Personal Injury Attorney of Colorado ~ Dianne Sawaya

February 25th,2010

Welcome! We launched our improved and updated website March 1.The Internet has become an important way for people to do research,communicate with others,and conduct important financial and personal business.To that end,I want our website to be a valuable resource for people – both clients and those who may need our services.

On the site you’ll find information about my firm and the attorneys and staff that are dedicated to providing the best service available to injured clients. Each of the areas of personal injury law

February 25th,2010

A Boulder lawmaker has introduced a bill in the Colorado legislature designed to restrict an insurance company’s ability to take back money from a plaintiff’s recovery amount. Rep. Claire Levy, D-Boulder, introduced HB 10-1168 on Feb. 22. Under what’s known as subrogation, an insurer that pays benefits to someone who is injured due to an act or omission of a third party can in some cases be repaid those benefits out of the amount the injured party recovers, regardless of whether the injured party has been fully compensated

February 25th,2010

You see it all the time. Someone is driving down the street, yakking on the cell phone – or worse, texting. Unfortunately, I see it too. I see it with clients who have been injured in a car crash and who tell me they saw the other driver talking or texting away.

A new Colorado law took effect Dec. 1, 2009, banning anyone from texting while driving a car. The same law makes it illegal for anyone under 18 to use a cell phone at all while driving. But I wouldn’t be surprised if most people are ignoring the law.

Hand Rail Gives Way, Client Tumbles and Ruins Knee

Gretchen B. wanted to buy a new car. Once she arrived at the auto dealer, she had to climb up a flight of stairs to get to the showroom. She used the stair rail, but about two-thirds of the way to the top of the stairway, Gretchen reached for the handrail on the narrow stairs and it gave way. Gretchen took a serious fall, resulting in a broken leg, shattered kneecap and torn ligaments. The surgery and medical treatment to fix her knee was expensive, and left her with a knee that will never work right again. Her injury meant having to quit her post as president of her kids’ school booster club, and she could no longer do volunteer work for her local firefighters. When Gretchen filed a claim with the auto dealer’s insurance company, they said they wouldn’t pay her anything because she had hurt the same knee eight years ago in a softball game. That incident – not the broken handrail – caused her injury at the car dealer, the insurer said. Gretchen called a slip-and-fall attorney at The Law Offices of Dianne Sawaya, and the insurance company decided it would pay Gretchen what she deserved after all.

Settlement: $435,000

Semi’s Illegal Pass Takes Grandmother’s Life, Shatters Passengers’ Future

Debbie L. was driving her daughter and new grandson home to the farm from a shopping trip at the mall in town. It was late afternoon and an impatient semi-truck driver had been tailgating Debbie for miles on the county blacktop. Debbie started to slow down to turn left into her farm lane. Maybe the truck driver didn’t see her turn signal, or maybe he didn’t care. He pulled out to pass Debbie and smashed into the driver’s side of her car as she started her turn. She was killed instantly, and her daughter and grandson were severely injured. After putting experts to work on the case, the truck accident attorney at The Law Offices of Dianne Sawaya found out the semi driver had been driving for 13 hours straight – well over what the law allows – and that the trucking company he worked for was paying the driver under the table to stay on the road and get his load delivered. The trucking company and their insurance company tried to put profits ahead of lives. They said the driver and the trucking company weren’t at fault, and they weren’t going to pay Debbie’s surviving daughter and grandson anything – until Dianne Sawaya’s attorney convinced them otherwise.

Settlement: $820,000

Failure to Spot Treatable Condition Causes Lifetime of Suffering for Newborn

Before he was born, Terry E.’s parents thought something was wrong. Terry’s father, a mechanic, and his mother, who works in a bakery, asked the doctor about it, but were assured everything was fine. Terry’s parents were right, though. He had developed a heart condition that is easily seen by performing an ultrasound examination, and that’s easily treated with a routine prenatal surgery procedure. But Terry’s doctor didn’t see the condition soon enough and the condition worsened as Terry developed in his mother’s womb. When the doctor finally spotted Terry’s heart condition and performed the surgery he needed, the procedure didn’t go right. Before he even had a fighting chance at life, Terry was injured by the doctor they trusted to take care of him, and his parents were saddled with a future filled with huge medical bills, rehabilitation treatment and special care. The insurance companies for the doctor and the hospital fought hard to avoid paying for their mistakes. But Dianne Sawaya’s aggressive medical malpractice attorneys convinced them that instead of a trial before a judge and jury, they should accept a settlement for what Terry deserved.

Settlement: $1.6 million.