Nashville Personal Injury Attorney » Personal Injury

TVA Coal Ash Cleanup Continues

piattorney — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:22:14 +0000

It’s been nearly one year since the infamous coal ash spill at a TVA Kingston facility that released 5.4 million cubic yards of coal ash into the Emory River and surrounding land. Recently reporters were invited to monitor the cleanup progress. The site boasts a working force of nearly 500 along with 150 heavy machines. Their efforts are focused on the river, which is expected to be restored by the spring of 2010. They are currently removing 85-100 train car loads every day. The Knoxville News-Sentinel reports:

“By spring 2010 we should be finished with the Emory River, and then we will start with the Swan Pond area,” he said. “We intend to clean up the Swan Pond embayment to the way it was before.”

So far, workers have removed about 2.2 million cubic yards of coal fly ash from the river and have about another million cubic yards to go, Scott said. Then, there is about another 2.5 million cubic yards on land, said Craig Zeller, EPA remedial project manager. Cleaning up the water, which Francendese is overseeing, is the first priority, and Zeller said he will begin overseeing the recovery operation for EPA when the effort shifts to land.

“I am estimating it is going to take about $250-$550 million to clean that up,” Zeller said of the ash that is on land.

TVA has estimated total cost of the cleanup to range from $933 million to $1.2 billion.

The environmental restoration appears to be going well. Hopefully the economic restoration of the families affected by this disaster is well under way.

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Garage Explosion Results in One Dead and One Injured

piattorney — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 04:28:01 +0000

Two former volunteer firefighters were called into action today suddenly when something exploded in a neighbor’s garage and ignited Jimmy Seabolt and Jacob Beretta. The two neighbors, Jeff Kelton and Jason Bray, tried feverishly to put the flames out. For Jacob Beretta it was too late. He lost his life on Nov 28th while his step-father struggles with burns on 20-30% of his body. The tragic story has caused great heartache in the area where Jacob had lived since he was eight years old. WZTV reports:
Flames and black smoke could be seen in the sky throughout the neighborhood.

Neighbors say the two were working on a car in their garage, when they heard the sound of an explosion. Bray says, “Thank everybody that helped that night.”

Jacob suffered with burns on more than 90-percent of his body. Knowing he didn’t survive has left these neighbors in a state of numbness. Neighbor Jeff Kelton says, “It’s hard to believe. You’re glad he aint suffering.”

The East Robertson High School senior is remembered as a jokester. They say he liked to play around and had big hopes and dreams.

What a tragic story. We wish only the best for the family of the victims and hope Mr. Seabolt can make a full and speedy recovery.

If you or a loved one has been injured due to someone else’s negligence, call the Nashville personal injury firm that cares. We offer free consultations to discuss your case.

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Boy Left on Nashville Bus for 10 Hours

piattorney — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 04:13:11 +0000

An ordinary bus ride turned into a frightening ordeal for one 7-year-old in Nashville Tennessee. Semajay Woodward fell asleep as he rode the bus to school in the morning. After the bus driver and the bus monitor dropped the children off at school the bus driver drove the bus to his home and then left for a second job. Semajay was left on the bus for about 10 hours hungry, cold, with no bathroom and alone. He wasn’t freed until after 4 pm. The bus driver told the boy to not report the incident and sent him home with some food.

Semajay Woodward, 7, was picked up from his home by a school bus to be taken to Nashville Global Academy, when he fell asleep on the way to school. Both the bus driver and the monitor did not see the sleeping boy for unknown reasons when they dropped the rest of the students off at school. The bus driver then drove the bus home and went to a second job. Semajay was on the bus for nearly 10 hours, alone, hungry, cold, and without a bathroom. No one realized the boy was mistakenly left on the bus until the after-school pickup. Semajay’s mother reported to News Channel 5, that the driver actually sent her son home with some food and told him not to tell anyone what happened to him all day. Both the bus driver and the monitor have since been fired.
Source: Justice News

