If you are not sure which quick link to use, just use the one you think most closely fits your situation. Once we receive your inquiry, we will promptly telephone you to discuss your particular situation. As always, any communications with Spiegel & Utrera, P.A. is strictly confidential.

The following information is designed to assist you in determining if you have a claim. We have three categorized sections to assist you as follows:

Just take the time to scroll this information. We hope that you find the information beneficial. As always, you may submit your inquiry online or you may call us at the Spiegel & Utrera General Counsel Club at (800) 734-9900 to discuss your particular situation or call me directly at (800) 603-3900, ext. 219. Larry Spiegel.

This area of Amerilawyer.com makes it easy for you to submit an inquiry to us without any cost or obligation. Select from the quick links below:

• Medical Malpractice: Medical malpractice disputes involve injuries caused by a medical practitioner acting in a negligent manner by falling below the standards of his or her profession when treating a medical condition.
  
  
• Survivor and wrongful death actions: These claims involve actions brought by the executor or personal representative of the decedent’s estate when the death of a person is caused by the wrongful act, negligence, default, or breach of contract or warranty of any person, including those occurring on navigable waters, and the event would have entitled the person injured to maintain an action and recover damages if death had not ensued, or claims brought by the surviving spouse or family members.
  
  
• Drug & Medical Device litigation: Such litigation is related to serious injuries such as organ damage or even death caused by insufficiently-tested pharmaceuticals and medical devices.



• Product Liability litigation: Products Liability litigation is related to claims alleging injuries caused by defects in product design and manufacturing and a manufacturer’s failure to warn.
  
  
• Premises Liability (Slip & Fall): These disputes involve injuries in premises held out to the public, such as a retail store, parking lot or apartment complex and the premises owner or manager failed to provide adequate safety or warn of dangerous conditions.
  
  
• Employer-employee liability: This litigation is related to injuries caused by an employee during the course of his or her work for which the employer was responsible. Representative cases may be where an employee delivery driver strikes a pedestrian, a school employee abuses children, etc.
  
  
• Elder abuse: Elder abuse may involve physical abuse, such as striking, pushing, shoving, shaking, slapping, kicking, pinching, burning, improper use of drugs and physical restraints, and force-feeding, sexual abuse, such as unwanted (including acts where the elder lacks mental competence to consent) touching, all types of sexual assault or battery, such as rape, sodomy, coerced nudity, and sexually explicit photographing, emotional or psychological abuse, such as threats or misrepresentations to elders, neglect such as a refusal or failure of an obligated individual or entity to fulfill duties owed to an elder, abandonment such as the desertion of an elderly person by an individual or entity who has assumed responsibility for providing care for an elder, and financial or material exploitation such as the illegal or improper use of an elder's funds, property, or assets.
  
  
• Paralysis Litigation: These disputes involve negligence that causes an accident that leads to paralysis or medical malpractice by a physician or other medical provider where the treatment or failure to treat by such physician or medical provider leads to paralysis.
  
  
• Heart Attack: These disputes involve negligence that causes an accident that leads to heart attack or medical malpractice by a physician or other medical provider where the treatment or the failure to treat by such physician or medical provider leads to heart attack.
  
  
• Stroke: These disputes involve negligence that causes an accident that leads to stroke or medical malpractice by a physician or other medical provider where the treatment or the failure to treat by such physician or medical provider leads to stroke.
  
  
• Injury to Newborns: These disputes involve negligence that causes an accident that leads to injury to newborns or medical malpractice by a physician or other medical provider where the treatment or the failure to treat by such physician or medical provider leads to injury to newborns.
  
  
• Brachial Plexus Injury: These disputes involve negligence that causes an accident that leads to brachial plexus injury or medical malpractice by a physician or other medical provider where the treatment or the failure to treat by such physician or medical provider leads to brachial plexus injury.
  
  
• Surgical Mistakes: These disputes involve medical malpractice by a physician or other medical provider where the treatment or the failure to treat by such physician or medical provider leads to surgical mistakes.
  
  
• Injuries from Anesthesia: These disputes involve medical malpractice by an anesthesiologist or other medical provider where the treatment or the failure to treat by such anesthesiologist or medical provider leads to anesthetic injury.
  
