Las Vegas Injury & Accident Attorney Blog

The holiday shopping season is in full swing in the final month leading up to Christmas Day. This time of year always involves previews for late-year blockbuster films, the latest toys and gadgets, and promotions for new automobiles. But this year, consumers in Southern Nevada are viewing car commercials with some reservation in the wake of a series of new automobile recalls.

Nearly everyone has by now heard of the Toyota auto recall and problems with Ford vehicles and rollovers. Now, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating more late-model vehicles for potentially unsafe defects. Some 150,000 Honda CR-Vs made for model year 2006 are being scrutinized to determine whether or not a wiring defect in the power windows may lead to fires within the door panel. Another 41,000 cars – these units of the 2007 Kia Optima – are being inspected with regard to a transmission problem. The concern is that the shift cable in the Optima’s automatic transmission might become detached, allowing the car to slip out of gear. In one instance, a vehicle exhibiting this failure rolled away while parked.

The potential threats posted by both of these defects are obvious – the consequences of a fire from faulty wiring could include serious damage to the car and even a home fire if it were garaged. A slow-growing fire, suddenly revealed, could cause a driver to panic and potentially cause a motor vehicle accident. A faulty transmission is an even more direct danger – an unreliable transmission could lead to sudden changes of speed and a runaway vehicle could cause massive amounts of personal liability in an urban area.

If you own a 2006 Honda CR-V or a 2007 Kia Optima, contact our Las Vegas automobile recall attorneys today for a free consultation. We can explain the scope of the recall and inform you of any rights you may have to compensation or correction of the defects. With offices downtown and in Summerlin, we can give you legal help when and where you need it.

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Las Vegas is famed for its casino hubbub and the casinos’ fancy floorplans. On the Las Vegas Strip, one resort after another stands out for its unique architecture, lavish landscaping, and intricate stairways. But these flights of stairs can mean not just panache but also peril, as evidenced in the case of a 63-year-old woman who is thought to have died due to injuries from a staircase accident.

The woman was found unconscious and face-down yesterday in her front yard immediately outside her home. She later died of her injuries at a hospital where she was taken for treatment. Police originally suspected foul play and began a homicide investigation, but an autopsy revealed that her injuries were consistent with having fallen from the porch’s front steps and sustaining a fatal injury.

For tourists visiting Nevada casinos, taking the stairs may be an essential element of the overall casino’s thematic experience. But if staircases are not properly maintained or kept clear of obstacles, the casino may face premises liability if a visitor is injured due to the conditions. Other shortcomings in maintenance or cleaning procedures can lead to slip and fall injuries, such as when a hard-floored area is mopped, left wet, and not properly identified with signage. In extreme cases, there can even be wrongful death from a casino accident.

If you or a loved one have been hurt as a result of a casino’s oversights or negligence, contact us right away for a free consultation about your Nevada casino accident. We will help you unpack the details of your case and outline some of your options for compensation or litigation. We have offices in Summerlin and in downtown Las Vegas to serve you.

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This year’s Black Friday did not witness any major incidents at Las Vegas area shopping malls such as the Trails Village Center or the Galleria at Sunset, but at least one instance of a sad, recurring theme has again reminded Clark County residents of the legal perils of crowds and premises liability.

“Black Friday” is the name given to the day following Thanksgiving Thursday, which has become the de facto beginning of the Christmas shopping season. In recent years, struggling retailers have begun trying to outdo one another with increasingly large sales beginning earlier and earlier on the fated day. The culmination of these efforts is highly publicized “door-buster” sales that see shoppers lining up in the wee hours of crisp autumn mornings to take advantage of much-hyped bargains.

These promotional prices create the perception — if not the reality — of limited supply, and the result in recent years has been a sad one: maddened crowds stampeding and sometimes trampling fallen shoppers. Public reaction of these incidents has been shock and criticism, yet the pattern continues. Just this year, shoppers at a Target store in the Northeast pushed and shoved through the doors, trampling at least two individuals and hospitalizing one. This year’s incident appears to be chiefly constituent of bumps and bruises, but in the past these shopping stampedes have led to back injuries and even a handful of wrongful deaths.

Who is at fault in these cases? Do the families of shoppers injured or killed in trampling accidents have a claim for compensation? Should they bring an action against the fellow shoppers responsible, if they can be identified? Can the store be held responsible for injuries caused by one shopper to another? Cases like these raise unique issues of Nevada premises liability and unintentional personal injury. If you or a loved one have been hurt on a commercial property in Clark County and need answers to your legal questions, contact us today for a free consultation.

