Man signing a personal injury claim with attorney.

What Qualifies as a Catastrophic Injury?

Personal injury attorneys help clients with getting compensation for all manner of injuries. One of those types of injuries, catastrophic, routinely leads to the most extreme losses and the highest compensation figures. But what exactly is a catastrophic injury?

What is a catastrophic injury?

Humans are injured regularly and often heal relatively quickly with the proper treatment. However, some injuries leave their victims debilitated for long periods or the rest of their lives and are considered catastrophic injuries. 

Generally speaking, a catastrophic injury is an injury that requires much time and treatment to heal (if healing is possible) and significantly alters a person’s life. An injury of this nature can occur in a variety of situations and can eventually lead to death even months or years after the incident. 

Traumatic Brain Injury

A traumatic brain injury occurs when the brain experiences trauma from within or outside of the skull. As you would imagine, the consequences of a TBI can be dire. Although mild TBIs are not catastrophic injuries, severe TBIs are and typically lead to a lifetime of physical and cognitive deficiencies.  

Spinal Cord Injury

Injuries to the spinal cord result in loss of motor functions and sensation and can also cause paralysis. In most cases, they are catastrophic and require intensive medical treatment and rehabilitation. Sadly, some cause permanent neurological deficiencies, paralysis, and loss of control of basic bodily functions. 

Amputations

Loss of a limb is life-changing and, therefore, catastrophic. The consequences of an amputation are felt in a victim’s work life, home life, and life in the community. Fortunately, medical advances have produced high-functioning prosthetics. However, most victims’ lives are altered forever by an amputation.

Vision or Hearing Loss

Loss of vision or hearing certainly qualifies as a catastrophic injury. These senses are the two primary indicators humans use to get around. The loss of either one invariably alters a person’s life and the lives of their loved ones. 

Medical research promises future, effective treatment. But currently, many victims who lose these senses never fully or partially regain their use. 

Burns

Burns are classified by degree, with fourth-degree burns being the most serious. Generally speaking, burns that are serious enough to leave scars are typically considered to be catastrophic. Certainly, third and fourth-degree burns are catastrophic, but some second-degree burns may also be deemed catastrophic. 

But scarring is not necessary for a burn to be considered catastrophic. Permanent debilitation caused by burns makes the burn injury catastrophic by definition.

What are some common causes of catastrophic injuries?

Catastrophic injuries can occur under many different circumstances. With that being said, they typically occur when the risk of suffering an impact or fire is higher than usual. 

Take cars as an example. When traveling in a car, your chances of experiencing a catastrophic injury increase due to the speed at which vehicles move and the presence of gasoline. 

Outside of traffic, other common situations and causes of catastrophic injuries include:

  • Slip and fall accidents
  • Fires and explosions 
  • Dangerous worksites
  • Medical malpractice
  • Violence

Whatever the cause, victims and their families can seek to hold people and entities accountable when they are negligent, reckless, or intend to cause harm. A claim for compensation against the injurer can go a long way in covering the various damages victims suffer, such as lost income, pain and suffering, and mental trauma. 

Attorneys at the Hunt Law Firm have helped thousands of injury victims in northern New Mexico and can potentially help you get justice for your injury. Call today to schedule a free consultation and explore your compensation options.

medical malpractice

Who Can Be Held Liable for Medical Malpractice?

Modern healthcare treatment often involves numerous professionals collaborating in treating one patient. Each one must follow accepted standards of care while doing their job. Failure to do so puts patients at risk of injury or death and exposes the healthcare professional to medical malpractice liability. 

Defining Medical Malpractice

Medical malpractice is medical error. But it is more than just a simple mistake. In New Mexico, medical malpractice occurs when a healthcare provider fails to maintain acceptable standards of care and a patient is injured as a result. 

This failure could be a direct negligent act or manifest as a failure to act or an omission. What exactly the accepted standard of care is, depends on the treatment in question.

How common is medical malpractice? According to numerous well-respected studies, medical malpractice is quite common. Some data puts the number of medical malpractice deaths in the U.S. at over 250,000

Who can be held liable for medical malpractice?

