attorney

Gym-mat death spawns two million-dollar lawsuits, so far

February 26, 2015 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “What exactly is a wrongful death claim?”

The death of a Georgia teen found in a rolled-up high school gym mat two years ago has spawned both a $100-million wrongful-death lawsuit and a $1 million defamation countersuit by three defendants in the wrongful-death action.

Kenneth and Jacquelyn Johnson filed the wrongful death suit against thirty-eight defendants after their 17-year-old son, Kendrick Johnson, was found dead in a rolled-up gym mat at his Valdosta, Georgia high school in January 2013. Johnson was found upside-down in the matt, which was rolled up and stacked vertically, in what officials have insisted was a freak accident, according to the Valdosta Daily Times.

In the lawsuit, the Johnsons suggest that Federal Bureau of Investigations agent Rick Bell and his two sons—Brian and Branden—were responsible for Kendrick Johnson’s death.

The Johnsons filed suit in Superior Court in DeKalb County, Georgia near the second anniversary of their son’s death. In their lawsuit, they alleged that the Bell brothers sought revenge against Kendrick after one of the boys fought with him. The Johnsons alleged that the boys’ father, Rick, commanded them to assault Kendrick Johnson.

Dismissal of $2.5 million lawsuit upheld because filing fee was two-dollars short

February 12, 2015 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “How can an attorney help me with my Divorce or Separation in North Carolina?”

A parcel placed in the mail is just that: placed. Placement in a mailbox does not guaranty delivery.

Of course, most—maybe all—postal services provide a “guaranteed” service. Ask any lawyer the meaning of “guaranty,” however, and one is liable to hear a list of hypotheticals in which the guaranty is broken. Things get lost in the mail. It does not happen often, but it happens.

We live in a society in which people and businesses have the ability to engage in the near-instantaneous exchange of communications and documents.

The law is catching up. Many county Registers of Deeds in North Carolina now accept online submission of deeds and other legal documents. Clerk’s offices in the state’s judicial circuits are moving in that direction. Much of appellate and federal-court filings are made online.

Most lawsuits, however, are still filed in person, whether by litigant, by attorney, by paralegal, clerk, or courier. And some holdouts still rely on the good old mail service.

North Carolina law would discriminate against Richard Sherman’s son

February 3, 2015 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “Are the laws or rules applying to a wrongful death claim different from a personal injury not involving death?”

If he knew any better, Seattle Seahawks star Richard Sherman’s son would be praying his dad never gets traded to the Carolina Panthers.Sherman’s son Rayden, born Feb. 5, does not know any better. He could not know—nor could any infant—that in North Carolina, unless his father takes certain legal steps to “legitimate” him, he cannot inherit from him.

Sherman is not married to Rayden’s mother, Ashley Moss. Media reports refer to Moss as Sherman’s “girlfriend.”

North Carolina law used to call Sherman’s son a “bastard.” That term was replaced by “illegitimate,” a term employed until 2013, when the legislature removed “illegitimate” from the general statutes, replacing the same with the phrase “child born out of wedlock.”

Injury lawyers voice concerns over specter of non-lawyer ownership of law firms

January 29, 2015 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “Should I trust the insurance adjuster?”

The American Bar Association—prodded by American businesses like Legal Zoom, Inc.—is studying the issue of non-lawyer ownership of law firms.

In the United States, lawyers are generally prohibited from “creating, owning or managing law firms” with non lawyers. Multidisciplinary practices—or those practices that combine the provision of legal services with non-legal services—are greatly restricted.

This is not the case in the United Kingdom, the fount from which the United States’ Common-Law legal tradition sprang. In the United Kingdom, restrictions of non-lawyer ownership interests in law firms have largely been eliminated, leading to the development of so-called “alternative business structures.”

The United Kingdom lifted its restrictions on alternative business structures in 2007. Since then, by most accounts, it has encouraged the establishment of alternative business structures for largely the same reason that they are prohibited in the United States: for the benefit of clients.

