Our Injury Law Blog

Catastrophic injuries, such as traumatic brain injuries and spinal injuries, cause dramatic changes in a person. After any kind of catastrophic injury, you may need significant help in your day-to-day life. You may no longer be able to walk, may struggle with communication or have other challenges to overcome.

Catastrophic injuries are somewhat unpredictable. It may be hard for doctors to tell you what to expect, especially in the early stages of the injury. It is important to follow the doctor's treatment plan and to keep records of expenses. You should give those receipts to your attorney, who will keep them for evidence in your insurance claim or personal injury case.

If you've ever been involved in an accident with a wrong-way driver, you know how surprising and devastating it is. One minute, you're following traffic, and the next, people are quickly steering into other lanes and making emergency maneuvers to avoid getting hit by a wrong-way driver. With not much time to move, chances are that you'll get hit by that wrong-way driver or by someone trying to out-maneuver them.

One state proposal would put spikes down at freeway on-ramps to help prevent wrong-way drivers from entering the roadways. Is that really the right answer, though?

Frank Powers and Shawn Cunningham have been chosen by their peers again this year to be named in the 26^th Edition of the Best Lawyers In America for their work in the area of plaintiff medical malpractice law. Frank and Shawn have been continuously chosen since 2008. Inclusion in the Best Lawyers is based on a peer-review survey comprising more than 8.2 million confidential evaluations by top attorneys.

Never events, which are appropriately named for being events that should have never happened, are medical mistakes or errors made that should have been easily avoided. Some common never events include operating on the wrong patient, operating on the wrong part of the patient, performing the wrong operation and leaving items inside the patient following surgery.

Never events have been part of the medical negligence discussion since the term was coined in 2001 by Ken Kizer, MD. Never events fall into one of seven reportable categories including:

• Procedural or surgical events
• Environmental events
• Radiological events
• Criminal events
• Patient protection events
• Product or device events
• Care management events