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When to Consider Filing a Malpractice Claim

The first thing to remember about considering a malpractice claim is that it’s not a decision you should make completely on your own. What you really need to decide is whether there was an actual breach of duty that a physician or other healthcare provider – or healthcare facility – committed against you. A Medical Negligence Lawyer can help you evaluate your personal situation and advise you whether or not you can a valid case.

Injury Due to Failing to Diagnose a Condition

Sometimes, the worst thing that a physician can do is fail to diagnose a condition that they should’ve noticed. The reason for this is that some conditions can become markedly worse in a short amount of time if they’re not treated quickly. Consider for instance, the potential consequence of untreated diabetes, untreated cancer or other conditions that may become downright deadly if the physician doesn’t notice them in time.

If a physician had every opportunity to diagnose a condition that ended up bringing you to harm and they failed in that regard, you’ll want to speak with an attorney about the matter. Almost half of the malpractice cases brought against physicians every year have to do with a physician failing to diagnose a condition.

Injury Due to Wrong Treatments

Being giving incorrect treatments is one of the most common reasons that people decide to file lawsuits for medical malpractice. When people are treated incorrectly, the consequences can be nearly as bad as whatever condition was being treated itself.

A doctor is expected to be able to deliver competent care for any conditions that you suffer with, within realistic limits. For example, some conditions are always fatal and many conditions go in that direction, despite the best efforts of physicians and other healthcare professionals. If you are injured, however, because a physician ordered what turned out to be the wrong treatment for your condition, you may want to consider contacting an attorney about the matter. They may be able to prepare a successful lawsuit for you.

Injury Due to Unsafe Supplies

Medical supplies, obviously, have to be manufactured to the highest standards of safety and sterility. In some cases, medical supplies end up becoming contaminated. When this happens, it may be the fault of the supplier, the healthcare facility or the physician themselves. If contaminated supplies have caused your suffering you should contact an attorney about the matter. There have been successful lawsuits filed over instances where medical supplies were not stored, prepared or used properly and where infections and other negative consequences resulted.

It’s always best to speak with an attorney right away. Texas has very strict limitations on how long you have to file a lawsuit. If you wait too long, you may end up missing your chance to file a lawsuit at all. You can contact an attorney to discuss filing a lawsuit without any obligations. They should be able to tell you whether your case seems like it would be worth pursuing.

The Law offices of Blaine Tucker provides FREE initial consultation for victims of medical negligence in the Houston and surrounding areas. Contact his office at 713-771-5453 today.

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Harsh Drunk Driving Laws Don’t Always Help Victims

According to Time.com, a Texas man was recently sentenced to 45 years in prison for repeat drunk driving offenses. By the time this individual was slapped with a harsh sentence, he had already been convicted of drunken driving four times, the 45 year prison sentence marking the punishment for his fifth conviction. When he was pulled over, the driver had twice the legal limit of alcohol in his blood, according to the same report.

While Texas does have harsh penalties for drunk driving, particularly for repeat offenders, these sensational punishments and eye-catching headlines do little for the families who are victimized by drunk drivers. What they do mean, however, is that society is not patient with drunken drivers and has little sympathy for them. This can play into your odds of winning a civil case against an intoxicated driver that injured you or caused you property damage.

Lawsuits and DWI

If you happen to be injured by a drunk driver, you generally do have the option of filing a lawsuit for negligence. You have to have been injured or suffered some sort of property damage to file one of these lawsuits. The entire point of people being able to file these lawsuits if so that they can get compensated for the damage, pain and suffering and other hardships that they were caused by the negligence of another individual. If you were so injured, contacting an attorney is advisable.

What Can a Drunk Driving Injury Attorney Do?

The parts of the law that provide for the punishment of drunken drivers are criminal. Civil law is what personal injury attorneys deal in. Prosecutors will go after the drunken driver that injured you for whatever legal punishments they can assess. What your personal injury attorney will do is take a look at the case and see if it would be worth your while to file a lawsuit against the driver.

