Subrogation: Here is why from out of your settlement money you have to pay back bills your insurance company already paid?

Wage Earners Need To Be Encouraged To Buy Insurance, Not Discouraged for Giving Up the Opportunity Cost Associated With Buying Insurance

Doctor You’re Killing My Workers’ Compensation Claim

Ask me the lawyer for no reason other than the patient and his family goes hungry when your surgical technique is less than perfect. I rest my case.

Bar Fights and the Dram Shop Action

With his height, weight and testimony about how long he was there we can get close with how much he had to drink because depending on who they are trying to impress, drunks always lie about how much they had to drink.

Property and Personal Injury – Back again to the basics of tort law

I’ve got to stop you there. Being hurt on someone’s property is one thing but liability doesn't just follow and lead to anyone’s insurance coverage.

Pottawattamie County, Iowa - Is the Iowa Board of Medicine’s decision wrong?

After reviewing the decision and considering the evidence it’s difficult to justify why the Board took the doctor’s license for a year?

The Broadside Auto Accident Primer: Was the driver’s view blocked, is it inattention or speed?

Today’s litigation brief looks at a recent accident involving one car pulling out and being broadsided by an oncoming truck; the truck driver appears to have the right-of-way. As a young lawyer you have to ask yourself whether the guy pulling out is completely at fault or whether there is other evidence of negligence.

What really is compression asphyxia?

What really is compression asphyxia? Steve Lombardi, attorney discusses the condition in a legal context.

Traffic Violation Cameras intrusive, but reliable witnesses in MVA’s

Traffic violation cameras, lawyer, Steve Lombardi, car accidents, personal injury, proof, evidence, video tape of collision, Iowa. sdlombardi@aol.com

Youngster Washing Down Horse is Electrocuted in New Lenox

When you're injured or someone is killed by what you think may be a defective product or even on someone's property you need to save or preserve the product. In this instance a young boy was electrocuted by a fan while washing a horse and it provides an opportunity for us to consider how to think about personal injury investigation and how to preserve our potential claims.

A Picture in Your Case is Worth a Thousand Words

A gay porn actor, Dustin Michaels, was pronounced dead this morning at a Florida hospital. The 23-year-old was in the middle of filming a new reality show with Zoo Productions last night, when the cops arrived, responding to a disturbance call.

Apology Shield Examined - Why we apologize.

After making a mistake why should medical professionals want to apologize? How about because it’s the right thing to do and you’ll sleep better at night having set the record straight with the person who was injured by your professional mistake. Publicly setting the record straight is important to a good professional reputation. At least it used to be.

But apologizing goes beyond merely the two people involved. There used to be the idea of setting a good example for those who come after us. And then there is the apology shield and what it teaches young doctors and medical students. How do the young people in society interpret what we’ve just done with this legal fabrication? They see it as one more official lie that those in power and those who support it have created. It’s just another double standard that speaks and reeks of hypocrisy. All this says is that those with sufficient earning power can get away with anything, even lying to a jury. And don’t disagree with me on this point because that’s exactly what this is, it’s a license to lie. When a doctor makes a mistake, then apologizes and latter gets to tell the jury he/she did nothing wrong, it’s nothing more than a big fat lie. And at trial it’s officially called lying under oath; but the law allows it. If this were Monopoly it’s the get out of jail free card. If I were a judge, I’d say, not in my court room. You’re not going to lie in my courtroom, neither unofficially or officially. The law is an ass.

THIS IS THE MEDICAL PROFESSIONS WEAPON OF MASS SELF-DESTRCUTION

From now on what happens to the real apologies, the ones that were sincere? They go right up in smoke. No longer can any patient believe any doctor’s apology. We can’t tell who is apologizing because their conscience is bothering them and who’s doing so because the hospital legal staff said, “Go apologize.” The joke is on the medical community. By not speaking out against the apology shield legislation the entire medical community looks and sounds seedy and greedy.

Somewhere along the way the medical community lost some of their sincerity and if they don’t start rethinking about who is in charge they risk losing all self-respect.

You see free apologies really aren’t all that free. A free-market apology costs something or at least places the apologizer at risk. But with this apology right out of a socialist bible there is not a cost to the person who publicly speaks the words of apology. Sort of like an apology from a communist leader who can’t lose your vote even if he/she refuses to say I’m sorry. The apology shield is another sign of America becoming more and more like a Communist country, a Godless regime without a soul. Welcome to the new America, one in which I make every apology.

Lawyer to Lawyer - The Lawyer's Toolbox - Accident Investigation – What do I do with this case?

Many small town lawyers have local residents approach them about taking their personal injury case. In many instances the lawyer may hesitate but the challenge seems like something that would spice up their otherwise mundane small county practice. So they sign the client up. But after ordering the accident investigation report they don’t know which way to turn or what to do. Not wanting to tell the client they don’t have the experience to know where to turn they end up holding the file and doing nothing. Time passes, like it always does, and the file gathers dust as it sits on the corner of their desk. The file being ever present is nothing more than a hindrance to the lawyer because it’s a constant subconscious reminder of what they aren’t doing. Well speed up about almost two years and I’ll get a frantic call from the local attorney wanting to associated with me on this otherwise good personal injury case. The accident scene is now barren of any evidence. The witnesses memories get as cold as a glacier’s surface. And any evidence that was available is now history. There’s a brief description by the police officer but nothing more.

As I watched the news last night I couldn’t help but see the wrecked van heading to Marshalltown with nine passengers. The television news report showed the van all mangled and some people described as relatives of the victims, one died, walking around the scene. This was described as a one-vehicle rollover type accident. Well being a civil trial lawyer and having some knowledge of rollover type accidents, remember the Firestone tire controversy, I said to Barbara, “I’ll bet it’s a tire failure.” Sure enough the next clip of the scene shows a separated tire tread lying on the ground. Normally I stop thinking about it because of the number I see but not this one.

You see it’s easy to ignore the case thinking you’ll get to it. But whatever lawyer gets this case or if the Iowa State Patrol thinks about it, someone needs to secure the tires and the separated tread. In cases like this it’s important the lawyer secure as much of the physical evidence as is available and promptly. Besides securing the physical evidence have the garage mechanic mark each tire with chalk to show from which wheel it was taken; i.e., which location of the vehicle it was attached. (front driver’s side, passenger front seat, driver’s side rear, passenger side rear) It may seem like a little thing but words chosen to describe location have to be obvious from the description chosen. Any ambiguity in the location creates argument later in the case.

 

If evidence is taken directly from the scene, use markers to photograph the location of where the physical evidence was located at the scene. Mark, measure and photograph all skid marks.

 

You may wonder how I know all of this. Well I do have 27 years of practicing as a civil trial lawyer. But in law school I worked my way through school and was a private investigator. In addition we investigated such a case in northern Wisconsin where the mechanic was interviewed and disclosed he’d mixed up the tires when he marked them. Luckily he’d marked them in such as way as to recall in what order and location they were removed. That sequence jogged his memory making him realize his mistake in the markings. That placed the blown tire on the opposite side of the vehicle from which he originally reported. This is a difficult enough business without having it complicated by a delay that destroys evidence.

 

So be prompt in securing physical evidence and be clear about how the pieces are cataloged and where at the scene they were located. And if you’re going to sooner or later refer or associate on the case do it the day you get the case, not a week before the statute of limitations is about to run.