Neuhardt Law recently assisted a Billings woman in her personal injury case against her neighbors.

Ms. Person was set upon and attacked by their 3 boxer dogs in July 2009. The attack resulted in numerous bite wounds and a series of rabies shots.

We produced a successful settlement for Ms. Person and the Billings Gazette recently wrote about our story, read it here.

A case of a fertilizer spill brings up negligence and driving safety issues.

Earlier this month, a commercial truck hauling a load of fertilizer up Interstate15 into Montana brought up some interesting issues about fault in road debris cases. The type of truck is called a ‘belly dump’. These are container type semi-trucks that funnel down on the bottom so that opening a slide will release the contents. In this case, the driver claimed he stopped suddenly at a construction zone and this jarred the door on the bottom of the truck, resulting in a steady leak of the contents. The green fertilizer leaked for more than a mile along I-15 until the driver pulled over and resealed the opening.

Thankfully, and perhaps because it happened in a construction zone, no accidents occurred. But we’ve all either seen debris on the road or even been hit by truck cast offs. The question an accident attorney needs to determine is really two-fold: Was there negligence by the trucking company and, can negligence be proven?

Unintentional poisonings can lead to negligence suits.

The death of a 13 month-old boy in January of this year in Deer Lake led to a Coroner’s inquest in Powell County. Six months later the verdict is in – a poisoning due to negligence at the hands of the father. The poison? Antifreeze.

The father claims he thought it was green Kool-Aid when he filled the child’s cup with the ‘drink’. The boy died even after all possible measures were taken at Seattle Children’s Hospital. It will be up to a court to decide if the poisoning was criminal or not.

Poisonings, even among adults, are a much more common cause of injury or death than most people would believe. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports (2008) that unintentional poisonings have been trending upward since 1992. Poisonings rank second only to car crashes for causing injury or death in 34 – 55 year olds.

Are you prepared for the next round of National Health Care implementations?

While Virginia’s lawsuit is expected to be heard in October, and a lawsuit by 20 other States is headed toward the Supreme Court, the National Health Insurance Reform legislation remains law. Montana, which is not part of any legal wrangling, has been scrambling to meet the requirements. Because the parts of the legislation under dispute won’t go into effect for a couple of years, these disputes are not likely to impact near term changes. Some of these go into effect this year.

The timeline published by Montana Commissioner of Securities and Insurance, Monica J. Lindeen lists several provisions that will radically alter the insurance landscape beginning next month.