You can now follow the Maryland Accident Lawyer Blog on Twitter. Many if not most of you would follow this blog to the end of the earth. The least you can do is follow us on Twitter!
Our hope is to make this a useful and intresting Twitter page for personal injury accident lawyer in Maryland to supplement the blog. Sometimes, I have thoughts that are just not enough for a blog post.
The New Mexico Supreme Court came out with an interesting opinion in a very complicated case involving an Allstate lawyer’s attempt to get a recovery against Allstate for the future money Allstate would have paid her as its attorney. Huh? It gets crazier than that, this is actually the fifth written opinion on this case. Incredibly, the lawyer got a $1.8 million recovery against Allstate from a jury. But, alas, the New Mexico high court says not so fast (fast being relative, these events started 13 years ago).
It is too much to summarize but you can find the opinion here.
Allstate does not like plaintiffs seeking compensation for their injuries. Unless, of course, Allstate is the plaintiff seeking compensation for its injuries. Accordingly, Allstate has filed suit against Toyota for compensation for payments it has made for accident and injury claims caused by the now infamous unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles.
Do I blame Allstate for filing a lawsuit when it thinks it has a claim? Of course not. In fact, the claim is ironically very creative. But I think Allstate has a world view that we need less creative lawsuits… unless it has one to bring.
Can you get a ticket for keeping on the tail lights Pontiac puts on in the factory? According to this blogger, a Maryland judge says yes.
The story sounds incredibly bizarre, including a report that the judge suggested the car be sold because this Pontiac does not comply with Maryland law.
There is no way to verify these types of Internet stories. Maybe it is more fun that way.
There are so many perils in dealing with claims against local governments. The law is against you from the start by cutting the statute of limitations and in the end by often limiting the amount of your recovery. Then there is the pain that comes from dealing with claims adjusters for the state who often seem to have no interest in what the trial value of a case may be.
This case highlights a final concern: getting approval from the local municipality, or whoever else, for settlement authority. It is like dealing with an insurance company times 1,000. Here, everyone agrees the case should settle… except the municipality.
The Baltimore Sun is covering personal injury wrongful death accident trials. Super. Here is how the article begins: “A $100 million civil trial opened Thursday with attorneys contending that Baltimore police officers purposely drove erratically while transporting a suspect, leading to the man’s death.”
The writer is telling the readers $100 million for a reason. It lets us know…absolutely nothing. It is beyond impossible for the plaintiff to actually receive this amount of money, given the cap we have in Maryland which may limit the verdict to less than 1% of the recovery (depending on the amount of economic damages and whether there was pain and suffering before death). Even with the best possible “the tragic victim’s family and next door neighbors all sat on the jury” outcome.
Using $100 million just serves to confuse readers who think there really is the potential for jackpot justice of this magnitude in every case.
I’m going to post today the type of blog post I hate most: “There was an accident today on….” But this one is different because of the scope of the tragedy. CNN reports that ten people were killed in a single truck accident in Kentucky.
The truck apparently went across the median on Interstate 65 in Hart County and hit an 18 passenger van, reportedly a family of Menonites traveling to a wedding in Iowa.
Just an unbelievable tragedy that underscores in a meaningful way the risks we take when we get on the road with these big rig trucks. This case is a single tragedy but, statistically speaking, more than 11 people will die in other truck accidents today.
California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner released regulations permitting mileage verification for pay-as-you-drive – car insurance by the mile. Apparently, the goal of paying as you go would be to get people thinking about how many miles they are putting on their cars which will lead them to drive less.
I’m not sure who is writing these policies. Spokesmen for State Farm, Allstate and Progressive said they are considering, but have not decided, the issue of whether to offer this type of insurance coverage in California.
As an auto accident lawyer, I’m a little concerned about the coverage issues that would ensue. For example, in Texas, you can buy insurance in bundles of miles driven. In other words, your policy says, “You are covered for 3,000 miles of driving.”
Certainly, State Farm is major player in auto accident insurance market share in Maryland, getting barely nudged out of the top spot by GEICO. According, Maryland accident lawyers see plenty of State Farm… over and over again. State Farm is not a bad company. They have quality accident lawyer in Maryland and good adjusters. In fact, the only issue our Maryland accident lawyers differ with State Farm over typically is the value of individual accident cases. The problem is, of course, is that value is the key ingredient in Maryland accident cases.
Our Maryland car accident lawyers lift up the veil behind State Farm in Maryland and explain some important details worth knowing in attempting to achieve a settlement with State Farm in the Baltimore-Washington area. Click on the preceding link for our attorneys’ analysis of State Farm.
Accident lawyers are coming up with new and creative schemes. Unfortunately, sometimes this schemes involve ambulance chasing.
Maryland Accident Lawyer Blog