Do I need a Lawyer? First find out if you need a Personal Injury lawyer. I have heard this question countless times, on the phone, in person, from friends, from new acquaintances, and from people who found my name in an internet search for a lawyer.

The question is always sincere and typically from someone who feels overwhelmed with the patchwork of systems which offer care for injured parties. Oftentimes, the question is from the family member of an injured person who is deeply concerned with whether there loved one will be ok.

The answer to the question “Do I need to hire a personal injury attorney” of course, depends on the circumstance of the injury. You may not need a lawyer. How did the injury occur? How long ago did it occur? Auto accident or fall? Was the injury at work? Whose fault is the injury? Is there liability insurance? Is the insurance company taking responsibility? What kind of regular health insurance do you have?

A Personal Injury Lawyer Can Add Value in Some Cases

Those details all determine the kind of value a personal injury attorney can add to a claim for a recovery of losses due to an injury. As any lay person could imagine the results from pursuing a claim vary widely.

I could quote you the often cited stat that injury attorney’s on average recover 3.5 times more from insurance companies than individuals who deal with the insurance company on their own. I could imply big settlements if only you’d call me.

When You Need a Guiding Light

However, in my experience the reason people want to hire a personal injury attorney is because they want an assurance that everything will be ok. They want someone who has been through this many times and can show them the way to the other side. They just want things to be the way they were before they were hurt. That’s why its important to hire a personal injury attorney. The system of hospital bills, insurance, liens, and litigation has become so burdensome, injured people need someone they can trust to guide them through this complicated system. They need someone to make sure no one takes advantage of them. At Patton & Patton that’s what we do. If you’ve been injured, you can’t work, you get that huge hospital bill in the mail and you don’t know what to do.  It feels like you’re up against giants. At Patton & Patton we specialize in slaying giants for our clients. We will be there for you and see you through to the other side. We will do everything we can to set things right again. If you’ve been injured, I hope you call us. We want to fight for you.   

-Mike Patton

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A bed sore is a wound on the skin caused by pressure. The first stage of the sore results in redness. The second state is a more open wound. The third stage is deep and involves muscles, and phase four is more severe involving the bone, tissue, and nerves.

42. C. F.R. 483 is a federal regulation that provides that a nursing home should not allow pressure sores unless the medical condition makes it unavoidable. Courts have held that most pressure sores are avoidable and can be prevented by turning the patient every two hours. What is needed to avoid the sore is releaving pressure to allow blood flow to potentially affected areas.

Of course, particular medical conditions will make a resident more at risk for bed sores than others, but even then, with proper treatment, these sores can be avoided.  When medical providers came together to attempt consensus on this issue, they also have indicated that most bed sores are avoidable. For further reading see  “Pressure Ulcers: Avoidable Or Unavoidable? Results Of The National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel.”

Medical providers need to:

• Evaluate the risk
• Define a plan
• Monitor, evaluate, and revise the plan

For information about bed sores and nursing home negligence, click here.

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5 Stars Great reviews for Topeka Lawyers Patton and Patton.

“You guys are awesome!”
– SE

“Joe your group is Awesome”
– MB

“Great track record. Keep it going!”
– EE

“They are all Excellent Attorneys. They are so very compassionate and caring.”
– SB

“These guys will give you 1st class service!”
– Bill W

“Joe is a great guy to get to know. Always positive, always professional, and has more experience and connections than practically anyone else in the area. Give Joe a shout, you won’t regret it.”
– TL

“Call Joe. He works really hard!”
– BW

“Joe and Mike and Cindy helped my wife and I and we appreciated their thoughtful guidance on our plans for our family’s future.”
– JS

“Congrats Joe on your law firm’s 30 year anniversary! You have lived up to your motto that ‘Justice is more than just a word.’ My mom would have been proud. Thank you for always being there for our family.”
– Susan L.

The above reviews are actual reviews of real clients. These are individuals we have served over the years and comments they have sent to our firm. We save the emails and encouraging reviews in what is called our encouragement file. One day as we were talking about the good reviews the idea came up that we should share these good reviews with all of you. Therefore we prepared this post. We continue to get good reviews online because we work hard to take care of our clients. We work hard to take care of our clients because we do care about each of you. It is an honor to serve you. Thank you so much for your kind words. We will work hard to provide this level of service in the future. Call us.

Ten reasons why our clients love us (you will not believe reason #1) Click here.

Here’s our contact information https://joepatton.com/contact/ 

Joins us on Facebook

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The risk factors associated with developing a pressure ulcer include nutrition, factors affecting tissue perfusion, skin condition, and age.  Generally, intensity and duration of pressure factoring skin tolerance determine the skin condition. This means if you have a lot of pressure and poor tolerance for the pressure your skin condition will deteriorate.

There are standard risk assessment methods such as the Norton score which looks at physical condition, mental condition, activity, mobility and incontinence.

You can use the form below to calculate the Norton score.

If risk factors are ignored, pressures sores are not properly treated when recognized, or the medical provider fails to provide your family member the proper standard of care, you may have a medical lawsuit.

