Do I have any legal recourse after an auto accident if I was not seriously injured?
Question: Do I have any legal recourse in an auto accident if I was not injured? I am a truck driver involved in an accident in a company truck. The other driver admitted to being at fault along with two witnesses that stated it was his fault. He had minor injuries and was taken to the hospital. I had a stiff neck for a few days, but did not seek medical attention. I was laid off a week later. I had a clean driving record until this happened. Now I'm having a hard time getting driving jobs because of this accident. Do I have any legal recourse against the other driver from this accident?
Here are another 12 wrong-way interstate highway driver accidents in the news. This group includes wrong-way driving events from the following states: Connecticut (intoxicated driver); Alabama (driver being sought); Texas (
Hancock County, Iowa - I’ve been reading about these accidents and one guy has a blog dedicated to accidents where trailers become unhitched and crash into other cars, trucks or motorcycles. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen one in Iowa, right up until this week, that is. It happened on December 5, 2011 at around 5:58 a.m. on Highway 18 about 2 miles west of Garner. A 2000 Peterbuilt semitruck pulling a trailer (driver shown on police report as being from Garner, Iowa – 38 years old) was westbound on Highway 18 when as the officer describes it, “VEHICLE 1 (THE SEMI ) WAS WESTBOUND ON HWY 18 WHEN ITS TRAILER BECAME DETACHED FROM THE TRACTOR THE TRAILER THEN SLID ACROSS THE CENTER LINE AND STRUCK THE EASTBOUND VEHICLE 2 HEAD ON.”
To answer that question let’s look at some of the recent accidental deaths while on the job.
A recent school bus accident that killed an 11-year-old boy and another accident striking an 84-year-old pedestrian have school officials evaluating their fleet drivers. No driver can have a squeaky clean driving record, but there shouldn’t be anything that makes one conclude their driving, based on past issues, would endanger the children or other pedestrians. While I think the effort is a good one, I don’t think the article sheds light on what convictions should keep a person from driving a school bus once they pass the standard qualifications.
A recent article I read interested me from a professional standpoint towards workplace safety but I thought it missed a major point about litigation. This article of interest explores the dangers of being a farmer, but ignores the contribution of civil trial lawyers. With this I take exception.
Compression asphyxia is a cause of death I see in both civil and in criminal cases. So it's one lawyers need to pay attention to. The scope of this diagnosis or when used to pronounce a person’s death can differ. It can be compression to the chest, heart or throat with such force as to stop the person from breathing; leading to their untimely death. Often quoted by the public as strangulation, for the law that is too general of a way of describing compression asphyxia. Asphyxia may be from natural, accidental or from intentional causes. The acts leading up to compression asphyxia is present in both civil personal injury cases in truck accidents or work place accidents and in criminal cases involving some form of homicide. In researching this medical condition I stumbled upon a tribute to Michaela McAreavey nee Hart with several video clips on YouTube. While I can’t be sure of the facts generated by the investigation the caption reads: “Michaela McAreavey nee Harte murdered during her honeymoon in Mauritius. “ With what's been going on in Aruba this case catches attention for many reasons the most obvious being that no one anticipates death while starting out life following such a joyful occassion as one's wedding. Technically here is compression asphyxia defined.
For today’s article we have several real life rollover accidents. The 
Here is a trial tip: The lawyer with an intersection collision case should get a copy of the video from the intersection traffic camera. Which means we have to learn where these cameras are located. As for clients who are in an intersection collision it’s better to get a lawyer onboard sooner rather than later. This is also a reason for the lawyers to get out to visit the accident scene. You just never know where a camera may be recording the events. The camera may be on a nearby building used as a security camera.
