If you have been in an accident and have the ability to photograph (or ask someone else on the scene) the damage caused, don’t waste the opportunity to create a documentary trail that could be crucial evidence in the event you need to litigate.

Virtually every attorney will tell you to document your ideal in full, including keeping a journal and taking photographs throughout your ordeal. Photographs of any sustained injuries throughout various stages of progression (at the accident scene, at the hospital, after the hospital, and intermittently thereafter), including medical equipment you may be required to wear or use (such as sutures, braces, casts, orthopedic walking boots, bandages, etc.) can be helpful in establishing the validity and extent of your claim. These elements help bolster your claim and provide documented proof of your injury, and your subsequent pain and suffering.

Especially helpful are photographs of your damaged automobile or motorcycle because they will clearly show the type of damage and its extent to your vehicle as well as the violent forces your body was subjected to in the collision. Photographs of the accident scene and of the other party’s damaged car or truck (including its license plates), can also be quite valuable to your claim.

Give all copies of these photographs to the attorneys at Turner & Turner. Your photos, which we can present as exhibits to any liable parties, including insurance companies and other responsible parties to any subsequent lawsuit, will help in presenting a clearer understanding of the situation you have endured in its entirety.

If litigation becomes necessary, those photographs will help a mediator better understand the value of your claim; and, beyond that, your photographs can be used by a judge or jury to help bolster your case so an accurate decision and amount of compensation can be rendered.

BACKUP and MAKE COPIES

Any documentation, including photos taken and stored on your phone, should be backed up to ensure nothing gets lost. Apps like Google Photos and Apple Photos can be configured to automatically sync your phone and store a copy of photos in a cloud storage site.

Similarly, any memorializing you do, like keeping a journal and recounting the accident, or documenting your injuries and the process of healing, should be backed up. If it is electronic, store copies on a peripheral device like a thumb drive. Make a third backup onto a cloud server. Don’t rely on the storage of one source (your phone, computer, etc.), because accidents happen. Things break and items can get lost. Being redundant with your evidence ensures its availability.

Call Turner Law today and learn how we can help you receive compensation for an injury sustained due to negligence, recklessness, or another fault beyond your control, but not the person or entity where your injury occurred.

Call Turner today at (248) 355-1727.

To learn about garnishments in the most general sense, Turner Law has created a brief overview of garnishments.

Income and assets generally exempt from garnishment include:

1. Social Security benefits and disability payments
2. Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments
3. Veterans’ Benefits
4. Civil Service and Federal Retirement and Disability Benefits
5. Military Annuities and Survivors’ Benefits
6. Railroad Retirement Benefits
7. Merchant Seamen Wages
8. Longshoremen’s and Harbor Workers’ Death and Disability Benefits
9. Foreign Service Retirement and Disability Benefits
10. Compensation for Injury, Death, or Detention of Employees of U.S. Contractors Outside the U.S.
11. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Disaster Assistance
12. General Assistance Benefits
13. Family Independence Program (FIP) grants
14. Food Assistance Program (FAP)
15. Electronic Benefits Transfers (EBT)
16. State Disability Assistance
17. Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs)
18. Student loan disbursements, grants, or work assistance
19. Unemployment Compensation benefits
20. Worker’s Compensation benefits
21. Cash value of life insurance policies that are payable to your spouse or children
22. Income benefits under the Michigan Civil Service Act
23. Income benefits under the Michigan Retirement Act
24. Pensions covered by ERISA

There are some exceptions to that list. For example, Social security disability and retirement benefits can be garnished to pay federal taxes, child support, and alimony.

• SSI payments can’t be garnished under any circumstances;
• Pension income can be garnished once it’s in your bank account.
• Income from the other sources listed above stays exempt once it’s in your bank account. (It’s best to avoid putting it in the same bank account with non-exempt income.)

