Orlando Injury Lawyer Blog

Parents send children off to college hoping they will study hard and do well. While every parent worries about their children getting sick and eating right while away from home, they certainly have a right to expect colleges and universities to do all that they can to keep their children safe on campus. Parents of a college freshman who died mysteriously were recently permitted to continue their wrongful-death lawsuit. As Orlando injury lawyers we believe that too many simple security measures are overlooked on college campuses.

In this case, there were many concerns about lack of security which may have allowed a stranger to enter a dormitory and kill an innocent 19-year-old. Police and investigators found blood around a trash compactor, and the boy’s body was found in a landfill weeks later. While police have made no arrests in the case the parents continue to believe that negligent campus security contributed to this needless tragedy.

In negligent security cases it is essential to look at the type of locks used on student doors. Many older and outdated locks are easily broken or penetrated. In dormitory housing, it is also important to limit access to those who live or have a legitimate purpose in entering. Key or card access should be considered and door areas should be illuminated. Windows, especially on lower levels, should have adequate locks to keep them from being pried open. In addition, campus patrols can offer a substantial deterrent to criminal activity.

This holiday season , Orlando retailers and area malls will provide great bargains to help increase customer traffic and increase profits. These businesses must ensure a safe environment for customers - especially when they draw Orlando customers into their businesses with last minute sales. Too many hardworking people distracted by merchandise displays and holiday lighting may not observe dangerous conditions in these Orlando stores and malls. Injury and unexpected medical bills are not on anyone's Christmas list.

As Orlando injury lawyers, we understand the dangers Orlando customers face when shopping at local retailers and malls through the holidays. A business or property owner has an obligation to maintain safe premises and prevent dangerous conditions like wet floors, dropped merchandise and loose handrails. When they do not and a customer suffers injury, Orlando stores and malls are responsible for medical bills, lost wages and continuing disability and inconvenience caused by their carelessness. Pain and suffering is real and businesses and property owners should take accountability for all the harm and losses they cause.

Indeed, the federal government issued a warning to retailers at the start of the holiday shopping season and reminded them of their obligation to provide for the safety and welfare of their customers. A federal agency has reported "crowd-related injuries during special retail sales and promotional events have increased during recent years. Many of these incidents can be prevented... " Sadly, many consumers will suffer falls that will ruin their holidays and much more.

Fortunately, Florida law has permitted us to assist many Orlando injury victims when dangerous areas, walkways or parking lots have caused preventable harm. To help those who have been injured, we continue to make available a free copy of the Florida Accident & Injury Book, Seeking Justice.

Disney injury lawsuits have involved dangerous bathrooms, sidewalks and rides, and now a hot nacho cheese injury lawsuit. As Orlando injury lawyers, handling many Disney injury lawsuits with excellent results, we find this injury claim unique. A couple filed suit against Walt Disney claiming their 4-year-old son received severe burns during dinner at Orlando's Magic Kingdom last March. According to the family the boy was injured at Cosmic Ray's Starlite Cafe when a paper cup of scalding nacho cheese splashed on his face after he'd grabbed a food tray to keep from falling out of an unsteady chair. The Disney injury lawsuit claims the child suffered "permanent scarring as a result of the burns.

Unlike this injury claim, the details of most theme park injury claims have certain similarities. For example, the amusement parks and resorts of Walt Disney World and Universal Studios Orlando attract large crowds of visitors. This increases the need for workers to reasonably ensure the premises remain safe and secure. With efforts to increase profits, corporations have a tendency to lay-off workers and may not provide sufficient coverage for its guests.

Another similarity in theme park injury cases is that the visitors are often distracted. Disney World and Universal Studios Orlando are famous for awesome creations, parades and fireworks display. These displays and attractions are meant to captivate their audiences. Therefore, it is important for pedestrian areas and walkways to take this into consideration. Too many times we have seen injury and accidents due to theme park distractions and crowds.

Walt Disney World and Universal Studios Orlando will always be fun places to visit. We hope that each will remember that their guests assume they have done all they should to make their visit a safe one.

Orlando malls, outlets and stores are fun, wonderful places to shop. Tourists and guests to Orlando amusement and theme parks find them a pleasant surprise while in central Florida. Unfortunately, as Orlando injury lawyers, we have seen increasing numbers of avoidable injury claims involving local malls and retail stores.

Many times these injury claims involve trip and fall hazards. For example, when shoppers are walking along sidewalks or pedestrian walkways, they have a right to a level, even and non-slippery surface. Yet, we have Orlando malls and stores with parking lots and sidewalks that are broken, uneven and slippery.

