September 8th, 2020 by Rieders Travis in Medical Malpractice
If you are injured because of a medical negligence, you may wonder, how does medical malpractice differ from an ordinary negligence claim? Negligence is a legal theory called a tort, covering a wide range of cases. Medical malpractice is a specific type of negligence case for injuries caused by healthcare professionals, hospitals, or other organizations. If you have been injured while getting medical care, you may feel betrayed by someone you trusted. You are probably frustrated by their lack of accountability for your suffering. It is a familiar story for Clifford A. Rieders. He has spent decades sharpening his skills and representing Pennsylvania families who suffered an injury or loss due to medical malpractice negligence and defective medical devices. Cliff is a past president of the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers, now Pennsylvania Association for Justice, and he literally wrote the book on medical malpractice in Pennsylvania used by Pennsylvania lawyers and judges. Ordinary negligence cases seek compensation for people injured by the lack of due care, sometimes called reasonable care, on the part of others. These claims are a way to resolve disputes when parties disagree about who is legally responsible…
August 18th, 2020 by Rieders Travis in Car Accidents
If you are injured in a car accident, you may wonder what are non-economic damages in a car accident case. There could be different types of damages you could receive to compensate you, depending on the facts of your case. Under Pennsylvania law, damages generally fall into two categories: economic and non-economic. Car accident cases are typically based on negligence law. The plaintiff (the injured person filing the lawsuit) would need to prove that the defendant (the party sued) had an obligation to do or avoid doing something in the situation, and the defendant did not live up to that duty. For example, the defendant was speeding, ran a red light, or was intoxicated. As a result, the defendant caused the accident and your injuries. You need to establish the harm you suffered. The judge or jury would decide what damages you are entitled to and the amount. Sometimes cases go to alternative dispute resolution such as mediation or arbitration. Damages in a car accident case measure the harm you suffered in dollars. That is easier to determine for economic (sometimes called special) damages. They are a reduced income or…
August 12th, 2020 by Rieders Travis in Car Accidents
Can you sue an uninsured driver? In the state of Pennsylvania, it is illegal for a driver to not be covered by auto insurance. And, in fact, we have one of the lower uninsured rates in the country, according to the Insurance Information Institute. That is great news. However, like in any state, there are drivers here who try to get away with driving uninsured. And if you are unlucky enough to be hit by one of them, you can find yourself in serious financial trouble. Can you sue an uninsured driver? The answer is that you may be able to. After your accident, it is important to hire an experienced lawyer to help you recover the money you need to pay your bills and other losses related to the wreck. The lawyers at Rieders, Travis, Humphrey, Waters & Dohrmann will help you with every step of your claim. We will: Calculate the amount of your losses Determine your own insurance coverage and whether you have enough to cover your losses If necessary, help you file a personal injury lawsuit against the other driver and any other responsible parties. Can…
July 29th, 2020 by Rieders Travis in Medical Malpractice
Part of the Money Will Be Set Aside to Resolve Future Cancer Claims Bayer announced in June that it will pay more than $10 billion in a Roundup settlement to cancer victims or their estates. The money will settle thousands of lawsuits that allege the well-known Roundup weed killer caused non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and other cancers. The Roundup herbicide was first sold by Monsanto in 1974. Since then it has been used worldwide to kill weeds and other unwanted plants. Workers on farms and golf courses, gardeners, groundskeepers, property owners and others who used the product regularly may have suffered potentially deadly exposure. Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup that is linked to cancer. Even though Monsanto denied that its product causes cancer in people, the World Health Organization’s cancer research agency concluded in 2015 that glyphosate is probably a human carcinogen. Bayer bought Monsanto in 2018 and inherited the Roundup lawsuits. In its announcement, Bayer noted that its settlement with cancer sufferers does not mean that the company admits liability or wrongdoing. And, unfortunately, Roundup has not been removed from store shelves. Roundup $10 Billion Settlement Does Not Cover…
May 22nd, 2020 by Rieders Travis in Medical Malpractice
The Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority (PSA) is a world-renowned, independent state agency collecting information on patient safety from Pennsylvania healthcare facilities, which was intended to make state residents safer. Mr. Rieders was the President of the Trial Lawyers in Pennsylvania the year the law creating the PSA was debated. He was also part of the negotiating team in connection with the legislation which led to the creation of the Patient Safety Authority. The agency analyzes serious events and incidents. Serious events must also be reported to the Department of Health and to the family or relevant relatives. Incidents are not reported to the family, unfortunately, but they are utilize to detect any dangerous trend going on in the healthcare field or to determine if a single instance might be repeated and threaten patients’ health. Liaisons in the field are supposed to be giving feedback to hospitals and to regions in connection with incidents. The legislation also provides that the Patient Safety Authority can report infrastructure failures to the Department of Health. The Patient Safety Authority communicates information in multiple ways to healthcare providers. It has also taken some steps in…
December 3rd, 2019 by Rieders Travis in Medical Malpractice
The statute of limitation for medical malpractice in Pennsylvania is generally two years from the date the cause of action accrues. In some cases, the cause of action accrues when the medical care is rendered, such as a surgical date. However, there are many other circumstances in which the statute of limitations could begin to run later. Pennsylvania’s 7-year statute of repose was recently held unconstitutional by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. In certain circumstances, a “tolling” will apply. This may occur, for example, in cases of fraud or where a reasonably diligent patient could not have discovered the relationship between the medical care and the harm suffered within the two (2) years. In those circumstances, the statute of limitations would begin to run when such discovery can or should have taken place. Again, this is a very complex field and is factually intensive. Minors do not have to begin an action for medical malpractice until two (2) years after reaching the age of majority. According to Pennsylvania law, medical malpractice occurs when a healthcare professional commits medical negligence by violating the generally accepted standard of care. The resulting injury must have been directly caused by the professional’s actions…
November 15th, 2019 by Rieders Travis in Medical Malpractice
There is a time limit to sue for medical malpractice in Pennsylvania. It is two years after you knew or reasonably should have known about the medical error that caused injury or death. This time limit is called a statute of limitations. The statute of limitations is set by the Mcare Act in Pennsylvania. There are occasions when the statute of limitations can be “tolled” based upon circumstances such as fraud or the inability of a reasonably diligent patient to know the relationship between the medical care received and the harm. This is a very difficult test, which has been written about by Cliff Rieders in his text, Medical Malpractice. This book is used by most judges and lawyers in the state. Cliff Rieders was also involved in the writing of the Mcare Act, and was President of the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association, now the Pennsylvania Association for Justice, when the law was negotiated and passed. In addition to the statute of limitations, there are other laws that you need to consider if you are wondering whether you can sue. Since medical malpractice law is so complicated and the time to file…
November 1st, 2019 by Rieders Travis in Car Accidents
Knowing how to calculate pain and suffering in a car accident settlement can help you understand what compensation to expect in your case. If you are injured in a car accident in Pennsylvania, the chances are that you will suffer not only financial damages, but also physical and emotional damages along with pain and suffering, disfigurement and loss of life’s pleasures that can impact your life even more severely than your financial loss. One court has said that the so-called noneconomic damages represent the iceberg, with the economic damages only the tip of the iceberg. Determining how to calculate pain and suffering and other non-economic damages in a car accident settlement is much more challenging than calculating economic costs, such as lost wages, lost wage horizon, medical, hospital, and rehabilitative bills, and property damage. If another party’s negligence or responsibility was involved in the accident, you should be entitled to receive financial compensation that covers pain and suffering, disfigurement, emotional distress and loss of life’s pleasures as Pennsylvania law allows you to recover both economic and non-economic losses from the at-fault party who caused the crash. However, insurance companies have…
July 24th, 2019 by Rieders Travis in Car Accidents
Three Things You Should Not Have to Worry About When You Hire a Capable Car Accident Attorney If you have been in a car crash in Pennsylvania, you probably have lots of worries. Your first priority should be taking care of your injuries, but there are also worries about your financial situation and how the crash will affect your future and your family. You worry about paying your bills and your living costs, especially if the injury affects your ability to work and you no longer have a vehicle. Then there is the stress of dealing with insurance companies. What if you say something wrong and it damages your case? How do you know how much your settlement is worth and whether to agree to what the insurance company offers? You will want to know what underinsurance is. You will need to know if you have signed any waivers or sign-downs reducing your underinsurance coverage. You will need to know about the insurance coverage of the other driver or drivers. You will want to know whether the other driver who was at fault for the accident was at work and, if so,…
July 24th, 2019 by Rieders Travis in Bicycle Accidents
Motorists Have To Share The Road In a crash, a cyclist is much more vulnerable to suffering severe injuries than someone driving a car. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in 2009, 630 bicyclists were killed and another 51,000 were injured in traffic collisions in the United States. In Pennsylvania alone, 19 people died as a result of bicycle crashes in 2014. Although cycling is more popular among adults, especially in major cities like Philadelphia, 25% of all injuries involving bicycles and cars in Pennsylvania were suffered by children between the ages of five and 14. (visit this website) And serious injuries can happen close to home -- recently a Williamsport High School student, Elijah Allen, died after the bicycle he was riding was struck by a car on Pa. 416 in Montgomery Township. Pennsylvania has a bike safety law, and both motorists and bicyclists should abide by it. Bicyclists should always wear a helmet; stay to the right of the highway; ride with traffic, not against it; ride defensively; and use hand signals to indicate turning or stopping. However, even so, an automobile is bigger, heavier, and…
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