Tuesday, February 17, 2009

York Auto Accident Attorneys

New York Auto Accident Attorneys

If you've been in a car crash in the state of New York, you should seriously consider hiring a New York auto accident lawyer. A New York auto accident lawyer is your guide to all of the legal issues that a car crash may create, including personal injury, property damage, statutes of limitations and insurance bad faith. A New York auto accident lawyer can help you file before the state's very short deadline, work out issues of legal fault and get the compensation you are entitled to. New York auto accident lawyers know car crashes can be very expensive; in addition to repair costs and medical bills, victims may lose wages because they couldn't work, need expensive long-term therapy or hire people to do work around the house that they cannot complete because of an incapacitating injury. A New York auto accident lawyer can secure compensation for you to pay for these expenses and more.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Alternative Dispute Resolution Options in San Francisco

Under local rules, all long cause civil cases (defined as cases with trials estimated to take longer than five hours), with a few exceptions, must attempt some form of ADR. The parties may choose the form of ADR, including mediation, judicial arbitration and binding arbitration. In the absence of agreement by the parties, the delay commissioner will order cases to ADR. Certain cases with an amount in controversy of $50,000 or less will be sent to judicial arbitration, including all limited civil cases with a jury demand. Limited civil cases with no jury demand are classified as short cause cases and are not sent to arbitration. The rest of the cases are sent to an early settlement program run by the Bar Association using volunteer attorneys.

In addition to the ADR requirement, all cases except for short causes and de novo appeals from arbitration are set for a settlement conference two weeks prior to the trial date. The judges conduct the settlement conferences. The date of the settlement conference is set at the status conference. Further, on trial day volunteer attorneys are available to conduct settlement conferences for cases awaiting trial. The presiding judge may send a case to such a conference.