Our Michigan Personal Injury Lawyers Welcome You to Contact Us for a Free Consultation. Our Michigan Auto Accident Motorcycle and Big Rig Truck Accident Lawyers, Medical Malpractice Attorneys, Premises Liability Lawyer, Product Liability and Drug Defect Attorney, Elder Abuse Lawyer and Food Poisoning Attorneys Will Consider Representing Those Seriously Injured in Michigan from Metro Detroit, the Tri-County Area, Detroit, Warren and Livonia, from Farmington Hills to Sterling Heights, Troy, Dearborn, Westland and Ann Arbor, from Saginaw, Grand Rapids, Flint, Lansing, Southfield and Clinton.
Our Michigan personal injury lawyers recommend our "Practice Areas" pages listed in the upper left aspect of this page for our more comprehensive informational discussion of the legal theories and strategies that our Michigan auto and motorcycle accident lawyers, big rig truck accident attorneys, product liability lawyers, medical malpractice attorneys, premises liability, food poisoning and elder abuse lawyers consider important to hold liable those who, through their negligence or intentional misconduct or statutory violations have caused our client's serious or catastrophic injuries. Our Michigan personal injury lawyers will consider representing those who have suffered serious injury as the result of auto accidents, defective products, medical malpractice, falls due to defects or failures to maintain commercial, residential or public property, food poisoning, or elder abuse throughout the state of Michigan from Cooper Harbor to Kalamazoo, in Metro Detroit, the Tri-County Area, Detroit, Warren and Livonia, Farmington Hills, Sterling Heights, Troy, Dearborn, Westland and Ann Arbor, Saginaw, Grand Rapids, Flint, Lansing and Southfield to Clinton. Our Michigan attorneys are here to serve you. Our Michigan personal injury lawyers offer free consultations. You may submit the "Contact" form and one of our Michigan attorneys experienced in the relevant practice area and experienced also as trial lawyers representing those who have suffered serious or catastrophic injuries, will contact you to discuss your case, offer our preliminary case evaluation and recommendations. Our philosophy is that the potential client should compare the credentials of all lawyers whom he would consider to represent him, and our Michigan personal injury attorneys welcome you to inquire about ours.
Below our Michigan attorneys will only briefly discuss the specific subject matters of our practice and our strategies commonly used in the preparation and presentation of our cases, given that we provide our more comprehensive discussion on the "Practice Areas" pages. As our Michigan trial lawyers consider it important in serious and catastrophic injury cases across our practice areas, we recommend also our "Serious Injury Lawyers" page, because as "simple" as the liability may seem in any particular auto accident case, where the other driver may have turned left from the opposite direction into the client's right of way; or the medical malpractice case, in which the surgeon closes leaves a sponge behind resulting in an abdominal infection resulting in serious organ damage; or the product liability case in which the infant's toy is designed with detachable parts that are mouthed and become caught in the infant's windpipe resulting in brain damage; or the premises liability case in which the public entity leaves a two foot deep hole in the sidewalk without erecting warning barriers; or in a food poisoning case in which food processing company is found by the FDA and CDC to have violated statutory regulations in its contamination of a food product distributed throughout the country; or in the elder abuse case, where the retirement home or senior assisted living center or nursing home employee has committed malicious physical or psychological abuse, beating, humiliating or isolating the senior loved one, ALL SERIOUS INJURY LITIGATION IS COMPLEX, recommending sophisticated Michigan trial lawyers experienced in prosecuting serious injury litigation.
Our Michigan Serious Injury Trial Lawyers Discuss Preparing The Seriously Injured Client's Evidence of General and Special Economic Damages in Auto Accident, Medical Malpractice, Product Liability, Food Poisoning, Premises Liability and Elder Abuse Lawsuits.
Because the complex subject of preparing and presenting the client's general damages and economic damages cuts across all of our practice areas, our serious injury Michigan trial lawyers will discuss briefly here the definitions of the elements of recoverable damages in serious injury lawsuits, and the teams of experts the sophisticated Michigan trial lawyer will commonly assemble to maximize the potential that his client will recover the full measure of his general damages and special economic damages. Again, for a more complete discussion of the complexities of the Michigan trial lawyer's tasks in assembling the essential evidence to demonstrate the full measure of the client's damages, we recommend our "Serious Injury Lawyers" page.
Many Michigan personal injury lawyers will describe "general damages" as "pain and suffering." However, out serious injury Michigan trial attorneys will often find that our client's consider the greatest element of general damages resulting from their injury to be their "loss of enjoyment of life." And in order to demonstrate "loss of enjoyment of life damages" our Michigan trial lawyers will commonly first engage the medical experts in the number of specialties necessary to define the full nature and extent of the client's injury, and then interview the client, his friends and family, and gather the photographs and home to arrive at a tapestry of available testimony and physical evidence depicting all of the big and small activities that the client most enjoyed prior to his injury that he can no longer enjoy. Against that background, the Michigan serious injury trial lawyer will juxtapose a professionally produced "Day in the Life" film depicting the client courageously overcoming all of the big and small hurdles he confronts in his daily life. It is our serious injury Michigan trial lawyers' perspective in most cases that portraying the courage of the client often will engender the greatest empathy and admiration in the settlement judge and jury, which we estimate will often be more likely to translate into superior general damage awards.
Special economic damages include the client's past and future medical expenses, and his past and future earnings losses. Again it is beyond the scope of this page for our Michigan trial lawyers to repeat our discussion on the "Serious Injury Lawyers" page, however, to provide a hint at the complexity of presenting future medical expenses and future loss earnings, we will discuss here just briefly the teams of experts that our Michigan serious injury trial lawyers will engage as the backbone of their evidentiary preparation.
In demonstrating future medical expenses in the serious injury case, the sophisticated Michigan trial lawyer will first engage the medical experts essential to describe the general outline of the medical care and treatment the client will require over the course of his remaining life expectancy. The next expert the Michigan trial lawyer will require is a "life care planner" who will go back to the medical experts time and time again to flesh out all the big and small medical expenses the client will likely be required to incur, year by year, over the course of his estimated remaining life, from future hospitalizations and surgeries, to full or part time nursing care or assisted living, to replacement prostheses, wheel chairs and modified vehicles, to the medical sundries that will be required over his lifetime. The life care planner will then consult trade journals and contact manufacturers to arrive at the current costs of those items and will prepare a "life care plan" accounting for all. The serious injury Michigan trial lawyer is involved throughout the process, and then, when the life care plan is complete, he will present it to a forensic economist, whose responsibility will be to first increase the amounts of all the items of medical care year to year using government statistics on the rapidly rising costs of medical care, and then he will discount the total to present cash value, using historical inflation statistics.
