by diazlaw | Oct 25, 2019 | Personal Injury
Typically in Mississippi, as in other states, police officers or other law enforcement officers such as Highway Patrol officers and sheriff’s deputies are dispatched to the scene of a traffic accident when advised. Whether they attend or not depends on the seriousness of the incident. By law, all crashes involving some sort of injury require the crashes to be investigated and a report to be compiled. That police report, more formally called a Mississippi Uniform Crash Report (MUCR) could be a vital piece of evidence for you if you intend filing a personal injury claim after an injury resulting from a crash. Bear in mind that if you are seriously injured in a crash, there may be very little or nothing you can do personally to help obtain evidence that can show who was at fault. It may seem paradoxical that the very people who will need compensation the most are the least likely to be able to exert any personal influence on proving who was at fault. It is vital for compensation to be offered that there is clear evidence of who was at fault. The MUCR is therefore probably the most important evidence available after a serious traffic injury. Even eye witness statements may only be made available by consulting the crash report that should contain details from eye witnesses. If there has been no injury in a car accident, there is no absolute necessity for police to attend unless the vehicles involved are badly damaged and are blocking the flow of traffic. This means that if you have a slight sideswipe or someone reverses into your...
by diazlaw | Sep 29, 2019 | Personal Injury
The e-cigarette and vaping epidemic has claimed its first victim in Mississippi. It is a male, aged under 30, according to the state’s Department of Health. There are also 4 other Mississippians who have succumbed to pulmonary or lung disease that has been associated with vaping. Mississippi has joined 9 other states that have recorded fatalities. So far, this year there have been 12 deaths and 805 illnesses. The figures, released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that there has been a sharp rise from last year when there were 530 illnesses recorded and 7 deaths. The increase in vaping related illness has been labed an ‘epidemic’ by health authorities across the U.S. The rise of vaping vs smoking tobacco Vaping has been around for at least a decade now. It uses a liquid contained in a container called a pod that is heated by a battery device. Users inhale the vapor, which is normally, but not always, a concentrated nicotine product, derived from tobacco. The vapor from these products does not have the other substances associated with tobacco that are known to cause lung cancer and other health problems. When vaping was first introduced, vaping was touted as a safer alternative to conventional cigarettes. The steady increase in the use of vaping has been paralleled by the equally steady decline in smoking tobacco. Health authorities are unsure exactly what the primary cause of the lung disease is. It is likely that it is a chemical product, but there is no certainty what it is. There has been some suggestion that it might be tetrahydrocannabinol...
by diazlaw | Sep 23, 2019 | Personal Injury
More and more people are entering nursing homes and managed residential care facilities as they get to an age where it becomes too difficult to live at home. Sometimes, it is because family members cannot provide the standard of care they need. Elders may themselves choose to enter a nursing home because they don’t want to become a burden on their family. Unfortunately, not all nursing homes provide the level of care which we expect them to do. A report compiled by an organization called Families for Better Care revealed that many nursing homes across the U.S. failed to provide adequate levels of care. Mississippi nursing homes were given an average ‘D’ rating based on a number of different criteria, with the state performing near the bottom of the country in many respects. The findings of the report would be enough for many Mississippi residents who have elderly relatives in a nursing home take a long hard look at how they are being cared for. Early legal intervention when nursing home neglect or abuse is discovered can mean all the difference to the future conditions for a loved one as well as recover valuable monetary compensation that can help improve the loved one’s life. Evaluating the standard of care in Mississippi nursing homes The Families for Better Care’s survey looked primarily at 3 main factors that the organization thought were important in measuring the standard of care in the nursing homes they looked at. The three factors were: staffing levels; inspection reports; number of complaints made and verified. Verified complaints Mississippi scored particularly badly on the number of verified...
by diazlaw | Aug 26, 2019 | Personal Injury
If you travel a lot in any major urban center in Mississippi, you may be a frequent or, at least, a casual rideshare customer. Lyft and Uber and other newer rideshare companies lie Ola and Guru are becoming more and more frequently used in urban areas, or even between cities. They are easy to dial up using an app on your cell phone and are usually quite a lot cheaper than a traditional cab. You might even be an Uber or Lyft driver yourself. Granted, rideshare drivers don’t make heaps of money, (one report estimated an average $16 / hour before expenses for an Uber driver), but it doesn’t take much capital. Anyone who has a license and a reasonable car can become a rideshare driver and make some extra cash, even if it is only part time, to supplement a regular income. Uber, Lyft and the rest may sound fine, but is taking a ride in an Uber vehicle really safe? What happens if you do some Uber driving yourself and are involved in an accident? Who is liable? Before we explain some of the details behind rideshare liability, here is some more explanation of how these rideshare schemes work. Uber, Lyft and other rideshare companies do not directly employ the drivers who use their app. If you are an Uber driver, it makes it easier to use the app to get rides and make money. There is a trade-off. You have to pay a percentage to Uber of every ride you get, but the rest is yours to keep. The same report that mentioned that on average...
by diazlaw | Jul 30, 2019 | Blog, Personal Injury
Personal injury legislation is intended to compensate the victim of an accident for the consequences of that accident, but where does a state draw the line? Can a severely injured person who has been so traumatized by an accident claim millions of dollars in compensation? Is there a difference between an accident caused by someone who never intended to hurt anyone and someone else who was so full of malice that their actions inevitably led to the victim’s physical and mental distress? These questions have been addressed in varying ways by the different states. It can be a controversial topic. States try and create a balance which allows for fair compensation yet prevents an over lenient judge from awarding a huge payout. In Mississippi, there are caps on both the non-economic components of a personal injury lawsuit, i.e. the pain and suffering component and the punitive damages component if there is one. Mississippi is not the only state that imposes caps on these components of a claim, but there is opposition to caps of any sort from some and there is no certainty that Mississippi’s caps will remain forever. Why impose a cap on non-economic damages? A personal injury claim is made up of two main components: economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages are those parts of the claim that can generally easily be demonstrated financially. They include medical costs, lost earnings and compensation for property damage. The main priority when claiming for these damages is to prove that they were justified, that they were needed because of an injury caused by someone else’s negligent actions and that the...
by diazlaw | Jun 25, 2019 | Blog, Personal Injury
Mississippi has the dubious distinction of having the highest car accident fatality rate in the country. In 2017, the fatality rate was 23.1 per 100,000. That might not sound very much until it is compared with other states. Nowhere else tops it. What’s worse is that despite a slight dip in the fatality rate back in 2014, the statistics seem to be showing an increasing trend. So what’s the reason for this alarming state of affairs? Like many things in life, there is no easy answer and several factors are at play. Some people cite the fact that Mississippi is a predominantly rural state and that means that there are a lot of roads that are relatively narrow and winding, perfect for accidents to occur. However, other states are also just as rural as Mississippi and don’t have anything like Mississippi’s severe accident rate. Car accidents don’t just occur “by accident.” The vast majority of traffic accidents are caused by negligence. One driver or another is responsible for causing the accident, because they were drunk, they were under the influence of drugs, they were too tired to drive, they were using a cell phone at the time, they were speeding or any one of several other reasons. The fact that they were doing these things on a rural road is not an excuse. They are all preventable reasons for a car accident. If Mississippi drivers are ignoring common sense and driving dangerously and/ or ignoring state traffic rules and regulations that might help to explain why there are so many serious accidents, but what are state law enforcement agencies...
