Archive for the ‘personal injury’ Category

SUV Rollovers, Head Trauma and Spinal Cord Injuries

Friday, June 10th, 2011

San Francisco Bay Area Head Injury Attorney

San Francisco Bay Area Head Injury Attorney

As consumer safety groups and the insurance industry have pointed out for years, SUVs are at a greater risk for rollover due to their higher center of gravity link. This higher center affects an SUV’s stability, measured according to the formula t/2h where “t” is the distance from the center of the right front tire to the center of the left front tire, and “h” is an SUV’s center of gravity. If the ratio is over 1.2, a vehicle is more likely to roll over in certain situations. When passengers or cargo enters an SUV, the additional weight is added above the center of gravity. This only increases an SUV’s propensity to roll over in an accident.

Additionally, without a roll bar and additional structural reinforcements, the roofs of most SUVs are incapable of supporting the weight of the vehicle in rollover accidents. As a result, SUV rollovers often result in serious head, neck and back injuries. In fact, although rollovers only account for three percent of all accidents, they account for a third of all fatal accidents, killing roughly 10,000 people a year.

What Happens in Roof Crush SUV Accidents

When an SUV rolls over in an accident, the roof of the vehicle is forced to absorb some of the shock of the impact and weight of the vehicle. In many cases, however, SUVs do not have the proper roof support or frame reinforcement to properly absorb the amount of force and weight involved. As a result, SUV roofs cave in, resulting in serious head, neck and spinal cord injuries. In many cases, a lack of proper roof support results in significant intrusion into the head space of passengers, causing brain damage, fractured necks and significant spinal cord injuries.

The Cost of Catastrophic Head Trauma and Serious Spinal Cord Injuries

The long-term consequences of brain damage and spinal cord injuries create significant needs and costs for injury victims and their families. When considering an award or settlement, costs including future surgery, physical therapy, medical equipment, medication, in-home care, lost wages, and pain and suffering must be taken into account. Here, consulting an experienced medical economist and life care planner is essential in order to accurately project future costs associated with brain injuries, paraplegia or quadriplegia.

Contact San Francisco Head and Neck Injury Attorneys

If you’ve been seriously injured in an SUV accident, contact Bay Area car accident attorneys at Weber & Nierenberg today to schedule an appointment and discuss your case. After evaluating your case, we can begin the investigative process, collecting important evidence and locating eyewitnesses in order to ensure important information is preserved

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Whiplash — Why It’s a Serious Injury

Thursday, April 14th, 2011

San Francisco Bay Area Whiplash Attorney

Whiplash injuries have the potential for causing a number of long-term side effects, including chronic pain, back problems, headaches and cognitive impairment. Why this is so becomes apparent once you realize what happens in a whiplash injury — typically, a person’s body is rapidly accelerated forward while their head remains momentarily stationary. This movement forces the head and spine into an unnatural S-shape contortion that overextends ligaments, tendons and muscles of the head and neck while the head is snapped back into place. Since tendons attach muscle to bone and ligaments attach bone to bone, whiplash injuries result in serious soft tissue injury that can take months to heal.

After a Rear-end Car Accident — Before You Accept a Settlement

Insurance companies realize it can take weeks or months to know what the full extent of a soft tissue injury is, especially in cases of whiplash. As a result, don’t be surprised if an insurance claims adjuster tries to convince you to settle now instead of later. In fact, you may be told that you’re likely to receive less money and may lose out on a chance of settling your case once and for all if you go to court.

Of course, insurers realize once you hire a personal injury attorney to represent you they have to talk to your legal representation and avoid contacting you directly. This means they can’t engage in the tactics they use to settle whiplash cases early in order to avoid paying any more than they absolutely have to.

Discuss Your Whiplash Injury with Your Doctor

It’s important to document your whiplash injury as early as possible. Here, your doctor may want to perform a CT scan, MRI or x-ray to determine the extent of your injuries. Documenting your injury in this way also makes it easier to counter claims that your condition is from an earlier injury or is the result of something unrelated to your accident.

Contact San Francisco Bay Area Whiplash Injury Attorneys Weber & Nierenberg

Whiplash injuries can be quite serious, especially if you are older, making it more difficult to heal and return to work. To learn how we can help you recover the damages your deserve, contact San Francisco whiplash injury attorneys Weber & Nierenberg today to schedule a free consultation and discuss your case.

