San Diego-based attorney Mark C. Blane keeps a blog on his website with regularly posted messages on a wide range of issues related to his practice and focus areas: major traumas like brain and spinal cord damage, insurance companies' practices, case settlements, court decisions and legal news, pedestrian and cyclists accidents, premises owners' and occupiers' responsibilities, dog bites, and unsafe products, etc. Request a regular feed on subjects of interest to you or visit us frequently to stay up to date.
Simply choose a practice area from the drop-down menu below to read news and information about accidents, injuries, and cases similar to yours. You will be kept informed on important legal developments in a wide-variety of injury cases and the law.
Elder Abuse is the mistreatment of an elderly person which includes: physical abuse; emotional abuse; neglect; and financial abuse. Unfortunately, this type of abuse can happen anywhere; in households that are considered poor, middle class, or upper class households. Statistically, close friends or family members are often times the catalyst or actual culprits of the physical, emotional, physical, or financial abuse; thus, this type of abuse is usually extremely difficult to detect.
FINANCIAL ABUSE: this is the mismanagement of money, assets, or other tangible things or property belonging to a senior citizen. Protect yourself from this type of mismanagement by third parties. You can 1) cancel all credit cards you are not using; 2) never keep PIN Numbers in your wallet or in places of easy access; 3) never give out your ATM cards or credit cards–try to give out cash or reimburse with cash or check; and, 4) have a trusted family member or friend balance your books.
PHYSICAL ABUSE: this is the infliction of bodily injuries on a senior citizen. This can be detected if there are obvious lacerations; abrasions; welts; bruises; bone fractures; swelling; or suspicious discoloration. Also, you can sometimes notice cigarette burns, or burns from ropes or bonds; detached retina; head/scalp wounds; tenderness or pain upon merely touching the senior; or the senior becomes protective of the suspect or withdrawn.
NEGLECT OF AN ELDER: this is the failure of a caregiver to provide the senior with basic living needs which includes shelter; food; personal hygiene products; heating and air conditioning; & medical assistance. Statistically, unemployed adult children, or third parties with a criminal history may neglect their elder parents. You can find evidence of this type of neglect when the elder feels isolated by the caretaker, or is unable to spend time with other or speak freely; the senior shows signs of dehydration, or malnutrition; or the senior has a sudden and rapid weight loss; or, the elder does not have necessities like eye glasses, hearing aides, dentures, walkers, canes, prostheses, or other necessary items.
If you suspect neglect or abuse of an elder, please contact the Adult Protective Services by calling 1 (877) 4-R-Seniors, or your local police department. Then contact an experienced Elder Abuse Lawyer to help protect the Elder’s legal rights.
A lawsuit seeking $1.1 million dollars was filed against NPC International for food poisoning. The suit alleges 15 plaintiffs who were all members of a church claim to have become ill after eating chicken at a Pizza Hut in Northern Mississippi in the city of Greenwood; the Pizza Hut location is owned by NPC. Nineteen (19) people were actually treated at a local hospital and complained of vomiting and severe nausea. The lawsuit only had two (2) plaintiffs when it was initially filed in March 2009. A spokesperson for Pizza Hut, Mr. Chris Fuller, has commented on the lawsuit by indicating it lacks legal merit. More specifically, Mr. Fuller indicated the Mississippi Department of Health and the FDA found there was nothing wrong with the food that was served at the Pizza Hut location.
On July 23, 2009, the Federal Reserve instituted new protections for borrowers for home-equity loans and mortgages. The protections seek to review the content of disclosures to consumers and the timing said disclosures are given; further, they add “teeth” to the regulations to prevent kick backs for steering consumers to higher cost (interest rate/closing costs) mortgage loans. The Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Mr. Donald Kohn, said publicly that this will help consumers make more informed decisions in the lending (mortgage) process.
