Consider these facts about falls:

• One out of every five falls causes a serious injury — including things like broken bones, hip fractures and traumatic brain injuries.
• Around 800,000 people are hospitalized due to falls every year — most of them suffering from broken hips or brain injuries.
• The vast majority — 95% — of hip injuries occur because the victim simply fell sideways.

Falls can be particularly problematic in the elderly because their bones are often more fragile than those of younger individuals. A brain injury from a fall may be worse in the elderly or ill, as well, especially if they’re on blood thinners.

Even a fall from standing height can leave victims emotionally scarred by their experience. After a fall that leads to broken bones or other painful conditions, many victims become more hesitant and fearful of falling again. This can drastically affect their overall quality of life as they reduce their general activity level.

Don’t discount the severity of your injuries just because you fell from a standing height or a very short distance, like off a curb. Your injuries may be just as serious as someone who fell from a much bigger height — and the consequences can last a lifetime. You have every right to seek compensation for your losses.

To avoid conflicts with their tenants (that could easily evolve into legal disputes), here are some of the things landlords can do:

1. Be clear and consistent about the limits. Written policies are your friend. If there’s a written policy on an issue, let your tenants know that you can’t grant exceptions so that you discourage any attempt to get special treatment that could cause problems with your other tenants.
2. Understand your leases. Using a “boilerplate” lease that you found online may be convenient but it could also backfire once you encounter a problem. A lease that is tailored to your situation is always more protective for you and your tenants.
3. Show empathy when your tenants have a problem. If you give you tenants a voice and try to work with them whenever possible, you may foster good will that could serve you in the future. (And, even if you can’t help you tenant out, knowing that they were heard and understanding your reasons for denying their request can sometimes soothe ruffled feelings.)
4. Keep records. Whether you have one unit or 20, it can be difficult to keep everything straight. Write down any complaints, keep records of any communications and take photos of the property both at the beginning and the end of the rental.

Conflicts between landlords and tenants can be exacerbated during tough times. What starts out as a small conflict can quickly turn into acrimonious when there’s a high-dollar value property in the mix. Get experienced legal assistance as soon as possible.

Here are the steps you need to take to make sure that you preserve the evidence in your claim and protect your rights:

1. Do not immediately contact the manufacturer or retailer. When consumers call in with a complaint, they’re typically told to return the product, packaging or proof of purchase. Doing that could literally destroy your case. The manufacturer or retailer isn’t going to offer to fairly compensate you for your injuries if they can just refund your money.
2. Preserve the entire product, even if it is only partially intact. If possible, preserve the packaging as well — and any proof that shows where you purchased the defective item. In particular, the instructions or labels that came with the product could be important down the line. Ideally, only you and your attorney should be able to access the preserved evidence.
3. Put anybody else with access to the product on notice. If, for example, the defective product is on your car, and the car is in your mechanic’s lot, let your mechanic know that the product needs to be preserved as-is, for now.
4. Keep track of your medical records. You’ll want to be able to show proof that the defective product led to significant injuries and how that affected your life.

When defective products cause serious harm, manufacturers and retailers often try to skirt their liability. Don’t make it any easier for them to deny their responsibilities by losing track of any important evidence.

Experts in the culinary field have offered a warning that anyone with a pressure cooker should heed, “Read the directions.” Before you start using a pressure cooker of any kind, you need to know a few things:

• In order to function, the pot produces steam that could exceed 300 degrees — which is more than enough to cause serious or fatal burns.
• Knowing how to properly handle the pot’s valve and what signs to look for if trouble starts to develop are essential.
• It’s wise to keep everyone who isn’t cooking away from the pressure cooker so that they don’t get in your way when you’re handling the pot. This includes children and pets.

Even then, however, you may not be assured that everything will operate properly. There are numerous reports of people being injured very badly even though they followed all the directions. In some cases, the pressure cookers themselves may be defective.

One woman suffered serious burns when a steam valve on her cooker didn’t operate properly. Another woman had her cooker’s whistle fly off and lodge in her skull.

