Source: http://www.contrada.com/category/personal-injury/
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 02:23:42+00:00

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As you look forward to the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, it is also unfortunate that friends and family members going in and out of homes and shopping areas will be exposed to the increased possibility of personal injury.
Did you know that according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission that as many as 15,000 people are admitted to emergency rooms for injuries during the holiday season?
Accidents can include falling from ladders, stepping on glass ornaments, kitchen mishaps and driving to and from holiday parties.
Follow these simple safety tips to enjoy a happy and safe holiday.
Electrical Hazards: Don’t overuse extension cords. Upgrade to highly insulated extension cords. Avoid using too many adapters and plugging too many things into one outlet. Make sure all outdoor light strings are rated for weather. Consider finally upgrading to LED – as these are considerably safer than traditional holiday lights!
Fire Hazards: Check your holiday lights wiring for defects and replace if needed. Make sure that your real Christmas tree is properly watered, and monitor all lit candles for safety.
Small Decoration Hazards: Avoid creating choking hazards for small children. Keep all very small parts, tree hooks and other small decorative items out of the reach of young ones.
Research Kid’s Toys: Make sure that toys are age appropriate – again small parts can be choking hazards. Don’t look for deals that sacrifice required safety standards.
Opening Packages: Have a letter opener or safety scissors available for opening packages. Using a knife produces the potential of misplacing a sharp object near children and pets.
Reduce Clutter: From sidewalk snow removal to removing wires, extra packages and other debris around an already chaotic house. Preventing slips and falls means being organized and keeping clutter to a minimum.
Don’t Rush in the Kitchen: Ill-planned meals with many people in the kitchen can lead to burns, cuts and spills. Plan food prep in advance to avoid problems caused by hurrying.
Prevent Contamination: Supervise the basics that you would at any other time of the year. Wash hands, clean utensils – especially after cutting raw meat – and refrigerate items that, if left at room temperature, could cause illness.
Ladder Safety for Decorating: Basic OSHA guidelines say to make sure the ladder is appropriate for the height you are climbing. Face the ladder, use both hands, center your body weight, wear slip-proof footwear. Test your lights on the ground before heading up the ladder.
Never Drink and Drive: Control consumption for your family and friends. Designate a driver for groups in advance, and as a last resort, hide keys to prevent an unwise choice.
If you or a loved one have been a victim of an accident, don’t sign or say anything. Contact a personal injury lawyer to discuss your case. Attorney Charles V. Contrada will explain your legal options, and guide you through the process.
Have you or a family member been injured in an accident caused be someone else who was acting irresponsibly? One of your options might be securing comprehensive legal guidance from a personal injury attorney. You might be wondering what are the basics of the personal injury lawsuit process and what are some typical types of personal injury claims?
Determine grounds to file a Personal Injury Claim: Usually, if you have been injured because of another person’s negligence or fault, you have grounds for a claim, possibly a lawsuit. It is very important to know that if you accept any type of settlement and sign a release from the insurance company, you waive your right to collect any additional compensation even if your medical condition changes.
Gather evidence: In order to file a Personal Injury claim, you need proof. Make sure you collect as much evidence relating to your accident as possible. Types of evidence you can easily collect include a police report (if one was filed), photographs of the accident scene, your vehicle and the other party’s vehicle. Gather photographs of your injuries, and any additional relevant documents proving that your injuries sustained in your accident led to lost wages. You should even ask to take a photograph of the other party’s driver’s license and insurance cards.
Contact Personal Injury Attorney: The earlier you contact a personal injury lawyer, the better. Every state has a statute of limitations specifically for personal injury lawsuits. In Ohio, an injured person has 2 years and Michigan, 3 years from the date of the injury to go to court to settle or file a lawsuit. Contact Attorney Charles V. Contrada at 419-841-4400 to set up a consultation to discuss your case.
Review your case with your Attorney: Once you select your personal injury attorney, you will need to review your case and share all injury related evidence and documents you have collected. Disclose all information relating to your case to your attorney. Do not present misleading information to make your claim look stronger for example not disclosing a prior accident or injuries. At Contrada & Associates, honesty with our attorneys is the key to getting the best outcome possible.
