San Diego Injury Lawyer Blog

The Jurewitz Law Group, a California personal injury law firm with offices in San Diego and Carlsbad, recently launched the latest version of its very useful and helpful website designed to assist people injured in serious accidents. The new website design includes 20 new videos, additional helpful articles for consumers, and FAQ articles intended to answer common questions and concerns for injury accident victims.

The launch of the new website also coincides with the release of the law firm's new helpful e-book for motorcycle accident victims, The Ultimate California Motorcycle Accident Book: How to Protect Yourself from Day One. As a public service to motorcyclists and their passengers, this book is free to all Californians.

Be sure to stop by and look around the new site!

If you have ever been injured in an accident, you may have experienced one of the new tactics that are being used by insurance companies to improve their bottom line at your expense: the quick, small offer to settle.

San Diego personal injury lawyer Ross Jurewitz looks at this new tactic and cautions injury accident victims to be cautious when deciding "should I accept the insurance company's offer" in this important article. Follow the link for more helpful information.

If you would like more information, please order your free copy of Mr. Jurewitz's book, The Ten Biggest Mistakes that can Destroy Your California Accident Case. It is free to all California residents.

If you have been injured in an accident, you have probably wondered how the insurance company for the other driver, or how your insurance company, will treat you?

San Diego personal injury lawyer Ross Jurewitz will tell you which are the top ten worst insurance companies in America in this important article. Follow the link for more helpful information.

If you would like more information, please order your free copy of Mr. Jurewitz's book, The Ten Biggest Mistakes that can Destroy Your California Accident Case. It is free to all California residents.

If you have ever been injured in an accident, you know that you incur numerous costs and your bills can quickly run out of control. As a result, you may wonder what types of damages you may be entitled to as a result of the other person's negligence and carelessness.

San Diego personal injury lawyer Ross Jurewitz answers this question for you and describes the types of damages available for accident victims in this important article. Follow the link for more helpful information.

If you would like more information, please order your free copy of Mr. Jurewitz's book, The Ten Biggest Mistakes that can Destroy Your California Accident Case. It is free to all California residents.

An honest and efficient insurance industry is essential for people to manage risks and make sure that valid injury claims from serious accidents are paid quickly. Without a quick and legitimate way of receiving compensation, people do not receive the compensation they deserve when they need it.

Unfortunately, the insurance industry regularly uses questionable tactics to keep from paying legitimate claims. San Diego injury accident lawyer Ross Jurewitz tells of the tactics used by the insurance industry in this news report.

If you have ever had to file a claim with your insurance company or the carrier for someone who has injured you, you've experienced the tactics that the insurance industry uses to force you to accept lowball settlement offers or to deny claims.

In a new article on our law firm website, San Diego, CA personal injury attorney Ross Jurewitz tells you what you can do if the insurance company becomes difficult to work with. You do not want to miss these important tips and read the free report from the American Association for Justice (AAJ).

Prospective clients to our San Diego personal injury law firm often ask, "How Much is My Personal Injury Case Worth?" It is the most frequently asked question besides, "How Long Will My Personal Injury Case Take?".

Our San Diego injury accident law office takes pride in providing as much helpful and useful free information as we can to our personal injury clients and members of the public. We want to make sure the public is as educated as claims adjustors so we all can effectively fight the insurance companies and their hardball tactics.

You can watch San Diego injury accident attorney Ross Jurewitz answer this important question in this video at our California personal injury law firm website. If you have any other questions you would like to personally ask Mr. Jurewitz or if you would like a free case evaluation, contact our office at 888-233-5020 or you may also contact our office online here.

One of the most frequent questions our San Diego personal injury law firm receives from prospective clients is, "How Long Will My Personal Injury Case Take?".

Our office takes pride in providing as much helpful and useful free information as we can to our personal injury clients and members of the public. Only by ensuring that the public is as educated as claims adjustors and insurance company employees can we help effectively fight them and their hardball tactics.

