Handling Accident

Most personal injury cases are filed in State Court. However, there are times when the at-fault party (aka ‘defendant”) may attempt to transfer (in legal terms “remove”) the case from State Court to Federal Court.  State court generally assumes that one or both parties to the action, are residents of the state in which they are being sued. However, if the at-fault/defendant is not a resident or does not do business in Nevada (if it is an insurance company), the defendant can seek to have the case transferred to Federal Court. When the defendant is not a Nevada resident or business, then the Federal removal is based upon “Diversity Jurisdiction”.  However, the case has to have a value of more than $75,000.00. This is generally called the “amount in controversy”. Relevant case law says that Diversity Jurisdiction exists only "where the matter in controversy exceeds the sum or value of $75,000, exclusive of interest and costs ... " (formerly $50,000). 28 USC§ 1332(a); See Arbau...

Today’s blog is very exciting as we will be discussing a hot off the presses case from the Nevada Supreme Court. This case was handed down just days ago on December 31, 2014. The case is Sadler v. Pacificare of Nevada. See 130 Nev. Advance Opinion 98. In Sadler, the Nevada Supreme Court held that physical injury is NOT required to assert a negligence personal injury claim in Nevada. The case revolved around the highly publicized case of a healthcare facility, reusing needles, resulting in an outbreak of hepatitis C. Each person who was exposed to the dirty needles was advised to undergo testing for hepatitis and HIV. The question before the court, was whether the need for medical testing/monitoring, was enough to assert a personal injury (negligence) claim in Nevada. So, what was the outcome: a physical injury is NOT required. The court looked at Nevada’s general negligence law, which has four elements: (1) the defendant owed the plaintiff a duty of care; (2) the defendant breached th...

In most personal injury cases, a client does not pay for their medical treatment out of pocket. Instead, client’s usually treat on what is called a “lien”. A lien is generally defined as a security interest in items of property, to secure the payment of a debt.  In the instance of a personal injury case, it means, the medical providers who provide medical care with no up front payment, can put a lien on your personal injury case. A the end of your injury case, your attorney must honor all liens. Your attorney will pay your medical liens from the proceeds of the case. Today’s blog discusses your lawyer’s obligations to satisfy medical liens in personal injury cases and explains those liens. There are two types of medical liens that we typically see in personal injury cases: statutory and contractual. All statutory liens can be found in chapter 108 of our Nevada Revised Statutes. A statutory lien is a lien that arises solely as a result of a statute. In personal injury cases, NRS 10...

The disclosure of damages in Nevada injury cases is mandated by our Nevada Rules of Civil Procedure. Specifically, Rule 16.1 (a)(1)(c) requires that once litigation is ongoing, your personal injury lawyer is required to disclose all of your damages. When does this happen? After an Answer to the Complaint (lawsuit) is filed, then your injury attorney and the other side, will personally meet for an Early Case Conference, to agree on discovery dates and discuss your case. At this Early Case Conference or within 14 days thereafter, your accident attorney will disclose your damages to the other side. There is a continuing obligation to update your computation of damages, so the other side has this information well before any trial date is set.   What do your “damages” consist of in your case? Your damages would be your past and future medical bills, lost wages and any loss you sustained as result of the accident. These are called your “special” damages. Your attorney will also ...