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Determining Fair Compensation for Your Brain Injury

Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011

San Francisco Brain Injury Attorney

Determining the long-term financial costs of a brain injury is not always a straightforward affair. While it’s easier to quantify most of the effects of a catastrophic brain injury, if you’ve suffered a serious concussion or fractured skull in a car or motorcycle accident there’s no way of knowing now what problems you’ll have in the years ahead.

From a physiological perspective, there is a limited amount of healing the brain is capable of, especially in cases where important centers of the brain are affected. For these reasons, it’s important to work with qualified medical experts, experienced life care planners and medical economists when determining compensation for brain injuries.

Why Concussions Are Serious Injuries

What happens when a person suffers a concussion? To understand why a concussion is a serious matter, it’s important to keep in mind that the brain sits encased in fluid in the skull — a bit like an ice cube floating in a glass of water. What happens if you’re walking with a glass of ice water and have to suddenly stop? The ice cube, carried forward by your momentum and the water, will bounce against the side of the glass.

In a concussion, the brain is compressed against the inside of the skull in a similar way due to a sudden blow to the head. As a result, the brain suffers bruising and trauma. Depending on the severity of a concussion, a person can experience memory loss, chronic headaches, loss of the sense of taste or smell, and cognitive impairment later in life — especially if they’ve had other concussions.

What is Fair Compensation for a Brain Injury or Concussion?

When evaluating the extent of a brain injury or concussion, a neurologist and medical economist should be consulted in order to determine the scope and extent of your injuries. While you may not initially suffer from memory loss or cognitive impairment, if your injuries involve certain brain centers, the likelihood that you’ll have problems later in life is worth taking into consideration when calculating your compensation.

If a brain injury is catastrophic and involves long-term disability, the need for in-home care, medical equipment and physical therapy should be included in any financial estimate associated with a serious brain injury. A medical economist working from established cost data should be able to extrapolate from known costs and the rate of inflation to provide a cost projection over the course of a brain injury victim’s life.

Contact San Francisco Brain Injury Attorneys at Weber & Nierenberg

Regardless of whether you’re suffering from a concussion or a catastrophic brain injury, we have the resources and knowledge needed to help you recover the compensation you need and deserve. To schedule an appointment and discuss your case, contact San Francisco brain injury attorneys at Weber & Nierenberg today.

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Protecting Your Job After an Injury – California Personal Injury

Friday, January 28th, 2011

After an Accident — Talking to Your Employer

While most serious accident injuries require hospitalization and a period of recovery, most people don’t immediately think of protecting their job after they’ve had a car, truck, motorcycle or bicycle accident. This is unfortunate since a number of problems could be avoided if injured workers simply asserted the legal rights granted to them under the law. While California is an “at will” employment state — allowing employers to fire workers for little or no reason — workers cannot be fired for asserting their legal rights. Under the federal Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the California Family Rights Act (CFRA), eligible employees have a right to take up to 12 weeks of medical leave without worry of losing their job. If an employer fires a worker for taking leave under FMLA or CFRA, that employer can be sued for financial damages.

Taking Medical Leave After an Accident

Once you are able to speak with your employer’s human resources department, you’ll need to file certain forms and provide information from your doctor regarding when you are able to return to work. (It’s important to remember, however, that companies that employ fewer than 50 employees are exempt from the requirements of CFRA; if you work for a small business with fewer than 50 employees, you should talk to your employer and get any agreement between you in writing.) In order to take medical leave under FMLA or CFRA, it’s necessary that you be employed with your current employer for at least 12 months prior to your request.

If you’ve suffered broken bones, a concussion or whiplash, you may be able to return to work in less than 12 weeks. Here, your employer will likely require a note from your doctor indicating when you are ready to return to work. If your employer tries to pressure you into returning to work before your doctor has indicated you are ready and before your 12 weeks of FMLA/CFRA is over, you should talk to an employment law attorney.

After Your Injuries Have Healed – Returning to Work After an Accident

California and federal law require that employees be allowed to return to the same job after a leave of medical absence. If your job has been eliminated for legitimate reasons, your employer is required to provide you with a similar job or one that pays roughly the same, offers the same kinds of opportunities and involves duties similar to your old one. However, if an employer can prove that an employee would have been laid off anyway or that a comparable job isn’t available, the employee doesn’t have a right to return to work.

San Francisco Personal Injury Attorneys Weber & Nierenberg

If you’ve been seriously injured in a car, truck, bike, construction, or slip and fall accident, we can help you take steps to protect your job while ensuring any employment or medical benefits you are eligible to receive are activated for you. To discuss your case and learn how we can help you, contact San Francisco personal injury attorneys at Weber & Nierenberg today.

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