blog | Lane Brown, LLC

If you’ve been injured through the use of a defective product, you may have a strong case to collect damages as a result. Although laws vary by state, a manufacturer or a seller of a product is liable if the product is deemed unreasonably dangerous and results in injury to its users.

A product can be classified as defective in three possible ways:

Design defect – This is when the product, from the start, is defective and dangerous. Cigarettes are a good example of this kind of defect.

Manufacturing defect – This occurs when a product is designed in a safe way, but an error took place as the product was manufactured, producing a defect.

Marketing defect – As the name implies, this type of product liability takes place when there are false or misleading advertising claims, or product instructions are false or misleading. A medical device or a prescription drug that fails to disclose usage warnings is an example of this kind of defect.

When you retain the services of a defective product lawyer, he or she will be able to seek compensation on your behalf in four different ways:

Lost wages – If you miss time at work due to being injured by a product, or if you have to go to doctor’s appointments after the fact, or if you are incapacitated on an ongoing basis, you can seek compensation for all of these issues.

Medical bills – This will include costs you have already incurred as well as any medical expenses in the future.

Pain and suffering – This is the part of compensation that is the most difficult to put a dollar figure on. But you are entitled to seek payment for all physical discomforts and other negative effects due to a defective product.

Emotional distress – This deals more with the psychological aspects related to a defective product and includes suffering from anxiety, sleeplessness, depression, stress and other related maladies.

The Law Offices of Lane Brown proudly serve the city of Chicago and the surrounding communities.

In accidents involving medium to severe injuries, it’s probably in your best financial and legal interests to hire a car accident lawyer. Although a vast majority of cases never make it to trial, a lawyer can be an effective asset to help you recover what you are owed.

Because it’s generally recognized that trials are time consuming and expensive, most car accident cases are resolved through a settlement process. There are several pre-defined steps that your attorney will guide you through.

The Demand Letter – If you have been injured by another driver, then you and your attorney will prepare a demand letter outlining the facts and circumstances of your accident, the medical treatment you have been undergoing, and a financial accounting of your bills and lost wages. This demand letter is presented to the other side’s insurance company and sets the stage for negotiations. The demand letter will also ask for an amount much higher than what you will accept, giving you room to maneuver during negotiations.

Negotiations – After the insurance company receives the demand letter, they will probably make the injured party an offer to settle the claim. Expect it to be low. It’s all part of the negotiation process. Generally, it’s best to refuse this initial offer.

Your attorney should draft a response letter, restating your claims and defending the key parts of the demand letter. The response should also include a counter-offer lower than your first offer. This back and forth may go on for some time as negotiations continue.

Mediation – If negotiations stall, then a third party may be brought in to try and resolve differences and reach a settlement. Mediators are generally experienced injury attorneys, and they can bring a fresh perspective to a claim, helping to break up a log jam if one exists.

Accept the offer – At some point, you can expect to reach a mutually agreed upon dollar amount, and that should be conveyed to you in writing. You will be expected to sign a release before receiving any funds from the insurance company that bars you from seeking additional money at any point in the future.

The Law Offices of Lane Brown proudly serve the city of Chicago and the surrounding communities.

There is no type of brain injury that is not serious. As the primary organ that governs every action in your life, when a brain injury occurs, it will disrupt every aspect of everyday work.

Brain injuries can be temporary or they can be permanent, up to and including death. They can occur in two primary ways – traumatic brain injuries and acquired brain injuries. Traumatic brain injuries include “impact” injuries such as from a car accident or when an object pierces the skull and enters the brain. Concussions of all kinds fall into this category. Acquired brain injuries are caused when the brain does not get enough oxygen. They include anoxia and hypoxic brain injury.

Because brain injuries are unique in how they happen and to what degree they impact a person, filing a legal claim to affix blame can be highly complicated. Certain standards of liability will apply in a car accident or a slip and fall case and they will be different from a baby that was oxygen deprived in the womb.

Where permanent damage is part of the equation, settlement awards can be substantial because the victim will require life-long or long-term care that is well beyond the means of most families. If you are an adult who suffers a brain injury, you can also seek to recover damages for current and future lost wages to the extent of your earning power which may now be limited.

For any brain injury suit, a lawyer must be able to prove there was negligence,and it directly resulted in the injury. To prove negligence, an attorney must prove that someone owed the victim a legal duty of reasonable care and that they failed in that duty, resulting in harm being done.

