Many insurance companies have developed a strategy to increase profits by concentrating on cases they consider to be “small tissue injuries;” slightly damaged vehicles and injuries to people which are not easily seen by the average eye or medical equipment (sometimes called soft-tissue injuries).  The negative reputation of American capitalism only grows when clients learn that these companies spend more time researching the victim’s past injuries as a possible way to avoid honoring their insurance policies rather than taking time to adequately examine the victim and disprove the case on the merits.  These companies are supposed to take care of us and be on our side – that’s why we pay them thousands of dollars each year in premiums.  We’re all familiar with the insurance companies’ commercials that portray picture perfect family connections between them and their clients.  Their attempts at delaying settlement decisions, denying injuries, trying to prove a case of fraud, and then ultimately dragging out cases in court in an effort to pressure injured persons to settle for less than the full value of their damages and injuries contradicts everything they claim to “stand for.”

Fortunately, insurance bad faith claims provide a way to level the playing ground for injured victims.  Bad faith claims allows a person injured in a car wreck or other type of accident that is covered by insurance to seek punitive damages from insurance companies that are not honoring an insurance claim in good faith.  Punitive damages are meant to punish and are in addition to other damages you may be entitled to such as lost wages, pain and suffering, and payment for medical treatment.  If you think you’ve been treated unfairly by your insurance provider, I suggest that you contact a personal injury attorney as soon as possible.

Uninsured Motorist Property Damage (UMPD)

As a cheaper option than collision coverage, UMPD can be an economical way to protect your car from uninsured drivers.  Generally, this is appropriate for those considered to be careful drivers who don’t have collision coverage.  It is important to note however, UMPD often does not apply to hit-and-run accidents because it is cheaper than collision coverage.

Uninsured Motorist Bodily Injury (UMBI)

This type of coverage would generally protect you in accidents such as involving getting hit by a car while crossing the street.  Under such circumstances, this coverage could compensate you for your medical expenses and lost wages.  In some situations, it is superior to medical payments coverage and health insurance, because those won’t compensate you for lost wages.  There are other lost wages and disability insurance options that many employers offer; however, such coverage would not cover other passengers or family members and may be revoked if you switch jobs.

Things Every Driver Should Know…

In West Virginia, every driver is required to have Unsinsured Motorist Coverage.  Underinsured Motorist Coverage is not requited, but your auto insurance provider must offer you the option to purchase it.  If the insurance company does not offer you this coverage and you are in an accident, your insurance provider may still be responsible for covering you.  If you’re injured in a car accident by another driver who is underinsured and your insurance company informs you that you don’t have underinsured coverage and you don’t recall being offered such coverage, contact West Virginia Personal Injury lawyer Brooks West or another experienced attorney to discuss your options.

Your general liability auto insurance coverage may protect others if they’re injured in a car accident involving you or you car.  General liability coverage may also help protect your money and other assets in the event your sued.  However, that type of coverage won’t compensate you and your family if you’re injured in an automobile accident caused by another driver.

To adequately protect you and your family from another driver’s negligence or other wrongdoing, you’ll need uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage. The purpose of this article is to help you determine how to adequately protect yourself with uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage.

It is important to note that in the state of West Virginia uninsured motorist coverage is required.  However, the required policy limit is only $20,000, which often doesn’t even cover the cost of medical care often necessary in the event of a serious car crash.  Underinsured motorist coverage is not required but necessary.

What is Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist Coverage?

An uninsured driver is someone who did not have any insurance, had insurance that did not meet state-mandated minimum liability requirements, or whose insurance company denied their claim or was not financially able to pay it.  A hit-and-run driver also counts as uninsured as it relates to bodily injury.  In this case UM coverage will pay for your damages.

An underinsured driver is someone who met minimum legal financial responsibility requirements, but did not have payment limits high enough to cover the damage they caused. This pays you for damages that exceed the payment limits carried by a driver who is considered underinsured.  UIM will only pay up to the limits of your policy after subtracting the amount paid by the other driver’s insurance.  The amount listed as your UIM limit is the total amount paid by both insurance compaines, not the additional amount your company will pay after the other driver’s company pays.

Both UM and UIM apply to you, passengers in your car, drivers of your car, and to others listed on your insurance policy.  It is important to note that UM and UIM are seperate in regards to West Virginia.

Why Would You UM/UIM Coverage?

If you get into an accident with someone who is driving without insurance, it will be tough to be made financially and physically whole again with only $20,000 in state mandatory UM coverage.  Medical bills associated with serious automobile accidents often exceed $20,000, which would leave you nothing to compensate you for missed work and lost wages.  If you suffered a catastrophic injury as a result of an uninsured driver, $20,000 would do very little to help you and your family.
It is usually relatively cheap to add UM/UIM to your car insurance policy, especially considering the amount of protection it offers: paying your medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering.

