PENNSYLVANIA DOG LAW

Every year nearly 5 million people are bitten by dogs, and close to half of those victims are children.  1 in 5 people that are victims of dog bites require medical attention, which equates to about 900,000 Americans that received medical attention for dog bites in the past year. 

In 2012, dog bites accounted for approximately one third of settlements of all homeowner’s insurance liability claims.  Pennsylvania ranked fifth in states with the most dog bite insurance claims. 

Pennsylvania law does not impose absolute liability on an owner for dog attacks, not even in respect to a dog having vicious tendencies of which the owner is aware.  The plaintiff will need to prove negligence in order for the defendant to be found accountable for any injuries sustained because of a dog bite.  In order to prove a dog bite case, historically the claimant had to prove that the dog had bitten at least once in the past.  However, the law in Pennsylvania now is the following:  If a dog has any vicious propensities, regardless of whether it has bitten in the past, the dog’s actual bite upon you can serve as the standard for determining whether the owner was negligent.

Liability for a dog attack may even fall to a landlord.  A landlord may be held liable for injuries by animals owned and maintained by a tenant when the landlord has knowledge of the presence of the dangerous animal and where he or she has the right to control or remove the animal by retaking possession of the premises. 

            Your claim for damages based on your injuries or disfigurement will be based on a theory of negligence, and will be very complex.  You need an attorney that has experience in handling the difficulties of these types of claims.   We will review the facts and analyze the law to provide you with a thorough evaluation of your claims. 

If you or a loved one suffered an injury or disfigurement from a dog bite, please do not hesitate to contact the law office of Attorney Douglas V. Stoehr.  Attorney Doug Stoehr and Attorney Aaron Ling have experience in handling dog bite cases, and will thoroughly evaluate your claim.   Call us today at (814) 946-4100 for a free initial consultation.  

TORT REFORM FACT VS. FICTION PART 1

Fiction:  People are filing frivolous lawsuits that clog our justice system and take advantage of the courts.   

Fact:      The Rand Institute for Civil Justice has found that only 10 percent of injured people seek compensation and only 2 percent of them file lawsuits.  Also, since 1991, tort cases reflected only six percent of all cases filed.   Big business, corporations and insurance companies have framed several legitimate lawsuits as frivolous by selectively discussing facts or falsely reporting them entirely. (Please see our blog concerning the McDonald’s Hot Coffee Case).  Additional interesting facts are:

                1.  Personal injury lawsuits have decreased by 21 percent. 

                2.  There has been a 52 percent decrease in personal injury jury trials from 1992 to 2005.  

Fiction:  Our tort system threatens business owners and job creators with frivolous lawsuits that will drive them out of our state. 

Fact:      Corporations and small business have repeatedly admitted that fear of litigation is not a high motivator for them.  The Economic Policy Institute has found that “there is no historical correlation between the inflated estimates of the costs of the tort system and corporate profits, product quality, productivity, or research and development spending.”  In 2008, a small business lobbying group, surveyed its members asking them to rate their problems and priorities.   Out of 75 issues surveyed, “Cost and Frequency of Lawsuits/Threatened Lawsuits ranked 65^th.  To give this some perspective, the 64^th issue that concerned businesses and corporations was solid and hazardous waste disposal. 

Fiction:  Medical malpractice lawsuits are driving up healthcare costs for everyone.

 

Fact:      Medical negligence compensation accounts for only 0.3 percent of national healthcare costs.  According to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, the total amount spent defending medical malpractice claims and compensating victims is $7.1 billion annually – just 0.3 percent of America’s $2.2 trillion in overall healthcare spending. 

Please stay tuned for part 2. 

If you are injured, don’t be bullied into thinking that you shouldn’t file a lawsuit.  Allow Attorney Douglas V. Stoehr or Attorney Aaron Ling to evaluate the facts and circumstances surrounding your case to determine if a valid claim exists.  Call us at (814) 946-4100.  

Winter Sports Injuries

Being from Western Pennsylvania it’s hard not to enjoy the fall, but with the changing of the seasons we know that winter is right around the corner.  For many of us this winter will include a trip to one of the three ski resorts that serve our area.  Ski resorts can be a great place to cut loose with family and friends, but unfortunately sometimes those fun times end prematurely when you or a family member is injured.  At the law firm of Attorney Douglas V.Stoehr, we have experience in handling injuries related to skiing, snowboarding and snow tubing accidents.  Sometimes these injuries can be very serious and life altering.  If you have been injured in a winter sport activity please contact us to discuss the possibility of a personal injury claim. 