Any medical provider who is licensed by the state to engage in healthcare services can be sued for medical malpractice. Additionally, institutions that employ professional healthcare workers may also be held liable for medical malpractice committed by their staff.

The list of medical professionals who regularly treat or help treat patients is long and includes:

  • Medical doctors
  • Chiropractors
  • Psychiatrists
  • Nurses
  • Physician’s assistants
  • Dentists and dental hygienists 
  • Hospitals, care centers, and clinics
  • Medical device manufacturers and servicers
  • Physical therapists and rehabilitation workers
  • Social workers, counselors, and therapists
  • Lab technicians
  • Testing technicians (MRI, CT, PET)

Getting to the bottom of who caused an injury is a complex and involved process. It requires extensive medical knowledge, which is why victims of medical malpractice need an experienced medical malpractice attorney representing them.

Qualified Healthcare Provider

A qualified healthcare provider is a professional or entity that has purchased liability insurance as required by New Mexico medical malpractice laws. By complying with this insurance requirement, qualified healthcare providers enjoy caps on their liability for damages caused by medical malpractice. 

These caps include:

  • $600,000 compensation cap
  • $200,000 of future medical care paid from insurance

There are, however, no caps on punitive damages, which are appropriate when a defendant acted recklessly or intentionally. 

Instances of Medical Malpractice

Modern medicine can treat and sometimes cure all manner of illnesses and injuries from head to toe. Hence, the situations in which medical malpractice might occur are numerous. 

Some of the most common circumstances include:

  • Misdiagnosis
  • Delayed diagnosis
  • Unnecessary, injurious testing
  • Failure to administer tests correctly
  • Prescribing the wrong medication
  • Medication administration errors
  • Surgical errors, such as wrong-site surgical errors
  • Failure to monitor a patient
  • Birth injuries
  • Defective medical products and equipment

In many cases, two or more types of medical malpractice occur and work in concert to cause serious injury or death in patients. 

Holding Medical Professionals Liable

Medical professionals enjoy prestige and great salaries. And with many benefits comes much responsibility. Injury victims should seek the services of a seasoned medical malpractice attorney who must initially obtain a ruling from a medical review commission that their case has merit. 

Once a ruling of merit has been made, your attorney can file your claim for compensation and begin negotiations with the insurance companies involved. 

The Hunt Law Firm fights to help personal injury victims recover the compensation that will help ease their suffering. We do not back down when our clients deserve more and will go to trial whenever necessary. 

If you or a loved one has experienced losses due to medical malpractice, call our office today for a free consultation and review of your case. We serve clients throughout the state, including Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, Roswell, Los Alamos, and Las Vegas.

Rose on tombstone

Who Can File a Case for Wrongful Death? 

Losing a loved one is painful and difficult, and when you’ve lost someone to an accident that could have been avoided, the loss is even more tragic. Car wrecks, medical treatment gone wrong, accidents at work, or injuries due to a malfunctioning consumer product can happen due to the negligence or carelessness of another party. 

No amount of money can heal the gap that your loved one’s passing has left in your family. But you do have the right to hold the party that caused their death accountable, and a settlement secured in a successful wrongful death suit can help alleviate the financial stressors you are facing. 

New Mexico law allows certain family members to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the person or entity responsible for a loved one’s death. An experienced wrongful death attorney can help you learn about your legal options.

What is considered to be a wrongful death?

In some cases, an accident is just an accident and not legally considered to be a wrongful death. Wrongful death lawsuits can only be filed when a death occurs due to another party’s negligence or misconduct.

There is a useful rule of thumb regarding wrongful deaths: Would the deceased have had grounds to file a personal injury lawsuit if they had survived the incident? If so, you might have the right to pursue legal action.

Who can file a wrongful death lawsuit in New Mexico?

According to New Mexico law, only the personal representative or executor of the deceased’s estate may file a wrongful death lawsuit. In many cases, this individual files the suit on behalf of eligible family members. 

If someone dies intestate (without a will and without naming an executor), the probate court will name a representative, and that party will file a suit for the family.

