While it may seem counter-intuitive, an important component of preserving the value of your Mississippi personal injury claim is to take proper steps to reduce the severity of the damages that you suffer because of your accident.  This may seem like a foreign concept because the level of compensation one receives is directly related to the seriousness of one’s injuries and the extent of one’s financial loss.  However, an injury victim in a personal injury case in Mississippi has a duty to “mitigate” damages.  This means that an injury victim often has a legal obligation to take steps to minimize the losses suffered even if these losses are caused through no fault of the injury victim.

The duty of a plaintiff in a Mississippi personal injury lawsuit to minimize damages may take many forms ranging from seeking reasonably prompt medical care from an appropriate health care professional, completing one’s physical therapy or course of treatment, and even seeking appropriate employment retraining if one’s injuries prevent one from engaging in the same type of work after one’s injuries. When a plaintiff fails to take measures to mitigate damages, the defendant may argue that compensation be denied for injuries that resulted or were exacerbated by the failure of the plaintiff to take steps to reduce the magnitude of injury or loss.

There are several common forms of mitigation that may be relevant if you are injured and seeking damages in a personal injury case arising from a car accident, slip and fall, construction accident or any other type of accident or intentional criminal act.

Failure to Seek Prompt Medical Care: The prognosis for many injuries and medical conditions can be impacted by how soon appropriate medical treatment is obtained.  A head injury may seem minor, but a delay in treatment may result in pressure on the brain from bleeding in the space between the brain and the skull.  This can cause permanent brain damage and even fatalities.  In this type of situation, a defendant might argue that an accident victim who refused medical treatment after an accident failed to mitigate damages.

Seeking Employment Retraining: Some Mississippi personal injury victims are not able to continue in the same occupation after suffering serious injuries in an accident.  However, a person may still have an obligation to seek other work for which one has skills or to seek retraining.  While you may be entitled to compensation for any reduced earning capacity, you are not necessarily excused from seeking employment or training for employment that you are physically or mentally competent to engage in.

Failure to Complete Treatment: If your doctor prescribes an ongoing course of treatment or physical therapy, it is important that you follow through on all treatment modalities recommended by your medical provider.  The failure to complete treatment may be considered a failure to mitigate damages.

Although these are not the only form of mitigation of damages that may be required in a Mississippi personal injury case, the bottom line is that the obligation to mitigate damages should be complied with to avoid compromising the value of your personal injury claim.  If you or someone you love is injured or a family member dies because of the negligent or intentional misconduct of another, you may be able to seek damages for your injuries and loss.  At the Barrett Law Offices PLLC, our experienced Mississippi personal injury lawyers represent injury victims throughout Mississippi.  Our law firm has roots that reach back 75 years so contact us today for your free initial consultation at (662) 834-2376 to see how we can help.

Discovering that someone you love is suffering from mesothelioma is an emotionally devastating experience.  While this disease is usually the result of exposure to asbestos often in a workplace environment, it is possible to develop mesothelioma on a secondhand basis.  Mesothelioma is caused by inhalation of asbestos fibers or dust which causes a number of diseases to the lungs including mesothelioma.  Mesothelioma affects the cells in the mesothelium, which is a lining that surrounds the lungs, heart and stomach.

Our experienced and compassionate team of Mississippi mesothelioma attorneys at Barrett Law have seen firsthand the pain and emotional hardships that mesothelioma victims face, and we are passionately committed to seeking financial compensation for those who have been effected by this disease.  Although asbestos is no longer used because of the severe health risk associated with the substance, the product continued to be manufactured and used long after its harmful effects were known.

Asbestos was used in many industrial setting including factories, construction, automotive repair shops, shipyards and other settings.  Although there are many occupations where people may have been exposed to asbestos, it is easy to determine if you were exposed because asbestos is the exclusive cause of mesothelioma.  Despite the certainty regarding the cause of mesothelioma, legal claims for compensation arising from asbestos are complicated because the time between exposure and development of symptoms typically is 20-30 years.

Some people suffer asbestos exposure even though they were not exposed to asbestos in the workplace.  Asbestos fibers can become trapped in a person’s clothes resulting in family members being exposed.  If you are exposed to asbestos through this form of secondhand exposure, you may be entitled to seek compensation for your illness and family members may have the right to pursue a wrongful death action for the death of a love one from secondhand asbestos exposure.  If you develop mesothelioma because of secondhand exposure from a spouse, parent or other family member, you may seek compensation from a number of potential defendants depending on the circumstances.

