North Carolina Car Accident Lawyer Blog

It’s a simple question with a potentially profound answer: why have you yet to retain the services of a competent North Carolina class action law firm, like DeMayo Law? After all, you or someone you love has been hurt – perhaps badly. You face large medical bills and financial problems that could stretch years or even decades into your future. You know that a person, company, or a group of parties likely caused or contributed to your damages. But you’re not taking action. Why? What’s holding you back from partnering with a resource that can actually help you build and win a North Carolina class action or mass tort case?

The root cause is often not what you think it is!

Here are some common answers to this question:

•    I’m so overloaded that I haven’t had time to research a law firm.
•    I’m overwhelmed by the options online and the referral options I’ve gotten from friends, so I can’t really make a decision.
•    I haven’t researched enough.
•    I don’t really trust law firms.
•    I’m not the kind of person who files a lawsuit.
•    I don’t have the time/energy to slog through a legal quagmire.
•    I wasn’t really hurt “that bad” so I don’t really need a lawyer.

The excuses can go on and on like this.

It’s very difficult to counter all these arguments. In some cases, the objection might be valid; in other cases, it might not be. But these objections are often not the real objections. They are just the surface ones. And it’s when you drill down below these surface objectives that things get really interesting. Because the “stuff” that you unlock is often highly instructive. Probing below the surface can reveal certain fundamental assumptions you have about yourself. If left unaddressed, these assumptions can hamper your recovery. On the other hand, if you uncover some of the false beliefs and bad habits that you have developed, you may find massive new opportunities.

Peeling the onion using the 5 Whys

The 5 Whys is a technique developed by Japanese entrepreneurs to get at root causes of problems. For instance, say your initial objection to getting a lawyer was “I just don’t have the time.” You might ask “why?”

To which you might answer, “I’m totally overwhelmed by my illness and the stuff I have to do with my job and my family, etc.”

To which you would then ask again: Why? Why are you overwhelmed by all these obligations?

You might answer: “Because I have no one to help me deal with this stuff – I live so far away from relatives and friends.”

Again, you want to ask: Why?

And this time, the answer might be something like: “Because I’m an independent person, I don’t need anyone’s help.”

Do you see this assumption we uncovered? That you’re “an independent person” who “doesn’t need help.” If you look at it this way, it can be a revelation. You can thus begin the journey to solve the false sense that you “need to do everything by yourself” and you can start getting the help you really need.

More Web Resources:

The 5 Whys

The false assumptions that we make

Whether you were injured due to a defective product or a poorly labeled pharmaceutical drug; or your spouse was hurt a week or longer ago, and you and your family are still picking up the pieces, you are contemplating filing a personal injury or class action lawsuit in North Carolina. After all, you want justice. You want action. And you want the person or organization who subjected you and your family to dangerous conditions to be held to strict account.

North Carolina class action or mass tort: It’s all about control

Why are you so gung-ho on filing a lawsuit or taking other kinds of legal action? Is it really just because you want money to pay for what happened to you? Is it really just because you want to exact punishment on a careless or reckless party? Is it merely because you want to protect other people from going through the same horrific experience that you’ve endured?

Odds are, these factors surely contribute to your motivation. But there is almost certainly a deeper level of need under the surface. The accident, injury, or illness has created a kind of permanent uncertainty in your life. It has created confusion. It has created a need for you to restore order to your world. It’s important to recognize that this core need is buried underneath the other very real needs (e.g. the need for money to pay for care, the need for justice, the need to help others, etc.).

Gaining clarity and control is easier said than done.

Even if you work with a top North Carolina mass tort law firm, like the Law Offices of Michael DeMayo, and succeed beyond your wildest dreams, your success in the courts will not necessarily translate to success with respect to your needs for clarity in your life.

Conversely, you can actually lose your case – or fail to file a case altogether – and still meet this need. In other words, the need remains, independent of your victory or failure in the legal system. To that end, it’s worth investigating how to get a handle on the lack of control you feel and learn how to move toward less uncertainty.

Tricks to getting things under control

We live in an information-overload era. Just a simple Google search for help with class actions, for instance, can lead you down a rabbit hole of clicking and reading and watching videos and checking people’s Facebook posts that can consume hours of your time. We want to believe that other people have “thought out” the solutions to our problems. With respect to certain legal issues, some have. For instance, a good law firm, like DeMayo Law, knows the dos and don’ts of filing suits and keeping clients satisfied and aware of what’s going on.

