Personal Injury Attorneys in Santa Monica - Santa Monica Personal Injury Attorneys

This informational and educational site is brought to you by the Los Angeles personal injury attorneys at Ehline Law, P.C. If you have suffered a personal injury in Santa Monica, California, or while on vacation in Santa Monica, California, and need to know how to find Santa Monica personal injury attorneys, you are not alone. But Santa Monica, California, is a beautiful and famous place as well. Santa Monica is famous for its westland "pier cam." (See Santa Monica Piercam.) Santa Monica's 3rd Street Promenade has world famous restaurants, stores, several movie theaters and large parking structures everywhere. Santa Monica is also famous for Montana Street, off Wilshire Blvd.

The Santa Monica Beach Bike Path is usually very crowded, but has open stretches of bike path as well, heading north towards Malibu Beach. You will find skateboarders, roller bladers, runners, and joggers, etc. You will also probably see street actors, performers, musicians and merchants haggling with tourists. There is also sporting activity going on, like volleyball.

Suffering a personal injury in Santa Monica from a flying skateboard, or out of control bicycle on the boardwalk is not an uncommon accident in Santa Monica. Seeing a rollerblade accident is not uncommon in Santa Monica either.

These are all dangerous events requiring a Santa Monica personal injury attorney. On the South Side of the Santa Monica Pier, is situated, "muscle beach". The Pacific Ocean has activities like surfing, body boarding, kneeboarding, swimming and skim boarding. Santa Monica Lifeguards are usually on duty at the Santa Monica Pier as well.

If you suffer a personal injury in Santa Monica, you need an aggressive Santa Monica personal injury attorney. There are many places to suffer a personal injury in Santa Monica. For example, you could suffer an injury in Santa Monica on a hike in the mountains.

The Santa Monica Mountains are just a short drive north from the Santa Monica Pier. The Santa Monica Mountain Recreation Area is 150,000 acres. Activities popular there are mountain climbing, hiking, butterfly watching, bird watching and simply tip-toeing through the tulips. Santa Monica Parks are open seven day per week. The Santa Monica Monica Park hotline is as follows: (818) 597-9192 extension 201.

Douglas Park (24th Street & Wilshire Boulevard) features green, bowling. Apart from the bowling the park also features outdoor tennis courts. (Read more on World 66.) Santa Monica is accessible by the world famous Santa Monica Freeway. (Read more.) Obviously, Santa Monica freeways are a potential source of a personal injury in Santa Monica as well.

When an individual suffers physical or emotional injuries, and/or an individual's personal property is destroyed or damaged, this is known as a "Personal Injury" in California Courts. California personal injury law allows an injured victim (Plaintiff) to receive payment (monetary compensation) for injuries causing the damages. A Santa Monica Attorney is an important step in determining your Santa Monica personal injury damages. These damages must be caused by a tortfeasor's (Defendant(s)) failure to exercise due care, or carelessness. The damages are usually the result of a Defendant's intentional conduct, malice, negligence, recklessness.

California and the Federal government utilize tort laws that largely are the result of English Common Law. These tort laws came about to protect individual rights and now even apply to incorporeal persons. Negligence is comprised of three parts in most States, including Santa Monica, California, as: (1) Duty owed by the Defendant wrongdoer, to the Plaintiff injured victim; (2) Breach of the aforesaid duty; (3) Damages caused by breach of the duty. This is called negligence.

Taking your Santa Monica personal injury dispute to a Santa Monica court, will help avoid the wild west scenario of "self help." The English Common Law recognized early on, that people would help themselves to a "pound of flesh", unless the courts awarded some other form of compensation. Court's eventually concluded that monetary damages were the best way to avoid people killing eachother over simple injury and property damage disputes. California law requires that citizens refrain from injuring one another. People have a right not to be injured, and so does their property.

If you or someone you know was harmed or you, or someone you know had their property destroyed or damaged, the injury causing tortfeasor has committed a tort for which damages or injunctive relief may be awarded by a California Court. Tort liability comes about in many ways. (1) Intentional conduct, (2) Ordinary negligence.

