Our Cedar Rapids Personal Injury Lawyer/Class Action Law Firm Practice Areas:

 

CAR ACCIDENTS:

According to the government, there were nearly 6.5 million car accidents in the United States in 2005. Of these accidents, 2.9 million people were injured which means an accident occurs once every 4.9 seconds. A staggering 43,635 people died that year—450 of them in Iowa alone—as as a result of vehicle accidents which means on average, about 115 people die every day in the United States which translates to one death every 13 minutes. The costs of these accidents are staggering: $230 Billion dollars. These accidents range from minor “fender benders” to life-altering collisions to death. If the person who causes such accidents—and their insurance carriers—are not forced to pay for such injuries and damages, accident victims will eventually become a burden to other tax payers.

Contact Cedar Rapids personal injury lawyer Sam Sheronick of Sam Sheronick Law Firm, P.C. and get your questions answered now during a free initial consultation.

 Class Actions:

Our firm has filed and successfully litigated a number of class action cases on a contingency (percentage) fee basis which means you pay no attorney fee unless you win/settle your case.

A class action case typically involves a representative person(s) suing a defendant corporation(s) for injuries and damages suffered by many other similarly situated persons. If, among other things, a Court finds that the representative’s damages were caused by similar conduct which caused damages to other potential class members, and if the Court finds that the damages suffered by the representative(s) are similar to the damages suffered by other potential class representatives, the Court may enter a certification order allowing the named representative(s) to represent the many other class members against the defendant corporation(s) in the lawsuit.

Examples of class actions include, but are not limited to, cases involving: improper billing practices (e.g. a company or utility charges a fee they are not allowed to charge); defective building materials (e.g. bad sheet rock, bad shingles, bad siding, etc.); employers failing to pay overtime or other wages they are required to pay employees; discriminatory employment practices; contract breaches; product defects (e.g. dangerous drugs or tools, etc.).

Contact Cedar Rapids personal injury lawyer Sam Sheronick of Sam Sheronick Law Firm, P.C. and get your questions answered now during a free initial consultation.

Bicycle Accidents:

Despite the increasing popularity of bicycling, we continue to see too many serious injuries involving vehicles colliding with cars. A 3,500 pound car (or an 80,000 pound truck) has a decisive advantage over flesh, bone, and a 20 pound bike. Yet cars and trucks continue to race by within inches of bicyclists. Add cell phones or tired drivers to the mix, and you have a disaster just waiting to happen.  It is no surprise that when a bicyclist does crash—provided the cyclist even survives—the injuries can be severe: broken bones, crushed spinal columns, prolific brain injuries, etc.

Of course, bicycle accidents need not even involve cars or trucks as accidents can be caused by any number of other factors including, but not limited to: a loose dog whose owner knows their pet has a history of chasing bicyclists; a defective bike helmet or bicycle; etc.

Contact Cedar Rapids personal injury lawyer Sam Sheronick of Sam Sheronick Law Firm, P.C. and get your questions answered now during a free initial consultation.

Farm Accidents:

If you’ve been injured in a farm accident, chances are you are suffering from very serious injuries given the size and nature of farm machinery. Examples of serious personal injury from farm accidents can include, but are not limited to, accidents caused by manufacturers of farm machinery who fail to adequately warn users of the risks involved with the use of their machinery to manufacturers who fail to take appropriate steps to assure their machinery was designed or manufactured so that it could be used in a safe manner. Unfortunately, these types of problems are increasingly seen in the context of the manufacturing of large farm machinery, herbicides, and pesticides.

Contact Cedar Rapids personal injury lawyer Sam Sheronick of Sam Sheronick Law Firm, P.C. and get your questions answered now during a free initial consultation.

Motorcycle Accidents:

All too often, drivers of cars and trucks seem to treat motorcyclists as second class citizens as these much heavier vehicles drives far too close to motorcycles. Often, the consequences of such accidents lead to motorcyclists suffering severe brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, permanent organ damage, permanent scarring and disfigurement, amputation, paralysis, severe road rash, broken bones and even death.