The Law Offices of Lane Brown proudly serve the city of Chicago and the surrounding communities.

Despite their best efforts, sometimes doctors make mistakes. And even though we expect a certain standard of care from health care professionals, there are times when they fall short. While they can’t cure everything, a physician is expected to maintain a certain standard of care. When that standard falls short and results in harm to a patient, that patient can seek damages for medical malpractice.

A medical malpractice lawyer has several possible avenues to recover damages for a plaintiff. Most of these center around proving negligence on the part of the medical professional who was treating the patient. To establish negligence, it must be proven that:

There was an existing doctor/patient relationship and therefore the doctor owed a duty to that patient
There is an appropriate standard of care and the doctor deviated from that standard of care, breaching a duty to the patient.
There is a direct connection between that deviation and the injuries suffered by the patient.
There was actual injury to the patient.

The key to proving negligence is proving what standard of care exists, and then proving that standard was compromised by the defendant.

While a doctor may be at the center of a malpractice suit, it is not uncommon for makers of prescription medications or medical devices to be sued for malpractice as well. This can only happen if the pharmaceutical maker or the device manufacturer failed to warn users of potential side effects of a drug or use of a medical device. A physician is considered a “learned intermediary” in these instances because they are supposed to have been given enough information to determine if a drug or device was appropriate for the patient’s use.

Another possible way to prove malpractice is if a doctor does not provide informed consent to a patient. In this instance, a doctor has the duty to tell a patient all the benefits, risks and alternatives involved in a procedure or in the use of a drug or device. Written consent by the patient is always needed prior to administering treatment.

The Law Offices of Lane Brown proudly serve the city of Chicago and the surrounding communities.

If you are involved in a personal injury case, there’s a good chance one or more personal injury lawyers are also going to be involved. While those lawyers live in the world of personal injury law every day, chances are, much of what goes on in a personal injury case may be foreign to you. To educate yourself and to best protect your interests, you need to at least have a basic grasp of some of the terminology you might encounter.

Torts/Intentional Torts – A tort is a wrongful act that is not a crime and that does not arise from a contract. Torts are common in civil suits and include actions such as negligence, libel, slander, trespassing and other related actions. Intentional torts are wrongful actions that are committed on purpose. Torts are important because they are what form the grounds for a civil lawsuit and allow a party to seek damages. On the other hand, criminal cases do not allow plaintiffs to collect damages.

Burden of Proof – This refers to the plaintiff’s obligation to prove what they are asserting to be true. In a personal injury case, the plaintiff must prove by a preponderance of evidence that the defendant is liable for their actions.

Strict Liability – This legal theory says that liability for certain acts exists regardless of if there is fault or wrongdoing. This is many times applied to defective products. If a manufacturer creates a product and someone is injured while using that product, the manufacturer may be held liable. Strict liability shifts the burden of proof to a defendant who has to prove they are not liable, as opposed to other negligence cases.

No-fault Laws – In some states, if you are injured in an auto accident, then you will collect damages from your own insurance company under no-fault laws. In other words, everyone is responsible for themselves, unless certain injury or damage thresholds are met.
The Law Offices of Lane Brown, LLC proudly serve the city of Chicago and the surrounding communities.

The injuries can be catastrophic when a truck is not properly loaded, but how exactly does the way cargo is loaded onto a truck contribute to a truck accident?

Improper Loads Can Cause a Deadly Truck Crash

When a truck is overloaded or the goods on a truck are not evenly distributed, a truck may be more likely to:

Spill its goods. When the cargo spills onto the roadway, other drivers are at risk of hitting the items and getting hurt. Additionally, the goods can hit another driver’s vehicle and cause that driver to lose control.
Rollover. A truck may rollover when it is improperly loaded, landing on another vehicle or causing nearby vehicles to crash.
Have difficulty stopping. Trucks that are not loaded according to cargo securement regulations may have trouble stopping, which can be dangerous if traffic unexpectedly slows down or a person or item enters the roadway.

Of course, other types of accidents can also occur, and you may have the right to recover damages in any accident where the truck, trucking company, or trucker caused your injury.

Contact a Lawyer After Any Kind of Truck Wreck

Whether you were hurt in one of the ways described above or another type of truck accident, it is important for a complete investigation to be conducted to determine what caused the crash and who is legally responsible for your injuries. Are you ready to get started? Contact our office at any time using our live chat or our easy, online contact form.