Recent Blog Posts in 2009

Someone who is going to make a claim after being attacked by a dog should seriously consider getting an experienced attorney on their side. It will not cost any up front money to hire an attorney because the attorney usually gets paid out of the settlement. Another plus is that while dog bite cases are usually straight forward (the owner of the dog is almost always 100% responsible for any injuries caused by his or her dog), there are many issues that might come up that need to be dealt with, such as:

1 What are the behavioral  proclivities of the particular breed of dog that bit you?

2 Did the dog involved have a dangerous or vicious nature?

3 What were the dangerous capabilities of the dog at the time of the incident?

4 Was provocation a factor in causing the dog to bite?

5 Did the care and maintenance of the dog influence the attack?

6 Was the incident foreseeable?

7 If multiple dogs are involved, which one did the biting?

 8 Did misconduct of the dog owner have an impact on the dog's behavior?

9 Is it advisable to reconstruct how the attack must have happened to refute inaccurate or biased witnesses?

10 Is it advisable to do a behavioral examination of the dog (before it is put down) to determine if it was dangerous by nature.

 

Being attacked by a dog is almost ALWAYS a scary and dramatic event. Victims are often shaken up so much that they can not think straight. Often their injuries are incredibly bad, even life threatening. It is not reasonable to assume that the victim can be cool, calm and collected at a time when important information needs to be gathered. However at the time of the attack or as soon thereafter as practical, the following needs to be obtained:

        1. Name, address and telephone number of the dog owner. 

        2. Name of the dog, the breed, the gender, the age, whether it was neutered or spayed and confirmation of whether the dog's shots and vaccines are up to date.

        3. The name of the dog owner's  insurance company.

        4. Name, address and telephone number of all witnesses.

 

Of course prompt  medical attention is of paramount importance if the injury is serious and to reduce the risk of infection and other possible complications.

 

While all this is going on, it can be a very big relief to have an experienced attorney "handling" the legal side of matters to make sure that everything that is  supposed to be done is being done. This frees up the vitcim and his  or her family to concentrate on recovering both physically and emotionally.

You are driving along, minding your own business and someone crashes into you. Most commonly they rear end your car or they run a red light. Your immediate reaction is "What the ..." You are confused, maybe angry, maybe in shock. So now that you are in this wonderful state of mind, how are you supposed to calm yourself and do all the  right things in the next few minutes? Well here are 10 suggestions. Put them in the folder that holds your vehicle registration and insurance information so that it will be easy to  pull out if you ever need to consult it. I will keep this brief because when you do need it, you will want it straight, clear and simple.

 

1. Naturally, first check to see if everyone is ok and get them medical attention if they need it.

2. Be safe. If you are on a busy freeway, get to a safe place. If there is a chance that your car might get hit again by passing cars, don't stand in front of it where  it can get pushed into you. Stand on the other side of it.

3. Exchange information with the other person(s) involved. (Names, addresses, telephone numbers, driver's license numbers AND insurance information (name of company and policy number).

4.  Call the police. Get a police report to document that the accident was the other person's  fault. Often the police won't come if no one was injured (in which case the police just tell you to exchange information and then let the insurance companies deal with it). 

5. Get the names, addresses and telephone numbers of any witnesses (especially if the police are not going to do a  report) so we can contact them later to get them to verify that the accident was the other person's fault.

6. Take pictures. Almost everyone has a digital camera or a camera phone. Take pictures of the scene of the accident, of the cars and of the people involved. These will be helpful later to show how  the accident happened and who was involved.

7. Get prompt medical attention. In other words, get checked out by a doctor. This is important for  two reasons: first, if you are injured, you need immediate medical attention. Second, the medical records will be helpful later to document your injuries. Continue to get medical  attention for as long as reasonable (weeks  or months etc)

8. If  you need to miss work because of your injuries, get a disability slip from a doctor to confirm that  it is medically necessary for you to take time off. Do this even if you are self-employed (where you don't need a disability slip to give to your "boss" because you are the boss) because later the insurance company for the person who hit you will claim that you should  not have missed time from work or that  you took too much time  off from work.

