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Author: Kohan & Bablove Injury Attorneys

Kohan & Bablove Injury Attorneys was founded by three former defense attorneys who were tired of helping insurance companies and big corporations save money by paying the least amount possible to resolve claims. We wanted to open a law firm where we could use our years of experience handling the toughest and largest claims to benefit the individual. Each of us were tired of being cogs in the wheel that focused on paying the least amount possible to injured persons regardless of injuries or the validity of their claims.

It’s easy enough for people to understand that the victims of accidents suffer physical injuries, but it’s sometimes not recognized how serious the psychological and emotional damage caused by a traumatic event can be.

The fact is that in the same way that serious injuries can leave a person with long-term or permanent disabilities, some incidents are so disruptive to a person’s life and can be so difficult to face psychologically that they leave a victim with long-term or even permanent problems. These difficulties might only manifest under specific circumstances, or they can afflict a victim in such a way that even facing normal activities is a challenge.

More Common Than Many Realize

Human beings are not frail creatures, but few of us go through life with an unlimited capacity to face hardship and suffering. It’s long been known that shocks and trauma can leave a person in a less steady psychological state, but a better understanding of this kind of psychic injury was only reached in the twentieth century.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was only added to the standard list of psychiatric diagnoses in 1980, despite having been described under other names and studied by medical professionals for more than a century. Reliable estimates now suggest that nearly 8 percent of all adults will suffer PTSD at some point in their lives, with as many as 3.5 percent suffering from it in a given year. PTSD is often what is at issue in an injury claim when pain and suffering is discussed.

No Trivial Diagnosis

PTSD and other emotional injuries should always be taken seriously. The incidents that cause them are not the routine hardships of daily life nor even the serious problems people face at times, such as a divorce, a bankruptcy, or a personal failure on the job. Serious psychological scarring is instead the result of those moments that are “outside the range of usual human experience.”

These are often traumatic and disruptive events, such as violent crimes and sudden physical harm, including unexpected work injuries and accidents or car crashes.

Valid Workers Compensation Condition

In addition to being a reason to claim and receive compensation in a personal injury suit, the State of California has recognized PTSD as a valid form of on-the-job injury, making a harmed worker eligible for benefits required for treatment, for more than two decades. As in the case of any injury, a worker must prove that the condition was the result of events that happened on the job.

Orange County PTSD Lawyer

When you’ve been harmed, it’s important to consider all forms that damage can take, both physical and psychological. If it’s time for you to consider a claim for PTSD, turn to the experienced attorneys at Kohan & Bablove Injury Attorneys for a free, no-obligation review of your case. Call us at 949.535.1341 or contact us online through the form below to schedule an appointment.

rear-endSelf-driving cars may not have hit the roads for everyday use yet, but they’re no longer the stuff of science fiction stories. Vehicles in Google’s Waymo project have racked up more than 4 million miles on actual roads, while many other companies (including Audi, GM, Mercedes, Uber, and even Apple) have some kind of autonomous vehicle research initiative underway.

Car manufacturers continue to slip new technology that comes out of these programs, such as autonomous emergency braking, into their latest models while others continue to work toward the release of a fully autonomous vehicle.

Every safety improvement and advance is welcome, but every once in a while something happens that should make us all stop and ask what’s going to happen—and who’s going to be responsible—when something goes wrong with one of these vehicles.

Crash Raises Questions

The dramatic rear-end crash of a Tesla Model S into a parked fire truck in California earlier this year raises these kind of alarm bells. Fortunately, there were no injuries. The driver of the Tesla said he was using the car’s Autopilot feature (although this has not yet been confirmed), which should have prevented such a crash. An incident in Florida in 2016 led to a driver’s death when Autopilot failed to detect a tractor-trailer truck crossing the highway.

Tesla touts Autopilot as if it is already a fully self-driving system, but the fine print notes that not all features are available or allowed for use because of regulatory considerations. It’s not yet clear if the California crash can be blamed on the system having weaknesses, the features being used improperly by the driver, or some other issue.

Currently all these self-driving and driver assist features are meant to be used only as instructed. Tesla, for example, tells drivers to only use the system on limited access highways and to stay alert, and the system warns drivers when their hands are off the wheel for more than a few seconds.

