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Getting a lawyer to handle your accident case is not difficult. However, lawyers don’t sign all the clients that consult with them. Below are some tips to get a lawyer to handle your accident case.

Watch Out for Critical Deadlines

You have to notify the relevant parties after an auto accident. The relevant notifications depend on the type of accident, defendant, and intentions. For example, you must notify the police and your insurance carrier after an accident. You must also notify the liable party if you wish to pursue compensation.

Some notifications have strict deadlines. For example, you have 90 days to file an accident claim against a Missouri government agency or employee. You should file a civil claim within five years, which is the statute of limitations for Missouri injury cases.

Do everything within its deadline so that you don weaken your case. Otherwise, lawyers might be reluctant to take your case due to low chances of recovery.

Note that some exceptional circumstances can extend the statute of limitations. Thus, never assume that you are time-barred from filing a case. Consult a lawyer and let them decide.

Mitigate Damages

Accident victims have a duty to mitigate their damages. Damage mitigation measures include:

• Getting prompt medical care
• Following doctors’ instructions
• Getting back to work as soon as possible
• Securing and protecting damaged items, such as vehicles

Take such measures so that the liable party doesn’t accuse you of aggravating your damages. That way, your prospective lawyer will see that your damages directly stem from the defendant’s actions.

Be Honest

You should also be honest with the parties you will be dealing with. For example, you should be honest with:

• Your treating physician
• The independent medical examiner (IME)
• Your injury lawyer
• Your insurance company

You don’t have to volunteer information to those who don’t need it or those who might harm your case. However, if you answer a question or volunteer information, ensure it is nothing but the truth.

You should especially be honest with your lawyer. In fact, you should volunteer all the facts of the accident to your lawyer. Your lawyer needs the information to strengthen your case and anticipate potential defenses from the opposing side. Your honesty also strengthens your credibility, especially if your case proceeds to court.

Consult the Right Lawyer

Lawyers specialize in different areas of law. For example, some lawyers only handle family law cases (things like divorce), others deal with business issues, and others handle immigration matters. A personal injury lawyer is the right person to handle your accident claim. Other lawyers might turn down your case or refer you to their colleagues who can handle your case.

Preserve Evidence

Lawyers are interested in cases they can win. No lawyer wants to waste your or their time with an impossible-to-win case. Your evidence’s strength determines how likely you are to win and recover accident damages. The evidence depends on the nature of your case. Examples of evidence in an auto accident include:

• Pictures and surveillance videos of the accident
• Police report
• Your medical history
• Accident investigation reports

The evidence might get stale or disappear with time, thereby weakening your case. Move fast after the accident to secure and preserve various forms of evidence.

Manage Your Expectations

Your accident lawyer will evaluate your case and advise you on how to proceed. Although injury cases can be unpredictable, an experienced lawyer can get a good estimate of a case’s worth. Even if you don’t agree with the lawyer’s assessment, your expectations should fall within a reasonable range of the lawyer’s assessment.

Spooner & Perkins P.C., Attorneys at Law, have decades of experience in injury law. Contact us for a free consultation to review your case.

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If you have filed an injury case, expect the insurance company to request an independent medical examination. Insurance companies use independent medical examinations to verify injuries and make an appropriate settlement offer. Below are some questions the independent medical examiner (IME) may ask you.

Have You Ever Had Any Previous Injuries?

The IME may use this question to assess any previous injuries you might have. If you answer in the affirmative, expect a follow-up question to determine the nature of your preexisting injuries. The goal is to determine if your preexisting injuries, and not the accident, caused your injuries.

Don’t forget that the defendant is only liable for the damages stemming from their actions and nothing more. However, you deserve full compensation if your accident aggravated your preexisting injuries. According to the eggshell skull rule, the defendant’s liability doesn’t reduce just because you were more susceptible to injuries than the average person.

What Problems Did You Experience at the Time of the Accident?

This question seeks to determine the nature of the injuries you experienced at the time of the accident. The IME will compare your answer to your medical records. Discrepancies in the two sources of information will undermine your creditability. An answer that corroborates the information in your medical records may strengthen your case.

What Did You Do After the Accident?

In this case, the IME wants to know whether your actions immediately after the accident contributed to your injuries. Say you felt a sharp pain in your back but went home for bed rest instead of seeking medical care. The defendant (through their insurance company) might argue that your action contributed to your injuries.

