California Personal Injury Legal Questions

E-mail or write to him that he has 5 work days to get the papers to you or he is fired. ?You can then contact the insurance carrier for your employer and deal with directly. ?Your attorney will probably file a lien against your recovery, so you should request a hearing and there tell the judge what happened and since the attorney basically abandoned you he should not get any fees.... Read More

You need to find out from the attorney what exactly is going on. Since your case is probably being handled on the basis of a percentage of what ever is recovered, it does cost you any additional money to speak to her. If she refuses to give you the court case number, most court have web sites [just enter name of courtxxxCounty Superior Court]. Enter your name and it will show a list of cases in which you are a named party along with the case number, click on the number and it will give you some basis information on the case. If the defendant's have not been served, I do not know why she needs a court hearing before proceeding unless it is for service by publication. If a defendant has been served, she would need permission from the court to file an amended complaint. ?It sounds as though incorrect is occurring in your case.... Read More

Yes, you could sue because the injury was caused by the negligence of the hotel and there probably is no liability on your son [some states require children to be older than a certain age for them to be consider negligent at all] [your husband might also be able to sue in California for his emotional distress since he was in "the zone of danger], but aside from payment of the medical bills and maybe a few hundred dollars [assuming no permanent injury such as a scar], the case has almost no other value. You would have to sue where the injury took place or the state in which the owners of the hotel are incorporated. In California, you could sue in Small Claims court, but they normally give little for emotional distress.... Read More

Your mother does not need at this point a report from the ambulance company. Write to them for contact information as to their insurance carrier and make a claim with them. see if the hospital can separate what expenses are for the accident and what for her pre-existing condition [if they are to different parts of the body or one is an illness, it may be very easy to do so]. Take pictures of the staircase. Consider going to some local personal injury attorneys to see if you might want to hire one; it is your mother's claim so she is the one who has to hire the attorney. You might have a Dillon claim for emotional distress for seeing the injury happen to your mother, even though you were not in the zone of danger, but it might not be worth very much. Find out if the ambulance company is a private company or owned by a governmental agency as if the latter, she has to file a claim within 6 months of the incident.... Read More

My guess would be they are community property because at the time of payment of the settlement to you, you are married and it is mere speculation you may not be in the future [just as it is a guess by the defendant that you would not have been laid off or your employer went out of business]. Normally, I think future retirement benefits are considered community property. In any divorce settlement, you could argue they should be treated as separate property, but you probably would not win.... Read More

Yes, you have a basis for a suit, although the public entity will allege you were at least partially at fault for not noticing such a large pot hole. They may also raise the issue of whether you should have been more over toward the right edge of the roadway so that cars could pass you by. None the less, you do have a fairly good case [at night, even with a light on, you might not at a distance be able to see how large a pothole is]. Get pictures taken of the pothole and other similar defects that would show the city should have know about the defect [look for areas the city actually painted over a defect, such as a yellow dividing line that goes into and comes out of a pothole], the damage to your bike, and your own injuries. ?In California you must file a claim with a governmental entity within 6 months of the incident [usually they will reject it no matter how valid the claim]; be sure the city owns the street as it could be a state highway even though only looking like a normal city street. I do not know what your case is worth, but likely you might want to sue in Small Claims Court, although the judges there tend to be much less generous in awarding pain and suffering damages. The city can simply reject the court judgment and the matter gets re-tried in Superior court, but the judge will give you very little time to present your case. ?There would be no jury so your award would be less, but the decision would be faster than sue initially in superior court. Normally I might recommend that you handle the case on your own since it is a very simple one, but public entities almost always strongly fight these cases and even after a 1/3 of damages legal fee, you still are likely to net more with an attorney than handling the matter yourself.... Read More

The initial answer is rather simple ask him directly! There is nothing preventing you from speaking to him/her, especially since you have already admitted the accident was your fault. Tell them what your employment status is, what your assets are [don't own any property, nothing in bank, etc.], not likely will be any better in 10 years from now. your insurance company has an obligation to try to resolve all claims within your policy limits. I just recently settle a case, 2 weeks before trial date, where they settle with all claimants but my client, but the insurance company fought tooth and nail. However, for an insured, the company owes a direct duty to try to settle and failure to do so may allow you to sue your own insurance company for damages, including emotional distress. so find out from the attorney why they did not settle, did he offer to settle and then contact your insurance company to get all the details and demand that they provide a free attorney for you, one who is not an employee of the insurance company.... Read More

Yes, you can sue and most such tort cases are handled on a contingency fee basis that you pay nothing except for a percentage of what your attorney gets the restaurant to pay. But you also seem to have greatly over reacted and few attorneys would be willing to put in much time for a case of such low value. ?You do not tell us how old you are, whether you have lost any wages or have any medical bills, what the restaurant has said after you left, etc.... Read More

You do not tell us which country's laws apply. In the USA, if someone make an offer to you, you fulfill timely all the requirements of the offer so that the contract is now binding, and the offerer then backs out without valid reason, they have breached the contract and you are entitled to damages. But it sounds like they were merely allowing you to take part in a contest in which you had a chance to win something, so you have no non-speculative damages. ?You were not assured to win anything so what are your actual damages? What expenses or loss of earnings did you incur as to not being able to take part in the contest? Was this even a legitimate contest? Why would they offer someone they knew nothing about the opportunity to get paid some considerable money? Seems just like a PR stunt to gain publicity.... Read More