Intentional conduct is just that. It is done on purpose with intent to injure and harm. This is also reckless, but one can be reckless without being intentional. In all events, this is how the injury and harm arises. Negligence happens when the injury causing torfeasor refuses, fails, or neglects to properly abide by the societal standard of care. When that happens, the injured victim is harmed an damages are the way we try and make the victim "whole" For example, if a tortfeasor becomes upset or angry and tosses a hammer in your home, breaks your windows out and the hammer impacts your face, you are now the victim of intentional conduct that could also be characterized as "negligence."

In fact, the district or city attorney may even want to file criminal charges for battery, assault, mayhem, breaking and entering, malicious mischief and so on and so on. The same goes for a car accident. If done purposefully, it would be intentional and even criminal.

There are other types of personal injury less appreciable at first glance. For example, tort law applies to "strict liability." Strict liability makes a person liable regardless of whether a person was negligent. For example a dangerous explosives factory. If there was an explosion, the factory is liable because explosives are inherently dangerous. Products liability has a similar tone as well. A product manufacturer is held responsible to make a product safe when used by an ordinary consumer for the particular purpose for which it was designed. If the product fails and causes an injury, the manufacturer and all in the chain of distribution may be held strictly liable. The victim has no duty to prove up intentional or negligence conduct. The only thing need be proved is that the defective product failed, and an injury happened.

When a person suffers a personal injury, the tort Defendant must pay money damages if found liable by a jury. "Damages" also covers any event where a duty is owed to compensate for a loss due to a tort injury. Damages can be decided pre-litigation by the parties to the lawsuit, and settled prior to trial. Usually these involve insurance settlements. Sometimes a personal injury victim won't want to settle unless he or she is fully compensated and will want to risk trial.

Often, the physical injury is so severe the personal injury victim will simply be unable to work. California personal injury laws help determine who is at fault. The at fault person is the "liable", party. The liable party will be responsible for paying for the personal injury damages caused by the liable party.

If you or a loved one has suffered a personal injury in Santa Monica, you must: (1) Get medical help immediately. Don't wait, or a crafty defense attorney will argue your not really hurt later on; (2) Call the police; (3) Call your insurance company if you feel it may be a covered event; (4) Contact the Law Offices of Michael P. Ehline for a free consultation. (5) Don't give recorded statements to yoru adversary, or your own insurance company unless you have spoken to an attorney first [Don't ruin your case]; (6) Refuse to discuss your case with anyone other than your lawyer. (7) Do cooperate with police and your own treating physicians, and your own insurance company [But make sure you have an attorney if you feel you are being investigated for illegal activity and never volunteer incriminating information] - always ask to have your attorney present before cooperating.

In California, most personal injury cases involve a 2 year statute of limitations. In other words, a personal injury victim only has a statutory time frame to file a civil complaint for damages and jury trial.

If you or a loved one has been injured in Santa Monica, or are simply in need of legal counsel, you need to contact the Law Offices of Michael P. Ehline, P.C., at (310) 593-4871 or simply e-mail us at the contact address provided in the explorer bars above for a free initial consultation. Usually assuming we take your case, it will be on a contingency fee basis. This means no recovery, no fee. Don't let the statute of limitations expire while trying to negotiate with the insurance company. That's what they want. No insurance company wants to pay. Insurance companies are not your friend. You are only a number to them. A claim number. Insurance companies treat many cases as if they are simply fraud. They often appear to do that to avoid paying, not because it is really appears to be insurance fraud. Don't let the insurance company play games with you. Insurance companies can commit fraud to. Personal Injury attorneys in Santa Monica at Ehline won't stand for it! Ehline will try and get you paid and fight the wicked insurance company and its highly paid team of professionals.

Injury and Accident Statistics In Santa Monica

Santa Monica Recent Market Mayhem

The Federal Highway Administration Statistics:

6,000 pedestrians are killed every year.

90,000 pedestrians are suffer personal injury every year.

A pedestrian or bicyclist is killed every 3 1/2 minutes in an accident.

Pedestrian injuries and fatalities from accidents result in $20 billion in societal costs
(See Santa Monica Pedestrian Bike Article.)

Crimes in Santa Monica Can Also be a Cause of Santa Monica Personal Injuries and Santa Monica Accidents

It is possible for a tort to be a crime and crime to be a tort. For example, if someone punches you in the face without your consent, this could be a criminal battery, as well as a civil battery and also personal injury. The criminal battery gets the wrongdoer a criminal record if convicted, or a People v. West type plea bargain is entered into. The civil battery gets the injury victim a civil money judgment if the wrongdoer is found liable. Obviously, as great as it is, Santa Monica is no stranger to crime and personal injury. (Read More.)

