Hello, I’m attorney David Hood and I’ve been practicing law across South Carolina for over 30 years. One of our focus areas is trucking accidents. Our clients often ask us, “What do I do once I’ve been in a truck accident?” We’re going to answer that for you today.
Don’t leave the scene
First of all, the best thing you can do right after an accident is to not leave the accident scene. If you leave the accident site, it may look like a hit and run, and the police may give you a hard time during questioning.
Call authorities
#2 Call the authorities right after the crash. If you’re physically able, call emergency services so they can dispatch police and an ambulance.
Check for other vehicles
#3 Check to see if other vehicles have been hit. After giving immediate attention to yourself, take a look around to see if anyone else might need your help.
Take photos
#4 Take photos and videos. If you have a smartphone and you’re able to, take pictures or record a video of the entire scene. Make sure to include your injuries, the traffic signals and skid marks.
Get other drivers’ info
#5 Talk to other drivers involved in the crash. If you can approach other drivers that were also hit by the truck, talk to them about what happened. Try to get each driver’s name, phone number, license plate number, driver’s license number, insurance carrier and policy number.
Wait to make a statement
And finally, #6 Don’t make any statement right away. Accidents can leave you feeling a bit shaky and emotional, which can sometimes lead you to say something that’s incorrect. Therefore, it is important that you take your time to calm your nerves and collect yourself before talking to anyone.
Cars moving on the road, with a road sign that reads Exit 197, Summerville, North Maple St., next right.
Those of us who live in South Carolina have experienced the nightmare of slow-moving traffic due to aging roads: forcing drivers to leave extra early to make it somewhere on time, and then the chance of ending up in a traffic jam due to an accident.
Moving South Carolina Forward
Moving South Carolina Forward, a report by DC-based nonprofit The Road Information Program (TRIP), “looks at transportation in South Carolina. From conditions on bridges and roads to traffic congestion data, the report, released on September 22nd, highlights the biggest issues facing South Carolina’s transportation system.” (Counton2.com)
In the report (using data between 2015 and 2019), TRIP estimates that 43% of The Palmetto State’s roads “are in poor or mediocre condition,…and 8% of the state’s bridges are rated poor or structurally deficient.” (PostandCourier.com)
More statistics from the report indicate that Charleston drivers lost an average of 56 hours a year, and wasted 22 gallons of gas, totaling $1,165 annually, sitting in traffic. For Myrtle Beach drivers, an average of 32 hours were lost a year, 14 gallons of gas were wasted, totaling $745 a year. All this due to traffic congestion.
Aging Roads Cause Fatalities
Even worse than the cost for South Carolinian’s is the catastrophic number of fatalities caused by the aging conditions of roads and bridges. “In its 2021 report card, the American Society of Civil Engineers, a group that lobbies Congress to fully fund federal infrastructure programs, gave the state’s road and water infrastructure D-plus.”(TheState.com) The report card showed that in 2019, South Carolina roads had 1.72 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled; that’s the highest fatality rate in the nation.
TRIP’s Moving South Carolina Forward report estimates that, “From 2015 to 2019, there were 5,018 traffic fatalities in S.C., that’s around 1,000 people per year. ‘Clearly a number that’s far too high,’ said Rocky Moretti, the Director of Policy and Research for TRIP.”(Counton2.com)
For 2021, Department of Public Safety data from January 1 to September 8 reveals that South Carolina has already had 758 traffic-related deaths.(GreenvilleOnline.com)
Funding Infrastructure
“In 2017, the state Legislature passed the S.C. Infrastructure and Economic Development Reform Act, also known as Act 40, to fund repairs for the state’s crumbling roads and bridges.
Funded in part by increases in gasoline taxes and vehicle registration fees, Act 40 provides an approximate $600 million annual boost to the state’s transportation coffers until 2027, funding road repair and construction projects across the state.” (PostandCourier.com)
TRIP’s report estimates the SC Department of Transportation (SCDOT) will still face a $403 million gap in funds annually, for needed improvements to roads, highways and bridges.
Advocates hope a federal infrastructure bill will provide much-needed funds to help repair SC roads and bridges.
THE LAW OFFICES OF DAVID L. HOOD – SERVING MOTOR VEHICLE ACCIDENT VICTIMS IN SOUTH CAROLINA
If you have suffered a collision in South Carolina, the legal team at The Law Offices of David L. Hood will help you navigate the situation professionally. We have years of experience in helping people involved in serious accidents figure out the legal requirements and details needed to move forward after an accident. After gathering all the necessary information, we will pour our efforts into building your case to get a fair settlement or take it to court if the need arises.
Our entire team has years of experience representing various clients and car accident victims in South Carolina. Having a passion to help, we offer a free initial consultation where we provide candid legal advice on what options you may have. If you choose to work with us, we promise a contingent-fee based case, where you don’t pay unless we get a recovery in your case.
