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Personal Injury Claims in West Virginia: What You Need to Know

Most top-of-the-line law firms begin with a thorough interview and meeting with the client. The client needs to understand what the lawyer can do for them, how they’re going to do it, how long its going to take and, last but not least, how much is it going to cost. What the Segal & Amos, PLLC Will Do for Our Clients We work on a contingency fee basis. That means, until we get our client’s  money and case settled, they don’t owe us any money. If we are not successful in their case, then they don’t owe us any attorney fees. It’s that simple. The Investigation Once the lawyer is in place, the investigation begins. In a simple accident, that may only take a few days. In a complex trucking case or a complex coal-mining explosion or death case, it could be a few weeks or several weeks. Sometimes, if you’re waiting on the NTSB – the National Transportation Safety Board – the wait can be as much as six to nine months. The Complaint The next step is the filing of a complaint. Sometimes an insurance company or major corporation will approach the Segal & Amos firm quickly and ask us […]

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What type of Lawyer Handles Car Wrecks and Trucking Accidents?

Is There a Specific Type of Lawyer that Handles a Car Wreck or Trucking Accident? With regards to car wrecks, it depends. There are some car wrecks that are very simple. The injuries are not profound or life changing. Personal injury lawyers or trial lawyers handle these cases on a regular basis. At the Segal & Amos firm, we tend to focus more on serious life-altering cases where people involved in car wrecks have been killed or paralyzed, lost a limb, suffered blindness or suffered a serious head injury which results in them not being able to continue working and providing for their family. You want to have a lawyer who has not only prepared a car wreck case for settlement but has tried them in a court of law to a jury. You have to look at a lot of factors in a car wreck because sometimes there is evidence that people overlook. You may see someone who is in a rather mild car wreck but they suffer paralysis. Everyone is scratching his or her head saying, “Well, how did that happen?” But it turns out, when you look under the seat, the seat belts are sheared off. So

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I’ve Been Diagnosed With Mesothelioma- Now What?

Most people who come to me with a mesothelioma diagnosis have no idea where to start processing that information. It’s usually not something they were prepared for or have dealt with in the past. At Segal & Amos, PLLC, we specialize in dealing with mesothelioma and are completely ready to handle your case. We know the incredibly damaging effects the disease has on its victims and their families and we do our best to quickly find out where exposure occurred so that we can get our clients the help they deserve. The process of starting a mesothelioma case begins with the official diagnosis of the disease. Typically, this conclusion is drawn from a biopsy of the lining of the lung or gut, given by a pathologist. From there, it’s up to us at the firm to determine where the victims were exposed to the asbestos and whose asbestos was being used. We have depositions of thousands of workers and those statements help us figure out which specific asbestos products were used at various locations over an entire century. At that point, we want to file a notice that permits our client’s sworn statement to be taken as soon as we

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Coal Mine Safety: A Worker’s Right

How can West Virginia coal mines be safer work places for miners? Coal miners deserve and have the right to expect to be trained – and it is federally and state mandated that they are entitled to be properly trained for their job. Protecting Yourself from Injury At the Segal & Amos, PLLC, we can help coal mine employees understand what they need to know about their job to protect their own safety. Employees have the right to have equipment properly maintained using the manufacturers specification, as well as parts for critical pieces of equipment and the safety features provided. Lastly, coal miners are entitled to a safe working environment. This would include rock dusting, proper ventilation, and proper maintenance of equipment with regards to having water on certain cutting heads – all kinds of different safety features on machines. Safety Training Safety training is vital, and miners have to be environmentally safe in their work and have the right equipment and tools to do their job safely. Deep coal mining is a very, very risky and difficult job on its best day. Coal companies have an absolute responsibility under state and federal law to help our miners stay safe

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Segal & Amos, PLLC: No Pay Meter Here

In my previous few blogs, we’ve talk a lot about injuries in oil rigs, gas wells, and trucking accidents. I’ve encouraged you to call us here at Segal & Amos, PLLC and find out what we can do for you and your family. You might be reading them thinking, “Yeah, that all sounds great, but how much is it going to cost me?” I’ve got your answer: Nada. Zilch. Zero. That’s right. It will cost you absolutely nothing to find out if we can help. We consult with people who have injuries due to tractor trailers, coal mining, Marcellus Shale drilling or an oil rig and we don’t charge them a dime to meet and determine if we’re going to move forward with the case. Additionally, we won’t charge to investigate. Let’s say you call the toll free number and fill me in on what’s happened to you. At the end of the initial meeting, I want to find out a bit more about what the tractor trailer was doing. I’ve got to get a police report. Or I think, whoa, that drilling rig should’ve never exploded like that. I need to look at the report of the investigators. Of

