There are a variety of ways to find the most appropriate and competent legal adviser for your needs. The following is a guide you might consider:

FIND A SPECIALIST FOR YOUR ISSUES

• Ask your friends and business acquaintances. They will give you honest assessments of the representation they received and whether they were satisfied with their attorney’s competence, receptiveness and performance. Most law offices depend on repeat business so this is a valuable tool.

• Visit your state or county’s bar association website and request a referral. Local Bar associations will usually refer you to a competent lawyer who practices in the area of law for which you are seeking representation.

• Go online and seek a lawyer in your area for your particular area of law. If your state certifies legal specialists, find several legal expert who are certified in that practice. For instance, many states certify specialists in real estate law, family law, personal injury, criminal defense, and trusts and estates.

Once you have considered one or a number of attorneys, you can perform further due diligence:

• Go to your state’s bar association website to see if the attorney is in good standing or has had disciplinary proceedings.

• Check the membership directory of your local, state and national legal associations to see if the attorney is listed.

• Go to the website for Martindale-Hubbell. This site will list the attorney’s educational background and professional associations.

THE CONSULTATION

Once you feel confident about a certain legal adviser, call their office for a free initial consultation. Once you arrive, here are some steps to follow:

• Observe whether the attorney displays genuine interest in your case, takes notes, asks relevant questions, and is not distracted.

• Ask for a copy of the attorney’s retainer agreement and review it in detail.

• Find out if this lawyer will be handling your case or if he or she will give to an associate. Although many associates are eager and competent, you need to be aware of their skills and experience.

• Ask about the attorney’s litigation and trial experience. Although many lawyers will litigate claims, they may not try a case and will refer it to another attorney either within the firm or outside it. Although this should not cost you more in fees, it indicates the lawyer’s lack of experience and confidence in their advocacy skills.

• Meet with the lawyer’s staff and assess their courteousness and attitude. Since much of the work on your case will be handled by them, their competence is usually a reflection of the attorney’s professionalism.

With these guidelines, anyone seeking competent representation should be able to find the lawyer who meets their unique needs and expectations.

Questions to Ask your Wrongful Death Lawyer

Hiring a lawyer is easy because there are literally thousands of them out there. As long as you have good money to spend, then your case is going to be up and running in no time. But then again in such cases, you are up against the lawyer of the insurance company of the defendant. These lawyers have had hundreds of cases like this before. You need to hire someone who had as much as experiences like them. Hire someone who does not get easily intimidated by the case and the lawyers of the other party. These qualities are very important. Now, if you’re confused, here are some questions that you need to ask your lawyer?

Who is going to handle my case?

Many times it happens, when a person hires a lawyer and ends up with the firm’s junior associate. Although you cannot assume that these junior associates are incapable of handling your case, the primary reason why you went to this law firm is because of the senior associate’s reputation. If your case is going to be handled by someone else besides the best, you might want to talk to your lawyer about it. As a paying client, it is your right to choose who is going to handle your case. Ask them who is going to be there on your deposition because this is one of the most important parts. This is going to be the basis of the case. Ask them who is going to be there on trial. A lot of people simply doesn’t care who represent them on trial, this is one of the highlights of your case, so you have to be completely well aware about the entire process. Plus your relationship with you lawyer counts.

How much does my case worth?

Another question that you have to ask your lawyer is how much does your case is worth? After the deposition, you can immediately ask your lawyer about this. Insurance companies will try to offer relatively large settlement amount. If they do then that only means that your case is worth something. You can ask your lawyer about this. They know how to sum up all the damages that this tragic accident brought your family and give you a rough estimate of the value of your case.

How many times have you succeeded in wrongful death lawsuits?

This is also relatively important. Many law firms pride themselves for being able to win such cases. So you might want to ask about how many times they have won such a case. You may also ask them a step by step guide on how your case is going to proceed. The more information your know about the law firm, the more likely are you going to be build confidence in them. In such hard time, lawyer-client relationship is very important.

According to the statistics, males make up the most number of people who gets killed in pedestrian car accidents, which reflects that women are more cautious when crossing the streets than men and so do older people. 68 percent of all recorded pedestrian accidents involves male of younger age. Pedestrian crashes usually happen on a busy intersection and the busy streets. People almost always fail to notice the pedestrian traffic light. Drivers on the other hand usually sped through intersections, when the two entities collide, it results to devastating results.

