The monetary award received by the injured party in a New Orleans personal injury lawsuit is referred to as compensatory damages. These damages are often divided into two broad categories: special damages and general damages. Special damages are those damages for which – at least to some degree – an objective value can be determined. Items such as medical expenses and loss of earnings are included under this category. Special damages have a fixed value based on actual monetary losses that arose or will arise from the injuries. In contrast, general damages are more speculative and cannot be fixed with mathematical certainty. General damages consist of categories such as pain and suffering and mental anguish. They also may include an award for scarring or disfigurement. While special damages tend to have a fixed value, people’s opinions may vary widely regarding the value of general damages. As a result, awards for…Read More
The laws of Louisiana specifically consider when an employer may be held responsible for the acts of an employee driver in a personal injury lawsuit. This is referred to as having “vicarious liability” for the employee. Three elements must be shown to impose vicarious liability on the employer. First, there must be an “employment relationship.” Whether an employment relationship exists is usually determined by examining the amount of control the employer exercised over the employee’s work at the time of the injury. Second, it must be determined whether the employee’s negligent acts were committed within the course and scope of employment. When deciding this issue, courts examine whether the employee’s conduct was so closely connected in time, place, and purpose to his work duties that it should be treated as a risk attributable to the employer’s business. When an employee acts out of purely personal considerations that are outside the…Read More
When a New Orleans family suffers the loss of a family member due to the fault of another, a wrongful death lawsuit against the person responsible must be commenced within one year of the date of death. This lawsuit is brought by family members to recover damages suffered as a result of family members untimely death. Which family member(s) may pursue a claim depends on the structure of the family. Louisiana Civil Code section 2315.2 provides the following breakdown of who may pursue a wrongful death action: The surviving spouse and child or children of the deceased, or either the spouse or the child or children; The surviving father and mother of the deceased, or either of them if there is no spouse or child surviving; The surviving brothers and sisters of the deceased, or any of them, if there is no spouse, child or parent surviving; and The surviving grandfathers…Read More
The existence of a safer version of a dangerous product can help when pursuing a lawsuit. When a dangerous product injures someone, there are several different grounds that a New Orleans personal injury attorney may explore in regard to bringing a lawsuit. One of these is whether the product was unreasonably dangerous in its design. When pursuing this claim, Louisiana law sets forth several specific facts that the plaintiff must prove. First, the plaintiff must prove that at the time it was manufactured, there was an alternative design for the product in existence that would have prevented the injury. If the safer design is a newer development, however, it will not support a claim that a product is unreasonably dangerous in its design. A safer version must have existed when the product that caused the injury was manufactured. Second, the plaintiff must prove that the likelihood of the product causing injury…Read More
Some visitors to New Orleans may mistakenly think that we have relaxed regulations regarding underage drinking. Like the rest of Louisiana, the drinking age here is twenty-one, and it is illegal to serve alcohol to minors. Moreover, if an intoxicated minor causes an injury to someone, the party who provided the alcohol may be liable. This is different than the rules that apply when an intoxicated adult causes a personal injury. For adults, Louisiana Revised Statute 9:2800.1 limits the liability of those who sold, served or furnished the alcohol. It also provides similar immunity to a social host for injuries occurring off-premises as a result of someone’s intoxication. These same rules, however, do not necessarily apply to selling or serving alcohol to minors. In fact, portions of this statute are expressly limited to individuals of legal age, and the Louisiana Supreme Court has specifically held that it does not protect…Read More
When a personal injury occurs in New Orleans, the injured person has a duty to take reasonable steps to minimize the consequences of that injury. Mitigation of damages is the legal term used to describe this obligation. If an injured person does not take appropriate steps to mitigate damages, the amount he or she is awarded in a personal injury lawsuit may be reduced. If a defendant argues that the injured person has failed to mitigate damages, the burden is on that defendant to prove it. Whether the plaintiff has used reasonable care is analyzed by the judge or jury based on the specific circumstances surrounding the case. Factors that may be considered include the length of time the plaintiff waited to seek treatment, action, knowledge, opportunity, potential exposure to further loss and the expense required to avoid a reasonably foreseeable loss. If you have suffered a personal injury, you…Read More
In most New Orleans personal injury cases, the injured person does not rely solely on a case’s outcome to pay for expenses from the injuries. It is common for other individuals or organizations to pay some of the expenses for the injuries claimed in a personal injury lawsuit. These other parties are called collateral sources. Examples of collateral sources include health insurers, an employer who continues to pay lost wages, or even a family member who pays medical bills. The general rule under Louisiana law is that payments made by collateral sources do not reduce the victim’s recovery in a personal injury lawsuit. For example, if the victim’s employer pays for some medical expenses, the victim may still pursue medical expenses in the lawsuit. There are, however, exceptions to this rule based on the specific facts surrounding a payment. These exceptions include whether the plaintiff provided some consideration, such as…Read More
As experienced New Orleans personal injury attorneys, we have dealt with the consequences of many terrible accidents involving large trucks. While these accidents have a variety of causes, a study by the National Transportation Safety Board has found that driver fatigue is a factor in 30 to 40 percent of large truck accidents. Because of the dangers of truck driver fatigue, the federal government regulates not only the number of hours a truck driver may spend on the road, but also how long they may remain on duty when not driving. For example, truck drivers are not supposed to spend more than eleven hours driving after having completed ten consecutive hours off duty. Truck drivers are required to document their time spent driving, their time off duty and hours of sleep in a logbook. If the truck driver has kept an accurate logbook as required by law, it may help…Read More
When a person injured by a dangerous product wants to pursue compensation, one issue most New Orleans personal injury attorneys will examine is any warnings the manufacturer provided regarding the product’s use. If a manufacturer has not provided adequate warning of the potential danger of a product, the product may be found unreasonably dangerous based on this lack of warning. Whether a manufacturer is required to provide a warning depends on the nature of the product. When a manufacturer learns – or with reasonable diligence should have learned – that the product has a dangerous characteristic, there is a general duty to provide a warning of that danger to anyone who uses or handles the product. However, there are exceptions to this rule. No warning is necessary when the user knew – or reasonably could be expected to know –about the product’s dangerous characteristic. A warning also is not required when…Read More
Most of New Orleans’ health care providers are competent and hardworking professionals. This does not mean, however, that there are not subpar providers or occasions when the treatment provided to a patient falls below the acceptable standard of care for medical providers. When this happens, the patient may be able to pursue a medical malpractice claim. The medical treatment provided by a health care provider is required to meet the appropriate standard of care. Not every case in which treatment leads to a bad outcome or unexpected result constitutes medical malpractice — there must be a breach of the standard of care. In general, medical care providers must provide the care ordinarily possessed and exercised by members of their profession who are in good standing in the community. In cases where treatment involves issues particular to a specific medical specialty, the standard of care required is that which is ordinarily…Read More
