Oct 22, 2020 | By Anthony Milano | Read Time: 3 minutesIf you were at-fault for an accident, your liability insurance coverage will cover the other driver’s or injured party’s medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, property damage and other losses. Minimum Liability Coverage in Texas In Texas, the liability minimum coverage, if you injured the other driver or party is $30,000 per person and $60,000 per accident. The liability minimum coverage for property damage is $25,000. The property damage limits include repair or replacement of the other driver’s vehicle, towing and storage fees, rental car coverage, and any other repair or replacement of property that was damaged in the accident (e.g., passenger compartment contents, fences, signs, trees, buildings, etc.). Additional Coverage Of course, you can always buy more than the minimum coverage, such as $50,000 per person and $100,000 per accident and $50,000 in property damage liability coverage, and that is highly recommended to protect your assets, if the other party chooses to sue you. If you were the at-fault party, your vehicle is damaged or totaled, and you have “full coverage” or collision coverage, you’ll want to file a claim with your insurance company to repair or replace your vehicle. Remember, if you use this coverage, there is a deductible (usually $500 to $1,000) that needs to be paid, which will need to be paid after the repair shop finishes repairing your vehicle or will be deducted from the amount paid to you to replace your vehicle if it’s totaled. Collision coverage covers damage to your vehicle from a collision with another vehicle or other object while operating it. If You’re Not At Fault If you weren’t the at-fault party, and especially if you’re injured, it is highly recommended that you hire a personal injury attorney to handle your case. Filing a claim with the other driver’s insurance company or your own insurance company, if the at-fault party doesn’t have insurance can be very tricky. It is recommended that you do not talk to the responsible party’s insurance company at all. They will attempt to call you and send you letters to get information from you that they’ll likely use against you. Remember, the insurance adjusters are not your friend even as nice as they can be while talking to you. They will do anything they can to avoid paying your claim. Avoid talking to the other driver’s insurance company and DO NOT let them do a recorded statement with you. If the other driver does not have insurance and you use your own uninsured motorist coverage to cover your bodily injury or property damage, they may require that you give a statement. Many times, insurance companies will take their time investigating a claim when the parties do not respond to their requests for statements on how the accident occurred. This can be frustrating. If you feel that you can handle your own case, it’s important to be as brief as possible and only give the facts of the accident. Tell the truth. Try not to speculate as to what happened and be consistent in telling your side to the story (refer back to your notes, as mentioned above). Be very brief and general in discussing your injuries, if you do not hire a lawyer. Since we aren’t trained medical professionals, it’s difficult to properly express our treatment status or injuries. It’s best to let the insurance company evaluate records from healthcare professionals in order to evaluate your claim. Remember it’s the insurance adjuster’s job to pay as little as possible in any bodily injury or property damage claim. Also, keep in mind that if you accept an offer verbally from the adjuster, it’s binding. You do not have to face a serious injury case alone. Contact our attorneys for a free consultation about how we can help you. Call (713) 489-4270 to speak to our Houston personal injury attorneys directly.
Read More Oct 20, 2020 | By Anthony Milano | Read Time: 12 minutesWhether you’ve been injured in a car accident or not, it’s important to take the necessary steps to protect your rights. Even if you think the damage is minor or don’t immediately feel like you’ve been injured, it’s always a good idea to seek the advice of a Houston car accident lawyer. If you end up seeking medical treatment for an injury that surfaces later on or the damage to your vehicle ends up being more than you thought, you want to make sure you can document the accident for insurance claim purposes. 1. Seek Medical Attention Immediately After you’ve been involved in an accident, seek medical attention immediately. Call 911 and wait for the police and other first responders to arrive. Your health should be your number one priority at this point. If the fire department or ambulance arrives, it might be the best thing for you to go. Don’t be cheap and avoid going to the emergency room if you feel like you’ve been injured. Remember, even a minor impact can create substantial injuries. To rule out any life-threatening conditions such as internal bleeding, broken bones or traumatic brain injuries, it may be smart to go to the emergency room even if you don’t think your injuries are serious. If you decide to seek treatment at the emergency room, make sure you’re as thorough as possible in describing any of your symptoms to the emergency room personnel. If the doctor doesn’t know your symptoms, they won’t be able to properly diagnose and treat you and these complaints will not appear in your emergency room medical records, which can later hurt your case down the road. Also, always listen to the doctor’s orders. If they recommend that you follow up with your primary care doctor or another healthcare provider, you should always do so. If you don’t immediately seek medical attention and you are injured, seek treatment as soon as possible. 2. Know the “Rules of the Road” – What are your Duties under Texas law? After assessing your overall health and safety, you should know the duties under Texas law after you’ve been involved in a motor vehicle accident. Title 7, Subtitle C, Chapter 550 of the Texas Transportation Code (“Rules of the Road”), which applies to accidents on most roads and highways, other than some residential property parking areas or garages/parking lots. When an accident involves personal injury or death, the parties involved are required to immediately: stop their vehicle at the scene of the accident or as close to the scene as possible; return to the scene of the accident if the vehicle is not stopped at the scene of the accident; determine whether a person is involved in the accident, and if a person is involved in the accident, whether that person requires aid; and remain at the scene of the accident until the operator complies with the requirements of the duty to give information and render aid. This includes giving the operator’s name and address, the registration number of the vehicle the operator was