John Walt, Author at Slusky & Walt

Is the Award for Damages Limited to Physical Injuries?

July 24, 2014 by John Walt Leave a Comment

As the victim of a personal injury accident you have likely suffered from emotional trauma along with the physical injuries the accident caused. As such, you may wonder if the award for damages is limited to physical injuries assuming you are successful in a personal injury lawsuit for damages in Michigan. Whether or not your damage award is limited to physical injuries depends on the type of accident in which you were injured and the severity of the injuries you received.

Although you likely envision a car accident when the term “personal injury lawsuit” is mentioned, there are a wide variety of other injury accident scenarios that could provide the basis for a personal injury lawsuit in Michigan, including, but not limited to:

Slip and fall injuries

Premises liability injuries

Dog bite injuries

Product liability injuries

Aviation and boating accidents

The type of accident that caused your injuries is relevant because the State of Michigan is a no-fault insurance state with regard to car insurance. What this means is that when you are injured in a car accident in Michigan your own insurance provider is responsible for covering the costs associated with treatment for physical injuries and replacement of lost wages if the accident was not serious. In order to pursue a traditional personal injury lawsuit, and therefore receive damages for pain and suffering, your injuries must have been serious enough to exceed the no-fault insurance threshold. Only an experienced Michigan car accident attorney can review the facts of your accident and advise you whether or not you exceed the threshold.

For other types of personal injury accidents, a victim may pursue a traditional personal injury lawsuit without having to surmount any obstacles first. In a traditional personal injury lawsuit a victim may be entitled to both economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages are out of pocket expenses such as property damages, medical bills, and lost wages. Non-economic damages are what people usually refer to as “pain and suffering” damages. The value of the non-economic damages portion of an award or settlement will depend on a number of factors and is much more subjective in nature than your economic damages are.

To ensure that you are fully and fairly compensated for all the injuries you suffered in a Michigan personal injury accident, consult with the experienced attorneys at Slusky & Walt, P.C.

What Kind of Mistakes Are Medical Malpractice?

July 17, 2014 by John Walt Leave a Comment

When you visit a doctor or other healthcare professional it is usually for the purpose of treating an injury or illness or for a general check-up to prevent illness. Unfortunately, sometimes a healthcare professional actually causes an injury or illness instead of treating or preventing one. In fact, medical errors occur far for frequently in the United States than most people realize. If a medical error rises to the level of medical malpractice, the victim could be entitled to compensation for the injuries caused by the medical error.

Only an experienced Michigan medical malpractice attorney can review the unique facts and circumstances of your situation and offer an opinion as to whether or not you have a valid medical malpractice lawsuit; however, it may be helpful in the meantime to review some of the more common medical errors that lead to a compensable medical malpractice lawsuit.

To learn more, please download our free Michigan Medical Malpractice – The Basics report.

Surgical errors – a surgical error can include things such as operating on the wrong person, operating on the wrong body part, delaying surgery without good cause, or leaving a foreign object inside the operation site.
Diagnoses errors – these types of errors usually include situations where a doctor diagnoses the patient with the wrong condition or illness or fails to diagnose the patient when the patient should have been diagnosed.
Prescription errors – a prescription may include prescribing the wrong medication, filling the prescription with the wrong type of medication or filling the prescription with the wrong dosage of medication, or failing to recognize dangerous drug interactions when prescribing medication or filling a prescription.
Anesthesia errors – these errors can occur when a patient is given too little anesthesia or too much anesthesia. A patient can also have an adverse reaction to anesthesia if the healthcare provider fails to recognize an allergy to the anesthesia or an adverse interaction. A provider can also fail to properly monitor a patient while the patient is under anesthesia.
Treatment errors – this is a broad category bit can include situations where a doctor failed to follow-up, failed to refer a patient to a specialist or failed to order diagnostic tests. It can also apply when a hospital fails to treat a seriously injured or ill patient in the ER in time and the patient dies.

If you believe that you are the victim of a medical error, or that you are the surviving family member of someone who was killed as a result of a medical error, consult with an experienced Michigan medical malpractice attorney right away to discuss your legal options.

What If You Are Partly Responsible for Your Injuries?

July 3, 2014 by John Walt Leave a Comment

A personal injury accident often leaves the victim with serious injuries. Those injuries may be physical and/or emotional. A victim may also suffer financial hardship following a personal injury accident. If you have been injured in a Michigan personal injury accident that was caused by another party, the at-fault party may be responsible for compensating you for all your injuries. What happens though if you are partly responsible for your injuries? In Michigan, the other party may still be required to compensate you even if you were partial responsible for the accident that caused your injuries.

In a personal injury accident a victim is required to prove that another party was negligent (in most cases) in order to be entitled to compensation for damages. All too often, however, it is not clear exactly how an accident occurred and, therefore, exactly who is at fault. Questions can remain even after an investigation determines exactly how the accident occurred. Those questions mean that it is frequently impossible to place 100 percent of the blame on a single party. For this reason, the law uses either comparative negligence or contributory when deciding if a victim is entitled to recover anything for his or her injuries.

