Practice Areas
Select a Practice Area to view detailed information
- Auto Accidents
- Head & Spinal Injuries
- Defective Product Injuries
- Wrongful Death Claims
- Motorcycle Accidents
- Dog Bite Injuries
- Medical Mistakes
- Nursing Home Injuries
Auto Accidents
A person who negligently operates a vehicle is required by law to pay for any and all damages caused. All operators of vehicles must drive with "reasonable care under the circumstances." If such care is not used and an accident occurs, they are responsible for all damages.
If you have been injured through the carelessness, negligence or irresponsible behavior of another driver, you probably have a valid personal injury claim. Since most of the time you will suffer some form of loss, whether it is income, physical, or emotional, our legal system provides you with a limited time within which to pursue your claim. You should therefore contact us immediately.
If you are the victim of an auto accident, it's smart to be prepared for what may lie ahead. Along with any physical injuries you may have to attend to, people get caught up in the emotional turmoil and confusion of the situation. There are so many things to deal with - the other people involved, the police, and the insurance companies. Signing the wrong papers could mean you've settled for less than you deserve.
Head and Spinal Injuries
Traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury are often caused by accidents. They can be caused by a variety of accidents, like automobile, motorcycle, falls, sports-related accidents, boating accidents, accidental shootings, and ATV, snowmobile, and bicycle accidents.
Traumatic Brain Injury
The brain serves as the control center for a variety of conscious activities, such as talking and walking, as well as unconscious body activities, like breathing and heart rate. A brain injury can disrupt some or all body activities. Depending on the severity of the injury, the effects can be devastating.
Traumatic brain injury can result from an impact or fracture to the skull. Damage to the brain may occur at the time the head impacts a hard surface. Symptoms may also occur later.
Sometimes brain injury can also result from a "closed head injury." In such a case, there is no impact or fracture to the skull. Often times, there are no obvious signs of external damage. A closed head injury often occurs when there is a rapid acceleration or deceleration of the head, as in the case of shaken baby syndrome. Closed head injuries usually result in more widespread damage to the brain and, therefore, cause more extensive neurological defects.
Possible effects of traumatic brain injury are as follows:
Coma
A person is considered "comatose" when he or she remains unconscious for a long period of time. The longer a person is comatose, the more severe the traumatic brain injury.
Non-coma
You don't have to be in a coma to suffer a traumatic brain injury. You can be conscious and have suffered a traumatic brain injury. In this case, you may exhibit one or more of the following effects:
Paralysis
Impaired cognitive or thinking functions, including difficulties with reading and writing and limited concentration
Memory loss
Behavior changes, including fatigue, mood swings, sexual dysfunction, lack of motivation and problems with interpersonal skills
Disorientation
Confusion
Dizziness
Loss of coordination
Depression
Anxiety
Personality changes
Impaired speech and/or vision
Hearing loss
If you or someone you know has injured their head in an accident and exhibits any of the above symptoms or any other unusual behavior, a traumatic brain injury may have been suffered.
Spinal Cord Injury
The spinal cord is the largest nerve in the body. It is approximately 18 inches long and runs from the base of the brain, down the middle of the back, to the waist. The spinal cord is made up of nerve fibers. These nerve fibers are responsible for the body's communication systems, which include sensory, motor, and autonomic functions. Sensory function means the ability to feel sensations, like pain. Motor function is the ability to voluntarily move your body. Autonomic functions are involuntary body functions, like the ability to sweat and breath. Around the nerve fibers are protective bone segments called the vertebral column or the spinal column.
A spinal cord injury is any injury of the nerve elements within the spinal cord. Most spinal cord injuries result from trauma to the vertebral column. This can affect the spinal cord's ability to send and receive messages from the brain to the parts of the body that control sensory, motor, and autonomic functions. The effect on the body depends on the location and severity of the spinal cord injury.
Usually, the nerves above the injury site continue to function normally, but the nerves below do not. A spinal cord injury can be "complete" or "incomplete." A "complete" spinal cord injury is where the nerve damage obstructs all signals coming from the brain to the body parts below the injury site. An "incomplete" spinal cord injury is where the nerve damage only affects some of those signals. The closer the injury is to the brain, the greater the loss of feeling and function.
A person with paraplegia has lost feeling and is unable to move the lower parts of the body. A person with tetraplegia (formerly known as quadriplegia) has lost feeling and is unable to move both the upper and lower parts of the body. In some cases, the spinal cord is only bruised or swollen and the nerves may begin to work again.
Like traumatic brain injury, the leading causes of spinal cord injuries are motor vehicle crashes, falls, and sport-related accidents, especially diving. The key to reducing these horrific injuries is through prevention.
Defective Product Injuries
Each year, thousands of people suffer serious injuries because of defective products. Many die. Oftentimes, these victims are children.
Millions of toys, playpens, cribs, infant carriers, car seats, romper sets, strollers, and even teddy bears have been recalled after causing injuries and even fatalities. When a person is injured by a dangerous product, he or she may have a products liability action against the seller or manufacturer of the product.
Although you may have a claim because you actually bought the product and were injured, you may also have a claim if you were an innocent bystander and were injured, or if you borrowed the product from a friend, used it, and were injured. A products liability claim can be brought against the manufacturer of the product as well as the supplier, distributor or retailer of the product.
Manufacturers and sellers of dangerous goods can be liable for their negligence under various circumstances, including the following:
Failure to inspect or test the product before placing it on the market
Creating a flaw in the product
Failing to discover a flaw in a product
Failure to discover that the product could be dangerous
Failure to warn or adequately warn of a risk or hazard associated with the product
The seller and manufacturer can also be liable for strict products liability. Here, proof of negligence isn't necessary. So long as it can be shown that the product was defective and unreasonably dangerous, you may be able to recover.
