The lesson HBO’s “Hot Coffee” can teach jurors in accident cases

Last week, I wrote a blog about the one thing personal injury attorneys are not allowed to tell jurors in car accident trials: that the wrongdoer’s auto insurance pays the verdict toward the injured plaintiff – not the actual individual defendant.

Juries are deliberately misled every day by defense lawyers aiming to minimize pain and suffering verdicts for car accident victims because of this Michigan evidentiary rule – which was intended as a shield but is now being used as a sword by the deep-pocked auto insurance companies.

This issue was on my mind after watching “Hot Coffee” on HBO. Hot Coffee is the documentary about the true facts behind the infamous McDonald’s coffee case, but it is also so much more. Hot Coffee will be played during the Traverse City Film Festival at 9 p.m. tonight, in the Old Town Playhouse. Here are some event details and information on Traverse City auto accidents.

Hot Coffee is a story about America’s system of justice being exploited by insurance companies that have created fake  “tort reform” movements to raise profits by denying citizens and the injured access to the legal system.

I would encourage anyone sitting for jury service to watch this story.

Our system of justice exists to protect the rights of all of us, including the right to recover from harms and losses from personal injuries caused by another person’s carelessness or negligence. Our civil justice system works best when all of the people involved take it seriously. Plaintiffs, defendants, lawyers, judges, juries, and yes, even the insurance companies that are spending millions to elect slanted judges intent on dismantling the civil justice system.

You should also know that the vast majority of personal injury and auto accident cases are settled out of court.  It has been my experience (and I think any personal injury attorney will tell you this), that most people who come to court do so as a last resort. They’ve waited years to get there and may have spent thousands of dollars on medical bills and living expenses; often too injured to work.  These injured people are responsible for thousands of dollars in case costs because of the delay tactics used by insurance companies and how these lawsuits are aggressively defended.

If you are selected as a juror in a civil case, please take it seriously. The decisions you make will affect people’s lives and recovery for years to come.

- Steve Gursten is one of the nation’s top personal injury attorneys. He is head of Michigan Auto Law and has received the highest verdict or settlement in the state for a car accident or truck accident victim in 2008, 2009 and 2010, according to Michigan Lawyers Weekly.

- Photo courtesy of Creative Commons, by MG/TR

Related Information:

Tort “reform”: A failed experiment in legal-social engineering

Filing an auto accident lawsuit in Michigan - What does it take?

Do you enjoy driving a safe car? Thank a personal injury attorney

Michigan Auto Law is the largest law firm exclusively handling car accident, truck accident and motorcycle accident cases throughout the entire state. We have offices in Farmington Hills, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids and Sterling Heights to better serve you. Call (800) 777-0028 for a free consultation with one of our personal injury attorneys.

Michigan Auto Lawyers

Chicago truck accident attorney reaches settlements in 2 cases

The Illinois Injury Lawyers at Abels & Annes have reached a truck accident settlement on behalf of a client who was rear-ended on the highway due to the inattentiveness of a truck driver. The woman sustained several injuries to her neck and back that required medical care.

On May 25, 2010, the woman was driving northbound on I-55 through Bolingbrook, Illinois when a commercial Freightliner semi slammed into her 2008 Honda Accord as she reduced her speed to match traffic conditions. The Illinois State Police responded to the accident and conducted an investigation which placed the truck driver at fault. The report stated the driver had failed to exercise due care by reducing his excessive speed because he was admittedly not paying attention.

Unfortunately, the victim had an immediate onset of neck pain, and was transported by ambulance from the scene of the crash to the Emergency Department at Adventist Bolingbrook Hospital for examination. Upon her arrival, doctors performed a host of diagnostic tests and x-rays to determine the source of her substantial pain, and she was diagnosed with a cervical strain and cervicalgia. The doctors prescribed pain medication and instructed her to seek treatment if her pain continued. The pain did not subside, however, and she was forced to seek further medical attention for her low back pain, muscle spasms, and a radiating pain in her left shoulder caused by the pain in her neck.

She was then treated at a chiropractic office in the Chicago area where she was diagnosed with cervical and lumbar sprian/strain, myalgia, and muscle spasms. Her treatment plan consisted of conservative chiropractic spinal correction and manipulation therapy, and physical therapy. She required 16 separate session of chiropractic treatment before she was finally discharged.

A lawyer at our office negotiated a $12,000 settlement without having to file a lawsuit, saving our client the cost of litigation.

Accidents between cars and commercial trucks happen fairly frequently on highways, and the attorneys at Abels & Annes settled another case recently involving an inattentive truck driver colliding with a passenger vehicle.

