Negligence

The Surprisingly Common Danger of Vehicles Crashing Into Buildings

January 20, 2015 | Gregory J. Brod

It’s the type of news story that always grabs attention. Yet, it is also an event that happens much more often than you might imagine. As the following blog post notes, vehicle-into-building crashes happen dozens of times each day in the United States. These crashes can cause injuries and death, putting the driver, the building occupants, and other bystanders at risk. Depending on the circumstances, the driver and building management may be liable to those injured in the crash. Our Alameda County injury attorney is prepared to help the injured and those who have lost a loved one recover needed compensation from all those responsible for the crash.

Car Plows Into Newark Macys Store

Last week, ABC7 reported on an accident in Newark, a California city located about 25 miles south/southwest of Oakland. Shortly before 5 AM on Wednesday, a car jumped a curb and crashed into the Macys store at NewPark Mall located south of Interstate 880. A 63 year-old woman was driving the vehicle which ended up about 50 feet inside of the store. Six people, the driver and five bystanders, were taken to the hospital including one customer in serious condition. A subsequent ABC7 article indicates one young woman nearly lost her right foot in the incident and one man remained hospitalized the next morning. Police believe the driver may have suffered some form of medical condition that contributed to the crash.

Resident Aggression: A Growing Threat in Senior Care Homes and Facility Liability

January 14, 2015 | Gregory J. Brod

Nursing home abuse is a terrible crime that preys on the very people whom society should most respect. Abuse in senior care facilities can take a range of forms including physical, sexual, emotional, and financial mistreatment as well as neglect. Often, abuse is perpetrated by overworked staff members and the law typically holds both the individual abuser and his/her employer criminally and civilly responsible. There is, however, a less talked about scenario – resident-on-resident nursing home abuse, also known as peer abuse Our experienced Northern California nursing home abuse law firm believes that care centers should be held liable when their negligence or failure to provide adequate care allows one resident to abuse another.

Resident Dispute Ends With Stabbing at Sacramento Senior Care Facility

A case of peer abuse is believed to have left a 75 year-old woman with serious injuries according to an article in Monday’s Oakland Tribune. Police believe that 70 year-old Barbara Holland had an ongoing dispute with her neighbor at St. Francis Manor, a senior living facility in Sacramento. According to investigators, Holland arrived at her neighbor’s door last Saturday armed with a knife and stabbed the 75 year-old before fleeing the scene. Eventually, Holland was found in her own apartment, arrested, and booked on suspicion of attempted murder. Doctors say the 75 year-old, who was taken to an area hospital, is expected to survive.

An Introduction to Alternative Dispute Resolution

January 13, 2015 | Gregory J. Brod

It is no secret that courts are crowded these days. This fact is largely responsible for the turn to alternative dispute resolution, also referred to by the acronym “ADR”. Sometimes parties agree to try ADR, sometimes courts or individual judges require parties attempt some form of ADR before proceeding to trial. Likewise, in part because of concerns about the costs of trial and the time it takes to resolve a case through the court system, an increasing number of contracts that include a clause requiring disputes be heard in an alternative tribunal. As a Northern California alternative dispute resolution law firm, we are fully prepared to guide our clients through ADR. This blog entry looks at two key forms of ADR, mediation and arbitration, and some advantages and disadvantages of turning to an alternative forum.

Mediation and Arbitration Explained

The website for the Superior Court in Alameda County discusses the forms of ADR used in civil matters. There are two types of ADR that all potential civil litigants should know about: mediation and arbitration.

When Winds and Negligence Combine to Cause Injury to Northern Californians

January 2, 2015 | Gregory J. Brod

There are many weather threats that people worry about from earthquakes to lightning strikes to flooding. You might not put winds at the top of this list, but winds can and do cause major damage that can lead to serious injuries or even deaths. As with other weather-related safety threats, Mother Nature may seem like the primary culprit in wind injuries. However, our Sonoma natural disaster injury attorney knows that people and their decisions often share the blame. It can absolutely be appropriate to bring a civil claim when the negligence of a person, company, or even municipality combines with a known natural threat to leave you seriously injured or grieving.