A product liability claim may be made against anyone in the manufacturing or distribution chain for the asbestos.  Because the causal relationship between asbestos and mesothelioma is clearly established, this type of claim will be based on the showing that your secondhand exposure to the manufacturers defective product.  The employer may also be liable depending on the specific facts of your situation.

Secondhand exposure to asbestos cases can be especially problematic because many times the family breadwinner has already developed mesothelioma.  The emotional and financial hardships associated with losing both parents to mesothelioma can make recovery in a Mississippi mesothelioma injury or wrongful death lawsuit essential to provide for a surviving child.  If you or someone you love has developed mesothelioma, our Mississippi mesothelioma attorneys represent clients with dedication, compassion and commitment.   The experienced Mississippi mesothelioma attorneys at Barrett Law have been providing effective representation to person injury victims for over 75 years. We provide diligent legal representation and impassioned advocacy so we invite you to call us today at 662-834-2376 to learn how we can help.

One of the most common injuries suffered in a Mississippi auto accident is whiplash, which causes serious back and neck pain.  Whiplash often is marginalized by insurance companies as fake or exaggerated injuries.  This inaccurate perception is fueled by comic treatment of whiplash injuries by Hollywood.  The reality is that whiplash injuries are extremely debilitating and can result in severe pain for months.  Many Mississippi whiplash victims suffer permanent pain and disability.

Whiplash injuries typically occur when a vehicle is hit from behind, which causes the head and neck to lurch forward at a fairly high rate of speed before being “whipped” backwards.  The whipping motion results in stretching of the muscles and ligament tissues of the neck.  The speed of the motion may cause the neck to overstretch resulting in microscopic tears to the muscle fibers.

The unfair stereotypes that minimalize whiplash injuries result from a number of factors unique to whiplash injuries.  The first issue is that sometimes the symptoms of whiplash injuries are not immediately apparent.  The most common cause of whiplash injuries is motor vehicle accidents.  Because many car accident victims suffer only minor symptoms immediately following a Mississippi auto accident, they may delay in seeking medical attention for days or even weeks.  This delay may be referenced by the insurance company as evidence that no serious injury was suffered in a collision.

Another issue that contributes to the false impression that whiplash injuries are not serious is the fact that they can be difficult to diagnose.  Even with sophisticated diagnostic tools like x-rays, an MRI or CT scan, it can be difficult to develop clear medical evidence of whiplash.  Whiplash injuries often occur at low rates of speed, which also tends to be used to minimize the significance of whiplash injuries suffered in Mississippi auto accidents.  Insurance adjusters may contact unrepresented collision injury victims and try to extend a low-ball settlement offer based on a lack of significant property damage.  The adjuster may characterize the accident as a “low impact” collision and offer a woefully inadequate settlement.

It is important to understand that there is minimal correlation between the rate of speed during a collision and whiplash injuries to the neck.  When you are in a collision, the vehicle and the head of occupants move at different rates of speed.  In a collision where a vehicle is moving at 5 miles per hour, the head of vehicle occupants will move at 10-12 g of acceleration.  Approximate 1.5 million vehicle occupants involved in low speed rear impact collisions will experience chronic pain.  The experienced Mississippi personal injury attorneys at Barrett Law have been providing effective representation to Mississippi auto accident victims for over 75 years.  We provide diligent legal representation and impassioned advocacy so we invite you to call us today at 662-834-2376 to learn how we can help.

We previously wrote an entry in this blog regarding a television news anchorwoman who was bitten in the face by a dog during an on air attack.  The woman has now been treated and information about her injuries and treatment reveal the serious injuries that may be caused by a dog attack.  The woman received seventy stitches to the face; she is unable to speak because her mouth had to be stitched shut.  The dog attack victim received stiches to her nose, lower lip and upper lip.  Her mouth was stitched shut to allow the skin graft to take hold as well as to let the blood begin circulating in her lips again.

This type of serious dog bite is not nearly as uncommon as many people might think.  The American Humane Association reports that there are approximately 800,000 dog bites per year that require medical treatment.  Children are particularly vulnerable to being the victim of a Mississippi dog bite.  Fifty percent of dog bite victims are children under the age of 12.  Children are not only more likely to be attacked by a dog but also tend to suffer more severe dog attack injuries.  A whopping 82 percent of dog bites that cause trips to the emergency room involve children under the age of 15 while 70 percent of dog bite fatalities involve children under the age of 10.

