Personal Injury
Injuries
Traumatic Brain Injuries
Traumatic brain injury is sudden physical damage to the brain, and is commonly known as the "The Silent Epidemic" as the brain's injuries are unseen. The head forcefully hitting an object may cause the damage, or by something passing through the skull and piercing the brain, like a gunshot wound or other penetrating head injury. The most common cause of traumatic brain injury is from motor vehicle accidents. Other causes include falls, sports injuries, violent crimes, and child abuse.
Physical, behavioral, or mental changes are dependent upon which areas of the brain are injured. Most often focal brain damage is done, which is damage confined to just a small area of the brain. This point is usually where the head has hit an object. "Closed head" brain injuries often times causes scattered brain injuries or damage to other areas of the brain. Diffuse damage is the result of an impact causing the brain to move back and forth against the skull. Frontal and temporal lobes, responsible for speech and language, are often the most affected because they sit in the areas of the skull that allows more room for the brain to shift and sustain injury. Speech and language is therefore affected, as well as voice, swallowing, walking, balancing, and coordination difficulties and changes in the ability to smell and in memory and cognitive skills.
Ski Accidents
Claims Against Other Skiers and Snowboarders
Not all skiers and snowboarders are as vigilant as they are required to be when traveling down the slopes. Many do not take care to notice, respect, and avoid other skiers and snowboarders, creating a dangerous situation for all involved. Colorado law places a duty on the "uphill" skier to avoid collisions with those skiers below. If you have been injured in a collision with another skier or snowboarder, and they were the cause of your collision, we may well be able to help you recover your medical bills, lost wages, and other losses.
Do not hesitant to at least call us for advice and help with these collisions, even if you are reluctant to "file a suit" against the other skier. Most of the time, the other skier/boarder has liability insurance coverage that will help pay for your losses.
Claims Involving Lifts and Machinery
The ski lifts, snowmobiles and other machinery that are used to operate and maintain a ski area can be extremely dangerous if they are improperly operated or are defective. We handle cases in which chair lifts malfunctioned, where the lifts were improperly operated, and where people were injured by another piece of equipment such as a snowmobile or snow-grooming machine. When snowmobiles and grooming machines are traveling "upstream"-in the opposite direction of the flow of the skiers-they can be very dangerous. If the individual operator of these machines or lifts was an employee of the resort/ski area, the resort itself is legally responsible for their employee's actions.
Claims Against Ski Resorts and Areas
Occasionally, skiing injuries occur that should have been prevented by proper maintenance or conduct of the ski area or resort. Unfortunately, Colorado law restrictively limits claims arising from even unreasonable actions of the resort/ski area. However, it is critical that you carefully get legal advice on any serious injury that was the fault of the resort or ski area. Our firm will carefully analyze the law and we may be able to help you obtain needed compensation if the ski area/resort's fault caused the ski injuries that you suffered.
Recreational Injuries
Sports and recreational pursuits are always popular activities, but as more individuals spend free time pursuing recreational and sporting activities, the risk of injury has also increased. In addition to ski accidents, any number of recreational accidents in Colorado can be the result of negligence on the part of another individual or the owner of the property where the accident took place.
Faulty equipment, improper supervision or non-adherence to accepted safety standards may also cause sports and recreational accidents. Playgrounds, golf courses, athletic facilities, fitness centers and skating rinks can all be the site of a dangerous condition or negligent practice. Negligent maintenance of property on which sports or other recreation takes place can cause serious personal injury. Defective sports and recreational products can also result in serious injury. Operator error on the part of another individual as well as defective property conditions can result in injury-producing collisions with trees, wires, bridges, boats, snowmobiles, ATVs or other recreational vehicles.
One of the more risky forms of recreation is the operating of ATVs. With more than 700 deaths and 135,000 injuries occurring each year, ATV safety is a critically important issue for communities and riders across the country. About one-third of ATV-related deaths and injuries are to children under 16 years old.
Snowmobile accidents are a common recreational accident in Colorado. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates that each year about 110 people die while riding snowmobiles and about 13,400 hospital emergency room-treated injuries occur each year with snowmobiles. Both ATV accidents and snowmobile accidents may result from negligent operation by another, dangerous trail conditions or a defective vehicle.
Defective Products
According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, defective products cause thousands of serious injuries and deaths to consumers. "Product liability" is a legal theory in which a consumer may recover for damages for injury to persons or property caused by a defective product. A product may be "defective" in a number of ways:
- A product may be made poorly.
- A product may function perfectly for its purpose but be designed in such a way that an injury occurs if it is used normally.
- A product may be safe if used carefully, but it may be considered defective if the manufacturer has failed to supply information on how to use it, or warnings about the consequences of certain kinds of use.
- A product may also be defective if there is a misrepresentation concerning the product resulting in injury.
Premises Liability
Premises liability laws hold property owners and/or operators responsible for any accidents that occur or injuries that are sustained on their site. While the most common premises liability claims involve slip and fall accidents, there are numerous other forms of property liability for which an owner or operator can be charged. One of the key elements to premises liability claims is proving that the property owner or operator could have prevented an accident or incident on their grounds through better safety measures.
Types of Premises Liability Claims
Given the fact that most people spend a lot of time on property owned or operated by others, the likelihood that an accident occurs in businesses, stores, schools and amusement parks is pretty high. Premises liability claims include, but are not limited to:
- Slipping on wet or icy surfaces
- Tripping over uneven flooring
- Accidents on construction sites
- Injuries sustained from animals (for example, dog bites)
- Willful neglect on the part of the owner, manager or other third party
- No markings or warning announcing potentially unsafe conditions
- Swimming pool injuries
- Fires and explosions
- Lead poisoning
- Exposure to hazardous materials
- Inadequate security
- More
Spinal Chord Injuries
Spinal cord injury (SCI) often occurs when a traumatic event results in damage to cells within the spinal cord. Spinal cord injury also occurs when nerve tracts are severed that relay signals up and down the spinal cord. Common types of spinal cord injuries include compression (which is caused by pressure on the spinal cord) and contusions (which is a bruising of the spinal cord).
