Los Angeles Injury Lawyer Blog

As car accident lawyers located in Woodland Hills, we review our client’s auto insurance policies all the time. By the time we do so, it is because someone has been in a car accident and has been injured. As personal injury lawyers handling auto accidents in the San Fernando Valley, we are here to make sure our clients are properly compensated for the injuries that were caused by the accident.

Unfortunately, at that point, it is too late to talk about what insurance they should have had.

One of the first steps in helping our clients is looking at their auto insurance coverage. California law requires that all drivers have basic liability coverage of at least $15,000. It is a misdemeanor to drive without insurance. In addition, you are required to notify the DMV if you are in an accident and let them know who your insurance company is. We handle this process for our clients. Without question, this is the easy part, everyone should/must have at least the minimum required insurance coverage of $15,000.

That is not the end of the question. Liability coverage, that is coverage which will be paid out to someone you may injure if you cause an accident and serves two important functions.

Protect Yourself and Your Family: First, insurance protects you and your family. If you cause a collision, if you do not have adequate coverage, the person you hit may be able to take the money you have been saving for retirement, your child’s college education, a new home, or whatever is important to you.

Second: It protects the person you hit. That is a good thing. We should all take responsibility for our own actions. If we are careless and we hurt somebody, they should be compensated for what we have done. That is fair. That is also part of the purpose of insurance, to make sure someone we accidentally hurt is cared for, without destroying our own life. To hurt someone is to take something away from them. Not to compensate them for their injury; paying for the damage to their car, paying their medical bills, and paying for the imposition on their life (pain and suffering), is like stealing.

However, when you accidentally hurt someone, that does not mean your life should be destroyed either. That is part of the purpose of insurance. It enables us to properly compensate someone we hit, without taking away from our own life.

That brings us back to the question, “How much insurance should I have.” The answer to that question is going to depend on your income and your savings. If you have limited assets and limited income, you can likely only afford basic coverage. You can drive legally and provide some protection to someone you injure. If you have a lot of assets, you should probably have an umbrella insurance policy. To qualify for an umbrella policy, you will have to have a certain amount of auto insurance. Those people will probably need to have $250,000 in liability coverage.

The San Fernando Valley’s elderly population is in serious danger. Of the 419 nursing homes in Los Angeles, only 17 facilities were in full compliance with federal safety standards. Many nursing homes violate standards that create a real risk of injury or death to their patients. Seventy-six percent did not provide adequate staffing for the dependent adults in their care. This has resulted in medication errors, life-threatening bed sores, and failure to timely treat medical conditions at an early stage, put the 34,000 resident of Los Angeles’ nursing homes at an unacceptable risk.

Recognizing that the elder population is particularly vulnerable to abuse and neglect, California “elder abuse” law provides an effective means for holding nursing homes liable for the injuries they cause. When regulators don’t have the resources to enforce laws designed to protect elders, elder abuse lawyers sometimes get involved. Unfortunately, that usually does not happen until a family member is injured or dies.

If you are in a position where you may have to place a loved one in a nursing home for care, there are some things you can do. First, do your homework. There are a number of resources on the internet about nursing homes in Los Angeles County. One is the “Long Term Care County Data Book,” which you will find at http://www.caads.org/ltcdata/ltc_data.html. Visit several nursing homes and interview the staff. Ask for references. Talking to the family members of other residents will let you know how satisfied, or not, they are with the care at the facility. Finally, contact DHHS to find out whether the nursing home is in compliance with State and federal laws and whether they are aware of any serious complaints about the facility.

If you have a family member living in a nursing home, there are a number of things you can do to help protect him or her. Be vigilant. Frequent visits at different times of the day and night will give you the best snapshot of the quality of care the nursing home delivers. Establish a relationship with the nurses and nurses’ aides responsible for your loved one’s care. They are more likely to be conscientious if they have a connection to you and your family. Investigate any complaints made by the resident. If the complaints are frequent or unresolved after a reasonable time, submit the complaint to the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). You can find a form for this at http://www.dss.cahwnet.gov/cdssweb/entres/forms/English/SOC341.pdf

If that suggestion is not helpful, you may want to consider consultation with a qualified elder abuse attorney in your area.

Driving in Los Angeles while holding a cell phone is a bad idea. Holding a cell phone to your head not only affects your concentration, but also restricts your ability to check your blind spots and turn the wheel. It is no surprise that there is a correlation between holding a cell phone while driving and auto accidents.

Last July, a new law came into effect which prohibits talking on a cell phone while holding it. It is worth commenting on this new law because as I drive around the streets I still see people holding their cell phone and talking while driving. I suppose much like when the seatbelt law came into effect, it will take some time before people figure out that this law does have a purpose and it makes sense.

