Gadsden Personal Injury Lawyer - Miscellaneous

Alabama Court Clarifies Burden Of Proof For Interference With Business Relations

Michael Roberts — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:53:44 GMT

A recent decision in the Alabama Supreme Court has clarified the requirements for filing and proving a claim for intentional interference with business relations. Since at least 1986, Alabama courts have recognized this claim as a distinct tort, but arguments have been asserted based on a lack of understanding or clarity about the specific requirements or elements for such cases. The requirements as typically described include the existence of a contract or business relation; defendant’s knowledge of that contract or business relation; intentional interference with that contract or business relation; damage or losses to the plaintiff as a result of this interference. In this recent case, one company “put pressure” on landowners to sell to that company, notwithstanding the fact that the owners had signed a “letter of intent” to sell to the plaintiff company. The Supreme Court rejected the interfering company’s arguments that the plaintiff company had the burden of proof in showing the “absence of justification” for the interference. The court held that “justification” is an affirmative defense for which the interfering company, the defendant, had the burden of proof. (For further discussion of the tort of interference with business relations, see Chapter 26, Alabama Tort Law (Lexis Law Publishing).

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Michael Roberts

Alabama Lawyers Offering Discounts to Military Personnel

Jason Knowles — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:31:18 GMT

The Alabama State Bar is offering legal services at a reduced rate to military personnel. The Bar Association’s Lawyer Referral Service helps connect military members with legal services in Alabama at a reduced price, which is a great idea. Currently, the service only applies to members of the Alabama National Guard and the Alabama State Defense Force, but in October 2009, the service will expand to all military members. When a military member calls the State Bar’s Lawyer Referral Service, he or she will be directed to a lawyer who is willing to offer a 25% discount to service members. If a participating lawyer isn’t in the service member’s area, he or she will be referred to the nearest participating lawyer. The State Bar Association reports that it gets lots of calls from military members looking for help, particularly with will and estate planning and child-custody cases. For more information, visit the Alabama State Bar’s website at http://www.alabar.org/lrs/. This is a great service and hopefully other states are, or soon will be, offering similar services to America’s finest.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Jason Knowles

Dangers of Signing An Arbitration Agreement

Greg Cusimano — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 22:03:45 GMT

Consumers beware! Many consumer and employment contracts now include an “Arbitration Clause”. You can find the clause lurking in employment contracts, lease agreements, health care admissions documents, insurance enrollment forms and other consumer contracts. There are many dangers in signing an arbitration agreement.

You Lose Your Constitutional Right to a Jury Trial:

Signing a contract that contains an arbitration clause waives your constitutional right to a jury trial and in effect keeps you from having your dispute resolved by a court of law. Rather, you are required to submit your dispute or claim to a neutral third party, whom is neither an elected or appointed judge.

An Arbitrator’s Decision is Final:

After each party presents their case the arbitrator renders a decision that is final and binding on both parties. This decision cannot be appealed and unlike mediation. There are several other dangers in signing an arbitration agreement. Many arbitration clauses and systems do not allow you to recover your attorneys’ fees. This makes it practically impossible for consumers or employees to obtain legal representation. Additionally, the avenues for appealing an arbitrator’s decision are practically closed and regardless of whether the decision is erroneous, it cannot be easily overturned.

Arbitrators May be Biased Against Consumers/Employees:

Sometimes the arbitrator specified in the arbitration agreement may be biased because they depend upon the corporation for repeat business. Therefore, they have a personal motive and business interest in rendering decisions that favor the corporation. As a result, they are more inclined to rule against consumers and employees on the disputes that come before them.

Arbitration can Result in Significant Time Delays and be very expensive:

While arbitration is meant to serve as a more efficient method for resolving disputes, it can actually lead to significant time delays. Sometimes there are multiple arbitrators on a panel, which means that each arbitrator must juggle their schedule in order to hear your dispute. While your dispute may ultimately be heard, you might end up waiting awhile for your hearing to align with the schedules of multiple individuals. Most often the filing fees for Arbitration are 2 or 3 times more expensive that filing a case in court.

The Law may Not Make a Difference:

An arbitrator is not necessarily required to follow the laws that apply to your dispute. This can result in a seemingly unfair decision. Even though arbitrators are not able to completely disregard the law in rendering their decisions, it’s possible that they may render an unfair decision that does not go completely against the law.

Awards are Difficult to Enforce:

Since arbitration awards do not have the power of a court judgment they are not directly enforceable. Rather, if you seek to enforce an arbitration award you must resort to judicial remedies, such as bringing an action to “confirm” the award. While you may be able to utilize judicial remedies to obtain an award, these claims can be fiercely fought and often result in the consumer acquiring a significant amount of legal fees, fees which far exceed the economic incentive to bring their dispute in the first place.

Arbitration Clauses are Sneaky:

Consumers must be on the lookout for arbitration clauses. Arbitration clauses are inconspicuous because they are usually set forth in the fine print of a contract or are contained in an ancillary agreement. Consumers and employees are often unaware that they have agreed to mandatory, binding arbitration by simply purchasing a product or taking a job.

