When it's Time to Get Help

Tingling in Hands After a Car Accident

by John McKiggan

What Does it Mean?

Tingling in the hands is a neurological symptom generally associated with pressure on your nerves. For example, if you cross your legs too long, when you uncross them you may get a numb, tingling, pins and needles sensation. Or when you sleep on your arm and you feel tingling when you move it. 

These are the more common instances of tingling in the hands that people will experience regularly over the course of their lives. However, tingling in the hands can also be caused by trauma and injury as a result of nerve damage. This can be an indication of more serious damage to the nerves rather than merely pressure.

Posted in: Car Accidents

I Hit a Car Pulling Out of a Driveway – Who Is at Fault?

by Mark Raftus

Imagine yourself driving down the street to work on a typical day. Suddenly, a car appears in front of you backing out of a driveway. You react, applying your brakes as hard as you can. Unfortunately, the other car is too close for you to stop in time and you hit the rear of it with a huge thump. You are jerked violently forward. You lose awareness of time for a short period. When you come to you feel dizzy and wonder if you sustained a concussion or suffered whiplash. Your chest hurts but you are glad you wore your seatbelt as without it you could have been sent hurtling through the windshield. 

You have just been in a car accident.

Now, put yourself in the position of the other car’s driver. Imagine you just finished placing your two-year-old daughter in the child safety seat in the back of the car. You pass over her favourite teddy bear which makes her smile. You close the door and hop into the driver’s seat. You shoot a glance at the dashboard clock and breathe a sigh of relief because unlike yesterday you are on time to drop your daughter off at the daycare a few blocks away. You glance at the roadway and all seems clear. You put the car in reverse and start backing out. Suddenly, you hear screeching tires and before you realize what is happening, glass shatters and your car gets pushed sideways. When you gather yourself the first thoughts you have are about your little girl in the back seat. You turn around, see her looking at you and notice she is crying a little but otherwise seems fine. 

Posted in: Car Accidents

Is the Car Making a Left-Hand Turn Always at Fault?

by John McKiggan

The short answer is no. The long answer is that generally speaking left-turning vehicles must yield the right of way to oncoming vehicles. However, that doesn’t mean they are automatically at fault and every accident must be examined on it’s own facts and a determination made as to who “caused” the collision.

There is a common misunderstanding that if you were making a left turn you are automatically at fault for the accident.  However, liability will depend on the right of way, the speed of the vehicles, the duties of each driver, and what a reasonable and prudent driver would have done in the same situation.

The Left-Hand Turn Rules in Nova Scotia

Posted in: Car Accidents

Emotional Distress Damages in Personal Injury Cases

by John McKiggan

In law, damages “. . . are
meant to put an injured person in as good a position as he or she would have
been in had those injuries never occurred”. Personal injury lawsuits
following an accident usually include compensation for what lawyers refer to as
“non-pecuniary damages” and what most people call “pain and suffering”.

In cases where someone has suffered
a physical injury, like a broken leg, it is easier to show the nature of the
injury and the harm it has caused. But what about where the primary injury is
related to the psychological distress of the traumatic accident?

Damages for emotional distress can
be difficult to determine and will greatly depend on the nature of your
injuries and the specifics of your case.

Posted in: Personal Injury

What is a Concussion & How Long Will it Take Me to Recover?

by Brian Hebert

A concussion is a form of mild traumatic brain injury caused by sudden shaking of the brain inside the head. The brain sits inside the skull surrounded by cerebrospinal fluid. With a sudden hit to the head or other part of the body, the head can move quickly in one direction.

However, the brain stays where it is, “floating” in the fluid so to speak, until it is struck by the inside of the skull which bats the brain toward the opposite wall of the skull. The brain can bounce back and forth between the opposite sides of the skull several times before everything calms down.  All of that commotion can cause bruising, bleeding and nerve damage.

Symptoms
of a Concussion

Posted in: Brain Injury

Motor Vehicle Collisions a Leading Cause of Serious Injuries in Nova Scotia

by John McKiggan

In
the early hours of May 26, 2019, a car struck a culvert that left two Nova
Scotia men seriously injured. RCMP police quickly alleged that the driver was
showing signs of alcohol impairment. The passenger of the vehicle was
transported by LifeFlight to Halifax for further medical treatment.

This
unfortunate accident is just one of hundreds of motor vehicle collisions that
happen across Nova Scotia every day.

How Much Are My Injuries Worth?

Posted in: Car Accidents

Brain Stem Injuries

by John McKiggan

By John McKiggan Q.C.

One of the huge challenges in representing survivors of brain injury is providing convincing evidence of the debilitating nature of the injury. This is even truer in cases where the brain injury doesn’t cause any obvious physical disability. It can be easy to miss the signs of brain injury if you don’t know what to look for.

A short story

Posted in: Brain Injury

Vehophobia After a Car Accident

by John McKiggan

Do you
experience fear of driving or get anxious about getting behind the wheel of
your vehicle? Do you have paralysing thoughts of being responsible for an
accident that may cause others injury or loss of life?

An Accident Caused Vehophobia

It was Saturday
morning and “Jim”, had stopped at a stop sign. He was a busy man, but Jim had promised
he would always attend his 6-year-old son’s soccer games. His son sat in the
back seat with a soccer ball in his lap.

Posted in: Car Accidents

PEDESTRIAN-CAR COLLISIONS ON THE RISE IN HRM

by Mark Raftus

This article provides an update to a January 22, 2016 article I wrote for the McKiggan Hebert personal injury blog titled “Good News in the Battle Against Pedestrian-Car Collisions”.

In this article I concluded pedestrian-car
“accidents” were on a decreasing trend in Halifax in 2015. Sadly, it does not
appear the trend has continued in the three-plus years since the article was
penned.

In the article I updated the statistics from my December 23, 2014 article “Pedestrian-Car Collisions: An Epidemic in Nova Scotia” showing the number of pedestrian-car collisions in Halifax had increased from 2013 to 2014 with attributed causes ranging from poor weather to poor visibility.

Posted in: Uncategorized

Five Tips for Negotiating the Best Personal Injury Settlement Possible

by John McKiggan

If you have been hurt in a car collision or any type of accident that resulted in injuries requiring medical treatment, you probably have a lot of questions pertaining to your potential personal injury claim’s inevitable settlement negotiations. Any injured person will want to obtain the very best settlement possible to help support their rehabilitation process, but accident victims must always consider their full settlement value throughout the entirety of the settlement process.

There are countless instances in which injuries prevent an accident victim from being able to work, which can make the overall physical pain of the injuries be exacerbated by the stress of wondering how bills and ubiquitous expenses will be paid.

At McKiggan Hebert, we want the process of filing a personal injury claim to be as stress-free as possible for all of our clients. We believe that innocent victims of serious accidents should be fully compensated for their injuries and all subsequent damages, and through our legal advice and strategies, we’ll be more than capable of successfully guiding your or your loved one past an insurance company’s first offer to a fair settlement agreement that fully reimburses you for your medical expenses, as well as all incurred economic and non-economic damages. 

Posted in: Personal Injury