Question:

1. A duty.

2. A breach of the duty.

3. Damages.

4. Your damages need to be proximately caused by the negligence of the "tortfeasor" the wrongdoer.

In your case you are simply missing 3 and 4. You have no damages and therefore no damages were proximately caused by the wrongdoer. Your personal injury is what the law refers to as de minimis. Lay people would use this definition and lawyers this one. Frankly it was what the McDonald's marketing machine was all about but they were completely wrong and fooled most people into believing the sky was falling.

De minimis is a Latin expression meaning about minimal things, normally in the locutions de minimis non curat praetor ("The praetor does not concern himself with trifles") or de minimis non curat lex ("The law does not concern itself with trifles").[1][2]

In risk assessment it refers to a level of risk that is too small to be concerned with. Some refer to this as a "virtually safe" level.[3]

An abbreviated form of the Latin Maxim de minimis non curat lex, "the law cares not for small things." A legal doctrine by which a court refuses to consider trifling matters.

In a lawsuit, a court applies the de minimis doctrine to avoid the resolution of trivial matters that are not worthy of judicial scrutiny. Its application sometimes results in the dismissal of an action, particularly when the only redress sought is for a nominal sum, such as one dollar. Appellate courts also use the de minimis doctrine when appropriate.

But the personal injury aside you did also mention a wage loss being caused by your having a tough time keeping a job. It didn’t take me 30 years of practice to know it’s going to be extremely difficult to prove you’re not being able to find any truck driving job is somehow proximately caused by this one little accident. There must be more than you’re telling me; either that or you aren’t trying hard enough to find work.

Make sense? Now get back to work.

Charlie Chaplin - A Dog's Life

Question: How is negligence determined in personal injury cases?  

Does negligence have to be established in order to collect damages in any personal injury case?

Statutes and Black Letter Law: The statutory law states that everyone must stop at a stop sign. If you run the stop sign you are negligent.

Common Law: If you behave in such a way as to increase the risk of injury to another knowing injury is likely then you can be found to have been negligent.

Contract: General contractors agree by way of a written agreement (the contract) to supervise the construction site and to make sure every subcontractor is abiding by OSHA's rules and regulations. If the GC knows a sub is not following OSHA rules/regs or fails to monitor whether the subs are adhering to OSHA rules they can be found to be negligent.

Criminal Law: Criminal law says if I walk up and punch you in the nose I'm guilty of assault and battery. If I walk up to one guy but hit another due to my being too drunk to make a straight punch, then I'm probably negligent. That's a standard that can be applied to civil law to find you acted negligently.

Professional Standards: Professionals are held to a standard created and recognized by other professionals and the associations that govern their conduct.

These are not all the ways standards are found in the civil law, but it will give you some idea of how standards are determined to exist and therefore formulate the basis for determining negligent conduct. 

We thought proving ownership of the cow would be as easy as someone being honest and coming forward to admit ownership. But that's not how it's working in rural Iowa. Honesty about ownership is one concept you are not likely to find.

These are tough cases to prove as to who owned the cow. Ownership is extremely important and that means the lawyers need to be involved as quickly as possible.

Did law enforcement help? The Sheriff's are elected officials who look only so far probably not wanting to anger any of the locals. Not proving ownership in some ways gets them re elected. Law enforcement's paperwork on past instances where cows got out is in most instances, Sorry Charlie it's not available. The Sheriff's offices are little or no help. 

Local knowledge washes away with the filing of a lawsuit. If there is no lawsuit every farmer will know who’s cows regularly get out onto the highway and who has lousy fences. File suit and it’s like you are on another planet. Everyone has amnesia. The locals go mute because they are for the most part deaf, dumb and half blind.

Yet everyone knows how many cows they own, where they are and I'm sure someone took a tax-write-off for a dead cow. Still no one is missing a cow.

