While in most Buffalo personal injury lawsuits it is clear who may be held responsible for a plaintiff’s injuries, on some occasions a new party may come to light after the lawsuit has been initiated. This can occur, for example, when it is discovered that a landowner had hired another party to maintain an area where an injury occurred.
After a personal injury lawsuit has been initiated, the injured party may change the document setting forth its complaint once without the permission of the court. This change, however, must be made within twenty days after the document was served on the original defendant or within twenty days after service of the defendant’s response to it. If this time period has passed, the complaint may still be amended, but such a change requires either the leave of the court or a stipulation by all the parties that they do not oppose the change.
The courts are generally encouraged under New York State law to freely give leave for such changes, provided they do not result in unfair prejudice to the other parties. As a result, the court will examine issues such as how much time the new party will have to investigate and prepare its defense and whether its ability to investigate the personal injury claim will be hampered by the delay.
Motorcycle accidents are among the worst cases handled by Buffalo personal injury attorneys. The injuries suffered can be catastrophic and, under New York State law, motorcycle drivers seldom carry No Fault Insurance. This insurance would provide for at least a portion of their immediate medical and financial needs. All motorcyclists should make every effort to protect themselves from accidents, including complying with recalls to repair potentially dangerous defects in their motorcycles.
Recently, Harley-Davison issued a recall of approximately 308,000 motorcycles to fix a problem that has led to brake light failure and may even result in actual failure of the rear brakes. The models affected are the 2009 through 2012 models of the Touring, CVO Touring and Trike motorcycles.
According to the company, exposure to heat from the exhaust on these models can cause a switch controlling the brake lights to fail. The heat may also cause brake fluid leaks and loss of the rear brakes.
Harley-Davison dealers will be installing a replacement rear brake light switch kit in recalled motorcycles free of charge.
If you have been injured in a motorcycle accident, we would be happy to help you. Please feel free to call us at 716-542-5444.
When they think of lawyers, most people think of trials. The reality if that very few Buffalo personal injury lawsuits go to trial, and most of the work done by personal injury attorneys is really done behind the scenes. While a good personal injury attorney will always be prepared to take a case to trial if necessary, they often can be successfully resolved without having to commit the time and expense necessary to try a case.
It is common for the process of trying to reach a resolution to a personal injury lawsuit to begin before the matter is even formally sued. Frequently, a lawyer will speak with insurance company representative or other parties, provide them with information regarding the injury and its cause, and see if the matter can be brought to a conclusion without having to ever go to court.
Even when personal injury lawsuits cannot be resolved in this matter, an experienced attorney will remain in contact with the attorneys for the defense after the lawsuit has formally begun to see if the matter can be resolved. If an agreement on the amount owed to the injured party cannot be reached, the parties may even agree to an alternative method of resolving the personal injury lawsuit, such as arbitration, instead of going to trial.
ManyBuffalopersonal injury lawsuits involve more than one defendant. In some cases, this may be a simple case of legal responsibility. For example, when someone is driving a motor vehicle registered to someone else and causes an accident, both the owner and the driver often are sued. Because the owner carries the insurance coverage, he or she has a purely legal responsibility for the accident. In other cases – such as accidents involving more than two cars – there may be more than one defendant because more than one person’s actions caused the injury.
When more than one person’s actions lead to an injury, there are essentially two things that the injured party must prove for both to be held responsible. First, the proof must establish that each of the parties was negligent in his or her conduct. Second, it must be proven that the negligence of that person was a substantial factor in causing the injury. If one party engaged in negligent conduct but the injury would have occurred anyway due to the negligence of the other party, the first party is not liable for the injury.
If you have suffered a personal injury and have any questions, we would be happy to help you. Please feel free to call us at 716-542-5444.
Occasionally, a Buffalo personal injury lawsuit arising from a motor vehicle accident may involve an additional claim against the plaintiff’s own Supplementary Underinsured Motorist (SUM) insurance. This occurs when the injured person’s carries an amount of SUM insurance greater than the insurance carried by the defendant and the defendant’s entire policy is exhausted. When this happens, an injured party may seek additional compensation from the SUM carrier up to an amount equal to the difference between the amount paid by the defendant and the total amount of the SUM policy.
It is essential that the defendant pay the entire amount of his or her auto insurance policy before SUM coverage can be pursued. So what happens in cases where there is more than one defendant and, therefore, more than one auto insurance policy available to the injured person?
While insurance carriers may prefer that all defendants’ insurance be exhausted before SUM coverage is made available, the courts of New York State have ruled that this is not the case. All that is required is that one defendant’s policy be paid to the fullest amount available. Once this occurs, the injured person may seek additional payment from the SUM carrier.
If you have been injured in a car accident and have any questions, we would be happy to help you. Please call us at 716-542-5444.
When a Buffalo resident suffers a personal injury that will result in long term or permanent disability, his or her future financial losses can be extremely high. Issues such as future medical expenses, lost wages, reduced earning capacity, the need for home assistance, and other costs can be instrumental to ensuring that the injured person receives full and fair compensation.
In such cases, a personal injury attorney may recommend that his or her client see a life care planner. A life care planner is a professional who has been trained in determining the future needs of the client and projecting the expenses involved. A life care planner works with the injured person’s medical providers to determine future medical needs and reach a determination regarding the possibility of a reduced career length, loss of employment, and the need for vocational rehabilitation.
