A fatal school bus accident last week has prompted a lawsuit alleging unsafe conditions for the bus’ lack of seatbelts. The details here are sad. The 60 year old school bus driver and a five-year-old little girl were killed in the crash. The bus, which struck a bridge, was carrying…
Articles Posted in Car Accidents
New Medicare Rule
Medicare continues to make efforts to try, post Haro v. Sebelius, to make for an easier solution for dealing with Medicare liens. The latest? In very small cases, they are more likely to be handled by injury victims themselves as opposed to personal injury lawyers, Medicare will offer a 25%…
New York Car Accident Verdicts
The average car/truck/motorcycle accident verdict in New York is $837,020, which is stunningly high compared to most other jurisdictions. Why is this? Are New York jurors just that much more generous than, say, jurors in Maryland? The answer is that New York’s no-fault accident law requires that plaintiffs suffer a…
Average New York Car Accident Verdicts
A recent Jury Verdict Research (JVR) study found that the average verdict in a New York motor vehicle accident case is $837,020. The median verdict is $150,000. This data does not include defense verdicts which, if considered in the data, would obviously reduce the average award. To be sure, $837,020…
Car Insurance Costs in Each State
MSN provides the average annual premium for car insurance by state. The numbers are provided below. The numbers are interesting for their relativity but not for their absolute values. Because the numbers are based on a male driving a 2010 vehicle with slightly better than average coverage (100 (per person)/300…
Soft Tissue Injury Settlements
There is a fundamental problem with soft tissue injury cases that few plaintiffs’ lawyers will admit: some percentage of soft tissue injury plaintiffs are either completely faking the injury or exaggerating the symptoms. Maybe you are not, dear reader. But many do and the key – and the hard part…
Phantom Vehicle Uninsured Motorist Claims in Maryland
Mr. Miller: Hi, I am a Maryland attorney and would like to get little mentoring on any differences between an unidentified motorist claim and an uninsured motorist claim. Please call or send me an email and I promise I’ll be brief. Thanks so much for any help! Dear Maryland Attorney:…
Washington Appeals Court Ruling in Legal Malpractice Car Accident Case
The Court of Appeals of Washington in Shoemake v. Ferrer, 182 P.3rd 992 (2008) considered an interested argument by a defendant in a legal malpractice case. The Defendant lawyers blew a statute of limitations by two days in a serious head-on car accident collusion case with a drug driver. This…
First Bad Faith Car Accident Insurance Claims in Maryland
Bob Zarbin and Jim MacAlister write a telling article in this month’s journal of the Maryland Trial Lawyers Association about Maryland’s new bad faith law. The authors note that the avalanche of bad faith claims the insurance companies said were coming down the pike with Maryland’s new bad faith law…