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		Personal Injury Personal injury is a broad area of law that relates primarily to the representation of persons injured as a result of the negligence or intentional conduct of individuals or corporations. Within the area of personal injury are included those subcategories of automobile accidents, product liability, medical malpractice, and premises liability. Under our laws, when a person is injured as a result of the wrongful conduct of another, that person can seek recovery for the damages resulting from the injury. The damages include the category known as "economic damages", or medical expenses, wage loss, and other forms of objectively verifiable monetary damage. In addition, the law also allows for the recovery of "noneconomic damages", or those more subjective damages relating to the pain, suffering, emotional distress and changes in lifestyle suffered as a result of physical injury. Wrongful Death When the conduct of a wrongdoer causes the death of another, a claim for wrongful death may arise. A wrongful death action can include claims for any monetary losses suffered as a result of the death of the decedent, as well as a claim for "loss of society and companionship" suffered by the survivors. Loss of society and companionship includes the loss of the love, affection, care, companionship, comfort, guidance and protection that the decedent would have provided if his or her life were not cut short by the wrongful act of another. Automobile Accidents This category of personal injury law involves injuries suffered by drivers, passengers, and pedestrians as a result of another's negligent operation of an automobile. Anyone operating a vehicle has a duty under the law to act reasonably under the circumstances. In addition, the statutes of our state, particularly the motor vehicle code, establish various "rules of the road" which govern the proper operation of a motor vehicle. Criminal Defense Criminal law involves the prosecution of crimes by the state, or by local municipalities. The firm's involvement in criminal law is exclusively limited to the defense of individuals who are accused of committing crimes, including traffic offenses, misdemeanors, and felonies. Domestic Relations Domestic relations is the area of the law that typically deals with the dissolution of marriages, and the resulting division of property, establishment of child and spousal support, and matters of child custody and visitation. It also includes proceeding that are instituted after divorce in order to enforce the orders that were entered by the trial court, or to attempt to change some of the provisions of the underlying provisions of the divorce decree. Domestic relations also includes adoption and grandparents' rights to visitation. All Other Practice Areas Insurance Claims When an insurance company denies payment of a claim, or an insured disagrees with the amount that his or her insurance company is willing to pay on a claim, then the insured has a right to bring an action to enforce the provisions of the insurance contract. There are many types of insurance claims, including actions relating to benefits due under an automobile insurance policy, health insurance policy, disability policy, or various commercial insurance policies associated with your business. In any and all such instances, an insured has the right to question the decision of the insurance company by asserting a claim under the policy. This area of the law refers to claims that you make directly against your own insurance company, not to claims that are made against someone else's insurance company. Appeals Appeals take place after a case has gone to trial. If a party is dissatisfied with the result of the trial, he or she has the right to appeal that result to a higher court, called the appellate court. This higher court reviews the proceedings at trial to see if legal errors were committed which resulted in an unfair proceeding. Appeals are merely a legal review of evidence and legal arguments presented at trial, and do not involve a further hearing where parties testify. Instead, the process on appeal is one involving written arguments submitted to a panel of judges, followed by brief oral arguments to highlight a party's claim that the trial was not fairly conducted. Medical Malpractice Medical malpractice refers to medical negligence, or injuries caused when a health provider, typically a physician, fails to supply reasonable treatment, and an individual is harmed as a result. These claims are based upon evidence that the doctor has failed to act in accordance with the "reasonable standard of care" for a medical provider practicing in his or her community. In almost all cases, medical malpractice claims can only be presented by offering expert testimony from a qualified physician that the care that was rendered was below a reasonable standard, and that such departure from the standard of care caused injury to the patient. A great deal of time and expense is necessarily incurred in the investigation and presentation of these cases. Premises Liability Premises liability cases are typically referred to as "slip and fall" or "trip and fall" cases. This area of the law refers to the potential liability of a landowner, usually a business, for injuries to a customer due to a dangerous condition on its land or its buildings. Many people are under the impression that if they're injured on a store owner's premises, the store owner is automatically liable for those injuries. This is not true. As with the other areas of the law discussed, in order to recover, negligence must be established on the fault of a landowner. In other words, an injured party must demonstrate that the dangerous condition on the premises that caused injury existed because of the fault of the landowner. It is often necessary to hire experts in construction, building codes, and other related areas in order to establish that a landowner was in fact negligent, and therefore potentially liable for injuries suffered by a customer.