Miscellaneous Personal Injury

Debunking Personal Injury Myths – Part 6

April 2, 2020 | by Robert Walch

Myth: Personal injury lawyers have no ethics.

We hold our firm to the highest ethical and moral standards. If someone wants to make a fake accident, or set up a false insurance claim, we are not the firm to call. We believe that as lawyers, members of the California State Bar, we have a duty to do what is right and help our clients in every legal way possible. We are not the only firm that operates this way. We have many friends, colleagues and associates in the industry who strive to help people the right way. We know that cutting corners or acting unscrupulously can have a very short term benefit, but we are not doing this for the short term. In the long term, all our clients benefit because they have lawyers who they can trust. However, it is not just that. Our adversaries know that we pursue honest, legitimate claims, and that helps us obtain the best settlements possible for our clients. Insurance companies know which attorneys are honest and which attorneys are running scams. Our reputation gets us the best possible results. We have been around for over 40 years and our reputation is something we hold dear.

There are personal injury lawyers who are unscrupulous. There divorce lawyers who are unscrupulous. There are mechanics that are unscrupulous. There are doctors and teachers who are unscrupulous. No particular field or profession is immune to this problem. It is important that there are regulating authorities, like the California State Bar, who have a duty to do their best to weed out those who are unscrupulous.

How Can An Accident Reconstruction Expert Help Your Personal Injury Claim?

February 12, 2020 | by Gary Walch

How Can Accident Reconstruction Experts Help Your Claim?

Accidents happen all the time. When filing a personal injury claim, one of the first questions that arises is “Who is at fault?”, and often the answer isn’t readily apparent. When a claim is litigated in court, even accidents that seem straightforward can present complicated negligence issues.

Additionally, accident victim dealing with their injuries may face opposition by opposing parties that want to deny their claim or argue that the victim contributed to the accident and their resulting injuries.

3 Common Winter Accidents and What to do if You are Injured

December 17, 2019 | by Robert Walch

3 Common Winter Accidents and What to do if You are Injured

During the winter, between the bad weather and the business of the holidays, accidents often occur that result in personal injuries. If the accident was caused by another person’s negligence or intentional careless act, then you can receive financial compensation for your injuries by bringing a Los Angeles personal injury claim against the person or party responsible. If you are injured in a winter accident it is important to know what to do.

Below are three common winter accidents and what to do if it happens to you:

Two Counties in Ohio Settle OPIOID Case Against Just Four Defendants for $260 Million!

October 25, 2019 | by Robert Walch

Two counties in Ohio just settled their claims relating to opioid addiction against four defendants, three of whom are distributors and the other a manufacturer of opioids, for $260 million. The three distributors are AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson. The manufacturer is Teva, an Israeli based drug maker. Reportedly, the three distributors are paying $215 million and Teva is paying $20 million plus it will contribute $25 million worth of the generic Suboxone, which is a drug used to treat addiction to opioids.

The two Ohio counties that settled just before opening statement to the jury in the trial set in Cleveland, Ohio are Summit County and Cuyahoga County.

For those readers who do fully understand what opioids are, opioids are a class of drugs naturally found in the opium poppy plant. Opioids work in the brain to promote pain relief plus some other different effects.

Family of Three Injured at Riverside Amusement Park

August 4, 2019 | by Robert Walch

A family of three recently suffered personal injuries while on a ride at a Southern California amusement park. The family was on the log ride, a ride involving water, at Castle Park in Riverside when the accident occurred. According to USA Today, the ride malfunctioned and the family—mother, father, and child—were ejected from the ride.

The initial investigation shows that a pump that controls the water level on the ride was not functioning at the time the family was riding. On the final descent of the ride, the log-shaped car they were riding in failed to slow down because there was not enough water at the bottom. As a result the car “hit the bottom of a water slide, flipped over and ejected the three from the vessel.”

The mother was critically injured, and her husband and child suffered minor injuries in the accident. The family was taken to a local hospital to be treated for their injuries. Castle Park said the log ride will remain closed while the park and state officials conducted an investigation into what caused the malfunction.

Worker Suffers Amputation Injury in City of Industry Forklift Accident

July 31, 2019 | by Robert Walch

Working with heavy machinery can certainly be dangerous job. This is especially true when dealing with forklifts. Recently, an accident involving a forklift at a loading dock in the City of Industry resulted in the serious injury of a worker.