Strong Winds Wreak Havoc in Sonoma County

As The Press Democrat reported, high winds in Sonoma County on Tuesday caused a wide range of property damage. Trees and power line were toppled, smashing into cars, damaging homes and blocking roads, closing Interstate 80 in Vallejo at the height of the afternoon commute. Winds also created other transportation problems throughout Northern California, shutting down the ferry service from San Francisco to East Bay, causing a power outage that interrupted BART services, and delaying flights out of San Francisco International Airport. Emergency dispatchers report receiving calls about more than 50 wind-related incidents and PG&E reports power outages impacted over 5,000 customers. While no injuries were reported in Sonoma County, winds were implicated in at least two deaths in Butte County, an area approximately 90 minutes north of Sacramento.

To a Safe and Happy New Year

December 31, 2014 | Gregory J. Brod

It seems like each year passes quicker than the last. At The Brod Law Firm, we are grateful for all of the clients who trusted us to advocate for them and to fight alongside them in 2014. We know the decision of which law firm to hire is often a difficult one and we are honored to have worked with you and for you this year. We understand that no one ever wants to need an attorney, but when you do, we hope you continue to entrust us with your legal needs whether in a personal injury, landlord/tenant, health care fraud, or other area.

We also want to remind everyone to be safe as you celebrate New Year’s Eve. As a Northern California DUI injury law firm, we see tragic consequences of drinking and driving. While we generally see the victims of drunk drivers and not the impaired drivers themselves, we believe everyone can use a reminder from time to time about the dangers of drinking and driving. As a recent campaign emphasized, Buzzed Driving Is Drunk Driving and the only safe level blood alcohol level is zero.

Elevated Risk on the Roadways on New Year’s Day

Recovering Injury Compensation Following Mudslides

December 26, 2014 | Gregory J. Brod

“Natural disasters” – the term speaks volumes, both about terrible consequences and about the root cause. While it may seem like there is no recourse beyond one’s own insurance (and sometimes not even that) for victims of natural disasters, this is not always the truth. Although many companies in the insurance and a range of other industries would like victims to believe otherwise, the damage is often exacerbated by human acts and in some cases the disaster itself may be a hybrid, caused by both nature and man. One area in which this rings true, an area of particular concern given the recent storms throughout the West Coast — mudslides. Our Northern California mudslide lawyer wants people injured in mudslides to know that they may have legal claims against not only their own insurance policies but against a range of players whose acts may have contributed to the frightening events.

Mudslide Closes Roadway Near Golden Gate

Early this week, large mudslide closed sections of southbound Highway 101 in Sausalito, Marin County. A large mass of earth gave way at approximately 2 A.M. on Monday, about five miles north of the iconic Golden Gate Bridge. The mudslide left the highway littered with ten-foot boulders, chunks of soil, a tree, and even a light pole. While the event backed traffic up for miles and the San Francisco Chronicle warned North Bay commuters to expect long delays as Caltrans worked to clear the road, no one was injured in the slide. CHP warned, however, that the area would need to be evaluated for risks of additional slides.

Holiday Decorating Safety

December 23, 2014 | Gregory J. Brod

It is a season of magic and happiness. It is a time for family. It is a time for memories, recalling holidays past and making memories to last a lifetime (or even longer as stories are told to the next generation). It is a special time, whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukah, Winter Solstice, or simply enjoy a cup of hot cocoa. Sadly, the same decorations that help make the season special can turn a happy scene into a tragic one. In this post, we look at the risk of holiday decorating injuries with the goal of helping readers stay safe this holiday season and ensuring your memories are of family and friends not paramedics and emergency room personnel (though we cannot thank these everyday heroes enough for their work, especially when they sacrifice time with their families to protect all of ours).