Recently, 5 people were shot at the Santa Monica Pier due to street gangs. (click here.)

Having a family member slain in Santa Monica, would be both a crime and a personal injury tort. The crime would be murder, and the personal injury tort, a wrongful death personal injury.

You or your family may be entitled to recover money damages for a wrongful death personal injury slaying. Recently, for example O.J. Simpson, was convicted by a civil jury for killing his ex-wife in Brentwood, under the personal injury tort of wrongful death. As it will be recalled, O.J. Simpson was found not guilty for the murder of his wife and that of another man, by a California criminal jury.

Most of the evidence excluded by Judge Ito at the California criminal trial, was allowed into evidence at the civil case against O.J. Simpson. Apparently, a civil jury, with all of the evidence before them, felt O.J. was liable for the wrongful death of his ex-wife in Brentwood.

Therefore, it is entirely possible that you or your family could win a civil judgment, even if the wrongdoer is found not guilty. After all, being "innocent" and "not guilty" are as different as apples from oranges.

Santa Monica Courts Recognized as Fair and Balanced by Ehline

Santa Monica Superior Court is famous for its terrific judges and fair play to all parties to any civil or criminal litigation. Santa Monica Superior Court has great juries who are well instructed by the Santa Monica Superior Court judges to follow the law.

The Santa Monica jury pool is taken from a vast cross section of the Lo Angeles County population.

Sometimes the parties to a civil litigation will request a trial by judge. The client will usually waive this right to jury, if the case involves complex issues that a Santa Monica judge will more likely understand. Trial by judge also saves an enormous amount of judicial time and resources, such as using up valuable jurors.

Santa Monica Superior Court judges will most probably appreciate it when a party to a civil litigation waives its right to a jury and go with the judge trial. Obviously, trial by judge will also cut down on attorney time, which means less attorney costs, and attorney's fees passed on to the injured victim.

The Constitution provides that in "a civil cause," any waiver of the inviolate right to a jury determination must occur by the consent of the parties to the cause if provided by statute.

Of course, in most injury cases, the defendant has insurance. For example, the automobile case. Let's say the victim is injured in a rear end car accident in Santa Monica. This means the case will more than likely be filed in Santa Monica if it doesn't settle first.

Minimum California Liability Insurance Requirements and the Underinsured Motorist

California law requires that each party have an insurance policy of no less that $15,000.00 per person, per occurrence, and maximum of $30,000.00 for all persons, per occurrence.
What this means is, if the person (wrongdoer) who hit the injured victim only has the minimum amount of liability insurance, and the injured victim has $15,000.00 in medical bills, he is limited to $15,000.00 total recovery against the insurance policy of the defendant. This is known as the underinsured fact pattern.

The California Uninsured Motorist

The California uninsured motorist is a person who is driving around in violation of California law. The Santa Monica Police will not be happy with someone driving around their city with no insurance. Presumably, this because uninsured motorists are a major cause of serious injury accidents. (See educational Berkeley Report.)

If an injured victim is hit in a car wreck by a wrongdoer with no insurance, the injured victim will have to sue the uninsured wrongdoer, with no insurance money to pay for any potential judgment. This can preempt the wrongdoer to file for bankruptcy protection. Since judgment creditors stand at the back of the line behind secured debts, the chances are slim that the injured victim will recover anything.

Q: How Do I Protect Myself Against Uninsured and Underinsured Motorists In Santa Monica?

In truth, there are many people illegally in the country and driving without any insurance, or who can only afford minimum insurance protections. With the enormous tax burden the average citizen faces, this is no real wonder.

A: Purchase Additional Insurance Protection

So there is no real way to protect yourself completely from an uninsured or underinsured motorist. But the smart consumer, no matter what his income, should not even go out on the road unless he purchases additional uninsured and underinsured insurance protection. That way, at least the consumer is covered with some protection.

Q: But What if I Need More Insurance Protection in Santa Monica?

What if an insured consumer is riding around and gets in a rear ender, and has the following injuries?: broken back, broken hip requiring hip replacement, neck injury requiring disc fusion surgery? That would be upwards of $1,000,000.00 in medical bills alone. How could a person be protected?