I will continue this discussion with “sub-groups” of UM and UIM that address bodily injury and property damage next week.  I will also share some examples to illustrate just how important uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage is.

When a loved one dies without a will, a tragic loss becomes even more difficult for survivors to bear.   Creating a will is a way to continue to offer support to our loved ones after we are gone.  There are a number of reasons why many resist creating a will, including facing the difficult prospect of death and fearing that a lawyer will cost more than they can afford.  Wills are generally not that expensive, and fortunately, for our police officers and fire fighters, an attorney will prepare their will at no charge.

The contact information of attorneys on the Excutive Committee of the Young Lawyer Section of the West Virginia Bar can be found at www.wvyounglawyers.com/executive_committee.html.   Feel free to contact them for more information on this wonderful program for our local heroes.

West Virginia Lawyer Information Services can be helpful in a number of situations.  For example, if you have suffered an injury or are the victim of an accident, sometimes it’s difficult to find a personal injury lawyer who will take your case if your injuries and damages are very small.  This lawyer hotline could be helpful if that is the case.  However, I would also be happy to offer you a free initial consultation regardless of how small your injuries are.  If I think you would be better served handling the claim yourself, I will advise you so.

Some other examples of when to take advantage of the free legal advice provided by the West Virginia Lawyer Information Services is if you think you may have a legal issue but are not sure.  A wise lawyer once told me, if somebody, some company, or the government did something to you that would make a jury mad, you probably have a case.  Of course, the law and good sense imposes some limits on that statement, but those are generally wise words to follow.  Additionally, some legal issues that don’t involve personal injuries, such as those involving landlord/tenant disputes, sometimes don’t justify the expense of hiring a lawyer.  In such cases, this service can help.

In summary, the West Virginia Lawyer Information Service in Charleston, WV is a fine service provided by the State Bar and its volunteer attorneys.  And best of all it’s free!  See, us lawyers aren’t all bad:-)  And again, if you’ve been injured in West Virginia, I’d also be happy to give you a free consultation.  Please click here to request a consultation.

“Settlement mill” law firms are lawyers who “advertise aggressively, sign a higher percentage of callers to contract, delegate more duties to non-lawyers, file fewer lawsuits, and take far fewer cases to trial” than law firms and attorneys who practice with integrity zealously advocate for their clients.

The number of high-volume personal injury law firms that aggressively advertise and handle their cases often with little client interaction and without filing a lawsuit has increased significantly over the past thirty years. Settlement mills process tens of thousands of claims each year. Their ads have become a staple of late-night television and their obnoxious billboards have eroded confidence in the legal profession.

These settlement mills differ from conventional law practices because they tend to settle everything and use negotiators who lack “(1) first-hand information about verdicts obtained in comparable cases, (2) detailed information about the intricacies of the particular claim, and (3) the proven willingness and ability to take the claim to court.”

By Settling all cases – including catastrophic and wrongful death cases – cheaply compared to the value the cases would have at trial, the settlement mills lack the credibility to obtain a fair settlement for their clients.

Personal injury lawyers at settlement mills handle an extraordinarily high volume of cases. This prevents them from being able to spend sufficient “time engaged in legal research, investigating claims, and preparing pleadings.” The article reports that one Georgia settlement mill lawyer personally settled approximately 600 to 700 claims in a thirteen-month span.  That’s over fifty cases per month.  In other words, each month she ran fifty clients through her law firm’s settlement mill and settled about two cases per day.
Settlement mills often delegate client screening, legal research, drafting of pleadings, and even settlement negotiations to non-lawyers. Their clients many never even have the opportunity to speak with a lawyer before their case is settled.

Negotiations with insurance adjusters may take no more than ten minutes, and then clients are pressured to take whatever is offered.  These settlement mills prey upon uneducated and vulnerable people and rely heavily on TV advertising.

Since TV advertising lawyers are often looked down upon by lawyers and judges, they may no longer feel the need to do good work for clients in order to maintain a strong reputation among other attorneys and judges. If a lawyer relies solely upon heavy advertising to procure clients, their reputation, work product and relationships don’t matter as much.
These settlement mill lawyers negotiate claims on the basis of formulas that have little to do with the value of cases if they were taken to trial.  The article concludes that insurance companies like settlement mills because they settle quickly, cheaply and without litigation – even in catastrophic and wrongful death cases.  So the question is whose interests are these settlement mill lawyers serving?  Their clients?  The insurance companies?  Or their own?

