Do you need a San Diego Personal Injury Attorney?

If you've been injured in any type of accident, a personal injury attorney at our firm,Kerry Steigerwalt's Pacific Law Center in San Diego, can help you. Our law firm and law firms we work with handle a wide variety of cases and has highly experienced attorneys. We are dedicated to helping injured people, and we handle all types of personal injury cases, including wrongful death cases. Our firm and firms we work with also review and investigate claims involving medical malpractice as well as cases including:

Personal Injury Law is one of the primary attorney practice areas at Kerry Steigerwalt's Pacific Law Center, based in San Diego, California. Personal injury cases occur when you are injured by the negligence of another person or corporation. Negligence is the failure of a person to act as a reasonably careful person would, or the doing of an act that a reasonable person would not do.

A personal injury attorney will evaluate your case based on the facts involved and attempt to determine if we can recover monetary damages for you. Each personal injury case is different, and an attorney will carefully analyze your case to determine the best approach to insure that you are fully compensated for your injuries. At Kerry Steigerwalt's Pacific Law Center, San Diego's premier law firm, we believe the client comes first.

General Information on Personal Injury Law

The following are personal injury case definitions:

• Plaintiff: You, the person suing.
• Defendant: The person being sued, a corporation or individual.
• Tort: A civil (not criminal) wrong.
• Negligence: The lack of due care or failure to act reasonably on the part of the person or corporation.
• Product Liability: A branch of negligence law, which governs suits against those who manufacture or are in the chain of distribution of a product.
• Breach of Warranty: Sellers make promises through their conduct and sometimes in writing. If broken, a right to sue may arise.
• Toxic Torts: This may be a product liability action or one for environmental damages based upon rules relating to pollution, trespass or nuisance.
• Malpractice: The negligence of a doctor, hospital or other health personnel, governed by special rules.
• Wrongful Death: If a person dies due to the fault of another, suit may be brought to collect damages. These damages generally include both the pain and suffering the person had before the death, the financial loss of beneficiaries and, in some states, the suffering of the bereaved. The law is very complex as to who may bring the suit and the people to whom the money goes. Often an estate must be set up by a court.
• Damages: there are three broad types:
• General damages: your pain and suffering, mental and physical, and your general disability;
• Special damages: out-of-pocket losses, lost earnings and treatment bills; and
• Punitive damages: extra money juries in some states can add to the above damages to punish especially bad conduct.
• Defenses: A defendant is entitled to raise a number of defenses to the suit, some of which will potentially cause the case to be dismissed or provide a basis for the jury to decide for the defendant.
• Statute of Limitations: The period of time within which you must sue, or otherwise you will be barred from suit. No two states have the same rules and often it depends upon the legal theory of your suit. Sometimes the issue is so complex that a court must resolve it.
• Notice of Claim: Many governmental bodies (municipalities, public corporations) need to have notice of a claim long before suit must be brought. This is generally a very short period of time, which varies according to state law and the particular governmental body. Don't let the time elapse!
• Proximate Cause: The need for there to be a substantial link between the conduct of the defendant and your injury.
• Loss of Services: In many state,s a person other than the injured person can bring a derivative suit-for example, a spouse can seek damages for loss of the injured spouse's services.
• Class Action: A congregation of similar cases and claims in one court represented by a few lead plaintiffs in state or federal courts; its outcome binds every claim.
• Court, Judge and Jury: You have to select the court where you sue - which state and whether in the federal or state system. A judge is assigned to supervise the preparation and then to try the case. Generally, you are entitled to a jury to decide the fact questions. The judge deals with the law issues.

Call us anytime for free personal injury information. An attorney or case manager will come to you. No visit to our San Diego office is required. Or email Kerry Steigerwalt's Pacific Law Center your questions, and someone will be glad to get back to you. Or visit our Free Consultation page where your accident information can be submitted to a personal injury attorney online.

back to top

General Personal Injury Cases:

Animal Bite Cases

Animal attacks, such as dog or cat attacks, can cause serious permanent injuries. Unfortunately, these attacks often involve small children. When an owner of an animal acts irresponsibly by failing to protect the public from injuries caused by the animal, the owner should be held accountable.

You can recover damages from irresponsible animal owners for injuries and property damage caused by their animals. It is possible that a personal injury attorney can find insurance available to cover these types of cases. It is important to seek medical treatment as soon as possible and, if you believe the animal's owner may be negligent, we recommend that you consult an experienced personal injury attorney at our San Diego firm.

back to top

Traumatic Brain Injury

Traumatic head or brain injury is sudden physical damage to the head or brain. The damage may be caused by the head forcefully hitting an object such as the dashboard of a car or by something passing through the skull and piercing the brain, as in a gunshot wound. Major causes of head trauma are motor vehicle accidents, falls, sports injuries, violent crimes and child abuse.

The physical, behavioral, or mental changes that may result from head trauma depend upon the areas of the head or brain that are injured. Most injuries cause focal brain damage, damage confined to a small area of the brain. The focal damage is most often at the point where the head hits an object or where an object, such as a bullet, enters the brain.

Closed head injuries frequently cause diffuse brain injuries or damage to several other areas of the brain. The diffuse damage occurs when the impact of the injury causes the brain to move back and forth against the inside of the bony skull. The frontal and temporal lobes of the brain, the major speech and language areas, are often injured. When these major speech and language areas are damaged, problems may include voice, swallowing, walking, balance, and coordination difficulties, as well as changes in the ability to smell and in memory or thinking skills.

At Kerry Steigerwalt's Pacific Law Center we can help you with serious injury cases such as head or brain injury. Please contact us to consult with a personal injury attorney at our San Diego office.

back to top

Premises Liability

The area of law that covers injuries sustained on another party's property is known as "premises liability". Premises liability encompasses injuries arising out of a dangerous condition on someone's property; such as injuries caused by slips, trips or falls, inadequate security, lead poisoning, construction, farms, swimming pools, fires, explosions, exposure to hazardous materials, athletics, animal bites, and workplace injuries.

