PERSONAL INJURY-AUTO ACCIDENTS, SLIP AND FALL CASES, ETC.

If you have been injured in any kind of accident, and that accident is someone else's fault, you may be entitled to compensation for that injury. It is important that you contact an attorney as soon as possible. Information needs to be gathered quickly, particularly from people who may be witnesses. They need to be interviewed while the facts of the case are still fresh in their minds. Copies of memorandums following those interviews should be completed, so they can be used to refresh their recollection if the case has to go to trial.

Generally, accident or personal injury cases are handled by the attorney on a contingent fee basis. The attorney collects a fee only if the injured party collects damages. Usually this is a percentage of the total recovery.

Care should be taken when talking with an insurance adjustor. I suggest that in any case where you expect damages, you should talk to an attorney before you talk to an adjustor. The adjustor for an insurance company has one basic purpose: to dispose of the case as cheaply as possible. Even though he may offer you a sum of money now, you may be giving up large sums of money later, because to get the sums of money now, you have to sign a release, releasing the individual and the insurance company from any further liability.

I recently had a case in which an insurance adjustor had offered my client approximately $4,000.00. We rejected that offer and filed suit. The final outcome was an award to my client of approximately $160,000.00. While this may not be true for you, it is proof that you should be very careful when dealing with insurance adjustors.

We were able to collect damages in that case because I met with my client right after the accident. Statements were obtained from witnesses shortly thereafter. I had her keep a diary of the pain she suffered, her expenses, and loss of time from work.

A diary can be important because we tend to forget what is painful. The mind does not like to remember suffering and it tends to make recollections fuzzy. It is important to remember that at 3:30 a.m. on July 9, you woke up with severe pain, could not sleep, continued in pain, only got in touch with your doctor at 10:30 the next morning, so your spouse could get you pain killers, which did not work particularly well anyway. With a diary, your memory can be jogged and you can be specific.

Keep track of your out-of -pocket medical expenses. Not only should you be reimbursed for them, it is good for showing the amount of medicine you were taking and the amount of pain you were forced to endure.

If you have any further questions on this, please contact me at 1-800-980-3226 or e-mail me at thomasbissell@core.com.

The following is a discussion of several areas of law in personal injury. The laws involving automobile accidents are not necessarily the same as the slip and falls, dog bites, and other personal injuries. Auto accident cases have their own set of rules.

1. Automobile accidents. Michigan is a "no-fault" jurisdiction for automobile accidents. The laws provide that one can recover only for injuries that are serious. By serious, the law identifies them as injuries that cause:

   1. Serious impairment of body function.
   2. Disfigurement.
   3. Death.

   Both disfigurement and death are pretty much self-explanatory. Let me therefore discuss "serious impairment of body function." When the legislature passed no-fault legislation, there was great debate over what is a serious impairment of body function. The legislature, in passing that law, gave us no definitions or guidelines as to what that was. There have been many attempts in which to define what serious impairment is and what one must do to cross a certain threshold so that an injury is considered a serious impairment.

   In 1995, the legislature said that "an objectively manifested impairment of an important bodily function which affects the person's general ability to lead his or her normal life" constitutes serious impairment.

   It is up to your attorney to be able to persuade the judge on the concept that your injury is in fact serious.

2. Slip and fall. If you are injured in a slip and fall case and you talk to an adjustor, the chances are the adjustor will tell you that your case is not worth very much money. The case I described at the beginning of this article was in fact a slip and fall case. That was the case that went from $4,000 to $160,000.00.

   The argument that the adjustors use is that when you slip and you fall, the cause of the injury ( i.e., an icy parking lot, a ditch that you should have known about, etc.) are "open and obvious." hazards. Issues surrounding what is open and obvious are now before the Michigan Supreme Court.

   Certainly, if someone slips and falls by directly walking into harm's way when it could have been easily avoided, that would constitute a strong defense for the insurance company. However, let us assume that you had to get to your car and the only way to get there was to go over a large bank of snow, put there by a snow plow, and you could either get to your car by going over the snow bank or you could starve. The snow bank is open and it is obvious, but on the other hand, what is a person to do in that situation? Or, in a poorly lit parking lot, a pot hole will not be obvious, open or not. In both instances contacting an attorney will give him an opportunity to get a photographer out to take pictures and measurements and let your attorney have a chance to view the area before the property owner takes corrective measures. You should be aware that the law in this area is changing and will change again within the next few months. If you have such an injury, you should contact an attorney and direct him to carefully follow what is currently happening in the Michigan Supreme Court.

3. Dog bites. A dog is entitled to one bite. Right? Wrong!

   An owner is responsible for his dog and, unless the dog was provoked, the owner should be contacting his homeowner's insurance carrier to speak with your attorney.

   Oftentimes, children are the victims of a dog bite. They should be interviewed immediately. A diary should be set up for them in which a parent records the child's pain, medical bills, time lost from school, the parent's loss of time from work to care for the child, the child's reactions to other dogs, and many other important facts.

   Dog bites are one of the clearest areas of personal injury law. It is clear that if you are bitten by a dog, and if you are injured, you are entitled to recovery.

   Again this is an area where you have to be very careful of insurance adjustors. If you have been bitten, you should immediately contact an attorney.

   If you have any questions on this, please phone me at 1-800-980-0507 or e-mail me.
   
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