9. Get YOUR insurance company to pay for the repairs of your car. If the accident is  the other person's fault, your rates will not get raised because your  company will get reimbursed by the other guy's company later. Your company will treat you fairly with respect to fixing all the damage, with respect to your rental car charges and will stand behind you if the car is not fixed to your satisfaction. The other  guy's company will do none of these things.

10. If you think there is even a chance that you will be making a claim, contact a lawyer right away. The initial consultation is always FREE and it is  smart to make sure that you are doing everything right. Everyone knows that the insurance company for the person who hit you will do anything it can to wiggle out of paying you a fair amount so talking to an experienced lawyer will almost always increase your chances of getting a more favorable settlement.

 

Drive safe and always be on the look out for  the other guy. But if that does not work and someone gets you anyway, the 10 suggestions above will cover almost every problem you encounter.

COLLISION COVERAGE is  where  your insurance company pays for the repair of you car regardless of how it gets damaged (i.e. your drunk cousin runs the car into the lake). This type of coverage is almost always required when you finance your car (i.e you have to make monthly payments for a year or two or three). In most cases, if your car gets wrecked, you still  have to make  your monthly car payments. If you have COLLISION COVERAGE, your insurance company will either repair your car or pay you the market value for it whichever is cheaper. If you still owe money on the car, the money from your company will allow you  to pay off the note.  

 

Many people  with older cars or cars with lots of miles on them,  decide it is  not worth it  to buy collision coverage. For these people, they can collect the cost of  repairing their car from the person who caused  the accident (if that person can afford to pay or from that person's insurance company but the insurance company almost always pays so  little that  many people are highly dissatisfied).

 

A common misunderstanding is that if you report the accident to your company, your rates will go up even if the accident was clearly the other guys fault. This is a mistake. If the  accident is the  other person's fault, I recommend you get  your repairs done through your company because  they will pay for the repairs to  your car (or, as noted above, will  pay you the value of the car if it is a total loss) and then seek to  be reimbursed by the company for the guy who caused the accident.  Your company almost always gets their money back so you don't have to worry about your rates going up. Your company will  also be much easier to deal  with and much more responsive (i.e. faster) than dealing with the other guy's company.

 

The amount of  collision coverage is easy to determine; namely get enough to cover the cost of your car if it ever gets totaled. That way if it is totaled you get  enough money to replace it (and more than enough in cases where  the car is damaged but  not so much as to classify it as a "total" job). And get the tow  coverage (almost always  included  automatically but  check with your  agent to be safe)  and the rental car coverage (so you  can get a Mustang convertible and look good as you tool  around while your car is in the shop.) One caveat to the rental  car coverage; be sure to be  on the same page as your  company when it comes to  how much they will  allow daily for  rental car  coverage (usually  it is about $20/per day) and  as  to how long they think it is reasonable for you to have the car. Almost always this depends on how  long the mechanic is  going to take to repair your car (but people's  mechanics who  take too  long to fix the car usually wind up having to  argue with their company about who is going to pay for the  extra  car rental - and the companies  usually win so be sure to check in with your adjustor every few days while you are using a rental car to make sure they are ok with you continuing to use a rental car).

 

Ok, that is it for today. Be on the look out for my next posting where  I will recommend what  you should do if someone else hits you and it is their fault! (i.e. get  the contact information for them and their insurance company, get prompt medical attention and take lots  of pictures of  the cars, the area where  the accident happened, and  call  a lawyer  who is experienced in personal injury cases to get him  or her  on board early).

YES! YES! YES!

