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Insurance Claims
Usually, due to the severity of the injuries their clients have suffered and the circumstances surrounding the accident itself, the injury lawyers at Indiana / Illinois personal injury law firm Kenneth J. Allen & Associates are faced with dealing with insurance companies and their representatives, along with the defendants and their attorneys, due to the insurance policies that apply to the situation. Oftentimes, there will be several defendants and several insurance carriers involved in a case (first party, third party, excess, etc.).
To complicate things, the defendant’s attorney is usually being paid by the insurance company, not the defendant itself. In fact, that defense lawyer may have a significant part of his caseload – and therefore his livelihood – provided by that insurance carrier. This can only increase the influence of the carrier upon the case and needless to say, can pose problems in negotiation, settlement, and trial.
Insurance Companies, Adjusters, Attorneys and the Duty of Good Faith
Insurance companies that cover large corporations -- such as trucking companies, commercial airlines, or railways -- not only expect tragic accidents to occur periodically based upon their statistics, they prepare for that eventuality. For example, it is not unusual for an insurance adjuster to appear on the scene of a major Big Rig / 18-wheeler accident before the police arrive: the truck driver has been trained to call the company immediately and notify them of any accident, and typically carries a camera to take scene photos. At the scene, the adjuster will begin his investigation of the event for the purpose of defending against the claims that will be made - taking recorded statements, video, and more. Frequently, the insurance company will have its own accident reconstruction expert on the scene in mere hours.
None of this activity in and of itself is illegal. However, the law does require that all these different players on the defense team – the adjuster, the insurance company, the defense attorney – act in good faith when dealing with their own insureds. An adjuster can appear on the scene, but an adjuster is in bad faith if he attempts to get a distraught insured to sign a release of liability. On the other hand, that same adjuster can and often will seduce the accident victim into giving a recorded statement or otherwise harm her case if the victim is not an insured who has paid premiums to that insurance company.
Good faith theoretically extends into the negotiation of an injury or death claim but, again, only to claims made by insureds against their own insurance companies. From a business perspective, the insurance defense position is to settle the matter for as little as possible or delay the claim as long as possible if the accident victim refuses to settle short and demands fair compensation.
In truth, insurance companies have influenced and shaped the laws in most states so the concept of insurance company liability for bad faith is simply that – a concept rarely enforced in practice. Be forewarned: don’t attempt to deal directly with an insurance company in a serious injury or death case. Neither should you expect your own insurance company to act in good faith. Rest assured, without counsel the insurance company will likely win at your expense.
Aggressive, experienced injury lawyers are needed when dealing with sophisticated insurers
Faced with the sophistication of insurance carriers and their cohorts, injury victims and their families need aggressive, experience personal injury lawyers that are adept at dealing with the realities of how insurance coverage impacts lawsuits today.
For the personal injury lawyers at Kenneth J. Allen & Associates, their abilities and determination to fight for their clients is well-known to the major insurance companies. Over the years, it has been made clear: Kenneth J. Allen & Associates does not accept large numbers of cases in hopes of settling them en masse for a quick buck. Instead, Kenneth J. Allen & Associates is selective in its caseload, and the firm’s trial lawyers are more than willing to go to trial if a legitimate and acceptable settlement is not reached. With this attitude, Kenneth J. Allen & Associates ups the insurance company’s risk. Its injury trial lawyers know the law – including the requirements that every insurance company is by statute required to act “in good faith” – and they don’t hesitate to use it.
Defective Products
Defective products harm people. Sometimes, they kill people.
In many instances, there is media coverage notifying the public of extremely dangerous products. Sometimes, there are recalls by the manufacturers themselves. Plaintiffs usually have their cases consolidated into a single suit in federal court under multi-district litigation (“MDL”) rules or, sometimes, combined into a single “class action" lawsuit. The MDL and Class Action techniques are frequently used in products liability cases in which hundreds or thousands of persons are affected. This way the litigation is streamlined and the parties are able to simultaneously assert their claims against the manufacturer, distributor, and possibly others responsible for the unsafe product.
In other instances, the product may be defective but not on a mass scale. The injured victim here still has her legal rights, but she may stand alone against the same number of defendants as would be present in the larger, class action matter. Because these cases are very expensive to litigate, they can only be brought when the victim’s injuries are devastating or catastrophic.
What are defective products?