Contact Cedar Rapids personal injury lawyer Sam Sheronick of Sam Sheronick Law Firm, P.C. and get your questions answered now during a free initial consultation.

Drunk and Drugged Driving Accidents:

The stats are sobering: 41% of traffic accidents are alcohol related, which translates to 2,665,000 alcohol related accidents each year in the United States. 18% of all fatal accidents—that’s 7,854 deaths—are caused by drugs other than alcohol each year.

Contact Cedar Rapids personal injury lawyer Sam Sheronick of Sam Sheronick Law Firm, P.C. and get your questions answered now during a free initial consultation.

Amputation Injuries:

Approximately 3 million victims of amputation live in the United States with an estimated 150,000 people added to that list each year. Our compassionate and caring staff understands that an amputation injury can cause physical and emotional issues for life.

Traumatic amputations (the accidental severing of some or all of a body part) are often the result of incidents such as car accidents, motorcycle accidents, farm accidents, bicycle accidents, pedestrian accidents, unsafe products, or work accidents, etc. Most work-related and/or product liability related amputations are caused by inadequate (or non-existent) machinery guards, improper repairs, improper equipment training, improper warning, or other unsafe conditions.

Unfortunately, there are many complications, risks, and medical side effects—some of them lifelong—associated with amputations and the prosthetics including, but not limited to:

• Poor wound healing/poor wound coverage

• Infection

• Chronic Neuroma (pain and/or tenderness in the amputation area)

• Stiffness

• Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome

Contact Cedar Rapids personal injury lawyer Sam Sheronick of Sam Sheronick Law Firm, P.C. and get your questions answered now during a free initial consultation.

Paralysis, Quadriplegia, Paraplegia:

An estimated 10,000 new spinal cord injuries occur each year; spinal cord injuries can be life-altering events, as in the case of Quadriplegia, Paraplegia, and Myelopathy. These injuries often involve extreme life-altering adjustment disorders such as depression in addition to the actual physical limitations. A spinal cord injury is defined as damage to the spinal cord that results in loss of function such as mobility or feeling. These injuries can also cause internal organs to malfunction as in the case when a spine injury causes loss of bowel control or the inability of the lungs to breathe without artificial respirators. Additionally, these types of injuries involve considerable life-long care considerations which must be addressed.

Contact Cedar Rapids personal injury lawyer Sam Sheronick of Sam Sheronick Law Firm, P.C. and get your questions answered now during a free initial consultation.

Brain Injuries:

The statistics are staggering: 1.5 million Americans sustain a brain injury every year as 80,000 of these Americans will suffer long-term disability as a result of their brain injuries. Fifty Thousand (50,000) Americans die each year as a result of their brain injuries. Motor vehicle accidents account for 44% of brain injuries while 26% percent are caused by falls; 17% of brain injuries are caused by assaults and firearms while an additional 17% are caused by sports and recreation. An estimated 200,000 children are hospitalized each year in the United States dues to brain trauma while 30,000 will suffer permanent, life-altering disabilities. Fifty thousand (50,000) American children suffer bicycle-related brain injuries each year as 400 of these children, on average, will die each year.

Brain injuries are a personal cause for Sam Sheronick as he has served on the Board of the Brain Injury Association of Iowa and has served on the Board of the East Central Brain Injury Association of Iowa where his law firm regularly edits a monthly brain injury newsletter sent to nearly 450 brain injury survivors, caregivers, doctors/healthcare providers, and federal and state legislators. Sam Sheronick Law Firm, P.C. has won numerous awards from these organizations related to work in the field of traumatic brain injury as Sam Sheronick has also helped prepare Model Acts related to brain injury legislation in Iowa. This cause is personal to Sam Sheronick as he has represented many clients who have suffered from traumatic brain injuries over the years. In the time it takes you to read this section, at least two Americans will have suffered a traumatic brain injury.

