The Weinberger Law Firm - Blog

Spinal Discs

admin — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:58:05 +0000

The vertebrae in your spine are cushioned and separated from one another by intervertebral discs. The discs are semi-flexible, compressible structures made of two different types of cartilage. Spinal discs have almost no blood supply, so when damaged they heal very slowly.

When the sudden jolting impact of a car accident crushes or cracks the shock-absorbing cartilage in the spine, the pain is not actually from the disc itself. The disc has few associated nerves. Rather, it is the displaced cartilage that is pressing on an adjacent nerve and/or causing abnormal tension on the supporting soft tissues that causes pain.

Thus, when your head thrusted forward and then was snapped back abruptly by the steering wheel, you may have damaged an intervertebral disc in the neck. The oncoming ache in temples could result from a pinched nerve. The general tension in your neck could be due to the abnormal strain on the supporting tissue.

It is important to note that the symptoms and pain caused by intervertebral disc problems can be piniched by damaged tendons or ligaments. Correctly determining the actual damage can be difficult.

If you are hurt by someone else’s negligence it is important to contact a Folsom accident lawyer, Joe Weinberger at the Weinberger Law Firm. Protect your legal rights and call (916) 357-6767 to schedule a free consultation with Folsom accident lawyer Joe Weinberger.

The Weinberger Law Firm
1024 Iron Point Road
Folsom, CA 95630

Serving Notice of the Complaint

admin — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 15:43:05 +0000

Serving the complaint is a very important part of the process – which must be done correctly and timely. Once the complaint has been filed, the plaintiff has a maximum number of days, as provided by law, in which to properly serve the defendant(s) with a copy of the complaint and summons. Different states provide different manners in which a defendant can be properly served with a complaint. The most common and old fashioned way to serve a defendant is by “personal service.”

By this method, someone – not a party to the case – hand delivers a copy of the complaint and summons to the defendant and then usually files a paper with the court indicating when and where the service was completed. This is often done by process servers or local sheriff’s deputies; but sometimes a lawyer will have an assistant do it, if permitted by law.

If the defendant has disappeared and – despite making reasonable – you have not been able to locate him or her, the judge may allow you to serve the defendant by an alternative means.

If you are hurt by someone else’s negligence it is important to contact a auto crash attorney in Folsom, Joe Weinberger at the Weinberger Law Firm. Protect your legal rights and call (916) 357-6767 to schedule a free consultation with auto crash attorney in Folsom Joe Weinberger.

The Weinberger Law Firm
1024 Iron Point Road
Folsom, CA 95630

The Discovery Rule

admin — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 17:12:38 +0000

In many states, there is an exception to statues of limitations which is called the “discovery rule.” Under the discovery rule, if for some reason at the time a personal injury occurred that you did not know a personal injury occurred, despite the exercise of reasonable diligence, then you have until two years (or whatever the statute of limitations period is) from the date that you discovered, or reasonably should have discovered that the personal injury occurred in which to file a lawsuit.

This may seem a little strange. How could you not know that you were in a car wreck? The discovery rule, although it could theoretically apply in any type of case, is more often applicable to medical malpractice personal injury cases.

For example: You have a surgery and the statute of limitations in your state for medical malpractice cases is two years. Three years after the surgery you get a bad infection and find out that the doctor left a sponge inside of you when the surgery was performed. You would then have two years from the date you discovered the sponge in order to bring the lawsuit.

If you are hurt by someone else’s negligence it is important to contact a Car accident attorney in Folsom, Joe Weinberger at the Weinberger Law Firm. Protect your legal rights and call (916) 357-6767 to schedule a free consultation with car accident attorney in Folsom Joe Weinberger.

The Weinberger Law Firm
1024 Iron Point Road
Folsom, CA 95630

Insurance Company Myths

admin — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:18:29 +0000

Myth – Insurance adjusters are always honest with claimants - In the days after a claim is opened, the adjuster’s goal is to find out as much as possible about a claim to find any weakness to exploit. Adjusters can sometimes say something just to see if the claimant will give them what they want or to see how the individual reacts. There have been documented instances of insurance companies using fraudulent means to get a claimant to accept a low settlement offer.

Myth - The insurance companies will make a reasonable offer to settle your claim to avoid having to hire an attorney to defend the case - This is simply not true. The insurance companies see this as nothing more as a cost of doing business. Also, there is an increasing trend towards insurance companies using in-house counsel, meaning that they don’t have to pay attorneys by the hour to represent them. Therefore, these companies are not saving by avoiding a lawsuit.

Myth - There is a set of quotations to estimate the value of the claim - You might have heard that a claim should be worth three times the amount of a medical bill that you incurred from the accident. However, the reality is that this is not true because every case is different. For instance, if you were to break your ribs, there would be little a doctor could do to treat your injuries and your appointment would be sporadic over a number of months. However, your pain and suffering would be great. Every move you make would be agonizing and even breathing would be painful. That case would have relatively low medical bills. On the other hand, if your injury is to your muscles and soft tissue in your neck or back, you would need regular treatment, sometimes on a daily basis, while the injury healed. Your pain and suffering would probably be considerably less than the case of a broken rib, but the bills for treatment would probably be higher.

If you are hurt by someone else’s negligence it is important to contact a Sacramento accident lawyer Joe Weinberger at the Weinberger Law Firm. Protect your legal rights and call (916) 357-6767 to schedule a free consultation with a Sacramento accident lawyer, Joe Weinberger.

The Weinberger Law Firm
1215 “K” Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 357-6767

Weinberger Law Firm – Sacramento Accident Attorneys

admin — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 21:46:03 +0000

Weinberger Law Firm specializes in personal injury law in the Sacramento, CA area. These dedicated attorneys provide professional, aggressive representation of clients who have been injured physically, emotionally and financially as a result of the negligent or reckless conduct of … Continue reading →

Insurance Myths After an Accident

admin — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 23:57:17 +0000

Myth #1: You must sign every document the adjuster sends you.

