SInce they usually have extensive injuries, many victims need multiple surgeries over several days. Usually, doctors address truly life-threatening injuries first, like head injuries and internal bleeding. Once the patient is stable enough, they move to other areas, like broken bones. After a brief initial recovery period, doctors can determine if they need to intervene again or if the patients can go to a recovery area.
There’s some question as to whether the surgeon has a legal duty to inform the patient about the right to obtain a second opinion. But one thing is clear. If the patient asks for a second opinion, the surgeon must facilitate and expedite that request. Many surgeons do the opposite, generally because the request for a second opinion offends them.
Frequently, the workers who operate large machines have little experience behind the wheel. That’s especially true if they’re just parking or moving the vehicle. Large machines are very difficult to maneuver in tight spaces. As a result, railroad workers often get caught between a large machine and a retaining wall or another fixed object.
On a related note, liability waivers, like school field trip permission slips, aren’t always get-out-of-jail-free cards. The defendant must still prove the victim voluntarily assumed a known risk. The “voluntary” prong is especially a problem. Most liability waivers are illegal contracts of adhesion. Unless victims sign them as is, they cannot participate in the activity.
Driver inattention caused about a third of these serious or fatal injury wrecks, according to authorities. Distracted driving clearly violates a motorist’s duty of reasonable care. This duty requires drivers to watch the road and keep both hands on the wheel at all times. Today’s cars and trucks are so fast and so heavy that it only takes a moment of inattention to cause a serious wreck.
The volunteer fire departments that respond to these collisions do a good job securing the scene and taking care of injured victims. But these groups are ill-equipped to reconstruct the events leading up to a wreck. They simply don’t have the right training or the right tools.
Usually, hospital infections are not “accidents.” Instead, negligence, or a lack of care, is the culprit. That’s especially true since the duty of care is so high in these cases. Doctors have little margin for error. Specific infection causes often include failure to review the patient’s medical history, failure to use the proper kind of medication, and failure to immediately intervene at the first sign of trouble.
Courts have consistently held that a litigant is entitled to a fair trial, but not a perfect trial. Juror misconduct is a growing problem in today’s Fayette County trials. Jurors must decide cases based solely on the evidence presented during trial. But almost anyone can Google a person, a lawyer, an accident, or anything else and learn additional details not presented in court. A jury misconduct appeal is only successful if a party proves misconduct occurred and that misconduct substantially affected the outcome (e.g. the miscreant juror was a holdout juror).
This entire legal setup plays into the hands of a Lexington personal injury attorney. Basically, a lawyer has two chances to derail the comparative faulty defense. If an attorney loses a pretrial hearing before the judge, an attorney can still convince jurors the defense doesn’t apply. Even if a lawyer loses this fight as well, since Kentucky is a pure comparative fault state, the victim is most likely still entitled to compensation.
Cause-in-fact is basically a connection between the breach, which was discussed above, and the damages, which is discussed below. The victim/plaintiff must prove that owner negligence, as opposed to the victim’s own conduct, caused injury. Let’s return to the fall example. If the victim didn’t watch where s/he was going, slipped, and fell, that’s not the owner’s fault.