  
• Missed or Incorrect Diagnosis: These disputes involve medical malpractice by a physician or other medical provider where the medical doctor or medical provider fails to treat or incorrectly treats a medical condition, and such treatment or failure to treat leads to injury or death.
  
  
• Premises Liability: Such litigation involves premises held out to the public, so that the person or entity in control of the premises has a duty to provide a safe environment, there was a breach of the duty by failing to provide such a safe area, such negligence led to injury of a visitor of the premises and the injured party suffered damages. An example might be where there is construction at a retail store or parking lot and there were no warnings so that a patron slips and falls. The premises manager might take the position the construction was open and obvious or that an independent contractor, rather than the manager of the premises, was responsible for the injury.
  
  
• Uninsured or Underinsured Motorist: These disputes involve vehicle accident where the party responsible for the injury had no insurance or was insufficiently covered to sufficiently indemnify the injured party.
  
  
• Railroad Crossing Accidents: This litigation is related to collisions between freight trains and vehicles injuries typically caused by faulty or obstructed warning equipment that may not have been properly maintained or negligently inattentive railroad employees.
  
  
• Trucking Accidents: This litigation is typically related to collisions between commercial trucks and pedestrians or other vehicles or objects, such as buildings. Such disputes may involve a trucker during the course of his or her work for which the employer was responsible.
  
  
• Smoke and Fire Damage: Insured homeowners and business owners may get into disputes with the insurance carrier over whether insurance policy coverage is triggered by an occurrence of smoke and fire or whether it is excluded.
  
  
• Hurricane and Tornado Damage: Insured homeowners and business owners may get into disputes with the insurance carrier over whether insurance policy coverage is triggered by hurricane and tornado damage or whether it is excluded.
  
  
• Flood Insurance: Insured homeowners and business owners may get into disputes with the insurance carrier over whether insurance policy coverage is triggered by an occurrence of flooding or whether it is excluded.
  
  
• Medical Malpractice: Medical malpractice disputes involve a negligent act or omission by a health care provider, insofar as such act or omission which deviated from medical professional standards and such act or omission caused injury to the patient.
  
  
• Drug Injuries & Death: People die from or are seriously injured by prescription and over-the-counter drugs they believe to be safe because they have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or prescribed by doctors or pharmacists, but many of these defective drugs are inadequately tested or have insufficient warnings on their labels.
  
  
• Medical Device Injury & Death: Such litigation is related to claims involving injuries caused by defects in medical device design, and medical device manufacturing and a medical device manufacturer’s failure to warn.
  
  
• Lead Paint Claims: These claims typically involve injury from lead poisoning to young children. Such kinds of injuries lead causes in children include learning disabilities, brain damage (sometimes subtle), loss of IQ points and intellect, academic failure, neuropsychological deficits, attention deficit disorder, hyperactive behavior, antisocial (criminal) behavior , neurological problems, encephalopathy (brain swelling), major organ failure, coma, and death.
  
  
• Nursing Home Abuse, Bedsores, Injuries and Death: Nursing home abuse may involve physical abuse, such as striking, pushing, shoving, shaking, slapping, kicking, pinching, burning, improper use of drugs and physical restraints, and force-feeding, sexual abuse, such as unwanted (including acts where the elder lacks mental competence to consent) touching, all types of sexual assault or battery, such as rape, sodomy, coerced nudity, and sexually explicit photographing, emotional or psychological abuse, such as threats or misrepresentations to elders, neglect such as a refusal or failure of an obligated individual or entity to fulfill duties owed to an elder, abandonment such as the desertion of an elderly person by an individual or entity who has assumed responsibility for providing care for an elder, and financial or material exploitation such as the illegal or improper use of an elder's funds, property, or assets.
  
  
• Insurance Claims: Insurance litigation is the area of law that deals with disputes arising between insurance companies and their policy holders. An insurance company has a legal obligation to act in good faith and cover the damages specified in the policy.
  
  
• Disability insurance Claims: Disability claims may be denied by the insurance company due to a lack of coverage for the specific medical conditions, if the injured is able to continue working, or if the treating physician does not promptly forward medical reports to the carrier.
  
