Posted on March 23, 2017 in Personal Injury

On September 18, 1966, Valerie Percy was murdered in her parents’ home in Kenilworth, Illinois. The attack was brutal, her cause of death being a fractured skill and 14 stab wounds. She was also so badly beaten she was beyond recognition. The police ruled out burglary, as nothing was taken. They also determined her attacker knew her. The crime suggests personal investment, and the family dog didn’t bark or cause any other kind of alarm during the attack. Authorities investigated thousands of people and tracked leads across the United States with no success.No one has ever been accused of her murder.

In September of 2016, a Cook County Judge ordered the Kenilworth police chief to release a 12-page memorandum, which outlined thousands of pages of secret evidence from the case. Most of the memorandum was redacted,making it almost as useless as the forbidden records. The reason for the redaction and the reluctance to release more details is that allegedly the investigation is still active. Later in December, a judge finally ruled that the thousands of pages of police reports related to the case will remain under wraps while the crime remains active. According to the judge, the release of the documents would, “jeopardize the investigation.”

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 Posted on March 14, 2017 in Personal Injury

Car accidents can be traumatic for anyone. Adrenaline runs high, and you might not notice an injury until much later, after your body and your adrenal system has calmed down. Likewise, even small fender benders can cause injuries, such as whiplash, which may not manifest until much later. If the accident was caused by someone else’s negligence, what do you do if you don’t discover an injury until much later?

The first thing you should do is see a doctor for treatment. Even if you don’t notice until much later, you need to take care of the problem as soon as you become aware of it. Taking action to solve your medical problem might be the evidence an insurance company needs to prove you’re not just faking an injury to get paid. Doctor’s don’t treat symptoms that aren’t there. If you’re getting treatment, such as physical therapy or medication, this will be helpful in a court oflaw to prove you sought help as soon as you realized you had a problem.

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 Posted on March 06, 2017 in Personal Injury

Car accidents are some of the most common ways people sustain injuries. Yearly, more than 2 million people a year sustain injuries or disabilities from collisions in the United States alone. While cars are designed to be as safe as possible,they can’t protect you from everything. Here are a few of the most common kinds of injuries you could get in a car accident.

Head/ Brain Injuries

You could sustain severe brain damage or mild concussions depending on the circumstances of the crash. If your airbag deploys on time, the force of the inflating item could cause you significant injuries, though they wouldn’t be as severe if the airbag had not deployed. Airbags have been known to cause concussions, bruising, fractures, hearing loss, eyeinjury, and irritation to the throat and skin. If your airbag doesn’t deploy in time, or you strike your head on something other than the steering wheel, you could sustain skull fractures, cuts, bruises, or more severe traumatic brain injury.

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 Posted on March 01, 2017 in Personal Injury

Driving is probably one of the most dangerous activities people do on aday-to-day basis. Almost 1.3 million people die in collisions every year across the world. In the United States, the number is around 37,000, and another 2.35 million are injured or disabled in the accident. Largely,this high number of collisions is due to driver errors, and many of them can be prevented by taking a few precautionary measures when driving.Here are a few of our top tips for staying safe on the dangerous road.

Tip 1: Pay Attention to Driving

Driver inattention is one of the primary causes of most car accidents. People are highly distractible, and anything that takes attention a way from driving has the potential to lead to disaster. While you can’t prevent anything outside your car from being distracting, you can stop yourself from playing with your phone, fiddling with your radio, or taking your eyes off the road to talk to one of your passengers. Even the smallest distraction could prevent you from stopping in time to avoid hitting something or someone in the middle of the road.

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 Posted on February 23, 2016 in Personal Injury

When an accident occurs and a victim is harmed due to someone else's negligence, it is always recommended that the victim contact legal representation right away. Sometimes there is documentation and evidence to be collected and diligent counsel can do this in preparation for an eventual injury claim. However, it is not always recommended that the victim pursue a claim as quickly as possible.

This is because it is critical that the injury victim reach a status known as maximum medical improvement (or MMI) before filing suit. A patient reaches MMI when doctors determine that they can no further improve from their accident injuries. Sometimes this means that they have made a full recovery. Other times, when victims have sustained catastrophic injurieslike brain damage or spinal cord injuries, it means that their recoveryhas plateaued and that more improvement is not reasonably foreseeable.

Why is MMI important?

Establishing MMI is important because it allows plaintiff counsel to proceed with full scope of the client's accident-related expenses. Health matters are not always predictable and filing before MMI is determined can mean that medical expenses that should have been covered in the injury suit are left for the victim to pay for.

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 Posted on January 13, 2016 in Personal Injury

There are many myths out there about personal injury claims, and many oft hese are patently false. In this blog, our New York personal injury attorneys discuss five of the most common and least accurate myths. If you or a loved one has been injured, contact us today for experienced counsel.

