Don’t let the insurance company take advantage of you.  You may have huge medical bills that are still outstanding and you may need proper legal advice.  Call now and speak with our San Francisco motorcycle accidents lawyers about your case.

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San Francisco personal injury lawyers have posted San Francisco hit and run laws and your rights.  If you have been injured or a loved one has been killed as a result of a San Francisco hit and run, you should immediately seek the help of an experienced law firm.  An investigation must be started immediately, evidence must be preserved and those responsible must be held accountable.  Don’t delay, call now – 415.738.7672

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Some big-rig accidents are caused by the inattentiveness or fatigue of the driver – some long-haul drivers have been known to fall asleep behind the wheel – causing a collision with another car. Or the truck may have been following another vehicle too closely and when that vehicle suddenly stops, the truck driver hits the brakes and causes the truck to jackknife. Cars in other lanes may not have time to avoid collision with the trailers, which are blocking all or most of the lanes. When a big-rig truck jackknifes during heavy traffic, a major catastrophe involving multiple accidents can occur.

If you or a loved one have been involved in San Francisco truck accident, call now for a free legal consultation – 415.738.7672

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The most common place of drowning is in a homeowner’s private backyard pool, Jacuzzi, or pond. Other frequent places for drowning deaths and injuries include public pools, and the swimming pools or spas of apartment complexes, hotels and motels, or fitness clubs. Public parks that contain lakes or ponds are other common sites of drowning accidents. Swimming or playing in the ocean or a lake can lead to tragic consequences. Special rules apply to drownings in publicly-owned or maintained waterways, such as public lakes, rivers, the ocean, bays, and other waterways that are due to the natural condition of the area that makes it dangerous to swim or play in.

A drowning may occur for a number of reasons: a person who can’t swim gets in water over his or her head; a young unsupervised child falls into a swimming pool; lifeguards at a crowded public pool fail to see the submerged body of a swimmer in distress; an experienced swimmer suffers muscle cramps; or the person drowns as the result of a collision or accident involving boats or personal watercraft such as Jet Skis.

A significant number of swimming pool drownings occur when the swimmer gets a finger or toe stuck in the grate over the drain and cannot free himself or herself. Or the drain cover is missing entirely, resulting in a swimmer’s arm or leg being stuck in the open pipe. Swimming pools constructed today generally have drain covers that are designed to prevent hands, fingers, toes, and feet from being caught in the drain cover, but there are hundreds of thousands of older pools that still have the dangerous old drain coverings or no covering at all.

A swimming pool owner/operator or an amusement park that allows people to swim in their pools often requires its prospective swimmers to sign a release or waiver of liability (also called a “hold harmless” agreement) before allowing the person to use the swimming pool. In such a release, the prospective swimmer agrees not to sue the swimming pool owner/operator for injuries or death even if such injuries or death were caused by the action, inaction, carelessness, or negligence of the swimming pool owner/operator or its employees.

There are a number of legal criteria the release or waiver of liability must meet to be enforceable, so you should contact an experienced personal injury law firm if you have lost a loved one in a drowning to get an opinion as to the court’s likelihood of upholding the release. If it is legally valid, a release or waiver of liability can protect the owner/operator of the swimming pool or amusement park only from the ordinary carelessness (“negligence”) of its employees or the condition of its premises. The owner/operator of the swimming pool or amusement park cannot, however, limit its liability for more serious conduct than simple “ordinary” negligence, such as gross negligence or intentional (deliberate) misconduct. “Gross negligence” is defined as either a lack of even scant care or an extreme departure from the ordinary standard of conduct. In layman terms, ordinary negligence may be defined as general carelessness, while gross negligence may be defined as recklessness, a higher level of misconduct.

Slaughter & Slaughter has experience in diligently representing clients who have lost a loved one in a drowning accident or who has suffered serious brain damage as the result of a near-drowning. We understand the financial, emotional, and psychological toll a drowning accident takes on the family of a drowning victim. Call now for a free consultation 415.738.7672

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Although relatively unknown among the lay public, degloving injuries are common and occur in a number of situations in which someone else is legally responsible (“liable”) for your injuries. For example, pedestrians who are crossing the street when hit and dragged a distance by a careless (“negligent”) driver often suffer degloving injuries. Dog bite victims can suffer a degloving injury when the dog’s teeth and jaws clamp down on the victim’s arm or leg and rip off the skin or bite off the victim’s scalp. Degloving injuries can occur in traffic accidents, especially when sheet metal breaks off and digs into the driver or passenger, or an occupant is thrown out of the window of a vehicle.