You can find our contact information on the page here and schedule your free consultation session.
Hi, I’m Attorney David Hood and I’ve been practicing law in South Carolina for over 30 years. One of our primary focuses is wrongful death lawsuits. People often ask, how do you file one in South Carolina? We’re going to cover that right now.
What do we need to show to file a wrongful death lawsuit in South Carolina?
The first thing that needs to be established is that the person’s death was caused by someone else’s (and not their own) actions. An example would be the death was caused by being rear ended by a truck, as opposed to a drunk driver driving into a tree. Another example would be being killed because the person was given the wrong medication and not because of an illegal drug overdose.
The Personal Representative of the estate should file the lawsuit
If the person who died (called the decedent) had a will, it should name the representative of the estate and that person should file the lawsuit.
If the decedent died without a will, the family needs to get a Personal Representative appointed by the Probate Court. Once that’s done, the Personal Representative can file a lawsuit on behalf of the estate.
Intestate law dictates what should happen when someone dies without a will
Assuming the wrongful death lawsuit is successful, South Carolina intestate law (which is when somebody dies without a will) dictates how the proceeds are to be divided up. It’ll depend upon whether there’s a surviving spouse, any children or surviving parents.
Hi, I’m attorney David Hood and I’ve been practicing law in South Carolina for over 30 years. And today, what I’d like to cover is a primary area of practice for us, which is medical malpractice, and how do you sue for medical malpractice in South Carolina?
Reasonable Standard of Care
Basically, you have to show that the medical treatment you received was below the reasonable standard of care in South Carolina. In addition, you have to show that the outcome would have been a lot better, if you had gotten the right care.
Medical Records
To do this, you need to get all your medical records together and then have a medical expert review them. After the expert reviews all your records, if the expert believes you received substandard care and suffered significant damages because of it, then you may have a case.
Medical Expert’s Affidavit
Typically, the medical expert has to be able to issue an affidavit saying that they believe medical malpractice was committed in South Carolina and that there were serious injuries or death due to the medical malpractice.
File the Lawsuit
Once the expert issues the affidavit, you can file the lawsuit. After that, both sides normally get more experts and the discovery phase starts. This information exchange period can take a year or more to complete.
Mediation
Once the discovery phase has been completed, a mediation will typically be set up to see if the parties can resolve the case before the trial. If not, then the case goes to trial.
It can be a long and expensive process, but many medical malpractice lawyers in South Carolina will front the costs if they believe (and the expert agrees) that there is a case.
Do I Have a Personal Injury Case in South Carolina? Part 2
Video Transcription
Hi, I’m Attorney David Hood and I’ve been practicing law throughout South Carolina for over 30 years. One area we emphasize is Personal Injury, and people often ask us, “Do I have a good case?” We’ve covered part of that in part 1, and we want to wrap up the rest of that for you right now in part 2.
Do I have a good case?
If you’ve been injured in an accident, you might be wondering whether you have a strong case. The answer is, it depends.
I’m going to you about factors we consider to determine whether or not you have a strong potential personal injury case.
Witnesses
Number 5: Witnesses. Your case is only as good as your evidence, and usually your evidence is only as good as your witnesses. If, for example, your only witness to support liability is a relative or friend, your case is weaker than if you had several impartial witnesses. Your doctor might be a witness to the medical part of your case. If the doctor involved has never testified, doesn’t want to testify or can’t testify well, this lowers your settlement value.
How Tight-Fisted is the Defendant’s Insurance Company?
Number 6: How tight-fisted is the defendant’s insurance company? As lawyers, we are familiar with which companies are the most tight-fisted and will make ridiculous, low-ball offers on cases. Some we might need to file suit on. However, if the carrier is fair, and some of them are, we may get a higher settlement offer.
How Much Time Has Passed?
Number 7: How much time has passed since the incident that caused your injuries? As a general rule, the longer it takes a case to get to a jury, the less sympathetic the jurors will be. This is particularly true if you experienced pain or other symptoms for a limited time after the accident, but you have fully recovered by the time of the trial.
How Much Damage?
Number 8: How much damage was there to the cars involved? In many automobile cases, the actual damage to the automobile may be minimal as car bumpers are made to absorb more impact now than they could years ago. If there was only a bumper scratch or minor fender damage, the jury will question the extent of the impact and, therefore, the extent of your injuries. On the other hand, if the car in which you were injured looks like an accordion, it will be easier to convince a jury that you sustained serious injuries.
Recap
To recap, the primary factors determining case strength are:
How clear is the defendant’s liability?
How large and consistent with your injuries are your medical records?
Will insurance or defendant assets fully cover your loss?