Have you been injured in New York? Call our firm today for your free case evaluation.

1. Payouts for Personal Injury Claims Are Virtually Guaranteed

Many people think that personal injury suits are easy to win, and thata big payout can be expected in nearly every case. This couldn’tbe further from reality. Insurance companies will typically fight back against your claim, and fight back hard. With the help of a skilled New York personal injury lawyer, however, you can build a strong and effective case.

2. Personal Injury Lawsuits Are Typically Frivolous

More than a decade later, many people still think of the infamous “McDonald’sHot Coffee” lawsuit when they think of personal injury claims. What is true in that case, however, is true in nearly all successful personal injury claims - someone got seriously hurt. Both the costs and standard of proof in personal injury lawsuits are high, and prohibit many frivolous lawsuits before they start.

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 Posted on January 05, 2016 in Personal Injury

In a tragic case, the family of 55-year-old Bettie Jones, who was shot and killed by police, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Chicago. This is the second wrongful death suit filed against the city in the wake of the shooting, which also claimed the lifeof 19-year-old Quintonio LeGrier.

If someone you love has been killed by the reckless or intentional acts of another, call 203-661-6000 today to pursue justice.

A Tragic Incident

The incident in question began when LeGrier’s father, Antonio, called the police after his son threatened him. He called Jones to ask her to open the door for the officers. When they arrived, however, police claim that LeGrier was running down the stairs with a baseball bat. The officers began firing, and ultimately took the lives of both LeGrier and Jones.

Was Excessive Force Used?

Law enforcement has acknowledged that Jones was “accidentally struck”by the gunfire, but Le Grier’s father is one of many who question whether police should have opened fire at all. The lawsuit he filed last week states that officers were not justified in shooting LeGrier, that excessive force was used, and that the officers also failed to provide any medical care. His family has indicated that LeGrier, a student atNorthern Illinois University, suffered from mental illness.

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 Posted on December 30, 2015 in Personal Injury

Are dangerous criminals recently released from prison being permitted tolive in locations that are consistent with their sentencing guidelines and parole restrictions. Are the most dangerous of those released criminals, Level 3 Sex Offenders, being properly monitored to assure compliance with treatment and work related obligations.

New York City just determined that, according to the Sex Offender Registry,eleven (11) Level 3 Sex Offenders, were residing at the Bellevue Men’sShelter in Kip’s Bay, despite the fact that the shelter is located within 1,000 feet of a school. A spokesman for the Mayor stated that the information on the Sex Offender Registry was not correct and blamed the offenders for failing to notify the state when their address changed.As a result, the addresses of six men were updated on the website and warrants were issued for 3 sex offenders whose whereabouts are unknown.

Is enough being done to protect the citizens of New York City and Westchester County from the known recidivist risks associated with recently released offenders? 1 to 3 percent of all arrests in White Plains are of residents of the Volunteers of America - Grasslands Reservation Shelter, who arebused into the City of White Plains each morning from Valhalla, New York.

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 Posted on December 19, 2015 in Personal Injury

Recognizing the potentially intrusive, and irrelevant, aspects of an individuals’posting on social media accounts, New York’s highest court will decide whether these accounts are off-limits in personal injury lawsuits.

Common sense would dictate that any postings by an individual that is directly related to that litigant’s claims (i.e. photos/messages regarding the rock-climbing experience from someone claiming a permanent head or back injury) should be produced, but other, unrelated postings on social media accounts should not have to be produced for the opposing counsel.

Insurance companies, and insurance defense counsel, are increasingly submitting broad ranging requests to gain access to all postings by an individual on social media outlets, irrespective of the potential relevance to that particular case. Implied in those requests is the hope that there maybe personal, delicate information that a claimant may not want in the public realm, and thus discourage claimants from proceeding with their claims, even though the sensitive information requested has absolutely nothing to do with the lawsuit.

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 Posted on December 18, 2015 in Personal Injury

When pursuing a New York personal injury claim, you will likely hear the term “damages” being tossed around. In a lawsuit, these damages do not directly refer to the actual injuries you’ve suffered or damage to your property, but instead refer to the monetary award you are pursuing.

Have you been hurt in New York? Call Ivey, Barnum & O'Mara, LLCto pursue justice. Get your free case evaluation today!

Understanding Damages

In a lawsuit, there are essentially two basic types of damages -compensatory, or “actual” damages, as well as punitive damages.

• Compensatory damages are designed to compensate you for things like medical expenses, lossof income, property damages, and other such economic losses. They also include non-economic losses, including pain and suffering.
• Punitive damages, as the name suggests, are only awarded to punish the defendant for some behavior that was considered particularly malicious or reckless.

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