Personal Injury Law Blog

In Maine, landowners can often be held liable when someone is injured on their property. But what happens when a third party causes your injury on someone else’s property? In the premises liability case of Colvin v. A R Cable Company the Maine Supreme Court provided an answer to that very question.

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court recently upheld a jury award obtained by a Maine lawyer on behalf of a bicycle accident victim. A jury had awarded Monica Semian $750,000 for her losses stemming from a 2010 bicycle accident. The then-20-year-old Romanian exchange student was riding her bicycle when she was struck by a school bus owned by Ledgemere Transportation.

Earlier this year, the Governors Highway Safety Association released its findings with regard to bicyclist safety – and the results reveal an alarming trend of increased bicycle and pedestrian fatalities across the United States.

Each year in the U.S., about 15,200 people require emergency medical care or miss at least a day of work because of carbon monoxide poisoning. About 430 people lose their lives to this invisible threat each year. Maine residents could easily prevent carbon monoxide poisoning by installing detectors in every building.

At Hardy, Wolf & Downing, we believe in our clients – and we will not relent until a fair and adequate settlement is reached. In one such case we worked diligently to redress the traumatic brain injury suffered by a plaintiff who, on the surface, described a hard-to-prove fact pattern and a shaky chain of events.

Pro bono work is very much ingrained at the law firm of Hardy, Wolf and Downing, where attorney Sheldon Tepler has once again received Maine’s Katahdin Award for his free services to help low income residents in need of civil representation. Created by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, the Katahdin Award has two main goals.

The Maine car accident lawyers at Hardy, Wolf & Downing understand that the holiday season is a time for fun, family and all too often, long road trips on snow-covered roadways. Maine drivers know all too well that serious hazards can lurk around every corner, particularly during the colder months.

Two former Takata employees recently shared alarming information with regulators, claiming the Japanese manufacturer has known for 10 years that its airbags could cause harm to consumers. Ten years ago, back in 2004, the company secretly tested 50 of its airbags found in scrapyards, after a report surfaced that one of its airbags ruptured and churned out metal debris on an Alabama driver.

The product liability attorneys at Hardy, Wolf & Downing would like to wish everyone a wonderful and safe holiday season. At this time of year, when many children receive toys as gifts, we would like to remind parents of the “safety first” principle. Some toys that may seem like fun to your children may actually be quite hazardous and it is important that you choose gifts wisely.

While it may prove challenging to attribute a serious or even fatal motor vehicle accident to drowsy driving, it is estimated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that roughly 2.5 percent of all deadly crashes and 2 percent of severe personal injuries involve fatigued motorists. The National Sleep Foundation further attributes 1,550 deaths each year in the U.S.