In establishing the client's future earnings losses, again the serious injury Michigan trial lawyer will require a team of experts, again beginning with the medical experts to fully define the nature and extent of the client's disabilities. We must take the simplest case as the example here, because some cases can be extremely complex, as in the case of the owner operator of a business. Our Michigan trial lawyers will assume for purposes of this discussion that the client was an hourly wage earner, also hypothetically, with no opportunity for advancement. However, even in this "simplest" of cases, the Michigan trial lawyer will next need to engage a rehabilitation expert whose responsibilities begin with speaking to the medical experts and usually extensively with the client, he will also gather the client's education and employment records, and consult trade journals, including to compare the narrowing of the breadth of trades or professions the client would have had available to him before the injury, and those, if any, that he would have for gainful employment after the injury. His responsibilities, as provided by law and the jury instructions that the Judge will give upon the trial, will be to arrive at the client's "net" earnings losses. The rehabilitation expert will prepare a report setting forth the earnings losses the client will suffer year by year over what would have been the client's pre-injury work-life expectancy, which can differ from his post-injury work-life expectancy. The Michigan serious injury trial lawyer will need then again to engage a forensic economist to increase the amounts of lost earnings year by year by application of government wage growth statistics for the trades or professions, and then will discount the total to present cash value.
The foregoing actually underestimates the complexity of the Michigan trial lawyer's tasks in preparing and presenting the client's general damages and special economic damages, but hopefully the reader will appreciate that even as his contemplated lawsuit might appear "simple" in its liability aspects, indeed every serious injury case is complex, recommending sophisticated Michigan trial attorneys experienced in serious injury litigation.
Our serious injury Michigan trial attorneys will consider serious and catastrophic injury cases involving auto accidents, motorcycle and big rig truck accidents, product liability, medical malpractice, premises liability, food poisoning and elder abuse, throughout the state of Michigan; our serious injury trial lawyers will consider representing potential clients in Metro Detroit, the Tri-County Area, Detroit, Warren and Livonia, from Farmington Hills to Sterling Heights, Troy, Dearborn, Westland and Ann Arbor, from Saginaw, Grand Rapids, Flint, Lansing and Southfield to Clinton, from Cooper Harbor to Kalamazoo.
Our serious injury Michigan trial lawyers provide free consultations. If you submit the "Contact" form one of our trial lawyers qualified in the particular practice area relevant to your case and also experienced in the preparation and trial of serious and catastrophic injury lawsuits will call you to discuss your case, and will provide our preliminary case evaluation and initial recommendations. We believe that potential litigants should compare the credentials of all lawyers whom they would consider to represent them, and our serious injury trial lawyers welcome you to ask about ours.
Our Michigan Auto Accident Lawyers, Motorcycle Accident Attorneys & Big Rig Truck Accident Lawyers Represent those Seriously Injured in Accidents Throughout the State of Michigan, in in Metro Detroit, the Tri-County Area, Detroit, Warren and Livonia, from Farmington Hills to Sterling Heights, Troy, Dearborn, Westland and Ann Arbor, from Saginaw, Grand Rapids, Flint, Lansing and Southfield to Clinton and Kalamazoo
On Michigan auto accident lawyers refer the reader to our Auto Accident Attorneys page found on the top of our "Practice Areas" menu where we discuss auto accident litigation generally, including the serious injuries that are commonly sustained in car, motorcycle and big rig truck accidents, and the theories of action available, from negligence to violations of any of the complex matrix of federal and state law governing the operation of large commercial trucks and big rigs. Our Michigan auto accident lawyers would refer the reader to our "Motorcycle Accident Lawyers" page and "Big Rig Truck Accident Lawyers" page which you can locate by putting your cursor over "Auto Accident Lawyers" in the practice areas menu. On those pages our auto accident, motorcycle accident, and big rig truck accident lawyers discuss the unique aspects of single track physics on the motorcycle accident lawyers page, and the use of theories of "negligent entrustment" and "negligent supervision" to establish the liability of the trucking company or shipper which has attempted to insulate itself from liability by hiring the trucker as an independent contractor.
Our Michigan auto accident lawyers will defer the reader to those discussions on the particular auto, motorcycle and big rig truck accident lawyers pages, but will here discuss the very serious problem that commonly arises in all serious accident cases across the board, to wit, the "collectability" problem.
What our Michigan accident lawyers actually consider more a challenge than a problem, an opportunity to draw on our training and experience, our creativity and out advocacy, arises in almost all serious and catastrophic injury auto, motorcycle and big rig truck accident cases, where the client's general and special damages may fairly be measured in the millions of dollars, but the other driver may have carried only the statutory minimum or minimal liability coverage. Even interstate big rig truck drivers are only required by federal law to carry $750,000 in liability coverage, and rarely do the big rig truck drivers carry more than $1,000,000 in coverage.
So the Michigan auto and motorcycle accident lawyers, first, must use their investigative skills and often engage experts, such as accident reconstruction experts, mechanics, auto product experts or others in the particular case to identify a "deep pocket" third party defendant properly independently liable to pay the client's full measure of his general and special economic damages. And then often the way the serious injury Michigan auto accident lawyer will overcome the collectability hurdle is by developing evidence of the "vicarious liability" of the more well insured defendant, such as the driver's employer.
In the top left column of this page a Law Group motorcycle accident lawyer discusses a case in which his client lost his lower leg in an accident. The driver of the other vehicle has a statutory minimum liability policy. The motorcycle accident lawyer established that at the time of the accident was on his way to a work site with tools in his trunk, sufficient to prove that the driver was operating his vehicle "in the course and scope of his employment," permitting the lawyer to name the employer as a defendant and recover for his client a multimillion dollar settlement.
On our "cell phone accident" page, our auto accident lawyers also discuss the potential use of the driver's cell phone records and creative interrogation of the driver to elicit testimony in some cases that the driver was involved in business related phone conversation while driving, also a potential way to establish that he was driving in the course and scope of his employment, as the means to sue and recover against the employer.
In big rig truck accident cases, very briefly, our Michigan large commercial truck and big rig truck accident lawyers have at their disposal a broad variety of potential ways to develop evidence to properly sue and recover against the well insured trucking company or shipper, despite their every effort to insulate themselves from liability, including by hiring their drivers as "independent contractors." Again, we will defer to the discussion on the "Big Rig Truck Accident Lawyers" page, however, our Michigan big rig truck accident attorneys are often able to use the federal and Michigan state laws and regulations governing trucking, and legal theories such as "negligent entrustment" and "negligent supervision" to properly sue the trucking company or shipper and recover the seriously injured client's full measure of his general and special economic damages.
