Phoenix Personal Injury Law Blog

For years, researchers, experts and lawyers in Arizona and across the nation have been trying to determine the value of a human life. Depending on who is conducting the study, they use a number of different methods and arrive at wildly varying amounts.

For example, a wrongful-death lawsuit calculates the worth of someone's life by using tort law, which is their future earning potential. In a 2012 case in Hawaii, believed to be the largest in the state's history, two women died after they fell while hiking on a trail that wasn't marked well. When the lawsuit finally settled, the state paid $425,000 for one of the women, from Columbia, while the state paid $15 million for the other woman, a lawyer from California.

Arizona allows those who cause car accidents by extremely negligent behavior, such as drunk driving, to be charged with criminal charges up to and including murder, depending on the circumstances. A California jury recently convicted a 57-year-old woman of two counts of second-degree homicide in the wrongful death of two young boys.

The accident occurred on Interstate 10 near the California/Arizona border. The driver's SUV struck a minivan carrying a grandmother and her two grandsons, forcing the vehicle into a concrete wall. The driver continued through a fence and wound up on an access road. The van's driver, an older woman, was flown to an area hospital in Palm Springs and was reported to be in serious condition. However, her two passengers, an eight-year-old boy and a seven-year-old boy, were killed in the crash. The at-fault driver received only minor injuries. She was taken to jail and charged with two counts of homicide as well as a charge of aggravated assault for the injuries to the van's driver.

Doctors often fail to notify patients when they have committed an error, especially if the error goes unnoticed or results in no harm to the patient. A misdiagnosis may be very minor, but doctors have an ethical obligation to inform patients when there has been an error, even if no harm results from it. Arizona and other state policymakers have recently realized that a transparent approach to medical malpractice is not only desirable but necessary and have passed various laws and regulations to require doctors to disclose errors.

In 2006, a Harvard group decided that any disclosure about medical error must contain three essential components: an admission of responsibility, an apology and a discussion of preventative measures with the patient or the patient's family members. Medical schools are now addressing these issues during doctor training and learn how to disclose errors in a professional way. Many medical schools are asking doctors to assess errors and risks as part of a team in order to build a climate of team responsibility and oversight for preventing future errors.

The alleged driver in a fatal hit-and-run at a bus stop turned herself in and may face multiple charges. The car accident occurred on the morning of May 13 at a Phoenix bus stop on the corner of 27th Avenue and Indian School Road. One 50-year-old man was killed in the collision, and another 20-year-old man was seriously injured. A third pedestrian at the stop evaded injuries by escaping into the road.

A sergeant with the Phoenix Police Department stated that a Chevrolet Impala driven by the 22-year-old suspect is believe to have run the red light at the intersection while traveling north. The driver lost control in an attempt to avoid hitting other vehicles in the intersection. The car collision demolished the bus stop and the vehicle. Two occupants in the vehicle ran from the accident on foot.