Car Accidents Blog Page 19 of 56

Could a Government Entity be Held Liable for a Car Accident?

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer on February 04, 2020 in Car Accidents

If you were injured in a crash on a road maintained by a government entity or injured in a crash with a government-owned vehicle, you may have the basis for a claim against the government. However, these claims can quickly become very complicated, which is why you should strongly consider meeting with a lawyer. Road […]

How Is an Injury Linked to an Accident?

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer on January 17, 2020 in Car Accidents

The burden of proof in an injury claim is on the victim and his or her attorney. That means he or she must provide evidence of the other driver’s negligence and how it caused the injury. The legal team at Schmidt Kramer is prepared to investigate and gather evidence to help you establish this link. […]

What is the Seat Belt Defense in a Car Accident Claim?

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer on January 10, 2020 in Car Accidents

If you were not wearing your seat belt in the accident, you may be worried about whether you can still recover compensation. You may have heard about the so-called seat belt defense, which is when the at-fault party argues you would have been unharmed if you had worn your seat belt. Drivers who use this […]

Latest Driving App Turo Gaining Popularity on Pennsylvania Roads

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer on November 15, 2019 in Car Accidents

In this digital and mobile age, more and more people are looking for an easier, more convenient way of doing things, especially when it comes to transportation. Ride-sharing apps such as Uber and Lyft have saturated the marketplace while peer-to-peer carsharing continues to grow in popularity on Pennsylvania roads. Turo is the latest driving app […]

Injury Compensation If You Were Not Wearing Your Seat Belt

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer on October 29, 2019 in Car Accidents

Pennsylvania requires all drivers and passengers in the front seat to buckle up. This is why victims of car accidents who were not wearing their seat belts at the time of an accident may be unsure if they can still pursue injury compensation. Each case is unique, so our Harrisburg car accident attorneys cannot determine […]

As Nationwide Traffic Deaths Decrease, Pennsylvania Traffic Deaths Have Increased

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer on October 24, 2019 in Car Accidents

The newly-released report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) shows traffic deaths have gone down across the country. Unfortunately, pedestrian deaths have reached an alarming level, and traffic deaths here in Pennsylvania are on the rise. There were 1,190 traffic deaths in 2018, a 4.7 percent increase compared to 2017. However, last year’s […]

Pennsylvania Courts Continue to Side with Insureds in UM/UIM Coverage Stacking Disputes

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer on October 07, 2019 in Car Accidents

In the wake of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Gallagher v. Geico in January, in recent months state courts have made rulings in favor of insureds in disputes about stacking underinsured and uninsured motorist coverage (UM/UIM). January’s ruling stated an insured motorist should not be denied the ability to stack his or her […]

Why Car Insurance Companies Want Access to Your Medical Records

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer on August 30, 2019 in Car Accidents

Car insurance companies ask accident victims many questions. One common request they make is for the victim’s medical records. Below, learn more about why insurance companies want this information and what to do if you are asked for records after a car accident that injured you. Call our Harrisburg car accident lawyers today for a […]

How an Attorney May Try to Build a Distracted Driving Case

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer on July 31, 2019 in Car Accidents

We have all heard about the epidemic of distracted driving and how it is leading to injuries and deaths. If you were a victim of this type of crash, you may be able to pursue compensation. The problem is it can be very complicated to build a case against a distracted driver. You need strong […]

Do You Work One of The 10 Jobs on This List of Jobs with the Worst Drivers?

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer on July 24, 2019 in Car Accidents

People who have certain kinds of jobs, such as ticket salespeople, fitness club managers and production crew members, are more likely to have had traffic tickets or been in car accidents, according to a new Insurify Insights study of 1.6 million car insurance applications. Researchers used this information to make two lists: one for the […]