Motorcyclists and bicyclists who are struck by a vehicle and have to lay their bike down can suffer degloving injuries from the contact with the road. Amusement park rides and escalators can cause degloving injuries to young children and other patrons whose hands get trapped between the ride or escalator and the stationary rail due to the opening between the ride or stairs and the rail being too wide. Airplane accidents and helicopter crashes cause some of the worst instances of degloving injuries.

There are three types of degloving injuries: (1) complete degloving in which the skin is actually removed from the limb (“anatomical” degloving); (2) concealed degloving in which the underlying attachment of the skin is torn away (“avulsed”) from the soft tissue, but there is no disruption in the skin itself; and (3) a combination of the anatomical and concealed types of degloving injuries.

Degloving injuries are most commonly seen in the four limbs, that is, the arms and legs. The scalp is also a common site of degloving injuries. Sometimes a person’s face is partly or entirely degloved, such as in a dog-mauling or sliding face first along the roadway, such as a pedestrian or bicyclist who has been struck. Face deglovements require intensive surgical and reconstruction intervention (plastic surgery) over a substantial period of time to repair. However, with the recent success of several face transplants, there is reason to be optimistic that surgeons may soon be able to transplant a cadaver’s face onto a person whose face has been degloved as a matter of course.

Degloving injuries are also due to contact with extremely hot water. For example, when a person’s arm is held in hot or boiling water, or he or she is sprayed with extremely hot water in an accident, he or she will suffer deglove injuries, as the skin that is submerged or sprayed sloughs off to expose inner layers of tissue.

Our Law Firm has experience in diligently representing clients who have been in accidents resulting in degloving injuries. We understand the physical, financial, emotional, and psychological toll a degloving injury can take on the injured victim and his or her family. If you have suffered degloving injuries due to another person’s negligence, call now for a free legal consultation:  415.738.7672

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There are many reasons why a person would flee the scene of a traffic accident. He or she may be under the influence of alcohol or drugs and is afraid of the consequences. Or the other driver may not have any insurance coverage, as is the case with about 20 percent of California drivers. Or the driver may be here unlawfully (an “undocumented alien” or “illegal immigrant”) and not even have a valid California driver’s license, let alone any insurance, and fear that he or she may be deported as a result of being caught by the authorities for an accident. Or the driver may be driving on a suspended or revoked license, especially when a license has been suspended or revoked for convictions of driving while under the influence of alcohol. In its report “Licensed to Kill,” the Automobile Association of America (AAA) found that an unlicensed driver is over 65 percent times more likely to be a hit-and-run driver than is a licensed driver.

Many unlicensed drivers (particularly undocumented aliens) who get into an accident are driving unregistered vehicles, and when they get into an accident, they simply abandon the car and take off running, never to be found. Because they have not registered the vehicle, it is difficult, if not impossible, to find the driver who fled. Frequently, the unlicensed driver who was involved in a hit-and-run accident and abandoned his or her vehicle, will attend a used-car auction or bank-lien sale and buy a car—perhaps even the same one they abandoned—as no driver’s license is required to purchase a used car at an auction.

The California Vehicle Code requires that the driver of a vehicle involved in an accident resulting in injury to a person, other than himself or herself, or in the death of a person, shall immediately stop his or her vehicle at the scene of the accident. Then, he or she must exchange information regarding his or her name, current address, the names and current addresses of any occupants in his or her car, the registration number of the vehicle, and the name and current address of the owner to the person struck or the driver or occupants of any vehicle collided with. The same information must be provided to any traffic or police officer at the scene of the accident upon his or her request.

In addition to exchanging information, the Vehicle Code requires that the driver in an accident give any person injured in the accident reasonable assistance, including transporting, or making arrangements for transporting, any injured person to a physician, surgeon, or hospital for medical or surgical treatment if it is apparent that such treatment is necessary or if that transportation is requested by any injured person. At a bare minimum, if someone is injured in an accident, the driver of the other car should call 911 and request the paramedics to treat the injured person.

The failure to stop at the scene of the accident may result in serious criminal penalties, including imprisonment in the state prison, or in a county jail for not more than a year, or by a fine of not less than $1,000 nor more than $10,000, or by both imprisonment and a fine. If the accident resulted in a death or a permanent, serious injury—defined as the loss or permanent impairment of function of a bodily member or organ—failure to stop at the scene of the accident is punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for two, three, or four years, or in a county jail for not less than 90 days not more than one year, or by a fine ranging from $1,000 to $10,000, or by both imprisonment and a fine.

If the accident has resulted in the death of a person, and no traffic or police officer shows up at the scene of the accident to take the required information, the driver must, without delay, report the accident to the nearest office of the California Highway Patrol or local police department. California law requires that all accidents involving personal injury, death, or property damage in excess of $750 be reported to the Department of Motor Vehicles.

