How to Find the Right Personal Injury Attorney

How to Find the Right Personal Injury Attorney

A personal injury attorney can help to make your life easier. These professionals will be able to guide you skillfully through any legal processes so that you can get the compensation you need and deserve. When you are in physical or emotional pain, you need a lawyer who understands you and who specializes in cases like yours. Do your research and find lawyers like DJ Hernandez for your legal needs.

Find Out What Your Potential Lawyer Specializes In
You want to find an attorney that has worked on cases like yours before and that has had successful outcomes. Find out if your personal injury lawyer has experience in auto accident cases, construction accidents, dog bite cases, slip and fall accidents, or any other types of personal injury cases. The right attorney will be sure to provide you with the best legal guidance available.

Learn About Your Potential Compensation
Although no lawyer can guarantee any specific outcome, you can rely on a reputable attorney to let you know what type of compensation is available based on the facts around your case. A qualified attorney may review your case for free to let you know what your options are. The attorney will tell you about the compensation that you deserve and will be ready to fight for your rights. You can see if you qualify for compensation for medical bills, doctors, and rehabilitation costs. If you have missed work due to your accident, you can find out if you can recoup lost wages. You can also talk about trying to get compensated for any pain or suffering that you have had to go through because of your accident. A qualified professional will be sure to let you know what your rights are so that you can get everything that you are entitled to.

A professional attorney may try to settle out of court or may have to go to court to make sure that you are fairly compensated. Insurance companies are usually going to try to save money by offering you less than you deserve, but the right attorney will not let you get taken advantage of. Instead, a good law firm will do everything possible to make sure that you are well taken care of and satisfied with the compensation that you receive.

Federal government at fault for Lac-Megantic train wreck

July 19th 2013 - According to investigators a complete lax of safety protocols in recent years is at fault for the Lac-Megantic train wreck in Quebec. At which point investigators looked to see who is at fault for the lowering of safety standards.

Turns out it is the Federal Ministry of Transport, aka Transport Canada.

Canada’s Transportation Safety Board has recommended federal regulators urgently review railway safety procedures in the wake of the runaway train that killed 50 people in Lac-Mégantic, Que., earlier this month.

The TSB announced today that it has issued two urgent safety advisories rather than waiting for the results of its investigation, which is expected to take months.

Transport Canada should review its rules for securing equipment, including company-specific instructions, and ensure trains carrying dangerous goods aren’t left unattended on main railroad tracks, said the TSB.

Newly minted Transport Minister Lisa Raitt said she has directed Transport Canada to review the TSB recommendations on an “expedited basis.”

Lead investigator Don Ross said the braking force on the train hauling 72 cars of petroleum products wasn’t strong enough to hold it on the 1.2 per cent grade where it was left, unattended, by a single operator at the end of his shift. If proper safety procedures had been in place - procedures removed under the Harper government - the train would not have been left unattended.

As is the way with the Harper government all branches of government are being told to cut back on things considered "frivolous" and apparently public safety is frivolous and not worth burdening train operators with additional safety protocols and safety inspections.

Not having to conduct regularly scheduled safety inspections means Transport Canada saves over a million dollars per year in reduced staffing costs.

 Explain that to the 50 people killed by the Lac-Megantic runaway train.

How to Drive around Cyclists

It may seem like a no brainer to some people, but you would probably be amazed by the number of braindead drivers who don't know how to share the road with cyclists. (Especially since bicycles have been on the road longer than cars.)

Click on the infographic below to see a larger version.

Macho Man dies in car accident

ENTERTAINMENT - Randall Mario Poffo, aka Randy Savage, aka the Macho Man, the legendary professional wrestler known for his deep raspy voice, sunglasses and bandannas, has died in a car accident earlier yesterday (May 20th) when his car went across oncoming traffic and collided head-on with a tree in Florida. He was 58.

Police believe he may have suffered a heart attack or stroke, causing him to lose control of the car. Officials need to perform an autopsy to know for sure.

A woman in the vehicle, Barbara L. Poffo, 56, Randy Savage's current wife, suffered minor injuries. Both were wearing their seatbelts.

“Poffo will be greatly missed by WWE and his fans,” said a statement from the WWE. “Our sincerest condolences go out to his family and friends. We wish a speedy recovery to his wife Lynn."

