Levinson and Stefani

In recent years, driverless cars have become a growing phenomenon. From Tesla’s semi-autonomous Autopilot to Uber’s self-driving vehicles, the introduction of cars that are able to control themselves without the aid of a physical person has significantly changed what it means to be a driver on the road. Driverless cars have been an incredible step forward in innovation, but, as it often happens with change, there are always issues brought to light as well.

Recently, there was a Chicago Tribune article about a Tesla in Autopilot mode that sped up before crashing into a stopped firetruck. The accident caused injuries to two people, the driver of the Tesla and the driver of the firetruck. Police suggested that the Tesla had most likely been following another vehicle, dropping its speed to 55 mph to match the leading vehicle, which probably then changed lanes, resulting in the Tesla automatically speeding up to its original preset speed of 60 mph without registering the cars that were stopped ahead and crashing into the firetruck.

According to the police report, the driver of the Tesla informed the police that she had been driving under the impression that the Tesla’s automatic emergency braking system would be able to detect the traffic and stop before it hit another vehicle. The driver had owned the car for two years and used the semi-autonomous Autopilot feature on all types of roadways, including the Utah highway she had crashed on. The police said that the car data showed that the driver of the Tesla had not touched the steering wheel for 80 seconds before the crash because she had been looking for her phone and comparing different routes to her destination. When asked about the accident, Tesla pointed out that “drivers are continually reminded to keep their hands on the wheel and maintain control of their vehicle at all times while using the Autopilot system.”

In another accident concerning Uber and its self-driving vehicles, a woman was hit by one of the robotic vehicles while she was crossing a darkened street in Arizona, resulting in her being killed. This was the first death that had involved a fully autonomous vehicle, raising concerns about the safety of computer-controlled cars that are being built by Uber and several other companies. Although it is considered a fully autonomous vehicle, Uber hires safety drivers to try and prevent any accidents such as the one that occurred in Arizona. From a video released by Tempe police, it is shown that the Uber driver was repeatedly looking down before hitting the woman and neither the car’s system nor the driver managed to stop the Uber in time. The safety driver is supposed to take control of the car when its sensors and algorithms are unable to register what the circumstances are.

These types of accidents have led to a growing concern as to where to draw the line when it comes to just how much control to give driverless cars. In the two incidents described above, it is clear that the drivers were a good deal at fault, but they also highlight increased worry that comes with more and more driverless cars being put on the road. Even a slight flaw in those programs or some unforeseeable circumstances could have a severe, potentially life-threatening impact on a person. It’s imperative that drivers, even those sitting behind the wheel of a driverless car, should always err on the side of caution and be safe. Assuming that the car, without a driver’s aid, can control itself and adjust to any situation is a risk not worth taking.

This series aims to give current and potential clients information to help them understand the various stages of a personal injury lawsuit. The first part of this blog series has focused on everything that happens before trial. This post will discuss the trial itself.

Your first day in trial will usually begin with discussions between the judge and the attorneys. Often, there are last minute issues about your case that need to be decided by the judge. Once all the issues have been decided, the attorneys will begin selecting a jury. While you will end up with 12 jurors (and an alternate), the original jury pool can be 40-100 people. Jury selection can last a few hours, or a few days – depending on the complexity of the case.

Once the jurors have been picked, the attorneys begin their opening statements. During these statements, the attorneys will tell the jurors what they expect the evidence at trial to be. Opening statements can last 30 minutes or three hours, again, depending on the complexity of the case.

After opening statements, the plaintiff’s attorney will begin to present the evidence. This comes in the form of live testimony from the client, their friends and families, any expert witnesses, just to give you an idea. The defense attorney has the right to cross examine each of witnesses. Once the plaintiff’s attorney has given all the evidence to the jury, they will rest their case. Just as the two prior parts of your trial, this process can take hours, days, or even weeks.

Once the plaintiff is finished and has rested their side of the case, the defense attorney now gets the chance to put on all their evidence in much the same process. At the close of all the evidence, both attorneys get one last chance to speak to the jury through closing statements. The purpose of closing statements is to recap all the evidence that was presented at trial, and to argue why their version of the story is the right one.

The final part of trial is jury deliberation. Before the jurors decide the case, the judge will read a series of instructions that tell the jurors what the law is and how to apply the facts to the law.

Many of the clients we represent tell us that they fear trial, or more specifically, the courtroom itself. There are rules most people don’t know, words most lay people don’t understand, and generally, those who have been in court before were there because something bad happened. Rest assured that your attorney will walk you through each step. If you have a legal question about your case, call our offices, one of our attorneys will be glad to speak with you.

The first six parts of this blog series have covered hiring an attorney, investigation of your claim, getting treatment, pre-suit negotiations, filing suit, and the discovery phase. The next stage in your lawsuit is getting ready for trial.

There is a huge amount of work involved in taking a case to trial, even if the injuries aren’t catastrophic. All the work your attorney has been doing over the last 12 – 24 months must now be brought together in a manner that tells the jury the story of your journey from the date you were injured to right now, and each story is completely unique to each client.

Just a few things that your attorney will work on include interviewing the witnesses that will be called and preparing them to testify; organizing all the documents involved in the case and determining which documents will be presented to the jury; preparing opening and closing statements; reviewing and summarizing any depositions that have been taken to ensure no witness changes their testimony at trial; and working with trial technology companies to create video and 3D renderings of your injury or a surgery you underwent. Depending on the complexity of the trial, anticipate that your attorney will spend weeks, if not months, getting ready.

