Las Vegas Injury Attorney Blog

Filing a personal injury lawsuit may be necessary to obtain compensation after someone hurts you. You will need to follow Nevada rules of civil procedure when you file your injury lawsuit.

Because there are many specific requirements associated with suing someone, it is advisable to speak with a personal injury lawyer for help as soon as possible after you are hurt. Your attorney can guide you through every step of filing a personal injury lawsuit.

How to File a Personal Injury Claim

Here is a quick rundown of action items when deliberating whether to file a claim for compensation after an injury (or wrongful death of a loved one):

When out on the road, it is very important that each driver look out for others. Just simple consideration alone prevents so many accidents. However, when people do irresponsible things like get behind the wheel after drinking, disregard  stops signs or red lights, or fail to lookout for bicycles, pedestrians, and motorcycles, tragedy is often the result.

A 20-year-old motorcyclist suffered serious injuries after being struck by a vehicle at around 11 at night. The driver who hit the motorcycle is suspected of drunk driving.

The motorcyclist was turning his bike from the private driveway of an athletic club when he was hit by a car going well over the speed limit, driven by a 29-year-old male. The driver of the car lost control and left the road after hitting the motorcycle. Both he and his passenger got out of the car and fled the scene of the accident.

Personal injury cases, or tort cases, give victims injured by negligence or wrongdoing the opportunity to obtain compensation for damages. When a victim files a personal injury lawsuit, this does not mean that the injured plaintiff will end up having to go to court. In fact, the vast majority of injury cases are settled before a jury ever hears a word from either the plaintiff or defendant.

If you are injured and want to take legal action, you should not hesitate out of fear of a long or contentious trial. If settling is important to you, an experienced injury attorney can negotiate with the insurer or person who hurt you and help you come to an agreement for out-of-court compensation.

Pretrial Settlement Percentage

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, around 2 percent of tort claims are decided by either a trial before a judge or a trial before a jury. Nine out of 10 tort trials involve personal injury cases including claims arising from auto accidents, medical malpractice, boating accidents, and defective products – among others. When a case does go to trial, a jury is much more likely to decide the case than a judge.

Forty percent of Memorial Day weekend traffic fatalities are alcohol-related, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. With that in mind, Las Vegas Metro police announced that they will set up a sobriety checkpoint later today, May 23, where Las Vegas Boulevard South intersects near Blue Diamond Road. It is part of a larger effort to keep drug- and alcohol-impaired drivers off the road over the long holiday weekend.

The checkpoint area, slated for patrol between 7 p.m. and 3 a.m., is usually the site of high traffic, especially marked by impaired drivers and accidents on holidays. This was also the site of a recent fatal accident.

According to Fox 5 Las Vegas, Metro police called the sobriety checkpoint a focal point to identify impaired drivers, notably juveniles and both young and older adults. The checkpoint stops will be made with full adherence of a driver’s rights according to the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures.

An accident is always a traumatic experience, whether major or minor. There can be injury, damage to property, maybe even loss of life. All of these require someone to take responsibility and pay for the harm caused, so the victims do not have face financial suffering in addition to everything else. Legal compensation is the means through which those who cause accidents can be held accountable.

A bus driving down a California highway through a remote stretch of desert hit some metal pipes that had been scattered across a road on a dark night. The bus slid down an embankment and overturned, resulting in the death of four people and seriously injuring at least seven others.

The pipes had come from a flatbed truck only a minute or so earlier. The truck had drifted into the dirt median on Interstate 10, the main road between Southern California and Arizona, according to the California Highway patrol. The vehicle jackknifed, spilling its cargo over the road.

After an injury, victims can obtain compensation from the individual, entity or agency responsible for the damage. Cases can settle outside of court if an insurer or defendant is both willing to accept responsibility for the injury and is willing to make a reasonable settlement offer to the victim. If no agreement is reached between the victim and the responsible party, the victim may sue and the case will proceed to court.

Determining Factors in an Injury Case Going to Court

There are a number of potential reasons why personal injury cases go to trial instead of settling. Cases may go to trial if:

• The defendant or insurer does not believe that a jury will find them liable. Insurers and defendants offer settlements in order to avoid the risk of large jury awards. If they feel confident the victim can’t prove his or her case, they have no incentive to settle. This is especially true in situations where many others have suffered a similar type of harm and the defendant feels it would be bad precedent to settle a claim.
• The defendant or insurer offers an inadequate settlement and the plaintiff believes more can be obtained from a jury. Sometimes, a defendant or an insurer who doesn’t believe the plaintiff will win will offer a small settlement to make what they perceive is a “nuisance” lawsuit go away. In other cases, the defendant may try to force a victim into settling for less than the case is actually worth because they know the victim needs the money or because they think the injured party won’t fight for full compensation. There are funding programs an injured victim can use to obtain the money needed to pay bills until a court case is resolved and an attorney can help injured victims understand what a case is worth. Don’t let the insurance company or defendant force you to accept less than you need to cover your losses.
• A plaintiff wants his/her day in court and a finding of liability. If a person or a company did something to hurt you, you may want a finding of guilt by a jury and you may believe that a jury will be generous with a damage award or even punitive damages. While personal injury cases are primarily about getting full and fair compensation for losses and damages, if you want your day in court, you deserve to have it.

Settling can ensure you are awarded at least some compensation and it can be less stressful since you avoid a potentially protracted trial. However, there are times when you may be able to obtain much more money by presenting your evidence in court to a sympathetic jury.

It is Las Vegas law that no one should suffer financial hardship in addition to the physical suffering due to someone else’s negligence or recklessness. The aftermath of an accident can be tremendously expensive, between medical bills, repair bills, loss of work time, even pain and suffering. All of these are a part of what every victim should receive as part of legal compensation. It can only be claimed, however, with the help of an experienced personal injury attorney.

A man has been arrested by Metro Police after a hit-and-run which seriously injured a 16-year-old girl near Clark High School.

The 61-year-old driver, a resident of Las Vegas, was taken to Clark County Detention Center on charges of DUI with substantial bodily harm and felony hit-and-run, according to media sources.

People in their daily lives should be able to expect a certain amount of safety. Life will never be completely free of danger, but regulations and failsafes and many other measures exist to remove as much of the danger as possible. Unfortunately, all of these are vulnerable to human failing. When these failings result in injury, or even death, the ones responsible should be the ones to pay for that failing. Legal compensation is the means that makes this possible.

A woman was hospitalized after falling down an elevator shaft at Fenway Park in Boston, authorities say.

The elevator doors opened on the fourth floor, media sources report, but when the woman stepped through, the elevator was two floors below. She fell two stories down the shaft onto the roof of the elevator.

Las Vegas makes marriage and divorce simple and easy. With a short residency requirement, divorces move fast in Nevada and state laws allow you to end your marriage with minimum hassle. Check out the facts and stats below to learn more.

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Safety is not just a personal matter. In a way, we each bear responsibility for the others around us. In a car, we follow the laws so we don’t injure other drivers or ourselves. Employers have to make sure their work environments are as safe as possible for everyone involved. Restaurants need to make sure everything is properly prepared and safe to eat. Because we all share in this responsibility, those who fail to hold up their end are also liable. They have a debt to pay, so the victim does not have to face crippling medical costs and other expenses.

An explosion and fire at a Southern California metal polishing business injured 11 people, according to authorities. Two of these were critically injured.

According to a Los Angeles County fire inspector, the explosion occurred just before 10 in the morning, originating from overhead ducts. He believes lint or dust building up in the ducts may have been the cause.