At 6'2" and 237 pounds, Randy Savage was a charismatic wrestler known for his “Oooh Yeah!” catchphrase. He was a champion wrestler in Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation, and later Ted Turner's now-defunct World Championship Wrestling. He wore the championship belts many times during his career. He had retired from wrestling in 2004.

For much of his career, his manager/companion was Miss Elizabeth. Elizabeth Hulette was his real-life wife, but they later divorced, and Hulette died in 2003 at 42 in a prescription drug overdose. Many performers in the WWE die young, even those not wrestling.

To name a few...
Curt (Mr. Perfect) Hennig, died of a cocaine overdose in 2003 at 44.
Chris Benoit, killed his wife and son and then committed suicide in 2007, age 40.

Randy Savage was known for his flying elbow off the top rope move, often mimicked by amateur wrestlers everywhere. He was also known for his rivalries and friendships with Hulk Hogan, Ricky Steamboat and Ric Flair.

Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson calls Randy Savage as one of his childhood inspirations and heroes, while Mick (Cactus Jack) Foley says Savage was “one of my favourite performers.”

“He had so much life in his eyes & in his spirit, I just pray that he's happy and in a better place and we miss him,” Hulk Hogan writes.

Note: The WWF changed their name to WWE years ago after losing a lawsuit from the World Wildlife Foundation.

Before becoming a wrestler, Randy Savage was a minor league catcher in the 1970s for St. Louis and Cincinnati. His father, Angelo Poffo, was a longtime wrestler, and his brother, (Leaping) Lanny Poffo, was also a 1980s WWF favourite.

During and after his wrestling career Macho Man appeared in a number of TV shows and films, including Walker Texas Ranger, The Weird Al Show, Baywatch, and the 2002 film Spider-Man as the wrestler Bonesaw McGraw. He also did voice acting for a variety of animated shows including Family Guy and King of the Hill.

Haiti's cholera outbreak

HEALTH - UPDATE: Health officials say 105 more people have died since Saturday, bringing the total to 442 as of November 3rd.

Haiti is suffering under an outbreak of cholera, a deadly disease which as of last week had killed 253 and hospitalized 3,015. UPDATE: The number hospitalized is now over 5,000. There has been a 40% jump in new cases in the last 5 days.

Aid agencies around the world are fearing the worst, especially with heavy rains and tropical storms this time of year which are making it difficult to send medical aid and doctors. Torrential rainfall means drinking water is contaminated and the population is extremely vulnerable.

On Monday, the US Centers for Disease Control discovered that all the Haitian patients had the same strain of cholera, a strain from South Asia. Its believed foreigners from southern Asia accidentally brought the disease to Haiti following the recent earthquake and it spread rapidly.

Haiti has not seen a cholera outbreak for approx. 50 years and most Haitians don't know what to do to prevent the disease. Poor sanitary conditions due to Earthquake is the biggest cause since the bacteria is transmitted through contaminated water or food.

Not everyone has been hospitalized. The total number of cases stands at 6,742 (November 3rd).

Cholera causes diarrhoea, vomiting, severe dehydration, and kills within 24 hours if left untreated.

Treatment involves rehydration and antibiotics, which is why medical aid is so important.

The January 12th 2010 Haiti Earthquake killed 230,000 people and devastated Haiti's capitol Port-au-Prince.

Ferrari recalls Supercars

CARS - Ferrari is recalling 1,248 of its '458 Italia' supercars after fires breaking out in five of the $230,675 USD 560-horsepower supercars in several countries (California, Switzerland, China and France).

The Italian supercar maker says it was using an adhesive glue that can melt or ignite when exposed to overheating, which can lead to the car spontaneously catching fire and/or exploding (see video below). The glue needs to be replaced with mechanical fasteners and the company is asking the owners of 1,248 supercars to bring them in for the replacement, says Ferrari spokesman Stefano Lai.



In other car news...
Auto Sales Stagnating

If you've been watching the slow down and stagnation in the real estate industry you are probably not surprised the automotive industry is doing the same thing. Despite heavy incentives for Canadians to buy, sales of new cars/trucks are only up 0.5% in August compared to August 2009.

Sales for the first 8 months of 2010 are still up 7.5%, but economic stimulus seems to be running out. Ford, Chrysler, General Motors and Hyundai have posted moderate gains, but Toyota, Nissan and Mazda report sharp drops in sales.

In the American market sales dropped a whopping 21% during August, but is still up 8% so far for 2010 compared to the same time period during 2009 (when the USA was in the Great Recession).

