Practice Areas

Personal Injury & Torts - the body of law that involves civil law cases seeking to obtain compensation for injuries to your person. The personal injury attorney seeks to negotiate with the opposing party or their insurance company. If necessary, the case may proceed to litigation and/or trial. The main issues in a personal injury case are negligence, liability and damages. Before you can receive compensation, your attorney will have to establish that the defendant is liable. To establish liability, the attorney must prove negligence. A failure to exercise reasonable care to prevent injury or damage may constitute negligence. Once liability and negligence have been established, the judge or the jury may award money to compensate for medical costs, lost wages and lost future earnings, as well as for pain and suffering.

Premises Liability, Dog Bite, Slip/Trip & Fall cases - cases in which a person is injured by a dangerous condition found on or in the design of the premises such as a place of business, a home or a street. This area of law would also include dog bite cases.

Automobile, Motorcycle and Trucking Accident cases - those in which a person is injured because another driver drove negligently and caused an accident. This may involve a negligently designed or maintained roadway. Sometimes it involves cases in which a driver was intoxicated and a tavern or bar may be at fault for over-serving that person.

Wrongful death claims have a lot in common with claims that involve injuries less serious than death. In Ohio, these claims are governed exclusively by statute. In general, wrongful death claims are those in which a person has been killed through the negligence of another. Two categories of damages are generally available: compensation for relatives who have suffered loss because of the person's death; and compensation for the pain and suffering the victim himself or herself suffered prior to death.

Insurance Bad Faith- cases usually involve the refusal and/or delay by an insurance company to adequately investigate, evaluate and/or adjust claims submitted by its insured. This may arise in situations where the insured is at fault for causing damage or injury to another and his own liability insurer fails to protect him by timely and properly adjusting and settling the claims against him. Sometimes this occurs when the insured submits claims for coverage to their own insurer for payment and the insurer refuses to timely pay the claim (for example, medical payments coverage or uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage), leaving the insured exposed to bill collectors. The failure to pay disability claims by an insured may also give rise to this type of case.

Highway Design cases involve claims in which injury has occurred due to the negligent design or maintenance of a roadway. Typical cases may involve inadequate signage, defects in the roadway, poor slope or curve design, dangerous passing lanes, inadequate protection during phases of road construction, etc.

So-called "DRAM SHOP" or TAVERN/OVER-SERVING cases- are those in which there has been injury to a person as a result of intoxication. Frequently this is seen in the context of an auto collision case where alcohol is involved or sometimes in cases where there has been a fight or other similar incident resulting from drinking in a bar. A claim against the establishment may be viable if there is evidence that the person causing the injury was intoxicated and that he was over-served by bar's employees (waiter or bartender) despite his intoxication.

Most cases involving personal injury trial lawyers are cases in which INSURANCE exists to cover the losses occasioned by the injury. Insurance is a contractual relationship in which a person (or business entity) pays money (premiums) to an insurance company in exchange for which the insurance company insures against the risk of losses. Automobile insurance and homeowner's insurance are only two common examples. Sometimes, however, insurance matters can lead to disputes as to whether the type of loss is covered by the subject insurance policy. If the insurance company concludes there is no coverage, the insured might need to sue the insurer in order to have the court rule on whether or not the loss is covered, in what is known as a declaratory judgment action.