Personal Injury

Eric Stravitz is a lawyer who handles primarily personal injury cases.

Personal injuries are injuries caused by someone or something other than the injured person. They can occur from: car accidents, bike accidents, pedestrian accidents, train accidents, and dog bites; mistakes made by doctors, dentists, pharmacists, physician assistants and nurses; buildings that fail due to poor construction causing fires, floods, and collapses; product failures causing fires, explosions, broken bones, and other injuries; people being assaulted as a result of poor security at apartments, condos, shopping centers and other business establishments; people falling due to dangerous conditions at an apartment or business establishment; pharmacists filling prescriptions with the wrong pills, medications that do not work as advertised and instead harm the patients who take them; and many other ways. Eric Stravitz has handled cases arising from all of these types of failures of care. When, at worst, people die from any of these failures the resulting cases are called “wrongful death” cases. Wrongful death cases typically have special rules (click here).

For over twenty years, Eric has handled lawsuits arising from personal injury cases. He can effectively handle your case whether it involves a pre-suit settlement, a lawsuit that settles before trial, or a trial. Eric has successfully handled cases in both federal and state-level courts. Unlike at some firms where the lawyer you meet initially does not handle lawsuits or trials, Eric will take your case the entire distance, from the initial free consultation, through pre-suit negotiations and, if necessary, through trial. This is very important. Many personal injury lawyers can negotiate a settlement with an insurance adjuster (if the case is one that the insurance adjuster wants to settle pre-suit). If, however, an insurance adjuster knows that a lawyer does not file suit or try cases, that adjuster may lowball the lawyer because he or she knows the lawyer will settle for less than full value to avoid litigating or trying a case. Eric will tell you if he thinks your case needs to be litigated or tried.

Having watched television, most people have some idea of what it means to try a case, but fewer people know what it means to “litigate” a case. Litigating means handling a case from the time a lawsuit is filed up through trial. This involves drafting and filing the lawsuit; serving the defendant (which can be tricky); sending written discovery requests, such as interrogatories (written questions to be answered under oath), requests for documents, and requests for admissions; preparing clients for their deposition (depositions are interviews of the parties to — and witnesses in — a case done under oath by the opposing lawyer with a court reporter present to take down the questions and answers); taking and defending depositions of individual non-expert witnesses; sometimes taking depositions or a corporation or entity (all of the courts that Eric practices in allow this procedure); taking and defending depositions of expert witnesses (Eric has, for example, taken and defended the depositions of doctors, engineers, psychiatrists, psychologists, accident reconstructionists, vocational rehabilitation counselors, economists, and other types of experts); attending scheduling conferences; filing and opposing motions; arguing for a client’s position at motions hearings; drafting pretrial conference statements; preparing for and representing clients at mediations and arbitrations; attending pretrial conferences; preparing “voir dire” (jury selection questions asked of potential jurors at the beginning of a trial); preparing courtroom exhibits; drafting jury instructions (essentially, the law that the Judge reads to the jury before it deliberates at trial). Eric has done all of these things, every year, for over twenty years. Insurance companies know that Eric himself (not an associate, or some other lawyer with very little experience) will not hesitate to litigate or try a case, if he thinks the offer is too low or if the insurance company is refusing to make any offer, when it ought to do so. This helps to produce fair results for Eric’s clients.

To do this job well, a plaintiff’s personal injury litigator and trial lawyer needs many skill sets. He will be dealing with an opposing lawyer, paid by an insurance company to diminish — or defeat entirely — his client’s case. Thus, a good plaintiff’s attorney needs to: (1) understand the law and the rules of procedure and evidence that apply to a case, (2) be able to work well with opposing counsel¹; (3) be able to meet numerous deadlines for each case; (4) be able to communicate effectively (both spoken and written communications) with clients, insurance adjusters, opposing lawyers, non-expert and expert witnesses, judges and juries; (5) understand the medicine involved in a particular case, (6) understand the value of a case, and (7) have sufficient trial advocacy skills to be able to go the distance with the case. Eric has all these skills and has demonstrated them for over 20 years.

While Eric is a confident lawyer and person, he is not arrogant. This is another important distinction. He does not talk just to hear himself. He will listen to you. He is curious by nature. He knows that he can always learn more about his clients and the practice of law, and he consistently strives to do so.

If you bring your case to the Stravitz Law Firm, your personal injury case will become personal to Eric Stravitz. He will work hard on your case and guide you each step of the way. Eric understands that his clients need not only a good result, but also (1) first-rate customer service and (2) stress reduction (life is complicated enough without throwing personal injuries and a personal injury case into the mix). He constantly strives to provide excellent results and customer service to all of his clients.

Eric handles the following types of cases:

• Admiralty & Maritime Injury
• Amputation
• Anesthesia Malpractice
• Assault & Battery Victim
• Bike Accident
• Birth Injury
• Brain Injury
• Burn Injury
• Bus Accidents
• Car Accidents
• Cardiac/Heart Attack/Myocardial Infarction/Failure to Diagnose Arrhythmia
• Chemicals & Cosmetics
• Child Abuse Victim
• Child Injury
• Class Action
• Construction Accidents
• Cosmetic Surgery Malpractice
• Cross Walk Accident
• Dangerous Property
• Defamation
• Defective Medical Devices
• Dental Malpractice
• Dog Bites & Animal Attacks
• Domestic Violence Victim
• Elder Abuse
• Emergency Room Errors
• Gastric Bypass Malpractice
• Guidant Heart Devices
• Hazardous Waste
• Head Injury
• Helicopter Crashes
• HMO Malpractice
• Inadequate Security
• Insurance Law
• Intentional Injury Victim
• Jones Act
• Lasik Eye Surgery
• Lead Poisoning
• Legal Malpractice
• Libel
• Liposuction Malpractice
• Long Term Disability
• Manufacturing Defects
• Mass Tort
• Medical Malpractice
• Medical Products Liability
• Medication Malpractice
• Medtronic Medical Devices
• Motorcycle Accidents
• Nursing Home Abuse
• Nursing Home Negligence
• Oil Rig Accident
• Optometry Malpractice
• Paralysis
• Pedestrian Accidents
• Pediatric Meningitis
• Pesticides
• Petrochemical Accidents
• Pharmaceutical Litigation
• Pharmacist Malpractice
• Police Misconduct
• Premises Liability
• Products Liability
• Professional Malpractice
• Psychiatric Malpractice
• Qui Tam
• Radiation Injury
• Railroad Worker Injury-FELA
• Rollover Accident
• Scaffold Accidents
• Seat Belt Defects
• Sexual Abuse Victim
• Sexual Assault Victim
• Shipman Accident
• Slander
• Slip & Fall
• Social Security Disability
• Spinal Cord Injury
• Sports Injury
• Subway Accidents
• Suicide
• Surgery Malpractice
• Surgical Errors
• SUV Rollovers
• Swimming Pool Injury
• Train Accidents
• Truck Accidents
• Whiplash
• Whistle Blower
• Workers’ Compensation
• Wrong Diagnosis or Misdiagnosis
• Wrongful Death

If you or someone you care about has one of these potential cases, contact Eric at 240-467-5741 for a free consultation. He’ll treat you with professionalism and respect while he helps you assess your situation and clarify your next steps.

¹ This is a complicated topic. Eric believes in getting things done efficiently through cooperation with opposing counsel, but also in fighting like hell for his clients when cooperation is not working. Eric strongly believes that being “Rambo lawyer” or “shark” all of the time is silly, ineffective, and a recipe for a heart attack.