Personal injury can be disasterous, and dealing with insurance companies is stressful. Insurance companies will usually try to quickly settle out of court prior to the victim receiving proper medical evaluation. Insurance companies will do almost anything to reduce the amount of their payout.
Choosing a personal injury attorney can be very stressful. Not only do you have to find an attorney who will tend to your case in a professional manner, but generally there are stress inducing underlying circumstances related to your accident.
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Experts
Experts play a very important role in the litigation process. Personal injury attorneys in Illinois use several types of experts including but not limited to doctors, economists, safety and design experts.
Expert evidence must be presented within the tenets of evidence law. Generally, expert testimony is proper if it will assist the jury in understanding the evidence or to determine a fact in issue.
An expert must be qualified to give an opinion. Specifically, an expert must be qualified by virtue of knowledge, skill, experience, training or education.
The facts and data used by an expert in a particular case can be those perceived by or made known to the expert at or before trial. Additionally, if the facts or data relied on by the expert are reasonably used by experts in their field, the facts or data need not be admissible in evidence. Experts can testify to ultimate issues. Experts can testify as to conclusions. Experts can testify to hypothetical questions. And experts can testify to their opinions. It is often productive to think of experts as teachers, someone who can explain complex or specialized information to a jury.
In Illinois, Supreme Court Rule 213 controls expert witness disclosures.
Expert evidence must be presented within the tenets of evidence law. Generally, expert testimony is proper if it will assist the jury in understanding the evidence or to determine a fact in issue.
An expert must be qualified to give an opinion. Specifically, an expert must be qualified by virtue of knowledge, skill, experience, training or education.
The facts and data used by an expert in a particular case can be those perceived by or made known to the expert at or before trial. Additionally, if the facts or data relied on by the expert are reasonably used by experts in their field, the facts or data need not be admissible in evidence. Experts can testify to ultimate issues. Experts can testify as to conclusions. Experts can testify to hypothetical questions. And experts can testify to their opinions. It is often productive to think of experts as teachers, someone who can explain complex or specialized information to a jury.
In Illinois, Supreme Court Rule 213 controls expert witness disclosures.
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Potential Indicators of Defense Attorney Billing Abuse
It has become commonplace for the plaintiff bar to be attacked for filing either frivolous cases or increasing aggregate insurance costs through large verdicts and settlements. Any plaintiff attorney will argue that these notions are preposterous. The United States civil legal system is predicated on the principle that wrongs should be righted. This is why medical malpractice caps and other alleged tort reforms are unconstitutional. In these cases, a person has been harmed, and insurance companies and corporate defendants want nothing more than to prevent wrongs from being fully remedied, allegedly for the greater good, but really for the good of the insurer's or the corporation's profit margin.
To be fair though insurers are equal opportunity spendthrifts. While seeking to limit injury case recoveries, insurance companies also spend considerable time rooting out billing abuse by defense attorneys. Without further ado, here are several indicators that your defense attorney may be engaging in billing abuse:
-overuse of internal conferencing within the law firm
-over staffing the case
-excessive review and analysis of the case
-over researching or researching on well-established case law
-large legal fees for generating standard form documents
-missing work product or receipts
-markups of 100 to 400 percent on fixed cost items such as meals, faxes, or photocopies.
-excess time summarizing a deposition
-overqualified persons performing a task
-travel time for more than one attorney
-billing rate increases that have not been authorized
-unnecessary motion practice that accomplishes nothing and wastes time and money.
Contact a Chicago attorney at 312.726.1616 if you have questions about a personal injury case.
To be fair though insurers are equal opportunity spendthrifts. While seeking to limit injury case recoveries, insurance companies also spend considerable time rooting out billing abuse by defense attorneys. Without further ado, here are several indicators that your defense attorney may be engaging in billing abuse:
-overuse of internal conferencing within the law firm
-over staffing the case
-excessive review and analysis of the case
-over researching or researching on well-established case law
-large legal fees for generating standard form documents
-missing work product or receipts
-markups of 100 to 400 percent on fixed cost items such as meals, faxes, or photocopies.
-excess time summarizing a deposition
-overqualified persons performing a task
-travel time for more than one attorney
-billing rate increases that have not been authorized
-unnecessary motion practice that accomplishes nothing and wastes time and money.
Contact a Chicago attorney at 312.726.1616 if you have questions about a personal injury case.
Friday, June 1, 2012
Illinois Hearsay
Hearsay is a oral or written assertion, other than one made by the declarant while testifying at the trial or hearing, offered in evidence to prove the truth of the matter asserted.
A statement is not hearsay if: the statement is offered against a party and is (A) the party's own statement, (B) a statement of which the party has manifested an adoption or belief in its truth, (C), a statement by a person authorized by the party to make a statement concerning the subject, (D a statement by the party's agent or servant concerning a matter within the scope of the agency or employment, made during the existence of the relationship, (E) a statement by a co-conspirator of a party during the course and in furtherance of the conspiracy, or (F) a statement by a person, or a person on behalf of an entity, in privity with the party or jointly interested with the party.