What about tax write-offs for death and depreciation schedules? You'd be surprised how many floods rural Iowa has and how many farmers keep their tax returns in locations in the house that flood. File one of these suits and you'll soon see the flooding in Iowa’s farm basements is Biblical. Noah must be living in the basements of Iowa's farms.

Anytime you read of such a case and either know the family involved or the family comes to you for advice DO NOT SIT ON THE CASE. If you don't know what to do get someone involved that does and do it quickly. If you really don't understand the case law or proof problems refer the case and move on with your practice. Like I said the proof problems are extremely difficult and the paper trails are for the most part in the hands of farmers who don't give them up very easily.

I’ll bet if I was rustling cattle everyone would know whose cow it is that I stole. Moooooo...

The local Sheriff, a farmer and their tax preparer. Iowa's best and brightest. Do as I say not as I do.

Some suggestions by Nicole Paseka about preventing dog attacks.

Pit Bulls Attack Akron Child
KMEG 14
According to the Plymouth County Sheriff, ten-year-old Breanna Buenger was mauled by two ten-month-old pit bulls while playing in the yard Wednesday afternoon. Buenger suffered several bites and puncture wounds to her head and neck before freeing ...

IA: Hopkinton grieves girl's death after dog attack | Canine Chat ...
Injuries related to dog bites are most common among children ages 5 to 9 ... Hopkinton, IA - A 3 yr-old girl, Vanessa Husmann, was fatally mauled by two ...

Oh, I know the animal rights people are going to sick their Rottweiler’s and Pit-bull’s on me. All sorts of people will write me hate-mail and accuse me of being insensitive and a dog hater. But that’s just not true; ask Oreo and Molly our pet dogs looking rather sad eyed at me right now as I write this piece. But give it a rest, these animal-right's folks are some of the same people that yell and scream for tort reform and who tell us that an intelligent, healthy, obedient 11-year-old girls are worth nothing to the parents and then turn around and write a script for dog physical therapy and charge $3 grand to repair a dog's hip.

Every wonder how the law values your pet?

• Vermont Supreme Court Declines to Allow Non-Economic Recovery for Loss of Pets – by Meow-Meow
• Non-Economic Damages In Pet Lawsuits – by Rot. T. Weiller
• Dogs In The Eye of the Law, by Hillary Colley, Esq.

So I’m somehow supposed to feel bad for a dog that was purchased for $100 out of a Wal-Mart parking lot from a guy with no mailing address, but not feel badly for parents who lose a daughter that the government tells us they invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into raising, all due to someone else's negligence? In the minds of tort reformers the dogs are worth $6,000 to $10,000 while the human is worth nothing. Pleasssssse!

Will you write me a script for pet grief-counseling?

Am I missing something here or is this reasoning on the fringe of economic insanity? Why isn't there more economic competition with vets and why aren't fees published on the Internet?

I’m predicting the dog surgeons, after they milk the dog owners post surgery physical therapy component will, suggest operating on the other hip. What do you think? After all there’s another three grand to be made.

When I wasn’t pondering if dogs have bellybuttons I got to wondering what is on YouTube for dog psychiatry? Come to find out there is quite a bit. The first is a Sam Kinison piece and Sam could be pretty loud and obnoxious; he regularly swore and he did in this monlogue; so if swears offends you skip this piece on  Animal Psychiatry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCAAkQcyCKs

Other links: one and two.

And let’s not leave out the pet psychics. See this link.

Are there animal communicators? Link, Link and don’t’ forget to lift your leg for this one.

Maybe we can train dogs to be like us – trained to waste money so we can lie around all day sleeping. If so watch this one.

Did you know cats can talk? They can just follow this link. Dogs can too.

I wonder if a dog will ever be elected to the U.S. Senate. Here is a boxer that’s been elected; but as this Brigadier General finds out, this Boxer bites.