Examples of defective products involved in injury lawsuits include:
1. Defective motor vehicles: cars, automobiles, motorcycles, ATVs or airplanes / aircraft;
2. Defective component parts: tires (blowouts, exploding tires), seatbacks, wiring, seat belts, or brakes;
3. Defects in consumer products: children’s toys, toasters, cribs, car seats, irons, and electrical devices; and
4. Defects in industrial equipment, control devices or tools: cranes, heavy equipment, remote controls, hand tools, valves, and boilers.
If you or a loved one has been harmed or killed by a defective product, then you need legal counsel with knowledge and experience in dealing with the complexity these claims entail. Claims must be investigated and pursued against various manufacturers and distributors of the product, and expert testimony must be gathered.
How can Kenneth J. Allen & Associates help you?
The injury lawyers at Northwest Indiana and Chicagoland’s Kenneth J. Allen & Associates have represented many plaintiffs who have been seriously injured by defective products. In fact, one of the best compliments Kenneth J. Allen & Associates has received came at the end of a product’s liability / defective product trial, when the company being sued as a defendant asked to be put in contact with the firm’s experts -- so the defendant business could make changes to the defective machine – just as Kenneth J. Allen & Associates injury attorneys had argued were needed. With this, not only was the firm’s client satisfied with individual justice in their case, but the law firm met its dual goal of helping bring about long-term positive change.
Sports & Boating Accidents
Serious fun can quickly turn into a serious accident in the water.
According to United States Coast Guard, thousands of people die or are seriously injured each year in boating accidents on US waterways, with the amount of property damage totaling in the millions of dollars. Pilot error accounts for 70% of boating accidents; many times, accidents occur when those piloting the boats are under the influence of alcohol. BOAT-US (Boat Owners Association of United States) estimates that alcohol plays a role in half of all boating accidents (50%).
When serious injury or death happens due to a boating accident, victims and their families will need the help of a personal injury lawyer experienced with water sport, boating, and watercraft incidents. Plaintiffs may be able to claim monetary awards providing compensation for medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, rehabilitative therapy, and other costs related to the injury. If drunk driving was involved, i.e., boating under the influence (BUI), punitive damages may be available. These money damages may be able to be obtained from a number of defendants.
An experienced water sport and boat accident injury attorney can determine who is liable. Defendants can range from the boat operator and the boat owner, to the manufacturer and supplier of the boat, as well as of the manufacturer and suppliers of various parts and equipment. To assist in claims resolution, BOAT-US provides a national recall alert registry, and every state has a consumer affairs department that can help in determining possible defendants.
Kenneth J. Allen & Associates has the knowledge and experience to uncover what really happened, and go after those responsible. The sport injury lawyers at Kenneth J. Allen & Associations are familiar with federal preemption laws, and the proper legal channels will be navigated. Additionally, the accident team at Kenneth J. Allen & Associates will gather noted medical experts who can evaluate and testify to the physical, emotional and financial effects of the victim’s serious injury or wrongful death.
Medical Malpractice Injuries
Everyone at the injury law firm of Kenneth J. Allen & Associates believes that you should be able to trust your doctor – and any other health care provider treating you or your loved one. However, it’s not a perfect world and medical mistakes happen every day – and sometimes, their victims are seriously injured and even die as a result.
More People Die Each Year from Medical Errors than from AIDs, Breast Cancer, or Car Wrecks
It’s a frightening but true statistic that the number of people that die every year because of medical malpractice is higher than those who die from AIDS, breast cancer, or car crashes.
What is happening? Here are some of common examples of medical error, or malpractice: failure to diagnose; failure to properly treat; making an incorrect diagnosis; failure to order necessary tests or properly evaluate test results; failure to monitor the patient’s condition; failing to prescribe the right drugs or the right dosage; and surgery mistakes.
Do You Know if You or a Loved One is a Victim of Medical Malpractice?
Sad but true, your family cannot rely upon the health care professionals (nurses, aides, techs, doctors, hospital administration, etc.) to tell you that a mistake has been made. Your doctor will not tell you he’s made an error. The only way that your family will learn of medical malpractice is by your own investigation -- that’s where an experienced medical malpractice attorney can be of great help.
How a Medical Malpractice Lawyer Can Help You
Having a knowledgeable and experienced medical malpractice attorney to gather the facts and review your case and then help you pursue your medical malpractice claim is especially important in this complex area of the law.