Under these new Federal guidelines, consumers would receive more notice in the form of disclosures to costs after applying for a mortgage; also, if the mortgage contains any risky items such as a negative amortization, then a one page document would accompany the application clearly explaining this to the consumer. This would include warnings about balloon payments associated with Adjustable-Rate Mortgages known as ARMs.
The public at large will be given an opportunity for approximately 120 days to comment on these new mortgage disclosure proposals before the new rules are finalized and implemented. The National Association of Mortgage Brokers are currently reviewing these proposals.
On July 13, 2009, buyers of 11 of the units available at the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Waikiki filed a lawsuit against the real estate developer seeking to cancel their real estate purchase contracts because the “use of the Donald Trump name on the luxury condominium project is not guaranteed.” The law suit was filed in the First Circuit Court in Honolulu, Oahu, and alleges that the real estate developer, Los Angeles area Irongate, claimed in a 2006 press release that Donald Trump was a “co-developer” in the project. However, the fine print notated that Donald Trump was merely licensing his good name in a real estate deal that could be revoked or terminated at any time by him.
This is the same issue that is occurring the Northern Baja Mexico area with Donald Trump, Irongate, and other buyers in that luxury condo project. Among the plaintiffs in this Honolulu lawsuit include six Hawaii couples, the head of a California Meat exporting business, a professional basketball player from New Orleans, and two doctors from San Diego. According to sources, plaintiffs from Japan will be included in the lawsuit.
The real estate sales contract did state that Donald Trump’s name was licensed but it did not list the details of the license arrangement; it did state if the license was ever revoked, removed, or terminated, then all references to the Trump name would be physically removed from the condominium project. There are time deadlines, such as the buyers are under contract with Irongate to close and fulfill their purchase contract by September 1, 2009. Thus, they may risk lawsuits against them from Irongate as well. Things could get very interesting legally.
In regards to the Baja investment project in Baja Mexico, Donald Trump has sued the developer Irongate with failing to build the project after he had licensed his good name there; apparently, Irongate pulled out of that project entirely after funding with Deutch Bank failed in late 2008. Thus, the legal issues with this case, and other similar cases, are pending and should prove to be very interesting in terms of what will happen next. I will do my best to periodically update this blog commentary on the latest Trump real estate law suit news.
There were 9 people killed on June 22, 2009, in Washington D.C. when a D.C. Metro Train crashed; according to the National Transportation Safety Board, they are still investigating the crash. The crash happened at approximately 5 pm as one Metro Train collided into another Metro Train that was stopped by the Fort Totten Station. The force of this accident was so great that the first car of one of the Trains was found on top of the last car of the other stopped Metro Train.
The entity that runs the Metro, the Metropolitan Washington Transit Agency (MWATA), was told by the NTSB in 2006 to do something about the older cars in the Metro system since they were built as far back as 1974, or replace them with new trains. This of course was never completed by the MWATA principally due to financial constraints. This released information has caused some controversy in the D.C. area.
The NTSB may have found evidence that the age of the cars may not have been a factor in this train crash, and rather, the electronic system that keeps trains apart during rush hour may have been the defective condition that may be linked to the crash. The Washington Post reported on July 7, 2009, that the system may not have been functioning normally, and this defective condition was never caught because it was not an “on-going problem.”
Union leader, Jackie Jeter, of the ATS local 689, whose union membership run the Metro Trains demanded that there be more autonomy for workers over the trains under these facts. Hopefully this will lead to much needed oversight to operate the D.C. Metro to prevent another train crash from occurring.
According to Reuters, French investigators have found acoustic type signals form the black boxes that were aboard the Yemeni jet that crashed into the Indian Ocean last week leaving 152 people dead, and one 14 year old survivor. The airliner crashed into the Indian Ocean as it was on approach to land at the capital of Comoros, Moroni. There are plans being formulated to actually go in and retrieve the black boxes that contain vital flight information that may help explain why it crashed.
A single-engine Cessna crashed July 8, 2009, at approximately 4:30 pm just west of Mammoth Yosemite Airport, with two people aboard; pilot and one passenger. Both occupants of the plane were killed upon impact. The entire accident is under investigation.
