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Recent Blog Posts
Determining Who Is Responsible for Your Child’s Sports-Related Injuries
Across the United States, millions of children and teenagers, from grade school to high school, participate in sports or recreational-related activities. Each year, many of them are treated for injuries sustained while engaged in these activities. Most of the time, these injuries are minor, such as sprains or strains. Sometimes, sports-related injuries can be very serious and may even lead to death.
Every year, approximately 30 million children and teenagers partake in some shape or form of organized sports. According to studies performed by the National SAFE KIDS Campaign and the American Academy of Pediatrics, an estimated 3.5 million suffer injuries related to those activities. Roughly 775,000 children under the age of 14 are treated for sports-related injuries in hospital emergency rooms every year. About 21 percent of traumatic brain injuries among children are the result of sports and recreational activities. Some sports are more dangerous than others, but no matter what sport the child is engaged in, there is a potential chance of injury.
Pedestrian Accidents: When Intersections, People and Automobiles Collide
Getting struck by an automobile is a traumatic experience for most when two automobiles are involved. But when a vehicle strikes a pedestrian, the experience is not only traumatic but also often deadly.
Recently, an individual driving under the influence struck and killed a pedestrian. At approximately 7:15PM on June 18, 2015, the driver sped through a red light and struck a pedestrian who was properly walking within a crosswalk when she was struck by the vehicle. The pedestrian later died of her injuries at the hospital.
Proving Liability in Pedestrian Accident Cases
Negligence: The Disastrous Effects of Tractor Trailer and Automobile Collisions
When large trucks or tractor-trailers are involved in accidents with passenger automobiles, the results are usually disastrous. The sheer size and weight disparity between these two types of vehicles mean that even minor accidents have the possibility of causing serious injuries and even death. When you add a careless truck driver to the mix, it is certainly a recipe for catastrophe.
In 2013, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation estimates that large trucks were involved in over 7,000 accidents across the state of Wisconsin, resulting in 86 deaths and approximately 1,500 injuries. Unfortunately, trucking accidents are part of sharing the roads and highways with commercial trucking vehicles. In 2012, the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration estimated that large commercial trucks were involved in over 330,000 accidents that resulted in approximately 3,900 deaths and 104,000 injuries. In any event, the law in Wisconsin, and the majority of the United States, provides that when the negligence of another driver contributes to an accident and causes you to suffer injuries, you are entitled to compensation for those injuries.
Avoiding Pedestrian Accidents
Automobile accidents can be deadly when two automobiles are involved. When pedestrians are involved in automobile accidents, their injuries tend to be serious, and more often than not they lead to death.
Recently, a pedestrian was involved in accident caused by the automobile driver. The pedestrian was crossing the street when the automobile driver fatally hit him. Although these accidents are often devastating, they happen too frequently here in Wisconsin. According to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation in 2012, there were over 118,000 automobile accidents and 1,273 accidents involving pedestrians. As a result of those accidents, over 1,200 pedestrians suffered injuries while another 35 pedestrians were killed.
Traumatic Brain Injury
Traumatic brain injury is a major cause of death and disability in the United States, and contributes to almost one third of all injury deaths. According to the CDC, there are over 125 deaths every day in the United States in which traumatic brain injury was a factor, and those who survive a traumatic brain injury may face effects lasting a few days to major disabilities that may last the rest of their lives.
Everyone runs the risk of a traumatic brain injury, especially children and elderly people. Traumatic brain injuries occur in many ways, and if you or a loved one has received a traumatic brain injury, you need a skilled personal injury attorney to pursue fair compensation on your behalf. Some of the ways traumatic brain injury can occur is by falling, in a motorcycle or car accident, through the use of defective products, or being hit by a projectile.
When a Child Is Injured or Dies at Daycare
In July, an almost four-month-old baby named Payton McCoy died after being put down for a nap at his daycare in Milwaukee. The caregiver of the home day care center told the police that she fed Payton a bottle formula around noon, and then swaddled him and laid him down on his back, on a cushion called a Snuggle Me Cushion, on a twin bed. An hour later she found him still swaddled, but with his head against the wall and part of his face over the gap between the mattress and the wall. The woman was not licensed by the state of Wisconsin, and the mother reported that she had previously asked the provider not to use that cushion with Payton.
The daycare provider has been arrested for neglect. The fact is, if such a nightmare situation ever occurs, there is not always recourse for parents against the provider, especially an unlicensed one who may not carry insurance.
Amusement Park Injuries
Wisconsin has many recreational activities to offer residents and visitors, but those same activities present many dangers and result in numerous injuries to many who visit. Numerous accidents occur at amusement parks and waterparks in Wisconsin and throughout the United States and people are injured as a direct result of the negligence of somebody else.
If you or someone you love was injured in a waterpark or an amusement park accident in Wisconsin, an experienced personal injury attorney can help you explore all of your legal options, and recover the largest settlement possible to compensate you for your injuries.
Common Amusement Park Ride Injuries
Just this past summer, there was an incident at Wisconsin Dells Mt. Olympus Theme Park that resulted in a ride being removed from the park. The ride, called "the Catapult", is a bungee cord ride which sends riders up into the air and then bounces them. In June, as a Wisconsin adult and teen were strapped into the ride, the bungee cord snapped, and came crashing down beside them, creating a hole in the ground. The company that owns the park investigated the incident and required the ride be permanently removed from their park. Luckily, no one was injured in that incident.
Equine Immunity Statute: Suing for Injuries Caused by Equine Activities
Activities involving horses in Wisconsin are referred to as equine activities and the Wisconsin legislature has determined that these are inherently risky activities. As such, in many circumstances, if you are injured while riding a horse or at a horseback riding facility, you may not be able to sue anybody.
What Does “Inherently Risky” Mean?
Inherently risky means there is a danger or condition that is an integral part of equine activities including all of the following:
- The propensity of a horse to behave in a way that may result in injury or death to a person on or near it;
- The unpredictable nature of a horse’s reaction to movement and sound;
- A collision with either an animal or object; and
- The potential for a person who is participating in a horse-related activity to act negligently, to fail to control the horse, or to not act within his or her ability.
Wisconsin Immunity Law and Personal Injury Lawsuits
Generally speaking, when you suffer a personal injury because of the negligence or wrongdoing of another person, tort laws in Wisconsin are there to protect you and provide you with a means to recover for your losses. This means that in most circumstances, you will be compensated for the injuries and damages you have suffered by the negligent party, who will be held responsible under the law for negligent behavior.
In some cases, there are impediments to getting justice and recovering your damages in a court of law. One such circumstance is when an immunity law is used as a shield, and it acts to protect the irresponsible behavior of the wrongdoer and shifts the costs of the damages and injuries that were caused by the wrongdoer over to the innocent victim.
What Are Immunity Laws?
What Are Punitive Damages and How Do They Work in Wisconsin Personal Injury Cases?
In personal injury cases, there are several different types of damages you may potentially be able to recover. One type of damages that is not well understood is punitive damages. These are a special kind of damages that are not available in all personal injury cases. They are only for extreme situations.
The Purpose of Punitive Damages
Most legal damages are designed to pay a party back for what they have lost due to the actions of another party. Money is usually the only way our court system has of making people “whole” after an accident. But, punitive damages, as the name suggests, are designed to punish defendants who acted beyond the normal boundaries of acceptable behavior.
Punitive damages are also designed to deter other people and companies from acting badly.
