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Apartment Owners & Landlord’s Liability

An apartment owner (landlord or “lessor”) who leases an apartment can be held legally responsible (“liable”) to the tenant (“lessee”) and the tenant’s guests for dangerous conditions existing in the apartment unit that the landlord does not inform the tenant about and the dangerous condition is not obvious. A landlord generally is not liable to third persons if the dangerous condition in the tenant’s apartment unit that injures the person comes into existence after the tenant takes possession of the premises (that is, the dangerous condition is created by the tenant) and the tenant has not reported it to the landlord or repaired it him- or herself.

However, before leasing the apartment unit to a prospective tenant, the landlord has a duty to inspect the unit to make sure it is reasonably safe from dangerous conditions. The landlord’s duty to inspect the unit before renting it out extends only to those matters and conditions that would have been disclosed by a reasonable inspection. The landlord is not required to take extraordinary measures or make unreasonable expenditures of time and money in trying to discover every potential hazard unless the circumstances justify it. And if a dangerous condition arises in the apartment unit that the tenant promptly reports to the landlord, the landlord must repair it within a reasonable period of time after learning of the dangerous condition.

A landlord has a legal obligation (“duty”) to use due care for the safety of its tenants and their guests to keep those areas of the property under the landlord’s control (the common area) in a reasonably safe condition. For instance, if the landlord leaves a dark water hose across a sidewalk at night and a tenant or guest trips on it, causing him or her to fall and sustain severe injuries, the landlord can be held liable for the resulting injuries and other expenses. A landlord is also required to keep the common area—pool, spa, tennis courts, elevators, stairways, walkways, landscaping, etc.—in a reasonably safe condition and good repair, and can be held liable for injuries caused on the common area by a dangerous condition that the landlord should have repaired or at least warned about.

The owner of an apartment complex can be held liable for the damages resulting from injuries due to:

  • The owner’s promise to make a repair to a faulty condition in the unit but fails to do so in a timely manner

  • The owner (or his or her employee) makes the repair, but does so in a careless (“negligent”) manner

  • The owner knows of a dangerous condition not known or apparent to the tenant at the time the lease is made and neither fixes it or informs the tenant of it

  • The owner retains control of parts of land and areas of the apartment complex that the tenant or his or her guest will use or has the right to use (e.g., common areas, including stairs, hallways, walkways, and laundry room)

  • The owner has violated a safety law

Suppose that the apartment complex has a pool or Jacuzzi that doesn’t have a fence around it or the fence has a broken gate, allowing infants to gain access to the pool or Jacuzzi. If a child drowns in the swimming pool or Jacuzzi because it gained access because of, for instance, a broken gate, the landlord can be held liable for the child’s wrongful death. The landlord or his or her agents must make periodic inspections of the fencing around the pool and Jacuzzi to ensure there are not holes large enough for small children to crawl through and gain access to the pool or Jacuzzi. The landlord must also make periodic inspections to make sure the self-closing and self-latching gate is in proper working order.

Suppose the landlord agrees to let the tenant keep a dog in the apartment, but one day the dog gets out and mauls a small child. Can the landlord be legally responsible (“liable) for the child’s injuries? Generally, the landlord can be held liable for the attacks of his or her tenant’s dog only if the landlord had actual knowledge of the dog’s presence and its vicious nature. This knowledge can be proved by circumstantial evidence. Actual knowledge can be inferred from the circumstances only if, in light of the evidence, such inference is not based on speculation or conjecture. Only where the circumstances are such that the landlord “must have known” and not merely “should have known” will an inference of actual knowledge be permitted. The landlord’s actual knowledge of the dog’s presence and its vicious nature can be proved by circumstantial evidence.

Where the lease or rental agreement expressly prohibits dogs, the landlord can be held liable only if he or she had actual knowledge of the dog’s presence in violation of the lease. The landlord has a right to post a notice giving the tenant three-days notice to get rid of the dog or face eviction for breaching the lease or rental agreement. But the landlord’s mere knowledge that the tenant has a dog, whether it is permitted in the lease or rental agreement or the tenant brings in a dog in violation of the lease and the landlord discovers the dog’s presence at a later time, is not sufficient in and of itself to make the landlord responsible for injuries and deaths inflicted by the dog. The landlord must also have actual notice that the dog is vicious (has “dangerous propensities”).

Where a landlord knows about the presence of a dog from the initial rental agreement, but never visits the property, never sees the dog acting in a vicious manner, and never receives any complaints about the dog, the landlord is usually not liable for any injuries caused by the dog. But where the landlord regularly visits the property, sees the dog’s vicious conduct, and receives complaints about the dog’s threatening behavior, the landlord has a duty to take affirmative steps to remove the danger; if the landlord fails to do anything, he or she can be held liable for injuries or deaths caused by the dog.

In a month-to-month tenancy, the landlord has the right to require the tenant to get rid of the vicious dog or face termination of his or her rental agreement. By virtue of the landlord’s right to terminate the lease, the landlord has sufficient control over the premises such as to bring the case within an exception to the general rule of nonliability. As noted above, in some cases, the landlord may be required to give the dog’s owner or post on the owner-tenant’s door a three-day notice to get rid of the dog or the landlord will begin eviction proceedings.

When a landlord discovers or consents to a tenant having a vicious dog in the apartment, he or she may be liable under certain circumstances. First, if the lease or rental agreement forbids dogs, the landlord has the duty to inform the tenant that he or she is in breach of the lease or rental agreement, and to get rid of the dog, If, on the other hand, the lease or rental agreement specifically permits the presence of the dog, the landlord may be required to tell the tenant to get rid of the vicious dog and if he or she does not, the landlord will take steps to evict the tenant or refuse to renew the month-to-month tenancy. However, even where the landlord has the right to terminate the lease, the landlord can be held liable for injuries caused by the dog only if, prior to the injuries, the landlord knew of the animal’s presence and its dangerous nature.

In certain circumstances the landlord can be held liable for injuries to tenants or their guests resulting from altercations with other tenants. A landlord has a duty to keep its tenants reasonably safe from assaults by other tenants. Suppose one tenant is verbally abusive towards and physically assaultive to another tenant every time he or she sees the other tenant. The victimized tenant reports the verbal threats and physical assaults to the managers on at least six occasions, and although the apartment managers assure the victimized tenant that they will “take care of the problem,” nothing is ever done. Finally one day the other tenant grabs the victimized tenant by the hair and throws her down the stairs, causing severe injuries. Can the landlord be held liable for the injuries?

Yes. In one case, the landlord knew of the physical and verbal assaults and danger posed by the fellow tenant to the victimized tenant but did nothing to stop them, despite assurances that the managers would “do something about it.” The landlord was aware of verbal taunting and the criminal assaults and therefore had a duty to take action to prevent them from recurring in the future. One thing the landlord could have done was to install a security camera focused on the staircase where most of the tenant’s aggression took place. This might have inhibited the tenant’s belligerent conduct towards the other tenant. Or the landlord should have taken steps to evict the belligerent tenant from the apartment. The managers of the apartment complex argued that the belligerent tenant might have become even more hostile of they attempted to reason with victimized tenant. The court said that this provided all the more reason to evict the belligerent tenant from the premises.

Out of the generic obligations owed by landowners to maintain their property in a reasonably safe condition, the law of negligence in the landlord-tenant context has evolved to impose a duty of reasonable care on the owner of an apartment building to protect its tenants from foreseeable third party criminal assaults. Suppose a tenant is assaulted or raped on the apartment’s grounds by an unidentified criminal. Can the landlord be held liable to the tenant for his or her injuries? The test is one of “foreseeability,” that is, whether the landlord could have reasonably anticipated that a tenant would have been raped, robbed, or assault on the apartment’s grounds. One major consideration is whether this was the first time such a thing had occurred or whether there had been prior similar incidents on the apartment grounds. Where the risk of criminal assaults or other illegal conduct is great, and the cost to the landlord to prevent such attacks is relatively minor, the landlord has a duty to take preventive measures. Thus, in one case, where there had been three vicious criminal assaults in the common areas within two years of the plaintiff’s being shot during a carjacking, the court held that there was a reasonably foreseeable risk of violent criminal assaults on the property to as to impose on the landlords a duty to provide comparatively minimal security measures. On the other hand, where the risk of illegal activity is minor, and the cost to the landlord is great, the landlord may not be required to implement measures to protect the tenants.