The 2007 Legal Services Act—which lifted the prohibition against alternative business structures—was passed after a study of the legal industry in the United Kingdom revealed a glut of unmet but nonetheless needed legal services. The new Act focused on the functions of advocates as opposed to the identity of law-firm owners, restricting the performance of certain activities to authorized lawyers. Those activities include the right to appear as an advocate in court, to certify documents and transactions, to probate estates, administer oaths, cause the consummation of a transfer of real property and to conduct litigation.

Definition of “humiliation” means no coverage under insurance policy for company

January 8, 2015 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “The insurance adjuster is saying I am partially negligent what does that mean?”

The owner of an Ohio dance franchise will have to defend against a lawsuit brought by angry customers on its own after its insurer successfully denied coverage under two insurance policies.

Peggy and Rick Lavinsky prepaid Christopher Cloud and his Fred Astaire Dance Studio a whopping $500,000 for ballroom dancing lessons, coaching, dance camps and other services. In December 2010, after Cloud abruptly closed the studio without providing notice to students, the Lavinskys sued, asserting claims under Ohio’s consumer protection laws and alleging fraud and negligent infliction of emotional distress.

In their lawsuit, the Lavinskys named Fred Astaire Dance System in Ohio, G & K Management Services, Inc., G & K’s president Guy Schiavone, and In Time LLC as defendants. G & K owned the Fred Astaire Dance System franchise. Cloud, who ran his own dance studio—In Time—became a Fred Astaire franchisee in 1990.

G & K and Schiavone were the named insureds under an insurance policy issued by Auto-Owners Insurance Company, and they were also “additional insureds” under an Auto-Owners policy issued to In Time.

When Auto-Owners told G & K that it would not defend the company against the Lavinskys’ claims, G & K brought an action against Auto-Owners seeking a declaration that the insurance company had a duty to defend G & K in the Lavinskys’ lawsuit.

“Parked” car accidents illustrate danger of being run over by your own car

January 6, 2015 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “What if the accident was my fault?”

A spate of recent tragic incidents shows the dangers posed by motor vehicles do not end when we park them—or when we think we have parked them.

A tragic accident involving a “parked” vehicle took the life of a well-known New York realtor this past Saturday.

Realtor Jennifer Feuerman died on Saturday evening after she got out of her 2012 Mercedes Benz outside a house she had listed on Bowditch Lane in Center Moriches. Center Moriches is on Long Island, to the east of New York City.

Feuerman evidently left the vehicle running and forgot to shift the transmission to “Park.” The vehicle backed over Feuerman and pinned her under the driver’s side door, Suffolk County police reported. Feuerman, aged 50, was pronounced dead at the scene. Police impounded the Mercedes in order to conduct a safety inspection.

Also on Saturday, a 79-year-old woman in City, Idaho became trapped under her own car when it slid backward as she tried to get out. A 17-year-old boy who saw the incident tried to assist the woman, but police said the car pushed both the boy and the woman across the road and over an embankment, pinning them both under the driver’s side door. The woman suffered significant injuries, while the boy was able to free himself and summon help.

Lawyer thinks self-driving cars may be a bust for personal injury attorneys

January 1, 2015 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question ” Is a tractor-trailer accident the same as an automobile accident?”

Motor vehicles and the virtually unfettered freedom of movement throughout the United States they have afforded have become staples of American life over the past century.

Those staples are not likely to disappear anytime soon, but if technology giant Google, Inc. has its way, the manner in which many people move around the country in motor vehicles may be in for a drastic change.

The company recently announced that it had developed a “fully functional” prototype of a self-driving car. It is now seeking corporate partners in the automobile industry to bring self-driving cars to market within the next five years.

New York personal injury lawyer Eric Turkewitz said the self-driving cars will have the ability to “see the other cars/pedestrians and slow down or stop despite the driver being lost in thought elsewhere. Or drunk. Or asleep…” As Turkewitz notes, the self-driving car software automatically slows or stops the car when it senses an impending collision. Turkewitz thinks the software may lessen or eliminate crashes caused by human error. As a consequence, the number of crashes will be reduced and, Turkewitz speculated, less people will die or be injured in car crashes each year. That will lower insurance premiums for drivers and may reduce the number of personal injury lawsuits brought by claimants injured in car crashes. That would mean, in theory, less work for personal injury attorneys.

