Louisiana Injury Lawyers Blog

April 7, 2016

New Orleans, Mardi Gras, Beads… and Injuries

Another Mardi Gras has just come and gone. Hundreds of thousands of revelers descended on New Orleans to partake of the pageantry and festivity. Mardi Gras inevitably comes with some risk of injury. Certainly, there are things that the government, the krewes, and the revelers themselves can do to keep everyone safe, but injuries sometimes happen anyway. With that in mind, a Louisiana Court of Appeal decision from last spring offers some helpful insight into what the law can (and cannot) do for you if you’ve been injured during Mardi Gras.

The spectator in the case was Rose Ann Citron, who sued the Krewe of Endymion for injuries she suffered at the 2012 Endymion Extravaganza. (The extravaganza is an invitation-only continuation of the Endymion Parade that usually is held inside the Superdome.) The krewe throws beads to spectators below during both the parade and the subsequent extravaganza. Citron, whose husband was aboard an Endymion float, was struck in the head by a bag of beads. The impact knocked her unconscious. She suffered a concussion along with injuries to her eyes, nose, and mouth.

April 4, 2016

Mother’s Evidence Not Enough to Secure Damages Award for Children in Jefferson Parish Crash Case

by Cardone Law Firm

A woman whose vehicle was sideswiped obtained a judgment and damages award for herself but not her children in a recent case decided by a District Court in Jefferson Parish. That ruling was affirmed by the Louisiana Court of Appeal. Despite testimony from the children and their chiropractor, the appeals court nevertheless determined that the trial court’s decision was not so unreasonable as to require reversal.

The crash occurred on Williams Boulevard in Jefferson Parish. A vehicle driven by Joel Hashim moved from the left lane to the center lane of the road and, in the process, struck the vehicle driven by Regina Tezeno, who was already traveling in the center lane. The total damage amounted to one lost headlight and scraped paint. Tezeno sued Hashim and his auto insurer for personal injuries on behalf of herself and her two children. At a trial without a jury, the judge heard evidence and found Hashim 100% at fault. The judge awarded Tezeno $5,535 in damages. The children recovered nothing.

February 3, 2016

Private Citizens Making DWI Traffic Stops in Louisiana

by Cardone Law Firm

While it may not be common, there are certain circumstances when Louisiana law allows a private citizen to stop another citizen for a suspected violation of the law. In a decision from last fall, the Louisiana Court of Appeal concluded that this aspect of the law made the stop of a suspected drunk driver legal, even though the citizen who made the stop was an employee of a fire department who used his vehicle’s emergency lights to make the stop and used physical force to restrain the driver at the scene.

Read more about DUI/DWI law.

At first, most of the facts of the case may sound fairly ordinary. Detective Darryl Sanders was driving his marked SUV early on June 18, 2011, when he spotted a white Ford Ranger proceeding in an erratic fashion north of Baton Rouge. Sanders turned on his lights and pulled the vehicle over. The driver, Michael Pratt, exhibited slurred speech and was belligerent toward Sanders. Sanders used physical force to restrain Pratt. Deputy Scott Courrege also responded and administered field sobriety tests, which the driver failed. Pratt refused a chemical breathlyzer test and ultimately was arrested for DWI.

January 28, 2016

Timeliness of Payment from Insurance Companies in Your Louisiana Auto Accident Case

by Cardone Law Firm

Insurance companies sometimes seek out ways to deny a claim even if the person making the claim is entitled to be paid. Sometimes, even when they pay, insurance companies delay an excessively long time in doing so. Such an excessive delay was the basis of an Ascension Parish man’s lawsuit against his auto insurer. The man lost his case, though, after a trial court and the Louisiana Court of Appeal decided that the insurance company’s payment was made in a timely manner, even though the man’s lawyer did not receive the insurance company’s check until three days after the deadline imposed by the Louisiana Statutes.

The case arose from a 2010 auto accident involving Beau Schexnaildre and Nathan Spicer. Spicer was at fault, and the two sides eventually settled Schexnaildre’s claim through Spicer’s insurance. After that resolution, Schexnaildre also sought payment from his own insurance company, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., under the terms of his underinsured motorist coverage. Thirty-three days after Schexnaildre made his claim, his lawyer received a check from State Farm for $25,000, the limit of the man’s underinsured motorist coverage.

January 22, 2016

Pursuing a Premises Liability Case Against a Public Entity in Louisiana

by Cardone Law Firm

A man who seriously injured his ankle when he was walking across a grassy lawn was unable to recover damages for the injuries he suffered. He lost because the owner of property was a public entity, and, according to the law of premises liability as applied to public entities, the hole did not represent an “unreasonable risk of harm.” The ruling by the Louisiana Court of Appeal highlights the differences that can exist in pursuing a premises liability case against a public entity as opposed to a private one.

The injured man in this case, Marcushawn Smith, was walking across a piece of property that was owned by the City of Ville Platte’s Housing Authority. The property contained a grassy lawn and also some sidewalks around the lawn. Smith bypassed the sidewalks and chose to walk through the grassy area when he stepped into a hole that was 4-5 inches deep and 6 inches wide. Smith fell and seriously injured his ankle in the incident. The man sued the housing authority for premises liability, specifically for failing to maintain the grassy area in a proper and safe manner. The housing authority asked the court to throw out the case, and the trial judge did so.