If you can, refuse to sign a contract containing an arbitration clause, cross through the language of the clause or attempt to negotiate its terms. Where it is impossible to negotiate, with large companies for example, you should shop around before you sign.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Greg Cusimano

Good News from Minnesota in the Arbitration Battle

Jason Knowles — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 13:06:40 GMT

On July 14, 2009, Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson filed suit against the National Arbitration Forum (NAF) of Minnesota, the nation’s largest arbitration company for consumer credit disputes, accusing NAF of consumer fraud, false advertising, and deceptive trade practices by “misrepresenting its independence” and hiding its “extensive ties” to the collection industry. When filing the suit, Swanson said in a press release: “This is a classic case of the little guy being stepped on by fine-print contracts.”

For several years now, credit card companies, banks, retail lenders, automobile sellers, and cell phone service providers have been inserting mandatory pre-dispute arbitration clauses in the fine print of consumer agreements. In many cases, the consumer does not know or understand that he is waiving an important right.

Swanson’s lawsuit charged that NAF works behind the scenes, “alongside creditors and against the interests of ordinary consumers”, to convince credit card companies and other creditors to insert arbitration provisions in their customer agreements and then appointing itself to resolve the disputes. The lawsuit alleged the NAF pays commissions to executives to convince creditors to insert mandatory arbitration clauses in customer agreements, thus generating arbitration filings and revenue for itself.

Fortunately, within days after being sued, NAF agreed to stop handling cases involving banks and credit card issuers over unpaid bills. Under the agreement with the Attorney General, NAF will no longer be allowed to settle disputes between consumers and credit card companies.

This is a significant victory for American consumers.

(source: Saint Paul Legal Ledger)

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Jason Knowles

Wii Giveway

Jason Knowles — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 15:53:23 GMT

This week several members of our firm participated in a nice event at HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital in Gadsden, Alabama, where we were pleased to donate to that facility a Wii gaming system for their use in WiiHab. Staff members at HealthSouth, who had been wanting a Wii for about two years, were thrilled to get the Wii for their patients. One of the patients demonstrated for us how the Wii will help her with rehab therapy. There were two local newspapers there covering the event and The Gadsden Times published some photos. These types of community events are a lot of fun and further remind us of the importance of giving back to our communities, especially in difficult economic times.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Jason Knowles

Avoiding Salmonella Exposure

Jason Knowles — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 17:51:13 GMT

A couple of years ago I obtained a nice settlement for a good fellow who was hospitalized for several days after salmonella exposure at a local restaurant. That case sparked my interest in food poisoning cases. Here is some recent information on salmonella you might find interesting and helpful.

On July 23, 2009, the AAJ News Brief advised of an Associated Press report that Tanimura & Antle, Inc., a major California lettuce grower, has recalled about 22,000 cartons of romaine lettuce due to concerns that the product may be tainted with salmonella. The lettuce was harvested in late June and early July and sold to retail, wholesale, and food service outlets across the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico.

Salmonella is a bacterium that causes one of the most common intestinal infections in the U.S. – salmonellosis. The CDC estimates that there are about 30,000 confirmed cases of salmonellosis yearly in the U.S. and that about 600 deaths are caused by salmonella infections in the U.S. every year, accounting for 31 % of all food-related deaths (CDC, October 13, 2005).

Salmonella infection is contagious, so take precautions to avoid spreading bacteria to others. Preventive methods are especially important when preparing food or providing care for infants, elderly, or people with compromised immune systems. The Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research offers these suggestions for avoiding salmonella exposure: (1) wash your hands after using the toilet, changing a diaper, handling raw meat or poultry, or cleaning up after animals, (2) store raw meat, poultry and seafood away from other foods in your refrigerator and never place cooked food on an unwashed plate that has held raw meat, and (3) avoid eating raw eggs, which can be found in cookie dough, homemade ice cream, and eggnog.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Jason Knowles

Dog Bites And Other Injuries By Animals

Michael Roberts — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 10:46:16 GMT

Injuries inflicted by animals kept as pets are an all-too-common occurrence. The law governing the circumstances under which the animal's owner (or his or her homeowner's insurance company) is responsible for damages can vary widely from state to state. In Alabama, as in many other states, an important question is that of whether, before the injury, the animal had shown vicious or otherwise dangerous propensities or characteristics. This is sometimes (and misleadingly) referred to as the "first bite" rule; it is not really necessary, for the owner to be liable, that an actual previous biting had occurred, but rather that the owner know of the animal's tendency to engage in any kind of behavior that could cause harm or danger to someone. In a 1988 Alabama case, for example, a visitor was injured in a fall after being chased by a dog, and the owner knew of its propensity to bark at and chase people.

In 1992 an Alabama case recognized that an animal's owner is responsible to know the propensities of the breed of animal he or she owns (such as a pit bull).

Statutes enacted by the legislature or ordinances passed by municipalities can also be very important in cases seeking damages for such injuries. Section 3-1-5 of the Alabama Code, for example, provides certain requirements for confinement of dogs to the owner's property. (For further discussion of cases, see Alabama Tort Law, 4th edition, Lexis Law Publishing.)