Our Michigan auto accident lawyers, motorcycle attorneys and big rig truck accident lawyers will consider representing those who suffer serious and catastrophic injuries throughout the state of Michigan, in Metro Detroit, the Tri-County Area, Detroit, Warren and Livonia, from Farmington Hills to Sterling Heights, Troy, Dearborn, Westland and Ann Arbor, from Saginaw, Grand Rapids, Flint, Lansing and Southfield to Clinton and Kalamazoo.
Our Michigan auto accident lawyers invite you to consult us for a free consultation. If you submit the "Contact" form, one of our experienced serious injury car, motorcycle or big rig truck accident lawyers will call you to discuss your case, offer our preliminary case evaluation, and initial recommendations. We are here to serve you.
Our Michigan Premises Liability Lawyers Represent Clients Seriously Injured in Falls on Residential Commercial and Public Property Throughout the state of Michigan, in Metro Detroit, the Tri-County Area, Detroit, Warren, Livonia, Farmington Hills, Sterling Heights, Troy, Dearborn, Westland, Ann Arbor, Saginaw, Grand Rapids, Flint, Lansing, Southfield, Clinton and Kalamazoo.
Premises liability cases involve property defects or negligent maintenance of property which results in injury. Some times premises liability lawyers are referred to as "slip and fall lawyers" or "trip and fall attorneys." Our Michigan premises liability lawyers will consider representing those who have been seriously or catastrophically injured in falls on commercial, residential and public property. We will defer again to the more comprehensive discussion of premises liability litigation on our practice areas page devoted to the subject.
Often the liability of the commercial or residential property owner or public entity will be obvious, and in other cases it will require substantial investigation and expert testimony to establish the liability of the property owner, however, all serious and catastrophic injury premises liability cases are complex, recommending highly qualified premises liability attorneys who are also sophisticated and experienced in preparing the evidence of the client's general and special economic damages as discussed in the first section of this page and presenting the client's liability and damage case to settlement judges and juries.
Our Michigan premises liability lawyers will consider representing those who have suffered serious or catastrophic injuries as the result of falls on residential, commercial or public property throughout the state of Michigan, in Metro Detroit, the Tri-County Area, Detroit, Warren, Livonia, Farmington Hill, Sterling Heights, Troy, Dearborn, Westland, Ann Arbor, Saginaw, Grand Rapids, Flint, Lansing, Southfield, and Clinton. Our Michigan premises liability attorneys recognize the right of all clients to ask about the credentials of any and all lawyers whom they would consider to represent them, and our Michigan premises liability lawyers invite you to inquire of our credentials and experience.
We provide free consultations. Submit the "Contact" form and one of our qualified premises liability lawyers with experience also in preparing and presenting serious and catastrophic injury cases will contact you to discuss your case, provide our preliminary case evaluation and initial recommendations. We are here to serve you.
Our Michigan Medical Malpractice Lawyers Will Consider Representing Those Who Have Suffered the Serious Consequence of Physician Malpractice, Hospital Negligence or the Errors of Other Health Care Professionals, throughout the state of Michigan, in Metro Detroit, the Tri-County Area, Detroit, Warren, Livonia, Farmington Hill, Sterling Heights, Troy, Dearborn, Westland, Ann Arbor, Saginaw, Grand Rapids, Flint, Lansing, Southfield, and Clinton.
Medical malpractice cases are as varied as all the chapters in all the textbooks on all the specialties of medicine. The Michigan medical malpractice attorney must have enormous respect, even awe, for the extraordinary ingenuity that has raised the technology and standards of care of care in all our medical specialties, because this is where he finds the depth of his abhorrence for the failures of physicians to use the technology available to them and their failures to comply with the medical standards of care that lead them to harm their patients, after swearing first to do no harm and to use their skill and training to heal the sick.
Medical malpractice cases can vary from failures to diagnose their patient's disease, leading to its progression, to surgical errors, errors in selecting the appropriate methods of care and treatment. An example of a failure to diagnose case is discussed in the left column of this page under "Recent Jury Verdicts" a case where the patient presented to his internist with the most rare tumor in the human body. If you would like to see how that case was won, as a product of the testimony of stellar medical experts and the medical malpractice trial lawyers us of a medical syllogism involving hoof beats, horses and zebras, we welcome you to consider it also as an example of the utility of the medical malpractice lawyer's willingness to learn the sliver of medicine involved in every case better than the defendant physicians know the medicine, so that they can cross-examine them confident in their positions, and able to undermine the physician's efforts to obscure their culpability.
In many medical malpractice cases practical lawyers will recognize the possibility or even the likelihood that the medical opinions urged by both sides will be difficult for the jurors to understand. Many medical experts are wonderful at explaining in more simple terms their bases for concluding that the defendant physicians fell below the applicable medical standards of care; but the sophisticated Michigan medical malpractice lawyer will often conclude that assuring the best opportunity for success will be in the credentials contest between the medical experts testifying for the plaintiff and defendant physicians. If sometimes the jurors find the medicine difficult to understand, they will surely have the ability to distinguish which have the superior credentials. In another case described in the left column of the page, to take the example, one of our Law Group medical malpractice lawyers identifies the medical and scientific experts he designated to testify in one case, 20 medical experts who you will recognize as clearly most highly and relevantly qualified scientists and physicians in the world.
Our Michigan medical malpractice lawyers will consider representing potential clients who have suffered serious injury or serious progression of disease or other serious consequence of below standard treatment by physicians, hospitals and other health care providers, including also obstetrical malpractice and birth injury cases arising throughout Michigan, in Metro Detroit, the Tri-County Area, Detroit, Warren, Livonia, Farmington Hills, Sterling Heights, Troy, Dearborn, Westland, Ann Arbor, Saginaw, Grand Rapids, Flint, Lansing, Southfield, Clinton and Kalamazoo.
Our Michigan medical malpractice attorneys welcome you to contact us for a free consultation. If you will submit the "Contact" form, one of our experienced Michigan medical malpractice lawyers will call you to discuss your case, provide our preliminary case evaluation and initial recommendations. We recognize it as the client's right to inquire about the qualifications of any lawyer whom he would consider to represent him, and we invite you also to inquire about ours.