Consider the option of settlement: In a settlement, both sides meet to settle the claim without going to court. If you decide to try and reach a settlement agreement, it is a good idea to go through this process with your personal injury attorney, so they are able to examine the settlement and negotiate with the other party to ensure the best result for you. Quite frankly, most people have no idea what their case is worth and they don’t believe the insurance company will be fair.
Filing A Lawsuit: If you and your personal injury attorney agree that your case is strong enough, or if your pre-lawsuit settlement negotiations do not end up being sufficient, you may then decide to file a lawsuit. If you choose this option, your attorney will file the lawsuit on your behalf. It is extremely difficult but not impossible to file a lawsuit on your own. Your outcome may not be as favorable as if you were working with an attorney on your behalf.
There is no definite answer to the length of time that a personal injury lawsuit takes to settle. The time is determined by multiple factors, including the client, the nature of the injuries and the ongoing treatment, and the amount of money that the case is worth.
In very limited circumstances, if you are involved in an accident, the insurance company or the defense lawyer may request that you undergo an “independent medical examination.” Needless to say, there is nothing independent about these examinations and, in many ways, they are a total mockery of the doctor/patient relationship.
The insurance companies want you examined by their doctor to evaluate the extent of your injuries and oftentimes to determine what injury was caused by the crash, as opposed to a pre-existing condition that the victim had before the automobile accident.
Can Social Media Harm My Personal Injury Case?
Social media channels have integrated themselves into the daily lives of most individuals. Everyone loves to share status updates, photos, and videos about what is going on in their life. Sometimes, sharing updates about a car accident can result in consequences in the future. Here is what you can do to protect yourself and your personal injury claim on social media.
Information that is shared on a public social media account can cause complications. Insurance adjusters, lawyers, and others will search profiles on social media scrutinizing any information they can find that will hurt your claim such as conflicting statements as well as additional evidence.
What are the Most Typical Types of Personal Injury Cases?
There are many types of personal injury cases. For example, let’s look at four scenarios: school bus accidents, winter driving accidents, low speed vehicle accidents and icy sidewalk accidents.
Speed limits in school zones are reduced to 15-25 mph, and with good reason. More children are hit by vehicles in or near school zones than any other location. Watch for children that may dart out in the road without looking. When you slow down, it forces other drivers behind you to slow down making it a safer place for children as they might not see the obstacles you do.
When driving in school zones especially near high schools, be aware that there will be many more drivers on the road who are newly licensed and inexperienced drivers. New drivers, before they become more comfortable on the road can drive overly tentative or make unexpected maneuvers. Be patient and give them extra room.
It’s no secret that driving in the winter can become treacherous in Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan. Ice and snow can make for slippery roads and poor visibility which in turn cause more accidents than in the summer months. Typical types of winter driving accidents include sliding through intersections, poor visibility and rear-end collisions. Adjust your defensive driving style to help avoid them.
Summer is here and there is a good possibility that you will see a Low Speed Vehicle (LSV) driving around your neighborhood. LSV’s are small electric vehicles, similar to golf carts that are street legal.
To drive legally, your LSV must pass an inspection, be registered and titled by the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles and insured. You must also have a valid driver’s license. An LSV can only go up to 25 mph and is only allowed on roads or highways that have a 35 mph posted speed limit with the exception of crossing a street with a higher posted speed limit.
If you were to trip on an icy sidewalk, that does not mean that you have a legitimate slip-and-fall personal injury claim. Ohio slip-and-fall law can seem somewhat confusing because in order for there to be a premises liability claim, there must have been negligence or fault on behalf of the business owner.
Just because someone slips and falls on the property of another person or business, it doesn’t mean that the individual or entity is responsible. A slip-and-fall case must involve some sort of hazard that the owner of the property was aware of.
What Are My Legal Options if I Suffer a Personal Injury?
The best course of action to take to be sure that your personal injury claim will be handled properly is to contact a personal injury attorney. Having an attorney guide you through the legal process will ensure that you are taking the appropriate steps toward a settlement and are not jeopardizing your claim.
To speak to one of the Toledo personal injury attorneys at Contrada & Associates, call 419.841.4400. When calling our office, you will be able to review your case with an attorney and learn what your legal options are.