Maryland’s first female Bishop accused of striking cyclist, leaving him to die on road

December 30, 2014 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “What if a loved one dies from the injuries sustained in a serious accident while the case is pending?”

The State of Maryland’s first-ever ordained female Episcopal Bishop is in the news over the holidays for all the wrong reasons.Heather Elizabeth Cook is the second-most-powerful officer in the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland. The diocese confirmed on Sunday that Cook was behind the wheel of a Subaru that sustained damage in a “massive impact” with 41-year-old custom bicycle builder Tom Palermo. Palermo was riding a bicycle when Cook’s vehicle collided with him.

Palermo was killed in the accident. Cook initially fled the scene, but returned about twenty minutes later to take responsibility for the accident. The diocese insisted that since Cook returned to the scene, the accident was not a “hit-and-run.”

Lora Peters, a cyclist who encountered Palermo after the crash, said Palermo was still alive when she found him. Peters said Cook may have been able to help Palermo or to call for help if she had remained on the scene. A local biking advocacy group, Bikemore, released a statement alleging that “the driver of the car involved initially fled the scene, leaving Tom to die on the street.”

Cook has not released any public statements about the accident, however the Episcopal Diocese has revealed that she has been suspended from her post because she may be facing criminal charges related to the accident.

Lame-duck Illinois legislature gives asbestos attorneys, claimants early holiday gift

December 25, 2014 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “What can you sue for in a personal injury case?”

Madison County, Illinois accounts for .08-percent of the nation’s population, but the tiny county just east of the Mississippi River accounts for 25-percent of asbestos lawsuits in the United States.

Critics allege that personal injury attorneys have had “cozy relationships with Madison County judges,” which has turned Illinois into “a haven for frivolous lawsuits.”

The Madison Record has reported that 90-percent of plaintiffs who file asbestos-related lawsuits in Madison County do not live or work in the county. On a recent day, 181 asbestos-related lawsuits were set for trial. Only one of the plaintiffs named in the lawsuits lived in Madison County.

The Record reports that “in one memorable instance,” a judge was given $30,000 in campaign funds by asbestos law firms a few days after the judge gave the firms coveted trial dates for upcoming court sessions.

Personal injury lawyers and their allies stepped up their game during the Illinois legislature’s recent fall “veto session,” a session controlled by a lame-duck legislature taking action on vetoes issued by a lame-duck Governor. Governor-elect Bruce Rauner has promised to make lawsuit reform a top priority when he takes office next year.

Seventh Circuit reverses dismissal of ladder lawsuit that caused grievous penis injury

December 23, 2014 | AS Personal Injury Lawyers

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “Can I wait a few months to pursue a personal injury claim?”

Six years ago, Kurt Stuhlmacher had just begun to put together rafters on the roof a cabin he was building for his parents. He later testified—in a lawsuit he brought against Home Depot and Tricam Industries—that the ladder he was standing on “just, like, fell out—fell this way out from underneath me to the left.”

Stuhlmacher could not see whether the ladder split before or after his fall, because he tried to hold onto the rafter as it gave way beneath him. That distinction—when the ladder split—ended up breaking Stuhlmacher’s case.

His expert—Dr. Thomas Conry, who has a doctorate in mechanical engineering—testified that the ladder’s splitting was “underway” at the time of Stuhlmacher’s fall, but he could not tell whether the ladder split before, at the same time or a fraction-of-a-second after the fall. Dr. Conry concluded that the ladder’s “material had that crack in it and the bracket under the load was prying that rivet through.”

Magistrate Judge Andrew P. Rodovich struck Dr. Conry’s testimony, finding that the doctor’s explanation of the ladder’s failure could not be reconciled with Stuhlmacher’s testimony that the ladder suddenly shot out beneath him to the left. Without Dr. Conry’s testimony, Stuhlmacher’s case lacked crucial evidence that Home Depot and Tricam—Tricam was the ladder’s manufacturer—caused Stuhlmacher’s injuries.