personal injury attorney Tag Archives

Published on: March 7, 2019

Terrell Personal Injury and Wrongful Death Attorneys

Guest and Gray is Kaufman County’s trusted personal injury and wrongful death law firm. We are proud to serve all areas of Kaufman county, including Terrell, Wills Point, Forney, Kaufman, Kemp, and Crandall, and everywhere in between.

Terrell is Kaufman County’s Budding Business and Recreational Hub

If Forney is the residential complex of Kaufman County, Terrell is its business and recreational hub, and Terrell’s housing market is on the rise. What does this mean for Terrell? People on the roadways. As more businesses and people move into town, Terrell is going to see an uptick in personal injury and wrongful death cases. The numbers simply go hat-in-hand with one another. The bigger the city, the more accidents and deaths related to motor vehicle travel.

Published on: December 15, 2017

Guest and Gray, P.C.: Personal Injury Attorneys Who Get Results

by Guest and Gray Law Firm

Personal Injury Attorneys are a dime a dozen these days. We know it. You know it. So, lets not beat around the bush about it. I dare you to try and drive anywhere in the Kaufman, Rockwall and especially Dallas areas and try to count the injury attorney billboards. I bet you lose count after a while. They all start to blend together.

Let me start off by saying, we don’t even have a billboard. All we have is this website and the people we have helped in the past who tell their family and friends about us after they are injured in an accident, or as business marketing professors would call “WOM” or word-of-mouth advertising. Although we hate to hear that people have been injured in an accident, when our previous clients recommend us to other people who have been hurt, that lets us know that we are doing something right and getting results for our clients.

That is the part of this job that we love. Getting results for a client is always very rewarding on a personal level. We understand that being in an accident takes an emotional as well as physical toll on the injured party. For that reason, you will never just be a number to us at Guest and Gray. Whether it be a vast number in a deep client list or a numeric value on your case. We don’t do that here. To us, you are you. You are the injured victim who’s only fault in the case is that you were innocently driving your car when somebody decided to be negligent and slam his or her vehicle into yours at a high-rate of speed. That is our motivation, and that is why we work so hard to get you results you deserve. It is personal to us because it is personal to you.

Published on: October 9, 2017

Slip and Fall Cases: Duty of Care

by Guest and Gray Law Firm

Stores like Wal-Mart, Kroger and Target owe their customers a duty of care to maintain the floors in a reasonably safe condition for their customers to walk on. For example, lets say that you were injured in a Wal-Mart in Rockwall, Texas and sustained injuries. Now, just because you were shopping in a store and you fell does not mean that you can sue Wal-Mart for your injuries. Generally, a Plaintiff has to prove that Wal-Mart had either actual or constructive knowledge of the dangerous condition that posed an “unreasonable risk of harm” and that Wal-Mart failed to take steps necessary to protect their customers from the dangerous condition.

The law in these circumstances talks about “duties” and we must determine what was Wal-Mart’s duty under the circumstances which led to the slip and fall. The duty that Wal-Mart would have here is a duty to protect their customers from an unreasonable risk of harm. How can they violate this duty? This duty can be violated in three different ways:

Defendant placed a foreign substance on the floor that is walked on.

Published on: September 29, 2017

Guest and Gray: Kaufman and Rockwall County Slip and Fall Attorneys

by Guest and Gray Law Firm

It happens all the time. The typical scenario is where a person enters a store and due to some sort of defect in the premises or a condition on the property, a person slips or trips and falls and becomes injured. In this sort of case, who is at fault? Well, it is not quite as easy as it sounds.

If the store allowed a dangerous condition or defect in the premises to exist, they had actual knowledge of the defect on the premises or a dangerous condition, and failed to correct it, or they had reason to know that a defect or dangerous condition existed and failed to take corrective action, then you will have a viable claim for damages after a slip and fall accident.

So What is a Dangerous Condition or Defect?

Published on: May 21, 2017

The Insurance Company is Not Your Friend

by Guest and Gray Law Firm

The insurance company is not your friend. I feel like I say this to every potential client, and I get the same response “they’ve been really friendly so far.”

Then we get into the claims process and get down to brass tacks and the client quickly realizes that, had they gone into this without an attorney, what would have been considered “fair” by the insurance adjuster’s definition would have been much different and less zeros on it.

Case in point, I was speaking to a friend recently I had not seen in nearly a decade and it came up that he had been involved in an 18-wheeler accident a few years back. He told me how he had tried to go it alone for a while against the insurance company, in part because they seemed to be on his side and they accepted liability right away. He was hurt pretty bad in the accident and required shoulder surgery and weeks of rehabilitation. However, in his initial meeting with the insurance company’s adjuster, they offered him $1,500. He said he couldn’t believe it and as he said it, he seemed to think that I should be surprised too, but I wasn’t.

Published on: March 24, 2017

Rollover Crash Injures One Overnight in Forney

by Guest and Gray Law Firm

One person was injured in an overnight rollover crash in Forney. The crash was reported at approximately 11:50 p.m. on Thursday, March 24, 2017, on the south service road of U.S. Highway 80 just east of Cedar Street.

