Top 5 Legal FAQ Property Damage Claims

When your property gets destroyed or damaged by another person, you may be left wondering what you can do, legally. Under the law, if a person damages your property, whether intentionally or negligently, barring extraordinary circumstances, they will generally be liable for the damages caused.

Although it is a rather common problem that people have to deal with, individuals frequently have questions about their legal rights when it comes to property damage claims. Below are five of the most frequently asked questions about property damages claims.

1. How Do I Sue for Minor Property Damage?

Unless there is a lot of property damage, totaling more than a few thousand dollars at least, then you will generally be okay to file your claim in small claims court. Each state has different dollar limits for small claims court. If your case qualifies, you should be able to handle the small claims process without needing the help of a lawyer.

2. Do I Need a Police Report?

Although you may feel violated when another person damages your property, if there was no intent to cause damage, then there likely was no crime. Generally, police will not file a report unless there is a crime alleged, or associated injury, unless we're dealing with a car accident.

3. Can I Get Punitive Damages?

Only in extra-extraordinary cases will punitive damages be available in a property damage case. To get punitive damages, typically, a plaintiff will need to show that the damage caused was more than merely intentional and meant to cause personal harm or injury.

4. Can I Get Consequential Damages?

If your property is damaged to the point where it is unusable, you may be able to recover for reasonable consequential damages. For example, if your car is damaged, and you need to rent a car until yours can be fixed, the cost of a similarly classed rental car, but not the gas you used, would be compensable.

5. Should I Use My Own Insurance to Fix My Car?

In auto accident matters where you are not at fault, if you have collision coverage on your insurance, your own insurance can be used to fix your car. You will have to pay your deductible, however, that's all you will need to do. Your own insurance, after paying for your car's repairs, will then pursue the at-fault party to be reimbursed so you don't have to. To make things even better, when your insurance recovers from the at fault party, you will get your deductible back.

Related Resources:

• Find Personal Injury Lawyers in Your Area (FindLaw's Lawyer Directory)
• When to Hire a Lawyer to Sue for Property Damage (FindLaw's Injured)
• Car Accident Property Damage Claims FAQ (FindLaw's Learn About the Law)
• Cherokee Nation Sues Walmart, CVS, and Walgreens for Opioid Abuse (FindLaw's Injured)

from Injured http://blogs.findlaw.com/injured/2017/05/top-5-legal-faq-property-damage-claims.html

Who Pays for a Death at Sea?

It may surprise you to learn that Congress is now considering a bill that would require cruise ship companies to report crimes and death on their vessels, even if it's only surprising to learn that cruise ship operators weren't already contacting authorities if a passenger was robbed, assaulted, or died at sea.

It may also surprise you to learn a similar bill has been floating around the federal legislature since 2013, and has yet to be passed. So will the most recent version fare any better? And who should be liable for deaths on the high seas?

Thar She Blows!

The new/old statute would revise currently passenger vessel security and safety requirements concerning, particularly in forcing cruise line entities to create and maintain log book entries and reporting of deaths, missing individuals, thefts, and other crimes. The Act would require cruise lines to ensure that each vessel is fully-staffed at all times with a number of sea marshals as well. Lines would also need to maintain exactly who has access to records, and install video surveillance equipment to monitor crime.

Without these tracking and reporting systems in place, it was far easier for cruise lines to skirt wrongful death liability, and the goal of the new bill was to give consumers more information and protection when booking cruise time. "I'm convinced that the only way we're going to make a meaningful difference for consumers is by taking legislative action," the bill's 2013 sponsor and former senator from West Virginia Jay Rockefeller said four years ago. "We need to make sure this industry gives consumers all the information they need to make a fully informed decision before they book a cruise vacation."

What Happens on the High Seas...

While the three biggest cruise lines -- Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line -- have begun to voluntarily publish a list of major crimes allegedly committed aboard their ships on their Web sites, the new law would require cruise lines with more than 205 passengers to report homicides, suspicious deaths, missing persons, kidnappings, assault with "serious" injury, theft of more than $10,000, rape, and sexual assault.

The Cruise Passenger Protection Act would also increase cruise operator liability for damages stemming from passenger deaths and allow the families of passengers who die in international waters as a result of negligence to more easily recover damages for their loss.

If you or a loved one has been injured on a cruise, contact an experienced personal injury attorney today.