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It happens every year — the first major snow storm leaves the roads slick and slushy, and motorists drive as if they’ve never encountered snow before. Oh — if this sounds odd to our Las Vegas readers, bear in mind that this phenomenon does not occur often in Nevada anywhere south of Tonopah. But with Thanksgiving travel commencing tomorrow, even drivers in Southern Nevada need to be prepared for wintry driving.

Inclement weather is a major cause of Nevada motor vehicle accidents. It is so easy to forget the physics of driving — we drive multi-ton, metal boxes to the grocery store every day, rain or shine. But when you have only tenths of a second to react, the conditions of the road make all the difference. When the roads are icy, many drivers fail to increase their following distance and the result is a massive increase in automobile rear-end collisions. A tip for our readers: when the driver behind you is following too closely, increase your following distance of the car in front of you. This will allow you to brake more slowly in an emergency and compensate for the fact that the driver following you is abdicating his responsibilities.

But it is not just driver error that leads to bad-weather accidents. Hundreds of drivers are hurt every year when car tires malfunction, leading to unpredictable and often uncontrollable movement of the vehicle. Tire-tread separation can lead to devastating crashes, but even a routine flat tire — combined with a slick road — can be a serious hazard. Other forms of mechanical failure can increase the risk of an accident. Many late-model Toyota vehicles sold in Clark County were subjected to a recall last year as a result of uncontrollable acceleration.

We wish all of our readers in the Las Vegas area safe and happy holidays. If anything goes awry during your travels, please contact us once you return for a free consultation and advice on what to do next.

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Travel experts are predicting an even busier, frenzied, and dangerous week on the highways this Thanksgiving than in recent years. The Wednesday preceding Thanksgiving Day has been the busiest travel day of the year for a long time now, with more than 40 million Americans taking to the roads and the skies to spend the holiday with family. The rush may be even fiercer this year due to changes in the airline industry, making Las Vegas roads more crowded and increasing the likelihood of Southern Nevada automobile accidents.

Heightened security measures have been put in place by the Transportation Security Administration in recent weeks, leading to a massive outcry from travelers. Since 9/11 Americans have gotten used to longer lines and more extensive security screenings, but the most recent development has crossed a line for many travelers. Airline passengers are now being asked to submit to body scanning by devices similar to x-rays that can detect even heavily disguised items that could pose a security threat. Objections have centered around the devices’ ability to see and record the outlines of passengers’ intimate anatomy. The alternative to the scanners is a thorough physical inspection or “pat-down.” Travelers are reluctant to fly due to these policies, and some have even organized an effort to demand the more time-intensive physical inspections as a form of protest. This repulsion from air travel combined with a recovering economy means that more drivers will be on the roads this Thanksgiving.

The more cars on the road during this busy time of year, the more motor vehicle accidents will occur. Thanksgiving travel brings with it all the elements that increase the risk of car wrecks: crowded highways, winter weather, longer average trips, and more motorists on the road who do not often drive. Add to this the prevalence of in-car DVD players, GPS systems, cell phones, and the usual distractions of family travel, and the prevalence of distracted driving also increases along with overall risk of automobile accidents.

As thousands of Clark County families take to the road in the coming days, we wish them all safe and happy holidays. We firmly believe that each person can play a role in reducing highway accidents. Let’s all make a pledge to trust navigation, disk jockeying, and behavior management to our co-pilots and focus on the road. Improving highway safety is something we really can achieve if we give it the focus it deserves. In the event that you or a loved one is involved in an car accident in Clark County this coming holiday weekend, please call us right away for a free consultation.

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The choice to enroll a loved one at an assisted care facility is never an easy one. In most cases, an entire family comes together to support an elderly relative and it is only when these efforts prove inadequate that the family makes the difficult choice to turn to professional help. As a corollary, when you place your parent or grandparent in a Nevada nursing home you have high expectations that she or he will be taken care of with even more focus and regularity than you had been helping to provide.

Tragically for many Clark County families, nursing homes sometimes fail to rise to this reasonable standard. When an assisted care facility drops the ball, the result is not only a financial disappointment for the family but also a risk imposed upon the senior trusted to the facility’s care. With vast and increasing access to prescription medications, today’s Las Vegas elderly face even harsher consequences in the event of inattentive care than they did in previous decades.

Some seniors with heart conditions take multiple medications to accomplish a central goal and mitigate side effects. For instance, blood thinners may be taken to reduce the risk of heart attack but a countervailing coagulant may be used to prevent hemorrhaging. In other cases, two or three minor meds may be used to offset nausea or changes to body chemistry caused by a primary medication that controls cholesterol. Nursing home staff are expected to understand and properly administer these prescription regimens. In some cases, it is even the facility’s responsibility to observe the effects of the medications and report any signs of unintended consequences of wrongfully prescribed medications.

