California Personal Injury Legal Questions

They will probably argue you are an independent contractor [do not determine how you do your job, can not fire you as opposed to ending your contract, do not make employee deductions, etc]; since they were not negligent in causing your fall, you have to show you are an employee and thus able to collect Workers' Compensation. File a first report of work injury and make a WC claim with them; if they reject it, you may need to hire a WC attorney to handle your case.... Read More

You should be asking these questions of your attorney; you hired him/her to represent you and they need to. Assuming your attorney does not return your communications, the answers are: 1) your lack of insurance only matters as to the law that states if you are uninsured you can not collect anything for pain and suffering; 2) insurance policies normally have a 30 day grace period so that you are still covered up to 31 days after the date your last premium was due; 3) insurance companies only have to pay the lower of either the value of the car just before the impact or the cost of repair [check to see what your car loan agreement says, if anything, about what happens in a car accident]; 4) you can file a complaint with the State Insurance Commissioner that the other carrier is not acting to try to resolve the case [but he can not force them to settle] and; 5) your attorney will get the insurance carrier to pay more of the DC billing [and get the DC to reduce how much you have to pay him back] than you could and might get more of a wage loss and car rental claim then you can, but that is relatively easy and not too time consuming but you will be paying 1/3 of the settlement for that [most attorneys do not charge for the property loss claim; unless your injuries end up with a high medical bill [insurance companies dislike DC's], the case probably is not worth much to the attorney as to fees so the case will not be among those with priority.... Read More

Yes, you can sue [you would include the company also] but you have to show it was untrue and not just an opinion as opposed to a statement of fact. So if your supervisor said "M stole a computer" you would have a case, but not if he said, "I think M is too forgetful to be a good employee." You also have to show you were fired because of those statements. If there is some type of grievance procedure at work, you should go through that first. Why did they first transfer you instead of firing you from your initial position?... Read More

It would be very difficult to sue for something [injury to you] that might happen in the future. You could probably report the employer to Cal OSHA [Occupational Safety], but that might have a bad effect on your employment. Try talking to your boss and those above him if he will do nothing. Since people fill their own tanks now, why would you come in that much contact with gasoline?... Read More

If most of what you report did occur, the mediator certainly acted beyond his powers and should have disqualified himself upon being appointed. But I find it hard to believe all these things happened. A mediator can not order how and to whom any payments are to be made, could not state you would be unable to testify at trial, or would bully you. His telling you you had to agree to the settlement would be improper, but you could have refused. You could try to back out of the agreement, but I doubt you would be able to convince any judge that these things happened and gave you no choice but to settle.... Read More

That varies greatly based upon a large number of factors that you have not told us about. In which city/county [SF. juries give high awards, counties further north the jurors are more conservative the adjuster tries to guess what a jury might award and not go above that sum. What are the medical bills, any chiropractic treatment, wage loss, symptoms then and now, your age and pre-existing physical condition, etc.... Read More

Do you have any witnesses to the seat belt being okay before you took it in. If no one can say they saw it was okay just a few days before you took it in, it will be their word against your's and you have the burden of proof so it probably will not be worth pursuing. ?It could help if you could say how it was damaged.... Read More

Contact the police and tell them you did not hit his vehicle and you left because there was no accident, he did not tell you there was, he has battered you before and since he had been in a fight you felt unsafe being around him. If you have turned in the rental car show them the paper work that shows there was no damage to the car. Immediately stop living with the guy as he is going to cause you more trouble.... Read More

In California, settlements of matters in which a lawsuit is filed on behalf of a minor are usually approved by a judge, who orders the net settlement figure to be placed in a trust and not to be paid out until the minor reaches the age of 18 [the court can be petitioned for reasonable expenditures]. The Jackie Cogan law was enacted a long time ago because the parents did spend all the money their minor movie star son made.... Read More

You may have a case, but you have to prove what damages you suffered because the air bag did not deploy and that it did not deploy. If no one else at the accident scene saw it did not deploy, you will have a very difficult time convincing anyone it did not. It sounds like your injuries were not very great so it is doubtful any attorney would take your case as the fee they could earn would not be worth the time they would have to spend on the case.... Read More