Powerhouse Lawyers Suing Powerhouse Lawyers

piattorney — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 05:07:47 +0000

Can’t we all just get along? In a fascinating story about Internet law, two personal injury law firms from Minnesota are suing each other. One firm is claiming trademark infringement because the other firm, a competitor, is showing ads for its firm when searchers on Google and Yahoo search for the first firm’s name. In other words, he said, she said, they said, what he said. At any rate, the case is garnering national attention because of the implications to Internet law. Is it trademark infringement for a company to bid on a competitor’s name with Google advertising? There have been plenty of cases where a company sues Google for allowing it, and Google has typically accomodated these concerned companies. But there has never been a case where one side sues the person bidding on the phrases. Frank Pasternak tell more:

Habush, Habush & Rottier, an old-guard Wisconsin personal injury law firm, is suing Cannon & Dunphy, another such firm for paying Google to link to the Cannon & Dunphy website when Google user searchs the name Habush or Rottier. It’s actually quite interesting given that the Habush law firm was one of the first to advertise quite heavily on T.V. here in Wisconsin, but was one of the last among major Wisconsin personal injury law firms to start advertising on the web. For example, this attorney is aware of the fact that within the last year or so the Habush law firm paid someone to create a network of somewhat generic blogs on the web.

Apparently, some of the underlying facts of the Habush, Habush & Rottier lawsuit are true. I just went to both Google and Yahoo and searched Habush and Rottier and the sponsored results on both searches had the Cannon & Dunphy website listed as “sponsored results.” Per the MJS article, Habush has asked a Wisconsin court to stop the Cannon firm from paying for such search results.

It’s an interesting case, and one not likely to go very far. But stranger things have happened. Evan Schaeffer also discusses the case.

Got a Gas Grill? Make Sure It’s Not This One

piattorney — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 04:47:02 +0000

It’s a staple of American lifestyle to own and use a grill. Summer barbecues are as American as baseball and apple pie. But unfortunately this uniquely American past time can take a dangerous turn when the grill is a fire hazard. One such grill is the Perfect Flame SLG Series of gas grills. They were sold through Lowe’s from 2005 to 2009. The CPSC just announced a recall of 663,000 grills because of fire dangers.

There have been 40 reports of fires. And in 23 cases the lid of the grill has caught fire causing burns to hands, arms, and faces. One individual sustained serious burn injuries to his eye that required a surgery to treat. The CPSC has advised consumers to discontinue use of the grills immediately and contact the company for replacement parts to correct the defect.

If you’ve been injured in a similar way, contact our office to discuss your case. We can make sure you get the compensation you deserve and hold the negligent party responsible for your suffering.

Police Officers Often At Risk for Injury

piattorney — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 03:00:22 +0000

The Examiner published an interesting article exploring the risks to police officers and the all-too-common injuries they sustain. The article started with a story about an officer who was T-boned by a beer delivery truck. The driver had been drinking while on the job. The officer was injured severely and required multiple surgeries. Even after long and painful physical therapy the officer had not recovered nor fully returned to his pre-accident work.

Source: The Examiner

In such cases, where benefits were provided by workers’ compensation, the officer’s recovery against the beer company no longer belonged entirely to him. Through the legal doctrine known as subrogation, the workers’ compensation insurer became a settlement partner. Now there are certain nuances that may apply to limit or eliminate subrogation, such as the “made whole rule” that some states follow, but the reality is that an insurer will most often get a piece of the pie if it asserts subrogation rather than insurance arbitration.

The whole interplay between insurance and personal injury recovery sounds complex and it is. The point to understand though is that officers are not limited to workers’ compensation benefits if injured on the job by a negligent third party. Sharing the settlement with insurer may in some cases make the recovery bitter sweet, but workers’ compensation, as limited and frustrating as it can be to deal with, must pay whereas the targets of civil litigation may pay. Workers’ compensation benefits kick in relatively quickly. As for the officer above, his civil settlement was negotiated a little over two years from the date of the injury.

The officer received workers’ compensation for his injuries. What he may not have known is that receiving those benefits lessened the burden of the other party’s insurance companies should he seek restitution. This is just an example of the complexity of personal injury law and underscores the importance of working with someone who is experienced and can navigate the complexities of the law on your behalf.

If you’ve been injured or know someone who has, contact us today to talk about your case.

Robots and the Legal Challenges They Bring

piattorney — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:26:55 +0000

Technology has made our lives better in a lot of ways. For the most part it is positive growth and progress. There are new phases of technology, however, that are raising questions of liability and other legal matters. For example, consider a robot designed to assist the elderly in the bath tub. Who is responsible should the individual fall or drown? What if a self-driven car suddenly steers into a crowd of pedestrians? These are complex issues that face us as we grow increasingly dependent on technology.