The older I get the more I come to realize there is less and less hope for America. As a culture we are mentally weak and getting weaker. But hold onto your hat because today I’m here to point out we have an economic scud missile in the American economic scud missile arsenal. It’s Big Bernie. I suggest we let Bernie Maddoff out of prison if he’ll agree to move to China. If not then send Barbara Boxer along with the toy terrier.

You really ought to stop wondering about that trade deficit, because it has nowhere else to go but up and to the place where that dog should have gone before thousands of dollars are spent on hip surgery. I’m almost certain that Sarah Palin should be mentioned in here somewhere.

Before talking to the insurance adjuster or defense attorney or the case mismanager remember this from I Claudius, don't touch the figs.

The premise held by most clients is that this system of law is fair. They'll say they want only to be treated fairly. When representing themselves they make the assumption that when defense lawyers talk to you they will be fair. Well I'm here to tell you, you had better not trust in being treated fairly. I mean exactly that and it has nothing to do with whether or not the defense lawyer or the insurance company is dishonest. They don’t have to be “honest” and they aren’t trying to be “fair”. Fact is they are hoping you aren’t smart enough to ask the right questions so they don’t have to not answer you. You think I’m kidding? Hell no. I’m not and I can prove I’m right. Here let me prove it to you.

Defense work has nothing to do with treating people fairly. If it did you could come up with the name of at least one defense lawyer who has said in the past, "I don't think you're asking for enough, can I pay you more?" Or, "Did you know you're entitled under the law to be paid more for your damages?” Go ahead find me one insurance company representative that has said that in the entire history of insurance. Go ahead, think real hard; I can wait, go ahead and think harder.

Umnnn dee dum, dee-dum... Have you remembered one? No? I didn't think so. I've not heard anything like that in 30 years.

Updated: This is too funny. I had a link to an insurance company's YouTube ad and they actually took it down so I could not tag them with how deceptive it is. Can you believe it? Yeah that's what they do. They advertise when they need more money, lie to you the premium payer and then when we lawyers point it out they take down what they said to erase the lie. That's reality folks, that's the insurance industry. 

In other words the defense lawyer's job is to treat you in a way to take advantage of your ignorance of the law as well as your mistakes. Frankly because this isn't about fairness their job is to treat you unfairly. Ethically they can, do and must treat you unfairly as most people think about the idea of fairness.

Fairness dictates honestly and with openness and candor. But ethics require the lawyer to maintain confidences provided by the client. I as your lawyer have to be candid and open with my client and if you're my client I act ethically. But the insurance company's lawyer isn't your lawyer and you the injured person aren't his client. So candor isn't going to be happening between the two of you. That's not the hand of a friend reaching out to shake your hand; the handshake being a sign of friendship, but this one is not one from a friend. Never confuse friendliness with friendship. The two are not one and the same.

The defense attorney or the insurance company representatives are like the slithering snake that delivers the poison being slipped into the wine goblet from which the injured drink.  Now you understand the legal concept of "fairness".

In Hopkinton (Delaware County) we have a 3-year-old getting mauled and killed by a set of Rottweiler’s.

In Ankeny we have four dogs dead and two people injured from dog attacks. The City of Hopkinton may now consider banning Rottweiler’s. It almost seems ironic that today is the day to register your “Beautiful Bulldog” at Drake University. See also 1 dog shot, 2 euthanized after fight.

In Bloomfield a 17-year-old teen slips on pond ice, falls in and drowns. See Bloomfield teenager drowns at pond. Then four people plunged into the Mississippi River at New Albin when the thin ice broke and in they went. According to the report no one was seriously injured. One was driving an ATV pulling a trailer with 3 people when it fell through the ice. All were able to get out of the water, build a fire on an island and avoid hypothermia.

A story from Elgin about a 36-year-old woman accused of identity theft, using someone else’s name to obtain student loans; if true would be a felony with a five-year prison sentence.

The teachers’ union pres is reported to have been jailed for OWI. That isn’t going to help with the public’s perception.

