Injury Attorney News in Columbia SC -Truck Overturns (Vehicle Accident)

A truck accident happened in a nearby town a few days ago…

“2 killed when truck overturns in Lexington”

http://www.thestate.com/local/story/895512.html

A vehicle accident like this case has wrongful death, personal injury, and potential workers’ comp implications which an injury attorney would want to jump right on.  First of all, the family of the passenger would have a wrongful death claim against the driver, since it was apparently a one-car accident.  Either of the occupants would have a workers’ comp claim which a workers’ compensation attorney would want to investigate if they were on the job at the time of the wreck.  Again, this is true regardless of who was at fault in the accident.  This is the kind of case that a competent wrongful death attorney, or injury lawyer, handles on a fairly regular basis.

Punitive Damages In A Hit and Run Case

Being an injury attorney in Columbia, SC, I take calls quite frequently from prospective clients who wonder if they may have a case.

Recently, I took a call from a prospective client who had been hit while walking across a crosswalk. The driver then sped away and left the scene, leaving the person injured.

The injured party received a call several days later from the police.

They had located the hit and run driver and he had been charged him departing the scene of an accident involving a bodily injury.

My prospective client will be able to pursue a personal innjury claim for punitive damages against the driver, as well as any claim for the actual injuries caused in the accident.

“Punitive damages” are a legal method of deterring this kind of conduct and punishing the perpetrator.  Fortunately, punitive damages are covered by liability insurance in South Carolina, so this has a good chance of being a successful punitive damage claim.

Injury Attorney Talks About “Proving Negligence”

This is an example of a case where proving negligence was the real key to the case.

I had a case a few years ago, where a horse got out through a hole in a fence, entered a road, and caused a severe crash with substantial injuries.  The issue became whether the horse owner had taken reasonable precautions to keep the horse confined, and we argued that he had not.

We tried to find witnesses, for example, who could testify that the fence had been in disrepair for a great length of time.  Often in these types of cases, there is no absolute right or wrong answer.  It all comes down to whether the defendant was negligent, which simply means that they were careless.  This is the kind of thing an injury attorney such as Best and Flatt, P.A. deals with all the time.