Personal Injury Lawyer - The Good Samaritan Law

A Los Angeles personal injury lawyer represents either a defendant or a plaintiff under the California law in cases involving injury of body or psychological injury as opposed to damage of property. To win in a case, the Los Angeles attorney capitalizes on California state laws, federal laws and past rulings to defend the clients' case and avoid paying damages. Some of these laws include the California Good Samaritan laws also referred to as the Volunteer protection law.

The Good Samaritan Laws

According to the California state law, health care providers and emergency aid personnel are protected from being sued for personal injury by the victims of an emergency as long as the emergency personal was not grossly negligent or acted on willful misconduct. Therefore, if the emergency worker provided reasonable assistance considering the resource limitations, then the Los Angeles personal injury lawyer may use the law to seek protection for their client. These laws seek to encourage effort to provide the urgently needed assistance in the case of an emergency without the fear of being sued in case of accidental injury.

Requirements of the Good Samaritan Laws

For a Los Angeles personal injury lawyer to successfully use the California Good Samaritan state law, the injury attorney needs to show that the case at question was indeed an emergency. They are also expected to demonstrate that the defendant acted reasonably given that the decisions were made in a rush. The defendant attorney will also need to show that the emergency aid provider worked as per expected skill level. In other words, if the aiding person was a medical practitioner, then the standard procedures need to have been followed while providing the emergency help. If the person at the scene is not a professional, then they are expected to seek professional aid and not try and administer medical help. Besides this, the person being assisted in the emergency must have been willing to be assisted or provide no resistance. The law only covers emergency aid at the scene of the emergency. Therefore, a medical practitioner providing emergency care to victims in hospital is not covered under this California state law.

Limitations of the Good Samaritan Laws

A limitation in the application of the Good Samaritan law is that it provides protection only for emergency medical care and not emergency rescue. In a 2009 case held between a woman and her co-worker where the co-worker emergency aid left the victim a paraplegic, the victim sued the co-worker for damages. The Los Angeles personal injury lawyer defending the co-worker sort to use the Good Samaritan law to avoid damages for their client. However, the California Supreme Court majority ruling was against the co-worker. The ruling read in part that the Good Samaritan law only covered medical care and not rescue aid. The law therefore does not cover the actual act of rescue for example pulling an accident victim from a wreckage but only covers the act of administering medical help to the victim at the emergency scene. This state law limitation poses a risk to any well-wisher seeking to help at a place of emergency.

However, the passing of the revision of the California Good Samaritan law as authored by Assemblyman Mike Feuer in June 2010 now provides for extra protection to people assisting in an emergency. The law covers any emergency assistance in an emergency case in the absence of a medical practitioner or nearby hospital.

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How Lawyers Mitigate Effects of Collision Accidents

Vehicle collision is one of the most common road accidents in Los Angeles. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, vehicle collisions account for nearly 35% of major road accidents in California last year. In Los Angeles alone, 900 deaths were caused by collision accidents last year.

Car accidents involving other moving vehicles accounted for the large number of accident deaths in California in 2004 with 1,336 deaths due to collision with other vehicles. Collision with non-moving objects like telephone poles, palm poles, street signs and other stationary objects account for another 1,072 deaths in the same year.

Among the major car accident or collisions are:

o rear-end collision

o head-on collisions

o rollovers

o side impact collisions

o truck under-ride accidents

o backup accidents

o suicides

o speeding

Several factors caused vehicle collisions that may be external:

1. road conditions - this take into account the conditions of the road like slippery pavement, wet roads. Muddy, etc.

2. weather conditions - weather conditions can affect driving ability and may also change the way you judge objects in view.

3. condition of the vehicles

4. vehicle speed - maintaining speed can help soften impact in most collision accidents

The internal factors in a collision injury are often determined by the following factors:

o position of the passengers inside the car - an overloaded vehicle may cause fatal effects on passengers during accidents.

o head rest

o seatbelts and airbags - to ensure safety, make sure that car seat belts and airbags are working

o awareness of the crash - knowing what to do in case of collision can help you anticipate emergency procedures

Basic Rules For Proving Faults in Vehicle Collision

Legal liability in an accident is determined by who was less careful. However, there are other propositions for proving faults in collisions:

o if the injured person was were he was not supposed to be

o if the injured person was also careless, his compensation may be reduced

o if the injured person was working for another person, the employer may also be held responsible

o if the accident is caused by property

o if the accident is caused by the a defective product

Who Can Help You

An accident lawyer who specializes in collision accidents can help you obtain your claim for injury and damages.