The estate of a teen who died after walking in front of freeway traffic will be paid 
The dangers of Anhydrous work - In Pilot Mound, Iowa a Boone County farmer died a 74-year-old man, Richard Shaw died after exposure to 
My office mate and I recently litigated and successfully settled a cow-in-the-road case in southern Iowa. The facts are as simple as a black cow weighing 1,000 pounds out on a county road after dark where there are no lights doesn't show up in your headlights until it's too late to stop. In that case the driver's wife died. The driver was a family doctor and we thought that would help him in the community with farmers who admired his dedication to Iowa families. Think again. No one in the community came forward to admit ownership of the cow.
We’ve previously covered ATV accidents, ATV accidental death and ATV accidental injuries in Iowa. Follow this 
Rollover protection is what keeps the driver safe when the tractor rolls over usually when riding along an incline, such as a terrace or ditch. There are two parts of safety equipment that keeps a rider alive. The first is the ROPs and the second a seat belt being worn at the time of the rollover. None of us are safe without both. Here is a recent story where ROPs are important to maintaining a safe tractor driving/working experience.
Radio Iowa reported “
For a measely 
A 
There are times when as a personal injury lawyer who does a lot of car, truck, motorcycle accidents along with workers’ compensation claims I am completely baffled. This week I got a call from an out-of-state resident who visited Iowa and was injured at a hotel. The matter was a trip-fall type of claim. We lawyers refer to them as premise liability cases. Premise liability is a difficult case to prove, you really need an artificial defect in the property to win these cases. By artificial defect I mean something created by the owner, the lessee or the business that increased the risk of injury.
Iowa's Version of MMA Tort-Reform Was A Recipe for Disaster 
I received an email from Allen Wright, who works with a home monitoring company advising they had created a post on the ten most common causes of house fires. In line with my posts on mobile home fires it appears this one should be noted. Follow the link to read the entire article.
The question asked this week was, what is a PTO, a power take off shaft and what does it do?
The lawyers for plaintiffs' and injured workers are still (barely) in business, because the defense lawyers and the insurance companies need us so they can continue to make huge profits by ripping off the public through 'promoting the float'. Without us there would be no need to have defense lawyers or so many insurance adjusters; and it's the defense lawyers and legions of adjusters who create the illusion there is a need to protect the insurance float from greedy people who get injured through no fault of their own. Most people believe this nonsense until it's them that is the injured one.
Is the legal system rigged against people; and in favor of big business or does it just seem that way?
Shoeless Joe
This is one of three blogs I write for and this past weekend was very busy. One attorney I coordinate blogging with is from Texas. The more blogging you do the more you find yourself talking to people from different states. I like people so I tend to take most of those telephone calls. More and more I work for clients to place them with attorneys from different states. Brooks, the Texas lawyer, and I have jawed about doing this for several years now and so this past month we started this process of helping clients all along Interstate 35 from Texas to Minnesota. If you have an auto-truck-semi-truck-motorcycle-suv or any other type of crash on i35 contact us and we’ll do the best we can to help you either directly or indirectly through a referral. Today let's talk about the weather in Iowa.
In the January 11, 2011 Des Moines Register there’s an article discussing the risk of colliding with deer in Iowa and where we rank in terms of the risk of such a collision in other states. We rank pretty high; 2nd by what’s said in the article. I’ve been reading accident reports now pretty steady for several years, 30 to be exact, and over the past 5 years I’ve noticed a higher percentage of deer-car-truck-motorcycle collisions. The timing of the article is interesting, because just last night I called my wife to the window in our home office where I write this blog to see the herd of deer in our backyard. I like seeing the deer because it’s a signal that we haven’t completely screwed up the environment. Todd Miler, the lawyer I share office space with hit a deer several weeks ago. His Dodge truck first hit the deer and then he ran it over. He described the truck being raised off the ground as if he were going over a large mound of dirt. Because his truck is raised up the collision did little damage to the front.
A few years ago I heard about this kind of an accident, but have no knowledge of such it occurring in Iowa; till now. In the December 31, 2010 Des Moines Register tells a story of it ice falling from the top of a semi-trailer on Interstate 80 and a female passenger being injured. This one occurred in Colfax, Iowa on Interstate 80, Jasper County. The people in the car are from Pekin, Illinois. Apparently a thick sheet of ice came off the truck’s trailer, slid down into the windshield of the oncoming car and struck Linda Mickley seated in the front passenger seat. She was taken to the Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines. There is no indication as to the exact details.