  
• Life Insurance Claims: Life insurance disputes arise when there is a distribution of the proceeds arising out of failure to complete a change of beneficiary in accordance with the policy’s provisions a third-party distribution without the surviving spouse’s written consent, circumstances in question as to how the decedent died, a dispute as to the policyholder’s competency at the time beneficiary designations were made or a situation where the decedent died as a result of an accident.
  
  
• Elder Abuse Claims: Elder abuse may involve physical abuse, such as striking, pushing, shoving, shaking, slapping, kicking, pinching, burning, improper use of drugs and physical restraints, and force-feeding, sexual abuse, such as unwanted (including acts where the elder lacks mental competence to consent) touching, all types of sexual assault or battery, such as rape, sodomy, coerced nudity, and sexually explicit photographing, emotional or psychological abuse, such as threats or misrepresentations to elders, neglect such as a refusal or failure of an obligated individual or entity to fulfill duties owed to an elder, abandonment such as the desertion of an elderly person by an individual or entity who has assumed responsibility for providing care for an elder, and financial or material exploitation such as the illegal or improper use of an elder's funds, property, or assets.
  
  
• Sexual Assaults: Such litigation involves an intentional, unlawful offer of sexual touching that is without consent or by force, or force unlawfully directed towards an individual, such actions create a fear of imminent peril and alleged perpetrator has the apparent present ability to effectuate the attempted action.
  
  
• Serious Injuries and Accidents: If you have been injured through the carelessness, negligence or irresponsible behavior of another individual or organization, you probably have a valid personal injury claim. Since most of the time you will suffer some form of loss, you have a claim arising from injuries sustained as a result of the use or operation of motor vehicles, including claims against the at-fault motorist & uninsured motorist claims.
  
  
• Wrongful Death: A Wrongful Death occurs when an individual’s death is caused by the wrongful act or negligence of another. Wrongful death is the basis for a lawsuit, a wrongful death action, against the party or parties who caused the wrongful death. Action may be filed on behalf of certain members of the family of the deceased due to wrongful death. Thus, a wife or child might be entitled to compensation for the personal loss of a father through wrongful death, including the amount of financial earnings of the deceased parent if the parent was still alive. The idea behind a wrongful death lawsuit is that the wrongful death, in addition to injuring the person who died, also injured people who depended upon the deceased for financial or emotional support before the wrongful death.
  
  
• Cruise Ship Accidents: These disputes typically involve injured passengers suing the cruise lines. Common cruise ship injuries include on-board slip and fall accidents on decks, stairs, or swimming areas, physical or sexual assault by passengers or crew, sports-related injuries in cruise-sanctioned excursions (including parasailing, mopeds, snorkeling, scuba diving, tour buses, and charter fishing boats).
  
  
• Swimming Pool Accidents: Swimming pool operators and owners have a duty of care towards patrons that use their swimming facilities. Injuries and fatalities may result from a failure to mark shallow water, properly place and install diving boards, secure the premises after hours, or place a lifeguard on duty.
  
  
• Water Craft Accidents: Watercraft accidents are any accidents that occur on a boat. An operator of a boat must use the same reasonable care while driving a boat on the waterway as a driver of a car would have to use on the road, which means the driver must use the same degree of care that would be required of a reasonably prudent driver acting in the same or similar circumstances. Generally, for a boat operator to meet the test of reasonable care, he or she must maintain a reasonable watch for other boats, other watercraft (jet ski), water skiers, swimmers and rock formations. Furthermore, a boater's degree of care does not stop with the operation of the boat. All boaters also have a duty to maintain their watercraft in a safe operating condition, which includes proper mechanical maintenance as well as proper equipment.
  
  
• Faulty Products Causing Severe Injury: Faulty Products litigation is related to claims alleging injuries caused by defective product design and manufacturing and a manufacturer’s failure to warn.
  
  
• Motorcycle Accident litigation: Such litigation involves motorcycle accident, which is often one of the deadliest accidents, with injuries tending to be more serious, and medical costs being higher. This is because lightly-protected Motorcyclists are often injured by negligent car drivers. In the majority of cases, the other vehicle violated the motorcyclist's right-of-way and caused the accident.
  
