The San Diego City Council approved a $1 million payout to 52-year-old Derrick Marable on Tuesday, September 13, including an undisclosed amount to his attorneys. Marable is receiving compensation after Balboa Park ranger Carol Rukstells ran over him while he was sleeping on a slope near the 1800 block of Sixth Avenue on the edge of the park.

The city council decided on July 19, 2016 in a private session they would award Marable with settlement money. They also gave consent to award other settlements – to a police officer and to two other people needing to settle personal injury claims – on Tuesday. Marable claimed he was severely injured as a result of this accident and that he suffered injuries to the kidney and lung, broken ribs, other fractured vertebrae, significant blood loss leading to shock, and a lacerated liver.

Our attorneys at Ritter & Associates are prepared to handle personal injury accident cases that include motor vehicle accidents, premises liability cases, and wrongful deaths, among others. Call our offices in San Diego at (619) 296-0123 to discuss your case and learn more about your legal options.

A lawsuit was recently filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California against the MLB for allegedly failing to install safety netting that could protect spectators from getting injured when balls accidentally hit them.

The plaintiffs claim that the defendants are guilty of negligence and misrepresentation. They added that they are exposing the spectators of the sport to unnecessary harm, referencing a Ninth Circuit decision that says holding the fear or anxiety of future harm is enough to establish injury-in-fact.

The MLB contended, on the other hand, that the injury rate per ticket is less than 1%, meaning the chance of injury is very slim. Therefore, the plaintiffs have failed to establish an imminent danger of injury. Similar litigation involving hockey has set the bar for injury very high. Even in the most extreme cases, the hockey team and the National Hockey League are usually absolved of liability because of the argument that sporting fans are aware of the possibility of injury when attending such sporting events. As long as teams, arenas, and leagues warn spectators of the possibility of injury when coming to said sporting events, they are usually not held responsible for injuries to spectators.

The attorneys at Ritter & Associates provide legal services for our clients in San Diego and other areas of California, an we handle personal injury accident cases such as product and premises liability. Call our offices today at (619) 296-0123 to learn more about what we can do for you.

California Governor Jerry Brown, Jr. on Wednesday, August 17 enacted into law a measure that outlaws the admission or discovery of evidence related to a person’s immigration status, in wrongful death and personal injury cases.

Assembly Bill 2159, which was supported by state Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (Democrat of San Diego), effectively overturns a 30-year-old court case, Rodriguez v. Kline, that assesses future damages for plaintiffs illegally working in the United States at what they would have earned from the country they came from instead of what they would have earned in the state of California had they not been injured.

The Rodriguez v. Kline decision set the precedent for defendants in personal injury cases to compute compensation for medical expenses based on medical care costs in the plaintiff’s place of origin rather than the cost of medical care in California, since the plaintiff should not have been living in the country anyway because he is living in the country illegally.

Our personal injury attorneys at Ritter & Associates, who provide legal services to our clients in San Diego or other areas in California, handle personal injury accident cases pertaining to product liability, auto accidents, truck accidents, motorcycle accidents, and other motor vehicle accidents, among others.

General Motors attempted to derail a suit filed against them for defective ignition switches that allegedly lead to the death of 19-year-old Zachary Stevens (Texas). During the trial, jurors were mistakenly shown copies of the wrong key  as evidence. GM argued that the plaintiff intentionally presented the incorrect key to mislead the jury. However, Judge Robert Shaffer, who presides over the case, ruled that the mistake was insufficient to throw out the case. Rather, he stated that he would inform the jury members personally about the error and allow them to take it into account while deliberating. The trial is still underway.

GM has spent $2 billion dollars to date fighting allegations about their faulty ignition switches. Stevens’ case is the first that the company has been unable to get dismissed.

If you’ve suffered a personal injury as a result of either a corporation or individual, you deserve the right to take legal action. Contact our personal injury attorneys at Ritter & Associates by calling (619) 296-0123.

A charter bus crash on the northbound lane of Highway 99 between Atwater and Livingston in Merced County, California last Tuesday, August 2 resulted in four deaths, according to the California Highway Patrol.

According to preliminary investigations, the bus was traveling along the highway when it veered off the freeway and crashed into a pole that sliced the vehicle almost in half.

The deceased were identified as 57-year-old Fernando Ramirez and 64-year-old Petra Carillo Ruiz, a Mexican married couple who were going to visit a daughter in Pasco in Franklin County, Washington and 58-year-old Avalon, California resident Jose Morales Bravo, whose wife was hospitalized due to injuries she sustained in the crash. The fourth victim was identified only as a 38-year-old man whose identity will only be revealed after the authorities had been able to contact his family through the Mexican consulate, Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke said.

Driver fatigue is suspected to be the cause of the accident and the attorneys here at Ritter & Associates urge any commercial drivers to take breaks as necessary to keep passengers and other drivers safe. Our thoughts go out to all of the victims and their loved ones.

