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What Should I do After a Car Accident? 1. Stay at the scene: Never leave the scene of an accident, no matter how minor it seems.  2. Protect the scene: Put your vehicle in park, turn off the engine, and turn on your hazard lights.  If you have them, use cones, flares, or reflectors to warn other drivers of your presence.  If the wreck is minor, meaning there is little damage and no injuries, move the vehicles out of the way of traffic, especially if you are on the interstate. 3. Check for injuries: Check yourself, your passengers, and the

Social Security Grid Rules: The Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Administrative Law Judges (ALJ) that decide social security disability cases at the hearing level frequently use a grid of the Medical-Vocational Rules to determine if a claimant is disabled or not.  If the “grid rules” indicate a finding of disabled, then it is referred to as “gridding out” and the analysis essentially stops in the claimant’s favor.  On the other hand, if the grids indicate a finding of not-disabled, it is still possible that you can be found disabled if your functional capacity is further eroded by other limitations

What is the Louisiana Direct Action Statute? Louisiana is a “direct action” state, meaning a plaintiff may name an insurer in a lawsuit.  In most other states, if you bring a personal injury lawsuit, you cannot name the insurance carrier in that lawsuit.  Louisiana on the other hand was one of the first to enact a direct action statute.  It expresses Louisiana’s long public policy that “an insurance policy against liability is not issued primarily for the protection of the insured but for the protection of the public.”  Davies v. Consolidated Underwriters , (La. 1942). La. R.S. 22:1269 does not create

What is Comparative Fault? The term “comparative fault” refers to a system of apportioning damages between negligent parties based on their proportionate shares of fault.  Under a comparative fault system, a plaintiff’s negligence will not completely bar recovery like states that employ the harsh contributory negligence rule, but it will reduce the amount of damages the plaintiff can recover based on the plaintiff’s percentage of fault. The “pure comparative fault rule” allows a damaged party to recover even if it is 99% at fault, although the recovery is reduced by the damaged party’s degree of fault.   Louisiana’s comparative fault law

What is the Defense Base Act? The Defense Base Act (DBA), enacted in 1941, is an extension of the Longshore Act and primarily extends benefits to defense contractors injured at overseas military bases. This means that the same benefits afforded to longshoremen are also available to injured defense contractors, including compensation for lost wages, loss of earning capacity, past and future medical expenses, vocational rehabilitation, death benefits, and more. The difference is that a DBA claimant need not be a longshoreman or offshore worker.  Rather, a DBA claimant is one who is working for a private company that is contracted by