Accident & Injury Law in Texas

Archive for the ‘Legal Websites’ Category

Yesterday a new client called me.  After being hit from behind on the freeway on the weekend, he was in severe pain and went to see his family doctor.

The doctor he had always gone to when something was wrong.  The doctor who knew him.  The doctor who took his health insurance.

The doctor who, as soon as he found out the injuries were from an auto accident, told him he had to pay cash.

I told my client to file a complaint with his insurance company (because the contract between the doctor and insurance company should specify that the doctor cannot refuse service to an insured).

Now my client may be looking for a new family doctor.

I have another client who has health insurance.  The doctors treated him, but when his health insurance found out he was injured in an accident, they refused to pay.  Now he has collection companies calling him (he should have let me deal with his insurance company).

What is the state of our nation’s health care when doctors won’t accept insurance or the health insurers won’t pay when someone is injured in an accident – the time when they are most in need of help?

Technorati Tags: car accident, insurance, payment, doctor, refused

Here is an excellent video of how insurance companies use ERISA to swoop in and take injury victim’s recovery money.

If you have been injured, you get only one chance to get the compensation you deserve. One of the most important decisions you make in your lifetime will be choosing the right personal injury attorney to represent you.

You must choose the right lawyer the first time

If you hire the wrong lawyer to represent you, you will soon come to regret it. If the lawyer is not experienced in your type of claim, if the lawyer is not tough enough to take on the large insurance companies, if the lawyer is not experienced at negotiating with the insurance companies, if the lawyer is not experienced in arguing before a jury, you could end up having your case returned to you by the very lawyer who promised to help you. This usually happens when the insurance company refuses to settle the case. Usually, the lawyer drops the case back on your shoulders with only a few months left on the statute of limitations – meaning you have to file suit right away or forever lose your claim. I have had plenty of people come through my door in just that situation.

Now, in addition to the short time to act, there’s another problem. Namely, a lawyer has already worked the file and then rejected it. That’s obviously a big, red flag to the next attorney. The next attorney could be walking into the prior attorney’s mess. Most attorneys will not take on the risk and you are left scrambling to file the suit on your own.

There are lots of lawyers out there who practice in transactional law (wills, trusts, contracts) but have no experience litigating. Make sure they have jury trial experience.

How many cases does the law firm handle at one time?

There are some personal injury lawyers out there who run a volume practice, measuring their results in numbers of cases and not in the quality of the cases. A lot of them have a “throw it at the wall and see what sticks mentality.” They hardly perform any investigation before taking on a case. They probably won’t ever file suit. They desperately attempt to settle, often for less than the case’s worth.

This type of practice is picked up on by the insurance companies who track everything. They know the lawyer’s can’t afford to file suit because that would bog down their practice, so the insurance company has a negotiating advantage from the start. I know of a “PI Mill” in Austin where one attorney with five staff members handles over three hundred cases at once. That same attorney has never tried a case in front of a jury. Obviously, they settle all the cases or drop them. What are the chances that all or even most of those cases settled for what they should have?

How many cases are handled by each staff member?

Remember the PI mill I just mentioned? If you were their client and each employee was handling sixty or more cases, what kind of attention to your case do you think you would receive? When too many cases are worked on by each staff member, things fall through the cracks and clients are ignored.

Anything more than 15 cases per staff member is a warning sign. I limit my litigation docket to no more than 12 cases. Yes, I have turned down cases because my litigation docket was full. When I take on a case, it is with the expectation of going to trial and not of settling – if it settles, then that’s a bonus.

Does the lawyer get personally involved in your case?

Some lawyers have so many cases, they hardly ever look at the file and they hardly talk to their clients! Just try to get one of these busy lawyers to return your phone call.

The bottom line is no matter how big or small your case, it’s important to you! You need to have a lawyer on your side that is 100% committed to providing quality personal service and detailed attention to all of his clients. You need to know that your lawyer is personally involved in the preparation, evaluation, and resolution of your case. A lawyer who will treat your case with the utmost importance it truly deserves.