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Michael Roberts

Most Bankruptcies Caused By Medical Bills

Jason Knowles — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:04:34 GMT

The New York Times recently reported on an interesting bankruptcy study published online on June 4, 2009, in The American Journal of Medicine. According to the study, nearly two out of three bankruptcies arise as the result of medical bills. In 2007, medical problems contributed to 62.1% of all bankruptcies. And between 2001 and 2007, the percentage of all bankruptcies attributable to medical problems rose by 50%.

The data on medical bankruptcy, compiled by researches at Harvard and Ohio University, is based on a survey of 2,314 randomly selected bankruptcy filers during early 2007. Among families who were bankrupted by medical problems, those with private insurance reported average medical bills of $17,749, compared to those who were uninsured, who faced an average of $26,971 in medical costs. Those who had health insurance, but lost it in the course of their illness, reported average medical bills of $22,568.

The Times reported that hospital costs accounted for about half the expenses (48%), followed by prescription drugs (18.6%), doctor’s bills (15.1%) and insurance premiums (4.1%).

Given the current state of the economy, the full scope of the problem is probably even worse today than in 2007. Hopefully, Congress will deal reasonably and wisely with the healthcare issue and reform a broken system.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Jason Knowles

How Can I Help My Friends or Family Find a Good Lawyer?

Greg Cusimano — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 10:19:29 GMT

When you, or someone you are close to, has been hurt or injured, it can be a very rough and troubling time for everyone involved. Legal representation, or finding a lawyer, is the last thing on anyone’s mind; however it should be one of the first.

For some the thought of contacting a lawyer can send shivers down spines, and bring thoughts of black briefcases, black suits, and even blacker hearts, but you can be assured that this stereotype of the legal profession is just that. A stereotype. This image of the rule bending, untrustworthy lawyer that sees you as nothing but a walking dollar bill, just simply isn’t the truth for most lawyers. Maybe a few, but not many. The few may be responsible for the bad image promoted by big money wrongdoers that don‘t want you to trust ANY lawyers. Because of the few, it is important you do your home work.

The truth is that most lawyers are willing to help you in your time of need and see to it that your rights as guaranteed by this nation are protected. Lawyers are specially trained to have the knowledge and details of the law that most lay-persons are not expected or required to have, and this knowledge can help you, the client, in gaining appropriate justice in many circumstances.

Some might be intimidated or impressed by the multitude of park benches, billboards, and TV ads, that depict a lawyer yelling in a court room, throwing a legal book on a desk, or even boxing a heavy bag. However, don’t be quick to dial the easiest number that you come across or the catchiest jingle. Lawyers, although usually competent in many areas of law, should have a specialty that will suit your needs specifically. It’s not always the best idea to go after the biggest firm, or the most impressive commercial.

Most lawyers are referred by word of mouth. This means that the people that are referring you to them have had direct contact and experiences with them. This is a great way to get a feel of what the lawyer is like, and how he (or she) conducts cases. Most legal problems that the normal person will run across are auto accidents, workers compensation, criminal charges, or other tort actions (such as slip and falls). For these situations, word of mouth in the community will be a good starting point to find your way around. However, what happens if you need to know how to set up a business in China under the Delaware Corporation Code? You might need a specialist that your neighbor can’t’ suggest. For this there are a multitude of lawyer referral services available online, including this blog you are viewing right now. Get started by browsing by location, or searching for a topic or practice area of interest or importance to you.

When you have finally arrived at whom you would think can give you appropriate representation, you should, or the lawyer will organize an introductory meeting for the two of you. Often there will be no charge to you, or a minimal fee. You may also be able to discuss your problem over the phone for no charge. This is all dependent on the lawyer and the firm you are dealing with. Remember that you are assured confidentiality in all of these discussions. Make sure that you are confident in your lawyer, and feel free to “shop around” a bit. Taking the time to go to two or three lawyers so you can make an informed decision will help you and your representation in the long run. Don’t be tricked by flashy ads, catch phrases, or large mahogany desks and rows of book shelves.

As always, take the time, make an informed decision, and be confident in your lawyer.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Greg Cusimano

Under what circumstances may someone recover money damages for emotional distress?

Michael Roberts — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:09:56 GMT

The law varies depending on the jurisdiction, but many states permit such recovery. In Alabama, for example, damages for mental distress that accompanies a physical injury may be awarded by a jury where a person was wrongfully hurt. Thus, the worry and depression related to a disc herniation and its consequences can be the subject of a verdict award. Where there is no physical injury, and the other party is guilty of negligence, Alabama follows a "zone of danger" rule adopted by the Alabama Supreme Court in 1998. Under this rule, a company or person who negligently puts a person in immediate risk of physical danger (such as causing a fire from which a person escapes without an actual burn) is responsible for mental distress or mental anguish.

"Intentional torts" (where a party's conduct is worse than mere negligence, such as intentional assault, defamation, fraud or misrepresentation) can also warrant mental distress damage awards. In Alabama, breaches of certain types of contracts, such as some related to homes, can be the foundation of emotional distress damages. (For further discussion of cases, see Alabama Tort Law, 4th edition, Lexis Law Publishing.)

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Michael Roberts