In most Buffalo personal injury lawsuits, the parties can be simply divided into two groups.  The plaintiff (or, in some cases, plaintiffs) is the person who is claiming to have suffered injury and is suing for damages.  The defendant (or defendants) is the person, business or other entity being accused of having caused the plaintiff’s injury.

While this arrangement encompasses most cases, occasionally a defendant will wish to bring an additional party into the lawsuit.  This can occur when the defendant believes the additional party has a legal obligation to pay part of the damages or reimburse the defendant for any damages awarded to the plaintiff.  In such cases, the defendant may, in turn, institute its own lawsuit against the new party, which is referred to as a third party defendant.

Because the plaintiff will normally proceed against all parties that may be held responsible, this situation is somewhat rare.  It most frequently occurs when the plaintiff has no or very limited legal right to sue the third party defendant, but the defendant does.  This can happen, for example, where the third party defendant had some contractual duty to the defendant that it failed to perform which, in turn, led to the plaintiff’s injury.

If you have suffered a personal injury, please call us at 716-542-544 with any questions regarding your legal rights.

When a Buffalo resident suffers a personal injury as a result of slipping on snow or ice, the weather conditions leading up to the formation of that condition can be essential to successfully pursuing damages.  This is because how long the snow or ice was present can play an important role in determining if the party responsible for maintaining the area can be held liable.

Generally, when an individual slips on snow, ice or any other dangerous surface, it must be proven that the dangerous condition existed long enough that the responsible party could reasonably have been expected to discover and correct the problem.  If there is an ongoing snowstorm at the time the injured party fell, it can be difficult to recover any damages because it is likely that the condition that led to the fall had just developed.
While in some cases it may be possible to prove that the particular patch of ice or snow had been present long enough to be discovered despite that fact that it was storming when the fall occurred, for obvious reasons this particular hurdle can be difficult to overcome.

If you have suffered an injury in a fall and have any questions, please feel free to call us 716-542-5444.  We look forward to helping you.

It is not unusual for a defendant in a Buffalo personal injury lawsuit to claim that a plaintiff’s injuries were, at least in part, caused by the plaintiff’s own negligence.  In New York State, if the plaintiff is found to have been at least partially negligent, his or her financial compensation is reduced by the percentage of fault assigned by the jury.

Just as the injured person must prove that the defendant was negligent to recover damages, the defendant has the burden of proving that the injured party was negligent if this is being pursued as a defense.  This means that the defendant is required to submit evidence to the jury in legally admissible form from which the jurors may conclude that the injured person was, at least to some degree, negligent.

Is the defendant cannot produce such evidence, the injured person is under no obligation to present evidence establishing his or her lack of negligence.

If you have suffered a personal injury due to another’s negligence, we would be happy to help you.  Please feel free to call us at 716-542-5444.

Obviously, allowing a jury access to an injured person’s medical treatment records is important in any Buffalo personal injury lawsuit.  Unfortunately, admitting records without the person who prepared it appearing to authenticate it and testifying regarding the contents can be classified as hearsay evidence which a jury cannot consider.  However, because it usually would be onerous to require every person who rendered treatment to appear before their records are admitted as evidence, the courts of New York frequently admit these records under what is known as the business record exception to the hearsay rule.

The business record exception to the hearsay rule allows for the admission in evidence of any writing or record if the judge finds that it was made in the regular course of any business and that it was the regular course of such business to make it, at the time of the act, transaction, occurrence or event it documents, or within a reasonable time thereafter.

Under this rule, the requirement for the personal appearance of all medical providers usually can be avoided in a personal injury lawsuit.  Instead, the judge may allow admission of the records as proof of the treatment received.

There are many different ways that a Buffalo personal injury lawsuit may be resolved without a trial by jury.  While television shows may give the impression that trials are a common occurrence, in reality very few lawsuits actually conclude with a jury trial – especially lawsuits in which the issues are clearly in favor of one party or the other.

Probably the most common manner in which personal injury cases that involve little factual dispute are resolved is simply through the parties reaching an agreement on the amount of damages.  While this may sound relatively straightforward, it can actually be a complicated process that requires time and a skilled personal injury attorney.  Although the defendant may understand that damages will ultimately have to be paid, he or she still will wish to minimize the amount.  An experienced personal injury attorney will be able to accurately assess the value of the damages and know how to apply pressure upon the defendant to pay an amount that fairly compensates the injured party.

If an agreement cannot be reached, the injured party who has a strong case may consider pursuing a motion for summary judgment.  A motion for summary judgment is a formal request made to the judge overseeing the lawsuit to determine that there is no actual issue of material fact to be decided at trial.  If the judge determines that there is no genuine issue, the party making the request will be found entitled to judgment as a matter of law.  The purpose of summary judgment motion is to avoid wasting court time in cases where there is no genuine factual dispute.

A motion for summary judgment does not, however, have to dispose of every issue in a personal injury lawsuit.  A judge is allowed to rule on any specific issue within a case and may, for example, find that a party is negligent as a matter of law while leaving other issues open to dispute.  While not completely disposing of the lawsuit, a ruling by the court on individual issues in the injured party’s favor may result in the defendant being more inclined to resolve the personal injury lawsuit short of trial by negotiating a just settlement.     