It’s no secret that driving in the winter can become treacherous in Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan. Ice and snow can make for slippery roads and poor visibility which in turn cause more accidents than in the summer months. Below are the typical types of accidents you will see in winter and how you can adjust your defensive driving style to help avoid them.
Vehicles sliding through an intersection or through a red light are a common cause of accidents in the winter season. While you can blame the ice and slippery roads for an accident, the insurance companies consider the driver liable for the resulting accident. The best way to avoid sliding through an intersection/red light is to approach slowly and with great caution. Start slowing down well before actually stopping. If you have the opportunity and can do it safely, test your braking well before the intersection.
Rear-end accidents are the most common type, especially in the winter months. When the roads are slippery, wet and icy, it is necessary to provide extra distance between yourself and the vehicle in front of you. If you are forced to brake suddenly as a result of the vehicle in front of you braking, the extra distance could save you from a rear-end collision. Remember to adjust your distance to the conditions of the roads you are traveling on.
Avoid having to quickly slow down. Keep your distance between the vehicles in front of you and maintain a steady speed.
If you, a family member or loved one has been injured in an accident during winter weather caused by someone else who was driving irresponsibly, contact a personal injury lawyer to discuss your case. Attorney Charles V. Contrada will explain your legal options, guide you through the process.
To speak to attorney Charles V. Contrada about a car accident in Ohio or Michigan, call 419.841.4400. Charles has helped thousands of individuals with car accident claims and will explain the legal options that are available to you. Call Contrada & Associates for comprehensive legal guidance that will help you to receive the most favorable outcome.
Can Social Media Harm A Personal Injury Case?
Information that is shared on a public social media account can cause complications. Insurance adjusters, lawyers, and others will search profiles on social media scrutinizing any information they can find that they can relate to fraud, conflicting statements as well as additional evidence.
The court rulings on social media are not concrete as it still is fairly new in the eyes of the law. In general, public posts on social media channels will most likely be admissible as evidence. Private posts or person to person posts may be somewhat complex to obtain as evidence.
Here at Contrada & Associates, we believe honesty is the best policy. If you have a back injury or a neck injury, you should not be out dancing, riding coasters at Cedar Point or driving dirt bikes. Let your body heal up. Sometimes people at parties do things they are later embarrassed by and when you have an insurance claim you do not want embarrassment in the negotiation of settlement of that claim.
While your personal injury or car accident claim is pending, take the following actions regarding your social media accounts into consideration.
Do not post any details, photos, videos or status updates regarding your accident.
Tell your friends and family to not comment or make any posts on their own accounts stating any information regarding your accident.
Increase the privacy on your account to make sure none of your information is viewable to the public.
Remove any past posts, photos or videos that could be damaging to your current claim.
If you were injured in an accident, contact a personal injury lawyer to discuss your case. Attorney Charles V. Contrada will explain your legal options, guide you through the process.
It’s that time again – back to school and that means driving in school zones. Millions of children from preschool to seniors in high school are headed back to the classroom which means school buses back on the roads, kids walking and biking on sidewalks to school and new inexperienced teen drivers are on the roads. How do you keep yourself and children safe on their way to school? Here are a few easy tips to remember.
When driving to work or dropping your own children off at school, always exercise the utmost caution around school buses carrying hundreds of children to their classes. Never pass a school bus when its lights are flashing and you see children getting on or off the bus. Do not tailgate a school bus as they make frequent stops that you may not be ready for. Don’t forget that when a school bus is trying to merge back into traffic they have the right of way, not you.
Speed limits in school zones are reduced to 15-25mph, and with good reason. More children are hit by vehicles in or near school zones than any other location. Watch for children that may dart out in the road without looking. When you slow down, it forces other drivers behind you to slow down making it a safer place for children as they might not see the obstacles you do. Even if it is not in school hours, slow down regardless. You never know if a sports/band practice or after school activity just ended.
Don’t forget about the students that walk and ride their bicycles to school. Double and triple check intersections in school zones when you are driving through to make sure it are safe to proceed. Just when you think the coast is clear, a late student might dart across the road without fully looking to see if any vehicles are coming. Also, pay special attention to students riding bikes. They are often inexperienced, unsteady and can be unpredictable. If you see a student on a bicycle, slow down and allow at least three feet of passing distance between the bicyclist and your vehicle.