Our Michigan Product Liability Lawyers Will Consider Representing Those Seriously Injured as the Result of a Product Defect Throughout the State of Michigan from Metro Detroit, the Tri-County Area, Detroit, Warren, Livonia, Farmington Hill, Sterling Heights, Troy, Dearborn, Westland, Ann Arbor, Saginaw, Grand Rapids, Flint, Lansing, Southfield to Clinton and Kalamazoo.
Product liability cases can vary from the relatively simple case of the infant's toy with the detachable parts the can get lodged in the child's windpipe, resulting in his severe brain damage or death to auto product liability cases, to our most complex pharmaceutical and medical device defect litigation. Our Michigan product liability lawyers will consider serious injury cases involving the full spectrum of product liability litigation. Our Michigan product liability lawyers will consider bringing cases on an individual basis or joining in class action litigation, where we still have ample opportunity for superior advocacy in the preparation and presentation of the client's general and special damages.
We will defer to the product liability page for the more comprehensive discussion of the product liability theories, including based on negligence and strict liability, for products defective in their design, manufacture or warnings. A product defective in design would include the infant toy mentioned above; an example of a product defective in its manufacture would be the tire that blew out on a freeway because of a weakness resulting from a manufacturing failure; an example of a product defective in its warning might include a drug that has an overriding utility in the treatment of disease justifying its sale notwithstanding a negative side effect, one about which the physicians and patients should have had the right to consider, but didn't because the pharmaceutical manufacturer failed to warn of it.
Our Michigan product liability lawyers will consider prosecuting serious injury cases on an individual basis and as noted above will consider processing cases in the context of class actions. Indeed, it was one of our Group product liability lawyers who obtained the landmark published federal court opinion that guarantees that the client will have his choice. The case is discussed in the lower part of the right column of this page. Following the case described, "mandatory class action" is essentially unavailable any longer except in the very rare case; now Judges are limited in their authority to certifying "voluntary class actions," where the client and product liability lawyer are permitted to consider the advantages and disadvantages of electing to "opt-in" to the voluntary class or "opt-out" and pursue their cases independently.
Our Michigan product liability lawyers will consider representing potential clients who have suffered serious injuries and the result of a defective product throughout Michigan in Metro Detroit, the Tri-County Area, Detroit, Warren, Livonia, Farmington Hills, Sterling Heights, Troy, Dearborn, Westland, Ann Arbor, Saginaw, Grand Rapids, Flint, Lansing, Southfield, Clinton and Kalamazoo. Our product liability lawyers consider that prospective clients should compare the qualifications of the lawyers whom they would consider to represent them.
Our Michigan product liability lawyers offer free consultations. You may submit the "Contact" form and one of our experienced product defect attorneys also experienced in serious injury litigation will contact you to discuss your case, offer our preliminary case evaluation and initial recommendations. You are also invited to ask about our Michigan product liability lawyer's credentials and experience. We are here to serve you.
Our Michigan Food Poisoning Lawyers Will Represent Clients Who Suffer Serious Illness As the Result of Food Contamination, Including E. coli HUS and TTP Cases, in Individual and Outbreak Cases, Throughout the State of Michigan in Metro Detroit, the Tri-County Area, Detroit, Warren, Livonia, Farmington Hills, Sterling Heights, Troy, Dearborn, Westland, Ann Arbor, Saginaw, Grand Rapids, Flint, Lansing, Southfield and Clinton.
On our Food Poisoning practice areas page we more comprehensively discuss the various biological food contaminants that can result in human illness, including E coli, Salmonella, Listeria and Listeriosis, Botulism, Campylobacter, Norovirus and Shigella cases. We also discuss individual cases of food poisoning as might occur from restaurant contamination either resulting from the unsanitary environs of the kitchen or the unsanitary practices of kitchen workers, state regulations apply and Michigan food poisoning lawyers should be knowledgeable both about the regulations and the standards of practice in food management. On our food poisoning page we describe one of our highly acclaimed trial lawyer's having taken the course in food management and becoming a "certified food manager" in one individual E. coli HUS case to assure that he covered all potential bases in establishing the defendant restaurant's liability, obtaining one of the largest settlements ever in an E. coli food poisoning case.
On our food poisoning lawyers page we also discuss "outbreak" cases in which large numbers may become ill across many states, usually as the result of contamination at the site where the food product is grown or at the location where it is processed. One example of a food poisoning outbreak was in 1996 when hundreds became ill and several died in 25 states as the result of lettuce E. coli contaminated at the location where it was grown, after which it was sold by distributors to a variety of food product manufacturers who sold their products in grocery stores nationally. Another example was a 2009 case in which peanut paste was contaminated at a Peanut Corporation of America processing plant, then incorporated in the products of other manufacturers ranging from cookies, candies, cracker, energy bars and ice cream, resulting again in the illnesses of hundreds and several deaths, and the largest food product recall in United States history.
In outbreak cases the FDA and CDC will get involved, as in the above referenced E. coli and Salmonella outbreak cases, investigating to determine the source of contamination, identifying regulatory violations, which food poisoning lawyers can then use in cases brought on behalf of their clients against those responsible and those further down in the chain of commerce through and including the retailer.
Our Michigan food poisoning lawyers will consider representing those who have suffered food poisoning illness throughout the state of Michigan, from Metro Detroit, the Tri-County Area, Detroit, Warren, Livonia, Farmington Hill, Sterling Heights, Troy, Dearborn, Westland, Ann Arbor, Saginaw, Grand Rapids, Flint, Lansing, Southfield to Clinton and Kalamazoo. Our Michigan food poisoning attorneys are here to serve you.
Our Michigan food poisoning lawyers offer free consultations. Submit the "Contact" form and one of our food poisoning attorneys will contact you to discuss your case, offer out preliminary case evaluation and initial recommendations.
Our Michigan Elder Abuse Lawyers Will Consider Representing Seniors Who Have Suffered Physical Abuse, Neglect, Abandonment or Psychological Abuse by Retirement Homes, Senior Assisted Living Centers and Nursing Homes Throughout Michigan in Metro Detroit, the Tri-County Area, Detroit, Warren, Livonia, Farmington Hills, Sterling Heights, Troy, Dearborn, Westland, Ann Arbor, Saginaw, Grand Rapids, Flint, Lansing, Southfield and Clinton.
