Law Offices of Michael Pines, APC:
Personal Injury Attorneys & Car Accident Lawyers
Serving San Diego, California Since 1992

You know the damage that car accidents and motorcycle accidents cause, but have you ever heard of an insurance accident?  As the raging debate over healthcare continues in the United States, you might become more familiar with that term in the near future.

A new study from the Harvard Medical School shows that uninsured injured persons had a 39% higher chance of experiencing a wrongful death following a major personal injury than a person who was both personally injured and insured. Read the full article →

Medical malpractice reform in the United States has always been a serious topic among the healthcare industry.

Large settlements are becoming more and more rare, however, because some states across the country now have a cap on medical malpractice settlements.  States like Texas have a $250,000 cap on medical malpractice settlements, which basically means if you are awarded a medical malpractice settlement, you are limited to getting $250,000 regardless of what the actual settlement is.

If you have personal injuries from medical negligence, would you think this is fair? Read the full article →

Over 14 million children’s injuries are reported every year in the United States.

Our personal injury lawyers know that no matter what causes your child’s injury, your biggest concern should be getting medical treatment as soon as possible.  With smaller bodies and a lower pain tolerance, children are prime targets for serious personal injury and even wrongful death.  Read the full article →

A jury in Los Angeles has ruled that Cedars-Sinai Medical Center must pay a medical malpractice settlement of $7.3 million.

According to the details of the case, the medical center was negligent when a baby wasn’t diagnosed and treated with meningitis, the inflammation of the membranes of the brain and spinal cord, quickly enough leading to brain damage. Read the full article →

People with personal injuries large and small will likely have to deal with medical bills.  Some medical bills are understandably higher than others — without a doubt, taping a sprained ankle costs a little bit less than neurosurgery.  As such, a new survey sponsored by America’s Health Insurance Plans was given to insurers to find out some of the highest bills of 2008.  Their findings add to the controversy about government health care which would help many pay medical bills.

Our firm’s experienced San Diego personal injury lawyers can sometimes help you get medical treatment for many injuries.  If you are in a car accident, for example, the amount of medical bills can be very high if head injuries or spinal cord injuries (i.e. paraplegia & quadriplegia) occur.
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While you can do your part to prevent a car accident from occurring, by practicing safe driving mechanisms, often times car accidents are out of your control. 

Whether you’re on your way to school, your grandma’s house, or to work, you’re probably getting there by riding in a car or a school bus.  The only difference is that in a bus usually seat belts are not present. Read the full article →

Insured patients typically make a small co-payment when they see a doctor, and later get billed for anything else they owe.  This is not the case anymore as more and more health-care providers are forcing patients to pay the entire medical bills at the time of service.

That could include paying amounts a patient owes toward their health plan’s deductible and a percentage of the cost of care under a co-insurance requirement.  Patients who are uninsured also are being asked for money upfront, or at least signed up for a payment plan. Read the full article →

The cost of medical bills for injury continues to rise, and there has been a movement by the government to change the way the country deals with health care.  In the meantime, a new industry looks to help people with high medical bills get them paid.

Medical billing advocates the are middlemen and women that help patients deal with paperwork and arguments frequently associated with paying back medical bills.  In general, they find errors in bills, negotiate with your insurer to appeal coverage denials or negotiate lower fees with care providers. Read the full article →

Rock legend Steven Tyler suffered head, neck and shoulder injuries after he slipped and fell from the stage at a South Dakota concert and was taken to a hospital to be treated. Read the full article →

Merck Co. has agreed to pay $80-million to settle personal injury lawsuits to 190 users of Vioxx who claimed the drug caused their heart attacks or strokes.

Merck withdrew Vioxx from the market in 2004 after a study showed it increased the risk of heart attack and stroke in long-term users of the medicine, but what about the millions of people who took Vioxx and suffered injuries as a result of the medication? Read the full article →

New allegations are emerging about the woman in the passenger seat the night actor Morgan Freeman was in a car crash on a rural Mississippi highway.  Freeman is saying that Demaris Meyer, the passenger, was partly to blame for the rollover car accident.

Meyer is currently suing the 71-year-old actor in a U.S. District Court in Oxford, Mississippi, for her medical bills, pain and suffering, lost wages, permanent disability and property damage. Read the full article →

With youth comes a sense of indestructibility — that Nothing or no one can get to you, not even injury or illness.  In fact, most young adults under 30 have never fought disease or physical disability. Read the full article →

During the summer, we all look back and remember the warm sun, swimming pools and summer vacation.  No one likes to remember the amount of pesty bugs, however.

