Wrongful death is defined as the death of a person as a direct result of the actions or negligence of another person or company. The person or persons seeking claims are the spouses, siblings, parents or other members of the decedent’s family usually because of the loss of a significant amount of money because of the death. Wrongful death attorneys can help sort out the legal questions and concerns involving the claims against corporations or companies and individuals.

When one has experienced the loss of a loved one due to negligence by someone else, there are some common factors involved with this type of claim, such as the loss of income, the grief of the surviving family members, mental anguish, medical bills and the list goes on. If the deceased was the breadwinner of the family, with the passing of that loved ones can leave devastating ramifications for the surviving family members.

There are several ways a wrongful death can occur, however the most common and maybe the most surprising is by medical malpractice. Thousands of people die each year due to medical malpractice, but most of them are never filed or goes unnoticed. Among the other causes of wrongful death claims are automobile accidents, negligence, workplace accident, defective products or fire.

For this type of law suit you will need an attorney who is experienced in these types of law suits. A wrongful death attorney will examine your case and determine if the person or persons you are making your claim against is actually at fault. The attorney’s job is to get you the compensation for the medical bills and the lost wages due to the death of your loved one. The payment of the attorney’s fees is percentage of the money you will win in your law suit. The money in no way makes up for the loss of a loved one, but it will help relieve you of the medical bills, which may have amassed due to their specific circumstances.

If you live in California and feel a family member’s death may have been the cause of someone else, contact a California accident attorney to help you sort out the legal jargon and your legal rights.

By: Laura Griffin

Are you looking for a way out of your current charges of drinking and driving? Do you want the help you need to get through this situation without the trouble you could be facing? There are many ways to go about getting your DUI dropped and one of them is to use one of the good DUI lawyers. Here is some helpful insight.

There are many things running through your head right now and you need to get rid of the stress you are experiencing and you will be able to sleep better at night. The help that getting a good lawyer can do for you is endless and this can help with the fear of jail time, license suspension, and the many other penalties you could face.

You need to get one of the good DUI lawyers however because if you get one that is not so great you could end up with a deal that is not as good as it could have been. Avoiding jail time is a good thing and having a lawyer that knows how to work the system can help quite a bit. This can be something great for you and getting one of the good DUI lawyers is the way to go.

You could spend a lot of time in jail, lose your job, lose your good reputation, lose your family, have your license suspended, and end up broke because of a DUI, but it does not have to be this way. You can get out of your DUI or at least get some of the charges lessened so that you can avoid jail time and a long license suspension.

By: Tom Macinaw

So you were coming home from the wedding a little late at night and you had decided to toast the bride and groom one too many times….. You were stopped, the officer started the process and DUI education, here you come at full speed. Each DUI in the Bay Area, California triggers two separate and totally different types of cases.

The first case is the most well known because it involves the great big chamber and the big robe and gavel. Yes, I mean the Court Process or Criminal Court Proceedings. This involves any evidence collected at the time of arrest among other things. The second charges brought against someone once arrested for drinking and driving involve the Department of Motor Vehicles and an administrative per se or APS case.

In California vehicle code 13558, 14100 and 14103, time limits were set on how many days until contact must be made with the DMV after arrest. Due to these time limits, when an attorney takes a new DUI case in the Bay Area, they must contact the DMV within the first 10 days of arrest and request an APS hearing. A very important step and one that sadly enough sometimes forgotten or overlooked during the drama on a DMV arrest.

This step is critical for the Attorney or person charged to be completed in a timely manner and affects whether or not the arrested individual will be able to keeo his/her license in the ling run. When calling a criminal defense attorney about drunken driving charges, most of the time, one of the first questions asked after, when were you arrested, is have you filed paperwork with the DMV to request a DMV hearing?

DUI’ s in the Bay Area in California are growing, almost on a monthly basis since the new laws lowered the legal limit to 0.08%. The drunken driving arrests affects poor people more than the rich. Even though the public defenders office and system will help the poor in court and during the criminal part of the proceedings, the arrestees are completely on their own when it comes to the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Most of the low income clients that you will find in a defense attorney’s office are looking for a lawyer simply for the DMV hearing and nothing else. They are worried about their license and of course the status of transportation when it comes to getting to their jobs, families and shopping.

Anyone who forgoes the DMV hearing automatically loses the right to drive in California and any rights and defenses that existed are waived by the person arrested. If in the Bay Area at the time of arrest, and you have a CA drivers license, it is suspended for at least 4 months (or one year upon first offense refusal of chemical test). Having a commercial drivers license has steeper penalties for the arrestee.

Most people simply don’t understand their rights once arrested and released and end up waiving all of their rights at the APS DMV Hearing. Not obtaining the proper defense attorney quickly after arrest can lead to several problems in the end, not the least of which losing your drivers license. Your lawyer should file that paperwork for you and make sure to make the 10 day limit and get the DMV their request in a timely manner.

Looming foremost on most arrestees minds once they have been charged with a DUI is normally, what will happen to my drivers license? Hopefully once arrested, they have the state of mind needed to obtain the proper lawyer and get the paperwork filed with the DMV in time to keep the worry to a minimum.

By: Amy Pedersen