Air bags are a great safety device, if used correctly. It’s estimated that frontal air bags have saved over 25,000 lives between 1987 and 2008. Air bags haven’t only saved lives; they are also very effective in preventing debilitating head and chest injuries. A recent study showed that over two-thirds of those who would have suffered head or chest injuries in a crash did not because of air bags. However, keep in mind that air bags are only intended as supplemental safety devices – you should always wear your seat belt.
As wonderful as air bags are, people have been killed by them, although it is rare. It’s important to remember that air bags can be dangerous for children under the age of 13. Place everyone under age 13 in the rear seat. If they must be in the front, check the on-off switch (if your air bag has one) to ensure that the switch is off.
Every person who has been killed by an air bag has one thing in common – they were too close to the air bag when it deployed. Sometimes, this occurred because their seats were too close to the air bags. However, it more often occurred when they were not wearing seat belts or sitting in child seats, which allowed them to be thrown forward into the air bag.
In order for air bags to be effective, you can make some minor changes that will minimize the risk of serious injury. Short drivers should adjust the position of their seats. Those under age 13 should only sit in the back seat. Everyone should buckle up. It’s also important that those with unusual medical conditions who have been advised that air bags are dangerous to them should turn the air bag off, or avoid sitting near an air bag.
If you have been injured in a car accident in the Dallas area, contact the Barber Law Firm, which works extensively with accident victims. Call today at 972-231-5800.
It is a very common misperception among non-lawyers that almost any attorney can represent a client in almost any matter as long as the case is a common one. Many clients think that if they need a routine bankruptcy or a will prepared, they can go to the same attorney who handled their divorce or did the closing on their home. In addition, some attorneys will agree to handle a case outside their specialty in order to collect the fee.
However, the truth is that the law is increasingly becoming more complex, so it is much better to find an attorney who specializes in what you need. Also, you may think you have a very simple, straightforward case. While this is sometimes true, more often a simple case can be filled with complexities that only an experienced attorney will recognize. Instead of finding any random attorney to handle your case, a better approach is to find the most experienced attorney in the field of law your case is in who you can afford to hire to handle your case.
This is particularly true in personal injury cases. Although personal injury cases are very common, they can be very complex. Only an attorney with substantial personal injury experience should handle such a case. Also, once a case is settled, an injured party cannot get more compensation later if their medical circumstances change. Therefore, you should hire an experienced attorney to help you get the maximum amount of compensation available.
Have you been injured in an accident due to another party’s negligence in the Dallas area? If so, contact the Barber Law Firm, a personal injury law firm dedicated to helping accident victims recover. Call them today at 972-231-5800 for a free consultation.
Part 3 of CNN’s report concludes their investigation of the insurance industry’s practices and poor treatment of auto accident victims.
If you wish to discuss an accident with a personal injury attorney, click here. The initial consultation is always free and if our law firm agrees to handle your case, we will normally work on a contingent fee basis, which means we get paid for our services only if there is a monetary recovery for you.
Here is Part 2 of the CNN report on the auto insurance industry. With all of the major insurance companies constantly marketing how well they treat people, it is refreshing to see a media outlet report the truth regarding the manner in which most personal injury victims are really treated by insurance companies.
People who have been injured through the negligence of another should immediately contact a personal injury lawyer to protect their legal rights. We offer free legal consultations on all personal injury cases.
This is Part 1 of a CNN investigative report (courtesy of You Tube). It explains why personal injury victims need an effective and experienced personal injury attorney who is not afraid to take the case to trial if that is what it takes to maximize the recovery from the insurance company.
I offer free initial legal consultations on personal injury cases. If you have been injured, you should immediately contact a personal injury lawyer so that you will know what insurance coverage is in place to cover your medical expenses and lost wages, and you can take steps to protect your legal rights.
Unfortunately, some personal injury attorneys will give unrealistic answers to such questions, usually for the purpose of trying to convince a potential client to retain their services. A good attorney, however, will usually not provide a detailed response to these questions at first. The reason: a case’s value cannot be determined until the case has been investigated and all of the critical facts have been analyzed.
There are many factors that determine the ultimate value of a personal injury lawsuit. The strength of the liability, causation, and damages facts are some of the most important. To maximize your recovery, a personal injury lawyer needs to begin gathering evidence early in the process, and to advise the client on how to keep the records needed to prove damages.
If the facts are good, a personal injury attorney who has the proper skill set can maximize the recovery for the client. If the facts are bad (i.e., little or no insurance, bad evidence on liability, etc.), then the lawyer has to work through different set of circumstances, which could affect the end result for the client.
The better question for a client to ask is: Do I have a lawyer that has the skill set to maximize the recovery for my personal injury case? A qualified and experienced attorney can analyze the case and obtain a proper result. The facts play a big factor in the end result, but a skilled lawyer can guide the client through the process and take the proper steps to obtain a favorable result.
This week, the Supreme Court sustained a $6.7 million jury verdict award to a woman who lost her arm because of improper use of the anti-nausea medication, Phenegran. In a 6-3 ruling the high court rejected arguments from Wyeth Pharmaceuticals that it was protected from personal injury claims because drug labeling for its medicine had been approved by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA).
In Wyeth v. Levine, the Court noted that directly injecting the drug into a patient’s vein significantly increased the risk of “catastrophic consequences.” The Plaintiff argued that even though Phenegran’s labeling warned of the danger of gangrene and amputation following injection, it failed to instruct physicians to use an IV-drip method. In August 2004, a trial court found in favor of the Plaintiff.
Writing for the majority, Justice John Paul Stevens noted that the trial court “determined that there was no direct conflict between FDA regulations and Levine’s state-law claims because those regulations permit strengthened warnings without FDA approval on an interim basis and the record contained evidence of the at least 20 reports of amputations similar to Levine’s since the 1960s.” Stevens concluded that, “In short, Wyeth has not persuaded us that failure-to-warn claims like Levine’s obstruct the federal regulation of drug labeling. Congress has repeatedly declined to pre-empt state law, and the FDA’s recently adopted position that state tort suits interfere with its statutory mandate is entitled to no weight. Although we recognize that some state-law claims might well frustrate the achievement of congressional objectives, this is not such a case.”
