If you are involved in an Alabama automobile accident and if you have health insurance (Blue Cross Blue Shield, etc) then you will face subrogation.
Subrogation is the basic concept of BCBS wanting to get its money back out of any settlement or verdict that you receive from your car wreck lawsuit or settlement demand.
Please call me if you have any questions - 205-879-2447.
Thanks
John Watts
Birmingham, Alabama
A settlement in a personal injury case (car wreck, truck wreck, slip and fall, etc) is where money is paid to you by the defendant or the defendant's insurance company.
A verdict is where a trial has occurred and the court and jury have reached a decision.
Let me know if you have any questions regarding this - 205-879-2447.
John Watts
Birmingham, Alabama
In this video we explain the basic idea behind a very important concept in Alabama car wreck law - Uninsured Motorist Benefits. This is the part of your insurance that protects you if you are injured by a driver who is uninsured - who does not have any liability insurance.
Let me know if you have any questions - you can call me at 205-879-2447.
John Watts
Birmingham, Alabama
Four reminders or rules will keep you in good shape during your deposition:
1. Make sure you hear the question;
2. Make sure you understand the question;
3. Think about the truthful answer; and
4. Only answer the question asked - nothing else.
We'll continue to expand on this in future posts....
Thanks
John Watts
Birmingham, Alabama
Here's the big secret of giving deposition testimony - tell the truth.
I know.... startling, isn't it?
But it really is this simple - tell the truth.
In other blog posts we'll give more details on how to make sure that you are testifying truthfully and accurately but it all comes down to making sure that you give truthful and honest answers.
I hope this has been helpful and if you have any questions contact me at 205-879-2447.
Thanks
John Watts
Birmingham, Alabama
In years of representing countless personal injury victims from car wrecks, this is one of the more common questions.
Clearly there is an accident. Clearly the other driver ran into the back of you. Clearly you were hurt and went to the hospital.
You gather your medical bills and send those to the adjuster for the guy who smashed into the back of your car.
The insurance adjuster, who seems like a nice guy, promises that he is going to review all this information and look through your medical records and then make you a fair deal. Of course you do not need to talk to a lawyer because he is going to take care of you.
You then become very surprised when he tells you that despite all the treatment that you have had and the time off from work that he can only offer you $1,500.00.
What just happened?
Here’s the deal. We must always remember that insurance adjusters do not work for us and are working for the person that hit us but instead they work only for the insurance company.
No matter how nice they may seem, they are not on your side. They are not your good neighbor. They are not your friend. You are not in their good hands.
Truth be told, they are not even any of those things for the guy that hit you. He may very well want the case settled but the adjuster and insurance company are quite willing for him to face a trial and potentially get a judgment which will stay on his credit report for many years.
The only person the insurance adjuster is working for is his or her insurance company and their primary goal is profits.
There is nothing wrong with an insurance company making money but you should never be deceived about where the loyalty lies – it’s not with you but instead it’s with paying you as little as the insurance company can possibly get away with.
If you’ve been a wreck, and it was the other person’s fault, then go in with your eyes open wide that you may very well have a battle on your hands. Here’s the solution:
1. Document everything as thoroughly as possible. Every medical visit, every phone call, every email, how you were feeling every day, etc.
2. Educate yourself on your rights. Most good personal injury lawyers will have free materials for you to review to help educate yourself so that you can make the right decisions. Get those materials and study them.
3. After you have reviewed the materials, then it is probably worth your time to have a free consultation with a personal injury attorney in your area.
4. Don’t give up. Understand that there will be difficult times but be willing to press forward if you are not getting a fair settlement offer from the insurance company.
I hope this has been helpful to you and if you live in Alabama and have any questions please feel free to call us at (205) 879-2447 or through this website. You are also welcome to receive our free book: "Alabama Car Wrecks - 7 Ways To Lose Your Credibility Which Will Cause You To Lose Your Case" - just let us know if you would like this.
Fraud law in Alabama is a powerful tool to stop companies that have cheated you and to force them to compensate you for your losses.
The four basic requirements or elements of fraud in Alabama are:
1. Misstatement or lie;
2. About a material fact or an important detail;
3. You must properly rely upon the lie - you can't be overly naive or close your eyes to the truth; and
4. You must have suffered damages.
I hope this video is helpful to you and if you have any questions feel free to contact me through this site or you can pick up the phone and call me at 205-879-2447.
John Watts
Birmingham, Alabama
I was reading a website of a personal injury firm that is a heavy advertiser and several things struck me about the website.
First, it was solely focused on the lawyer and how wonderful the lawyers are and rarely mentioned anything about you, the person that has been injured.
The other thing that caught my eye was various inaccuracies related to the law. For example, in the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), the question was posed to the effect of “If I am partially at fault, can I still recover damages for my personal injury case?
The answer started off “Under Alabama’s comparative negligence rules …” Unfortunately, Alabama does not have comparative negligence. Instead Alabama has contributory negligence which means if you were even 1 percent at fault, this will completely bar your recovery if you have sued under negligence.
Note - if you have sued under wantonness or recklessness then contributory negligence is not a bar.
I mentioned this to say for several persons. One is to be very careful about what you read and just because it is online and by a lawyer does not mean that it is accurate. The second reason is to provide a little bit of additional education on our rather strange law concerning contributory negligence which is one of only about three states in the nation that have the rule of contributory negligence barring your recovery. In every other state there is some variation of a formula used that, in essence, takes the degree of fault on your part and reduces the jury verdict by that percentage.
I hope this post has been helpful to you. You are welcome to have our free book - "Alabama Car Wrecks - 7 Ways To Lose Your Credibility Which Will Cause You To Lose Your Case" - just let us know if you would like this... Simply pick up the phone and call me at (205) 879 2447 or send me a message through our website here.
