Category Archives: Personal Injury
Who is to Blame? Proving Fault in Personal Injury Cases
Although hiring a personal injury lawyer is the best way for you to handle your personal injury claim, it never hurts to know what is at stake legally. In order for you to receive compensation in a personal injury claim, you must be able to prove another person or entity was legally at fault for […]
Filing a Personal Injury Claim for Assault and Battery
Because assault and battery usually results in criminal charges, most people do not realize victims can also file a personal injury claim against their assailants. If you have been the victim of domestic violence or other attack, you may be able to seek monetary compensation for your damages. What is assault and battery? Assault is […]
Biting Back
Filing a personal injury claim after you’re bitten by a dog They say dog is man’s best friend, but unfortunately that is not always the case. Some dogs are trained by their owners to be aggressive, and others sometimes turn and bite people unexpectedly. Regardless of the reason, being bitten by a dog can be […]
Don’t Just Spin Your Wheels
Be smart and avoid bicycle accidents Biking has become more popular than ever in the U.S. According to a recent Rutgers University study, the number of bike commuters in the country rose by 64 percent between 1990 and 2009. Unfortunately, when bikes and automobiles share the road, an accident is always a possibility. And because […]
Relevant Evidence
Although all evidence introduced by a lawyer must be considered “relevant evidence” before it can be admitted, many lawyers today would nevertheless struggle to give an adequate legal definition of the word “relevancy”. According to the Advisory Committee’s notes in drafting Rule 401 of the Federal Rules of Evidence, the proper definition is in the […]
Prejudice, Confusion and Waste of Time
Rule 403 of the Federal Rules of Evidence and the Massachusetts Guide to Evidence empowers judges to exclude evidence, which may pass the relevancy test (a rule of evidence explored in one of our previous blogs), but nevertheless unfairly biases jurors towards one side or the other, confuses them, or simply wastes the court’s time […]
Who is an Expert?
The distinction between expert witnesses and lay witnesses, as defined by the Federal Rules of Evidence, is likely far more complicated than most people realize. Despite their typical presentation on television, experts are not always doctors, scientists, or professors. As Rule 702 states, an expert can testify based on the expert’s own scientific, technical or […]
Distinctions with a difference: present sense impressions vs. excited utterances
Though they seem similar, there are clear and definitive differences between Rule 803(1) Present Sense Impressions and Rule 803(2) Excited Utterances. If applied correctly, each rule provides an exception to the the rule against hearsay. The former is used in court in the trial of a personal injury case far more than the latter. The […]
Admissions by Party Opponents vs. Declarations Against Interests
In my last blog, I wrote of the rule pertaining to admissions of party opponents, 801(d)(2) of the Federal Rules of Evidence and the Massachusetts Guide to Evidence. Let’s contrast that to Rule 804(b)(3)’s declarations against interests exception. The most fundamental difference between these two exceptions is that in the first exception the declarant must […]
Celebrities and Their Personal Injury Cases
No one is immune to personal injuries caused by negligence. Every year it seems a celebrity is involved in some sort of personal injury case, and when they are, the spotlight is on them from the start. Here are some celebrities who have been in the news for personal injury matters recently: The singer Brett […]