  
• Airplane Accident litigation: These disputes involve airplane crashes, whether the cause of the crash was pilot error, FAA Controller error or defective airframe/engine components, or other cause.
  
  
• Negligent Security at Apartment Homes, Stores and Shopping Centers: These disputes involve crimes in premises held out to the public, such as a retail store, parking lot or apartment complex and the premises owner or manager failed to provide adequate safety or warn of dangerous conditions.
  
  
• Slip and Fall Accidents: These disputes involve injuries in premises held out to the public, such as a retail store, parking lot or apartment complex and the premises owner or manager failed to provide adequate safety or warn of dangerous conditions.
  
  
• Brain Injury: A brain injury may be caused various ways, The most common causes are trucking accidents, where a collision may have occurred after a trucker dozed or failed to maintain his equipment, defective products, unlawful alcohol consumption, such as when there has been an unlawful sale of alcohol leading to brain injury, slip and fall accidents, or worker injury.
  
  
• Dog Bites: Most American states and the District of Columbia have passed statutes which create liability in the absence of the traditional requirements for legal responsibility. These dog bite statutes vary widely. They may impose liability upon whomever had custody of the dog as well as its owner, apply to non-bite injuries as well as bites, limit their scope to only the victim's medical bills, or provide for additional compensation if the dog previously bit a person. While the majority of dog bite statutes impose strict liability based on ownership of the dog, a number combine concepts of negligence, common law strict liability, and/or violations of local law. The usual defenses to dog bite claims are that the victim provoked the dog, was a trespasser, was negligent, consciously assumed the risk of being bitten, or was a canine professional who was deemed to assume the risk. When the victim is a child, another defense is that his parent negligently failed to supervise him, and therefore was a cause of the accident (however, this defense is usually limited to an extreme lapse of supervision on the part of the parent). In one bite states, the primary defense is that the dog owner did not have previous knowledge that his dog had vicious tendencies, and therefore should not be held liable for the dog's first bite. Because these defenses are based on state statutes or judicial decisions, the defenses are different from state to state; furthermore, any particular defense might not apply in a specific case because of the particulars of the law in the jurisdiction where the incident happened. If a state does not have a dog bite statute, that state is a one-bite state. In one-bite states, legal responsibility is determined by the following principles. The first issue is whether the dog previously bit anyone. If so, then the dog owner / custodian is strictly responsible. If the answer is no, the second issue is whether the dog previously did something that should have put the owner / custodian on notice that the dog was inclined to bite somebody in the future. If that answer is no, we consider whether the person having custody of the dog at the time of the incident had violated any law pertaining to public health or safety, which was intended to protect people like the victim. An example would be a leash law, but there could be regulations such as those that restrict dogs from being in day care centers are beauty parlors. The violation of such a law would be considered "negligence per se." In some states, like Georgia, the violation is not negligence per se but rather an alternate way of proving liability under the dog bite statute. If we cannot find negligence per se, we consider whether the accident was caused by negligence. For example, a dog that is habitually mistreated, or sick, or suffering from a painful disease is more likely to bite a person, even if the dog has never done so before. Negligence is a ground for liability in most but not all of the one bite states. Sometimes it is referred to as "premises liability" when the incident happens on the dog owner's or custodian's land. If the dog owner or custodian is not legally responsible, then we consider whether anyone else might be liable as a result of their negligence or knowledge of the dangerous propensity of the dog to bite people.
  
  
• Burn and Fire Injuries: Injuries, death and other losses from a fire may occur because some person or entity has failed to fulfill a legal duty owed to others. Recovery for fire losses caused by a failure (or breach) of duty is based on the legal theory of negligence. In order to establish a claim for negligence, the plaintiff must show that the defendant had a legal duty; the defendant breached that duty; this breach was the proximate cause of the plaintiff's injuries; and the plaintiff was injured or damaged in some way. While laws may differ from state to state, responsibility for burns, deaths and property losses caused by fire may be imposed on the basis of negligence when:
  
  
  • A landowner or possessor maintains a dangerous condition on their property; for example, failing to install smoke detectors
  • Professionals negligently perform their services
  • A municipality or other public agency fails to recognize a potential hazard or recommend precautions
  • A property owner or possessor stores flammable or combustible materials near heat sources or in other unsafe ways
  • A company or individual fails to install or maintain electrical wiring in a proper manner
  • A property owner blocks or obstructs fire exits on the premises so people are unable to exit
  
  If a fire is caused by a defective or dangerously designed product, the manufacturer, distributor or seller of that product may be liable for any damages the fire causes. Product liability laws vary from state to state, but generally the plaintiff must show that the product was actually defective, improperly designed or that the defendant was otherwise at fault; that the defendant actually manufactured, distributed, sold or installed the product; and that the defendant's act or omission proximately caused the plaintiff's injury.
  