Common Causes of Pedestrian Accidents

According to the NHTSA, there are five most common causes of pedestrian accident: over speeding, driver’s inattentiveness or distracted driving, driver’s confusion, aged drivers and dangerous intersection.

• Over speeding

Over speeding is one of the top most causes of pedestrian accidents. In fact, this is one of the top most causes of fatal accidents in the overall. The reason why there is a speed limit implemented on certain roads is because these are the limits where in fatal crashes could be prevented. If you go over that limit and have accidentally encountered someone crossing the streets it would be a lot harder for you to stop abruptly in time to prevent the collision without hurting yourself in the process.

• Distracted driving

Although the NHTSA have clearly announced just how dangerous it is to engage yourself to distracted driving, many drivers simply ignore this fact. Most of them continuous to text, talk, eat, drink and change the radio channels while the vehicle is moving. Accidents happen in a brief of a second, if you were engaged in an activity other than driving, your reaction will be so poor that crashes can easily occur. According to survey, more than 90 percent of drivers nationwide engage to distracted driving.

• Driver’s confusion

Another top cause of pedestrian accident is the driver’s confusion. This especially happens when the driver is foreign or unfamiliar to the roads. When drivers are busy trying to locate their destination they tend to overlook the pedestrians crossing.

• Aged drivers

According to a study wherein drivers aged 65 and up participated, aged drivers also causes pedestrians accidents. Aside from their slow and poor reaction toward a sudden event, they are also having a hard time noticing pedestrians outside their peripheral view. For this reason, they usually cause accidents. The good thing is that most aged drivers do not drive fast, and so the accidents they cause are usually results to petty injuries.

• Dangerous intersection

Many times pedestrian accident happens on a busy intersection. They usually happen when the vehicle approaching is making a left turn or a right turn. Because of the poor design of the intersection, pedestrians and vehicles collide.

Who invented the first car?

Most people would say Karl Benz, a German mechanical engineer. But according to historians, the inventor of the first automobile is Nicolas Joseph Cugnot, using steam power. The French military army used his invention to carry artillery from one place to another at the speed of two and half miles per hour. This is extremely slow, in fact police officers today would issue citations to people driving this slow. The problem with older vehicles was the fact that they were made to stop every ten to fifteen minutes to power up. The steam boiler was separated from the vehicle. The use of this vehicle did not last. When Cugnot’s patron died and the other one was exiled, Cignot lost the money he needed to upgrade his invention. Cugnot is also the first person to have been in a car accident, when he accidentally bumped over a wall while he was testing his invention.

Who invented the first successful steam powered automobile?

Richard Trevithick invented the first successful steam powered carriage. He is now considered the father of the locomotive engine. During his time, his inventions were poorly recognized. In fact some people even tried to get him hanged because of introducing his idea to the public. But later on his steam powered stagecoaches were used in Britain as a regular coach service, until it was banned because of the development of locomotive railroad system. After this, scientists tried to invent an electric powered automobile. Robert Anderson invented the first electric carriage in 1832. The problem was the electric powered vehicle drives slowly and poorly. They had to be recharged too frequently. The electric powered vehicles were later on used in tramways where there is quick access to electricity.

Who invented the first successful gas powered automobiles?

Up intil this day there is an existing debate about who invented the first successful gas powered automobiles. Is it Karl Benz or Gottlieb Daimler? Gottlieb Daimler used internal combustion engines to power their vehicle. He and his partner Wilhelm Mayback invented a fast driving automobile that has vertical cylinder and gas injected carburetor. Their invention made them the inventor of the first four wheeled vehicle. Karl Benz on the other hand received the first patent for gas power automobile. They mass produced their successful model and became the world’s largest producer of automobile before Henry Ford took the center stage and built the Ford Model T, which is the very first massed produced vehicle in the world. This is also the first time that car manufacturer use a conveyor belt that we use up until today.