Over the years, I have debated the safety of a single-engine aircraft with multi-engine aircraft; a good friend of mine is an avid single engine Cessna pilot and he routinely takes the position that a single engine plane is just as safe as a multi-engine plane; if not safer, particularly on take off. Apparently, if an engine fails on take off on a double engine plane, you will need a very skilled pilot not to steer the plane into the ground. Does anyone have some thoughts on this subject? If so, please share them with me.
According to the Associated Press out of New York, the first wrongful death lawsuit resulting from the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks will go to trial April 12, a judge said Tuesday, July 28, 2009. U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein set the trial date over the complaints of aviation security industry lawyers who said they needed more time to prepare for the litigation. “There’s a great deal of shock on the defense side,” said Desmond Thomas Barry, a lawyer representing the aviation defendants in the pending litigation. It has not been decided which of three remaining wrongful death claims will go before the jury at the trial in New York. Currently, more than 90 families have already settled their claims, and therefore do not need trials.
Judge Hellerstein said he wants the trial completed in less than a month and will set limits on the time given to each side so presentations to the jury are equal. This shows his interest for an expedient and efficient trial. Judge Hellerstein is in the Federal District Court in Manhatten, New York. Once the trial is completed, Judge Hellerstein said, he will begin trials for damages claims by people who suffered respiratory illnesses at the World Trade Center site. He said he wanted the first trial to result from a lawsuit on behalf of victims who were on the planes involved in 911. “When we think of 9-11, we think more of the people in the airplane than anyone else,” the judge said.
Judge Hellerstein said the three wrongful death lawsuits that remain will be tried in two different trials as follows:
1. One trial will consider whether the aviation defendants face liability in the deaths of Sara Low, 28, a Boston-based flight attendant who died when American Airlines Flight 11 struck the World Trade Center, and Barbara Keating, 72, of Palm Springs, Florida, also aboard American Airlines Flight 11.
2. The other trial will decide whether defendants are liable in the death of Mark Bavis, 31, of West Newton, Massachusetts, a scout for the Los Angeles Kings hockey team who was aboard United Flight 175, which also struck the World Trade Center on 911.
Judge Hellerstein told lawyers for the plaintiffs to tell him in the next week which trial will be first. Ninety-seven (97) percent of the relatives of those killed in planes that hit the World Trade Center or the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, chose to receive payments from a special fund that the U.S. Congress established. It distributed more than $7 billion to more than 5,000 survivors of potential wrongful death actions. However, 95 lawsuits on behalf of 96 victims were filed by those families who chose to reject the fund (the great majority on behalf of families whose loved ones were killed on the 911 planes).
One former Boston aviation official said it’s time to speak up: “Maybe now we’ll get to fill in some of the gaps left in the 9/11 Commission Report,” said Brian Sullivan, a retired Federal Aviation Administration offical who long worried about such a doomsday security breach.
San Diego Car Accident Law Firm Discussion: What Exactly is “Med Pay” Insurance in California?
Medical Pay Benefits coverage is simply known as “Med Pay” and it is additional coverage that attaches to an individual’s automobile policy. This additional policy must be chosen by the policy holder; that is, it is not required in California. In other States, it is mandatory and it is known as “PIP Coverage” or “Personal Injury Protection (PIP);” for example, the States of Texas, and Florida have such a mandate. These policies have specific coverage limits that must be reasonably related for necessary medical care to an automobile accident causing bodily injury; usually you see them in amounts of $1,000.00; $2,000.00; $5,000.00; $10,000.00; $25,000.00; and $100,000.00. In my law practice, I typically see $1,000.00 – $10,000.00 limits, with the occasional $100,000.00 plus in available limits.