While no one can guarantee that trip and falls, or slip and falls will not happen, a mall or outlet store can provide safe pedestrian areas to prevent avoidable injury. In many of our cases, it is important to obtain photographs of the scene of the fall. Unsuspecting injury victims who trust the mall or store to “do the right thing,” may be surprised when the dangerous sidewalk or pathway is repaired and the owner or operator denies responsibility.

Most people are decent, hardworking and simply want to be treated fairly. Sadly, malls, stores and outlets do not always do so when injury results from their carelessness. Fortunately, Florida law has permitted us to assist many Orlando injury victims when dangerous sidewalks, walkways or parking lots have caused preventable harm. To help those who have been injured, we continue to make available a free copy of the Florida Accident & Injury Book, Seeking Justice.

An Amusement Park is blamed for an accident causing fatal injury and death of an Iraq War veteran who fell out of a roller coaster. The wrongful death lawsuit alleges that the theme park accident resulted from inappropriately permitting the veteran to board the roller coaster despite having no legs. As Orlando injury lawyers, we have handled many claims involving amusement park and theme park accidents and again find the underlying issue to center around employee training and violation of theme park policy.

According to reports the Army veteran, lost both legs and a hip after a roadside bombing in Iraq. Without his legs, he fell out of the roller coaster during a family outing. The theme park employees allegedly violated the amusement park’s own safety rules when they allowed the double amputee to ride the roller coaster. As a result of the violation of theme park policy, the lawsuit alleges that the veteran’s small young children have suffered the needless loss of their father.

As a result of the tragedy it is further reported that amusement park officials are amending policy relating to training of its employees and personnel. How sad to have a tragedy like this occur in order to generate more training and safer practices in them park and amusement parks. Yet, from decades of handling Orlando car accident and injury cases, we find that most change to safety regulations occur after a needless accident.

A civil court judge has thrown out a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the parents of a teenager who died of alcohol poisoning at a friend's home. The judge ruled that there was no legal basis upon which the parents could prevail at trial in their lawsuit against the other home owners. As Orlando injury lawyers, we would expect the grieving parents to appeal the judge’s ruling.

The case involves the issue of whether there was a duty and failure to provide care to a sick person. According to the parents of the deceased girl, if the death involved anything other than alcohol, the judge would not have dismissed the lawsuit.

Specifically, this tragedy involved a 17-year-old high school junior who died after a night drinking with her friends at her classmate’s home. The Sheriff's Office investigators said the teens had been drinking heavily while the parents slept upstairs. It appears that the court’s decision relied heavily on the undisputed fact that the parents/home owners did not authorize the drinking by the teenagers.

The deceased girl’s parents unsuccessfully argued that the parents should not have maintained an open bar and should have checked on their daughter. Sadly, their daughter became unconscious from drinking 15 shots of vodka and was later found lying on the floor of a bathroom.

The decision comports with the law of many states which provide that social hosts who furnish alcoholic beverages to a person may not be legally accountable for damages suffered by that person resulting from the consumption of those beverages. To parents this decision and these circumstances provide a dramatic reminder that our children need to be educated about the dangers of drinking and alcohol poisoning.

Walmart stores and its gas stations have a responsibility to protect customers from dangerous conditions. Unfortunately, as Orlando injury lawyers, we have seen too many avoidable accident and injury claims. As a giant retailer, there is no excuse to fail to protect one's customers - especially when it comes to obvious dangers. In many accident and injury cases, we find that the condition which causes the serious injury could have easily been corrected. Often, these dangerous conditions are present for days or weeks or longer.

Every company that invites customers into its stores must be vigilant to inspect its property and its operations to make sure it is not creating or maintaining a "trap" for its patrons. When a customer walks through a store, they are usually looking for merchandise so broken floor tiles, spills or dropped items will not be seen and can cause serious accident and injury. Too often giant retailers like Walmart, Target, J. C. Pennys, Sears, Dillards and Macy's try to blame an innocent customer for falling or suffering injury. These companies and their insurance companies will usually contact the injured customers to obtain a "recorded statement" without the customer fully understanding what is being asked. The goal of a recorded statement is to find fault with the customer and to try to minimize even the most serious injury.

Now people involved in a Florida injury or accident can protect themselves from insurance company adjusters. The Florida Injury Book, Seeking Justice: An Insider's Guide for the Injured. details the five most common mistakes people make after an accident. It also provides a solid method for injured people to find the right lawyer. For anyone injured in Florida, a Free copy of this book can be a great place to start.