Related Resources:

• Have an injury claim? Get your claim reviewed by an attorney for free. (Consumer Injury)
• Can I Sue a Cruise Line for an Injury? (FindLaw's Injured)
• Cruise Ship Sickness: Can Passengers Sue? (FindLaw's Injured)
• Do Cruise Ships Have a Passenger's Bill of Rights? (FindLaw's Injured)

from Injured http://blogs.findlaw.com/injured/2017/05/who-pays-for-a-death-at-sea.html

Paralyzed Woman Sues Chicago for O'Hare Airport Accident

The trial against the city of Chicago as a result of a serious injury accident at O'Hare Airport a few years ago is set to move forward soon, unless a settlement can be reached as to the monetary award. The city has assumed liability and admitted fault, leaving the court to determine the extent of the damages.

In 2015, Tierney Darden was standing in a shelter at O'Hare Airport in Chicago, when the 750 pound shelter collapsed on top of her. What's worse, the accident caused Ms. Darden's spinal cord to be severed, leaving her permanently paralyzed. Investigators discovered that the shelter Ms. Tierney was standing in had missing bolts and other obvious signs of inadequate maintenance.

Relief for the Shelters

Since the accident, investigators discovered that numerous other shelters around O'Hare were similarly not maintained, had missing pieces, or weren't secured to the ground properly. Additionally, since the accident, the shelters have been removed due to safety concerns prompted by the media's investigation.

Generally, a person will have an injury claim if they are injured as a result of poorly maintained property. Businesses and governments, as property owners/controllers, owe a duty to the public to keep properties safe for their intended and foreseeable uses. When an injury occurs that would have been avoidable if the property owner exercised reasonable care in keeping the property safe, the property owner can be found liable under a premises liability theory of negligence.

Permanent Life Changing Injuries

Frequently, because a seriously injured person may not be concerned about anything except recovering or adjusting, seeking legal help can fall by the wayside. When a person suffers a permanent, life changing injury, it is often just as difficult to understand what has happened, than it is to adjust to it.

Seemingly random accidents can often be the result of negligence. Ms. Tierney's case is exactly of this type. If no one looked into why the shelter fell, there might not have ever been a case to begin with. As such, after significant, life altering injuries, seeking a consultation with a personal injury attorney could prove illuminating.

Related Resources:

• Find Personal Injury Lawyers in Your Area (FindLaw's Lawyer Directory)
• Many Home Daycare Providers Aren't Up-To-Date on Training (FindLaw's Injured)
• 3,000 Homeless Can Sue Denver After Citywide Sweeps (FindLaw's Injured)
• Las Vegas Nightclub Settles Hundred Million Dollar TBI Lawsuit (FindLaw's Injured)

from Injured http://blogs.findlaw.com/injured/2017/05/paralyzed-woman-sues-chicago-for-ohare-airport-accident.html

Many Home Daycare Providers Aren't Up-To-Date on Training

A recent investigatory report in South Carolina uncovered a disturbing trend among many home daycare providers: an alarmingly high rate of providers aren’t in compliance with laws requiring health and safety training. Despite there being a law requiring home daycare providers to partake in annual training, the law lacked any enforcement or monitoring mechanism.

The lack of enforcement in South Carolina allowed countless home daycares in several different counties to continue to operate despite being out of compliance with the law requiring home daycare workers to fulfill annual training.

South Carolina’s New Law

Fortunately for individuals in South Carolina that rely upon home daycare providers, a new law not only increases the number of required annual training hours from 2 to 10, but also creates an enforcement and monitoring mechanism. After July 2017, when the new law goes into effect, if a home daycare provider is found to not be in compliance with training requirements, the government will be able shut the provider down.

Oddly though, the new law does not prescribe exactly what type of training is required, nor does it require competencies in first aid or CPR, and leaves each provider to determine what training to provide. However, parents can always request that daycare providers describe what training they provide to their staff.

Daycare Liability

If your child is injured as a result of an accident at a daycare facility, legal action may be possible if the accident was the result of negligence. Generally, a daycare provider has the legal obligation to make sure the facility is safe, and to providing the requisite level of supervision.

If the injury occurs as a result of a failure to maintain a safe facility, or provide adequate supervision, a relatively straightforward negligence claim may be maintained, particularly if state or local ordinances regarding home daycare providers have been violated. If an injury is the result of a failure to provide daycare staff with appropriate or adequate training, then the facility itself could be liable for an injury that results from that failure to train.

Fortunately for parents, if a daycare provider requires parents to sign injury liability waivers, courts have routinely found these to not be enforceable.