A hit-and-run driver who leaves the scene of the accident without leaving sufficient information to identify himself or herself and cannot be located, is considered to be an “Uninsured Motorist” for purposes of automobile insurance coverage for bodily injuries (but not property damage). Where a positive identification of the license plates in a hit-and-run accident has been made, insurance companies will generally initially deny your Uninsured Motorist claim and will try to go after the registered owner of the car that struck you.

If the hit-and-run driver is located, evidence that he fled the scene of the accident can be used against him to prove he or she was at fault for causing the accident, the legal inference being that innocent people don’t flee. However, even if the driver who fled the scene is tracked down, it is of no consequence to the injured party, as such driver probably doesn’t have automobile insurance or savings to pay the costs associated with the accident—such as medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering—and works at a low-paying job.

If the hit-and-run accident results only in damage to the car or other property damage, the driver has the duty to locate and notify the owner or person in charge of the vehicle and exchange his or her contact information (show his or her driver’s license) and give the other party his registration so the information regarding the registered owner, if different, can be notified. If the driver cannot find the owner or person in charge of the car that he or she hit, he or she is obligated to leave in a conspicuous place on the vehicle the name and address of the driver and the vehicle’s owner. The note must also contain a statement of the circumstances that caused the collision. The driver must notify “without unnecessary delay” the police department of the city in which the collision occurred, or, if the collision took place in an unincorporated area, the driver must notify the local office of the California Highway Patrol.

Uninsured Motorist insurance coverage (UM) is coverage you buy from your own insurance company. It pays for bodily injury losses to you and your passengers if you get into an accident caused by a hit-and-run driver (as well as damages caused by a driver who does not have insurance, or has insurance but the limits are insufficient to cover all of the injuries and damages.) California law does not require that you have Uninsured Motorist coverage, but it is definitely something your insurance policy should have. If you do not have uninsured motorist coverage and get into an accident caused by a driver who flees the scene without leaving any identification information (and you couldn’t get his or her vehicle’s license plate number), you are going to have to bear the brunt of the expenses to treat your injuries and fix the damage to your car out of your pocket.

If you do not have Uninsured Motorist coverage, you should discuss with your automobile insurance agent the amount of Uninsured Motorist insurance coverage you should have. If you have good health care insurance that will cover all of your medical bills resulting from a hit-and-run accident, you may wish to have lower uninsured motorist coverage. But health insurance will not pay for your lost wages, pain and suffering, and other damages, or the treatment of passengers in your car who require medical attention. If you have disability insurance, you may make a claim against it for the wages you lost during the period you couldn’t work. But even having health and disability insurance may not be enough to cover all of your physical and emotional injuries arising out of the hit-and-run accident. Uninsured Motorist insurance coverage pays for your medical expenses, lost wages, loss of earning capacity, pain and suffering, disfigurement, and other damages resulting from the accident, up to the limits of your policy. Uninsured Motorist insurance protects not only you but your passengers as well.

Before paying you under the terms of an insured motorist clause of your insurance policy, your insurance company will usually want to conduct its own investigation to ensure that the accident was in fact caused by a hit-and-run driver and not by yourself or someone else operating your car.

As for property damage inflicted by a hit-and-run driver that cannot be located, your insurance coverage is determined by the collision coverage provisions of your insurance policy, not your Uninsured Motorist coverage. For instance, if you have $50,000 in collision coverage, and a $500 deductible, your insurance will pay up to your policy limits (minus your deductible) upon proof of the cost of repairing the vehicle as compared to the fair market value (FMV). If it would cost more to fix the car than the car would be worth, the insurance company will usually pay only the car’s FMV. To save money, many drivers have high deductibles for their collision coverage, and if the car is a few years old, the person may even have decided not to get any collision coverage at all. If you fit into this category, then you will have to pay for all of the expenses to repair your vehicle out of your own pocket if the hit-and-run driver cannot be located.

Statistics from the United States Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety show that one out of every five pedestrians struck by a car are struck by a driver who flees the scene without leaving and contact information. Uninsured Motorist coverage usually insures you when you are a pedestrian. For instance, if you’re struck by a car while walking across the street in a crosswalk and the car leaves the scene without stopping and the driver exchanging information or coming to your aid, Uninsured Motorist coverage will apply to pay for the injuries and other damages you suffer.

