Posts Tagged ‘ Personal Injury ’

DIY Legal Help: Do you Really Need a Lawyer?

November 3rd, 2011. By

LawyersandSettlements.com receives a lot of inquiries asking whether or not it’s really necessary to obtain a lawyer if you’re trying to file a lawsuit. Pleading Ignorance is responding to all those questions and the answer is…yes, and no. But there’s a very simple and basic “litmus test” you can try to help you figure out what—or who—you need..

One way to help determine whether you’d benefit from having a lawyer is to consider how much is in it for you. Now, that might sound a bit opportunistic, and to some degree it is—but it’s also the reality of most personal injury lawsuits: someone’s been injured, someone caused the injury, and damages will be due. The question everyone wants the answer to is “how much?”

While you won’t be able to gauge exactly how much you might receive in damages—nor will anyone else until your case unfolds–you probably will have an estimate of what your out-of-pocket expenses have been for things like medical care, physical therapy, car repairs, lost wages…things like that. Once you add those up so you have a rough estimate (keeping in mind it will most likely not include everything you might be able seek damages for in an actual lawsuit), your next step is to visit your state’s Small Claims Court information center to find out what the maximum damages your state allows are—that’s the maximum you’d be allowed to recover in Small Claims Court.

If your expenses, as a result of the harm or injury done to you or your property, exceed your state’s maximum allowed damages in Small Claims Court, chances are you’ll need to consider a formal civil lawsuit, which in most instances will require a lawyer. Formal civil lawsuits need to follow civil procedure (i.e., “Rules of Civil Procedure”), and that process tends to be a bit (ok, a lot) more complicated for most folks. So if you’re seeking to recover damages that exceed what you’d potentially recover from Small Claims Court, an attorney can help you navigate the process and the filing of all the necessary forms and paperwork.

The following is a list of links for each state’s Small Claims Court information:

If after reviewing the expenses associated with your injury you conclude that the damages you’re seeking would be more than what your state Small Claims Court allows, you can submit a complaint for an attorney to review here.

For additional state legal news and information, visit our State Law Pages.

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Posted in Emerging Issues, lawsuits, Lawyers | 2 Comments »

Attorney Reeves Whalen Picks Fights for Good Causes

June 13th, 2011. By

Lawyers Giving Back looks at a side of lawyers you don’t hear too much about—the side that gives back…pays it forward..and shares the love. We’ve found quite a number of attorneys who log non-billable hours helping others—simply because they believe it’s the right thing to do. Their stories are inspiring, and hey, who knew lawyers were so…good? If you’ve got a story to share about an attorney who’s doing the right thing, let us know—we’d love to let others know, too. Today, we’re talking with attorney Reeves Whalen of Burg Simpson…

Attorney Reeves Whalen: “…whenever you have an opportunity to see how others live it changes…what you are willing to do to help other people.”

Attorney Reeves Whalen epitomizes the idea that we are the sum total of our experiences. Raised in Massachusetts in a family of five biological and six adopted siblings, including a younger brother and sister who are disabled, an older brother with Down’s Syndrome, two African American siblings, a Hispanic brother and a Native American sister, Whalen comes to the table, any table in fact, with a depth and understanding few other young lawyers can match.

Attorney Reeves Whalen helping at a Girls Orphanage in Haiti

“I think the lessons I learned from my childhood gave me a barometer to assess right and wrong and have definitely led me to a place where I feel pretty comfortable picking my fights,” says Whalen, who joined the Burg Simpson law firm after graduating from the University of Denver in 2007.

Whalen was nominated for the 2010 Colorado Bar Association’s Outstanding Young Attorney Award and recently named to the Denver Business Association’s Top 40 under 40 list. He is part of Burg Simpson’s mass tort litigation team and involved in Yaz birth control litigation and the DePuy hip replacement litigation. He also is managing a number of other personal injury files. At 32, Whalen is just getting started.

“Burg Simpson has always been committed to helping families in dire situations when they’ve been injured or hurt by large commercial interests. I am proud to be associated with this law firm. Just as I am in my personal life, people here are dedicated to the idea that when someone falls down you step in and help them.”