An accident lawyer can help you in the following ways:

o Assess your legal situation

o Obtain additional evidence, information, and reports to support your case.

o Provide evaluation and coaching on legal issues

o Negotiate for terms

o Represent you in legal hearings

Effects of collision accidents are often disheartening to accident victims. In fatal collision accidents, victims did not even have the chance to obtain justice. In this respect, accident lawyers are available to help car collision victims to obtain compensation for injury and damages they sustain from these accidents.

To have a better chance of obtaining justice, it is essential to choose an accident lawyer who has the skills and the knowledge in litigating collision cases.

Get the most out of your vehicle accident injuries. Hire the assistance of our notable Los Angeles Collision Lawyers and be ready to obtain justice and suitable legal remedies.

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Calculate Pain And Suffering The Right Way And Settle Your Car Accident

How to calculate pain and suffering? This is a difficult and controversial issue. When you are in a car accident, the insurance company wants to get a written document that releases any and all claims against the person that caused your damages and injuries. To get that release, the insurance
adjuster must compensate you adequately.

You are entitled to special damages (medical bills, wage loss, medicine, etc.) and general damages (pain and suffering, loss of consortium, physiological injuries, etc.) Most of the time, calculating the Special Damages is not very difficult and there is not much debate over the value of the medical bills, wage loss, and other medical expenses. You can add them all up and submit your receipts. However, calculating general damages, which includes pain and suffering, can be very difficult.

How much is your headache worth? Depends who you ask. If you ask the insurance adjuster, she will tell you about $5. If I ask you, then it is probably worth much more than that.

Personal injury attorneys use the medical bills or all "special damages" as a way to calculate general damages. Some multiply the medical bills by two, other by three or even four times (depends in your
jurisdiction). This is only a rule of thumb. The insurance adjuster will fight you and will tell you that that is not an accurate way to calculate pain and suffering. There are no laws that will give you a formula to calculate the value of the injury.

Simply multiplying your medical bills will not yield an accurate number. You could have an injury with medical bills of $2,000 but the pain and suffering be worth much more than three or even four times that value. For example, a fifteen year old girl that suffers a cut in her face, leaving a scar from her eye to her chin. Medical bills for stitches and cleaning the wound might not be very much, but the psychological injury of growing up with such injury could be worth much more.

Multiplying the medical bills is not very accurate when assessing the value of pain and suffering, however it can guide you. Remember that there are many more claim than just "pain and suffering" in a car accident. You can ask for loss of consortium, loss of earning capacity, loss of quality of life, etc. For a detailed list and explanation of each type of claim, visit http://www.auto-insurance-claim-advice.com/bodily-injury-claim.html. All of these claims can add to a lot of money. Most people forget to ask for any of those types of damages. Insurance companies do not explain the process and they just want a release for any and all claims, including all those damages you forgot or did know to ask for. Insurance companies do this on purpose. Be aware.

Insurance adjusters are ready to tell you that the value of the injury is separated from the accident itself. They are trained to argue that they are settling for the neck pain, not the fact that the total loss settlement
was low. They try to narrow the scope of the settlement. For example, they will tell you that the fact that the driver that hit was drunk is not accounted for because they are looking at pain and suffering. Your pain will not be more or less because someone else was drunk. If you were hit at the same speed and the
same conditions by a sober person, your pain and suffering would be the same (same impact, same injury).

The insurance adjuster would be correct; the pain would be the same. But remember that what the insurance company is doing is "buying your lawsuit". Would the fact that a driver hit you while intoxicated increase the value a jury would award you? I think the answer is probably yes.

To get the most out for your pain and suffering, use the value of your medical bills, the circumstances surrounding the accident, the type of injury, similar cases jury awards, and all the bodily injury claims you
can make. Double check every argument the insurance adjuster is making. Make sure you are getting a fair treatment.

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