Halloween is almost here and so are countless warnings for child and adult holiday safety.

Hausmann-McNallly urges our readers to take all sensible precautions, but hopefully have some fun too.

The fun of Halloween is to step into the scary unknown. We test our bravery against strange noises and sights, creatures and characters we would never see any other time of the year. Facing down a warty witch or creepy clown for the first time is a right of passage in many places. Let’s admit…it is fun to be scared (if you know you are safe).

Warnings for Halloween safety generally fall into three categories:
•    Dangerous treats, razor blades in apples, poison candy
•    The hazards posed by costumes which make seeing difficult and the excitement, which causes kids to forget about traffic and safety rules
•    Perverts who might use Halloween as an opportunity to hurt kids

It is impossible to predict where a danger might come from, but generally parents who talk to their kids about safety and keep an eye on the action will have a better outcome. If you just turn the kids loose in a neighborhood, you are likely to receive back a frazzled, overexcited kid on a sugar high. Some parents let their younger kids trick or treat, but stand back at a discreet distance so they can observe where they go and who they interact with. Older kids would rather die than go with their parents, so set strict limits on where and how long the evening goes on. Parents might have to insist that only wrapped treats are consumed, but that will depend on the safety of the neighborhood and the individuals who give out the treats.

Traffic can be problematic. Adults may be driving home from parties where they drank too much alcohol. Trick or treaters need to be warned. And drivers need to remember that kids may be snaking through the streets in costumes that impair their side vision.

The warnings of not talking to strangers or going with anyone you don’t know is hard to enforce on Halloween, so parents are urged to be aware of neighborhood conditions, news reports and to network with other parents to ensure their children don’t  fall into the wrong hands. It’s all about caution. And then, it’s all about being dressed up as something else, scaring and being scared, lots of treats and excitement.

Take the precautions necessary and then have a great scary fun night.

Hausmann-McNally gets huge settlement for denied insurance coverage

It’s hard to believe insurance companies can be so short-sighted at times. The lawyers who work for the corporations have got to know some of the policies enacted by the companies are in a legal gray area.

That’s why it’s important to have lawyers fighting for your rights like the experienced personal injury attorneys at Hausmann-McNally S.C. In some cases, having a lawyer can be the difference between a client gaining tens of thousands of dollars and filing for bankruptcy because of medical bills.

One recent Hausmann-McNally client found this out firsthand. Our client sustained serious neck and back injuries when he was cut off by a left-turning car that pulled in front of him.

After the accident, the client and his wife applied for health insurance hoping the insurance company would help pay for his medical bills. Our client was completely upfront about his injuries to the insurance company and, despite the serious nature of his upcoming treatment, the company decided to take him on as a customer.

Our client was charged $1,000 a month for his insurance, not cheap by any means. Somewhere along the line, however, the health insurance company decided they did not like this arrangement with our client. The company inexplicably revoked all medical payments it made to our client’s doctors and hospital.

The health insurer claimed that our client did not inform the company about his pre-existing injuries when he signed up for coverage. This was not accurate. Hausmann-McNally took the health insurer to court, and after medical bills were paid, our client was awarded $50,000 in “bad faith” compensation because the insurer broke its contract.

The Hausmann-McNally attorney said that the insurance company’s actions were “unheard of,” and that he had never before seen an insurance company withdraw payment to a hospital.

“Our client paid good, hard-earned money for his insurance,” Hausmann-McNally declared. “For this insurance company to try and pull a stunt like that was outrageous.”

This $50,000 was on top of the $100,000 our client had already received from the offender’s auto insurance company. Had the victim not hired Hausmann-McNally S.C., he could have actually lost out on money he was entitled to.

That is why if you have been in an accident, you should call the Law offices of Hausmann-McNally at 800-227-6699 for a free consultation. Our staff is friendly, professional and ready to answer any and all questions.

Hausmann-McNally analysis of car safety

Many car commercials tout the safety-oriented nature of the automobile’s company. The ads like to spout safety ratings and titles awarded to them by JD Powers and Associates.

However, this is just a good part of a marketing strategy of the auto corporations. But how much is reality?

Cost cutting is a big part of big auto. Competition is so intense and the line between failure and success so thin, that the companies have little choice but to continue to become ever more “efficient.” Unfortunately, efficient is a business term for reducing costs. When manufacturers take short cuts or skimp on materials, it can put people’s lives at risks.

If faced with the choice of saving the company money or improving safety features, most companies will…well, take a look at the evidence.

Hundreds of millions of dollars have been awarded against major auto companies for safety defects in their vehicles. In some cases, it was proven in a court of law that an automaker knowingly ignored a safety defect in order to save a few dollars per car.

For example, Ford Motor Company callously conducted a cost analysis which concluded it would cost $70 million fewer dollars to ignore its gas tank and bumper problem than to enact a recall of the vehicle.

The 27 deaths caused by the ignored defects in the Pinto cost Ford millions of dollars and greatly hurt the company’s image.

Similarly, in 1999, General Motors was hit with a $4.8 billion verdict after Patricia Anderson and her four children were severely burned after their 1979 Chevy Malibu’s gas tank exploded during a collision. Once again, it was proven in court through office memos that this major automaker chose the bottom line over safety.

In Brian Chase’s book, “Still Unsafe At Any Speed,” there are dozens of examples of car defects that led to horrifying injuries, (not to mention huge settlements), for crash victims. Some are complex, jargon-heavy problems with the engine. Others are as simple as a cheaply made seat belt.

So, you may ask yourself how these cases affect you. Well, unlike other law firms, the experienced personal injury lawyers at Hausmann-McNally just don’t look at your injuries when evaluating your case.

We also look at how you got those injuries, a crucial, yet subtle art that many attorneys overlook. We investigate the accident and determine if the mechanical or design defects in either the plaintiff or the offending party’s vehicle could have caused—or contributed to the accident and/or enhanced the injuries. In fact, personal injury lawyers’ decades-long crusade against automakers is a large part of what led to safer cars.

Charles Hausmann, president of Hausmann-McNally, said personal injury attorneys have been leading crusaders in improving car safety. (Nothing gets car makers attention so much as a multi-million-dollar judgment in a personal- injury case.)

“When I take a look back at my career, one of the things I am most proud of is the improved safety in cars,” Hausmann says. “Sadly, a major reason car companies invest in safety is if they believe it will save them from personal injury cases in the future.”

“Today, if we can develop vehicles that park themselves,” Hausmann continues, “ we can certainly improve the fatality rate and the severity of injuries caused by automobile accidents.”

If you believe you were seriously injured due to the mechanical failure or design defect of your vehicle, or another person’s vehicle, call Hausmann-McNally at 800-227-6699.