Yes you read that right; you can get up to two free smoke detectors installed by the Iowa Fire Marshall’s office in a residence in Iowa. That’s a pretty sweet deal. How can you go wrong? You can’t so get off your fanny and contact them. The only requirement is that a child younger than junior high live there.
I read the story about the Fayette County, Iowa mobile home fire that killed two children and an adult this past Saturday, January 01, 2011. The Des Moines Register news story gives few details about causes or ownership so from that story I can draw no firm conclusions. [ 
And for other mailman news: A mailman is reported to have delivered the mail in the nude…. I’m not kidding. Follow the 
If you want to read a good story about a courageous young man from Waterloo, Iowa and his equally courageous and loving sister read the news story, 
You can tell its winter in Iowa. The first 
Hickory County, Missouri – I ran across this little noticed news story about an accident in Missouri where one Iowa resident was killed and another person injured. The person that died was only 45-years-old, the driver 49. According to the 
The headline reads “
Why should any parent be allowed to release from liability any adult for behavior that has yet to occur and causes injury to their minor child?
Call it tort reform, tort deform or whatever you want to call it, but the Iowa Supreme Court’s decision in Feld vs Borkowski, demonstrates why lawyers are gun shy about spending the lawyer’s money to litigate certain personal injury cases. Yes, the Plaintiffs' lawyers won in the High Court, but the law they are being sent down with isn't helping the injured.
“I’m going to get the mail Mom!”
Some would-be 
The title of Reuters news item (September 7, 2010) as reported by Maggie Fox, 
Yes, I'm posting again. I was sleeping but then then I realized life was happening without me and I had to get up and write. Today is all about law school. The 
Today is one of those very busy days in the practice of law and nothing is really catching my attention to write about. It looks like a good day for a compilation of personal injury news. Let us see the various ways people are becoming injured or killed from accidents and other mishaps around the State of Iowa. Every so often on The Iowa Edict we will provide a mini compendium of current Iowa personal injury and property damage news of recent events. The idea is to provide a shorter version of available stories to personal injury lawyers, adjusters, those engaged in a law suit involving personal injury or workers’ compensation or those folks just plain interested in PI News. Or in some instances stuff we find curiously interesting. This is one of those days. 
An Iowa worker died at Eaton's shop in Belmond. Death in the workplace is never a good thing, but we need not condemned the employer; they simply need to heed this call to action. Here is the news story.
There seems to be a tidal wave of legal questions swirling in the murky waters of Iowa lately. The more rain we get the wetter are basements and legal briefs. The wetter that basements get, the more that claims will be made to insurance companies. The more claim files grow, the more important it is for the insurance industry to protect the float through delay and subrogation. 
Don’t you hate lawyers? After all aren’t the lawyers responsible for all those frivolous lawsuits? Here sing with me. Rain, rain, go away come again another day. Many Iowans with some form of water damage are mad and will probably be madder after they speak with their good neighbor or the guy who they are supposed to be in good hands with; your homeowner’s insurance company. They will call the lawyer right after the homeowner finds out that their good neighbor isn't so good or that they aren't really in a pair of good hands.
At the University of Iowa a staff person was injured when eight balloons exploded during transport. The worker filled what is reported as 
Today in the email bag was a question and although it’s a bit before 7:00 a.m. as I’m trying to understand what the person is asking me I have to wonder if I’m 30-years younger and going through the experience of once again being a 1-L. A 1-L is how we refer to first year law students. 
As I suspected the questions involving the ISU architecture student that died earlier this past month after visiting a night club centered on whether she was given drinks from the bar or by other bar patrons. One question has been answered. There is one issue yet resolved. An Ames man, age unknown, has been charged with a misdemeanor involving providing alcohol to a minor.