A two-vehicle accident occurred around 12:20 p.m. on Friday, August 5 in the northbound lanes of San Antonio Creek Road along Highway 154. The collision near Santa Barbara resulted in one individual sustaining critical injuries.

According to preliminary investigations made by the California Highway Patrol, a recreational vehicle and at least one other automobile collided with each other along the highway. The driver of the passenger car is the one who sustained serious injuries. Highway 154 was shut down in both directions following the incident. Captain Dave Zaniboni of the Santa Barbara County Fire Department said the injured driver was trapped inside his wrecked car and then taken to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital by an ambulance from American Medical Response. The people inside the RV were not harmed during the incident.

Our attorneys at Ritter & Associates are committed to securing the financial compensation that our personal injury accident clients need for recovery. If you sustained injuries in a personal injury accident in San Diego or another area of California, we are able and willing to provide legal assistance to you. Call our offices today at (619) 296-0123 to discuss your legal options.

The state of California has numerous regulations in place when it comes to the operation of childcare facilities. Be that as it may, reports still abound of children getting hurt while at daycare. Children are commonly exposed to injury due to inappropriate behavior of their attendants, negligence in supervision by the attendants, and improperly maintained playground equipment.

In order for a personal injury claim against a daycare center to be successful, the plaintiff must be able to prove that the injury the child suffered was foreseeable by child care providers.

If your child was harmed by defective products or because the people attending them are negligent with their supervision, get in touch with the attorneys at Ritter & Associates in San Diego. If anyone puts your child or multiple children in danger, they deserve to be held accountable for their negligence. Find out more by calling our offices today at (619) 296-0123 to discuss your legal options.

The San Diego City Council agreed during the third week of July to pay $450,000 for the settlement of two personal injury claims.

$375,000 of the total amount will go to Garrett and Pam Slavin, who incurred serious injuries, including bone fractures, when a Nissan SUV crashed into them while they were on a Harley Davidson motorcycle in 2013. The couple claims the city is partially at fault because the area was not properly striped. Meanwhile, $75,000 of the total amount will go to Jose and Elba Rios, who claimed that they were hurt in their home in 2012 by police officers who responded to a call of a domestic disturbance.

A serious personal injury accident can change your life at the snap of a finger. Not only will you be saddled with expensive medical bills, you will also have to contend with being physically impaired and having no capability of earning your daily wages. Get in touch with our attorneys at Ritter & Associates if you were the victim of a personal injury accident in San Diego by calling our offices today at (619) 296-0123.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has been named the defendant in a new wave of class action lawsuits over student athletes’ concussions, but experts say plaintiffs could hit a deadlock as the NCAA is trying to connect the new claims to a related settlement. The lawsuits are concerned about repeated blows to the head, or concussions, claiming that a lot of former players are currently afflicted with neurological and cognitive damage, including chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE.

The NCAA had already come to a $75 million medical monitoring settlement in the concussion multi-district litigation back in April 2015, but some athletes were not amenable to it, noting that the settlement did not provide relief for those who are already experiencing neurological concerns. For instance, former California-based San Diego State University football player Anthony Nichols, claimed the settlement mandated class members to waive “billions and billions of dollars” in personal injury lawsuits.

Sports and entertainment lawyer Timothy Liam Epstein said that the settlement does not provide the NCAA with “blanket immunity”, as it does not give individual damages to the former players as the plaintiffs demand in the new lawsuits. For his part, NCAA chief legal officer Donald Remy made the contention that, “Failing to achieve a bodily injury component to the [MDL] settlement, it appears that counsel is attempting to extract a bodily injury settlement through the filing of these new questionable class actions.”

If you had been injured, maimed, or put at risk of physical trauma or even death due to participation in sports in San Diego and received no assistance from the school or team you played for, get in touch with our attorneys at Ritter & Associates by calling our offices today at (619) 296-0123.

Dmitri Voloshchuk, Villela Rosa Tosca, Varvara Voloshchuk, Alexander Voloshchuk, and Daniel Felix Voloshchuk filed a lawsuit on Friday, July 1 in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California against Morrisville, North Carolina-based Chinese multinational technology company Lenovo Group Ltd., claiming negligence, product liability, and product recall expansion.

In their lawsuit, the family said their Lenovo Thinkpad laptop had caught fire while it was charging in their place of residence on June 5, 2016, causing damage to their apartment and physical properties.

The family is holding the tech company responsible for the incident, saying it should be liable for not being able to detect defects in the products that it sells to consumers.

If you or someone you love has incurred some expenses, not to mention physical or emotional trauma, damage to property, or even missed days of work due to a personal injury accident that happened through no fault of your or their own in San Diego or other areas in California, get in touch with our attorneys at Ritter & Associates by calling our offices today at (619) 296-0123. Speak with a qualified member of our legal team as soon as you can.