These and additional areas of financial loss can be projected over the anticipated lifespan of the client. Once inflation is taken into account over that time period, a final figure can be reached regarding the total future damages to the injured person.
If you have suffered a personal injury and have any questions, please feel free to call us. We can be reached at 716-542-5444.
As experienced Buffalopersonal injury attorneys, we advise everyone to wear a seat belt. There is little debate that in many cases, wearing a seat belt reduces the risk of injury. If you were in a motor vehicle accident and not wearing a seat belt, however, this fact does not bar you from seeking damages in a personal injury lawsuit.
Vehicle and Traffic Law section 1229-C[8] provides that non-compliance with regulations requiring the wearing of seat belts “shall not be admissible as evidence in any civil action in a court of law in regard to the issue of liability but may be introduced into evidence in mitigation of damages provided the party introducing said evidence has pleaded such non-compliance as an affirmative defense.” This means that failure to wear a seat belt cannot be used as evidence that you were at fault for the accident, but it may be used to establish that you would have suffered lesser injuries if you had been wearing it.
Even when presenting such evidence in an effort to reduce the damages you receive, the defense must comply with certain rules. First, they must have presented beforehand that they will be using this defense. Second, the courts have required that they submit competent evidence regarding how wearing a seat belt would have changed the injuries. In most cases, this means that they will need an expert who can provide objective evidence of how a seat belt would have changed your movement within the vehicle and how that, in turn, would have reduced your injuries.
Although Buffalois located near several large bodies of water, it is rare that for a case to arise involving the application of Admiralty Law. Admiralty Law is a body of federal laws written to provide uniform regulation of actions occurring on navigable waters. In the recent case of Brozyna v. Niagara Gorge Jetboating, the United States Court for the Western District of New York found that Admiralty Law – not New YorkState law – applied to a personal injury occurring in the gorge and dismissed the lawsuit.
The plaintiff in the case has suffered a fractured vertebra while on a whitewater excursion aboard a jetboat operated by the defendant. Which law applied was instrumental in the case because prior to engaging in the activity, the injured party had signed a document waiving any right to sue if injured during the trip.
Under New York State law, such waivers signed prior to engaging in a potentially dangerous activity are unenforceable. Under Admiralty Law, however, such a waiver is fully enforceable so long as the language of the waiver is clear and its execution was not coerced. As a result, whether the personal injury lawsuit could proceed hinged on which body of law applied.
Unfortunately for the plaintiff, the Niagara Riverhas previously been recognized as “navigable waters” by the courts. Recognizing these prior rulings, the federal court found that Admiralty Law was the proper body of law to apply and dismissed the lawsuit.
If you have suffered a personal injury in a boating accident, we would be happy to help you. Please feel free to call at 716-542-5444.
When a personal injury lawsuit is initiated against a municipality such as the City of Buffalo, there are usually special rules that apply. In most cases, these special rules provide the municipality with additional protection from liability that is not available to private individuals or entities. The need for “prior notice” is one of these special rules.
Section 21-2 of the Buffalo City Charter provides that no civil claim may be made against the city “for damage or injuries to person or property sustained in consequence of any street, part or portion of any street including the curb thereof and any encumbrances thereon or attachments thereto, tree, bridge, viaduct, underpass, culvert, parkway or park approach, sidewalk or crosswalk, pedestrian walk or path, or traffic-control sign or signal, being defective, out of repair, unsafe, dangerous or obstructed, or in consequence of the existence or accumulation of snow or ice upon any street, bridge, viaduct, underpass, culvert, parkway or park approach, sidewalk or crosswalk, pedestrian walk or path, unless previous to the occurrence resulting in such damage or injuries written notice of such alleged condition relating to the particular place and location was actually given to the city clerk and there was a failure or neglect within a reasonable time thereafter to remedy or correct the alleged condition complained of.”
In other words, if the city clerk had not been notified of the dangerous condition prior to the injury occurring, the injured person is barred from bringing a personal injury lawsuit.
While this limits many cases against the City of Buffalo, there are exceptions to this type of regulation, the primary one being when the condition leading to the personal injury was actually created through the negligence of city workers.
Not all Buffalo personal injury lawsuits run smoothly for the plaintiff from start to finish. When a party disagrees with a ruling of the court or even the decision of the jury, it is possible to appeal that decision to a higher court. Obviously, whether an appeal is worthwhile hinges on the specific facts of the personal injury lawsuit.
In Buffalo personal injury lawsuits, appeals would be made to the Appellate Division of the Fourth Department – one of four appellate division courts that sit below the highest court in the state, the Court of Appeals. If a party wishes to appeal it usually must provide notice of this intent to the court and the opposing party within thirty days of the lower court’s decision being filed.
Once the notice has been served on the opposing party, the party that is making the appeal has sixty days to “perfect” the appeal. This generally means providing the appellate court with the record of what happened in the lower court and its brief explaining why it is appealing the lower court’s decision. If more than sixty days pass, the opposing party may make a motion requesting dismissal of the appeal.
Once the appeal is perfected, the opposing party has thirty days to submit a responding brief. Once this brief is submitted, the party raising the appeal has ten days to file a reply. The Appellate Division for the Fourth Department, however, has authority to alter these dates and frequently provides the parties with “hard” dates by which it wants documents submitted. Once all the documents are in, a date will then be set for oral argument, which is typically a few months after the last submission is made.
Once oral argument is completed, the court usually issues it decision regarding the appeal of the lower court’s ruling in the personal injury lawsuit within a few weeks.
