Personal Injury
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Parking Bumpers: The cause of serious slip & fall injuries
Posted in Personal Injury
Even after tens of thousands of slip and fall injuries nationwide, some commercial property owners insist on using concrete parking bumpers (or wheel stops) in their parking lots. While these devices are intended to block the forward motion of vehicles in parking spaces and prevent accidents, they are a serious danger to pedestrians and serve as the source of countless serious orthopedic and neurologic injuries. Continue reading
Social Security Death Benefits
Posted in Personal Injury
Social Security should be notified as soon as possible when a person dies. In most cases, the funeral director will report the person’s death to Social Security. You will need to furnish the funeral director with the deceased’s Social Security number so he or she can make the report. Continue reading
New Jersey Tort Claims Notice
Posted in Personal Injury
Title 59, known as the New Jersey Tort Claims Act, is the controlling authority for how to proceed in an action for personal injury against a public entity. If you were injured on public property or by a public entity or public employee, you MUST file a Notice of Tort Claim against that entity. Continue reading
Slip and Falls – Mode of Operation Rule
Posted in Personal Injury
As a personal injury attorney I handle many slip and fall cases which occur within various and different establishments, including grocery stores, malls, casinos and residential premises. I have found over the years that there is a common misconception: just because you fall and are injured, does NOT mean that you will ultimately be compensated. Continue reading
Licensee, or Not a Licensee- That is the Question: The Second Common Law ‘Status’ in Premises Liability, Part I
Posted in Personal Injury
Now that we have discussed the area of premises liability law in general terms in the first post of this series, and subsequently explored the status of ‘invitees’ in the second one, the present post will address the status of ‘licensees.’ To this end, seeing as the status classification of ‘licensee’ tends to turn on specific factual circumstances, as a person can be considered both an invitee and a licensee at different times within a single situation, attention to detail is important. Continue reading
Who is an ‘Invitee,’ Why, and What Does it Mean?
Posted in Personal Injury
New Jersey is slowly beginning to move away from the common law system, which relies so heavily on one’s ‘status’, toward a more general ‘reasonable person’ standard in all situations. However, old habits apparently still die hard, as courts and judges continue to apply the traditional common-law approach to landowner tort liability when a part is injured because of a dangerous condition on private property, which predicates such liability on the status of the person on the property at the time of the injury (i.e. whether the injured party is a “trespasser”, “licensee” or “business invitee”). Continue reading
Letters From Attorneys Regarding Your Recent Traffic Ticket
Posted in Personal Injury
If you’ve ever received a speeding ticket or other traffic citation, you probably know what is coming next: countless letters from attorneys stating that you recently were charged with a traffic offense and that you may need their help and representation in getting the matter sorted out in court. As the week goes by, more letters flood your mailbox, many with identical legal language. If you’re wondering how the previously unknown lawyers received your traffic citation information and address, you’re not alone. The same thing happened to me several years ago. Continue reading
Statute of Limitations in Pennsylvania – Discovery Rule
Posted in Personal Injury
Generally speaking a claim for any personal injury in Pennsylvania must be brought within two years of the day the injury occurred. There are some important exceptions to that general rule. This article addresses the deadline for bringing for injuries you did not know about right away. Continue reading
Omnibus Clauses and the Issue of Permissive Use
Posted in Personal Injury
A vast majority of auto insurance policies contain an omnibus clause serving to extend coverage to third parties driving an insured automobile so long as they are driving the vehicle with the permission of a named insured. While such a clause can prove helpful in obtaining a settlement from an insurance carrier in a situation where you are hit by a vehicle being driven by an individual that is not a named insured, insurance carriers may also attempt to deny coverage in reliance upon this clause, stating that the driver did not obtain the necessary permission from a named insured. Continue reading
Statute of Limitations for Minors in Pennsylvania
Posted in Personal Injury
Generally speaking a personal injury claim in Pennsylvania must be brought within two years of the day the injury occurred. However, there are some exceptions to that general rule. Pennsylvania law specifically extends the time to bring any type of lawsuit for a minor. For the purposes of this rule a minor is anyone under 18 who has not been emancipated. The statute of limitations for a minor does not start until they reach age 18. So, generally speaking, a minor has until age 20 to bring a lawsuit for personal injuries. Continue reading