And for Whalen, stepping in to help goes far beyond the confines of the office or the courtroom. In 2009, before the earthquake brought international attention Haiti’s unfathomable problems, Whalen, inspired by a book about a doctor working in Haiti, did a tour of duty helping build an orphanage 3 hours from Port Au Prince.

“It was pretty scary actually,” says Whalen. “There’s no electricity, no clean water and no healthcare really. You are talking about a country that has 200,000 kids orphaned by the AIDS epidemic and over 50 percent of the population can’t read,” says Whalen who was there working with the Center of Hope organization. 

Whalen also serves on the board of Save Our Youth (SOY), a Denver organization that emerged from the city’s problem with gang violence and offers mentorship to at-risk young people. “I personally mentor two young African-American brothers, one 14 and the other 17,” says Whalen who says he is attracted to projects that focus on education.

“There are good things out there worth fighting for, it changes your perspective on the world and there are a lot of worthy causes out there,” says Whalen who recently drove all night to get to an Indian reservation in South Dakota to participate as a guest teacher at a Native American history class.

“I think whenever you have an opportunity to see how others live it changes how you think and changes what you are willing to do to help other people,” adds Whalen.

Reeves Whalen is a graduate of Denver University of Denver Sturm College of Law. Whalen specializes in commercial litigation, products liability and personal injury cases at Burg Simpson. He has helped raise funds to finance a group of medical professionals who traveled to Haiti to assist in the earthquake relief efforts. In 2010, Whalen organized a Continuing Legal Education seminar on Immigration Reform.

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Posted in Emerging Issues, Lawyers Giving Back | 3 Comments »

5 Lawyer Quotes we loved from 2009

December 27th, 2009. By

Lawyer Quotes we loved in '09Memorable, thought-provoking, grounded in principle—and one that capped off an emotional trial in New Orleans and marked a victory long overdue—the following are some quotes from attorneys we interviewed in 2009…(in no particular order)…

1. Ron Goldman, Baum, Hedlund Aristei & Goldman:

On plane crash lawsuits…

“The ultimate objective of every member of the plaintiff’s aviation bar that I know who regularly handles aviation cases, is to reveal the dangers in aircraft and in the aviation system to enhance the safety of aviation,” Goldman says. “That’s our major objective. It’s not just about getting an award for the plaintiffs, it’s about making aviation safer.” 

2. Michael Levine: RappaportGlassGreen & Levine:  Lawyer quotes we loved in '09

On personal injury lawsuits…

“I always tell my clients, just tell it like it is,” says Levine. “I have told my clients two and a half million times that there is no substitute for the truth. The truth never hurts you.”

3. Andrew Stoltmann, Stoltmann Law Offices:

On stockbrokers who pilfer money from their clients…when it comes to arguing his case to recover money, Stoltmann says he goes down his four-letter checklist (aka “SCUM”): 

S – was the investment suitable for the client given their age and risk tolerance

C – was the investor’s account churned or repeatedly rolled over in order to earn fees for the broker

U – were the trades and changes in the account unauthorized

M – were the risks and type of investment misrepresented to the client

On the stockbrokers themselves: “How can they sleep at night?” says Stoltmann. “They sleep very nicely in their mansions.” 

4. Joseph M. Bruno, the Law Office of Joseph M. Bruno:

On the federal court ruling that the Army Corp of Engineers which built the canal linking New Orleans to the Gulf of Mexico, was to blame for the catastrophic flooding that followed Hurricane Katrina… 

“The people of New Orleans are vindicated,” said Bruno before a throng of media representatives. “They (the Army Corps of Engineers) can no longer hide behind an immunity. It is time for the people of this city to be compensated.”

5. Norah Hart, Treuhaft & Zakarin:

On the high percentage of Match.com profiles that were allegedly still shown as “reachable” even though the profiles did not belong to active subscribers…

“A simple analogy is—I sell you a six pack of ginger ale and two of the cans are empty,” says Hart. “If I sold you six cans and you believe that all six are the same, but they are not. Four of them are what you are looking for and two of them are empty—now how do you feel about that?”

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Posted in Lawyers | No Comments »

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