When you win or settle a lawsuit, there are a lot of decisions to make. One of the most pressing decisions for many plaintiffs is whether to receive their settlement money as a lump sum or a structured settlement. When there are large sums of money in the balance, it is important for plaintiffs to carefully consider all options available to them to maximize the benefits of their settlement payments. Structured settlements provide plaintiffs with financial [...]
If you’ve been injured in a Knoxville accident and are thinking about hiring a personal injury attorney, one of your first thoughts is likely, “How much is this going to cost me?” Legal fees can be confusing, and our clients are often worried about having to pay upfront. This is where contingency fees come in – making it possible for you to get legal help without paying anything until you win your case. A contingency [...]
In Tennessee, the statute of limitations for filing a personal injury claim is generally one year from the date of the accident or event that caused the injury. The statute of limitations is a law that sets the maximum time you have to file a legal claim after an event occurs. Once this period expires, you can no longer initiate a lawsuit related to that event. These laws are designed to ensure fairness and efficiency by encouraging [...]
After suffering an injury in an accident, you may hear a lot of unfamiliar legal and insurance terminology. One of these terms is “lost earning capacity,” which is not the same as loss of income. Lost earning capacity is a general category of damages that compensates for your ability to earn money in the future. It refers to the money you could have made but are unable to because of an injury that prevents you from working. Loss [...]
Product safety in any industry is crucial, but maybe none so much as in the automotive industry. A failure in any component can cause an entire vehicle to break down and potentially cause a deadly accident. One recent incident raising concerns over product safety and liability is the case of a Tesla owner whose steering wheel reportedly came off – while they were driving. The incident, reported in early 2023, is not the first of its [...]
When you think of dangerous blood clots, like deep vein thrombosis (DVT), you usually frame it as a medical issue – something caused by being immobile for too long, like after surgery or maybe a long plane ride. And that’s true, both of those things can put a person at risk for blood clots. However, one thing a lot of people don’t know is that even a minor car accident can cause a possibly fatal blood [...]
In some car accidents and truck accidents, it may be clear who caused the wreck. There are many accidents, though, where it’s not clear how the accident occurred or who is responsible. In some cases, both drivers may be partially at fault – though the driver that struck you was much more negligent. In multiple-car accidents, it’s often unclear how the chain reaction of collisions occurred. When the way the accident happened isn’t clear or when [...]
Who is responsible if your child is hurt in a school bus accident? There can be a lot of answers to that question, and here in East Tennessee, I know a lot of us trust our children to the care of a school bus driver and a school bus company on a daily basis. If the school bus is involved in an accident, the first possibility is that another vehicle could be at fault for [...]
A serious injury can lead to financial burdens. Today, the attorneys of Banks & Jones answer some of your pressing questions about how to handle those burdens. Who pays for medical bills if I’m involved in an automobile accident? How do I get my medical bills paid if I'm involved in an automobile accident? Well first, they're going to be considerations of whether or not it was the other party's fault. When you've purchased your [...]
Did you slip, trip, or fall on someone else’s property and sustain an injury? Attorney Chris Beavers answers your questions about premises liability claims. What do I do if I’m injured on another person’s property? What can you do if you're injured on another person's property? Well, the first thing to do is to determine why you were injured. If you were injured due to someone else's negligence or due to the actions of someone [...]
When we have clients that come to us with a personal injury case, one of the first things they want to know is, who is going to pay for their pain and suffering? I always tell those clients that is one of the main factors that we consider when we are negotiating their case with an insurance company. It is a hard thing to put a dollar figure on someone's pain and suffering. And there's [...]
When you are facing a sudden medical issue, your first inclination may be to call 911 or jump in the car and head straight to the hospital emergency room. However, often an urgent care center is the more feasible and economically viable choice. It is important to know the difference between each of these facilities and the best one to visit whenever you or a loved one requires immediate medical care. Urgent care center capabilities Many [...]
Can you have a personal injury claim and a workers’ compensation claim at the same time? Fortunately, the answer can be yes. In workers’ compensation claims in the state of Tennessee, unfortunately your benefits can be very limited, so it's always important to look for a third party to recover against. The bad news is, if you're injured by your employer due to your employer's negligence or by a co-employee, you're not going to be [...]