Following are some ways to protect yourself if you need to hire a personal injury lawyer:  First, ask around about the lawyers you are considering to determine if they have good reputation among other lawyers and with past clients.  Second, it’s helpful to meet with several attorneys who offer free initial consultations.  That way you’ll get a better feel for your case and determine at the beginning how much of your case is going to be handled by a lawyer.  So, don’t be afraid to ask how much of your case will be handled by lawyers and how much will be handled by non-lawyers.  That’s a fair question and any personal injury attorney, in West Virginia or elsewhere, should not hesitate to answer that question.  If he or she does, that may be a sign to look elsewhere.  Good luck and please feel free to contact me with any questions.

– S. Brooks West II, Charleston, WV lawyer

A new study at Children’s Hospital of Boston shows that deleting a gene that suppresses natural growth factors enables regeneration of injured nerve fibers (axons) in mice. Researchers found that suppressing the SOCS3 gene, an inhibitor of a growth pathway called mTOR — resulted in vigorous growth of axons and reactivation of nerve pathways.

Axons are an integral part of nerve cells (neurons). The functions of the brain and spinal cord, also known as the central nervous system, is of course primarily made up of neurons. This study suggests that the body’s inability, or unwillingness, to regenerate injured  nerve fibers may be more closely linked to genetic factors, which can be manipulated, rather than some inherent, physiological limitation stemming from the complexity of the nervous system.

Clinical treatment of humans with this genetic therapy may be a ways off, but it sounds promising and gives people with brain and spinal injuries hope.

U.S. District Judge Thomas E. Johnston also ordered di Trapano to perform 1,000 hours of community service while he spends five years on supervised release.  The judge warned that if he re-offends or violates the terms of his supervised release, he can expect a lengthy prison sentence.

“You’ve been through this before, and you know the perils of not staying with the program and protecting your sobriety,” Johnston said. “You’ve been given a tremendous opportunity here.”

The former Charleston, West Virginia Lawyer and NFL agent has had a long history of legal problems attributed to drug addiction.  Di Trapano’s drug addiction and concomitant legal problems put the brakes on a promising legal career.  He was once an NFL agent to stars like Randy Moss.

The judge obviously recognized that this offense happened five years ago and that di Trapano has apparently made progress in dealing with drug addiction.  Do you think the former West Virginia attorney and NFL agent’s punishment was fair?

The United States District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia recently ruled that a plaintiff’s personal injury lawyer who did not timely reimburse Medicare after his client’s case had been settled may be held individually liable for the entire amount of the lien. See United States of America v. Paul J. Harris, Civil Action No. 5: 08CV102.  The Harris case involved James Richea who was injured when he fell from a local retailer’s ladder. Mr. Richea retained attorney Paul J. Harris to pursue a premises liability claim against the retailer for his personal injuries. Medicare paid approximately $22,500 for Mr. Richea’s medical care resulting from the fall. Settlement negotiations ultimately resulted in the case settling for $25,000.

Once an agreement had been reached, attorney Harris contacted Medicare with the details of the settlement. Based upon the amount of the settlement, the amount of the original Medicare lien, and the other costs and expenses associated with the case, Medicare determined that it was owed approximately $11,000 from the proceeds of the settlement. By statute, attorney Harris had 60 days from the settlement to satisfy Medicare’s lien. When he failed to do so, the U.S. government filed suit against him, personally, for the entire amount of the lien, plus interest and costs.

Attorney Harris filed a Motion to Dismiss, pursuant to FRCP 12 (b) (6), asserting that a lawyer cannot be held individually liable under 42 U.S.C. 1395 (b) (2) for unpaid Medicare liens when he distributes a client’s settlement funds with the prior knowledge and consent of the government. Because he had forwarded the details of the settlement to Medicare before disbursing the settlement funds to his client, attorney Harris argued that he could not be held individually liable for the lien.

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia disagreed, and denied attorney Harris’s Motion to Dismiss. The Court ruled that the Medicare Secondary Payer Statute (“MSPS”) gives the government the right to enforce its lien against the injured party’s attorney.  Because the government is authorized by statute to recover such payments from any entity, including an injured party’s attorney, the U. S. District Court denied Attorney Harris’s Motion to Dismiss. The court didn’t consider Medicare’s knowledge and consent of the settlement distribution to justify attorney Harris’s Motion to Dismiss.

This case serves as a reminder of just how serious lawyers and claimants must treat Medicare and Medicaid liens.  What this means for the non-lawyers and those who have been injured is that even though your case may have settled, there still may be a slight delay before you receive your funds while your attorney resolves any outstanding Medicare liens.   There shouldn’t be too much delay however because an effective personal injury lawyer will likely work with Medicare while negotiating with the defendant.  This will allow your attorney to know exactly how much Medicare is owed once a settlement or verdict is reached.  Your lawyer should then be able to distribute funds to you in a timely fashion, if not immediately.