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MISSISSIPPI INJURY LAWYERS
LITIGATORS WHO UNDERSTAND HOW TO RESOLVE YOUR ISSUES.

Look Out for Delayed Injury Symptoms—Even After Minor Crashes

Published on Dec 14, 2018 at 10:31 am in Personal Injury.

Regardless of the severity of car accidents, they will always be traumatic experiences. While severe injuries are usually immediately evident, yours may only manifest over time. Even low-speed rear-end bumper-bashing incidents can cause whiplash that can lead to years of neck or back problems or one of several other delayed car accident injury symptoms. You may want to refuse medical evaluation immediately after a crash because there is no evidence of broken bones or bleeding wounds. However, this could make it much more difficult to include undiagnosed injuries in any personal injury claim that you want to pursue following the wreck.

Was Your Child Injured by an Attractive Nuisance?

Published on Oct 3, 2018 at 9:34 am in Personal Injury.

Living in a rental property often means having less control over your environment than if you owned a home. You may be able to live without the option to change the color of your living room in exchange for the convenience and affordability of renting a house or apartment. However, you also lack the control over making important safety decisions that may affect your children.

Your landlord is responsible for keeping the property as safe as reasonably possible. If your building has smoke alarms, fire extinguishers and flood lights, your landlord may feel he or she is doing enough to protect you and your family. What your landlord may not see are the attractive nuisances on the property.

What is an attractive nuisance?

An attractive nuisance is anything that may lure your child into a dangerous situation. Perhaps the most common example of this is a swimming pool. Your child may see an unattended swimming pool as delightfully enticing. Without adequate fencing and locks that meet the codes of Mississippi, many pools have lured children to a tragic end. However, even if there is no pool on your landlord’s property, other circumstances may create an attractive nuisance that could place your child in danger, for example:

  • A fountain, hot tub or well
  • Machinery such as riding mowers, ATVs, golf carts or tractors
  • Piles of debris such as materials your landlord is using for construction or renovations
  • Old appliances like freezers or refrigerators with the doors still attached and unchained
  • Unattended play equipment such as trampolines
  • Abandoned or dilapidated sheds or outbuildings
  • Dogs or other animals

It is not enough for the landlord to post a sign warning of the danger. Your child may not yet be able to read, and the enticement of the object may be enough that even a reading child misses the sign.

Dealing with the problem

The law may not consider natural features such as trees or ponds to be attractive nuisances, and your landlord may escape liability if the cost of removing or remedying the situation is prohibitive. However, if you landlord can reasonably conceive that a situation or object on the property could cause harm to a child, he or she may have an obligation to remove or secure it. Each case is unique, and the court takes many factors into consideration.

If your child suffers injury because of an attractive nuisance on your landlord’s property, you may wish to seek the counsel of an attorney who will review the details of the case and advise you on the best course of action for your situation.

Car Crash May Lead To Serious Brain Injury

Published on Jul 21, 2018 at 10:14 am in Personal Injury.

As you drive to town one morning, your brain mulls over all of the tasks you have planned for your seemingly ordinary day. Little do you know, however, that this same brain will soon take a hit — literally — in a motor vehicle crash resulting from a negligent driver.

Brain injuries are serious, with the potential to lead to lifelong complications. If you are involved in a car crash in Mississippi that causes you to suffer a traumatic brain injury, you have the right to seek to hold accountable the at-fault party through the civil court system.

Brain injuries

Each year in the United States, about 1.7 million emergency room visits, hospitalizations and deaths related to traumatic brain injury occur. You do not have to be traveling speedily or hit a hard object to suffer this type of injury. Any type of trauma affecting the neck or head region can actually cause your brain to swell, tear, bruise or bleed. Symptoms of these types of injuries include confusion, dizziness and nausea, a severe headache and even unusual sluggishness or tiredness.

Types of brain injuries

Two types of brain injuries exist: open and closed. You have suffered an open injury if you have fractured your skull, which may occur if your skull ends up making direct contact with an object or surface that is hard. Meanwhile, you have suffered a closed injury if the injury does not involve a fracture.