Plaintiffs, or the surviving family members, in a wrongful death claim are limited by relational proximity to the person who died. Unmarried partners, for example, cannot file wrongful death suits on behalf of their partners, nor can unrelated close friends file a wrongful death suit. 

The only people who can file a wrongful death suit through the estate’s representative are the following family members of the deceased:

  • Spouse or common-law spouse
  • Children, biological or adopted
  • Parents, biological or adoptive

Anyone else may be offered a portion of the settlement by the interested parties, but they cannot be an interested party in the suit themselves.

Quick Facts About New Mexico Wrongful Death Lawsuits

Persons interested in filing a wrongful death lawsuit need to act fast. When your grief for your loved one is fresh, you likely aren’t thinking, “I need a lawyer.” But unfortunately, there is a deadline for filing called the statute of limitations. 

In New Mexico, this deadline is three years from the date of your loved one’s death. If the estate’s representative files after that date, the case will probably be dismissed, no matter how strongly its facts are in your favor.

Compensation for wrongful death is similar to the compensation in a personal injury suit that the deceased would have been awarded had they lived to file one. 

Wrongful death settlements also include the costs of burial and a funeral, as well as compensation for the loss of the deceased person’s earning potential. In addition, they might include non-economic damages for the loss of companionship and consortium suffered by family members.

Do you need to file a wrongful death lawsuit?

If you’ve lost a loved one to an avoidable accident, we can help. Hunt Law of New Mexico is a personal injury and wrongful death firm focused on helping families after their loved one’s tragic accidents. Contact us today for a free consultation.

client signing waiver with personal injury attorney

How to Know If a Settlement Is Reasonable for a Personal Injury Case

One of the most common questions asked by personal injury clients is “How much is my settlement worth?” The answer depends on a lot of factors. 

Consulting with an experienced personal injury lawyer can help your case — first, because lawyers understand what is necessary to successfully prove your claim, and second, because your attorney has the experience to determine whether a settlement offer from the other party is sufficient for your losses.

Factors that Determine Settlement Offers

Many personal injury cases don’t go to trial and instead are settled out of court. A settlement is a negotiation between the plaintiff and the defendant, who come to an agreement after a demand letter is sent by the plaintiff’s personal injury attorney or after the case is filed.

When valuing your case, your lawyer will consider the following factors:

  • Whether you share some of the responsibility
  • How extensive your injuries are
  • The cost of your medical treatment and potential future care needs
  • Whether you have recovered or will fully recover
  • Any limits in the other party’s insurance policy
  • Property losses you incurred
  • Any loss of past income from missed work
  • Loss of earning potential

Your lawyer also considers any non-economic losses, such as pain and suffering from your injuries and compensation for emotional trauma. 

If your lawyer plans to seek punitive damages, however, because the defendant’s actions were egregious, it’s likely the case will go to trial and not settle out of court. Defendants rarely agree to pay punitive damages during settlement negotiations.

Valuing the Elements of Your Claim

Some parts of your personal injury claim are fairly easy to put a dollar value on, like the medical treatment you received after the accident or the cost of repairing or replacing a damaged vehicle. Your lawyer will simply tally up the bills.

Other components are more difficult to value. Pain and suffering, for example, or mental anguish, don’t have a price tag, but they are no less real than physical pain and damage. 

Often, a multiplier is used by your lawyer (and the judge if your case ends up in court) to value these non-economic damages. The value of your economic damages is multiplied by the severity of your accident to arrive at a figure for non-economic damages.

For example, if you were injured in a car wreck and had $15,000 in medical bills and it cost $10,000 to repair your car, your economic damages would be $25,000. Your lawyer may use a multiplier (a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the worst) to calculate your non-economic damages. 

The attorney selects a multiplier of 3 because while you aren’t permanently disabled, you did require surgery. They multiply 3 x $25,000 to arrive at  $75,000 in non-economic damages. Your total settlement would be $100,000, and that’s what your lawyer will ask for in the demand letter they send the other driver and their insurance company.

Negotiating Settlements for a Personal Injury Claim

Sometimes you don’t have a very strong case. Suppose that in the example above — a car accident — your lawyer figures that while the other driver ran a stop sign, you were speeding and therefore share the blame. 