A semi rolled at the mixmaster where I-80, I-235 and I-35 come together in West Des Moines. I’m through this segment on a weekly basis and it’s terrible. It’s an accident waiting to happen with everyone going straight, right and left trying to merge every which way. To roll a semi takes some effort.

The ISU football team players must be bored; two were arrested Saturday – one for OWI and the other for interfering with official acts. These two guys look like football players, too bad for the events. Come on boys hit the gym not the bars.

Then we have the lawsuit against the hospital in Fort Dodge filed by the deaf woman over sign language or the lack of someone to sign. That’s strange enough to be legitimate in a federal court. The federal courts hate PI, but love this kind of esoteric legal theory.

And speaking of strange fact patterns; what’s with the $75,000 settlement by the City of Mason City and a church in Mason City over allegations of name calling that allegedly led to an IRS audit? The legal theory appears from the news article to be one of defamation surrounding something the police said back in 2009.

The article titled “Where’s the beef?” comes to us from Melbourne, Iowa where 3/4rds of a ton of steak and assorted meats was stolen from Sedlacek’s Wholesale Meat Co. So just know if your friends invite you over for a series of really good barbecue’s you may be eating stolen meat.

A house fire in Grand Mound appears to be someone attempting to cover-up a double murder.

In Odebolt there is the very strange case of the bus driver, a student getting hit by the bus, the bus driver calling 911 and then allegedly continuing on her route or something like that. From this news report it’s impossible to know exactly what did happen, but it’s still a strange set of facts. Which judge will have to sort this mess out?

In the Iowa Legislature the focus is away from the obliteration of gays from planet-Iowa and towards the theft of copper and putting salvage dealers on notice they will not be allowed to fence stolen copper from urban mining. I have to wonder at what point farmer-politicians start to realize I can't plow a straight row and they can't practice part-time law in the legislature. Just because you don't like something doesn't mean there needs to be a law passed making it a crime; we already have enough laws on the books. We need more judges to administer those laws. Your passing crazy laws is like me planting flowers in your corn and bean fields just because I happen to like flowers.

In Sherrill a 2-year-old boy was killed as he ‘runs across the road’. The underlying question is: What pray-tell is a 2-year-old doing in the street?

Then in Mechanicsville two elderly people died after stopping their car on railroad tracks in front of an oncoming train.

A 15-year-old was shot and wounded at an eastside Des Moines park as he played basketball. He got shot in the knee. What are 15-year-old boys doing playing with guns? Here is the quote: “A group of young people were playing basketball in the park when an argument broke out. One boy pulled out a handgun, fired it into the air several times and then shot the victim in the leg. The suspect fled the park.” These boys need military service where respect would be drilled into them. The juvenile courts are overflowing and here comes another one. Never wonder why we have metal detectors at the courthouse in Polk County.

A Des Moines radio station probably needing publicity has invited Charlie Sheen to Lazerfest. See Lazer 103.3’s annual summer hard rock festival story. Do ya think if he comes there may be a few legal problems for us to handle?

At the U of I there is the $450,000 severance payment that drew attention away from administrative duties and … say what? Paid $450,000 for severance pay? Where do I sign up for that job? And people are worried about someone getting a few measly bucks for pain and suffering damages that go to pay the lawyers who do all the work and to bring them even, if you can ever get even after an accident.

One more thing, do we have any judges earning anything close to $450,000? I didn't think so. The judges get to manage every wack-job that comes into the courthouse from the jail for around $150,000 while sitting in a courthouse that was built centuries ago. Those modern conveniences include a place to tie up your horse. Meanwhile society pays a hospital administrator $450,000 to sit in a clean hospital, with it's own resteraunt and coffee shops to move paper and sort through doctor's crazy emails? Judges get metal detectors, handcuffed defendants strung out on meth, jailhouse court hearings, drunk drivers that kill, dog owners keeping viscious dogs in yards next to toddlers, kids playing basketball with handguns, the Charlies Sheen crowd gearing up for whatever nonsense they can dream up and for doing their job the judges get the opportunity to get thrown off the bench. Do I have that right? Judges get to sort out all of societies worse problems for peanuts along with the opportunity to get tossed and the U of I admin gets paid $450,000 just to leave town? How's that make any sense?