Don’t forget that you must mitigate your damages after an accident. Seeking prompt medical care is one way of mitigating your damages. Your actions after the accident may also reveal your injuries. For example, running to assist other victims might indicate that you weren’t seriously hurt.

On a Scale of 0 to 10, How Would You Rate Your Pain?

One reason for this question is to determine the level of your pain. Remember that pain and suffering are part of your overall damages. Another reason is to determine your credibility. The IME will compare your answer to your medical records. Your level of pain should be proportional to the injuries in your records.

Expect related follow-up questions from the IME. For example, the IME may ask you to rate your pain from a week ago and compare it with the current rating. Such follow-up questions check your consistency, determine your recovery progress, and determine your limits.

How Do You Spend a Typical Day?

The main purpose of the independent medical examination is to verify the injuries you claim. A review of your daily activities will help with the verification. If you are in pain and your doctor has ordered bed rest, a description of your daily activities should reflect the same. For example, claiming a bad back and engaging in strenuous physical activities is a contradiction. 

Which Medications Are You Taking?

Your medications should correspond to your treatment, and medications are part of treatment. Your medications also point to the nature of your injury. For example, if you claim the highest level of pain, the IME will expect pain medication in your answer. Your answer will also verify whether you are following your doctors’ orders, which is also part of your damages mitigation.

Answer all questions honestly during your examination. However, don’t volunteer information that the IME doesn’t ask. Spooner & Perkins, P.C., can prepare you for the examination so that your actions or answers don’t harm your case. Contact us for a free initial consultation to review your case and determine the best way forward.

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You should always be alert to the risk of burn injuries if you work in a restaurant kitchen. Luckily, many people work in commercial kitchens without suffering such accidents. Below are some helpful tips to help you avoid burn accidents in a restaurant kitchen.

Use Appropriate Safety Gear

Safety gear is necessary for every workplace. In a restraint kitchen, some of the safety gear you need includes:

• Protective gloves or mitts to prevent hand burns when handling hot items, such as pans
• Non-skid shoes to prevent slip and fall accidents, especially given the risk of fluid spills that can make kitchen floors slippery
• Splatter guards to prevent burn injuries from grease splatters

Use safety gear every day at work. Don’t get complacent even if you have many years of experience working in the kitchen.

Leave Emergency Exits Clear

Don’t block the emergency door, even temporarily. Put everything in the right place. You need the emergency door clear so that you can escape to safety in case a fire outbreak overwhelms the kitchen. You should also note where the emergency doors are on your first day of work. After all, you don’t know when you might need them.

Don’t Reach Over Hot Things

Never reach across or over hot things in the kitchen. Say you want to grab something on the other side of a hot pan, food, or water — don’t reach over it. Instead, walk around or ask someone on the other side to bring around the item you want. You might burn yourself if you slip and fall. For example, you might lose your balance if the item you want is heavier than it looks.

Avoid DIY Repairs

DIY repairs are not advisable in the kitchen unless you have the relevant skills and experience. You can easily make a mistake and trigger a burn accident. Specifically, you should not repair:

• Electrical items, such as electric cookers or electrical outlets
• Cooking appliances, such as ovens or ranges
• Fuel or energy delivery systems, such as gas lines

For example, you might think you have fixed an electrical outlet only to start an electrical fire when you try to use it. Follow your workplace’s protocol or inform your supervisor if something breaks down.

Obey Relevant Regulations

You should also follow all laws and regulations that govern kitchen safety. Good restaurants have safety regulations for their employees — including those that specifically relate to fire safety. You should attend all fire safety training and participate in fire drills your employer might commission.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) also has regulations for restaurant safety. For example, OSHA requires all restaurants to have fire extinguishers and all employees to memorize all the devices’ locations. Ensure you understand and adhere to such OSHA regulations as closely.

Maintain Tidiness

Lastly, you should not underestimate the role of tidiness in burn prevention. Here are some examples of potential accidents in an untidy kitchen:

• You might slip and fall onto hot food, liquids, or utensils
• You might unwittingly start a fire if you have flammable debris in the kitchen
• Debris or carelessly placed items might block your path to the emergency doors
• Misplaced items might block the fire extinguishers

Make kitchen tidiness your responsibility. Encourage your colleagues in the kitchen to be tidy.

Hopefully, you won’t suffer burn injuries or any other injuries in your restaurant. If you suffer a work injury, don’t forget that you are entitled to workers’ compensation benefits. Spooner & Perkins, P.C., have the skills and experience to help you pursue the benefits. Contact us for a consultation to determine your benefits and help you get them.

