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Types of Damages in Personal Injury Lawsuits
Many people think that a personal injury lawsuit is a success when the court decides that the defendant is liable for the accident, but that is not necessarily the case. After a finding of liability, the trial moves on to the damages phase, where the court determines how much money the defendant owes the plaintiff. In many ways, this part of the trial is most important. After all, winning the case only to have the damages fall short of covering the injury suffered would not really be a win at all. Fortunately, Wisconsin law makes a wide variety of damages available to injured plaintiffs. Plaintiffs may recover for their economic harms, for non-economic harms, and even punitive damages in some cases.
Economic Harms
Economic harms are the most straightforward type of damages. They are a subset of compensatory damages. The idea behind compensatory damages is to “make the plaintiff whole” again. This means that in an ideal world the plaintiff would be so well compensated for their injuries that they would be indifferent to the fact that the injury happened at all. In order to accomplish that, the law allows people to recover for a broad amount of economic harm.
Wisconsin Traffic Deaths Hit Historic Low
Wisconsin state officials are celebrating the continued trend of declining traffic accident deaths on Wisconsin roads. In fact, the last time Wisconsin streets saw as few deaths as they did in 2014 the year was 1943. That statistic is particularly impressive given how many fewer drivers there were on the road in the 1940s. In fact, some estimates put the number of drivers in the 1940s as just 10 percent of what they are today. Although a variety of factors may play a role in this trend of decreasing traffic fatalities, much of it appears to be attributable to drivers’ own increased caution and safe driving decisions.
The Statistics
Wisconsin traffic fatalities have been falling over the past two years. 2013 saw only 517 fatalities, and 2014 figures were even lower, registering just 482. In fact, this drop in traffic deaths is part of a larger trend. Other Midwestern states have been seeing similarly declining fatality rates. Traffic safety officials have put forward numerous different explanations for these positive numbers.
Wisconsin Frozen Road Law Goes into Effect
Winter driving brings a variety of hazards like slippery roads and decreased visibility. However, there is another less well-known danger that drivers should also be careful of, frozen road laws. Frozen road laws allow larger trucks to drive on certain roads that they would not ordinarily be licensed on. While this law allows trucks to perform road maintenance and keep drivers safe, motorists across the state should still be careful now that Wisconsin's frozen road law has gone into effect over all of its zones. Having larger trucks sharing the road can result in truck accidents, if drivers are not aware of how to protect themselves.
What the Frozen Road Law Is
The frozen road law is a law designed to make road maintenance easier. It permits trucks carrying certain wood products, salt, and sand for winter road work to ride on roads that they would ordinarily be too heavy for. The law permits trucks licensed up to 80,000 pounds to carry up to 98,000 pounds with no special permits. However, the law does not permit the trucks to use all roads. Most notably, the trucks are still not allowed on interstate highways if they were not before.
Collisions with Uninsured Motorists
Although no one likes paying their car insurance bills every month, that insurance coverage can end up being vital if a driver is involved in an accident. However, carrying car insurance is more than just a good idea. It is also required by the Wisconsin Department of Motor Vehicles. People who are at fault in a car accident and uninsured can see their licenses suspended if they do not find a way to pay the damages. However, despite this incentive, there are still plenty of people on the road who do not carry car insurance, and drivers should be aware of their options in case they end up involved in a car accident with an uninsured motorist, such as uninsured motorist (UM) insurance, looking for other potential defendants, and pushing forward with a lawsuit anyway.
Wrongful Death Lawsuits in Wisconsin
The law attempts to provide people with a full set of tools for responding to harms inflicted by others. In some particularly tragic cases, this includes responding to deaths caused by other people's carelessness. In those cases, Wisconsin law allows either a personal representative of the deceased or a close surviving family member, such as a parent, spouse, or child, to bring a wrongful death action on behalf of the decedent. While this type of lawsuit can never fully compensate someone for the death of a close relative, it can provide closure and ensure that the people responsible for the death are held accountable.
What Is Wrongful Death?