A lawsuit for personal injuries can also be based on the fraud or misrepresentation of the landlord or his or her employees, such as the apartment’s manager or the leasing agent. For example, where the landlord or his or her rental agent represents to a prospective tenant that the property is safe and there is no crime in the area, which representations were false and made with the intent of deceiving the prospective tenant into renting an apartment, and inducing the prospective tenant’s reliance thereon. The maker of a fraudulent misrepresentation is subject to liability for the medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering and any other damages the tenants sustains because he or she justifiably relied upon the truth of the matter represented, if his or her reliance is a substantial factor in determining the course of conduct that results in his or her injuries and accompanying losses.

One issue that landlords use to protect themselves from liability in cases involving criminal conduct by third persons is that the landlord’s negligent conduct was not a cause of the tenant’s injuries. An injured tenant must prove that the carelessness (or “negligence”) of the landlord was a “substantial factor” in causing their injuries. Landlords will argue that nothing it could have done would have prevented the assault or rape. Many cases involving assaults in apartment complexes have held that the assailant could have had access to the apartment in a number of ways and hidden in any number of places, waiting for his or her victim. For example, in one case the court held that the tenant could not show that the landlord’s failure to provide increased daytime security at each entrance gate or functioning locked gates was a substantial factor in causing her injures. In legal terms, the tenant was unable to prove that it was “more probable than not” that additional security precautions would have prevented the attack.

In one case, the plaintiff-tenant contended that her injuries could have been avoided if the landlord had hired roving security guards to patrol the entire premises during the day as well as at night. The court however, found that aside from the inordinate expense of providing such security for a 28-building apartment complex, the argument was entirely speculative, as assaults and other crimes can occur despite the maintenance of the highest level of security. Despite her expert witness’s speculation, the court held that the tenant could not show that roving guards would have encountered her assailants or prevented the attack. The court noted that “a 300-unit, 28-building apartment complex contains many rooms, entries, garages, and other spaces where a rape could take place despite extensive security patrols.”

If you have been injured or a loved one killed in an apartment-related accident, you should contact an experienced personal injury law firm as soon as possible. The law firm may want to send its own investigator to the scene of the accident to inspect it and take pictures of the accident site and any dangerous condition that caused or contributed to the accident before the conditions are changed. The attorney or his or her investigator will want to talk to any witnesses to the accident while the facts are still fresh in their minds.

An experienced personal injury law firm can also help with seeing to it that you obtain appropriate and thorough medical care for your physical, emotional, and psychological injuries suffered as a result of the accident. They can also do everything possible to ensure that you obtain full compensation for your medical expenses, pain and suffering, mental anguish, property damage, lost wages, psychological injuries, loss of society and comfort (“loss of consortium”), and all of your other injuries and damages.

Call today and speak with one of our lawyers for a free consultation:  310.882.6810.  

We understand the physical, financial, emotional, and psychological toll a serious injury or death that an apartment-related injury or death can take on the injured victim and his or her family. Put the experience, the track record of success and the reputation of success on your side.  Let us fight for your rights.

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What are Structured Settlements?

In most cases that settle out of court, the person who harmed you (or in reality, his or her insurance company) will agree to pay you one lump sum to settle the case, be it $25,000, $100,000, or even $1,000,000. In catastrophic injury cases or cases of wrongful death where the medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, and loss of comfort and society are large, the insurance company may offer you a “structured settlement” as an alternative to a lump-sum payment.

In a structured settlement, rather than paying you all at once, the insurance company agrees to pay you over a period of time. For example, the insurance company may agree to pay you a certain amount up front, and then pay you monthly, quarterly, annually, or otherwise over a set period of time or for life. The payments can be scheduled any way that you and the insurance company agree upon. It may be a monthly sum with a larger lump sum every three or five years. Or it may be quarterly payments of a set sum for ten years. The insurance company guarantees these payments through the purchase of an annuity or other financial product.

An advantage to using a structured settlement to resolve a serious personal injury case is that it protects the injured person (or the family in the case of a wrongful death) from squandering the money too quickly, leaving him or her unable to pay for his or her continuing medical and other needs. Studies show that people who suddenly come into a large sum of money, such as lottery winners and personal injury victims, spend a significant amount of their winnings or award within five years of getting the money.

Most victims of catastrophic personal injuries or wrongful death do not have experience managing large amounts of money. They buy new expensive cars, purchase a larger house in a better neighborhood, go on expensive vacations, and otherwise live the “high life” until they belatedly discover that all the money is gone, money that was intended to provide for their medical and financial needs for the rest of their lives. Many people who receive large lump-sum settlements treat them as though they won the lottery and go through the settlement in a few years. What they overlook is that the settlement is designed to replace their earnings for life because they are no longer able to work, to pay for ongoing medical expenses relating to the accident, and to compensate them for the pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life they suffer everyday.

Structured settlements are particularly useful in cases of catastrophic injuries that will require medical care for the rest of the victim’s life. For instance, in a case where the victim suffered third-degree burns over much of his or her body and will require reconstructive surgery and be prone to infections and other illnesses because of a compromised immune system, provision can be made in the structured settlement for the insurance company to pay for all medical care related to his or her condition for the remainder of the person’s life.

Structured settlements are also worth considering where the parents of young children have been killed because of another person’s wrongful conduct (“negligence”). Part of the settlement may be put in a special fund to pay for the children’s college expenses.

Suppose you were seriously injured in an automobile accident that was the other driver’s fault, and you agreed to settle the case with a structured settlement that will provide you with payments over twenty years. After a few years of receiving monthly payments, you decide you’d rather get all of the remaining money in a single lump sum. You see an ad on television by a company advertising that it will buy your structured settlement for one lump sum.

Under the California Structured Settlement Protection Act, you can sell your structured settlement to a third party, but only if the transfer agreement meets certain rigid terms and is approved by a court. The agreement must clearly state the total dollar amount of payments that you are selling, the present value of the amount you are selling, the net amount to be paid to you, and the full amount of the expenses the person or company buying the structured settlement is charging you. You may cancel the agreement if you give the transferee written notice of cancellation at any time before the court agrees the sale. If you are considering selling a structured settlement for a lump-sum payment, you should seek the advice of a competent tax lawyer or Certified Public Accountant to determine what the tax consequences, if any, will be to you as a result of the sale. But keep in mind that the amount the company buying your structured settlement for is considerably less than the structured settlement is worth, so in the long haul you will be losing a substantial amount of your monetary recovery.

Always speak with your lawyer about the benefits and advantages of a structured settlement.  It is completely your decision, and not your attorneys’ in choosing whether to take one lump sum or a structured settlement in a personal injury case settlement.

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Various Causes of Car Accidents

Automobile accidents are the leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 34. Each year, there are about 6,500,000 automobile accidents result in nearly 40,000 deaths and 3.5 million injuries. Age is a factor in many automobile accidents. Drivers between the ages of 16 and 20 and those over 70 have a much higher percentage of accidents than other age ranges.

