Archive for the ‘Ohio’ Category

Resourceful Attorney Gets Client 16 Times What Allstate Offers

COLUMBUS, OHIO–A good part of the law business involves dealing with insurance companies. Many times, the insurance company will low-ball a client and make an absurdly low offer which they hope the client will take. Clients without legal representation may fall for the insurance company’s offer to settle quickly, say that the case isn’t worth much, or claim that injuries were pre-existing conditions. Have no doubts, most insurance companies would rather pay you less than more, and would prefer to pay you nothing if they could get away with it. That includes your own insurance company.

A major victory over an unreasonably low offer involved Hausmann-McNally Attorney J. Scott Bowman, who represented a client injured in an automobile accident.  After the accident, she was unable to get the surgery she needed because she did not have health insurance. It didn’t help that Allstate dragged its feet by refusing to make a fair settlement.

The 36-year old woman was injured by an automobile driver who failed to yield at a stop sign. Injuries included tear to her ACL as well as cervical, thoracic and lumbar sprains/strains. Medical bills were projected to top $20,000. Bowman also showed she had lost wages in the amount of $12,000 to $13,000.

Aside from the bad publicity Allstate garners for not adequately paying claims, Bowman had to go before a jury and, during a three-day trial, proved that his client’s injuries and medical bills were worth a whole lot more than Allstate offered her. Allstate’s final offer was $4,181!

After hearing both sides, the jury awarded Bowman’s client $70,124, almost all of what he had asked for. The case was written up in the Winter 2011 issue of the Columbus (Ohio) Lawyers Quarterly.

Interesting news of the Allstate company’s strategy on claims can be seen on the Web site: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_18/b3982072.htm

Their slogan might be “You’re in Good Hands with Allstate,” but this client believes she was in far better hands with Hausmann-McNally, a personal injury law firm that really looks after their clients’ interests.

Bowman is managing attorney for Hausmann-McNally’s Columbus, Ohio office.

I don’t usually find public annual reports fascinating, but the State of Ohio has produced one of the most thorough and readable documents on highway safety that I have ever seen.

If you want to know anything about traffic safety statistics in Ohio in 2008, take a look at Ohio’s “2008 Crash Facts”.  It is not available in print and when you see the size, you will know why.

As I scanned the document, it occurred to me that traffic accidents are such a significant part of our modern human drama they merit a huge volume to document the damage and loss.  We all know someone who was injured or killed in a motor vehicle accident. Many of us have been in accidents ourselves. Automobile, motorcycle and truck accidents take an enormous toll on individuals, families and communities. The State of Ohio has taken much trouble to document many details to help fill in the details. As a personal injury attorney, my calling is to help repair the lives of the victims…by helping get them the financial settlements that address the loss and pain suffered as the result of someone else’s misdeeds.

A cover letter from the Henry Guzman, Director of the Ohio Department of Public Safety, reports both good news and bad news in crash statistics:

“In 2008, Ohio continued to make improvements in highway safety. The traffic crash fatality rate continued to go down, to a near-historic low of 1,191 fatalities. Alcohol related fatalities and the number of people who died unbelted on Ohio’s roads also declined.

“One of our biggest concerns is a continuing increase in motorcycle fatalities. Motorcycle fatalities have increased on Ohio’s roads by 35 percent over the past three years. In the past year they jumped dramatically, from 190 in 2007 to 213 in 2008.”

The detailed report highlights many factors that cause and contribute to motor vehicle accidents and goes into granular detail. It even lists which stationary objects were most often hit by cars. (Trees are #1on the list!)
As an attorney who has spent his professional life defending the rights of accident victims, I find the statistics chilling. For Ohio in 2008, they report:

• Approximately 3.0 fatal crashes each day.
• Approximately 3.3 persons were killed each day.
• One person was killed every 7.4 hours.
• There were 307.1 persons injured every day.
• One person was injured every 4.7 minutes.
• Of drivers involved in crashes, 53.7 % are males, 42.2 % are females, and 4.1 % are gender not stated.
• Alcohol impaired drivers were involved in 4.45 % of all crashes.
• Alcohol impaired drivers were involved in 37.70 % of all fatalities.
• 75.9 % of all alcohol impaired drivers involved in crashes were males.
• 63.8 % of all crashes occurred during the daylight.
• Motor vehicle crashes killed 48.0 children and injured 9,025.

This tells me that number of lives lost through wrongful death on the highway is still far too prevalent. Preventative measures like improved highway condition and design, better law enforcement, consistently good driver education and tough drunk driving laws all demand our attention. Motorcycle accidents are now a major concern. One is that in a distressed economy, more people may be riding their motorcycles  for economical reasons. Training and safety programs are sometimes cut when budgets are tight. And, highway drivers need to be constantly reminded to be on the lookout for motorcycles, which can seem to come from nowhere.

The answers for people injured or who have lost loved ones in a highway wrongful death often lie in getting competent legal assistance in order to receive compensation for the pain and loss. While the accidents are a personal tragedy, the personal injury attorney is the person you want in your corner if you were injured in a automobile, truck or motorcycle accident or if you are the survivor of someone who died in a highway-related wrongful death.