You can watch San Diego injury accident attorney Ross Jurewitz answer this important question in this video at our California personal injury law firm website. If you have any other questions you would like to personally ask Mr. Jurewitz or if you would like a free case evaluation, contact our office at 888-233-5020 or you may also contact our office online here.

North San Diego County recently saw the unveiling of a pedestrian bridge, to help walkers and bikers traverse Lake Hodges, usually traveled by those going between destinations in Escondido and San Diego.

Many who took this route have long been waiting for an alternate to having to take the busy Interstate 15, which has experienced many accidents and deaths in San Diego. Frank Lary, a cyclist who frequently was forced to take this highway over the lake noted that it was "very uncomfortable. I was always looking back at the cars, seeing people on their cell phones and not paying attention."

The San Dieguito River Park officially opened the highly anticipated pedestrian path on May 15, 2009, just in time for San Diego's Bike to Work Day. Having been in the works for about a decade, the 990-foot-long span is not only a slim stress-ribbon bridge, but it is the longest stress-ribbon bridge in the world. The $10.5 million bridge is designed to safely guide cyclists and pedestrians over Lake Hodges and out of the way of automobiles. It is constructed of steel, tensioned steel cable, concrete, and precast concrete panels.

The David Kreitzer Lake Hodges Bcycle Pedestrian Bridge, as it has been named, will be open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. It has benches on two points of its' long span. Horses and fishing are both banned along the bridge. You can read more about this Escondido pedestrian bridge opening in this SignOnSanDiego.com story.

Continue reading "Escondido Pedestrian Bridge Opened in North San Diego County" »

A recent rash of bicycle thefts has made the San Diego City Courthouse begin to rethink the way it treats bicycles, including where to lock them. As a high-profile cycling city, San Diego bike riders have ample opportunity and plenty of good weather to commute via bicycle rather than car. However, due to the volume of, and demand for, bicycles, it is no surprise that thiefs target them.

Brienne Thompson was one such victim when she locked up her $1,000 Fuji Roubaix in front of the Hall of Justice while serving jury duty. She even locked her bike with two very secure U-Lock locks, only to emerge from the courthouse to find that both had been cut off. San Diego Sheriff's Department notes than the problem has "become an epidemic" and are even considering moving those specific bike racks to an area more clearly visible to law enforcement from the Hall of Justice.

The owner of the San Diego Bike shop in Downtown San Diego, Mohammad Karimi, was quoted "Bike theft is very bad in San Diego... with the situation with the economy, it's more organize -- seems to be more happening." Karimi recommends Kryptonite locks which are great deterrents, and the company also now insures bikes that use the locks up to $4,500. You can read more about these San Diego bicycle thefts in this SanDiego6.com story.

Continue reading "San Diego Bike Riders Experience Increase in Theft" »

Many an accident on the road that cause injuries or even fatalities are not due to unsafe exterior conditions or even the irresponsibility of other drivers nearby. A lot of times, the fault lies in the interior conditions of our vehicles and, more often than not, fatigue.

Prompted by the charter bus accident in Utah in January 2008 that resulted in 51 of the riders to be ejected from the vehicle into the wintry night, nine of whom died and forty-three others who were injured, the National Transportation and Safety Board recently attributed the accident as relating to the fatigue of the 71 year-old bus driver who had underestimated his speed and had a slowed reaction time.

Continue reading "Fatigue Significant Factor in San Diego Car, Bus, Motorcycle Accidents" »

Sorry, for borrowing the line from Mike Myers' Linda Richman character from Saturday Night Live, but it fit.

The New York Times recently released an investigative report about the use of so-called independent medical examinations performed on behalf of insurance companies in workers' compensation cases. These examinations are very similar to those performed in California personal injury cases. What the New York Times found was that these examinations were being performed for the sole purpose of protecting the insurance companies' interests, rather than seeking the truth about the victim's injuries.

You can read more about the New York Times' report about independent medical examinations and their application in California personal injury cases here at our San Diego personal injury lawyer website.

