Rules of the Holiday Road

Thanks to low gas prices, this weekend looks to be a historically busy one on our nation's highways and, you can bet, that will almost certainly go double here in car-heavy Southern California. As Los Angeles personal injury attorneys, the thought that naturally occurs to us is that, with all of those cars on the road, more injury accidents than usual are an inevitability.

So, yes, once again we're advising you to be extra safe when driving this holiday weekend. Of course, if you're planning a long road trip to visit family or a relatively nearby vacation spot like Las Vegas, the Bay Area, or San Diego today or tomorrow, you need to pay extra attention while driving. Especially if you're driving late at night, be on the lookout for drivers who are too tired -- or too chemically altered -- to drive safely. Large trucks and other vehicles also need to be paid their due respect.

On the other hand, your risk of a serious personal injury does not disappear should you spend the weekend in town. Notably, Time Magazine has reported that a study by Progressive Insurance also notes a fairly large spike in accidents on Black Friday. Admittedly, many of these are minor parking lot dents and fender-benders, but -- especially in parking lots -- there's always the threat of a serious collision, particularly if pedestrians are involved.

Even as people who are in the business, we can tell you for sure that the last thing anyone wants to do over the holidays is to spend time in the office of a personal injury lawyer. So, please, be careful out there, wherever "there" may be.

The Height of Head Injury Awareness

Over the past several years, player organizations representing competitors in many of America’s favorite contact sports have come forward with lawsuits or calls for change pertaining to their various leagues’ head injury policies. Beginning with football, and moving laterally to other sports as well as down to lower levels of play, the concerns are now being taken seriously by doctors, league officials, and personal injury attorneys.

Recently, much attention has been paid to youth soccer, where the U.S. Soccer organization has announced that it will start prohibiting headers in games of players aged 10 and under, while limiting the use of headers for players aged 11 to 13. This is aimed at eliminating head injuries caused by either a single concussion, or a buildup of trauma over the years. In fact, there were around 50,000 concussions suffered by high school soccer players in 2010, so the need for a reduction in these injuries is apparent.

Through his years of experience as a motorcycle accident lawyer, Cameron Yadidi Brock has spent a great deal of his time fighting for the rights of head injury patients, and has far too often seen the long-term damage that these injuries cause. If you or someone you love has suffered an injury due to the negligence of another party, call our Los Angeles personal injury attorneys today at (888) 979-7979.

Making Your Own Luck?

As we write this, it's Friday the 13th and there are some extremely upsetting stories going on in the international news. It's likely those two realities are not related, but it does get a personal injury lawyer thinking about the role of luck in determining who gets harmed in auto collisions and other seemingly random occurrence, and who doesn't.

We've all heard the expression, "you make your own luck," and it's undoubtedly largely true. In terms of auto safety, we can wear seat belts, drive as carefully as possible, make sure we have enough mirrors and other safety features, and ensure we are never at the wheel when we're too tired or are otherwise unfit to drive. We can even try to avoid being on the road extremely early in the morning when a lot of the worst accidents seem to happen. Of course, all of this can greatly reduce our chances of being involved in a serious personal injury accident...but it won't eliminate it completely. There's no reason to be fatalistic about things, but there's also no denying that there's a limit to the zone of safety we can create for ourselves.

As Los Angeles personal injury attorneys, we're definitely aware of the fact that -- while such incidents are, fortunately, relatively rare -- a person can do all the right things and still be the victim of a serious injury. Whether it's a drunk driver or an irresponsible property owner or manager, there are times when people simply have terrible luck. While there isn't a whole lot of comfort in that thought, at least we can try our best to help our clients obtain some redress after the fact.

When it’s Truly Unprecedented

When it comes to personal injury law, some cases are much more cut and dried than others. Some cases involve negligence that is so apparent that the only thing that the lawsuit is meant to decide is exactly how much the plaintiff will receive in damages. There are a great many personal injury attorneys out there that only take these easy cases in order to pad their success rate, or to reduce their own personal workload. At the Law Offices of Burg & Brock, we are willing to fight for deserving clients even if it means having to convince the court of their merit.

When a case goes to trial rather than being settled, that is when the real work of a skilled personal injury lawyer comes in. Often, when preparing a strategy for a case, lawyers can turn to past legal precedents as a means for proving that their client deserves compensation. While these are certainly helpful guides for building a case, there many cases whose circumstances are unique to any known past occurrence, so it is up to the legal team to establish a strong legal argument on behalf of their client. At the Law Offices of Burg and Brock, that is what we aim to do for each and every client.