Q. After an accident, what is the first thing I should do?

-A. Immediately speak to an experienced trial lawyer to get specific advice www.Mymaliklaw.com

-Q. If I cannot reach a lawyer, what do I need to do?

-A. Make a record and preserve the evidence.

-Q. What's involved in "making a record?"

-A. If you have been in a serious accident, chances are that someone has already made a record of what has happened to you. There already is a police report, an on-the-job worker's compensation report or the like. If your condition required medical care, hospital records will confirm your injuries. If you were injured at home, report your injuries to your doctor or health clinic and obtain all appropriate medical treatment. Appropriate treatment is that care recommended by a doctor. See a doctor following the collision will insure a preliminary diagnosis and perhaps minimize the discomfort and future treatment you may need later.

Q. Is there anything special I should keep in mind when seeing my doctors?

-A. When reporting to doctors, take extra care to identify specific complaints, take with you a list of all complaints and tell the complete truth. For example, a patient who has very slight tingling in the fourth and fifth fingers and a minor crick in the neck, may not report the tingling sensation, which could be the sign of major disruption to a cervical disk. If that disk becomes a complete rupture that requires major surgery it will have been far better to have had the initial medical entry in order to show that the onset of the fracture to the outer wall of the disk was the initial injury, not picking up a bag of groceries three weeks later, as the insurance company doctor will argue to the jury. Lastly, keep receipts of everything and maintain a calendar of post-Accident events.

-Q. What should I do to preserve the evidence?

-A. First immediately have someone take physical custody of what ever was involved in causing your injury.

-Q. What if the evidence is owned by someone else, such as a rental car, and it cannot be bought?

-A. If the evidence cannot be bought, at a minimum, put everyone on notice by certified mail, including owners, tow operators, wrecking yards, police impounds, and the like, that they must take every step to preserve important evidence and the failure to do so will subject them to being sued for allowing evidence to be destroyed.

-Q. What should I do if the owner is not cooperative?

-A. When evidence is in the possession of a third party or one of the anticipated defendants who is threatening to modify or destroy it, hire an experienced lawyer to immediately get a judge to issue a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction to avoid alterations or destructive testing.

Q. If the police have taken pictures, do I need to have more taken?

-A. Absolutely. Always take multiple rolls of film of the accident location, crashed vehicles, approaches to the scene and of the person who suffered the injury.

-Q. How long can I wait to take photos of an automobile crash location?

-A. You cannot wait at all, especially when trying to capture impending skids. Tires do not immediately lock-up and change from rolling tires to skidding tires. During the braking process the tire begins to leave an imprint on the roadway BEFORE skidding. These marks are impending skids and are faint marks that can be seen on the roadway for only 24 to 48 hours after a collision. An impending skid and a skid mark when taken together gives a very accurate record of the actual speed of a car before a brake application. Lay a yardstick or ruler next to impending skid marks so an accident reconstructionist can readily compute actual distances based on the photographs.

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--Q. Any special suggestions for photographing a car?

-A. Be careful not to alter anything and keep other people out of the photograph. Begin at one one of the car and start at a distance where the complete vehicle fills the viewfinder. Move around the vehicle and take photos from the N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, and NW. Next make another swing around the vehicle, but this time take close up views of the exterior that will identify collision points, paint transfers, structural crush, ripples in sheet metal, etc

-Q. What other pictures should be taken?

-A. Verify the victim's condition in the hospital. Keep others out of the photograph and remove anything that distracts from the person being photographed, such as balloons, etc. Take photos over time that show the progression of treatment, special medical equipment and healing of scars, bruises, etc. In the case of burn victims, a videotape of the multiple washing of burns with sound captures the agony that is suffered.

-Q. In a personal injury jury trial, how does the jury make an award of damages?

-A . If the jury finds the plaintiff is entitled to a verdict against defendant, the jury "must" award plaintiff damages (economic and non-economic) in an amount that will reasonably compensate him/her for each of the following elements of claimed injury, damage, loss, or harm, but the harm or loss was must have been caused by the negligent act or wrongful conduct upon which the jury bases liability.

-Q. What is the difference between economic and non-economic losses?

-A. The term economic damages means objectively verifiable monetary losses including medical expenses, loss of earnings, burial costs, loss of use of property, costs of repair or replacement, costs of obtaining substitute domestic services, loss of employment and loss of business or employment opportunities. The term non-economic damages means subjective non-monetary losses including but not limited to pain, suffering, inconvenience, mental suffering, emotional distress, loss of society and companionship, loss of consortium, humiliation and injury to reputation.

-Q. What can a jury include in an award?