On October 20, 2010, a man and his passenger were traveling in the right lane going east on I-80 when a commercial tractor-trailer merged into their lane and collided with their 1994 Pontiac Bonneville. The truck’s front bumper struck the driver’s side door of victim’s automobile, causing the car to fishtail out of control before coming to a rest on the opposite side of the highway.

The Illinois State Police Department’s investigation determined that the truck driver was at fault for the incident. They cited him for an improper lane change, as he was traveling at an excessive speed for the conditions and failed to exercise due care in ascertaining whether a lane change could be made safely. The driver admitted that he did not see the victim until after contact had been made.

Shortly after the collision, our client began to experience stiffness and radiating pain in his left leg due to back pains sustained in the crash. The increasing pain forced him to seek medical treatment at St. James Hospital where various tests were administered. The x-rays showed a significant decrease in vertebral body between C3 and C4 and he was diagnosed with a sciatica on his left side, a neck sprain/strain, and a muscle strain/sprain.

After the prescribed pain medication did not improve his condition, the victim sought treatment from a neurologist for his neck and back pain, as well as pain and a limited range of motion in his left shoulder. The doctor noticed a bruising on his left shoulder and had the impression that he had suffered a sacroiliac and lumbosacral strain.

On December 21, 2010, the victim returned to the doctor and indicated he was still having pain and limitations in his lumbar spine region. The doctor recommended that he continue physical therapy and return in a month. He was discharged by the doctor on February 1, 2011 after completing 12 sessions of physical therapy at a chiropractic office.

The Illinois Injury Lawyers at Abels & Annes negotiated a $13,500 settlement pre-litigation, once again saving our client court costs.

If you have been injured in a car accident, call the accident lawyers at Abels & Annes for a free consultation. Call (866) 99-ABELS.

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The lesson HBO’s “Hot Coffee” can teach jurors in accident cases

Last week, I wrote a blog about the one thing personal injury attorneys are not allowed to tell jurors in car accident trials: that the wrongdoer’s auto insurance pays the verdict toward the injured plaintiff – not the actual individual defendant.

Juries are deliberately misled every day by defense lawyers aiming to minimize pain and suffering verdicts for car accident victims because of this Michigan evidentiary rule – which was intended as a shield but is now being used as a sword by the deep-pocked auto insurance companies.

This issue was on my mind after watching “Hot Coffee” on HBO. Hot Coffee is the documentary about the true facts behind the infamous McDonald’s coffee case, but it is also so much more. Hot Coffee will be played during the Traverse City Film Festival at 9 p.m. tonight, in the Old Town Playhouse. Here are some event details and information on Traverse City auto accidents.

Hot Coffee is a story about America’s system of justice being exploited by insurance companies that have created fake  “tort reform” movements to raise profits by denying citizens and the injured access to the legal system.

I would encourage anyone sitting for jury service to watch this story.

Our system of justice exists to protect the rights of all of us, including the right to recover from harms and losses from personal injuries caused by another person’s carelessness or negligence. Our civil justice system works best when all of the people involved take it seriously. Plaintiffs, defendants, lawyers, judges, juries, and yes, even the insurance companies that are spending millions to elect slanted judges intent on dismantling the civil justice system.

You should also know that the vast majority of personal injury and auto accident cases are settled out of court.  It has been my experience (and I think any personal injury attorney will tell you this), that most people who come to court do so as a last resort. They’ve waited years to get there and may have spent thousands of dollars on medical bills and living expenses; often too injured to work.  These injured people are responsible for thousands of dollars in case costs because of the delay tactics used by insurance companies and how these lawsuits are aggressively defended.

If you are selected as a juror in a civil case, please take it seriously. The decisions you make will affect people’s lives and recovery for years to come.

- Steve Gursten is one of the nation’s top personal injury attorneys. He is head of Michigan Auto Law and has received the highest verdict or settlement in the state for a car accident or truck accident victim in 2008, 2009 and 2010, according to Michigan Lawyers Weekly.

- Photo courtesy of Creative Commons, by MG/TR

Related Information:

Tort “reform”: A failed experiment in legal-social engineering

Filing an auto accident lawsuit in Michigan - What does it take?

Do you enjoy driving a safe car? Thank a personal injury attorney

Michigan Auto Law is the largest law firm exclusively handling car accident, truck accident and motorcycle accident cases throughout the entire state. We have offices in Farmington Hills, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids and Sterling Heights to better serve you. Call (800) 777-0028 for a free consultation with one of our personal injury attorneys.

Kansas City Auto Accident Blog

No-Fault tip for insurance lawyers – Pick your venue for PIP cases

It’s a simple rule that all too many insurance lawyers tend to forget: you can file No Fault lawsuits (also called personal injury protection (PIP) cases) in any court venue you choose in Michigan.