If you have suffered a personal injury, please call us at 716-542-5444 with any questions.  We would be happy to assist you.

In most Buffalo personal injury lawsuits, the parties will initially attempt to proceed with very little court intervention.  The New York State legal system is set up so that many of the issues surrounding civil lawsuits, such as the parties exchanging documents and engaging in the initial questioning of the parties, can – ideally – be completed without the court becoming involved.

Once the parties are ready for the lawsuit to be placed on the court calendar and scheduled for trial, one of them must file a Note of Issue and Certificate of Readiness with the court.  Either party may file this document, although in most personal injury lawsuits it is the injured party who files, as they usually have the most interest in bringing the case to a conclusion.  These documents inform the court that the preliminary issues surrounding disclosure of documents and witnesses has been completed and the case is now ready for trial.

After receiving a Note of Issue and Certificate of Readiness, the court will place the case on its calendar and schedule the attorneys for all parties to appear for an initial conference.  The personal injury lawsuit will then be scheduled for trial, with the court usually also setting various other deadlines prior to trial for any additional issues such as the filing of motions.

If you have suffered a personal injury, please feel free to contact us at 716-542-5444 with any questions.

Most Buffalo personal injury lawsuits involve defendants who have insurance coverage that will cover at least part of any judgment.  Under some circumstances, however, an insurer may attempt to deny coverage based on a violation of the insurance contract or other legal basis.

Generally, an injured party in New York State does not have any legal right to proceed directly against the insurance company of the person who caused the injury while the personal injury lawsuit is still pending.  It is largely up to the defendant to attempt to make the insurer provide a defense and coverage for any damages.  As it is obviously to the defendant’s benefit to keep the insurer involved, the defendant will usually make the effort to require the insurer to provide coverage.

Under certain conditions, the injured party may proceed directly against the insurer once a final judgment has been made against the defendant and the insurer continues to deny coverage.  It is necessary, however, to obtain the underlying judgment against the defendant first.

If you have suffered a personal injury and have any questions, please feel free to contact us at 716-542-5444.  We would be happy to help you.

Over the past few years, drivers in Buffalo have been subjected to increased regulation of distracting behavior – such as cell phone use or texting – while operating a motor vehicle.  While the danger of personal injury accidents caused by distracted drivers has become a great concern, individual states have received little federal guidance regarding how to control this dangerous behavior.  The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has finally changed that with the proposal of new guidelines aimed at combating distracted driving.

The proposed guidelines address issues regarding the design and function of electronic devices built into light automobiles such as cars and minivans.  While the states have primarily been limited to regulations attempting to change the behavior of drivers, these proposed federal guidelines are aimed at the manufacturers of these vehicles and devices.  Specific recommendations are made regarding limiting the complexity and time necessary to use a given device, limiting time needed to look away from the road when using a device to no more than two seconds, designing devices so that they require the use of no more than one hand and require little manual input, and limiting information placed in the driver’s field of view when using the device.  

The NHTSA also proposes that certain features – primarily those requiring manual input such as text messaging, internet browsing, and navigation system input – be disabled when the vehicle is not in park.   
These proposed guidelines are the first of at least three the NHTSA plans to release regarding distracted driving.  Future guidelines will address electronics that are not built into vehicles but pose distractions – such as phones and web browsing devices – and the use of voice-activated controls.  It is hoped these guidelines will help reduce the risk of personal injury auto accidents caused by distracted drivers.

Buffalo slip and fall lawsuits require that the injured person be able to establish what they fell on.  They also require that the defendant either actually be aware of the dangerous condition or that the condition was there long enough that the defendant reasonably could be expected to discover it.  This second set of requirements can make a lawsuit more difficult if the injured person slipped on ice or snow during a snowstorm.

The fact that snow was falling, however, does not create a complete bar to recovery.  Where the injured person can point to a specific condition that caused the fall which pre-existed the snowfall, he or she is still entitled to recover damages.

This may occur, for example, where the injured person slips on a patch of ice during a snowstorm.  The fact that it is snowing does not mean that ice is forming on the ground during the snowfall, and such ice may have been present for several days.  If the weather conditions support the earlier formation of the ice or eyewitnesses can point to the ice patch as having been present for a sufficient time before the storm that it should have been corrected, the injured person may still pursue a successful lawsuit.

If you have suffered an injury caused by falling, we would be happy to help you.  Please feel free to call us at 716-542-5444 regarding your legal rights

Buffalo’s emergency responders perform an important function and need to be able to travel quickly.  While this does not give them the right to act with complete disregard for other drivers and pedestrians, the law does give them certain rights when responding to an emergency call that may bar a successful personal injury lawsuit.

When responding to an emergency call, the law allows authorized emergency vehicles to disobey specific rules of the road related to stopping a red lights and stop signs, exceeding the speed limit, turning and parking.  If they are engaged in one of these actions and on an emergency call, they are not held to the ordinary negligence standard if an accident occurs.  Instead, it must be proven by the injured party that they operated with reckless disregard for the safety of others.  If they are not engaged in one of these actions or not on an emergency call, the ordinary negligence standard applies. 

If an emergency vehicle is responding to a call, however, it is required to have a siren activated and, if so equipped, at least one red light activated before the reckless disregard standard may apply in a personal injury lawsuit.  The only exception to this is police vehicles, which are not required to activate their siren or lights.