When a Buffalo personal injury accident leads to neck or back injury, a medical provider may request that the injured person undergo EMG and NCV testing. These are tests used to diagnose and treat problems with the nerves and muscles. They are usually recommended by a doctor when the patient is experiencing pain, numbness, tingling or muscle weakness that appears to be related to nerve damage.
EMG stands for electromyography. This test is used to measure the electrical activity in your muscles. Normal muscles will give off a specific electric signal. If the nerve responsible for that muscle is damaged, it will give off an abnormal electric signal. The EMG test can detect this abnormality and help predict the location, nature and extent of any nerve damage.
The NCV (nerve conduction velocity) test measures how past an electrical impulse travels along the tested nerve. Certain nerve diseases or injury may cause nerves to transmit a signal more slowly. By testing various nerves, the provider again may be able to determine the location, nature and degree of any nerve damage.
If you have suffered a back or neck injury as a result of another’s negligence, we would be happy to help you. Please call us at 716-542-5444 with any questions.
For Buffalo personal injury lawsuits involving cars, the injured party is required to prove that his or her injury is a “serious injury” as that term is defined in New York State law. This is not usually the case when the injured person was riding a motorcycle.
For accidents involving cars, the New York State No Fault law requires the injured person’s own insurer to pay the initial medical bills and lost wages in most cases. The injured person, however, cannot successfully sue for additional damages unless he or she can prove a “serious injury.” The definition of serious injury includes a variety of categories, some very concrete (for example, a fracture or amputation), others much vaguer and more subjective (significant limitation of use of a body organ or member, unable to perform usual and customary activities for a certain amount of time).
Motorcycles, in most cases, are not covered under the No Fault law. While this means that motorcyclists often do not receive any payment of their initial medical bills and lost wages through their own insurer, it also means that an injured motorcyclist does not have to establish that his or her injury fits within one of the categories of “serious injury” in the New York State No Fault law. All that is required to successfully pursue a personal injury lawsuit is that the motorcyclist be able to prove an injury caused by the accident that resulted in damages.
In Buffalo dog bite lawsuits, not only is it helpful to the injured party that the dog had bitten before, it may actually be essential to the recovery of any damages. That is because New York State continues to use an archaic standard – rejected in most other states – requiring that the owner was aware of the dog’s “vicious propensities” for the injured person to successfully pursue a personal injury lawsuit.
Proving that the animal had vicious propensities does not necessarily require that it have bitten someone before, but it certainly helps. While lesser signs of aggression, such as growling, jumping up on people or territorial behavior, may establish vicious propensities, this is a much more difficult approach. Judges and jurors can have widely different opinions regarding whether such behavior actually provided adequate warning that the dog would later bite someone.
Unfortunately, under New York State law, even if can be established that the dog has demonstrated prior vicious propensities, it still must be proven that the owner knew about these propensities. This can be extremely difficult in that it easy for the owner to simply deny any knowledge, while the injured person must usually produce a witness who had previously seen the behavior in the owner’s presence or had informed the owner of the behavior to successfully sue for damages.
Initially, regardless of the insurance status of the other vehicle, a Buffalo driver’s own auto insurance covers his or her immediate medical needs following a motor vehicle accident. This is required by New York State law. If the injuries are severe enough that they warrant a personal injury lawsuit, the insurance coverage available varies depending on the circumstances surrounding the stolen vehicle.
While most insurance policies include a provision that they will not provide coverage for stolen vehicles, under New York law there is a strong presumption that the driver of a vehicle had permission to use it. Even if it is clearly established that the vehicle was being operated without the permission of the owner, the owner may still be held liable if he or she left the vehicle unattended with the key in the ignition and the engine running.
In most cases where the theft of the vehicle is clearly established, however, the owner’s policy will not cover the injuries. Under such circumstances, the injured person may bring an uninsured motorist claim against his or her own insurance provider. All insurance providers in New York State are required to provide this coverage to protect individuals involved in accidents with uninsured vehicles. The amount of coverage, however, varies depending upon what you have chosen to purchase.
If you have suffered a personal injury in a car accident and have any questions, please call us at 716-542-5444. We would be happy to help you.
Buffalo parents of infants should be aware that the Consumer Product Safety Commission recently issued a recall of 455,000 high chairs due to the risk of injury to infants. The recall involves a range of Chicco Polly high chairs sold in the United States between January of 2005 and July of 2012.
The danger associated with these high chairs involves pegs attached to the rear legs used for storage of the high chair’s tray when it is not in use. Incidents involving children falling onto the pegs and suffering injury have been documented, leading to the recall. While most of these injuries have not been serious, a handful have involved lacerations requiring medical attention.
The model number of recalled high chairs is included in the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s press release, which can be found at http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml12/12221.html If you own one of these chairs, you should contact Chicco at 1-800-807-8817 or www.chiccousa/pollykit.