Recently, an Ontario, Canadian court held that parties to a civil lawsuit must disclose social media posts and information during discovery--even if the user believed the post was made privately to his "network".

We look at the ruling and whether California judges will require the same disclosure from San Diego injury victims. You can read our article, posted here.

Like many San Diegans, our office has enjoyed embracing the emerging social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and even MySpace (although we do not use MySpace any more for a variety of reasons). In fact, part of our office's outreach to our clients, San Diego, and injured people throughout the United States has been the creation and growth of our social networking presence (you can befriend us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, or join our LinkedIn network).

However, the casual ease of posting updates on social network sites can also be harmful. For the last several years, particularly in employment law cases, defense attorneys and investigators have culled plaintiff's social network sites looking for any inconsistent statements, damaging or embarrassing information, inappropriate photos (you know, those drunken party photos you had to share with everyone), and statements about the lawsuit to sabotage the plaintiff's case at trial.

This trend has now become widespread and defense attorneys, investigators, and insurance adjustors regularly farm injured people's social network pages for material to harm them at trial.

First, to the extent that a person making an injury claim is lying or exaggerating to obtain a monetary settlement or to boost the value of their claim, they deserve to be caught and their case destroyed. We have no tolerance for untruthful plaintiffs in our office. If we find that a client has lied to our office, we immediately inform them that we cannot represent them anymore and they should find another attorney. So, for example, if a client tells everyone he can no longer play basketball following a car accident and then posts basketball photographs taken after the accident on their Facebook page, that client deserves to get caught.

However, the above example is not typical. Most people and injured people are honest. Most people do not try to game the system by lying or exaggerating. Nevertheless, the insurance companies will try to take statements and photographs from social network sites to make jurors doubt the injured person's honesty and trustworthiness. While this "square peg, round hole" approach may seem ridiculous and irrelevant, jurors naturally suspicious of personal injury plaintiffs may find these items sufficient to bar recovery.

Continue reading "What You Say on Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace Can Ruin Your San Diego Personal Injury Case" »

San Diego,

Do you want to know what our San Diego injury accident law practice is up to? Want to know of important news regarding San Diego? Want to know about important developments in the law, particularly concerning accident victims and the public?

You can now follow the Jurewitz Law Group on the social networking "micro-blog" site, Twitter.com.

Just create a Twitter account and go to http://www.twitter.com/sandiegoinjury to follow along.

San Diego patients may benefit from new safety checklists.

The World Health Organization estimates that approximately 500,000 surgical deaths and complications occur worldwide every year due to inexcusable medical malpractice. Too many times patients have signed incorrect surgical consent forms allowing medical staff to incorrectly label them for a planned procedure. Nurses have documented patient safety measures that never actually occurred. Doctors have injected medications that were not labeled on the surgical field. The list goes on.

In order to address this issue, the World Health Organization, along with the Harvard School of Public Health, has launched its first "Safe Surgery Saves Lives" campaign. The study is based on the theory that a one-page surgery checklist developed by several world surgical experts will greatly reduce errors and omissions in the Operating Room.

The study, conducted with participation of 3,955 patients in eight different cities, demonstrated that this low-cost and low-tech tool significantly reduced surgical mortality and morbidity rates.

The annual savings from the prevention of major complications in the Operating Room can be anywhere from $15 billion to $25 billion. Encouraged by this thought, the Institute for Healthcare Improvements and the World Health Organization have initiated the "Sprint" challenge: to have every hospital in the country utilize the surgical safety list with at least one surgical team by April 1, 2009.

With a strong cycling community that participates in such events as Critical Mass, San Diego needs lawyers that understand California bike accident law to protect bicyclists from inattentive car drivers, large insurance companies who typically side with car drivers, police accident reports which do not reflect drivers’ duties to bicyclists on the road, and defective product manufacturing.