The lawyer sends a demand letter for the full $100,000, and the other driver’s insurance company counter-offers with a settlement offer of $55,000, the maximum coverage of the driver’s policy.

Your lawyer can opt to take the case to trial, but with weak facts, you may not win. So your case could be settled for less than the demand letter, but the offer may be better than the nothing you may get if a judge rules in favor of the other driver.

Do you need help with a personal injury settlement?

If you’ve been hurt in an accident you didn’t cause, you may have a personal injury case and can file a lawsuit for damages. We can help. Hunt Law works with accident victims just like you in the northern New Mexico area. Contact us today for a free evaluation of your case.

Truck driving down road

5 Leading Causes of Truck Accidents in New Mexico

In 2020, 4.8% of traffic accidents in New Mexico involved commercial trucks. New Mexico doesn’t document the causes of truck accidents in the state, but the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration does release statistical information about the causes of truck accidents.

Commercial Trucking and Traffic Accidents

Hundreds of thousands of semi-trucks travel through New Mexico every year. New Mexico has a major port of entry from Mexico and sits at the crossroads of I-10, I-25, and I-40.

Yet these trucks only account for a small percentage of accidents in the state. A few reasons commercial trucks don’t frequently get into traffic accidents include:

  • Commercial drivers receive more training than other drivers
  • Commercial drivers are subject to regular and random drug and alcohol testing
  • Semi-trucks undergo federally-mandated maintenance and inspections

As a result, truck drivers are often better equipped to avoid traffic accidents than other drivers.

But truck accidents still happen. The main causes of truck accidents identified by the FMCSA include:

1. Lane Departures

Lane departures happen when a truck moves out of its lane into an occupied lane. These accidents can result from:

  • Drivers riding in a truck’s blind spots
  • Inattention on the part of the truck driver
  • Mechanical failures like blown tires that cause truck drivers to lose control
  • Drifting due to truck driver fatigue

When a sideswipe accident happens between automobiles, the occupants might suffer minor injuries, but deaths rarely happen.

By contrast, when a semi-truck sideswipes a car, the car can run under the trailer. So-called underrun accidents often kill or seriously injure automobile occupants.

2. Speeding

Truck drivers must meet tight deadlines. Unfortunately, these time constraints can tempt drivers to speed.

Inexperienced truck drivers can also underestimate the risk posed by road and weather conditions. As a result, they might travel too fast when faced with:

  • Curves
  • Hills
  • Low visibility
  • Slick roads
  • Heavy traffic

When truck drivers speed, they risk losing control of their truck or their load. They also decrease their window for making emergency maneuvers to avoid a crash.

3. Tailgating

When vehicles follow each other too closely, they lose the valuable time needed to stop safely. Tailgating occurs for many reasons, including:

  • Aggressive driving
  • Impatience
  • Road congestion

A safe following distance for a fully loaded semi-truck is much larger than for smaller, lighter vehicles. According to the FMCSA, many truck drivers don’t leave enough space, and this failure leads to rear-end accidents.

4. Driver Fatigue

Driver fatigue results from being on the road for too many hours without taking substantial breaks.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. government loosened some rules limiting a driver’s hours of service. This change was meant to keep goods like medicine and essential products flowing during pandemic lockdowns. But trucking companies have taken advantage of the modified rules to leave drivers on the road for longer periods than previously allowed.

5. Driver Inattention

Like all motorists, truck drivers are susceptible to distraction. When drivers become distracted, their reaction time diminishes. Electronic devices, food and drink, and even daydreaming can prevent a driver from keeping their hands, eyes, and mind focused on operating their vehicle.

Causation and Liability for Truck Accidents

According to the FMCSA, truck drivers are responsible for 55.3% of collisions between semi-trucks and passenger vehicles. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the trucking company bears liability for the accident.

To prove liability for a truck accident, an injury lawyer must prove that the trucking company was negligent in loading, driving, maintaining, or repairing its trucks. If the company and its driver exercised reasonable care, the company might escape liability for a resulting accident.

