Vegas Personal Injury Law Blog

Between the dates of September 5, 2008 and October 9, 2008 five infants, all under the age of 3 months died from similar symptoms.  Each of the infants lived in a separate building of this Section 8 apartment complex. One infant died in each five of the  separate  buildings of the six-building complex.

All the infants passed away within one week one week of experiencing the first symptoms.

Adults living with the infants experienced skin rash similar in appearance to poison ivy, fatigue and headaches.

It is reported that weird looking flies appeared from the air conditioning ducts.

The pesticide utilized in these buildings possibly contained Bifenthrin. A product sold by Nu-Calgon was used to clean the coils of the apartment air conditioners. The Nu-Calgon product consists of aqua ammonia, diethylene glycol monethyl ether, etheline glycol, n-butyl ether tetrasodium EDTA, caustic soda sodium metasilicate, sodium nitrate, butane and propane (volatile components are butane and propane).

Just prior to Thanksgiving 2008 all of the air conditioning duct work, water heaters and water heater water lines were replaced in these apartment buildings.

Toxic mold, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and Radon have been ruled out as causes of death.

As revealed by autopsies, common symptoms and pathology  experienced by the infants prior their death were as follows:

Some prospective clients expect the attorney to get all their documentation. This undoubtedly will slow down the progress of their claim. Others are very meticulous and come to initial appointment very prepared. Obviously, this preparation will expedite the successful conclusion of their claim.

This Blog will provide you with valuable information so that you can be fully prepared for your initial consultation with your attorney. Your attorney will be impressed if you provide him with all this documentation at your initial consultation.

1. The Accident Report.

One of the most important documents in assessing the liability aspect of a personal injury claim is the accident report. On auto accident cases, the traffic accident report contains useful information concerning the identity of the involved vehicles and the identity and contact information for the parties for your attorney to report your claim to your insurance carrier and the adverse insurance carrier. It contains information concerning how the accident occurred, the issuance of citations and factors contributing to the occurrence of the accident. This information is helpful to the attorney in determining who was at fault for the accident. It can provide information on comparative negligence. (Sometimes, more than one driver causes an accident.) Contact information of independent witnesses is also contained on the report. Before an adverse insurance company will pay for your property damage, they need to take a statement from their insured and/or driver; and, they need to have a copy of the traffic accident report.

Unfortunately the traffic accident report will not be available from law enforcement agencies in Las Vegas for approximately ten days to two weeks after your accident. If the accident involves a DUI or hit and-run, the report won’t be available until the accident investigation is complete. It may take a month or longer before these reports are available.

Your investigating officer should give you a computer printout that has the identity of the drivers, owners and passengers; and, the names of the auto insurance companies and their telephone numbers of the insurance companies, or the insurance agents or brokers. No addresses or telephone numbers of the drivers are contained on the printout. The is printout also contains the event number which will be helpful to your attorney in obtaining a copy of our traffic accident report, so bring the printout to your attorney.

On premises liability cases, the business owner or managers may complete an accident report. You should always request a copy. If you fill out a statement always request a copy. Most businesses will not give you a copy of their report. In most cases, your attorney will not be able to get a copy of your report until after litigation has been commenced. So, be persistent and assertive about getting a copy of your report. This report is helpful to our attorney for the same reasons that an auto accident report is helpful. Casinos are generally self-insured, so you generally do not find insurance information on premises accident reports.

2. Your notes regarding the accident.

Your notes will contain information concerning the details of the accident, what happened at the accident scene, your symptoms and how they came on, the effect the injury is having on our daily life, witness identity and contact information, license plate numbers and conversations with involved parties. This is why it is important to keep a pen and writing pad in your car. Your notes may contain the names and addresses of your medical providers. You should bring your notes with you to your attorney consultation. I find that most people don’t know or can’t remember which ambulance company transported them the hospital. Your notes may contain this information. Your notes also may contain information about how your body moved during the collision, or may contain a description of any contact your body made with the interior of your vehicle.

3. Photographs.

It’s a good idea to keep a disposable camera in your car in case you’re involved in an accident. Today, almost everyone has a cell phone. Most modern cell phones contain a digital a camera. A picture is worth a thousand words. So, take some photos of your vehicle, and the other vehicles involved in the accident. Take a picture of the adverse driver and his passengers, his license plate, especially if there is an issue concerning who was driving the adverse vehicle, or if the adverse driver decides to leave the scene.

You should also provide the attorney with photos of your visible injuries. Some visible
injuries will dissipate with time. Some may not appear until the next day. (Black and blue marks and swelling). Some injuries, like seat belt injuries, may appear on or near your private parts. These photos, if they have to be taken at the attorney’s office, may be embarrassing to you, or they may be inappropriate to take at the attorney’s office.

4. The Declarations Page of Your Auto Insurance Policy.

This document is something that you get as every six months from your carrier. It is sometimes referred to as a premium renewal notice. This document is helpful into to your attorney in determining what coverages that you have available for the accident, such as med pay, uninsured/underinsurance coverages and collision coverage and the applicable deductible. If you have an umbrella policy bring a copy of that dec page with you. Umbrella policies should provide you with additional uninsured/underinsured coverages. If you reside with any relative that has auto insurance on their vehicle, bring that dec page, because their auto insurance may apply to afford you with additional coverage, especially when your injuries are severe.