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$10,043,952.13 Personal Injury
Schmidt Kramer, P.C.partner Gerard C. Kramer won a personal injury action for $10,043,952.13 in Northumberland County on behalf of a volunteer firefighter who was the victim of Intentional Tort. The 50-year-old volunteer firefighter was seriously injured when a barn collapsed, causing a spinal injury which left him a paraplegic. The claim was brought against the arsonist who intentionally started the fire. It is believed that the verdict is the highest ever in Northumberland County.
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$4,034,000.00 Personal Injury
Yesterday a Judge in Union County (Lewisburg, PA) awarded a couple from New Berlin, Pennsylvania, over $4,000,000 because the husband was shot while turkey hunting.You might ask yourself, how does a turkey hunting accident end up with that type of verdict? In order to understand the verdict you would have to know our clients. They are good people who had their life wrecked. Plus, you would have to know the defendant, who should not have been hunting with a gun because he was prohibited after a previous criminal conviction.It is a good verdict, because the Judge was able to do two things with his decision. First, he communicated to two very good people that their losses were something that those of us on the outside could appreciate and value. Mike Hobbins (our client) is a 51 year old guy who lost his sight because a convicted felon --who should not have even possessed a gun-- went hunting illegally, and broke with impunity the most fundamental rule in hunting: identify your target before you pull the trigger. The Judge accepted the financial loss Mr. Hobbins' suffered, but listened closely to the evidence of less tangible losses. When Mike broke down on the stand, because his daughter would end up walking him down the aisle at her wedding, as opposed to how it was supposed to go, the Judge was listening. When Mike could not keep it together, because of how emasculating it was for him not to be able to provide financially for his family, the Judge was listening. It was facts like these that the Judge cited to support the $2,000,000 award for non-economic damages. Second, the Judge wanted to send a message. Union County is a hunting county. Many of the residents hunt there, and people from outside the area come to Union County to hunt. It was my impression, from the Judge's statements as he rendered his decision, that he wanted to send a message to the people in Union County to protect them in their sport. The rules in place to restrict people convicted of crimes not to have a gun are not to be broken. Hunting is serious and you have to identify your target before you shoot. When you turn your back on the rules that are set to provide safety in a sport, you risk being an example. Here, the $1,000,000 punitive damage award sends that message loud and clear.When it really comes down to brass tacks, the right action was taken against a Defendant who may never truly appreciate what kind of impact his reckless choices caused.At Schmidt Kramer, we are injury lawyers. That means we work with people who were hurt in car accidents, who were hurt by the neglect of nursing homes, or those that were seriously injured because of the reckless, thoughtless acts of others. If you or a loved one have been injured in Pennsylvania, we may be able to help. While the verdict yesterday is not one that is representative of every case we do, it does show that serious and dedicated representation can bring good results.Joe ChapmanJanuary 18, 2013
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$2,200,000.00 Auto Accidents
On Monday, January 6, 2014, Schmidt Kramer accident lawyer Scott Cooper obtained a verdict on behalf of his client who is the widow of a man who died in a fiery crash on Interstate 78 in Lebanon County. The awarded verdict of $2.2 million was in a nonjury proceeding before a federal judge in the Middle District of Pennsylvania. That verdict includes $100,000 in punitive damages assessed against the owner of the trucking company.Kamilah Claxton won summary judgment in November after the defendants, Sukhwinder Singh and the trucking company for which he worked, failed to file a brief in opposition to Claxton's motion, which was made in September. The verdict in Claxton v. Singh was issued after the court held a non-jury assessment of damages earlier this month."Mr. Sukhchan Singh, the employer, is liable on the basis of respondent superior, but was also grossly negligent in failing to maintain his vehicle in compliance with state and federal law, particularly with regard to having required safety inspections and correcting defects in its braking equipment," said U.S. District Judge William W. Caldwell of the Middle District of Pennsylvania in his opinion accompanying the verdict."He was also grossly negligent in entrusting his vehicle to Sukhwinder Singh, an inexperienced truck driver who had failed the written test and driving test multiple times before finally earning his commercial driving license," Caldwell said.
