San Francisco Injury Lawyer Blog

Car Insurance To Cover Employees Driving Own Car?

November 26, 2012 | Gregory J. Brod

Our San Francisco insurance attorneys follow all the latest California legal developments in insurance law. Recently we noted that the California Supreme Court granted review in American States Insurance Company v. Ramirez. This case revolves around a “stuffer” put into the envelope with the employer’s insurance policy documents, requesting information about employees driving their own cars for company business. The questions at issue in this upcoming case are, first whether that “stuffer” form which stated that the insured was covered for any vehicle driven was part of the insurance policy, and second, if it was part of the policy, did that “stuffer” form create ambiguity in coverage that should be construed against the insurer?

The background of the case involves an employee, Hector LaBastida, of HLCD, Inc. HLCD took out the insurance policy at issue, which explicitly included insurance for two listed cars. It had a liability limit of $750,000. The insurance company, American States, sent Mr. LaBastida a copy of the policy including the “stuffer” form, which listed him as the only driver. Later, Mr. LaBastida caused a traffic accident in his own car, not one of the cars listed on the policy, but while conducting company business. That accident caused the death of one person and severely injured two others. Mr. LaBastida also had private insurance for his personal car from Wawanesa Insurance Company, with a liability limit of $300,000.

In 2005, the persons injured in the car accident and their families sued HLCD and Mr. LaBastida. In that case, American States denied coverage for the accident because it said Mr. LaBastida’s car was not covered by their policy. Two years later, the injured persons offered to settle within the liability limits, but American States refused again on the grounds the car was not covered by them.

Toy Safety Reminder From Your San Francisco Injury Lawyer

November 26, 2012 | Gregory J. Brod

For many, after the Thanksgiving feast is eaten and the dishes cleared, the shopping begins. Parents and grandparents, including many of the members of our San Francisco injury law firm, search for the perfect gift to bring a smile to a child’s face and provide hours of fun in the year to come. While fun (and good deals!) is crucial, shoppers should also keep toy safety in mind as they shop for the holiday season ahead.

Toy Injury Statistics

Safe Kids USA, a nonprofit coalition aimed at preventing unintentional childhood injuries, provides a Toy Safety Fact Sheet that examines the problem of toy-related injuries. Per their research, since the year 2000, an average of 168,000 children (age fourteen and under) annually have needed emergency room treatment due to a toy-related injury. Half of these cases involve children under age five, with emergency room treatment for those young children totaling $385 million in 2001 alone. Additionally, since 2000, an average of twenty children have died each year due to a toy-related incident. While this is a small number compared to the three billion toys and games sold annually, even one accident is too many – especially when the victim is a child in your own life.

Complex Cases in San Francisco Injury Law: Officer-Involved Car Accidents

November 23, 2012 | Gregory J. Brod

Imagine you’ve been in a car accident. Imagine it was not your fault. If you’ve visited these pages regularly, you know that hiring an experienced San Francisco accident lawyer can greatly improve your chance of recovering money damages and also increase the amount of compensation you receive.

Now imagine one more wrinkle in the accident scenario – the driver responsible for the accident was an on-duty police officer. This may sound far-fetched, but officer-involved crashes are increasingly common. In this scenario, you still have legal rights and you may still be entitled to money damages through the civil litigation system. It is not only still okay to reach out to legal counsel, it is even more important.

Police-Involved Collisions: Statistics and Safety

Giving Thanks for Your Trust & Remembering the Importance of Our Responsibilities

November 21, 2012 | Gregory J. Brod

At Thanksgiving, and truly throughout the year, our Northern California plaintiff’s law firm is grateful for the clients who trust us to help them through what is often one of the most challenging times in their lives. We know you have choices in legal representation and we know that selecting a law firm is a very serious decision. When you engage our services, we make a commitment to serving you with top-notch legal representation, keeping you informed about the progress of your case, and partnering with you as a true teammate. We will respect you and work hard for you, never forgetting the large amount of trust you are putting in our hands.

In addition to representing people injured in a range of accidents, the Brod Law Firm also serves as a San Francisco legal malpractice law firm. Our legal malpractice work follows out of our basic values and our belief that attorneys owe a high level of duties to their clients. In the malpractice field, we work with clients whose previous counsel mishandled their legal work, either due to a grievous error or a breach of the attorney’s professional duties. Attorneys are fiduciaries and owe their clients very specific fiduciary duties as well as additional professional obligations.