Uninsured motorist coverage  and underinsured motorist coverage come together; i.e. they are not two separate "extras" that are  offered by your auto  insurance carrier. Underinsured motorist coverage is you buying insurance for the guy who does not have insurance when some day in  the future he hits you. So this  means you can go up against  your own insurance carrier and get everything that you could get from the insurance carrier for  the guy who hit you if he did have coverage. This  includes reimbursement for  your medical  bills, your lost wages  (even if  you used sick leave and/or vacation time) and  money for your pain and suffering. When you buy your uninsured morotist insurance, you  pick  the limit of how much your company will  pay you if you are hit by an uninsured motorist. You can get a $15/30k policy, a $25/50k policy, a $50/100k policy, a  $300/500k policy etc. Therefore, if you get hit by an uninsured motorist (and some people claim that 1/3 of  all drivers are uninsured and given the tough financial times, I  would not be surprised the percentage is closer to 40%!) you can collect from your insurance carrier. No one ever thinks they will  get in an accident, much less one caused by an uninsured motorist but when they do, boy oh boy, are they glad they have  UM  coverage. 

 

Underinsured motorist coverage (UIM) comes automatically with your uninsured motorist coverage in most cases. It is all  about  your insurance company paying you if you get in and accident and it  is the other person's fault but it  turns out that the other side is  underinsured; namely they caused more damage than their insurance can cover. So if someone hits you and causes $50,000  in damages ($10,000 to your car, $15,000 in medical bills, $5,000  in income loss and the going rate for your pain and  suffering is $20,000 - all that adds up to  $50,000) and it turns out that they only have $15k in insurance (the minimum required in California) your company will pay you up to the limit of your underinsured motorist coverage but your company gets a credit for the amount you received from the other guy's insurance company.  So if you had $25k in UIM coverage and you got the other guy's maximum of $15k, then your company (assuming your  company agrees that your case is worth more than your limit of $25k) will pay you $10k more to bring  you up to the amount that you decided you wanted to be paid if you were hit by a UM  or UIM driver. If you bought a $50k UIM policy, and  everything else was the same as I  mentioned above (i.e. your case  was  worth $50k), your  company would get a credit for the $15k you got from the other guy's company and they would add on $35k more to bring you up to $50k that you received  for  your accident.  I have $300k  in UM/UIM coverage  because it is common for cases to exceed $100k and often even exceed $500,000. If you make close to (or more)  than $100k/year  and  an accident caused  you to be off work for 2 or 3 years, the total value of your case could well  exceed $1 million! So if you want to be secure  in the knowledge that  no matter  who  hits you  (an uninsured or even an underinsured driver), you will be covered, then a decent amount of UM/UIM coverage. This kind of coverage is  often most economical to buy if you use a combination of a  primary insurance policy and a umbrella coverage. I have $300k in UM/UIM coverage that is  taken up to $2 million by my umbrella policy.

For more information on Car Accidents please contact San Francisco Car Accident Attorney Nelson C. Barry III.

The law in California is that every driver must have a  minimum of $15/30 coverage ($15,000 per claim,  $30,000 maximum). This is fine if you don't have any assets or a job or job potential. In other words, even the most minor accident can cause you to be liable for more then this $15,000 per person limit (and for more than the $30,000 limit too!). So if you have a  job, or a  house, or might inherit something someday (because if someone gets a judgment against you, the judgment is good for 10 years and can be re-newed every 10 years for the rest of  your life!) get enough insurance. This does NOT mean get $100,000 if  you want to  protect your $100,000 worth of assets. What $100,000 in insurance means is that the insurance company will pay the first $100,000 of the judgment and then it  is up to you to come up with the  rest so if you have $100,000  in assets and  you cause $200,000 in damages, your insurance money AND your assets are gone.  So the  point is to get as much insurance as is reasonable to let you sleep soundly. The general wisdom among this personal injury attorney's friends is $2,000,000. This can be secured most economically through the use of a primary policy and one or two umbrella policies (because  umbrella policies are  very cheap considering how much protection they provide).

 

Until next time, drive safely because the best form of  protection is to not hit anyone. (hey you, put down the phone and drive!).

For more information on car accidents, contact San Francisco Car Accident attorney Nelson Barry.