Personal Injury Law: The First Steps You Should Take After an Injury

The majority of personal injury cases are often solved during or before trial, and only a few of them are tried in a court of law. However, there are several benefits of solving a personal injury case outside the courtroom. A qualified personal injury lawyer or disability lawyer will greatly help in the negotiation of a settlement in your personal injury case.

A personal injury occurs after an individual has sustained bodily harm as a result of negligence or willful behavior of another person. Personal injuries can change your life depending on the vastness of the injuries you sustain. It can also take a long time before you get back to your normal life. After an injury, protecting your rights is not the first thing that comes to mind. However, it is important to follow some simple steps and procedures that can save your time later when you decide to sue those liable for your injuries.

Preserving Evidence

A good way to preserve evidence after a personal injury is by taking notes after the accident or as soon as you can take them. Ensure that your notes are detailed and include information on injuries you sustained, how the injuries have affected your daily life, and what happened. Although taking notes cannot be your top priority after a serious and traumatic experience, it can help you during a legal claim.

When writing about the incident, it is advisable to write about what happened before, during, and after the occurrence. It is important that you remember to indicate the place and time of the incident, weather conditions and those who were involved. It is also equally important to include the mental and physical details of the injuries you sustained, the number of days you missed work, and the kind of treatment you received.

Reports by the Police

In case you were involved in an incident that later involved law enforcers such as a vehicle accident, the police will have a report of what transpired. As a victim of the incident you are entitled to get a copy of the report. Such a report can strengthen your position when making a claim. Therefore, make sure you get the police report. The rules in many police departments around the country dictate that you should appear in person to get a copy of the report. In some police departments you will be requested to pay a small fee before you get the copy.

The police report will help your personal injury lawyer when negotiating on your behalf. For instance, when your disability attorney meets with the opposing side to discuss the settlement, the facts in the police report will add more weight during the negotiation. The police report includes who was at fault and contact information of key witnesses.

Get a Personal Injury Lawyer

After you or someone close to you sustains injuries due to the fault of a company or another individual, make sure that you contact a local disability lawyer or personal injury lawyer to discuss some of your legal options. Ensure you do so as soon as possible to avoid missing the set time limit for filing a personal injury case. For more information, visit Law Broker.

Weight Loss Surgury

Choosing to undergo weight loss surgery is a major decision that will affect how you live the rest of your life, and should only be made after some serious deliberations with your doctor. Weight loss surgery is typically performed for one of two reasons:

1.) The patient is literally at risk of sudden death if they don’t lose weight immediately, and/or
2.) Suffers from a medical condition that prevents them from achieving a healthy weight through conventional means, i.e. diet and exercise.

In other words, weight loss surgery is not used to shed the last few vanity pounds, not is it the “easier way” when compared to diet and exercise. Having this surgery involves risk and will require you to make permanent changes to how you eat and live.

With that in mind, here are the most common types of weight loss surgeries:

Restrictive surgeries

This type of surgery limits the amount of food your stomach is able to hold by restricting the size of your stomach by either an adjustable band or permanent removal of part of the stomach. These include:

• Gastric band surgery: An elastic band is used to squeeze the stomach into two chambers. As one consumes a meal, the feeling of fullness occurs almost immediately. Consequently, less food is eaten, causing weight loss. The opening between the two chambers is adjustable, and the band can eventually be removed entirely.
• Sleeve gastrectomy: In this procedure, the surgeon removes approximately 75 percent of your stomach, leaving a “sleeve” that connects to the intestines. Unlike gastric band surgery, a sleeve gastrectomy is not reversible. This is sometimes followed by a gastric bypass surgery.

Mal-absorptive surgery

• Gastric bypass surgery: This is the most common type of weight loss surgery, and provides the quickest results. In it, the surgeon divides the stomach into two parts, then connects the upper into the lower section of the small intestine. This creates a two-fold effect: First, the size of the stomach is reduced. Secondly, much of the small intestine is bypassed, resulting in fewer calories being absorbed. The end result is rapid weight loss. However, fewer nutrients are being absorbed, so much care must be given to the nutritive qualities of the foods being consumed.

Electrical implants

Similar to how a pacemaker works, an electrical pulse is delivered to the vagus nerve that runs between the stomach and the brain and tells us when we feel full. The unit cycles on and off in 5-minute intervals, and can be controlled from outside the body.

Although the levels of invasiveness vary with all of these methods, keep in mind that all weight loss surgeries are considered major surgeries and risks include infection of the surgical site, nausea, and vomiting. In procedures that are reversible, there is the chance that the weight can return.