Hamparyan Personal Injury Lawyers San Diego, APC

08/23/2023

It’s unsurprising that the summer months bring in more motorcycle riding and thus a greater likelihood of motorcycle crashes. But these seem to happen more in San Diego County than in most other counties in California.

At the same time, despite the county’s efforts to curb DUI accidents, the number of intoxicated driving cases here in 2022 reached 5,408, involving not just alcohol but other substances such as ma*****na and prescription drugs.

What do you make of this? We talk more about San Diego County’s and San Diego City’s crash rankings in comparison to the rest of the state. Read our blog post:

Crash Statistics: Comparing San Diego City and San Diego County to Other California Places ​Accident statistics help us determine how safe a place is for motorists. As residents of San Diego, we’re no strangers to collisions on our roads, but how do we compare to similar places in California in ...

08/14/2023

Beach fans, take note: The cleanest sea water in SoCal might just be in San Diego. The 2023 “Heal the Bay” report shows that Point Loma Lighthouse in San Diego is one of only two California beaches that qualified for the Honor Roll in terms of water quality.

Of more than 500 examined beaches on the West Coast, the only other top-grade beach is Bean Hollow State Beach in San Mateo.
The downside is that several other beaches in Southern California received the poorest water quality grades in the report. These include Playa Blanca in Baja California, Santa Monica Pier in LA County, and Tijuana River Mouth in San Diego.

The “Heal the Bay” report is based on bacterial pollution tests conducted by various agencies. Beaches in the Honor Roll have had zero bacterial exceedances throughout the past year, while the lowest-graded beaches – dubbed Beach Bummers – were contaminated by sewage.

Something to think about before heading out to the ocean!

Beach and river report cards are released for 2022-2023. See which beaches made the honor roll and which made the bummer list.

07/10/2023

Any soccer/football fans here? There’s a lot of buzz around the upcoming match at Snapdragon Stadium between Manchester United and Wrexham AFC (yes, that Wrexham that was recently bought by actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney). This is the first time that ManU returns to the US in five years, while it will be Wrexham’s first US game. Who’s watching?
https://www.snapdragonstadium.com/events/detail/manchester-united-vs-wrexham

04/18/2023

Take a day trip with the whole family to the hills above Pala. This northern San Diego County town is your gateway to the Oceanview Mine complex, one of several gem mines that have been operating for over a hundred years.

The Oceanview is special because it lets the public try their hand at finding clear crystals, smoky crystals, tourmaline in different colors, aquamarine, and many others. They do this with two kinds of offerings.

The first is a screen and wash experience, in which you sort through material brought up from underground and dumped in a big pile for all to collect from. You then take the material to your table to place the rock on a screen. You then shake the material laden screen in a tub of water to clean the stones to see if anything in the mix is worth saving. It's more complicated to write about it than to do it and the operators have videos on their website showing how it is done.

The other offering is at the same mine complex but called the Pala Chief. This experience is offered for rockhounds who wish to bring their own tools and actually dig and do pick work. It happens fewer times each month than the screen and wash. The screen in wash is best for beginners and those with children.

The Oceanview Mine is a little deceptively named, you can only glimpse the ocean on clear days and it presents itself as a smudge on the horizon. Still, that is the ocean. The hills around Pala are beautiful anytime of the year. If you want to do both experiences, there is lodging down the hill in Fallbrook. Give yourself plenty of time to find the gate to the mine, as Google Maps has real difficulty placing those hills. If you have difficulty walking or dragging your tools around for the Pala Chief, staff will help you with their buggies.

https://digforgems.com/

04/06/2023

Spring has definitely sprung and with it the nice weather that makes outdoor movie viewing possible in San Diego. The most glamorous location is definitely atop the Grand Hyatt on the Embarcadero.

Run by a group called the Rooftop Cinema Club, it shows a variety of older, mostly fun films for an entire range of ages. Casablanca is coming up, along with La La Land, Mean Girls, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Even a forgettable flop could become memorable amongst the twilight of downtown San Diego. Besides, this is a chance to actually afford staying at a Grand Hyatt for a few hours, even if you are only on the roof. We'll stop right there.

Other venues that we are aware of are Cinema Under The Stars in Mission Hills and the South Bay Drive-In Theatre and Swap Meet on Coronado Avenue, the latter of which shows mostly current movie offerings. John Wick 4 under moonlight? It could happen!

The Home Of Rooftop Film Club In San Diego. Outdoor Cinema Screening Cult Classics, New Releases & Cinematic Icons Our Downtown Rooftop. Great Movies, Bars & Spectacular Rooftop Sunsets. This Is Social Cinema!

03/28/2023

𝗔 𝘀𝗲𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗹𝘆 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗳𝗼𝗿𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗶𝗻𝗷𝘂𝗿𝘆 𝗰𝗮𝘀𝗲 can be deceivingly complex. Let's say you're injured in an automobile accident by someone who had been drinking. Your injuries are pretty severe and it doesn't look like you'll return to your old line of work anytime soon. Perhaps for a long time. Now what?