If you were injured in an accident or a family member was injured in a school zone, contact a personal injury lawyer to discuss your case. Attorney Charles V. Contrada will explain your legal options, guide you through the process.
Contrada’s experience playing college football, coaching, and leading a recreation center gives him an extra edge as a personal injury lawyer.
On October 14 and November 5, 2015, Tom Cole interviewed Charles V. Contrada, car accident lawyer, on BCSN Sports Flash. The conversations centered around how sports are key to helping youth develop long-term career skills.
Contrada played football at Kenyon College and graduated before completing law school at the University of Toledo. He was President of the Sylvania Recreation Corporation for 5 years and served as a board member for many more.
Contrada references great quarterbacks that remain calm and collected regardless of the situations they face. “[In light of the] heavy emotion that might be happening, you’re cool as a cucumber and trying to think ahead of the other side,” says Contrada.
Contrada is braced to go head-to-head with your opponent in the courtroom. If you have been involved in a car accident in Michigan or Ohio, contact attorney Charles V. Contrada at 419.841.4400.
Back to school is right around the corner. As parents, you entrust your child’s school bus driver/school district with their safety to and from school. As a parent, getting a phone call saying there was an accident involving a school bus your child was riding on and they were injured is a nightmare coming true. Since school buses are not required to have seatbelts, your child could be at risk for greater injury if a school bus is involved in an accident.
When it comes to accidents involving a school bus, there are a few different scenarios. There are accidents caused by other drivers and accidents caused by the school bus driver. Your child may be entitled to compensation for each scenario.
When there is a school bus accident caused by the driver of the bus being distracted or not paying close enough attention, you as a parent may be able to recover compensation from the school district since they should be covered by their insurance policy. You will probably need a personal injury lawyer to help you navigate through this process as a school district is considered a government entity making it a long and challenging process. In addition, there are usually multiple claims by many parents being asserted.
If your child was injured in a school bus accident by another vehicle, you also may be entitled to recover some compensation from the at-fault parties insurance company. You may need to have your child’s medical expenses covered and possibly compensation for your child’s pain and suffering.
If you or your child has been injured in a school bus accident, contacting a personal injury attorney as soon as possible will make the claims process much easier. Attorney Charles V. Contrada will explain your legal options, guide you through the process.
Since your LSV is street legal, you will need to have the proper insurance. There are specialized policies available for an LSV. Talk to an insurance agent to see what policies will fit your needs the best. I cannot in good conscious advise you to buy this type of coverage online. Talk to someone knowledgeable especially the first time you purchase this type of insurance.
What happens in an accident involving an LSV?
LSV’s can be very dangerous to the drivers and passengers, even under normal operating conditions. Even though LSV’s are equipped with seat belts, windshields, turn signals, brake lights, and mirrors, they do not have windshield wipers, doors, airbags or side impact door beams. They do not have to meet the rigid safety standards that today’s cars and trucks must meet. LSV’s are also not crash-tested by the federal government and their safety records have not been checked on a regular basis.
Since their design and use on roadways shared with other cars, trucks and SUV’s, the potential for serious and even deadly injuries exist. While driving an LSV on the road, always pay close attention since you are at greater risk for injury than other motorists in full-sized vehicles.
If you were injured in an accident involving a full-sized vehicle that was not paying attention or did not see you, contact a personal injury lawyer to discuss your case. Attorney Charles V. Contrada will explain your legal options, guide you through the process.
In very limited circumstances, if you are involved in an accident, the insurance company or the defense lawyer may request that you undergo an “independent medical examination”. Needless to say, there is nothing independent about these examinations and, in many ways, they are a total mockery of the doctor/patient relationship.
Why do they want an Independent Medical Exam?
The main reason that the so-called independent medical examinations are truly a defense medical exam is the defense lawyer, or insurance company, gets to hand-pick whatever doctor they choose to examine you. I am sure it’s not hard to believe but many times insurance defense lawyers or insurance companies pick doctors that have a bias in their favor. In particular, they often pick doctors over and over again and thus have a pretty clear notion of what the doctor will say and what the doctor will find. The doctors love the extra cash they make.
For example, there are some doctors that will testify that a muscle injury caused by an automobile collision, such as whiplash, can last longer than 6-10 weeks. Of course, this is nonsense and I have seen so many cases where people have lifelong injuries from whiplash that it breaks my heart. However, the defense and insurance companies will get these doctors to tell the jury that nobody has long-lasting muscle injuries.