Out of the 80,000 Florida lawyers- only 2 percent are certified as specialists in civil trial law, which includes accidents and injury. Everyone should understand that accident and injury cases have many complex issues that lawyers who do not specialize may not be aware of. Unfortunately, if a lawyer does not know the important issues involved in accident and injury cases, it is the client who will suffer.

Orlando injury cases can have some strange consequences. As Orlando injury lawyers, we have represented individuals with significant brain injury, orthopedic and nerve damages. Some Orlando injury victims suffer falls and land on their head and wake up with their memory wiped out. A few revive with their personality totally changed. Others tragically die. In a most interesting case, a woman fell down a stairwell, struck her head and injured her brain. The unfortunate results included waking up speaking with a Russian accent.

She had never been to Russia. She doesn't remember ever hearing a Russian accent. Yet since that fall, the first question she gets from strangers is: "Where are you from?" This case demonstrates how a personal injury can change your life in an instant.

For 42 years, this innocent woman whose case is being studied at the National Institutes of Health and the University of Maryland, spoke with what NIH neurologist Allen R. Braun called a typical mid-Atlantic American accent. But since the fall, her clipped way with consonants -- dropping the final "s" from some plural words, saying "dis" and "dat" for "this" and "that," or "wiz" instead of "with" -- and her formation of vowels -- "home" sounds more like "herm," "well" sounds like "wuhl" -- identify her more like a transplant from Moscow. The more fatigued she becomes, the thicker her accent grows.

What she has, Braun and other doctors say, is Foreign Accent Syndrome -- a rare and little-understood medical condition that can follow a serious brain injury. "It does sound strange," Braun said. "It certainly does sound like someone has a foreign accent."

For more information on injury claims, you can read the Florida injury book, Seeking Justice: An Insider's Guide for the Injured. When I wrote this book, I hoped it would help people who suffered an injurycar accident protect themselves from insurance company adjusters and understand the important issues before it is too late. I also wanted to provide a solid method for injured people to find the right lawyer. From the reviews we have received, it has done just that. For anyone injured in a Florida car accident, a Free copy of this book can be a great place to start.

Whether you live in Orlando or vacation here, businesses, retail stores, theme parks and other drivers must not endanger the safety of you and your family. When carelessness causes injury in Orlando, we find that the insurance company or lawyers hired to defend the careless company or driver, will compel you or your family member to be examined by a doctor of their choosing. Insurance company doctors will likely try to minimize the extent of injury. The insurance company wins when these medical doctors “find no permanent injury or that any injury is not related to the accident.” As Orlando injury lawyers, we have received many complaints about such biased, medical doctors. Most of the time, we can help level the playing field!

As my partner, a medical doctor and attorney, Walter Ward, MD/JD, has taught our clients, many Orlando car accident lawyers do not have sufficient knowledge of medicine to successfully expose dishonest medical doctors. Many Orlando attorneys do not understand the complex medical issues or invest the time to uncover the bias of these “hired guns.” Obviously, anyone who needlessly suffers injury deserves an Orlando injury attorney who understands how to deal with these medical doctors and bring the truth to light.

In addition to Dr. Ward, our staff nurse, Cindy Nixon, RN, has helped many Orlando auto accident clients understand both the medical and legal issues involved in their case. As a critical care, registered nurse, Cindy manages the medical information, stays in close contact with our clients and assists with any health care questions along the way. Our clients find Cindy to be an invaluable resource; and, we find her to provide ammunition to go to war with dishonest medical experts.

Too many innocent people suffer an injury in Orlando and unknowingly settle for so much less. Yet, our clients have explained that people who are injured are not aware that there are law firms with an attorney who is also a medical doctor, a registered nurse on staff and a board certified civil trial lawyer. It is for that reason I wrote the book, Seeking Justice: An Insider’s Guide for the Injured. It helps protect innocent, decent people from falling into the hands of lawyers who have no business handling an important injury case. We continue to make a Free copy of this book available to anyone injured in Florida.

Orlando malls, stores and restaurants all have bathrooms. Some bathrooms are large, some small, but they all should be safely maintained to prevent injury to customers. Unfortunately, as Orlando injury lawyers, we have seen increasing numbers of avoidable injury claims involving Orlando bathrooms.