But the deeper problems with your life that are contributing to or perhaps even causing the uncertainty are beyond any one individual’s ability to solve. YOU need to solve it. You need to use your brain and engage with your world in a productive fashion that allows you to make sense of the chaos. One very popular method for getting started with this thinking process is David Allen’s Getting Things Done system. Productivity gurus like Allen, Stephen Covey, and others offer specific tools and strategies for how to manage your mental clutter and steer you towards clarity. Bear in mind that there is no magic bullet or magic elixir – it’s an ongoing process. But get started now, and understand that you and you alone are ultimately responsible for managing the chaos out there.

More Web Resources:

Getting Things Done

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

Many North Carolina mass torts concern relatively “small stakes” issues. For instance, a cell phone carrier might have overcharged you $20 or $30 or $50 for some service. Or a hotel unfairly inflated your bill by a few dollars a night – your bill and thousands of other customers’ bills, that is!

In other words, these cases have to do with nickel-and-dime “stuff.” The misperforming or misbehaving entity (i.e. the defendant) didn’t do much damage to any one plaintiff but rather generated significant funds by committing the same small problem over and over and over again – iterating it thousands of time to rack up millions of dollars in costs.

If you are just someone who lost $40 or so, due to some kind of consumer electronic company’s incorrect billing scheme, you probably don’t care too much about a lawsuit. You might not care. But “nickel and dime” affronts create huge problems in our society. Mass torts provide a mechanism to hold companies and organizations accountable. Without mass torts class actions in North Carolina and elsewhere, our entire structure of consumer protection could — if not break down, then certainly be challenged and stressed.

Remember: big businesses are in business to make a profit, and they’re often competing in highly competitive arenas. If a company can gain efficiency by charging an extra 2% or 3% for services without customers knowing — or being able to respond via the legal system — then the company will be highly motivated to take advantage of that loophole. And if that company fails to do so, then a competitor who takes advantage will be at a competitive advantage against the more ethical company! It then becomes a game of “give him an inch, they’ll take a mile.” In other words, an unfair 2% to 3% “hit” on consumers could quickly expand to 8% to 10%.

So class actions and mass torts not only help to right wrongs already committed, but they also and perhaps more importantly, dissuade companies from even venturing into “wrong” territory.

If you need help with a personal injury or class action case, connect immediately with the team at DeMayo Law.

More Web Resources:

Nickel and diming

Why mass torts are so necessary?

Maybe your spouse got sick from a blood pressure medication, and you suspect that the manufacturer engaged in sketchy practices. Or perhaps you are a teenager who got in a car accident while on a popular antidepressant. In any case, you suspect that a pharmaceutical error or bad drug interaction or side effect might have been responsible for serious trauma in your life.

You may even be investigating North Carolina class action and personal injury law firms to determine whether you might be able to bring a case against a drug maker or against some other party to get money to pay for the surgeries, medical bills, loss wages, and other costs that you have endured.

So part of you wants to take action – and knows that the research you are doing now is critical to your future and to your family’s well being. On the other hand, you are also a little bit confused and overwhelmed. Where do you begin?

Document, document, document

Step 1 – after dealing with your any medical related issues, of course – is to document your situation.

•    If you got hurt, journal, step by step, what happened?
•    If you can take pictures of the scene of an accident, or of an overdose, do so.
•    If you can interview witnesses, do so.
•    If a doctor or police officer gives you documentation regarding an event or a call or a hospital visit, keep that documentation.
•    You might also want to write down your own thoughts and experiences in a journal for reference later.

Don’t worry about what documentation might be useful and what might be irrelevant at this stage. Just get in the habit of collecting anything and everything related to the possible North Carolina mass tort.

Do not delay this documentation – or reduce the delay as much as possible. After all, if you delay too much, you may forget what happened, evidence might be lost or destroyed or eliminated, etc.

Step 2: Find a North Carolina mass tort law firm – ASAP.

First of all, a great law firm can connect you with additional resources to make your life easier and to reduce some of the logistical and other burdens that confront you right now. Secondly, a law firm can help you maximize your chances of obtaining a recovery and minimize the defendant’s opportunities to work against your claim. A good law firm can also help you avoid making mistakes that potential plaintiffs make all too often. So there you go. Those are two massively crucial steps to take right now.

