West Virginia Injury Lawyer Blog

Two people suffered serious injuries after a tractor-trailer collided with a Nissan Frontier pickup truck head-on Monday, July 26, 2010. The crash happened on U.S. 522 in Morgan County, West Virginia. According to the Herald-Mail newspaper, the accident occurred around 1:30pm after Hal Gamble drove his passenger truck across the center line into the path of a tractor-trailer hauling lumber.

The reasons for the crash are unknown at this point. Morgan County Sheriff officials reported that Hal Price and his wife, Suzie Price, had to be extricated from their mangled vehicle by rescue workers. Mr. Gamble was conscious but suffered severe injuries, as did his wife. Both victims are in their 60s. After being airlifted to Washington County Hospital, both Hal and Suzie Gamble were listed in serious but stable condition on Tuesday. The driver of the semi truck, Matt Price, was uninjured in the crash.

All too often, passengers and drivers who collide with tractor-trailers in West Virginia don't make it out of collisions like this one. That's why exercising proper defensive driving techniques and safety procedures is absolutely critical on the roads in West Virginia. This is true of both passenger vehicle drivers as well as truck drivers.

If you have been involved in a tractor-trailer accident through no fault of your own, you have rights. Contact a reliable tractor-trailer accident attorney who can help you get the compensation you deserve. Similarly, an attorney can also help you recover damages for the wrongful death of a spouse or loved one.

Medical malpractice is one of the hardest cases to prove, especially against major medical corporations, pharmaceutical companies or hospitals. However, an experienced medical malpractice attorney can fight for your rights against any corporation, doctor or medical provider, no matter what the size, if he or she is knowledgeable in the current laws, the burden of proof necessary in malpractice cases and the legal precedents in this area of law.

Malpractice is often cited in cases in which patients are given prescription drugs incorrectly or irresponsibly, and in which they also suffer a tangible injury. A lawyer must prove negligence as well as show evidence of injury if success is to be assured in a malpractice case involving prescription drugs. Negligence can mean that the doctor or medical professional gave you the wrong dosage, instructed you to use the drug incorrectly or didn't give you enough of a particular medicine as is accepted for use in the medical field for your particular condition. Once negligence is proven, documented injuries directly related to the misdiagnosis or misdistribution must be shown.

If you or someone you love has suffered ill effects after being given a particular prescription drug, you can help your case by keeping meticulous records of your health, the side effects or injuries you experience and doctors visits as they occur. The more careful you are in your recordkeeping, the stronger case you will have. A lawyer can then argue for compensation for your medical bills, pain and suffering, lost wages and more.

TylerStarNews.com reports that the Tyler County Sheriff's office participated in a state-funded drunk driving crackdown from February 1 to June 30 of this year. Results from the federally funded grant program of the State of West Virginia turned up hundreds of traffic stops and several arrests of drunk drivers in the Tyler County jurisdiction.

During the period of the program, Sheriff Bob Kendle of the Tyler County Sheriff's office said the purpose of the project was to add patrol to combat drunk driving. Sheriffs made a total of 522 traffic stops, three DUI arrests, 10 misdemeanor arrests, two felony arrests and two drug-related arrests. Deputies reported handing out 53 traffic violations and 344 warnings as well.

Tyler County, West Virginia has been experiencing a spike in drunk driving incidents and the Sheriff's office hopes this program will be a deterrent to people who drink and drive. All of the above listed statistics were in addition to traditional on-duty arrests and citations, so there was a very evident increase in the police presence in the area.

The long-term results of this study remain to seen, but drunk drivers throughout West Virginia can expect more and more police presence as grants like this one continue to be used by local law enforcement. If you've been arrested for DUI or falsely accused of DUI, it's important that you have a DUI lawyer on your side to defend your case. With increased enforcement of drunk driving laws in West Virginia, the penalties can be steep for DUI and related charges.

