Good weather has lengthened the snowy season for California skiers and snowboarders from the Bay Area who are looking to take a vacation to Lake Tahoe and other resorts during the Fourth of July area. But if you’re under the threat of litigation, you’ll want to be extra careful how you record memories from your break.

Record snowfalls are causing Squaw Valley, Sugar Bowl and Alpine Meadows to keep their lifts running through the Fourth of July break, notes USA Today, as well as Mammoth Mountain. As temperatures continue to rise in the Bay Area, it might be a great option for families looking to cool down as the summer temperatures hit their peak.

Unfortunately, those who have been hurt or injured recently need to be extremely cautious, as the Law Offices of Nelson Barry tell new clients. If you’ve been injured or hurt as a result of something that could become a legal claim, you need to know that investigators are now using social media profiles to check up on you.

For example, if you hurt your leg in a workplace accident, but are seen standing around at a ski lodge around Lake Tahoe, that could be used as evidence that your injury is not as extreme as you claim. Even if the pictures aren’t necessarily accurate, you need to be aware that they could affect your case.

Make sure that you can enjoy your California vacation this Fourth of July whether you’re considering seeing the last of the snow or making a day of it at the beach. Turn your social media profiles to private, open to just your friends and family. It’s a little step that could save you from major headaches later. Nelson C. Barry III is a top personal injury attorney in San Francisco with over 31 years of experience obtaining compensation for brain injury, head injury, wrongful death and other catastrophic injury victims. For a free initial consultation, do not hesitate to contact a San Francisco Personal Injury Lawyer at the firm or call toll-free at 800-587-2555.
Disclaimer: This blog and its contents are made available for informational and educational purposes only, and do not provide specific legal advice. This and any other article should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a licensed attorney in your state.

San Francisco is one of the few cities in California with a mandated employer sick leave policy, but for many in the Bay Area, sick days are still at a premium. That’s because the State Assembly recently killed a bill that would have mandated sick time for employees, which is a key driver of workplace illness and injury.

And as a University of California research team notes, those are the industries with the jobs most likely to lead to workplace accidents. In San Francisco, some time is available for those who need to recover. But if you have been hurt in a workplace incident, you may need more than the seven days mandated by the city, or not at all elsewhere in the Bay.

Nelson C. Barry III is a top personal injury attorney in San Francisco with over 31 years of experience obtaining compensation for brain injury, head injury, wrongful death and other catastrophic injury victims. For a free initial consultation, do not hesitate to contact a San Francisco Personal Injury Lawyer at the firm or call toll-free at 888-210-4517.

Workplace injuries are common in the San Francisco Bay Area, but both workers and visitors should be mindful that amusement parks may be less safe than people realize. After all, injury statistics aren’t listed as often as one would like.

In fact, the Orange County Register noted that some one hundred non-minor injuries were reported at the several amusement parks in Orange County each year. Those numbers include anything more than a minor cut or bruise, but similar reports are difficult to find for San Francisco, Alameda and Santa Clara County.

There are a number of summertime issues to account for when considering going on a vacation in the Bay Area with friends or families. Amusement park rides are just one example, as the news outlet notes:

Accidents often get ignored by people driving around, except maybe those who rubberneck. We commend the people who stop what they’re doing on the road, and pull over to provide aid to motorists in distress. But as one woman found out in the southern Bay Area, it’s not always easy to remain safe at the scene of a car accident.

Nelson C. Barry III is a top personal injury attorney in San Francisco with over 31 years of experience obtaining compensation for brain injury, head injury, wrongful death and other catastrophic injury victims. For a free initial consultation, do not hesitate to contact a San Francisco Personal Injury Lawyer.

Disclaimer: This blog and its contents are made available for informational and educational purposes only, and do not provide specific legal advice. This and any other article should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a licensed attorney in your state.

Get Insurance !!!

I was just exchanging stories with another personal injury attorney today. At first we were talking about how we did well for our clients in various cases and then, as almost always happens, we turned to the topic of clients who did not get treated very well. The most often told tragedy is the one where someone is totally in the right, and through absolutely no fault of their own, they get seriously injured, they receive expensive medical treatment (it is not uncommon these days for medical treatment to go over $100,000 and in some cases over $1,000,000) and miss a lot of work (sometimes many months or even years). On top of all that, in some of these tragic injury cases, the person is permanently damaged; has a amputated leg, or a brain injury that causes them to never be able to work again.