To discuss your truck accident and whether you can pursue compensation for your injuries, contact Hunt Law, a Northern New Mexico personal injury law firm.

medical malpractice

4 Red Flags for Medical Malpractice 

When you go to the doctor, you place a lot of trust in your healthcare provider, their team, the healthcare where they practice, and the medical industry in general. When something like medical malpractice occurs, victims are often left unsure where to turn for help.

It can be difficult to differentiate malpractice from an honest mistake. But if one or more of the following conditions applies to your recent doctor’s visit, you may benefit from seeking legal counsel.

1. Lack of Informed Consent

A medical provider must give a patient enough information about their diagnosis and causes, prognosis, and proposed care options to allow them to make an educated decision about their care. Physicians should detail the treatment process and the risks or side effects and disclose anticipated risks or adverse health effects if the patient chooses to undergo the recommended treatments.

If a doctor performs a procedure you didn’t give informed consent for, or if you weren’t made aware of the side effects or risks of a particular medication and your health has worsened, you may have a claim for medical malpractice.

2. Unexpected Complications

When you give your treating physician informed consent for a procedure or course of medication, they must disclose potential complications. For example, certain surgical procedures may come with complications during the healing process. Patients are typically made aware of these potential issues before consenting.

However, if you experience a sudden, rare complication, such as damage to the spinal cord resulting from an epidural, it may be in your best interests to talk to a medical malpractice lawyer.

Other complications could arise from errors during the treatment itself, like leaving a sponge following an operation or failing to consider how an underlying medical condition might affect a proposed treatment.

3. A Diagnosis That Doesn’t Align With Your Symptoms

Self-diagnosis of a particular condition doesn’t replace a professional diagnosis. But if you notice that your presenting symptoms don’t match the common symptoms of your diagnosis, you may have been misdiagnosed. Misdiagnosis can qualify as malpractice if it results in the overall deterioration of a patient’s health.

Misdiagnosis can have lifelong consequences, including missing out on early treatments that could cure or greatly relieve your condition. For instance, misdiagnosing cancer as something else, like mononucleosis, could change the course of your life.

If you’re concerned about symptoms that don’t match a recent diagnosis, seek a second qualified medical opinion. It’s always best to get a second opinion if you’ve been diagnosed with a serious illness.

4. Ineffective Treatment

If you’re complying with a treatment regimen and not seeing any improvement in your health or reduction in your symptoms, it could be an indication that you’ve been misdiagnosed.

It often takes time to see improvement after starting a new medication or undergoing surgery, but if it’s been a reasonable amount of time since you started the treatment and nothing has changed, talk to your doctor.

If they’re unwilling to admit their prescribed treatment isn’t having the desired effect and aren’t willing to explore other options, your original diagnosis might have been incorrect. A second opinion can help you and your malpractice attorney determine an appropriate course of action.

Malpractice or mistake — how can I tell?

If your treatment raises any of these red flags, your first step should be to see a different doctor or a specialist for a second opinion. Once you’ve done that, consult a New Mexico medical malpractice lawyer, like Hunt Law, to determine your legal options.

We have the knowledge, experience, and resources you need to pursue a successful malpractice case. Contact us today for a free consultation.

medical malpractice

4 Red Flags for Medical Malpractice 

When you go to the doctor, you place a lot of trust in your healthcare provider, their team, the healthcare where they practice, and the medical industry in general. When something like medical malpractice occurs, victims are often left unsure where to turn for help.

It can be difficult to differentiate malpractice from an honest mistake. But if one or more of the following conditions applies to your recent doctor’s visit, you may benefit from seeking legal counsel.

1. Lack of Informed Consent

A medical provider must give a patient enough information about their diagnosis and causes, prognosis, and proposed care options to allow them to make an educated decision about their care. Physicians should detail the treatment process and the risks or side effects and disclose anticipated risks or adverse health effects if the patient chooses to undergo the recommended treatments.

If a doctor performs a procedure you didn’t give informed consent for, or if you weren’t made aware of the side effects or risks of a particular medication and your health has worsened, you may have a claim for medical malpractice.