The lawsuit that the attorney helps you to prepare will take into account things such as any injuries you suffered, any property damage caused by the drunken driver, your pain and suffering, your lost wages and the other expenses that were the direct results of the drunken driver’s negligence. Drunken driving can often times be construed as negligence, as the driver did not take the reasonable measure of refraining from driving when they were intoxicated and, therefore, they brought harm to others unnecessarily.

When you speak with an attorney, remember that the first meeting is simply to determine whether or not the attorney thinks that they can help you. A good Houston personal injury attorney will not take the claim if they don’t think they can win. If they feel that they’re the right attorney to represent you against the driver that injured you, they may want to take your claim and start doing the work of reconstructing what happened and determining where negligence played a part. If they don’t want to take your claim, personal injury attorneys will generally tell you right away, saving you time and preventing you from accruing any legal fees.

The Law offices of Blaine Tucker provides FREE initial consultation for injury victims in the Houston and surrounding areas. Contact his office at 713-771-5453 today.

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Premises Liability and Event Venues

Summer always means that a lot of big events will be held around the Houston area. Music concerts, fairs and other activities can sometimes draw thousands – or even much larger crowds – to get in on the fun. Premises liability law sometimes becomes relevant because of how people are injured at these activities. Here are some things to consider if you were injured at a venue where an event was being held.

Negligent Security

When you go to certain types of concerts, you are taking risks. For example, some concerts traditionally have what are called “mosh pits” in the audience area where people routinely slam into each other, throw each other on the floor and engage in other rather extreme forms of dancing.

When you’re at such a venue, however, and when you’re injured by somebody who should have been stopped by security, you may want to speak with a personal injury attorney. There are obviously situations at certain concerts where you’re going to be more likely to be injured than you would be at other types of concerts. The security, however, still does have an obligation to provide a safe environment and a good lawyer may be able to help you go after the venue owner if they did not provide adequate security for the safety of their guests. If you were seriously injured – such as in a trampling incident – be sure to speak with an attorney right away.

Dangerous Venues

Even though there may be an event going on, the venue is still responsible for providing a safe environment. If you suffer a slip and fall injury, tumbled down a flight of stairs or were otherwise injured because the venue owner did not pay adequate attention to providing a safe environment, you should speak with an attorney right away. There may be nothing you can do about it but, then again, the attorney may find that you have a lawsuit that is very much worth your while to pursue.

Keep Safety In Mind At All Times

If you’re going to attend concerts and other large events this summer, be sure to be safe. Filing a lawsuit against a venue owner who was negligent is generally the best option in the very worst possible situation. Make sure you choose venues wisely, stay out of crowd presses, and pay attention so that you’re aware if something bad is about to happen at the concert or other event or if things are generally going to get out of control for whatever reason.

If you are injured and you believe that there was negligence on the part of the venue owner, it’s best to speak with an attorney right away. There are limitations on how long you have to file a personal injury claim and, because of that, a good attorney will want to speak with you as soon as possible. The meeting is generally without any obligation on your part and provides a way for the attorney to hear your story and to determine whether they want to represent you in court.

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Suing for Defamation on the Internet

Defamation of character can be a serious issue. It was once famously said that a lie can make it around the world before the truth can get its boots on. On the Internet, a lie can make it around the world in a fraction of a second. There are real consequences when someone disparages you and a lawyer may be able to help.

Texas Justice – A recent case

A couple in Texas who were the victims of Internet defamation recently won over $13 million in jury awards from a lawsuit they filed. The misinformation about them that was posted on a popular website was particularly vile. They were able to demonstrate that they had suffered because of it and the jury found in their favor. If someone is doing you wrong online, they can be held responsible in real life.

