San Diego Injury Accident Attorney Blog Spot
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.
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ERISA Subrogation Rights on a California Personal Injury Settlement San Diego ERISA Plan Law Firm: On May 15, 2006, the United States Supreme Court decided the Sereboff v. Mid Atlantic Services, Inc., 126 S. Ct. 1869, 164 L. Ed.2d 612, authorizing ERISA plans to enforce reimbursement provisions against plan members for health care expenses recovered in personal injury cases. The court there held that actions for reimbursement proceeding under a constructive trust or equitable lien theory constituted "appropriate equitable relief" available under 29 U.S.C. Section 1132(a)(3). The court rejected the Sereboffs' claim that the make whole rule should apply to the plan's claim, which was essentially for equitable subrogation, as follows: -
ERISA Subrogation | California Cases & Private Insurance | San Diego Injury Cases Call San Diego Health Lien Subrogation Attorney Mark C. Blane at (619) 813-7955 to find out how you can Maximize your Personal Injury Settlement Today! -
Origin of the Make Whole Doctrine | For San Diego Personal Injury Cases The make whole rule developed as an equitable defense to health insurance subrogation claims. Therefore, it is important for you to understand in your San Diego personal injury case. Under the rule, an insurance carrier seeking subrogation was denied any recovery until and unless the insured was made whole. This raised the issue of how one determines when an insured is made whole in order to apply the rule! -
Permanent Disability under San Diego Workers Compensation Laws | Injuries The term Permanent Disability simply means an injured California worker has any lasting disability to a particular body part or parts that results in a reduced earning capacity or ability to work in the specific field that was part of the job in which the injured worker was injured. If your work related injury or illness results in permanent disability, then you are entitled to what the California Labor Code calls permanent disability (PD) benefits or PD benefits for short, even if you are able to go back to work after you recover from your work related injury. -
Medical Care and Your San Diego Workers' Compensation Case San Diego Work Comp Law Firm: In the California workers’ compensation system, as an injured worker, you have the right to receive medical treatment that is reasonably required to cure or relieve the effects of your work related injury or illness, at the expense of your employer (your employer pays the insurance premiums to have work comp insurance which is required by California law). This medical care or treatment includes all necessary medical examination, diagnostic, surgical, chiropractic, acupuncture, and other hospital treatment along with any necessary nursing care, medication, crutches, orthotic and prosthetic devices, and other medical services that is directly related to the work related illness or injury. -
Specific On the Job Injuries Compared with Cumulative Injuries | San Diego Under the California Labor Code, there are two types of injuries that a California worker can suffer on-the-job or during their course and scope of employment. The first type is there is a “specific" on-the-job injury. This is the most common type of work comp injury when people think of a work comp injury. For example, if you lift something heavy and injure your back, or if you are assaulted during work, or if you are involved in a car accident while making a work related delivery, then these are all considered a “specific” on-the-job injury that result directly from a specific incident that can be identified. There is no question of the causation of the injury. The second type is called a “cumulative” or “repetitive” on-th-job injury. -
Avvo.com Legal Answers by Mark Blane to Real Injury Questions Legal answers to real people questions about injury law in California by San Diego Injury Attorney Mark C. Blane. -
Attorney Mark C. Blane's Yelp Reviews Attorney Mark C. Blane's Yelp Reviews. -
Avvo Legal Guides by San Diego Injury Attorney Mark C. Blane San Diego Injury Attorney syndicates his Avvo.com legal guides. -
Comparative Fault in a California Slip and Fall Case | San Diego Injury Lawyer California is a comparative fault state. This fancy word means that the citizens of California are held legally responsible in court only for their share, or their portion, of an injury to another. More specifically, a property owner may not be 100% at fault for a slip and fall; they can be apportioned a degree of fault, if facts exist to support it; for example instead of 100% fault, they can be say 75% at fault, and the injured party 25% at fault. Thus, if the value of an injury from a slip and fall were $100,000.00 then that value is deducted by 25% or $25,000.00, and the value award to the injured party would be $75,000.00. -
Representative Gabrielle Gifford Speaks for the First Time | Brain Injury Recovery It is certainly good news to hear about Representative Gabrielle Gifford, the Democratic representative from Tucson, Arizona who was shot in the head on January 8, 2011 at a political rally. She is slowly regaining her ability to speak and recently asked for a "piece of toast." Right now, no medical doctor is sure if she will ever regain her speech back 100%; including all cognitive functions. -