Does the lawyer carry malpractice insurance?

While it might seem obvious, I know of at least two attorneys who do not carry malpractice insurance. Well, that’s about the same thing as being struck by a driver who doesn’t carry car insurance! In a car accident, you can obtain uninsured motorist coverage, but what about your lawsuit? If your lawyer screws up and he doesn’t carry malpractice insurance, you’re screwed.

Does the lawyer have jury trial experience?

I already mentioned the lawyer who has a high volume practice but no jury trial experience. Arguing in front of a jury is not the same as arguing a bench trial in front of a judge. You have to convince more people and have better persuasive skills. Be careful. Just because they say they are a trial attorney, doesn’t mean that they take cases in front of a “live” jury.

How did you hear about the lawyer?

Remember, just because you see a lawyer on TV doesn’t mean he is qualified to handle personal injury cases. Some lawyers work hard at becoming TV stars. Amazingly, some lawyers who advertise on TV have never tried a personal injury case! Please don’t be fooled by those slick commercials.

Some lawyers are referred by chiropractors (who are the only medical practitioners who can legally chase accident victims). Again, just because they are referred by a chiropractor doesn’t mean they are tough and experienced, it just means they have a good relationship with that chiropractor.

I hate to admit it, but incompetent and inexperienced lawyers hurt their clients all the time. They don’t file the correct paper work. They miss critical deadlines. They don’t know how to research their client’s case. Even worse, many lawyers have never taken a case to trial and so they don’t know what their client’s case is worth.

It’s a jungle out there, and if you are going to successfully travel through it, you need the right guide. A guide who has been there before, who is not afraid of the lions, and who has the proper weapons to protect you. Do your homework and choose the right personal injury attorney for you.

Marietta, Georgia personal injury lawyer Matt Flournoy has posted a video on YouTube that shows some of the forces that are imparted in even a “minor” car wreck.
While you might find the editing of the video (and its numerous inserts
of text) annoying, it does have some decent information.

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Anchorage, Alaska personal injury lawyer Michael Schneider has a great story about a client who lost a personal injury case because the client spoke to the insurance adjuster, trusted the adjuster, and apparently followed the adjuster’s bad advice, which ended up hurting the claim.

Mr. Schneider doesn’t have specifics but only says that at trial the client couldn’t explain to the jury why the client did and didn’t do certain things because to do so would violate a rule of evidence that prohibits the parties from mentioning that the defendant has insurance. (Just speculation, but he suspects the plaintiff wanted to tell the jury that the reason he didn’t immediately seek treatment is because the insurance adjuster told him he didn’t need to go see a doctor because the pain goes away after a few days, etc)

Sadly, this all could have been prevented if the personal injury plaintiff had spent a little time and done a little research about the process of making a personal injury claim.

In this day and age of the internet, plaintiffs have access to all types of resources that can help them protect their claim or even pursue their claim on their own. For example, we offer a free report “The Five Deadly Sins that can Wreck Your Car Accident Claim” which you can order without any obligation.

But I’m not alone. There are literally hundreds of websites offering free advice about all aspects of personal injury claims. If an injured person just takes a few minutes, they can learn a lot of information that will minimize the amount of damage that they do to their own claim.

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In August, the Atlanta Journal Constitution broke a story about
Progressive Insurance Company’s use of private investigators in a
shocking manner. The story, which is unfortunately no longer available
online, stated as follows:

When a new couple arrived at Southside Christian Fellowship
in August 2005, members welcomed them with open arms. Soon, the new
couple talked their way into private group support sessions…During
the private talks, church members confessed abortions, sexual
orientation issues, drug addictions and other dark secrets. No one knew
the couple wasn’t actually interested in joining the church. Instead,
they were private investigators hoping two church members…would spill
something they could use to discredit the pair in an ongoing lawsuit
over a traffic accident. The private eyes even tape-recorded the
sessions.

Immediately after the story broke, the Progressive CEO offered an apology, calling the situation “appalling.”