In some Buffalo personal injury lawsuits, the defendant will seek compensation from another party after the injured person files the lawsuit. This additional party is usually referred to as a third party defendant. This happens when the defendant believes the third party may be shown to have actually caused the injury or contributed enough to its happening that the defendant should not bear the full cost of the damages.
While the plaintiff is not suing the third party directly, this usually does not mean a separate trial will be held in which the defendant seeks compensation from the third party. Under New York State law, when actions involve common questions of fact, such matters will usually be resolved at a joint trial. As a result, all parties will usually present their position at one trial and the same jury will determine both matters.
Bear in mind, however, that the courts have been given strong discretion to split up matters if they believe that trying them together would be prejudicial to one of the parties. As a result, an experienced personal injury attorney will consider whether a request should be made before trial to have the matters separated due to potential prejudice.
If you have suffered a personal injury and have any questions, please call us at 716-542-5444.
Most of the discussions between the parties in any Buffalo personal injury lawsuit take place between the attorneys, and it is usually the attorney who speaks on the parties behalf. An attorney cannot always speak for a business or an individual, however. There are times when the injured party will want to examine an individual regarding issues such as safety procedures, company policies or even their personal observations of an accident. The attorney, obviously, would have no first-hand knowledge of this information.
If an injured person wishes to formally depose a person regarding some aspect of the business or the accident that led to the injury, the attorneys for the business are generally required to produce that employee to be deposed without the injured person having to issue a subpoena to secure their attendance. This is true even if that person is a lower level employee who ordinarily could not speak on behalf of the business.
Under such circumstances, there may be no one person who “speaks” on behalf of the business. Instead, several different employees who have various duties may be required to present evidence regarding their specific duties and knowledge as it relates to the personal injury lawsuit.
Certain types of personal injury causing accidents, particularly motor vehicle accidents, may result not just in injury to the plaintiff, but also injury to the person who caused the accident. When a Buffalo personal injury accident actually results in the death of the party that caused the injury, it is still possible to pursue damages for the injury. In some cases, however, it can become slightly more complicated.
Generally, when a defendant is deceased, the injured party may pursue damages from the estate of that defendant. In cases where arrangements have been made by the defendant or the defendant’s family to set up an estate for the distribution of the defendant’s assets, this is a relatively simple matter. The administrator of the estate would stand in the place of the deceased defendant for purposes of being served with papers and other legal matters. The personal injury lawsuit would otherwise proceed normally.
Where there is no estate, the matter can become slightly more difficult. If the only asset of the estate is the insurance policy that would cover the injured person’s claim for damages, the injured person may be in the position of having to obtain legal representation to make arrangements for the estate to be set up. An administrator would have to be appointed to this estate for the sole purpose of accepting service of the papers initiating the lawsuit. These would then be passed on to the insurance company’s chosen attorneys who would actually defend against the personal injury claim.
How long a defendant has to provide the injured party with payment once a Buffalo personal injury lawsuit is settled is provided for in New York State law. How long a defendant has to pay varies depending upon who the defendant is.
In most cases, a defendant is required to pay all sums due to any settling plaintiff within twenty-one days of tender, by the settling plaintiff to the settling defendant, of a duly executed release and a stipulation discontinuing action executed on behalf of the settling plaintiff. If, however, the defendant is a municipality or a subdivision of a municipality, this time is extended to 90 days.
If the defendant is the state or an officer or employee of the state, payment of all sums due to any settling plaintiff shall be made within ninety days of the comptroller’s determination that all papers required to effectuate the settlement have been received by him.
If a settling defendant fails to promptly pay all sums as required within the appropriate time frame, the plaintiff may enter a judgment against such settling defendant for the amount plus costs, lawful disbursements, and interest.
If you have suffered a personal injury and have any questions about how to go about settling your case, please feel free to call us at 716-542-5444.
Prior to trial in most Buffalo personal injury lawsuits, the parties will usually be questioned under oath at what is typically referred to as an examination before trial or deposition. While the form of this examination is less formal than testifying at trial, in most cases a stenographer will make a transcript of the proceeding. Under certain circumstances, this transcript or portions of it can later be used by the parties at trial.
Unless there is some other reason why the testimony is not admissible, the transcript may be used for the purpose of contradicting or impeaching the testimony given by that party at trial. In other words, if what is said by the witness during the trial does not agree with what he or she said during the deposition, that party may be questioned regarding the difference between the two statements.
Deposition testimony may also be admitted at trial if the person who gave it is unavailable to testify. This usually requires a showing that the person who gave the testimony is dead; unable to attend due to sickness, age, infirmity or imprisonment; lives more than 100 miles away or outside of the state; or that the party seeking to have the testimony admitted made a diligent effort but was unable to secure the attendance of the witness at the personal injury trial.
