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truckaccidentcardonelawfirm-300x200There are many rules, doctrines, presumptions, balancing tests, and other concepts written across the law, including when it comes to personal injury law. That is why knowledgeable Louisiana injury attorneys are so important to your personal injury case. You certainly know the facts of your case. But do you know how to go about obtaining the evidence you need? Do you know which legal concepts will apply to your case? One concept that can affect many types of personal injury cases is the “duty-risk analysis.”

Last year, the Court of Appeal looked at a case involving a fast food customer injured by a cup of hot coffee. In making its decision in that matter, the appeals court pointed out the four factors that go into the duty-risk analysis:  “(1) Was the conduct in question a substantial factor in bringing about the harm to the plaintiff…? (2) Did the defendant(s) owe a duty to the plaintiff? (3) Was the duty breached? (4) Was the risk, and harm caused, within the scope of protection afforded by the duty breached?” In other words, did the defendant cause the injury, did the defendant have a duty to the plaintiff, did the defendant violate that duty, and was the injury suffered within a reasonable “scope of protection” of the duty?

In last year’s coffee case, the plaintiff lost because she admitted that she lifted the drink from a drink holder by grabbing the lid. The plaintiff had a problem with the first element, in that she lacked proof that the defendant’s conduct caused the injury.

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A Christmas Day 2014 multi-vehicle interstate highway accident northwest of New Orleans provides a clear example of how auto accident cases are not always what they may initially seem. What started out, allegedly, as a pair of straightforward collisions ended up involving multiple additional parties, reconventional demands, and third-party demands. Your injury case, like many things in life, may be unpredictable, which is why you should always be prepared and have skilled Louisiana car accident lawyers on your side from the start.

The injuries that led to litigation in this instance took place along Interstate 10 in Jefferson Parish. According to the complaint filed by the original plaintiff, Eldridge, a vehicle driven by Max rear-ended him. That impact allegedly spun Eldridge’s vehicle such that it came to a stop perpendicular across two lanes of traffic on eastbound I-10. A motorcycle driven by David subsequently passed through the area and allegedly hit Eldridge’s vehicle. The impacts resulted in Eldridge suffering injuries.

Eldridge, however, wasn’t the only person injured in the crash. David had suffered harm too. David, in fact, submitted a filing in the case that asserted that he was not liable to Eldridge and that a third party had caused him to crash. Specifically, according to David’s version of the facts, Max hit Eldridge, and, while both cars were stopped along the interstate highway, Shahid (an uninvolved driver) stopped to offer assistance. As David approached the accident site, Carrie, who was Shahid’s passenger, exited Shahid’s car, which led to David colliding with her. That impact allegedly threw David from his motorcycle and caused his unmanned motorcycle to collide with the door of Eldridge’s car. Based upon this version of the accident, David named Carrie as a third-party defendant liable to him for the injuries he suffered.

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Excluding those who have a phobia about elevators, the chances are that most of the rest of us engage in the act of entering, riding in, and departing an elevator without giving it a second thought. Some people may be able to go through life without ever encountering a malfunctioning elevator. With multiple instances of elevator-related injuries occurring in the New Orleans area recently, though, it is clear that not everyone will be so fortunate. If you are injured in an elevator accident, it is important to act promptly and seek counsel from an experienced Louisiana premises liability attorney who can help you protect your interests.

One of the recent headline-making accidents was particularly unfortunate because it involved teens doing missionary work. The teens were here on behalf of their Presbyterian church located in Wahoo, Neb. and were at the home of their host family this past July when the home’s elevator crashed from the third floor all the way to the ground. All four teens suffered either leg or ankle fractures, KETV reported.

Also in July, an Orleans Parish man allegedly suffered injuries while riding in an elevator at an office building in New Orleans. The man, according to his lawsuit, was taking the elevator from the fifth floor to the fourth when the elevator malfunctioned, unexpectedly dropping twice and eventually stopping down at the second floor. The man’s negligence lawsuit stated that the pair of drops caused him to suffer physical and emotional injuries, according to a Louisiana Record report.

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cardonelawfirmblogcaraccidentroadway-300x225Auto accidents case may have many nuances, details, and points for which you need to make important tactical and strategic decisions. For example, you are a passenger in a vehicle that’s involved in a two-vehicle crash. You suffer injuries in the crash. Whom do you sue? These and other important choices are places where the advice and representation of an experienced Louisiana car accident attorney may make the difference between success and defeat.

One case in which the injured passenger had to deal with making such choices was one that arose from a collision in Baton Rouge in 2012. Lance was attempting to turn his 2004 BMW left out of a parking lot and onto the main road. Patrick was attempting to merge his SUV into the left turn lane on that same main road. Both men made their moves at around the same time, and Patrick’s SUV struck Lance’s BMW.

Brian, who was Lance’s passenger, was injured in the accident. Brian sought to recover damages for his injuries. Brian wisely acted to sue multiple defendants to ensure that his right of recovery was protected. He sued Patrick and Patrick’s auto insurer. He also sued Lance and Lance’s auto insurer. This helped him because, potentially, a jury could have found that Lance was 100% at fault and was liable to Brian, that Patrick was 100% at fault and liable to Brian, or that they both shared legal blame and both owed damages to Brian.

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cardonelawfirmslipandfall-300x225In your personal injury case, the road to success involves many, many steps. Some of them definitely involve the facts of your case, such as the nature of the accident and the nature of your injuries. Others, though, involve things that are more procedural or tactical in nature, including the process of discovery in your case. This is one of many areas in which a Louisiana slip-and-fall attorney is extremely beneficial to you. Whether you are making discovery requests or responding to them, your knowledgeable counsel can make sure that you are complying with the rules and avoiding pitfalls along the way. In one recent slip-and-fall case from Alexandria, the management of the discovery process was integral to the injured man’s success.