According to a June 28, 2010 report by CBS News, long-term diseases such as Alzheimer's, cancer, heart failure and other conditions, cause more than 80% of American deaths every year. For the families of elderly or infirmed patients, it can be difficult to stand by and do nothing while a loved one is suffering. The same is true for many caring doctors and medical professionals who make every effort to save people's lives in their last days.

In the weeks or months leading up to death, the vast majority of ill patients opt for radical procedures like radiation, chemotherapy and experimental treatments in an effort to prolong life. However, the CBS News report claims that these treatments can actually cause more pain than the patient may have had if he would have chosen to live out his last days without drastic medical measures.

Our desire to live is stronger than our common sense, however, in many cases, says the report. But this desperation to save your own life or the life of a loved one can lead to medical mistakes as well as increased suffering. In many cases, families that push for radical procedures end up suing the doctor or medical staff who failed to take the proper precautions when administering such treatments.

If you have experienced the wrongful death of a loved one due to medical malpractice, contact an experienced lawyer in West Virginia. Only an attorney can tell you whether or not you have a valid case. Medical malpractice can be very tough to prove and you will need a legal professional on your side in order to recover damages.

Medical malpractice cases are defined as those in which a patient suffers harm due to the negligence or willful action of a doctor, nurse or other medical professional. Health care providers have the responsibility to provide a basic level of care that is widely accepted in the medical field for any given situation. Doctors must act with reasonable care when administering drugs, performing procedures and treating and advising patients. If proper procedures are not followed, medical malpractice lawsuits are often filed in an effort to recover damages for injuries suffered as a result.

Determining medical malpractice can be tricky, however. Just because you have a negative side effect from a drug a doctor prescribes or because you don't get better after surgery does not necessarily mean you have grounds for a medical malpractice case. These cases often require complete documentation of the medical history, outside research and expert testimony from witnesses and other medical professionals. Further, you must prove that the doctor's breach of the standard of care needed directly resulted in tangible harm or injury.

If you believe that you or someone you care about has been injured by the negligence of a doctor or other medical professional, it's at least worth consulting a personal injury attorney in West Virginia to speak about your case. Most attorneys work on a contingency fee, which means that you don't have to pay for legal assistance until you recover money for your injuries. If a lawyer believes you have a case, he or she will work for you to fight for your rights and will take a fee after a settlement is reached. For many people who can't afford legal representation on their own, this is an ideal way to reach a successful conclusion in a medical malpractice case.

Summer is the perfect time of year to ride bikes through the beautiful roads and trails across the state of West Virginia. Although many riders are able to safely navigate through the streets, accidents do happen. To help safeguard riders against injury, the state mandates that every bicycle rider under the age of 15 must wear a helmet. Further, some towns in West Virginia have even stricter rules regarding helmets and older riders, such as in the following locations:

Clarksburg - Riders under the age of 18 must wear helmets
Morgantown - Riders of all ages are required to wear helmets
South Charleston - Riders under the age of 18 must wear helmets
St. Albans - Riders under the age of 18 must wear helmets

In addition to wearing approved helmets, the National Bicycle Safety Network (NBSN) recommends several ways to help riders stay safe this summer:

1. Young riders should take a bicycle safety course in order to learn good riding skills, such as how to perform panic stops and how to ride in inclement weather.
2. Be familiar with off-road and trail bicycling techniques and use only equipment that is suitable for the terrains on which you'll be riding.
3. Educate yourself and any riders in your family as to the laws for bicyclists in your area, including hand signals, where riding is permitted and which traffic signals you must obey.
4. Equip your bicycle, helmet and riding gear with the proper lights and reflector strips, especially if you plan on riding at night. Blinking red lights are preferable over stationary lights. A bright white headlight is also helpful and recommended.

Proper bicycle safety can prevent broken bones and head injuries that are commonly reported from these types of accidents. If you have been injured by a vehicle while riding your bike, be sure to contact a West Virginia personal injury lawyer to defend your rights.