Will a jury like you and your actions, and dislike the defendant and his actions?
Do persuasive and unbiased witnesses support your claim?
Does the insurer have fair settlement practices?
Will you be fully recovered by the time of trial?
And in auto accident cases, how extensively and visibly was your car damaged?
Hi, I’m Attorney David Hood and I’ve been practicing law throughout South Carolina for over 30 years. In our practice, we’ve handled a lot of personal injury cases and accident cases, and people ask the question almost every time: Do I have a good case? We’re going to dive into that for you right now.
Do I have a good case?
If you have been injured in an accident you might be wondering whether you have a strong case. The answer is “it depends”. I’m going to talk to you about factors we consider, to determine whether or not you have a strong potential personal injury case.
Liability
Number 1 is liability. Liability is basically fault. Proving “liability” (that the other person caused the accident, not you) is the first and biggest hurdle in your case. This is especially true in smaller personal injury cases. Insurance companies have no fear whatsoever about rejecting claims in small cases in which there are serious questions as to liability. To put it another way, if the defendant’s fault or responsibility is unclear, then so is your chance of achieving a favorable outcome in your case.
Damages
The second factor is damages. Liability can be clear, but if there are no damages, then you have no case. Damages are the harm that was done to you in the accident, including your past and future medical bills, as well as your pain and suffering and out of pocket loss. Even in the earlier stages of your case, you probably have some idea as to how severe your injuries are. Cases involving broken bones, which show on x-rays are relatively easy, but soft tissue cases, such as neck and back strains, are more difficult because they don’t easily show on x-rays or MRI’s.
Ability to Pay
Number 3 is the ability to pay. Does the potential defendant have the ability to pay? If not, you and your attorney may invest a good deal of time, money, effort and emotional energy in the case, but never see a penny in return. Either some type of insurance must cover the incident, or the defendant must have personal assets like property that could be sold to pay the judgment.
Will the Jury Like You?
Number 4, will the jury like you? Will jurors empathize with your situation? On the other hand, what kind of person is the defendant? Will the jury like the defendant? There are some “bad defendants” – the drunk driver, the tire squealer, or the bully. If you have an unlikeable defendant, your settlement range goes up. But even more importantly, if the jury doesn’t like you or doesn’t believe you, your settlement range goes down.
Getting the wrong medication from the pharmacy and suffering serious harm sounds like a nightmare, but it’s shockingly common: according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), medication errors cause at least one death every day and injure about 1.3 million people annually in the United States. So what happens when a medication error puts your health and well-being in jeopardy? Do you have any legal recourse against the pharmacy or the person who made the mistake? In this article, we’ll answer those questions and go over the basics of pharmacy malpractice law so you know what to do if a prescription error hurts you or someone you love.
How Medication Errors Happen
Although most people will look to the pharmacy for responsibility when a medication error happens, things can go wrong at any step in the complex process of prescribing and dispensing drugs. Harmful medication errors can occur when a doctor prescribes a drug, when the pharmacy repackages or dispenses it, or when a medical professional administers it or monitors the patient afterward.
Common causes of prescription errors include:
Poor communication between pharmacy and medical professionals
Confusion caused by ambiguous product names, poorly-written directions, or hard-to-decipher medical abbreviations or handwriting
Failure to employ proper procedures and techniques for prescribing and dispensing medications
Lack of product knowledge or training on the part of pharmacy staff
Job stress, apathy, or outright carelessness on the part of pharmacists, pharmacy staff, or other medical professionals
Because medication errors can occur in so many ways and at so many separate points in the process of prescribing and dispensing drugs, the lawsuits that result from medication errors are often complex and require an extensive understanding of the prescription drug system on the part of the attorneys who handle them.
What to Do If You’ve Been Harmed by a Medication Error
Whether a medication error constitutes pharmacy malpractice (or) or both, depends on the behavior that led to the error. If a doctor, pharmacist, or pharmacy staff member failed to follow established guidelines and practices for their field and didn’t exercise the reasonable care that’s expected of a medical professional, then they might have committed malpractice.
A doctor or pharmacist could have committed malpractice (depending on the context) if they:
Prescribed the wrong medication
Gave you the wrong dosage of a medication
Failed to take an adequate history of your health and prescription drug use
Didn’t warn you about all the risks associated with the medication, including potential harmful interactions between different drugs
Dangerously mixed different prescription drugs that shouldn’t go together
If you or someone you love has been harmed by a medication error, you may be entitled to compensation. Since your case will hinge on whether the doctor’s office or pharmacy followed accepted standards of conduct for their field, you need to work with a lawyer who understands those standards and who has the resources and experts needed to investigate your case and determine whether someone else’s negligence played a role in your suffering.
