Allen & Allen Law Blog Personal Injury Legal News

Attorney Melinda H. South

Author: Melinda H. South, Attorney

Owning a dog brings great joy but also great responsibility. Rarely does an owner want to acknowledge that their favorite pooch has the potential to harm someone. Many states have adopted state-wide laws regarding the responsibilities of a dog owner to control their dog; these laws are generally referred to as “leash laws”. 1 In Virginia, there is a two-part system. First, there is no state-wide “leash law” but the law empowers local jurisdictions…

Attorney Nathan J. D. Veldhuis

Author: Attorney Nathan J. D. Veldhuis

Sovereign immunity is the legal principle that the government (and its branches, departments, agencies and employees) cannot be sued or held legally responsible for their actions. This legal principle comes from the old English law that held the king was divinely chosen and therefore could do no wrong. As a result, the king could not be held accountable for his actions nor could his representatives. When the United States was founded,…

Attorney Matthew B. Murray

Author: Matthew B. Murray, Attorney

Breast cancer is a woman’s nightmare. For a woman to discover that her breast cancer was caused by a drug prescribed by her doctor just adds insult to injury. That is what has happened to thousands of women.

Wyeth, a division of Pfizer, marketed hormone therapy drugs, Premarin, Prempro and Provera, which were designed to moderate the symptoms of menopause. As early as 1975, Wyeth was on notice of the need to study whether…

Attorney R. Clayton Allen

Author: R. Clayton Allen, Esquire

Anyone who drives a motorcycle knows how dangerous it is out there on the roads and highways. Many of the cars, trucks and buses being driven are being operated by drowsy drivers, inattentive drivers, speeding drivers, aggressive drivers. And present economic conditions means that many vehicles on the road are poorly maintained or have defective equipment, including brakes, tires, and signal lights, which make the roads even more dangerous. Although many motorcycle drivers…

Attorney R. Clayton Allen

Author: Attorney R. Clayton Allen, Esquire

In Part One, I talked about some considerations of why you might hire a personal injury attorney, and some ways insurance companies may take advantage of you if you don’t have an attorney. In Part Two, I’ll discuss some additional considerations.

1. The more money that is involved, the more you have to lose if you handle it wrong. And the more incentive the insurance company has to take advantage of you.

If your…

Attorney R. Clayton Allen

Author: Attorney R. Clayton Allen

As a personal injury attorney, one of the questions I am most frequently asked is why an injured person needs to hire an attorney to represent them. Here’s an outline of how I usually answer that question.

Sometimes you don’t. If your injuries are relatively minor, if your medical treatment is for only a short period of time, and if your medical expenses and other damages are small, and if you are pretty savvy…

Claims Consultant Chris Cloude

Author: Christopher B. Cloude, Claims Consultant

Before we can talk about what a personal injury settlement involves, we must first look at what makes a successful personal injury case that leads to a settlement.

In order to have a personal injury case for which you can make a recovery, there are three basic elements that must be present:

1. Liability
2. Damages
3. A source of recovery

Liability is when a person or entity (corporation, association, etc.) is negligent (1) and has caused another…

Attorney R. Clayton Allen

Author: Attorney R. Clayton Allen, Esquire

I am always surprised at the misunderstandings and misconceptions people have about their rights when they have been injured in a motor vehicle accident in Virginia. This article is a summary of an explanation I give to each of my clients at the beginning of representing them. After I give this general explanation, of course I explain how and what parts of this summary apply to their particular case, what additional investigation…

Bill Bootwright, Claims Consultant

Author: William P. “Bill” Bootwright, Claims Consultant

You have often heard the expression “you can’t have your cake and eat it, too.” (1) But that’s exactly what the insurance companies try to do in handling claims. Whatever the situation, they try to argue that means the injured person wasn’t hurt very much. Sometimes they create a problem, and then try to benefit from it. Just the other day I had a case with a claims adjuster where this expression…

Attorney Priscilla R. Woody

Author: Attorney Priscilla R. Woody

The insurance company wants to settle your case as soon as possible if you are injured and not represented by an attorney. Use of a “Scheduled Release” (1) is a tactic used by insurance companies to entice unrepresented claimants (people who are making a claim to the insurance company) to settle their claims quickly. When claimants are wary and unsure of the claim process and their future medical condition, the insurance representative appeases them…