Personal Injury Blog Page 3 of 7

Can You Still Pursue Compensation After Agreeing on a Settlement?

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer on October 29, 2020 in Personal Injury

While some personal injury claims go to trial, most are resolved through an out-of-court settlement, often with an insurance company. The settlement provides an amount of compensation that was agreed upon by both parties. Once both sides agree to a settlement, that is usually the end of the process. However, what if your injuries get […]

How Expert Witnesses May Help Strengthen an Injury Claim

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer on October 15, 2020 in Personal Injury

While a third party who witnessed a car crash can only explain what he or she saw, expert witnesses can use their extensive knowledge and experience to clarify many aspects of a case. For example, a medical expert witness could provide testimony about how an injury may affect you in the future and how it […]

How Loss of Earning Capacity May be Evaluated in an Injury Claim

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer on September 21, 2020 in Personal Injury

Suffering a severe personal injury can be devastating to your health and finances in the short-term. Sometimes severe injuries leave permanent damage and victims experience symptoms for the rest of their lives. This can affect their ability to continue working, or at least continue working as many hours or in the same capacity as before. […]

Do Gyms/Fitness Centers Have Immunity from Liability for Personal Injuries?

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer on September 04, 2020 in Personal Injury

If you belong to a gym or fitness center, you likely signed a membership agreement/contract when you joined. Unfortunately, many people do not take a close look at what these agreements say. They may not notice if the agreement contains a liability waiver. These clauses say the business is immune from liability for personal injuries […]

What Medical Costs Are Considered Reasonable and Necessary?

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer on August 21, 2020 in Personal Injury

Often the largest portion of a settlement for a personal injury is the victim’s medical bills for past and future treatment. However, you can only recover compensation for reasonable and necessary treatment of your injuries. This raises the question: what does reasonable and necessary mean? The answer depends on the type of claim you are […]

Steps Attorneys May Take to Help Preserve Evidence for an Injury Claim

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer on July 07, 2020 in Personal Injury

There are things accident victims can do to help preserve evidence of their injury. For example, taking pictures right after the injury happened could be very helpful when your attorney begins putting your case together. Asking witnesses what they saw and obtaining their contact information can also be important. However, while there is no requirement […]

Why Deadlines for Filing Injury Claims May Vary from Case to Case

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer on February 18, 2020 in Personal Injury

There is limited time to file a personal injury lawsuit after an injury occurs. That is because of Pennsylvania’s statute of limitations. However, while this deadline applies to many claims, there are other times when the deadline is sooner or later than the standard deadline. Schmidt Kramer’s Harrisburg personal injury attorneys explain the possible exceptions […]

Will My Case Go to Trial or Be Settled Before Going to Court?

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer on January 03, 2020 in Personal Injury

This is a common question that injury victims have when they meet with an attorney. They often feel a lot of anxiety about the thought of going through a trial. Below, learn more about when cases may need to go to trial for the victim to have a chance of obtaining fair compensation. If you […]

Hundreds of Patients Secretly Recorded at UPMC Carlisle Hospital

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer on December 23, 2019 in Personal Injury

A 39-year old man in Franklin County has been charged with multiple counts of indecent assault, child pornography and other criminal activity after an investigation uncovered he was secretly videotaping hundreds of patients, including minors, while working as a nurse at UPMC Carlisle hospital. The charges were issued following his initial arrest in April of […]

How Long Can It Take to Obtain a Settlement from a Lawsuit?

Posted on behalf of Schmidt Kramer on December 17, 2019 in Personal Injury

This is one of many questions personal injury victims often have about the legal process. They see medical bills piling up and may be missing work because of their health issues, so they may feel anxious about getting that settlement check. Below, learn more about how long personal injury lawsuit settlements may take and 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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