Posts tagged motorcycle accidents

• Failure to Plead Sufficient Facts - The New Legal Malpractice?

  Geoff Trachtenberg | October 21, 2007 3:48 PM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ Category: Medical Malpractice
  

  There's a new case out this week from Division Two, Cullen v. Koty-Leavitt Insurance, which deals with the reasonable expectations doctrine in the UIM setting. The case is not particularly fascinating from a substantive perspective, but it raises questions about potential legal malpractice exposure.In sum, Cullen filed a UIM claim based upon the fact that his family was given the right to...

• Statute of Limitations in Uninsured and Underinsured Personal Injury Claims

  Geoff Trachtenberg | April 23, 2007 5:57 PM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ Category: Automobile Accidents
  

  Recently the Arizona Legislature enacted a new and shorter statute of limitations for UM/UIM claims. The applicable section is ARS 12-555.For uninsured motorist (UM) claims such claims, such claims must be made in writing within three years after the earliest of (i) the date you knew that the tortfeasor was uninsured; or (ii) the date you knows or should have known that coverage was denied by...

• Arizona Supreme Court Finds No Workers' Compensation Offset for Underinsured Motorist Coverage

  Geoff Trachtenberg | January 10, 2008 4:04 PM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ Category: Automobile Accidents
  

  Today the Arizona Supreme Court issued an opinion in Cundiff v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Ins. Co. which dealt with workers' compensation offsets in underinsured motorist (UIM) claims.Pima County Deputy Sheriff Jean Cundiff was injured by a third-party while on the job, in her patrol car. Although she was paid certain workers' compensation benefits, the third-party only carried $15,000 in...

• Maricopa County Loses a Fine Judge

  Staff Writer | April 09, 2007 10:53 AM | 1 CommentPhoenix, AZ Category: Motorcycle Accidents
  

  Today we mourn the loss of a Judge with the Juvenile Division of the Maricopa County Superior Court. Judge John Gaylord was appointed to the Maricopa County Superior Court in 2000 and for the past three years was assigned to the Juvenile Court facility in Mesa. I never had an opportunity to appear in front of Judge Gaylord in the Juvenile Court. However, I know that Judge Gaylord had an...

• Judicial Officers are Subject to the "De Facto Officer" Doctrine and Failure to Object to the Appointment of a Judge Pro Tempore is a Procedural Defect That Can Be Waived

  Geoff Trachtenberg | June 08, 2007 8:49 AM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ Category: Automobile Accidents
  

  Division One just handed down Garner v. Schindler, a short and sweet opinion on the nature of judges pro tempore (I am a judge pro tempore, by the way). In sum, the appellant had a probate dispute litigated before a judge pro tempore and, after the case was over, decided to raise (for the first time) hyper-technical defects in the judge's appointment.The Court of Appeals, awknoweldged that...

• Assignments vs. Liens In the Personal Injury Context

  Geoff Trachtenberg | December 09, 2007 8:41 AM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ Category: Medical Malpractice
  

  A large number of people, attorneys included, don't know the difference between "assignments" and "liens."Why does it matter, you ask? For a number of reasons that will be more obvious when the difference is understood.An assignment is the easier of the two to understand since, as the name implies, it is an transfer of all or some rights or property to a third-party. Although an assignor...

• Is a Medical Malpractice Claim "Mature" If There Is No Present Injury?

  Geoff Trachtenberg | April 19, 2007 8:57 AM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ Category: Medical Malpractice
  

  As a rule, every medical malpractice claim must have four elements -- duty, breach, causation and damages -- and, at least as a general rule, you need all of them to have a cognizable claim. Sometimes, however, there can be an issue as to when a claim is "mature," i.e., complete or ripe.Take, for example, a person who has an increased risk of disease because he has been exposed to a defective...

• Several Injured in Four-Car Crash

  Chrissie Cole | August 28, 2007 10:21 PM | 0 CommentsTucson, AZ Category: Automobile Accidents
  

  An early morning four- car accident, on Tuesday, sent several people to Yuma Regional Medical Center with non life-threatening injuries, according to Yuma Police Department.The car accident occurred east of the intersection of Arizona Avenue and 24th street. Yuma Fire Department and Rural/Metro Fire Department both responded to the scene. Officials are currently investigating the crash. At this...

• Experts Not Allowed to Testify to the Percentage of Fault

  Geoff Trachtenberg | September 06, 2007 4:41 PM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ Category: Medical Malpractice
  

  Division One just handed down Webb v. Omni Block, Inc., a clearly written opinion which decisively eliminates an expert's ability to testify as to the "percentage of fault" for any party or non-party.In Webb, defendant, Omni Block, hired an expert who testified as to the specific percentage of fault (or lack thereof) for various parties and non-parties. Judge Jones allowed this testimony and...

• Bell Atlantic v. Twombly: The Day "Notice Pleading" Died (Sort Of)

  Geoff Trachtenberg | August 29, 2007 2:20 PM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ Category: Medical Malpractice
  

  On May 21, 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down Bell Atlantic v. Twombly, 550 U.S. ___ (2007), announcing the "retirement" of the long-standing standard for dismissal of complaints articulated in Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41 (1957) - i.e., the standard that complaints should not be dismissed "unless it appears beyond a doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his...