Civil Rights Law – McElfish Law Firm

Internal Organ Injuries-Internal Bleeding

Internal organ injuries such as a collapsed lung or a severed kidney can definitely occur in more serious accidents. We have the experience and experts to assess and litigate and try these specific kinds of cases to get you the justice that you deserve.

Eye Injuries and Blindness

We have handled numerous eye and optical injuries that have varied from mild ocular injuries to partial blindness to total blindness, which require a lifetime of medical care and cause unimaginable pain and suffering. These cases occur as a result of explosions, defective products and negligent corporate employees, among other things. We have the experience and experts to assess and litigate and try these specific kinds of cases to get you the justice you deserve

Facial Injuries, Scarring and Disfigurement

Facial injuries and scarring can be the most devastating injuries because they require revision surgery and often can taint or forever change the way you look and are perceived when the scars keyloid. We understand the devastation that comes with these injuries and can assess and refer for treatment and care and try these cases to juries for significant verdict awards

Broken Bones and Fractures

Serious orthopedic injuries, fractures and broken bones can easily occur in any kind of accident, such as falls at the movie theatre or in a store, for example, and can result in hip and knee replacements or disabling shoulder or wrist injuries. We have the experience and experts to assess and litigate and try these specific kinds of cases to get you the justice that you deserve

Dental, Teeth and Jaw Injuries

Dental injuries can be devastating, painful and expensive. Such things as teeth replacement, caps, dentures, braces, implants and serious Jaw injuries such as TMJ, that require surgery and a life-time of treatment are common in accidents. We have the experience and experts to assess and litigate and try these specific kinds of cases to get you the justice you deserve

Burn Injuries Are Severe

Burns can occur in varying degrees and are obviously very painful. Burns requires specialized experts trained in burn treatment and care for these injuries and how to manage them and live with them if need be.

Burn Injuries Are Caused by Accidents

Burns can be caused by electrocution, exposed power wires or explosions to defective kitchen appliances or something as simple as a negligent store employee serving coffee. We have the experience and experts to assess the severity of the burn, to litigate and try to verdict any burn case against a corporation or insurer. We have handled countless burn cases including cases where children have been burned in car accidents and explosions as well as during mishaps at the coffee shop

Burns and Life Care

Like other severe injuries, a severe burn may require long-term care for the life-expectancy of the client, including, doctors, therapy, films, surgeries, revision surgeries, occupational and vocational assessments and therapy and in some cases in-home modification and admission to private care facilities

Employment Wrongful Discharge, Harassment, Discrimination, Whistleblowers Cases

Employees who lose their jobs or suffer other adverse employment actions as a result of race discrimination, religious discrimination, sexual harassment or gender discrimination, discrimination based on marital status, gender identity discrimination, age discrimination, and national origin discrimination, disability discrimination, discrimination based on medical condition (cancer & HIV/AIDS), sexual orientation or other protected characteristics may have a claim for wrongful termination. Similarly, employees who lose their jobs in retaliation for complaining of such discrimination also may have claims for wrongful termination. The leading Los Angeles wrongful termination attorneys of McElfish Law Firm have extensive experience assisting victims of wrongful termination. Our employment attorneys have recovered substantial settlements for clients in all types of workplace discrimination and sexual harassment cases.

Defamation, Slander, Libel, Trespass, Invasion of Privacy Cases

We litigate claims where clients are defamed, libeled, trespassed upon and who have had their privacy invaded. These kinds of harms can be non-physical and can result in substantial damages to reputation,
business or marriage and we can obtain substantial damage awards from juries in these cases. Just because the harm is not physical, it can be mental and can have real world consequences, for which damages should be awarded.

Civil Rights, Police Brutality, Unlawful Imprisonment Cases

Have your civil rights been violated? Are you a victim of police misconduct? This includes wrongful arrests and excessive force in the form of police brutality and unjustified police shootings. Our police misconduct attorneys represent victims whose constitutional rights have been violated, and no firm has more success in pursuing justice for victims of police misconduct and civil rights violations. Types of misconduct that could be appropriate for a lawsuit include:

Unnecessary use of force
Failure to read suspect’s Miranda rights
False imprisonment
Planting evidence
Illegal searches
Seizure of property not related to any crime

Traumatic and Surgical Amputations of Limbs

A traumatic amputation occurs when an accident or unanticipated incident causes a person to lose a limb. In some cases, if the medical team is able to work quickly, the limb may be reattached. If not, it is likely that the injured party will need to undergo surgery to treat the injury. A surgical amputation occurs if the blood supply to an injured limb is lost, the cells in the tissue within the limb will die. This condition is called necrosis. Once this happens, the tissue cannot be repaired and reconstruction is generally no longer an option. If the person’s injury does not heal and necrosis has set in, amputation may be the only option. Serious injuries affecting the legs, feet, and toes may result in a lower-limb amputation, whereas upper-limb amputations affect the fingers, hands, and arms.