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An on-the-job accident that leads to an injury typically falls under the purview of Workers’ Compensation. However, you may need more for your injury than you can obtain from a workers’ compensation claim. You can file a personal injury claim as well, but only under specific circumstances. Here is how workers’ compensation can work with a personal injury claim for the same incident.

Workers’ Compensation and Personal Injury Are Not the Same

Accidents at work can happen at any time for any reason. Workers’ compensation exists to help workers while protecting employers from lawsuits. Even if the accident at the workplace occurred because of negligence, workers’ compensation will still represent how you obtain the funds you need for medical care and loss of work.

By contrast, a personal injury case involves an accident stemming from negligence that leads to an injury. When the fault isn’t completely your own, you can press a lawsuit against any person or group involved in the chain of negligence leading to your injury.

Workers’ Compensation Does Not Allow Damages for Pain and Suffering

Pain and suffering includes the physical and mental distress caused by an injury. For example, a broken bone comes with actual dollar amounts attached. You pay to have the bone treated and healed. You can calculate how much money you lose from lost wages and potential wages.

By contrast, it’s hard to put a dollar amount to how much the injury affected your life in other ways. Did your injury cause you depression? Does your injury cause you pain affecting everything you do? Did the injury cause you to miss plans you made with your children or significant other?

These things fall under pain and suffering. Workers’ compensation only pays out for damages that come with a dollar amount. If you feel you need compensation for pain and suffering, then your only option is to press a personal injury claim. Unfortunately, you cannot press such a claim directly against your employer.

Workers’ Compensation Does Allow You to Pursue Further Compensation

A single incident can allow you to collect your workers compensation while also pursuing a personal injury claim. The most common way this works is through a third-party claim. If a third party holds any responsibility for your workplace accident, you can press a claim against that entity.

For example, if you fall from scaffolding on the job and suffer an injury, you can and should go through the workers’ compensation process. If the scaffolding failed because a third party didn’t erect it properly, you can pursue damages from the scaffolding company.

Third-party lawsuits require the third party to have a duty of care and verifiable negligence showing they violated that duty of care. You will have to prove negligence and negotiate with the third-party’s insurance company.

Workers’ Compensation Can Affect a Third-Party Lawsuit

A workers’ compensation claim changes how a third-party lawsuit works. The insurance company that administers the workers’ compensation can place a lien on damages awarded to you for a third-party lawsuit. Sometimes, the insurance carrier also files a lawsuit against the third party to recover funds used to pay for your workers’ compensation benefits.

Depending on how the process plays out, you may have to return some of what you’re awarded to the workers’ compensation insurer. How this works depends entirely on your specific case.

Speak about the possibility of a third-party lawsuit with an attorney who knows both personal injury and workers’ compensation law in your area. At Spooner & Perkins, P.C., we have decades of experience dealing with both types of claims. If you have questions about a workers’ compensation claim, personal injury claim, or both, contact us immediately.

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Vehicle safety devices lessened the number of fatalities from car crashes during 2017, but the overall number of accidents and resulting injuries continue to rise across the country. This reality gives reason to reflect on additional measures you can take to lessen the likelihood of a car crash.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, 33% of car accidents in 2015 were rear-end crashes. Often the nature of being struck from behind leaves little room for avoidance, but you can still practice better driving habits to lessen the likelihood you will be hit. Take a look at these ways you can avoid being rear-ended in traffic.

Practice Better Brake Techniques

One of the hallmarks of experienced drivers is good brake skills. When you were a new driver, you probably hit the brakes with less finesse, which resulted in choppy or sudden stops. Over time, you learned to execute a smoother stop. However, you may still have room for improvement when it comes to how your braking affects the driver behind you.

Anticipate Your Stopping Distance

As you approach a stop sign or traffic light, look farther down the road ahead of you so you can begin the deceleration with enough time to implement a smooth stop.

When you fail to anticipate your stopping distance and must resort to slamming on your brakes, the driver behind you is suddenly part of the chain reaction you create. When other drivers are unable to react in time, the result is usually a rear-end accident. Instead, an anticipated stop is gentler and slower, which allows the driver behind you to do the same.

Leave Yourself an Out

Remember when your driver training instructed you to leave yourself an out, or a way to safely escape traffic, while you’re on the road? The same principle applies to when you prepare for a stop as well as maneuvering a crowded freeway.