One element of your case will be to determine what is called "lost earning capacity," sometimes known as "diminished earning capacity" or "loss of future earning capacity." These terms point to damages you will be owed as a result of the injuries you suffered, the income you would have otherwise generated, but for that accident. First things first.

It must be established that the injury resulted from a defendant's negligence, that the injury caused a reduction in the plaintiff's ability to earn income (either temporarily or permanently) and that the plaintiff's loss of future earning capacity can be reasonably calculated.

What comes into play after that is an individual assessment of your age, education, work history, health, and the severity of your injury. A highly qualified injury attorney may pull together a team of economic, medical, and vocational experts to correctly nail this figure down, to best determine the amount of compensation you are owed for your lost earning capacity.

Only a lawyer with years of experience and a trusted network of experts can be expected to work this problem, since every person and each individual case is different. There are no boilerplate figures, just as there are no boilerplate injuries. A broken leg can be a simple fracture or a compound one. It all depends. And that's why you should depend on an attorney with a solid history of handling diverse cases. As always, you need a lawyer who can handle the most complex case, not just the simple one.

Lastly, if you've been injured in any kind of accident, we wish you well on your recovery.

03/19/2023

𝗟𝗶𝗳𝗲 𝗶𝘀𝗻'𝘁 𝗮 𝗠𝗲𝗿𝗿𝘆-𝗚𝗼-𝗥𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱, 𝗮𝘀 𝘄𝗲 𝗮𝗱𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘀 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄. But the Carousel at Seaport Village can guarantee, at least for a few minutes at a time, that it might be.

Two carousels built by the same company have been operating in San Diego for many years.

The first is at Balboa Park, being open under somewhat irregular hours. That one was built in 1895 by the Fair Park Looff Carousel company, specialists in the then booming trade of wooden animals running around in circles. This carousel has 68 hand-carved wooden animals, among them horses, lions, and tigers. An organ built for the ride traditionally played music while it ran. The carousel was fitted with enough lights to illuminate a circus midway.

It was moved from its original location in Vermont when San Diego citizens bought it in 1910 for the Panama-California Exposition, which celebrated the opening of the Panama Canal. That exposition was held in San Francisco.

Once the exposition was done, the carousel started moving around the city like the animals it spins. It finally wound up in Balboa Park in 1922 and has been cared for ever since. Along with the other one in San Diego, it is one of only a few remaining Looff carousels in the world.

The carousel at Seaport Village is more regularly operating. A covered pavilion provides shade and shelter from the sun and rain. The carousel operates daily, and visitors can purchase tickets for a ride or a book a private party or event.

This one was built in 1895 in Brooklyn but did not start operating until 1904 at Fair Park in Dallas, Texas. It has been around the nation, including Santa Monica, California, Spanaway, Washington, and Portland, Oregon. Later, Columbus, Ohio, Burbank, California, and, finally, San Diego, in 2004. Sheesh. We're getting dizzy thinking about all those moves, and we haven't yet ridden it. In any case, treat your child (or yourself, if you're inner child is calling you) to once or twice around the merry-ground. Maybe life can be like that after all.

03/08/2023

The little house with big ideas! That describes Fallen Star, the name given to the tiny home that appears to be falling off the roof of a UC San Diego campus high-rise.

It is an art project, the sponsors saying that the structure explores the notion of home, cultural displacement, one's perception of space and so on. Or, they came up with these nice sounding reasons just to justify hanging one building off of another. It does look cool and it seems a realized vision of the tornado spun house in The Wizard of Oz.

The tiny but fully furnished house is the brain child of Korean Do Ho Suh. He's done a number of installations across the country. This one is now 11 years old. The page links here gives a well detailed introduction and explanation of the project, including videos.

Unfortunately, for reasons not made entirely clear, the house is not currently open to the public. But it is a great photo op from below and possibly from windows on different stories of Jacobs Hall.

In case you want to enquire later about touring, the house is under management of the Stuart Collection at UCSD and not the Engineering Facility. The Director is Jessica Berlanga Taylor
and (858) 534-2117

https://stuartcollection.ucsd.edu/artist/suh.html

Do Ho Suh’s work explores the notions of home, cultural displacement, one’s perception of space and how one builds a memory of it. What is home, after all? A...

02/24/2023

𝗚𝗼 𝗳𝗹𝘆 𝗮 𝗸𝗶𝘁𝗲! And we mean that in the best possible way.

It is intuitively clear that San Diego is a great place to fly a kite. Proof of that is the 72d annual Ocean Beach Kite Festival which will be held on May 20th at Robb Field. This is third generation stuff, the longest running children's kite festival in the United States. As experienced kite flyers we do not know how everyone in one spot keeps from crossing and tangling lines but we are eager to find out this spring.

To prepare for the festivities, in other words, to get your kite on, check out Kite Flite in Seaport Village or Kite Country on Sports Arena Boulevard. Kite Flite offers a try before you buy experience, with serious kites that you won't find at a Dollar Store. If you want to go airborne like a kite, check out Manta for kiteboarding and wing surfing lessons. (And good luck!)

And if you think that kite flying is just for kids, check out this short video. We can't explain exactly what is happening here but it is vastly enjoyable, kites as an art form, performance art, if you will. You can leave a comment below if you think this guy is flying all of these kites at once or whether it is just a feat of editing. Until then, happy kite flying and as the fishermen say, "Tight lines!"