One such case happened here in San Francisco in January of 2011. A man in his mid 30′s was walking down the commercial area of Geary Street when a woman who was backing into a parallel parking place mistook the gas for the brake and her car jumped the curb and crushed the man against the building. His left leg had to be amputated and as of the writing of this letter, his doctor’s were unsure if they could save the other   leg. His medical bills in less than one month are at $600,000 and continuing such that they will exceed $1,000,000 very soon. His wife was a stay-at-home mother of three small children so for the next year they will be living off of the charity of friends and family and what ever government support they can obtain.

In another case, a woman was walking across Market Street in San Francisco in February of 2010. A car making a left turn did not see her and hit her causing her to fly up and come down on her head. She suffered a skull fracture and subdural hematoma. She was immediately rushed to surgery and three months later, her medical bills were $975,000. And her brain injury left her permanently disabled (she can not process information and to a stranger she appears “slow” minded) and will never return to her $100,000 a year job as a CPA.

In both cases, the driver’s who caused these injuries had insurance but not nearly enough. Both of the driver’s will most likely have to sell their houses to pay additional money to the people they injured. The injured people did not have uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage. In the case of the man who’s legs were crushed, he did not even have medical insurance so his bills will be absorbed by the county (so the tax payers of San Francisco will be paying for his treatment). The woman who suffered the brain injury has health insurance but her co-pay is over $50,000!

Both of these victims and the people who caused these accidents could have been spared at least the financial disaster that faces them by buying more insurance. In California the minimum that is required is $15,000 per person and $30,000 maximum. If the driver’s of these cars had had better coverage and had bought an inexpensive “umbrella” policy (say for one million dollars), they would have possibly been spared the anguish of having an injured person come after them for their personal assets. If the victims had purchased uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage and also bought umbrella policies, they might have had enough money at their disposal to make these horrible events less of a financial disaster which would have made dealing with their life altering injuries a bit less complicated.

So this is a reminder to not put off to tomorrow what you should be doing today. Call  your insurance agent and find out how much it would cost to increase your coverage for liability insurance and for underinsured and uninsured motorist coverage. Then explore how much it will cost to buy a one million dollar “umbrella” coverage for both of these. Usually these kinds of umbrella policies cost LESS THAN $200 per year! So for less than taking your family to the amusement park, you can buy them something much more valuable; peace of mind and security when you most need it. Do it today and you will be glad you did if you ever need to collect on it.

May God hold you in the palm of his hands and protect you and your families.

Nelson C. Barry III is a top personal injury attorney/lawyer with over 31 years of experience obtaining compensation for injury victims and their families from drunk drivers and their insurance companies. For a free initial consultation, do not hesitate to contact a  San Francisco Personal Injury Lawyer at the firm.

Here is a handy list that you should print out and keep in your glove box in case you are involved in an accident:

1. Get prompt medical attention.
2. Make a report to police or other authorities.
3. Get the name, address, telephone #, license # and insurance information from the responsible person.
4. Get names and contact information of witnesses.
5. Take photos of injuries, vehicles and locations where injury occurred.
6. Do not give a statement to the other sides’ insurance company.
7. Cooperate with your own insurance company.
8. Try not to miss work without a disability slip from a doctor.
9. Start a letter to an attorney that is essentially a pain diary. Describe the injuries you have suffered, and how they are affecting your life.
10. Call an experienced injury attorney. The initial consultation is usually free.

In California, there is a two year deadline from the date of the accident to file a lawsuit against the parties that caused your injury. If a governmental agency like a city or county is responsible for your injury, the deadline to file a claim is 180 days after the accident.

Contact a San Francisco Personal Injury Attorney at the firm today if you need help.

When little kids want to embarrass someone, they sometimes try the old trick of pulling down the other person’s pants. This usually causes the victim some degree of mortification. So wearing a good belt is one way to prevent this.

As an attorney with over 31 years of experience representing people who are injured in car accidents, slip/trip and fall cases, animal attacks (mainly dogs) and representing the family of someone who died, I deeply regret when I have to tell someone that the person who caused the injury or the death has no money or insurance so there is nothing I can do.