Car drivers often forget that they not only need to pay attention to other drivers, but also to bicyclists who have the same right to share our roads. Many times drivers will say, " I didn't see him." Other times, police officers will find bicyclists at fault for causing an accident with a car when the officer ignores the fact that the bicyclist had the right of way when in the bike lane.

Knowing the realities of the road, bicyclists need to take initiative for their own safety. That way, if they are involved in an accident with an automobile they will have a better chance of protecting themselves. In addition, they will recognize when the driver is at fault for causing the accident and will be in a better position to obtain compensation for loss of earnings or medical injury.

To increase safety, bicyclists should wear bright clothing and use head and rear lights to make themselves more visible. Bicycle lights are required by law starting one hour before sunset until one hour after sunrise. For greater safety, a helmet should be worn. With these simple precautions, bicyclists will be safer and more likely to prevail against irresponsible drivers.

Bicycle and vehicle collisions are not the only kind of bicycle accidents. A bicyclist may also have a solo accident due to a defective bicycle or defective bicycle part. This type of accident demands help from top technical experts who will examine the bicycle and its’ components to determine the cause of the defect. Such expert inspection is necessary in order to hold the manufacturer responsible for their defective product.

San Diego bicycle riders have the right to utilize their bicycles for leisure and transportation. In the event you are involved in a serious bicylce accident, though, you need the help and assistance of the experienced bicycle accident attorneys at the Jurewitz Law Group.

We love hearing from clients who are pleased about our services and the results we get for them. A positive testimonial from a client says more about what we can do than all the yellow page ads in the world.

Here is what San Diego slip and fall clients, Ed and Gloria F. of Vista, California had to say about the Jurewitz Law Group.

The Jurewitz Law Group announces that it has a second location to serve clients seriously injured by slip and fall accidents, dog bites, bicycle accidents, boating accidents, and by defective products in North San Diego County. We have opened a second office conveniently located in Carlsbad and within easy driving distance from San Marcos, Encinitas, Oceanside, Vista, and Escondido.

Our North County office is located at 2768 Loker Avenue West, Suite 101, Carlsbad, CA 92010.

View Larger Map

Meetings at our North County office are by appointment only and can be made by contacting our office at 619-233-5020 or 888-233-5020.

The paperless office has been the dream of many San Diego businesses, including personal injury lawyers. The benefits are tangible and real: reduced office storage space, the ability to access file documents from any file right on your desktop, remote access to any office file from anywhere in the world, and the ability to share and communicate with clients instantaneously through e-mail. As data becomes increasingly digitized and the ease of digitizing data also increases, the paperless office becomes more and more inevitable as the next clear method of law office management.

In the past, the hurdles to achieve this goal has been equipment costs, document management, and the transition cost of changing office systems. However, these hurdles no longer exist and creating a paperless office is now very simple--even for a solo practitioner.

The Jurewitz Law Group is now 5 months into its' transition to a "paper-less" office. Bear in mind that "paper-less" does not mean "without paper". Paper has been around for thousands of years and will continue to have a place in the digital office for the foreseeable future. The goal must be to reduce all unnecessary paper by digitizing it and storing it in a central location.

These were our office goals in making the transition:
1. Reduce office administrative time sorting and filing paper in files.
2. Reduce the time used to search paper files for relevant documents.
3. Create a method to better share documents with clients, opposing counsel, etc.
4. Eliminate the need to store closed files, thereby reducing overhead costs.
5. Stay within a budget of $1,000 for accomplishing this goal

All of these goals were achieved. In addition, we attained other goals, including reducing paper, toner, and copying costs.

After reviewing a number of resources and conferring with other attorneys who have done the same thing, here is how we did it.

Continue reading "Jurewitz Law Group Has Gone Paper-less: A Report and How-To Guide" »

Most San Diegans drive with auto insurance. But most are severely under-insured or don't have the right kind of insurance to do them the most good if they are involved in an auto accident.

