It is estimated that as much as 2% of the US population needs some type of long-term assistance with activities of daily living due to TBI. The effects of TBI can range from relatively minor to stupor and coma. Some of the common symptoms of a TBI are memory loss, headaches, listlessness, slowed thinking, speech difficulty, mood changes, sleep disturbance, loss or smell or taste, blurred vision, fatigue, impulsiveness, difficulty concentrating and sensitivity to light and noise. These are life-altering injuries. Additionally, TBI may cause seizures and increase the risk for the development of Alzheimer’s disease.

If you have suffered a head injury, you should act quickly to receive necessary medical attention, and to determine whether you are the victim of a TBI. Prompt medical attention is vital to diagnose and treat the potentially dangerous effects of TBI. Prompt medical attention is also necessary to preserve evidence of your injuries, and to enable medical experts to determine the exact cause of your injuries.

When another person or party is responsible for your TBI due to their negligence, that is they fell below the standard of care the law imposes on them, then you may be entitled to compensation. For instance, a person sitting at a red light is rear-ended by another driver causing severe whiplash and a TBI. If evidence shows that the driver who caused the accident was negligent, by traveling at excessive speeds or not paying attention to the road, then the driver will most likely be held liable for the TBI. However, if after investigation of the accident, experts determine that the accident was not the fault of the driver but in fact caused by sudden brake failure then the brake manufacturer might be the negligent party and therefore held liable.

If you sustained a TBI due the negligent actions of another, you should contact a lawyer that specializes in serious personal injury cases. A TBI lawyer with a precise knowledge of the law will ensure that you are compensated for all damages stemming from your TBI. Some TBI damages include pain and suffering, past and future medical expenses, past and future income loss, rehabilitation, mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life, and depending on the circumstances surrounding your case you may be entitled to additional compensation such as punitive damages.

There are many reasons why collisions between large commercial trucks and passenger cars occur.  One of the most common causes of these accidents is truck driver fatigue.  While there are many federal and state rules regulating the trucking industry, including rules regarding the number of hours a truck driver may log behind the wheel, many drivers violate these rules.  Truck drivers are often induced to do so by trucking companies who push their drivers and vehicles to the limit to boost profits.  Paid by the driven mile, many truck drivers will drive their trucks past the point of fatigue creating a dangerous situation for others sharing the roadway.

Other common causes of trucking accidents including the following: 1) unrealistic delivery schedules for drivers; 2) jackknifing; 3) inspection or equipment failures; 4) improper loading of the trailer; and 5) drug and alcohol use by the driver.  In any accident involving a commercial truck these factors and others should be thoroughly investigated to determine who, if anyone, is at fault.  Along with the truck driver, the following persons and entities have been found liable for these accidents:

• Truck Cab Owner  - the owner of the truck cab, who may or may not be the driver, has a duty to inspect the cab’s equipment to ensure it is in a safe condition.
• Truck Trailer Owner - the owner of the truck trailer is often not the same person or entity that owns the cab.  He also has a duty to inspect the trailer to ensure it is in a safe condition.
• Company Loading the Truck - the company responsible for loading the truck must ensure that it is loaded properly.  Failure to load a truck properly can cause a load shift that may result in an accident or rollover.
• Manufacture, Installer, and Retailer - A truck is a complex machine with many different systems and components operating at the same time.  A failure by any one of these parts could result in an accident.  If a defective component on the truck resulted in the accident, then the manufacturer of the component, installer of the component, and retailer of the component could all be potentially liable for the accident.
• Truck Driving Employer - if an employment relationship is established between an at fault truck driver and a trucking or shipping company, then that company can be held liable for the driver’s negligence under the legal theory of “respondeat superior.”  Under this doctrine, the injured person’s attorney will need to show that the company exercised control over the driver and the accident occurred while the driver was acting in the course and scope of the employment relationship.  In addition, a company that employs a truck driver may be negligent in its own right if it did not adequately investigate the drivers background or set unrealistic driving schedules that encouraged the driver to speed, drive too many hours, or violate the law in other ways.  This could be grounds for exemplary or punitive damages under the legal theories of negligent hiring or negligent entrustment.
• Manufacturer or Shipper of Hazardous Materials - in some rare instances, the manufacturer or shipper of hazardous materials carried by the truck may be liable for injuries caused the type of cargo on board the truck.  For example, this can occur if the shipper fails to advise the truck driver or trucking company of potential hazardous material within the cargo that subsequently catches on fire or is released into the ambient air.

An attorney representing a person injured in an accident with a commercial truck will need to thoroughly investigate all causes and all potentially responsible parties.  Because the severity of injury, and therefore damages, associated with these accidents is often substantial, an attorney will want to investigate all potential sources of recovery for his client.  This includes applicable insurance coverage for all the potential liable parties discussed above.

In general, the law protects people who have been the victim of a domestic animal attack.  Some states have enacted statutes imposing automatic or strict liability on the owners of domestic animals that injure another person. Other states have general tests or standards by which they hold owners liable for injuries caused by their domestic animal. Although the law does not allow compensation for every animal bite, usually when the animal has vicious or aggressive tendencies that the owner is aware of the law will impose liability on the owner.

Texas law does not have a statute concerning an owner’s liability if their animal bites or injures another person. To recover for a dog bite in Texas a victim must satisfy the following four prong test: (1) the defendant must be the owner or possessor of the animal; (2) the animal must have dangerous propensities abnormal to its class; (3) the defendant must have known or had reason to know of the animal’s dangerous propensities; and (4) the animal’s dangerous propensity was the producing cause of the victim’s injury. In order to prevail, you must provide enough evidence to satisfy each of these four elements.

To satisfy the first element, the defendant must be the owner or possessor of the animal at the time the attack occurred. Courts general define owner as the one who keeps, harbors, or is in control of the domestic animal.