In the United States, we do not put people in jail when they don’t pay their debts like they used to do centuries ago in Europe. So if the person who injured you can’t pay, there is little that can be done to force them to do so. This is true even if you go all the way through to a trial and get a money judgment against the person. If they can not afford to pay it, there is no recourse. Attaching wages (garnishment) often costs more money than the victim collects.

People always hope that bad things like this won’t happen to them and for many, when it does, they are not prepared.

The answer is to GET INSURANCE! You can get insurance that will pay for many of the things that you would get from the responsible person if they did have the ability to pay you. And it is usually very affordable.

Automobile insurance coverage;

Automobile policies afford the most options (as compared to homeowners coverage or rental coverage or life or disability insurance). You can add medical payments coverage which is just like health insurance only better because there is not co-pay or deductible and it is much easier to get alternative forms of treatment such as chiropractic, acupuncture and massage therapy covered. You can also add uninsured motorist coverage which is very important because it essentially is like you buying insurance for the uninsured driver (or under insured driver) who hits you. This allow you to collect money for your medical bills, income loss and for your injuries too! Of course you can also buy coverage to cover the damage to your car (which is called “collision” coverage) which is a good idea especially if you are still paying for the car because if it gets totaled and you don’t have this insurance, you still have to pay the monthly payments on the car.

Disability Insurance;

If you want to protect yourself in the event of an injury that prevents you from being able to return to work, disability insurance is a good option. There are various forms of this coverage so it is best to get help from an experienced insurance agent. The main thing is to look at what the policy says qualifies you as “disabled” so that you know how seriously injured you have to be in order for them to pay you.

Life Insurance;

There are basically two forms of life insurance; whole life insurance and term insurance. Both pay out when you die so that your family can have money to get by on when you are gone. Whole life has some “investment” like qualities (so many people include their whole life policies in their retirement portfolio). Term life does not have this feature but the trade off is that it is VERY affordable. For as low as $30 a month, someone in their thirties or forties (who is healthy) can buy almost a million dollars in coverage (meaning when they die, who ever they pick gets this money)!

Homeowners Insurance and Renters Insurance

This insurance covers your house or condo or apartment if there is a fire or theft or some other kind of damage. It also provides you protection in the event some gets hurt where you live (such as if someone trips on your carpet and falls down the stairs and gets injured and then sues you, this insurance will protect you). It will also cover you for some accidents away from your home (such as you hurt someone by accident other than while driving your car) and it will also cover you if your dog hurts someone. It is also very affordable.

Nelson C. Barry III is a top San Francisco personal injury attorney with over 31 years of experience obtaining compensation for injury victims and their families from the responsible parties and their insurance companies. Initial meetings (even if it is only to discuss your insurance options) are always free of charge.

If you are injured on the job, you certainly have a worker’s compensation claim. Any worker (sometimes except for people in management positions) who is injured on the job qualifies for worker’s compensation benefits which usually include paying for your medical treatment as well as disability payments for as long as you are disabled.

Changes in the worker’s compensation law, especially after Arnold Schwarzenegger became Governor, resulted in worker’s compensation claimants getting less money and their attorneys getting less too. As a result, the injured worker may find that it is hard to find a personal injury attorney to take their case and they may also find that the amount of benefits they get are really small.

The other kind of claim a worker may have if he is injured on the job is called a “third party claim”. Basically this is when you are injured by someone who is not employed by the same employer as you are. For instance, a Fed Ex driver is driving his truck through an intersection and gets hit by someone (not another Fed Ex truck). The Fed Ex driver can make a worker’s compensation claim because he was injured while on the job and he can also make a “third party claim” against the person who hit him. The “third party claim” usually involves prying some money out of the insurance company for the person who was responsible for the accident.

Someone who has a “third party claim” usually hires a personal injury attorney to help them fight the insurance company for the person who caused the accident. If the attorney is good, he usually gets the other side’s insurance company to pay the injured person’s medical bills, money for loss of income, the damage to their vehicle, and extra for the victims injuries (often called pain and suffering compensation).

Nelson C. Barry III is a top personal injury lawyer with over 31 years of experience obtaining compensation for injury victims and their families from the responsible parties and their insurance companies. Contact us today!