One of the leading causes of automobile accidents is driver distraction or inattentiveness—the driver simply isn’t paying sufficient attention to the road in front of him or her, the flow of traffic, and the condition of the road. The driver may be distracted by changing the station or volume on the radio, picking up a dropped object, eating, grooming in the car, talking to passengers, tending to a small crying child in the backseat, dealing with a pet, or engaging in a number of other activities that takes his or her eyes off the road. It only takes a few seconds of not watching the road and cars in front of the driver for an accident to happen. For example, if the driver turns around for a few seconds to quiet a crying baby, the driver will not see the brakelights of the car in front of him or her in time to stop, or the car will drift into the adjacent lane, causing an accident. If you must attend to a child or anything other that takes your attention off the road and cars in front of you, you should pull over to the side, take care of the problem, and, once it is corrected, merge back into traffic.

Although California has banned the use of hand-held cell phones, research shows that people who use hands-free cell phones are still at a much higher risk of getting into an accident than drivers who were not using cell phones. The problem is that the driver’s attention is focused on the telephone conversation he or she is having, rather than on the road in front of him or her. The person’s attention to the road is lessened due to his or her concentration on the cell phone conversation.

Alcohol is involved in approximately 40 percent of automobile accident cases. The legal limit of blood alcohol content (BAC) for criminal purposes is .08. But a person with a BAC of .05 or .06 (or even lower) may be sufficiently impaired to affect his or her judgment and reflexes, resulting in a traffic accident. Because automobile injury cases are tried in the civil courts, it is not necessary to prove that the at-fault driver met the criminal definition of impairment to hold him or her legally responsible (“liable”) for the monetary damages incurred by the victim, such as medical expenses, lost wages, and damages for pain and suffering.

Aggressive driving is a frequent cause of automobile accidents. This includes such things as tailgating, speeding, excessive lane changing, failing to use signal lights to indicate a turn or a lane change, cutting off other vehicles, failing to yield the right of way, and blatantly ignoring traffic signals or signs, all high-risk activities that can result in accidents.

The most common type of auto accidents are rear-end collisions. For instance, a car is stopped at a stop sign, a red light, or in rush-hour traffic, and the vehicle behind him or her crashes into the back of his or her car. The errant driver often simply wasn’t paying sufficient attention to the road in front of him or her and by the time he or she realizes the car in front of him or her has stopped, it is too late to avoid an accident. Abruptly reducing one’s speed to look at the aftermath of an accident (“rubbernecking”), causing the vehicle behind you to crash into your car, is a common cause of rear-end collisions.

The failure of a car turning left at an intersection to yield the right-of-way to oncoming traffic is a common cause of traffic accidents. A driver making a left turn must yield the right-of-way to oncoming traffic. The left-turning driver may not be paying attention and may not see the oncoming vehicle. Or he or she may see the oncoming vehicle but think (erroneously) that he or she has sufficient time to make a left turn. The driver may misjudge the speed and distance of the oncoming vehicle. Sometimes the oncoming car is exceeding the posted speed limit by 10, 15, or more miles per hour, making it harder to judge how much time one has to make a safe left turn.

When both drivers are partially at fault, the legal doctrine of “comparative negligence” applies. This basically means that a party cannot recover monetary damages for those injuries that are partly due to his or her own fault. For instance, if a person makes a left-turn but collides with an oncoming car that is speeding, the amount of each party’s award will be reduced by the percentage of each party’s negligence. For instance, if the person’s medical expenses came to $50,000, he or she could recover only half of that from the other driver (assuming a jury found each driver’s share of the blame to be 50 percent).

Failing to maintain one’s vehicle in proper operating condition is another frequent cause of traffic accidents. Worn-out brakes are a major cause of many accidents. Tires that do not have enough tread left to stop the car—especially in an emergency—are another common cause of traffic accidents. The risk of getting into a traffic accident in a car with bald tires increases dramatically when there is water on the road, such as in a rainfall or ice. Other mechanical causes of an accident may be a tire blowout, a failure of the steering system, or an axle failure, defective door latches, fuel systems, airbags, seat belts, seat backs, and insufficient roof strength to prevent a collapse in the case of a turnover. The design of the vehicle may also be defective. This is true of SUVs, which have a high center of gravity and are more likely to rollover in an accident. Some conditions are due to the carelessness of the driver, such as failing to have the brakes working properly or putting on new tires when the tread is worn. But other accidents—such as the risk of a vehicle turning over, are due to the fault of the vehicle manufacturer in the form of a defectively made or designed vehicle.

Weather conditions can lead to many accidents. Rain, ice, or snow on the asphalt can cause problems with traction and make it longer to stop a car than if the road surface was dry. In Southern California, because of the relatively small amount of rain it gets, when it does rain oil seeps to the surface of the road, increasing the hazard of a slippery road surface. Because it rains so infrequently in Southern California, drivers have little experience with how to drive safely on slick roads, resulting in a dramatic increase in accidents when it rains.

A growing cause of automobile accidents involve street racing. Two drivers get into a race and a pedestrian or other vehicle starts to cross the street, but the street racer is not able to stop in time to avoid the accident. Or one of the cars loses control and hits a pole straight-on, causing serious injury or death. In cases of death, the driver of the other vehicle may face serious criminal charges.

Sometimes an accident occurs on the freeway or a highway when one driver is driving in the wrong direction and collides head-on with a vehicle coming from the opposite direction. Frequently such a driver is very drunk or high on drugs and unwittingly got on the wrong traffic ramp. But some wrong-way drivers are intent on committing suicide and have no regard for the lives of the persons in the other vehicle who will be injured or killed in the collision.

Sometimes an auto accident will be due to the negligence of a public entity—the state, a county, or a city—in designing, constructing, or maintaining public roadways. Road construction accidents on the part of the public entity may make it liable for the deaths or injuries resulting from its negligence, if the public entity created a dangerous condition of its property from which is had actual or constructive notice that the condition posed a risk of harm to persons using the road. “Constructive notice” means that the dangerous condition of the roadway had existed long enough that the public entity should have known of it, such as from a previous accident or complaint.

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Orthopedic Injuries After Accidents – Know Your Legal Rights

When we hear that someone is going to see an orthopedic surgeon, we often think that the person must have a broken bone that needs treatment. But orthopedic injuries go far beyond fractured bones. Orthopedic injuries can involve injury to any part of the musculoskeletal system, which is made up not only of the bones that make up the skeleton, but also the muscles, joints, ligaments, tendons, and cartilage that make it possible for us to walk, move our arms, hands, feet, neck, and other parts of our bodies.

An accident may result in a broken bone, whether it be an arm, leg, rib, clavicle, hip, or pelvis, among others. The fracture can range from a hairline break to a compound fracture in which the broken bone breaks through the skin. Compound fractures are especially dangerous because of the risk of infection from the open wound.

Some of the more common orthopedic injuries that result from the negligence of another person who is at fault for causing an automobile accident, a slip or trip and fall, or from a defective product include:

The extent of recovery from an orthopedic injury depends upon a number of factors, including the age and sex of the victim, severity of the injury, and how quickly medical treatment is obtained after an accident. An older woman with osteoporosis is more likely to break a hip or other bone in a fall than is a 25-year-old woman in good health. Also, if a 25-year-old victim and a 65-year-old victim suffer identical orthopedic injuries, the younger woman will generally heal more quickly with fewer permanent effects than the older woman.

When a person has sustained an orthopedic injury, in many cases the condition may become chronic or subject the person to complications further along in life. For instance, a victim who slips and falls on a dangerous supermarket floor and suffers a broken hip bone, has a greater risk of developing arthritis or other medical complications due to the injury later in life than if he or she had not been injured. Children who have suffered an orthopedic injury caused by a third person pose a special problem, because their musculoskeletal system is still developing and the full impact of their orthopedic injuries may not be known for years. When negotiating with the insurance company or trying your case in front of a jury, your lawyer must include such future problems and costs of treatment therefor as an element of damages to which the victim is entitled.