Proof Americans shouldn't build Rally Cars

CARS - If you think only Europeans and Asians know how to build a proper rally car, you'd be correct in your assessment. Americans have a tendency to think size and speed before handling and anyone at all familiar with the sport of rally racing will tell you that the bigger you are, the more likely you are to roll and crash.

But try telling that to Americans.

The off-road rally truck shown here slammed into a crowd of Americans, causing bodies to fly everywhere during a rally race in California yesterday (Saturday) night. The crash killed 8 people and injured 12 others.

Now it is true that people do often come out to rally races in the hopes of seeing a crash. Perhaps the Americans organizing the race WANTED to have crashes so that spectators would get what they wanted to see. (The Tour de France has been doing the same thing in recent years, deliberately picking difficult routes so the cyclists will crash and have their careers/lives permanently ruined just for the sake of free press coverage and TV ratings.) Setting these dangerous precedents for the sake of entertainment is rather ridiculous.

And certainly the people showing up to watch the race and possibly see a crash didn't expect to be in the crash and get killed themselves.

So regardless of whether these crashes are deliberate or Americans simply don't know diddly squat about building rally vehicles, 8 people are now dead.

The crash happened early in the race, the California 200, in the Mojave Desert around 8 PM. Due to the remote location it took rescue helicopters and other vehicles over 30 minutes just to reach the crash site. 6 people died on the scene before medics could arrive and another 2 more died in the hospital.

SUVs and trucks may be designed to go off-road, but they're not designed for racing conditions. They can't go around corners properly.

In the case the Prerunner truck had just gone over a jump called "the Rockpile" in the first 2 miles of the race. The truck hit the ground and moments later when the driver tried to turn sharply he rolled the truck right into the crowd of spectators.

When the truck finally stopped moving several people were trapped under the truck. Others were lying in pools of their own blood. People were screaming and some people weren't moving at all. One woman was lying in a pool of blood with a major head wound. Someone else was crushed under the truck.

Spectators managed to push the truck onto its side, freeing the people who were trapped underneath it.

The driver was uninjured and fled the scene, fearing angry spectators who began throwing rocks at him.

There was no guard rails protecting the spectators who were standing a mere 10 feet from the edge of the track. Over 15,000 people were attending the race which includes several jumps, obstacles and the vehicles involved reach 100+ mph speeds.

The crash is just one of many such crashes that happen on a yearly basis in the USA, a culture which is obsessed with speed, size and watching things blow up. Monster trucks, illegal drag races, etc.

A dragster lost control and killed 6 spectators and injured 22 more in Selmer, Tennessee in June 2007. The driver was convicted of "reckless assault".

An illegal drag race on a suburban street in Accokeek, Maryland killed 8 people and injured 5 more in February 2008. The two drivers were convicted of manslaughter.

At Chandler's Firebird International Raceway in Arizona a female spectator was killed by a tire from a crashing dragster in February 2010.

But really these crashes could have been prevented if Americans weren't so obsessed with trying to build big fast machines that can't possibly be driven around a corner or controlled. They're crashes waiting to happen.

Toyota fine, no evidence of flaws

CARS - Something fishy is going on in the automotive industry, and it all began when people started complaining about stuck accelerator pedals on Toyota vehicles. However an U.S. government investigation into the complaints and the machinery/electronics shows there was nothing wrong with the vehicles that crashed.

According to examination only 1 out of 58 crashes in which flawed electronics/accelerators were blamed was actually accurate, in which the pedal became stuck under a floor mat. Otherwise the pedal never became stuck on its own and was never slow to spring back. The investigation was helped by data recording devices which was installed in 2007 and newer models.

And then there is that incident of the man on a California freeway who later admitted he had faked it.

So if only 1 of the incidents was real, does that mean the other 57 drivers were faking it? It all seems awfully suspicious.

Toyota recalled almost 9 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles worldwide to fix problems involving floor mats and sticky pedals... and furthermore checked for malfunctions in the cars' electronic throttle control system due to complaints of sudden acceleration.

The government investigation is still ongoing, but the raw findings thus far show Toyota was not at fault. The one incident where a pedal got stuck under a floor mat was the fault of the driver having moved the floor mat forward too close to the pedal, and thus is hardly Toyota's fault either because that could happen in any car.