Wrongful death is a civil legal claim that Wisconsin law allows people to bring when the death results from another person's “wrongful act, neglect, or default.” This means that the law allows a representative of the deceased to seek damages when the person's death was caused by negligence. Examples of times where this may apply would be fatalities from car accidents, injuries suffered on another person's property, or as a result of a defective product.
Choosing a Car Accident Attorney
Car accidents can be confusing events, and people are often unsure of what to do afterward. One of the most challenging parts is selecting the right attorney to handle your car accident case. Yet, insurance industry statistics suggest that people will be involved in between three and four car accidents in the course of their lives. This means that it is important for people to understand how to choose the right car accident attorney for them since a good attorney can make all the difference. The two steps to selecting an attorney are to do research on attorneys beforehand, and to ask questions during the initial consultation before committing to anything.
Things to Research
The first step in finding a good attorney to handle a car accident claim is doing research beforehand. One of the best ways to do research is by talking to friends who have had to go through car accident claims and seeing if they had good experiences with any of their attorneys. Absent that, the internet is a powerful tool for finding out more about attorneys as potential representatives.
Taxi Cab Accidents in Wisconsin
The law surrounding any car accident can be complex, but taxi cab accidents can have their own unique legal issues. As a passenger, there are special rules related to the fact that taxi cabs are “common carriers,” which means that they have a higher obligation to keep their passengers safe than ordinary drivers do. As a bystander, such as a driver in another car, there are also unique rules pertaining to cabs because they are commercial, regulated vehicles, rather than just normal cars being driven by private people.
As a Passenger
Taxi cabs owe their passengers special duties because of their common carrier status. The leading legal dictionary defines common carriers as “a commercial enterprise that holds itself out to the public as offering to transport freight or passengers for a fee.” These sorts of enterprises typically include taxi cabs, buses, and railroads among others. Taxi cabs' common carrier status is important because it means that they have an increased duty to protect their passengers from harm.
When Car Crashes Occur Because of Vehicle Defect
When looking to assign fault in a traffic accident, most people focus on the two drivers involved. Yet, they are not the only people with control over the situation. There are times when the crash happened because of a mistake made by the car's manufacturer or designer - resulting in a vehicle defect - rather than by either of the drivers who were in the crash. From this standpoint, there are three major mistakes by a car company that can cause an accident: manufacturing defects, design defects, and failure to warn or properly instruct consumers about the danger.
Manufacturing Defects
One possible way that a car company could be at fault for a crash is if there was a manufacturing defect. A manufacturing defect occurs when the car is properly designed and should be safe, but there is an error in how it is put together. For instance, if a car is assembled at the factory in such a way that the brake pads are likely to fall off, that would be a manufacturing defect. In order to recover for a manufacturing defect, a victim must show five things:
Traffic Accidents and Verbal Statements: What You Should Not Say
One of the most difficult things for people to deal with in relation to traffic accidents and verbal statements is the fact what they say early in the process can have powerful impacts later on. People involved in traffic accidents will end up dealing with complex bureaucracies like the police department and insurance companies. People should understand that things they say at the scene of the accident or when talking to insurance companies can be used as evidence against them later in the case. In fact, people can even accidentally settle their claims without meaning to when talking to insurance companies because the law and legal ethics give clients a wide degree of authority to settle their own cases.
Responsibility for Self-Driving Car Crashes
Although self-driving cars sound like the stuff of science fiction, they may be closer to becoming a reality than people think. Google has been testing and improving its fleet of autonomous cars for years, and the CEO of Nissan recently predicted that automated cars could be available to consumers by 2020. The rapid development of these vehicles means that they are still operating in something of a legal grey area, and open questions about a variety of issues. One of the most commonly asked of these questions is who bears responsibility in the event of a self-driving car crash.
The Problem
The problem with assigning liability in self-driving car crashes is that there are two potential options, and they both come with their own issues. First, the law could simply hold the owner liable in cases where their self-driving car crashes. However, this does not seem satisfying. After all, the person who owns the car has no control over what it does. It would be similar to a car's owner today loaning their car to someone else and had to bear the responsibility for any accidents that the person may cause.