A broken bone may need to have a cast or brace to immobilize it, or a plate and screws may be necessary depending on the nature and location of the fracture. In some cases, the injured joint, such as a hip or shoulder, will need to be replaced with an artificial device. An orthopedic injury may require surgical repair, pain management, and lengthy and intensive physical therapy.

Orthopedic injuries are classified as acute or chronic. An acute injury is one that comes on suddenly—such as in an automobile accident or a slip/trip and fall—and is caused by high-intensity forces. Chronic injuries are of two types: chronic overuse injuries and chronic recurring conditions, which are acute injuries that occur multiple times, such as a sprained ankle.

The hip is one of the body’s largest weight-bearing joints. It consists of two parts: a ball at the top of the thighbone (femur) and the rounded socket in the pelvis. Ligaments hold the ball into the socket and provides stability to the joint. A hip fracture is usually a break near the top of the thighbone where it angles into the hip socket. Hip fractures are especially severe injuries to elderly patients with osteoporosis. Depending on the age and health of the victim, it can take months of bed rest and immobility for the hip to heal completely. In some cases, the hip is so severely damaged that it must be replaced with an artificial hip.

The knee is the largest joint in the body, made up of the lower end of the thighbone (femur), the upper end of the shinbone (tibia), and the knee cap (patella). The knee also includes four major ligaments that connect the bones, control motion, stabilize the joint, and restrict abnormal movement. The meniscus is the cartilage in the knee that serves as a shock absorber and stabilizer. The medial collateral ligament connects the thighbone to the shinbone and helps to stabilize the inner side of the need. A blow to the outside of the knee may cause injury to the MCL that may be accompanied by sharp pain on the inside of the knee. Other important ligaments in the knee are the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and the posterior cruciate ligament (PCL).

The shoulder is the most mobile joint in the body, capable of a nearly 360 degree range of motion. However, the complex mechanics of the shoulder make it vulnerable to injury. The shoulder joint is made up of the clavicle (collarbone), the scapula(shoulder blade), and the humerus (upper-arm bone). The shoulder joint is a ball-and-socket joint that helps the shoulder move forward and backward and makes it possible for the arm to movie in a circular motion and lift away from the body.

The elbow joint is where the upper-arm bone (humerus) meets the two bones of the lower arm (the ulna and radius). The elbow joint allows the arm to work like a door hinge as well as twist and rotate. The elbow is made up of several muscles, nerves, and tendons that connect the tissues between muscles and bones.

If you have suffered an orthopedic injury due to the fault of another person or a defective product, you should contact an experienced personal injury Law Firm as soon as possibe so an investigation into the accident can be started without delay, before evidence is lost or altered. The attorneys will also want to talk with witnesses to the incident as soon as possible, while the event is still fresh in their minds. An attorney may also be able to get you to health care professionals who specialize in orthopedic injuries.

You may not have health insurance and are unable to pay for expensive orthopedic visits and tests including MRI’s or x-rays.  Call today and find out how we can help.  Toll Free:  888.222.8286

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Lacerations Contusions and Injuries in Accidents and Personal Injury Cases

In just about every personal injury accident, one or more of the persons involved will suffer “lacerations and contusions,” which are the fancy medical and legal terms for cuts and bruises. But lacerations and contusions should not be written off as minimal nuisance injuries that heal in a short time. For example, lacerations inflicted by a pit bull on a person’s face are extremely painful and disfiguring. Contusions to the brain resulting from a blow to the head can result in a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Concerns when you suffer a laceration include bleeding, infection, pain, damage to structure beneath the skin, and future scars. A deep cut may expose underlying tissues, such as fat, tendon, muscle, or bone.

Lacerations and contusions to the head can be potentially deadly, even if the impact was not that great and the observable injuries do not appear to be severe. The lacerations and contusions may cause a hematoma (either a subdural or an epidural hematoma), causing heavy bleeding into or around the brain. Two other types of open wounds are commonly found in personal injury cases: abrasions and puncture wounds. An abrasion is a superficial wound in which the uppermost layer of the skin (the epidermis) is scraped off, often by a sliding fall on a rough surface. A puncture wound is usually caused by a sharp pointy object such as a nail, animal teeth (such as a dog bite), or a tack. This type of wound usually does not bleed excessively and can appear to close up. Puncture wounds are prone to infection and should be treated appropriately.

A laceration is a jagged and irregular cut produced by tearing of soft body tissue caused by some blunt trauma, such as being hurt in an automobile accident or a fall. The seriousness of a laceration depends on its location, its depth, whether it leaves a foreign body inside the wound, the amount of blood loss, and whether the cut becomes infected. A laceration is known as an “open wound.” An X-ray may be taken if foreign objects or an underlying broken bone is suspected.

A tetanus shot may be required when a person has suffered a laceration, puncture wound, abrasion, or other injury that breaks the skin. If the laceration was inflicted by a dog, you should verify that the dog was current in its rabies shots; otherwise you will have to undergo a painful series of anti-rabies shots.

For mild lacerations with no complications, medical treatment generally is not called for. All that is required for treatment is to wash them with soap and tap water and keep them clean and dry. Putting alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, and iodine should not be avoided, as this can delay healing.

Medical attention for a laceration may be required where:

  • The wound spurts blood, blood soaks through the bandage, or bleeding continues after ten minutes of firm pressure

  • The laceration is longer than 1/3rd of an inch or covers a large part of the body

  • Pus drains from the cut

  • There is warmth or numbness in the area of the cut or swelling around it

  • The cut is jagged, appears deep, or is located on the face, head, or hand

  • The cut was caused by a dirty or rusty instrument

  • The wound becomes tender or inflamed

  • The person cannot move comfortably or develops a temperature over 100 degrees Fahrenheit

  • The wound fails to heal

  • There are signs of nerve or tendon injury, such as numbness in the area of the wound

The goals of laceration treatment are to stop the bleeding, avoid infection, restore function to the involved tissues, and achieve optimal cosmetic results with minimal scarring. While emergency rooms routinely treat acute trauma involving lacerations, the family doctor should be prepared to treat acute lacerations. This requires knowledge of wound evaluation, preparation, and appropriate repair techniques, as well as when to refer the patient for surgical treatment and how to provide follow-up care.

When a person goes to a doctor or emergency room for treatment of a laceration, the laceration should be carefully evaluated to assess its severity and the involvement of muscle, tendons, nerves, blood vessels, and bone. Direct pressure should be applied to control bleeding. The history should include when and how the injury occurred and personal information, such as a history of hemophilia, HIV, diabetes, tetanus immunization, and allergies to latex, local anesthetics, tape, or antibiotics. The patient should be instructed on signs of infection and when follow-up should be performed.

Referral to a surgeon is appropriate in cases of deep wounds to the hand or foot full-thickness lacerations of the eyelid, lip, or ears; lacerations involving nerves, arteries, bones, or joints; penetrating wounds of unknown depth; severe crush injuries; severely contaminated wounds requiring drainage; and wounds for which the victim or the doctor is strongly concerned about the cosmetic outcome.

If you were injured in, say, a traffic accident caused by another person, that resulted in serious lacerations that needed stitches or other medical intervention and left a scar, you are entitled to receive compensation for the disfigurement. Of course, your monetary recovery will be much greater for a long scar on your face than a small scar on your arm, back, or leg.

Infection is the biggest medical concern in the first few weeks following a laceration or other “open” injury. Signs of infection include severe pain, draining pus, redness beyond the wound edges, fevers and chills, or excessive wound swelling. If you think you have an infection, you should seek prompt medical care.

Scarring is also a major concern. Although good wound care gives the best chance of a smaller scar, there are several factors beyond your control. For instance, jagged cuts with more traumatic skin damage (such as a cut surrounded by an area of abrasion) tend to scar more. African-Americans tend to form “keloid scars” during the healing process. A keloid is a thick swollen care with a ropelike quality, which can sometimes be treated by a dermatologist or plastic surgeon after the wound is healed.