1)    Document as much as you can.
2)    Consult with the great law firm (such as DeMayo Law in North Carolina) to understand your rights and legal needs.

More Web Resources:

Documenting after an accident/injury

Why to hire an attorney?

It’s not exactly a North Carolina class action lawsuit, but the results of the latest class action lawsuit against the directors of Full Tilt Poker is sure to impact hundreds, if not thousands, of online poker players here in NC.

Last Thursday, four poker players — Todd Terry, Nick Hammer, Robin Hougdahl, and Steve Segal — launched a class action lawsuit against Howard Lederer and Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, claiming that the directors and other officials at the poker company participated in all sorts of scandalous and fraudulent behavior – money laundering, wire fraud, bank fraud, racketeering, etc.

Unsurprisingly (since we are talking about poker), the stakes are high.

Plaintiffs allege that Lederer collected about approximately $42 million in sketchy payments and distributions. Ferguson, for his part, allegedly received $85 million. Last April 15, federal prosecutors brought criminal fraud charges against Full Tilt and two other web poker sites – Absolute Poker and PokerStars. The latest legal attack claims Full Tilt Poker is less an online poker operation than it is a global Ponzi scheme. The plaintiff stated that Full Tilt wrongfully prevented players from accessing approximately $150 million in their accounts and that the two Directors “exercised unlawful dominion and control” over these funds.

In addition to demanding that jilted players get their money back, the lawsuit seeks punitive damages against the defendants.

High Stakes – and Implications Beyond Poker Scene

If you or someone you care about has been ripped off by a company, injured by a defective product, or harmed in some subtle but annoying way — either financially or otherwise — by a bad business, bad process, or bad practices, you don’t have to grin and bear it. Even wealthy, highly connected business people can be compelled to play by the rules. They can be punished for mistreating clients, misrepresenting products, and causing harm.

Of course, standing up for yourself isn’t easy!

Fortunately, there are good resources out there, such as quality North Carolina class action law firms, like the Law Offices of Michael A DeMayo, that can help you understand your rights and figure out what to do to claim justice.

More Web Resources:

Latest Lawsuit against Full Tilt Poker Directors

Full Tilt Poker Official Website

Mark Zuckerberg and his crew are likely updating their statuses with expressions of glee and relief, now that the threat of a class action lawsuit against the social networking site has been rebuked. Last Friday, a U.S. District Judge in Oakland, California swatted down a potential class action against Facebook. The plaintiffs consisted of thousands of advertisers who said Facebook overcharged them for clicks and violated the cost per click contract. The lawsuit had been pending since 2009.

Facebook is expected to go public this year. The company is now estimated to be worth nearly $100 billion, according to various expert analyses. The IPO will almost certainly be one of the most talked about and blogged about (and shared!) events of the 2012 business year.

So how did Facebook get off the hook?

If you are considering filing a North Carolina mass tort or class action – or just investigating a possible personal injury lawsuit – you may be interested in “looking under the hood” to see how a company like Facebook might escape class action. According to Judge Hamilton, the plaintiffs were not able to prove that Facebook systematically breached their cost per click contract. On top of that, the claims raised by the plaintiffs were too different. Hamilton concluded that “the need to determine both liability and damages on an individual basis makes this case inappropriate for class treatment.”

It was probably a difficult pill for the advertisers to swallow. But many insiders who tracked the case since its inception in 2009 were not particularly surprised. Judge Hamilton cited a decision in 2011 that somewhat mirrored the Facebook fracas. In that case, Wal-Mart escaped a similar (and potentially massive) class action by being able to show similar problems with the plaintiffs’ position.

The point is, you might want to “gang up” and file a North Carolina class action. Connect with the Law Offices of Michael DeMayo to learn more. Class actions can help plaintiffs streamline and shortcut the path to recovery and also help to coalesce legal fire power to match the legal fire power that giant corporations (such as Facebook and Wal-Mart) are able to utilize.

More Web Resources:

Advertisers Denied the Class Action Status and Lawsuit Claiming Facebook Overcharged Them

Facebook IPO could be biggest ever?

Most chatter about North Carolina class actions (on this blog and other places) focuses on the rights and responsibilities of consumers. It generally pegs liable businesses, insurance companies, and other parties as the “bad guys.”

In many cases, it’s hard to dispute this analysis.