For more information on whether awards from a settlement are subject to garnishment, contact the attorneys at Turner & Turner for advice on how best to avoid seizure of assets, including settlements. Call Turner Law at (248) 355-1727.

To learn about requesting an accident report, click here.

To see a sample accident report, click here.

Your accident report might be confusing to read and understand. Most people aren’t familiar with these documents and find it challenging to determine what all of the information means. Below is an outline of what you might find in your accident report so you can decipher every detail correctly.

Basic Information

Most accident reports have a box at the top of the first page with basic details about the accident, such as:

• Date and time of the collision
• Crash report number
• Name of the investigating officer
• Street, road, intersections, city or town, and state the accident happened
• Vehicle Driver Information

Details about every driver involved in the collision are in the next section. If there’s more than one driver, the report should include information for each one. The details in this section might show:

• Driver’s name, address, and phone number
• Name of the vehicle owner
• Vehicle owner’s address and phone number
• Year, color, make, and model of the car
• License plate number and vehicle identification number
• Motorist’s driver’s license number and the state of issuance
• Auto insurance company, policy number, and policyholder’s name
• Vehicle Occupants and Non-Motorists

Anyone else involved in the accident, including bicyclists, pedestrians, and passengers in the cars, will be in this section. The information provided can include:

• Name of the passengers and where they sat in the vehicle
• Name of bicyclists, motorcyclists, pedestrians, and other non-motorists
• Address and phone number of each person
• Accident Details

Another section provides information regarding the accident, such as:

• Events related to the collision, such as an impact with a pedestrian, another vehicle, or a stationary object, such as a wall or telephone pole
• The directions all involved vehicles were traveling when the crash occurred
• Road conditions
• Weather conditions
• Point of the impact, such as side, front, or rear
• Actions taken by pedestrians involved in the collision
• Whether the crash happened during the day or at night and the light conditions
• Defects each vehicle contains, such as malfunctioning brakes, worn-out tires, or broken tail lights
• Traffic citations issued for the accident
• Cause of the crash
• Additional Information

You might find additional details associated with the accident in other sections of the police report. Common information includes:

• Whether an ambulance arrived at the accident scene and transported anyone to the hospital
• Name of the EMS and hospital
• Type of damage and location on the vehicles
• Road debris, skid marks, and other details about the collision
• Injuries sustained in the crash
• The estimated cost of damage to each car involved

Diagram and Narrative

Most accident reports include a section the officer can use to describe how the accident happened. The information can consist of the events leading up to the crash, such as each driver’s actions and who the officer believes is at fault.

Typically, law enforcement can determine the cause of the crash by speaking to witnesses and the drivers, passengers, and non-motorists involved in the collision. They can reconstruct the accident using a diagram to show each motorist’s direction of travel and other movements made before and after the crash.

Why You Need an Accident Report

Most people are in shock in the immediate aftermath of a car accident. You likely feel scared and confused about what happened. It’s overwhelming when you’re faced with doctor’s appointments, medical bills, and an insurance claim. Handling all of those responsibilities yourself can seem impossible.

You should absolutely consider hiring an attorney after the accident. Your attorney can help gather the evidence you need to prove another driver’s actions caused the crash, irrespective of Michigan’s No-Fault insurance laws.

One vital piece of evidence is the accident report. If law enforcement indicated someone else was at fault, you could use the report to show the insurance company you deserve compensation for your injuries.

For more information on how to obtain, understand, and use an accident report to help prove your case, contact the attorneys at Turner & Turner PC for a free consultation by calling (248) 355-1727.

This video can help you review your situation after the fact, but you may be interested in using it to clear your name of any wrongdoing.

When are Cell Phone Videos Admissible?

Using cell phone video as evidence in court is certainly possible, but this evidence is not always guaranteed to be admissible. If you would like to use cell phone evidence in your case, your attorney will have to convince the judge the video footage is both relevant to your case — and reliable.

