Mediation proceedings become progressively more popular among lawyers as they provide a relatively quick and normally inexpensive way of settling a case. Many courts refer filed cases to mediation or some other form of alternative dispute resolution (such as arbitration) and urge parties to settle their cases as early as possible. 

As a client, as a person who has been injured and who has been suffering through pain and prolonged treatment, it's crucial that you do not make the same three mistakes that many other claimants make that prevent them from settling their case at a mediation: 

1. Having unrealistic expectations about the value of your case. Most claimants based their view of what their case is worth on either movies or verdicts that they hear about from the media, or from friends who had "similar" cases. The media is very selective about the legal news their report. Like with all the other news, unless the case or a verdict has some kind of shocking value, why would it be reported. A million dollar verdict might be reported on any given day, while dozens or even hundreds of very small verdicts or even defense verdicts are never even mentioned. Moreover, the big cases are covered in a very incomplete way. Everyone has heard about the McDonald's hot coffee case, but very few people know the facts that made the jury award that large verdict. It was hardly mentioned that McDonald's was warned many times not to overheat their coffee, that there was evidence that the company did it intentionally in order to maximize the amount of coffee made from the beans, and that the victim suffered serious burns. With regard to your friends or relatives who had a "similar" case, you simply have no way of knowing how similar their case is to yours. There are so many factors that come into play during litigation that virtually no two cases are identical. From insurance coverage issues, to prior history of injuries, proving liability, and the posture that the opposite side takes - these are just some of the factors that determine how your case should be handled. Thus, it is important that your settlement expectations are based on information other than the one you hear from the news, movies, and friends. And your lawyer, assume that he is competent and trustworthy, should be one source of this information. 

2. Setting the bottom number in your mind below which you will not go, no matter what before you even go to mediation. Again, since you have no way of determining the fair settlement value of your case, you should not be setting any advanced expectations. Mediation is about keeping and open mind. This is an opportunity for the parties to find compromise to their position. Compromise means that both sides are giving something to get something in return.  The insurance company or any other corporate defendants pays out sooner than they would later at trial in order to resolve the case, not incur expenses associated with actual trial, and not be exposed to the risk of being "hit" by the jury for more. The individual claimant agrees to accept lesser amount than he/she expected to get the money earlier and not wait for months or even longer till trial, to get certainty and not risk losing at trial or getting a smaller verdict after incurring trial related expenses (which is always a possibility) and in order to move on and close that part of his/her life. 

3. Taking mediation personally. Some claimants treat their mediation against an employer, an insurance company or any other corporate defendant as some kind of personal grudge. They forget that as personal as this case might be for them, it's anything but personal for the corporation. It's just another business decision, and you - the claimant - - should treat it as such. This means, that you should not be insulted or try to walk out at the beginning of the mediation, when the other side is offering a ridiculously low opening offer. They always do. This is just part of the game. Both sides begin the negotiations far apart hoping that by the end of the day (it's not unusual for a mediation to take a full day or even longer) and hope to reach and settlement agreement at the end of the proceedings. On few occasions that I and a few of my colleagues tried to shortcut the process and come out with our final offer right out of the gate, the mediation was a total failure, because we failed to take into account human nature. Everyone needs to feel that they accomplished something even if it's completely illusory. if the corporate defendant and its lawyers feel that they have done nothing for their business they will not be happy and will not be willing settle. So, the game of high/low has to be played at a mediation and there is simply no way around it. It's just part of the business. 

Avoid making the above mistakes, and your mediation is much more likely to result in a settlement.
 
 
I have a lot of respect for the police forces as they see the worst in our society, and put their lives at risk every day trying to protect the public from crime and keeping us all safe. However, there is no excuse for police brutality and use of excessive and unnecessary force. 

My associate and a friend, Jeff Kravitz, of the Kravitz Law Office is handling one such case that recently made the news in Sacramento, California. The video speaks for itself.
 