Contact Cedar Rapids personal injury lawyer Sam Sheronick of Sam Sheronick Law Firm, P.C. and get your questions answered now during a free initial consultation.

Broken Bone Injuries:

The reason why some broken bone injuries and severe injuries involving, among other things, hips, knees, or ankles can often lead to verdicts and settlements which are sometimes very high stems from the fact that most of these types of injuries are preventable and caused by the negligence of others. These injuries can often cause lost wages, loss earning capacity, severe and chronic pain/discomfort, permanent disabilities, and in the case of children and young adults, potentially life altering growth and developmental issues (both physical and emotional), particularly if growth plates are damaged.

Contact Cedar Rapids personal injury lawyer Sam Sheronick of Sam Sheronick Law Firm, P.C. and get your questions answered now during a free initial consultation.

Burn Injuries:

Burn injuries can involve some of the most painful and life altering injuries imaginable whether such injuries are caused by car or truck accidents, explosions, chemical burns, boating accidents, defective products, work injuries, etc. These injuries can often take years of painful recovery including prolonged hospitalization, multiple surgeries, painful physical therapy, painful follow up care and devastating mental and emotional suffering. The mental and emotional injuries related to burn injuries can often scar much deeper and much more painfully than the physical injuries if this is possible to imagine.

Contact Cedar Rapids personal injury lawyer Sam Sheronick of Sam Sheronick Law Firm, P.C. and get your questions answered now during a free initial consultation.

Injuries to Children:

Serious injuries to children—both physical and emotional—can be some of the most difficult to endure as it affects both the child and their families in prolific, life altering ways. This is especially true if the injury involves catastrophic injuries or death to a child. While children can suffer any number or traumatic injuries, some of the more serious injuries include:

• Daycare abuse

• Dog bites

• Car Accidents

• Pedestrian/bicycle accidents

• Playground accidents

• Diving and swimming pool accidents

• Slip and fall accidents

• Unsafe/Defective toys, cribs, strollers, and products

• Wrongful Death

• Sexual abuse

• Allergies

Contact Cedar Rapids personal injury lawyer Sam Sheronick of Sam Sheronick Law Firm, P.C. and get your questions answered now during a free initial consultation.

 Serious Neck, Back, and Spine Injuries:

As an embryo develops, the brain forms first as the spinal column develops thereafter. Virtually all of the embryo’s limbs and organs grow or develop from the spine. Thus, an injury to the spine can permanently damage an organ, arms and/or legs as happens, for example, when the spine is crushed at a certain level and a person’s lung’s or legs can no longer function. It should thus come as no surprise that serious injuries involving the neck, back, and spine can permanently disable or even kill. Although most strain and muscle pain injuries will resolve in time, a small but significant number of these injuries can produce prolific, permanent, and life-altering results. Moreover, the most serious of these injuries can become worse over time if medical attention is not received immediately.

Contact Cedar Rapids personal injury lawyer Sam Sheronick of Sam Sheronick Law Firm, P.C. and get your questions answered now during a free initial consultation.

Spinal Cord Injuries:

Approximately 10,000 Americans suffer from spinal cord injuries each year. These victims and their families often spend years—if not the rest of their lives—trying to live with paraplegia, quadriplegia, myelopathy, etc. Spinal cord injuries are typically defined as injuries to the spinal cord which result in the loss of function and/or feeling. Serious spinal cord injuries can occur as a result of a number of accidents including, but not limited to, those caused by:

• Car/Truck Accidents

• Defective products

• Work Injuries

• Farm Accidents

• Diving/Swimming Accidents

• Sports-related injuries

• Slip and falls

• Infections

Contact Cedar Rapids personal injury lawyer Sam Sheronick of Sam Sheronick Law Firm, P.C. and get your questions answered now during a free initial consultation.

