Current Cases

Crabtree v. City of Columbus

Client was rendered quadriplegic in a bicycle-automobile collision allegedly due to the negligence of the City of Columbus in failing to repair potholes which prevented him from riding his bicycle as close to the right edge of the road as possible.

Hedrick v. Ohio Dept. of Transportation

Wrongful death claim arising out of alleged failure of Ohio Dept. of Transportation to maintain the traffic control signal at an intersection where drivers of two vehicles entered the intersection at right angles with green lights.

Hauser v. Young

Claim for permanent neck injury requiring several neurotomies to attempt to relieve the pain arising out of intersection collision.

Brown v. Sims Brothers

Severe neck and shoulder injuries arising out of negligence of Defendant’s employee in the loading of a trailer attached to a truck which crashed on its side during Brown’s attempt to dump the load onto a scrap pile.

Ondrejko v. Carothers

Significant back injury arising out of negligence of landlord in failing to comply with applicable building codes requiring handrails on interior stairs.

… more
 

What is Personal Injury?

Many people who are inundated with advertisements on the radio, television and the Internet mistakenly believe that obtaining monetary compensation in a personal injury lawsuit is a relatively simple matter. Rest assured that these advertisements want people to thinks it’s a quick and easy process, but proving negligence and damages involves and requires skill, experience and an intimate knowledge of the law.

• Car Accidents
• Nursing Home Injuries and Death
• Motorcycle Accidents
• Unsafe Premises
• Traumatic Brain Injury
• Spinal Cord Injury
• Wrongful Death

Ohio Personal Injury Lawyer

“Personal injury” refers to a legal dispute that arises when one person suffers harm from an accident and someone else might be legally responsible for that harm. John Alton has expertise helping personal injury victims understand their legal rights. If you or a loved one has suffered a personal injury, call 1-888-525-8662 now to speak with him about your case.

Personal Injury – Overview

People file personal injury cases to recover for the medical bills and other expenses they incur. They are also entitled to lost wages and damages for pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life and effect on physical health. The term “personal injury” covers a variety of situations. The most common personal injury cases that John Alton handles include motor vehicle accidents, construction accidents and injuries due to unsafe premises.

Types of Personal Injury Cases

John Alton has experience with cases such as:

• Accidents involving an automobile, bus, truck, motorcycle, van or other motor vehicles.
• Personal injury due to unsafe premises arising out of falls, construction accidents, swimming pool accidents, fires and explosions, dog bites and other accidents in the home.
• Catastrophic personal injury such as injuries to the spinal cord or brain or burns.

Working with Your Personal Injury Lawyer

Personal injuries create physical as well as emotional stresses. On the physical level those stresses include medical expenses and uncertainty about ongoing medical needs. Accident victims also suffer financial losses from missed work and may have difficulty handling mundane tasks as a result of the accident. As a personal injury victim, you may have to hire someone to help you manage tasks that you can no longer perform because of the accident.

Because of such additional stressors, people sometimes pick the first accident lawyer that comes to mind instead of searching for the right attorney to handle the case. An experienced injury lawyer understands the stresses that the accident can cause. An injury attorney with sufficient expertise knows how to work with a personal injury victim so as to maximize that person’s possible recovery. The accident lawyer’s job is to help you obtain the best possible compensation for the losses you have suffered.

When Your Personal Injury Case Involves Negligence

Many personal injury claims occur because someone has been careless. When that carelessness causes a personal injury, the law refers to is as “negligence.”

“Negligence” is the failure to behave with “reasonable care under the circumstances.” Understanding this definition is important because your attorney may have to prove negligence in order to obtain recovery for your personal injury.

What is Your Personal Injury Case Worth?

An experienced lawyer should analyze your personal injury case to determine what you may be able to recover on your personal injury claim. Assessing the value of your personal injury case requires that the lawyer be familiar with this specialized area of the law.

Potential Recovery for Your Personal Injury

An experienced lawyer will review a number of factors to determine the potential maximum recovery you may obtain for your personal injury. These include:

• The extent of medical and other health care bills related to your personal injury.
• Payments you have made for prescription medications and other expenses related to your personal injury.
• Income lost due to your personal injury.
• Any life-changing disabilities caused by your personal injury.
• The pain and suffering you have experienced resulting from your personal injury.

Proving Your Personal Injury Case

An attorney representing you should be familiar with all of the twists and turned in personal injury law. Unlike some other areas of the law, much personal injury law develops through individual cases decided by judges. Accident lawyers draw on past cases for situations that resemble your personal injury case.

An experienced lawyer must be very familiar with the rules of evidence and court procedures to process your personal injury case through the legal system. In order to obtain fair compensation for your personal injury, your lawyer must take your personal injury case through a number of stages from start to finish.

Protecting Your Personal Injury Case

Insurance companies are the opposite of your friend in a personal injury case .Even your own insurance company has its own interests to protect in your personal injury case. This means that insurance companies want to pay as little as possible to you, the personal injury victim. Everything an insurance company does is motivated by its desire to reduce your personal injury recovery.

Fortunately, your attorney’s role is to help protect you against actions by insurance companies that may be opposite to your own interests in receiving fair compensation for your personal injury.

Latest blog posts on Personal Injury, Medical Malpractice and Legal Malpractice.

• Malpractice Anxiety
  A recent study done by a Harvard economist sheds some light on the stark facts of medical malpractice claims. Among the statistics, it was found that about three of four claims in every specialty lead to no payment whatsoever for the plaintiff. Certain specialties present even tougher numbers, where only one in ten claims are won. Overall, approximately 7% of doctors face a claim in a given year, but less than 2% end up making any sort of payment.
• After Stillbirth, Courts Try to Put a Price on a Mother’s Anguish
  A woman suffering from abdominal pain was sent home three times, given only painkillers with no further testing done after repeatedly visiting her doctor’s office in Brooklyn. She was 8 months pregnant. The woman went into labor at her home and lost the baby and was eventually awarded $1 by the hospital after numerous appeals.