When a person makes a negligent decision and harms someone else, they can be held accountable for their actions. In the majority of cases, a personal injury claim can be filed and the victim can seek compensation. In some cases, criminal charges may apply – like in the event of a drunk driver causes a traffic accident. Understanding deciding how to file can be overwhelming, especially when you’re recovering from injuries. We can help you understand your options, so you can make the best decision for you and your family.

When you’ve been through a lawsuit and are granted compensation, you have to decide if you want your money in a lump sum or in a structured settlement. Of course, both options have their advantages and disadvantages. Lump sums are beneficial immediately, whereas structured settlements are more helpful for long-term. If you’re thinking of choosing a structured settlement, you’ll need to know the pros and cons of the agreement.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), over a third of households in the U.S. own at least one dog. And the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) reports that there are about 78 million dogs in the U.S., and more than 4.5 million people are bitten by dogs each year. With numbers like that, dog owners should know about pet and animal attack laws in their state, so they know to be careful when bringing their pets into public.

In 2014, Maryland changed their animal attack laws to make dog owners strictly liable for injuries caused by their dog. With this law in place, it would be in owners’ best interests to practice responsible ownership and keep their dog on a leash when they’re not on their property. If not, the outcome could be serious.

After a car accident, you might not feel like you’re injured, but you could actually have a soft tissue injury. Soft tissue injuries could take hours or days to reveal themselves. The area might become swelled, bruised, or painful to move after a while, and that’s when you finally know you were hurt.

Since soft tissue injuries can take days to appear, it’s best to go to a doctor immediately after the accident even if you don’t think anything is wrong. The sooner you get seen by a doctor, the sooner you can start treating your injury.

When you’re in an accident that results in financial losses, it’s likely you want to find a way to get your life back in order as quickly as possible. If you’re considering filing a personal injury claim, you could come across a personal injury settlement calculator. It’s important to know that when you plug your estimations in, it’s unlikely that the total is what you would receive in a settlement. This is because those calculators are incredibly inaccurate. In order to understand why, you first need to know how they work.

Belsky, Weinberg & Horowitz is proud to host an annual scholarship aimed to help students obtain a higher education. The Fall 2019 submission period just came to a close, and we were humbled by the applications we received. Thank you to every student who applied!

We’re pleased to announce we’ve chosen a winner.

Congratulations to Andrew Laeuger of New Berlin, WI!

Andrew will be attending Northwestern University as a Physics major.

This was the essay topic:

“If you could change one event in U.S. history, what would it be and why?”

When you’re injured or traumatized in a car accident, it’s likely you want recovery to happen as fast as possible so you can return to work and get your life back in order. Unfortunately, certain injuries can take time to heal. In order to alleviate some of the stress associated with recovery, it’s important to look at it in increments. Starting with what to do in the hours after an accident and working up to the days, weeks, and months to come is a good way to prepare yourself for what recovery will mean based on the physical and emotional trauma you endured.

As an expecting parent, all you can think about is your baby and their health. If you’ve been meticulous about taking supplements, going to visits with doctors, and taking care of your own body, you can typically expect that your child will be born healthy. Although that’s usually the case, sometimes it’s not. Unfortunately, a baby can be injured during birth or have a genetic defect that you didn’t know about until they’re born.

When you go to a hospital for surgery, you are surrounded by medical professionals who know what they’re doing. Not only do they have complete knowledge of the surgery they’re completing and how your medical history factors in, but they also know what to do in an emergency situation. At a surgery center, that may not always be the case. While most surgical procedures at outpatient centers proceed without error, recent information has uncovered that some do not go as planned. A simple surgery at an outpatient center has the potential to turn deadly from a surgical error when something goes wrong.

If you’ve ever been in a life or death situation, you know how there’s often little time to act before something catastrophic happens. In some cases, there are those good-willed individuals who are willing to risk their safety to come to the aid of others. When this happens, there are often legal questions that arise after the fact as to whether or not the rescuer should be owed compensation for injuries they sustained because they were acting voluntarily. The answer to this question is yes.

According to the Rescue Doctrine, a rescuer can recover damages from a defendant when the rescuer is injured while helping someone. In order for an injured party to seek compensation through this doctrine, however, they need to be able to prove four specific elements. If you’ve been in a situation where you helped someone in an accident and were hurt as a result, our lawyers may be able to help you prove you are owed monetary damages for your losses.