Car Accidents Blog Page 9 of 47

Percentage of Fatal Car Crashes Went Up During COVID-19 Lockdowns

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer Injury Lawyers on July 01, 2020 in Car Accidents

Although the COVID-19 lockdowns caused a significant decrease in car accidents, the empty roads may have enticed many drivers to speed, resulting in deadlier crashes in many cities. According to an analysis performed by Reuters, the ratio of deadly accidents increased 292 percent in Chicago, 167 percent in New York City and 65 percent in […]

Is the Minimum Car Insurance Coverage Enough if You Are in an Accident?

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer Injury Lawyers on June 29, 2020 in Car Accidents

Every state has different auto insurance laws and requirements regarding a driver’s financial responsibility for operating a motor vehicle. In Pennsylvania, all drivers must carry a certain amount of car insurance to protect them from being injured or hurting someone else in the event of an accident. However, many policyholders often wonder: how much coverage […]

Can You Obtain Compensation from Your Own Car Insurance Policy?

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer Injury Lawyers on June 23, 2020 in Car Accidents

It is only natural to think the other driver who caused the crash should be financially responsible for your damages. In most states, that is the case. Pennsylvania is one of a handful of states that requires drivers to purchase personal injury protection coverage to pay for their medical bills, up to the limits they […]

Answers To Frequently Asked Questions About PA Auto Accidents

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer Injury Lawyers on June 19, 2020 in Car Accidents

Q) Will I meet with a lawyer? Yes. At the initial consultation, a lawyer from Schmidt Kramer will meet with you. Throughout the remainder of our representation of you, a lawyer and a legal assistant will be involved in the handling of your claim. Q) What if I am not able to come to your […]

Scott Cooper Discusses Recommended Car Insurance Coverage on Good Day PA

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer Injury Lawyers on June 12, 2020 in Car Accidents

Many people have been looking to save money because of the economic slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there are certain coverages you should not drop from your policy, as they can help protect you financially after an accident. Last week, Schmidt Kramer partner Scott Cooper was on Good Day PA discussing the coverages […]

Reasons Why it Can Be Tough to Establish Liability for Left-Turn Crashes

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer Injury Lawyers on June 04, 2020 in Car Accidents

Left turns can be very dangerous, no matter how much traffic there is or how careful you are when making this maneuver. You are cutting across traffic heading in the opposite direction, so speeding up may not help you avoid a crash as it might when making a right turn. If you were injured in […]

How Your Car Insurance May be Affected During and after COVID-19

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer Injury Lawyers on May 29, 2020 in Car Accidents

It seems like the coronavirus pandemic has affected every aspect of our lives, including our driving habits. As many of us are driving less, we may have questions about car insurance, such as whether there are any discounts that may be available. Below, review some of the most frequently asked questions policyholders have because of […]

Challenging the Denial of Your Car Accident Insurance Claim

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer Injury Lawyers on May 12, 2020 in Car Accidents

Auto insurance companies have become very creative with their advertising. These companies are trying to build trust with policyholders and convince them insurers are on their side when victims need them. However, it is very important to remember insurance companies are businesses. They need to make money, otherwise they cannot continue operating. Insurance adjusters and […]

When Could a Pedestrian Potentially be Liable for a Car Accident?

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer Injury Lawyers on April 09, 2020 in Car Accidents

Pedestrians are often not the ones at fault for a crash with a car. However, there can be exceptions to this general rule. Below, learn more about some of those exceptions, along with the obligations of pedestrians under Pennsylvania law. Duty of Care for Drivers and Pedestrians A duty of care is an obligation to […]

Can I File a Claim After an Accident Caused by Black Ice?

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer Injury Lawyers on March 12, 2020 in Car Accidents

The short answer is “yes.” Pennsylvania is a no-fault state, so you should be able to file a claim with your own insurance policy, no matter who is at fault in an accident. Schmidt Kramer’s car accident lawyers in Harrisburg, PA explain the options that may be available for you to pursue compensation for a […]

Free Case Review

No Upfront Fees

Name*
First
Email*
Phone*
Address*
ZIP / Postal Code
Tell us what happened*
CAPTCHA

Recent Results

$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.

Read more
$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 Chapman January 18, 2013

Read more
$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.

Read more
$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 AM Date of Verdict: June 19. 2012 Court and Case No.: C.P. Dauphin County No. 2009-CV-14003-MM Judge: Scott Evans Type of Action: Medical malpractice Injuries: Anoxic brain injury Plaintiffs Counsel: Terry S. Hyman, Schmidt Kramer, Harrisburg Plaintiffs 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, PA Defense Experts: James C. Reilly, Pediatric Otolaryngology, Wilmington, DE Comment: 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

Read more
$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.

Read more

Testimonials

I wish I would have come to your law office when I first started my case.
Dean P., Auto Accident Client of Abbie Trone
I had a bad, or should I say a not-so-good, experience with another law firm that left a bad taste in my mouth with lawyers. But with your firm you changed all that. I loved working with my lawyer and the way she treated me.
Vernon S., Workers' Compensation Client of Jessica Mitchell
In the beginning, I was very worried with my type of injury (TBI), but after talking to Scott and Dennis here at my house, I was more relaxed about things. Plus, I was able to concentrate on myself to get better. Plus, I was very surprised that I only needed to make one trip down to the practice. Thank you Scott and Dennis.
Lewis W., Auto Accident Client of Scott Cooper and Workers' Compensation Client of Dennis Kergick from Altoona, PA
Going this route - to legally go for money due to me for an injury - I was uncomfortable. I was very uncomfortable. No one made me feel anything but at ease. Everyone I had to deal with was courteous and made me feel at ease. I really needed that.
Auto Accident Client of Scott Cooper from Thurmont, MD
After seeing your ad on TV I knew I had to contact someone. Mike did a wonderful job helping me out. I don't know what I would have done without him. He was there all the time. What a comfort he was through this awful time. Thanks so very much Mike for all you did.
Dolores M., Auto Accident Client of Mike Kosik from Williamstown, PA