The mistake is that most No Fault lawyers assume you have to file the PIP (the insurance case for No Fault benefits)  in the same venue where you are required to file  your third-party auto negligence case (this is the case for pain and suffering against the driver and his/her insurance company who caused the accident).   But a No-Fault PIP case is a contract action, not a tort action.  As a contact action, it does not have to be filed in the venue where the underlying car accident occurred.

There’s published and unpublished case law in Michigan supporting this. It has been repeatedly held by the Court of Appeals that a No Fault case is a contract action that is subject to the venue statute found at MCL 600.1621. Ferguson v. Pioneer State Mutual Insurance Company of Michigan, 273 Mich App 47, 50-55 (2006); see, also, Shiroka v. Farm Bureau, 276 Mich App 98, 104-109 (2007). The contract venue statute provides that a proper venue is where:

A. the county in which a defendant resides, has place of business, or conducts business or in which the registered office of a defendant corporation is located, is a proper county in which to commence and try an action. MCL 600.1621.

In other words, No Fault insurers do business in every county of the state. Therefore, you could file in a venue you like, or that is more convenient. You can do this for every single one of your No-Fault PIP cases. For example, before we moved to our main office to Farmington Hills from Southfield, I used to file many of my No Fault PIP cases in Southfield District Court, and I would literally walk across the street for hearings and motions. That saved me hours of travel time and allowed me to help many more people (sadly, there’s never a shortage of people being denied auto insurance benefits by claims adjusters in Michigan, a state without bad faith laws, punitive damages, or a consumer protection act to protect people from insurance company abuse).

Another example, Michigan Auto Law has a Sterling Heights law office. It makes much more sense for  Sterling Heights auto accident lawyers to file in  Macomb County  - either circuit court or district court, then to travel to  a further venue, such as where someone was injured and has her third-party case.

- Steve Gursten is recognized as one of the nation’s top No Fault lawyers handling serious auto accident lawsuits. He writes about insurance company abuse and the insurance laws in Michigan, and is available for comment.

Related information:

Your Michigan No Fault benefits

Help for Michigan injury lawyers

Three potential cases for auto accidents in Michigan

Michigan Auto Law is the largest law firm exclusively handling car accident, truck accident and motorcycle accident cases throughout the entire state. We have offices in Farmington Hills, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids and Sterling Heights to better serve you. Call (800) 777-0028 for a free consultation with one of our No Fault insurance lawyers.

Michigan Auto Lawyers

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Chicago car accident lawyer keeps settling cases

Home Posted On: April 21, 2011 by Dave Abels

Illinois personal injury attorneys at Abels & Annes have recently settled an auto accident claim against a driver insured by Geico.

The first case arises from an accident that occurred back on May 26, 2010 at 9 AM, in the City of Chicago. Our client was driving a 1995 Mazda Protege northbound on Cottage Grove Avenue approaching 88th St. when the defendant, who was operating a 1992 Chevrolet Van southbound on Cottage Grove, attempted an illegal U-turn at the intersection of 88th and Cottage Grove. As the defendant attempted to U-turn he struck our client's vehicle.

The Chicago Police Department came to the scene of the accident. After interviewing the drivers, the investigating officer ticketed the defendant with making the illegal U-turn.

The plaintiff sustained back injuries in the crash. She was seen at the Jackson Park Hospital emergency room shortly after. x-rays were taken she was diagnosed with ace thoracic sprain. She was also prescribed pain medication.

The plaintiffs pain became worse in the days following the accident. She also developed neck pain, shoulder pain and headaches. She sought follow-up treatment with a chiropractic physician. The doctor prescribed course of physical therapy the consisted of electrical stimulation, therapeutic exercises, neuromuscular reeducation, heat treatment, manual therapy, mechanical traction and ultrasound therapy. She attended physical therapy on 15 occasions through August, 2010.

The case settled for just under $8,500. No lawsuit had to be filed. This is the second case we resolved with Geico Insurance over the last few weeks.

In the other claim against Geico, our client was the victim of a hit-and-run auto accident. He was stopped at a stop sign at the intersection of 71st and Michigan in Chicago when he was rear-ended. The at fault driver then fled the scene.

The plaintiff sustained neck, shoulder and back injuries in the accident. He was seen in the ER at John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital and then had follow up treatment with an orthopedic in Chicago.

Our client had hit-and-run / uninsured motorist coverage with Geico. The case settled for just over $6,000.

If you've been injured in a traffic collision, contact the Chicago auto accident attorneys at Abels & Annes for free consultation. Call 312-924-7575.

Posted by Dave Abels

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