Closed injuries, however, may actually be more serious than open ones as a result of the potential for brain swelling as well as the formation of blood clots in the skull. Serious open and closed injuries may lead to the loss of consciousness, paralysis or death.

What to do

If you have suffered a traumatic brain injury in a car crash as a result of a careless driver, you may opt to file a personal injury claim against the driver, seeking damages. A preponderance of the evidence is required to establish liability in civil court in Mississippi. No amount of monetary damages in a successfully fought claim can undo the events leading to a brain injury. However, financial damages may help with addressing ongoing medical costs and other expenses stemming from such an injury.

Car Collision May Leave You up to Your Neck in Pain, Costs

Published on Jul 13, 2018 at 9:52 am in Personal Injury.

A morning that starts out normal may end up being one of the most unforgettable mornings of your life — for all of the wrong reasons — as a result of a car crash. In addition to causing you emotional duress, a motor vehicle crash stemming from another driver’s carelessness can cause you a variety of physical problems, including whiplash.

Fortunately, if you have suffered injuries, such as whiplash, in a car collision that was not your fault, you have the right to seek compensation for your injuries. Here is a look at what whiplash is and how to address it with the help of the legal system in Mississippi.

What is whiplash?

Whiplash is a soft-tissue injury that often occurs to passengers and drivers during rear-end crashes. After all, in these types of crashes, your head can easily snap back and forth in a violent manner, thus injuring the ligaments, muscles and vertebrae in your neck area. Whiplash can happen whether your accident took place at a high rate of speed or a slow speed. This type of injury also goes by several other names, including a hyperextension injury, cervical strain and cervical sprain.

What physical problems can whiplash cause?

With whiplash, you may experience the following medical problems:

  • Difficulty concentrating
  • Nick stiffness and tightness
  • Memory issues
  • Dizziness
  • Balance issues
  • Headaches
  • Aching, dull neck pain

The challenge with whiplash is that the symptoms of whiplash may not surface immediately following your accident. In fact, you might not experience whiplash’s consequences until a few days or weeks following the motor vehicle collision. If you begin to experience any of these symptoms, it may behoove you to see a doctor right away for examination. You will probably receive a referral to visit a neck and back expert, neurologist or chiropractor for treatment.

Various whiplash treatment options exist, depending on your situation. For instance, a doctor may recommend that you wear a cervical collar. Other possible treatments include massage therapy and physical therapy.

Your rights as a whiplash injury victim following a car crash

You have the right to file a personal injury claim against the driver who caused your whiplash injury due to negligent behavior behind the wheel. If you are successful in your claim, you may receive monetary damages that might help you to cover your medical bills, the loss of wages and other losses tied to the car collision.

Don’t Let a Car Crash Send Your World Crashing Down

Published on Apr 12, 2018 at 9:54 am in Personal Injury.

A seemingly normal day can quickly become a devastating one in a split second if you are driving near a negligent driver. Unfortunately, oftentimes, there is no way to tell whether the driver behind you or beside you is careless, until it is too late.

If a negligent driver in Mississippi has reportedly caused you to suffer injuries in a car crash, your injuries can take a toll on you — not only physically but also emotionally, mentally and financially. However, you have the right to seek to hold this other driver accountable for your injuries. Here are a few helpful steps to take following an accident that was another motorist’s fault.

What to do directly after the crash

Following the accident, seeking medical attention immediately is critical, if the crash caused injury to you and other individuals. If you are able to write down notes about the injuries you have suffered, this may also be a wise move. Ensuring that all of the motor vehicles involved in the collision are out of traffic is additionally important to prevent another collision or a traffic jam.

What information to gather following the collision

Gathering several details at the scene of the car accident is paramount. These include the following:

  • The allegedly at-fault driver’s name, address and phone number
  • The other driver’s insurance company policy number and name
  • Statements from witnesses and the witnesses’ contact information
  • Photos of the accident scene

You may also want to contact the police so that authorities can file a report on the accident. Your explanation of the events leading up to the accident in the police report may ultimately give you some leverage if you decide to seek compensation for your injuries.