Another possibility, supported by psychologists, is human error. Some people just accidentally pressed the gas pedal when they meant to step on the brakes.

Toyota's private investigation has found nothing wrong with every car they've tested. The government investigation is likewise supportive.

Thre is over 3,000 complaints of sudden acceleration for Toyota vehicles, and 93 related deaths, but the cause of the complaints has yet to be found. Investigators are starting to wonder if drivers were just faking it in a case of mass hysteria and the 93 deaths was just normal car accidents due to human error.

In other car news...

General Motors IPO

General Motors is planning to go public once more and the U.S. and Canadian governments are poised to sell off their shares in the company, making back the money which both governments had paid for the company during its recession credit crunch when banks were refusing to lend money for car loans.

GM recently posted a $1.33 billion USD second quarter profit. Auto sales in the USA have nearly recovered to 2008 levels and are continuing to show signs of growth. Chrysler and GM both received buyouts, but are well on their way to standing on their own feet. The IPO, which will likely happen in 2011, will allow the governments to get their money back and eventually the companies will be standing on their own two feet again.

Entrepreneurs cleaning up BP Oil Spill

ENVIRONMENT - With the cost of crude oil at $74 per barrel entrepreneurs in the Gulf of Mexico have clued in to an opportunity. Collect the oil and sell it.

1 oil barrel is 159 litres and since the BP Oil Spill started over 800,000 litres were spilling into the Gulf of Mexico every day. Most of it has stayed in a giant oil slick that is now roughly the size of the state of Vermont.

That initial estimate of 800,000 litres per day is now being touted as wrong. BP announced today its been semi-successful in managing to halt some of the flow from the burst oil well, claiming it is now collecting 15,000 barrels of oil a day and hopes to boost that to 28,000 barrels a day in the next several days.

The admission that the spill was bigger than they originally claimed has the US government now looking to correct its estimates on the size of the spill. The new estimate is 100,000 barrels per day (16 million litres).

The burst well has been gushing oil since April 20th, a total of 50 days thus far... 5 million barrels worth approx. $370 million on the open market. BP cannot possibly hope to recoup their financial losses through the collection of this oil.

But that is not stopping cash starved people in Louisiana from recognizing an opportunity to make money and clean up the environment in the process.

In related news BP has purchased a number of Google ads in an effort to save its reputation and appear more transparent to the general public.

BP Oil Spill to gusher until August

ENVIRONMENT - BP's out-of-control Gulf of Mexico oil spill is costing America billions of dollars per day in clean up costs and lost revenue... and due to the failure of the recent "Top Kill" method of trying to plug the leak its now estimated the leak will continue to gusher until August.

The BP Oil Spill is now the worst environmental disaster in American history, harming fish stocks in the Gulf and is now spreading to the Atlantic seaboard.

United States government and BP officials are warning that the blown-out deepwater well may not be shut off until August as the company begins preparations on a new but uncertain attempt to contain the leaking crude.

The new plan involves sheering off a section of pipe and attempting to put a stopper over it so the oil can gush to tankers waiting on the surface.

BP is still refusing to bring in supertankers which are equipped to suck in oil/water and separate the two. Instead the supertankers are being used to ship oil from other oil rigs so the company can maintain a profit.

Boycotting State Farm / Driver kills dog but not held responsible

CANADA - The Flemming family of Aurora, Ontario lost their dog Jake two months ago when it was struck and killed by a woman driver in a hit-and-run. According to witnesses she hit the golden Labrador Retriever and kept on driving.

A Good Samaritan man went to the dog as he lay dying on the road and then went to inform Flemming that their dog had been hit. Jake died in Kim Flemming's arms.

Approx. two months later, on May 17th, Flemming received a bill for $1,732.80 from State Farm Insurance claiming that she is 100% responsible for the damages to the car because the dog wasn't on a leash.

Okay, so what about the emotional suffering of the dog owner? If anything the driver should be paying her money, not the other way around.

Also given that it was a hit and run and the driver didn't even have the common decency to stop and instead fled the scene of the crime I am highly suspicious of who was really at fault.

If I (or anyone else) gets hit by a car in a hit-and-run I really don't think its reasonable for the insurance company to be blaming the person who was struck by the car when the driver didn't even stick around.

The Flemming family should not be held responsible for such an accident. Especially if it truly was an accident and not the result of flagrant speeding / lack of attention on the part of the driver.