A recent story highlights another risk. A man taking a “male enhancement” prescription to alter his sexual appetite and curb his erectile dysfunction experienced priapism, described as a painful erection lasting longer than four hours. The man was in the care of a nursing home, and rather than assist him or seek medical attention the staff of the facility allegedly found his ailment to be humorous. Apparently this neglect ultimately necessitated the amputation of the man’s penis. Priapism is not an uncommon condition and promptly seeking medical care would likely have addressed the situation. The man and his family have sought damages against the facility for neglect.

If a loved one has been mishandled by a nursing care facility in Southern Nevada, contact us today for a free consultation and more information about what you can do to seek redress.

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No amount of TV dramas, third-party stories, or personal reflection can prepare a person for the loss of a loved one. The days and weeks following a personal tragedy are often flooded with memories and sudden longing for the mundane markings of that lost person’s presence. When you lose a loved one to an accident or some other tragedy, you should talk with a Nevada wrongful death attorney to find out if you may be eligible for a settlement.

Several wrongful death lawsuits from across the country are currently pending. The parents of a young man who died of alcohol poisoning related to the activities of his college fraternity have sued the frat for encouraging dangerous alcohol consumption and for failing to appropriately monitor their son when he was incapacitated. In another case, the mother of a 20-year-old man is seeking damages after her son was killed when a friend’s truck flipped in a rollover accident. And a widow is asking for compensation after her husband was struck on his bicycle and killed when a driver failed to see him as she made a turn in her SUV.

Wrongful death suits, contrary to common misconception, are not an attempt to “price” your lost husband, child, or parent. No amount of money can bring that person back or restore you wholly to the person you were before you lost him or her. Rather, wrongful death suits are intended to recover funds sufficient to help restore you financially when the person’s death could reasonably have been prevented.

Common expenditures for wrongful-death settlement money include psychotherapy; prescription medications; and credit card bills, mortgages, or other major debts. Payments for pain and suffering are intended to offset the emotional loss. For many widows and widowers, losing a spouse means losing an emotional anchor and a financial partner or provider. Survivor benefits can help restore this loss. If you would like to learn more about seeking wrongful death benefits after a motor vehicle accident or other family tragedy, call us for a free consultation.

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In our last article on our Nevada personal injury and automobile accident blog, we looked at some recent data on motorcycle fatalities and motorcycle accidents nationwide. One issue with looking at national-level data is that it does not take into account the different policies in place — both official and unofficial — in each state. One practice getting attention is known as “lane splitting,” which some motorcycle drivers attempt during slow traffic.

Take Nevada for example. Our state laws require all motorcycle drivers and passengers to wear motorcycle helmets. In some other states, helmets are only required for drivers or passengers under 18 or 21 years of age; some states have no helmet laws at all.

On the other hand, Nevada law does not require motorcycle drivers to wear any other protective gear such as leathers. And driving laws in Nevada only require drivers to carry $15,000 in motor vehicle liability insurance. That means that if you are driving your motorcycle and are hit by a driver in a car, the driver may have as little as $15,000 to cover all of your likely expenses: intensive medical care, pain and suffering, and repair/replacement of your bike.

We cannot control the actions of others, and for the time being we are bound by the laws that are in place. But what we can do as motorcycle drivers in order to reduce the likelihood of seeing ourselves and our fellow bikers hurt in motorcycle accidents is to eliminate the practice of lane splitting. We’ve all seen it, and many of us have done it: traffic is slow, perhaps in a complete stop-and-go jam, and a motorcycle driver creates an extra lane between two lanes of automobile traffic to get ahead of the line.

Proponents of the policy argue that it doesn’t harm anyone else, and in some cases it is a form of defensive driving — car drivers focus on each other in tight traffic, sometimes rendering a motorcycle invisible. But critics of the practice note that it is unpredictable and frequently results in motorcycle collisions when bikers are hit by cars abruptly changing lanes or even opening car doors in stopped traffic.

A columnist for the Sacramento Bee recently pointed out that California is the only state that has not banned the practice, but it also does not specifically permit lane splitting. Lane splitting is illegal in Clark County (indeed, in all of Northern and Southern Nevada) under Nevada Revised Statute 486.351. That means that — even if “everyone does it,” even if traffic was stopped — if you are involved in a motorcycle accident when you were driving between two lanes of traffic, you will have a harder time recovering damages because you were in violation of a driving law.

