Personal Injury Blog

When you sustain a personal injury because of another party’s negligence, you will likely need medical treatment and will have ongoing healthcare needs related to the injury. For residents of Northern California who rely on Medicaid (or Medi-Cal, in California) for healthcare, you can continue to anticipate that your injury-related treatment will be covered. In other words, you will not be responsible for paying the upfront costs associated with your recovery.

If you live in California and you are involved in a car accident, the driver who caused the accident is responsible for paying for it. However, drivers rarely pay for accidents that they cause out of pocket – instead, they turn to their auto insurance liability policies to pay for damages.

Unfortunately, this happens way too often. In the case of a severe injury that permanently prevents you from returning to work, the first thing we do is try…

A very common question we get is whether or not you need money in advance to hire us, and with our firm, you do not ever need money…

When your minor child is injured due to the negligent actions of another, you may feel outraged, heartbroken, and extremely worried about what your child’s future may hold. Further, you may be thinking about filing a personal injury claim on your child’s behalf, but may have questions regarding what will happen to the money your child recovers based on the fact that they are a minor.

No one expects to get hurt on a bus when they climb aboard to get to work or to travel for vacation. However, bus accidents happen much more often than they should in California, and people get hurt. In many cases, the bus company can be held liable for injuries sustained in an accident. If you or someone you love got hurt in a bus accident, there are some important things you need to know about filing a claim. If you are injured on a bus, and it is a public bus–AC Transit, San Francisco Muni, anything like that–then the rules change a little bit. Number one, if it is the fault of the bus company then instead of having two years in which to file the lawsuit you only have six months within which to file a claim and then additional time to file a lawsuit. Secondly, if you are injured on a bus, then the bus is held to a much higher standard than if you were a passenger in a friend’s car. It’s called the Common Carrier Rule.

One question that some people ask me just when they’re hiring me is, “Can you settle my case without my consent?” The answer to this question is simply…

Accident victims often wonder: Is my personal injury settlement taxable by the IRS or the state of California? This is very much an understandable concern; after all, everything in life is taxed right? Fortunately, ninety-nine percent of the time, your recovery from a personal injury case will not be taxable. Indeed, that is simply the way the law is set up. For the most part, your personal injury recovery is tax-free money that you receive. Even better, not only is it tax-free (which means that you don’t owe taxes) but, generally, you don’t even report your settlement to the IRS.

Were you injured recently in a car crash or another accident in Northern California? You might be asking yourself: who will pay for my medical bills, and will using my health insurance cause my coverage to go up? Nobody who gets hurt in an accident resulting from another party’s negligence should have to pay for the costs of care.

How do courts calculate loss of earnings for self-employed plaintiffs in car accident and other personal injury cases? This can be actually a fairly complex issue. If you work for an employer, it’s pretty simple. If you’re out for two months your employer fills out a form that says what you would have earned, but if you’re self-employed and you have your own business then it gets a little tricky and the reason it gets tricky is because your earnings probably vary.

The latest annual report on motor vehicle collisions from the California Highway Patrol has a ton of information about what’s happening on California roads and highways, with extensive datasets on alcohol- and truck-involved collisions and more tightly focused summaries of collisions involving pedestrians, motorcycles, and bicycles.

A common question we hear at GJEL Accident Attorneys is, “I don’t feel hurt after my car accident. Should I see a doctor?”. After an accident, your adrenaline…

View the most dangerous Intersections for Bay Area Cyclists with this interactive map provided by GJEL Accident Attorneys.

It’s true–what you say or post on social media after an injury or even a more general legal dispute can completely wreck your personal injury case. With seven…

Last week, we looked at the number of motor vehicle injuries occurring in the San Jose area and concluded that traffic safety around GJEL’s San Jose office is getting worse. According to California’s latest traffic records, the number of collisions leading to injury increased each year from 2013 to 2015 and was trending up again through the first half of 2016. Full-year results for 2016 should be available in August.

Whether driving or riding in a passenger seat, there’s no way to guarantee your safety in a car, on any day of the year. But you can educate yourself about local traffic safety risks. If everybody knew when and where collisions occur, we would all have a better chance to stay out of harm’s way.

Through nearly 40 years of representing accident victims and families, GJEL has shown that many injuries suffered on the roads are preventable. Our efforts to improve traffic safety extend far beyond the legal process. We sponsor organizations such as the California Bicycle Coalition to advocate for safe and viable transportation alternatives. When we learn about traffic safety risks, we encourage friends and neighbors to stay out of harm’s way.

