Monday, April 27, 2009
Insurers are not your friends
Imagine driving home on a Friday after work, after a hard day, but excited about the weekend with family and friends, and the party on Saturday night to celebrate something of importance in your life. Out of nowhere, a drunk driver slams into your car. You wake up in the hospital the next morning. The hospital administrator wants your health insurance information. Your family are at your bedside and that the doctors said you'll be okay, that your boss offered his best and hopes you'll be back soon, and that the car was destroyed. An insurance representative is outside of the room and wants your "recorded statement". The representative comes in and has tons of questions, and then tells you at the end that they have to further investigate and they don't know yet if they will pay for the car or your bills. This type of scenario happens all of the time. Lesson: Don't ever speak to insurance representatives until you've consulted an attorney. That "recorded statement" could be the basis for the insurer denying your claim, when all you did was tell them the truth!
Labels: accident, injury, insurance companies
posted by Paul A. Samakow, P.C. at
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Watch what you sign -- Medical payment benefits
The Virginia Supreme Court recently ruled that an auto accident victim, who signed a "Consent to Treatment" form at the hospital emergency room, after being taken there from the accident scene, could not later "revoke" the provision in the form which assigned insurance benefits (medical payment benefits) to get the money directly. The hospital sought to enforce the assignment, to thus get paid from the victim's insurance company, and the victim wanted his insurance company to pay him, and not the hospital. No way said the Supremes. The victim signed a form assigning the money to the hospital, and the hospital gets it.
Morale: Watch what you sign. There is noting inherently wrong with assigning benefits. And not doing so doesn't mean the hospital won't give you care. They are required to provide emergent care. But, later, if you're out of work because of accident related injuries, you might need that money to help make ends meet until you get back to work.
Labels: accident, insurance companies
posted by Paul A. Samakow, P.C. at
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Police usually not responsible if on a call
A Baltimore City jury decided, despite a local Order requiring police on a call to fully stop before proceeding through a red signal light, that the officer was not responsible in this instance. The police officer had her lights and siren activated en route on an emergency call, and when she went into an intersection a collision occurred with another driver. Despite testimony from witnesses, the officer did not make a complete stop. So justice may not have prevailed here, but this verdict seems to be consistent with claims against police on emergency runs.
Labels: accident
posted by Paul A. Samakow, P.C. at
Friday, April 17, 2009
A goose story, almost
Two guys went geese hunting in Cecil County, Maryland. As they both stood up to shoot at a goose, something wrong happened (the injured guy says the other guy mis-aimed and the other guy claimed an obstruction in his rifle caused the incident). Regardless of the how, a portion of the barrel of the other first guy's rifle ended up lodged in the skull of the other hunter. The injured hunter was taken to the hospital, and besides the obvious physical injury, he suffered a one day minor memory impairment, but no permanent cognitive injury. So the injured guy sued his hunter buddy and won $120,000.00.
Morale of the story clear in this goose matter:
1. Don't use guns, and
2. How can you sue your buddy... wasn't this an accident?
Labels: injury
posted by Paul A. Samakow, P.C. at
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Median Value of Sexual Harassment Claims
These claims against employers in the workplace, measured from 1987 by the group at Metro Verdicts Monthly, reveals that if this is going to happen to you, your best bet for compensation is in Virginia, with the median verdict of $288,300.00, followed by verdicts in Washington, D.C. at $250,000.00. The juries in Maryland apparently are not real impressed by these claims, with median verdicts only at $93,900.00.
Labels: general
posted by Paul A. Samakow, P.C. at
Monday, April 6, 2009
Pay your Virginia Attorney with a credit card?
If you pay your Virginia lawyer with a credit card, and your lawyer passes along the transaction fee to you as a cost, which by the way is legal, the lawyer must disclose that "transaction fee" to you, or the lawyer risks being in violation of Federal Truth-in-Lending laws. This according to the Virginia State Bar's Standing Committee on Legal Ethics.
Labels: general
posted by Paul A. Samakow, P.C. at