The best thing Southern Nevada motorcycle drivers can do is to follow all driving laws diligently and to use their full attention and caution while driving. When the unexpected happens and you are involved in a motorcycle accident, call us before you call your insurance company for a free consultation.

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According to data from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, Nevada’s number of motorcyclist fatalities fell 29 percent from 2008 to 2009. Data from 2003 show that Nevada motor vehicle accidents as a whole resulting in fatalities numbered 50 percent greater than the national median, but by 2009 this rate had fallen 25 percent and Nevada was only one-fifth above the national level. Have we succeeded then? Are Nevada drivers as safe as they need to be? Can we be worry-free on our Harleys?

Not quite, many say. The Governors Highway Safety Association released a report earlier this year which noted the first national decline in motorcycle fatalities in nearly 20 years. Despite media enthusiasm for the figures the Association made several caveats, including observations that a slumping economy and bad weather may have kept motorcycle drivers off the road. In other words: with motorcycle fatalities down but miles driven also likely diminished, the jury is still out as to whether or not Nevada motorcycle drivers need to drive with more caution.

As our vehicles become more gadget-oriented, distracted driving is rising as a new threat to automobile safety. Another issue to monitor is how advances in medical science are allowing older adults to continue driving well into their eighth and ninth decades. These phenomena are potential threats for all drivers, but especially for motorcyclists who lack seat belts, air bags, roll cages, crumple zones, and the host of safety features that have dampened the damage of motor vehicle accidents over recent decades. As a motorcyclist, caution is your best defense.

If you or a loved one have been involved in a Nevada motorcycle crash or motorcycle accident, call us today for a free consultation before you talk to your insurance company. We have two offices — downtown and in Summerlin — to serve you, and we can also send one of our experienced motorcycle personal injury lawyers to visit you in the hospital.

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At the Nursing Home Neglect Center of Nevada, we are focused on obtaining justice for all parties in cases of elder neglect: providing just closure and compensation to the family, and serving justice upon the individuals (ir)responsible for the harm. The majority of these cases involve nursing home neglect – instances where orderlies or even entire staffs failed to perform their duties — but sometimes we also help families who have been devastated by the senseless violence of elder abuse.

Developments in a case from Iowa are a mournful warning to families seeking an elder-care facility for a parent or grandparent: do your research and make sure the facilities you are considering have no history or issues of elder abuse. In Iowa, a health-management company that operates ten senior homes has allegedly failed to take the necessary steps to end startling patterns of elder abuse over a period of several years.

A majority of the complaints center around resident-on-resident incidents at the facility. A male resident allegedly threatened to kill several residents and had a pattern of making aggressive, unwanted sexual advances on female residents. Apparently a lead nurse at the facility was aware of this conduct but simply directed staff to monitor the man, rather than intervening. There are other reports of sexually predatory behavior by residents stationed at the facilities pursuant to court orders. Still other reports describe misrepresentations of the facilities to state inspectors and unsafe, unclear conditions in the facilities’ kitchens, rooms, and elsewhere.

Allegedly, resident-on-resident violence and other interactions were documented with a “+” in the residents’ files. Families of affected residents are asking why there was not more extensive documentation than this, and they are also troubled by an apparent lack of intervention on the part of the staff. Staff at the facilities were apparently aware of the behavior but found it comical rather than actionable.

The expectations families have when they place their loved ones in a nursing home are different from those they have when a parent enters a senior community or even a low-level assisted-care facility. The difference is not semantic — it is substantive. In a senior community, interaction among the residents is usually self-determined, and sexual relationships develop with the same boundaries we expect in society at large. On the other hand, in a facility where residents are supposed to be cared for, the expectations are quite different. Often, we place our loved ones in a nursing home because they are no longer able to reliably care for themselves physically or because their judgment seems impaired. These conditions have major implications for the appropriate level of scrutiny of inter-community interactions, and it appears that in these cases staff did not intervene where they ought to have.

These reports are a strong indictment of a network of nursing homes hundreds of miles from our Las Vegas community. Yet we cannot afford to dismiss these accounts. Placing your loved one in the care of others is a difficult choice, and you deserve to be assured that your parent or grandparent will be cared for in a diligent, dignified manner. Please thoroughly research any facility that you are considering for your loved one before you make a placement choice. If your relative is already under managed care, do some research now to see if a move would be prudent. And if tragedy has already struck and you need help restoring your parent’s trust after an incident of Las Vegas nursing home abuse, call us today for a free consultation.

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