A pharmaceutical company, for instance, that covers up or fails to publish certain side effects — or that ignores scary results from a clinical trial — is certainly not doing consumers any favors. On the other hand, it would be silly – and a big mistake – to paint all businesses, insurance companies and other parties in potential North Carolina class actions as “bad guys.”

How can we tell, perhaps in advance, whether a company will “do the right thing” by consumers or fight tooth and nail against a fair settlement?

Values Driven Versus Non-Values Driven Businesses

In his book, Built to Last, business thinker Jim Collins discussed some critical differences between values driven and non values driven companies. If you are not a business nerd, these distinctions may seem pointless and granular. Probably not worth your time, if all you want to do is get help with your potential North Carolina class action.

But if you really want to understand what motivates companies – and what maybe motivates the company that you may find yourself up against – it’s important to take a look at whether that company is values driven or not. By “values driven,” Collins and others are talking about the core ideas that animate a company. There are usually 6 to 8 core values (sometimes more, sometimes less) that guide a values-driven company.

Imagine if one of those values is “customer service” or “integrity” or “do the right thing” – and that company holds true to its values. If so, you might be surprised by the degree to which that company will bend and negotiate with you… and even go out of its way to make sure that you and your fellow injured plaintiffs (or would-be plaintiffs) get taken care of.

Certainly, even values driven companies keep a close eye on the bottom line. And they are not necessarily going to “roll over” and give you and your co-plaintiffs whatever you want. And some values driven companies can depart from their operating principles and create havoc, not only externally but internally as well. And, of course, not all companies are values driven.

But the takeaway here is that different companies are motivated by different things and driven by different ideals. Some values driven companies, for instance, may not give a hoot about customer service. For instance, they may prize innovation and leanness and speed of execution and whatever else. To these companies, a dispute with customers can actually threaten the value system and lead to kind a company-wide “immune system” response to any perceived lawsuit.

Escaping from the realm of the abstract for a second… if you or someone you care about really needs help as a result of a injury sustained due to a bad product or defective service or a mislabeled medication, connect immediately with a North Carolina class action law firm.

More web resources:

Jim Collins’ Built to Last

Values driven versus non values driven companies

Class action and mass tort lawsuits in North Carolina and beyond often focus on problematic medications.

Certain meds can make people sick or cause certain predisposed people to experience nasty side effects or other risks. Pharmaceutical errors — such as impure doses of a certain batch of drugs, contaminated drugs and other problems — often create huge hazards for big groups of consumers.

What’s even scarier is that you – and even your physician! – may not even be able to identify the source of your medication-related illness, even after significant damage has been done. For instance, say your husband gets on some new diabetes medication. Weeks later, he starts to experience seizures and hot flashes. You may ascribe the symptoms to the new medication. Or you and your physician may think the symptoms are the result of some drastic dietary change… or the result of some other medication’s effect.

It’s very, very, very difficult and complicated to tease out “cause and effect,” when you look at interventions in your own life. Self improvement gurus have called these kinds of interventions “N=1” experiments. The “N=1” jargon comes from statistics. Basically, it means that the sample size of the experiment is just one person. In normal experiments, you try to include dozens, if not hundred or thousands, so that you can eliminate noise and confusion in the experimental design.

The point is that, even if you may ultimately quality to participate in a North Carolina class action or mass tort due to damages you suffered as a side effect of a medication, your vantage is extremely limited. Your viewpoint is probably polluted by biases that you’ve collected from your friends, the web, and possibly even an unwitting physician or team of physicians.

How can we make good decisions in a staggeringly confusing environment?

Even if you and your family members were all extremely healthy and fit, cognitively and otherwise, you’d probably have a difficult time understanding your own “N=1” situation. And odds are, your situation right now is far from ideal.

You need a great medical opinion – ideally, redundant medical opinions, so you can more comfortably settle on a diagnosis and treatment plan. You may also need to connect with a North Carolina mass tort law firm to get compensation from the pharmaceutical company that mislead you or the distribution center that screwed up the batch of medicine, or etc.

A law firm cannot guarantee that you will win your case – or even that you have a case to bring. But it’s better to at least talk to a good law firm, so you can protect and preserve your rights to make a claim later.

More web resources:

N=1 Experiments

Making sense of your options in a confusing world

Right now, if you’re searching for a North Carolina mass tort law firm or lawyer to help you file a personal injury suit, you’re probably furious, financially desperate, and hurting.

