The Beagle Blog

Direct examination is not a conversation with a witness, and it is not an invitation to give an uninterrupted autobiography. A good trial lawyer uses a planned sequence of open-ended questions to help the witness present admissible facts in an order the jury can understand, while still allowing the testimony to remain the witness’s own. That structure matters because a witness may know the truth perfectly well and still tell it badly if asked one broad question under courtroo

Yes. Engagement-based video game design can create product-liability issues when a child suffers a serious, clinically supported injury and the evidence ties that injury to specific design choices, warnings, monetization systems, or age-targeting practices. But these cases are new, technically difficult, and far from settled; a claim is not established merely because a child played for many hours or a parent believes a game was “addictive.” The central legal questions are whe

When a child is sexually abused by an employee or volunteer, the person who committed the abuse may not be the only person whose conduct matters legally. A school, daycare, youth organization, church, residential program, medical facility, sports organization, or other institution may face civil responsibility when its own hiring, retention, training, supervision, reporting, or safety failures helped create the opportunity for abuse or allowed it to continue. Utah law does no

A brain injury can affect a child for much longer than the first weeks or months after an accident, and the full consequences may not be visible when an insurance company wants to evaluate the claim. Children are still developing cognitive, emotional, academic, social, and executive-function skills, so an injury can interfere with abilities that have not yet fully developed. A child may appear to recover physically while problems with attention, memory, judgment, emotional re

A prescription drug can be properly manufactured, prescribed for an accepted medical purpose, and still be legally defective because its warning about a serious risk was inadequate. In Utah, a failure-to-warn claim can arise when a drug manufacturer knew or should have known about a significant danger but failed to communicate that danger adequately to the medical professionals responsible for prescribing the drug. These cases are rarely as simple as showing that a patient su

A space heater that starts a house fire is not automatically defective, but a manufacturer may be legally responsible when a defect in the heater caused or contributed to the fire. The critical question is whether the heater was unreasonably dangerous when it left the manufacturer or initial seller and whether that dangerous condition caused the injuries, death, or property loss. In Utah, these cases can involve defective design, manufacturing errors, inadequate warnings, or

A pressure cooker that can be opened while it is still pressurized can turn ordinary kitchen use into a severe burn event in seconds. When a lid, locking system, pressure-release mechanism, gasket, sensor, or warning system fails, the central legal question is not simply whether someone was burned; it is whether the product was defective and unreasonably dangerous when it left the manufacturer or initial seller. In Utah, that inquiry can support a product-liability claim base

No. Utah does not follow a “one free bite” rule that allows a dog to attack someone once before the owner can be held responsible. Utah Code § 18-1-1 generally makes an individual who owns or keeps a dog liable for an injury caused by the dog regardless of whether the dog was previously vicious or mischievous and regardless of whether the owner knew the dog had dangerous tendencies. That means an injured person ordinarily does not have to find an earlier victim or prove that

A concussion does not become insignificant simply because the emergency-room CT scan was normal, the person never lost consciousness, or the vehicle damage did not look catastrophic. A concussion is a traumatic brain injury, and some people continue to experience headaches, dizziness, cognitive problems, fatigue, sleep disruption, light or noise sensitivity, emotional changes, and other symptoms long after the crash. The CDC recognizes that some concussion symptoms may not ap

Your first meeting with a personal injury lawyer should be a practical conversation about what happened, how the injury has affected you, what evidence may exist, and what must happen next to protect the claim. You do not need to arrive with a perfectly organized file, know the legal terminology, or have finished medical treatment. A good lawyer will help separate the important facts from the background noise, identify immediate risks, and explain whether the case warrants fu

Pedestrian accidents at shopping centers are rarely as simple as “a driver hit a shopper.” The driver may be responsible, but the evidence may also reveal dangerous parking-lot design, poor lighting, blocked sightlines, missing signs, faded crosswalks, defective sidewalks, or a property owner that ignored earlier warnings. A thorough Utah claim therefore examines everyone who controlled the vehicle, the walking route, and the property where the collision occurred. That invest

A low-speed collision does not automatically mean a minor injury or a low-value insurance claim. Insurance adjusters often focus on limited vehicle damage, a low estimated impact speed, or an innocent statement made at the scene to argue that the crash could not have caused significant harm. That argument may sound intuitive, but vehicle damage does not reliably measure what happened to an occupant’s body. A strong Utah injury claim must therefore document the collision, the

A sudden lane closure can turn ordinary traffic into a dangerous chain reaction within seconds. Drivers may brake sharply, move into occupied lanes, collide with barriers, or strike vehicles that have already slowed for congestion. Determining fault requires more than assuming that the driver who changed lanes caused the crash. A strong Utah injury claim examines what each driver could see, when warnings appeared, whether the closure was properly marked, and whether another p

Proving that someone made a false and defamatory statement is only part of a defamation case. A plaintiff must also connect that statement to a legally recoverable injury, such as lost income, professional harm, reputational damage, emotional distress, or another measurable loss. The strongest cases do not rely on a general assertion that the statement was humiliating or unfair. They use witnesses, records, digital evidence, financial data, and a clear timeline to show how th

A commercial driver’s mistake may cause a crash, but the driver may not be the only party responsible. A trucking company can face separate liability when it keeps a driver on the road after learning—or after it reasonably should have learned—that the driver presents an unacceptable safety risk. This theory is commonly called negligent retention, and it focuses on what the company knew during the driver’s employment and what it failed to do with that knowledge. In a serious U

According to a new Wall Street Journal analysis, the answer is increasingly uncertain. The Journal reported that approximately 45% of auto liability and medical claims closed by insurers in 2025 ended without a payment from the reporting insurer, compared with about 35% a decade earlier. That figure does not mean 45% of valid claims were improperly denied, because the underlying regulatory category includes several kinds of no-payment outcomes. But for a Utah family dealing w

An e-bike battery fire may support a Utah product liability claim when a defect in the battery, charger, electrical system, warnings, or manufacturing process causes burns, smoke inhalation, property damage, or death. These cases require more than proof that a fire occurred. The injured person must preserve the physical evidence, identify every business in the distribution chain, and develop reliable evidence showing how the product became dangerously defective. Because manuf

An overloaded commercial vehicle can cause a crash because excess weight changes how the vehicle brakes, steers, handles curves, and responds during an emergency. The load may also shift, break loose, damage tires or suspension components, or make a rollover more likely. In a Utah injury claim, the central questions are not merely whether the truck was “heavy,” but whether its actual weight, axle distribution, securement, permits, inspection, and operation contributed to the

Social media platforms can potentially be held responsible when they deliberately use addictive product features that contribute to serious mental-health harm in children. These cases are not merely about objectionable posts or excessive screen time; they may involve platforms engineered to keep minors scrolling, watching, checking notifications, and returning during sleeping hours. Utah has expressly recognized the risks associated with algorithms, autoplay, infinite scrolli

When a child is entitled to part of a Utah wrongful death settlement, the adults handling the claim may not simply treat the child’s share as ordinary family money. Depending on how the claim is resolved, the settlement may require court approval, appointment of a conservator, or another protective order governing the child’s funds. The court’s focus is not merely whether the total settlement appears reasonable, but whether the child’s individual interest is represented and t