Oddly enough, this law does not prohibit reading and writing text messages while driving. Fortunately, that has been rectified and now it is unlawful to text message while driving.

These new laws have been a boon to the Bluetooth industry which has seen huge sales increases in the past year. There has also been a terrific improvement in the quality of these devices. There are many low-cost good-quality Bluetooth devices available which make it legal to use your cell phone while driving.

Although it’s too late for drivers who have already suffered personal injuries in auto accidents, a side benefit to this law is that it has increased awareness in the dangers of driving while holding a cell phone. This alone has helped reduce the number of car crashes in California. Until drivers adopt this new law, there will be still be a high need for Los Angeles Auto Accident Attorneys.

Los Angeles and all of California, are seeing the same changes in the economy that is seen across the country. Unemployment is up, which means people are losing their jobs.

When you lose your job, it is only natural to think that your employer has done something wrong. They have made a mistake and should not have fired you. The next step is considering whether you have legal recourse against your employer for wrongful termination.

The first thing you must understand is that California is an “at-will” state. That is, absent a written contract stating otherwise, you have your job at the will of your employer. Your employer may fire you at any time. They may or may not have a reason for firing you. They do not need to have a reason. If they have a reason, almost any reason is fine.

We often get calls from people who were fired where they feel it was not just. They were doing a better job than other people that were not fired and they think they were fired because one person who is messing up the company just did not like them. It was a bad business decision. The reality is, under California at-will law, a company is allowed to make bad business decisions and can fire you when doing so will hurt the company.

What your employer cannot do, is fire you if you have an employment contract that states they can only fire you for limited specific reasons. Your employer cannot fire you based on your age, race, sex, religion, national origin, or disability. Your employer cannot fire you because you reported some type of wrong-doing in which your employer was engaged.

The economy is impacting everyone. Now is a good time to have a job. Keep in mind that you may be an at-will employee which should have some impact on your behavior and performance in the workplace. If you have a conflict, and you are thinking you cannot be fired because you are such an asset to your company, you would be well served to know if you are an at-will employee.

As personal injury attorneys in Woodland Hills, we get too many phone calls from people injured in automobile collisions in the rain. Certainly there is nothing good about being in a crash. When it rains here in Southern California, you should take simple precautions to do what you can to make sure you are not injured in a car accident.

The most obvious tip is to slow down. Unfortunately, while everyone knows this is the safest suggestions, in our busy lives, it is also the tip we are mostly likely to forget. Leave a little earlier (after all, there is going to be more traffic) and drive a little slower.

This is especially true in the first rain following a dry spell. When it is dry, there is a build up of oil and grease from cars on the road. When the rain hits this, it makes the road very slippery. The first few hours are exceptionally dangerous.

Another good suggestion is to brake earlier than you normally would and use less force. Not only does this give you more time and distance to stop between you and the car in front of you, it lets the person behind you know what you are doing earlier and allows them to make sure they can stop without hitting you.

Some other valuable suggestions to help you from being involved in an auto accident on a rainy day are stay towards the middle of the road, do not use cruise control, avoid driving through large puddles, tap your brakes gently after crossing a puddle to help dry your brakes, turn on your headlights, and never brake suddenly.

One final suggestion that is often overlooked is to make sure your windshield wipers are in good condition. Wiping the windows with a wiper that leaves them smeared and worse than when you started only makes driving more dangerous and accidents more likely.

Be safe out there.

As a personal injury lawyer in Los Angeles, we are often asked this question whether a person can sue a grocery store if they have fallen. The answer is, it depends. Slip and fall cases, or trip and fall cases, are referred to as premises liability cases. Like most accident or injury cases, to prevail in a premises liability case we must be able to show that the property owner was negligent, or not careful, and that your fall resulted from that negligence. There are several ways we can do this.

However, we must know why you fell first. Many times people just fall. It may have been the person walking that was not careful. Kids fall all the time as they are learning to walk. As we get older, it happens less frequently, unless you are not watching where you are going, or someone has made it dangerous. So the first question is: “Why did you fall?” Were you careless, or did someone else create or maintain a dangerous condition?

If you were careless, then you do not have a claim or anyone else to blame. That makes sense and that seems fair.

If you were acting reasonably, but someone made it dangerous, then there may be a case. The first question is whether the condition was unreasonably dangerous. What is the likelihood that someone would be injured by that condition, and how difficult is it to eliminate that harm.

Also, we must show that the property owner either knew or should have known about the dangerous condition or created the dangerous condition.

Finally, where a condition is obviously dangerous and visible, you have a responsibility to avoid the dander and an owner can defend itself by claiming that even if it was dangerous, you should have seen it.