The second element is more difficult to satisfy. The animal must have dangerous propensities abnormal to its class. This means you must provide evidence that the animal has a history of dangerous or aggressive behavior. For example, a dog that has previously knocked people down, snapped, or bitten another person without being provoked may be said to have an abnormally dangerous propensity.

In addition to proving an animal’s dangerous propensities, the third element requires you to show that the owner of the animal knew or had reason to know that the animal had a dangerous propensity.  The rationale behind this element is that the owner of a domesticate animal is responsible for warning or protecting society against their animal’s primal instincts or dangerous tendencies.

Finally, if you can establish that the animal in question actually caused your injuries you have satisfied the fourth requirement. Remember, in order to recover you must be able to provide sufficient proof to satisfy all four elements of this test.

Additionally, every state has a statute of limitations for each personal injury. That is a predetermined amount of time the victim is allowed to file a claim against the animal owner. After the statute of limitations has run, you will have lost your opportunity to receive compensation.

If you are the victim of a domestic animal attack, you should contact an attorney to learn about your state’s domestic animal laws, and inquire as to whether you are entitled to compensation for your injuries.

First, to recover for products liability all jurisdictions require one to prove that the product in question is defective. The law considers any product which is unreasonably dangerous for its intended use to be defective. For example, a laptop computer that is prone to overheating and catching fire after extended use would be considered unreasonably dangerous for its intended use, and therefore defective. A product may be defective due to an inherent design defect, a manufacturing flaw, or a marketing defect such as inadequate instructions or warnings labels.  Unlike in a typical personal injury case, where a Plaintiff must prove a Defendant’s negligent actions or omissions proximately caused her injuries, in a product liability action, Defendants are held strictly liable regardless of fault.  The focus here is not on the actions of the manufacturer, wholesaler, or retailer, but rather on the design and nature of the product itself.  If the product is defective, federal and Texas law hold the manufactures and distributors responsible for all injuries and death caused by the product.

The majority of products liability cases involve an injury caused by some design defect in a product. Usually a design defect is due to the manufacturer’s choice of materials and specifications which make the product dangerous and unsafe when put to its intended use in the marketplace. For example, a glass soda bottle that explodes in one’s hand due to the shape of the bottle, the glass material, and the carbonated liquid inside would be considered a design defect.

A product may also become defective in the manufacturing stage of production. In this case, the defect occurs during the construction and assembly of the product. For example, a faulty airbag that does not deploy due to some defect in the assembly of the car would be a manufacturing defect.

Sometimes manufacturers may be held liable for failure to provide warning labels about the product’s dangers or adequate instructions about how to use the product safely. A typical example of this type of product liability action involves inadequate instructions or warning labels on over-the-counter medication.

The laws regarding products liability hold manufacturers and others accountable for unsafe products and protect consumers from damages incurred by defective products in our marketplace. If you were injured by a defective product you may be entitled to recover damages from the manufacturer, suppliers, wholesalers and the retailer who sold you the defective product.

But how do you protect yourself for damages that you or someone else driving your car may be responsible for causing? We all try to be careful out there, but accidents do happen, and sometimes its our own fault. Liability insurance basically pays for the other guy’s damages (see my earlier article on liability insurance), but doesn’t cover any of your own damages. Personal injury protection and medical payments coverages will pay your reasonable and necessary medical bills, but offer nothing to pay for the damages to your vehicle. For these damages, you need comprehensive and collision insurance.

These coverages are usually bunched together under one premium, and are designed specifically to protect your vehicle. Comprehensive coverage is for damage to your vehicle not caused by a collision, such as break-ins, hail damage, etc. Collision coverage is for damages to your vehicle when it has been in a collision with another vehicle, telephone pole, tree, etc. So if you are the one who accidentally rear-ended the guy in front of you, collision coverage will pay to either repair your vehicle, or pay you its fair market value if the vehicle is totaled.

Most lenders require these coverages as protection for their collateral, your vehicle. Once the loan has been paid off, many people drop these coverages. I have heard several rules of thumb about when to stop carrying these coverages, including when your car is 5 or 7 years old. I’ve always felt you should carry these coverages until your car, either by its age or condition, just isn’t worth much in the way of fair market value. It certainly has value to you because it runs and gets you to and fro, but if the car dealer only offers you $500 on a trade-in, you can probably save some money and cancel these coverages.

Both of these coverages pay for reasonable and necessary medical expenses incurred as the direct result of the accident, and PIP also covers 80% of lost wages which were incurred as the direct result of the accident. These coverages begin at $2500.00, but can be purchased in larger amounts. Therefore, if you have $2500.00 in PIP coverage, then your reasonable and necessary medical bills up to $2500.00 will be paid by this coverage. It doesn’t matter if the other party was at fault and you are claiming damages against them. These coverages are still effective and can be claimed by everyone in the vehicle. The policy limit, $2500.00 or more, is for each person in the vehicle. It is not cumulative.

There is one huge difference in these coverages. Your insurance company has no right of subrogation in most cases with PIP insurance, but they do with MedPay insurance. That means that once you settle with the third party, you do not have to pay your own insurance company back the $2500.00 or whatever amount was paid to you under the PIP coverage. That basically amounts to an additional $2500.00 or more in recovery for your claim. You would have to pay back any amounts you received under MedPay coverage in most instances. I would thus always advise that you choose PIP over MedPay. The premium for these coverages is extremely reasonable, and PIP must be offered to you. If you do not want PIP coverage, you must reject it in writing. Insurance agents do not normally encourage PIP coverage because it is not favored by the insurance companies due to the no subrogation laws. Which is even more reason to purchase it. You can bet that if the insurance companies don’t like it, it is well worth your investment.