 
Any "serious" attorney who handles bigger injury cases and facing a real likelihood of jury trial knows that regardless of the facts of his client's case and his injuries, his case to a great extent depends on his client's credibility. The impression that the injured plaintiff gives to a jury is critical to his ability to recover compensation. A typical juror has his own pains and problems and is inherently skeptical of the pain of other people. Any well founded suspicion that you exaggerate your injuries and your treatment is inflated will make you come across as a whiner who probably exaggerate just about everything he says and will make the jury far less generous than they would have otherwise been. 

Remember, a hero stops being a hero as soon as he considers himself one. The physical pain you are suffering, as well as your emotional distress as a result of the pain is something that the jury / defense attorneys have to infer indirectly from what happened in the injury incident and not simply take your word for it. 

This means that treating longer than you reasonable should have to simply increase the amount of medical bills, or having your doctor write a report to grossly exaggerates your symptoms and injuries will likely backfire at a deposition, when it's time for you or your doctor to testify or later - at trial. This means that you should not treat longer than you feel is necessary, and you should not continue seeking the same type of treatment of too long if it proves to be ineffective.
 
 
Deposition is a testimony under oath which is, in an injury case, normally taken by the attorney who represents the insurance company of the driver who is liable for your injuries. Deposition testimony is one, significant opportunity for the opposing counsel to meet you, find out the details of your injury case, but also - just as importantly - assess your personality. Are you a calm and likable person with charismatic personality or someone who the jury of 12 strangers will not particularly like? This might be much more important than the nature of the injuries you sustained, your wage loss, and your pain and suffering.

- Why? Let's face it. Everyone has their own issues and problems they have to deal with. No matter how serious your injuries are, the members of the jury or their friends and relatives had or have equally or greater pain than you do, so they don't have much room left for sympathy. Most of us are generous to those people who we like and respect. The same applies to the jurors. The jury is usually generous to those plaintiffs who they like. The attorneys are aware of that. If the deposing attorney find you to be a likable, emotionally stable person, who doesn't have a victim mentality and who doesn't blame the world for all of his/her troubles, it will help your case, as the opposing counsel will have an incentive to settle the case, rather than put you in front of the jury who will likely award you significant damages. 

On the other hand, if you are easily destabilized, confrontational, generally angry and unpleasant, the deposing attorney will be less inclined to recommend fair settlement to the insurer, knowing that he has a good chance "crushing" you in trial, so why settlement for a significant amount of money. 

So, make sure you prepare yourself not only substantively but also mentally to make a good impression on the opposing counsel, not to get angry even if what the deposing attorney says or asks you sounds untruthful or offensive to you and make the best impression possible, regardless of the attorney's behavior during the deposition.
 
 
Slip-and-fall claims are traditionally challenging cases for the injured to prove. Even the most serious injuries resulting from slip-and-fall incident at a retail store or any other property do not guarantee results as the standard of proving liability on the part of the owner/operator of the premises is higher than in other negligence cases, such as auto accidents. 

However, there are a few things that every victim of slip and fall injury can and should do in order to increase his/her chances of successful recovery for the injuries sustained:

1. Keep your shoes and other clothing that can be evidence of the incident and the injuries. One of my clients suffered severe injuries after slipping and falling on an oil spill. He contacted me weeks after the incident. Unfortunately, he through away his pants that had both, oil stains and a hole, that showed how hard he fell. Not having that evidence made proving his case more challenging and inevitably reduced the value of your case. If you are involved in a slip and fall injury, make sure that you keep your shoes and pants that you were during the incident without cleaning them or otherwise altering them. Your pants will prove your fall and will also have traces of any substance or defect that caused your fall. Your shoes can be evidence negating the argument that you feel because your shoes were too slippery. 

2. Gather witness information. Juries and judges are traditionally skeptical of slip-and-fall injuries. This means that there is a particularly high burden on the victim to show his credibility. Being able to contact witness of the incident, if any, and getting their written or oral testimony is very important to proving the circumstances of the incident at or before trial. Make sure you obtain contact information and names of any witnesses that saw how you fell or helped you immediately after you were injured. 

3. Make a Report with the Owner of the Premises. Whether you fall at a retail store, or a parking lot or anywhere else, make sure you report the incident to the staff at the premises, request that they make some kind of written notation of the incident and give you a copy of that writing along with the information of the persons who you can speak with about your claim later.
 