Understanding Libel and Defamation

Defamation is essentially communicating with third parties in a way that causes harm to their reputation or that dissuades other people from associating with them. There are statements that really don’t ascend to this level that you could likely not sue over but which are commonly thrown about online. Here’s a way to understand the difference between defamation and just a nasty fight.

If someone is defaming you, they’re talking to other people about you in a way that does you real harm. If someone simply calls you a name or says something bad about you in the context of expressing their opinion, that really isn’t defamation. If they’re communicating with people and saying awful things – you’re a murderer, a thief, a liar, etc. – and they’re doing so in a way that makes it hard for you to do business, to maintain associations with people or that otherwise harms you, it may be defamation and you may be able to sue.

Can All Lawyers Handle This?

No. Some lawyers are criminal lawyers and there have been cases where the things that people have said and done online have resulted in criminal charges being filed. The lawyers that pursue the person accused of the crime are not your lawyers and do not represent you. You need an attorney that specializes in filing lawsuits in civil court to represent you. They’ll be the ones who will go after the person specifically to get you compensated for the damage that the defamation has done.

How Do I Know?

Talk to a lawyer. Remember that simple disputes online are not defamation. Someone saying thing about you that happen to be true is generally not defamation, either. If it were, every newspaper in the country would be getting sued for libel every day. Defamation is not about exposing unflattering truths, it’s about lying in a way that causes real harm. If you believe that you’ve been the victim of such behavior, be sure to contact an attorney. Texas victims of this type of activity have already won lawsuits and, if your case is solid, you may stand to win a lawsuit as well. Remember that direct retaliation is never a good idea; get an attorney.

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Why Personal Injury Cases Matter

In many instances in the media, personal injury claims are cast in a bad light. In fact, they’re blamed for making insurance rates go too high, for bringing up the cost of healthcare for everyone and for myriad other problems. These claims are largely exaggerated. In fact, personal injury cases are vital to the people who file them. When you consider for a moment what these cases are really about, it’s easy to see why this particular part of the law is so vital.

Negligence of Others

To put it in the simplest terms, somebody who was negligent simply failed in every regard. They failed to do whatever a normal person in their situation should have done to have protected the life and limb of another. People are oftentimes victimized by the negligence of others. It may be the drunk driver who slams into you from behind when you’re making a turn on a weekend evening or it may be the shop owner who doesn’t flag a tile floor as being slippery and wet, ending up causing a fall that causes serious injury.

Negligence can end up costing hundreds of thousands of dollars to the victims, sometimes even more. Tallying up the costs of medical expenses, lost wages, ongoing medical treatments, pain and suffering, loss of quality of life and all of the other things that typically go into a personal injury lawsuit quickly racks up quite a number.

Even if the law does end up punishing somebody who was negligent – sometimes the negligence does carry with it the threat of serious legal sanctions – it doesn’t end up helping their victims very much. It may feel good for the victims to know that whoever ended up harming them via their negligence gets punished but, when those bills start rolling in, the good feeling isn’t going to last long.

Lawyers Fight for People’s Rights

Whatever else attorneys are characterized as doing in the media, they do fight for the rights of their clients. That is their primary occupation. Lawyers are typically the types of individuals who are willing to fight the smallest point of the law for as long as it takes to get their clients what they deserve. A good personal injury lawyer can make certain that, no matter how un-even the playing field is between a victim and the negligent party that harmed them, the victim’s right is upheld. This takes a lot of tenacity, it takes a lot of courage and it takes a lot of skill.

If you’ve been injured because of the negligence of another person – whether it’s a doctor, a truck driver, another passenger car driver – or anyone else, the civil courts are there to help you overcome the difficulties and the harm that it caused you. Personal injury lawyers are there to make certain that those civil courts do work for you. Personal injury claims do matter. Without them, many of the people in Texas and the rest of the country would have no way to fight back against moneyed, powerful and sometimes otherwise unaccountable agencies that do them harm. Asserting your rights starts with talking to a lawyer.

