California Personal Injury Lawyers Blog

Drunk Driver Injures Los Angeles School Bus Passengers

December 9, 2010 | by Robert Walch

On Monday, two high school students were injured in yet another Southern California drunk driving accident. Their school bus was hit by a Ford truck, which was apparently driven by a drunk driver. Fortunately, the injuries to the students were minor. Unfortunately, Los Angeles drunk driving collisions continue to occur.

All too frequently, Los Angeles drivers, passengers and pedestrians are injured by drunk drivers. Our office has handled cases of Los Angeles drunk driving accidents involving drunk drivers running stop signs or red lights, driving the wrong direction on roads, rear ending a stopped car, making unsafe turns, etc.

While many drunk drivers often escape serious injury, their victims are often not as lucky. While we have seen cases where the drunk driver was able to run from the scene of the collision, our clients have been seriously injured by Los Angeles drunk drivers.

California Automobile Insurance Coverage Requirement

December 8, 2010 | by Robert Walch

California drivers are subject to Proposition 213, which the California voters passed in 1996. This law hinders the recoveries of drivers who are injured in California auto accidents by essentially providing that drivers in California who are not covered by a valid liability insurance policy, cannot receive non-economic damages (pain, suffering, etc.).

Insurance companies use this law to punish uninsured California residents involved in automobile accidents. Unfortunately, while not its original purpose, this law is often used against people who have a small gap in their coverage, such as when an insurance premium payment does not go through in time, or due to other types of human error.

Fortunately, Proposition 213 does not apply to passengers of the vehicle, so passengers are still entitled to the full value of their cases and, if injured, should call our office to find out their rights.

Big Rig Crash on 210 Freeway

December 7, 2010 | by Robert Walch

Today, an irresponsible driver of a big rig, apparently let his unlicensed son drive the truck so that he could take a nap. Fortunately, there were no serious injuries. This truck crash on the 210 freeway will cause delays well into the afternoon.

Unfortunately, many truckers are overworked and try to push too many hours of driving into their days. This leads to many truck collisions in Los Angeles and its surrounding areas.

Due to their massive sizes, big rigs pose an extra danger to commuters on the roads and freeways in the greater Los Angeles area. When possible, it is usually best to keep an extra distance from big rigs to avoid a collision and potentially serious injuries.

Los Angeles Catastrophic Injury Attorney

December 5, 2010 | by Robert Walch

Accidents happen every day in Los Angeles and throughout California. Some can be considered minor, such as a fender bender collision with only little or no significant injuries, but some are major catastrophic injuries. Whether the injury is minor or major, it is an important event to the person who suffers the injury and for those who care for and love that person.

Even though an injury may seem minor, we know that an aching back or neck can be debilitating on the entire body and can significantly alter a person’s lifestyle. For this reason, we do not take any of our California injury accident cases lightly and we strive to give all of our clients the attention they desire and deserve.

It is this extra level of personal attention that we strive to give to all our clients, whether their injury is perceived as minor or catastrophic. When a major, life altering injury occurs as a result of another person or entity’s negligence, it is important to have a Los Angeles personal injury attorney who is there for you, who you can talk to, who you can meet with, and who will explain to you the procedures and give you incite as to what exactly is going on. It is our continuing goal to meet all of these requirements for all of our injured clients.

Avoiding a Rain Accident in Los Angeles

December 3, 2010 | by Robert Walch

Although rainy days are rare in Los Angeles, they do appear every once in a while and cause plenty of hardships to Los Angeles commuters. Driving in rainy conditions can be very dangerous and we wish to remind our readers to be extra careful to avoid auto accidents caused by the rain.

One reason many accidents occur in the rain is decreased visibility, especially at night. This, combined with the fact that it takes cars a longer time to stop in the rain, mean that drivers should keep a much larger distance between their car and the cars around them.

Because there are more Los Angeles auto accidents in the rain, this often causes more traffic as drivers look to see what is going on in the shoulder of the road. It is very important to always concentrate on the road and not be too distracted with looking at ambulances, fire engines and police cars. These distractions often turn one Los Angeles auto accident into many.

Successful Resolution of Motorcycle Accident in Reseda

December 1, 2010 | by Robert Walch

A motorcycle accident claim in Los Angeles can be very difficult to resolve for numerous reasons. One reason is the common misconception that the driver of the motorcycle was speeding at the time of the accident. This is likely due to the loud noise that motorcycle engines often make.

