Arizona Personal Injury Laws

Personal Injury Case Process in Phoenix

A personal injury case can take anywhere from six months to two, or several years or more to resolve. Different factors can affect his time period. Most important is the medical treatment you receive for your injuries. Many people have to undergo physical therapy, chiropractic or other treatment following an injury. More serious injuries may begin with a period of conservative care and move to other types of treatment including surgery. Neither our firm or the insurance company can place a value on your injuries until you have finished your course of treatment. When your treatment has completed, we will obtain all necessary reports and forward them to the insurance carrier for the negligent party. Settlement negotiations then may begin. If the case cannot settle, a lawsuit may need to be filed. Most cases resolve without trial, although there may be cases that because of the nature of the accident, the case may proceed to trial.

If you would like to know how long your personal injury case might last, please contact my law firm.

By: Jess Lorona

Bicycle Accidents in Phoenix

I’m a bicycle enthusiast. I know how unsafe the roads are for bicyclers. You’re riding along, the car ahead of you is stopped, looks off one direction, doesn’t look back your way. You got trouble. You’ve now just been run over. Happens all the time. I represented a lady not to long ago with an accident just like that. I got her more than a million dollars. Now she was deserving of every penny, because her injuries were significant and severe.

Insurance Companies

A lot of times insurance companies want to blame you because you’re on the bicycle. Well you know what, a lot of times they’re wrong, and they may just be saying that because they’re hoping you go away.

Wattel & York

Well, you give us a call, and let us evaluate the liability on that claim, and who’s really responsible. Often times, it’s not you, the bicyclist. We’ll help you get your medical care and thereafter, we’ll make sure that insurance company pays you what you’re due. Either voluntarily, or if necessary, to litigate.

By: David Wattel

Friedl Richardson is concerned about community safety. We have to live in this community and we want it to be safer for us, for our families, and for our community. What we’re trying to do is make the community safer. Whether a person harms another person intentionally or chooses to break the rules that govern every member of society, whether it’s traffic laws, whether it’s bicycle laws, whether it’s homeowner’s laws, by enforcing those rules, we make the community safer for everyone.

By: Thomas M. Richardson

Cyclist Personal Injury Litigation

One of the great things about being from Arizona of course, is our weather. And the weather invites people from all over the country to come in on their bicycles, and share our highways and our roads. And one of the things that Friedl Richardson is concerned about, is educating the public as to the rights of those bicyclists.

Three Foot Law

One of the laws that are so important in Arizona governing bicyclists, is the three foot law. When you have an absence of bike lanes, and you have bicycles sharing the highway with motorist, it’s important for the motorists to realize, that he has to allow three feet from the bicyclists. And the bicyclists have rights available to them through Arizona laws, through municipality laws.

That really protects them on the streets, with or without a bike lane. One of the things that we see so often on the Phoenix streets, and in Maricopa County, are bicycle collisions. That’s a vehicle to bicycle collision. And generally these collisions happen, because the vehicle is inattentive. In most situations throughout our state, the bicycle has the right of way in any type of vehicle bicycle encounter. Whatever it takes to make these highways safer, that’s our goal.

By: Thomas M. Richardson

Hi, my name is Nathan Meyer. I’m a partner at Jaburg Wilk. My practice areas include insurance coverage, insurance bad faith, insurance UM and UIM litigation, as well as commercial litigation, professional liability litigation, and general liability litigation. There’s actually been some very favorable rulings for insurance companies regarding punitive damages. It started with a United States Supreme Court case in 2003 in Campbell. There is also recently been some Court of Appeals cases that has significantly reduced punitive damages award amounts to much more reasonable amounts in Arizona.

Reducing Punitive Damage Awards

In the United States Supreme court case “Campbell”, the court actually reduced a $145 million punitive damages award all the way down to a million dollars, or at least they said – they told the Utah Supreme Court, “We’re sending this back to you, and you need to reduce this award to something around a million dollars.”