Top 1 – They engage themselves to distracted driving

Distracted driving is when driving becomes subsequent to another activity, which could be anything from talking to the phone, texting, twitting, listening to music, talking to their passengers, eating, smoking, changing the stereo channel and so on. While it is true that adult driver also engage themselves to distracted driving, teenagers are inexperienced drivers. Their lack of experience hinders them from being able to take necessary actions to prevent the accident or to prevent an even more devastating result. How adults react to a certain situation is what matters the most during an unexpected event.

Top 2 – They drink and drive

Drunk driving is one of the most common issues with teenage drivers. Teenagers disregard the importance of traffic laws.  Most teenagers drink more than what they can handle to impress their friends or simply because they are ignorant. However, some drunk driving cases end up becoming fatal. When your body is intoxicated with alcohol, you lose some of your senses, like hearing and seeing clearly. Even if you can see and hear clearly, your mind and body coordination slows down, preventing to react immediately to a sudden event.

Top 3 – They go over the speed limit

A lot of teenagers like to show their friends a good time. Over speeding to them is one way to do that. Now, over speeding, even if you are an adult, causes fatal car crashes. When you drive fast, it takes you longer to break to avoid a collision. In almost all cases, drivers who get killed in a car crash are driving over the speed limit. The impact of such accidents is enough for you to break your neck, spine, and other bones you have in your body causing hemorrhage and immediate death.

Top 4 – They always overload their vehicles

Vehicles have a maximum load capacity. This means that going beyond that capacity limit can increase the chance of being in an accident. Overloading your vehicle could result to exploding tires and what not. This could result to a devastating crash. In most cases, teen driver lost control of their vehicle. Teenage driver’s lack of experience will kick in to cause the accident.

Top 5 – They like to drive without seatbelts

Driving with your seatbelts on for whatever reason is considered “uncool” for these young drivers. Seatbelts are especially made to work in conjunction with the vehicle’s airbags. If the drivers are not wearing their seatbelts properly they could be thrown off their vehicle. In cases wherein they are not thrown off, their airbags will not be able to keep them in a position that could prevent broken neck, spine and prevent them from hitting their heads into the wind shields.

Trucking Accident Causes

Trucking accidents cause devastating effects to every party involved in the accident. The good thing is that the driver of such an accident is always careful and usually does not initiate the accident; smaller vehicles do. They over speed on highways, which they share with these dangerous trucks, one second of inattentiveness under this condition, can lead to shocking result. However, there are cases wherein the truck driver was at fault of the accident or partially at fault of the accident. Truck drivers are known to intoxicate themselves with alcohol and other dangerous drugs to keep them in condition. Intoxicating themselves to these substances can hold them partially responsible for the accident even if they did not initiated it or they were simply caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Trucking Industry Statistics

According to statistic released by the National Highway traffic Safety Administration, trucking industry is one of the largest industries in the US. With over 3.5 million drivers and 8.9 people employed. UPS makes up 600,000 employees or over 9 percent of the industry while the LTL makes up the 13.6 percent, which is the largest US trucking sector. At this time, there are over 15.5 million trucks that operate in the roads of US and over 2 million of these are large trailers. There are over 500,000 trucking companies in the states and 96 percent of them own 8 or more trucks. The US economy depends greatly on the trucking industry because over 70 percent of all goods transported across the nation were delivered by trucks. In the overall, the revenue of the trucking business is estimated at 225.5 billion dollars. They pay approximately 37.4 billion US dollars in Federal and state highway taxes.

Trucking Accident Statistics

According to statistics, trucking accidents is responsible for 2.4 percent of all recorded accidents in the US. This means that the chance of getting involved in a trucking accident is 3 times less likely than with a regular vehicle. However, this data also shows that one person is killed or injured in a trucking accident for every sixteen minutes. In general, 500,000 trucking accidents are recorded every year. The good news is that of all these accidents, only 16 percent of them were caused by the truck driver. That means that they could be safest drivers of all. 75 percent of all recorded accidents were caused by the small vehicle drivers. California is where the highest fatal trucking accidents were recorded.

When To Hire A Personal Injury Attorney

You need an attorney who can fight for your claim if you or a loved has been involved in any of the following:

• Car Accidents
• Pedestrian Accidents
• Slip & Fall Accidents
• Truck Accidents
• Accidental Death
• Crime Victims
• Brain Injury
• Wrongful Death