You can help to minimize the possibility of scarring by watching for signs of infection (such as redness, swelling, oozing pus) and seeing your doctor promptly. You should also avoid sun exposure, as newly healed tissue burns more easily and is often left discolored. A scar will often look red and swollen after removal of the sutures, but may fade considerably over the next year.

A contusion is caused when tiny blood vessels (“capillaries”) are damaged or broken as the result of blunt trauma to the skin, crushing the underlying muscle fibers and connective tissue without breaking the skin. A contusion is classified as a “closed wound.” A bruise results from blood leaking from these injured blood vessels into tissues as well as the body’s response to the injury. A purplish, flat bruise that occurs when blood leaks out into the top layers of skin is referred to as an “ecchymosis.”

While contusions often affect only the tissues just beneath the skin, severe impacts can cause serious contusions in muscles, bones, or even internal organs. In severe cases, swelling and bleeding beneath the skin may cause shock. If tissue damage is extensive, you may also have a fractured bone, dislocated joint, sprain, torn muscle, or other injury. Severe injuries that cause difficulty in moving a limb, abdominal bruising, bruising behind the ear, and the feeling of liquid under the skin may indicate a life-threatening injury and requires immediate medical care.

In some cases, built-up pressure from fluids several hours after a contusion injury can disrupt blood flow and prevent nourishment from reaching the muscle group. This is known as “compartment syndrome,” and often requires urgent surgery to drain the excess fluids. Untreated compartment syndrome can result in tissue necrosis, permanent functional impairment, and, if severe, kidney failure and death. Compartment syndrome can occur wherever a compartment is present: the hand, forearm, upper arm, abdomen, buttock, and entire lower extremity (the legs). In compartment syndrome, the patient complains of deep, constant, and poorly localized pain, and is often described as out of proportion with the injury. Compartment syndrome is a serious medical condition requiring emergency care.

Sometimes a bruise does not go away and instead becomes firm and may actually start getting larger in size. It may also continue to be painful. If a large collection of blood is formed under the skin or in the muscle, rather than trying to clean up the area, the body may wall off the blood that is causing a hematoma. A hematoma is a small pool of blood that is walled off and may need to be drained by your doctor.

You should take photographs of your bruises at their worst so they can be shown to the jury to help to demonstrate the extent of your injuries.  Call now and talk to a lawyer for free about your case:  310.882.6810

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Plane Crash and Your Legal Rights – Domestic Aircraft Accidents

Commercial flying is considered one of the safest—if not indeed the safest—means of transportation going. You have a much greater chance of being injured in an automobile accident on your way to the airport than you do of being involved in a commercial aircraft accident. Unfortunately, when there is a commercial aircraft accident, it tends to be a major disaster resulting in hundreds of deaths and significant property damage.

When a commercial aircraft is involved in an accident that results in loss of life or serious personal injuries, there may be a number of possible defendants who may be legally responsible (“liable”) for the damages. First there is the airline company itself. Because commercial airliners offer to the general public to carry goods or persons and are bound to accept anyone who offers to pay the “price of carriage” depending on seat availability, they are considered by law to be “common carriers.”

As a common carrier, an airliner is required to use the “utmost due care and diligence” for the safe passage of and to prevent injuries to its passengers and can be held financially responsible for injuries resulting from even its slightest carelessness (“negligence”). Commercial airlines are bound to do all that human care, vigilance, and foresight that they can reasonably do under the circumstances to protect their passengers from harm. However, as to other planes and persons who are not passengers, the airliner owes them only the ordinary standard of care.

The major causes of a commercial aircraft accident are:

  • Pilot error

  • Mechanical failure due to faulty equipment

  • Bad weather

  • Air traffic controller error

  • Improper maintenance or repair of the aircraft or its component parts

  • Violating FAA regulations

  • Structural or design problems with the aircraft

  • Sabotage (bombs, hijacking, shoot-downs)

  • Other causes (such as improper loading of the aircraft or fuel contamination)

The airline company may be held responsible for the errors of its pilots in operating the aircraft, its maintenance crew for failing to maintain the aircraft properly or failing to detect a crack or other structural problem with the aircraft, or improperly loading the aircraft. The manufacturer of the aircraft or supplier of a component part may be held liable under the doctrine of “strict products liability” for any and all defects in the manufacture or design of the plane or its defective parts that caused or contributed to the accident. The United States government may be liable where the accident is due to the negligence of one or more of its employees, usually the air traffic controllers. In a collision with another aircraft, the other aircraft may be sued if its pilots were negligent in failing to avoid the crash.

An all-too-frequent yet completely preventable cause of injuries and deaths in aircraft accidents involve “runway incursions.” The FAA defines a runway incursion as “any occurrence at an airport involving an aircraft, vehicle, person, or object on the ground that creates a collision hazard or results in loss of separation with an aircraft taking off, intending to take off, landing, or intending to land.” Runway incursions are frequently the result of the carelessness (“negligence”) of air traffic controllers in managing the flow of air traffic on the ground.

Research has shown that the first three minutes of a flight and the last eight are when about 80 percent of airplane accidents take place. This is often referred to as the rule of “plus three/minus eight.”

A professor in England analyzed the seating charts of more than 100 plane crashes and interviewed 1,900 survivors and 155 cabin-crew members. He found that the people most likely to survive a plane crash are those sitting right next to the exit row or one row away. He discovered that survivors usually move an average of five rows before they can get off a burning aircraft. The professor’s study concluded that beyond a five-row cutoff from the exit, your chances of surviving an aircraft fire are greatly reduced.

The National Traffic Safety Board (NTSB) is the governmental agency vested by Congress with the power to investigate all civilian aircraft accidents, whether it be a major airline disaster involving hundreds of death or a small, single-engine plane that goes down. Since its creation in 1967, the NTSB has investigated over 115,000 civilian aircraft accidents. After it has made a thorough investigation of the accident, the NTSB releases its report identifying the cause(s) of the crash—if a cause can be found—and issues safety recommendations designed to prevent future accidents from the same cause.

In conducting its investigation, the NTSB gathers data from the plane’s cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder if the aircraft was equipped with them. In major air disasters, the NTSB attempts to piece together the remaining parts of the plane in a hangar or other facility to try to reconstruct the plane and find the cause of the accident. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) usually takes part in the investigation to determine what accident prevention steps it should implement to prevent another occurrence of the same cause. The FAA also provides the NTSB with technical advice about the aircraft and flight conditions.

Commuter planes and regional jets are generally mid-sized planes that connect smaller cities with large ones having major airports. On February 12, 2009, Continental Connection Flight 3407, a flight operated by Colgan Air under contract to Continental, a commuter turboprop crashed into a home outside Buffalo, New York, killing 50 people, 45 passengers, four crew members, and one person on the ground in the house. The plane involved was a Bombardier Dash 8 Q400, a 74-seat twin-engine, medium-range turboprop airliner. The plane was less than one-year old and had flown for only about 1,500 hours.

Early speculation was that a buildup of ice on the wings was the most probable cause of the tragedy. However, approximately a month and a half after the disaster, the National Transportation Safety Board investigators stated that ice was not the likely cause of the crash and that it was looking at the actions of the pilot immediately before the crash. It was reported that the Flight Data Recorder indicated that the pilot’s control column—basically the device used to steer the plane—moved sharply backward, pitching the nose of the turboprop upward, causing the aircraft to stall. It is hard to recover from a stall like this, and the crew had only 1,600 to 1,800 feet to do so before the plane hit the ground. This was the deadliest American disaster in more than five years.