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The Law Offices of Blaine A Tucker offers FREE consultations to injury victims. Call us at 713-771-5453 to protect your rights.

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Having An Attorney Help You Before You Decide To Sue

Personal injury attorneys can offer more than just their services in court. When you get into a situation where you’ve been harmed by someone else’s negligence, the first thing you need is an expert opinion on what happened and that is the first thing an attorney can do for you.

Consultations with an injury attorney

Attorneys will usually meet with you the first time for free. This isn’t really charity and attorneys who do this aren’t suffering for work. The reason that they do this is because they have to talk to you about your situation to see whether or not they can really help you. If they don’t think that they can offer you any useful services, they’ll tell you as much and won’t want your case. If they do, however, they’ll let you know that they are interested in representing you. This is where they can sometimes offer you another service.

Deciding to Sue in Court

There’s a lot to consider if you’re in a situation where you could sue someone. You have to consider whether or not you want to go through with the lawsuit. You have to consider whether or not the person you’re suing has any money that you could get in damages. You have to determine if you’re working with the right attorney, of course, as well.

A good personal injury lawyer will be willing to help you with this decision. What they can provide to help are facts. For instance, when people get hurt in some way where the negligence on the part of the party causing the injury was particularly egregious, they will sometimes think that they’re going to sue for millions and make sure the person’s negligence is punished. This isn’t always how lawsuits work. Attorneys can give you a healthy dose of realism about your situation and that’s sometimes the best service of all.

On the other hand, you may have been injured by a commercial trucking firm or another wealthy company and have been convinced by their representatives that taking a check from them and agreeing not to go to court is the best you could possibly due. A good personal injury attorney will let you know whether or not this is actually the case. Simply put, the attorney can help you to understand your situation in greater detail and empower you to make a sensible decision.

Consulting Soon after an accident

There are generally limitations on suing for damages in any situation, so you do need to talk to a good Houston personal injury attorney sooner rather than later. They may be able to give you a lot more information that you expected, so meeting with them to get a handle on what’s going on is always a good idea. They’ll be able to let you know the reality of your situation and, if it happens that you were injured and someone really was negligent in causing it, they might help you to go after that person in court for a jury settlement or help you to negotiate a settlement.

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Call Texas Board Certified Personal Injury Trial Lawyer, Blaine A Tucker at 713-771-5453 for a FREE Case Review

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When Is Medical Malpractice Worth Investigating?

Personal injury attorneys can help you with medical malpractice claims. In Texas, the limitations on these cases are specific and somewhat severe, so you’ll need an attorney who understands how to navigate these laws. There are some basics you can go with to help you decide whether or not you should speak to an attorney.

Breach of Duty

Medical malpractice happens when a doctor breaches their duty to their patient. This can mean giving treatment that was incorrect or that should have been known to be ineffective, not giving treatment when it was obviously required or missing a diagnosis that should have been caught. There are other situations that constitute malpractice, as well, but they all have in common the fact that you must have been injured. You could have been injured physically, financially or otherwise before you can sue.

If you have been injured, you should talk to an attorney. Remember that there’s no risk in just talking with a personal injury attorney about the matter during a free consultation. They may not know after that consultation whether or not they want to take your case, but they can get the basics of it and investigate it further as they need to determine whether they think they could help you.

Wrongful Deaths

Medical malpractice causes far too many deaths. Wrongful death lawsuits are designed to help the family and other survivors of the deceased. They sometimes net large sums of money-into the millions is not uncommon-because of the trauma to the family, the horrible situation that the doctor’s negligence caused and, from a practical standpoint, because the family lost someone that provided support, financial or otherwise. If you’ve lost someone in your family and suspect that medical malpractice may have played a part in that loss, talking to an attorney is highly advisable.

