2021 Year In Review: Part 1

Wow, 2021 was something of a year. Covid was still with us. People asked a lot of questions…and we answered those questions over 43 blog articles. We shared our thoughts on medical malpractice, auto accidents and injuries of various kinds. And Tesla was mentioned in three of those articles. Part 1 covers January through June and each snippet contains a link and brief description of the article. Enjoy.

January

Covid and The Fall Of The Nursing Home Industry – In the December 2020 special edition of the AARP Bulletin an article entitled “A Failing Business Model” showcases how Covid 19 has revealed and worsened weaknesses in nursing home finances. The article brings to light the dependence of Medicare patients that these nursing homes have relied on, unfortunately, that dependence has created a hazardous problem. And that problem then results in nursing homes becoming liable for the health and safety of their elderly residents.

Scaffolding and Ladder Injures – Workers can be killed or injured if the ladder or scaffolding they are using collapses. Scaffolds include what we sometimes refer to as suspended platforms like those used by window washers in tall buildings. But more often we see injuries with scaffolding assembled in residential home or small business construction environments like those used by masons, painters, and roofers.

How Much Are You Suing For? – It doesn’t matter what your injury was, in fact those asking you questions about your impending lawsuit only want to know one question…how much are you suing for? It’s as if that question was programmed into their DNA that as soon as they hear someone is suing they have to know how much. Those that are curious think, “wow, that person is going to be awarded millions.” And maybe they are, but it’s not like winning the lottery. The money they are awarded goes to further their medical care, their living expenses and their legal bills. And most times that award is not enough.

Immunity: What It Means and Who Is Liable? – Do you acknowledge and explicitly assume COVID-19 risks before receiving care? Do you also agree to hold harmless this facility and grant legal immunity to our doctors and medical providers? These types of questions are appearing more and more on intake forms that health care providers are using when screening patients. Refusing to acknowledge these questions can lead to the health facility refusing service. You might be injured, or sick or just need a checkup and now you are forced to sign away your rights before even getting the care you need. Doesn’t sound fair does it?

February

Failure To Diagnose: A Medical Malpractice Dilemma – A decade ago if I told you 1 out of every 20 patients had been misdiagnosed by their treating doctor you might question that statistic. Although it would be accurate. And that number accounted for close to 12 million mistakes that patients had to either accept or challenge in court. Fast forward to the present and those statistics have gone up exponentially. Add in the pandemic and all the protocols that have been put into place before a patient can even enter a building and you would think mistakes would decrease, but unfortunately that’s not the case.

Manufacturing Defects Lead to Tire Blow-Out Crashes – With proper maintenance and inflation a tire blow-out should rarely occur. … Well, if you decide to push your car to 150 mph, I suppose you can blow out a tire, because street legal tires are just not made for such adventures.

March

CBD Usage and Your Pending Lawsuit – You’ve been feeling a bit lethargic lately. Your energy levels are low and your ability to concentrate and do daily tasks have declined. You wonder if the claims your friends have made about CBD will work for you in restoring your vitality. But instead of going to your doctor to see if CBD is right for you, you just go ahead and self-prescribe. Hey why not, right? Your friends are getting good results, why wouldn’t you?

Is Your Smartphone Responsible For Your Auto Accident? – Technology is supposed to, in theory, make our lives better. But when two different technologies converge sometimes the effect results in injuries and death. That technological convergence is the automobile and the cell phone. Separately one allows us to travel while the other allows us to communicate…together though, the combination can result in a deadly game called distracted driving that leaves families devastated.

Protection Against Covid-19 Scams – We have shared many articles relating to Covid over the last year. Each article was written to help educate our readers on subjects like immunity, responsibility, legality and even safety. But this article is a bit different. It’s about protecting you from scammers. Now you might be wondering why a personal injury law firm would care about protecting readers against scams. Well, we care. We care for the well-being of our clients. We understand their fears and concerns about Covid and we want to help them protect their crucial information from being used by nefarious people.

Injured by a Home Heater Fire? – Home fire incidents where the ignition source is a space heater make the local news headlines far too frequently. These fires happen because someone is using a space heater that is either defective or the heater is not being used as intended, or someone has neglected to properly maintain the heater. You can find YouTube instructional videos on how to mount and install wall mounted space heaters. There are also self-help videos on how to clean and maintain space heaters. But not everyone installs or maintains space heaters as they are meant to be installed and maintained.