There are certain breeds of dogs that have a greater propensity to be vicious, and they tend to be involved in more serious dog attacks.  Because of this propensity, many cities in Mississippi have ordinances that limit or restrict ownership of certain breeds of dog.  This legislation called Breed Specific Legislation (BSL) most commonly targets pit bulls in Mississippi but also applies to Rottweilers and some other breeds depending on the city.

One reason children are disproportionately injured in dog attacks is that they lack the experience and knowledge of how to act safely around dogs.  Research has indicated that children who are educated by their parents about how to play with dogs and when to leave dogs alone are less likely to be involved in a dog attack.  It is never advisable to leave a small child unsupervised around someone else’s dog even if the child knows the dog.  Sometimes behavior that does not seem antagonizing to a child may cause a dog to react in unpredictable ways.

If you or someone you love is the victim of a dog attack, the experienced Mississippi dog attack attorneys at Barrett Law represent injury victims with compassion and diligence.  The experienced Mississippi personal injury attorneys at Barrett Law have been providing effective representation to Mississippi personal injury victims for over 75 years.  We provide diligent legal representation and impassioned advocacy so we invite you to call us today at 662-834-2376 to learn how we can help.

Many Mississippi personal injury victims are injured by the negligent or intentional acts of others in Mississippi car crashes, construction accidents, violent crimes and other incidents involving wrongful conduct.  What many people do not understand is the importance of timing requirements in pursuing a personal injury claim.  The law imposes strict deadlines for initiating legal actions.  When these deadlines are not met, it typically means that a claim will be completely barred despite the merits of the case.

An example is probably the best way to understand the critical role of these timing requirements on the viability of a personal injury claim.  A person is shot in the head by an armed assailant during a robbery and sues the assailant for personal injury.  The victim suffers traumatic brain injury and remains in a persistent vegetative state.  This is about as much of a “no brainer” as one can get in terms of liability (i.e. fault), and there is no argument that the intentional misconduct of the assailant was the cause of the shooting victim’s traumatic brain injury.  The shooting victim is a forty year old husband and father of three children who works as a neurosurgeon.  This type of claim typically would appear to be worth millions of dollars.

If a personal injury lawsuit is not initiated within the statute of limitations, however, the claim will virtually always be permanently barred so that the injury victim has no legal right to obtain compensation for his injuries.  Despite the tragic facts of this case, including a family left without the financial support of a bread winner or the loss of parenting and marital companionship, the court cannot make a “hardship” exception.  The statute of limitations is an absolute deadline that must be met and failure to do so cannot be excused based on fairness or even extreme hardship.

This is why it is essential to seek legal advice as soon as you are injured so that your Mississippi personal injury attorney has time to research the law, investigate the facts and file your claim.  Sometimes when personal injury victims delay in seeking assistance, personal injury law firms will decline to take a case because there is insufficient time to investigate the merits of the case and file a lawsuit without risking non-compliance with the statute of limitations.  The determination of when the statute of limitation expires can also be complicated by special rules that designate when the time starts or when it is suspended in certain situations (called “tolling”).

Some deadlines for pursuing claims related to torts (i.e. injuries caused by wrongful acts) are even shorter.  The statute for limitations for bringing a medical malpractice claim in Mississippi is only two years while a lawsuit for libel or slander must be initiated within a year.  There are other deadlines that may apply that shorten the time line for pursuing a claim for personal injuries.  For example, a public entity may fail to make remedial measures to an intersection that public officials know is unsafe and that has been the location of many collisions.  Generally, you will be forced to comply with special procedures including filing a Notice of Claim before filing a lawsuit against a public entity.  These time limits are much shorter than the statute of limitations and may be as short as only a few months.

If you have suffered serious injury caused by the misconduct of another, you should seek immediate legal advice.  Most personal injury law firms in Mississippi offer a free consultation with no obligation so that they can assess the value of your claim, and you can obtain information about your options.  The experienced Mississippi personal injury attorneys at Barrett Law have been providing effective representation to Mississippi personal injury victims for over 75 years.  We provide diligent legal representation and impassioned advocacy so we invite you to call us today at 662-834-2376 to learn how we can help.