Therefore, each medical malpractice case Kenneth J. Allen & Associates handles has been carefully screened before the client and the injury attorney make their joint commitment to make a claim or file suit. The medical malpractice lawyers at Kenneth J. Allen & Associates zealously pursue theses cases, ready to take each one to a jury if necessary.
If cases go to trial, juries are provided with a physician specializing in rehabilitative medicine who gives expert testimony, mapping out a “life care plan” that shows the victim’s needs in terms of dollars and cents, taking into account medical inflation and quality of life. It’s just one example of the aggressive representation in medical malpractice cases that Kenneth J. Allen & Associates is known for.
Medical Malpractice Laws Provide for Money Damages – and there’s a Deadline
Due to tort reform, state laws have been passed to deal with medical errors and to protect victims and their families when there has been a failure of a physician or doctor (or other health care professional) to do their job properly. Indiana and Illinois laws are not the same.
In Indiana, all claims for medical malpractice must first be submitted to a medical malpractice review by a panel of three practicing health-care providers. There are also limits on the recoverable money damages. The Indiana medical malpractice process essentially doubles the cost, and the time it takes, for resolving malpractice claims.
Additionally, damages are capped at $1.25 Million – no matter how grievous the harm.
In Illinois, there are no caps or limitations on damages and many of the other tort reform changes proposed to the medical malpractice laws have been ruled unconstitutional. However, like Indiana’s panel review procedure, Illinois malpractice claims must first be approved by a health care provider who must sign a certificate that the case has merit before it can be filed.
Pedestrian Accident Injuries
Nearly 5,000 pedestrians are killed in traffic accidents every year in the United States. Wrongful death while jogging or simply walking across the street sounds almost impossible in this day and age, but it happens.
People are injured every day in pedestrian accidents and these injuries are sometimes fatal. Even in low speed collisions, pedestrians are likely to suffer injuries to the lower extremity and spine requiring surgical treatment. When a pedestrian is struck by a vehicle traveling 30 MPH or greater, serious injury to the head and neck is almost inevitable and the most frequent consequences include nerve damage, traumatic brain injury (TBI), spinal cord injury, paralysis, physical disfigurement, and permanent disability.
Children are, of course, especially vulnerable to injury in these cases. And in the case of children under 14, even a simple fractured leg can have lifelong consequences. The growth plates in the lower extremities have not fully developed by that age. A kid’s simple fracture which involves a significant portion of the growth plate can result in a permanent reduction of height, leg length discrepancy, and permanent limp.
If you or a loved one has been injured as a pedestrian, in a hit and run or otherwise, then you may be entitled to recover legal damages. Your own uninsured motorists insurance typically provides coverage in cases involving hit and run, so long as there is some property damage involved. Successful resolution of your claim will involve not only establishing your injuries, but also the driver’s negligence and identifying all those, such as an employer for whom the negligent driver works, that may share responsibility for the accident.
Kenneth J. Allen & Associates Ready to Help Injured Pedestrians and Their Families Get Legal Relief
The injury lawyers at Kenneth J. Allen & Associates are experienced in dealing with pedestrian accidents and their resulting injuries, and understand the complexities of pursuing remedies for victims and their families in these cases.
Mesothelioma
Mesothelioma is a fatal form of cancer that is entirely preventable. Also known as “asbestos cancer,” it is a truly evil disease with a horrific ability to conceal itself literally for decades within the bodies of workers or their family members before it manifests. In fact, mesothelioma can hide from view for as long as 40 years before an exposure to asbestos fibers culminates in a cancer diagnosis.
How do you get asbestos cancer?
Mesothelioma victims fall prey to the disease either by inhaling (breathing in) asbestos fibers or by ingesting (swallowing) them. Usually, this occurs on the job; however, there have been cases of asbestos cancer where the wife or other family member was exposed to asbestos by coming into contact with a worker’s clothing, shoes, gloves, or the like. Many wives are diagnosed with mesothelioma after years of doing the laundry, cleaning a husband’s work clothes that have been inundated with the deadly fibers.
Steelworkers susceptible
Steel workers who worked in the mills prior to the 1980s can be particularly susceptible to mesothelioma, as well as other serious diseases caused by exposure to asbestos. Often clothing worn by mill workers contained asbestos, as well as equipment used in the steel mills such as piping, blast furnaces, boilers, etc. And, it is not limited to just workers in the steel industry. Construction workers, carpenters, electricians, roofers, plumbers and other occupations are potentially at risk.
