You must remember to stay calm. Though pedestrian accidents are stressful situations, panicking has never helped anyone through anything. Once you have collected your breath, follow these steps to make sure you do the best possible to stay within the law.

1.     Do not drive away

Even though you are scared, even though it was an accident, you need to pull over and make sure that the pedestrian you hit is okay. If you leave the scene of the accident, you put yourself in serious legal jeopardy. This is a crime known as hit and run and can cost you your license in the best of cases, and

Being a victim of an accident makes a person aware that life sometimes throws hard curveballs, rather than softballs.  Once securing compensation, a person’s mind logically turns to preserving the money.  Clients who have received personal injury awards which are also concerned with asset protection will often ask, “Can I use a personal injury award to create a trust?”

There are many different types of trusts, as a skilled estate planning lawyer can explain. Each is designed to address a particular concern. The right trust for you will depend on what issues you wish to address.

A Revocable Trust is perfect if your concern is needing assistance with your money, but you are not concerned about creditors or lawsuits.  For example, if you wanted your child to help you manage your investments and help pay bills, but don’t want to subject your assets to your child’s creditors or potential divorce issues, a Revocable

Negligent Slip and Fall Case at Your Apartment: Is this Grounds to Terminate a Lease?

Slip and fall accidents can happen anywhere, often including apartment buildings or the units themselves. In such instances, it’s important for landlords to understand the potential fallout. First off, negligence is almost always necessary for there to be any liability in a slip and fall case, but how do you determine if a landlord is negligent? For those who don’t already know, negligence is often defined as failing to take a reasonable amount of care. In the landlord and tenant context, this often means failing to fix a condition that the landlord knew or reasonably should have known was unsafe (i.e. – a broken stair, missing handrail, etc).

When the slip and fall is the result of a dangerous or defective condition in the apartment, negligence often comes to down to whether the landlord knew or should have known about it. Let’s use a slip and fall that occurs because of a leaky pipe as a hypothetical.

Obviously, if the tenant provided notice to the

Will a Personal Injury Settlement Be Considered a Marital Asset?

For most people, divorce is a difficult experience, emotionally and financially. In addition, dissolving a marriage can be more complicated when the couple has assets that are somewhat difficult to divide fairly. A personal injury settlement is a good example of this. Though personal injury settlements are not always considered marital property, there are some circumstances when they might be divided as a marital asset in a divorce.

The Argument Against Including Personal Injury Settlements as Marital Assets

There are several reasons why personal injury settlements are not generally considered marital assets. In most cases, they are awarded with a very specific purpose: to cover the expenses that come from an undeserved injury.

However, not all of a typical personal injury settlement is for injuries or pain. There

Medical professionals are required by law to uphold an appropriate standard of care as outlined by the laws in the state in which they practice medicine. While the vast majority of doctors accomplish this goal, some fail to do so and a patient is seriously injured as a result. The following is an overview of how an injured patient can seek compensation from the negligent doctor who hurt them. If you have suffered an injury in this manner, contact a personal injury attorney today to learn what options you have under the law.

When Can a Doctor Be Sued?

Doctors treat many patients each week and not every mistake they make qualifies as medical malpractice. In order to receive compensation for your injuries through a personal injury lawsuit, you must prove your doctor was careless or negligent and seriously hurt you as a result. While this may seem like an easy task, it can be difficult in cases where several doctors worked together or a diagnosis was unclear. For these reasons, it is

Slip and Fall Homeowners Insurance

When looking for free legal advice online, it’s important to remember the laws on premises liability vary by state — even though each will hold a property owner responsible for the safety of their premises — so seeking the help of  an attorney is still very important. When certain criteria are met, property owners can be held liable for slip and fall accidents involving a person who comes to their property.

Let us look at how liability for slip and fall accidents is determined, and the type of accidents that may be covered by homeowner’s insurance. In addition we will consider the measures you may wish to take if you are a victim of such an accident.

Generally, a homeowner is responsible for any person visiting their property. Therefore, they should ensure that all areas that people are likely to visit are kept safe. A homeowner is considered liable for a slip and fall accident if:

A living trust is used to avoid probate and guardianship, as a living trust attorney relies on can explain.  If children are the desired beneficiaries then provisions can be made to direct the assets to them upon your death.  Because these trusts are tightly integrated with your spouse, a divorce normally necessitates a change in your living trust and other estate planning documents.

When a person gets divorced, the beneficiaries of the living trust are not automatically changed to exclude the ex-spouse.  If you want your child to receive the inheritance instead of your ex-spouse, you must make an amendment to the living trust.  Otherwise, your ex-spouse is likely to receive the inheritance instead of your child.

The living trust normally appoints the ex-spouse as the successor trustee in the event of your death.  So while the trust may be amended to distribute the assets to the child, the ex-spouse may be the person controlling the child’s inherited money.  In some divorces, this may be the desire of the client, but

The purpose of child support payments is to ensure that children are provided for financially when the parents were not or are no longer married to one another. Generally, the non-custodial parent pays child support to the custodial parent. Child support in most states is calculated using a percentage of the income of the parent paying child support. When determining income, the issue of personal injury awards may arise as to whether those monies are included in the income of the parent ordered to pay child support. While there is a variety of laws in different states about personal injury awards and child support, a general rule is that personal injury awards are not income for purposes of child support. How the personal injury award is paid may affect whether a court includes that money in calculating available income or child support.

When a court determines that one parent must pay child support the court reviews the income of that parent and apply the