Related Resources:

• Injured in an accident? Get matched with a local attorney. (Consumer Injury)
• 3 Most Common Injuries in Daycare (FindLaw’s Injured)
• Daycares Can No Longer Serve French Fries, Frosted Flakes (FindLaw’s Law and Daily Life)
• 3 Daycare Safety Tips for Parents (FindLaw’s Injured)

from Injured http://blogs.findlaw.com/injured/2017/05/many-home-daycare-providers-arent-up-to-date-on-training.html

3,000 Homeless Can Sue Denver After Citywide Sweeps

Denver law enforcement officials have been using a 2012 city ordinance prohibiting unauthorized camping to conduct homeless sweeps throughout the city. The sweeps often involve police and other city workers detaining, citing, and arresting homeless people, while seizing and destroying their property.

Just last week, a federal judge granted class action certification for a lawsuit filed on behalf of those homeless, meaning as many as 3,000 victims of the homeless sweeps can join the litigation.

Class Injustice

The lawsuit claims the property removal and destruction under the sweeps violates Fourth Amendment prohibitions on unreasonable search and seizure as well as Fourteenth Amendment due process guarantees. The plaintiffs are also claiming the way the sweeps were conducted amounted to cruel and unusual punishment:

In a December 15, 2015 sweep, Defendant Police Dep't ordered homeless around the Samaritan House to evacuate the area, but leave their belonging [sic], telling Plaintiffs and Plaintiff Class that if they returned before being told that it was permissible, then they would be arrested. It was a bitterly cold day, less than 10 degrees and snowing. Plaintiffs and member of Plaintiff Class were forced into the cold without their jackets, blankets, any items to keep them warm. When they returned, they were met with the all-too-familiar sight of dump trucks and their property being thrown away like trash. Plaintiff Fredrick Jackson asked a Police Officer: "Why are you doing this to us?" The Officer responded, "You can try to sleep on sidewalks, but you can't be warm."

Class Action

Class action lawsuits are intended to resolve a large number of plaintiffs' claims involving one action or incident at the same time. In order to gain class action certification, the plaintiffs must prove:

• The injuries are the same or similar as those suffered by the other prospective class members;
• The class is clearly defined to the degree that it will be possible and practical to identity potential class members;
• The injuries of all potential class members resulted from a common set of facts and legal theories; and
• The potential class is large enough that successive, non-class action lawsuits would be impractical.

In this case, the city of Denver tried to argue the number of possible homeless plaintiffs was both too large to be clearly defined and too small to be certified. But U.S. District Judge William Martinez was unpersuaded. "The homeless population in Denver is likewise 'shifting,'" Martinez wrote in his order, "and the Court is satisfied that it exists in sufficient numbers to reasonably infer that a sufficiently numerous subset have been and will be exposed to enforcement of the camping ban in a way that plaintiffs claim is unconstitutional."

"Denver may succeed in proving that all of the alleged sweeps were different and that no homeless person's belongings were confiscated and discarded in an unconstitutional manner," Martinez wrote, addressing the potential for the homeless to prevail on their claims. "But plaintiffs claim to the contrary, and a number of them have submitted declarations attesting that they personally witnessed the conduct that they allege."

Related Resources:

• Find Class Actions Lawyers Near You (FindLaw's Lawyer Directory)
• Class Certification Granted to Thousands of Homeless Suing Denver Over Sweeps (Westword)
• Nevada Psychiatric Hospital Sued Again for Dumping Patients (FindLaw's Injured)
• Top 4 Class Action Lawsuit Questions (FindLaw's Injured)

from Injured http://blogs.findlaw.com/injured/2017/05/3000-homeless-can-sue-denver-after-citywide-sweeps.html

Las Vegas Nightclub Settles Hundred Million Dollar TBI Lawsuit

A Las Vegas jury had already decided that the Cosmopolitan Hotel and Casino's Marquee nightclub owed David Moradi $160.5 million after security staff attacked him and left him with a traumatic brain injury in 2012. But that was just for compensatory damages -- the amount needed to make Moradi whole after medical bills, lost income, and pain and suffering. Moradi was also seeking punitive damages (designed to punish and deter bad behavior), to the tune of another $483 million.

How much of either kind of damages he'll get will remain unknown, however, since Moradi has since settled with the Marquee for an undisclosed sum.