 Dog Bites:

Iowa law holds dog owners strictly liable for bites caused by their dogs. If the dog owner (or under certain instances, the keeper of a dog) is identified and if the conditions for liability are met, dog bite victims may be entitled to recover damages.

Contact Cedar Rapids personal injury lawyer Sam Sheronick of Sam Sheronick Law Firm, P.C. and get your questions answered now during a free initial consultation.

Insurance Company Bad Faith Refusal to Pay:

You work hard for your money and pay ever increasing premiums for a variety of insurance coverages for health, auto, home, and more. You faithfully and timely pay these expensive premiums for years, and you finally make your first claim and get the run around from the insurance company. While an insurance company has the right to scrutinize any claim presented to it, the insurance company has a duty to act in good faith by properly investigating your claim and paying your claim if there is no reasonable basis for refusing to pay the claim.

Sam Sheronick Law Firm, P.C. has successfully litigated a number of bad faith cases including a case where Sam Sheronick Law Firm, P.C. successfully represented a promotor for the rock band .38 Special against Lloyd’s of London.

Despite the fact that a Court may allow a jury to consider punitive damages to punish the insurance company substantially above the actual amount of the claim to teach that insurer—and other insurers like them—that society won’t tolerate such unfair practices, many insurance claims are not paid because the insurance companies know that it is rare they will get caught and even rarer that the policyholder/victim will seek an attorney’s advice.

Contact Cedar Rapids personal injury lawyer Sam Sheronick of Sam Sheronick Law Firm, P.C. and get your questions answered now during a free initial consultation.

Pedestrian Accidents:

Sam Sheronick has run at least six miles virtually every day since he was nine years old; he is acutely aware that despite the health effects associated with running, distracted, negligent, and mean spirited drivers can make running anything but healthy. Obviously, the human body is no match against a 3,500 pound car.

Children under the age of 10 are at the greatest risk in pedestrian accidents not only because they are often too young to appreciate the risks of running in front of a car, but also because their ability to hear a moving car does not develop until age 10. Moreover, in certain instances (and barring no other significant countervailing factors), it is no defense to a driver that a child “darted out in front of my car” if a reasonable driver under the circumstances would have realized that they should slow down because children were playing in the area.

Contact Cedar Rapids personal injury lawyer Sam Sheronick of Sam Sheronick Law Firm, P.C. and get your questions answered now during a free initial consultation.

Product Liability:

Product liability law seeks to hold product manufacturers (and sometimes wholesalers and retailers) liable for injuries caused by the negligent design or negligent manufacturing of unsafe products or the failure to adequately warn end users of the risks involved with using a particular product. Almost any kind of product is subject to product liability laws: food, drugs, cars, toys, appliances, medical devices, medical implants blood, tobacco, gases, chemicals, asbestos, written documents (instructions), commercial planes and jets, real estate, etc. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• Toxic Substances

• Unsafe farm machinery or implements

• Unsafe tools and/or construction equipment

• Faulty medical equipment

• Drug recall

• Defective car parts

• Mislabeled food supplement, or food that contains an allergy causing material (like peanuts or wheat gluten) when it claims that none are in the food, etc.

Contact Cedar Rapids personal injury lawyer Sam Sheronick of Sam Sheronick Law Firm, P.C. and get your questions answered now during a free initial consultation.

Semi Truck Accidents:

Accidents involving large trucks (also referred to as semi-trailer, tractor trailer, big rig, 18 wheeler, etc.) are among the most dangerous and deadly of all motor vehicle accidents, not too surprising given the sheer size and weight of these trucks.

A variety of factors contribute to semi truck accidents including, but not limited to: overload (or improperly loaded) freight; driver fatigue; speed; substance abuse; the negligent hiring of bad drivers; faulty equipment; failure to inspect equipment; etc. Additionally, the sheer size of trucks—together with their lack of maneuverability, inability to stop well, and the inability to see lower traffic out of the truck cab—also can play a role in causing accidents.