The plaintiff was a man walking through an Alexandria, La. hospital in 2006. As he walked across a sloped ramp that was part of a skybridge, he slipped and fell. The man was hurt in the fall, and he eventually sued for damages. Initially, the hospital admitted, within its response to a “Request for Admissions” made by the plaintiff, that the plaintiff fell in water, that the wet spot was a result of mopping performed by the hospital’s custodian, and that the custodian removed warning signs from the area when he finished mopping, which was mere minutes before the plaintiff encountered the area and fell.

The lawsuit advanced slowly. The hospital’s admission about the wet spot was made in 2012. Three years after that, and nine years after the accident, the hospital asked the court to allow it to change its responses to the plaintiff’s first request for admissions. The trial court rejected the hospital’s request to change its answers. Armed with these unaltered responses to the request for admissions, the plaintiff asked the court to issue a partial summary judgment in his favor. The trial court agreed and entered the order in favor of the injured man.

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Busaccidentcardonelawfirm-300x201The Louisiana Court of Appeal recently upheld a jury verdict and nearly $500,000 damages award. The injured plaintiff was able to prevail because he had evidence that established clearly that the defendant driver was negligent. In many Louisiana bus accident cases, it is helpful to have proof that will allow a judge or jury to decide in your favor on multiple bases. In this case, the appeals court made the decision to uphold the lower court because the evidence showed that the defendant driver was either inattentive or following too closely, and, either way, his driving fell below the appropriate standard of care.

The plaintiff was a passenger on a bus that narrowly averted a rear-end collision with a pickup truck in New Orleans. The bus’ sudden braking to avoid hitting the truck threw the plaintiff from his seat in the bus. He landed on his right side on the floor of the bus near the driver’s seat. Shortly after the impact with the floor of the bus, the passenger began experiencing shoulder pain.

The passenger sued the bus driver, the transit authority, and its insurance company. The passenger’s case went forward as a “bench trial,” which means that a judge, rather than a jury, decided the case. The judge entered a verdict in favor of the passenger and assessed $695,000 in damages. Even after a 30% allocation of fault to the driver of the pickup truck, that still meant an award of $487,000.

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cardonelawfirmautoaccidenttree-300x203In a Louisiana car accident case, you may have many different types of evidence that you use to achieve success, with each type playing an important role. For many cases, expert witness evidence can be one of those types. For one woman whose case was recently decided by the Louisiana Court of Appeal, her expert evidence was vital, since that evidence alone was enough to raise a triable issue of fact and allow her to avoid summary judgment.

The woman, Cheryl, was a passenger in a vehicle traveling through a small town in northeastern Louisiana when a springtime thunderstorm wreaked considerable havoc. A fallen tree had led the driver to take an alternate route through the town. As the driver was navigating her detour, a large limb from an oak tree broke off and crashed onto the women’s car. The limb was big enough that it crushed the roof, in addition to hitting Cheryl in the head. The impact was so severe that the accident left Cheryl a quadriplegic.

The oak in question straddled a property boundary line, with part of the tree on the front yard of a private residence and part on a right-of-way owned by the city. This is just one example of how the facts of your accident case may lead to the need to sue multiple (and sometimes very different) defendants. Here, the plaintiff’s case was against both the couple who owned the residence and the city.

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CardoneLawFirmDWI-300x225When you are arrested for a drinking and driving (DWI), there are two separate tracks – a criminal track and an administrative track. The criminal track concerns fines, penalties, and potential jail time while the administrative track deals with the suspension of your driver’s license. The suspension of a driver’s license always presents a difficult situation, but this is especially true if your job requires you to operate a commercial motor vehicle or you have a Class A, B, or C Commercial Driver’s License (CDL).

CDL AND A DWI ARREST

The consequences of a DWI arrest and conviction are more severe if you have a CDL. The consequences depend on a number of facts such as the nature of the offense and the cargo you were transporting at the time of your arrest for DWI.

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cardonelawfirmautoaccident-300x200If you suffer an injury in an auto accident, there are many challenges that may lie ahead of you. Unfortunately, battling with an insurance company can sometimes be one of them. That is one of many areas where an experienced Louisiana auto accident attorney can help you – by using the tools available in the legal system to give you every chance to get what’s coming to you. In the case of one woman and her stepson, who were rear-ended at a traffic signal, the Louisiana Court of Appeal revived their lawsuit, concluding that the insurer had not submitted the right type of evidence to prove that a valid cancellation of the at-fault driver’s insurance policy had taken place before the accident occurred.

On June 1, 2015, the woman was driving on Florida Boulevard in Baton Rouge when she was rear-ended while stopped at a traffic light. The driver, along with her stepson (who was a passenger in the vehicle), sued the driver who rear-ended them, as well as that driver’s auto insurance company.

The insurance company, in its defense, argued that it could not be liable for the plaintiffs’ injuries. The policy it had issued to the at-fault driver was financed through a third-party company, and, since the driver had fallen behind on his payments to the finance company, the insurer had canceled the policy a week before the accident took place.

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hip x-rayWhen you’re injured in an auto accident, there are many challenges and difficulties you’ll face. First and foremost, there is simply recovering from your injuries. Hopefully, you won’t face the added stress of an insurance company that owes you payment on a claim but doesn’t pay. However, if that does happen, the law may give you certain options for damages against that insurer for bad faith. In the recent case of one injured woman, the Louisiana Court of Appeal upheld a finding of bad faith and an award of damages in her favor.

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