The Attack

According his 2014 lawsuit, Moradi, who claims he was a VIP guest at the club, had already paid a $10,000 tab when a manager and security officers forced him into a security room and demanded identification and credit card. Marquee's attorneys say there was a problem with Moradi's signature on the bill, but his lawsuit accuses staff of going far beyond asking for his John Hancock:

"The Marquee security members and manager shoved David to the ground, causing his head to forcefully hit the concrete surface ... The Marquee security members and manager repeatedly hit and smashed David's head into the concrete and continually held his head and right eye against the concrete with a high degree of pressure ... Still pressing his head to the concrete, they asked, 'Are you going to cooperate and give your ID back?' Believing he could be killed, David agreed in order to end the violent attack."

At the time, Moradi was managing a $1 billion hedge fund and pulling in about $11 million a year. Since, his hedge fund ultimately closed his doors and he has been diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury.

The Settlement

It's no stretch to say that the settlement amount was somewhere between the $160.5 million Moradi would already be owed and the more than $640 million he was asking for in total. And while it's certainly true that Marque might have reduced the jury award on appeal, that doesn't seem likely based on jurors interviews after the settlement was announced.

"I would have given him everything," juror Sara Sanguinetti said, "the way we saw the evidence." Attorneys for the nightclub had argued that the hundred million dollar award they already owned would have "financially annihilated" the company, but jurors appear to be unconvinced. "There's no way," Sanguinetti told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "They can pay that. It's not going to put a hole in them at all until you get to a certain amount, and they deserve to be pinched a little bit."

While Sanguinetti also told the paper jurors were prepared to give Moradi around $49 million in punitive damages on top of his compensatory award, there's little likelihood of the actual price of the lawsuit ever being made public.

Related Resources:

• Have an injury claim? Get your claim reviewed by an attorney for free. (Consumer Injury)
• When to Sue for a Traumatic Birth Injury (FindLaw's Injured)
• Recovering From a Traumatic Brain Injury (FindLaw's Injured)
• Brain Injury Lawsuits: How Much Is Your Case Worth? (FindLaw's Injured)

from Injured http://blogs.findlaw.com/injured/2017/05/las-vegas-nightclub-settles-hundred-million-dollar-tbi-lawsuit.html

Jury Awards Florida Widow $4M in Bicyclist Wrongful Death Lawsuit

The wife of deceased triathlete Jared Bynum was recently awarded $4 million in the wrongful death lawsuit stemming from his fatal bicycle accident in 2012. The case was filed against both the motorist that struck and killed her husband as well as the developer of the highway.

While the driver alleged that the sun was in their eyes, the developer, with the support of public investigators, claimed that Mr. Bynum should never have been on the roadway. Fortunately for the widow of the deceased, a jury didn't find these arguments convincing enough. Though the developer entity was not found liable, the jury indicated that driver was liable for the accident, and the developer's engineer was liable for the lack of signage.

Details of the Accident

While training for a triathlon in Jacksonville, Mr. Bynum was approximately 30 miles into a 100 mile bike ride in the middle of a sunny day. He entered a limited access roadway, and while riding along the side of the road, was struck from behind, and killed upon impact, by a 21 year old driver in a SUV.

The roadway was not considered safe for bicyclists, but did not have appropriate signage or warnings for bicyclists. In 2012, when the accident occurred, investigators found both Mr. Bynum, as well as the driver, to be both at fault.

Wrongful Death Actions

Under state law, when a person dies as a result of the negligence, or intentional actions, of another, a wrongful death lawsuit can often be filed by a surviving spouse, parents or children, or sometimes other relatives. Additionally, just because a person dies, that does not mean an individual personal injury claim dies as well. A person's estate, and therefore their beneficiaries, can also maintain a deceased personal injury action to cover past medical and other actual expenses incurred as a result of the injury, as well as potentially the deceased's pain and suffering while alive.

Usually, only if the death was intentional, malicious, grossly negligent, or involved some form of impropriety, will punitive damages be available. Otherwise, damages may be limited to actual economic damages, as well as emotional distress, or pain and suffering, damages.

Related Resources:

• Find Personal Injury Lawyers in Your Area (FindLaw's Lawyer Directory)
• Head Start Sued for $10M After Child's Accidental Death (FindLaw's Injured)
• How to Bring a Wrongful Death Lawsuit for Mesothelioma (FindLaw's Injured)
• Lawsuit: Man Who Allegedly Shot Wife to Death by Accident Failed to Give Aid (FindLaw's Injured)

from Injured http://blogs.findlaw.com/injured/2017/05/jury-awards-florida-widow-4m-in-bicyclist-wrongful-death-lawsuit.html