As anyone who has been around a television within the last 50 years knows, Hearsay is not admissible except as provided by these rules, buy other rules prescribed by the Supreme Court, or by statute as provided in Rule 101.
There are several Hearsay Exceptions that apply whether the declarant is available or not:
-Excited Utterances
-Then Existing Mental, Emotional, or Physical Condition
-Statements for Purposes of Medical Diagnosis or Treatment (Particularly helpful in personal injury cases)
-Recorded Recollection
-Records of Regularly Conducted Activity
-Absence of Entry in Records Kept in Accordance with Records of Regularly Conducted Activity
-Public Records and Reports
-Records of Vital Statistics
-Absence of Public Record or Entry
-Records of Religious Organizations
-Marriage, Baptismal, or Similar Certificates
-Family Records
-Records of Documents Affecting an Interest in Property
-Statements in Documents Affecting an Interest in Property
-Statements in Ancient Documents
-Market Reports, Commercial Publications
-Reputation Concerning Personal or Family History
-Reputation Concerning Boundaries or General History
-Reputation as to Character
-Judgment of Previous Conviction
-Judgment as to Personal, Family or Gerneral History or Boundaries
-Receipt or Paid Bill
There are also Hearsay Exceptions that apply ONLY if the declarant is UNAVAILABLE.
(An unavailable witness includes only situations when declarant:
-is exempt by ruling of court on grounds of privilege;
-persistently refuses to testify despite court order;
-testifies to a lack or memory of the subject matter of the declarant's statement;
-is unable to be present or to testify because of death or existing physical or mental illness or infirmity;
-is absent and the proponent of a statement has been unable to procure the declarant's attendance.)
-Former Testimony (either given at as a witness (with exceptions) or during a discovery deposition pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 212(a)(5)).
-Statements Under Belief of Impending Death
-Statements Against Interest.
-Statement of Personal or Family History.
-Forfeiture by Wrongdoing
In Illinois personal injury cases that actually go to trial are becoming the exception to the rule. Some estimate that as few as 5% of injury cases that are filed in our court systems actually go to trial. It is true that settlement may be the appropriate way to dispose of many cases. However, at Law Offices of Adam J. Zayed, P.C. we prepare all cases that are filed as if they were going to trial.
A statement is not hearsay if: the statement is offered against a party and is (A) the party's own statement, (B) a statement of which the party has manifested an adoption or belief in its truth, (C), a statement by a person authorized by the party to make a statement concerning the subject, (D a statement by the party's agent or servant concerning a matter within the scope of the agency or employment, made during the existence of the relationship, (E) a statement by a co-conspirator of a party during the course and in furtherance of the conspiracy, or (F) a statement by a person, or a person on behalf of an entity, in privity with the party or jointly interested with the party.
As anyone who has been around a television within the last 50 years knows, Hearsay is not admissible except as provided by these rules, buy other rules prescribed by the Supreme Court, or by statute as provided in Rule 101.
There are several Hearsay Exceptions that apply whether the declarant is available or not:
-Excited Utterances
-Then Existing Mental, Emotional, or Physical Condition
-Statements for Purposes of Medical Diagnosis or Treatment (Particularly helpful in personal injury cases)
-Recorded Recollection
-Records of Regularly Conducted Activity
-Absence of Entry in Records Kept in Accordance with Records of Regularly Conducted Activity
-Public Records and Reports
-Records of Vital Statistics
-Absence of Public Record or Entry
-Records of Religious Organizations
-Marriage, Baptismal, or Similar Certificates
-Family Records
-Records of Documents Affecting an Interest in Property
-Statements in Documents Affecting an Interest in Property
-Statements in Ancient Documents
-Market Reports, Commercial Publications
-Reputation Concerning Personal or Family History
-Reputation Concerning Boundaries or General History
-Reputation as to Character
-Judgment of Previous Conviction
-Judgment as to Personal, Family or Gerneral History or Boundaries
-Receipt or Paid Bill
There are also Hearsay Exceptions that apply ONLY if the declarant is UNAVAILABLE.
(An unavailable witness includes only situations when declarant:
-is exempt by ruling of court on grounds of privilege;
-persistently refuses to testify despite court order;
-testifies to a lack or memory of the subject matter of the declarant's statement;
-is unable to be present or to testify because of death or existing physical or mental illness or infirmity;
-is absent and the proponent of a statement has been unable to procure the declarant's attendance.)
-Former Testimony (either given at as a witness (with exceptions) or during a discovery deposition pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 212(a)(5)).
-Statements Under Belief of Impending Death
-Statements Against Interest.
-Statement of Personal or Family History.
-Forfeiture by Wrongdoing
In Illinois personal injury cases that actually go to trial are becoming the exception to the rule. Some estimate that as few as 5% of injury cases that are filed in our court systems actually go to trial. It is true that settlement may be the appropriate way to dispose of many cases. However, at Law Offices of Adam J. Zayed, P.C. we prepare all cases that are filed as if they were going to trial.
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