Responsibility a Work in Progress

Who has legal responsibility when one of these systems fails still needs to be worked out. Existing law would hold the operator or driver responsible, but it seems more likely that liability could be parceled out to owners, manufacturers, and even programmers.

Personal injury and product liability law could both come into play. In a bold step, Volvo has already declared that it will accept full liability for its self-driving vehicles when they hit the streets (which might be as early as 2019). Not all manufacturers have taken this step, and few laws have yet addressed the issue.

Orange County Car Accident Lawyer

The ongoing debate over the liability issues surrounding autonomous vehicles is something that most people don’t spend much time thinking about, and when you’ve been hurt in a car crash, that kind of thing is not what you want to focus on.

That’s the kind of detail you leave to the attorneys at Kohan & Bablove, Injury Attorneys, who put all their time and energy into understanding all the issues of automobile accident law—so you don’t have to.

When you need help with your car accident case, call our experienced team at 949.535.1341 or contact us online to schedule a no-cost, no-obligation consultation to discuss your case. We’ve helped hundreds of clients reach successful settlements, and we can help you.

Find a Motor Vehicle Lawyer Office below:

Kohan & Bablove Injury Attorneys
Address: 20371 Irvine Ave Suite 110, Newport Beach, CA 92660
Phone: +1 949.535.1341

Demand letter California guidelines explain what to include when drafting a demand letter to support your personal injury claim and improve your chances of full compensation. transportationAn important part of any lawsuit is specifying the remedy being sought. In a personal injury claim, two of the important factors in every claim are the harm or injury that has been caused and the damages or reparations that are being requested. These two factors go into creating another important part of most personal injury lawsuits: the demand letter.

Important in All Cases

A demand letter (or demand package—in this post the terms are interchangeable) can be important in almost any kind of personal injury case. Whether the claim is centered on a slip-and-fall accident, a dog bite, or a car crash, the demand letter will serve a number of useful functions. For one thing, simply writing the letter will serve to collect all the details of your claim. It forces you, as the potential plaintiff, to specify exactly what wrong you’re seeking to right. The damage done, as well as the circumstances that caused it, will be outlined in your letter. It will also include the amount being sought to correct the harm that was done.

This is an excellent opportunity for you and your attorney to make sure that all your details are correct. Not only do you want to make sure that you can accurately describe what happened, but when you tally up the costs you seek to recover, you may discover that you’ve forgotten something.

Depending on who the letter is intended for, you may also need to include other information. When seeking compensation for an injury, for example, you might need copies of medical reports and receipts from treatment, in addition to those for related expenses such as transportation or a home health aide. This can begin to pile up (which is why calling it a “demand package” can be appropriate).

 

Why the Demand Letter Matters

A demand letter might seem like a formality, but it shows the other party that you’re serious about your claim. If the other party hasn’t been giving your claim the attention it deserves, the demand letter can be an effective wakeup call: Most cases settle before trial, but legal experts believe that about one-third of all civil disputes move to a settlement simply because of a demand letter.

 

Don’t Overstep

You’re legally entitled to make a demand for harm done to you, and it’s important to do so. However, California courts have ruled on more than one occasion that a demand letter has overstepped acceptable bounds and become an attempt at extortion. This happens not when a demand threatens legal action (which is often part of the demand process), but when a demand makes other threats that can be viewed as harassment, such as the filing of false criminal charges or the public release of potentially embarrassing materials unrelated to the case. A knowledgeable attorney will make sure that this kind of mistake doesn’t happen with your demand letter.

 

Orange County Personal Injury Lawyer

The experienced attorneys at Kohan & Bablove Injury Attorneys have helped hundreds of clients navigate the sometimes complicated waters of personal injury claim filing. If you find yourself in a situation where pursuing a civil suit is a necessary step to correct a harm done to you, give us a call at 949.535.1341 or contact us online through the form below. We offer every client a free, no-obligation consultation to go over the specifics of his or her case and suggest how to move forward.

Are older drivers really a problem? All of our lives we’ve heard stories and jokes about their driving behavior and the problems they cause on the roads. But is this a real concern or just a case of stereotyping and ageism? If you are an older driver (age sixty-five and above), or you’re concerned about them, you want to know the facts. Let’s take a look.