Another recent crash involving a commuter aircraft happened in the early morning hours of August 27, 2006. Comair Flight 191, marketed as Delta Connection Flight 5191, a 50-seat Bombardier Canadair Regional Jet CRJ-100ER bound for Atlanta crashed while trying to take off from Blue Grass Airport in Fayette County, Kentucky, four miles west of Lexington. 49 of the 50 occupants of the plane perished in the crash, with only the first officer (the copilot) surviving the crash. In the Comair disaster, Flight 5191 was cleared for take-off on Runway 22. However, for some reason the aircraft attempted to take off on Runway 26, a much shorter runway. The aircraft ran off the end of the runway, crashed through the airport perimeter fence, and came to rest in trees on an adjacent horse farm. The aircraft was destroyed by impact forces and a post-crash fire.

Runway 22 is 7,003 feet long and is lighted for nighttime use. Runway 26, on the other hand, is only 3,500 feet long, is not lighted, and is restricted for daytime use only by small airplanes. After giving the flight clearance to take off from runway 22, the sole air traffic controller on duty turned away from the window to perform an administrative task (traffic count), and did not witness the accident but heard the crash, turned around and saw fire, and immediately activated the emergency response. The aircraft was made in Canada in January 2001 and was delivered to Comair on January 30, 2001. The NTSB determined that the probable cause of the disaster was the flight crew members’ failure to use available cues and aids to identify the aircraft’s location on the airport surface during taxi, as well as their failure to cross-check and verify that the aircraft was on the correct runway before takeoff. Contributing factors were the flight crew’s nonpertinent conversations during taxi, which resulted in a loss of positional awareness and the FAA’s failure to require that all runway crossings be authorized only by specific air traffic control clearances.

In 1993, a commercial jet at Blue Grass Airport was cleared for takeoff on Runway 22 but mistakenly went to the shorter Runway 26 instead. Fortunately, tower personnel noticed the mistake and cancelled the aircraft’s takeoff clearance just as the crew realized their error. The aircraft subsequently made a safe departure from Runway 22. On September 1, 2006, the FAA issued a Safety Alert for Operators (SAFO), titled “Flight Crew Techniques and Procedures that Enhance Pre-takeoff and Takeoff Safety.” This alert highlights existing FAA aircraft ground operation guidance and reminds flight crews that maximum attention should be placed upon maintaining situational awareness during taxi operations.

When a passenger on a domestic commercial flight is killed in a crash, it may be possible for his or her next of kin to bring a “survival” action to recover monetary damages for the pain and suffering and mental anguish he or she experienced from the time he or she realized that something was seriously wrong with the flight until the time of his or her death.

If you have been injured or a loved one killed in an accident involving a commercial aircraft, a private airplane, or a helicopter, you should contact an experienced personal injury law firm as soon as possible. Although the NTSB usually conducts a thorough investigation of an aircraft accident, it may take many months—sometimes as much as a year or more—for the NTSB to release its findings, conclusions, and recommendations. The law firm may want to send its own investigator to the scene of the accident to inspect and take pictures of the accident site and any dangerous condition that caused or contributed to the accident, especially before the airliner changes the condition. The attorney or his or her investigator—usually an expert in reconstructing plane crashes—will also want to talk to any witnesses to the accident while the facts are still fresh in their minds.

When a commercial aircraft crashes causing a loss of life or serious injuries, the airliner and its insurance company will usually contact the next of kin immediately and provide immediate grief support. The airliner will often pay for the hotel costs of a deceased passenger’s next of kin and help make and pay for funeral arrangements. The airliner or its insurance company will frequently tell the survivors that there is no need for them to obtain a lawyer to represent them, as they will do right by them.

The insurance company may offer to pay what appears to the family to be a fair settlement. Do not accept any settlement offer from an insurance company without the advice of a skilled and experience aviation accident lawyer. The grieving family is susceptible to accepting a much lower offer than an experienced aviation lawyer can get for them. Although the airliner or its insurance company will try to dissuade you from getting a lawyer saying that a lawyer’s fee will come out of your share, the truth is that studies consistently show that victims of accidents end up with more money in their pockets even after paying the lawyer his or her fee.

An experienced personal injury law firm can also help with seeing to it that you obtain appropriate and thorough medical care for your physical, emotional, and psychological injuries suffered as a result of the accident. They can also do everything possible to ensure that you obtain full compensation for your medical expenses, pain and suffering, mental anguish, property damage, lost wages, psychological injuries, loss of society and comfort (“loss of consortium”), and all of your other injuries and damages.

We understand the physical, financial, emotional, and psychological toll a serious injury or death from a commercial aircraft accident can take on the injured victim and his or her family, or on the loved ones of a person who was killed in a commercial aircraft accident. Call now for a free legal consultation of your case – 888.222.8286

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Angels Pitcher Nick Adenhart Killed in Car Accident

UPDATE:   The driver of the mini-van has been identified as Andrew Thomas Gallo, 22,He is suspected of drunk driving

Los Angeles Angels Rookie starting pitcher Nick Adenhart, 22,  was killed last night, along with two others in a tragic car accident in Fullerton, California.  Adenhart, pitched six scoreless innings that night and was with an Angels employee and another prospect college baseball player.  The three were reported dead while another passenger in their car remains in critical condition at the UC Irvine Medical Center.  The crash was a hit-and-run accident, in which the driver of a mini-van ran a red-light near Orangethorpe Avenue and Lemon Street.  The mini-van struck the car Adenhart was riding in and sent them into a lightpole.  

Nicke Adenhart

The driver of the mini-van took off runing on foot, but the police later found and arrested him.  The driver of the mini-van is being charged with felony hit-and-run.   Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those who have to go through this untimely and tragic loss.  While the police investigation into this accident continues, one has to wonder if the driver of the mini-van was under the influence of alcohol.

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Burn Injuries and Your Legal Rights in California

Burns are the third-leading cause of unintentional death in the United States, behind only automobile accidents and falls. According to the American Burn Association, there are about one million burn injures each year in America, 43,000 of which are serious enough to require hospitalization. The number of burn fatalities in the United States has dropped dramatically in the last few decades due to advances in medical treatment of burn victims. Today, there are about 4,500 deaths each year that are caused by burns. Compare this to 1985, when more than 90,000 burn victims died. In the 1970s, victims suffering burns over more than 20 percent of their total body surface area (TBSA) died. Today, a person suffering burns over 90 percent of his or her body can survive, although they will often have permanent impairments.

Serious burns are complex. In addition to the burn injury itself, a number of other functions may be affected. Burn injuries can affect muscles, bones, nerves, and blood vessels. The lungs and airway can be damaged by, for example, breathing in hot air. The severity of a burn injury is determined by a number of factors, including the depth of the burned area, the total body surface area (TBSA) burned, the location of the burn, what caused the burn, and the age and health of the burn victim.

The skin is made up of three layers: the epidermis (the outer layer), the dermis (the second layer), and subcutaneous tissues (fat and muscle). Traditionally, burn injuries have been classified according to degree. A first-degree burn usually affects only the outer layer (epidermis). A second-degree burn affects the epidermis and the next layer of skin, the dermis. Second-degree burns involve the superficial (“papillary”) dermis, and may also involve the deep (“reticular”) dermis layer. Second-degree burns are considered minor if they involve less than 15 percent of the total body surface area (TBSA) in adults, and less than 10 percent TBSA in children.

Third-degree burns affect all layers of the skin and often the underlying tissue, tendons, joints, and bones. The burned area is usually charred black and includes areas that are dry and white. For some people, a third-degree burn is excruciatingly painful, while many are relatively painless due to the nerve endings having been destroyed by the burn. Third-degree burns result in scarring and victims will also lose hair shafts and keratin. This degree of burn often requires skingrafting. Fourth-degree burns damage muscle, tendon, and ligament tissue, resulting in charring to and catastrophic damage of the hypodermis. In some cases, the hypodermis tissue may be partially or completely burned away, resulting in a condition known as compartment syndrome, a life-threatening disorder. Skingrafting is required if the burns do not prove fatal. There are also fifth- and sixth-degree burns, but these are almost always fatal and are only seen at postmortem examination (that is, at an autopsy). In rare cases, where the burn is limited to one area, such as an arm or leg, the surgeon may amputate the limb that has been burned so severely.