Head Injuries & Mandatory State Motorcycle Helmet Laws | San Diego Injury Attorney Here is an interesting statistic; did you know serious brain injury or trauma resulting in long-term, not short-term, disability is more common among motorcyclists injured in states without universal helmet laws? This finding comes from a recent research study. The research study went on to say that it found motorcyclists living in states without helmet laws were more likely to die in the hospital emergency room from their injuries due to a traumatic accident too! -
What is a Traumatic Brain Injury | San Diego Brain or Head Injury Attorney San Diego Brain Injury Lawyer: A Brain Injury Accident is a potentially life altering event and may result in long-term or short-term impairments (under the AMA Impairment Guidelines 5th Edition). Brain injuries have differing levels of severity and affect each victim differently because each person's body is different, and each accident is very different bio-mehanically speaking. A person who has suffered a brain injury or brain trauma from an accident may have to readjust many areas of their life, and, sadly, they may not be able to continue living the way they did before the injury. Some areas that may be affected as a result of brain injury may include the following areas: -
California Independent Medical Exams Exposed | San Diego Accident Lawyer As you will read below, IME’s are NOT “independent” in any sense of the word, and they are regularly used by insurance companies to improperly deny benefits to deserving people in their respective accident claims. The problem is at first blush it seems "fair" for an at-fault party to use an IME to understand the injured party's injuries; however, it is my opinion that they have been eroded to "pigeon hole" each injury claim as undeserving, and incentives are given to the IME doctor to be on a mission to look for anything, and I mean anything, that can make an injury case worth less no matter what (it is not about being independent or fair any more, and maybe it never was). -
Large Truck Accident Lawyers in San Diego, California | Injuries The severe consequences of a large truck or tractor-trailer accident can be devastating to those affected by its aftermaths. Many tractor-trailers are carrying loads of 60,000 pounds or more on our California interstate highways and city streets. Sleeping habits of these truckers can be partly to blame for some of the accidents that do happen on the freeways. If a commercial truck driver falls asleep, is inattentive, or if their brakes fail (due to improper maintenance), the resulting commercial truck accident can cause serious bodily injuries, including brain or head injuries and, unfortunately, many times, wrongful death (in most severe cases). The good news is our commercial tractor-trailer accident attorneys have extensive legal experience in large truck accidents that happen through-out San Diego county, and through-out the state of California. -
San Diego Lawyers for Pedestrian Accidents | Car Crash vs. Person Over a thousand pedestrian are killed or injured by motor vehicles every year in California. While it is true many pedestrian accident victims are able to return to their normal lives very quickly, these accidents can also cause very serious injuries and wrongful death, in some cases. Pedestrians and motorists have to follow the same rules of the road under California law. At our law firm, we take these injuries seriously because these injuries seriously affect our injured clients' lives. -
Congresswoman Gabby Giffords's Head Injury | Brain Accident Attorney San Diego Gunshots to the head are extremely serious. It has been true that California injury lawyers have long been familiar with the devastating impact of traumatic brain injury on their injured clients, however Americans are being given a sudden lesson on traumatic brain injury. This is due to the horrible massacre last week that left Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords seriously injured with a traumatic brain injury from a gunshot. -
Reasonableness in your California Slip or Trip and Fall Accident Injury Case The legal term "reasonableness" and your California premise liability case can often times be confusing to some injury clients. When you set about to show that a property owner is liable for the injuries you sustained in your California slip and fall accident, you will most likely have to show, at some point, the reasonableness of the property owner's actions that led to the injury in the first place. In order to help you with this situation, here are some questions that you should be able to answer before starting a case with a lawyer in California: -
How Long Will My San Diego Personal Injury Case Take To Settle? The simple answer is, no one really knows because there are generally three unknown factors at the beginning of a case that influence time: ? How long it will take for your body to heal from an accident; ? How long it will take for all treating doctors to complete their medical findings on you; and, ? How long it will take for your attorney to communicate the medical findings to the insurance company for its review.