If you’ve been in a car accident and are working with your insurance company to get your vehicle repaired, you may come to find it has been totaled. Every state has its own threshold for total loss. If your crash happened in Mississippi, it’s important to understand the state’s policies and how it could affect your vehicle repairs or replacement. Typically, if your vehicle is a total loss your insurer won’t pay for repairs. Instead, they’ll need to determine how much your vehicle is worth. For this, there is a total loss formula. Prior to understanding how that formula works, however, you’ll want to recognize common signs that your vehicle may be totaled.

When businesses create hazardous byproducts, there are strict rules that they are supposed to follow. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) enforces these laws and regulations. However, this may not prevent some business from acting negligently. Failing to take care of hazardous materials is dangerous and can cause permanent health problems or death. If this has happened to you, Pittman, Roberts & Welsh, PLLC can help. Careless businesses need to be held liable when they refuse to follow the law.

Here’s some good information to know about how hazardous materials are handled at businesses and how you should proceed if you happen to notice materials that could potentially be dangerous on the premises:

If you’re hurt in a car crash, there are a number of injuries you could be diagnosed with. Soft tissue injuries are among the most common – especially in minor to moderate accidents. While some people may think soft tissue injuries aren’t a big deal because they aren’t visible and typically don’t require serious medical intervention, this is not the case. Without the proper diagnosis and treatment, the injury could worsen and have debilitating consequences.

If you sustained injuries in an auto accident, seeking medical attention is the best way to ensure you recover as quickly as possible. If you think you have a soft tissue injury, you may be wondering what they are and how they happen, what the symptoms are, and how they’re treated.

Burn injuries can cause considerable harm. They can be painful and have long-lasting effects. Sometimes, negligence is their root cause. When you’ve experienced a burn injury, you may think about how you can avoid these situations in the future. There are a few precautions you can take to prevent burns from occurring. However, your concern with safety does not mean that everyone has the same concerns. Unfortunately, all it takes is for one person to act negligently for a burn injury to happen. But your knowledge may help you recognize potential dangers and perhaps educate others about these dangers that can lead to burn injuries.

Nursing home facilities are trusted by millions of families to take care of elderly loved ones. When that care is subpar or worse, residents could suffer physically, emotionally, socially, or financially. In regard to their health, the majority of long-term care facility residents take medication to improve or maintain conditions. When medication errors are made, severe reactions could occur or conditions could worsen significantly. It’s possible a neglected resident could end up in the hospital or suffer fatal injuries from the mistake.

According to a study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 16 to 27 percent of all nursing home residents are victims of medication errors. While death resulting from medication mistakes is rare, other complications are possible. If your loved one is in a nursing home, it’s important to know about the prevalence of medication errors in their facility. They’re more common than many people realize. Understanding why they happen and what the possible effects are can help prevent future mistakes being made.

After a car accident, most people are shaken and may be injured, but they still do the right thing. They stop at the scene, offer help to those if they need it, call emergency services, and will exchange their insurance information so they can report what happened to their insurance companies. When people flee the scene, they commit a hit-and-run. If you’ve been a victim of a hit-and-run, you may not know what to do next.

People often commit hit-and-runs because they are scared of what will happen if they take responsibility for the accident. It may result in points on their license or their insurance premium going up. They may also worry about losing their ability to drive. However, it’s much better to follow the law and take responsibility for the accident than fleeing the scene. Leaving means that the person will face much more serious consequences when they are caught.

If you’ve been injured by a government agency, you can take legal action to hold the entity responsible, just like you can file a claim against any person or business. Taking action against a government agency, whether it be city, town, county, state, or federal, is a more complex matter. Claimants need to follow specific steps and abide by all deadlines.

In general, bringing a case against a government agency involves shorter time limits, strict notice requirements, and the possibility of immunity. There are a number of ways a person can be injured by a government employee or agency. If, for example, you were injured by a negligent physician while being treated at a federal hospital, you wouldn’t be dealing with a typical medical malpractice claim.

To build a strong case against a government agency and be awarded the compensation you deserve, it’s important to understand how suing an entity like that works and what factors could impact your claim.

As a Mississippi citizen, it’s important to stay on top of current law changes. The lawyers at Pittman, Roberts & Welsh, PLLC also pay close attention to new laws so we can represent our clients to the best of our abilities.

We’re not even halfway through 2019, but there have been some important changes to laws and amendments in our state within the first few months of the year. Here is a brief summary about one of the most crucial changes we’ve seen so far, about a new bill that was passed that may affect those considering filing a premises liability claim. Here’s what we know about this bill so far:

With today’s technology, it’s easy for a negligent driver to get distracted behind the wheel. One of the primary distractions is cell phones. With notifications for text messages, emails, news alerts, phone calls, and more, drivers are often tempted to pick up their phones to attend to matters that could undoubtedly wait until they’re off the road.

When a driver doesn’t have their eyes, mind, and hands simultaneously focused on their vehicle and the road, the chances for an accident increases significantly. If a driver glances away from the road for five seconds while traveling 55 miles per hour, they will have traveled the entire length of a football field without processing what’s going on around them.

While there are many cars that offer hands-free cell phone options and phones that allow for voice commands, the issue of phone manipulation while driving is still a concern. Recognizing the dangers of distracted driving and making sure to drive responsibly is critical in preventing collisions.

After an auto accident causes injuries, you can file a claim to potentially get compensation for what you’ve been through. When going through the process of filing an injury claim, you want a trusted legal representative at your side who will make sure that your settlement is fair and will cover the costs of your injuries.

While some costs, often referred to as damages, may be obvious to you, such as the totals of your medical bills or damages to your vehicle, you have to consider the other effects of an auto collision. You may have suffered from significant emotional stress and this may continue to affect your life. These kinds of damages are called non-economic damages. These are difficult to assign a numerical value to, but your lawyer will be able to expertly calculate a fair settlement based on both your economic and non-economic damages.