You are not required to sign a release of information for the other person’s insurance company. While an adjuster may want to look at your medical and employment records to assess your injuries, they do not have a right to the documents unless a lawsuit has been filed.

Myth #2: You have to give the adjuster a record statement.

If a lawsuit hasn’t been filed, you do not have any obligation to give a statement to the other guy’s insurance company, recorded or otherwise. In fact, these often work against you because the adjuster can ask virtually question without objection and the claimant locks him or herself into answers early in the claim. It is important to speak to an attorney before agreeing to a recorded statement. Often an attorney will sit in on a recorded statement to protect your case.

If you are hurt by someone else’s negligence it is important to contact a accident attorney in Folsom Joe Weinberger at the Weinberger Law Firm. Protect your legal rights and call (916) 357-6767 to schedule a free consultation with a accident attorney in Folsom, Joe Weinberger.

The Weinberger Law Firm
1024 Iron Point Road
Folsom, CA 95630
(916) 357-6767

Statutes of Limitations

admin — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 19:38:24 +0000

What is a statute of limitations? It is, quite simply, a limit on the amount of time that you have to file a lawsuit. If you do not file before the expiration of that timeframe, you lose the right to bring any claim or lawsuit, forever. Furthermore, there are no excuses and no exceptions. If the attorneys car breaks down on the way to the courthouse and the case does not get files, that is too bad. The case cannot then be filed.

Errors involving statutes of limitations are responsible for many lawyer malpractice cases in the United States. When a lawyer forgets or waits until the last minute and something goes wrong and he or she does not get the case filed on time, he or she has almost certainly committed malpractice.

Statutes of limitations vary from state to state and from one type of case to another. Common time limits for personal injury cases are two years or three years. In other words, although statutes of limitations range from less than two years to more than three years, two-year and three-year limitations periods are common among the states.

If you are hurt by someone else’s negligence it is important to contact a Folsom car accident attorney Joe Weinberger at the Weinberger Law Firm. Protect your legal rights and call (916) 357-6767 to schedule a free consultation with a Folsom car accident attorney, Joe Weinberger.

The Weinberger Law Firm
1024 Iron Point Road
Folsom, CA 95630
(916) 357-6767

Economic/Special Damages

admin — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 19:39:34 +0000

Economic damages or “special damages” as they are also often called, are those types of damages which have clear dollar amount associated with them. The main types of economic damages in personal injury cases are medical bills, lost wages/lost profits, loss of earning capacity and property damage.

The main feature of economic damages which distinguishes them from non- economic damages is that they have a sum certain. In other words, we can point to a medical bill and show how much money was lost. We can point to lost wages and say how much was lost. We can point to a damaged car and show how much it costs to fix or replace it.

Economic damages—such as with loss earning capacity—might not always be easy to calculate approximately how much a person would have earned in their lifetime had they not been disabled by an injury.

Conversely, as we will see, non-economic damages are much harder to value. So, let us look at each of the types of economic damages.

If you are hurt by someone else’s negligence it is important to contact a Folsom car accident lawyer Joe Weinberger at the Weinberger Law Firm. Protect your legal rights and call (916) 357-6767 to schedule a free consultation with a Folsom car accident lawyer, Joe Weinberger.

The Weinberger Law Firm
1024 Iron Point Road
Folsom, CA 95630
(916) 357-6767

Insurance and Bad Faith Law

admin — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 19:35:40 +0000

Unfortunately, many states do not have adequate resources to investigate all of these claims; so claimants have to fend for themselves.

In a few states, however, individuals can personally sue insurance companies for violating bad faith laws. In other words, people in these states can sue the insurance companies for committing acts of bad faith during the claims process. These laws provide that people can sue for money to compensate them for annoyance and inconvenience caused by acts of bad faith and sometimes attorney fees incurred in bringing the lawsuit and potentially punitive damages if the conduct of the insurance company is considered bad enough.

Ask your auto accident lawyer in Folsom whether in his or her opinion they actually reduce unfair practices by insurance companies.

If you are hurt by someone else’s negligence it is important to contact an auto accident lawyer in Folsom Joe Weinberger at the Weinberger Law Firm. Protect your legal rights and call (916) 357-6767 to schedule a free consultation with a auto accident lawyer in Folsom, Joe Weinberger.

The Weinberger Law Firm
1024 Iron Point Road
Folsom, CA 95630
(916) 357-6767

Insurance & Bad Faith Law

admin — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 21:35:01 +0000

You may or may not be surprised to find out that sometimes insurance companies do not act fairly toward people making claims. Common examples include accusing the person making the claim of being at fault for an accident when there is really no basis for making that assertion; waiting unreasonable amounts of time to pay claims; not offering reasonable amounts to settle claims; claiming that a particular event is not covered by a policy when it clearly and unquestionable is; failing to respond to phone calls and letter and so on.

Unfortunately, in most places, there is very little that a lowly little insurance claimant can do against a big, wealthy, powerful insurance company.

Most states have laws or regulations that prohibit insurance companies from being unreasonable. These laws are commonly referred to as “bad faith” laws. However, in many states these laws have little bite. The only thing a person can do if they are being treated unfairly by an insurance company is to make a complaint to the state government agency that regulates insurance and hope that it does something to try to get the insurance company to be reasonable and fair.

If you are hurt by someone else’s negligence it is important to contact an auto accident attorney in Folsom Joe Weinberger at the Weinberger Law Firm. Protect your legal rights and call (916) 357-6767 to schedule a free consultation with a auto accident attorney in Folsom, Joe Weinberger.