Check out our Great Reviews! Click here.

Ten Reasons Why Our Clients Love Us, Click here.

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A pressure ulcer is an area of damaged skin. Sometimes referred to as bedsore the skin is damaged by the person staying in one position for too long. A pressure ulcer will often develop when there are bones close to your skin. This becomes a real problem for the elderly who are patients in nursing homes, convalescent centers, or rest homes or other long-term patient care facilities. 2.5 million people are treated for pressure ulcers each year, so it is a big problem.

Because a pressure ulcer is so common among seniors, who are disabled or have limited ability to move, medical professionals must provide comprehensive and regular assessments, so that their patients receive the care needed to prevent pressure ulcers. The issue often becomes one of whether there has been a violation of the standard of care or whether a pressure ulcer was unavoidable. Were there a proper risk assessments and precautions taken? A skin assessment should be taken upon admission and there after at regular intervals.  Other important issues include: Was the patient turned and was this noted in his or her chart? Were the patient’s wounds cleaned? Was the patient properly instructed on wound care? Once the ulcer developed, did the medical provider note the cause in the chart?

Legal claims can include failure to turn and reposition, failure to prevent the wound, and inadequate treatment.

You can learn more about pressure ulcers at this link. https://medlineplus.gov/pressuresores.html

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You would be wise to contact a lawyer when thinking of filing a nursing home lawsuit because the process can become complicated very quickly. First of all, we will need all the records that are available which would include the medical records, nursing home records, correspondence, insurance contracts and nursing home contracts. It is helpful for us to interview the family, friends, and any friendly medical providers that are available.
The investigation results that we are looking for are the mistake or mistakes made, what caused the mistake, whether the mistake was the result of an act or omission of negligence, and specifically whether the negligence directly resulted in significant damages to the patient.
There are a wide variety of injuries inflicted on our seniors as a result of neglect including bed sores, medication mistakes, slip and falls, failure to recognize important symptoms, and other mistakes.
After the initial investigation, we have a family conference with you and other interested family members to share our opinion and put together a strategy for moving forward. We contact medical experts that may assist us or testify in the case. All cases are prepared as if they will go to trial. As one author said, the best way to get peace is to prepare for war.
After we draft a demand letter and undergoe preliminary negotiations, a lawsuit is filed. A lawsuit means filing with the court a detailed petition outlining the claim as well as the legal basis for the claim. The defendants will include the facilities and perhaps other medical providers depending on the details of the accident or neglect. Nursing home, assisted living, adult day care, convalescent centers, or rest homes can all be held liable for negligence or medical malpractice. Most cases result in mediation before an actual jury trial.
We feel very strongly about elder abuse and can help you stop this misconduct.

Here is additional information about finding and comparing Nursing Homes

https://www.caring.com/senior-living/assisted-living/kansas/topeka

https://www.caring.com/senior-living/assisted-living/kansas

https://www.medicare.gov/nursinghomecompare/search.html

Check out our Great Reviews! Click here.

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Topeka Auto Accident attorney

It was 3:30 a.m. when a young driver of a Ford F-150 pickup north on K-177, having consumed a few brew’s earlier, found it difficult to stay awake. He fell asleep at the wheel. He did wake up as the truck was rolling across the median coming to a stop on the other side and blocking traffic. So the driver decided to turn off the lights on his truck and wait for Dad to pick him up.

The police coming to assist him did not see the pickup as a result and hit it at 104 miles per hour.  The officers filed a lawsuit not only against the driver of the pickup for blocking traffic, and also his Dad for what is called negligent entrustment. (Yes Dad, if you let your kid drive when he shouldn’t you can be held liable).

A few weeks ago the Courts kicked the case out of court by borrowing an old rule from the premise liability common law called the firefighter rule. The rule said a firefighter cannot recover for injuries caused by the wrong that initially required his or her presence at the scene in an official capacity. The rationale is that “public policy precludes recovery against an individual whose negligence created the very need for the presence of the fire fighter at the scene in his professional capacity.” In doing so, it reasoned that “fire fighters are present upon the premises, not because of any private duty owed the occupant, but because of the duty owed to the Public as a whole.” Fifteen years later the court changed its mind and did not apply the rule in a products liability case. But later a federal judge again applied the rule to police because he was concerned that if he didn’t people might be afraid to call the police when their own negligence created the public threat. So in essence the court made the wrongdoer immune from liability.

Our Court of Appeals said it would be fundamentally unfair to allow a police officer to recover damages from one who caused an automobile accident but deny this same right to a firefighter injured while responding to the exact same accident. You might think that the unfairness could be removed by allowing both to file a claim against the negligent wrongdoer, and then comparing the fault of all the parties. Instead the court decided to extend the rule which applied to firefighters to the police as well.

The court noted that some have questioned whether the firefighter’s rule still reflects a sound public policy. The plaintiff, who is questioning the wisdom of rigidly applying a law that seems so contrary to common sense, has decided to appeal to the Kansas Supreme Court.

Topeka Auto Accident attorneys

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