The system of “degrees” of burn is being replaced by a system that addresses the amount of surgical intervention involved. Under this system, burns are classified as superficial, superficial partial-thickness, deep partial-thickness, or full-thickness. Many doctors prefer these newer descriptions because they relate more closely to the prognosis and treatment of the burn than the older method does. Superficial thickness is the equivalent of a first-degree burn. A partial thickness-superficial burn is the equivalent of a second-degree burn that involves the superficial (top layer) dermis, resulting in blisters, clear fluid, and pain. There is no damage to the deeper layers of the dermis, sweat glands, or oil glands. Partial thickness-deep correlates to a second-degree burn of the deep (inner layer) dermis. A partial thickness-deep burn involves damage to the deep (inner layer) dermis, sweat glands, and oil glands. A full-thickness burn is the equivalent of a third- or fourth-degree burn, causing damage to the dermis and underlying tissue, and possibly bone or muscle. A full-thickness burn is hard, with leather-like eschar, purple fluid, and no sensation.

Burns are also assessed in terms of total body surface area (TBSA) burned, which is the percentage affected by partial thickness or full thickness burns. The “rule of nines” is used as a quick way to estimate the TBSA affected. The adult body is divided into regions, each of which makes up nine percent of the TBSA. These regions are the head and neck, each upper limb, the chest, the abdomen, the upper back, the lower back and the buttocks, the front of each lower limb, and the back of each lower limb. This makes up 99 percent of the human body. The remaining one percent is the genital area. With an infant or small child, more emphasis is placed on the head and trunk.

The first 48 hours after being burned are the most critical for survival and recovery. Two of the main concerns of health care professionals are infection and fluid loss. To counter this, doctors will order IV electrolytes and other fluids, antibiotics, and a tetanus shot during the initial treatment after a burn. Once the patient has been stabilized, the wounds are cleaned and covered. If there is not enough skin left to cover the burned area, doctors will perform skin grafts using skin from unburned areas of the victim’s body if possible, and, if not, using cadaver skin or artificial skin. If you have been seriously burned, your chances for a successful recovery are greatest when you are treated at one of the approximately 200 specialized burn treatment centers across the United States.

A burn victim is at risk for dying from certain other conditions, such as infection, multiple organ dysfunction syndrome, acute respiratory distress syndrome, pneumonia, heart problems, or sepsis. Medical researchers have discovered that internal organs often suffer damage after a critical burn injury. The reason for this is that, when faced with a life-threatening injury, the body will redirect blood to try to save the brain and heart, robbing the intestines and lungs of oxygen and other blood-borne substances.

Talk to a lawyer now for free about your burn injury case.  Protect your rights:  310.882.6810

Related Article:  Burn Injuries & Accidents:  Informational Resources

 

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Hearing Loss from a Car Accident – Loss of Hearing from Traumatic Impact

If your hearing has been impacted after an accident, it is important that you immediately speak with an attorney at our law firm about your case.  We have successfully handled many cases resulting in hearing loss or tinnitus  - whether due to whiplash or the deployment of an airbag.  We routinely work with some of the top audiologist, doctors and experts in California in handling our cases and in the treatment of our clients.  Call now for a free legal consultation 888.222.8286.

Below is some educational information about dealing with hearing loss, the legal consequences and the biological background of its causes.

When we think of hearing loss, we typically think of a person who has listened to loud music for years, has worked in noisy industrial buildings or construction areas all of his or her working life, or the natural decline of the auditory senses with age. But hearing loss can also be due to a sudden event, such as hitting one’s head in a fall or a swift powerful blow to the side of the head such as that suffered in an automobile accident. A blow to the head that causes unconsciousness can lead to an inner-ear concussion and hearing loss. Other damages that can result in trauma to head or ear include the dislocation or fracture of the middle ear bones, fracture of the cochlea in the inner ear (the cochlea is the main sensory organ of hearing), a hole in the inner ear leading to inner ear fluid leakage, a fracture of the temporal bone fracture leading to hearing loss, and bleeding in the inner ear. Serious traumatic injuries to the ear arising from an automobile collision can cause permanent hearing loss or balance problems.

The ear is made up of three parts: the outer ear, the middle ear, and the inner ear. The outer ear captures the sound vibration and sends it through the ear canal to the middle ear, which contains the eardrum and three tiny bones—the hammer, anvil, and stirrup (known collectively as the “ossicles”). The sound causes the eardrum to vibrate. The ossicles amplify these vibrations and carry them to the inner ear. The inner ear is made up of a snail-shaped chamber (the “cochlea”), which is filled with fluid and lined with four rows of tiny hair cells. When the vibrations are strong enough, the inner hair cells translate them into electrical nerve impulses in the auditory nerve (the “vestibulocochlear” nerve), which sends electrical signals to the brain to be interpreted as sound.

There are two main types of hearing loss: conductive hearing loss and sensorineural hearing loss. Conductive hearing loss is due to some mechanical problem in the external or middle ear. The three tiny bones of the middle ear may fail to conduct sound to the cochlea, the eardrum may fail to vibrate in response to sound, or there may be fluid in the middle ear. Sensorineural hearing loss results from a dysfunction of the inner ear. The most common reason for hearing loss is due to the tiny hair cells (“cilia”) that transmit sound through the ear are injured. This is often referred to as “nerve damage,” but that is not quite an accurate description. Sensorineural hearing loss often makes it difficult to hear high tones, such as women’s or children’s speech. Usually it will be difficult to hear the person you are talking to if there is background noise. Conductive hearing loss is often reversible and can often be cured simply by cleaning the ear wax out of the ear. Sensorineural hearing loss, on the other hand, is not reversible; once you lose your sensorineural hearing, it is usually lost forever and cannot be restored.

Serious and permanent hearing injuries can result in a traffic accident when the airbag deploys. The airbag explodes with a sound pressure level that may be greater than 170 decibels. To put this into perspective, a jet engine at takeoff has a sound pressure level of 140 decibels, a shotgun blast 165 decibels, and a rocket launch 180 decibels. A sudden, extremely loud noise such as an airbag exploding can damage any of the structures in the ear, causing immediate and permanent hearing loss (“acoustic trauma”). The occupants in a car in which the airbag deployed may suffer from ruptured eardrums, significant loss of equilibrium (such as unsteadiness or dizziness), or permanent and persistent ringing of the ears (“tinnitus”). The hearing damage a person develops from the deployment of an airbag may be due to the tremendous sound explosion of the airbag, which can cause severe ear pain, loud ringing, and bleeding from the ear canals. Or the damage to a victim’s ears may result from the sudden violent contact of the airbag with the person’s head.

Research tends to show that over 15 percent of persons whose airbags deployed in a traffic accident suffer some degree of permanent hearing loss. It is worth noting that an airbag deploys in the same explosive manner whether the accident was at a relatively low speed as it does at a high rate of speed. The problem is that an airbag is deployed using a tiny explosive device. This explosive device is necessary because the airbag must inflate in the extremely brief period of time it takes between the initial car crash impact and the moment the driver’s head would otherwise strike the steering wheel.

If severe trauma—such as a skull fracture of the temporal bone—dislocates the bones in the middle ear that transmit sound to the inner ear, or injures the inner ear structures (the cochlea), the hearing loss may be severe. To diagnose a fracture of the temporal bone, X-rays or even a CT scan may be necessary to aid the doctor. Temporal-bone fracture is a more serious injury than a simple concussion, and is more likely to be associated with permanent injury to the inner ear.

