All Topics

• Liability for Negligent Creation of a Dangerous Condition

  Geoff Trachtenberg | March 21, 2007 10:38 AM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ

  When someone gets hurt on property or on a roadway, the issue that is litigated is typically whether there was sufficient "notice" to the property owner or entity responsible for the roadway. Often, however, proving such notice is not required where the defendant is responsible for creating the dangerous condition. As the Arizona Supreme Court recognized in Isbell v. Maricopa County, 198 Ariz....

• Wrongful Death and Negligent Loss of Frozen Embryos

  Geoff Trachtenberg | March 21, 2007 10:22 AM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ

  Unlike most injury claims, wrongful death claims are created and governed by statute. Those statutes typically permit claims by certain family members for the negligent loss of a loved one or, in pure legal terms, a "person." But what qualifies as a "person" is subject to a great deal of political, philosophical and even legal debate.What about frozen embryos? They are genetically complete...

• Business Installment Agreements & Statutes of Limitation

  Geoff Trachtenberg | March 21, 2007 10:07 AM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ

  Say someone owes you $100 and agrees to pay you in $10 monthly installments. What if they pay the first two installments, miss the third one, pay the fourth installment and miss the fifth installment. When does the statute of limitations begin to run?The answer is that there is a new accrual date for each missed installment, unless there is an acceleration clause in the agreement. In...

• Mistakes That Give Rise to an Inference of Negligence

  Geoff Trachtenberg | March 21, 2007 9:53 AM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ

  Sometimes mistakes are so obvious that the law permits an inference of negligence. The legal term for this type of situation is res ipsa loquitur and, in Arizona, applies where (1) in the normal course of events, the accident would not have occurred unless defendant was negligent; (2) the accident occurred as a result of an instrumentality that was under defendant's exclusive control; and (3)...

• Negligence of an Independent Contractor

  Geoff Trachtenberg | March 21, 2007 9:25 AM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ

  Most attorneys hire outside companies to handle filing and serving lawsuits. What happens when these process servers mess up and, as a result, you cannot pursue your lawsuit?We have a case like that right now. About one week before the statute of limitations ran, our client's former attorney prepared a lawsuit and sent it to be filed with the Court. Although the attorney's staff followed up...

• Road Debris: Recipe for Motorcycle Accidents

  Geoff Trachtenberg | March 20, 2007 8:37 PM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ

  Imagine riding your motorcycle down the freeway and having a tire tread or some other debris thrust into your path by an unknown vehicle. It is a prospect, in one form or another, that bikers face all the time. Often the problem for injured bikers in these types of situations is that, even if they have uninsured motorist coverage, carriers attempt to deny these claims since it is impossible to...

• The Most Important Coverage - UM/UIM

  Geoff Trachtenberg | March 20, 2007 8:09 PM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ

  "What do you mean they don't have insurance?!" is something every injury attorney hears at some stage.Whether the issue is no coverage or limited coverage, with healthcare costs being what they are today, odds are that the person who injures you will not have sufficient insurance coverage. That is one reason why uninsured motorist and underinsured motorist coverage (called "UM" and "UIM,"...

• Negligent Injury or Death of a Pet

  Geoff Trachtenberg | March 20, 2007 8:06 PM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ

  For many pet-owners, pets are more like family members than simple property, so what happens when a pet is negligently injured or worse? Historically, those pets were treated just like property and the owners were simply entitled to the "market value" or "replacement value" of the pets. While the law varies from state to state, in Arizona the courts have suggested that pet owners may have a...

• Department of Justice in Dispute with MedCath

  Christina Cole | March 18, 2007 11:38 PM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ

  The Department of Justice is seeking $8.5 from MedCath Corp to settle an investigation surrounding a clinical trial that was conducted by one of MedCath's hospitals.The business dispute alleges fraudulent billings were made to federal health care programs for devices that were implanted into patients during a clinical study.MedCath says the hospital complied with internal policies and federal...

• UL Graduate Amends Lawsuit to Include Legal Malpractice

  Christina Cole | March 17, 2007 12:15 AM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ

  A University of Louisiana-Lafayette graduate who sued her political science professor for sexual harassment last year has added UL's interim athletic director to the suit.In an amendment to the original lawsuit, she is now accusing Walker, an attorney, of legal malpractice. The suit states she met with university officials and Walker in a meeting the last week in September to discuss her...