In a contributory negligence system a victim cannot recover anything if the victim contributed at all to the accident. In other words, if you are involved in a car accident and it is determined that the other driver was 99 percent to blame and you were one percent at fault you are entitled to nothing from the 99 percent at fault driver. Fortunately, only five jurisdictions in the United States use contributory negligence. Michigan is not one of those.

All other states use some form of comparative negligence. Comparative negligence apportions the fault among the parties involved and then compensates the victim accordingly. In Michigan’s modified comparative negligence rule you are entitled to compensation as long as you are not more than 50 percent at fault. The compensation to which you are entitled is then adjusted pursuant to the level of fault you share in the accident.

By way of illustration, assume that you are in a car accident and it is later determined that the other driver’s drunk driving was 90 percent responsible for the collision; however, your speeding was 10 percent responsible. Assume further that you had medical bills and lost wages totaling $30,000. You would potentially be entitled to $27,000, representing 90 percent of your total damages.

Navigating the legal system can be confusing for the victim of a personal injury accident. Contact an experienced Michigan personal injury attorney today for a consultation to find out how we can help you.

Southfield Medical Malpractice – Should I Talk to the Insurance Company?

June 26, 2014 by John Walt Leave a Comment

When we visit a doctor or other healthcare provider we expect to leave feeling better, or at least with a treatment plan that will address the injury or illness that brought us to the office. In most cases that is precisely what occurs; however, sometimes a medical error is committed and a patient is actually harmed by the care the patient received from a doctor or other healthcare provider. When that happens the victim may be entitled to compensation for his or her injuries through a medical malpractice lawsuit. If you believe you are the victim of a medical error it is very important that you do not talk to the doctor’s (or other defendant’s) insurance company until you have first consulted with an experienced Michigan medical malpractice attorney.

Medical errors occur in the United States far more frequently than most people realize. Some medical errors only cause minor inconvenience or injury to the patient; however, many medical errors cause serious, even fatal, injuries to the victim. When a medical error is caused by the negligent acts or omissions of the healthcare provider, the victim may be entitled to compensation through a medical malpractice lawsuit. Once a healthcare provider has been alerted to the possibility of a lawsuit or medical malpractice claim, the provider typically alerts his or her medical malpractice insurer. This, in turn, often prompts a telephone call, or other attempt to communicate, from the insurance adjuster to the victim. If you are the victim of medical malpractice and an insurance adjuster tries to communicate with you do not speak to the adjuster for any reason without an experienced Southfield medical malpractice attorney by your side.

The insurance adjuster’s job is to limit the company’s liability. The easiest way to accomplish this is to get a potential plaintiff (you) to agree to resolve the issue in exchange for a token amount of compensation. All too often a victim ends up settling a valuable medical malpractice claim for a small amount of money, only to find out later that the injuries caused by the medical error will cause a lifetime of pain and suffering.

If you believe you are the victim of a medical error, contact an experienced Southfield medical malpractice attorney right away to determine what legal options you may have. If an insurance adjuster attempts to contact you advise the adjuster that you are seeking legal counsel and your attorney will be your voice from here on out.

What Is the Difference Between SSI and SSDI in Southfield?

June 10, 2014 by John Walt Leave a Comment

Disability can strike anyone at any time. If you suddenly find yourself unable to work because of a catastrophic accident or debilitating medical condition you may be entitled to financial assistance from either the Supplemental Security Income program (SSI), the Social Security Disability Insurance program (SSDI), or both. Understanding the difference between the two programs is essential if you plan to apply to either or both.

Both SSI and SSDI are federal benefit programs that provide a monthly monetary benefit to eligible participants. Both are funded and administered primarily by the Social Security Administration, or SSA. As such, both use the SSA definition of disabled which requires you must not be able to engage in any substantial gainful activity because of a medically-determinable physical or mental impairment(s):

That is expected to result in death OR
That has lasted or is expected to last for a continuous period of at least 12 months.

Because it is a “needs based” program, eligibility for the SSI program is also based on your income and resources. In other words, you cannot have income or countable assets over the program limits to be eligible for SSI benefits.

Eligibility for the SSDI program, on the other hand, is not based on your income or resources. Instead, it is based on your pervious work history. To be eligible for SSDI you must have earned enough “work credits” over your lifetime to qualify. A “work credit” is earned by earning a certain amount of money each quarter, $1200 as of 2014. Up to four credits can be earned each year. The number of credits you need to qualify for SSDI depends on your age when you apply for benefits.

As a general rule, monthly SSDI benefits are greater than SSI benefits. In addition, if you qualify for SSDI benefits, certain family members may also qualify based on your eligibility. Your spouse and children, for example, may also qualify to receive a monthly check if you are approved for SSDI.

