Keep reading this comprehensive guide outlining your options and rights as a victim. A slip and fall accident usually comes out of nowhere. You may be walking down the street or in a restaurant bathroom and suddenly you find yourself falling hard to the ground. Sustaining an injury like this can result in a vast array of difficulties, ranging anywhere from lost wages to insurmountable medical bills. So, what are your options if you suffer a slip and fall injury due to hazardous conditions? The best place to start is to secure qualified legal counsel. With their guidance, you will have the best opportunity to pursue a viable lawsuit without running into unnecessary obstacles along the way. On top of this, you will be able to make informed choices about how to proceed – while giving you the time and resources to recover from your injury. No two slip and…Read More
How Can Photos And Journals Impact Your Personal Injury Claim In Orleans Parish, LA? A picture is worth a thousand words, especially in personal injury cases. Photos and journals can be critical in a personal injury claim. Photos vividly capture the physical impact of an injury, often more effectively than words alone. For instance, a photo of a severely swollen ankle can powerfully convey the extent of the injury. Journals, on the other hand, provide detailed, day-to-day accounts of how the injury affects your life and help track your healing. This documentation can be invaluable when presenting your case at trial. What Is An Injury Journal? What Details Should I Include In One? An injury journal is a daily record of how your injuries affect you and your life. It doesn't need to be lengthy; a few paragraphs each day are sufficient. Include details about your physical condition, how the…Read More
What Are The Options For Paying For Medical Care While Waiting For A Personal Injury Claim To Be Resolved In Orleans Parish, LA? One option is to use your own medical insurance, but be aware that your insurer may place a lien on your case to be repaid later, which can dramatically complicate matters. Another option is to pay out of pocket and seek reimbursement after your case is resolved. Additionally, some medical providers may agree to treat you and wait for payment until your case is settled or a judgment is achieved. What Are My Options For Getting Medical Treatment If I Don’t Have Health Insurance In Louisiana? Unfortunately, your options for getting medical treatment without health insurance are fairly limited. University Hospital in New Orleans operates as a charity-type hospital, and may treat you without insurance. Additionally, some charitable clinics in the city may offer treatment. However, finding…Read More
What Is A Plaintiff? How Does It Apply To A Personal Injury Case? A plaintiff is the person or entity who initiates a lawsuit exercising legal recourse for injuries or damages they have suffered. For example, if you were injured in an auto accident due to another driver's negligence and you file a lawsuit against that driver or their insurance company, you would be the plaintiff in that case. What Does Liability Mean In The Context Of Louisiana Personal Injury Law? In very simple terms, liability refers to the legal responsibility for damages that a person has suffered due to another person’s or company’s actions or inactions. Continuing with our auto accident example, if you caused an auto accident due to your negligence, you would be legally liable for the damages suffered by the other driver, incurred as a result. How Is Negligence Defined? Why Is It Important? Negligence is…Read More
Yes, when an adult develops malignant mesothelioma in Louisiana, it is assumed to be caused by asbestos exposure. There have been cases where young children have developed mesothelioma of unknown origin, but it is well established that the disease course in adults is caused by small fibers of asbestos that have been inhaled or accidentally swallowed, typically as a result of workplace contamination. Over many years, these small fibers can cause irritation to a number of body areas, which can result in cancerous tumors along the linings of organs, or even infiltration of the organs themselves with cancerous cells. Malignancy is when a tumor in the body is cancerous, and has the potential to grow and spread. This can happen several ways, and often occurs via multiple pathways at once. If a mesothelioma tumor is undiagnosed and therefore not treated, it will simply continue to grow. In this case, a tumor that…Read More
Exposure to asbestos has been linked to a variety of a diseases, including a dangerous form of cancer, mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is not the only cancer that asbestos can cause, or contribute to, but mesothelioma is a particularly difficult to treat cancer, and one whose long term prognosis is particularly poor. Because mesothelioma is understood to have just one cause – exposure to asbestos – regulatory changes over the last several decades have made many worksites and industries much safer for employees today. The problem for retired workers from these sites and industries is that mesothelioma has a latency period that can last as long as many decades. It is not unusual for a person whose asbestos exposure happened in their twenties or thirties to develop the disease in their sixties or seventies. While asbestos can contribute to a number of diseases, including lung cancer and a condition known as asbestosis, where inhaled…Read More
Hiring A Lawyer To File A Mesothelioma Claim With The VA The VA serves America’s veterans, providing specialized healthcare and retirement benefits to those who’ve sacrificed so much for the country. One of these benefits is a dedicated monetary benefit for veterans who experienced asbestos exposure while in the service and have developed mesothelioma as a result. The process isn’t a simple one though. As you would expect, the VA requires detailed accounting of the places, duty roles, and time frames where asbestos exposure is likely to have occurred in order to square a claim against its own records. Further, you’ll be asked to describe jobs you held after you left the service, and the VA will use that information to evaluate whether you likely experienced asbestos exposure, or additional asbestos exposure, outside of your service. Creating a thorough and easily approved application claim for VA mesothelioma benefits isn’t a simple task,…Read More
Louisiana first banned texting while driving in 2008 and has since taken additional steps to strengthen that ban. While this may seem a logical step in keeping our roads safer, New Orleans drivers should be aware that a study by the Highway Loss Data Institute calls into question the effectiveness of such bans. The Highway Loss Data Institute is a non-profit organization that conducts scientific studies of insurance data. It compared insurance claims for vehicles damaged in crashes before and after a full texting ban was instituted in four different states, including Louisiana. Data was also collected from nearby states, where the texting law had not changed, for use as a comparison and to control for other factors. The study found that – contrary to the expected result – crashes increased following the implementation of a texting ban for all drivers in three of the four states studied, including Louisiana.…Read More
The outcome of all New Orleans personal injury lawsuits will ultimately be determined by the evidence available, including the evidence of the degree of injury caused by the accident. While you may have been badly hurt, your case will have serious challenges if you do not have the medical evidence needed to corroborate the injury. The truth often does not matter if you cannot prove it to the judge or jury. In personal injury lawsuits, the need for proof can be especially important when it comes to medical treatment. The defense in such a lawsuit often will be looking for holes in the treatment record – such as lapses in treatment or apparent failures to report certain conditions – that could be used to argue that your injuries are not as serious as you claim. As a result, it is extremely important to be truthful with your medical providers and…Read More
Yes, there is a link between veterans of all branches of the armed forces and mesothelioma, here in New Orleans, Louisiana and across the country as well. Because asbestos is so resistant to heat and such an excellent fireproofing material, the military came to rely on it in a wide array of applications – from tanks and trucks to ships and airplanes to housing and offices. Veterans who served prior to approximately 1980 are likely to have had the most exposure during their service, but the problem of asbestos exposure for veterans doesn’t end there. The military excels at training individuals to perform highly skilled work, and when service members left to return to the civilian workforce, they applied those skills to earn their living. There are a number of military jobs that have an especially strong link to mesothelioma because exposure to asbestos continued for many people throughout their civilian career.…Read More