The Three Main Types of Mesothelioma
There is more than one type of mesothelioma, and most mesothelioma – like other cancers -- can spread to other parts of the body (“metastasize”). The most common forms of mesothelioma are:
1. Pleural Mesothelioma (Attacks Breathing System). Pleural asbestos cancer is the most widespread form of mesothelioma. It is the result of someone breathing in asbestos – usually in the form of tiny asbestos fibers, inhaled on the job. Once drawn into the body, these tiny particles of toxic asbestos material then slowly maneuver themselves toward the walls of the air passageways, lodging particularly in lung tissues, and eventually metastasize into lung cancer.
2. Peritoneal Mesothelioma (Attacks Digestive System). Peritoneal mesothelioma is a common form of cancer that results from swallowing asbestos, allowing the toxic asbestos fibers to travel through the digestive system. The tiny asbestos fibers bury themselves in the walls of both the small and large intestines, and over time their toxic presence results in cancer not only in the abdomen’s lining, but usually metastasizing into growing, spreading cancerous tumors.
3. Pericardial Mesothelioma (Attacks the Heart / Lymph System). Pericardial mesothelioma is not seen as often as the prior two forms of asbestos cancer, but it still occurs all too often in this country. In this type of cancer, fibers are swallowed but instead of entrenching themselves within the digestive system, they maneuver into the lymph glands, pushing into the mesothelium lining of the heart.
Who Gets Exposed to Asbestos Fibers?
Asbestos is a miracle mineral from many industrial perspectives, and for over 200 years it has been commonly used for a wide variety of economical commercial purposes, particularly in the manufacturing and building trades. Asbestos is flexible. It is extremely hard to catch on fire. It is also very hard to destroy; it’s almost an everlasting, indestructible bit of nature.
These three industry-favorable characteristics (flexible, fire-retardant, long-lasting) are weighed against the possibility of endangering workers, and all too often profit-oriented companies choose profits over people. Famous, internationally known corporations like Nabisco, Goodyear, Toyota, and IBM have all been found liable to their employees for millions of dollars in damages resulting from mesothelioma. Nevertheless, asbestos still can be found in the following everyday products:
Brake linings
Building insulation
Carpet underlay
Caulking/Putties
Ceiling panels and tiles for ceilings and floors
Cement piping and cement board
Chalkboards
Electrical wiring
Laboratory Hoods and Tabletops
Linoleum flooring
Roofing materials
Toasters and Toaster Ovens
Wall paneling.
Moreover, those choosing to earn their living in the following endeavors may or may not realize that with this line of work comes an increased risk of exposure to deadly asbestos – and ultimately, death from mesothelioma -- on the job, because employers are still inadequately protecting their workers from this hazard:
Construction Workers, generally
Oil and Gas Refinery Workers, generally
Shipyard Workers, generally
Asbestos Mine Workers
Bricklayers
Carpenters
Electricians
Mechanics
Roofers
Plasterers
Plumbers
Welders.
For more information:
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (Center for Disease Control)
Environmental Protection Agency - Asbestos
National Cancer Institute
Complicated Lawsuits Need Experienced Mesothelioma / Asbestos Cancer Lawyers
Lawsuits are usually filed after diagnoses are made that a worker or their loved one suffers from mesothelioma (“asbestos cancer”) in order to fight for proper and adequate compensation for the care and treatment of the cancer victim. Since each case involves the need to have complex medical knowledge as well as detailed legal expertise to adequately advocate for these victims and their families, there are certain trial attorneys and injury law firms dedicated to this focused area of severe injury practice, such as well-respected efforts in the area of mesothelioma / asbestos cancer law undertaken by the Chicagoland law firm of Kenneth J. Allen & Associates.
Spinal Injuries
There are two very serious injuries to the human body that result from accidents, causing permanent damage and life-altering consequences: traumatic brain injuries and spinal cord injuries.
Frequently, both types of damage occur in the same serious accidents, since both the head and neck may be simultaneously involved.
The National Spinal Cord Injury Association estimates that there are 30 new and serious spinal cord injuries occurring every single day in the United States, and 60% of those injured are men under the age of 30. Car accidents cause of most spinal cord injuries in our country, with acts of violence a close second.
What is a spinal injury?