Does your Uninsured Motorist property damage coverage (if you are so insured) cover you for property damage (such as damage to your vehicle) inflicted by a hit-and-run driver? No. The reason for this is that, because the deductible for UM property damage is usually less than the deductible for collision coverage, drivers may be tempted to tell the insurance company that the car was damaged in a hit-and-run when that is not the case. There is also the possibility that the motorist will purchase uninsured motorist property damage but not collision coverage. For this reason, you may wish to have collision coverage on your insurance policy.

Uninsured Motorist coverage (which usually comes in a package deal known as Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist coverage) coverage is generally inexpensive, considering the protection you get. You should have UM insurance to the same limit as your bodily injury limits. The legal limits of $15,000 maximum per person to a maximum $30,000 per accident for bodily injury were set decades ago but today the are usually insufficient to fully cover anything more than minor injuries arising from a simple low-speed fender-bender. At a minimum, you should have limits of $100,000 per person, $300,000 per accident, and $25,000 in property damage. If you have substantial assets, you should have a policy of at least $300,000 per person, $500,000 per accident, and $50,000 property damage. You should also seriously consider buying an “umbrella” policy that will protect you for $1 million or more. To obtain an umbrella policy, you usually need to have your automobile insurance policy and homeowner’s policy with the same company.

If your insurance company refuses to pay you under an Uninsured Motorist claim based on a hit-and-run accident, you may be able to sue the insurance company for breach of contract on the basis it did not live up to your agreement created when you purchased the uninsured motorist coverage. If the insurance company has no basis for denying your claim, you may be able to sue your insurance company for bad faith in denying your claim. In a successful bad faith claim against your insurance company, not only would you be entitled to recover the damages you suffered from the accident, but you also may be entitled to receive any and all damages you incurred as a result of the insurance company’s bad faith refusal to pay your claim. You would also have the right to ask for “punitive damages” from the insurance company for their callous actions, resulting in a possible award in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, even millions, against the insurance company.

If you are injured by a hit-and-run driver and will be making a claim against your own insurance company based on an Uninsured Motorist clause, do you need a lawyer to represent you? Quite often, yes, especially where there have been serious injuries or death and the insurance company refuses to pay out the maximum benefits under your policy. Just because you have uninsured insurance coverage does not mean that your insurance company is going to pay you for your damages (up to the limits of your policy) without question. Your insurance company will want to pay as little as possible to settle the claim without due regard for the extent of your damages. Your insurance company may attempt to say that you were all or partially at fault for the accident and try to reduce the amount they pay you accordingly. The insurance company may also dispute the extent of your injuries, or take the position that you could have gone back to work a lot sooner than you actually did. The insurance company may also take the position that you were at fault for an accident. In other words, when you make an Uninsured Motorist claim against your own insurance company, an adversarial relationship often arises. A lawyer can represent you and negotiate with the insurance company on your behalf to get you maximum recovery. Studies consistently show that you end up with more money in your pocket even after paying your attorney than you do if you try to do it yourself.

If you have been injured or a loved one killed in an accident involving a hit-and-run driver, you should contact an experienced personal injury law firm as soon as possible. It is also important to contact an experienced personal injury law firm promptly, as the law firm may want to send its own investigators to the scene of the accident to inspect and take pictures of the accident site and any dangerous condition that caused or contributed to the accident, especially before there is a change in the condition of the area or vehicle. The attorney or his or her investigator will also want to talk to any witnesses to the accident as soon as possible while the facts are still fresh in their minds.

An experienced personal injury law firm can also help with seeing to it that you obtain appropriate and thorough medical care for your physical, emotional, and psychological injuries suffered as a result of the accident. The attorneys in the firm can also do everything possible to ensure that you obtain full compensation for your medical expenses, pain and suffering, mental anguish, property damage, lost wages, and all of your other injuries and damages.

Our Law Firm has experience in diligently representing clients who have been injured in hit-and-run automobile accidents. We understand the physical, financial, and emotional toll a hit-and-run accident takes on the injured victim and his or her family. We will work our hardest on your behalf to get you the maximum recovery possible.  Call now and talk to a lawyer for free:  415.738.7672

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Here is the video of the FedEx plane crash.

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Suppose you’re in a car stopped for a red light when the vehicle behind you fails to see the light is red and plows into the back of your car at a high rate of speed. Because you are not wearing your seatbelt, you are thrown violently around in the car and suffer critical injuries. Had you been wearing your seatbelt, your injuries would have been relatively minor. Can the driver who hit you bring up the fact that you should have been wearing your seatbelt as the law requires and that he or she should therefore only be responsible (“liable”) for those injuries you would have suffered had you been wearing your seatbelt?