Dentistal Malpractice

Dentists can commit acts of medical malpractice. If you’ve suffered because a dentist breached their duties to you, you should speak with an attorney. They may be able to help you go after the dentist for damages. Breach of Duty could include faulty surgery, excessive medication, permanent damage caused by dental surgery etc.

Alternative Practitioners

Alternative practitioners-including chiropractors-have been sued successfully for malpractice. There are limits to who can legitimately be called a healthcare professional and upon who can actually say that they’ve taken on a patient, of course, but you should speak with your attorney about any situation involving an alternative practitioner and possible malpractice.

A Texas personal injury attorney will be able to give you good advice. They’re not just going to tell you to sue in every situation. What they’ll do is take a look at your situation, get advice from experts and see if they think that they can render you effective legal services and help you get compensated. There’s no reason that patients should have to suffer when doctors are incompetent or negligent. Talk to an attorney and see if they can help you bring a lawsuit against a doctor who wronged you by incompetent action or inaction and that left you paying the cost of that negligence.

Call Texas Board Certified Personal Injury Trial Lawyer, Blaine A Tucker at 713-771-5453 for a FREE Case Review

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Settlements: Good Reasons To Trust Your Attorney

One of the options that wealthy individuals and businesses have when they’re facing a lawsuit is offering the party that wants to sue them a settlement. The settlement will be calculated to be enough to entice the suing party to take it but not so much that it would end up being more than the defendant would be found liable for in court. This calculation is something that does not take the person filing the lawsuit or their interests into account, of course, and you need a personal injury attorney if you’re given such an offer.

What Your Attorney Understands

If you know anything about law, you probably know that past cases establish precedents that guide future applications of the law. Where personal injury attorneys are concerned, what has happened in the past is very important. It provides one of the guidelines that they can use to determine how much you should seek in damages.

The attorney will take a look at these past cases, your situation and any other information that is relevant and come up with a figure. This figure will be chosen for being realistic, fair and because it provides you and your family with adequate relief from your suffering and your financial damages to an acceptable extent.

Your attorney will be able to take a look at the figure you were offered and see if it’s a sincere offer to make things right and to save you and the other party the costs of going to court or if it’s an insult being offered to you because the other party decided that you probably wouldn’t know any better. Your attorney will know the reality of this situation. If they see a good offer in front of you, they’ll tell you that it may be a good idea for you to take it. If the other party is offering you something less that you deserve, you’ll know.

How Settlements Work

You can be offered a settlement almost up to the second that your trial begins. If the other party comes forward with one directly to you, you need to talk to your attorney about it. If you have an attorney, it’s in the defendant’s interest to go around your attorney and to negotiate directly with you and you can be sure that they know as much.

Your personal injury attorney will help to negotiate the sum. They will not take a settlement without your consent and any attorney who did so would open themselves up to being sued by their former client. The ultimate decision will be your own. The attorney will tell you what your best options are and what they think your odds of winning more in court actually are.

Trust your attorney if you’re in a situation where you’re being offered a settlement and if you’re not sure whether it’s worth taking or not. A good personal injury attorney can make sure that you at least know the reality of the situation and whether or not it’s a respectful offer.

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Dishonest Doctors And Medical Malpractice Claims

According to a survey of approximately 2,000 doctors in the United States by Health Affairs, patients may not be getting the whole truth when they deal with their physicians. The survey found that, for various reasons, doctors may lie to their patients about their prognoses, the severity of their conditions and about other, more disturbing issues. Doctors have a duty to provide their patients with competent care under the law but, according to this survey, providing that care sometimes involves stretching the truth or lies of omission.

Just the Facts

According to a press release regarding the survey, approximately 55 percent of the doctors surveyed said that they’d told patients that the patient’s health was better than was actually the case. The survey also found that doctors sometimes took the opposite route and lied about the dangers of bad habits to get patients to stop their behavior. Using fear to scare patients out of unhealthy behaviors may or may not be justified, but it’s certainly not honest.

