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 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.
Question: What should I do if my employer assaulted me at work? Out of rage, my employer struck me in the face at work. There has been similar behavior in the past. The police were called and a report was filed. The officers said that the charges would likely stick. Should I seek some sort of civil action against my employer as well? Would I need an employment lawyer or a personal injury lawyer for a case like this?
This story takes the cake, well maybe not…
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 
We’ve previously covered ATV accidents, ATV accidental death and ATV accidental injuries in Iowa. Follow this 
An Iowa man working in Massachusetts fell from a 500 foot tower and died. We’ve covered fall arrest protection gear previously and can’t stress enough the importance of knowing why workers need it as an essential tool in their tool chest. The question isn’t whether you can prevent a fall by tempting fate, the question is when you fall will the fall be arrested. It’s really that simple.
For a measely 
This time it was a 12 year old boy from Sioux Center. The news report has the youngster losing control and striking a utility pole. On the ATV was a five year old passenger. This story brought to us by Radio-Iowa. 
A 
In 2010 I wrote two articles about cooking methamphetamine and the risks of an explosion and fire. On Youtube there is dramatic footage of buildings exploding from the combustion processes involved with the manufacture of meth. In Iowa's latest news report I’m reminded once again about the dangers to neighbors where meth is being processed. For those living in the vicinity of a suspected meth lab, call law enforcement, after all your life or your kid’s life may depend on it.
Oral arguments before the Iowa Supreme Court are now live and 
Knowing what the latest credit card scam is can help you to understand why the merchants ask the questions they do when making a purchase. Rather than getting miffed by those questions you will appreciate the merchant's challenge with providing the customer with credit card services while not getting taken by scam artists. To better understand those challenges read the scam page on the Fraud Watch. See this link to “
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.
The question asked this week was, what is a PTO, a power take off shaft and what does it do?
Without a plan the long tail of your marketing plan can get chopped off 
Once again I’m asked a question I find an interesting one about worker’s compensation. In this instance it has to do with a worker from California that welded for a living, now is older and having medical problems. It’s a difficult question to answer because at this point in the man’s life I’m not sure any legal solution will be adequate. Perhaps that is why this question needs to be considered; so that younger workers realize the dangers of breathing the fumes from your work as a welder.
What is the average settlement for auto accidents with moderate injuries in Iowa?
The tightening of a screw can prevent a personal injury. 
Interesting; a few weeks ago I noticed the Iowa DPS site was down and a press release indicated the site had been compromised. It was an unintended Amber Alert that put the DPS on notice that its website had been breached. So what or who hacked into the site and why?
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. [ 
Today the question presented would be something like this:
Growing up in a seaport town you learn early that when rats are leaving the ship it means it’s going to sink.
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.
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 
The flooding in Iowa is too almost Biblical proportions. We are so tired of rain, rivers overflowing their banks and dams breaking, that the idea of buying a boat and moving north to a lake is looking pretty attractive to most of us. So what are Iowans with flood damage supposed to do when insurance companies tell them there is no coverage? The answers may surprise you when you find out this is going to turn into an expensive lesson for many people.
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!
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.
For my east coast friends who remain geographically challenged Missouri is a state, a part of the United States and just south, that’s down, of Iowa. Missouri is the “Show Me State” which once again Iowans are stuck showing them the errors of their ways. Missouri’s elected officials are picking on exotic dancers a-g-a-i-n. If Missourians are going to pick on exotic dancers then we may as well debate the merits of that age old tradition, the demolition derby. Boiled down to its essence, assuming there is an essence, the demolition derby is a contest that seeks to find several people dumb enough for a small cash prize, to climb into a car or truck and ram other contestants until you’re the last fool moving. Sounds a little like some marriages, but let’s leave that comparison for another day. In the derby the cash prize comes from a promoter who sells beer, pretzels, popcorn, hotdogs and maybe a t-shirt or two. Exotic dancers on the other hand are usually young woman dancing on a stage or in someone’s lap for tip money. The promoter is a bar owner who charges an entry fee and gets paid handsomely for selling inebriated patrons watered down drinks containing a small portion of alcohol. They aren’t selling t-shirts; in fact clothing is optional, well … at least it is for the dancers. 