  There are three general types of defects:
  
  
  1. Design Defect: A design defect is a problem with the design of the product that makes it unreasonably dangerous. For example, an automobile manufacturer may design a car with the exhaust too near the fuel intake creating dangerously combustible conditions.
  2. Manufacturing Defect: If a product does not meet the designer or manufacturer's own specifications, there is a manufacturing defect. Severe fire losses have been linked to manufacturing defects in consumer products such as toasters and coffee pots, industrial equipment, building materials and finished surface materials like carpeting.
  3. Marketing Defect: Improper labeling of products, insufficient or inadequate instructions for product use and operation or the failure to warn of hidden dangers within the product are all examples of marketing defects. In particular, chemicals, solvents and products that require electricity and are used near water require clear warnings or their manufacturers and sellers could face liability if they are not labeled properly.
  
  
• Neck and Back Injuries: It is important to identify the location of the injury in order to receive the correct treatment. How the injury occurred is the best indicator of how to correct the damage. The most common causes of spine, back and neck injuries are:
  
  
  • Car Accidents
  • Violent Attacks
  • Slips and Falls
  • Sports-related Accidents
  • Lifting
  
  The most common types of injuries inflicted by such incidences are:
  
  
  • Spinal Cord Injury - The spinal cord is severely injured in the accident and may result in loss of motion or feeling to the lower extremities or permanent paralysis.
  • Slipped Disc - The pads of cartilage in between each vertebrae in your spine can be damaged or become herniated.
  • Compression Fractures - The bones of the spine break due to severe trauma.
  • Whiplash - The most common neck injury after a car accident, the neck can snap and become overextended.
    
    
• Birth Defects: While birth injuries are generally caused by something that went wrong during the delivery process itself, birth defects involve harm to a baby that arose prior to birth, usually caused by something that happened during or before the mother's pregnancy.
  
  Estimates are that 7% of all babies are born with a birth defect or irregularity, from very minor to severe.
  
  Birth defects can be caused by a number of factors, including heredity and environment (such as a mother's prescribed or illegal drug use). A chemical or agent that causes birth defects in a child is called a "teratogen." A number of drugs have been found to be teratogens, and many of these were initially meant to aid a woman's pregnancy. These teratogens include: Delalutin, a drug administered to pregnant women for the prevention of miscarriages; Bendectin, a medication given to pregnant women, to fight nausea; and Ortho-Gyno, a spermicide.
  
  It is important to remember that the causes of many birth defects are unknown, and in other cases a birth defect can be caused by the mother's own actions during pregnancy, such as alcohol or drug consumption. In these instances your rights to a legal recovery for birth injury may be non-existent or extremely limited.
  
  No matter what the particular facts of your case happen to be, in order to recover for birth injury you will likely need to show that medical providers and/or a pharmaceutical company failed to give you or your baby adequate medical care or medication advice during pregnancy and/or delivery.
  
  Generally, to find a medical professional legally at fault, it must be shown that his or her conduct fell below a generally accepted standard of medical care. To establish the standard that will be applied, your attorney will most likely consult with and present the testimony of another medical expert, who is qualified in the same area of medicine as the defendant. This expert will indicate what standard or level of care is commonly met by those recognized in the profession as being competent and qualified to practice. Your attorney will present expert testimony not only as to the applicable standard of care, but also testimony establishing that the defendant failed to meet this standard in your case.
  
  In medical malpractice actions, causation is sometimes a challenge to establish. Specifically, your attorney must show that your health care provider's deviation from the applicable standard of care resulted in his or her injury. This is challenging because sometimes, the health care provider's deviation from the standard of care may not have caused the plaintiff's eventual injury, and vice versa.
  