Known as an "invisible killer," carbon monoxide poisoning is a very real concern for many West Virginia residents and their families. Every year, carbon monoxide poisoning is responsible for injuring more than 10,00 people and killing 5,000 more. Carbon monoxide is odorless, tasteless and colorless, which makes it very hard to identify preemptively without an adequate CO detector.

When inhaled, carbon monoxide is a potentially deadly gas that emanates from any source that burns fuel. Often times, carbon monoxide leaks occur in old or faulty space heaters, large heating and cooling systems, camping equipment, fireplaces and gas stoves. Carbon monoxide can be found not only in homes, but also in businesses, offices, boats, trailers, recreational vehicles and cabins.

It is always a good idea to install a carbon monoxide detector in your home if you don't have one, especially since the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning can be so innocuous. Generally, symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning include dizziness, nausea, fatigue and headaches. If you or your family members are experiencing these symptoms regularly, be sure to contact a doctor right away.

CO blocks oxygen from getting to your body, which can damage your cells over time and even kill you if the exposure is great enough. Continued exposure usually exhibits in the form of heart irregularity, coma and eventually death. If you or someone you love has been exposed to CO in a work environment, in someone else's home or in an apartment building, contact a reliable personal injury lawyer. You may have a case against responsible parties for your injuries.

Medical malpractice lawsuits in West Virginia can be tough to pursue. In these types of cases, a personal injury attorney must prove that the victim suffered a significant injury or wrongful death after a negligent act or omission by a doctor (or other medical professional).

Intentional torts are not considered under this category; instead, crimes like assault by a doctor, threats of harm by a medical staffer or battery from a medical worker can be pursued in civil litigation or criminal court, depending on the circumstances. It takes an aggressive lawyer in order to pursue hospitals, doctors or other medical personnel for injuries sustained at their hands, but it can be done.

Compensation for Medical Malpractice
Negligent actions by a doctor can cause serious and even fatal injuries. Under the law, patients who suffer needlessly are entitled to various types of compensation, including medical expenses, pain and suffering, lost wages, loss of consortium (payments for the loss of a spouse's ability to work) and more.

Damages are designed to put the victim back (or as closely as possible) in the same position as he/she was in prior to being hurt. If there is a permanent injury or ongoing injury, you may also be entitled to further payments for future lost wages, compensation for disfigurement or dismemberment or emotional distress.

Medical malpractice suits require a skilled personal injury lawyer in order to be successful. Especially when you're dealing with pharmaceuticals companies or large corporations like hospitals, it can be a very long road to success. It's important that you keep accurate records, get outside medical opinions, note lost work days and document each step of the recovery process.

With summer officially here, many West Virginia parents are stocking up on all types of toys to entertain antsy children over the summer months. New bicycles, playground equipment, games and other items can create hours of fun for young people, but they can also be very dangerous. As a parent, it is crucial that you check for recalls on new and old toys periodically to safeguard your children from potential dangers.

Both the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Recalls.gov, a collaborative website from six different federal safety agencies, list current and past recalls for products sold in the United States. On both of these sites, you can find specific recalls by brand and type. Toys and other products can be recalled for a myriad of reasons, including high levels of toxic ingredients (like lead or mercury), choking hazards, flammability hazards, laceration hazards and potentially dangerous chemical ingredients.

Investigate Safety Before You Buy
When you're shopping for summer toys for your family, be sure to consider a few things before you buy any toys:

- Are the toys age-appropriate for your children? Toys must be clearly labeled for use by a certain age group, so be sure your child is old enough to use the toy safely.
- Make sure the toy is BPA (bisphenol A) and lead-free. These ingredients are toxic to children, even in small amounts.
- Are there any small parts that might present a choking hazard to your child? Do any parts break off easily or come apart to present a hazard?

If a toy, regardless of a recall, injures your child, you must contact a personal injury lawyer immediately. Toy manufacturers are responsible for ensuring the safe use of their products and they can often be held liable for injuries caused by their items.