 

Most lawyers are well aware that the credibility of their client, especially in larger cases, is essential to a successful prosecution of an injury case. However, few attorney explain to their clients why being credible and believable is so important. 

Let's face the cruel but obvious truth. The jury of twelve strangers does not really care about someone else's injuries. We are all jaded with all the tragedies and injuries we constantly hear about through different channels of media and through are friends and co-workers, and we are often unable to really sympathize with yet another injured person  unless he is our close friend or relative.  This means that the jury is fair and generous to those victims who the jury likes as people. Ironically, an injured claimant who feels sorry for himself, gets much less compassion from the jury who determines whether to award plaintiff damages and how much that award should be. 

If you have been injured and are about to testify at a deposition or trial, it is critical that you don't exaggerate your injuries. It is very important that you don't say that your condition is worse today than it was right after the accident (because that's almost never possible or believable). Unless you have been involved in a catastrophic injury, don't make your injury sound like a global disaster. Be honest about how you hurt yourself and what pain you experience today but do not exaggerate. The moment the opposing attorney and/or the jury doesn't believe one, seemingly insignificant fact about your case, they will doubt everything else, and you must avoid being caught in that situation. 

Remember: casting doubt on your credibility and honesty is one of the strongest defense weapons that the insurance companies might have. If you don't give them that ammunition, they will likely settle your claim sooner, and likely for a larger amount of money.

 
 

As any attorney becomes more experienced, more capable, and more financially successful in his area of practice, he inevitably becomes more picky about the cases he is willing to work on and the people who he/she is willing to represent. Some would call it arrogance, but it's really not. A person has only so many hours in a day, and he has to decide how to spend those hours in the most productive and fulfilling way in and outside the office. For a civil litigation attorney and an injury lawyer specifically, it means (a) choosing to work on the strongest cases with the greatest damages; and also (b) have great clients.

While you do not have much control over how good your injury case is, and in most cases not having a great case is good news, as it means that your injuries are not as severe, you have a great deal of control of who you are as a client.  Much the stress in the practice of law comes not so much from the legal issues but from dealing with "problem" clients  - people who always doubt everything, dramatic, never-happy individuals, who talk to much without saying anything of substance.

The more successful the attorney is, the less tolerance he has for potential and/or existing clients who annoy him and bring unnecessary stress into his life and legal practice. An attorney with good reputation usually chooses who he represents as he has people competing over his time, knowing that he achieves great results for his clients. This is something that you should keep in mind if you want your case to be handled by a great attorney.

I have met some of the best attorneys in California, some of whom have national reputation. They are not running around telling people how good they are. Their reputation precedes them,  and their clients are seeking them out, trying to "sell" their case to one of those incredible professionals. If you believe your case requires great expertise an any are of law, make sure you don't commit the typical mistakes that people make when talking to and trying to hire a lawyer to maximize your chances of hiring an experienced and competent attorney.


 
 

Mediation is an attempt by the parties to a civil litigation to resolve their case at an informal meeting with the assistance of a neutral, third party - a mediator. To put it simply, mediation is a process where the opposing parties meet and try to settle the case. At the beginning of the process, the parties are usually far apart in their expectation of what the injury case should settle for and hopefully with time, patience and negotiations, which may continue all day, the parties eventually meet at a dollar value which constitutes settlement. 

Like many other things, mediation is what you make of it. The role of your attorney and the mediator is to advise you on the strengths and the weaknesses of your injury claims, while the decision on whether to settle or not, and for how much, is ultimately yours. Therefore, in order to make the most out of the mediation hearing, you must have the right mindset and avoid the following, very common mistakes that plaintiffs make in injury accident cases and other claims:

1. Have an open mind about the mediation process.  One of the biggest mistakes that claimants make is going into a room with a set $ figure in mind, below which they promised to themselves that they won't settle. This is not a good approach for several reasons. First, it's a challenge for even the most experienced lawyers to put a dollar value on the case, so you can't possibly be in a good position to know what your case is worth, considering the inherent uncertainty of the litigation process and the outcome of trials. You have been hurt and you rightfully feel that you deserve to be compensated, but the settlement figure you have set in mind is probably at least in some way arbitrary. So, keep an open mind about the settlement value of the case.

