Practice Areas

At Rubin Guttman & Associates, our Cleveland personal injury lawyers provide aggressive representation to victims of serious of accidents, including car crashes, truck accidents, bicycle and motorcycle accidents. We also assist patients injured by medical malpractice and nursing home neglect and abuse. Our attorneys represent claimants seeking Social Security Disability benefits as well. If you have been injured, our experienced trial lawyers are ready to advise and advocate for you.

If you were injured in an accident caused by someone else’s negligence or recklessness, you have the right to recover damages. Damages include economic and non-economic compensatory damages, which are damages intended to put you back into the position in which you would have been had the accident not happened, including medical expenses, pain and suffering, lost income, and so-called loss of consortium and society (if you were married at the time of the accident). In certain situations, such as where a defendant was under the influence alcohol or drugs or where the other party engaged in willful, wanton or reckless misconduct, or intentional wrongdoing, you may also be able to recover punitive damages to punish a defendant for his or her wrongdoing.

Often, car accidents result from another driver’s unsafe actions behind the wheel. To prove a driver's negligence, we will need to show that it is more likely than not that, for example, the driver was speeding, tailgating, weaving through traffic, not looking out for other cars, on her cellphone, texting while driving, or driving drunk. If the other driver can show that you were partly at fault, Ohio’s modified comparative negligence rule, in which a plaintiff's recovery is reduced by his or her percentage of fault may reduce what you may recover from the other driver. Our knowledgeable personal injury attorneys can help Cleveland and other Ohio residents fight back against this argument and help you get what you deserve.

Truck accidents can be particularly devastating because of the weight and size of these vehicles. An overturned semi may block several lanes of travel, leaving an oncoming car with no way to avoid a collision. Or it may crush anything or anyone it hits. Often, several vehicles are involved in a chain reaction collision started by a truck driver’s negligence and it is necessary to hire an accident reconstruction expert to determine which of the vehicles were responsible for the accident. While the truck driver is liable for his or her negligence, there may be other parties who are also to blame, including the driver’s employer, the truck’s owner, the shipper who loaded the truck and others. A trucking company may also be held responsible for its own negligent hiring, training, or supervision of the at fault driver. It is important to investigate all of this as soon after a truck accident as possible and to identify each responsible party because evidence and witnesses may disappear with the passage of time. Unearthing all available insurance is also critical because the individual driver's insurance policy may be insufficient to pay for your injuries and damages, let alone cover damages for multiple injured victims.

Motorcycle accidents may leave a bike rider with catastrophic or even fatal injuries while the driver of the at fault car or truck walks away uninjured. Since there is no buffer between the motorcycle rider and the vehicle which hits her, the rider may suffer crush injuries from direct bodily impact, be thrown from the bike into the path of an oncoming car or truck or hit an object on the side of the road. A design or manufacturing defect in the motorcycle, its tires or even a road hazard may play a role in causing the accident. Lawyers experienced in handling motorcycle accidents know how handle these complex cases and prove who among many possible parties are responsible for your accident and injuries.

To establish medical malpractice, we need to first prove that a health care provider like a doctor, podiatrist dentist, or hospital failed to do what they should have done or did what they shouldn’t have. This departure from the professional standard of care is known as negligence. Medical malpractice may include surgical errors, improper diagnoses, failure to diagnose conditions like cancer, coronary artery disease, post operative bleeding, infection or other complications in a timely manner. Delayed diagnoses, or an incorrect interpretation of test results, diagnostic imaging like x-rays, CT scans and MRIs may also be the basis for a medical malpractice claim. Under Ohio law, your Cleveland medical malpractice lawyer must also prove that the doctor or hospital’s negligence caused your injuries and damages, or even the wrongful death of a loved one. An experienced malpractice attorney will find and consult with experienced medical experts in each specialty involved in your case to determine whether the professional standard of care was breached and whether that breach of care was the cause of your injuries and damages or the wrongful death of your loved.. Because, generally speaking, the statute of limitations for filing a medical malpractice case in Ohio is only one year from the date on which the medical malpractice occurred, it is critical that you consult an experienced medical malpractice attorney as soon as you have reason to suspect that you may have been a victim of medical or hospital malpractice.

