How to Get the Most Out of Your Settlement
Whether you’re involved in a car accident, slip and fall, or another type of personal injury, you want to make sure you receive a fair settlement for your pain. Keep reading to learn several tips and tricks you can use to get the most out of your settlement. Stay Off Social Media In today’s society, most people don’t think twice about what they share on social media. Even though you think posting a picture or update on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram is harmless, defense attorneys will scour the internet looking for anything they can use in their case, including your posts on social media. They will try to use pictures or posts you put online as proof that your injury isn’t as severe as you claim it is. When you’re dealing with a personal injury lawsuit, your best bet is to stay off social media entirely. Immediately Document All Evidence When a personal injury case goes to trial, it’s up to you to provide enough evidence to prove your claim. Therefore, you need to document all the evidence possible as soon as your injury happens. This can include police reports, witness statements and contact information, and medical reports. You also want to take pictures of the accident scene, visible injuries, the defective premise or product, and your car and the car that hit you. Also, check the area for any video surveillance cameras that might have recorded the incident. Keep a Diary of Your Injuries If your personal injury lawsuit goes to trial, you’ll have to tell the jury how long you were in pain. Unfortunately, it could take...
$227 Million Settlement Reached in 2013 Building Collapse Case
The longest civil trial in the history of the city of Philadelphia wrapped up on February 8, 2017, with a settlement for the plaintiffs: twelve people who were injured and the families of the seven people who perished in a building collapse in June 2013. The collapse occurred when the demolition of a Center City building owned by New York real estate/adult entertainment magnate Richard Basciano caused an adjacent building housing a Salvation Army consignment store to collapse under four stories of brick. The Philadelphia Daily News reported on court documents that stated Basciano was at the scene of the demolition in a conference with the contractor, Griffin Campbell, as the building began to collapse. In a related criminal case, convictions were handed to Campbell, and the excavator operator, Sean Benschop, who were sent to prison for 15 to 30 years and 7 ½ to 15 years, respectively, for their roles in the collapse. The publicized seventeen-week civil trial ended with a settlement of $227 million, to be paid by Basciano and the Salvation Army to the plaintiffs. According to an anonymous source reported in the Philadelphia Daily News, $200 million is to be paid by the Salvation Army, and $27 million by Basciano.The settlement money is to be divided via an arbitrator among the victims of the collapse and their families. Victims sustained serious injuries in the collapse. One woman suffered such extensive injuries under the prolonged weight of the rubble, that she underwent 30 surgeries including amputation of her lower body at the hips.Part of the settlement will help to pay for the woman’s medical care, which is expected...
The Value of Evidence in a Personal Injury Case
Evidence is the material used in court cases to either prove or disprove the charges. Strong evidence translates to a strong case, so if you are ever involved in a personal injury case, then you want to do everything in your power to ensure that all evidence remains intact and accessible. Spoliation occurs when evidence is lost, destroyed, or otherwise tampered with; when this happens, the evidence can no longer be used in the case. Depending on the case, there may be penalties for spoliation of evidence. The penalty could involve having to pay a fine, or it could result in criminal proceedings and conviction. To some judges, when an individual destroys the evidence involved in a personal injury, it may appear as if that person had a desire for the evidence to be destroyed and therefore was aware of his or her guilt. Specifically, in personal injury cases, spoliation can affect cases involving defective products. If you are involved in a personal injury case based on a defective product, your saving that defective product could mean the difference between winning your personal injury case and having the case dismissed because the only evidence available was your testimony. Because of spoliation, a Texas man was awarded over one million dollars in a 2013 slip-and-fall case. In this case, Brookshire Brothers Ltd. V. Aldridge, the store where the fall occurred had recorded over the footage shot by the surveillance system in the minutes prior to when the fall occurred. The jury saw this as the store attempting to cover up any footage of possible wrongdoing, to avoid releasing footage that might...
Getting Full Compensation After an Automobile Accident
In November 2016, an elderly man was awarded $1,041,697 compensation for an accident injury that happened almost five years prior when another driver rear-ended him. The plaintiff had pre-existing medical conditions prior to the accident, but that is also what prevented him from receiving the treatment any other ordinary individual would have received after the accident. How did this man win a $1,041,697 compensation lawsuit you may wonder, well it is because he had a professional personal injury lawyer on his side who presented his case, facts by facts to the jury. The jury heard about the life changes that occurred to the man as a result of the automobile accident and was made aware of the costs and efforts that the man would be subjected to for the rest of his life. The elderly man’s lawyer basically proved that the other driver involved in the accident was negligent and responsible for the exacerbation of the plaintiff’s medical issues. Most people who get involved in automobile accidents often suffer from huge medical bills and increased household debts. They miss some time from work and even suffer from mental stress due to the accident. Some even lose out on their life savings and insurance because of a personal injury sustained from an accident. Most of these people do not seek compensation for these life-changing injuries. It could be because they do not know how to go about making the claim or they just feel like it is difficult to prove that the other driver was responsible for the accident. It’s even worse for people with pre-existing medical conditions, proving that an automobile...Have a question? Give us a call.
1-800-ASK-FREE (275-3733)
