Idaho Law Blog

Lawyers operate under ethical rules that prevent us from representing a client when we have a “conflict of interest.” A lawyer has a conflict of interest when there is something about the case that might prevent the lawyer from representing his client’s interests as zealously as he might. This usually comes up because the lawyer already has a relationship with the other party. For instance, the person you intend to sue might be a client, a relative, or a friend. In that case, the lawyer will almost always have to decline your case.

 If the lawyer is in a firm with other lawyers, she will have to decline the case if any of the other lawyers in the firm have a conflict. Similarly, if the person you want to sue is insured by a company that is a regular client of the firm, the lawyer will probably decline your case.

 That is why lawyers usually want complete information about the other parties involved in a case before talking to you in detail. We must check our records to make sure there is no conflict before talking confidentially with you. As you can see, this is done for your protection as well as the lawyer’s.

One of the more difficult cases to prove is the personal injury case involving a low-speed car crash. A fender bender might not break any bones, but it can produce a significant jolt that, under the right circumstances, results in significant and long-lasting pain that can affect the victim’s quality of life and ability to work.

 What makes these cases difficult to prove is that the injuries don’t show up on X-rays or CAT scans. The injury cannot be seen, it can only be felt. Juries are suspicious of injuries that lack solid objective evidence to back them up, and there have been cases of people faking injuries to get a recovery in a personal injury lawsuit. Nevertheless, it is undisputed that real injuries can result from a low-impact crash. The medical community is able to identify and treat these injuries. The right experts can provide the objective evidence to convince the most skeptical jury.

 To win a personal injury lawsuit in Idaho requires a lawyer who can pull together the medical experts and the evidence and present it in a way that a jury trusts. We have the experience, the expertise, and the reputation to get you the best result in a low-impact injury case .

Someone who has suffered personal injuries in an accident is probably going through tough financial times. She may be out of work, and dealing with medical expenses. Paying a lawyer probably isn’t in the cards.

Never let financial difficulties keep you from hiring a lawyer to deal with the personal injuries that caused the problem. Most Idaho lawyers will take personal injury cases on a “contingency fee.” This means that the lawyer doesn’t get paid unless and until you collect some money from the party responsible for your injury.

How does a contingency fee work? When you hire a personal injury lawyer, he should have you sign a fee agreement which lays out the details. It should be in plain English, and make sure you understand it before you sign. The details will be different from lawyer to lawyer, but it will work something like this:

The “slip-and-fall” case. It is the mainstay of jokes about the ambulance-chasing personal injury lawyer. The truth, though, is that the “slip-and-fall” case, and other premises liability cases, enforce a rule that is hundreds of years old: a landowner who invites the public onto his property, like a grocery store or restaurant, owes the public a duty to make the premises reasonably safe. If the landowner negligently fails to make the premises safe, and a person is injured as a result, the landowner is liable, just as he would be if he drove negligently and caused an injury.

In Idaho, to recover for personal injuries resulting from a fall or other accident on another’s property, your lawyer will have to prove a number of facts. First, that you were not a trespasser. Trespassers usually cannot recover for injuries suffered on another’s property. The landowner does not owe a trespasser a duty to make the land safe for him to be there. But if you are a “licensee,” which means that the landowner has permitted you to be there, the landowner must at least warn you of dangerous conditions. And if you are an “invitee,” or someone whom the landowner has invited onto the premises for his own benefit — like a customer in a store — the landowner must make reasonable efforts to make the premises safe.

Second, your lawyer will have to prove that the landowner was negligent. That is, that through carelessness he failed to make the premises safe or to warn you of a dangerous condition. “Carelessness” in any given case will depend on the circumstances. If the store’s employees let a puddle of water stand on the floor for an hour, that might be careless. But if another customer pours water on the floor an instant before you step on it, that probably isn’t careless — at least on the part of the store.

Traumatic brain injuries are common in car accidents, falls, and other activities. According to the Brain Injury Association of America, 2.4 million Americans sustain a traumatic brain injury (TBI) every year. Yet TBI is often never diagnosed or treated. People who strike their head in a minor car wreck or fall sometimes laugh it off. “I just hit my head. I’m okay.”

Possible TBI should never be treated lightly. Impacts to the head can damage the brain, and the swelling that follows an injury can sometimes cause further damage. Even a minor injury can cause difficulty learning or remembering new information, dizziness, vision problems and other effects. Some symptoms can even become permanent if not treated. A TBI may even increase your risk of developing Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia.

How do you know if you have suffered a traumatic brain injury? You are at risk any time you have experienced a significant impact to the head. Sometimes striking the head is not even necessary to cause a TBI. A whiplash-type impact can develop enough force to cause damage to the brain. You should always seek medical treatment if you have experienced an impact to the head in a car accident, or a fall from more than three feet, or any impact severe enough to stun you, even momentarily.