Yes. If the case goes to trial, the jury may be informed of the existence of the law (a “statute”) and may use that knowledge to assist it in determining the reasonableness of driving without a seatbelt. The jury may be given an instruction by the judge upon the criminal statute even when the statute itself does not establish a presumption of negligence under the doctrine of “negligence per se,” that is, it is not automatically wrongful conduct but rather just another factor to be considered by the jury to help it determine whether the injured party acted unreasonably under the circumstances in failing to use a seatbelt.

The bill that ultimately became section 27315 of the Vehicle Code stated that the usage of seat belts offered the “simplest, quickest, and least expensive method of reducing traffic accident casualties” in California. The bill stated that, although seatbelts had been proven effective in virtually all types of traffic collisions, only 17 percent of vehicle occupants voluntarily used them. If the law were enforced, according to the bill, the mandatory seat belt usage law would increase seatbelt usage to 60 percent, thereby considerably reducing accident casualties.

Courts in civil automobile accidents have held that permitting the jury to be instructed on the criminal seatbelt statute helps to educate and convince the parties to the case, the jury, the spectators, and those who hear about the case on television or read about it in the newspaper of the value of seatbelts in preventing serious injuries. Those courts state that it emphasizes the value of seatbelts in preventing serious injuries by warning that a jury may reduce an injured party’s recovery for injuries that would have been avoided by using a seatbelt.

When a person is injured and was not wearing his or her seatbelt, the party at fault has the burden of proving what injuries the victim would have suffered if he or she had been wearing a seat belt as required by law.

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The degree of injury depends on the strength of the electrical current, the length of exposure, the person’s state of health, and the speed and adequacy of treatment. The human body is a good conductor of electricity, and direct contact with electrical current can be fatal. Sometimes the injuries from an electrical accident are easily visible, such as a large burn injury or a charred limb. Other times, the visible electrical burns are minimal. But we can’t see with the naked eye the tremendous damage the electricity may have done to the heart, muscles, bodily organs, or the brain. The victim of an electrical accident may suffer lifelong physical and mental injuries.

There are three main forms of electrical current (not including lightning): (1) low-voltage alternating current (household current); (2) high-voltage alternating current; and (3) high-voltage direct current (industrial power plants and lightning). High-voltage electrical current tends to cause much more serious injuries than low-voltage electrical current. Electrical current that does not enter the body cause a burn to the skin or a mild shock. Serious injuries occur when the electrical current enters the body, passes through organs, and exits from another location.

Each category may be subclassified depending on whether the victim required cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). The electrical current may result in injury or death by affecting the electrical conduction of muscles and nerves, causing severe abnormal rhythms in the heart and brain, or by producing internal and external electrical burns both by heating (thermal burns) and by poration (producing holes in cell membranes) of the cellular membranes.

Electrical current passing through the brain—whether low-voltage or high-voltage circuits—produces unconsciousness instantly and directly because of its effects on the brain’s neurons. Alternating current (AC) can produce the serious and often deadly condition of ventricular fibrillation of the left ventricle of the heart if the path of the current includes going through the chest. This may occur when the current flows from arm to arm, arm to leg, or head to arm or leg.

If the electrical current has caused the heart to go into left ventricular fibrillation, it is critical that CPR be administered immediately or that a defibrillator machine be used to shock the heart back into normal rhythm. If a person who has been in contact with an electrical current that has caused his or her heart to go into left ventricular fibrillation, if appropriate life-saving measures are not taken in the first four to five minutes, the victim will die. If emergency medical technicians or CPR has been timely and successfully administered, the victim may completely recover, usually with no apparent injury. However, even if the victim is resuscitated, prolonged cardiac and/or respiratory arrest carries with it an increasing probability of permanent brain injury, persistent vegetative states, and brain death.

Low-voltage electrical injury with cardiac and/or respiratory arrest usually results in death at the scene of the accident. Low-voltage electrical injury without cardiac and/or respiratory arrest is most often encountered in children who bite extension cords. The burns of the child’s mouth are often severe and require extensive plastic surgery. However, damage to the infant’s internal organs is infrequent.

High-voltage alternating current electrical injuries generally do not result in cardiac and/or respiratory arrest, but have extensive injuries from burns and are at risk of acute and chronic problems. Electrical injuries from high-voltage circuits generally are much worse than they appear in the emergency room. The sizes of the entrance and exit wounds do not correlate with the extent of internal injury. For example, serious internal injuries can occur with small entrance and exit wounds. Conversely, large skin burns may occur without internal injury.

Direct current (DC) electrical injuries are generally observed in electrical train circuits, and are often the result of risk-taking behavior by young males.