  If you bring a lawsuit against your obstetrician, other caregivers, and/or a medical facility for birth injuries to your child, it will be your attorney's responsibility to show that:
  
  
  • Defendant (which can include an obstetrician, physician, nurse, medical facility, pharmaceutical company, medical device manufacturer) owed a legal duty of care to your baby (and to you, in some cases);
  • Defendant breached that legal duty or standard of care by acting or failing to act in a manner in which a reasonably competent individual would have, under the circumstances;
  • Defendant's breach of the legal duty or standard of care caused harm to your baby (and to you, in some instances).
    
    
  In order to establish that birth injuries were caused by the defendant(s), your attorney will most likely use expert witnesses to comment on and interpret complex medical procedures and issues in your case, including: what to expect during a normal pregnancy and delivery; what could have been expected during the pregnancy in your case; what actually occurred during the pregnancy in your case (including specific description of any complication during pregnancy or delivery); physical and medical evidence of harm to the baby; and opinion as to whether any harm resulted from complication during pregnancy or delivery.
  
  Your claim for birth injury may be based not on complications during delivery, but on the mother's use of a prescribed drug or medication during pregnancy. These claims are typically brought against pharmaceutical companies, pharmacists, and treating physicians, and are usually based on a theory that the defendant(s) "failed to warn" the mother of the risk of taking the drug in question. If your lawsuit for birth injuries is based on the mother's use of a legally-prescribed drug during pregnancy, you will generally need to show:
  
  
  • The mother used the drug in question during pregnancy
  • The mother's use of the drug in question was prescribed by a physician, pharmacist, or other health care provider
  • The birth injury is not likely due to genetics, heredity, disease, or other factor (this is usually accomplished through expert opinion)
  • The drug in question is capable of causing birth defects
  • The drug in question actually caused the birth injury
    
    
• Amputation litigation: Amputations occur most often when workers operate unguarded or inadequately safeguarded mechanical power presses, power press brakes, powered and non-powered conveyors, printing presses, roll-forming and roll-bending machines, food slicers, meat grinders, meat-cutting band saws, drill presses, and milling machines as well as shears, grinders, and slitters.
  
  These injuries also happen during materials handling activities and when using forklifts and doors as well as trash compactors and powered and non-powered hand tools.
  
  Activities involving stationary machines also expose workers to potential amputation hazards: setting-up, threading, preparing, adjusting, cleaning, lubricating, and maintaining machines as well as clearing jams.
  
  According to OSHA, the following types of mechanical components present amputation hazards:
  
  
  • Point of Operation - the area of a machine where it performs work on material
  • Power transmission apparatuses - flywheels, pulleys, belts, chains, couplings, spindles, cams and gears in addition to connecting rods and other machine components that transmit energy
    
    In addition to mechanical components, mechanical motion is also hazardous.
    
    
  • In running nip points (pinch points) - occur when two parts move together and at least on moves in a rotary or circular motion that gears, rollers, belt drives, and pulleys generate. The most common types of hazardous mechanical motion includes:
  • Rotating - circular movement of couplings, cam, clutches, flywheels, and spindles as well as shaft ends and rotating collard that may grip clothing or otherwise force a body part into a dangerous location
  • Reciprocating - back and forth or up and down action that may strike or enter a worker between a moving part and a fixed object.
  • Transversing - movement in a straight, continuous line that may strike or catch a worker in a pinch or shear point created between the moving part and a fixed object.
  • Cutting - action generated during sawing, boring, drilling, millings, slicing, and slitting.
  • Punching - motion resulting when a machine moves a slide (ram) to stamp or blank metal or other material.
  • Shearing - movement of a powered slide or knife during metal trimming or shearing.
  • Bending - action occurring when power is applied to a slide to draw or form metal or other materials.
  
  Employers must recognize, identify, manage, and control amputation hazards commonly found in the workplace such as those caused by mechanical components of machinery, the mechanical motion that occurs in or near these components, and the activities that workers perform during mechanical operation. Employers must also comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act which generally prohibits employees under the age of 18 from operating band saws, circular saws, guillotine shears, punching and shearing machines, meatpacking or meat processing machines, paper products machines, woodworking machines, metal forming machines, and meat slicers.
  