Ryan Calo of Stanford Law School is suggesting we address these legal barriers now in order to prevent future tort reform from being more painful and preventing the U.S. from keeping pace with other countries like Japan and South Korea.

“I worry that in the absence of some good, up-front thought about the question of liability, we’ll have some high-profile cases that will turn the public against robots or chill innovation and make it less likely for engineers to go into the field and less likely for capital to flow in the area,” said M. Ryan Calo, a residential fellow at the Law School’s Center for Internet and Society.

And the consequence of a flood of lawsuits, he said, is that the United States will fall behind other countries – like Japan and South Korea – that are also at the forefront of personal robot technology, a field that some analysts expect to exceed $5 billion in annual sales by 2015.

“We’re going to need to think about how to immunize manufacturers from lawsuits in appropriate circumstances,” Calo said, adding that defense contractors are usually shielded from liability when the robots and machines they make for the military accidentally injure a soldier.

“If we don’t do that, we’re going to move too slowly in development,” Calo said. “When something goes wrong, people are going to go after the deep pockets of the manufacturer.”

It’s an interesting consideration for personal injury lawyers as well. For the clients who may suffer from future technology, it’s important to be prepared to help protect them. The day it becomes an issue may be here sooner than one might think.

Safest Cars for 2010

piattorney — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:52:05 +0000

Today the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety released a list of the safest new vehicles. Among the winners, Ford Motor Co and its Volvo unit got the highest marks. They were followed by Subaru and Volkswagen AG and Audi. Surprisingly the Honda Accord and Ford Fusion were not ever considered after failing to earn minimum scores on strength of the roof. The Toyota Camry was found wanting in its rear crash protection. Apparently the head restraints don’t do enough to guard against whiplash, a common injury during a rear end collision.

You can read the report from KTLA here: http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-safest-cars,0,6076571.htmlstory

The safer your car is, the safer you will be. So if you’re looking for a new car in 2010, start with this list.

Have you been injured in some way? Are you suffering from whiplash or some other injury? Call us today for a free consultation with the personal injury attorney Nashville residents trust.

Special Investment Fund for Personal Injury Claimants

piattorney — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:23:33 +0000

Typically when a person is awarded a financial settlement due to a personal injury claim, they will use the money to pay expenses they have incurred from the injury. The compensatory damages received will likely be invested in some way to ensure it offers a return to the claimant. But often these investors are treated just like any other and are lumped with very risky portfolios. If you’re unable to work and rely on the settlement to provide for your basic living, this is a totally inappropriate investment model.

But recently a group called CF 7IM has introduced a fund designed specifically for personal injury claimants. It was detailed today at Financial Times. Says the article:

“Nicolas Martin, partner for Lancashire-based personal injury specialists Nestor, said many personal injury clients are often treated like “ordinary investors” and have been put into relatively risky portfolios that fail to provide financial security.

He said investment portfolios bear little resemblance to the costs that many personal injury victims face and that the claimants cannot afford to lose money.

Mr Martin said: “We have been very concerned about the investment strategies adopted by many personal injury victims and their advisers.

“They are either faced with simply leaving their damages payments in cash deposits, which rarely keeps up with inflation or invest the money into more risky investments which creates issues and concerns – particularly the rollercoaster we have experienced in the last few years. This did not seem right to us.”

Read the full article here: http://www.ftadviser.com/FinancialAdviser/Advisers/Industry/IFAFirms/News/article/20091119/e6de2fa8-cfa8-11de-91e0-00144f2af8e8/Nestor-and-7IM-offer-personal-injury-fund.jsp

Been injured in an accident? Need help deciding what to do? Call the Nashville accident attorney you can trust to get you the compensation you deserve. Call today to set up a free appointment.

Chimp Attack Victim Seeks Awards for Damages

piattorney — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:34:53 +0000

It was a story that the country found impossible to ignore. A woman was brutally savaged by a pet chimpanzee named Travis. Travis was housed at a business and the victim, Charla Nash, who also worked there, was called in to help corral Travis back into his cage. When she arrived, he immediately pounced. The chilling account captured our attention.

