Lake Charles Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

Imagine a loved one boarding a train, plane or car and heading out for a trip. If something happened and the family member tragically died, what would you do? Many Louisiana families would be rightfully upset, wondering what caused the accident. While it is certainly necessary to grieve, a family who has experienced a fatal accident may also find it important to file a wrongful death lawsuit to hold someone responsible for a loved one's death.

Recently, a Louisiana man lost his life after the Robinson R44 Helicopter he was riding in crashed in southern Louisiana. The helicopter had left the Houma-Terrebonne airport approximately one hour before it inexplicably crashed, but the Federal Aviation Administration and Coast Guard are investigating the accident.

When you are riding in a car with a friend, do you worry about how safely that friend is driving? For many people in Louisiana, it does not even cross their mind that if their friend crashes his or her car, they may find themselves suing their friend for careless driving. In some of the most tragic cases, however, the surviving family members may be the ones to sue the negligent driver if their relative dies in the car accident.

In this story, the relatives of a 19-year-old Lake Charles man may be considering a wrongful death lawsuit after the young man was tragically killed in a car accident. He had been riding in his friend's car along Interstate 10 outside of Lake Charles in Sulphur. The Sulphur Police Department is continuing to investigate the accident, but it seems that the friend drove the car off the freeway, crashing into a clump of trees.

Going camping is a rite of passage for most children. However, when and unforeseeable circumstances happen, it's a memory any family would want to forget. Last June, a flash flood hit and swept 20 people to their deaths at the Albert Pike Recreation Area near Glenwood, Arkansas, taking campers by surprise. A federal tort claim has been filed in the wrongful deaths of these individuals against the U.S. Forest Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The claim states that the federal agencies failed to properly maintain the severe weather and flood warning system at the campground. This led to communication problems that prevented campers from seeking higher ground because they had no idea of the imminent danger of flash flooding.

You have a headache and you need something right now, what do you do? If you said "Take some Excedrin," you may not be that different than many others in Lake Charles, but Louisiana residents need to be extra careful before they put any medicine by Novartis AG in their mouths. The pharmaceutical giant may be known for medicines such as Gas-X Prevention, NoDoz, Bufferin and Excedrin, but they may now also be known for defective medications after manufacturing problems led to a recall of these four popular drugs.

Although the pharmaceutical firm has not released any reports of adverse drug reactions, it is possible that consumers could sustain serious injuries from the manufacturing errors. The company recently admitted that it had been mixing medications together in the same bottle, which may result in individuals taking the wrong pill or tablet. There have also been reports that some of the pills packaged in one of their American plants have been chipped or broken.

Space heaters can be found across Louisiana this winter, but should you have to worry about how safe the product is? If it is sold in stores, shouldn't you be able to follow the directions and not be preoccupied about the danger of fire? The answer is, of course, yes. No one in Lake Charles should be in danger from their consumer products and if they are, they should be able to hold the manufacturer responsible for the unsafe product.

Tragically, two people have lost their lives outside of Enterprise, Louisiana, after they were trapped in their mobile home as it burned to the ground. The Louisiana Fire Marshal has said that he believes the family's space heathers caused the fire, but he is continuing to investigate the fire. It may be difficult to completely confirm the space heaters caused the fire, however, because most of the evidence was destroyed in the fire, as well.

In Louisiana, when a motorist's driver's license is suspended, it generally means he or she did something wrong to lose it. Whether the motorist was previously drinking and driving or just accrued too many traffic violations for reckless driving, no one should be driving on a suspended license. Until the former motorist can prove to the state that he or she is capable of driving safely, he or she should stay off the road.

The family of a 30-year-old man may be wishing that a Louisiana man with a suspended license had stayed off the road; instead, he caused an accident that claimed the life of the 30-year-old pedestrian. The car accident victim had been walking in the far right lane of Interstate 190 east of Port Barre, Louisiana, when the driver hit him.

With the large number of trucks driving through Baton Rouge and Louisiana, it is important that truckers take the utmost care while driving. Failing to do so could cause serious accidents and result in severe injuries to the motorists with whom they share the road. In this story, around 6:00 a.m., the driver of an 18-wheeler who was traveling on Interstate 12 in the eastbound land near the O'Neal exit did not stay in the correct lane. By veering out of his lane, the driver crashed into the barricade after losing control of the vehicle.

During the crash, the 18-wheeler's load of pipes spilled into the roadway directly in front of oncoming traffic, resulting in a 7-car accident. Between the seven cars, six people suffered injuries in the crash. Luckily, all of the injuries were non-life threatening.

Employers have a duty to keep their employees safe at work. If an employer cannot provide a safe workplace, it must make certain modifications that make work less dangerous. With the large number of things that could injure an employee on a ship, maritime law allows injured workers an opportunity to receive compensation from an employer who fails to take proper safety precautions.

Unfortunately for one Louisiana employee, his employer failed to put a skid-proof lining on the deck of a ship, according to the employee's recent filings in his personal injury lawsuit. The man was working on a ship when he fell on the slippery deck and seriously injured his shoulder. The worker claims that if his employer had incorporated some slip prevention measures on the deck, he would not have fallen and injured himself.