LIGHT UP THE NIGHT
Why Do We Hang Christmas Lights?
The first string of twinkling lights illuminating your neighbor’s house is always a telltale sign of the upcoming seasonal festivities. Christmas lights are a holiday staple, but have you ever wondered where this beloved tradition started? The tradition of hanging lights on the tree originally started with candles. Because this posed an immense fire hazard, Edward Hibberd Johnson, a close friend of Thomas Edison and vice president of the Edison Electric Light Company, vowed to find a better way to decorate Christmas trees with light. In December 1882, three years after Edison’s invention of the lightbulb in November 1879, Johnson hand-wired 80 red, white, and blue lightbulbs together and wound them around a Christmas tree in his parlor window. A passing reporter saw the spectacle and declared in the Detroit Post and Tribune, “One can hardly imagine anything prettier.” Johnson continued this tradition, increasing the number of lights each year and eventually putting them up outside. But because electricity was still a new concept, many years passed before the fad took off for regular Americans. In 1923, President Calvin Coolidge began the tradition of lighting the National Christmas Tree, which spurred the idea of selling stringed lights commercially. By the 1930s,
families everywhere were buying boxes of bulbs by the dozen. Today, an estimated 150 million Christmas lights are sold in America each year, decorating 80 million homes and consuming 6% of the nation’s electricity every December. Whether you’ll be putting up your own lights or appreciating the most impressive light displays in your neighborhood or town, let the glow fill you with joy this season. Just don’t leave them up until February!
FORCED TOTRIAL DUE TOA LOWOFFER All Cases AreWorthFighting
Car accidents can leave life-altering injuries, sometimes not realized for weeks. That’s exactly what happened to our 20-year-old client when her Honda was rear-ended by another vehicle. What initially seemed like soft tissue back pain in the immediate aftermath of the accident turned out to be something far worse.
AFTER THE ACCIDENT Within a few hours of being rear-ended, our client, a young college student, was seen by a doctor who initially didn’t find much cause for concern and even told her she didn’t have to cancel her snowboarding plans for the following day. When she hit the slopes, however, she could tell something was wrong but continued her trip. Two weeks later, she returned to the doctor, complaining of mid-back pain. It took 11 months before medical professionals finally determined the source of her discomfort: trauma to her spine had caused disk material from her vertebrae to leak into her spinal column. MORE THAN SOFT TISSUE BACK PAIN Our client’s symptoms took time to develop, gradually worsened, and
eventually, it was clear that she would need extensive medical care, including epidural injections, physical therapy, doctor visits, and MRIs. Despite these costly projections, the insurance company for the responsible party only offered $20,000 shortly before the trial date to settle her case. The insurance company argued that her medical condition was not caused by the accident as evidenced by the fact that she could go snowboarding the next day. Attorney Renee J. Nordstrand advised the client to take the case to trial. JURY TRIAL The insurance company disputed our client’s injuries, arguing she only suffered from whiplash. At trial, the lawyer for the defense pointed to the many activities our client still did after the accident, including snowboarding, hiking,
and a trip to Australia. Nordstrand brought in a surgeon to educate the jury about the slow-developing nature of her injuries and proved to the jury the effect that those injuries had on our client’s lifestyle. THE VERDICT After four days of trial and 5 1/2 hours of jury deliberation, a verdict was reached. The jury awarded our client $219,668 in damages — a far cry from the initial offer of $10,000 and final offer of $20,000. This is why having an experienced trial lawyer is necessary. If you want legal representatives who know how and when to fight, call us at 805-962-2022.
2 • NORDSTRANDLAW.COM
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