Twenty Minutes of kite flying squeezed into 60 amazing seconds. Or maybe 70 seconds.

02/19/2023

𝗪𝗵𝗼 𝗶𝘀 𝗟𝗶𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗮 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗢𝗻 𝗖𝗮𝗿 𝗖𝗿𝗮𝘀𝗵?

We recently read about a head-on car crash at night. It resulted in a lawsuit which took two weeks at trial to determine the party responsible for the crash.

Head-on collisions can difficult to resolve because the impact of a crash may send each vehicle in different directions. Compare that to a rear end collision or a side-swipe where we can more easily tell what happened.

Bottom line, determining liability for a car crash can turn on the skill of investigators and the dedication of an attorney to get justice for their client. Let’s explain.

It’s straightforward to state that the other driver is liable if they didn’t extend a duty of care to the other party involved in a crash. Duty of care is the legal responsibility all of us drivers have to operate a vehicle without causing harm to others. Proving that the other party negligently disregarded this responsibility, however, can get quite involved. A police report may not be enough.

The police will investigate the crash and document the crash scene, interview the parties involved, and talk to witnesses. This information gets placed in their official report, which may include an opinion of who was responsible for the accident. Although not conclusive, it will still be taken into account by insurance companies and the courts when determining which party was at fault.

Sometimes, however, the assessment provided in the police report may be completely off the mark. When this happens, hiring a reliable car accident attorney who can work with accident reconstruction experts and private investigators is the best way to get the record straight. A skilled personal injury lawyer has crash investigators on speed dial and knows which ones are best to document a particular crash.

Documenting a crash scene these days can easily involve dozens of still photos, video work, measurements taken by laser instruments, computer analysis, and on and on. Recreating the scene for trial may require specialists to produce 3D simulations on video. None of this may be needed for most head-on collisions. But in hiring an attorney, you want one who is prepared for the most difficult case, not the easy one.

Again, determining liability for a car crash can turn on the skill of investigators and the dedication of an attorney to get justice for their client. Make sure you get the right one. Ask for references, case results, years in practice. And good luck.

02/08/2023

Have you ridden an e-bike? If so, you know how hard it is to get back on a conventional bike, especially for short trips from five to fifteen miles. An e-bike experience is the joy of learning to ride a bicycle all over again, only this time the bike is far more stable, sturdy, and capable. And you can go 30 MPH instantly and almost effortlessly. That didn’t happen on your old Schwin. Here’s the top ten things we've learned ourselves over the last two years.

𝟭. 𝗣𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝗮 𝗯𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱 supplied by a local dealer. That bike of your research may be only available online, however, a local dealer makes practical the setting up of an ebike, and then supplying it with parts and repairs.

𝟮. 𝗕𝗶𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮 𝗽𝗮𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲 are easier to get on. In the old days, this used to be called a “girl’s bike” frame. Whatever. They are far easier.

𝟯. 𝗘-𝗯𝗶𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝘃𝘆, bulky and difficult to transport. Make sure you have a convenient or somewhat manageable way to take them with you when you travel.

𝟰. 𝗜𝗳 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁, get a basic model with a basic battery. You can upgrade most bikes later by buying a bigger capacity battery.

𝟱. 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝗮 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝗼𝗿 𝗮 𝗯𝘂𝘇𝘇𝗲𝗿 for your handlebars. E-bikes are so silent that you will be constantly surprising other bikes and pedestrians in front of you.

𝟲. 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘁𝗶𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗱 with an inner tube protector at the time you buy your e-bike. Have the dealer do it. We like the brand Tannus, their so-called Armour Inserts. We’ve never had a flat since putting them on.

𝟳. 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝘃𝘆 𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗸 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗼𝗿 𝗰𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲. Naturally. You may want to hide an Apple e-tag somewhere on the bike to help locate it later.

𝟴. 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝘂𝘀𝗵 your bike uphill. At a certain point, even with a fully charged battery, they simply “won’t go.” But an ebike isn’t all dead weight. Keep the bike on and lightly feather the throttle as you push from the handlebars. Without your weight, it will walk (or run) up that hill right beside you.

𝟵. 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗻 𝗼𝗳𝗳-𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝗲𝗯𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 before one simply set up for city streets. Ours has a motor on both wheels, essentially, a two wheel, four wheel drive bike. 😀Trail riding is more fun in our opinion than city riding. When you have a bike with fat tires and aggressive tread then you are prepared for some great times in the great outdoors.

𝟭𝟬. 𝗟𝗲𝘁 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗲-𝗯𝗶𝗸𝗲. It’s a joy to share the experience of something new and wonderful. As people come roaring back toward you after a ride, they usually have a huge smile on and are screaming something like, “I’ve got to get one of these things!” With luck, they will.

The video we link to here is a little high energy, and they need to respect the traffic laws better, but it does give you a great look at e-bike riding in San Diego.

Fun E-bike ride in Balboa Park San Diego. Our goal is to share some great ebike rides we enjoy. Many more fun e-bike rides to come and thanks for watching!!M...