Please take a few minutes on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day to refresh your memory.

This year’s scorching Texas summer heat, in a dubious honor, broke a national record once held by Oklahoma that had stood since the Dust Bowl changed the face of the country in the 1930s. On Thursday, the National Weather Service confirmed what Texas climatologists and residents already suspected: The Texas months of June through August were the hottest three months ever recorded in the history of the United States.

No one really wants to go to court and go through the long and often messy process that is a trial, but when it comes to claiming what’s rightfully yours, it’s not good to give up without a fight. And that’s where your personal injury lawyer comes into the picture and helps you deal with not just your monetary compensation, but also the emotional fallout as well. By helping you understand your case better and providing you with the psychological boost you need to stay out of depression in this trying time, your attorney can make your life much easier by helping you decide if it is better to take the case to court or settle outside after mediation or arbitration.

There are both pros and cons to settling out of court, and even though each case is unique, the following apply to most cases in general.

On the plus side:

• The settlement is usually quicker and the money is in your hand sooner than you expect it – this helps take care of medical expenses and other immediate costs without having to incur debt.
• You save yourself and your family the agony and stress of going through a long and arduous trial – it takes up a major part of your life and your work and other aspects suffer as a result. You have to be in court on all the days of the trial, and this could wreak havoc with your professional and social life.
• You can keep the details of the case, and much of your personal life, outside the court and public records. With out-of-court settlements, you can ask for a confidentiality agreement where the details of the case are kept private and out of public records.
• Also, you don’t have to relive the experience for a jury and suffer the questions of an avid defense attorney.
• Even though most attorneys work on a contingency fee basis, you will incur some costs during the trial and you’ll find it hard to make ends meet, what with the medical and other expenditure that’s already on your head.
• A court case can take years to reach a conclusion, and even when it does, appeals filed by the other party can drag it even further.

On the minus side however:

• The amount you get is sometimes less than what a jury would have awarded in a civil court.
• Frequently, the damages take into account only the actual cost of injury (medical expenditure, accidental damage to property, and so on) and does not provide for punitive damages or emotional and mental agony suffered or loss of job or the quality of life.

It would seem like the most sensible thing to do when fighting a personal injury case is to ask for an out-of-court arbitration and settlement, and trust your lawyer to get you the best possible deal based on your circumstances. Even though the compensation may be less, it saves you the hassle of a long-drawn out court trial and the agony of prolonging your bitter experience for longer than necessary. However, talk to your attorney and make the best decision for your case, based on the facts and details available.

My thanks to Chris for this excellent article. His last sentence sums it all up — talk to your lawyer, and follow his or her advice. Your lawyer will have your best interests at heart, and will give you solid information on the pros and cons of going to court, based on the specific facts of your own case.

If attorney Fred Benjamin had his way, all facilities that allow people to use motorized wheelchairs would also implement a certain set of safety measures — speed limits, crosswalks and traffic monitors.

The Chicago lawyer said he is representing two clients who allege they were injured being run down by the electric contraptions because safety precautions were not taken. In the most current case, which Benjamin filed last week in Cook County Circuit Court, an 84-year-old woman says she was exiting the dining room at her senior living center on Sept. 17, 2009, when a resident in a motorized wheelchair plowed into her at full speed.

Emma Jean Conner was left with a broken leg and hip, which required surgery, Benjamin said.

Conner’s lawsuit alleges that her living center, Victory Centre of Roseland LLC, and its parent company, Pathway Senior Living LLC, failed to properly care for and supervise residents when they allowed residents to move “at a speed that was too fast and that endangered other patients.”

“They allow these people in motorized chairs to just fly through,” Benjamin said, adding that he is representing another client in a similar case against Jewel-Osco. “There needs to be people to monitor them, to keep control.”

Aaron D’Costa, chief business development officer for Pathway Senior Living, declined to comment on the lawsuit Tuesday but said the company is reviewing its practices.

“We have looked to see what we can do operationally to help improve the interaction between residents,” D’Costa said.

Conner is asking for an unspecified amount of money.

Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation’s service. There are many stories as to its actual beginnings, with over two dozen cities and towns laying claim to being the birthplace of Memorial Day. There is also evidence that organized women’s groups in the South were decorating graves before the end of the Civil War: a hymn published in 1867, “Kneel Where Our Loves are Sleeping” by Nella L. Sweet carried the dedication “To The Ladies of the South who are Decorating the Graves of the Confederate Dead” (Source: Duke University’s Historic American Sheet Music, 1850-1920). While Waterloo N.Y. was officially declared the birthplace of Memorial Day by President Lyndon Johnson in May 1966, it’s difficult to prove conclusively the origins of the day. It is more likely that it had many separate beginnings; each of those towns and every planned or spontaneous gathering of people to honor the war dead in the 1860’s tapped into the general human need to honor our dead, each contributed honorably to the growing movement that culminated in Gen Logan giving his official proclamation in 1868. It is not important who was the very first, what is important is that Memorial Day was established. Memorial Day is not about division. It is about reconciliation; it is about coming together to honor those who gave their all.