WHAT MED PAY COVERAGE DOES FOR YOU IN CALIFORNIA:
If you, or any of your passengers, are injured in an automobile accident in California, whether it is your fault, or the other driver’s fault, your insurance with Med Pay coverage will be responsible for paying all of your (and your passenger’s) reasonable and necessary medical bills as a result of any bodily injury that arises from said accident. Some folks are hesitant about using this benefit coverage because they worry their insurance rates will go up; however, insurance companies cannot raise your insurance rates for utilizing your insurance benefits, including Med Pay coverage, if you were NOT AT FAULT in an automobile accident.
Some people will not obtain Med Pay coverage to save money on their insurance policies; or, some people will not obtain Med Pay coverage if they have health insurance. In my opinion, I believe it to be an advantage to have a Med Pay benefit coverage on your automobile insurance. I will blog about the reasons, and the details in a later blog. For purposes of this blog, I wanted to define what Med Pay Insurance is in California, and what it does for you and your passengers. Simply put, it is like having additional health insurance attached to your automobile policy and it contains a liberal coverage for many different types of medical care. The point to remember is the medical care must be accepted medical care in the community and it must be: 1. necessary; 2. reasonable; 3. and due to injuries from an accident (some policies dictate time constraints on beginning the medical care; for example, I have seen some Med Pay policies specifically state the medical care MUST begin within the first year following an auto accident, OR all medical bills, or the medical bills must be submitted within the first year following the auto accident.
As you can see above in item 3, it is EXTREMELY important to know your Med Pay policy and any exclusions it might have; particularly if you were involved in an auto accident, it is best to see if you have Med Pay, and if so, get familiar with any exclusions and all the benefits it has under the policy. If you have questions about your Med Pay policy, you can email or call me with any questions free of charge. The goal of this blog is to get the Med Pay insurance benefit coverage out to the public because I believe the insurance industry does not do enough to explain this important insurance coverage in California. You may contact Attorney Mark C. Blane at (619) 813-7955, or toll free at (888) 845-6269, email at mark@blanelaw.com.
Review your own automobile policy NOW, and see if you have this very important medical benefit! Preparation is half the battle with this important insurance coverage.
VIDEO ON SAN DIEGO AUTO ACCIDENTS/CAR ACCIDENTS CAUSING INJURIES:
San Diego Personal Injury Attorney Mark C. Blane Avvo.com Answers To Legal Questions
Q: I hit a teenage girl with my truck. She ran into traffic. I have witnesses and police reports. Her parents are suing.: My insurance company says I may be over my limit. And need an attorney. It was clearly not my fault. Do I need to worry. Posted 5 months ago in Car Accident A: Mark's answer: Your insurance company should have assigned counsel to defend and indemnify you. Your questions leave little facts for me to analyze further; however, if you have witnesses indicating she ran in front of you and you had no time to react, then you should be fine. Review the police report for witness statements, and what the police officer concluded. Assuming he did not witness the accident, review how he came to any conclusions on the issue of fault, if any. If everything supports your version of events, you should be fine. Posted by a user, 5 months ago.
Q: Can I sue a theme park if I slip on wet stairs and sustain a leg injury and what information would I need to have?: The stairs were outside it had just started raining. We were in a tent and I was not going to leave until the rain had stopped. A BG security guard told us we had to leave the tent. The stairs were like sheets of ice and I slipped twice one time at the top and another time grabbing onto both handrails and slipped to the bottom of the stairs. Posted 5 months ago in Slip and Fall Accident A: Mark's answer: In order to obtain liability in a slip and fall case, you need to prove the at-fault party had notice of the dangerous condition, failed to remedy it, had control and dominion in terms of allowing the condition to exist, and the hazard was not easily seen or known by you. Here, it was due to rain, and these cases can be very tough to prove. Also, you do not indicate from your question if you were injured; if no injury, or damages, then generally no case. Posted by a user, 5 months ago.
