Tim Rayne

Pennsylvania Car Accident & Personal Injury Lawyer

Tim Rayne

Pennsylvania Car Accident & Personal Injury Lawyer

Tim Rayne

NFL Star Aaron Hernandez Faces Wrongful Death and Assault Civil Lawsuits

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Usually it’s difficult, if not impossible, to be successful in pursuing a Civil Lawsuit against the perpetrator of a Murder or Assault, but the case of former NFL star Aaron Hernandez is an exception.

In Pennylvania and other states, the perpetrator of a Murder can be sued for Wrongful Death by the victim’s family. The compensation to the family includes the money the person would have earned, compensation for lost contributions, medical bills, pain and suffering of the deceased and other items. Victims of a criminal Assualt can also file a Civil Lawsuit in Pennsylvania and other states for compensation for medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering and other damages.

Nevertheless, it’s usually a waste of time and money to pursue these compensation claims since neither Murder or Assault are covered by insurance. Since they are intentional criminal acts, any insurance coverage of the perpetrator is excluded. This means that the only avenue of recovery for the victim or victim’s family in a Civil Lawsuit is personal assets.

Aaron Hernandez has been convicted of an execution-style murder and has been accused of another double shooting Murder. In addition, Hernandez is accused of shooting a friend in the eye after a night club argument. The Murder victims’ families have sued for Wrongful Death and the Assault victim has also sued for compensation.

Although any insurance Hernandez has will be excluded, he made millions in the NFL which should be available to compensate the families if Hernandez is found liable for the Murders and Assault.

For more information on Personal Injury and Wrongful Death claims in Pennsylvania, contact Tim Rayne at trayne@macelree.com or 610 840 0124 or check out his website at https://timraynelaw.com.

Tim Rayne Named Top Personal Injury Lawyer in Mainline Today Magazine

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Tim Rayne Top Personal Injury Lawyer - Main Line Today

MacElree Harvey is proud to announce that Kennett Square attorney, Tim Rayne, has been named the Top Personal Injury Lawyer for 2014 by Main Line Today Magazine.

Each year, Main Line Today conducts a poll of the local legal community seeking votes on the Top Lawyers in over a dozen specific practice areas. Since 2007, Tim Rayne has been recognized each year and several times, including 2014, where he was named the Top Lawyer in the Personal Injury category. Here is the link to this year’s Main Line Today Top Lawyers article.

Tim Rayne has practiced law for nearly twenty years, the entire time at the Chester County law firm of MacElree Harvey. Tim’s Personal Injury law office is in his lifelong hometown of Kennett Square. Tim focuses his entire legal practice in Personal Injury law, helping people injured in accidents by educating them on their legal rights and ensuring that they receive fair treatment from insurance companies.

Tim handles a wide variety of cases including car, motorcycle, and truck accident cases; slip and fall cases; medical malpractice; products liability; construction accidents; dog bites; and wrongful death cases.

For more information on how Main Line Today Top Personal Injury Lawyer Tim Rayne can help you after a Pennsylvania accident, check out the informative articles and videos on his website at www.timraynelaw.com or contact him directly at 610-840-0124 or trayne@macelree.com. Tim has a Master’s Degree in Trial Advocacy and is Board Certified in Trial Advocacy.  In 2015, Tim was named as a Top 100 Lawyer in Philaelphia and Pennsylvania by Super Lawyers Magazine. Tim has law offices in West Chester and Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.  

Five Things To Do if You’ve Been Injured in a Slip or Trip and Fall Accident in Pennsylvania

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Hi. My name is Tim Rayne, and I’m a Pennsylvania Slip and Fall Attorney. Today’s legal tip is five things to do if you’ve been injured in a slip or trip and fall.

Number one — photograph the condition that caused you to fall. It’s extremely important that you immediately document the condition that caused your fall, whether it’s something on the floor, whether it’s snow, or ice; whether it’s another type of defective condition. It’s of critical importance that you take a photograph.

Fortunately nowadays, most of us carry a cellphone or some other type of device that has a camera on it. Use that, and immediately take a photograph of the condition that caused you to fall, because it will be extremely important evidence to use in the event that you have a legal case.

Number two — identify any witnesses to the fall and get their contact information. Again, this is very important. You need the contact information of anyone who saw you fall, and/or witnessed the condition that caused you to fall. Get that information immediately before they leave the scene of the accident.

Number three — be sure to notify immediately the property owner or business owner of the place where your fall occurred. It’s important that the property owner be notified so that there can’t be any argument later that you didn’t fall, or you fell somewhere else, or you’re making this up. It’s important that you notify the property owner or business owner immediately.

Number four — get immediate medical treatment. If you’ve been injured in a fall, it’s important that you document your injuries, and it’s important that you get medical treatment immediately. If you don’t do that, that will allow the insurance company to argue that maybe you weren’t hurt at all, or maybe you got hurt somewhere after this fall occurred. So, you need to get immediate medical treatment.

Number five — contact and consult with an experienced Personal Injury Attorney. It’s important that as soon as possible after the accident, you locate and talk to an experienced Personal Injury Attorney who handles these types of cases. There are many mistakes that you can make unknowingly that will hurt your claim, if you don’t seek immediate advice. So, it’s important that you find and talk to an experienced Personal Injury Attorney as soon as possible.

So, those are the five things that I recommend that you do after a slip or trip and fall accident. And my name is Tim Rayne. I’m a Pennsylvania Personal Injury Attorney. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any other questions. I can be reached by phone 610 840 0124 or email trayne@macelree.com.  Thank you.

Using Mediation to Settle a Personal Injury Case

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Mediation is a tool that’s often used in personal injury cases to try to settle a case before trial. The concept of mediation is that the parties, rather than take the case to trial in front of jury which involves risks to both sides, instead of that, they agree to attempt to settle the case by using a mediator.