More Seniors, More Accidents

In 2016, the most recent year with full data, the number of drivers sixty-five and older involved in fatal crashes was up 8.2 percent (noticeably more than the 5.6 percent increase in all fatal crashes for the year). The only category with a larger increase was young drivers (under age sixteen).

That increase by itself might not be alarming, but some underlying numbers could be. Over the past ten years, the number of drivers age sixty-five and over has increased by 33 percent, far more than the 7.5 percent overall increase. Drivers in that age category have been involved in a disproportionate increase in fatal crashes over that time period: They’re up 19.9 percent over ten years (they were down for every other age group, and down more than 7 percent overall).

California: Ahead of the Curve

Can you believe that as soon as eight years from now as many as one in four licensed drivers in California will be over the age of sixty-five? That’s a possibility the CHP noted not long ago in a press release announcing a new, free driver safety course for older drivers. The course is touted as a refresher, designed to help seniors evaluate their own abilities and improve their safe driving skills.

It’s too soon to tell if the message will get across. A report from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that 90 percent of older drivers have not installed any equipment on their vehicles to make them safer and easier to handle. These devices aren’t meant to be simple conveniences but are instead meant to improve vehicle safety while allowing seniors to continue driving as they age.

Safer for Seniors, Safer for Everyone

Older drivers face challenges, but so do all of us, and making driving safer for older drivers can help everyone. Some of the devices AAA looked at (such as extra mirrors to remove blind spots) would help all drivers.

Those who look at traffic safety know this well. Since 1998, the Federal Highway Administration has recognized that the “typical” driver and pedestrian in the twenty-first century are both likely to be sixty-five or over, and it regularly issues a road design handbook that takes this into account (while applying ideas and principles that improve roadway safety for all users).

Orange County Car Accident Lawyer

When you’ve been in a car crash, the most important thing to you isn’t knowing how old the other driver is, but knowing that you’ll be compensated for all repair costs and medical expenses that you face. Regardless of how the crash happened and who was driving, you need an experienced automobile accident attorney to help with your case.

At Kohan & Bablove Injury Attorneys, we’ve helped hundreds of clients reach the settlements they need to put their lives back on track. Call us today at 949.535.1341 or contact us online through the form below to schedule a no-cost, no-obligation consultation to discuss your case.

Two different crashes in Desert Hot Springs in little more than a week recently claimed the lives of two area motorcyclists. The occupants of the other vehicles were not injured. Police have not yet released a certain cause for either crash, but it appears from reports that at least one may have been due to a common oversight by car and truck drivers that puts bikers at risk.

Two Collisions, Two Deaths

The first crash happened around 2:30 in the afternoon on Route 62 at Mission Creek Road. The motorcyclist, a Palm Desert resident, survived the initial crash but died several hours later from his injuries. No specific details have been made available, but it appears that drugs and alcohol were probably not involved. The crash was serious enough that a three-mile stretch of southbound Route 62 (Twentynine Palms Highway) was closed for more than eight hours.

On Friday morning, January 5, a second fatal crash took place on the other side of the city, near the intersection of Dillon and Mountain View. In that incident, a local man was thrown from his motorcycle when it collided with a pickup pulling a trailer. The victim died at the scene.

Left Turn Danger Highest for Motorcycles

In the second crash, the driver of the pickup is reported to have taken a left turn across the main road from an unpaved side road, putting his vehicle into the path of the oncoming biker. While the maneuver  may sound relatively innocuous, this specific type of crash—caused when a vehicle takes a left turn across the path of a motorcycle—is both very common and very dangerous.

Intersection crashes account for close to 40 percent of all crashes in the United States, and potentially more than one-fourth of all crash fatalities. And in one analysis, crashes while turning left outnumbered those while turning right by more than eighteen to one. Several reasons are cited, but high on the list are falsely assuming that another driver will see you and react appropriately and simply misjudging the speed of an oncoming vehicle.