2. Unexpected Complications

When you give your treating physician informed consent for a procedure or course of medication, they must disclose potential complications. For example, certain surgical procedures may come with complications during the healing process. Patients are typically made aware of these potential issues before consenting.

However, if you experience a sudden, rare complication, such as damage to the spinal cord resulting from an epidural, it may be in your best interests to talk to a medical malpractice lawyer.

Other complications could arise from errors during the treatment itself, like leaving a sponge following an operation or failing to consider how an underlying medical condition might affect a proposed treatment.

3. A Diagnosis That Doesn’t Align With Your Symptoms

Self-diagnosis of a particular condition doesn’t replace a professional diagnosis. But if you notice that your presenting symptoms don’t match the common symptoms of your diagnosis, you may have been misdiagnosed. Misdiagnosis can qualify as malpractice if it results in the overall deterioration of a patient’s health.

Misdiagnosis can have lifelong consequences, including missing out on early treatments that could cure or greatly relieve your condition. For instance, misdiagnosing cancer as something else, like mononucleosis, could change the course of your life.

If you’re concerned about symptoms that don’t match a recent diagnosis, seek a second qualified medical opinion. It’s always best to get a second opinion if you’ve been diagnosed with a serious illness.

4. Ineffective Treatment

If you’re complying with a treatment regimen and not seeing any improvement in your health or reduction in your symptoms, it could be an indication that you’ve been misdiagnosed.

It often takes time to see improvement after starting a new medication or undergoing surgery, but if it’s been a reasonable amount of time since you started the treatment and nothing has changed, talk to your doctor.

If they’re unwilling to admit their prescribed treatment isn’t having the desired effect and aren’t willing to explore other options, your original diagnosis might have been incorrect. A second opinion can help you and your malpractice attorney determine an appropriate course of action.

Malpractice or mistake — how can I tell?

If your treatment raises any of these red flags, your first step should be to see a different doctor or a specialist for a second opinion. Once you’ve done that, consult a New Mexico medical malpractice lawyer, like Hunt Law, to determine your legal options.

We have the knowledge, experience, and resources you need to pursue a successful malpractice case. Contact us today for a free consultation.

Attorney shakes hands with man using arm brace to walk

5 Surprising Myths About Personal Injury Cases

Many myths have grown up around personal injury cases and how they’re conducted and resolved. Sadly, these myths have caused accident victims to miss out on opportunities to pursue claims against parties that have injured them.

Here are five surprising myths about personal injury cases, along with information to help you evaluate whether you should pursue a claim.

Myth 1: You Don’t Need to File a Claim if You Have Insurance

The compensation you receive in a personal injury case can cover expenses that health insurance won’t, including:

  • Lost wages
  • Diminished earning capacity due to temporary or permanent disabilities
  • Health insurance copays and deductibles
  • Home modifications to accommodate your disabilities
  • Replacement services for tasks you can no longer perform, like childcare or cleaning
  • Transportation costs for medical appointments

The goal of health insurance is to pay for covered medical costs; the goal of a personal injury claim is to restore the financial position you had before your accident. Since they have different goals, they pay for different expenses.

Myth 2: You’ll End Up Going to Trial

Only 3% of personal injury cases reach a trial verdict, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The rest settle, are dropped by the plaintiff, or get dismissed by the court.

Accident victims have many reasons for wanting to avoid trial, such as:

  • Fear of embarrassing information being shared
  • Intimidation of courtroom proceedings
  • Concerns about the time and cost of a trial

Fortunately, insurance providers usually don’t want a trial any more than you do. Insurers don’t like paying litigators to try a case they could lose.

As a result, your injury lawyer will spend a lot of time and effort negotiating with the insurer to try to reach a fair settlement.

Myth 3: Your Claim Will Take Forever

About 50% of personal injury cases resolve within 14 months, according to the Justice Department.

This might seem like a long time, but a major reason for this timeline comes from the insurer. Claim adjusters know injury victims need money to pay for medical costs and living expenses, so they attempt to leverage their desperation and frustration to get them to agree to a low settlement offer.