Trucking companies and their drivers must comply with strict state and federal regulations requiring the keeping of log books, time sheets, and other criteria. These records may be crucial to a claim based upon a truck driver’s lack of alertness or problems involving fatigue.

Semi-trucks are also required to carry much higher amounts of insurance coverage as drivers must also meet higher standards than the drivers of other vehicles. Moreover, truck companies are required to perform background checks prior to hiring drivers and they must periodically evaluate their existing drivers.

Truck drivers, by law, are limited to the number of hours they can drive in a given period of time. Truck drivers are also supposed to be subjected to both random drug and alcohol tests and they are additionally supposed to be subjected to drug and alcohol tests following an accident. Violations of state and/or federal law can provide the basis for establishing fault on the part of trucking companies and their drivers.

Contact Cedar Rapids personal injury lawyer Sam Sheronick of Sam Sheronick Law Firm, P.C. and get your questions answered now during a free initial consultation.

Slip, Trip, Fall:

Under certain circumstances, liability occurs when a person slips, trips, or falls as a result of a dangerous or an unreasonable condition on the premises. Such a fall can occur inside or outside of the property and can be caused by conditions such as a wet floor, a slippery walk way, a weather-related circumstance, an escalator, an elevator, a swimming pool, or a hidden hazard. Additionally, Iowa law provides that liability can exist under circumstances where the hazard may be open and obvious if the injured person was distracted from realizing the hazard.

Contact Cedar Rapids personal injury lawyer Sam Sheronick of Sam Sheronick Law Firm, P.C. and get your questions answered now during a free initial consultation.

Weather Related Accidents:

Every winter, there are numerous accidents which occur during icy, rainy, or snowy conditions. Often times, people injured in such accidents shrug their shoulders and think to themselves, “Well, I guess it’s not the other person’s fault—even though they caused the accident—because the police officer did not issue a ticket and said that the accident was a result of bad weather.” Oh really? First, the police officer is not an attorney. Second, Iowa law holds that we all are under a duty to drive in a cautious manner for the conditions existing, and so if another driver was going too fast for the icy conditions—even if that person was traveling below the speed limit—that driver can be held liable for causing the accident assuming there are no other countervailing conditions. Moreover, the irresponsible driver causing the accident should not be able to credibly use the defense of the “sudden emergency doctrine” to excuse their negligent conduct if the negligent driver was at fault for causing the accident and the sudden emergency was caused by that negligent driver’s own negligent conduct (e.g. driving too fast for the conditions, failure to keep a proper lookout, failure to timely stop or slow down, etc.)

So if you are involved in an accident during rain, ice, or snow storms, you may very well be entitled to hold a negligent driver responsible for your injuries and damages.

 Contact Cedar Rapids personal injury lawyer Sam Sheronick of Sam Sheronick Law Firm, P.C. and get your questions answered now during a free initial consultation.

Workers’ Compensation:

If a person suffers from a work-related injury, they must typically proceed under an area of law known as workers’ compensation. Unique notice requirements and the unique nature of workers’ compensation laws can be difficult to understand as you should contact a knowledgeable and experienced law firm handling workers’ compensation cases. Our firm has successfully handled workers’ compensation cases on a contingency (percentage) fee basis which means you do not pay an attorney fee unless you win or settle your case.

Contact Cedar Rapids personal injury lawyer Sam Sheronick of Sam Sheronick Law Firm, P.C. and get your questions answered now during a free initial consultation.

Wrongful Death:

Wrongful death claims arise when a person has died as a result of the conduct or negligence of another. These cases can occur as a result of a number of types of accidents including, but not limited to: car accidents, bicycle accidents, farm equipment accidents, defective product accidents, accidents involving pedestrians, motorcycle accidents, dog bites/attacks, slip-trip-falls(premises liability) accidents, semi trucks accidents, etc.

Contact Cedar Rapids personal injury lawyer Sam Sheronick of Sam Sheronick Law Firm, P.C. and get your questions answered now during a free initial consultation.