David L. Hood: Representing Pharmacy Malpractice Victims Throughout South Carolina
Prescription errors can lead to untold pain and suffering for patients, but the legal system helps victims hold the people who hurt them accountable. For pharmacy malpractice victims, Attorney David L. Hood puts together a team (with co-counsel) that has years of experience handling pharmacy malpractice cases. This accomplished team can draw from a professional network of doctors, nurses, and other medical experts who will help determine the cause of a medication mistake and provide expert testimony if medical negligence played a role in your case. If someone else’s reckless or careless behavior caused you or your family suffering, David L. Hood will fight with determination and explore every available legal option to get you the justice and compensation you deserve.
If you or someone you love has been hurt by a pharmacy error in South Carolina, contact The Law Offices of David L. Hood today to speak with an attorney and get a free, no-risk initial assessment of your case. Call us at (843) 491-6025 or fill out our easy online contact form and we’ll follow up with you right away.
Whiplash injuries come from abrupt back-and-forth movement of the head and neck. Whiplash may also be characterized as a neck strain, a neck sprain, or a neck injury, but these terms can refer to other conditions as well.
The same back-and-forth motion associated with whiplash can cause other problems too, such as bone fractures, injuries to the discs of the spine, nerve damage, and injuries to the muscles and ligaments in the back.
Whiplash After a Car Accident
Whiplash after a car accident occurs most often when the car suddenly stops, like in a rear-end collision. Since the victim’s body is traveling at high speeds, the neck keeps going forward and then is quickly jerked back when the car stops.
The resulting injury is often extremely painful, although the pain does not always present immediately after experiencing a trauma. Soft tissue injuries and back strains from whiplash, especially, may take a few days to show the full range of symptoms.
Signs and Symptoms of Whiplash Injuries
Symptoms of whiplash will vary from person to person, but they may include the following:
Pain and stiffness in the neck, especially when trying to move
Decreased range of motion in the neck
Headaches
Dizziness
Pain in the shoulder(s) and/or upper back
Numbness or a tingling sensation in the arms
Fatigue
In more extreme or complex cases (especially those that involve a traumatic brain injury as well), victims may also suffer from other symptoms, such as:
Blurred or double vision
Tinnitus (ringing in the ears)
Disturbances in sleep patterns, such as feeling extremely tired (hypersomnia) or not being able to sleep (insomnia)
Changes in mood, such as increased irritability or suffering from depression
Difficulty concentrating or suffering from memory problems
Should I Seek Medical Treatment?
Getting medical treatment right away is essential after a car wreck, especially if you’re experiencing the symptoms of whiplash. Even if you aren’t suffering from any pain right away, it may be best to get checked out by a doctor. A qualified physician will be able to evaluate your condition, and they may detect signs and symptoms that you haven’t noticed yet.
Having detailed medical records starting right after the crash will also help if you choose to file a personal injury claim to get compensation for your medical bills, lost wages for missed work, and other losses that result from your injury. Whiplash claims are often looked at with skepticism by insurance adjustors, but having proof of medical records directly after your injury will help support your claim and build a stronger legal case.
Filing a Whiplash Injury Claim
If you’re experiencing whiplash symptoms after a crash, you should contact an experienced car accident attorney like David L. Hood. During a free initial consultation, your attorney can listen to the details of your story and give you informed advice about what your best course of action is moving forward.
Unfortunately, many people don’t consider speaking with an attorney until the medical bills start to pile up or until they get a meager settlement offer from the insurance company. An experienced lawyer can still help them at this point, but it requires a lot of catch-up if they haven’t been keeping track of their medical bills and expenses. If you have not yet spoken to a lawyer, it is important to keep careful track of documents like medical bills, pay stubs, and pharmacy receipts. Any out-of-pocket expenses or other financial losses could be eligible for compensation if you have a comprehensive paper trail.
And if the insurance company offers you a settlement that doesn’t cover your expenses and meet your financial needs — or if they don’t offer you a settlement at all — then call David L. Hood for help.
David L. Hood: Helping Whiplash Victims in South Carolina
If you have been injured by another driver in a car accident — especially if you are suffering from a neck, spine, or back injury — please call The Law Offices of David L. Hood right away at (843) 491-6025 or fill out our brief online contact form. We offer free consultations where we can listen to your story and give you advice about what your best course of action is moving forward. And if you choose David L. Hood to handle your personal injury claim, our legal team will handle all the details of your case so you can focus on healing.
We aggressively pursue justice and compensation for those who have been harmed in car accidents, and if we take on your case, you do not have to pay us unless we reach a settlement or win your case in court.*
*Clients are not liable for any expenses, unless there is a recovery in their case; however, if there is a recovery in their case, clients will be liable for expenses. Attorney’s fees are based on a percentage of the recovery, which will be computed before deducting expenses.