When you are not sure if you have a claim or not, often, the best solution is to talk to a personal injury attorney. Every accident attorney should offer a free consultation.

Too many Encino auto accident's result from Los Angeles driver's being selfish. Saving a minute for yourself may put someone else, or their children at risk.

Yesterday was the Halloween carnival at my children's elementary school. The school is at the top of a hill on a blind corner. A child was killed by a car at this location in the past five years. The school takes safety very seriously.

As I was walking my family to our car after the carnival, I saw a horrifying site.

A woman is picking up three children in front of the school. She parks her car on Lanai Road northbound (across the street from the school). She hits the button to flash her hazard lights because she knew she was creating quite a danger. She leaves her car and walks to the sidewalk and shoos the kids to her SUV. She sends them to cross Lanai Road by themselves at a blind corner as traffic backs up behind her SUV. They get in the car while the mother remains talking to someone in front of the school.

Other cars are waiting for because she is blocking the only lane of this blind corner at the top of the hill. Eventually traffic starts going around her car. Each car crosses over the center line into the on-coming traffic lane risking serious collision so that this mother is not inconvenienced.

Had there been a collision it would have been no accident. Had there been a collision, her kids probably would have been safe in that SUV. It would have been the other cars that would have crashed, and the force of the impact could have pushed them onto the sidewalk to kill someone else's innocent children.

I do not know who that woman is, and even if she reads this, I doubt someone that selfish cares enough to change her behavior.

Don't be that mother. Please think about how your actions put others at risk. I have to trust you to keep my kids safe. Take care of my kids and I will do the same for you.

Have a safe Halloween.

San Fernando Valley drivers who have been involved in accidents, who are insured with AIG probably have little need to worry about their coverage. The comfort should also go to all Southern California drivers who were injured when hit by a driver insured with AIG.

With the government bail-out of the troubled insurance company by lending it $85 billion dollars, AIG policyholders, and those entitled to compensation due to the negligence of an AIG insured driver will be protected. At least for now, the company remains solvent. AIG will sell off assets to service this new loan, and it is expected to survive this disaster.

With a 52 week high of $70.13, AIG's stock closed today at $2.05. Surely the company has a lot of rebuilding to do.

The death toll in the Los Angeles Metrolink commuter train crash has risen to 24 with scores hospitalized. Negligence on the part of the Metrolink engineer, who failed to stop the train at a red signal, is the likely cause of the crash in the San Fernando Valley on September 12, 2008. The engineer responsible for the collision died in the accident, but it is clear that the freight train that crashed into the Metrolink train had the right-of-way. The number of dead is expected to rise as rescue personnel continue to sift through the wreakage. It is unlikely that any more victims will be taken out of the wreck alive.

As rescue efforts are completed, the process of carefully investigating the cause and blame for the September 12, 2008, Chatsworth Metrolink crash begin. To ensure that its clients and future clients are protected, Rice & Bloomfield has already joined in the investigation effort. Every member of the investigation team has their own agenda. We do not work for the City of Los Angeles, the County of Los Angeles, or Metrolink. Our only interest is to protect the rights of those people whose lives were forever changed when they were injured or lost a loved one from this horrible crash.
Getting involved early puts us in the best possible position to make sure our clients are properly compensated as the culprit responsible for this Metrolink train crash is determined.

The Chatsworth crash between a Metrolink commuter train and freight train, which has killed at least eighteen and injured more than 130, is not the first deadly accident to occur since Metrolink began operating in 1992. In 2005, eleven people died when two Metrolink trains and a freight train collided in Glendale. That accident was triggered when Juan Manuel Alvarez parked his Jeep Cherokee on the tracks in what he said was a suicide attempt. He has since been convicted of murder.

Metrolink was faulted for its configuration of the commuter trains, some of which are pushed from the back in a "pusher configuration," leaving passengers in the first car vulnerable in any collision. Lawyers and experts argued that, if the heavier engine was in front, fewer passengers would be at risk. As a result, Metrolink roped off the first car in some of its trains. Today, passengers are permitted in the first car of a "pusher configuration" car, but only in the rear portion.

While it is unclear whether the Metrolink train involved in the Chatsworth crash was a "pusher configuration" type train, it is clear that seating in the rear of Metrolink commuter trains is safer than sitting in front

September 12, 2008, in Chatsworth, in the San Fernando Valley, eighteen people were killed and scores injured because a Metrolink train failed to yield the right-of-way to a freight train in Chatsworth. The commuter train, which had become more popular with the recent rise in gas prices, was traveling from Union Station in Los Angeles to Moorpark with more than 220 people onboard. At this time, it appears that the crash occurred because the either the Metrolink train violated established protocols or a signal malfunctioned. The investigation is continuing.