Personal Injury

If you or your child has been bitten by a dog, hiring legal counsel is something to seriously consider. Dog bites are not always a minor matter, in San Diego or anywhere else. Your dog bite attorney should be someone who understands the depth of trauma that can accompany this experience.

• While dog bites seem to be minor dangers and usually, minor injuries to most of us they can be something very different to certain victims. And there is no shortage of victims; according to dated statistics from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) dog bites occurred 4.7 million times in 1994; of those over 800,000 required medical treatment. Fifteen years later, the number of dog bites requiring medical care probably exceeds one million.
• Dog bites can quickly change from a brief, frightening encounter into an extended and serious trauma. Dog bite victims that require medical care are most frequently children, and the most common age group is 5-9. Half of those victims are bitten in the face or neck area. Facial injuries may require surgical repair for the trauma, and then later surgical treatment to minimize scar tissue. A dog bite can be a serious and extended medical problem.
• There can also be an acute psychological component to the pain and suffering associated with a dog bite. How often have you met someone who is terrified of dogs in general because of a traumatic childhood experience? An encounter with a vicious dog can leave permanent mental scars along with the physical damage.

These facts dispel the notion that dog bites are usually minor matters. Many people also dismiss dog bites because the animal involved belongs to a friend or to the household of a child’s friend. If a bite is serious enough to require medical attention, it is probably serious enough to warrant a discussion with a dog bite attorney. For cases of this nature it also makes sense to hire a San Diego dog bite attorney so that the process of investigation and medical inquiries can be conducted by local professionals.

Everyone knows the odds are not in your favor if you’re a motorcyclist involved in an accident. What you may not know is that sometimes the odds are stacked against you afterwords as well. Insurance carriers aren’t inclined to sign off on a motorcyclist’s claim as easily as someone injured in an auto accident; for that reason and several others you need a skilled San Diego motorcycle accident attorney if you’ve been in a motorcycle crash here in the County.

It’s not always easy to interpret the evidence at the scene of a motorcycle accident, so if it happens to you and you’re fortunate enough to still be thinking clearly, try to accomplish as much as you can at the scene.

San Diego’s traffic collision statistics as reported by the California Highway Patrol show an unusual and troubling characteristic. Unlike LA County, Orange, San Bernardino, Sacramento or any of the other large urban counties, San Diego reports more car accidents with injuries than crashes in which the only damage is to the machinery.

In 2008, the last figures available on the CHP Annual Automobile Accident Report, there were over 13,500 injury accidents reported in San Diego County and about 11,000 accidents that were merely in the “property damage” category. That ratio makes San Diego seem to be a little more dangerous place to drive than most. It also suggests that if you’re involved in a car crash in San Diego County, it’s worth your while to hire an experienced auto accident attorney.

The Law Offices of Anna R. Yum bring an energetic, intelligent and knowledgeable approach to the practice of personal injury law in San Diego. Unlike many attorneys in the field, we choose not to take a formulaic approach to the profession. We know that every personal injury situation has its own characteristics which make every case unique.

It takes different skills to handle PI cases arising from defective products, for example, than the abilities required for auto accidentcases. It often takes more than telephone negotiations to successfully bundle a case so that it can be settled. Some cases require investigative services; others need medical specialists or forensic experts or some other specialized method of case development. An aggressive law firm employs every tool that is necessary.

unpredictable terrain, of condos and common areas, of malls and supermarkets and wide open spaces with hidden traps for the unsuspecting foot. San Diego also has a large retirement community, people who are both active and aging. For a place without any weather extremes, our County nevertheless has its share of unintentional tumbles that result in injuries.

• An experienced slip and fall attorney knows that these are not simple injury claims to prove. The rules of negligence very quickly get complicated in public places like malls, supermarkets, arenas and stadiums because in many situations you need to show that the proprietor of the property had knowledge of the unsafe condition. A good slip and fall lawyer has investigators they can rely on to reconstruct the incident through interviews and site examination.
• Work related slip and fall injuries are generally handled through workman’s compensation insurance. If you apply for and accept workman’s compensation you are probably precluded from suing your employer. If your accident at work was caused by a third party such as a janitorial crew or a delivery vehicle you may have grounds for a personal injury suit against that party.

Some suggestions:

The Law Offices of Anna R. Yum view truck accidents as trial cases, because we should. Here are four reasons why you need an aggressive truck accident attorney if you are involved in a San Diego auto/truck collision.

• Truck companies and their insurance carriers are scared of liability. They know how much damage their vehicles can do and how expensive liability compensation can be. For those reasons, they treat every truck accident as an adversary proceeding. Truck insurance carriers are going to consider you the opposition.
• Truck accidents are more likely to cause injury and certainly do more damage than auto accidents. You need an advocate to preserve your rights to compensation in what may be a very expensive experience. You need a dedicated advocate with both the trucking firm and with your insurance carrier, especially if there are medical bills involved.
• Your attorney needs to understand the investigation requirements for a truck accident. Issues such as vehicle separation, weather conditions, and road width may play a different role than with auto accidents in deciding whether or not a truck is the responsible vehicle in an accident.
• A good truck collision lawyer will consider the opposition a corporate insurance company, which is what truck insurance carriers are, and collect all of the evidence necessary to meet the burden of proof standard regardless of the police report. Truck accident insurance cases don’t often settle quietly.

Bicyclists get no respect — at least from most motorists. Every cyclist knows this and experienced bicyclists follow have their own riding guidelines that are defensive in the extreme, even though San Diego is blessed with lots of bike trails and bike lanes on the roadways. But even for the most experienced riders, those defensive instincts aren’t always enough. And too often, bicyclists assume that they are secondary citizens on the road. That is not the case, even though too many drivers would like to think so. Here are some examples of bicycle collisions that riders often assume they’re responsible for:

• A motor vehicle driver signaling and then turning directly in front of a bicyclist
• An automobile driver leaving a driveway. Pulling out into traffic in front of the bicyclist
• A motorist’s failure to yield according to rules of the road, at an intersection
• A passing motorist who inadvertently forces the cyclist off the road
• An automobile driver who makes a legal stop at a stop sign and then strikes a cyclist when resuming travel

Bicycle accidents such as these do NOT involve responsibility on the part of the rider. You’re not invisible and not without rights. If a driver doesn’t see you or doesn’t understand that bicyclists have right-of-way protection, that does not excuse hazardous operation of the vehicle. Bicycle riders are required to observe the traffic laws governing vehicular use; but drivers are also required to allow bicyclists the same rights motor driven vehicles enjoy.