When our parent, spouse or an elderly loved one can no longer care for themselves or live on their own, we must trust a nursing home to provide appropriate care for our loved one. Unfortunately, nursing home abuse and neglect happen frequently in Ohio and across the country. There are numerous federal and state regulations that a nursing home must follow but often fail to do so. Nursing home patients are often given too much or too little medication, the wrong medication, or the wrong combination of drugs, resulting in serious injury or even wrongful death. Unsupervised or poorly supervised patients fall and suffer needless serious injury. Other patients suffer serious skin wounds or pressure ulcers which go untreated until the nursing home resident has a wound down to the bone or a life-threatening infection. Under the Ohio Nursing Home Patients Bill of Rights, nursing home patients have the right to a safe and clean living environment, the right to be from of abuse and the right to appropriate and adequate medical treatment If you have a loved one in a nursing home and suspect neglect or abuse, you should consult an experienced Ohio nursing home attorney as quickly as possible. Like medical malpractice, nursing home abuse cases are subject to a one year statute of limitations. Time is of the essence!

Traumatic brain injuries may result from car, truck, bicycle, motorcycle or other accidents, as well as medical malpractice, nursing home neglect and abuse[and electric shock. They can be among the most catastrophic kinds of injuries that an accident victim can suffer. They may also be difficult to see and difficult for most doctors to find, diagnose and treat. There may be so-called closed head injuries in which there are no serious visible injuries, but the impact on someone’s life may be profound. Traumatic brain injury may be the result of a violent blow to the head or from the head hitting a car window, which causes bruising to the brain or internal bleeding and which in turn puts pressure on the brain that must be relieved by drilling into the skull to relieve the pressure. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) may cause difficulties with performing so called executive functions like concentrating, focusing or using arithmetic to do inventory at work. It may cause double vision, problems with balance, loss of a sense like smell or even the inability to use your arms or legs. TBI may prevent the injured person from driving, depending on the severity of the traumatic brain injury and may affect the injured party’s ability to be gainfully employed or engage in the activities of daily living, Such injuries may entitle the traumatic brain injured person to recover damages sufficient to pay for lifetime psychiatric and medical care, modifications to their home and many other kinds of damages. A Cleveland personal injury attorney experienced in traumatic brain injury cases may even help you get the neuropsychological and other evaluations you need to prove your injuries and damages.

If you have substantial impairment (a disabling illness, injury, or condition), such that you cannot work or if you meet one of Social Security’s so-called Listings because your medical or psychological impairments are severe enough, you may be eligible for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits that can help replace necessary income and cover the costs of medical care through either Medicare or Medicaid, depending on which disability you are eligible for.. You only qualify for SSDI if you worked at least 20 calendar quarters in the preceding 10 years. Otherwise, without the necessary requisite work credits, you may be able to apply for SSI. This very brief description of Social Security Disability programs is no substitute for consulting with an experienced Cleveland Social Security Disability lawyer. Getting Social Security Disability is complex and difficult and most people need a knowledgeable and skilled attorney to get the what they deserve.

Some business litigators do not have real trial experience. At Rubin Guttman & Associates, we do. We are trial lawyers who have represented numerous businesses including manufacturing companies, real estate developers, steel brokers, nursing home chains, pediatric and medical groups, and service providers in a wide range of business disputes fighting to get their insurance companies to pay claims for business income loss, fire or flood damage and other losses. Put our experience as personal injury trial lawyers to work for your business.

Rubin Guttman & Associates is a staunch ally of injured and disabled people. Our firm can provide tenacious and knowledgeable legal representation to clients throughout Northern Ohio, from Toledo to Ashtabula and south as far as Columbus. Call us at (216) 696-4006 or (888) 488-8529, or contact us through our online form. We will see you in our office, at your home, or almost anywhere that is convenient. We can provide Russian, Hebrew, and Spanish language services by appointment. We serve the areas around Cleveland, Parma, Lakewood, Euclid, Cleveland Heights, Strongsville, Akron, Columbus, Chardon, Toledo, Youngstown, Ravenna, Lorain, Mentor, Beachwood, and Elyria.