Owners and occupiers of property have a duty to protect persons lawfully on their property from injuries resulting from hazardous conditions that the owner or occupier knew or should have know existed. When owners or occupiers of property act irresponsibly by failing to adequately protect persons from such hazards, they should be held accountable.

It is often possible to recover damages against negligent landowners because they often have insurance available in the event of an accident. A personal injury attorney at Kerry Steigerwalt's Pacific Law Center in San Diego, California can help.

back to top

Insurance Bad Faith

We entrust our livelihood, our future, and our family's security to our insurance companies. We are entitled to expect that company to act with the utmost good faith in dealing with our insurance needs.

A bad faith claim may be brought against your own insurance company if it can be shown that they purposely refused to process your insurance claim in good faith. California law requires insurance companies to treat their consumers fairly and this includes payment of claims that are honestly due to the insured. Bad faith insurance law arose because insurance companies, in the past, have mistreated their clients and refused to pay for legitimate claims. Such conduct often hurts the consumer by forcing them to pay unnecessary legal fees or give up on their legitimate case.

Not every act of an insurance company with which you disagree is a basis for a bad faith claim. But when it happens, Kerry Steigerwalt's Pacific Law Center is there to represent those consumers who have been wrongfully denied or mistreated by their insurance carriers.

back to top

Plane Crashes

Airplane accidents are often avoidable tragedies that result from negligent acts or omissions, or from the failure of a defective part.

Even though we focus our accident injury practice on serious injury cases, we treat aviation accidents separately as this is a highly specialized field of law that requires different treatment and processing than other types of personal injury cases. In Aviation Law, international treaties may come into play to determine compensability of the injured party or their heirs. A personal injury attorney from our San Diego practice can represent persons that have been injured in an airplane related accident (as a passenger or a ground victim) and/or the legal heirs or representatives of deceased persons.

back to top

Side Impact - Door Latch F-150

The leading cause of serious injuries and death in motor vehicle accidents is the ejection of passengers. Side doors are one of the primary avenues through which vehicle occupants are ejected. For this reason, there are safety standards in effect that detail how much force a side door latch must be able to withstand before opening. There have been a number of lawsuits filed recently that allege that Ford knowingly installed defective door latches on a number of their vehicles.

The vehicles in question include:

• 1997 - 2000 Ford F-150
• 1997 - 2000 Ford F-250 – Super Light Duty
• 1997 - 2000 Ford Expedition
• 2000 Ford F150 Super Crew

If your loved one was severely injured after being ejected from one of these Ford vehicles, it may have been due to the failure of a defective door latch. To find out more about defective door latches, contact the product liability attorneys at our San Diego practice today.

back to top

Railroad Injuries

The Federal Employee Liability Act (FELA) protects individuals who have worked on our nation's railroads and sustained injuries as a result of their employment. This law imposes a non-delegable duty on the railroads to provide a safe working environment. Most railroad workers' workplace injuries resulted from the railroad's breach of this duty.

The FELA statute covers all work related injuries whether they result from falls, equipment malfunctions, hearing loss from excessive exposure to noise, or exposures to toxic substances such as asbestos, diesel fumes or other toxins in the workplace.

Railroad accidents kill or severely injure a number of victims each year. To prevent these tragedies, railroads have a duty to exercise due care. To protect your rights following a catastrophic injury or death due to a railroad accident, it is wise to consult a personal injury law firm as soon as possible.

Contact a personal injury attorney at San Diego's Kerry Steigerwalt's Pacific Law Center, so we can help you with your railroad case right away.

back to top

Rollover Accidents

While it is possible for just about all motor vehicles to roll over during an accident, light trucks, vans, and sports utility vehicles are the most likely candidates. SUV rollovers are more common because these vehicles typically have a high center of gravity, when compared with cars. Rollover accidents increase the likelihood of serious or fatal injuries to those involved. During an SUV rollover crash, any occupants who did not fasten their seatbelts may be ejected out of the vehicle. Some SUV's have nonexistent or inadequate roll bars, allowing the roof to crush inwards. The Suzuki Samurai gained infamy for its purported tendency to flip and its flimsy roof. Over the years, there have been a number of product liability lawsuits filed against various SUV manufacturers.

In the year 2000, a rash of fatal SUV rollovers brought this issue into the public eye. The Ford Explorer was implicated in many of theses accidents, and safety tests showed that Explorers were more likely to roll than other comparable SUV's. However, it was discovered that many of these SUV rollovers also involved tire tread separation. The Ford Explorer used to come standard with certain Firestone tires, and tests revealed that some batches of these tires were indeed defective. Both Ford and Bridgestone/Firestone settled a number of lawsuits that compensated those affected by these tragic accidents.

If your loved one was injured in a SUV rollover accident, contact our product liability lawyers in San Diego, California. Kerry Steigerwalt's Pacific Law Center can investigate the circumstances surrounding the accident and help you pursue justice.

back to top

Port Safety and Crane Defects

Commercial ports have large cranes that are used to load and unload containers from ships. These cranes are on a strict time schedule, however the operators need to be very careful to avoid injuring other port workers. Shipping containers are quite massive and weigh thousands of pounds; if one were to fall on or sandwich a worker, he or she could be crushed. Sometimes workers are seriously injured through the negligence of other workers, and other times defective machinery may be at fault. If a defective crane accidentally injures a port worker, a product liability case may be justified. If your loved one was seriously injured while working at a commercial port, Kerry Steigerwalt's Pacific Law Center may be able to help.

back to top