Charla was lucky to live through it, but she lost her hands, her eyes, most of her face, among various other injuries. With this catastrophe came massive medical bills and incomprehensible pain and suffering. Charla will never work again. She has brought a suit against the owner of the pet chimpanzee for housing such a dangerous animal. Shockingly, the owner’s defense is that Charla is only entitled to workers’ compensation because the attack occurred at a place of employment.

We hope Charla gets some form of justice. While it’s highly unlikely you’re struggling with something like this, if you’ve been injured in an accident, you can relate to Charla on some level. You need someone on your side to please your case and get you what you deserve. Call our offices today for a free consultation about your injury case.

Car Crash Victim Awarded $200,000 after Trial

piattorney — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:24:42 +0000

After being rear-ended in a car accident in Minnesota, William Kieper was forced to undergo spinal fusion surgery. As a result of the accident, the insurance company offered him a settlement of $15,000. He was wise to refuse the settlement and hire an injury lawyer. The day before trial the insurance company offered $90,000. He and his attorney continued to trial and obtained a verdict of $200,000 in favor of the man.

This is a perfect example of how important it is to work with a qualified and trusted Nashville personal injury attorney. Without good advice, Mr. Kieper may have accepted the original offer of $15,000 instead of the fair and reasonable amount he received at trial. We’re happy Mr. Kieper received a fair settlement.

Part of the press release regarding the case appears below. Follow the link at the bottom to read the remainder:

The case involved a client who underwent spinal fusion surgery as a result of a car crash. The crash was caused by inattention; Defendant Shea simply drove into the back of Kieper’s vehicle.

Shea and her insurance carrier, State Farm, claimed the crash was caused by ice. Furthermore, they claimed the crash was unavoidable. However, on the eve of trial, that defense was abandoned and liability was admitted. Instead they argued that the surgery was the result of pre-existing degenerative changes rather than the crash.

The insurance company offered only $15,000 until the eve of trial at which point they raised the offer to $90,000. After a week-long trial, the jury provided $200,000 of compensation to Kieper.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/11/prweb3217004.htm

Church Trip Turns Deadly with Van Crash

piattorney — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:55:24 +0000

A group of 16 church-goers piled into a van for a church outing. Sadly, during the trip the van crashed and rolled after hitting ice. Two people died and 14 were injured. All but 3 of the passengers were ejected from the rolling vehicle. The story is detailed at this website.

It’s impossible to say who is entirely responsible. The driver likely played a big role. But what about the van? Was there a mechanical malfunction? Was it properly maintained? The only way to know for sure is to investigate properly. This is true for any type of accident. By gathering all the evidence you can discover where fault lies. If you’ve been injured in some type of accident, call a trusted Nashville personal injury attorney to get help. We can help you get fair compensation for your injuries. Call us today for a free consultation.

Nashville Personal Injury Attorney – Work with a Top-rated Personal Injury Attorney

piattorney — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:49:27 +0000

Nashville Personal Injury Attorney

Have you been injured in an accident? You’re in the right place!

Accidents happen for a lot of reasons. It could be that another person did something to cause your accident or failed to take reasonable action to prevent it from happening. It’s not about casting blame, however. It’s really about making sure you get fair compensation for you and your family.

Our firm offers free consultations to talk about your case. Come in and meet with us today to get free advice on how to pursue your case. There’s never any obligation. The worst thing you can do is not figure out what your options are before taking action. Better to weigh all your options first and then choose the course best for you. We can help you do that.

About Personal Injury Law

Call us today to become our next satisfied personal injury client.

No matter how careful we are, accidents do happen. It’s just the nature of life. But that doesn’t mean accidents don’t have consequences. It could lead to a loss of employment, poor health, unnecessary stress and anguish. The law recognizes these consequences and allows those who suffer from an accident or injury to pursue fair compensation for their troubles.

Many times it’s an insurance company providing that compensation. And unfortunately, their definition of “fair compensation” is often much lower than reality. Left to their own devices they will limit your compensation severely. You need someone on your side to make sure you get a fair shake!

Why Call Us?

We know there are a lot of choices in this field. But experience matters a lot when it comes to personal injury. Work with a Nashville personal injury lawyer with a proven track record and years of qualified experience. It could literally mean the difference between getting nothing and getting fair compensation. This is not a choice to take chances with. Call us today to schedule your free consultation!

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