A pickup truck overturned and came to a rest on its roof in the Steve Silver Company parking lot. The driver was reportedly still inside the vehicle when several other motorists stopped to render aid. The driver was transported by CareFlite ambulance to Baylor Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, with unknown injuries.

The Forney Fire Department and Forney Fire Department responded to the scene of the crash. The Forney Police Department is investigating the cause.

Published on: March 21, 2017

Commercial Traffic Accidents Increase by 34.5% in Rockwall County, 20% in Kaufman County in Just One Year

by Guest and Gray Law Firm

According to recently released crash data from TXDot, both Rockwall and Kaufman counties are experiencing significant increases in commercial traffic accidents. The data just released is from 2015, so 2016 statistics are not known. However, the number of commercial vehicle accidents increased by 34.5% year-over-year from 2014 to 2015 for Rockwall and Kaufman county increased by 20.3% over the same time period.

We know that Rockwall and Kaufman counties are experiencing extreme growth, with cities like Rockwall, Royse City, McClendon-Chisholm, and Heath as well as parts of Dallas, Garland, and Rowlett located in Rockwall county, it is no wonder that Rockwall county has experienced large year-over-year growth in commercial vehicle accidents. But over 34%? That is a crazy statistic.

In Kaufman county, what is really the most surprising is that it had more commercial vehicle accidents that Rockwall county in 2014 (113 in Kaufman county and 107 in Rockwall county). What may be surprising to hear is that Kaufman county has a larger population that Rockwall county, thanks to large growth in cities like Forney, Terrell, and Kaufman. That may partly explain the higher number of accidents, but Rockwall county is smaller in geographic size and is more densely populated, so the statistic is still a little surprising. Forney’s population alone grew by over 25% from the 2010 census to the last released data in July 2015, and Kaufman county’s growth over that same period is at exactly 11.0%.

Published on: January 29, 2017

Why Do I Need A Personal Injury Attorney?

by Guest and Gray Law Firm

The answer is simple, but to understand importance of the work they do, and the value they bring to their clients, you must understand a little more about the process of handling personal injury claims. It is no cake walk, even for experienced personal injury attorneys.

Notifying Insurance Companies and Establishing Communications Between the Parties

A personal injury attorney will notify the insurance providers of the claim for injuries and that the injured party is represented by counsel. This is true whether it is a motor vehicle accident, boating accident, commercial vehicle accident, or even slip-and-fall. These providers must be provided “notice” of the claims being made by the injured parties that were caused by their insured. In addition to notifying the at-fault parties insurer, the injured party will need to notify their own insurer of the possibility of any claims under their own UM/UIM in the event that the other party has no insurance or carries insufficient coverage to pay for the damages that have been suffered.

Published on: December 29, 2016

Negligence and Negligence Per Se: Parking 18-Wheelers and Tractor-Trailers on the Roadway

by Guest and Gray Law Firm

Every now and then you may come across a semi-truck or car-hauler parked on the side of the road, or even partially in the road and think to yourself, “that is so dangerous,” or “they should not be allowed to do that.” Well, technically they aren’t supposed to do that. Section 545.301 of the Texas Transportation Code provides that an operator may not stop, park, or leave standing an attended or unattended vehicle on the main traveled part of a highway outside a business or residence district unless:

(1) stopping, parking, or leaving the vehicle off the main traveled part of the highway is not practicable;

(2) a width of highway beside the vehicle is unobstructed and open for the passage of other vehicles; and

Published on: December 15, 2016

Got Hit By a Delivery Driver?

by Guest and Gray Law Firm

This time of year seeing a UPS or Fed Ex truck on the road is a common occurrence. Driver’s delivering packages this time of year are often under a lot of pressure. In my house, those delivery men and women are called “Santa’s little helpers” because they’re the real heroes of the Christmas package delivery game, not those elves. UPS expects to deliver more than 700 million packages this holiday season, with 13 of 21 holiday shipping day to exceed 30 million packages a day. https://pressroom.ups.com/pressroom/ContentDetailsViewer.page?ConceptType=PressReleases&id=1477506556294-677. Fedex does not expect to be quite as busy as UPS, although they still predict record deliveries of around around 325 million packages this holiday season. http://www.businessinsider.com/ups-fedex-holiday-shipping-plan-new-technology-2016-11. All told, that is around 1 billion packages traveling around the country in large semi-trucks and delivery trucks. That is a lot of packages and a lot of driving.

This time of year it seems like every where you go, you see a Fedex or UPS vehicle delivering package. Those drivers are everywhere. You see them traveling in and around our local highways all day and into the night, often working very long hours and driving in upwards of 50-100 miles per day to drop off their hundreds of shipments. It is a tough job with long hours, lots of driving, and a lot of stress. With such a vast number of drivers on the roads this time of year, that leads to one absolute certainty: accidents.

Accidents with delivery drivers happen for a variety of reasons. It could be human error, or it could be some outside factor. Here is a list of some common causes of accidents with delivery truck during the holiday season: