Uneven slabs of concrete and cracks or gouges in pavement can easily cause trips, falls, and other injuries to pedestrians. These types of injuries often lead to personal injury or premise liability suits against property owners who failed to maintain a reasonably safe walkway. But what constitutes a sidewalk defect, and how can you make a claim based on one stick in court?
Personal injuries are most often thought of as being physical in nature. Although the pain and suffering one endures physically from an accident or event can be traumatic, the emotional suffering can be just as serious, if not more so, than any bodily injuries. However, due to the psychological nature of emotional distress, it can be difficult for plaintiffs to prove in court.
Bicycling, like walking, is not only an enjoyable past time and form of exercise, but a critical mode of transportation for many people, as well. While many communities across Pennsylvania, including Lancaster County, have taken steps to make the roadways more bicycle-friendly, cyclists are still subject to significant risks.
Car Accidents Involving Pedestrians: What Are Your Rights?
Walking is undoubtedly one of the most popular forms of transportation in the world. Whether you're walking or running for exercise, leisure, or to get to work, being in such close proximity to major roadways can put you in danger.
With Memorial Day now behind us, summer is just around the corner - and that means construction season. While we rely on construction workers to maintain our roads, bridges, sidewalks, and homes, we often take for granted just how dangerous a construction job can be.
As Memorial Day weekend gets closer and the weather heats up, more and more Pennsylvania residents are looking forward to cooling off and lounging by their private or community pools. Unfortunately, the negligence of pool owners or supervisors can turn this beloved warm weather activity into a devastating tragedy.
As loving family members, we always want to do right by our elders. Deciding to place a parent, grandparent, aunt, or uncle in an assisted living facility is often a difficult choice, and we want to make sure they go somewhere they are treated with dignity and respect, while also receiving the care they need.
The Statute of Limitations and Your Personal Injury Claim
If you’ve been injured in an accident and believe you may be able to pursue damages in a personal injury suit, it is important to be aware of the statute of limitations, which is the limit on the amount of time in which you may pursue a claim. The statute of limitations generally begins on the day the claim arises: the day a car crash occurred, for instance, or the day you suffered a slip-and-fall accident.
When I sit down with a prospective workers’ compensation client, one of the first questions I ask them is where they initially treated for their work injury. If the answer is one of the local “work injury processing plants,” which will remain nameless in this article, my next question is why did they choose to treat there. Almost always, the client tells me that this is where they were specifically told to seek medical treatment by their employer or its workers’ compensation insurance company, and they were not given the option to treat elsewhere.
Many people struggle with the idea that a property owner can be liable for injuries sustained by a trespasser on his or her property. The truth is that in most circumstances the duty owed by a landowner to an unknown trespasser is very limited. However, there are still situations where holding a landowner liable for injuries sustained by trespassers makes sense. Pennsylvania law recognizes this and does impose liability for injuries suffered by trespassers under certain circumstances.
Many people do not know what to expect when contesting a denial of workers’ compensation benefits. Often, people expect that the process is similar to that of other personal injury matters. That is not the case. In Pennsylvania, the workers’ compensation system has a separate and specialized administrative legal system that has its own procedures and its own corps of specially trained judges. While this system is not as formalized or costly as the regular court system, it is still a formal proceeding that requires the assistance of an experienced workers’ comp attorney.
The Difference Between Wrongful Death and Survivorship
Cases involving the death of a person caused by the negligence of another are already complicated. However, in Pennsylvania they can be more confusing due in part to a somewhat unique feature of our state tort law. Cases involving death in the Commonwealth are actually composed of two distinct legal causes of action — wrongful death and survivorship. While these are typically tried together and are in many ways hopelessly intertwined, the distinction can have important consequences for the surviving family members.