For evidence to be allowed into court, it must be considered relevant to the case at hand. Something relevant tends to make an essential fact in your trial either more or less probable. Irrelevant pieces of evidence waste time and may distract the jury from a vital part of the case.

What Makes a Cell Phone Video Authentic?

For your video to be declared admissible, it must be deemed authentic. Demonstrative evidence such as a video cannot come from anywhere. Rather, it must be brought forth by someone who can testify in court to the legitimacy of the video.

Video captured by traffic cameras will carry more legitimacy than a cell phone video captured by someone trying to win a legal proceeding. If the video’s source cannot be found, its authenticity is not good. Therefore, it may be excluded under Michigan’s hearsay rules.

When Can Videos be Inadmissible in Court?

A significant problem with videos captured on a cell phone comes down to an issue of credibility. When you put forth something as evidence, you’re trying to convince the court something specific happened and the video should be able to tell its story without guessing. Problems with your cell phone video could include:

• Lighting: If lighting is poor, it could be hard to tell certain features of the video, such as the identity of a person or the distance between two things.
• Time of Recording Questions: Timing is everything; maybe your video portrays something that should have occurred at a certain time, but is impossible to prove it.
• Location – Is there too much guessing that must go into determining where your video was filmed? If your video requires taking your word for its details, it doesn’t offer much more than your spoken testimony.

Things to Consider Before Using Cell Phone Video as Evidence

Before you take steps to use cell phone video as evidence to support your case, there may be several items to consider. Using cell phone video as evidence may do more harm than good in some cases. Here are a few other essential details you should know before using cell phone video as evidence in your case.

Can an Attorney Subpoena Cell Phone Records to Clear Your Name?

Many people assume social media videos online can be used as evidence in a trial to support their case. But for such footage to be admissible, your attorney must recover the original video evidence.

Often, video data can be acquired by simply asking for it from the originator. But your attorney may be able to file a subpoena, or police can execute a search warrant to access the video footage in question.

Do Privacy Laws Interfere with Obtaining Cell Phone Videos?

The ability to use cell phone video footage as evidence to support your case can vary widely depending on whether the law requires two-party consent. Under Michigan law, recording a telephone call or conversation without both party’s consent is illegal. This means that the audio portion of your video footage may be protected as private communication, but the video footage may not be.

If you have been injured in an accident, have questions about whether video(s) you have may be used to support your claim, or there is obtainable CCTV evidence, contact Turner & Turner for a free consultation at (248) 355-1727.

Although the majority of personal injury lawsuits are settled by insurance companies, a number of cases do end up going to trial. It is crucial for you to know what to expect should this happen with your claim.

Various Components of a Personal Injury Claim

When cases go to court, they go through various steps — from start to finish. In many personal injury cases, a jury selection will take place. A jury can be composed of 12 or fewer individuals who are selected and questioned by the judge. The judge or your attorney will ask numerous questions to the selected individuals to see their personal views on various case types, and to learn more about them personally. Questioning a juror helps determine if a person is a good candidate or if they have certain biases.

After a jury is selected, the case will move to trial. Trial for personal injury claims typical start with opening statements. The prosecution and the defense will each be allotted time to make an opening statement in support of their legal claim. Typically, the personal injury attorney supporting the victim will give their opening statement first because they have the burden of proof.

Burden of Proof

To file a successful claim against an at-fault party, the claimant must clearly demonstrate the burden of proof. After opening statements are heard, the case will move on to presenting the evidence. Personal injury attorneys will generally call witnesses to testify to back up the evidence presented during the trial. Some witnesses can be individuals who personally witnessed an incident occur: doctors, financial experts, and even experts who re-create the scene of the incident.

After the claimant’s attorney presents all relevant evidence, the defense is provided an opportunity to present evidence of their own. Defense attorneys can call forth witnesses and present documentation to support their argument against the claimant. After both sides present their evidence, each side will be given the opportunity to cross-examine witnesses.