Your rights as an injured car accident victim

It is within your rights to file a personal injury claim against the driver who reportedly caused you to suffer injuries in your motor vehicle wreck. Competent proof of negligence — such as speeding or texting while driving — is necessary to establish liability before a civil court in Mississippi.

If you end up winning your claim, you may receive a monetary damage award that might help you to cover your medical bills related to the car crash. Your award might also help with addressing the loss of wages if your injuries prevented you from being able to return to work in a timely manner.

Did Your Holiday Include a Trip to an ER?

Published on Jan 19, 2018 at 10:21 am in Personal Injury.

It’s only natural to enjoy the excitement of watching your children unwrap gifts during the holidays. Throughout the shopping season leading to up your gift-giving festivities, you probably stood in checkout lines with other Missouri parents for 10 minutes or more at a time, waiting to purchase your goods, and never expecting one of those items would injure your child.

It’s all worth it, right? The time, effort and anticipation all lead to a room full of giggles and smiles as your surprised children unwrap the toys and gift items you’ve chosen especially for them. All too often, those happy holiday moments turn tragic, when children try to play with long-awaited toys, unaware (as are their parents) the items are defective and/or highly dangerous. If your child had to be rushed to an emergency room after playing with a new toy this past Christmas, you understand the devastation, suffering and outright fear associated with such situations.

What if Your Prescribed Medication Causes You Severe Harm?

Published on Jun 3, 2017 at 10:20 am in Personal Injury.

If you have experienced adverse side effects that posed a severe threat to your life or health after taking prescribed medication, you may have grounds to file a product liability lawsuit to recover financial and other losses. Any pharmaceutical drug sold nationwide, including in Mississippi, must not pose serious health threats to patients.

Monitoring pharmaceutical drug safety is the job of the Food and Drug Administration that is a federal agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Any medication that contains a drug that may cause harm to a patient can be recalled. Such action will require patients to return or discard the dangerous drugs.

The role of the Food and Drug Administration

The involvement of the FDA starts even before pharmaceutical drugs land on the shelves of pharmacies. The agency must approve all drugs before manufacturers can offer them for sale. Monitoring by the FDA continues, and it maintains an online reporting platform for consumers to report interactions and side effects. Manufacturers receive this information, and the FDA makes sure drug labels show updated details of health risks and reported side effects. Along with studies by researchers who compare similar drugs, the FDA can address the majority of problems without affecting recalls.

Reasons for Recalls

When pharmaceutical drugs pose unanticipated health risks once after they are in distribution, the FDA will evaluate every case individually before recommending a recall. The more common reasons for recalls include the following:

  • Previously unidentified health risks — Further studies or experiences by patients may reveal the potential for a particular drug to pose increased risks of strokes, kidney failures, heart attacks or more.
  • Unanticipated drug interactions — Certain drugs may cause unexpected health problems when used in conjunction with other specific drugs or even vitamins or particular food types.
  • Packaging or manufacturing problems — Even drugs that have been on the market for years may need to be recalled if a packaging malfunction occurred or in the event of contamination during the manufacturing process.

Manufacturers may issue voluntary product recalls for several reasons. These may include receiving a significant number of negative patient reports or complaints, clinical trials indicating severe health risks, or manufacturing problems. Recalls are mostly voluntary, even if at the suggestion of the FDA. However, occasionally, the federal agency must enforce a recall.

Where to find help and support if you were a victim

While this may all be very informative, it might be too late to prevent the consequences you suffered after taking an unsafe medication. Regardless of whether the pharmaceutical drug that caused your condition and subsequent financial losses had been recalled, you may have a viable claim. The most appropriate step might be to consult with an experienced product liability attorney who can provide the necessary guidance and support throughout the legal proceedings that may follow in pursuit of recovery of your damages.

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