There is also time spent with the client. After all, the client is the crux of the entire case. You should expect to meet with your attorney several times before the trial to go over your testimony, your medical treatment, your recovery, or perhaps the way that this injury has changed your life forever. Your attorney will want to meet with your friends and family to help tell the complete story of your journey.

We understand how difficult being involved in a lawsuit can be, and the prospect of a trial is daunting for many. If you have a legal question about your case, call our offices, one of our attorneys will be glad to speak with you.

It seems that almost every year, driving truck is among one of the most dangerous jobs. In fact, most top 10 dangerous job lists include truck driving. While we recognize the difficulties in measuring “dangerousness,” the data pretty much speaks for itself:

Transportation incidents increased from 1,984 in 2014 to 2,054 in 2015. Roadway incidents consistently account for the greatest share of fatal work-related transportation injuries. Of these, 660 fatal injuries, or 32 percent of the total transportation incidents, resulted from a roadway collision with another vehicle.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has published a variety of interactive charts relating to fatalities and injuries in the workplace.

A brief review of these charts makes it overwhelmingly clear that transportation fatalities and injuries are a significant problem.

According to The Large Truck Crash Causation Study – Analysis Brief conducted by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Office of Research and Analysis, three major types of critical events were assigned to large trucks:

• Running out of the travel lane, either into another lane or off the road (32 percent of the large trucks in the LTCCS sample were assigned this critical event)
• Vehicle loss of control due to traveling too fast for conditions, cargo shift, vehicle systems failure, poor road conditions, or other reasons (29 percent)
• Colliding with the rear end of another vehicle in the truck’s travel lane (22 percent).

The following tables shows the critical reasons assigned, by major categories.

This table shows associated factors assigned in large truck crashes and their relative risk importance:

According to the study:

One-half of the LTCCS crashes involved collisions between a large truck and a passenger vehicle (car, pickup truck, van, or sport utility vehicle). In those crashes, the same associated factors coded most often for the large trucks usually were also coded most often for the passenger vehicles. For both large trucks and passenger vehicles, there was a statistically significant link between the following 10 associated factors (listed in descending order according to how often they were coded for the large truck) and coding of the critical reason:

1. Interruption of the traffic flow
2. Unfamiliarity with roadway
3. Inadequate surveillance
4. Driving too fast for conditions
5. Illegal maneuver
6. Inattention
7. Fatigue
8. Illness
9. False assumption of other road user’s actions
10. Distraction by object or person inside the vehicle.

While there have been many attempts to try to improve roadway safety, as a society, we seem to keep coming up short. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t stop trying.

It’s also worth noting that this isn’t simply a “truck driver problem.” Over the years, our attorneys have come to know many excellent drivers.

However, whatever the reason, too many people are injured every single year by collisions with tractor-trailer trucks, and many of those involve actions or inactions taken by drivers.

The nature of our work gives a window into the lives of the people impacted by collisions with tractor-trailer trucks.

Sadly, too many of the truck cases we work involve circumstances that could have been avoided with more measures taken to prevent some of the critical reasons listed above. In fact, many of the driver-specific critical reasons could be greatly reduced with relatively straightforward solutions.

Until we recognize that these numbers are unacceptable, we should all be thinking about how we can bring more attention to roadway safety and putting pressure on the people who can make changes to make the roads safer for all of us.

This blog series aims to give current and potential clients information to help them understand the various stages of a personal injury lawsuit. The first five parts of this blog series have covered hiring an attorney, investigation of your claim, getting treatment, pre-suit negotiations, and filing suit. The next stage in your lawsuit is the discovery phase.

The discovery phase of your lawsuit is just like it sounds, the chance to discover information about the defendant that may be helpful to your case. Generally speaking, there are three types of discovery. The first is called ‘interrogatories’ which is a series of written questions. The second is called ‘document production’ which, as it sounds, are documents you ask the defendant to give you. The last type of discovery is ‘depositions’ which is a series of questions asked under oath of the parties, witnesses, experts and any other individuals that may be helpful to your case.

The first two, interrogatories and document production, are sent to the defendant in writing. The defendant has thirty days (unless they request more time) to send written responses and copies of the documents. Often, the attorneys will disagree over the nature, scope, or subject matter of the questions. When that happens, a Judge will be asked to get involved and make decisions about these disagreements. There can be multiple rounds of written requests sent between the parties.

The last type of discovery, depositions, does not typically happen until both parties are finished exchanging written information and documents. Depositions are taken under oath in the presence of a court reporter. The court reporter is trained to type every word said during the deposition and create a transcript of the entire conversation. The attorney asks the witness a series of questions about nearly all aspects of the case. The purpose of depositions is to give the parties an idea of what will be said during trial.

In a straight forward case with one plaintiff and one defendant, the process usually takes a matter of months. In more complicated cases, or cases with multiple parties, the discovery process can take years.

The discovery phase, while frustrating as a client, is one of the most helpful aspects in getting your case resolved. Negotiating the intricacies of a lawsuit can be difficult. Have a legal question about your case? Call our offices, one of our attorneys will be glad to speak with you.