Doctors generally justified their lies by saying that they were good for the patient in some regard. Patients, of course, are not given all of the information they need when their doctors lie to them and, therefore, are divorced from the opportunity to make intelligent decisions about their health.

Even More Disturbing

Pharmaceutical companies sometimes have relationships with doctors that are financially or otherwise beneficial to both parties. Out of the physicians surveyed, nearly 40 percent of the said that there is no need for them to tell patients if they have a vested interested in any of the pharmaceuticals they recommend. Of course, patients may be more hesitant to begin a round of treatment with a particular pharmaceutical if they knew that the doctor had a financial interest in prescribing it or, at least, they might be more suspicious of the motives involved.

Malpractice and Patient Rights

When you visit a doctor, you have the right to expect that the doctor is going to be honest about your conditions with you. In fact, making sure that you stay healthy oftentimes depends upon the doctor being honest with you so that you can make intelligent decisions about your body and your habits. If you’re not given the chance to get real information about your health, you have the opportunity to work toward better health on your own taken from you and, as the study suggests, are sometimes manipulated into taking actions that the doctor feels are best for you.

Being recommended a pharmaceutical because the doctor has a financial interest involved is particularly rife with ethical questions.

If you believe that you have come to harm because a doctor was dishonest with you about your care, consider contacting a medical malpractice attorney. There are limitations on how long you have to act, so taking with a personal injury attorney right away is the best way to determine how you should proceed and how long you have left to decide what you want to do with your case.

Houston Personal Injury lawyer offers FREE Case reviews for medical malpractice claims

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Understanding Unsolicited Settlement Offers

People who get into car wrecks with commercial firms sometimes find themselves on the receiving end of what seems like a generous check. This is because the commercial firm is protecting itself, not because they’re filled with regret and concern about your situation. Understanding settlement offers should make it apparent why you need to talk to a personal injury lawyer in these cases.

What Is a Settlement?

The word “settle”, in the legal sense, has several meanings. Basically, a settlement means that you put a conflict to rest permanently. This can be done in various ways, but, where lawsuits are concerned, it’s usually done out of court. This makes clear a few things about taking a settlement offer from a commercial trucking or driving firm or from anyone else, for that matter:

  • You’re entering into a legally-binding arrangement
  • You’re likely giving up the right to sue
  • You’re signing a legal document without an attorney to advise you

The settlements that these firms hand out are not designed to make your life easier. The people that figured out how much to offer work for the commercial firm, not for you. They’ll try to figure out how much they have to pay you to get you to go away and not make any legal trouble for them over the incident in the future. There are ways that settlements can work, however.

Making a Settlement Work

Rather than taking whatever check that a trucking company or other commercial firm hands you and heading off to the bank, speak to a personal injury attorney. They’ll be able to advise you on the matter. If they think that the settlement is all you’re going to get from the case, they’ll just advise you to take it and be grateful. If they don’t, however, and if they feel that the trucking company is just trying to buy you off, then they may advise you to go ahead and sue or to negotiate the settlement further.

Negotiating a Settlement

If you negotiate a settlement, you’re likely to get more. A injury attorney might be able to negotiate more than enough to pay for their fees and still allow you to go home with a bigger check. Consider the advantages that an attorney has in these situations:

  • They know the legal risks to the person offering the check
  • They know how much similar cases pay out
  • They know how much court fees would be, giving them leverage with the party offering
  • They know how much other people in your situation end up paying in expenses related to the injury

Talk to a personal injury attorney if you’re offered a check. They may feel that the company offering you the check is being generous and tell you to take it or they may want you a client, if they feel that you’re being treated unfairly by the company in question. Either way, at least you’ll know whether or not the settlement is a good one and whether it’s worth taking it or not or if you should file a lawsuit, instead.

If you are in doubt, or need a FREE case review, contact Houston Personal Injury Lawyer, Blaine A. (Bat) Tucker at 713-771-5453

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