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Main Factors That Lead to a Victory in Mesothelioma Cases

How Difficult is It to Win a Mesothelioma Case? It’s not very difficult to win Mesothelioma cases because there is an enormous body of scientists who agree that the most common cause of Mesothelioma in North America is the exposure to asbestos. The question you have to ask is, how was the person exposed? Were they a pipe fitter? A boilermaker? An electrical worker? Did they work around power houses? Chemical plants? Industrial facilities where asbestos insulation was used? What Factors Lead to a Successful Verdict and Settlement? If you have a good exposure history and you know what products the person worked with or were around – you have a very high likelihood of succeeding in your case. Not all asbestos products cases are the same, not all asbestos exposure is the same. You have a very good likelihood of obtaining substantial settlements on your behalf and your family members because unfortunately Mesothelioma is a very aggressive cancer and almost always fatal. How Does the Segal & Amos, PLLC Protect a Worker and His or Her Family? We work very closely with the worker and the family to protect them and get them good settlements, sometimes in the millions

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Mesothelioma: How the Segal & Amos, PLLC Handles Mesothelioma Cases

Mesothelioma is an extremely aggressive cancer. It is rarely, if ever, curable and almost always fatal. The settlements range for these cases based on several critical factors. First, how was the person exposed and how many products containing the asbestos can we prove they were exposed to. How the Segal & Amos, PLLC Handles Mesothelioma Cases A critical part of what we do at the Segal & Amos, PLLC is research to help prove a client”s exposure. We have literally thousands of workers’ depositions that identify the various types of asbestos that were used in the state of West Virginia in factories, power houses, chemical plants and other industrial facilities. The disease can tragically affect people in their 50s, 60s and 70s. For much older folks, the cases are worth less because their life expectancy at the time they contracted the disease was less than it would be for an individual who is younger. Factors Affecting Settlements Generally, you see settlements in Mesothelioma cases where you have very difficult product identifications and much older people. Those cases may only settle in the high hundreds of thousands of dollars whereas younger people with good exposures – that would be people in their

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Gas Well Injuries- Get Yourself Covered

What can an out of state gas well worker do if he or she gets hurt? Man. I really wish more people would ask me that question! It’s unfortunate that many folks don’t know the West Virginia laws that protect them in the case of an accident. We got strict regulations and if they are broken, we can usually get you much more money to cover your damages than worker’s compensation provides. When you are injured and your boss tells you, “Go on home, file your claim, that’s all we got for ya.” Well, I say baloney! There’s definitely more an experienced attorney can do for you. If you do get injured, the first thing you want to do is find a lawyer who knows the industry. If you called me, I’d start with finding out exactly what happened. We’ve got to talk about who hurt you. Was it the independent contractor, the subcontractor or your employer? Was someone driving a truck that hadn’t been welded properly? Were you hit by a drunk driver? Don’t just assume that your case isn’t worth something because of your home state laws. Call us up and let us figure it out with you.

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Tractor Trailers and Traffic Laws: What you Need to Know

The result of two objects coming together, one of which is your car and the other of which is something that weighs tens of thousands of pounds, is not going to be a good result. And you don’t have to be a physicist or a scientist to understand that if a tractor-trailer hits you in your little car or your SUV or your minivan, you and your family are going to be seriously hurt or killed. What Regulations Affect Truck Driving? There are a whole set of complicated federal regulations and you need an attorney that knows the federal regulatory system inside and out, and knows how to develop a tractor-trailer case. Federal Laws regulate how many hours they are allowed to drive so many truckers keep two sets of logbooks. One set is the driving time that they get paid for. The other logbook is the driving time they show the state troopers, or they show the federal regulators, or they show the truck stop operator. Equipment Regulations The equipment, the rig, how often it has to be inspected, how it has to be maintained – those are all things that are regulated by the federal government. Often, we

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Mesothelioma –The Cold Hard Facts

There are three major different types of asbestos in North America and it’s hotly debated whether one or all of them can cause a mesothelioma. Fiber size and all kinds of technical, scientific issues pop up in mesothelioma cases. Before you go to court, you need a lawyer with experience in the medicine and science of mesothelioma. It’s important that you have someone that has experience with the history of asbestos, because it was known a long, long, long time ago how dangerous asbestos was. What is Involved in a Successful Mesothelioma Case? You have got to win the case, explain to the jury the history of what was known and when it was known, to hold these companies liable. And you don’t just get to walk into the courtroom and say, “Hey, this is a meso case, give us a bunch of money.” You have to prove the history of why these products were used, and what the companies knew about how dangerous they where, what scientific material the company had available that the worker didn’t know about, and how they failed, year after year after year, to tell the workers this stuff is deadly. How Should you Decide on

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