The power company or other owner, installer, or maintainer of high-voltage wires has a legal obligation (a “duty”) to maintain its highly charged high tension wires at a height that does not endanger the normal use of the highway for travel or other proper purpose. Maintaining a highly-charged wire uninsulated where it could be touched by a hand reaching out to it from an upstairs window is negligence.

It is not necessary to come into direct contact with a high-voltage line to suffer an electrical burn. Electricity has the ability to “jump” up to ten feet; therefore people and equipment should keep at least ten feet away from high-voltage electrical lines. Because of the danger of electrocution in placing a boom within ten feet of a high-voltage line is not generally known or obvious, the manufacturer, distributor, or retailer must affix a warning on the equipment that warns of the danger in bringing the boom closer than ten feet or in direct contact with such power lines. Section 385(b) of the California Penal Code makes it a misdemeanor for any person, either personally or through an employee, to move any tool or equipment within six feet of a high-voltage overhead line.

Electrocution, by definition, is fatal, the cause attributed to electric shock. A wrongful death from electrocution can occur when a person comes in contact with an electrical circuit, such as a high-voltage power line. It can also come from improper insulation of the power line, cutting through an underground cable, or improper wiring which inadvertently electrifies a water source. The risk of electrical injury is greater in electrical workers, construction workers, boating, golfing, and children exposed to electrical outlets, cords, or devices.

Electrical accident injuries vary with the voltage of the conductor. The most dangerous conductors are the electric utility transmission lines, with very high voltage, sometimes over 100,000 volts. At such a high voltage, you do not have to actually come in contact with the conductor to be electrocuted. If you get close to such a high-voltage line, the electricity will arc over to complete the deadly circuit.

Over 20 percent of electrical injuries and electrocutions happen in the workpace. Injuries and deaths due to contact with electricity are more common among construction workers than any other group. Electrocution is one of the top-five leading causes of death in the construction industry. The accident may happen when the metal ladder, crane, scaffold, front-end loader, or conveyor they are using comes in contact with overhead power lines. The injured worker or the family of a deceased worker are usually entitled to receive worker’ compensation benefits for their injuries or their loved one’s death, but such benefits are usually insufficient to fully compensate the injured worker or the surviving family of a deceased worker for their losses.

Hence, when a construction worker has been electrocuted in an on-the-job accident, it is critical to determine whether someone other than the employer or a coworker was responsible for the accident. For instance, if the worker is using a defective drill that causes an electrical injury, it may be possible to sue the manufacturer, supplier, and retailer of the faulty drill without having to worry about limits on the amount of your recovery. If the injured or deceased worker was employed by a subcontractor, it may be possible to bring a negligence suit against the prime general contractor or another subcontractor if their or their employees’ carelessness created the dangerous condition that caused the electrical injuries or electrocution.

Construction workers can suffer an electrical injury or be electrocuted by a live wire above or beneath the ground, from various types of equipment they work with, coming into contact with electrical outlets, or the electric circuitry of a building may be faulty. Electrical burns and electrocution are risks that employees in many different sectors of the job market must deal with on a daily basis.

Consumers can suffer an electrical injury or be electrocuted by a defective product, a live power line, defective and dangerous household large appliances, and faulty and dangerous wiring and/or outlets in the home or apartment. Consumer products that we use every day without a thought can be the cause of an electrical injury, such as hair dryers, curling irons, microwave ovens, power tools, even vacuum cleaners with faulty or exposed wires.

Electric current can cause injury in three main ways:

• Cardiac arrest due to the electrical effect on the heart;

• Muscle, nerve, and tissue destruction from a current passing through the body;

• Thermal burns from contact with the electrical source.

  Symptoms of electrical accidents include:

• Unconsciousness, confusion, vertigo

• Bone Fractures

• Heart arrhythmias (irregular heartbeats, particularly ventricular fibrillation)

• Cardiac arrest (stopping of the heart from beating)

• Chest pain

• Kidney failure

• Fainting

• Headache

• Impaired swallowing, vision, or hearing

• Muscle contraction

• Muscular pain

• Numbness or tingling in the face, trunk, or arms and legs

• Respiratory distress or complete stopping of breathing

• Seizures

• Skin burns

There are two main safety standards concerning electric power and its wiring: (1) the National Electric Code, which sets minimum requirements for safe electricity inside of buildings, such as homes, businesses, and industrial locations, and (2) the National Electric Safety Code, which sets the minimum standards for safe electricity in the power lines and power transmission outside of buildings.