That’s enough for one day, but if you have some extra time why not come over to the jail for our coffee hour tour. I'm not sure they have a coffee shop though. See you tomorrow.

• See Escaped 9.5-Foot Python Returns Home, 40-29 News TV
• KCCI Report
• To read the full story, go to 4029tv.com.

I intended to be done with blogging for today, but the personal injury news stories just keep getting better and better. In this story a school bus driver on her morning route finds a toddler in the middle of the road at about 8:00 a.m. The tyke had on only a diaper, according to the report. This story out of Radcliff, Kentucky. The pint size explorer is 2-years-old. The reporter indicates the mother was cited for endangering the welfare of a minor. Lucky for him his neighbors didn't have a snake on the run. See you tomorrow.

There was a horse stampede at a parade in Jackson County over the 4^th of July. The stampeding horse injured many people who were present just to watch the parade and enjoy the holiday. On August 11, 2010 the first of what will be several lawsuits was filed at the Jackson County Courthouse. The online story is bringing a barrage of comments under the KCCI news story. Today I wonder aloud if those making comments are for unstated reasons, being disingenuous. Could the purpose of those comments be to poison the jury pool; or, have cruel, insensitive, rude and otherwise uneducated comments on the Internet become the standard for unhappy people who can type on a computer?

The comment section under the KCCI story is interesting, but not because there is any substance to the discussion or anything of value being discussed. There is not much about the issues and too much about what is unimportant. Why I find them of interest is because those commenting lack a basic understanding of our American system of civil justice, or how justice and business intersect with the insurance industry and how recovery of costs associated with insurance subrogation maintain a lower insurance premium that I'm sure most of those commenting pay. People you need to get either an education or a life.

Moverman [Profile]

Member

Aug. 19, 2010 7:03am CST

Moverman

 

Steven Mack and his dingbat wife or you could say Stacey Mack and her dingbat husband should be taken out and horse whipped. It's people like that which make me sick. Course if dingbat # 2 had a name like Steve instead of Steven he would know what he is doing is wrong.

One person refers to Attorney Wallace as an ambulance chaser, but his bio description seems to indicate otherwise. He worked in government and then for the insurance defense side. That’s hardly the makings of a life-long Plaintiffs’ lawyer. He’s probably just a good lawyer who pays attention to his work.  As for naming calling and saying he’s an ambulance chaser, if he were a farmer who smiled after hail destroyed his neighbor’s crop would that make farmers bad farmers and ambulance chasers?  

Krano [Profile]

Member

Aug. 20, 2010 1:09pm CST

Krano

 

Check out the lawyer that these people hired. He is an ambulance chaser of the first order that practices law in the cess-pit of the Chicago legal system.

http://www.moricifiglioli.com/Webpages/Attorneys/CharlesWallace.aspx

The only thing I wonder is did the Macks contact him after looking up his high dollar verdicts online, or did he hear about the tragedy and smell a payday?

Or are they just hopeful that because of their neighbors’ misfortune they will get a higher corn price come harvest season? I’m not suggesting Wallace is smiling about the misfortunate events in Jackson County; I’m pretty sure he’s not. What he's doing is his job. He’s smiling like farmers smile at the prospect of living in a country where capitalists can still earn a decent living. Should we condemn Wallace because he may earn a living because misfortune happened in Jackson County? If so, then should we also condemn the line workers that manufacturer ambulances; shall we condemn the line workers making uniforms for soldiers fighting one of our two wars? Shall we also condemn the hail insurance company CEO who doesn’t rebate profit to the farmer when it doesn’t hail? What about profiteers making millions from selling bombs and bullets to the U.S. Government? Shall we condemn the hardware store owner for selling duct tape and screw drivers used by burglars? Where does it end?

