If you’ve been injured in an accident, chances are the last thing you want to do is go to trial on issues that the other side has no reasonable ground for contesting. Contesting issues without a reasonable belief of victory can be costly to the side who does this, though.…
Back seat (or passenger seat) driving usually holds little risk other than potential annoyance to the driver. However, an important new California Court of Appeal case recently concluded that a woman was potentially liable for the instructions and encouragement she gave the driver of her vehicle, which led the driver…
An uninsured bicyclist, who was severely injured by a vehicle involved in a two-car accident, was allowed to retain most of the $3.75 million judgment a jury awarded him against one of the drivers. The California Court of Appeal decided that uninsured accident victims, like the bicyclist, could prove their…
Auto accident cases, in most situations, involve dealing with insurance companies. While insurers try to carve out coverage exclusions when they can, California law limits the exclusions an auto insurer may include in its policies. In a case originating with an auto accident in Orange County, the California Court of Appeal…
Suffering serious injuries in an auto accident caused by someone else can leave you with many major decisions to weigh. If you decide to settle, the other side will likely demand that you sign a release document as part of the settlement. Achieving a clear understanding of the precise boundaries…
California law allows people to pursue premises liability claims if the landowner’s actions or inaction created an unreasonable risk of harm to offsite individuals. This potential for recovery from injuries does not extend to people harmed through secondary exposure to the clothes of a relative who wore asbestos-contaminated work clothes…
In many auto accident injury cases, insurance companies are central figures in the process. In a recent California Court of Appeal case involving a drunk driver, the drunk driver’s employer and a fatally injured motorcyclist, the court decided that the motorcyclist’s wife was not entitled to recover payment under her…
Any time you’re injured on someone else’s premises due to the negligence or misconduct of the property owner, there’s a lot that goes into obtaining a court judgment providing you with a damages award for the harm you’ve suffered. This is especially true if your injury occurred on your employer’s…
A car salesman injured during a test drive when the customer crashed into a guardrail saw his $1.2 million award disappear due to a series of impermissible questions that the trial court allowed. The California Court of Appeal recently decided that the driver was entitled to a new trial after…
The family of a motorcyclist killed along the Pacific Coast Highway recently succeeded in persuading the California Court of Appeal that the case they presented against the owner of a restaurant property should not have been thrown out by the trial court. The family’s victory is notable because the fatal injury…