What Types Of Personal Injury Cases Does Your Firm Handle?

Our law firm has been handling all types of personal injury cases for well over 40 years. More specifically, we handle the following types of cases: asbestos related lung disease and cancer, automobile accidents, bicycle accidents, birth injuries, complications that occur during a pregnancy that results in an injury to either the mother, child, or both, product liability, and construction accidents.

Construction accident cases may involve an injury to the contractor or the contractor’s employees, or it could involve a person that gets injured near a construction site due to negligent acts of the contractor and/or the owners of the building, and/or the people working at that construction site.

We handle product liability cases quite commonly. Many manufacturers still put inherently dangerous products on the market without proper warnings or safeguards.

California is a unique state in regard to dog bite injuries, because dog owners in California do not have a free bite rule. California has its own set of statutes that regulate dog bite injury cases. California has a strict liability dog bite statute which holds dog owners liable if you are injured by their dog.

Drug injuries are another very significant part of our practice, and arise when manufacturers put drugs on the market that are inherently unsafe, or have safety issues that are not brought to the consumer or the prescribing doctor’s knowledge.

In addition to our Orange County office , we have offices in Riverside County and accept cases throughout all of California including Palm Desert and Palm Springs and the entire Coachella Valley. There is a high proportion of senior citizens who are living in the Desert area, so we see a tremendous amount of cases involving elder abuse at nursing homes, hospitals, and even in-home care.

We are also one of the firms that do insurance bad faith litigation, which is essentially seeking damages when an insurance company puts its own preferences and needs before those individuals that it insures causing economic harm.

Medical malpractice is a huge, ever-evolving area of law with a very particular and a very draconian set of legislation for the California area. Medical malpractice cases can involve everything from absolute abuse by healthcare providers, to patients falling out of beds, to equipment related injuries.

We see many pedestrian accidents in California, especially in Palm Desert where Mr. Blythe lives. People are looking at the beautiful sites and the golf courses, and failing to look where they are going. As a result, we have a tremendous amount of people that get hurt. But what most people don’t realize is that having automobile insurance will protect them as a pedestrian, whether they are walking and get injured, and sometimes may provide some coverage benefits they are on a bicycle and get injured.

Premises liability is that area of law wherein the owner of a property (house, business, etc.) has an unsafe condition that may cause somebody to get injured. This is called a latent defect. It’s a problem with the premises such that a normal person using a reasonable standard of care will unknowingly encounter a dangerous situation and get injured. Again, California has its own very unique rules that cover premises cases.

Lastly, we do workplace harassment cases, sexual harassment cases and discrimination cases.

Why Did You Choose To Practice Personal Injury Law As Opposed To Other Areas Of Practice?

By Robert Blythe

Following my discharge from the Air Force in 1968, I made a decision to further my education and pursue a course of studies to become a medical doctor. While going back to school, I ended up working in emergency medical trauma, both at UCLA and Santa Monica Hospital’s Emergency Department. My goal at that time was centered on treating the critically injured, which is a passion that I developed during my time in the service after having seen so many people wounded and maimed from the Vietnam War.

While working at UCLA’s Emergency Department, a pivotal experience came my way. A very good friend of mine, a neurosurgeon, was rendered quadriplegic after a severe automobile accident. The doctors in the emergency room and thereafter in the wards did a remarkable job saving his life, but he was resigned to live in a wheelchair. Within hours of his discharge from the hospital, he took his own life. This hit me like a brick.

He could no longer practice medicine as he was accustomed, and if I could have supported him monetarily, I would have. I was able to support him emotionally, but I needed to give him the opportunity to explore other facets of his life that he could not experience due to the economic realities he faced. I feel that if I could have done that, he may well have had a different outcome. It became evident to me that while a competent medical staff can save one’s life and cosmetically patch up the wounds, they can’t help with the monetary pressures.

This was my epiphany. I needed to start where the doctors left off and use my skills to economically provide for those that faced the aftermath of a tragic accident. So, I set out to become a lawyer for the injured. My clients, quite literally, were the injured, the maimed, the widowed, and the orphaned. The decision to be a lawyer for the injured has taken me down a long road, and the other areas that I could have travelled in medicine are long since behind me. The time and energy that would have been required in those pursuits have instead been invested into the legal issues that apply to the injured. The medical expertise that I have been able to bring to the practice of injury law has allowed me to transform the lives of many injured clients and their families. I get to face fascinating challenges and help people in need. My law firm is a busy one, where we can make a difference for people from all walks of life. For more information on Personal Injury Claims in California, a free initial consultation is your next best step.