After witnesses are cross-examined, both sides will begin to present their closing arguments. The defense and plaintiff are both given one final chance to try and persuade the jury to present a favorable outcome for them. The jury will then deliberate in a separate room and come to their own conclusion or verdict.

Personal injury cases, like car accidents, are usually deliberated rather quickly. In some cases, they can take several days. Once a verdict is reached, the jury informs the judge, and then they present the verdict to both parties.

For more information on whether you have a case against another party, and whether a settlement is in your best interest, should one be offered, contact Turner & Turner at (248) 355-1727.

If you or a loved one has been injured in an auto accident or negligence by medical professionals, for example, you should explore your remedies under the law. If you have already retained counsel, one element of case preparation is undergoing depositions.

What is a Deposition?

A deposition is a question and answer session between an attorney and either the plaintiff(s) or defendant(s). The deposition occurs under oath and is used to find out what a witness knows, and to preserve testimony. It can be used at trial to refresh recollection or to ask a witness why trial testimony conflicts with what was said at the deposition.

The American Bar Association, the country’s leading legal organization that monitors officers of the court, has laid out a few important tips for individuals to know before they enter a deposition. Your attorney will surely prepare you ahead of time, but for those unfamiliar with the process, here are a few highlights of things to keep in mind.

Before entering into a deposition, you’ll attorney will likely prepare you by asking you to review documentary evidence and complete a mock Q&A. The guiding principle of our legal system is truth under the law. Therefore, despite walking into what may likely be an adversarial (more likely hostile) environment, where a camera may be pointed at you and you feel like you’re in the “hot seat,” remember the truth is your friend. If you can’t recall something, then that is what you say.

What to Wear?

Appearance and presentation matter, so general advice is to dress as if you are going on a job interview, or something akin to that. Look presentable; it will lend to your credibility and give you more confidence in testifying. Be comfortable but presentable. Professional and credible is the goal.

What to Bring?

In short: Nothing. If you are given documents to review in advance, you should not bring them: the first thing an opposing counsel is likely to ask what documents, if any, you brought and mark that as Exhibit 1. Even your phone may open up questions of unnecessary scrutiny. Leave it in the car. (Example: If you bring a phone, you could be asked to find text messages or emails.) Don’t make opposing counsel’s job easier. Other than car keys and eyeglasses, experts recommend clients bring nothing with them into a deposition room.

What Time Should You Arrive?

Be prompt and, if possible, arrive 15 minutes before the deposition. It gives your attorney a chance to calm your nerves, allows you to get water or go to the restroom. Your attorney will likely make a plan with you ahead of time so you both enter the deposition together. Going in together will give you confidence.

What the Room Will Look Like?

Your attorney will know ahead of time where the deposition will take place and provide you with a lay of the land, so to speak. Most likely, you will find yourself in a conference room at a law firm or other office setting. You should know where you will be seated and feel confident since your attorney will be seated next to you. If the deposition is videotaped, remember you will be the only one in the frame: sit up straight, maintain your composure and speak slowly. Remember, you are both under oath and everything you say will be both recorded and transcribed by a court stenographer. Don’t be spooked by either. Speaking the truth, in spite of a potentially intimidating setting, is your best offense and defense.

What happens first?

Your attorney will explain the procedures and what to expect. Essentially, if you are at the point of giving a deposition, you have already answered many of the questions you are likely to be asked. The videographer will begin by stating that once the camera begins recording, everything said thereafter will be going “on the record”; and the court reporter will begin to type. The videographer will state the name of the case, the date, the time and the address of the law firm. They will then ask lawyers to make their appearances, after which the court reporter will ask you to raise your hand and take an oath confirming you will tell the truth. After the appearances and the oath, opposing counsel will begin asking questions.

Knowing what to expect takes the mystery out of the process so you can focus on telling the truth and achieving the justice you are seeking. For more information, or to speak with an attorney about your personal injury claim, call the law offices of Turner and Turner at (248) 355-1727.