This is no surprise to bikers: It’s been recognized since the early 1980s that the most frequent multi-vehicle crash configuration for a motorcycle is a car taking a left turn across its path. The most recent data support that. In 2015, 41 percent of fatal motorcycle crashes involving another vehicle happened when the other vehicle turned left into a motorcycle.

Riverside, California Motorcycle Accident Lawyer

At Kohan & Bablove Injury Attorneys, our team of experienced attorneys understands all aspects of California automobile accident law. When you’ve been in a crash, whether as a driver, a passenger, or a pedestrian; whether in a car, a truck, a bus, or on a motorcycle; give us a call. We offer a free, no-obligation consultation in our Orange or Riverside County offices. You can reach us today at 949.535.1341 or contact us online through the form below at your convenience to learn more about how we can help.

A twenty-one-year-old woman from San Pedro remains in the hospital with severe brain injuries more than two weeks after a drunk driver ran a red light and crashed into the car she was in. There’s a sad irony here as the victim and a friend had been out drinking that night but did the right thing by calling an Uber to get home.

Unfortunately, the driver who caused the crash was not as responsible. He had reportedly also been drinking that night and was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence after the crash.

Multiple Injuries, Multiple Charges

Since the crash at Artesia Boulevard and Aviation Way in Redondo Beach around 2:00 a.m. on December 22, the victim has undergone multiple surgeries but at last report was still unconscious and in intensive care. The other passenger in the Uber also suffered serious injuries and spent more than a week at the hospital, although he was expected to leave soon. The Uber driver and the driver who caused the crash were not seriously hurt.

The drunk driver submitted to a blood test for alcohol at the scene, and while the results have not been made public, he was arrested on several charges, including at least one for driving under the influence and causing injury, an offense that assumes a driver has at least a 0.08 percent blood alcohol content.

Just a few minutes before running the light and causing this crash, the driver had also crashed into a nearby building and left the scene; that led to a hit-and-run property damage charge being included.

He pleaded not guilty to all charges several days after the crash but was being held on $250,000 bail. If convicted on the charges already filed, he could face up to fourteen years in prison.

Highest Risk for Brain Injury

Sports- and military service- related injuries have grabbed most of the headlines about traumatic brain injury (TBI) in recent years, but the truth is that a person is more likely to suffer one as the result of a car crash.

Motor vehicle accidents are the third leading cause of fatal TBI, and the number one cause of TBI hospitalizations for those between the ages of ten and fifty-four.

The most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that TBI is involved in around 30 percent of all injury deaths in the United States.

Long Road to Recovery

There’s no simple or reliable way to predict how any victim of a TBI will recover. Some regain full function in a short time while others are afflicted with life-long problems.

We hope that the young woman affected in this crash can complete her final year of college and that she’s able to pursue her goal of attending nursing school. Her friends have set up a fundraising effort for her.

Orange County Brain Injury Lawyer

When you or someone close to you has suffered a serious injury, such as a brain injury, because of the negligence or reckless act of another, it’s important to take all action possible to make sure that justice is served. The damage can be severe and long-lasting, and the expense of care, recovery, and lost wages and income can run high.

You can turn to the experienced brain injury attorneys at Kohan & Bablove, Injury Attorneys for help. Call us today at 949.535.1341 or contact us online through the form below to discuss your case, free of charge, and to learn more about the options open to you.

You’ve been injured in a car accident in California. The other driver caused the crash. Now what? There’s a lot to understand, think about, and act on, but one thing to remember is that California is a tort or “fault” state when it comes to auto insurance.

You might have heard these terms before, but if you’ve never had to deal with an accident claim, you might not have given them much thought. What do they mean?

Tort (Fault) vs. No-Fault

About one quarter of US states have adopted what is known as a “no-fault” insurance system (California is not one of them). In these states, a system is in place to make sure that most car accident injury claims are handled without the need for lawsuits. The idea behind these systems was to take the burden of these suits out of the courts, to save everyone time and money. No-fault systems also make sure that those with serious injuries receive appropriate compensation.

The rest of the states (including California) still rely on a system that, by default, does nothing when someone is injured in a crash. If a victim wants to recover damages for his or her injuries—medical expenses, lost wages and income, rehabilitation costs, and so on—he or she needs to file a civil lawsuit (a tort) against the person who caused the accident.