Spinal injury entails severe harm to the central nervous system, i.e., the spinal cord, spinal nerves and brain. The spinal cord is made up of a bundle of nerves which facilitates communication between the brain and the body. The spinal cord itself is surrounded by fluid, protected by ligaments and bone (vertebrae) with an intervertebral disk, a shock absorber made mostly of cartilage, separating each vertebra.
This disk has a gelatinous material at its core, called the nucleus propulsis, which facilitates movement. When the movement is extreme, or untoward forces are exerted on the spine, the outer rings of the disk may rupture or “herniate” and the nucleus propulsis can be squeezed into the spinal cord or spinal nerves, causing excruciating pain and sometimes paralysis.
When there is a severe injury to the spine, permanent damage to the spinal cord and nerves which control body movement results. Apart from extreme pain, this kind of injury may result in faulty brain communication at best, and an absence of brain communication at the worst. Victims of spinal cord injury commonly face paraplegia or quadriplegia. It is a tragic and devastating event for both the victim and his loved ones.
Spinal Injuries are Expensive to Treat
Due to the severity of spinal cord injuries, the cost of a victim’s care is enormous. Victims face paralysis; chronic pain; infected bed sores; and loss of bladder or bowel control and sexual function. Many spinal cord injury victims need continuous care around the clock care for the rest of their lives.
When handling spinal cord injury cases, the injury attorneys at Kenneth J. Allen & Associates understand the importance of conveying to the jury the enormous medical expenses facing the victim. Our injury attorneys will retain rehabilitation specialists and doctors know as physiatrists to assess the minimum future health care needs of the client. All of the daily needs, such as catheters, mobility devices, home modifications, and home health care are factored into a life care plan. Then economists are hired to determine the total expected lifetime medical costs, which frequently total many millions of dollars.
Complicated Lawsuits Need Experience Spinal Cord Injury Lawyers
Lawsuits are usually filed after accidents resulting in spinal cord injury in order to obtain adequate compensation for the care and treatment of the spinal injury victim. When handling spinal cord cases, the injury lawyers at Kenneth J. Allen & Associates understand the importance of conveying to the jury the daily struggle the spinal cord injury victim must face.
Typically, a camera crew shadows the client to create a documentary film, called a “Day in the Life” video, which highlights the activities of daily living, like changing catheters or bowel programs, which only a rare few besides victims and their families ever witness. Routine use of this kind of evidence along with comprehensive life care plans is what sets the injury attorneys at Kenneth J. Allen & Associates at a much higher level of expertise in handling spinal cord and brain injury cases.
Since each case involves the need to have complex medical knowledge as well as detailed legal knowledge to properly advocate for these victims and their families, there are certain trial attorneys and injury law firms dedicated to this focused area of severe injury practice, such as well-respected efforts in this area by the Northwest Indiana and Chicagoland law firm of Kenneth J. Allen & Associates.
Brain Injuries
Unfortunately, in most serious semi-truck crashes, falls and work accidents there is a very high risk not only of death, but of tremendously tragic, permanent damage to the two most vulnerable areas of the human body: the brain and the spinal cord. Traumatic brain injuries (TBI) and spinal cord injuries – severe injuries to the head and neck – are not only debilitating and life-altering for the injured person, but they are equally catastrophic to the injury victim’s loved ones and family.
No one is the same after an accident where there is a severe brain injury. Within the few minutes time that it takes for a serious car crash, trucking accident, or on the job injury to occur, the lives of many people – victims, their husbands or wives, parents, children, grandchildren, brothers and sisters – can be forever changed. In most instances, the injury victim is totally innocent of any responsibility or fault for this unfair and heartbreaking life event. And brain damage never goes away.
Traumatic Brain Injury is the “silent epidemic” in our country today
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, each year approximately 1,400,000 people will suffer a brain injury in the United States. Of these, 100,000 will die from their injuries and another 500,000 will face a life where they must cope with severe and horrific permanent disability. Studies done by the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Brain Injury and Repair also reveal the following terrifying facts:
brain injury is the leading cause of death/disability for people under 45 yrs old;
more people die from a brain injury in this country than from AIDS, breast cancer, MS, and spinal cord injury combined; and
every 15 seconds, someone in the United States suffers a brain injury.
Today in our country, there are over 5,500,000 TBI sufferers facing the daily struggles of life after a traumatic brain injury – two percent (2%) of the current U.S. population. This statistic does not include those indirectly hurting every day from their loved one’s serious accident – one can safely assume those numbers to be in the tens of millions.