Proving a California Legal Malpractice Claim

San Francisco Oil/Gas Attorney on Lessons from a New Zealand Mine Disaster

November 19, 2012 | Gregory J. Brod

Representing clients injured in San Francisco workplace disasters means following news from across the nation and even around the globe. Although New Zealand is on the other side of the world, the investigation into a mine explosion that occurred there two years ago can hold lessons for the coal mining industry and related fields here in Northern California. These lessons can also translate into legal responsibility, opening companies that ignore safety up to lawsuits from those injured by industrial negligence.

Report Finds Company & Regulatory Fault in New Zealand Mine Explosion that Killed Twenty-Nine

The San Francisco Chronicle is following the release of an investigation into a tragic underground explosion in a New Zealand mine that killed twenty-nine workers in November 2010. After eleven weeks of hearings, the report concluded that the Pike River Coal company exposed miners to an unacceptable level of risk as it focused instead on financial gains. The cited failures include ignoring twenty-one specific warnings in the seven weeks prior to the explosion that methane gas had grown to explosive levels below ground, plus twenty-seven other warnings of danger, with warnings continuing through the morning of the explosion. In some instances, workers rigged their machines to bypass methane sensors to prevent a safety trigger that would automatically shut the equipment down when methane levels grew too high.

Fraud Perpetrated Against Businesses and Native American Tribes

November 16, 2012 | Gregory J. Brod

Our San Francisco insurance attorneys noticed yet another recent news story involving a businessman using shady methods to cheat customers in a multi-million dollar insurance fraud scheme. It is sad that there seems to be no end to the various schemes unscrupulous people create to take other people’s money, and the insurance industry certainly has seen its fair share of these schemes recently.

This particular scam was allegedly perpetrated by a 43-year-old former El Dorado businessman named Gregory J. Chmielewski. He was arrested in Arizona on October 24 and arraigned this week in the United States District Court in Sacramento. He is being held without bail, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and is charged with both fraud and money laundering.

Mr. Chmielewski’s scam involved setting up a company called Independent Management Resources in Roseville to provide low-cost workers’ compensation insurance to high risk occupations like construction workers. He then partnered with a Native American tribe, the Fort Independence Indian Reservation in Inyo County, to create another company called Independent Staffing Solutions. The tribe owned the company but Mr. Chmielewski essentially controlled the operations. This company also purported to provide insurance at lower rates than traditional insurance companies.

The Civil and Criminal Implications of a California DUI

November 16, 2012 | Gregory J. Brod

At the Brod Law Firm, we work to get victims compensation through the state and federal civil court system. We are proud of our work as a San Francisco personal injury law firm, including our representation of those injured by drunk drivers. While the civil and criminal courts in the United States are separate and distinct systems, we believe it is helpful to have an understanding of both facets of the legal system as it relates to driving under the influence.

San Francisco DUI Charges Following Chase that Injured a Cyclist

According to The San Francisco Chronicle, a high-speed chase began early Thursday morning when the Highway Patrol began following an SUV on Interstate 80 near the area of the Bay Bridge. The female driver sped through the Mission district before colliding with a parked car that then hit a cyclist. Reports indicate it actually took hitting another parked vehicle and a utility pole before the woman came to a stop. The cyclist suffered minor injuries. Police arrested the driver and charged her with hit and run, recklessly evading police, and felony DUI.

Vandalism of Public Property Hits Streets of San Francisco After Championship Win

November 14, 2012 | Gregory J. Brod

Vandalism perpetrators range from young schoolchildren who innocently write on school ground walls to immortalize/etch themselves so others will ‘know’ they were there to more unfortunate and harmful instances where property of both public and private individuals are damaged. Under California law under Penal Code 594, vandalism occurs when if a person “maliciously commits any of the following acts with respect to any real or personal property not his or her own, in cases other than those specified by state law…(1) defaces with graffiti or other inscribed material, (2) damages, (3) destroys. Conviction of vandalism may result in an infraction or misdemeanor if the damage is valued at under $400 with a fine and/or community service. Any vandalism valued at over $400 allows prosecutors the option of charging perpetrators with a felony charge, usually depending on the case and criminal history of suspect.

On each of the coasts, there have been recent instances of vandalism reported in the media connected with the baseball World Series and the storms that hit the east coast. Vandalism occurred on the streets of San Francisco after the San Francisco Giants swept the Detroit Tigers to become the 2012 World Champions. Joyful and exuberant fans crowded the streets into the later hours in celebration, which unfortunately led to high degrees of vandalism of both businesses and government property alike. The most well known instance of this is the setting on fire of a MUNI public bus. Pictures of the incident circulated the internet as police attempted to track down several fans pictured throwing barricades and various items at the bus front window and lighting the bus on fire.