But Progressive is now singing a different tune. In a lawsuit filed
by the personal injury victims, Progressive is now asserting that the
conduct was “reasonable.”

It will be interesting to watch and see how this story plays out.

Technorati Tags: insurance company spying, progressive

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Here’s an awesome new video about the myths of tort reform perpetuated by the insurance industry!

Not being a lawyer, you may not be aware that the Texas rules of evidence prohibits a lawyer from mentioning insurance in a case where the insurance company is not the defendant.  In other words, if you find yourself on a jury hearing a claim for medical malpractice or a car accident, you won’t hear about insurance.

Lately, I have begun to question the wisdom of such a rule.

The theory is that the jury should make its decision based on the injury – how much was David hurt in the accident, how much time did he lose from work, what were his medical bills, and what is an appropriate compensation for his pain and suffering?  According to this theory, if the jury knew that Bobby had a $100,000 insurance policy when he drove his car into David’s, then they would be more likely to give him a large reward.  After all, it’s not coming out of Bobby’s pocket.  How much insurance Bobby has is not related to the injuries David suffered.  True…

But is this really a fair rule?  Why then, even when liability is not an issue, is the defendant put in front of the jury by the defense counsel and asked questions about himself to “humanize” him?  The answer is simple, the defense counsel knows that when they put a face to their client, the jury is more likely to return a lower verdict.

In other words, even if Bobby admits he blew the stop sign and rammed into David, he gets to tell the jury how sorry he is, how he has five kids to support, how he just lost his job, and how his wife ran off with his neighbor.  None of this, of course, is related to the injuries David suffered, but the defense gets to put it in front of the jury.  Is that fair?

While most jurors are aware that there is insurance available (I hope), fairness would justify letting them know all the facts.

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Technorati Tags: insurance, jury, court room, trial

Trauma patients 5 times more likely to suffer facial dysfunction after a crash

THURSDAY, Aug. 30 (HealthDay News) — About one in three people who suffer whiplash is at risk of developing delayed jaw pain/dysfunction that may require treatment, a Swedish study finds.

Publishing in the August issue of the Journal of the American Dental Association, researchers at Umea University studied short- and long-term temporomandibular joint (TMJ) pain and dysfunction in 60 patients involved in rear-end car collisions. The patients were checked when they were brought to hospital emergency rooms after a crash, and again one year later.

Patients who suffered whiplash were five times more likely to have TMJ pain and/or dysfunction immediately after a crash than uninjured people in a control group. A year later, 34 percent of whiplash patients had developed TMJ symptoms, compared with 7 percent of those in the control group.

The TM joints, located on each side of the head, work together to enable movements needed to speak and chew. Problems that affect the proper function of this system of muscles, ligaments, discs and bones can result in a painful TMJ disorder, according to the American Dental Association.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Disorders has more about TMJ disorders.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, Texas led the country last year in the number of drunken driving fatalities with 1,354 drunken driving deaths last year (up from 34 in 2005).

Texas tied Arizona and Kansas for the largest increase in the number of fatalities while Utah, Kansas, and Iowa had the largest percentage increase.

According to the Department of Transportation, there were 13,470 deaths nationwide involving drivers or motorcycle operators with blood-alcohol levels of .08 or higher last year, the legal limit for adults in the United States. That was a slight drop from the 13,582 fatalities the year before.

Twenty-two states had more drunken driving fatalities than in the previous year while the numbers fell in 28 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

Florida saw the largest drop in the number of drunken driving deaths, down 147 from its 2005 total of 1,106.

Federal transportation officials announced the statistics as they unveiled an $11 million nationwide advertising campaign against drunk driving, under the slogan “Drunk Driving. Over the Limit. Under Arrest.” They also announced plans to launch a national law enforcement crackdown.

According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, 97 percent of Americans view drunk driving as a threat to their families and themselves.

Some of the worst accidents I have seen or heard of involve drunk drivers and it is unbelievable that over 13,000 people have to pay the ultimate price for another person’s poor decisions.