Given that four people suffer brain injuries every single minute in our nation, it’s no wonder that experts refer to Traumatic Brain Injury as the "silent epidemic."
What is a traumatic brain injury?
Many assume that brain injuries happen because of a direct blow to the head or loss of consciousness, whether during a slip and fall, an accident at work, a semi-truck crash, auto collision with a heavy truck or bridge abutment. While many brain injuries are the result of trauma directly to the head, sometimes brain damage can occur without loss of consciousness or a direct blow to the head. This is so because the brain, a very soft organ suspended in cerebral spinal fluid, is encased in a very hard shell, the skull. The brain can often be injured by striking the bony skull, which occurs during sudden acceleration-deceleration – which occurs, for example, in a crash between a car and semi-truck at highway speeds or when a person falls at work from a scaffolding or ladder. In fact, most neurologists and neuropsychologists agree that mild traumatic brain injury does not require actual loss of consciousness or direct trauma to the head.
But TBI can and does occur in situations other than semi-truck crashes, falls or work-accidents For example, mild TBI may occur as the result of infection due to faulty medical care; poisoning (such as breathing toxic fumes while working on the job); or from insufficient oxygen or blood flow to the brain, as in the case of negligent vaginal delivery of an infant.
The truth is that any injury to the head can seriously and permanently harm someone. Any sudden blow to the head can render an individual physically incapacitated and reliant upon mechanical life support, or mentally disabled, depressed, unable to sleep and incapable of exercising self-control.
Not all brain injuries are easy to spot. TBIs may be wickedly subtle in how they have damaged someone. Brain injury victims sometimes have violent, sudden mood swings as well as a frustrating loss of memory – particularly short-term memory. TBI victims are vulnerable to being easily confused and often exhausted because brain injury often disrupts one’s ability to sleep. brain injury to children who will henceforth have learning disabilities they never experienced before their fall in the schoolyard or injury in a car or truck crash.
You should suspect a loved one may be suffering from a serious brain injury or TBI if they are show signs of being:
Clumsiness (especially immediately after the accident) – dropping things, unable to hold tightly onto an object
Confusion (especially immediately after the accident) – they may not know where they are, how to get home, what day it is, etc.
Dizziness (either immediately after the accident or later) – dizzy spells are a big hint of TBI
Fatigued – very weak or too exhausted to do activities that they would normally undertake which is frequently associated with sleep disruption caused by TBI
Headache – severe head pain may hint of brain injury
Photophobic – that is, bothered by bright light or extra-sensitive to loud sounds
Memory Loss – unable to recall new info or facts recently learned – like what they ate for breakfast
Nausea (especially immediately after the accident) – vomiting or feeling the urge to vomit is a common result of a brain injury
Numbness – the inability to feel any part of their body (finger, toe, limb) can mean TBI
Depression – this is a common effect of mild TBI because the person realizes she’s no longer able to think and remember as well as she could once
Asnomia – that is, the loss of sense of smell (the olfactory nerves which control the sense of smell are very delicate and can easily be damaged during trauma)
Personality change – this is the most troubling aspect of TBI since it affects loved ones as well as the injured person; the inability to control one’s temper and emotions is a frequent consequence of TBI
Seizures– seizure disorder and convulsion can occur immediately or begin years after a TBI
Other diseases– persons who have suffered TBI are more susceptible to early onset of Alzheimer’s or other dementia, Parkinson’s Disease and brain atrophy.
Brain Injuries (TBIs) Require Expensive Treatment and Care
The financial cost and expense of a brain injury victim’s care can be astronomical. Not only are the initial medical expenses high when a severe accident or injury is involved, but the long-term medical care costs for those suffering from traumatic brain injuries can reach into the millions of dollars.
TBI victims may have a long lifetime ahead of them, where they will need daily, around-the-clock nursing care and therapy needs, as well as extended surgeries and other forms of treatment. For example, monetary damage awards assessed for young children who have sadly suffered a traumatic brain injury can be extremely high.