A: Purchase More Coverage Amounts

A smart consumer will purchase additional insurance protection. Believe it or not, purchasing more protection does not cost that much more and it is well worth it.Other Pitfalls of Not Having Santa Monica California Car Liability Insurance - The Prop. 213 Case

Under Proposition 213, an uninsured injured car accident victim may not recover pain and suffering damages if he is injured by a wrongdoer in a car accident. Pain and suffering damages are usually a major part of the damages recoverable to an injured victim in a Santa Monica car accident.

Q: But How Are People Getting Their Cars Registered, if Insurance Is Required for Vehicle Registration?

The State of California Department of Motor Vehicles requires a vehicle owner or titleholder to purchase liability insurance before a car can be registered in the State of California.
(Read More DMV Public Brochures.)

A: The Uninsured Motorists Purchase Insurance Coverage, and Stop Paying

In addition to document fraud, many people purchase insurance from a place like Survival Insurance for example. Great, now they take that proof to the DMV in Santa Monica, for example, and get the car registered in Santa Monica. Then, the wrongdoer will immediately go back to the Santa Monica insurance broker, cancel and get a refund. Or, the wrongdoer won�t stay current on insurance payments and the insurance coverage will lapse.

Voila, no insurance in Santa Monica, and a registered car.

Other Insurance Issues

There are other instances where an injury victim in Santa Monica may be bitten by a dog, or injured outside the home, or slips and falls, etc., while not in a car. In these cases, there may be homeowner�s insurance protection, or med-pay coverage from a third party wrongdoer. But getting a good Santa Monica personal injury attorney is key to finding out how to proceed in your personal injury case.

The Law Offices of Michael P. Ehlne, A Professional Corporation, is dedicated to investigating your personal injury claim, and finding insurance coverages available to protect the injured victim. To see if you or an injured friend or family member has a Santa Monica personal injury claim, contact the Law Offices of Michael P. Ehlne, A Professional Corporation immediately.

The injured victim in Santa Monica should strike while the iron is hot. While memories are fresh, investigation should begin. Defendants need to be tracked down and even skip traced. Ehline makes it happen. Do or die, Ehline is the Santa Monica personal injury attorney for you.

Rent Control in Santa Monica
Much to the chagrin of property owners, Santa Monica has long been know for oppressive rent control laws. These rent control laws are heavily supported by leftist/communist political organizations. What this means is, a property owner can be forced to subsidize a renter, because rent cannot be increased, even though the costs of maintenance and mortgage costs the property owner mega bucks.

The upside is that the renter can live in some of the greatest real estate there is on the planet, for cheaper than its fair market value. Due to the adversarial rent control laws create by Santa Monica politicians, there often arise many landlord tenant disputes in Santa Monica. Many of the landlord tenant cases have to do with retaliatory eviction under Civil Code Section 1942.5.

Usually, a tenant will complain to the City of Santa Monica, the landlord, or someone else like the press, about habitability problems, and the landlord, already overextended, cannot pay. Sometimes the landlord will get desperate and simply evict the tenant. The problem is that in some cases, there is a rebut-able presumption that the landlord evicted the tenant to retaliate for a tenant�s complaining about the premises.

Ehline represents tenants and landlords in Santa Monica, in landlord tenant disputes. Sometimes a landlord tenant dispute will get out of hand, and the landlord, or tenant may get into a fist fight, or worst. There are known cases of knife attacks and shoot outs in landlord tenant disputes.

If you have been injured in a landlord tenant dispute in Santa Monica, you may be entitled to recover money damages for your injuries. At the Law Offices of Michael P. Ehline, A Professional Corporation, we will act as your shield and as you sword, to make sure you recover for your injuries flowing out of a landlord tenant dispute. If you have been injured in a landlord tenant attack, contact the Law Offices of Michael P. Ehline now, and strike while the iron is hot.

Elder and Dependent Adult Abuse in Santa Monica

If you or a loved one are under the care of a care provider and our injured, you may have a Santa Monica Elder Abuse claim. Ehline learned Elder Abuse Law from Mark B. Hankin, drafter of EADACPA. At the Law Offices of Michael P. Ehline, P.C., we will fight for you against increasingly hostile insurance companies and attorneys. We will go the extra mile and help you recover damages for your Santa Monica Personal Injuries.