December 29, 2015

After-the-Fact Identification of Parking Lot Defect too ‘Speculative’ to Allow Louisiana Woman to Pursue Case Against Supermarket

by Cardone Law Firm

A woman who fell at a Shreveport supermarket was unable to identify exactly what caused her to fall and, as a result, was unable to proceed with her injury lawsuit against the store. Only after the woman’s husband returned to the store and photographed a crack in the store parking lot did the couple identify the cause of the accident. This was too speculative to constitute the necessary circumstantial evidence required to take the case to trial, the Louisiana Court of Appeal recently decided.

In the events leading up the injury, Yvonne and Aristide Ton had traveled to an Albertson’s store in Shreveport to do some grocery shopping. While walking across the parking lot, the wife fell, injuring her shoulder. No one saw the woman fall.

December 16, 2015

Louisiana Driver Waved into Intersection by Another Driver Held 100% Responsible for Wreck

by Cardone Law Firm

Most drivers have, at some point, found themselves in the position of sitting at a stop sign and needing to navigate a cross street with stopped traffic. Sometimes, there’s even a “helpful” driver who waves for you to proceed. A woman in that position lost her case before the Louisiana Court of Appeal recently because she did not exercise the required degree of caution before crossing an intersection. The decision highlights that an anonymous driver’s waving does not diminish the level of care that the law requires of drivers at stop signs.

The accident that led to the lawsuit occurred at an intersection of two city streets in Monroe. Betty Blount was driving on North 8th Street and was stuck at the intersection of 8th and Louisville Avenue. As a result of another accident, traffic on Louisville was stopped in the outer lane. After spending several minutes waiting at the intersection, both Blount and her passenger, Joseph Solomon, saw a driver in the outer westbound Louisville lanes wave them through. Blount entered the intersection and was struck by a different driver, Sarah Tugwell, who was in the inner westbound lane.

November 30, 2015

Refusing Chemical Blood-Alcohol Tests and Your Louisiana Driver’s License

by Cardone Law Firm

When you are arrested on suspicion of DWI, you may have the choice to submit to or refuse a chemical blood-alcohol test. If you choose to refuse, there may be certain consequences that go with refusing, such as the suspension of your driver’s license for a year. However, in some cases, you may be entitled to an immediate reinstatement of your license, as opposed to waiting for a year to pass. One driver arrested in Ascension Parish was entitled to such an immediate reinstatement, according to the Louisiana Court of Appeal, since the state failed to show that he had been previously arrested for DWI within the last 10 years.

The driver who contested his license suspension was Jay Veasman, whom law enforcement officers arrested for DWI in April 2013. Veasman was informed of his rights and elected to refuse a chemical blood-alcohol test. The state suspended Veasman’s license, and an administrative law judge determined that the suspension was proper. A trial court judge, however, disagreed and reinstated the driver’s driving privileges.

The state Department of Public Safety appealed but lost. One aspect of the case that favored the driver was the plea deal he worked out in his criminal trial. Although he was originally charged with DWI, Veasman and the state agreed to an arrangement in which the state dropped the DWI charge, and the driver pled guilty to Careless Operation of a Motor Vehicle. Since the impaired driving-related charges were dismissed, the 2013 incident alone could not stand in the way of the man’s immediate license reinstatement.

November 12, 2015

Louisiana Man Recovers Cost of Medical Care for Bitten Nose in Road Rage Altercation

by Cardone Law Firm

Sometimes it is the auto or motorcycle accident you avoid that still leads to an injury. Two men whose vehicles narrowly missed each other on Highway 431 in Ascension Parish eventually ended up in a fistfight that left one man with a bitten nose and both men in court as a result of the bitten man’s injuries. Since the trial court had enough evidence to conclude that the biter was the aggressor, and not biting in self-defense, the Louisiana Court of Appeal upheld the lower court’s decision to award the bitten man past and future medical expenses.

Read more about motorcycle accidents.

The source of the incident began when Clifford Barr attempted to turn left from Louisiana Highway 431 into the parking lot of an auto service shop. At the same time, Ray Schexnayder was turning from the lot onto the highway in his truck. The two trucks narrowly avoided colliding, and both men stopped their vehicles in the roadway, and a verbal quarrel ensued.

October 29, 2015

Louisiana Supreme Court Permits Imposing Fees for Investigation, Prosecution Costs in DWI Cases

by Cardone Law Firm

In an important new ruling, the Louisiana Supreme Court decided that courts may impose cost-of-investigation and cost-of-prosecution fees on a driver guilty of DWI, even if those fees do not have a specific, direct connection to that driver’s case. The ruling, a reversal of a previous Louisiana Court of Appeal decision in favor of a driver, states that the Louisiana statutes give trial courts broad discretion in assessing such fees, as long as they are reasonable and not excessive.

The driver challenging the fees was Jesse Griffin II, whom law enforcement officers arrested in July 2011 for first-offense DWI. A little more than a year later, the driver pled guilty. He received a suspended jail sentence and probation, along with a fine. The fine was $600, plus a $100 “cost of investigation” fee, payable to the local sheriff’s office, and another $100 for the “cost of prosecution,” payable to the local District Attorney.

Read more about Louisiana DWI related law.