Personal Injury:
Life is stressful enough just living from day-to-day, but when you have suffered an injury because of another person, the stress and interruption to your life can be unbearable. The financial challenges following an injurious event can be devastating. To make matters worse, the insurance industry has learned through years of research that they make lots of money fighting you on every aspect of your claim. After all, the less they pay out, the more they keep.
I fight for my clients to even the playing field and to hold them accountable. I will fight with resolve to maximize your results to help you obtain accountability and justice.
Automobile Collisions:
Most of us drive and all of us interact with automobiles. Automobile collisions can turn your life upside down. You can be left with injuries, pain, and without transportation. On top of that, your injuries may take days to years to heal. Sometimes the injuries never fully heal. They require medical treatments that take time. You may not be able to work or worse may be left disabled.
Washington State requires everyone to have car insurance. Many drivers don’t. And if they do, make no mistake that the automobile insurance industry is in the business of helping itself and is not there to take care of you. They have lawyers on staff to fight you and to fight your claim. They have well trained claims representatives to get you to settle your claim as quickly as possible to minimize the money you get. Often people settle for way less than they are entitled to leaving them without the resources they need to recover.
I work hard for my clients to stand up to the insurance industry and to level the playing field. I take over the stress and work of handling your claim so you can focus on healing and recovering. I fight to make sure you get the justice you deserve.
MEDICAL MALPRACTICE and NURSING HOME NEGLECT
Injuries as a result of healthcare are the third leading cause of death in the United States. This fact is almost never talked about. But, one of the most dangerous places you can be is a hospital or your doctor’s office. The injuries that result from medical malpractice are devastating. I have seen clients left paralyzed, permanently disabled, on life support, and told that their once treatable disease is now no longer treatable and was going to kill them. People have died in hospital emergency waiting rooms of heart attacks after telling the triage nurse they had all the symptoms of a heart attack and then waiting for hours to see a doctor.
There are a few injuries in the medical setting that have been considered unacceptable. Falls in hospitals and medical facilities injure thousands and thousands of people every year. This is simply unacceptable. Patients in hospitals are there because they are ill and need treatment. The medical providers and staff are there to take care of them and prevent falls. Yet, they still happen.
Hospital falls can be devastating, leading to broken limbs, head trauma, and death. Hospitals and nursing homes need to be held to account for these if we are going to see any change in the statistics.
Another unacceptable injury are pressure sores or bed sores. Pressure sores happen when a patient is not properly turned and padded to prevent the sores from forming. Nursing homes and hospitals often neglect to prevent these injuries from happening. They are painful, and can be debilitating. People have spent their finals days in agony as a deep pressure sores goes untreated, killing the tissue to the bone.
I am disturbed by the current trend in our healthcare system of large corporations, both nonprofit and for profit, taking over the practice of medicine. The notion of the family doctor, who was there for you and your family, is going away. The family doctor has been replaced by large clinics. These clinics require doctors to meet certain “patient metrics” limiting your doctor’s ability to practice medicine. The doctors are forced to practice medicine for the sake of the large organization at your expense.
I find medical malpractice and nursing home abuse and neglect cases to be the most troubling. We put our complete trust in our healthcare providers. We trust that they are looking out for us and we trust them with our lives and our loved ones. When this trust is broken, the results are devastating. I have spent years working to understand our healthcare system and to hold hospitals, doctors, clinics, nursing homes, and other providers accountable when their negligence has devastated someone.
BUSINESS and CORPORATE LAW
I believe that the backbone of our communities are our local small businesses. The backbone of those businesses are the brave entrepreneurs who have struggled to get them going and to keep them going. I too have the entrepreneurial bug and have had my share of personal experiences in business that have come to serve my clients well. I understand the hopes, dreams and frustrations that come with starting a business and trying to run it. I understand the regulatory and tax roller coaster that awaits every small business as it tries to grow. I know what it is to have an unscrupulous business partner. My experience gives me a unique perspective on starting and running a business that you won’t find from most attorneys.
