Charlotte Personal Injury Lawyer Matt Arnold answers the question “What if the accident was my fault?”
Lawyers representing the victims of a fatal crash on I-85 near Chapel Hill have added two businesses as named defendants to their lawsuit. The crash occurred when a 20-year-old UNC student, Chandler Kania, collided head on with a vehicle on I-85 while traveling in the wrong direction on the interstate. The crash occurred at 3:00 a.m., killing three and leaving a nine-year-old girl as the only survivor in the victims’ car.
Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “What can you sue for in a personal injury case?”
A recent crash involving the new Charlotte trolley system illustrates an important but often misunderstood aspect of North Carolina personal injury law. Though many people assume that when you’ve been injured in an accident caused by someone else you can simply sue to receive compensation for your damages, regardless of whether you as the victim may be somewhat responsible for the accident. In North Carolina, the personal injury laws make it impossible for a victim to sue the person that caused the harm if the victim is found to be at fault in any way for the accident.
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?”
The estate of a Michigan man who suffered a fatal heart attack after being frightened to death when he ran into the back of a truck in Dearborn, Michigan in 2008 has settled a lawsuit brought against the trucking company that owned the truck for $300,000.
Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “What exactly is a wrongful death claim?”
Woman causes husband’s death, sues herself for negligence, wins, then pays herself the money. If one believes the headline, it is true. A closer look reveals the headline is only partially true.
On December 27, 2011, Barbara Bagley lost control of the vehicle she was driving in a Nevada desert and struck a sagebrush, causing her car to flip over. Her husband, who was a passenger in the vehicle, passed away nearly two weeks later as a result of injuries sustained in the crash.
Bagley became the personal representative of her late husband’s estate, meaning she is the person empowered by law to collect her late husband’s assets, pay claims of his creditors, and distribute proceeds of the estate to heirs.
Part of the assets of an estate—depending on the state in which one resides—are proceeds from claims that were filed or may have been filed before or after a person’s death.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?”
If you have imbibed, over the holidays, a little too much of the alcohol-spiked eggnog, you should think twice before handing the keys over to your teenage child or relative to run out for supplies or snacks.
One Pennsylvania father has learned that the hard way.
Michael Ware initially told investigators that his 15-year-old daughter had taken his Sports-Utility Vehicle out for a drive without his permission. Authorities later learned, however, that Mr. Ware allowed his daughter—who did not have a driver’s license at the time—to drive his 2001 Chevrolet Suburban to a nearby barbecue restaurant.
Ware even walked his daughter and her three friends out to the car and asked them to bring him back a sandwich as they pulled away. A short time later, the daughter wrecked the Suburban, killing friends Cullen Keffer, Shamus Digney and Ryan Lesher. All three boys were just fifteen-years-old.
A witness to the accident said she could hear the boys crying out for the daughter to slow down before speeding around a sharp curve. The vehicle flipped, ejecting two boys from the vehicle and pinning a third beneath it. One of the boys passed away on the scene; two more passed away at a nearby hospital.
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?”
Knowing what a “reasonable person” would have done in the circumstances of your personal injury case may determine whether you receive the compensation you deserve.
Of course, anyone who has been injured in an accident or as a result of someone’s intentional conduct believes one is entitled to compensation—a lot of compensation.
A lawyer may excuse potential clients for having unreasonable expectations. The lawyer sees and hears all the same online, television and radio advertisements exhorting people to call such-and-such law firm because, they are told “You may be entitled to significant compensation.”
Lawyers frequently battle over words and their meaning, and “significant compensation” could mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people.
In any case—and I mean any personal injury case—what does it take to get to there from here? In practical terms, how does an injured person wrest compensation out of the person or persons who caused one’s injury?
Charlotte Injury Lawyers Blog