Symptoms of hearing loss include muffled hearing, difficulty understanding what people are saying especially when there are competing voices or background noise (you may hear the other person speaking, but you cannot distinguish the specific words), listening to the television or radio at a higher volume than before, avoiding conversation and social interaction, and depression because of how the hearing loss is affecting your social life. Other symptoms that may accompany hearing loss include ringing, roaring, hissing, or buzzing in the ear (“tinnitus”), ear pain, itching or irritation, pus or fluid leaking from the ear, and vertigo.

Depending on the place and extent of injury to the ear, it may heal on its own or surgery may be required to restore hearing. Damaged eardrums can be repaired surgically. Ossicles (the three small bones of the middle ear) can be replaced with artificial bones. Some causes of sensorineural hearing loss can also be improved. If there is no cure for the hearing loss, a hearing aid for one or both ears usually helps most people, whether the hearing loss is the result of either conuctive or sensorineural problems. When a hearing aid does not give enough amplification, as with profound deafness, a cochlear implant may help.

A ruptured eardrum may heal on its own in several weeks after it was injured, but the remaining scar tissue may affect the person’s ability to hear low sounds. Where the injury has resulted in a perforated eardrum, typically the size of the perforation determines the level of hearing loss. A larger hole will cause a greater hearing loss than a smaller hole. The location of the perforation also affects the degree of hearing loss.

If you have been injured in an automobile accident in which an airbag deployed or you hit your head, you should seek immediate medical care if you experience a sudden loss of hearing. Likewise, if your sudden hearing loss is combined with any of the following, you should seek immediate medical care:

  • Facial droop

  • Numbness or paralysis on one side of the face or body

  • Eye or vision problems, such as blurred or double vision, or the inability to see out of one eye

  • Slurred speech, the inability to speak, or difficulty understanding speech

  • Difficulty standing or walking (ataxia)

  • Falling of stumbling a lot (clumsiness)

  • Severe nausea or vomiting

  • Dizziness or lightheadedness

  • Vertigo (a sudden feeling of spinning or whirling that feels like moving while sitting or standing still)

  • Sudden ringing or buzzing in the ears (tinnitus)

  • Blood or other fluid (other than earwax) oozing out the ear

  • Headaches

  • Major fatigue

In any event, if you have suffered a sudden loss of hearing as the result of an automobile accident or any other head trauma, you should see your doctor as soon as possible for medical evaluation. If your doctor suspects or diagnoses a hearing loss, he or she may refer you to an ear, nose, and throat specialist (“otolaryngologist”) or an audiologist.

A blow, cut, or other trauma to the ear or ear canal may result in bleeding and infection, leading to temporary hearing loss. Traumatic injury to the inner ear or cochlea can result in permanent hearing loss. A blow to the head suffered in an automobile accident may cause the three bones of the middle ear to change position (“dislocation”), resulting in sound not being sent to the inner ear. A head injury may also cause a ruptured eardrum. A forceful blow to the head may damage the delicate nerves in the cochlea or in the brain. Injuries to the ear come sometimes heal themselves; other times surgery is required to repair the damage. However, severe injuries may cause permanent damage to the ear, resulting in permanent hearing loss.

Which part of the ear is affected determines the type of hearing loss the victim suffers. In conductive hearing loss, sound waves are blocked before they reach the inner ear. One of the most common causes of conductive hearing loss is an accumulation of ear wax, which can be safely and quickly extracted by an otolaryngologist. In sensorineural hearing loss, sound reaches the inner ear, but a problem in the inner ear or the nerves that allow you to hear (the “auditory nerves”) prevent proper hearing. Examples of sensorineural hearing loss include noise-induced hearing loss and age-related hearing loss. Another, less frequent form of hearing loss is central hearing loss, in which the ear works, but the brain has difficulty understanding sounds because the parts of the brain that control hearing are damaged. This type of hearing loss may occur after a traumatic head injury.

A person injured in an automobile accident may sustain a “labyrinthine concussion.” The inner ear is sometimes referred to as the labyrinth (maze), as it is made up of an elaborate system of interconnected, tube-like fluid-filled chambers. The labyrinth includes the organ for hearing (the cochlea), as well as the organs for balance. The labyrinth is surrounded by the temporal bone. If you suffer a femoral bone fracture in an automobile accident, you may experience all of the symptoms of a labyrinthine concussion, including hearing loss, tinnitus, and balance problems. Temporal-bone fractures are more serious than simple concussions, and are more likely to be associated with permanent injury to the inner ear.

The amount of your monetary compensation will depend upon such factors as whether the hearing loss is in one or both ears, whether your hearing loss is mild or severe, whether there is decreased hearing acuity (whether words sound garbled), whether there is ringing in the ears (“tinnitus”), and whether there is any ear pain and, if so, how severe it is. In many people suffering a hearing loss in an automobile accident, it may be necessary for them to wear a hearing aid. Some victims will require a cochlear implant to improve hearing. A cochlear implant transmits signals directly into the auditory nerve via electrodes that are surgically implanted into the cochlea. The results of a cochlear implant vary between people, and it is hard to tell how useful it will be before it is implanted.

In some cases, the hearing loss shows up immediately after the accident, especially where it has involved physical impact to the ear. In other cases, the hearing loss resulting from the accident comes on more slowly. The victim may notice ringing in their ear (tinnitus) after the accident, become unable to hear sounds at a distance, hearing muffled sounds rather than crisp, sharp sounds, have difficulty understanding people who are talking to them, pain in the ear, continual itching in the ear, vertigo, and the discharge of fluid or blood from the ear.

Hearing loss can affect both your ability to work and your social life. A person who suffers a hearing loss may be subject to loneliness, despair, social isolation, depression, and loss of independence. In many cases, however, hearing aids and other devices are available to help you hear.

If you have suffered a partial or total hearing loss in a traffic accident, you should contact an experienced personal injury law firm as soon as possible. It is important to contact such a law firm promptly, as the law firm may want to send its own investigators to the scene of the accident to inspect and take pictures of the accident site and any dangerous condition that caused or contributed to the accident, especially before there is a change in the condition of the area or vehicle. The attorney or his or her investigator will also want to talk to any witnesses to the accident as soon as possible while the facts are still fresh in their minds.

An experienced personal injury law firm can also help with seeing to it that you obtain appropriate and thorough medical care for your physical, emotional, and psychological injuries suffered as a result of the accident. The attorneys in the firm can also do everything possible to ensure that you obtain full compensation for your medical expenses, pain and suffering, mental anguish, property damage, lost wages, and all of your other injuries and damages.

Slaughter & Slaughter has experience in diligently representing clients who have suffered hearing loss because of a motor vehicle caused by another driver’s carelessness. We understand the physical, financial, and emotional toll the loss of hearing takes on the injured victim and his or her family. Call now and talk to one of our lawyers for a free consultation of your case.  Don’t let the insurance company take advantage of you.  Call now:  310.882.6810

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BREAKING NEWS: Suspect Arrested in Adrianna Bachan Hit-Run Crash; Identified as Claudia Cabrera

The Los Angeles Police Department announced moments ago that a suspect has been arrested in the fatal hit-and-run accident that left one USC student, Adriana Bachan, 18, dead and another, Marcus Garfinkle, 19, in serious condition.  The LAPD will be holding a press conference this afternoon in regards to the arrest.  A reward was being offered for any information leading to an arrest of the driver of the vehicle.  The total amount was tallied at $235,000.00 after an anonymous donor pledged $100,000 yesterday.  Claudia Cabrera, 30, was booked for gross vehicular manslaughter and is being held in the Van Nuys Woman’s Jail.  Cabrera is being held on $1 million bail.   Police are still looking for Cabrera’s husband, Josue Luna, who is suspected to have been in the car as a passenger when the hit-and-run took place.  The couple’s 7-month-old baby was in the car at the time of the crash.

Adrianna Bachan

Stay Tuned for updates as they come in.

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