April

Can You Sue if Injured by Falling Debris? – Falling debris can cause devastating injuries. In a city like Chicago, with many tall buildings, pedestrians (and even people inside cars) have been injured or killed by falling ice in spring, and equipment or debris falling from a building. Jobsite hardhats will protect a person from small falling objects on a jobsite. But, pedestrians don’t typically wear hardhats while strolling down the street.

What Can You Do If You Hired the Wrong  Attorney? – We get calls several times a week from people who have hired the wrong attorney. When they call, they don’t really know that they have selected the wrong attorney. But after a few minutes of speaking with them, it’s obvious that they have chosen the wrong attorney.

May

How To File a Railroad Worker FELA Injury Claim? – Federal law governs FELA work injury claims involving railway workers. FELA claims are complex and few attorneys handle them. These cases can be especially complicated where a party other than the railroad employer shares fault for an injury.

Choosing A Car Accident Attorney – Try typing “car accident attorney” into Google or any search engine and most likely you’ll see ads from law firms from all over. And if using Google you might even see what’s called “Google Screened” followed by “Personal Injury Lawyers nearby” with names and pictures of various attorneys. The internet really does make it easy to find lawyers. However, finding a lawyer and finding one that actually takes the time to learn about you, to listen to your story and fight for your rights can be an adventure in cyber surfing.

I Was Misdiagnosed Can I Sue? – The answer to that question is as always… “it depends.” It’s not that we are dodging the answer or avoiding a definitive yes or no, it’s just that, in our years of experience helping our clients, our first goal is to learn more about them and why they are coming to us for help. Now sure, anyone can file suit against another person, but that can get expensive and without a valid medical claim of some kind the suit would get dismissed. In reality, a good lawyer won’t accept a case unless it presents a modicum of truth.

Even Safe Cars Injure People – Every year a new set of lists come out stating which vehicles have been judged the safest in the automobile industry. And sadly every list is different. Consumer Reports, Motor Trend, Car & Driver and so on and so forth…every magazine and news agency seems to have “a list”. How they ranked vehicles to be considered the best, seems like anyone’s guess. Oh, they state they used statistical data or some empirical study…unfortunately none of that matters when you are injured in an auto accident.

Entitled to Social Security Disability Insurance? – Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) is not the same as welfare. It is not a government handout. People pay into it. When you lose your ability to earn a living because of an injury or illness, SSDI pays you a monthly benefit for the duration of the disability.

June

HSN Recalls Over 5 Million Steamers – The news broke at the end of May with several media outlets reporting. HSN (formerly known as the Home Shopping Network) was recalling 5.4 million handheld clothing steamers after more than 100 consumers reported getting burned by the devices.

Racing The GPS – Just about everyone nowadays has a smartphone or integrated GPS on their vehicle dashboard. I would argue that many have used those devices to calculate the distance using a maps app to figure out how long it will take to travel from where they are to where they need to be. A

Legal Rights Injured by a Rental Horse? – Personal injury or wrongful death cases involving horses are different from other animal injury cases. Why? Because horse injury cases typically involve a horse that is hired out. A horse injury can be like a dog-bite case though, where a person gets hurt by an ill-tempered or vicious horse encountered in a pasture or stable that kicks or bites. 

~ July through December of the 2021 Year In Review will continue in Part 2

The Law Offices of David W. Holub is a personal injury law firm located in Merrillville, Indiana, focused on providing efficient and effective client-centered representation. Our mission is to provide top quality legal representation, which includes an uncompromising pursuit of our client’s legal interests, while being accessible and attentive to our clients during times of personal challenge.

The firm concentrates in personal injury cases of all types, medical malpractice, and wrongful death litigation. We work tirelessly to serve each client aggressively and with empathy, to communicate regularly and clearly, and to obtain prompt and favorable results, while adhering to the highest standards of excellence and integrity. Our team considers it a high honor to be called upon to serve our clients whom we often come to regard as our friends. Call our number (219)736-9700 for assistance today.

*If you would like to learn more about personal injury law, we encourage you to listen to our Personal Injury Primer Podcast where we break down the law into simple terms, provide legal tips, and discuss topics related to personal injury law. And read “Fighting For Truth: A Trial Lawyer’s Insight Into What It Takes To Win” an entertaining and enlightening book pulling readers into the courtroom giving them a glimpse of the legal process and what it takes to win at trial.