You want answers, and you want action.

Your instincts are spot on.

In fact, if you wait too long to research your legal options, critical information that could be relevant to your case – could be essential, in fact – might go away. A witness might forget what he saw. The defective toy that cut your child could wind up in the trash. The mislabeled prescription bottle that sickened your husband could be accidentally tossed or lost. Etc.

Meanwhile, as you dawdle, the potential liable parties will almost certainly be doing the opposite – particularly if they have any serious money at stake. So it’s good that you’re focusing on your legal needs and it’s important that you’re researching North Carolina mass tort law firms. On the other hand, you might also be focusing on your case in an unproductive, emotionally damaging way. Focusing correctly means taking action, finding a law firm, collecting and preserving evidence, and so forth. Focusing incorrectly means ruminating over the injury, spending an inordinate amount of time focusing on your anger or regret, and so forth.

You may be “focusing wrong” if you find yourself doing the following:

•    Imagining, in vivid detail, the accident or injury unfolding at times when your mind should otherwise be “blank” – for instance, when you wake up in the middle of the night or when you shower in the morning;
•    Finding yourself unable to concentrate at work or pay attention to the people you care about because you are secretly sieving over the injustice of your situation;
•    Making forward progress on your case does not seem to bring about any kind of joy or relief – rather it adds to your stress level and emotional burden.

There are a million reasons why you could be “perseverating” about your North Carolina personal injury case. You might be worried, subconsciously, about your lack of resources or the potential for your case to “go wrong.” You might be upset because your life has been shaken out of balance, and you’re not sure how to bring things back to order again. You might be scared about your still poorly established medical prognosis. Or your perseveration could actually stem from something that’s entirely apart from the accident – an unrelated stressful relationship or financial issue, for instance.

To cut through the thicket of our emotional restrictions, we often need outside help. And a lot of it, at that! Now is the time to lean on people you trust to help you through your various internal struggles. A North Carolina class action law firm, for instance, can help you with the legal end. A good doctor and rehab specialist can help you deal with the medical situation. A compassionate family member or therapist (who really listens to you!) can be another component in your arsenal, and so on.

Now is the time to leverage both your internal and external resources to achieve your goals.

More Web Resources:

The Definition of Perseverating

What to do if you can’t stop thinking about something you don’t want to think about anymore.

We live in an instant gratification society, so it’s not surprising that many North Carolina class action plaintiffs want instant results – and positive ones, at that. While, on occasion, plaintiffs can get lucky and can overwhelm a defendant and compel an early and favorable settlement, this resolution is more the exception than the rule.

A quick settlement usually only comes when there is not much at stake for everyone involved. If you’re talking about a case that could be worth hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars – so-called 6 or 7 figure verdicts – you can be sure that the defendant will likely be well equipped, legally speaking. He will not just capitulate to the plaintiffs’ demands straight off the bat… unless the plaintiff makes unreasonably lenient demands and thus undercuts himself or herself.

In more practical terms, this means that your potential North Carolina class action case could stretch on for months or years or even longer, depending on its complexity, the issues of law involved, and the whims and machinations of the legal system. You need to understand that you may be in for a marathon. This concept can help you. By framing your journey as a long quest (even if it gets resolved faster than you think), you can plan better, develop a better emotional immune system with respect to your case, and stay grounded even when really good things or bad things happen with your case.

We’re not used to “running marathons.” So how do we do it?

You probably want and need instant results. You also face imminent and urgent challenges. Maybe you’re sick and you need medical care immediately. Maybe you face massive credit card or mortgage payments. Maybe you still have student loans hanging over your head like the sword of Damocles. These obligations won’t wait. So how are you supposed to “run a marathon,” metaphorically speaking, with respect to your case, when you need to sprint to keep up with your creditors and financial obligations?

The answer to this quandary obviously varies from case to case. But the first step is to get effective and appropriate legal advice. A North Carolina class action law firm, for instance, can tell you what resources to find and where to find them, what steps you can take to protect your finances and deal with creditors in the short term, and how to structure and plan your life to deal with a marathon-like case.

A good law firm will put you in control and help you understand what to do and what not to do to be the best possible plaintiff – with the least amount of stress and insecurity.

More Web Resources:

What it takes to win a marathon

Dealing with the ups and downs of a situation that “just keeps dragging on”