Wrongful Death Claims
It is truly tragic when an accident caused by someone else's negligence results in the death of a loved one. To protect certain family members in these terribly unfortunate situations, Kentucky and Indiana law provides for both wrongful death and survival actions.
Wrongful Death Action
A wrongful death action may be brought by the decedent's (the deceased person's) spouse, children, parents or siblings.
These family members may recover money damages for hospital, nursing, medical, funeral and estate administration expenses and other damages provided for by Kentucky or Indiana law.
Motorcycle Accidents
Motorcycles are fun, but they are also dangerous. More than 80 percent of all reported motorcycle accidents result in injury or death. On average, approximately 2,000 motorcyclists are killed and more than 50,000 are injured in traffic crashes each year. Motorcyclists are about 16 times more likely than those in passenger cars to die in a motor vehicle crash, and they're about 3 times more likely to be injured. Head injury is the leading cause of death and serious injury in motorcycle crashes.
Several factors can contribute to a motorcycle crash. Approximately one-third of motorcycle crashes result from a motorist turning into the path of the motorcycle.
Unfortunately, even if you practice motorcycle safety, you may be involved in an accident because of the negligence of another driver. If that's the case, you'll need a lawyer who knows motorcycle law and who is willing to fight for your rights.
Dog Bite Injuries
Dogs can make great pets. But dogs can also bite people and cause serious injuries and, in some cases, even death. It has been estimated that nearly 4.7 million people in this country are bitten by dogs each year.
Of those, nearly 350,000 require treatment in an emergency room. Thousands of others require in-patient care, with the average hospital stay being estimated at 3.6 days. In addition to these injuries, dog bite attacks also cause death. In 1997 and 1998, for example, 27 people died as a result of dog bite attacks in the United States.
Medical Mistakes
Medical mistakes kill between 44,000 and 98,000 people each year. This far exceeds the number of people killed each year in traffic accidents (43,450), or those who die yearly from breast cancer (42,300) or AIDS (16,400).
In addition to death, medical mistakes can cause birth trauma such as cerebral palsy, brain injury, paralysis, amputation, disability, and disfigurement.
A medical mistake or medical negligence occurs when a doctor or other healthcare professional fails to properly treat a patient and the improper treatment causes the patient to suffer a new injury.
Some examples include the following:
Failure to diagnose a medical condition
Misdiagnosis of a medical condition
Failure to properly treat a patient's medical condition
Failure to safely administer anesthesia
Failure to manage a pregnancy or deliver a baby in a safe manner
Failure of a nurse or other staff member to
keep a treating physician informed of a patient's condition
Failure to administer medications properly
Failure to protect a patient from a fall or other injury on hospital property
Nursing Home Injuries
It is a well-known fact that our population is aging. Currently, more than 1.5 million people live in nursing homes. While many nursing homes do provide good care, others do not, subjecting helpless residents to needless suffering and even death. Oftentimes these nursing homes are not sufficiently staffed and their employees are not properly trained.
This could lead to a very painful existence for residents who depend on the home's staff for the basic essentials of life, like food, water, medicine, toileting, grooming, stimulation, and turning. When a nursing home fails to provide treatment, care, goods or services required to preserve a resident's health, safety, or welfare, and the resident suffers injury as a result, the facility may be found negligent.
Examples of nursing home negligence include the following:
Failure to provide food or water or failure to prevent malnutrition or dehydration
Failure to assist in personal hygiene
Failure to provide safe, clean and decent living conditions
Failure to provide adequate treatment and services for incontinent residents
Failure to provide appropriate supervision and assistive devices to prevent accidents
Failure to provide adequate medical care and acquire and dispense proper medications, as well as failure to ensure that residents are free from serious medication errors
Failure to prevent a resident from developing pressure sores, or if a resident already has pressure sores, failure to provide proper treatment to promote healing
Nursing homes that receive federal funds through Medicare or Medicaid must comply with federal laws that require the home to provide a high quality of care. The federal regulations require the following:
Sufficient staffing of nurses
Assessment of the patient's functional capacity no more than 14 days after admission and no less than once every 12 months thereafter
The development of a care plan within 7 days of the functional capacity assessment. The care plan includes measurable objectives and timetables to meet the patient's medical, nursing, mental and psychosocial needs.
Prevention of the deterioration of the patient's ability to perform basic life functions, such as bathing, dressing, grooming, eating, and communicating. If a patient is unable to perform basic life functions, the nursing home must provide the necessary services to provide good nutrition, grooming, and personal and oral hygiene.
Ensure that patients receive proper treatment and assistive devices to maintain good vision and hearing
Prevention of the development of pressure sores. If pressure sores already exist, the nursing home must provide the necessary treatment to promote healing, prevention of infection, and prevention of future sores.
Provide appropriate treatment for incontinent patients in order to restore as much normal bladder function as possible and prevent bladder infections
Provide adequate supervision and assistive devices to prevent accidents
Maintain proper nutrition and hydration
Ensure that patients are free of significant medication errors
Care for the patient so as to maintain or enhance the patient's quality of life
Ensure that the patient can choose activities consistent with his or her interests and plan of care
Provide supervised medical care for each patient by a physician
Provide 24-hour physician services in case of an emergency
Provide pharmaceutical services
Maintain proper clinical records on each patient in accordance with accepted professional standards
Administer the facility in a way that attains or maintains the highest practical physical, mental, and psychosocial well-being of each patient
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