As we discussed in Part I of this entry, air bags can save your life in an auto accident, but they can also cause severe injuries such as temporary or permanent hearing loss and tinnitus (ringing or buzzing in the ears). When an airbag deploys, it causes a rapid and often violent explosion. The airbag, although more helpful than harmful usually, can cause still collateral damage to car accident victims. X-rays and CT scans are often needed to accurately diagnose hearing loss and other problems. This is why it's so important to get a medical examination after an auto accident. With proper medical diagnosis, a personal injury lawyer can help you recover fair compensation for your injuries.

Common Signs of Hearing Loss
If you have been in an accident in which the airbag deployed, it is critical that you are checked for signs of hearing loss. These include muffled hearing, trouble understanding what others are saying, difficulty distinguishing between direct conversation and background noise, the inability to hear when there are competing voices, listening to the radio or television at higher than normal levels, avoiding conversations you would have taken part in before the accident and even depression. You may also have other physical symptoms, such as ear bleeding, pus leakage or vertigo.

Although some ear injuries can heal on their own, many are permanent. Damaged eardrums can be surgically corrected for some people and devices can be implanted for others to increase hearing ability, however, there is no complete cure. This is why you need a lawyer on your side - to fight for the compensation you deserve for your injury.

Air bags save lives in West Virginia every day. However, the rapid and loud explosion required for immediate airbag deployment can cause injuries that result in temporary or permanent hearing loss in car accident victims. The average airbag deployment causes sound pressure equal to 170 decibels - louder than a close-range shotgun blast or a jet engine.

This type of noise exposure is enough to rupture eardrums, cause ear canal bleeding and create permanent "tinnitus." According to the Mayo Clinic, tinnitus (pronounced TIN-i-tus) is defined as noise or ringing in the ears. It can also exhibit as persistent buzzing, roaring or pulsating sounds in the ears. This condition is serious because it not only affects the way people hear, but it can also cause disruptions in equilibrium, causing unsteadiness and dizziness.

No matter if the car accident is at a low speed or a high speed, airbags will always deploy at the same explosive rate and noise level. Airbags are actually equipped with small explosive mechanisms that inflate them within a fraction of a second. Impact with an airbag can save your life, to be sure, but it can also cause dislocation of sensitive bones in your ear, such as those that transmit sound from the middle ear to the inner ear (cochlea). This is how hearing loss often occurs.

If you or someone you love has experienced tinnitus or hearing loss after an auto accident in West Virginia, contact a personal injury attorney right away. It is important that you have a legal representative to advocate for your rights in the event of hearing loss, since this is a problem that is going to affect the rest of your life. A lawyer can get you adequate compensation for your permanent injury.

As the summer months arrive, West Virginia residents will flock to local lakes and rivers with their boats, jet skis, canoes and kayaks. Water sports are the highlight of the summer for many people, but as more people head out on the water, the risk for boating accidents also increases.

Boating accidents are often exacerbated by the consumption of alcohol, driver lack of experience operating recreational boats and driver error. The U.S. Coast Guard urges drivers to wear life jackets to prevent or minimize injuries. According to a May 21, 2010 report by CBS affiliate station WOWK-TV in Huntington, 70% of people who die in boating accidents were not wearing a life jacket.

The U.S. Coast Guard also encourages boaters to keep away from locks and dams, as these locations can be hazardous for recreational boats and swimmers. Restricted areas around locks and dams are clearly marked and should be avoided at all times, unless you have authorization to travel through the lock.

Complete Safety Checks to Reduce Risk
To reduce your risk for boating accidents this summer, take a boater-safety course and be sure to have your boat thoroughly checked for safety at the beginning and end of every boating season. When boats sit for long periods of time, corrosion and engine wear and tear can make them dangerous out on the open water.

West Virginia and Ohio boaters can utilize Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) safety checkpoints along the Ohio River to ensure that their boats have all the required equipment on board. These items include life jackets, a fire extinguisher, distress flag, anchor and line, horn and/or whistle.

As always, all authorities discourage boaters from drinking, as most boating accidents involve alcohol. If you have been injured in a boating accident in West Virginia, be sure to contact a reliable personal injury lawyer immediately to protect your rights.

