Woman Sued After Assisting Victim Of A Los Angeles Vehicle Accident

According to reports by car accident lawyers Los Angeles, the woman who is being sued after a Los Angeles vehicle accident when she pulled a then friend from a crashed vehicle is Lisa Torti. The accident occurred in 2004 and Tori pulled then friend and fellow makeup artist from a vehicle that she felt was in danger of catching fire.

This is where Van Horns attorney Robert Hutchinson claims that Torti who was in a vehicle following the one that crashed pulled Van Horn from the vehicle in a ruff manner, dragging her and then set her roughly on the median. Their claim is that these actions caused Van Horn to suffer spine injuries that left her paralyzed. Hutchinson also stated that both the driver of the vehicle and another passenger were still in the vehicle at the time Torti took Van Horn from the vehicle.

The California Supreme Court ruled that Van Horn would be able to sue Torti for allegedly causing the paralysis. This was a court rule of 4-3, stating that only persons administering medical care are legally immune from being sued. Torti is not covered under the advantage of the liability law that protects emergency medical personnel. They further stated that the actions Torti took after what she perceived as a dangerous situation does not protect her as her attorneys argued as a Good Samaritan.

A jury will now decide whether Van Horn injury to her spine occurred during the crash or if it occurred due to Torti extracting her from the vehicle. Torti stated that Van Horn’s and her attorney have exonerated how she helped Van Horn from the vehicle, that she would never pull someone roughly. She stated that Van Horn told her she could not move, she then placed her one hand under Van Horn’s legs and the other under her neck carrying her out of the vehicle.

The accident occurred after Torti, Van Horn and other had been drinking at a Halloween party with friends and left a suburban bar in Chatsworth. The driver of the vehicle Van Horn was in lost control spinning and smashing into a telephone pole.

This decision by the California Supreme Court has many people and groups concerned including the Boy Scouts who teach their members first aid.

Ethics and Civility in California Law - Unofficial Inns of Court Blog South Bay

This blog was set up by Los Angeles personal injury practitioner and Inns member, Michael P. Ehline, so as to have an unofficial forum where Inns members could go to discuss various issues that effect them in their day to day lives as attorneys and as regular people. Feel free to post a comment and discuss the latest ethical and civility related issues on your minds. Ethics and civility in California law is an important topic offered in this unofficial Inns of Court South Bay blog.

Free Public Information - the Inns of Court History of Ethics and Civility

"The American Inns of Court concept was the product of a discussion in the late 1970's among the United States' members of the Anglo-American exchange of lawyers and judges, including Chief Justice Warren E. Burger and Chief Judge of the Ninth Circuit J. Clifford Wallace. Chief Justice Burger subsequently invited Rex E. Lee (then Dean of the J. Reuben Clark School of Law at Brigham Young University and later United States Solicitor General) and Dallin Oaks (then president of Brigham Young University and later Justice of the Utah Supreme Court) to test the idea.Ethics and Civility in California Law" . . . "In 1983, Chief Justice Burger created a committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States to explore whether the American Inn concept was of value to the administration of justice and, if so, whether there should be a national organization to promote, establish and assist American Inns, and promote the goals of legal excellence, civility, professionalism and ethics on a national level. The committee reported to the Judicial Conference affirmatively on the two questions and proposed the creation of the American Inns of Court Foundation. The Judicial Conference approved the reports and, thus, endorsed the American Inn concept and the formation of a national structure. In 1985, the American Inns of Court Foundation was formally organized." Inns of Court History [Emphasis Added.]