There is now a doctor, who had been doing defense and insurance medicals out of Columbus, Ohio and making millions of dollars doing so. He is now opening shops in Toledo, Cleveland and possibly Cincinnati to do even more defense insurance medical exams and to make even more money. We hope that the juries can see through this sort of flim-flam, where the same doctor does report after report for the same defense lawyers.
For attorney Charles Contrada, who has handled thousands of cases over 35 years, he believes a fairer approach would be to independently pick doctors off of a list of physicians who actually treat patients with injuries and have them examine the injured person. In that way, these would be truly independent examinations and the insurance company could not hand-pick the doctor ahead of time. If the doctors were randomly picked and they had biases, either for or against certain types of injuries, it would at least be the luck of the draw and not a foregone conclusion that the entire exam would be used against the victim.
It is important to time the different portions of an exam. Sometimes there is a period where you have to answer written questions. Be careful not to answer them if you do not understand them. Second, there is usually a period of question and answer by the doctor.Third, there is a physical examination. It has been our experience that most of the exams are quite short.
If you have been involved in a car accident, contacting a personal injury attorney as soon as possible will make the claim process much easier. Attorney Charles V. Contrada will explain your legal options, guide you through the process and assist you in dealing with insurance companies and Independent Medical Exams.
To speak to attorney Charles V. Contrada about a car accident in Ohio or Michigan, call (419) 841-4400. Charles has helped thousands of individuals with car accident claims and will explain the legal options that are available to you. Call Contrada & Associates for comprehensive legal guidance that will help you to receive the most favorable outcome.
Usually, if you have been injured because of another person’s negligence or faults, you have grounds for a claim, possibly a lawsuit. It is very important to know that if you accept any type of settlement and sign a release from the insurance company, you waive your right to collect any additional compensation even if your medical condition changes.
In order to file a Personal Injury claim, you need proof. Make sure you collect as much evidence relating to your accident as possible. Types of evidence you can easily collect include a police report (if one was filed), photographs of the accident scene, your vehicle and the other party’s vehicle. Gather photographs of your injuries, and any additional relevant documents proving that your injuries sustained in your accident led to lost wages. You should even ask to take a photograph of the other party’s driver’s license and insurance cards.
Always remember to take pictures of your vehicle plus the other vehicle at all angles (front, back, and both sides). What actually happened versus what the other party might tell their insurance company could be different. Having photographic evidence will provide truth in what really happened. This same rule applies to any photographs taken of injuries. Take injury photographs on each side on the injury and at different angles. This will help corroborate your story. Also, take photographs of injuries in the sunlight as they will show up better.
The earlier you contact a personal injury lawyer, the better. Every state has a statue of limitations specifically for personal injury lawsuits. In Ohio, an injured person has 2 years and Michigan, 3 years from the date of the injury to go to court to settle or file a lawsuit. Contact Attorney Charles V. Contrada at 419-841-4400 to set up a consultation to discuss your case.
Once you select your personal injury attorney, you will need to review your case and share all injury related evidence and documents you have collected. Disclose all information relating to your case to your attorney. Do not present misleading information to make your claim look stronger for example not stating a prior accident or injuries. At Contrada & Associates, honesty with our attorneys is the key to getting the best outcome possible.
Before you decide to file a claim, meet with your lawyer to discuss a settlement proposal. In a settlement, both sides meet to settle the claim without going to court. If you decide to try and reach a settlement agreement, it is a good idea to go through this process with your personal injury attorney so they are able to examine the settlement and negotiate with the other party to ensure the best result for you.
If you and your personal injury attorney agree that your case is strong enough, or if your pre-lawsuit settlement negotiations do not end up being sufficient, you may then decide to file a lawsuit. If you choose this option, your attorney will file the lawsuit on your behalf. It is extremely difficult but not impossible to file a lawsuit on your own. Your outcome may not be as favorable as if you were working with an attorney on your behalf.
If you have been involved in a car accident, contacting a personal injury attorney as soon as possible will make the claims process much easier. Attorney Charles V. Contrada will explain your legal options, guide you through the process and assist you in dealing with insurance companies.

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