Elder abuse can take many forms, elder physical abuse, senior neglect, elder abandonment, and elder psychological abuse. On our separate Elder Abuse page, found in the Practice Areas menu we discuss these distinct categories of elder abuse. Very briefly our Michigan elder abuse lawyers describe senior physical abuse as commonly involving violence against the senior, such as beatings, slapping, and sometimes unnecessarily restraining the senior. Our Michigan elder abuse attorneys describe elder neglect as the failure of the retirement home, senior assisted living facility or nursing home to fulfill its duty of care to provide for the client's needs, including his nourishment, medical and psychological care, and to protect him or her from safety hazards. Our Michigan elder abuse lawyers distinguish elder abandonment from neglect as requiring an element of malice or intent or willfulness of the employees of the retirement center or nursing home in failing to provide for the senior's same needs. Elder psychological abuse, as our elder abuse lawyers would define it also involves malice, intent or wilfulness on the part of retirement home or senior assisted living center staff in psychologically abusing the senior, threatening him with the intent to cause fear or humiliating him or isolating him, depriving him of his social associations with others.
On our Elder Abuse Lawyers page we also discuss the signs that family members can look for to detect elder physical abuse, neglect abandonment and elder psychological abuse. It is most tragic that often the elder will not complain about the abuse, fearing retaliation by retirement home staff members or their denial of food or liquids or medical care drugs or psychological care as he may accurately feel that he is dependent upon staff to provide his essential necessities for his welfare. Or he may fear isolation, which may be the greatest detriment that staff can impose, closing him off from his interaction with others, leading to a social and sensory deprivation that can lead him to have little will to live.
Our Michigan elder abuse lawyers welcome our elders and their families to contact us if they suspect that they or their loved one may be the victim of elder physical abuse, neglect, abandonment or elder psychological abuse throughout the state of Michigan, from Metro Detroit, the Tri-County Area, Detroit, Warren, Livonia, Farmington Hill, Sterling Heights, Troy, Dearborn, Westland, Ann Arbor, Saginaw, Grand Rapids, Flint, Lansing, Southfield to Clinton and Kalamazoo. It is our elder abuse attorneys' philosophy that the potential client should compare the credentials of any lawyer whom he would consider to represent him.
Our Michigan elder abuse lawyers offer free consultations. If you submit the "Contact" form one of our elder abuse attorneys will contact you to provide our preliminary case evaluation and initial recommendations. You are also invited to ask our Michigan elder abuse lawyer about his credentials and experience in prosecuting elder physical abuse, neglect, abandonment or elder psychological abuse cases as may be relevant to your case. We are here to serve you.
Our Michigan Personal Injury Lawyers Will Consider Representing Those Who Have Been Seriously Injured As the Result of Auto Accidents, Motorcycle and Big Rig Accidents, Product Liability, Medical Malpractice, Premises Liability, Food Poisoning and Elder Abuse Throughout the State of Michigan from from Metro Detroit, the Tri-County Area, Detroit, Warren, Livonia, Farmington Hill, Sterling Heights, Troy, Dearborn, Westland, Ann Arbor, Saginaw, Grand Rapids, Flint, Lansing, Southfield to Clinton and Kalamazoo.
Our Michigan serious injury trial lawyers welcome the opportunity to speak with you about your case as it falls within our practice areas. Our Michigan auto accident lawyers will consider representing those who have been seriously injured in car, motorcycle and big rig truck accidents, including those who have suffered traumatic brain injury, TBI, spinal cord injuries, quadriplegia and paraplegia, internal injuries, serious orthopedic injuries, and limb amputations. Our premises liability lawyers will consider representing clients who have suffered similar injuries as the result of property defects and failures to maintain commercial, residential and public property. Our Michigan medical malpractice attorneys will consider the broad range of medical negligence cases involving physician malpractice, hospital negligence and the errors and omissions of other health care providers including obstetrical malpractice cases an birth injury lawsuits. Our product liability lawyers will consider representing the seriously injured by the broad spectrum of products including pharmaceuticals and medical devices in individual litigation and class actions. And our elder abuse attorneys will represent our seniors in cases against retirement homes, senior assisted living centers and nursing homes for elder physical abuse, neglect, abandonment and elder psychological abuse.
Our Michigan trial lawyers consider that the potential litigant is best served by comparing the credentials of all attorneys whom he would consider to represent him, and our attorneys in each of our practice areas welcome you to contact us for a free consultation. If you submit the "Contact" form one of our attorneys relevantly qualified in the practice area and experienced in serious injury litigation will call you to discuss your case, provide our preliminary case evaluation and initial recommendations; and you are specifically invited to ask about the attorney's qualifications, including any that you would deem of particular importance in the attorney you would chose to represent you.
We are here to serve you.
*Jury Verdicts and Settlements:
$2.5 million dollar settlement in a contested liability motorcycle accident case in which the motorcyclist suffered a below the knee amputation. The motorcyclist pulled out from between two left turn lanes, splitting lanes, presenting a difficult liability case. The driver of the car that hit him also had a minimum $15,000/$30,000 auto liability insurance policy raising the "collectability" problem. Law Group attorney Henke was able to overcome the liability contest, to the satisfaction of the settlement judge, as the result of his deposition interrogation of the investigating law enforcement officer who ultimately agreed that the motorcyclist's having split lanes between the two left turning cars was not a competent cause of the accident. And the Law Group serious injury auto accident lawyer was also able to overcome the "collectability" problem after discovering through his investigation that the other motorist was carrying tools in his car trunk essential to his work, permitting the Law Group auto accident lawyer to sue also the motorist's employer, given this evidence that at the time of the accident the motorist was operating his vehicle "in the course and scope of his employment."
$2.7 million dollar jury verdict. Medical malpractice, drug product and medical fraud case. Medical malpractice and drug product liability attorney Henke represented 5 plaintiffs in a consolidated four month trial in which the jury found the defendants liable on multiple causes of action, from medical and hospital negligence to fraud and conspiracy to defraud the plaintiffs with dangerous and ineffective FDA approved and unapproved drugs. The Law Group lawyer designated highly distinguished scientists, epidemiologists and AIDS physicians to testify for the plaintiffs in the case, including Luc Montagnier, the head of France's National AIDS Laboratories who discovered HIV; Michael Gotlieb, co-founder of AMFAR, the astute physician who discovered AIDS, Don Francis, head CDC AIDS Task force who first discovered the causes of AIDS, Roger Detels, the senior investigator on largest epidemiological study on AIDS drugs and their efficacy, John Curnutte, senior investigator on the largest AIDS vaccine study, Peter Wolfe, Member of the Scientific Advisory Committee to the American Foundation for AIDS Research. He conceived the "test" litigation to rectify the epidemic of AIDS drug fraud that followed upon the AIDS epidemic by suing also hospitals with the strategy that if punitive damages could be obtained against the hospitals that tolerated AIDS physicians who used on their patients ineffective AIDS drugs that hospitals across the nation would recognize the danger of failing to revoke the staff privileges of physicians who practiced AIDS drug fraud. In addition to awarding compensatory damages, the jury found the defendant hospital liable both for negligence and conspiracy to defraud, and awarded 1.6 million dollars in punitive damages against the hospital. The case was chronicled in most of the most legitimate newspapers in the United States, from the front page of the New York Times to the front page of the Los Angeles Times, from the Washington Post to the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner, in legal journals, including the National Law Journal, and on national television, including Tom Brokaw's NBC Evening News and CNN . Pharmaceutical product liability attorney, Henke, also testified before Congress with regard to these cases and the need to rein in AIDS drug fruad, at the invitation of the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the United States House of Representatives.
