Information and Insight for Injured Iowans

     Are you looking for a qualified personal injury attorney in Iowa? A great way to find one is by checking with great lawyers within the state of Iowa. This doesn’t mean you have to search through the pages of a phone book or search endlessly on the Internet; instead, ask any potential attorney if they are a member of the Iowa Academy of Trial Lawyers.

     The Iowa Academy of Trial Lawyers is an invitation-only organization limited to the top 250 trial attorneys in Iowa. In order to be inducted, a lawyer must be nominated by a current member and then be evaluated by all Academy members. The Academy executive committee then selects inductees from among the qualified nominees. Membership in the Academy demonstrates a lawyer has a good reputation for trying cases in Iowa’s courtrooms.

     Find out other questions to ask your potential attorney by going to Iowa Car Accident Facts to download a free 35-page guide.

     Despite the fairly common occurrence of car accidents, there is a lot of confusion surrounding them.  Every day our office gets call from car accident victims who are uncertain about what they need to do following an accident.

     If you are injured in a car accident caused by another driver’s mistake, you have a personal injury claim. Under Iowa law, a car accident victim who wants to be compensated for a personal injury must be able to prove:

·         That the other driver was negligent

·         That the other driver’s negligence caused damage to the car accident victim

·         The amount of the car accident victim’s damages

     If the car accident victim cannot prove any one of the above three elements in a court of law, he or she is not entitled to compensation. That means the burden of proving everything—from identifying the important witnesses at the accident scene to providing documentation of all injury-related losses—ultimately falls on you, the car accident victim.

     For a more detailed explanation of an Iowa car accident victim’s legal obligations, go to Iowa Car Accident Facts to download a free 35-page guide.

     Car accident victims want to get all the help they can for a claim. They look to numerous different people in various lines of work to assist with aspects of the case; what they don’t know is the biggest help to their own case can be given with a snap—or a click—of their own hands. As personal injury attorneys in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, we have seen how beneficial photographs taken by the car accident victim can be.

    Even if you believe the investigating officer or an insurance company representative took photographs, you should still get photographs taken on your own. Have all photos taken both up close and from a distance. Have three times as many photographs taken as you think you will need. In particular, get the following types of photos taken:

·         Photos of the accident location: Take photos of the scene both from the direction you approached and from the direction of the other driver’s approach. Take photos of all skid marks and measure them. Take photos of any debris left by the crash before moving it.

·         Photos of your vehicle: Do not have your vehicle repaired before it is photographed. Take photos from all angles – the outside, the interior, even the undercarriage when it is up on a lift at the garage.

·         Photos of your injury: Take photos of all visible injuries. Take photos of all bruises, scrapes, cuts, etc. while they are fresh.

·         Photos of your medical treatment: Have photos taken of you in the hospital. Have photos taken of all casts, slings, and bandages. If you are prescribed the use of a wheelchair, walker, or crutches, gets photos of those as well.

     When in doubt, take the photograph. If your case has to go to trial, you want to have all of the visual evidence that you can show to the jury.

     Would you like to learn more ways to protect your car accident claim? Go to Iowa Car Accident Facts to download a free 35-page guide.

     If you need immediate assistance, please call 1-888-546-6529 and we will try to help you.

As an Iowa Personal Injury Attorney handling personal injury and auto accident claims and as an old farm boy, I am familiar with the dangers of farm tractors, hay racks, wagons and machinery on the roads.   Many car crashes this time of year are intertwined with the harvest season.  Most involve deer moving about with all the commotion in the fields.  Unfortunately, some involve farmers not obeying the rules of the road – they are after all driving virtual tanks and are rarely hurt when a car collides with them on some rural Iowa road.  They are used to driving in the field where the only traffic is the wildlife scattering to get out of the way.   Some folks seem to forget that they are going to be on the roadways when the workday (or night) is done so in the meantime they have a few beers in the tractor cab.  It is against Iowa law to operate any motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol – even a tractor.  I handled a horrible accident case involving just that.  The farmer had lost his license for drinking violations but didn’t think twice about driving a field tractor and grain wagon home that night – pulling out from the field access directly in front of my client so that my client rear ended the unlit machinery.  All Iowa tractors on the roadways are supposed to have a slow moving triangle facing the rear and at night, an amber flashing light.   The slow moving triangle does no good when covered by field dust and the old lights on the implement are only good if they are converted to fit the new tractor – something not every farmer worries about until its dark outside and too late.  Especially if they have had had a few drinks, are tired and are not concerned about the safety of others.