The most common causes of skiing and snowboarding injuries include:

·         Collisions with other skiers or snowboarders

·         Falls or collision with objects such as trees, fences, barriers or signs

·         Chair lift or tow line accidents

·         Accidents due to inadequate instruction from a skiing or snowboarding instructor, and

·         Accidents due to skiing or snowboarding equipment failure. 

Your personal injury lawsuit will be based on the legal theory of negligence, and can be quite complex.  Furthermore, there is a Pennsylvania Statute that generally affords a defense to these types of claims.  Therefore, if you get hurt a ski resort, contact us.  We will investigate the facts and analyze the law, and will give you an opinion as to whether you have a claim.

See our website, or contact Attorney Stoehr or Attorney Ling at (814) 946-4100.  

Attorney Stoehr and Dog Bites

Recently, Pit Bulls have been receiving a lot of negative attention due to the perceived danger of the breed.  Whether you agree or disagree with this danger, the truth of the matter is that any type of dog breed can be harmful under the wrong circumstances. 

If you or a loved one have been attacked or bitten by a dog, you as a victim have rights. Many people do not know their rights and therefore fail to go after the compensation they deserve.  Dog bite laws can be confusing and may vary from state to state. Here is what you need to know about dog bite laws in Pennsylvania:

1.) Legal liability must be proven in order to receive compensation from an attack.  This means that a victim must prove that the dog owner was being negligent in order for the owner to be held responsible for the attack.
2.) Landlords may be held liable for injuries by a dog their tenant owns/takes care of if he/she is aware that the dog is a danger and fails to take action to remove the pet from the premise.
3.) If a dog is deemed "dangerous" different laws and penalties may apply. A dangerous dog is one that has a previous record of attack or has attacked without provocation or both. 

Attorney Doug Stoehr is a personal injury lawyer serving Blair and the seven surrounding counties in central Pennsylvania.  He takes cases for victims of dog bites and other types of animal attacks. For more information on his Altoona, PA area firm, please call his office at 814-946-4100 or visit his website at http://www.stoehrlaw.com.

PA Teenage Drivers Safer

Teen drivers in Pennsylvania seem to be driving more safely in recent years, according to the Radnor Patch and AAA.com.  AAA, Mid-Atlantic region, recently reported that the driving deaths of early teenage drivers has decrease in Pennsylvania.  This is opposite of the national trend, which saw an increase of 19% in early teenage driving deaths.

Taking data from the first half of 2012, six teenage drivers between the ages of 16-17 died in automobile accidents.  This is a decrease of 4 from the same six months of 2011.  Nationally, the death toll in this age range between the first six months of 2011 to 2012 increased from 202 to 240.

Some AAA representatives feel that the decreased driving deaths for Pennsylvania teens is due to the recent legislation that tightened up teenage driving rules in PA.  It is also important to recognize the parent's role in keeping teenage drivers safe as well. Teaching teens proper road safety and etiquette is the first step to avoiding a potentially fatal accident. 

Others are concerned that the improving economy will lead more teens to travel longer distances in cars, either for work or pleasure, which could potentially lead to more automobile accidents.  Either way, at the moment, Pennsylvania teens are proving to the state that they can be safe and responsible on the road.

For more information about automobile accidents and their related personal injury claims, please visit Altoona area personal injury lawyer Doug Stoehr's website at http://www.stoehrlaw.com. You can also call his law firm at 814-946-4100.

Social Media Insurance Policies?

Great Britain is now offering insurance exclusively for social media-related activities.  We can only assume that the United States will also such a service in the coming years. Social media can be very important in helping or hurting a personal injury claim. It is important to monitor what you post on websites such as Twitter or Facebook in order to avoid compromising the validity of your claim. Attorney Doug Stoehr recommends the following thought process when posting online: if you don't want the entire world to see what you're posting, don't post it. Your social media updates are not as private as you might think and may be brought up as evidence in a courtroom. For more information on his law practice, please click here.

More information about Great Britain insurance companies' new social media coverage may be found by reading below. 

The following article was originally run by the Insurance Business Review's online website, IRB.com, on 9/17/2012.  The original article may be read below or can be accessed by clicking this link.

ALLOW, the information privacy company, has implemented the UK’s first social media insurance for consumers, with a strategy to deal with the impact of reputational damage, account jacking and all other forms of ID theft.