$3.8 million dollar gross jury verdict in medical malpractice case involving failure to diagnose atrial myxoma, the most rare tumor in the human body. The plaintiff had presented initially to the defendant internist with a history of two episodes of feinting. The internist did a battery of tests including an electrocardiogram. When the tests failed to identify a medical cause for the feinting episodes the internist referred the patient to a neurologist who in turn did a battery of tests, also failing to identify a medical cause for the feinting episodes. The internist then diagnosed "vaso vagal syncope" a medical term suggesting a psychological cause for the feinting and referred the patient to a psychologist. The patient then had a stroke and the atrial myxoma was diagnosed during her hospitalization. The medical experts engaged by our Group medical malpractice attorney, Henke, offered to testify that while it was not required by the standard of care that the physicians consider atrial myxoma in their differential diagnoses, if they had considered other more common cardiologic disease and had they done an echocardiogram to rule them out, they would have seen the atrial myxoma. In the opening statements the defense attorneys made the argument that the plaintiffs were attempting to assign liability for failure to diagnose the rarest of tumors, one that most cardiologists would never have heard of, one that, in the very few case reports in the medical literature was in each case an autopsy diagnosis, atrial myxoma never having previously been diagnosed in a live patient. The Group medical malpractice attorney called as his first witness the defendant internist and led with his chin asking "Doctor, did you consider atrial myxoma in your differential diagnosis." The internist responded as he was assuredly coached to do by his attorneys, "Mr. Henke, you don't think of zebras when you hear hoof beats, which is actually a medical syllogism expressing the proposition that the physician should list the most common possible disease entities that can cause the patient's symptoms, not the rarest. But a light bulb went off in the brain of our Group medical malpractice lawyer and he first said softly "Mitral valve prolapse," and then more loudly, "It's a horse isn't it." His lawyer objected, but the doctor had "opened the door" and the Judge ordered the physician to answer the question. He dodged, saying, "I don't know what you mean." But our Group medical malpractice attorney was prepared, "Well, doctor, mitral valve prolapse occurs in about 6 percent of a randomly selected population of females Mrs. Z's age, its a horse, isn't it. The doctor replied, "Okay, its a horse." The medical malpractice lawyer continued, again first softly, "Mitral stenosis," and then more loudly, "Its a horse, isn't it doctor." The doctor said "Okay, its a horse." The medical malpractice lawyer continued, again first softly, "Idiopathic subaortic stenosis," and then more loudly "It's a horse, isn't it doctor." The doctor reluctantly admitted it again. And then the punch line, "So doctor, upon hearing the hoof beats, Mrs. Z's symptoms of feinting, had you merely thought horse, these other common potential cardiologic diagnoses, and turned in the direction of the hoof beats, performed and echocardiogram, you would have seen the zebra, wouldn't you have doctor. The medical malpractice attorney's use of the syllogism offered by the defendant internist was indeed faithful to the testimony that he would then elicit from his experts. The medical malpractice lawyer then came back to the zebra syllogism in closing argument to make more understandable than he might have otherwise the logical progression of his expert's premises upon which the jury then held both the internist and neurologist liable.
$1.5 million dollar settlement in a pharmaceutical product liability birth injury case. The case involved an experimental drug which the manufacturer sought to test for its efficacy as a sedative, employing over 1000 physicians nationwide. One of our Group pharmaceutical product liability lawyers, Henke, obtained from another, Pennsylvania Law Group drug product lawyer the list of the physicians who served as investigators for the drug company when 3 of his clients in the same small city contacted him with similar limb defects characteristic of the teratogenic drug, all of whose mothers were treated during pregnancy by the same obstetrician. It was confirmed that the mothers' common obstetrician was on the list of investigators who received the drug from the pharmaceutical company. The three cases, including the one above referenced case were filed against the drug manufacturer and the physician. The physician no longer had the patients' medical records. The clients mothers recalled receiving a sedative during pregnancy but did not recall the name of the drug. However, the Group pharmaceutical product liability attorney developed expert testimony that the limb defects were characteristic of limb defects caused by the suspect drug which combined with the evidence that the common obstetrician had access to the teratogenic sedative was deemed sufficient for the manufacturer and physician to resolve the above referenced case and the two others out of court for substantial settlements. The settlements were achieved despite that the mothers exposure to the drug and the births of the clients occurred more than 30 years prior to the case being filed, leading the manufacturer and physician to file demurrers and motions for summary judgment asserting the statute of limitations defense. The Group pharmaceutical product liability lawyer, Henke, responded to the motions with the contention that the manufacturer had sought to obscure that it had supplied the notorious drug to physicians in the United States, and that the physician intentionally concealed from the mothers that the drug might have been the cause of their babies birth defects. The court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs on the motions, and the settlements were achieved shortly thereafter..
Amount of settlement sealed by the Court. Law Group food poisoning lawyer, Nick Allis, settled a Food poisoning E. coli case resulting in Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome, HUS on the eve of trial. The case resulted in one of the largest E.coli settlements or verdicts ever reported in the United States.
Most recently our Law Group pharmaceutical product liability lawyers have settled many Vioxx cases in the context of the Vioxx Class Action. In many of our cases we filed appeals of settlement awards granted by the settlement administrators, gaining superior settlement awards upon the appeals.