Holiday Decorating Injuries on the Rise

According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (“CPSC”), between November and December 2012 approximately 15,000 people ended up in the emergency room because of injuries linked to holiday decorations. The number has steadily increased since 2009 when the figure was 12,000. Put another way, there are currently somewhere around 250 injuries each day during the holiday season with falls, lacerations and back strains topping the list. Another holiday danger is fire with 200 fires per year between 2009 and 2011 originating with the Christmas tree, incidents that left 10 people dead, 20 injured, and caused $16 million in property damage. Candles were another common fire culprit, leading to 70 deaths, 680 injuries, and claiming $308 million in property from 2009 to 2011.

A Warning About the Danger of Falling Furniture from Our California Child Injury Law Office

November 28, 2014 | Gregory J. Brod

Throughout the year and especially in the holiday season, there is little we are more thankful for than family. As parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and family of the heart, the team at the Brod Law Firm knows that protecting our youngest loved ones is one of our greatest duties and greatest honors. We are proud to serve as an Oakland child injury law firm and we are also dedicated to preventing accidents that hurt young children. One danger that often goes unnoticed until it is too late is improperly mounted and/or unsecured furniture, a danger illustrated in a recent accident at an area preschool and one that everyone who loves a child should know about.

Two Children Injured By Falling Cabinet at Fremont Preschool

This week’s Oakland Tribune reported on an accident that left two youngsters injured at a Fremont preschool. According to police, an improperly-mounted large wall cabinet fell onto two children while they were napping at an unnamed preschool located near Warren Avenue and Warm Springs Boulevard. Fire officials and police responded and found one child, a 3 year-old female, unresponsive. She was taken by helicopter to a children’s trauma center with critical injuries. As of Monday, her status had improved but she remained in the hospital. A second child incurred minor injuries.

Cigarette Fires & Civil Liability

November 18, 2014 | Gregory J. Brod

For many years now, both scientists and lay people have known that smoking is not only dangerous, smoking kills. Smoking, according to the Centers for Disease Control (“CDC”), damages almost every organ in the body and holds the dubious distinction of being the top cause of preventable death in our country. Our Oakland fire injury lawyer notes that in addition to the health danger to smokers and bystanders, cigarettes and other lit products carry a fire risk that can cause additional injuries and fatalities. Cigarette fires are particularly tragic because they are wholly avoidable.

Hayward Home Fire Blamed on Cigarette

Instead of enjoying a leisurely Sunday morning, people on the 25600 block of Soto Road were jolted awake by fire alarms that sounded around 7:15 AM. As The Oakland Tribune reported, the fire began in one bedroom of the two-story home and spread to another bedroom, destroying both rooms. However, firefighters were able to limit the damage to the upstairs. While all three people living in the home were displaced, they did escape. Two cats perished in the fire and two others ran away.

“The Sky Is Falling!”: Bay Area Injury Lawyer Examines Legal Rights Following Injuries from Falling Debris

October 15, 2014 | Gregory J. Brod

It may seem like something out of fiction, or even out of an old-school cartoon, but the problem of falling debris is quite real. There are a wide-range of related scenarios such as debris from a crumbling building hitting a passerby, a customer being injured by an item tumbling from a store shelf, or a worker being injured by material falling off a warehouse storage rack. Whether it is debris, merchandise, or other materials, items falling from significant heights can cause significant injuries and even death. Our San Francisco injury attorney is here to help those injured by falling items recover needed compensation and begin the healing process. Note: This discussion will focus on events outside the employment context, although our firm can help with third-party suits and other recoveries beyond workers’ compensation in the on-the-job arena.

Recent Headlines Demonstrate the Threat of Falling Debris and Other Objects

If objects had minds, it would seem a building scheduled for demolition in San Francisco’s Financial District decided to get a head start on the process. ABC 7 News spoke with a fire dispatcher who confirmed that a call came in at 8:20 A.M. on Monday October 13 reporting the partial collapse of a building near the intersection of Pine and Montgomery Streets. Luckily, no one appears to have been injured as debris fell, creating a pile that pushed into the street. While the Fire Department had left the scene by the time of ABC’s report three hours later, there will be an investigation conducted by the Department of Building Inspection.