Your claim won’t take forever, but it also won’t conclude overnight. You’ll need to discuss with your lawyer what a fair settlement should include, then let them negotiate until the insurer offers an adequate figure.

Myth 4: Pain and Suffering Damages Aren’t Real

Pain and suffering damages compensate you for real losses resulting from your injuries.

Economic damages, such as medical expenses and lost income, are easy to understand, but non-economic damages, like pain and suffering, are more difficult to grasp.

Non-economic damages compensate you for the reduction in your quality of life due to injury. For example, pain can cause:

  • Sleep loss
  • Inability to participate in activities you enjoy
  • Inconvenience, since you’ll likely need to change how you do things

You may not be able to place a dollar amount on these losses, but you’ve certainly lost something, even if you can’t quantify it.

When you seek non-economic damages, a claims adjuster or jury will value your losses based on the severity and duration of your injuries. Severe, permanent injuries will justify greater compensation than minor, temporary ones.

Myth 5: Personal Injury Lawyers Are Expensive

Personal injury lawyers structure their rates in such a way that you pay based on the compensation you receive. These sorts of fees are known as “contingency” fees.

Contingency fees are calculated based on the injury compensation you receive. If you get nothing, you pay nothing. If you win or settle, you pay a percentage of your compensation to the lawyer in return for their services.

Debunking Personal Injury Myths

Most injury lawyers offer free consultations. This provides a perfect opportunity for prospective clients to ask questions about their cases and how they’ll be resolved. They can then use this information to decide how to proceed instead of being put off by inaccurate myths.

To discuss your personal injury claim with a qualified attorney, contact Hunt Law, a Northern New Mexico personal injury law firm.

Man signing personal injury claim

What Are the Grounds for a Product Liability Claim?

Businesses that manufacture and sell products have a responsibility to make sure they sell safe products. Injured consumers have the right to compensation for their injuries and other losses under several legal theories.

Grounds for filing a product liability claim can include:

Strict Liability

Strict liability is imposed regardless of the manufacturer’s knowledge or lack of knowledge about the product’s defects. Your case will focus on the product rather than the manufacturer. This makes strict liability the most common ground for a product liability claim.

To win a strict liability claim in New Mexico, you must prove:

  • The product was defective
  • The product was defective when it left the manufacturer’s hands and remained substantially unchanged when it reached you
  • The product was unreasonably dangerous
  • You suffered an injury
  • The defective product caused your injury

If you can prove all these elements, a jury can award damages to cover your injuries and other losses.

You can base your product liability claim on three types of defects:

Design Defect

A product has a design defect if the product has no safe use. Examples of design defects include lawn darts and thalidomide, a morning sickness drug that caused birth defects.

Consumers could not use these products for their intended purposes in a safe manner. For example, the purpose of lawn darts was to pierce the lawn when thrown in the air. There was no safe way to use them for that purpose.

The purpose of thalidomide was to treat pregnant women. But since thalidomide caused birth defects, it put every patient and her baby at risk.

Manufacturing Defect

Manufacturing defects happen when a product’s features depart in some dangerous way from its design. Manufacturing defects happen at the factory. An example of a manufacturing defect was the tread separation that occurred in Bridgestone tires in the 1990s.

After analyzing the tires that caused more than 270 deaths and 700 injuries, the company concluded that the layer of rubber between the steel belts failed to conform to its design standards. This thin layer would crack and allow the tread to separate from the rest of the tire.

Warning Defect

Warning defects happen when the instructions fail to warn the consumer of a reasonably common hazard. They can also happen when a product has a safe use, but the instructions do not reasonably describe how to use it safely.

Negligence

Negligence happens when a company knew or should have known that its products were unreasonably dangerous, yet still allowed the product to enter the stream of commerce.

Negligence requires your product liability lawyer to delve into what the company knew about its product’s defects, and you might not have access to this information. 

But if you can find a whistleblower, you might obtain internal documents about the company’s knowledge. You can then use the company’s knowledge of the defect, or its reckless disregard of warning signs about possible defects, to seek punitive damages.

Breach of Warranty

Another legal theory for product liability cases is a breach of warranty. Under this claim, you must prove that the product failed to fulfill its intended purpose.

