Articles Posted in Car Accidents

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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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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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cardonelawfirmautoinsurance-300x200It is illegal to drive without a valid driver’s license. It is also illegal for you to give permission to person to drive your vehicle who does not have a valid driver’s license. However, just because it is illegal, does not mean people do not do it all the time.

At our office, we have recently seen an influx of auto accident cases where individuals were hit by a driver who was driving a vehicle with a suspended license. A suspended license is like having no license at all under the law. A person’s license can be suspended for many reasons. Often our clients who were hit by a driver with a suspended license to not even realize it until they see a copy of the police report.

The question for many of our clients becomes, Will the insurance company pay for my injuries and my property damage that this unlicensed driver caused me? The short answer is, likely yes, but it depends. It is likely the auto insurance company will be required to pay for a person who was injured or sustained property damage in an accident with an unlicensed driver.

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cardonelawfirmpedestrian-300x180Everyone has heard the phrase “pedestrians have the right of way.” The purpose of this blog post is to give you more information on the rights and responsibilities of pedestrians under Louisianalaw. Those rights depend on many different factors, for example, is the pedestrian in a crosswalk or not in a crosswalk? How is the visibility for the driver and the pedestrian? What other traffic controls are present in the area? Is it an emergency situation? And many other factors, which are discussed here.

If you have been to New Orleans lately, you know many pedestrians do not obey traffic signals. It is common both for locals and tourists here to disregard a red-light and cross the street. After you read this article, you may understand why pedestrians are so nonchalant about violating this law.

The law provides that pedestrians must obey traffic control signals, but in the event the pedestrian does not pay attention or disregards the traffic signal, does that mean the pedestrian is at fault if they are hit and injured in an accident? The answer is no. Although pedestrians are bound to follow traffic control signals, they are also afforded certain “privileges”. Louisiana law is very favorable to the “privileges” of pedestrians.

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Cardonelawfirmbike-300x200In any injury case involving a roadway accident, there could be a wide variety of things that make the difference between success and failure. In the case of one bicyclist who was injured after a SUV made a left-hand turn and hit him, the defense tried to stymie the bicyclist’s case by arguing that the Louisiana Statutes granted them immunity from suit. The Louisiana Court of Appeal ruled that the defendant was not immune in this case, since the immunity statute only applied if the plaintiff was driving a motor vehicle, and a bicycle does not qualify as a motor vehicle in Louisiana.

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cardonelawfirmmoney-300x134When you are injured in a vehicle accident, there are certain things with which you are undoubtedly very familiar, including the factual details of your accident. However, achieving success in your injury lawsuit is about much more than putting together a strong factual presentation. It is also about understanding the law and procedure, and how to use them advantageously. The recent case of one injured man is a prime example. The man’s counsel’s post-trial motion led a trial judge to modify the outcome of the case and increase the man’s damages award from $58,500 to more than $500,000.

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Cardonelawfirmblogpostinjurylawyerphonecardone-300x300In your auto accident case, you may have many separate factors that go into achieving the outcome you need. Certainly, collecting enough proof to show that you’ve been injured, that another person was negligent, and that their negligence caused your injuries is part of this equation. It may not necessarily be everything, though. In some cases, it is about making sure that you get the right defendants included in your case, such as the at-fault driver’s insurance company. In one recent case, the plaintiff achieved this result by successfully persuading a Louisiana trial court and appellate court that an insurer couldn’t keep accepting a driver’s premium payments and then refuse to cover that driver.

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Cardone-Law-Firm-Auto-Accident-Rain-3-300x178New Orleans is no stranger to the rain. We all know the song we sang when we were little, “rain, rain go away, come again another day.” But we aren’t little anymore and most of us are forced to travel in the rain to work and other obligations. Because of the bad weather today and the upcoming rainy season, we wanted to bring to you some tips for safely driving in the rain. We hope you can use these tips yourself and share them with your children and loved ones.

KNOW YOUR SURROUNDINGS

As we travel, we cross many different types of terrain. For example, driving across a bridge during rain presents different concerns than driving across level ground. Be mindful when driving across a bridge that there may be gusts of wind which may cause you to lose control of your vehicle. A bridge may also not have shoulders for you to pull over if you are unable to see because of the rain.

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Cardone-Law-Firm-Auto-Accident-300x225Sometimes, the facts of your case may look ominous, giving you the fear that your case is hopeless. You should not give up without consulting an attorney first. An experienced injury attorney may have knowledge of the law that could make your case more viable than you might initially think. In a recent case, an injured woman’s lawsuit against two business entities was revived based upon a favorable Louisiana Supreme Court ruling issued back in 2013 that forced the lower courts to allow the case to proceed.

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