This particular instance highlighted the destruction of government property valued at a reported $1 million, as the bus had recently been renovated through the use of a federal subsidy provided to improve some of the older diesel buses MUNI. Several individuals have been arrested in connection to the vandalism under suspicion of felony vandalism and felony damage. While this is the most popular case of vandalism in connection with the celebration, MUNI spokesman Paul Rose reports that other buses in the area have also been vandalism, albeit to a lesser extent.

Sources:
San Francisco: Oakland man arrested in Muni bus vandalism after Giants’ win
“Like New” SF Muni Bus Torched In Giants Celebration, Insider Says
SF Giants Celebration Damage: 35 Arrests, 76 Fires, And One $700,000 Bus
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Elder Care, Food Safety, and Other Legal Issues Implicated in Sacramento Poisoning

November 14, 2012 | Gregory J. Brod

In law school, students take classes focused upon specific areas of the law, examining topics separately in order to grasp each legal concept. However, in the actual practice of civil litigation, legal issues overlap and a single incident can involve many different areas of law. Our Sacramento injury law firm understands this reality and Attorney Greg Brod’s experience representing victims in a range of civil matters ensures he can help in the very real world where clients need legal counsel capable of seeing the wide range of issues implicated in a single case.

Poisonous Mushrooms Leave Two Dead, Four Ill at Loomis Elder Care Facility

The Sacramento Bee is following a tragic incident that left two dead and four ill at a senior living facility in the Sacramento area. The Gold Age Villa is a small assisted living facility located in Loomis and licensed for up to six residents at a time. Among the qualities touted on its website is the attention to special dietary needs and the preparation of homemade meals, an element that can attract people who dislike the institutional feel of the food services at other, typically much larger, senior care facilities. The facility is owned by Raisa Oselsky who has also run the home for more than five years. Last Friday, a caregiver at the home made a tragic error and prepared a homemade soup using wild mushrooms. Unfortunately, the mushrooms were toxic and the meal led to the death of eighty-six year old Barbara Lopes and seventy-three year old Teresa Olesniewicz. Four others, including the caregiver, also fell ill after consuming the soup. Oslesky did not answer calls about the incident. The Placer County Sheriff’s Office ruled the deaths accidental.

The Dangers of Drowsy Driving and the Damage it Causes

November 12, 2012 | Gregory J. Brod

The scenario is a familiar one. Driving home after a long day of work complete with hours of overtime, or perhaps from a fun but exhausting road trip, your eyes begin to feel heavy. Blasting the radio kept you alert for the first couple of minutes but you find yourself zoning out, no longer paying attention to the sounds coming from your favorite music station. The large coffee you had earlier isn’t providing the usual boost of energy and your eyes slowly close. Perhaps you catch yourself mere seconds after you doze off but perhaps not.

On the other side of the coin, maybe you are driving home at night, awake, alert with your eyes on the road. You spot the car in the lane next to yours swerving back and forth, not violently, but enough to stand out. Perhaps a driver who isn’t paying enough attention to the road, or a bit tired late at night. Before you can react, the car swerves into your lane and collides with you.

November 12-18, 2012 – Drowsy Driving Prevention Week

This is the scene the California Highway Patrol and the National Sleep Foundation wants drivers to avoid as they kick off Drowsy Driving Prevention Week from November 12th through 18th. There is no test of drowsy drivers as there are of drivers under the influence of alcohol. However, CHP Commissioner Joe Farrow argues that “fatigued drivers are a safety risk on our roadways. If you are tired, reaction time and judgment can become impaired. Tired drivers behave similarly to those who are intoxicated.”

Studies estimate that 100,000 police reported crashes are due to drowsy drivers, leading to 1,550 deaths, 71,000 injuries, and $12.5 billion in damage every year. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety reports that 13.1% of crashes result in hospital admission. Again however, because no definite numbers can be surveyed, these numbers may actually be underestimations of the damage a drowsy driver causes. Other research has shown that drivers who are sleepy, have impaired functions comparable to drivers with alcohol levels of 0.05.

Additional sleep polls from the National Sleep Foundation in 2011 showed that 52% of drivers have driven drowsy in the past year, and even 37% have admitted to doing so in the past month. This type of driving can be considered a form of negligence and can cause a wide severity of injuries. There is a simple method to avoid drowsy driving and the car accidents that ensue. Get a good night’s rest and try not to drive long distances alone. Remember to take a break every couple of hours and if you find that you are still unable to fight off the drowsiness, stop and find a place to rest before resuming driving. It is far better to be safe and alive than to cause an accident.

Sources:
CHP Launches Campaign to Fight Driver Drowsiness
Announcements: Drowsy Driving Prevention Week – November 12 – 18
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