or manager of that property may be held liable for injuries that happen to guests while they are on that property. Pay attention to the use of the term “guest” when it comes to premises liability cases. Guest may mean a salesperson, customer, client, house guest or even a trespasser. What term is used depends on what a property’s purpose is and what it is used for. “If someone has sustained injuries as a result of a slip, trip and fall accident on someone else’s property, it is a good idea to speak to a highly skilled personal injury attorney about what their rights are. Not every fall has the elements needed to present a case in court,” Ozcomert added.

Published on: November 28, 2009

Settling a Motorcycle Injury Claim

By Stephen M. Ozcomert

If an individual survived a motorcycle crash they will need to have an idea of what to do to get their claim settled. Don’t do this as a solo act, as dealing with an insurance company may mean settling for less than may be awarded through the courts.

In the event of a motorcycle accident, the first thing that needs to be done is to figure out how serious everyone’s injuries are.That is the first and only priority at the scene of an accident. If a person is able to use a cell phone or ask someone else to call for help, do so. If the accident was the result of someone else’s negligence, don’t bother getting into it with them about who is in the wrong or who is in the right. This can be sorted out later when a personal injury attorney has been hiredto represent an insurance claim.

The next thing to do is to prevent those involved in the accident from any further harm. Put out any available flares to warn off traffic. This will also help preserve the accident scene. Do no move any of the vehicles involved in the accident as this will just confuse the issue later if the case goes to court. Destroying evidence by moving a vehicle will count against the plaintiff, so be smart and just leave things for the police to handle. When they’re done with their investigation, they will have the bike moved.

Published on: November 1, 2009

The Other Party’s Guilt

By Stephen M. Ozcomert

When someone has been the victim of another person’s negligence or call it carelessness, this is the best time to contact a personal injury attorney.

Negotiating a settlement in a personal injury case is a tricky thing to do, and something a person is not able to do themselves, particularly when it comes to very serious, life altering and long-term injuries. Compensation for these kinds of injuries is based on many things and often is subjective to each case. Only an experienced personal injury attorney has the capabilities to be able to handle this kind of case.

When considering filing a personal injury case, don’t wait around until the wounds have either partially or totally healed. Time is of the essence in cases such as this, and the more time that lapses from the accident until the time a suit is filed can result in memories getting fuzzy, important evidence becoming lost, and the ever-looming statute of limitations coming close to or having already run out. These are things a victim needs to know in order to move forward with their lives after a horrific accident. Waiting will only make matters worse.

Published on: October 15, 2009

Big Rig Accidents Present Legal Challenges

By Stephen M. Ozcomert

Any collision with a big rig causes untold damages, usually severe injuries or death, and many legal challenges.

Any case involving a semi is typically very complex, much more complex than a “typical” car versus car accident. For starters, the kinds of injuries sustained are catastrophic and the damages are monumental. This means when all is said and done that the stakes in 18-wheeler crashes are way higher for insurance companies; more particularly the insurance company that has the trucker’s insurance policy.

And one thing is as sure as the sun rising every day – the trucking corporation will pull out all the stops to reduce or deny any liability they may have in the accident. After all, they are in business to make money, not put it out to cover lawsuits. Anyone who has the misfortune to try and deal with a trucking company will find out soon enough that stall, delay and deny are three of the favored approaches to dealing with any accident claims.

Published on: October 1, 2009

Hands-Free Yakking Still Deadly

By Stephen M. Ozcomert

It doesn’t matter if you hold the cell phone in your hand and talk while driving, or have hands-free access to talk all you want; both ways may cost you your life.

No matter which way you add it up, yakking on a cell phone held in your hand or one that happens to be hands-free still amounts to a deadly distraction. All it takes is one split second of not paying attention to your driving and you could wind up in a very nasty accident.

Consider the case of young John Stenner, on his way home from picking up a car with his tow truck. He had hands-free cell phone access in his truck. While talking on the phone to his base office about his next pickup, he was too distracted to see the semi heading his way and coming through the intersection. John died at the scene of the accident.

Published on: September 9, 2009

Premises Liability Applies in Public Places

By Stephen M. Ozcomert

It’s the law that property owners must take every reasonable precaution to make sure there are no serious hazards that would harm or kill anyone coming on the property.