Unfortunately, our office usually typically has the opportunity to advise clients of their proper insurance needs ONLY after they've been in an accident and it's clear to them they were under-insured. So, please consider this to be a preemptive public safety announcement to all San Diegans.

1. Do Not Purchase Minimum Insurance. The minimum amount of insurance coverage necessary to drive a car in California is bodily injury coverage of $15K/$30K. This means that, in the event that you negligently cause an accident, your insurance carrier will pay all medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering for those you injured up to $15K per person or $30K per accident. If their damages exceed this amount, then you could be personally responsible for the balance. Obviously $15K isn't much money and automobile accident claims can easily exceed this amount, particularly where there is a claim for wrongful death. It is important that you purchase as much bodily injury coverage as you can afford. This is not only important to protect your assets, but, as the next section will make clear, so that you can maximize your under-insured/uninsured motorist coverage.

2. Purchase As Much UM/UIM Insurance Coverage As You Can. Ok, you're responsible. You purchased as much bodily injury coverage as you can. But the other guy, just assume that he is not responsible and is carrying only the minimum coverage--or no coverage at all! That is why you need to maximize your uninsured/under-insured motorist coverage (UM/UIM). UM/UIM allows you to turn to your own insurance to pay for your injuries which exceed the limits of the other driver's insurance policy. However, you can only purchase UM/UIM coverage up to the limits of your bodily injury coverage. So, if your bodily injury coverage is $100K, that is the most UM/UIM coverage you can purchase. UM/UIM is one of the cheapest components of an auto insurance policy. There is no excuse not to have it.

Continue reading "Automobile Insurance for San Diego's Roads: What You Need" »

Progressive Insurance's slippery and underhanded tactics have been profiled before. See here. Here too.

Now comes Progressive's latest dirty trick: offering personal injury settlements in auto accident cases before victims even get a chance to see a doctor.

Here's how the new strategy works:

Continue reading "San Diegans, Beware! Progressive Insurance's Newest Dirty Trick!" »

The Manhattan Institute is a conservative think tank that pushes a tort-reform agenda as it attacks plaintiffs' attorneys for numerous evils, both real and perceived. One of the primary gripes tort-reformers have against plaintiffs' attorneys is that the contingency fee agreements used so prevalently in litigation--a legal fee agreement where the client pays a percentage of any recovery to the attorney for his services--unjustly exploit clients who cannot afford hourly attorneys' fees and thereby unjustly enrich attorneys at their expense.

So, it's ironic that The Manhattan Institute's PointofLaw website recently published a story describing the findings of a legal fees study performed by Israeli behavioral economists Eyal Zamir and Ilana Ritov. The study, titled, "Neither Saints nor Devils: A Behavioral Analysis of Attorneys' Contingent Fees" found that--contrary to the beliefs of tort-reformers--the vast majority of litigation clients prefer contingency fee agreements to the traditional billable hour fee agreement.

The study reaches a number of conclusions, but the key conclusion is that clients are risk averse. They prefer a fee arrangement where the attorney shares the risk of litigation with them, even if that means the client ends up paying more in attorneys fees for that service. The attractiveness of the contingency fee agreement is that if the client wins, he will recover monetary damages, and, if he does not win, he does not owe any money in attorneys fees ("heads I win, tails let's call it even).

Think about the utility and value of the contingency fee agreement the next time you hear some tort-reform argument, or, worse yet, a tort-reform initiative seeking to ban the contingency fee agreement.

Jurewitz Law Group, a San Diego based personal injury law firm representing clients throughout California, announces that it has recently moved and opened its' new San Diego office location.

The new office is located at:

The Koll Center
501 West Broadway, Suite 1780
San Diego, CA 92101
Tel: (619) 233-5020
Toll Free: (888) 233-5020
Fax: (619) 233-5030

New and existing clients can meet with attorneys at the new office or, if preferable, at any location throughout San Diego County and parts of Orange, Riverside, and Imperial Counties. Face to face meetings outside Southern California are also possible, but require more lead time.