Should we be condemning farmers who profit when their neighbor's corn is destroyed by hail damage?

It’s ridiculous to condemn the Macks, for hiring an out-of-state attorney or for filing a lawsuit for personal injury. Personally I wish they’d hired someone local to Jackson County, but I’m not going to condemn them for filing a lawsuit. I’m sure the health insurance and other insurance companies that may be paying the hospital bills are asking if the Macks intend to file suit. Insurance companies subrogate to those responsible for causing the injury that necessitates medical care and are responsible for creating the need for medical care. How do you think health insurance companies keep your premiums as low as they are? The last time I checked money doesn't grow on trees; not even in Jackson County. You can’t complain about the cost of your health insurance and then condemn those who do what is required under our complex insurance system.

Injured people many times are damned if they do and damned if they don’t file suit.

People who throw word darts at plaintiffs are naive at best or just plain greedy. That kind of reasoning shows a lack of education or bias from profiting by escaping legal responsibility for damage they cause. Yes, lawyers make a living from litigating and yes we do file lawsuits. But that’s no different than doctors making a profit from surgery or emergency room treatment or for that matter from cutting out a cancerous tumor. Shall I condemn my doctor for making a good living while treating sickness in people? Remember folks this is America and we are a capitalist system. Farmers make a profit from hunger, doctors from illness, ambulance drivers from accidents and yes lawyers do too. That's just the way it is.

Russia has a grain shortage, why aren’t Iowa farmers donating the grain in their bins to hungry people in rural Russia?

If you don’t like the way the civil justice system is, then perhaps you’re living in the wrong country. Maybe you should be living under a communist system of government where doctors and lawyers are paid by a corrupt government and are all making set salaries with nothing to gain or to lose from litigation or the practice of medicine. Sort of like farmers tilling the soil under a communist style government. Did the fact lawyers are capitalists escape you in middle school? I’d suggest you visit countries like Argentina, Cuba, China or Venezuela before you advocate for a system akin to communism.  

If you pick on lawyers then perhaps we need to talk about farm welfare programs like the CRP program that pays farmers not to plant. How many farmers are getting paid to sit around and drink coffee while they gripe about the federal deficeit?

In Iowa, plaintiffs have no choice but to sue the responsible person; they do it because it’s the law. And it’s the only way to get at the insurance coverage for acts of negligence. If you want people to not be sued then change the law and allow us to sue their insurance companies directly.

Bottom Line: All I can say is get a life and an education. And travel so you can broaden your mind and your limited understanding of what made America a great country. And know this, American is a great country and not because you live in it; quite the contrary.

• Chicago Law Firm Files Suit for Injured Parade Spectators in Jackson County, Iowa
• Accusers Yell, Ambulance Chaser Lawyers – Damned if they do and damned if they don’t.
• Venue: Jackson County, Iowa
• Date lawsuit filed: August 11, 2010
• Plaintiffs:  Seven Mack, Stacey Mack for Jessica Mack of Bettendorf
• Defendants: Mardell  Steines
• Docket Number: 07491  LACV027013
• Allegations of Negligence: Not known.
• Jury Demanded: Yes
• Counsel for Plaintiffs: Charles Wallace, Chicago, Illinois
• Counsel for Defendants: Unknown.
• Interesting filing: Motion For A Protective Order filed by Hector L. Lareau, the same attorney that filed the Petition.
• See Lawsuit Filed Over July 4 Parade Rampage, KCCI

For additional reading see:

Fair To Focus On Safety After Parade Mishap, Fair Displays Keep Crowds Behind Ropes, KCCI

Who in Iowa goes to a parade to be stampeded by horses?, The Verdict