-A. The amount of award (including economic and non-economic damages) shall include: The reasonable value of medical care, services and supplies reasonably required and actually given in the treatment of the plaintiffs to the present time and the present cash value of the reasonable value of similar items reasonably certain to be required and given in the future. The reasonable value of working time lost to date.

-Q. What does present cash value mean?

-A. Any finding of future economic loss must be only for its present cash value. Present cash value is the present sum of money which, together with the investment return thereon when invested so as to yield the highest rate of return consistent with reasonable security, will pay the equivalent of lost future benefits at the times, in the amounts, and for the period that you find such future benefits would have been received.

-Q. Is there any formula to be followed by a jury to determine pain and suffering?

-A. No definite standard or method of calculation is prescribed by law by which to fix reasonable compensation for pain and suffering. Nor is the opinion of any witness required as to the amount of such reasonable compensation.

-Q. How does a jury determine the amount of damages in a wrongful death case?

-A. If the jury finds the defendant at fault in causing a death, the jury will award as damages, [economic and non-economic,] such sum as, under all the circumstances of the case, will be just compensation for the loss which each heir has suffered by reason of the death. In determining such loss, the jury may consider the financial support, if any, which each of said heirs would have received from the deceased except for such death, and the right to receive support, if any, which each of said heirs has lost by reason of such death.

-Q. Are there any different consideration in cases involving the death of a child?

-A. In determining the damage suffered as a result of the loss of a child, the jury may consider not only the benefits that plaintiff was reasonably certain to have received from the earnings and services of his/her child during the child¹s minority, but also the support and financial benefit which it is reasonably certain plaintiff would have received from the child after the latter majority and during the period of their common expectancy of life.

-Q. What if the jury is not about expected future damage will be suffered?

-A. The jury is not permitted to award a party speculative damages, which means compensation for future loss or harm which, although possible, is conjectural or not reasonably certain. However, the jury will compensate a party for loss or harm caused by the injury in question which is reasonably certain to be suffered in the future.

-Q. How does Nevada law treat injuries which aggravate a pre-existing condition?

-A. A person who has a condition or disability at the time of an injury is not entitled to recover damages for that injury. However, he/she is entitled to recover damages for any aggravation of such pre-existing condition or disability (proximately) (legally) resulting from the injury. This is true even if the person's condition or disability made him/her more susceptible to the possibility of ill effects than a normally healthy person would have been, and even if a normally healthy person probably would not have suffered any substantial injury. Where a pre-existing condition or disability is so aggravated, the damages as to such condition or disability are limited to the additional injury caused by the aggravation.

-Q. What if the original injury causes or results in complications?

-A. If the jury finds that the defendant is liable for the original injury (if any) to the plaintiff, he/she is also liable: (1) For any disease which is contracted because of lowered vitality resulting from the original injury and which rendered the plaintiff peculiarly susceptible to such disease, (2) For any aggravation of the original injury or additional injury caused by negligent medical or hospital treatment or care of the original injury, (3) For any injury sustained in a subsequent accident which is a normal consequence of an impaired physical condition caused by the original injury and which would not have occurred had the plaintiff's physical condition not been impaired.

-Q. When are punitive damages awarded?

-A. If the jury finds that plaintiff suffered damage as a [proximate][legal] result of the conduct of the defendant, the jury may then consider whether it should award punitive damages against the defendant for the sake of example and by way of punishment. The jury may in its discretion award such damages, if, but only if, the jury finds by clear and convincing evidence that said defendant was guilty of either oppression, fraud, or malice. "Malice" means conduct which is [intended by the defendant to cause injury to the plaintiff] [or] [despicable conduct which is carried on by the defendant with a willful and conscious disregard for the rights or safety of others.]

-Q. Can an employer be liable for punitive damages as a result of an employees actions?

-A. Punitive damages may be awarded against an employer for acts of the employee only if the employer authorized or ratified the conduct which is found to be the basis for punitive or exemplary damages.

-Q. Who has managerial authority in a corporation or company?

-A. An employer acts in a managerial capacity where the degree of discretion permitted the employee in making decisions is such that the employee's decisions will ultimately determine the business policy of the employer.

-Q. How much time do I have to take legal action?

-A. Less than you would imagine. Every state has statutes of limitations and procedural requirements that place deadlines on when you can file a lawsuit. Statutes of limitations differ from state to state and depend also upon the nature of the claim. In Nevada, a claim for personal injury or wrongful death must be filed within two years of injury or death.

-Q. What do I do when the insurance company for the other side calls me?

-A. Be polite, but decline to talk. Insurance companies' claims adjusters are professional negotiators, with extensive experience in intimidation, "hassling," and using every psychological technique to maneuver a claimant into settling for the lowest possible dollar, including discouraging people from using the professional services of a lawyer.