Nail Guns, Brain Injury and Social Media
At what point in life do people begin to believe Facebook postings are real life?
Man shoots nail into his brain, posts it to Facebook from ambulance.
Lawyers are constantly having to deal with what clients post on FB. Clients post inappropriate things on FB all the time. There is a disconnect between the reality of what they say on the one hand in a lawsuit and what they post on FB. Defense lawyers know it as do Plaintiff lawyers. The admissions go both ways and so lawyers on both sides immediately march to FB to see what the other lawyer's client is publicly stating.
A case that just came to my attention was a drunk driver bragging on FB about how much he's drank and how fast he was travelling before the crash that mangled his passenger. His insurance company paid the limits of $100,000 to the injured passenger.
Get a clue folks, if you're involved in a lawsuit shut down your FB page.
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.
For today’s article we have several real life rollover accidents. The 
Today’s litigation brief looks at a recent accident involving one car pulling out and being broadsided by an oncoming truck; the truck driver appears to have the right-of-way. As a young lawyer you have to ask yourself whether the guy pulling out is completely at fault or whether there is other evidence of negligence.
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.
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.
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.
Oral arguments before the Iowa Supreme Court are now live and 
A case mis-manager is a high-priced spy the workers’ compensation insurance programs hire to say they are there to help and all they do is twist the facts in order to persuade the doctor to release the employee so the employer’s can terminate an injured worker’s benefits. Some have fancy initials after their names and some don't. Now not all case managers are mis-managers, but most see their jobs as exactly that.
How do I select (pick) a workers’ compensation attorney? 
Iowa takes great pride in calling itself a “right to work state”. That means simply you can’t be forced to join a union. Most people that call our office asking about their rights after an injury don't get the gist of really what that means. There are benefits and there are drawbacks to being a right to work state. I get that there are benefits to employers, but what I don’t get is why as an at-will state, workers don’t have more protections in the event of an injury or ill and have to miss work. That I clearly don’t get. I'm not saying pay them while off, but I am saying save their J-O-B.
No but you can get a CT Scan.
This is a question I’m regularly requested to answer. The trouble is it can’t be answered. In fact the question indicates a clear misunderstanding of personal injury claims and the desire to avoid the process of law. The process of law isn't like removing a bandaid; it can't be quickly done. It's more like a splinter, requiring fine attention to detail, and yes it's going to hurt, but like removing a splinter, once it's out it's over with. Here is how I answered the question.
Today is my day to gripe although I’m working on it. For this New Year I’ve adopted a mantra of sorts: “It is what it is.” That phrase says a lot about just accepting the world the way it is and not trying to figure out how to change everything that is wrong. So that’s it for this year, it is what it is.
What is the average settlement for auto accidents with moderate injuries in Iowa?
Is the legal system rigged against people; and in favor of big business or does it just seem that way?
You can do this personal injury work only so long before it’s clear to you that the system is rigged to make money for insurance executives and not to resolve personal injury claims. To the insurance executives that run our insurance system, injured people are nothing more than a necessary evil, a mere nuisance. For that matter so am I. They love to hate me. The system simply tolerates injured people while claiming payments to them are a waste; all the while the system is the waste that feeds the pigs running it.
To put this case in perspective I need ask only one question. Can road conditions, including snow and ice, really cause a car accident?
If you’re going to bash gays you may at least have the decency to do it openly and without the guise of hiding your fears and anger behind a smear campaign against judges that you know aren’t going to be able to defend themselves.
Do you believe lawsuits are about blame? Do you say to people that we need to kill all the lawyers? If so, you’re missing the point and should ready yourself for the day when the unreasonable and the irresponsible rule the world. As trial lawyers our goal is to explain to a fact finder in simple terms what made America the greatest country on earth.
There is a scam being played out across the Midwest having to do with a quick confidence game involving lawyers, a potential client and law suit funding companies.
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. 
That's the sound of your $$ in the insurance adjuster's pocket. To the insurance industry it's called promoting the float. The float is the money they keep while you wait. It's insurance wealth that belongs to you, but insurance uses it during the delay that they create. Ka-chingggggggggggg!!! Thanks!