If you were injured while under the scope and course of your employment, you can collect benefits for being off the job and paying for medical expenses from your employer if they have a worker’s compensation insurance policy. California requires any entity which...
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Month: October 2019
Steps to take immediately following an accident
The most important steps to take immediately following an accident What you do directly after sustaining a personal injury can have a major impact on any claim you make. Obviously, the most important first step is to obtain the medical treatment you need, but if you...
Information for Victims of Dog Bites
A dog bite can cause serious and irreparable damage, especially if it is not treated immediately. If you are the victim of an attack by a canine the American Veterinary Medical Association (“AVMA”) suggests that you seek medical treatment immediately, after which you...
A lawsuit has been filed in my case. Now what?
In California, once a summons and complaint has been filed and served on the defendants they must answer within thirty days of being served. Assuming they do, the parties usually engage in mutual discovery in which they exchange documents and testimony in support of...
Public Entity Claims
Ordinarily, plaintiffs have some protection against statutes of limitation involving unknown defendants. The use of “doe” defendants can allow plaintiffs to preserve a statute of limitation and then amend later to turn a “doe” into a named defendant: so long as the...
What’s a deposition?
I have been told I need to attend a deposition. What’s a deposition? A deposition is a legal proceeding in which a person, the “deponent,” is questioned by the other parties in the case or those parties’ attorneys. A deponent can be a party to the action or a...
What is a loss of consortium?
A loss of consortium arises when one’s husband or wife is injured to such a degree that the injured spouse can no longer provide the “love, affection, companionship, comfort, or sexual relations” they were able to prior to the injury. This could mean the spouse was...
Does a felony conviction impact your civil case?
What impact, if any, does a past felony conviction have on a civil case? Someone with a past felony conviction(s), which has not been expunged, sealed or otherwise made inaccessible to the public will have to admit to them when/if asked by the other side. Failing to...
The driver who hit me fled the scene or was not insured and has no assets, what do I do now?
You may still be able to recover your damages if your own policy has an uninsured/under-insured motorist (“UM” and “UIM,” respectively) policy. You must first exhaust any worker’s compensation policies that may be in effect if you were on the job at the time of the...
I was hurt by someone on private property, can I sue the 3rd party landowner?
Generally speaking, California law allows you to make a claim against the owners and/or possessors (e.g., lessees) of property who have “failed to take reasonable steps to secure its property against criminal acts by third parties.” For example, a tenant who is mugged...