These innovative Dutch-inspired designs (amongst the first dozen built in the U.S.) seek to maintain physical separation between drivers and bicyclists through an intersection.

While car, truck, and motorcycle accidents can happen anywhere, there are some roads that are significantly more dangerous than others.

After several years of anticipation, the expansion of Bay Area Bike Share (recently rebranded as Ford GoBike) from 700 to 7,000 bikes will finally commence Spring 2017…

A typical personal injury claim against an individual defendant resolves in one of two ways: (1) settlement with the defendant, or (more commonly) his or her insurer, either…

There are plenty of accessories you can buy for your commuter cyclist friends this holiday season. Here are five gift ideas that can help keep riders out of harm’s way.

Tennyson Road is one of Hayward’s major backbones for people walking and biking, but it is also one of the City’s most dangerous.

Recently, the City made a perplexing change to the design that relocated the parking attendant kiosk into the middle of the bike lane…

Santa Cruz County is in the midst of a debate over how to relieve gridlock along Highway 1. Traffic congestion has continued to worsen in recent years along the four lane freeway, to the point that an 18 mile one-way commute to or from Watsonville can take in excess of an hour each way.

According to the Washington Post of July 11, 2016, although Pokemon Go (the latest summertime craze made by Niantic, Nintendo, and the Pokemon Company) was released just five…

Oakland’s parking enforcement officers have been criticized recently for their lack of enforcement of illegal and unsafe parking behavior along Telegraph’s new protected bike lanes. Yesterday, parking enforcement…

A month after unveiling a road diet on Telegraph Avenue featuring Oakland’s first protected bike lanes, Telegraph remains a mess. Obstructions of the bike lanes are seemingly never-ending as confused and/or negligent drivers continue to park alongside the curb. While growing pains are normal for innovative projects that disrupt the status quo, the sustained chaos on Telegraph has been troubling.

GJEL Accident Attorneys only handles serious injury & wrongful death cases.  What is a Contingency Fee? Contingency fee contracts (contracts in which a fee is payable to an…

Earlier this week, GM CEO Mary Barra said she believes self-driving vehicles should continue to include steering wheels, brake pedals and accelerators as the technology develops. The state of California has already taken this position, requiring a licensed driver at the helm of all self-driving cars.

What is the role of a private investigator? In short, the private investigator helps to determine the series of events that led to the car accident in which you sustained your injuries. You might be asking yourself: why do I need to work with a private investigator? Law firms across Northern California, and indeed across the country, rely on the services of private investigators to obtain specific information about an accident and to help determine who may be liable for injuries that occurred.

After nearly two decades of planning, the timeline for completion of the Silicon Valley BART extension remains uncertain. Later this year, BART will open a five mile, $890…

What Is Road Rage? The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration defines road rage as “criminal act[s] of violence,” a product of aggressive driving, like tailgating, speeding, and running…

There is a growing consensus that building a second Transbay Tube is critical to the Bay Area’s future. Transbay ridership has skyrocketed in recent years – MTC’s ongoing…

Oakland’s new buffered bike lanes continue to experience frequent blockages due to illegal double parking. Robert Prinz of Bike East Bay recently posted a video of Webster Street…

As common law doctrines evolve, sometimes their rationale, and proper application, can get lost; that can be because of just one “less than thoughtful” reported appellate decision. One…

The Oakland Police Department issued a press release on Wednesday announcing a pedestrian safety enforcement operation on Monday, February 1st. The press release notes increasing rates of pedestrian…

Tonight (Thursday January 14th) at 7:00 PM, the Lafayette Circulation Commission will review a dangerous double-wide roundabout proposal at the intersection of Pleasant Hill Road and Olympic Boulevard,…

Bay Area traffic is worse than ever. Whereas traffic jams were once restricted to typical rush hour (7-9 AM, 4-6 PM), congestion now extends earlier and later past…

In motor vehicle personal injury or wrongful death cases where the responsible driver was allegedly intoxicated, the injured plaintiff may want to consider seeking an award of punitive…

On Tuesday morning, Jeffrey Donnelly of Palo Alto was tragically killed while riding a bicycle on Page Mill Road near I-280. Riding along a popular recreational cycling route,…

BART’s ridership is booming. On a typical weekday, BART carries 423,000 passengers – an increase of 26 percent since 2010. While BART’s crowding problems during commute hours are…

California’s “primary assumption of the risk” doctrine was first set forth in Knight v. Jewett (1992) 3 Cal.4th 296. That case involved a plaintiff’s claim for personal injuries…