2. Mediation is a Give-and-Take. Don't expect to get everything you want out of the mediation hearing. Effective mediation process requires flexibility and requires giving. When the parties reach settlement at the mediation, both are usually unhappy. The injured feels that he was shortchanged, while the insurance company feels that it might have paid too much and set a bad precedent. Mediation is a compromise of parties' position, requiring both parties to move from their existing positions closer to each other in order, at the end of the day - to find a common ground and make the case resolve.

3. Evidence v. Perception. There is a big difference between what you can prove and what you actually feel. Much of the pain from your injuries might be subjective, that is - you can feel it, but no one can see it (no x-ray, MRI and other images can show the source or the cause of the pain). Ask yourself how far you are willing to push the argument that you are in great pain, if there is no solid, objective proof of that pain?  

4. Be Patient. Most likely, the insurance company will make an insultingly low settlement offer at the beginning of your mediation hearing. Be ready for it and don't take it personally. It's just part of the game. Your lawyer will likely advise you to take the opposite position and start negotiations on your side with an equally excessively high settlement figure. Be ready for a long day of going back and forth with settlement figures that are slowly crawling closer toward each other, as this is just a standard mediation process.

 
 

There comes a time in your injury case when you finally reach a settlement agreement of your claims and you have to calculate how the settlement money will be allocated between you, the medical providers/ lien holders and your attorney. 

It's important that you keep in mind that if you are represented by an attorney, the claim of your health insurance company and the medical bills of other medical providers who hold a lien against your case are highly negotiable and in most cases they substantially reduce their charges with one or two calls from your injury lawyer. 

Under the so-called common fund doctrine, the medical provider should generally reduce their charge by at least the percentage of your attorneys' fees. In other words, if your attorney represents you on a 35% contingency fee, the health care providers who treated you for your injuries should reduce their bills by 35% or more. 

Recently, I managed to negotiate a $14,000 bill from Kaiser insurance to under $5,000 because my client's injury settlement was relatively law. 

You should remember that the representative of the medical office or the health insurance company you are engaging in negotiations with has a significant degree of discretion in the discount that he will give you on your medical bills. Thus, it's really worth being courteous, and instead of demanding reduction in the medical charges, you should try to evoke sympathy and explain why reducing charges will be fair and necessary in light of your injuries, recovery and likely necessary future treatment, if in fact you believe you will need the same. 

An important rule to remember is that if Medi-Cal paid for any of your treatment related to your injury for which you recover a settlement, you and your attorney have an affirmative obligation to reimburse Medi-Cal for at least some of the medical costs they covered. Medi-Cal's lien can also be negotiated, and a useful phone number to have to discuss the lien reduction with medi-cal is (916) 650-0490 (personal injury recovery unit).

 
 

Dog attacks are a more common and a more devastating problem than most people realize. As with most trends, good or bad, California leads the nation in both the number of dog attacks and dog attack-related fatalities. 

In California, the primary statute for dealing with dog bit cases is civil Code section 3342 (the "Dog Bite Statute"). Under that section, the dog owners face strict liability when their dog bites a person "regardless of former viciousness of the dog or the owner's knowledge of such viciousness." A victim of the dog bite must who only that the dog bit him or her and caused injury requiring medical attention and care. One that is established, the defendant must pay for all the damages caused by hi or her dog.  The strict liability rule eliminates the need to prove fault and significantly simplifies the claim. 

California's courts have clearly held that section 3342 is not limited only to "bites" causing puncture wounds or other physical injury directly related to the dog having "bitten" the victim. Liability is found in cases where the dog "indirectly" injuries a person, by, for instance, pulling a person by his pants and off the ladder, even if the dog's teeth never touched that person's skin. 

It is important to note that Civil Code section 3342 only applies of the victim was in a public place or "lawfully in a private place" at the time of the attack. Because most dog attacks take place on the dog owner's property, trespassing is one of the favorite defenses of insurance attorneys. Thus, if you have been attacked by a dog, it might be critical to make sure that you obtain statements from any wi