If you’re planning on filing a lawsuit, you probably have what you believe to be evidence that you were wronged in some regard. Understanding evidence, however, does take some real legal knowledge. In fact, you may find that, upon meeting with your attorney, they don’t really believe that the things you consider to be evidence […]
Featured
Police Sued Over Privacy Violations
CNN reported that a police department in Washington is facing a lawsuit over violating the rights of inmates. The reporting details that 11 women and 1 man are suing a police department over alleged instances where the inmates—who were all arrested on suspicion of drunk driving—were recorded while they were undressing and using the toilet. […]
Frivolous Lawsuits Get too Much Publicity
The idea behind a lawsuit is to give a person who was wronged because of another person’s negligence away to get compensated. This can include suing manufacturers for putting dangerous products out on the market when they should’ve known better, suing motorists who are prone to driving dangerously and end up hurting or killing someone […]
Dog Bites and Liability
Unfortunately, many dog owners are not responsible with their animals. In fact, it’s quite reasonable to argue that the biggest cause of dog bites has nothing to do with dogs, but with the people who are in charge of taking care of those dogs. There are differences on a state-by-state basis as to how much […]
Daycare Worker Arrested for Raping Children
For parents with children in daycare, a nightmare scenario seems to be unfolding in Ohio. According to NewsOK, a daycare worker has been arrested on two counts of rape. The woman, according to the article, had engaged in sexual conduct with an infant and made a video of herself doing it. Police claim that they […]
Class Action Against LinkedIn Reveals Importance of TOS
If you’ve gotten emails that appear to be from a friend of yours but that were actually from LinkedIn giving a pitch for the website, you’re not alone. In fact, a lawsuit has been filed against the business social networking website alleging that the company breaks into email accounts, uses the contact list to send […]
Can You Sue a Company for Mishandling Your Information?
Today, it’s not uncommon for companies with whom people do very casual business – cellular phone companies, Internet service providers, etc. – to have some very sensitive information about their clients. For example, Social Security numbers are routinely used as forms of identification and many companies require that information in order to open an account. […]
Why Do Personal Injury Attorneys Turn Down Cases?
There are instances when a personal injury attorney may turn down your claim. This may leave you wondering if there is any hope for justice but, keep in mind the fact that civil lawsuits are not really about justice; they’re about compensation. If you’ve been turned down as a client by an attorney, some or […]
How Do You Sue on Behalf of a Child
Some of the largest jury awards are actually handed out to children. These occur in cases involving medical malpractice during birth, car accidents that permanently damage a child and in other cases. Obviously, a child cannot enter into a contract or take any other legal action of their own accord. Parents are the ones who […]
Can You Really Sue?
Can You Really Sue?
Do You Really Have A Basis For Suing Someone?
Threatening to sue is practically a pastime with some people, but there are specific conditions that have to exist before it actually becomes an option. Unfortunately, for some people who have been seriously intimidated by such threats, the conditions under which one can actually file a lawsuit are not quite as widely understood, as is the fact that suing is sometimes an option.
Damage
The entire point of filing a lawsuit is to get compensation for a real form of damage that has been done to the person suing. These damages have to be quantified in terms of dollars. If you are considering filing a lawsuit, you should consider whether the following conditions are actually true:
You Suffered a Loss
While some of the reasons that people sue a rather difficult to put into financial terms – pain and suffering, for instance – this can be done. However, merely the threat of having been injured does not constitute a valid reason to sue. There are plenty of occasions when business owners, property owners and others may find themselves having a very angry client, tenant or other individual threatening to file a lawsuit and when the person being threatened really has no valid reason to worry about getting legal representation.
Without damages, there is no point in filing a lawsuit. Being offended, threatened, feeling that one has been sold a worthless product or service absent any means of actually proving that is the case and myriad other situations under which people threaten to file lawsuits are really, in fact, nothing to worry about, in the vast majority of cases.
If you did not suffer a loss or, conversely, if you suffered some sort of a loss that cannot be converted into a dollar amount, then you probably do lack any legal grounds to file a lawsuit.
When to Get a Lawyer
Generally speaking, practicing law as a hobby is every bit as useful as practicing psychology as a hobby. While many people may feel they are experts in both fields, very few are. The best way to determine whether filing a lawsuit is actually a valid option is simply to talk to an attorney and to get their opinion on it. Because the vast majority of attorneys who help clients file lawsuits work on a contingency basis, it typically doesn’t cost any money to consult with an attorney to determine whether suing is actually an option.
TxDOT Asks Houston Drivers to Be Attentive
A report in KUHF detailed that the Texas Department of Transportation is asking drivers to pay attention while they’re on the highway. According to the article, TxDOT statistics reveal that more than 180 people were hit while riding bicycles, 44 pedestrians were killed, 450 pedestrians were hit by vehicles in 2011 and 600 accidents occurred in work zones during the course of 2011. The article also features a DPS state trooper revealing an important fact about car crashes.
Crashes vs. Accidents
A state trooper quoted in the article says that the word “accident” doesn’t describe many of the car crashes that occur every day. Accidents, according to the trooper, involve situations where a driver has no control over their vehicle or where something unexpected and unavoidable happened. Crashes, conversely, involve situations where something may well have been done to avoid the entire ordeal.
Crashes frequently occur because of people not paying attention when they’re driving. They may pay attention most of the time, but, when the crash actually happens, they’ll be looking somewhere other than the direction the car is headed or otherwise distracted from what’s going on. This has become a more severe problem because of how much cellphones permeate our culture. People quite often send text massages, emails, answer phone calls without a headset and engage in other dangerous behaviors with their cellular devices when they’re driving.
When something really is an accident, no one is to blame. Many car crashes, however, never have to happen. If someone had been paying attention when they were not or if someone had exercised reasonable caution when they did not, quite a few car crashes would have been close calls and others would have never even been realistic possibilities. Too often, people are simply not paying attention and someone ends up injured, dead or having their property destroyed because of a crash.
Heed the Advice
When you’re on the road, pay attention. If you’re travelling at freeway or highway speeds, you go a long distance in a second. If you look down at your cellular phone for a couple of seconds to read a text, you can end up hurting someone or killing them quite easily. Slow down in construction zones. The workers there are frequently within 100 feet of the roadway and, if you lost control at freeway speeds, you’d be on top of them in less than a second.
If someone injures you because they were driving negligently, speak with an attorney about the matter to see if you have a good reason to sue. The attorney may be able to help you at least get compensated in a monetary sense. Some losses can’t really be compensated, but no one should suffer economic hardship on top of other hardships because of someone else’s negligence.
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