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$1,200,000.00 Personal Injury
A Dauphin County jury has awarded a $1.2 million verdict to the parents of a 5-year-old who had an anoxic brain injury and stopped breathing after he had a tonsillectomy.2012-06-26 10:00:00 AMDate of Verdict: June 19. 2012Court and Case No.: C.P. Dauphin County No. 2009-CV-14003-MMJudge: Scott EvansType of Action: Medical malpracticeInjuries: Anoxic brain injuryPlaintiffs Counsel: Terry S. Hyman, Schmidt Kramer, HarrisburgPlaintiffs Experts: Dr. Anna H. Messner, liability; Lucille Packer, Pediatric Otolaryngology, Palo Alto, Calif.; Terry P. Leslie, vocations and earning capacity, Lancaster; Dr. Hilary B. Berlin, pediatric psychiatry, Great Neck, N.Y.Defense Counsel: Andrew H. Foulkrod, Darlene K. King, Foulkrod Ellis, Camp Hill, PADefense Experts: James C. Reilly, Pediatric Otolaryngology, Wilmington, DEComment: A Dauphin County jury has awarded a $1.2 million verdict to the parents of a 5-year-old who had an anoxic brain injury and stopped breathing after he had a tonsillectomy.The entire verdict came against Dr. Andrew M. Shapiro, the doctor who plaintiffs Reginald Graham and Tykeisha Metz alleged chose to have the boy monitored at a pediatric ward. The plaintiffs argued Shapiro failed to tell nurses caring for the baby about, and how to care for, the boy's enhanced risk for respiratory failure.The jury came back on June 19 and awarded Reginald Graham and Tykeisha Mets $500,000 in non-economic damages and $686,170 in loss of future earning capacity, according to the plaintiffs counsel.According to the statement, the baby's mother brought him to Shapiro because she was "'afraid that he might stop breathing during his sleep,'" the plaintiffs' pretrial statement said. Shapiro performed a sleep study and observed the baby's Apnea Hypopnea Index to be 43 — four times higher than what's considered severe. A tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy were performed.According to the plaintiffs, the baby's sleep study results put him at an increased risk for post-operative respiratory complications. Despite this, they argued in the statement, Shapiro ordered the pediatric nurses at the Harrisburg Hospital general pediatric ward to observe the boy as they would any other patients — about once every four hours.The pretrial statement said that one in four children who have an AHI in the 40s and oxygen desaturation below 80 have some type of respiratory problem. The younger the child, the greater the risk of a respiratory problem, the statement said.According to the statement, Shapiro took off the child's pulse oximeter, the finger-mounted device used to measure blood oxygen, and ordered a heart and respiratory rate monitor. The child was 11 months old at the time.The plaintiffs pled that the baby was last seen at 4 a.m. There was no record of his oxygen saturation for the next hour and 45 minutes. He stopped breathing a 6:40 a.m., and his brain was without oxygen long enough to cause demonstrable injury on an MRI."Immediately prior to his surgery, [the child] was a normal child, who could say mama, eat finger foods, and was just on the verge of walking," the statement said. "After his code, [he] was like a newborn. He could not lift his head or sit up. He could not talk. He could not move."In his pretrial statement, Shapiro argued that he recognized the child's pre-operative sleep study showed he was driven to breath by decreased blood oxygen saturation, which he said was typical in patients with obstructive sleep apnea.He argued the American Academy of Otolaryngology dictates that admission to the intensive care unit is not the standard of care. In the statement, he said nurses did not observe signs of respiratory distress. No alarms sounded until the child arrested, the statement said.He said the baby likely arrested as a result of hypoglycemia and/or an acute aspiration, which he argued would not have been identified by blood oxygen saturation.— Ben Present, of the Law Weekly
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$1,024,040.80 Auto Accidents
Scott Cooper settled a wrongful death case on behalf of the widow of a police office who was killed in a car accident in the line of duty for $1,024,040.80. The claim against the other driver was amicably resolved before suit was filed for the entire available policy limits for the other driver. The case took place in Adams County, PA.
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Michael Kosik was great, I couldn't have asked for a better lawyer. He worked to make sure my medical bills were adjusted appropriately to state law (since I was a victim) and worked hard to make sure I got an appropriate settlement. He is a very kind and understanding person who took the time to explain everything to me in great detail.
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