If you suffer a serious injury while experimenting with your pressure cooker despite following all of the instructions, you may have a valid claim for damages through product liability laws. Such laws but the financial burden for injuries caused by defective products on the manufacturer, distributor or seller. An experienced attorney can help you understand you legal options.

The only problem is that everyone else has the same idea, and a lot of those walkers bring along their dogs. While most pet owners are responsible, there are always some who think that their dogs shouldn’t be restricted by a leash. They don’t realize that they’re putting other people in danger. However, a loose dog can be prompted to attack anyone they perceive as a threat.

Here’s how to safely navigate the situation when you encounter a dog that’s not on its leash:

1. Recognize the signs of aggression or distress. If a dog’s ears are up and forward or their fur is raised, they’re telling you to back off. Listen. Don’t try to make friends.
2. If the dog is crouching down or shaking, they’re afraid — and an animal that’s afraid may attack. Let the dog retreat and don’t try to pet it.
3. Don’t show your own fear. No matter what the animal is doing, signs of fear from you can trigger its aggression. Stay calm. Under no circumstances should you try to run.
4. If you’re far enough away when you spot the animal, change directions. It’s better to go out of your way than to get bitten.
5. If you have your dog with you, restrict your dog’s leash and put your dog behind you or on the far side of your body so that you can better keep the animals apart.

Most people think they know their dogs well and that their dogs would “never bite” someone for no reason — but it happens. If it happens to you, get experienced legal assistance so that you can pursue fair compensation for your losses.

But when the two have wildly disparate and divergent ideas and plans for their enterprise, the partnership can go south in a New York minute. Below are four of the most common business disputes that lead to big problems.

1. The partners’ visions differ dramatically

You may be content to be a big fish in a small pond here in your Las Vegas community. But your partner is chafing at the bit to expand nationwide to the East Coast. Regardless, the two of you are not on the same page at all regarding your company’s future.

2. One partner fails to carry their weight

Maybe your partnership agreement divides up the daily oversight and management tasks 50-50. Yet you still wind up doing 70% of the work. Over time, resentment continues to build until there is open conflict over the perception that your partner is shirking their responsibilities.

3. Company assets get misappropriated

If every time you see your partner they are wearing another nonpurchased item from your summer menswear collection, eventually that’s money that is not being funneled your way. Whether it’s laptops or linoleum, the company assets are not solely theirs.

4. They turn off your clientele

Your business partner might just not be a so-called “people person.” But if their role requires them to interact with customers and they fail miserably, you are never going to turn a profit if your clientele beats feet going out the door.

Resolving a business partnership fail

Ideally, your partnership agreement has a detailed exit clause that you can use to extricate yourself from a failed partnership. But sometimes, you may need some legal assistance to resolve the dispute. Seeking help sooner rather than later is generally the best course.

What is a construction defect?

Generally speaking, construction defects are problems in a building’s design that go beyond mere superficial details. In other words, it probably takes more than a coat of paint to fix.

The four broad categories of construction defects are:

1. Defective designs: A lot of engineering goes into every construction project. One mistake can lead to a serious structural flaw later. A wrong angle and weight on an overhang, for example, could cause a structure to lean.
2. Construction deficiencies: If defective designs can be laid at the feet of engineers and architects, construction defects are the fault of the actual contractors and workmen involved in the building. Slipshod or inexpert work produces substandard results, no matter what the materials being used.
3. Material deficiencies: Contractors sometimes try to sneak cheaper materials in the build to save money — think Chinese drywall — but cheap or defective materials always give inferior results. A waterproofing job that was done with the wrong medium could quickly erode and leave a property irrevocably damaged.
4. Problems subsurface: A good foundation is essential when you build. Without it, you could easily have shifting, flooding, subsidence, slides and a cracked foundation in short order.

Construction defects can involve a lot of different issues, including contractual liability claims. If your building has a serious construction defect, it’s wise to get experienced advice early.

