Louisiana Personal Injury Lawyer Blog
Parents love their children very much. It is always a difficult experience to involve a child in a lawsuit. Such an emotionally difficult experience can be soothed by having the best attorney possible. Losing a lawsuit on behalf of one’s child is a traumatic experience, especially after an accident. This is exactly what happened in a recent case of the Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeal.
In January 2011, the Gaspards were leaving a Winn-Dixie store in Covington, Louisiana walking with their son in a baby carrier through a marked pedestrian zone. Suddenly, they were struck by a vehicle. In May 2011, they filed a lawsuit on behalf of their son against the driver of the vehicle, Anna Lewis; Safeway Insurance Company, the liability company that insured Lewis’ vehicle; and Geico General Insurance Company, the Gaspards’ uninsured or underinsured motorist carrier. Later, the Gaspards added Winn-Dixie Louisiana, Inc., Winn-Dixie Montgomery Leasing, LLC, and Gordon Konrad, the owner of the parking lot, and his insurers as additional defendants. The Gaspards alleged that these additional defendants had been negligent in the parking lot’s maintenance and design. The Gaspards further alleged that the Winn-Dixie and Konrad knew or should have known of the danger to pedestrians in the parking lot and had failed to take the appropriate measures to protect pedestrians.
In 2014, Winn-Dixie and Konrad filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing that the case should be thrown out because the Gaspards were unable to show a connection between the parking lot and their injury. Later, the Trial Court dismissed Gaspards’ claims were dismissed. The Gaspards appealed.
Are you being or have you been sued and simply can’t afford court costs and litigation due to financial instability? If this is your case, you can file an affidavit of poverty also known as obtaining pauper status pursuant to 
When a person is injured, timeliness and diligence are required to hold the responsible party liable under the law. If either element is missing, the injured person will lose the ability to seek relief. An early procedural hurdle plaintiffs face in litigation is the defendant’s motion for summary judgment. Here, the plaintiff must exercise diligence in gathering the necessary evidence to articulate genuine issues of material fact or face dismissal. Another procedural hurdle is the exception of prescription. Similar to what other states would refer to as a “statute of limitation”, prescription is a legal mechanism which prevents a person from pursuing a lawsuit after a certain period of time. In a recent case of the Louisiana Third Circuit Court of Appeal, several procedural hurdles prevented the plaintiff from obtaining recovery. 
The devil is in the details is a well-known idiom that holds true in this case. It was only upon a close examination of the factual details set out in the trial record that the Louisiana Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal ruled in the plaintiff’s favor. In the case, the Fourth Circuit discusses the two-step process used to determine if the lower court correctly calculated its award of special damages. 
Louisiana law holds responsible those who cause injury to others by failing to repair unreasonably dangerous conditions in their custody or control. This type of liability is called “custodial liability.” For example, a university that fails to maintain its walkways so as to cause injury to pedestrians can be held liable for damages by injured persons. However, the university in this example would not be liable for conditions which are considered “open and obvious.” In a recent case, the Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeal helped illustrate what is meant by “open and obvious.”
Language is key when it comes to the law. A court cannot give a plaintiff what he or she asks for if the request is vague. In a similar vein, a judgment’s lack of certain magic words can render it defective. Words have precise meanings in order to be given legal effect. This is illustrated by a recent of the Louisiana Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal. In this case, the Court of Appeal found that a trial court’s judgment lacked the required decretal language required to give the document legal effect.
Nursing homes have become an integral part of our society due to America’s aging population. Families need nursing homes to help them care for elderly parents and relatives, disabled individuals, and other people requiring increased care. Most nursing homes treat their residents with industry-standard care; but what if you discovered that someone you love had been mistreated, or even abused, by the nursing home you trusted to care for them? This is what happened with the family of Ms. Lessie Porter.
It is no secret that a lawsuit has the potential to become a tangled web of procedural issues. This is why it is always a good idea to secure a good attorney with experience in dealing with the court system. Perhaps less common is the situation where the judge, the party responsible for ensuring an efficient and timely resolution of the dispute, gets tripped up in this procedural web. This is exactly the situation below.
When an accident occurs, it’s often difficult to determine what actually happened until the aftermath, but in the justice system, piecing a puzzle together and drawing conclusions based on little remaining evidence rarely constitutes enough of a basis to file a lawsuit. As the court said in the case of Benjamin Tomaso when he attempted to file a lawsuit against Home Depot, “[s]peculation as to what caused an accident cannot supply the factual support necessary to show that a plaintiff would be able to meet his evidentiary burden of proof at trial.” 
Do you know your constitutional rights? In 2014 one-third of Americans were unaware of their First Amendment rights according to a Newseum Institute survey. This is an alarming truth that we, as citizens, must face. Here are some questions I pose to you: Do you know your Fourth Amendment rights? Can a law enforcement officer arrest someone without probable cause? What is probable cause? What is qualified immunity? A recent