Under the insurance cover, all the subscribers of ALLOW will get payment for legal advice and expert support in the event of a claim.
According to the service provider, the support includes legal assistance to help from online search experts to locate and remove, or bury, offending material.
This process of burying content, or 'reverse SEO', would normally cost thousands of pounds and is not generally available to the average consumer, ALLOW said.
ALLOW CEO Justin Basini said there were cases of hacking, account hijacking and reputational damage emerging all the time.
"Anyone that has suffered as a result of having their identity stolen or a third party taking over their accounts will know that this can be a distressing and arduous process to put right. We've got the solution," Basini added.
The company said the insured amount is £10,000 in professional fees and supplementary costs for any one incident in respect of identity theft or account jacking, or £3,500 in respect of any reputational damage sustained.
ALLOW's insurance supported protection for its members forms an integral part of the ALLOW Protect service, which costs £3.99 per month.
ALLOW Protect assists people with Facebook privacy, data protection, cutting down spam/ junk mail, blocking online tracking, and guarding against ID fraud by monitoring their personal data.

Pool Slide Leads To Serious Neck Injuries

Companies often create products, such as cooking tools, toys, and medical devices that are later recalled due to resulting safety hazards associated with using that product.  Unfortunately, before these products are recalled, serious injury or death of multiple consumers often occurs. We often hear about these recalls through the nightly news or via e-mail alerts, but sometimes it is too late.

Recently, a young mother died in a pool accident relating to using a inflatable pool slide that was later recalled.  According to an online news report by Care2.com,  a young woman died after breaking her neck going down a Banzai brand inflatable water slide which had been placed over the concrete edge of a pool. Since the slide had partially deflated, the woman hit her head at the bottom of the slide and later died. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recommended a recall of over 20,000 of the slides, because "during use, the slide can deflate, allowing the user to hit the ground underneath the slide and become injured. The slide is also unstable and can topple over in both still and windy conditions and carries inadequate warnings and instructions."  The slide was sold most commonly in Toys-R-Us and Walmart stores. Similar reports of injury due to this slide deflating also came from users in Pennsylvania and Missouri, whose accidents resulted in quadriplegia and a broken neck, respectively.



Serious brain and spinal cord injuries are devastating and life-changing.  If you have been injured due to the fault of another and now have long-lasting spinal cord or brain damage, it may be time to consult with an attorney.  Attorney Doug Stoehr is a personal injury lawyer practicing in western and central Pennsylvania. For more information on his firm, please click here.

Infection Rates Decreasing In PA Nursing Homes

According to a recent report from the Patient Safety Authority, the rates of infection in Pennsylvania nursing homes have gone down in the past few years.  This is the direct result of a program which targeted healthcare-acquired infections (HAIs).  Data taken from 2010 reported declining infection rates in a variety of long-term care facilities (such as dementia care facilities, nursing and mixed units, short-term rehab units, and ventilator-dependent units).  Nursing homes also reported a decline in the number of urinary tract infections (UTIs) between 14-15% in both catheter and non-catheter using residents.  Additionally, there was also over 15% fewer skin and soft-tissue infections (such as bed sores) compared to earlier data.   As stated in the news article, "under the Pennsylvania program, the Patient Safety Authority assigns each liaison between 65 and 100 healthcare facilities, which they can visit regularly and provide infection prevention resources. Since working with liaisons, many nursing homes have implemented mandatory vaccination programs, which have helped lower infection rates."

The movement to consciously monitor and control infections in nursing home and similar facilities is an excellent step that Pennsylvania healthcare leaders are taking.  Hopefully these statistics will continue to improve and positively affect the experience that many nursing home residents might have.  Attorney Doug Stoehr is a personal injury attorney specializing in automobile accidents and nursing home abuse/negligence.  For more information on him and his law firm, please click here.

Chronic Pain: America's Hidden Epidemic

Followers of this blog are familiar with the idea of chronic pain being much more common than you might initially think.  However, you might not realize just how many Americans suffer from chronic pain without taking a look at recent statistics and surveys.


 According to a recent Gallup-Healthways poll:

• about 1 in 2 Americans suffer from some type of chronic pain.
• 31% of American adults report chronic back/neck pain
• 26% report a leg/knee condition, and 18% have another type of chronic pain.
• 47% report 1 or 2 types of the pain listed above 
• 7% report experiencing all three types of the pain listed above.

When the numbers from the survey were broken down further, it was reported that one in five people between their 40s and 80s experienced recurring pain. Interestingly, reports of chronic pain increased between ages 18 and 59 (from 16% to 37%), but those chronic pain reports stopped increasing once people turned 60. 

These data suggest that the occurrence of chronic pain among the nation's adult population is much higher than most people realize.  Chronic pain is also often caused by a traumatic injury, such as ones that result from a car crash or slip-and-fall.  If you have pain that persists more than 6 months, it is often considered chronic and may require a lifetime of medical care and expenses.  In those situations, it may be prudent to consult with an attorney if you have chronic pain that has resulted from an injury due to the fault of another. 

For more information on Attorney Doug Stoehr and his central Pennsylvania personal injury practice, please visit his website or call him at 814-946-4100.