InjuryBoard Seattle Archives

• New Law Banning Texting While Driving to Take Effect

  Ryan Nute | December 29, 2007 10:37 AM | 0 Comments
  Category: Miscellaneous

  Texting while driving officially becomes illegal on January 1, 2008. The law is a secondary violation, meaning that a police officer must first spot another violation (such as a person not wearing a seatbelt or speeding) before someone who is texting can be pulled over. This law and the law against cell phone use while driving (which will be enforced starting July 1, 2008) are attempts to...

• Model Ship Builders Reportedly Fleeced in Internet Commerce Scam

  Ryan Nute | December 26, 2007 9:18 AM | 0 Comments
  Category: Miscellaneous

  Dennis Ray Lunde, 60, of Poulsbo, Washington, has been charged with first-degree theft in an alleged Internet commerce scam.  The scam involved Lunde posing online as a Navy captain and selling model ship kits. Buyers of these kits would send money to Lunde but never received the kits.  Several buyers received an e-mail from Lunde's "wife," claiming that Lunde had suffered a heart attack, was...

• Open and Shut Case...Unlikely in Light of the Sudden Medical Emergency Defense

  Michael Myers | December 21, 2007 10:50 AM | 0 Comments
  Category: Miscellaneous

  I've written about it before. The defense bar never ceases to surprise. Affirmative defenses--legal tools to avoid taking responsibility--seem to be multiplying and mutating. The sudden medical emergency defense is an example. And it is frequently applied to situations like the really tragic one we blogged about here on December 17th. To recap, a jogger was hit and killed by a motorist last...

• Key Advice for Personal Injury Victims

  Michael Myers | December 21, 2007 8:49 AM | 0 Comments
  Category: Miscellaneous

  Lists are popular at the end of the year. Sometimes lists celebrate accomplishments. Other times they record dubious achievements. This one itemizes key advice for personal injury victims: 1. Politely refuse to give recorded statements to adjusters before retaining counsel.2. Take photographs of visible injuries before they heal.3. Take photographs of property damage before...

• Injured Pedestrians' Claims Not Reduced by Dark Clothing, Time of Day

  Michael Myers | December 20, 2007 8:20 AM | 0 Comments
  Category: Automobile Accidents

  On November 27th, a Seattle woman in her 50's was hit while crossing at a crosswalk at the intersection of Aurora Avenue North and North 90th Street. The accident occurred at approximately 9:30 p.m. The woman was hit by a pickup and dragged underneath it. The driver of the pickup left the scene. He was stopped several blocks away by police. The woman suffered head and pelvis injuries and...

• Motorcyclist Dies in Collision with Dump Truck

  Michael Myers | December 19, 2007 8:06 AM | 0 Comments
  Category: Motorcycle Accidents

  Recently, a 44-year-old Seattle man died after a collision with a dump truck. The collision occurred at about 7:40 a.m. at East Lake Sammamish Parkway and 229th Avenue Southeast, just north of Interstate 90. The circumstances of the accident remain under investigation. Left hand turns are one of the biggest threats to motorcyclists. Drivers turn across motorcyclists' lanes of travel and...

• Multivehicle Accidents--Complexity and Opportunity Collide

  Michael Myers | December 18, 2007 10:00 AM | 0 Comments
  Category: Automobile Accidents

  On December 11th three people were taken to Harborview Medical Center after a mulitvehicle accident on Highway 522 near Monroe. The accident happened in the early afternoon. A man driving westbound reportedly lost control while driving around a curve, struck a guardrail and skidded into the eastbound lane. The out-of-control vehicle collided with a truck. A third vehicle, driving behind the...

• Car Drifting Across Four Lanes of Traffic Strikes and Kills Jogger

  Ryan Nute | December 17, 2007 12:03 PM | 0 Comments
  Category: Automobile Accidents

  A jogger was hit and killed by a motorist Saturday while jogging down Duvall Avenue Northeast in Renton, Washington. The 37-year old jogger was traveling along the northbound lanes when a southbound car drifted across four lanes of traffic and hit the jogger from behind. The car then went down an embankment. The 34-year old driver sustained injuries. I take some personal interest in these...

• Vacation Internationale--Class Action

  Michael Myers | December 16, 2007 2:16 PM | 0 Comments
  Category: Miscellaneous

  We recently met with an owner of points in Vacation Internationale. When upgrading his ownership interest from a term of years to perpetual, representatives of Vacation Internationale advised that it owned the various vacation properties in fee simple. Based on information obtained from a former VI employee, it appears that this was a material misrepresentation and VI does not own many of its...

• Principles

  Michael Myers | December 13, 2007 12:01 PM | 0 Comments
  Category: Miscellaneous

  I like to write about accidents. They frequently provide good examples of legal principles or issues that we encounter frequently in personal injury cases. But I also write about them with the intent of reaching accident victims or the people who care about them.Recently I received the following link:...

• Breach of Trust and Confidence

  Michael Myers | December 04, 2007 10:05 AM | 0 Comments
  Category: Property Owner's Liability (Slip & Fall)

  A female patient of Dr. Chris Woodja, a dentist who practiced in the Shoreline area, was found heavily drugged and half-naked in his office on October 17th.The patient had come in for treatment of an abscessed tooth. Reportedly, Woodja had contacted the patient's roommates prior to the appointment and requested that the patient bring "the additional four tablets of Triazolam" he had prescribed...