Quadriplegia (also known as Tetraplegia) generally describes the condition of a person with a spinal cord injury that is at a level from C1 to T1. This type of injury often results in a loss of feeling and/or movement in the head, shoulder, neck, arm and/or upper chest. Spinal cord injury that results in quadriplegia has a 30% average return rate to work.
Paraplegia is the general term describing the condition of a person who has lost feeling and/or is not able to move the lower parts of his/her body. The body parts that may be affected are the chest, hips, stomach, legs and feet. A victim of paraplegia has a level of injury from T2 to S5. Both forms of spinal cord injury are sometimes caused by a direct result of personal injury. Spinal cord injury that results in paraplegia has a 40% average return rate to work.
Spinal cord injury affects predominantly young adults with 55% of spinal cord injury sufferers being between the age of 16-30 years of age. Approximately 80% of spinal cord injury victims are male and the average age of a spinal cord injury is 32.1.
Spinal cord injury is most often caused by car accidents, violence, falls, and sports related accidents. In each of these instances, you may be entitled to compensation for the spinal cord injury. We encourage you to consult with an experienced spinal cord injury lawyer to discuss your legal rights.
Burns and Explosions
In its most basic sense, a burn is an injury that is caused by electricity, heat, chemicals, radiation, or gases. Burn injuries are also considered one of the most painful non-fatal injuries endured. Nerve endings are damaged from a burn, which is why the extreme pain is experienced. Every year in the U.S. millions of people are burnt, and of those million burn victims, thousands die as a result of the burns.
A burn injury is often classified by the method that the burn was caused and the degree of the burn. The degree of a burn can vary from first-degree burns to third degree burns. When only the outer layer of skin is injured it is classified as a first-degree burn. Second-degree burns have penetrated the first layer of skin and the second layer. The most painful and severe burn are third degree burns that involve every layer of skin, destroying all the nerve endings. As the burns heal there will be dense scarring and possible skin grafting.
Burns can be the direct result of a personal injury, holding another individual or company liable for the suffering endured. The source and cause of the fire or accident that caused the burn will need to be determined for a burn personal injury case.
Electrocution
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health reports that an average of 411 deaths occur every year on job sites because of hazardous electrical contact with thousands more victims of serious electrical shocks, burns and fires. Sadly, most of these accidents could have been prevented with proper hazard detection and prevention procedures. The threat of electrocution is present in situations involving direct contact by professionals such as electricians and engineers with powerful electric objects including power lines. Other threats are found with indirect contact by office employees, restaurant workers and homeowners.
Power line contacts still account for a substantial amount of serious injuries and fatalities at jobsites in the United States. Many pieces of equipment are regularly involved with power line contact are not intended to shield workers. Many machines commonly used around power lines, such as forklifts, cranes, aerial lifts, harvesting machines, hoppers, tree trimmers and bucket trucks do not have protections against electrocution. Products to insulate or devices to warn of electrocution danger due to direct contact or indirect “arc-flash” contact have been available to manufacturers and distributors of these machines for some time. Unfortunately, many manufacturers have failed to equip their products with these vital safety devices. The result has been a significant number of deaths and serious injuries that could have been easily prevented.
Office buildings, restaurants and homes may offer the threat of serious burns or shock due to faulty wiring, damaged receptacles (electrical outlets) or connectors and faulty equipment. Use of a damaged cord, electrical products in a damp or wet area or an overloaded receptacle may pose a threat of electrocution and should be avoided and reported to a supervisor immediately to prevent injury to all employees. In these settings employers have the chief responsibility to protect the safety and health of their workers by following the safe work practices established through OSHA.
Electrical current is measured in ampere, but more commonly referred to as “amps.” The circuits of an average home in the U.S. run at between 15 and 50 Amperes. Any active electrical circuit can pose a hazardous threat as it takes only two seconds of exposure to 0.10 Amps of electricity through the body to cause death.
Legal Malpractice
Malpractice means negligence by a professional. A doctor or hospital can be sued for failing to order tests, missing a diagnosis, delaying treatment or other unreasonable conduct which causes injury to a patient. Likewise, a lawyer may commit a malpractice if he misses a deadline or otherwise breaches his professional duties - thus costing you money. Malpractice cases are almost always very hotly contested. Doctors rarely will admit they have done wrong - and can almost always find a colleague to defend their professional judgment. Law firms accepting malpractice cases must invest substantial time and lots of money to help prove that the care (or lack of it) caused the patient's bad outcome.
Wrongful Death
Wrongful death is a type of lawsuit brought by the surviving relatives of a deceased person against a negligent party (who caused the death to occur). Typically, these actions are derived from a negligent or reckless act such as liability from a car accident or an intentional act such as a murder.
Every situation involving wrongful death has its own unique set of circumstances. The most common cases involving wrongful death include one of the following:
- Defective products/poisoning
- Slip and fall injuries
- Assault and battery
- Intentional acts such as murder
- Construction & other work-related accidents
- Auto, trucking, motorcycle or bicycle accidents resulting from the recklessness of another driver
If you have been seriously injured contact us today at 303-757-JUDE (5833), or e-mail us to find out how we may be of assistance.