Birmingham Injury Blog

The Wichita Eagle newspaper reports that last month a $23.5 million verdict was awarded to a man with a severe spinal injury due to the negligence of a truck driver who tested positive for methamphetamine. The injured man had $5 million in medical bills.

I'm sure he would gladly trade all the money to have his health back but since we can't turn back the hands of time it is nice to know that juries appreciate the severity of injuries and are willing to fairly compensate victims of any type of negligence, including negligence of a few bad truck drivers who give the vast majority of honest competent truck drivers a bad name....

I ran across this blog post from our friend Ronald Miller, Jr. of the Baltimore Injury Lawyer Blog and thought it would be of interest for our Alabama readers who have been in minor impact car wreck cases. While Ronald refers to GEICO, we most often see it here with Allstate. But whichever company is doing this here is the explanation:

It’s an acronym used by insurance companies to describe certain kinds of auto accident injury claims. It stands for Minor Impact, Soft Tissue. Some insurance companies have a policy of denying these type of claims, notably GEICO. What the Baltimore injury lawyer gets in response to a demand package is a letter from a claims adjuster that says “we are unable to understand the nature of the injuries claimed in light of the minor damage to the vehicles involved.” This is true even though liability may be unquestioned, like in a rear-end collision.

The philosophy behind this policy is that the insurance companies can make it very expensive and time consuming (relatively speaking) for plaintiffs and their lawyers to get these cases to trial as the insurance companies will offer maybe $1,000 or $2,000 dollars. Even if the medical bills are say $5,000.

But as Ronald points out these cases can be won and so you should not be discouraged if you have suffered real injuries from a minor impact. Just be aware that a legitimate settlement will probably NOT be coming and you will need to try your case.

Check out this short and to the point article about the drug giant Wyeth paying to ghost write medical journal articles about drugs under litigation. Amazing but I guess not surprising.... Thanks to Mark Zamora of "A Georgia Lawyer" blog for spotting this.

We have always had a problem in Jefferson County (and other counties in Alabama) with uninsured drivers sharing the roads with us. This is a serious problem because these drivers can hurt us due to their negligence but they have no insurance to compensate us for our injuries. Now, with the economic problems, more and more drivers are dropping their insurance or they are letting their insurance lapse as there are fewer dollars to spend and some view car insurance as a luxury.

The Wall Street Journal has an article on the rise in uninsured drivers. Here is a brief excerpt of what is typical in cases we see with uninsured motorists in Alabama:

Debbie Kuban, 47 years old, of Stratford, Conn., is glad she had uninsured motorist coverage, which is mandatory in her state, when a car she was riding in was hit by an uninsured driver the day after Thanksgiving. The driver of a pickup truck tore out of a shopping center parking lot in nearby Milford and slammed into the Audi A6 station wagon her husband was driving.

Ms. Kuban, an operating-room nurse, suffered a gash in her head that required stitches and had two broken bones in her foot. She was taken to the hospital by ambulance. Her husband wasn't severely injured. Since then, Ms. Kuban has been recuperating at home. Because the at-fault driver had no insurance, Ms. Kuban has relied on her $300,000 uninsured-motorist policy for claims reimbursement. She says the other driver was charged with a misdemeanor for driving without insurance on a private road.

We recommend that you review your uninsured benefits and increase them to at least $100,000. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions - we can give you some suggestions on what to ask your insurance agent. Finally, we leave you with this sobering thought from the Wall Street Journal article: Insurance companies charge them more because they consider them irresponsible: Unlicensed and uninsured drivers are disproportionately involved in fatal accidents.

When Alabama consumers are involved in car wrecks, one question that comes to mind is "Should I handle my case on my own or should I consult with a lawyer?" While there is no one right answer, but considering any good personal injury lawyer in Alabama will meet with you for a free consultation, you should at least talk to a lawyer. Now, whether to hire a lawyer has to be decided on a case by case basis.

Gerry Oginski has an excellent video regarding this question in New York car wreck cases. It is helpful for Alabama auto accident victims also and we recommend you take a look at it below.

If you would like to meet with us for a free consultation to understand your rights and options, feel free to call us at 205-879-2447.

Here is the video in its entirety:

We have admired the work of Gerry Oginski for some time and we wanted to hilight his recent video about the dangers of accepting a quick settlement offer from the other driver's car insurance company. While Gerry practices in New York the thoughts he shares in this video are helpful for Alabama victims of car wrecks.

If you have any questions about a recent car wreck that you have been involved in, please feel free to call us at 205-879-2447. Here is the video so you can view it directly here: