Michigan Personal Injury Law Blog | Scott Goodwin Law

We’ve had cold mornings the past couple of days with the temperature staying well below freezing. Isn’t it supposed to be spring yet? According to Mlive.com, warming temperatures are concerning as isolated freezing rain will hit already cold roadways: Don’t cancel any plans. Just be alert and drive a little slower this morning when you

Glass shattering as baseball breaks through

March 31, 2014 is opening day for the Detroit Tigers! Since many Michiganders will be hitting their own fields to play baseball, we wanted to talk about the assumption of risk doctrine as a defense to certain civil law claims. First, let’s define the assumption of the risk doctrine: Participants in sporting activities are assumed

Dog Walk Liability

Tuesday, 25 March 2014 by
Black dog with blonde paws barking aggressively

While is doesn’t feel like it today, it is spring. This is the time of year to stretch your legs from their hibernation and take your dog out for a walk. Goodwin & Scieszka wanted to remind you of Michigan’s dog bite statute:  287.351. Injuries by dogs; liability of owners Sec. 1. (1) If a

During the spring and summer months, a backyard trampoline can seem like a fun backyard addition for kids and even adults. But it’s very important to make sure that anyone using the trampoline does so safely. It’s extremely easy for people to get injured while playing on a trampoline. According to the American Academy of

I always enjoy finding laws that people don’t know about, or that people just don’t talk much about. Today’s interesting law is about funeral processions and their legal right of way – this is a law out of respect for the dead and the mourning: Sec. 654. (1) A motor vehicle forming part of a

Well, considering Michigan just got slammed with yet another snowstorm that I had the pleasure of shoveling, I figured it would be entirely relevant to talk about Michigan’s landlord-tenant laws. More specifically, how landlord-tenant law applies to snow removal. Who should shovel? This might seem like a silly question, but remembering that America honors the freedom

Landlord Tenant Tort Liability

Thursday, 06 February 2014 by

When someone owns a property, they have a responsibility to make sure it’s reasonably safe for others to use, and that includes landlords. If a visitor, guest, or tenant gets hurt because of unsafe conditions that were caused by negligence, a concept called premises liability comes into play and it can be used to hold

Suing Michigan: What to Know

Monday, 03 February 2014 by

When you’ve been injured in an accident of any kind, filing a lawsuit is supposed to help bring justice by holding people accountable and giving the victim the compensation they need for recovery. But holding people accountable isn’t always easy. Often, the system is stacked against the little guy when certain types of entities are

Emotional distress, as you might imagine, occurs when a person’s conduct causes another person’s severe distress. Depending on the relationship between the parties and the way in which the severe distress was caused, there are different avenues of recovery for a plaintiff. Intentional infliction of emotional distress, despite its name, covers both intentional and reckless

We recently wrote about the intentional infliction of emotional distress in Michigan. Today, we’re going to inform you about its close cousin: negligent infliction of emotional distress. First, let’s start by defining the requirements in a negligence case: 1) a duty, 2) a breach of that duty, 3) causation (both proximate cause and factual cause),

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