It's important to make a good impression. Understand the judge, or in the in case of a jury trial, the jury, is going to make decisions about you from your personal appearance. That may not be fair, but ladies and gentlemen, that is a reality of our current life. So, if you want to make a good impression, then I suggest that you dress for success. I suggest that you don't wear shorts. I suggest [...]
Property owners and managers have a responsibility to keep their property safe. When you see a “Wet Floor” sign at the supermarket, or signs posted around a construction site, or a notice in the bathroom of your favorite restaurant telling employees to wash their hands before resuming work – all of these signs are posted to ensure that everyone gets through their days safely. Sometimes, however, property owners can be a little lax. They cut some [...]
Product liability lawsuits are different than personal injury lawsuits based on negligence. The basic parts of a product liability claim are: A product was defective The user of the product died or became injured The defect is the cause of the wrongful death or injury The damages in both product liability lawsuits are similar. Injured victims can claim their lost wages, any and all medical expenses to recover, and damages for pain and suffering. Families can [...]
Everybody slip and falls at some point in their lives. If you are lucky, you stand up, shake off the dirt and embarrassment and you keep on walking and trying to act as if everything is fine and hoping that no one saw you take a tumble. People slip and fall at home, at work, they trip and fall at the mall, the grocery store, on the courthouse steps and in school hallways. You might emerge [...]
When the music is turned up too loudly, it can hurt your ears. For one Garth Brooks fan, love of music almost cost her an eye. And while we think a good pun is pretty funny, there’s nothing funny about what happened to Jean Ann Crenshaw on December 9th while she was at a concert at the Bridgestone Arena. The short version is this: Trisha Yearwood had a surprise in store for Garth Brooks that involved [...]
Mother Nature is unpredictable; just ask the people of Gatlinburg, or Houston, or anyone in California. Humans can be unpredictable, too. As of right now, there have been 151,592 traffic crashes in Tennessee this year, and 10.429 of them have happened in Knox County. Of those 151,592 crashes: 732 were fatal 37,264 involved an injury 113,605 led to more than $400 in property damage When you’re seriously injured in a crash, your first thoughts should be [...]
Unlike Superman, Achilles and the other heroes of myth, we’re not invulnerable to pain and suffering. People sustain life-threatening injuries every day: from terrifying natural disasters, unavoidable auto accidents, and simple slips. Fortunately, when you get injured, you are not alone; you can have a personal injury attorney by your side. There are a number of personal injury attorneys here in Knoxville, and choosing the right lawyer to represent you is an important choice. But how [...]
Summer is time for fun in the sun, to stay cool at the pool, and other playful, rhyming activities. It’s vacation time, and you want to have the best possible experiences with your family. Still, just as it does to the other three seasons, danger casts its shadow over summer. So we want you to stay safe this year, and avoid some of the most common injuries and illnesses that occur during the warmer months. [...]
When you’ve been hurt – in an auto accident, while playing sports, while at work, etc. – you expect that at some point, you’re going to recover from that injury. There are some injuries, though, that you never really recover from: injuries that will affect you and your family for the rest of your life. These are called catastrophic injuries, and they could lead to a lifetime of medical care, the need for adaptive technologies, or [...]
Regardless of whether it is for work or play, we often spend several hours glued to our electronics – our computers, our televisions, our cell phones, etc. Fortunately, there are ways for us to wisely utilize our time while glued to our electronics, and one such way is to play Pokémon Go, a free mobile augmented reality game in which we journey to real-life places in order to catch and train Pokémon creatures. Playing Pokémon Go [...]
Mountain Dew is a popular soft drink, especially with teenagers. The company’s website sports a very cool looking advertisement for its “backwoods original” recipe – which calls for real sugar, as opposed to artificial sweeteners, and offers a not-so-subtle comparison to moonshine. In Tennessee, though, “dewshine” has a much more deadly connotation. In late January of 2016, the tragic deaths of two teenagers was linked to a mix of the soda with methanol-based racing fuel. In [...]
In 2015 so far, there have been more than 10,000 traffic crashes in Tennessee, and 605 of them have happened in Knox County. With so many cars, trucks, SUVs and commercial vehicles on the road, the chances are pretty high that you might be involved in a car crash around Knoxville at some point in your life. A head-on collision is the rarest type of car crash, but one of the most dangerous: the National Highway [...]