Mediators usually are a retired judge or a very experienced attorney who has knowledge with regard to these types of cases. The mediator, for a fee, agrees to meet with the parties, analyze the case, and attempt to bring them together to reach a resolution. Typically the process involves a half day or a day with the mediator in which the parties come with their clients in order to attempt to settle the case.

Typically mediation will start off with a joint session where the mediator explains how the session will work, how the mediation will work, and how the parties through their attorneys get to present their case.

After that, what usually happens is that the mediator will split the parties up sending one party to one room, one party to another room, and the mediator will go back and forth between the two rooms discussing the merits of their of their case and attempting to get the parties together to a resolution.

This involves compromise on both sides. The plaintiff has to be willing to compromise in order to get the case settled, as does the defendant. If the mediation is successful, the case will end there. The parties will resolve their case without having to go to court.

However, it’s important to understand that it’s a voluntary process. No settlement is going to be reached unless both sides voluntarily agree to it. If no settlement is reached, then the case has to go to court. But mediation is often an effective tool in order to resolve cases and avoid the risk of going to trial.

Dangers of Using Social Media in a Personal Injury Case

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In today’s video, we’re going to talk about the dangers of using social media while you have a pending personal injury case.

It’s common nowadays for young people and for even old people like me to be heavily involved in social media. We have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and probably a bunch of other things that younger people use. We’re able to post pictures of ourselves, talk about our activities, and socialize with our friends and family. It’s a great tool for communicating with people and it’s a lot of fun. However, it can also be very harmful to use that type of social media while you’re involved in a personal injury case.

It’s unfortunate that nowadays defense attorneys and insurance companies will look for any advantage they can get in cases, and they’ll look for any evidence that they might be able to use to make plaintiffs in personal injury cases look bad and to damage their credibility. It’s common nowadays for defense attorneys and insurance companies to try to obtain information from social media in order to do that, to attack your credibility as a plaintiff and to damage your case. I’ve seen it happen in cases of colleagues of mine that this type of information, posts from Facebook or pictures from Facebook, can be used as cross-examination information at trial and can really harm a case. Even though a client’s being honest about the way an accident has impacted his or her life, these type of pictures or posts can be taken out of context by the defense or misunderstood by the jury and can result in significant damage to a personal injury case.

It’s my advice as a personal injury attorney to avoid the use of social media while you’re involved in a personal injury case.

The Role of a Pennsylvania Personal Injury Attorney

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The role of a Pennsylvania Personal Injury Attorney is to ensure that you receive fair compensation after being injured in an accident.

You have been injured in an accident in Pennsylvania that was not your fault.  Several questions run through your mind.  Who will pay for my medical expenses?  Who will pay my bills when I’m out of work?  What care will I need in the future and who will pay for it?  How has my life been changed and when, if ever, will I be able to resume a normal and active pain-free life?  How do I deal with the insurance companies?  How do I make sure that the person who caused the accident accepts responsibility and pays fair compensation for all of my losses?

My job, as a Pennsylvania Personal Injury attorney, is to answer all of those questions, handle all contact with the insurance companies and, ultimately, recover full and fair compensation for your injuries.  My ultimate goal is to make certain that the person who caused the accident accepts responsibility and covers all of your losses, including compensating you for all past and future medical bills and lost wages, any other out-of-pocket costs and provides full and fair compensation for your pain and suffering and emotional distress.

Under Pennsylvania Negligence Law, the person responsible for causing a car accident is legally obligated to compensate anyone injured in the accident for all consequences.  Since there is no way to turn back the clock and prevent the car accident from happening, the intent of Negligence Law is to provide an injured party with enough compensation to make up for the damage caused by the accident.

Almost always, the person who caused the car accident has purchased insurance coverage to make sure that an insurance company has to pay, rather than risking his or her personal assets.  Not surprisingly, the insurance company is a big corporation motivated to make a profit by collecting premiums and paying out as little as possible in claims.  So, when its customers cause accidents, the insurance company will often try to deny responsibility for causing the accident or try to minimize compensation payments.  My goal, as your Pennsylvania Personal Injury attorney, is to make sure that the insurance company does not take advantage of you and to get you full and fair compensation for your injuries and losses.

These are the things we do for you in a typical Pennsylvania Personal Injury case after a car accident:  investigate the accident; photograph the scene; locate and interview witnesses; review insurance policies; communicate with insurance companies; gather medical records, bills and lost wage information; hire expert witnesses; and negotiate a settlement or file a lawsuit and litigate the case to a conclusion, through settlement or a jury trial.

Our fees are charged on a “Contingent” basis, meaning that the fee is “contingent” upon us recovering compensation for you.  If we achieve no recovery, there is no fee.  If we are successful in achieving compensation, our fee is usually one-third of the recovery plus any out-of-pocket costs we pay to pursue your case.  We believe that the Contingent Fee is beneficial to our clients because the risk of the representation is on our shoulders.  We pay expenses and perform work, but, if we are unsuccessful, you owe us nothing.  In addition, the Contingent Fee gives a financial incentive for us to get you full and fair compensation because our fee depends on it.  Also, since we do not charge by the hour, there is no incentive for us to delay or drag out the resolution your case.

About the Author

Tim Rayne is a Pennsylvania Personal Injury attorney with the ChesterCounty law firm of MacElree Harvey.  Tim has offices in Kennett Square and West Chester, PA, and focuses his practice in helping injured victims of accidents.  Tim has extensive experience in settling and trying car accident, medical malpractice and other injury cases.  Check out Tim’s website at www.timraynelae.com or contact him at 610-840-0124 or trayne@macelree.com for information or to schedule a free consultation.