  
• Animal Attack litigation: To succeed in most animal attack cases, the injured person must prove that the animal that caused the injury was owned and kept by the defendant. In the past, the injured person was also required to show that the owner knew or should have known that his or her animal was dangerous, mischievous, vicious, or prone to such threatening behaviors. Under current law, however, when it is proven that an owner was somehow negligent, such as by not properly restraining or containing the animal, the injured person may often recover damages without proving the animal’s viciousness.
  
  An owner of an animal may be found liable under any circumstances in which he or she had knowledge of the animal’s viciousness but failed to act in order to prevent injuries to others. Accordingly, if an animal exhibits vicious or uncontrollable behavior, the owner should take steps to shield the public from the animal. For example, if an individual owns a pit bull with a propensity to attack and bite without provocation, the owner should probably keep the dog indoors and, while outside, in a yard from which it cannot escape. If he or she does not adhere to these common-sense guidelines and the animal attacks, the injured party may be able to recover his or her damages.
  
  Those who keep animals generally considered wild, such as lions, bears, and monkeys, are typically liable for injuries caused by such animals regardless of whether the particular animal is known to be dangerous. Because wild animals are generally presumed to have a natural tendency to revert to their wild mannerisms no matter how well trained or domesticated, owners of such animals are often said to be "strictly liable" for any injuries caused by their wild animals. However, strict liability may not apply if the animal injures someone while it is confined or restrained on its owner’s property, but this is a factually dependent argument that will not apply in every case.
  
  In some states, it is not always necessary for the animal to actually bite or attack the victim to hold the owner liable for an injury. For example, a pedestrian who breaks his or ankle in a frightened attempt to get away from a fenced in dog's snapping, barking, or other aggressive behavior, may nonetheless be able to sue the dog’s owner successfully if he or she can show that the actions of the dog led to the injury.
  
  People who are injured in animal attacks are not always entitled to recover damages. If the injured person provoked the animal, for instance, recovery may be denied. Similarly, if a pet owner informs his or her neighbor that his or her pet parrot is not friendly and should not be touched, but the neighbor does not heed this warning and is thereafter pecked or bitten, recovery may be denied. If the owner merely stated that the parrot was not always friendly, on the other hand, but still encouraged the neighbor to pet it, the owner could likely be liable.
  
  People who are injured by an animal while on the owner's property are generally unable to recover if they are trespassing at the time of the attack. In many states, in order to successfully bring suit under a dog bite statute, the injured person must show that he or she was lawfully in the place where the injury occurred. If injured person was a trespasser at the time of the attack, the animal's owner may not be liability for injuries caused by his or her animal. If, for example, someone jumps over a fence into an enclosed junkyard with “Beware of Dog” warnings posted and taunts the German shepherd guard dog with a stick, the junkyard owner may not be liable if the dog bites the trespasser.
  
  
• Roof Leakage: Builders who fail to keep customers dry and comfortable will almost inevitably end up in a lawsuit. Complaints also focus on defective products that fail to live up to their advertised claims, such as lifelong plastic plumbing systems and untested, leaky windows. Homeowners often feel cheated when these simple components cause trouble in their $200,000 homes. They resort to the law to help them recoup.
  
  Defects occur for many reasons, some more frequent than others. These include complex house design; changing customer expectations; new, untested, and incompatible materials; a lack of quality control on the job site; changes in the workforce; compressed schedules; and the lack of widely accepted standards for quality verification.
  
  
• Broken Pipes: Builders who fail to keep customers dry and comfortable will almost inevitably end up in a lawsuit. Complaints also focus on defective products that fail to live up to their advertised claims, such as lifelong plastic plumbing systems and untested, leaky windows. Homeowners often feel cheated when these simple components cause trouble in their $200,000 homes. They resort to the law to help them recoup.
  
  Defects occur for many reasons, some more frequent than others. These include complex house design; changing customer expectations; new, untested, and incompatible materials; a lack of quality control on the job site; changes in the workforce; compressed schedules; and the lack of widely accepted standards for quality verification.
  
  
• Building Collapse: Building collapse cases involve a claimant alleging defective structural design causing or contributing to the failure of the building structure or its components. In other cases, clients may make claims against the design and construction team for defective design and construction.
  