Premises liability applies to personal and commercial property and any owner or manager looking after property is legally bound to make sure the premises are safe for the public. If the property is poorly maintained and an injury, illness or death happens as a result of being on another person’s property, the plaintiff may be awarded compensation by the courts against the negligent property owner.

It doesn’t matter what kind of property is being discussed, although some properties are inherently more hazardous than others, e.g. industrial sites with power tools, toxic chemicals and heavy machinery. Commercial locations such as stores have high pedestrian traffic and anything may happen in a crowded store; for instance, items falling from shelves or items on display in the patio furniture department falling apart when someone sits on it.

Published on: September 4, 2009

Personal Injury Car Crashes and Assessing Damages

By Stephen M. Ozcomert

It’s hard to try and set an amount of damages that you may have sustained in a car crash. The sheer overwhelming number and type of wounds may totally confuse you, not to mention having to repair your vehicle.

During the summer the highways and by-ways across America are jammed with holiday and regular travelers, add into this mix 18-wheelers, road construction, detours and unpaved roads waiting for upgrading, and you have the potential for accidents. It’s often bad enough traveling in an area you are familiar with, never mind going out of state to a place you have never been to before and have no idea how their traffic patterns will affect you. This makes it tough to know if you have enough insurance to take long distance road trips.

The inevitable may strike your first trip or your fifteenth trip, and when it happens those injuries are put into a category that will tell you the approximate dollar amount that may be awarded for those injuries. There are so many factors that need to be dealt with, not the least of which is determining who is at fault in the accident, the percentage of culpability, medical bills, down time from work, pain and suffering, the continual stream of medical rehab expenses you may face and yes, vehicle repair costs.

Published on: August 20, 2009

Texting While Driving a Major NO NO

By Stephen M. Ozcomert

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that texting while driving a vehicle is a remarkably bad idea. The results may be deadly for both the texter and the person they hit.

Adults don’t generally try to text while they are driving; most likely due to the fact they realize it’s not a very smart move. Teens and inexperienced younger drivers, however, have a disturbing record for attempting to text while handling a car on the road. The consequences are not pretty. Consider the statistics that show 5,000 teenagers killed annually in traffic accidents. This isn’t to say they were all caused by the drivers foolishly texting while driving, but a significant proportion of that number were doing precisely that at the time of the collision that killed them.

Even more disturbing than those figures, another 2,500 people were also killed by vehicles driven by teens doing a variety of things like talking on a cell phone, yakking to their friends in the backseat or attempting to reply to an email with their Blackberry. Inattention kills. It’s just that simple. This nationwide problem is being dealt with in various ways by each state. If you’re unsure what the law says in your state, consult with an experienced personal injury attorney.

Published on: August 15, 2009

80,000 Pounds and Rolling

By Stephen M. Ozcomert

If you’ve ever spent any time on an Interstate Highway in the US, you will have had an up close and personal experience with sharing the road with a big rig.

There is no doubt that our highways are teeming with all types of vehicles, and some of the largest ones happen to be trucks and trailer units. Thanks to their massive size, these rigs are exceptionally deadly if involved in an accident. You’re looking at close to 80,000 pounds of steel hurtling down the road and it is unable to come to an immediate stop.

In fact, it takes three times the amount of time for an 18-wheeler to stop compared to a normal vehicle. This is a factor that people should keep in the back of their minds when they cut in front of a rig and then do something incredibly stupid like slow down or suddenly stop.

Published on: August 10, 2009

Whoops – that Fall Hurt

By Stephen M. Ozcomert

Premises liability law has been around for a lot of years, but still, many people don’t really understand what it means.

To put this simply, premises liability is all about someone falling and injuring themselves due to the carelessness or negligence of a business or property owner. If this happens, the victim has a right to pursue compensation for those injuries.

Typically, the person who owns a business or operates it, is liable for dangerous conditions that they know about and either don’t deal with them, and/or don’t warn people about the potentially dangerous situation. The other side of the coin is that they “should” have known about the dangerous condition by regularly inspecting the property.