Complicated Lawsuits Need Experienced Traumatic Brain Injury - TBI Lawyers
Lawsuits are usually filed after accidents resulting in traumatic brain injury (TBI) in order to obtain adequate compensation for the care and treatment of the traumatic brain injury (TBI) victim. Since each case involves the need to have complex medical knowledge as well as detailed legal expertise to adequately advocate for these victims and their families, there are certain trial attorneys and injury law firms dedicated to this focused area of severe injury practice, such as well-respected efforts in this area by the Northwest Indiana and Chicagoland law firm of Kenneth J. Allen & Associates.
Slip & Falls
“Slip and Fall” is a catch phrase used by doctors and lawyers alike to describe injuries that result from someone falling down as a result of a dangerous or hazardous condition on someone else's property. Sometimes, you can also hear someone call the same event a “trip and fall” or a “step and fall” -- it always involves a serious falling injury.
What are serious falling injuries?
Falling injuries can result from slippery substances (ice, snow, rain, grease, etc.) on the walking surface. They can also happen when there are unexpected changes in flooring, or bad visibility from bad lighting, or a partially hidden hazard, like a hole in the ground. According to the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA), falling injuries account for most serious and fatal injuries in the workplace.
Both the property owner and the injured person may be held to varying degrees of responsibility for a fall injury. While the property owner has a legal duty to keep its property safe, all pedestrians have a legal duty to watch where they are going, and to observe what can normally be observed through reasonable care, such as an open and obvious patch of ice on walking surfaces. A person is expected to use reasonable care to prevent injury, and that legal axiom applies both to companies that own or operate premises as well as those using another’s premises.
Who is responsible under the law?
Both Indiana and Illinois recognize legal liability for damages and injury suffered in an accident which the property owner could through reasonable care can anticipate and prevent. The key is often whether the property owner knew or through reasonable care could have discovered the dangerous condition or activity, and could have taken reasonable steps to prevent the accident. So, for example, when someone falls because a long-missing manhole cover is not replaced, there is legal liability even if the party responsible for maintaining the cover claims he didn’t know the manhole was uncovered.
Some property owners are particularly accountable. Owners of hotels and apartment complexes, for example, have special legal responsibilities to those folk they’ve invited to enter and use their property. These owners must keep the common facilities in a safe condition.
How can a lawyer help?
In a simple accident or a fall case, insurance adjusters will often attempt to take recorded or written statements of the accident victim. NEVER GIVE A STATEMENT TO AN INSURANCE ADJUSTER OR REPRESENTATIVE WITHOUT YOUR LAWYER PRESENT!
Insurance adjusters are highly trained to gain the confidence of accident victims in order to undermine claims. A recorded or written statement taken by an experienced insurance adjuster can create huge problems in a fall or accident case. Insurance personnel are trained to phrase questions in a way which can pose problems if the case goes to court.
A seemingly simple accident can have complex repercussions – both medical and legal - and therefore requires a complex legal approach. At Kenneth J. Allen & Associates, injury attorneys have years of experience with a wide variety of slip and fall injuries.
These Northwest Indiana and Chicagoland slip and fall accident lawyers know the questions to ask – for example, what was the coefficient of friction for the floor covering or coating? Was there was a chronic problem evidenced by prior similar accidents at the facility where the slip and fall occurred?
Furthermore, firm engineers are versed in technical details – determining applicable ASME, ANSI, BOCA and other codes and regulations to establish legal liability. And firm medical experts can explain to a jury in simple terms the injury you suffered, and the day-to-day as well as life-long implications of a serious injury suffered in a slip, trip and fall.
School & Playground Injuries
It’s always a worry that your child will be injured while at school, no matter their age. Even very young children can be seriously hurt at recess by playing too roughly on unsafe equipment or because of a lack of supervision, and older kids can be permanently injured or even killed while playing games at school or during formal sporting events.
While minor scrapes and injuries are part of growing up, serious and severe injuries that happen because of negligent supervision, unsupervised play, actual bullying or harassment, or unsafe school playground equipment should be a part of childhood. Parents have a right to expect their children to be reasonably safe while at school and during school activities. If there is negligence on the part of school officials and it results in a serious injury to your child, then there may be a valid legal claim for money damages.
Of note, Indiana has special rules any time a lawsuit is filed against a government agency, including agency-held parks and schools. Illinois law is different, although filing a lawsuit against a public entity in many circumstances must be commenced within one year. Because Kenneth J. Allen & Associates practice exclusively in accident and injury law in both Indiana and Illinois, our personal injury attorneys are aware of the state laws, as well as their limits which injured persons must face in bringing claims for school and playground child injuries.
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