Everyone wonders if when they write the check to pay for their automobile insurance if it they are ever going to need it. Most of us believe we will never be involved in a car accident. Obviously it does happen and when it does, it is a total surprise.

So the answer to the question “What do after I get hit?” is something that should be thought about before the accident happens. Here are some ideas from the viewpoint of an experienced personal injury attorney:

First, make sure everyone is ok and take care of anyone who needs medical attention.

Second, make sure you are not in a dangerous place. If you are, move to safe ground.

Third, get a police report if possible.

Fourth, exchange information with the other side (names, addresses, driver’s license numbers, car license number, the name of insurance companies and policy numbers).

Fifth get names and addresses of all witnesses.

Sixth, take pictures of the accident scene, damage to vehicles, of the area (intersection, street) where the accident happened. Also take photos of injuries (cuts, bleeding, bruises, etc.)

Seventh, get prompt medical attention to document your injuries.

Eighth, do not miss work, if possible, without getting a disability slip from a doctor.

Ninth, consult an experienced personal injury attorney (which is always free) to find out the best way to proceed.

Going back to the first and second items, the most important thing to do at first is to take care of each other. After that there will be time to get the necessary information.

Getting a police report is helpful especially since the police are trained to get statements and contact information for all the parties and their insurance companies. The police report almost always determines who is at fault for the accident. This is very helpful later when the injured people is trying to collect money from the person who caused the accident.

Often, the insurance company for the person who caused the accident will try to say that the accident was not their fault. They will also try to say that the person who got injured only had minor injuries. For this reason, it is necessary to get the names of witness and to take photos of the cars and the accident area. Your attorney will later use these to block the other side’s insurance company from trying to wiggle off the hook. Photos of your injuries will also make it hard for the other side’s insurance company to try to get out of the case cheaply.

Getting all the medical attention you reasonable need is important. The insurance company for the person who caused the accident will almost always try to say that your injuries are minor. But if there are lots of medical records from doctors, physical therapists, chiropractors, acupuncturists and such that confirm that you have been in pain and have been having physical problems, eventually the other side will pay what is fair.

The insurance company for the other side will also try to say that they should not have to repay you for time that you missed from work because you were not hurt enough to be off of work. Therefore it is a good idea to always get a doctor’s disability slip before you take time off from work. This makes it tough for the insurance company to say that your time off from work was not justified.

Finally, it is a good idea to consult with an experienced personal injury attorney right away. There are lots of things that can be done to improve your chances of getting top dollar for your case if you do certain things. A good injury attorney will be able to walk you through these things. In California you must file your injury claim against the responsible party within 2 years of the accident (unless the responsible party is a governmental entity in which case the deadline is 180 days from the day of the accident). But it is a good idea to consult an injury attorney or an accident attorney as soon as possible after the accident. You may not hire the attorney but at least you will know your rights and hopefully get good advice on what else should be done.

Nelson C. Barry III is a top San Francisco personal injury attorney with over 31 years of experience obtaining compensation for injury victims and their families from the responsible parties and their insurance companies.  Contact the firm today for help.

Buying auto insurance can be confusing. Do you like a gecko? A stern man with a rich baritone? A cartoon superhero lady? Or an animated general? The choices seem endless, but there are several key factors to take into account when purchasing auto insurance.

First off, make sure that you are covered not only to protect yourself in the event of your having caused an accident, but also in the event that the person who hits you is not well-insured or – even worse – is uninsured.

Consumer Reports provides a general guideline for adequate bodily injury liability limits at $100,000 per person and $300,000 per accident.  $100,000 should be secured for property damage. These amounts indicate what your insurer will pay to the person with whom you are involved in an accident. For uninsured motorist coverage, match the same amounts as for bodily injury liability, as this covers your medical costs when someone who is not insured hits you.

Adding comprehensive and collision insurance can be well worth the nominal extra premium. Comprehensive pays out when your car is damaged or lost due to causes other than an accident, such as vandalism, theft, or weather. Collision coverage will pay to repair your own car if you hit something.

Most importantly, remember that it is illegal to drive in California without auto insurance and that by securing coverage you are not only protecting yourself, but also being a good citizen.