  
• Civil Theft Claim: Civil theft occurs when Defendant’s unauthorized act; deprives plaintiff of his or her property permanently or for an indefinite time; and such deprivation is inconsistent with defendant’s ownership interest in the property.
  
  
• Aviation litigation: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was created by an act of Congress in 1958 in response to a series of tragic midair collisions is charged with overseeing aviation safety and is responsible for developing and maintaining a common system for navigating and controlling air traffic. The FAA is responsible for creating, revising, and enforcing the laws that govern civil aviation. In fact, it is the primary source of all aviation law and the chief regulatory agency for aviation safety and standards. After an aviation accident, officials with the FAA and the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) will investigate the accident to determine its cause and other pertinent factors. The FAA often implements new aviation safety rules and regulations in response to identified aviation dangers. For example, if icy conditions are found to be responsible for an aviation accident, the FAA may consider additional safety measures such as special pilot training.
  
  The people who work for the airline have a duty of care. Their duty of care is high because they have special knowledge about their jobs that regular people do not have. Pilots, for example, may be held responsible for an accident that occurs when they fly the plane in an unsafe way or by doing something that they were not trained or licensed to do.
  
  The people dealing with the airplane are responsible for the passengers' safety throughout the flight and if something goes wrong, may be held accountable for anything that goes wrong. If any of them did not do their job properly and an accident occurred, they would be held responsible for what happened and the airline that employed them may be held responsible to the people injured by their mistake.
  
  Because it is difficult to sue a person that works for an airline and collect the amount of money that you are trying to get, you can sue the airline itself. They are responsible for the accident just as much as the person who did not use ordinary care because the person was working for the airline at the time that he or she was negligent. That person is said to have been acting as an "agent" of the airline.
  
  However, since an airplane accident is usually caused by various factors, you can sue a lot of different people and the jury will decide who is to blame for what and for how much. Sometimes it is hard to figure out why an accident happened and who to blame for it. Sometimes there is no evidence that investigators can use to determine what went wrong and whose fault it was. In a lot of these cases it is likely that the courts will find that because of past knowledge of accidents like the present one, it could only have happened because of the negligence of someone.
  
  Sometimes the owner of an aircraft can be held responsible for an accident if he or she knowingly let someone who was not able to fly the plane do so anyway, and an accident occurs. This is called "negligent entrustment". To prove this, you must show that the owner of the plane knew the person they allowed to fly the plane was not responsible enough or knowledgeable enough to fly the plane, such as knowing that the person had health problems that would make flying a plane difficult.
  
  Those who have lost a loved one or been seriously injured in an aviation accident may be entitled to seek compensation through an aviation lawsuit.
  
  
• Malpractice and Professional Negligence: Such disputes arise from the negligence of a attorney, accountant or other profession, when the professional falls below the accepted standard of care. Some examples include the following:
  
  
  • Dental malpractice
  • Architectural malpractice
  • Accounting malpractice
  • Engineering malpractice
  • Sports entertainment malpractice
  • Legal malpractice
    
    
• Civil Trial Practice: Civil litigation, as opposed to a criminal prosecution, involves a dispute between two or more individuals or businesses, usually over money. Breach of Contract, Personal Injury, Malpractice and Landlord/Tenant disputes are examples of disputes that, if tried in court, are referred to as "Civil Litigation" matters.
  
  
• Personal Injury: The basic concept of (torts) is that we owe each other a duty of “due care.” We must be careful to not cause injury to others because of carelessness. Our law says that if a person fails to be as careful as a reasonably prudent person would be in the circumstances that gave rise to the injury, the person causing the harm is legally responsible for the damages caused by his or her carelessness – negligence. Our laws require each of us to accept the responsibility for the harm that we cause by negligence. If we do not accept this responsibility, the law will impose it upon us through litigation and a jury trial.
  
  If you prove liability – that someone’s or some entity’s negligence or wrongful conduct caused your injury, the following are some examples of the damages you may recover:
  
  
  • Past and future medical expenses
  • Past and future pain and suffering
  • Past and future lost income
  • Past and future home/life care
  • Loss of enjoyment of life, grief, emotional distress

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