Severe trauma from the electrical and thermal mechanisms of injury can result in the need for victims to undergo multiple surgeries, including amputations. Other treatment for electrical injuries include heart monitoring (to detect abnormal heart rhythms, especially ventricular fibrillation), intravenous fluids, burn care measures, treatment of fractures, pain medication, and surgery for electrical burns. Disability from electrical injury can be related to the patient’s loss of physical abilities and/or the occurrence of neurological, psychological, and psychiatric injuries.

If you have been injured or a loved one killed in an electrical accident, you should contact an experienced personal injury law firm as soon as possible. You only have a limited time to sue, and that time is shortened if the wrongdoer is a public entity, such as in cases where the offender was the state, or a county or city. If the person who injured you was a public employee, it is generally necessary to file a claim for damages with the proper governmental agency within six months of the date of the incident. An experienced personal injury attorney will know how and where to file this claim on your behalf.

It is also important to contact an experienced personal injury law firm as soon as possible after the accident, as the law firm may want to send its own investigator to the scene of the accident to inspect and take pictures of the accident site and any dangerous condition that caused or contributed to the accident, especially before there are any changes to the condition. The attorney or his or her investigator will also want to talk to any witnesses to the accident while the facts are still fresh in their minds.

An experienced personal injury law firm can also help with seeing to it that you obtain appropriate and thorough medical care for your physical, emotional, and psychological injuries suffered as a result of the accident. They can also do everything possible to ensure that you obtain full compensation for your medical expenses, pain and suffering, mental anguish, property damage, lost wages, and all of your other injuries and damages.

Call now and talk to a lawyer for free:  888.222.8286

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There are two broad types of construction site accidents: (1) accidents involving the construction workers themselves, and (2) accidents involving bystanders and passers-by.

Construction workers ordinarily cannot sue their own employers or coworkers for injuries they receive on the job, but instead are entitled to collect worker’s compensation benefits. These benefits are deemed the injured worker’s “exclusive remedy,” and worker’s compensation benefits are payable to the injured worker even if the employer or coworker who caused the injury or accident was not legally at fault (negligent). In fact, worker’s compensation benefits are available to the injured worker even where it was his or her own carelessness that caused the injury.  However, an injured worker can receive compensation for injuries caused by another party other than his/her employer.  

In most cases, however, worker’s compensation benefits usually are insufficient to compensate the injured employee (or the spouse and children of a worker killed in an on-the-job accident), as worker’s compensation benefits are considerably less than the monetary damages that the injured worker or his or her family could recover in a negligence lawsuit against a his or her employer or fellow employee if such person were careless (“negligent”) and caused the injured worker’s injuries.

There are several exceptions to the general rule that an injured party may not sue his or her employer or coworker for on-the-job injuries. The situations in which the injured worker can sue his or her employer directly include: where the employer does not have workers’ compensation insurance; where the employer removes or fails to install a “point of operation” safety guard on a power press; where the employer aggravates the employee’s injuries by fraudulently concealing the existence of the injury and its connection with the job; and where the employer deliberately injures the employee, that is, where the employer commits a “willful physical assault” on the employee.

An employee is barred from suing a fellow employee for injuries resulting from the fellow employee’s careless acts, unless the fellow employee was intoxicated at the time or the injuries are the result of the fellow employee’s “willful and unprovoked physical act of aggression.” A coworker can be held liable only if he or she had an intent to harm the injured employee. Where there is no evidence that the offending employee intended to harm his or her coworker, the injured worker can sue neither the employer nor the coworker. Thus, a flaring temper over the upkeep of an area of the workplace that led to a screaming fit between two employees, while unfortunate and unsettling, was not sufficient to state an act of aggression or assault outside the worker’s compensation system.

A “willful and unprovoked physical act of aggression” includes an intent to injure requirement. In one case, a supervisor held a gun to the employee’s head and threatened to blow his head off if the employee did not sign a termination notice and get off the hotel grounds. The Supreme Court of California determined that the very act of pulling a gun in the manner described and threatening to kill was intended to cause injury regardless of whether there was an intent to actually shoot. The Court stated that, under appropriate circumstances, clenching a fist or aiming a gun may be sufficient to convey a real, present, and apparent threat of physical injury. Although bodily contact is not necessary for a physical assault, the conduct must be the type that a reasonable person would perceive to be a real, present, and apparent threat of bodily harm.

A worker who suffers emotional or mental injuries that do not result in some type of physical injury or disability is not permitted to receive worker’s compensation benefits, nor is he or she permitted to sue his or her employer for such injuries. This may result in the inability of the injured employee to receive compensation for his or her emotional and mental injuries, resulting in a “wrong without a remedy.” The California Supreme Court has said of this result that “not every aggravation in normal employment life is compensable.”