If you are involved in a motorcycle collision in Los Angeles, it is very important that you obtain non-biased witness information. If a witness is able to decipher between a loud motorcycle and a fast motorcycle, this will help your cause.

Another misconception some people have about motorcycle riders is that they are reckless and weave through traffic. While this may be true about some motorcyclists, as it is for some car and truck drivers as well, what matters is what the actual person was doing at the time of the accident. Motorcyclists do not have fewer rights than cars on the road and they should not be judged by this frequent misconception.

Traffic Accidents – Some Tips To Help Avoid

November 30, 2010 | by Gary Walch

There are so many ways to get into car, truck, motorcycle and bicycle accidents in congested Los Angeles, including Hollywood, Inglewood, Culver City, Van Nuys, Sherman Oaks, Woodland Hills, Canoga Park and Calabasas, so we want to provide a couple of useful reminders to share with your loved ones and friends to try to avoid getting into a preventable accident.

Turning right – When turning right, how often does someone look right, then left and then turn, without checking again for oncoming cars, bicycle riders, skateboarders and pedestrians suddenly coming from the right. Always look right again before turning right.

Turning left — Never turn unless you can see all oncoming cars and you know it is clear. Ignore the honks from the person behind. That person won’t be around to pay your damages or increased insurance rates if you make an unsafe turn causing a collision (Yes, your insurance rates will go up if it is a chargeable collision – that is, if it is decided by your insurer that you contributed more than 50% to causing the collision. More about that in a future blog).

California Medical Care on a Lien

November 28, 2010 | by Robert Walch

Many of our California personal injury clients do not have access to health insurance and cannot afford to pay out of pocket for the medical care that they need. Some of our injured clients have health insurance, but it won’t cover chiropractic care, or the wait to see a doctor or to obtain physical therapy is just too long.

If you have been injured in an accident in California, you do not have to wait or pay out of pocket to see a doctor right away. We have been handling personal injury claims in California for over 30 years and we can find you the medical care you need, on a lien basis, so that you do not have to wait to see a doctor or pay a co-payment before every treatment.

Many California injury victims need a doctor’s examination, chiropractic adjustments, physical therapy, an orthopedic or neurological exam, psychiatric evaluation or treatment, etc.

Happy Thanksgiving From Your Los Angeles Personal Injury Attorneys

November 25, 2010 | by Robert Walch

We, at Gary K. Walch, A Law Corporation, your Los Angeles personal injury attorneys, would like to wish all our family, friends, clients and colleagues a very happy and healthy Thanksgiving!

Throughout the year, and for over 30 years, we have been helping injury victims obtain recoveries for their losses. Recently, we have helped and obtained settlements for a wide range of injury victims, from people who have had an auto accident in North Hollywood, a slip and fall accident in Woodland Hills, a dog attack in Van Nuys, a burn injury in Encino, and many more injury claims throughout the greater Los Angeles area.

We recently obtained a very favorable settlement for a woman who was hit by a car in San Bernardino. Despite the insurance company originally treating her unfairly, after we filed a lawsuit on her behalf, we were able to get her the recovery she deserved for her injuries, pain, suffering and loss of earnings.

Slip and Fall Injury in Los Angeles

November 24, 2010 | by Robert Walch

Many Los Angeles residents come to our office for injuries they have suffered in a slip and fall incident. These claims are very difficult, but certain key things that you, the victim, can do after the incident, can help get you a recovery for someone else’s negligence.

Just because you have fallen on someone else’s property does not mean that the owner of the premises, or its operator, is responsible. In order to prove that the premises owner/operator is responsible, you must be able to prove that either they created the hazard that caused you to slip and fall, or that they should have known about it and did not fix it.

The first scenario is simple, if a store employee spills a bottle of soda, leaves without cleaning it, and you slip and fall on the soda, that element is met. However, what if you do not know how the soda you slipped on got onto the floor? One thing you should do if you find yourself in such a situation is take pictures of the hazard that caused you to fall. Report the incident to a manager and make sure the manager takes down an incident report. Also, you should try to find any witnesses that saw the fall, saw how the hazard got onto the floor, or know how long the hazard has been on the floor.

One way our office has successfully shown that the store should have known about the hazard, is by obtaining copies of the store’s “sweep sheets,” which show how frequently the store employees maintained and checked the aisles for hazards. If the aisles are not checked in a reasonable amount of time, the store may be responsible.