Amputations Require Extensive Medical Care

Amputations require extensive medical care and expenses, including emergency hospital bills, doctor appointments, follow-up care, and prescription medications, amputation and reconstructive surgery, extensive expenses for acute care and re-hospitalization associated with the limb injury, lost wages and loss of future earning potential, prosthetic devices, mobility aids, and any training and maintenance that may be needed and inpatient rehabilitation therapy and outpatient physical and occupational therapy. Medical equipment may also be necessary to accommodate the disability including ramps, wheelchairs, lifts, home and car modifications, among others

Amputations Are Caused by Accidents

There are endless examples of how an accident can cause an amputation from an auto accident, a fall, an electrocution, a defective elevator or door or in the most graphic cases where limbs are run over by vehicles, including cars, trucks and trains. We have the experience necessary to assess, litigate and try to verdict any case involving an amputation which require specialized experts. We will present to the jury the cause of the amputation and demonstratively explain to the jury the life-long pain and suffering and medical expenses and equipment that will be required

Life Care & Future Damages

Many of our clients suffer from injuries, whether orthopedic, spinal or brain-related which are likely to last for decades or perhaps for the rest of their lives. We routinely retain life care experts to offer opinions on the needs that our client will have for future care to address their medical needs deep into the future, and we have decades of experience presenting these issues to juries to support a substantial future damages award. Most of our life care experts are nurses or rehabilitation experts that have decades of training in medical care, home care and medical devices, including home and auto modifications. With our trial experience we make sure juries understand that future damages, both economic and non-economic, are substantial damages that can and should be awarded to our clients.

Product Liability Litigation

Over the years, we have handled and tried to verdict almost every kind of product defect case imaginable. With respect to automobile defects, we have litigated and tried cases involving enhanced catastrophic injuries (commonly referred to as crashworthiness cases) from defects related to automobile seat backs, seat belts, SRS (Supplemental Restraint Systems) or airbags, door latches, roof crushes, laminated glass windows, gas tanks explosions in frontal, side-impact, rear-end and rollover collisions at high and low speed. We have also handled utility trailer cases involving weight ratio claims against manufacturers of cargo trailers, tow dollies, and rental trucks. We have litigated guard cases in conveyors belts, wood chippers and drill presses among other plant machinery. We have litigated defects in the household and commercial step stools, ladders and other climbing devices, as well as defects in commercial truck batteries and tire tread separation cases to name a few. These cases require decades of experience, specialized and expensive experts, including extensive crash testing of products to prove our case. Litigating these cases can take years and require hundreds of thousands of dollars in expert fees and costs before reaching trial and we are one of the few firms that actually handles these matters through trial and verdict. You do not have to pay anything until we win your case

Single Vehicle Crashes and Rollovers

These cases are referred to as “crashworthiness” cases and are complex and expensive to litigate, and often involve serious injury, paralysis, brain damage and death, but we have decades of experience handling cases against car and truck manufacturers and dealers. These cases usually involve defective accelerators, brakes, airbags, seatbelts, seatbacks and on-board computer systems, including self-driving cars. We utilize the best accident investigators, demonstrative evidence and expert witnesses to prove these difficult cases to a jury

Explosions

We handle cases involving battery explosions, tank explosions and chemical spills which injure, maim and kill people. We have decades of experience holding companies and manufacturers responsible for code violations and negligence that leads to these devastating accidents

Consumer Defects

Everyday household items such as kitchen appliances, ladders, irons, blenders, machines and even children’s toys all can have defects that cause unexpected and devastating injuries. We know exactly how to handle these unexpected injuries and cases to hold the manufacturer, distributor, installer, retailer and marketer responsible for the damages, which often involve burns, choking, falls and death

Warnings Cases

Product manufacturers and business have a duty to warn of a potentially dangerous products or services, such as hotels who have dangerous and unsupervised swimming pools or defective shower glass. But these warning principles apply to every retailer, business, office building, apartment complex, store and mall for any good or service that causes harm

Service Category: Civil Rights Law