Although both SSI and SSDI are intended to provide financial assistance to disabled individuals, the application process can be cumbersome and difficult to navigate which is why many initial applications are denied. If you have questions or wish assistance with your application for SSI and/or SSDI in Southfield, contact our injury and disability attorneys today.

Southfield Wrongful Death: Can I Sue the Person Who Caused the Injury or Death?

May 30, 2014 by John Walt Leave a Comment

People are injured, even killed, every day in Michigan in what we refer to as an “accident”. These “accidents”, however, are often not truly accidents. Instead, they are frequently the result of negligence on the part of another party. When the negligent acts or omissions of another party are the cause, or a contributing factor, in an injury “accident” or a death, the injured party or the survivors may be entitled to sue the responsible party for damages.

Torts is the area of the law that addresses injuries to people or property. Within the broad area of “torts” is where we find personal injury accidents, premises liability accidents, dog bites, wrongful deaths, and any other scenario where a victim was injured or killed as a result of another party’s wrongful or negligent conduct.

Whether or not you have a valid basis for a lawsuit will depend on a number of factors. Most personal injury lawsuits are based on negligence. Negligence requires you to prove that the defendant had a duty of care to the victim and that the duty was breached by the defendant. A motorist who operates a vehicle on a public roadway, for example, has a duty of care to others sharing the roadway. If that motorist is texting while driving and causes a collision, the motorist has likely breached the duty of care owed to the victims who are injured in the collision.

Negligence, however, is not the only basis used for tort lawsuits. Some claims are based on strict liability or intentional conduct on the part of the defendant. Michigan, for example, has a strict liability statute that holds the owner of dog responsible for injuries caused when the dog bites someone under most circumstances. Intentional conduct, such as an assault, can also form the basis of a civil lawsuit for damages.

The same analysis is used in the case of a wrongful death. The primary difference is that a survivor files a wrongful death lawsuit instead of the person who was actually injured. In addition, the compensation available in a wrongful death lawsuit is a little different that the compensation available in a personal injury lawsuit.

If you believe that you are entitled to file a lawsuit as a result of injuries suffered in an “accident” or as a survivor in a wrongful death, consult with an experienced Southfield wrongful death attorney right away.

Social Security Disability Insurance in Southfield: Am I Eligible for Benefits?

May 30, 2014 by John Walt Leave a Comment

Most of us depend on our ability to work for a living in order to support ourselves and/or a family. What happens though, if you suddenly find yourself unable to work because of a debilitating injury or medical condition? Fortunately, in the United States there are several federal assistance programs that might be able to help. Social Security Disability Insurance, or SSDI, is one of those programs. Only an experienced SSDI attorney in Southfield can review your specific situation and provide you with an opinion as to your eligibility; however, a better understanding of Social Security Disability Insurance in Southfield and the basic eligibility guidelines is a good place to start.

The SSDI program is a federal program that is administered by the Social Security Administration, or SSA. The SSA also administers another similar program, Supplemental Security Income, or SSI. Although both programs offer monthly monetary benefits to eligible recipients, there are some significant differences in the programs. Most notably, SSDI typically provides a highly monthly benefit amount. Therefore, it makes sense to try and get an SSDI application approved before considering SSI.

To be eligible for SSDI you must meet the definition of “disabled” and you must have earned sufficient “work credits”, or be the spouse of someone who did. The SSA defines “disabled”, for purposes of eligibility for SSDI as:

You cannot do work that you did before;
We decide that you cannot adjust to other work because of your medical condition(s); and
Your disability has lasted or is expected to last for at least one year or to result in death.

Certain medical conditions presumptively meet the SSA definition of disabled while others require further analysis.

If your condition qualifies as “disabled” you must still have earned enough work credits to qualify for benefits. As a general guideline, you need 40 credits, at least 20 of which were earned within the last ten years. Up to four credits can be earned each year. As of 2014 you earn one work credit for every $1,200 of wages or self-employment income. If you are young when you apply for SSDI the number of work credits required to qualify may be less than the typical 40 required of older workers.

The amount of your monthly benefit will also depend on your work history up to a maximum of $2,642 a month as of 2014. If you qualify for SSDI, your spouse and/or dependent children may also qualify based on your eligibility.

Navigating the SSDI application system can be difficult and time consuming. If you think you may qualify for SSDI benefits, contact an experienced Southfield SSDI attorney right away to assist you with your application.

Is the Award for Damages Limited to Physical Injuries?

What Kind of Mistakes Are Medical Malpractice?

What If You Are Partly Responsible for Your Injuries?

Southfield Medical Malpractice – Should I Talk to the Insurance Company?

What Is the Difference Between SSI and SSDI in Southfield?

Southfield Wrongful Death: Can I Sue the Person Who Caused the Injury or Death?

Slusky & Walt, P.C.

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Slusky & Walt

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