For example, If you bought a light switch that electrocuted you when it was properly installed, the company failed to provide the promised product. As a result, you can seek damages for its failure.

Choosing a Theory

You do not need to choose between the various product liability theories. Many cases include all the theories and allow a jury to decide which claims had evidentiary support.

It is important to note that you cannot get multiple damage awards for the same harm. But different theories look at different types of damages. So, you might get compensation that more completely covers your losses by presenting multiple grounds for your product liability claim.

Hunt Law is ready to pursue justice for your medical malpractice, personal injury, wrongful death, or catastrophic injury case in northern New Mexico. To discuss the compensation you can seek for your injuries from a defective product, contact Hunt Law today.

Nursing home room

5 Signs of Nursing Home Neglect

Nursing home neglect is defined as a situation in which a residential facility fails to provide reasonable care to its residents. Neglect differs from abuse in that neglect generally involves a failure to act.

It’s important to know the signs of nursing home neglect and learn how an injury lawyer can help victims seek fair compensation for the neglect they’ve endured.

How Neglect Happens

Nursing homes take on the responsibility of caring for their residents. Neglect happens when the facility’s staff doesn’t meet your loved one’s needs.

Humans have a range of needs, including:

  • Social interaction
  • Mental stimulation
  • Physical comfort and safety

Nursing home neglect cases usually focus on residents’ physical comfort and safety. Neglect typically occurs when caretakers allow a resident’s comfort and safety to deteriorate by doing nothing.

Five telltale signs of neglect include:

1. Bedsores

Bedsores develop when pressure cuts off the blood flow to an area of the skin and underlying tissues. They usually appear discolored and swollen and may include an open wound in the center where the skin has deteriorated and the fat has collapsed.

Nursing home staff members should regularly move immobile residents. By shifting their positions, the staff relieves pressure on the skin and allows blood to flow to pressure points.

If your loved one has bedsores, it means the nursing home staff has not changed their position often enough.

2. Physical Injuries

In some cases, physical injuries can signify abuse. But physical injuries can also indicate neglect, which leads to physical injuries when residents:

  • Fall out of bed or slip in the bathroom due to a lack of assistance
  • Don’t receive proper medical attention for accidental injuries
  • Are assaulted by other residents due to a lack of supervision

In all of these examples, reasonable care could have prevented or treated the resident’s injuries.

3. Hunger and Dehydration

A common form of neglect comes from food and water deprivation. This can happen for many reasons, including:

  • Cutting corners when preparing and serving food
  • Failing to hire enough staff to feed residents
  • Punishing residents by depriving them of food or water

Unfortunately, weight loss and loss of appetite are common in older adults. But if your loved one always seems hungry or thirsty, they might be experiencing neglect.

4. Dirty Clothes and Bedding

Nursing homes, assisted living centers, and other residential facilities usually provide basic services like cleaning to their residents. Cleaning rooms and washing clothing prevents residents from developing skin conditions and experiencing allergies. When these tasks are abandoned, it often shows in the resident’s appearance.

5. Unkempt Hair and Body Odor

Residential facilities should provide caretakers who can help residents clean themselves, as well as cleaning products and personal hygiene items or ways for residents to obtain them.

If your loved one has unkempt hair or body odor, they might have gone too long without bathing. If you can trace this back to the facility’s caretakers, your loved one might have a claim for negligence.

The Role of an Injury Attorney

An injury lawyer can play a critical role in investigating what’s been going on at a facility. Some unscrupulous facilities prey on the elderly because they often have conditions that prevent them from reporting neglect, such as:

  • Dementia
  • Speech difficulties
  • Memory loss

Caretakers can also count on the residents’ shame and embarrassment about not being able to care for themselves to keep them from complaining.

A lawyer can request records from the facility. They can also research whether past residents filed lawsuits against the facility for neglect. And once litigation begins, they can take depositions of current and former staff members who may have witnessed neglect.

To discuss what an injury lawyer can do to help your loved one victimized by nursing home neglect, contact Hunt Law, a personal injury law firm in Northern New Mexico.