In a recent Arizona Court of Appeals case, there was a $54 million punitive damages award. And the Court of Appeals initially reduced that from $54 million down to $620,000. Then the Arizona Supreme Court actually reduced it from $620,000 all the way down to $155,000. So it’s a substantial reduction.

Also you have another recent case called “Orellana the Prime Life Insurance Company”, and they reduced a punitive damage award from about $1.3 million all the way down to $320,000. So courts are really reducing some of these egregious punitive damages awards amounts down to something much more reasonable.

3 Factors Courts Consider When Reducing Punitive Damage Awards

In “Campbell V. State Farm”, that 2003 United States Supreme Court case, the court established three guide post a court should look at when they’re reviewing these large punitive damages awards.

One is reprehensibility, the degree of reprehensibility of the defendant’s conduct. Two is the disparity, and that’s where you get the ratio of the punitive damages to the compensatory damages. And the third is comparability to civil authorized fines, and those are usually fines authorized by statutes.

For example, in Arizona there is a maximum $50,000 fine per six month period when you violate the unfair claim settlement practices act. So those are the three things that courts look at when considering whether to reduce punitive damages.

By: Nathan D. Meyer

My name is Mack Jones and I’m a personal injury attorney at Jones Raczkowski PC, here in Phoenix, Arizona. Premises liability case is a case where a person is injured on the property of another, typically through a dangerous condition or dangerous instrumentality on the premises. So it is not a car accident and it’s not a medical malpractice case. It’s an injury that occurs when you fall on somebody else’s property typically.

Typically, broken sidewalk, a spill in the grocery store, falling merchandise – those are premises liability cases. In most of those types of cases, the defendant, the property owner, is going to assert that the injury is at least partially, if not completely, your fault. That’s why you need somebody who’s prepared to take the matter into litigation, and to court, because it will not resolve with a demand letter. It will have to go and be litigated.

If you have a serious personal injury, particularly if you were injured on premises, please contact my firm at (602) 840-8787, Jones Raczkowski PC.

By: Mack Jones

Attorney Thomas M. Richardson

I’ve been practicing law here in the Phoenix area and in Greater Arizona area for the last 15 years. I do mainly trial work and a lot of the cases that I have – are able to settle before they go to trial.

A personal injury attorney is a moniker, really, attached to trial lawyers. What I always wanted to do is trial law. I do a lot of jury psychology studies, a lot of jury strategy studies, in an effort to be a good trial lawyer. So when I am a personal injury attorney, it’s actually being a trial lawyer.

By: Thomas Richardson

My name is Mack Jones. I’m an attorney at the personal injury law firm of Jones Raczkowski, here in Phoenix, Arizona. How is compensation determined for a significant personal injury? It’s determined in two ways. First, the percentage of fault that the defendant bears is determined. Secondly, one’s damages. There are two components to damages – at least, that’s how lawyers look at it. First component is what we call special damages. Those are your out-of-pocket expenses, lost wages, and your medical bills. Those can be arithmetically calculated. But if somebody came up to a person and said, “I will pay your lost wages, and I’ll pay your medical bills, and we’re square,” most people would say, “That’s not fair.” The other component of personal injury damages are general damages. It’s what laypeople call, “pain and suffering.” But it’s not just physical pain and suffering.

It is permanency. If you have permanency, how an injury affects you in terms of your work, your hobbies, your life, any scarring, any physical disfigurement. Those are the types of things that different people have different attitudes and different values on. That’s why, when somebody comes to you and says, “How much is my case worth?” it’s very difficult to determine unless you’re experienced and you’ve done those types of cases in the past. If you’ve had a serious personal injury, please contact me at Jones Raczkowski, (602) 840-8787.

By: Mack Jones

In a wreck? Need a check?  In a wreck? Need a check?  In a wreck?  In a wreck?  Need a check?  Hurt in a wreck and need a check? I’m attorney Kevin Rowe. Make one call. That’s all. Lerner & Rowe is the way to call. Call 977-1900.

By: Kevin Rowe