If you’ve recently traveled along I-80 in the East Bay, you may have noticed new electronic signage and metering lights. Caltrans is currently putting the finishing touches on…

As protected bike lanes become more common across the U.S., the way in which we design intersections is also evolving. American cities are on the cusp of implementing…

The City of Oakland recently unveiled a new pedestrian signal policy intended to streamline the implementation of more pedestrian-friendly intersections. We’ve written at length about how Oakland’s implementation…

At long last, the Uptown Bike Station opened this week adjacent to BART’s 19th Street Station. The Bike Station offers free, secure bike parking between the hours of…

The practical answer is whether you’re on the proper side of the road or the improper side of the road, if you are riding safely and a vehicle…

This month, Hövding released an updated version of their “invisible” bike helmet that has taken Europe by storm. The Swedish startup produces an unobtrusive collar for cyclists that…

Los Angeles is famous for freaking out when it rains. Recently, Noah Deneau, an electrical engineer from Austin, Texas, graphically illustrated the effect of rain on the rate…

In California tort litigation arising from a wrongful death, the question often arises as to whether plaintiff claimants bear legal responsibility for the pre-death medical expenses of their…

Pursuant to Rule of Court 2.550(c) and its predecessor, California court records have long been “presumed to be open” to the public, absent exceptions for confidentiality required by…

During the height of California’s highway boom from the 1950s through the 1970s, Caltrans bulldozed through hundreds of neighborhoods to construct freeways. The economic and environmental toll on…

For the vast majority of people, signal timing is not an exciting subject. Apart from traffic engineers and a select group of superwonks, few people pay attention to…

Construction on the much-anticipated first segment of the East Bay Greenway has stalled due to delays from unexpected levels of soil contamination. The 0.5 mile, $3.56 million project…

As Bay Area cities redesign their streets to better accommodate safe bicycling, key gaps in the region’s infrastructure become ever more apparent. Much of the growth in bicycling…

As San Francisco develops safer street designs to better accommodate people walking and biking, an unlikely opposition group has emerged: the San Francisco Fire Department (SFFD). SFFD has…

As we’ve examined previously both here and here, the Dangerous by Design 2014 report contains a wealth of valuable information on the pedestrian safety crisis in the United…

It happens more than it should. Someone (here we will call her Ms. H.) invites some friends, maybe a lot of friends and maybe their friends as well,…

Crosswalk countdown signals are an increasingly common tool to inform pedestrians precisely how much time they have to cross the street. The idea behind these signals is that…

Recently we discussed the ongoing battle between California cities and Caltrans over street design, most notably cycle tracks. As it turns out, Caltrans just announced its official endorsement…

The Affordable Care Act actually gives a lot more confidence to me as an attorney in settling a client’s case because prior to the Affordable Care Act, even…

As a general rule, whether you have us get you a settlement from the insurance company or whether we get you a verdict from the insurance company, that…

Almost two months after a jury verdict finding a public entity liable for decedent’s wrongful death, counsel for both sides finally agreed at a post-trial mediation, tentatively, to…

This article explores a problem of statutory interpretation that arises in California when divorced parents are entitled to wrongful death recovery for the death of their child: i.e.,…

Assume the following factual scenario: a serious car accident occurs, injuring the plaintiff. Just after the accident, the insured defendant called her husband and discussed, in detail, the…

Bike accidents at night without lights or reflective gear are very difficult cases, understandably. On the other hand, there are exceptions and we have successfully handled these cases….

Much like you can’t yell “fire” in a crowded movie theater, it would appear yelling “bingo” in a crowded bingo hall is also off the table. Earlier this…

When it comes to making poor decisions behind the wheel, drunk driving and distracted driving get the bulk of the attention, but numbers show drivers impaired by fatigue…

California is now the third state to legalize driverless cars, joining the ranks of Nevada and Florida in paving the way for what might be the new technology’s…

In the six states where texting and driving is still legal, employers are being placed in the unenviable position of having to discourage those driving on their behalf…

According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, states that have adopted Graduated Drivers Licensing programs (GDL) have seen accident rates drop anywhere from 10 to 30 percent…

Frank Douma is a Research Fellow and the Associate Director of the Humphrey School of Public Policy at the University of Minnesota, as well as a Research Scholar…

Safe Moves is one the most well-regarded street safety organizations in California. Led by the tireless efforts of Pat Hines, Safe Moves has won a number of national…

For decades, Mothers Against Drunk Driving has provided a voice for the families and victims of drunk driving. They’ve effectively advocated for stricter penalties and better methods of…