Many times these injury claims involve water on the bathroom floor. Most bathrooms have tile floors. If a customer steps in a puddle of water or walks through a wet area without noticing its presence, she may fall and seriously injure herself. We find that oftentimes the water or puddle on the bathroom floor had been caused by the business itself. Sadly, workers entrusted to clean or wash the bathroom floor fail to put up warning cones before beginning their work. Other workers ;eave excessive water on the floor when mopping which makes it unlikely to dry in a timely fashion; and, workers try to save time by removing the warning cones before checking to ensure the entire floor is dry.

In many of our cases, the business claims that it always checks its bathrooms every 15 to 30 minutes. However, the evidence usually reveals that much greater periods of time go by without any one even looking into the bathroom. In addition, we find that a bathroom attendant may take less than a minute to do "their bathroom check." Certainly, it seems unlikely that in such a brief time, floors, stalls and sinks could have been checked, cleaned and properly maintained.

There are simple too many times that bathrooms at movie theaters, malls, stores and restaurants have wet, dirty floors for these businesses to get a "free pass" when they cause injury to innocent children, adults or seniors. While no one can guarantee that trip and falls, or slip and falls will not happen, Orlando businesses can provide safe pedestrian areas to prevent avoidable injury. This is especially true in bathrooms.

In many of our cases, it is important to obtain photographs of the scene of the fall. Unsuspecting injury victims who trust the store or restaurant to “do the right thing,” may be surprised when the dangerous floor is cleaned or dried and the owner or operator denies responsibility.

Most people are decent, hardworking and simply want to be treated fairly. Sadly, Orlando movie theaters do not always do so when injury results from their carelessness. Fortunately, Florida law has permitted us to assist many Orlando injury victims when dangerous floors, sidewalks or parking lots have caused preventable harm. To help those who have been injured, we continue to make available a free copy of the Florida Accident & Injury Book, Seeking Justice: An Insiders Guide for the Injured.

Injury can often be prevented if reasonable precautions are taken. Stores, hotels, theme parks can prevent many tragic cases of injury with more focus on safety. As Orlando injury lawyers, we follow injury claims and report unsuspecting dangers. Recently, a man placed a cup of water in the microwave to heat it up. After he took the cup out of the microwave, the water in the cup burst onto his face causing serious burns to his face and neck. While the man was at the hospital, the attending physician told him that face burn injuries from microwaving water was fairly common.

It turns out that placing a cup of water in the microwave is dangerous. It is recommended that something should be placed in the cup to diffuse the energy like a wooden stir stick or a tea bag. "What happens is that the water heats faster than vapor bubbles can form,” said a major appliance manufacturer. “As the bubbles cannot form and release some of the heat that has built up, the liquid does not boil and it continues to heat up well past its boiling point.”

Keep yourself and your family safe by following some simple safety rules to avoid such burn injury. First, do not heat water in the microwave for more than two minutes per cup. Second, after heating the water, let the cup stand in the microwave for 30-45 seconds before attempting to remove the cup. Third, tap the outside of the container a few times with a solid object instead of looking inside the cup to see if the water is boiling. Hopefully, this will protect against needless injury.

If you need assistance after an Orlando injury, do what many have already done: Order a free copy of the Florida Injury Book, Seeking Justice: An Insider's Guide for the Injured. If someone has been injured, it is a helpful place to start.

Orlando hotels and resorts offer wonderful accommodations and amenities. Unfortunately, as Orlando injury lawyers, we have seen preventable injury occurring at Orlando hotels and resorts.

Many times these injury claims involve trip and fall or slip and fall hazards. For example, when hotel guests are walking along sidewalks or walkways, they have a right to a level, even and non-slippery surface. Yet, we have Orlando hotels and resorts with floor surfaces, sidewalks and parking lots that are broken, uneven and slippery.

While no one can guarantee that trip and falls, or slip and falls will not happen, a hotel or resort can provide safe pedestrian areas to prevent avoidable injury. In many cases, it is important to obtain photographs of the scene of the fall. Unsuspecting injury victims who trust the hotel or resort to “do the right thing,” may be surprised when the dangerous condition is corrected and the owner or operator denies responsibility. In one premises liability case, water had accumulated on the tile floor and caused our client to slip and fall. A family member wisely took photos and prevented the owner from later denying the existence of water on the floor.

Most people are honest, hardworking and simply want to be treated fairly. Sadly, Orlando hotels and resorts do not always do so when injury results from their carelessness. Fortunately, Florida law has permitted us to assist many Orlando injury victims when dangerous floor surfaces, walkways or parking lots have caused preventable harm. To help those who have been injured, we continue to make available a free copy of the Florida Accident & Injury Book, Seeking Justice.