Oklahoma Injury Lawyer Blog

No, not necessarily. A lot of auto accident claims settle without the need for a lawsuit to be filed. Remember that an insurance claims adjuster will not sign off on a fair settlement unless there is a reasonable risk of having to pay something at trial.

Some insurance companies have a different set of adjusters that only handle cases that have been filed. Based on my experience, these adjusters are generally authorized to settle the same claim for more money.

It’s OU/Texas week!  To quote the writers at CollegeFootballNews.com: “the Red River Rivalry is currently the biggest and baddest showdown going in college football.”

In addition to enjoying Bevo burgers this week, I’ve made a bet with Ross Jurewitz of the Jurewitz Law Group.  Ross, besides being a UT fan, is a San Diego personal injury attorney and California car accident lawyer.  The wager:

The losing attorney must change their Facebook profile picture to the rival’s logo. 

I went to OU for undergrad and law school – supporting UT is simply unacceptable.  

So, you've been issued a "Right to Sue" letter by the EEOC.  Does this mean you have a great case and all you need is an attorney to file your lawsuit? 

No.  You may have a good case (or even no case), but a Right to Sue letter is not decisive of anything.   It simply means that the EEOC isn't going to represent you, but you still have a right to pursue your claim.  This seems counter intuitive, but let me repeat: the EEOC hasn't concluded anything by issuing this letter - except that they won't be pursuing your claim. 

The EEOC gets about 80,000 charges of discrimination each year but only files about 300 lawsuits a year.  Private employment law attorneys handle the rest of the cases.  Note that the EEOC must first issue a Right to Sue letter before an attorney can file a lawsuit.  That's why your first step should be to contact the local EEOC office.  Here's the information for the Oklahoma City office:

January 27 Edit: Evidently the YouTube is now "private." So, here's another one:

The standard attorney answer is that "it depends."  Here's several reasons why it takes a while before a medical malpractice lawsuit is even filed:

• We first need to obtain your medical records.  Typically there are multiple hospitals and doctors offices.  It generally takes about a month to obtain these.  Some medical billing/records departments are really slow about it.  These places often require 2-4 letters/faxes and followup phone calls to get them to send the records.  A lot of medical providers use a third party billing service, so they'll be different offices for us to request records from.  Some of the services are prompt (they charge us to get the records so they have an incentive to get them to us), while others are cumbersome.  

• Once we get all the records together we review them.  If we still thing you still have a viable case, we'll then send the records to a medical expert.  This is generally a doctor or a nurse.  Oklahoma law requires that an Expert Affidavit be included in any medical malpractice case.  We did this as a matter of course before the law went into affect though.  It's basic due diligence on our end to get a medical expert's opinion.  An expert will generally take several weeks to get back the file back to us.  It's typical for a doctor to charge $400/hr to review medical records.  A medical malpractice file can easily take a doctor 10 hours to fully review and write an opinion on it. 

• If the doctor agrees with us on the case, we pursue the claim.  Our next step is to contact the doctor and/or hospital involved in the malpractice by sending our letter of representation ("rep letter").  Note that two to four months could have easily passed from initially meeting with the client/attorney to even get to this point.  The defendant's attorney(s) will generally respond within a few weeks of our rep letter.  Sometimes, albeit very infrequently, the opposing side is willing to talk settlement at this point.  If settlement talks are not feasible, or they fall through, we file a lawsuit. 

I had a deposition recently with a car accident client.  The people present at the deposition were: my client (he was the one giving the deposition), a court reporter, two attorneys from the opposing side, and myself. 

After the deposition, my client complained "that seemed to last forever, it was like they didn't want to leave." 

I mentioned that the defense attorneys are generally paid hourly and that they were in no hurry (I'm sure they were just being thorough as well).  His response: "Whoa, how does the other driver afford two attorneys."  Quick answer: they work for the other driver's insurance company. 

We have a lot of people call our office with a question similar to this.  Oklahoma is an employment "at will" state.  This means that you (the employee) or your boss could end the employment relationship at anytime for no reason at all.  So, the answer to this question is: This isn't wrongful termination.  The facts from the firing may be "out of line," but it's not against the law.  There are exceptions to employment at will.  For example, it's illegal to fire someone based on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin), the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and for initiating a workers compensation claim.

One of the most common types of nursing home abuses we see are bedsore cases.

Bedsores develop on the skin where circulation is low. They are also referred to as pressure sores (or ulcers) and decubitus ulcers. The most common area for bedsores to occur is the coccyx (the buttocks).

Think: if someone is sitting/laying in bed constantly and moving very little, where is the most pressure? Bed sores can be prevented in nursing homes if the patient is rotated and turned frequently.

Here's a picture from a nursing home abuse case we had a year ago (the pressure sore here is on the leg. I'll spare you the pictures from the coccyx):

One of my clients just emailed me this article: Muskogee Man's iPhone App Could Save Lives During Severe Weather.  The app, created by Mel Bass, uses the GPS in iPhones to locate open shelters.  Pretty neat.