Anytime your car slows to a stop in traffic, mentally prepare an escape route if the vehicle behind you fails to notice your speed change or stop. When you can quickly change lanes or enter the shoulder safely, you might avoid being rear-ended by another car.

Don’t Crowd Cars

As you slow down and prepare to leave yourself an out, don’t crowd the car in front of you. When you stop right behind someone’s rear bumper, you leave little or no room for escape if the need arises. Instead, leave a car length of space between your bumper and the car in front of you.

The same concept applies to when traffic is flowing. Resist the urge to follow too closely the car in front. Your braking time lessens the closer you are to another vehicle. Try to leave at least 3 seconds of space between you and the car in front of you, which gives you more room to stop suddenly if the need arises.

Check Your Brake Lights

You may be surprised to learn the cause of your rear-end accident was because the other driver could not see your brake lights. Drivers behind you are unable to know you are preparing to stop if a brake lightbulb needs to be replaced. A burned-out brake light is especially dangerous at night when you rely on those distinct red lights to alert others.

You may still experience a rear-end accident despite improving your braking skills and checking your brake lights. The experts at Spooner & Perkins, P.C., want you to receive the right compensation for your injuries from this type of collision. Contact us for help after your car accident if you suffer from back pain, neck pain, or other signs of whiplash.

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A manufacturing defect arises when a manufacturer makes a mistake while constructing or putting together a product. You can file a product liability claim against a manufacturer if a manufacturing defect in their product causes you injury. Here are some forms of manufacturing defects for further clarity.

The Manufacturer Used the Wrong Parts or Materials

When a product is properly designed, the design specifications indicate the parts and materials that the manufacturer should use. However, someone may make a mistake and use a wrong part or material during the manufacturing process. A serious mistake may make the product dangerous to its eventual consumers.

For example, a car’s airbag is typically manufactured from woven nylon fabric since the material is strong enough to provide protection in case of a collision. Therefore, if a manufacturer makes a mistake and uses a mixture of nylon and cotton, the airbag may fail when it is needed most and fail to provide the needed protection.

The Manufacturer Assembled the Product Incorrectly

A manufacturing defect may also arise if a manufacturer uses the correct materials but makes an error when putting them together. An incorrect assembly can come in different forms; for example:

• A manufacturer can wire an electrical circuit backward.
• A manufacturer can fail to tighten nuts and bolts as tightly as they should be fastened.
• A manufacturer may leave out a crucial part, for example, by using five ball bearings where six are needed.

Consider an example of a power tool whose internal wiring has a short circuit due to a manufacturing error. Such a power tool can give you a nasty electrical shock when you plug it in and try to use it.

The Manufacturer Labeled the Product Incorrectly

Apart from the use of wrong products and incorrect assembly, poor labeling is another classic example of a manufacturing defect. In the case of wrong labeling, the manufacturer has done everything else correctly but then forgot to include a label, used the wrong labels or mixed up the labels. Incorrect labeling can particularly be dangerous if it applies to safety instructions or parts.

Again, consider an example of a power tool whose “On” and “Off” parts have been mislabeled or swapped. Such a power tool can cause you serious injury when you pick it up because you think it is “Off” when, in the real sense, the power tool is “On.”

The Manufacturer Contaminated the Product

Another example of a manufacturing defect is when a foreign material inadvertently finds its way into a finished product. Product contamination can be dangerous in any type of product, but it can be particularly dangerous in products that are meant for consumption such as medicine and food. It can even be worse if the contaminant is poisonous to human beings.

Salmonella contamination in food, which usually grabs the news headlines, is a classic example of product contamination. Although salmonella infection is usually not life-threatening for most people, it can be dangerous for people with compromised immune systems.

The Manufacturer Included a Damaged Part in the Finished Product

Lastly, a manufacturing defect may also arise if a manufacturer uses all the right materials and procedures but one of the parts is defective or damaged.

Such a scenario may arise, for example, if the manufacturer’s part supplier delivers damaged products and the manufacturer fails to weed out the defect. For example, a motorized wheelchair shipped with a defective, and therefore weak, leg rest kit can trigger an accident for the user.

If a defectively manufactured product has caused you injury, then the manufacturer ought to compensate your losses. At Spooner & Perkins P.C. Attorneys at Law, we can help you prove your injuries and the manufacturer’s liability so that you get the compensation you deserve. Give us a call today so that we can evaluate your case.

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