I do not understand how his putting pressure on your throat caused a bruise to your arm [I never know if the meanings of all words have changed in modern usgae]. If he was doing it intentionally and you do not mind the intra -family problems, report him to the police. Doing something like that should not be taken as a joke, as it can cause serious injury and mental upset to a child seeing it. Technically, you can sue him for assault and battery. The police may feel they have to deal with more serious crimes, but you should still report it as the person may do something wrong again and the police are more likely to react harsher to a series of illegal acts.... Read More

While he may have suffered from a food reaction, unless he has a medical opinion as to what the likely cause is of the symptoms, it is a guess that the restaurant food is to blame. Since he has eaten there before, he does not appear to be allergic to that type of food; if it is a fast food restaurant, they normally make everything the same each time and all the fish is pre-cooked before you have ordered it. ?Just because something goes wrong does not mean you can establish or even assume someone else is at fault. Contact the restaurant and see if there or any other reports as to patrons getting ill. Go to a physician and do not play around with his health. Of there is a connection, as the restaurant to pay for the medical treatment and some additional compensation [but do not expect much].... Read More

It is somewhat difficult to determine what the actual facts of your brother's case is. You said the attorney made you wait an hour in his office, but later say two. That all the attorney has done was make an 8 hour road trip, but then it was 6 hours. Your brother has been in jail for 15 years but at this late point you are trying to gather evidence, which is what is done before any trial of the case; your mother is very worried, but that again is something that usually happens shortly after an arrest, not 15 years later. You paid $4,200 but the attorney is now claiming you owe even more. The attorney interviewed the witness who lied as to what the DA has promised her [so why would he use her?] and he wrote out what she said but ignored what was helpful for your brother [then what was it that he wrote down?]. I can not really figure out what is going on. You need to sit down and carefully write out, in proper time sequence, what has happened and what you want done. If the attorney promised to handle the case based upon the number of hours worked [it is reasonable that he would want to speak in person with your brother and not do so on a telephone line that the guards are listening to], you are fully entitled to a breakdown of the number of hours worked. In any case, you are entitled to a full accounting from the attorney. demand that he give you the entire file and an accounting, or you will have no choice but to go to the state bar since he has provided no reason for not giving over that material. You then have to go to other attorneys with your date/action list and summary of what is in the file, and find out if they can help you.... Read More

You are entitled to your entire file from the attorney and point out to them that you have that right under the State Bar rules. Demand that you get the entire file, including his notes and papers showing what happened to the money involved. ?At that point you can then re-post your question with the facts of the case. Be sure to state the facts clearly, as your current post is not clear [were you the care giver, what was the basis of the suit, what do you think was double billed, what does your contract with the attorney say about that, etc.... Read More

I do not have any experience in toxic exposure, but I think you likely have no case. Since it is not a matter of absolute liability [at fault whether or not there is any negligence], you must ?some negligence by the owner or their agents. Having asbestos in the building structure is not negligent in itself. Unless you can show the fire was caused by their negligence, you would have to show it was unreasonable for them to insist you move your property out before they started to remedy the problem [actually, I think they likely should have told you to dispose of all of it]. You also have the big problem of showing you suffered any damages. ?That you might develop symptoms in 20 years is highly speculative, so can not be considered. The fear you might suffer injuries in the future would not suffice without some obvious physical injury.... Read More

Depending upon how young she is [under six might have no liability], she has committed an assault and battery, which are crimes, but you face the danger that if you report it to the police your mother and her will claim you used excessive force on her, and as an adult, the police may react more towards you than her. Do point out to your mother that she definitely has mental or character problems and one day she will hit someone who will then beat her up. She needs to get help. Whether her victims are family members is irrelevant.... Read More

You do not give us any information to be able to determine your permanent disability benefits. Do you still have pain, limitation in motion, need medical treatment [unless you have a medical plan that you are sure you will keep, I would not settle the issue of future medical care unless you definitely will not need any future treatment].... Read More

The section you cite says the state legislature can enact laws as to the conditions for fishing. This is very broad language which does justify requiring a permit for which you are charged. Also, in general, it makes sense that the State can charge a fee to maintain a service provided to the public and that broad language giving you the right to do something does not exclude having to pay for it.... Read More

Yes, it is, but the amount of damages you could collect would be rather small, since the people who heard it were immediately told by him that the accusation was false. There appears to be no damage to your reputation. You should inform the management of the store what happened and maybe find out when he works so you can, for at least a short time, avoid him.... Read More

The insurance co. is not your friend, despite the message that they send in their TV ads. If you were injured, PLEASE see an injury lawyer; you'll do better. If not injured, that may be part of reason for the delay. The co's exposure is finite, i.e., the amount of damage to the car. The longer they hold on to your money, the longer they keep it invested. If no injuries, you can consider filing a small claims case against the offending driver/owner.... Read More