If you have been hurt by a tractor, combine or some other farm machinery that was not obeying the rules of the road, give us a call and we’ll try to answer you questions.  In the meantime, keep in mind that there could be slow moving machinery around every corner this time of year in Iowa.  Take care and be safe.

Visit our website  www.riccololaw.com to learn what questions to ask your potential  attorney. We have downloadable, free guides on motorcycle, trucking and car accident cases or you can always call without charge or obligation and ask us questions: 1-888- 546-6529.

You’re in downtown Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, Davenport or some other Iowa town.  You’re in the middle of the block and want to jump across the street but don’t want to walk to the corner.   Very light traffic – what do you do?  Well, your asking an Iowa personal injury lawyer right now – so, I have lots of horrible accident cases I can give you by example.  Our firm has represented too many pedestrians (or their families) that have been hit by cars in Iowa.  The injuries are devastating – sometimes they are deadly.

According to the Iowa code, “A pedestrian in a crosswalk may rely upon an approaching driver’s duty to yield, but the pedestrian still must exercise ordinary care to avoid being struck by a motor vehicle which was seen or should have been seen. Whenever possible, pedestrians shall walk on the right half of the crosswalk.”  A violation of this law is negligence.  The law also states that “any pedestrian crossing a road at any point other than a crosswalk shall yield the right of way to all vehicles on the road.”
 

Please go to the crosswalk.  Heaven forbid you get hit by a car when you are walking – but if you are in the crosswalk when it happens you should have some redress for your potential medical bills or lost wages.   You are also a lot less likely to get hurt in the first place if you cross at the corner, in the crosswalk.  You want to make sure you adhere to these codes, keeping yourself safe and protected.  As you know, make sure you go over these rules with your children, also. 

If you’ve been hurt in a pedestrian accident, give us a call and we’ll try to answer you questions and address you concerns.  A claim is not barred if the injured person was not in the crosswalk, especially if the person was a child —  you just need to talk to a personal injury lawyer right way to make sure you handle the case appropriately.  Take care and be safe.
Visit our website  www.riccololaw.com to learn what questions to ask your potential  attorney. We have downloadable, free guides on motorcycle, trucking and car accident cases or you can always call without charge or obligation and ask us questions 1-888- 546-6529.

No car accident claim is the same. With different circumstances for every accident, car accident claims differ greatly. Not every claim requires hiring an attorney to advocate for you.

     Hiring an attorney is an investment. Serious car crashes usually warrant that investment. Minor fender-benders often do not. If a car wreck results in a severe injuries or a need for a significant amount of medical care, hiring an attorney is usually a good move. If a car accident results only in vehicle damage or only in minor and temporary bodily injury, the cost of the attorney’s fee may outweigh any benefit that an attorney’s service can proved. The attorneys in our office will tell you if we do not believe that hiring an attorney is in your best interest.

For more information about car accidents in Iowa and how to protect your claim, go to Iowa Car Accident Facts to download a free 35-page guide.

You deserve compensation for your car accident injuries and as Cedar Rapids, Iowa, personal injury attorneys, we want to make sure you do. After a car accident, the other driver’s insurance company will contact you to collect information regarding the crash.  However, the insurance company is not serving to protect your best interests and may sometimes try to get you to say something that will harm your claim.

