Washington DC Injury Lawyer

This blog is presented by Chamille Kittles, a Maryland personal injury attorney with Price Benowitz LLP. The firm services Virginia and Maryland. If you are in need of a Virginia personal injury attorney please contact us.

It's not just talking and texting on the cell phone that leads to distracted driving. If your cognitive attention is focused elsewhere - on work, kids, trouble at home, or even simple errands like items you need from the grocery store - you are a distracted driver.

As a distracted driver, your focus on driving and those driving in the cars around you suffer. If you are distracted while driving - for any reason - you are less likely to scan the roads and focus on other cars on the roadway with you, as you should. This applies to all motorists, regardless of age and driving experience. Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have actually studied the effects of cognitive demands on driving ability. Safe drivers have been found to routinely scan the road in front of and around them; however, those whom are distracted tend to forget about repeat scanning. In other words, if you are preoccupied with things other than driving, you cannot pay full time and attention to driving and operating your vehicle in a safe manner.

Carmakers and federal road-safety officials met on Capitol Hill in mid-March 2012 as part of The Department of Transportation's initiative to reduce driving distractions and issue guidelines for in-car technology. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood has been spearheading the effort in a steady push to make the roads less hazardous and bring down the number of car accidents nationwide as our individual technology progressively increases. Therefore, guidelines have been proposed that would require auto manufacturers to make sure that in-car technology will be disabled to a certain extent while vehicles are in use in an attempt to reduce driver distraction. Carmakers agree that these steps are imperative and need to take place; however, they also urge
lawmakers to include cellphone and GPS device makers in on the conversation.

When you are behind the wheel of a car it's important to concentrate on driving and on nothing else. Distracted drivers are dangerous drivers and, often, are the cause of accidents. When drivers are distracted they may miss another driver's lane change, brake lights on the car in front of them or even move to an exit lane too late thereby causing an accident. If you've been injured in a car accident and believe the other driver was at fault and was negligent because they were driving while distracted, a personal injury attorney can help to evaluate your case and advise you on the issues and legal recourse available to you in a personal injury claim.

National safety statistics leave little room for doubt--a distracted driver is an unsafe driver, and one who may very well be the cause of a severe car accident. We've all heard stories, even jokes, about the multitude of activities (other than watching the road) that take place while driving: the young driver fiddling with radio stations, the teenager flipping through his iPod music stash, the woman applying make-up, the gentleman enjoying a meal hastily grabbed on the way home or fully engaged in reading the newspaper while navigating through rush hour traffic. For years now, we've been able to add cell phone use to this list of driving distractions.

Many states are implementing or have already implemented laws restricting the use of mobile devices while driving. Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia all prohibit, to some degree, the use of cell phones for those behind the wheel. While text messaging behind the wheel is forbidden by all, regulations limiting drivers to hands-free technology vary somewhat. And, even with these laws in place, the degree of attention given to monitoring and enforcing the law differs. If you've been injured in a car accident and believe the other party is to blame, perhaps on account of cell phone use, an experienced Virginia personal injury attorney may be of assistance in establishing liability and filing a personal injury claim.

Your attorney will advise you of your rights, help you navigate what may be a confusing legal system, work with insurance companies, and, if necessary, represent you at trial. If you believe your case involves cell phone usage, your attorney will work--via usage records indicating time, location, and manner of use--to prove that cell phone distraction was the cause of the other driver's negligence.

Each state has its own statute of limitations that spells out the time-frame within which a personal injury claim may be filed, some with filing windows as short as thirty days. If you're suffering from accident-related injuries and medical expenses--for surgery, at home care, rehabilitation, or medications--loss of wages, and/or pain and suffering, you may have the right to compensation. However, a timely filing is imperative--a delay may translate to a forfeiture of your rights under the law.
Price Benowitz LLP also handles matters concerning to many other type of accidents. In order to contact a Maryland car accident lawyer please call our firm.

Claremont, California is a tourist spot that attracts a lot of individuals who may not be aware of negligence laws in the city. Negligence in Claremont, for example, is when a driver is careless or reckless and subsequently injures another. A lot of these injuries manifest in the form of head injuries and they're most common with the driver of the vehicle, a motorcycle rider, pedestrian, or a bicycle rider. If you've suffered a head injury due to negligence you need to have your rights protected and this is why.

Brain injuries can have serious health complications that include headaches, vision changes, loss of motor skills, seizures, and in extreme cases they can lead to a coma. The amount of time it takes for the brain to recover and heal can be weeks or even months; in some cases the damage can be permanent. All of this time healing often means that individuals cannot enjoy a normal life or employment, leaving a lasting impact on the victim and the victim's family.

The most prominent head injuries at the moment are football related, but while the media loves to talk about them, football related injuries are few in number compared to traffic and work accidents. When the head injury is the result of actions by another party in a car accident or workplace incident, you have the right to hold that party legally responsible. If such an injury occurs, you'll want to speak to a Claremont brain injury lawyer.

An injury lawyer is going to have the experience and resources necessary to file this type of legal claim, a claim that can often be complex and involve more than one party. For example, if the brain injury was the result of a car accident, the driver's insurance company can also be held responsible. An injury lawyer will be able to investigate the accident and use reconstruction specialists and medical professionals to take pictures of the injury from an MRI ; the pictures can help determine the amount of damage done in the accident.

All of this will help you and your attorney prove negligence while battling against a team of attorneys hired by the insurance company.. An experienced brain injury attorney will evaluate the evidence from the scene of the accident and from medical examinations to determine the amount of compensation the victim needs to cover medical bills, lost wages, and other associated costs.

For a California brain injury lawyer, contact Michael Ehline of Ehline Law Firm PC. They are a Claremont car accident attorneys located at: 201 Wilshire Blvd. #2, Santa Monica, CA 90401. 310-376-8488.