Q: how long do you have to file a malpractice case: I had a hip replacement in 2008 and was given penicillin which highly allergic doctor said nurse did not read my chart and since then I have respiratory failure Posted 5 months ago in Medical Malpractice
A: Mark's answer: Most of the time the statute of limitations clock starts running the first time you have enough notice of your potential claim. Thus, you will need to get as exact as possible as to when the nurse read your chart, and when you formulated in your mind a possible claim for negligence, or malpractice. Each State can be different in terms of Statute of Limitations. Since more facts are needed from your question, you should consult with a qualified personal injury attorney in your State. I recommend you do this as soon as possible.
Welcome to the blog of attorney Mark Blane. Attorney Mark C. Blane founded his law firm in 2005 after a series of successful wins in Mass-Tort Litigation representing injured consumers, but has practiced law in California since 1999. Today, his law firm has quickly grown to include his law school friend and fellow plaintiff litigator, Attorney Chad J. Maguire, as an “Of Counsel” Attorney Member, and two hard working paralegals with over 33 years legal experience combined. His practice area is primarily in personal injury, and some of his early successes have been featured in National Publications and Legal Journals including the San Diego Business Journal, National Jurist Magazine, the ABA Journal, and the Shreveport Times, to name but a few. He is admitted to the California, Texas, and Minnesota State Bars, and various Federal Bars throughout the United States.
I handle all types of personal injury matters in San Diego, California. Please check out the following the informative video that can help explain the different areas of personal injury that my law office handles:
More Legal Questions About San Diego California Injury Accident Cases?
Do you have more legal questions about San Diego California Injuries & Accident Cases? Return to our Frequently Asked Legal Questions page.
The Law Offices of Mark C. Blane, APC
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San Diego, CA 92101
Toll Free: (888) 845-6269
Direct: (619) 813-7955 The San Diego California Injury Accident Law Firm that offers FREE Legal Help Books to anyone BEFORE they speak to a Lawyer, Claims Adjuster, or have to sign any Legal Forms; also we represent clients across Southern California including the following areas:
Auto, Motorcycle & Truck Accidents In California
Interstate Commercial Truck Accidents
Uninsured (UM) Motorist Claims
Rental Car Accidents
Taxi Cab Auto Accidents
Red Light Violation Car Accidents
Trolley Vehicle Accidents
Hit-and-Run Auto Accidents
Tour Bus Accidents
Drunk Driving (DUI) Car Accidents
Motorcycle Accidents & Injuries
Rear-End Vehicle Accidents
Side-Swipe (Hit) Vehicle Accidents
ATV Recreational Vehicle Accidents
California Child Injuries & Accidents
Child Daycare Abuse & Neglect Injuries
School Bus Accidents
Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) Injuries
Child Wrongful Death
Slip & Fall Accidents in California
Defective Staircase Injuries
Government Property Slip & Falls
Pedestrian & Bicycle Accidents in California
Pedicab Bicycle Accidents
California Brain & Spinal Cord Injuries
Traumatic Diffuse Brain Axonal InjuriesRaw Foods & Healing the Body
Ligament & Loss Motion Vertebrae Injuries
AMA Medical Impairment Injuries
Hard & Soft Tissue Muscle Injuries (Whiplash)
California Dog Bite Injuries
Pit Bull Dog Bite Injuries
Negligent Landlord Dog Bite Injuries
California Boating & Maritime Accidents
Longshore & Harbor Act - Shipyard Injuries
CA Health Insurance Subrogation Liens
Medi-Cal Coverage Injury Claims
California "Med Pay" Injury Claims
Medicare Coverage Injury Claims
California Workers' Compensation
California Wrongful Death
Construction Site Accidents in California
Abogado de Accidentes en San Diego
Accidentes de Peatones
Derechos de los Motociclistas
More Legal Questions About San Diego California Injury Accident Cases?
The San Diego California Injury Accident Law Firm that offers FREE Legal Help Books to anyone BEFORE they speak to a Lawyer, Claims Adjuster, or have to sign any Legal Forms; also we represent clients across Southern California including the following areas: 
