Articles Tagged with car accident injury attorney

There are times when personal injury law and bankruptcy law intersect. The recent case of Morton v. Scholtzhauer, before the Maryland Court of Appeals (the highest court in that state) was one of those.piggybankonmoney

In a personal, Chapter 7 bankruptcy, an individual is able to discharge most personal debts that they are unable to pay. His or her assets may be divvied up to satisfy existing creditors to whatever extent possible. In the event that individual is the defendant in a personal injury lawsuit, those debts may be included (though generally not if they arise from one’s intoxicated operation of a motor vehicle). In the event the individual is a personal injury lawsuit plaintiff, courts typically allow that individual to retain their standing in the litigation (as opposed to being forced to turn it over to the bankruptcy trustee) and keep whatever compensation they receive from that proceeding. However, injury victims generally have to ask the bankruptcy court expressly for permission in this. Failure to do so could result in a situation like what happened in Morton.

The court noted part of the price debtors must pay to have their debts more or less discharged and make a fresh start is to detail all their property interests so the bankruptcy trustee can dole out portions of it to creditors. Among these property interests that must be listed are personal injury claims of the person in debt.  Continue reading

When people get ready to buy a car, they may spend a great deal of time researching the various safety features and ensuring (if it isn’t brand new) that it’s checked by a licensed mechanic. But when they rent a vehicle, they may barely give much thought to the vehicle, other than it’s size and how accommodating it will be a for a trip.keys

Yet up until very recently, it was perfectly legal for rental car companies to loan out recalled vehicles to unsuspecting customers – without making repairs or warning customers of the danger. That should alarm motorists everywhere, but it’s especially troubling here in South Florida, which has a booming rental car industry from tourism. Now consider that there have been record vehicle recall rates in recent years – with an average of 900 recalls annually breaking down to some 2.5 every single day. In the last two years, more than 100 million vehicles were impacted by safety recalls. To give you a better idea of how big that is, there are a total of 260 million vehicles registered in the U.S.

The good news is that now, following an arduous legal battle, the Raechel and Jacqueline Houck Safe Rental Car Act of 2015, which passed as part of a larger transportation bill, went into effect June 1, 2016 and mandates that rental car companies with 35 or more vehicles in fleet must ground any recalled vehicles until they can be repaired. Continue reading

Usually, perpetrators fleeing a crime scene will be afforded little protection under the law for injuries they sustain as a result. highway2

However, there are exceptions and it’s important to consider that under Florida’s comparative fault statute, F.S. 768.81, those who are partially to blame for their own injuries can still collect damages from others who shared responsibility.

The recent case of Roddey v. Wal-Mart, though not a Florida case, is a good example of this. In this South Carolina Supreme Court case, justices were asked to decide whether lower courts erred in issuing a directed verdict in favor of a store whose contracted security guard chased down an alleged shoplifter – with fatal consequences.  Continue reading

When entering into a car accident settlement, crash victims must make sure the language of the agreement is carefully reviewed. Some agreements contain provisions that release not only the person or entity involved, but also all future defendants, even if those have not yet been identified. caraccident7

Make sure to ask the personal injury lawyer negotiating your settlement about this possibility, and carefully read the document yourself before signing off.

The case of Gores v. Miller is a cautionary tale. This was a case recently before the South Dakota Supreme Court, but the principles are still applicable to accident victims in South Florida. Continue reading

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