*The results obtained in the cases listed were dependent upon the facts of the cases, and the results will differ in other cases based on different facts
$2.5 million dollar settlement in a contested liability motorcycle accident case in which the motorcyclist suffered a below the knee amputation. The motorcyclist pulled out from between two left turn lanes, splitting lanes, presenting a difficult liability case. The driver of the car that hit him also had a minimum $15,000/$30,000 auto liability insurance policy raising the "collectability" problem. Law Group attorney Henke was able to overcome the liability contest, to the satisfaction of the settlement judge, as the result of his deposition interrogation of the investigating law enforcement officer who ultimately agreed that the motorcyclist's having split lanes between the two left turning cars was not a competent cause of the accident. And the Law Group serious injury auto accident lawyer was also able to overcome the "collectability" problem after discovering through his investigation that the other motorist was carrying tools in his car trunk essential to his work, permitting the Law Group auto accident lawyer to sue also the motorist's employer, given this evidence that at the time of the accident the motorist was operating his vehicle "in the course and scope of his employment."
$2.7 million dollar jury verdict. Medical malpractice, drug product and medical fraud case. Medical malpractice and drug product liability attorney Henke represented 5 plaintiffs in a consolidated four month trial in which the jury found the defendants liable on multiple causes of action, from medical and hospital negligence to fraud and conspiracy to defraud the plaintiffs with dangerous and ineffective FDA approved and unapproved drugs. The Law Group lawyer designated highly distinguished scientists, epidemiologists and AIDS physicians to testify for the plaintiffs in the case, including Luc Montagnier, the head of France's National AIDS Laboratories who discovered HIV; Michael Gotlieb, co-founder of AMFAR, the astute physician who discovered AIDS, Don Francis, head CDC AIDS Task force who first discovered the causes of AIDS, Roger Detels, the senior investigator on largest epidemiological study on AIDS drugs and their efficacy, John Curnutte, senior investigator on the largest AIDS vaccine study, Peter Wolfe, Member of the Scientific Advisory Committee to the American Foundation for AIDS Research. He conceived the "test" litigation to rectify the epidemic of AIDS drug fraud that followed upon the AIDS epidemic by suing also hospitals with the strategy that if punitive damages could be obtained against the hospitals that tolerated AIDS physicians who used on their patients ineffective AIDS drugs that hospitals across the nation would recognize the danger of failing to revoke the staff privileges of physicians who practiced AIDS drug fraud. In addition to awarding compensatory damages, the jury found the defendant hospital liable both for negligence and conspiracy to defraud, and awarded 1.6 million dollars in punitive damages against the hospital. The case was chronicled in most of the most legitimate newspapers in the United States, from the front page of the New York Times to the front page of the Los Angeles Times, from the Washington Post to the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner, in legal journals, including the National Law Journal, and on national television, including Tom Brokaw's NBC Evening News and CNN . Pharmaceutical product liability attorney, Henke, also testified before Congress with regard to these cases and the need to rein in AIDS drug fruad, at the invitation of the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the United States House of Representatives.
$3.8 million dollar gross jury verdict in medical malpractice case involving failure to diagnose atrial myxoma, the most rare tumor in the human body. The plaintiff had presented initially to the defendant internist with a history of two episodes of feinting. The internist did a battery of tests including an electrocardiogram. When the tests failed to identify a medical cause for the feinting episodes the internist referred the patient to a neurologist who in turn did a battery of tests, also failing to identify a medical cause for the feinting episodes. The internist then diagnosed "vaso vagal syncope" a medical term suggesting a psychological cause for the feinting and referred the patient to a psychologist. The patient then had a stroke and the atrial myxoma was diagnosed during her hospitalization. The medical experts engaged by our Group medical malpractice attorney, Henke, offered to testify that while it was not required by the standard of care that the physicians consider atrial myxoma in their differential diagnoses, if they had considered other more common cardiologic disease and had they done an echocardiogram to rule them out, they would have seen the atrial myxoma. In the opening statements the defense attorneys made the argument that the plaintiffs were attempting to assign liability for failure to diagnose the rarest of tumors, one that most cardiologists would never have heard of, one that, in the very few case reports in the medical literature was in each case an autopsy diagnosis, atrial myxoma never having previously been diagnosed in a live patient. The Group medical malpractice attorney called as his first witness the defendant internist and led with his chin asking "Doctor, did you consider atrial myxoma in your differential diagnosis." The internist responded as he was assuredly coached to do by his attorneys, "Mr. Henke, you don't think of zebras when you hear hoof beats, which is actually a medical syllogism expressing the proposition that the physician should list the most common possible disease entities that can cause the patient's symptoms, not the rarest. But a light bulb went off in the brain of our Group medical malpractice lawyer and he first said softly "Mitral valve prolapse," and then more loudly, "It's a horse isn't it." His lawyer objected, but the doctor had "opened the door" and the Judge ordered the physician to answer the question. He dodged, saying, "I don't know what you mean." But our Group medical malpractice attorney was prepared, "Well, doctor, mitral valve prolapse occurs in about 6 percent of a randomly selected population of females Mrs. Z's age, its a horse, isn't it. The doctor replied, "Okay, its a horse." The medical malpractice lawyer continued, again first softly, "Mitral stenosis," and then more loudly, "Its a horse, isn't it doctor." The doctor said "Okay, its a horse." The medical malpractice lawyer continued, again first softly, "Idiopathic subaortic stenosis," and then more loudly "It's a horse, isn't it doctor." The doctor reluctantly admitted it again. And then the punch line, "So doctor, upon hearing the hoof beats, Mrs. Z's symptoms of feinting, had you merely thought horse, these other common potential cardiologic diagnoses, and turned in the direction of the hoof beats, performed and echocardiogram, you would have seen the zebra, wouldn't you have doctor. The medical malpractice attorney's use of the syllogism offered by the defendant internist was indeed faithful to the testimony that he would then elicit from his experts. The medical malpractice lawyer then came back to the zebra syllogism in closing argument to make more understandable than he might have otherwise the logical progression of his expert's premises upon which the jury then held both the internist and neurologist liable.