Using Google street view we can see the approx. location of where the dog was killed. Its a straight strip of road with no curves or major hills with very little traffic. Quite safe for a dog, just so long as drivers are paying attention.

Here's what may have happened... just a guess. The driver was on her cell phone, not paying attention, swerved a little on the road and then hit the dog. She kept driving because she didn't want the police to know she had been talking on her cellphone and driving at the same time. She reported the damage to the insurance company and let them sort it out.

The Flemming family has informed State Farm they do not plan to pay the bill, and are considering their options.

“I think going to this level is insulting,” says daughter Katherine Flemming, her voice breaking. “We’ve lost a member of our family but we’re supposed to pay for the damage to her bumper? That’s just wrong.”

While I do agree dogs should be leashed in towns because of the number of cars going by, in the countryside it is far more a tradition to let farm dogs roam so they can scare away predators. Its common sense that farm pets ROAM. Cats catch mice, dogs protect their owners and the cattle/chickens by scaring off predators like foxes, coyotes and raccoons. Its a necessity of farming.

As such I'd argue they aren't just pets. They're dual-purpose as farm animals.

Remember Lassie? Where would Timmy be if Lassie couldn't roam? How could Lassie find Timmy trapped down a well and then fetch help? If some inept person can't drive a car well enough to avoid a dog then they don't deserve a driver's license. Looking at that plain strip of road the only excuse for hitting a dog is lack of attention to the road.

The driver should be paying damages for killing the dog and not sticking around at the scene of the crime.

And as for State Farm? I recommend they learn some manners and common sense. Companies with a lack of common sense (ie. British Petroleum, Halliburton, Enron, etc.) don't deserve to be in business and should be boycotted.

Gulf oil spill just a taste of things to come

ENVIRONMENT - There is a saying I heard years ago:

"You don't shit in your drinking water."

The concept is simple. You don't pollute or ruin something that you need. So for example when your economy is based off the fish that you catch, you don't go poisoning your supply of fish by releasing billions of gallons of oil into the fish's habitat.

Right now 800,000 litres of oil /day continues to spill into the Gulf of Mexico due to the bungled clean up process following the British Petroleum / Halliburton oil rig explosion on April 20th.

BP hired a bunch of inept idiots from Halliburton (Dick Cheney's old company) to properly seal a well deep under water. So deep that when the oil rig exploded its now very difficult to plug.

Worse, BP, instead of just plugging the hole is trying salvage it because they want the oil well. They could have easily filled the hole with cement or blown up the broken underwater pipe with explosives, but instead they're letting 800,000 litres of oil to spill into the water every day while they try to come up with a way to cap the oil and keep it flowing.

Five weeks later they're still scratching their heads and trying to think of a way to cap it.

Stupid. Utterly stupid.

Meanwhile the oil spill is killing the Gulf of Mexico fishing industry and the oil spill has spread to the Florida Keys and eventually will get sucked into the Gulf Stream, which means the eastern seaboard will also be effected. So far 21 million litres of crude oil has been released. The oil spill is now bigger than West Virginia.

To put that in perspective the Earth has 361 million square km of ocean (surface space). If that oil continues to flow into the Gulf Coast for another year we will be looking at a global catastrophe. It only takes a small amount of oil to poison local fish stocks. It gets into their system and messes with their reproductive abilities so only females are born and the few males that are born are less fertile or infertile.

What is also mindboggling is why the oil industry never bothered to equip oil tankers with a vacuum filtration system which could be used to suck in surface water/oil, filter it and then keep the crude oil safely in the belly of the oil tanker. Perfectly common sense that there are going to be spills, it makes logical sense to equip oil tankers with a fast way to clean it up. The technology is no different from that used to clean a public pool, only on a larger scale.

Gee, why don't we all shoot ourselves in the foot while we're at it.

Dutch boy only survivor in Libyan air crash

HEALTH - 96 bodies have been recovered from the wreckage of a plane crash at an airport outside the Libyan capital of Tripoli. The only survivor of the crash is an 8-year-old Dutch boy. The majority of the plane's passengers were from the Netherlands.

The boy is now in a hospital in Tripoli where he has undergone surgery for multiple severe injuries. Libyan and Dutch authorities are trying to identify the boy.

The plane's company, Afriqiyah Airways, is known for its cheapness and poor safety measures. Tripoli was a refuelling stop for a flight from Johannesburg to Brussels.