5. Your Health Insurance Card.

Your attorney needs to know if your have health insurance available to pay your medical bills. The interplay between your health insurance coverage and your med pay can literally save you thousands of dollars on a n auto accident claim. Also, your health insurance will likely have a subrogation lien associated with the use of your health insurance on an auto accident claim. (Note: some private health policies do not contain a subrogbation clause.) To inquire about subrogation liens, your attorney will needs an address or telephone number, which will be found on your health insurance card.

6. Medical Bills or Records.

You may be given discharge instructions from the hospital. These may contain your patient number or medical records number which will be helpful to your attorney in ordering your emergent bills and records. Bring your prescription receipts. Pharmacies will charge exorbitant fees to produce copies of your prescriptions, so bring these receipts to your attorney.

7. Pay Stub.

If you missed work, or will miss work because of your injuries, your attorney will need this info to verify your wage loss, Your pay stub will contain contact information concerning the entity that processes our payroll. This can be an in-house or an independent company.

8. Clothing or Damaged Clothing.

If you are involved in a slip/trip and fall accident the shoes that you were wearing are an important piece of evidence. Provide your attorney with the shoes of photos of them. These shoes should not be discarded until your claim or case has been completed.

If your clothing was damaged in a slip/ trip and fall or auto accident, this can provide proof concerning the severity of the fall or collision and the location of your injuries.

Beginning July 1, 2009, Medicare Secondary Payor requires insurers to report any settlement, judgment or award to Medicare. Failure to report any settlement, judgment or award will result in a $1,000.00 per day penalty to the insurance company. Medicare Secondary Payor can sue for double damages, plus interest. The suit can be initiated against the insurance company, the Medicare beneficiary and his or her attorney, as well as the physician, if the settlement of the claim or suit does not protect Medicare’s subrogation interests.

Medicare is now contacting auto insurance liability insurance companies notifying them that funds be held for payment of Medicare liens. This may even include funds for payment of future medical services. If this happens, the attorney will probably receive a settlement check with Medicare’s name on it. This will certainly complicate and delay the settlement distribution to the medicare beneficiary.

I have been in the legal profession long enough to remember a time when there was virtually no attorney advertising.  Back then, a prominent personal injury attorney told me that attorney advertising would be detrimental to our profession.

What attorney advertising has done is to distribute the bulk of all personal injury cases to the firms that advertise. Also, it has forced other previously non-advertising firms to incur the cost of advertising in order to survive. All this reduces the net return to the client.  Let me explain.

I’m not saying that there are not qualified and experienced attorneys working for personal injury firms that advertise. Some of there firms have very good attorneys on their staff. 

You may be surprised to learn that some of the personal injury commercials that you see on television are generated by marketing firms that do all the  T.V. commercials, radio ads, print ads, and billboards for these firms.  They plug in an image of a local attorney and utilize simple catch phrases and slogans to and attract clients to the advertising  firm.  

The important thing for you to remember is that it costs a lot of money to run these media campaigns-millions of dollars per year.

When this amount of money is spent on advertising the cost must be recaptured in two ways: (1) The advertising law firm must handle a lot of cases, or (2) Most of the work must be passed on to para-professionals, because their rate of pay is less than that of an attorney.

How many personal injury cases can one attorney effectively handle in a year? Is it 50? 100? More? Less?  If a firm has a lot of cases , they can recoup on the cost of advertisement over thousands of cases.  In order to do so, work on the pre-litigation stage must be transferred to non-attorney personnel such as ex-insurance adjusters, para-legals and legal secretaries. All firms who represent victims of injury accidents pass on some work to non-attorney personnel, but when a non-attorney handles a claim beginning to end, this does not amount to quality representation.

So the cost of attorney advertising must be  passed on to the client.  Standard contingency fees on personal injury cases are 33 1/3 % on settlements that occur prior to litigation.  The standard fees is 40% after litigation.  We saw a lot of attorneys advertising for discounted rates for representing personal injury victims in the past.  Currently these ads are rare.  Most of the discounted rates only last for a short period of time. These commercials sound attractive, but the time periods associated with the reduced rates are so short that a case cannot be settled within the stated time frame.  

Because the advertising attorney’s  cost per case is high,  this logically means that there generally is less net return to the client out of the settlement, or that medical providers must cut their bills drastically to get the cases settled.  

What is the cost of a super bowl television commercial?  What is the cost of a yellow pages advertisement?  One researcher has reported that the cost per case of a major yellow pages campaign can exceed $2,000 per case.  So what is the cost per case if a personal injury law firm advertises on TV, radio, billboards and in the newspaper? 

So, what should an accident victim do in selecting a personal injury attorney?  Instead of selecting the first attorney who attracts your attention, set  appointments with several firms.  Most law firms who represent victims of personal injury accidents offer free consultations.  If a non-attorney conducts the interview, this is a bad sign.  See how much time the attorney spends with you.  An appointment to obtain  information  about your case and explanation or relevant information to the client should  take at least an hour.  Does the attorney during the initial interview answer all of your questions?  Does he even ask you if you have questions? Did you develop a rapport with the attorney?  

 Did the attorney make representations that appear unrealistic?  No attorney can tell you what your case is worth, or how much your medical treatment will cost at the beginning of a personal injury case.  Not even experienced attorneys can make these predictions at the onset of a claim.  Listen to what the attorney has to say about returning your calls and answering any future questions about your claim.

If your claim involves potential litigation, does he explain the downside financial risks associated with litigation as required by our code of ethics.  

Selecting a personal injury attorney is an important decision.  Advertising attorneys may or may not be best for you.  Do your homework and make an informed decision in selecting a personal injury attorney to handle your case.