What happens, though, when a product is outright dangerous and defective? If you’re injured because of a defective product sold by Amazon, who is responsible for your losses?

That’s a good question. For awhile now, the answer has largely been, “anybody but Amazon.” Now, however, that may be about to change.

Here’s what’s going on: Amazon has long maintained that it’s just an electronic platform that puts third-party sellers in touch with buyers. Similar to eBay or Craigslist, that would make the seller liable for any damages you incur due to a dangerous, defective or malfunctioning product. According to the company, this is unambiguous. It says, “Amazon makes clear in the conditions of use that third-party sellers sell products on the marketplace, and that those sellers, not Amazon, are responsible for the products.”

Except consumers clearly don’t realize that Amazon isn’t the retailer for many of the products it ships — and a lot of the items that they’re getting have led to a slew of injuries. One woman was blinded in her left eye when a defective dog leash snapped. A man was killed when a defective helmet popped off his head in an accident. A hoverboard caught fire and destroyed a home.

Initially, the courts sided with Amazon, but one persistent consumer took her appeal a bit higher. Now, a federal appeals court in Pennsylvania is sending shockwaves through the e-commerce industry because it says that Amazon is the de facto vendor of these items and can be held responsible for defects.

Product liability cases can be exceedingly complex — especially when the pace of technology and developments in commerce have exceeded the existing laws. It’s wise to get experienced assistance with a claim as soon as possible.

What causes burn injuries in the workplace?

Some industries — like restaurant work — put some employees at greater risk of burns than others. Burns are commonly caused by things like:

• Grease fires
• Scalds from hot water
• Caustic chemicals
• Steam scalds
• Gas explosions
• Electrical issues
• Defective tools

Most of the time, burns happen because there is just a moment of inattention at the wrong time or a flaw in the equipment.

How are burn injuries treated?

Any severe burn — no matter how small — should be considered a serious issue that needs medical treatment. Once human skin is damaged by a burn, it can’t effectively do its job of preventing infections — and that’s one of the reasons that wound care is so important. Depending on how severe the injury is, the victim may need months of specialized hospital care, skin grafts, wound care and rehabilitation just to begin to heal.

In fact, researchers say that burn injuries need to be treated more like chronic diseases. The complications from a serious burn injury continue long after the initial wounds have healed — and new complications can arise at any time. Both the psychological and physiological aftershocks to a victim’s system can be tremendous.

Studies have linked burns with an increased likelihood of:

• Diabetes
• Nervous system disorders
• Cancer
• Musculoskeletal disorders
• Cardiovascular disease
• Infections
• Gastrointestinal disease
• Depression
• Anxiety

These long-term conditions may be further complicated when a burn victim doesn’t have access to the full range of professional medical and mental health services available. That’s why it’s so important to pursue compensation for a burn injury whenever possible.

Six kids died over 10 years from tipped-over dressers. The company initially seemed responsive and recalled millions of the furniture items. They also paid out more than $96 million in settlements. But in 2019, when it became apparent that still another dresser made by the company failed to meet safety standards, Ikea chose to keep on selling their product.

It took them 16 weeks to cease sales. But no recall was announced until March of this year even though the dressers posed risk of “death or serious injury to children.”

Ikea’s head of product compliance issued a statement claiming Ikea was phasing out their Kullen dresser before the new safety standards were implemented.

The logistical challenges of the company are no solace to parents whose young children died after their dressers tipped over onto them.

Most product recalls are voluntary — including the prior two for the Ikea dressers. Companies negotiate the recall terms with the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) after internally calculating any financial benefits of continued sales of a suspect product against the considerable liability and costs of a recall. They also have to factor in the intangible cost of appearing tone-deaf to the public when kids keep dying on their watch.

The fact that they first issued voluntary recalls and then dragged feet paints a troubling picture of the company’s views on the safety of their dressers.

If you have one of their three-drawer Kullen dressers in your home with young children, you can contact the company about a refund. If your child was injured by the furniture, you may want to explore your options to seek civil justice.