In order to combat this problem many use bug spray or bug repellent; however, a shoreline community in Ohio is being sued over its strategy of turning off streetlights to fight mayflies — a swarming insect common along Lake Erie.  In the lawsuit, a family says a teenage jogger was struck by a car and severely injured two years ago because a car driver couldn’t see him in the darkness.  The family is holding the town responsible for his pedestrian accident injuries. Read the full article →

Arizona is making it harder to successfully sue emergency medical providers for alleged medical malpractice.  Arizona governor Jan Brewer on Friday signed into law a bill approved by the state Legislature to raise the legal burden of proof required to win legal medical malpractice lawsuits of negligent care.

While this is good news for health-care providers — as any negligence on their part that results in the personal injury or wrongful death of a patient is now harder for individuals to prove — for you the patient, this is devastating. Read the full article →

College sports are, for a lucky few, a gateway to a lucrative career in professional sports.  But for the majority of other student-athletes — who are not fortunate enough to pursue a career playing their respective sport — it is a great way to earn a scholarship for a free education.

Many times these same athletes suffer many personal injuries as result of their competitive play.   If their personal injuries are a result of playing a sport which the university brought them to play, the university would naturally cover all of the medical bills the athletes have, right? Read the full article →

Health insurance companies are denying treatment for some autistic children, but a consumer advocacy group has stepped in to try to stop it.  If that fails, how will these families find help paying back these high medical bills for their children’s necessary medical treatment?

Our personal injury lawyers often help our clients pay their medical bills.  On many occasions, our clients are injured in automobile accidents, and we help them by settling a personal injury claim with their auto accident insurance company.
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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning consumers of Singulair, a top-selling asthma drug, that the drug may cause psychiatric-related personal injury problems. Read the full article →

One of the biggest problems in America is the health care system.  There are people who are not insured because insurance costs too much and unemployment rates are rising, and there are people who have insurance, but medical bills are too high because medical costs are too much.

With Congress working on a health care renovation, many Americans are beginning to question the proposed legislation, speculating as to whether they might have to change their insurance or buy coverage if they don’t have it.  What does this health care change mean for your family and you? Read the full article →

Madison Sedbrook, a six-year old Colorado girl, was just like every other child at that age: full of happiness, life and energy.  But after consuming some raw Nestle cookie dough with her older sister, her demeanor changed drastically as she became pale, lethargic and began vomiting every 30 minutes. Read the full article →

General Motors Corp. has agreed to take on responsibility for future product liability claims.  This new announcement has come on the brink of GM’s bankruptcy which left many car drivers nervous as to whether or not they would get compensated if one of their GM cars had a design defect which resulted in a personal injury. Read the full article →

In lieu of General Motors selling their assets in the midst of bankruptcy, GM has agreed to take on many future products liability lawsuits for those individuals who suffered a personal injury or even wrongful death as a result of a design defect.

The Detroit-based automobile company amended the sale agreement to clarify that it will take on some tax and workers’ compensation claims, maintain utility service to plants being left behind and accept future product liability and “lemon law” lawsuits.  The new company will take on products liability lawsuits of any car accident that happens ater the sale. Read the full article →

The Nestle plant at the center of a federal probe into an E. coli outbreak involving a cookie dough products liability refused to give inspectors access to pest-control records, environmental-testing programs and other information.

Our San Diego firm’s personal injury attorneys believe that if a loved one or you suffer a personal injury due to a products liability such as cookie dough, the maker of that product should be held accountable for any pain and suffering you endure.  We confront cases frequently when companies fail to manufacture products that are safe to use by consumers. Read the full article →

On Dec. 23, 2004, Nicholas Anderson was driving home when one of his tires caught on a six-inch lip on the roadside and he lost control of his car.  The car crashed into a guardrail, which crushed the vehicle, severing Anderson’s left leg and nearly severing his left arm.  He was 18. Read the full article →

A Wisconsin court has revived an elderly woman’s lawsuit accusing a St. Croix Falls surgeon of medical malpractice and negligence in her hip surgery.

As a society, we put a lot of trust into trained health-care professionals to cure us when we are unhealthy.  We put our faith in doctors when something is not right with our bodies. Read the full article →