Despite being “man’s best friend,” dogs are responsible for the majority of animal-related injuries in the United States. Every year, about 4.5 million individuals are attacked by dogs—most of them children. Statistically, it’s more likely that you’ll be bitten by a dog in your lifetime than suffer a heart attack, stroke, or cancer diagnosis.

Canine attacks can cause serious damage. Last year, about 750,000 people were treated for dog bites in U.S. hospitals. Dog bite victims are often left with severe mental trauma like PTSD, injury (and sometimes permanent disability), and steep financial damages for hospital bills, medical care costs, mental health counseling, lost wages, and more.

Who’s responsible for those losses when another person’s dog attacks you or a loved one?

Celebrating a birthday, college graduation, or wedding with a drink is a common practice that many Mississippi residents participate in. While there’s nothing wrong with toasting to the goodwill of friends and loved ones, it can become a problem when a person decides to get behind the wheel of a motor vehicle after a night of drinking.

Most people underestimate how much alcohol has affected them and overestimate their driving abilities. At Pittman Roberts & Welsh, PLLC, we would like to stress the importance of not driving after drinking. If you remain unconvinced, consider the ways in which blood alcohol concentration (BAC) affects driving ability.

Over 250,000 deaths result from medical errors in the U.S. every year, putting medical malpractice among the top three causes of death in the nation.

Medical malpractice is an act, omission, or other form of negligence committed by a health care provider that causes injury to a patient. It is harm that results because a medical provider deviates from what another competent medical professional would have reasonably done in the same situation. This is referred to as breaching the standard of care, a standard that medical professionals are obligated by law to meet.

Going to a doctor and receiving unsatisfactory care does not automatically make you a victim of medical malpractice. To reach the legal standards of medical malpractice, an act or omission must meet certain criteria.

It takes a significant amount of skill and knowledge to safely drive tractor-trailers in even the safest driving conditions. When conditions are anything less than ideal, truckers must take extra care when sharing the road with other vehicles.

Unfortunately, even the safest and most experienced truck driver can still cause an accident—especially if the weather isn’t great.

Truck accidents involving bad weather can be especially severe, resulting in serious injuries and significant amounts of property damage. Bad weather doesn’t give truckers who cause crashes a free pass. Weather and poor driving conditions are not an excuse for negligence, and we should expect professional drivers to exercise even greater caution than usual when the weather is bad.

Being in a car accident is a scary experience for anyone—no matter how minor or severe the crash. Your first concern should always be the safety and well-being of yourself and any passengers that were in the vehicle at the time of the collision.

But once all injuries are treated, and the dust has settled, there’s often another looming issue: determining the value of a car after an accident.

Any vehicle property damage incurred in the collision will have an effect on the value of your car post-crash. It’s very possible that you will be dealing with diminished value, which can impact how much you can sell your car for in the future. Even a new car completely repaired after an accident can have a lower market value than an older one that was never involved in a crash.

Sharing the road with tractor-trailers can be stressful, but we trust that commercial vehicle drivers do everything within their power to travel safely on Mississippi roads. A recent report indicates that some of that trust could be misplaced.

Drug use among truck drivers and operators is at its highest levels since the establishment of the Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) in 2019. Let’s take a closer look at current drug use trends in the trucking industry and what that could mean for the safety of Mississippi motorists.

For more than 30 years, the drinking water at U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune was contaminated with a variety of toxic chemicals and known human carcinogens, including trichloroethylene (TCE), perchloroethylene (PCE), vinyl chloride (VC), and benzene. Exposure to this contaminated water has since been linked to the onset of a number of serious and fatal health conditions, affecting active duty servicemembers and their families, contract workers, and civilians alike.

For anyone who was stationed, lived, or worked at this base, it is imperative that you know what diseases are associated with Camp Lejeune water contamination.

A spinal cord injury (SCI) is one of the most life-altering injuries a person can suffer. What causes most spinal cord injuries? The top causes of spinal cord injury in the U.S. are:

• Motor vehicle accidents
• Falls

Other causes of spinal cord injuries will be discussed further below. If you suffered trauma to the spinal cord because of another party’s negligence, recklessness, or wrongful actions, contact Pittman Roberts & Welsh, PLLC to discuss the legal recourse available to you or your loved one.

The greatest tragedy of most motor vehicle deaths is that they could have been prevented. While statistics tell us how many car accident fatalities happen in Mississippi each year, these numbers can never convey the devastation each family experiences when a loved one is lost.

The Jackson personal injury law firm of Pittman Roberts & Welsh, PLLC advocates for victims of Mississippi motor vehicle crashes involving wrongful death. If you have questions regarding a motor vehicle collision in which you or a loved one were involved, please contact our office to schedule a free case evaluation.

If you were involved in an accident with a large tractor-trailer, you may be owed compensation for expenses like medical bills, lost wages, auto repairs, and much more. Securing that compensation can be an uphill battle, though, especially if you are dealing with an insurance company that refuses to acknowledge liability.

Your ability to recover, repair your vehicle, and return to as normal a life as possible hinges on your ability to negotiate a full and fair settlement with the trucking company and its insurer. This is no small feat, and even the most well-intentioned accident victim will not have the skills and knowledge required to hold the trucking company accountable for what happened.