What Insurance Is Required?

While California is not a no-fault state, there is still a state requirement that every driver have liability insurance. A driver needs $15,000/$30,000 coverage for death and bodily injury (the separate numbers are for a single victim and multiple victims). A driver also must have at least $5,000 in property damage coverage.

These are minimums, and a driver can carry much more insurance than this. But drivers must meet the minimums: If a driver is caught without insurance, he or she will be fined at least $100 (and it could be more). If lack of insurance is discovered at the scene of an accident, the penalties will be much stiffer: A driver could have his or her vehicle impounded and license suspended with much higher fines.

Who Do You Sue?

Since no action will happen unless you make it happen, you have to sue the driver who hit you. Your insurance company might help, but their interest is usually limited to the amount that driver is insured for.

Your injuries might be much more serious, however, and recovering the true costs associated with them may require a personal injury lawsuit. That’s where an experienced accident attorney comes in. They’ll gather evidence, develop a solid demand letter, and follow through on whatever legal filings need to be made to ensure that your claim has the best chance of succeeding. They’ll deal with the other driver’s insurance company, its investigators, and its experts.

You could do all this yourself, but bringing in an attorney is usually a much better idea. They have experience and expertise that you don’t, but—more importantly—pursuing your claim will be the lawyer’s job while you get on with the other things your life demands.

Orange County Car Accident Lawyer

If you’ve been the victim of a car crash, Kohan & Bablove, Injury Attorneys can help you with the many details involved in your automobile accident case (such as the statute of limitations). Give us a call today at 949.535.1341 or contact us online to schedule a free consultation to discuss your case.

A Lake Elsinore man was killed in a crash while riding his motorcycle earlier this month, reminding us of the hazards bikers face. The early evening crash in Lakeland Village on Friday the 15th also injured one other person. The collision happened on Grand Avenue when the biker crossed into the other lane and into the path of another vehicle. A passenger in that car was hospitalized with minor injuries.

Other Recent Crashes

A crash in Winchester on December 3 took the life of a Temecula motorcyclist and left a party van engulfed in flames, but there were no other injuries (only the van driver was aboard at the time). A crash on December 1 in Temecula left one biker seriously injured.

Another crash, in Moreno Valley and also on December 1, left a resident of that town dead after his motorcycle collided with another vehicle. Few details of that incident were publicized.

California Helmet Safety: Very Good News

Helmet use was not mentioned in any of the reports on these crashes, but California has seen very good compliance with helmet laws. The most recent federal report estimated that about 259 lives were saved each year thanks to helmets, but also noted that, because helmet use is already so high here, only about another eight lives would have been saved with 100 percent compliance.

Helmets aren’t foolproof, but they make crashes more survivable.

Bikers Still at Risk

California’s report for 2014 (the most recent for the state) recorded more than 12,000 bikers injured and 540 killed in traffic incidents that year. Motorcycle operators were determined to be at fault in a little more than half (55 percent) of injury-causing collisions and close to two-thirds (64 percent) of fatal crashes.

It’s not clear why there’s such a discrepancy or why motorcyclists are more often found to be at fault (in an ideal world, you’d expect all drivers to be at fault about half the time).

Bikers remain more vulnerable than other motorists in any case. The data in recent years seems shocking, but it doesn’t lie: Per mile traveled, motorcycle operators are close to five times more likely to be injured in a crash and an astounding twenty-nine times more likely to be in a fatal accident.

Everyone on the road needs to do a better job of looking out for motorcycles, but it’s imperative that bikers are extra aware of their situation to avoid potential crashes.

Riverside Motorcycle Accident Lawyer

Motorcyclists are frequent accident victims, but just like other motorists, they sometimes cause crashes, too. As an experienced motorcycle accident law firm, Kohan & Bablove, Injury Attorneys can help you with either type of case. We put the victim first and do everything possible to make sure you’ll receive the compensation you need to get your life moving again.

Give us a call today at 949.535.1341 or fill out the Contact form below to schedule a no-cost, no-obligation consultation to discuss your case.

It’s been a bad stretch for motor vehicle collisions with pedestrians in Orange County recently. There have been several high-profile incidents already this month, and with December usually ranked as one of the worst months for pedestrian crashes, we’re bound to see more before the new year.