$1.5 million dollar settlement in a pharmaceutical product liability birth injury case. The case involved an experimental drug which the manufacturer sought to test for its efficacy as a sedative, employing over 1000 physicians nationwide. One of our Group pharmaceutical product liability lawyers, Henke, obtained from another, Pennsylvania Law Group drug product lawyer the list of the physicians who served as investigators for the drug company when 3 of his clients in the same small city contacted him with similar limb defects characteristic of the teratogenic drug, all of whose mothers were treated during pregnancy by the same obstetrician. It was confirmed that the mothers' common obstetrician was on the list of investigators who received the drug from the pharmaceutical company. The three cases, including the one above referenced case were filed against the drug manufacturer and the physician. The physician no longer had the patients' medical records. The clients mothers recalled receiving a sedative during pregnancy but did not recall the name of the drug. However, the Group pharmaceutical product liability attorney developed expert testimony that the limb defects were characteristic of limb defects caused by the suspect drug which combined with the evidence that the common obstetrician had access to the teratogenic sedative was deemed sufficient for the manufacturer and physician to resolve the above referenced case and the two others out of court for substantial settlements. The settlements were achieved despite that the mothers exposure to the drug and the births of the clients occurred more than 30 years prior to the case being filed, leading the manufacturer and physician to file demurrers and motions for summary judgment asserting the statute of limitations defense. The Group pharmaceutical product liability lawyer, Henke, responded to the motions with the contention that the manufacturer had sought to obscure that it had supplied the notorious drug to physicians in the United States, and that the physician intentionally concealed from the mothers that the drug might have been the cause of their babies birth defects. The court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs on the motions, and the settlements were achieved shortly thereafter..
Amount of settlement sealed by the Court. Law Group food poisoning lawyer, Nick Allis, settled a Food poisoning E. coli case resulting in Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome, HUS on the eve of trial. The case resulted in one of the largest E.coli settlements or verdicts ever reported in the United States.
Most recently our Law Group pharmaceutical product liability lawyers have settled many Vioxx cases in the context of the Vioxx Class Action. In many of our cases we filed appeals of settlement awards granted by the settlement administrators, gaining superior settlement awards upon the appeals.
*The results obtained in the cases listed were dependent upon the facts of the cases, and the results will differ in other cases based on different facts
Driving Under the Influence of Cell Conversation Results in DUI Level Driving Impairment And a 4 fold Increased Likelihood that the Driver will Cause an Accident.
Read the Henke Law Group Scientific Review Article. As Auto Accident Lawyers Knowledgeable About the Scientific Evidence, We Can Investigate to Establish That The Other Driver Was On His Cell Phone, and The Evidence Can Often Make the Difference in a Contested Liability Case.
In Serious Accident Cases, Where Our Auto Accient Lawyers Can Establish That the Motorist Was Engaged in a Business Call, Our Accident Attorneys Can Bring the Motorist's Employer in as a Defendant and Recover Against the Employer's Assets and Insurance Coverage.
Our auto accident attorneys have reviewed all the epidemiology and controlled experimental literature on the effect of cell phone conversation to impair driver attention. Driving under the influence of cell conversation results in DUI level driving impairment and renders the motorist four times more likely to cause an accident. Contrary to popular belief, it is not "holding" the cell phone which results in the impairment. It is the diversion of conscious attention to the internal-cognitive tasks associated with the give and take of the cell conversation away from the external-visual tasks essential for safe driving. Indeed, it does not matter whether the motorist uses a handheld or hands-free cell phone, the impairment is the same, and the 4 fold increased likelihood that the motorist will cause an accident is precisely the same. Yes, a number of other states have enacted "handheld cell phone" laws; unfortunately that is just a function of politics. The scientists are not in dispute. All agree that driving under the influence of cell phone conversation, regardless of the device used, results in the identical DUI level driving impairment and increased likelihood that the driver will cause an accident.
It is important that the auto accident lawyer obtain the cell phone records of the other driver in every "contested liability case," and especially in any serious injury auto accident litigation in which it appears that the other driver lacks sufficient insurance coverage to fully compensate the plaintiff for his injuries and full measure of his damages. In the contested liability case, the evidence of the other party's cell phone use in the moments prior to the accident may snatch victory from the mouth of defeat. In the most common serious injury auto accident case in which the motorist lacks sufficient insurance to fully compensate the bicyclist for his injuries and damages, it is essential that the auto accident attorney obtain the cell phone records of the motorist and conduct the appropriate depositions to determine whether the other driver was engaged in a business call in the moments leading up to the bicycle accident. If he was, then the knowledgeable auto accident lawyer can bring the employer into the litigation as a defendant, "vicariously liable" for the injuries caused by its employee in the "course and scope of his employment." In this way the bicycle accident lawyer may assure that his client will be fully compensated up to the limits of the employers insurance policy, and indeed, the employer's assets would be available to execute against.
Read the Henke Law Group Scientific Review Article. As Auto Accident Lawyers Knowledgeable About the Scientific Evidence, We Can Investigate to Establish That The Other Driver Was On His Cell Phone, and The Evidence Can Often Make the Difference in a Contested Liability Case.
In Serious Accident Cases, Where Our Auto Accient Lawyers Can Establish That the Motorist Was Engaged in a Business Call, Our Accident Attorneys Can Bring the Motorist's Employer in as a Defendant and Recover Against the Employer's Assets and Insurance Coverage.
Our auto accident attorneys have reviewed all the epidemiology and controlled experimental literature on the effect of cell phone conversation to impair driver attention. Driving under the influence of cell conversation results in DUI level driving impairment and renders the motorist four times more likely to cause an accident. Contrary to popular belief, it is not "holding" the cell phone which results in the impairment. It is the diversion of conscious attention to the internal-cognitive tasks associated with the give and take of the cell conversation away from the external-visual tasks essential for safe driving. Indeed, it does not matter whether the motorist uses a handheld or hands-free cell phone, the impairment is the same, and the 4 fold increased likelihood that the motorist will cause an accident is precisely the same. Yes, a number of other states have enacted "handheld cell phone" laws; unfortunately that is just a function of politics. The scientists are not in dispute. All agree that driving under the influence of cell phone conversation, regardless of the device used, results in the identical DUI level driving impairment and increased likelihood that the driver will cause an accident.
It is important that the auto accident lawyer obtain the cell phone records of the other driver in every "contested liability case," and especially in any serious injury auto accident litigation in which it appears that the other driver lacks sufficient insurance coverage to fully compensate the plaintiff for his injuries and full measure of his damages. In the contested liability case, the evidence of the other party's cell phone use in the moments prior to the accident may snatch victory from the mouth of defeat. In the most common serious injury auto accident case in which the motorist lacks sufficient insurance to fully compensate the bicyclist for his injuries and damages, it is essential that the auto accident attorney obtain the cell phone records of the motorist and conduct the appropriate depositions to determine whether the other driver was engaged in a business call in the moments leading up to the bicycle accident. If he was, then the knowledgeable auto accident lawyer can bring the employer into the litigation as a defendant, "vicariously liable" for the injuries caused by its employee in the "course and scope of his employment." In this way the bicycle accident lawyer may assure that his client will be fully compensated up to the limits of the employers insurance policy, and indeed, the employer's assets would be available to execute against.
©2012 The Ray Henke Law Group