According to The Patch, a dock worker was driving a forklift, when it fell off the loading dock. The worker, and 29-year-old male, was trapped with his arm pinned under the heavy forklift and the Technical Rescue team of the Los Angeles Fire Department was called for the rescue. Firefighters were “able to free the victim by using another forklift, [but] the victim suffered a partial arm amputation during the incident.”

The worker was airlifted by helicopter to a nearby trauma center. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was alerted to investigate the situation, which is typical in this type of workplace accident.

Dockless Electric Scooters or E-Scooters and Glendale Accidents

May 30, 2019 | by Robert Walch

What is the effect of dockless eletctic scooters, also called e-scooters, in the City of Glendale?

Are these e-scooters contributing to causing more accidents in Glendale, Los Angeles and elsewhere?

What should cities like Glendale do in regulating the use of dockless or e-scooters?

Small Plane Crashes into Yorba Linda Home, Killing 5

February 25, 2019 | by Robert Walch

On the afternoon of Super Bowl Sunday, a small plane crashed into a Yorba Linda home sending debris throughout the neighborhood. The pilot was killed in the crash, as well as four people in the Yorba Linda home. The victims—Roy Anderson, 85, and his wife, Dahlia Leber Anderson, 68, as well as their two visiting relatives, Stacie Leber, 48, of Corona and Donald Elliott, 58, of Norco—were killed when the plane crashed into the home, immediately setting the home on fire.

The Los Angeles Times reported that the Cessna plane flown by 75-year-old Antonio Pastini of Nevada took off from Fullerton airport around 1:35 p.m. It had only flown about 10 miles and gained about 7,800 feet of elevation when witnesses saw the plane falling out of the sky. The plane broke apart as it fell, losing its tail, wings, and engine. Debris from the plane hit approximately 16 homes. According to the report, “a piece of the plane’s engine knocked down a pillar on the front porch and torpedoed through a first-floor window, flying through two rooms before landing in a bathroom.” Additionally, pieces of the exhaust pipe went through a window, melting the carpet, and a propeller landed in their driveway.

Investigators with the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board started investigating the crash the next day. Because the plane broke apart midair, they do not suspect it was intentional. However, they will be trying to determine what caused this tragic accident.

Tesla Drivers Filmed Sleeping While Car Continues Driving on Autopilot

February 14, 2019 | by Robert Walch

In the last month, several videos have surfaced on the internet showing Telsa drivers sleeping while their car continues driving in its semi-autonomous Autopilot mode. According to a Fox News report, just this week a video was posted showing a driver near Las Vegas with his head rested back and eyes closed—his Tesla speeds up and slows down apparently on its own.

A video from a few days earlier shows a driver on a Southern California highway, also with his eyes closed. The person who filmed this Tesla and driver said he “observed the car riding along by itself for miles.” Although no one was harmed in these incidents, misuse of Autopilot systems continues to be a safety concern.

After an incident in December, Telsa actually responded—a driver was cited for drunk driving when police officers spotted his car driving while he was passed out in the driver’s seat. The officers followed his car, pulled in front of it, and slowed down to trigger the Autopilot to slow down and stop to avoid a collision. Although this worked, police officers wondered why the Autopilot did not deactivate on its own when sensors in the steering wheel detected the driver removed his hands from the wheel. Typically, the system is supposed to flash and sound a warning when a driver removes their hands. Tesla responded to the situation and said they were going to be “looking into what happened.”

Electric Scooters—Easy Transportation with the Potential for Serious Personal Injuries

February 1, 2019 | by Robert Walch

Recently, Electric Scooters have popped up all over Southern California cities as an easy means of transportation and a way to avoid getting stuck in heavy traffic. Many cities, including Los Angeles, have been engaged in “scooter wars” with the largest scooter companies over the idea of having thousands of scooters dropped along on city streets and sidewalks. Many cities have limited the number of scooters, but only a few have ban them entirely.

Last year, The Washington Post reported, that as scooter use increased in major cities across the United States, so did trips to the emergency room for scooter-related injuries, many of these injuries being very serious. Injuries from scooter accidents can include “broken noses, wrists and shoulders, facial lacerations and fractures, as well as the kind of blunt head trauma that can leave brains permanently damaged.” In addition to injury risks, if a scooter rider is hit by a car, death can be a risk.

Recently, a man riding an electric scooter was killed after he was hit by a car in Chula Vista. According to KRON 4 News, the driver of the car stayed at the scene to cooperate with police and investigators have not yet determined who was at fault in the accident. If it is determined that the driver was at fault in hitting the scooter rider, family members of the scooter driver can bring a wrongful death claim on behalf of the victim against the driver.