Pedestrians are advised to be extra cautious at this time of year, and drivers—who, after all, are behind the wheels of the most dangerous element of the collision equation—are urged to be more alert than usual during the winter months.

Different Circumstances, Similar Results

The first crash happened in Huntington Beach on the 7th. A man who was walking in one of the northbound lanes of Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) near Seapoint Street was struck and killed around 5:30 in the morning. The driver who struck him stayed at the scene, and part of highway was closed for more than four hours.

The following evening, just a few miles farther north on PCH, a woman was struck and hospitalized in serious condition at First Street in Seal Beach. That driver also stayed on the scene.

Just a couple of hours earlier in Garden Grove, a seventy-one-year-old man was struck as he crossed Brookhurst Street near Bixby Ave. That victim, unfortunately, died at the scene. The driver in that collision also stayed on the scene.

The fact that all three of these drivers stayed on the scene is unusual but a welcome change, considering that, in recent years, California has had a big problem with hit-and-run drivers.

Seasonal Increase in Risk

In 2015, Orange County ranked a better-than-average forty-fourth among California counties in pedestrian injuries and fatalities, with 938 total incidents. Statewide, California saw 742 pedestrian deaths that year.

But those incidents aren’t evenly distributed from month to month. The shorter daylight hours at this time of year always bring more danger: During the winter months (December, January, and February), nearly two-thirds of all pedestrian fatalities occur between 3 p.m. and midnight. In fact, two of the three incidents mentioned above were in that time window.

Orange County Pedestrian Accident Lawyer

Despite the best intentions of ambitious programs like Road to Zero, pedestrian traffic fatalities are likely to be a concern well into the future. When you find yourself the victim of a car crash, whether as a motorist or a pedestrian, it’s important to work with a firm with years of experience helping clients secure fair compensation.

Kohan & Bablove Injury Attorneys offers every client a free consultation. Give us a call at 949.535.1341 or fill out the online contact form below to schedule yours today.

There’s good news for workers in California: Serious illnesses and injuries on the job declined last year, hitting the lowest rate in at least a decade. For every 100 full-time workers in the state, there were a total of 3.7 cases of some occupational injury or illness. Overall, there were 466,600 such cases reported in California in 2016—slightly better than 2015 but not a recent record. On average, about 2.2 employees per 100 had to take time away from work because of an injury.

Different Risks

Despite the good news for the overall average, many kinds of jobs are much less safe than others. Those in some office occupations, as you might expect, are at the lowest risk: architects and engineers, financial services workers, and those in legal, computer, and mathematics jobs.

On the opposite end of the scale, workers in construction, maintenance and repair, and building and grounds cleaning work had the highest rates, approaching three times the average. For every 10,000 workers in building and grounds cleaning and maintenance, more than 284 incidents led to lost work (compared to only about five for computer workers). The statewide average for all occupations was 103.

Same Old, Same Old

This year’s report, issued by the California Department of Industrial Relations largely using data collected by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, found that both the types of injury and their causes have remained much the same in the years they’ve been issuing this report.

Overexertion was the main cause of injury, followed by contact with an object and then falls, trips, and slips. Combined, these three categories were responsible for the vast majority of injuries. Exposure to harmful substances, transportation accidents, and violence accounted for nearly all the rest.

Most of the injuries were sprains, strains, and tears, which made up a bit more than a third of recorded injuries. But the types of injuries workers fell victim to were varied: cuts, punctures, bruises, burns, broken bones, and even amputations made the list.

Orange County Construction Accident Lawyer

Close to half a million California workers were injured on the job in 2016, but some groups of workers fared even worse. Last year’s data aren’t available, but in 2015, 388 men and women were killed while on the job here.

Most work accidents are preventable, and while most injuries are minor, some can leave a worker with lifelong effects. That’s why, when you’re injured on the job, it’s important to talk with an experienced personal injury firm like the team at Kohan & Bablove Injury Attorneys. We have an in-depth understanding of workplace injury law, including construction accidents and many other on-the-job injuries.

Call us at 949.535.1341 or fill out the form at the bottom of this page today to schedule a free consultation.

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