Although the injured worker is generally prohibited from suing his or her own employer, the worker can sue others who have caused the harm. For instance, if another subcontractor’s employee’s carelessness (“negligence”) harms the worker, the injured worker can usually sue the other subcontractor without the restrictions on the amount of compensation that he or she would be able to recover under worker’s compensation benefits. (Of course, when an injured employee receives worker’s compensation benefits then sues another person for his or her injuries and collects a settlement or award of money, the worker’s compensation system ordinarily must be reimbursed for the money it paid.)

If the worker is a subcontractor or employee of a subcontractor and is injured by an unsafe condition on the construction site, the injured worker may be able to sue the prime general contractor for his or her injuries. The prime contractor has a legal obligation (“duty”) to ensure a safe workplace for all workers, whether they be the prime contractor’s own employees (who generally would be limited to receiving worker’s compensation benefits) or its subcontractors and their employees (who normally would not be limited to worker’s compensation if the injury resulted from the negligence of the prime contractor or one of its employees).

If the worker is injured because of a defective product—be it a faulty nail gun, ladder, blowtorch, etc.—the injured worker can sue the product’s manufacturer, distributor, and retailer in a product liability case without the workers’ compensation limitations on the amount of money the injured worker can receive. If the architect or engineer drew up defective plans that pose an unreasonable danger of injury or death to the construction workers, an injured worker may be able to sue the architect or engineer for his or her injuries and associated damages.

A prime contractor ordinarily is not liable for injuries caused by the carelessness (“negligence”) of its independent subcontractors, as the prime general contractor ordinarily lacks the right of control over the independent subcontractor’s employees. However, in some cases the general contractor (or owner) can be held liable for injuries to a subcontractor’s employees. For instance, a general contractor can be held responsible for the acts of an independent contractor and its employees where the general contractor retained control of the work or area involved; where the general contractor negligently hired, supervised, or retained an incompetent subcontractor; where the general contractor furnished the subcontractor with negligently designed or prepared plans or specifications; or where the general contractor provided the subcontractor with faulty equipment that injured the subcontractor’s employee. Also, if the task is highly dangerous and likely to cause serious injury, the prime contractor may have the duty to ensure that the work is carried out carefully and cannot delegate responsibility for the safe performance of the work to another.

Persons who are not working on the construction site (such as ordinary people who are walking or driving by the construction site) are entitled to sue the owner and contractor and/or subcontractor for their carelessness negligence that causes injury to them. For instance, if a pedestrian is walking on a public sidewalk adjacent to a construction site and is injured by flying debris coming from the construction site, he or she may be able to sue the owner and the contractor whose employee was responsible for the flying debris. Similarly, if a crane fails and falls to the ground, the injured persons may well be able to sue the owner/operator of the crane for negligence. If a bystander has been killed by a crane (or other industrial accident), his or her survivors (“heirs”) have the right to sue the owner and operator of the crane, and in many cases the crane’s manufacturer as well.

If a machine or piece equipment was defective and caused injury to the employee using it, in many cases the manufacturer and distributor of the product can also be held monetarily responsible (“liable”) for any and all expenses related to the accident under the laws of product liability. Likewise, if a bystander or passerby was injured or killed by a defective product used in construction, the manufacturer, distributor, and retailer of the machine or piece of equipment can be held liable under the laws of products liability for the damages or deaths resulting from its defective and dangerous product.

If you have been injured or a loved one killed in an accident involving a construction site accident, you should contact an experienced personal injury law firm as soon as possible. The law firm will usually want to send an investigator to the scene of the accident to inspect and take pictures of the accident site and any dangerous condition that caused or contributed to the accident before conditions change or the construction company repairs them. The attorney or his or her investigator will also want to talk to any witnesses to the accident while the facts are still fresh in their minds.

If the construction work that injured you or killed your loved one was being done by employees of a public entity, such as the state or a county or city or one of its agencies, it is generally necessary to file a claim for damages with the proper governmental agency within six months of the date of the incident, so you must act quickly in obtaining competent legal representation. An experienced personal injury attorney will know how and where to file this claim on your behalf.

An experienced personal injury attorney can also help with seeing to it that you receive a thorough physical and mental examination and treatment for any injuries you may have sustained in the accident. An experienced personal injury law firm can see to it that you obtain full compensation for your medical expenses, pain and suffering, mental anguish, property damage, lost wages, vocational rehabilitation, lost earning capacity, costs of retraining you to do a different job if you are unable to return to return to your old job because of your injuries, if you are permanently disabled and unable to return to any kind of meaningful work, and all of your other injuries and damages, physical, emotional, and mental.  Call now and speak with a lawyer for free about your case 415.738.7672

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