     Giving a recorded statement is not likely to make the other driver’s insurance company pay your medical bills any sooner. Not only is there usually any benefit to giving a recorded statement to an insurance company on your own but there is also a serious risk. Insurance company representatives are professionals trained to take recorded statements that can be used against you in court. In our experience, they ask specific questions that may result in damaging admissions from you that will reduce the value of your personal injury claim. If the other driver’s insurance company calls you after a car accident, we recommend that you politely tell them that you will be happy to speak to them – after you speak to your attorney.  Our firm protects our clients from the danger of recorded statements by only allowing them to be taken when one of our attorneys is present.

To protect yourself against other unfair tactics insurance companies may use, go to Iowa Car Accident Facts to download a free 35-page guide.

     Most car accident victims will receive a request from an insurance company to sign a medical release form.  Often, an insurance company representative will suggest that his or her company cannot start paying medical bills until it receives a signed medical release. Do not be bullied into signing one of these forms.
     The first thing to realize is that the other driver’s insurance company is not likely to pay any medical bills until you are willing to settle your case once and for all. Signing a medical release or any other insurance company document is not likely to change that. An insurance company is eventually entitled to review records of any medical treatment for which you ask to be reimbursed. In our experience, however, most medical release forms are written in such a way that they give the insurance company access to all of your medical records – even records that are unrelated to your accident injuries.

     Often insurance companies will then turn around and use your pre-accident health history as justification for making a low settlement offer. Our firm protects our clients from this tactic in a number of ways:

·         We advise our clients to avoid giving an insurance company a signed medical release until we have reviewed your medical records first

·         If our review uncovers items in your medical history that may impact your claim, we make sure that you know about them before the insurance company does

·         When we do provide the insurance company with a signed medical release, we make sure that the release only applies to relevant medical treatment

     To learn more ways to protect yourself from unfair insurance company tactics, go to Iowa Car Accident Facts to download a free 35-page guide.

Somehow the powers that be in the media find time to dig up the “crazy” lawsuits and imply (or outright announce) how awful  & common such lawsuits are and how they are going to jack up your insurance rates.   Never mind the truth is that such lawsuits are as rare as the dodo bird - they are kicked out of court, settled for peanuts, appealed, and never heard from again but the media doesn’t report this as it’s not as entertaining.   On the whole, Plaintiffs’ verdicts are less common and the amounts awarded are on average lower than ever.     Never mind insurance companies are raking in record profits.

Simultaneous to the media’s so-called reporting of “crazy” cases we are inundated with auto insurance ads about how wonderful your post-accident experience will be and how great you will be taken care of by the insurance company.   This combination of messages fosters a well-designed atmosphere of compliancy.  You think everything is going to be “OK” – if Heaven forbid – you are in an auto accident.   Given the messages put out by the powers that be - it’s somewhat understandable.   But you ought to do a little research, listen to the other side and makes sure what you are being told and sold is accurate  -  before it’s too late.

If you don’t, this myth will likely be shattered only when you or a loved one are in an auto accident.    For example, right now, I’m trying to help a young, hard-working gal who was broadsided by another car.   Our potential client had a green arrow and the other guy ran a red light before he hit her.    Despite this fact,  the very large insurance company’s adjuster told our gal she was 30% at fault and therefore he would only pay her 2/3 the value of her car.    Of course, when I called the adjuster he had yet to talk to any witnesses, he hadn’t contacted the policeman who issued his insured a citation, he hadn’t looked at the intersection, taken any measurements, or done any calculations.   In any other business this would be called “not doing your job”.   Not here though because his job is to pay as little money as possible – apparently this includes the use of jumping to conclusions or just plain ol’ makin’ it up as you go along.

If the public continues to blindly accept the media’s portrayal and the insurance companies’ sales pitch then - without question - the public will continue to realize they have been had – but the realization will come too late – and only one by one after these individuals have had the misfortune to suffer an accident, after they have been taken advantage of by an unscrupulous adjuster, and before they contact one of those lawyers that file “crazy” lawsuits.   You better believe there are folks out there banking on the fact that you will keep eating the spoon-fed message, you won’t do your homework, and by the time you realize there is a problem it will be too late.