Starting in the middle of May, West Virginia towns all across the state began enforcing strict "Click It or Ticket" campaigns to crack down on drivers and passengers who don't wear seat belts. In Beckley, for instance, police began their campaign on May 17, 2010 and it will last through the end of the month. Local law enforcement will be setting up checkpoints and watching vehicles vigilantly to ensure that drivers, passengers and children are all buckled in properly.

Statewide, police hope to help save lives this Memorial Day weekend. According to Sgt. Paul Blume of the Beckley Police Department, "About 15,000 lives are saved each year by simply wearing seat belts." In addition, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) warns that air bags are not enough to save you, and that without a seat belt, you can actually be harmed more severely by being thrown into a deployed air bag.

In addition to your own driving safety, wearing a seat belt can also help you safeguard against drunk drivers who may be traveling the roadways over the holiday weekend. AAA estimates that approximately 32.1 million people will take trips over the Memorial Day holiday. Many of those people will be driving on the roadways and others will be traveling on buses, boats, trains and other modes of transportation.

The Click It or Ticket campaign is an annual event around holiday time. The program has helped increase seat belt usage from 48 to 90 percent in West Virginia. A seat belt can truly save your life you're involved in an auto accident, so wear one every time you get in a car. If you are involved in an accident, be sure to contact a West Virginia personal injury lawyer right away to ensure your rights.

If you're like more than a quarter of your fellow West Virginians, you've more than likely logged onto a social networking site in the last month or so, perhaps even today already. Sites like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter connect users from all over the world instantly through personalized web profiles. Facebook alone claims to have more than 400 million active users worldwide--which is an astonishing segment of the computer-savvy market.

Although these sites are handy for connecting with friends, they are also causing quite a number of problems for personal injury victims who post about their recovery process. Even if you've "protected" your profile from outside visitors, insurance companies are finding ways to infiltrate your profile to check up on you. In turn, they can use personal information against you to deny your insurance claim or stop long-term payments.

For example, if you're injured in an auto accident in West Virginia and you post a status update that says you're "recovering just fine" on your Facebook page, an insurance adjustor may be able to use this as evidence against paying for your claim. Similarly, if you brag about how you scammed the insurance company or lied in your testimony to an adjustor, this can also be used against you. Even posting pictures of physical activities can harm your case if you've claimed that you're disabled. In extreme cases involving brain injury and the like, the mere frequency of your Facebook use can send a red flag up to insurance companies, so personal injury attorneys advise that you simply stay off the computer and keep your mouth shut about a case, even after it's closed.

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is one of the most common serious injuries related to car accidents in West Virginia. The range of TBI injuries can make them not only difficult to diagnose accurately, but also tough to defend in personal injury cases. If you or someone you love has been injured in a car accident, slip and fall or other type of personal injury case, it is imperative that you contact a reliable attorney in West Virginia to represent your rights.

The Effects of TBI
When TBI occurs, the brain is shifted within the skull, causing it to collide with the hard bone surrounding your brain. This can cause temporary or permanent damage, ranging from a mild temporary concussion to severe permanent brain damage. The effects of these injuries, then, can also be highly diverse.

In general, though, about half of severely injured TBI patients need surgery to remove or repair ruptured blood vessels (called hematomas) or bruised brain tissue (contusions). Disabilities as a result of TBI are dependant on the injury and severity of the injury, but can include problems with memory, reasoning and thinking; problems with speech and understanding; sensory problems such as poor eyesight, smell or taste; behavioral issues and mental disabilities.

Some TBI patients also suffer from really vague symptoms that can be hard to diagnose, including anger issues, aggression, acting out and social inappropriateness. Because doctors only have access to a limited number of scans and tests for TBI victims, these effects of brain injury can be tough to attribute to particular accidents. This, in turn, can result in insurance claim underpayment or denials in personal injury cases. So, recovering damages for your TBI injury requires a professional personal injury attorney who knows how to prove these types of cases with varied legal techniques.