driving, and the name of the operator’s motor vehicle liability insurance to any person injured or the operator or occupant of or person attending a vehicle involved in the collision; if requested and available, show the operator’s driver’s license to any person injured or operator or occupant or person attending a vehicle involved in the collision; and provide any person injured in the accident reasonable assistance, including transporting or making arrangements for transporting the person to a physician or hospital for medical treatment if it is apparent that treatment is necessary, or if the injured person requests the transportation. If there are injuries or death of a person or damage to a vehicle to the extent that it cannot be normally and safely driven the duty of the operators of the vehicle involved to immediately alert the police. Failure to stop or comply with these rules can result in a 2nd degree felony for accidents involving death of a person, 3rd degree felony for accidents involving seriously bodily injury, or up to five years imprisonment in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice or up to one year confinement in the county jail do so can result in jail time, a fine of up to $5,000, or both. When an accident only involves only vehicle damage, the parties involved are required to: immediately stop the vehicle at the scene of the accident or as close as possible to the scene of the accident without obstructing traffic more than is necessary; immediately return to the scene of the accident if the vehicle is not stopped at the scene of the accident; and remain at the scene of the accident until the operator complies with the requirements to give information and render aid. If an accident occurs on a main lane, ramp, shoulder, median, or adjacent area of a freeway in a metropolitan area and each vehicle involved can be normally and safely driven, each operator shall move the operator’s vehicle as soon as possible to a designated accident investigation site, if available, a location on the frontage road, the nearest suitable cross street, or other suitable location to give information and render aid, and minimize interference with freeway traffic. Failure to comply with this provision can result in a Class C misdemeanor. Failure to comply with this provision can result in a Class C misdemeanor, if the damage to all vehicles is less than $200; or a Class B misdemeanor, if the damage to all vehicles is $200 or more. 3. Have a Police Officer Fill Out a Crash Report Make sure when the police arrive, have them fill out a crash report. This is an important piece in dealing with your accident claim. More information about crash reports is below. What is a Texas Peace Officer’s Crash Report (CR-3 Form)? A Texas Peace Officer’s Crash Report is a written summary of a motor vehicle crash. It identifies the time, date, location,...
Read More Oct 15, 2020 | By Anthony Milano | Read Time: 3 minutesHow Much Can I Get for Pain and Suffering? This question is extremely common for most car accident injury victims. Actually, I’d say it’s as common as the “How much is my case worth?” question. Similar to the overall case value question, the answer is the similar–the pain and suffering calculation widely varies. First let’s look at what Texas courts have said. According to the court in Green v. Meadows, 527 S.W.2d 496 (Tex. Civ. App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 1975, writ ref’d n.r.e.), the amount of damages necessary to compensate for pain cannot be determined by a set formula. The court in Hernandez v. Baucum, 344 S.W.2d 498, 500 (Tex. Civ. App. 1961), ruled that damages for physical pain are left to the sound discretion of the jury based upon their common knowledge and sense of justice. So, we know from these two cases that there’s no exact formula to calculate pain and suffering. In addition, the court in Hernandez v. Baucum also stated that a jury may award zero damages when the pain is almost entirely subjective, based on the plaintiff’s personal reports of pain to doctors, supervisors and family members. That’s why it’s important to have additional evidence of pain, which will be discussed below. Two Common Methods for Calculating Pain & Suffering Throughout your search online you will most likely find two common ways pain and suffering may be calculated: the “Multiplier” and the “Per Diem” methods. Multiplier Method The Multiplier Method calculates pain and suffering by multiplying the injured party’s total medical bills and lost wages, also known as “Special Damages,” by some multiplier, such as 1.5 – 5. With 1.5 being the least minor injury and 5 being the most severe injury. This figure is then added to the Special Damages total. For example, if Paula Plaintiff has $5,000 in medical bills, $1,000 in lost wages, and she received minor sprains and strains in the car accident that was caused by Dexter Defendant, we may assign a 1.5 times Special Damages as her pain and suffering multiplier, or $9,000 ($6,000 x 1.5). So, using the Multiplier Method, Paula’s pain and suffering would equal $9,000 and her total case value would be $15,000. Per Diem Method The Per Diem method is another method used to calculate pain and suffering in a car accident injury settlement. The number of months, days, or hours are multiplied by a certain dollar figure that is either equal to the amount of pay the injured party receives in their job for that specific time period or some other arbitrary number. For example, if Paula Plaintiff suffered pain for 200 days from the accident and made $200 per day as a construction worker, the pain and suffering calculation would equal $40,000. The idea behind using a daily salary rate calculation as the daily rate of pain and suffering is that it could be thought that the pain associated with an injury is comparable to the effort of working a job. Although the Texas court in Hernandez v. Baucum, 344 S.W.2d 498, 500 (Tex. Civ. App. 1961) ruled that it was a “fair argument and a rational approach for pain the way it was endured, month by month, and year by year,” in proposing a pain and suffering calculation to the jury at trial, it is not an accurate estimate of what the value of pain and suffering will be assigned in a car accident settlement. The large misconception about these two methods is that insurance companies and juries actually use them to calculate pain and suffering. Simple answer: they don’t. Although insurance companies in the past may have employed some sort of multiplier to calculate a rough estimate of an appropriate settlement offer in cases involving soft tissue injuries (e.g., whiplash), insurance companies now use settlement software such as Colossus to arrive at an appropriate settlement range, based on prior settlements, localized medical charges, and other claim characteristics. If a case goes to a jury trial, juries are instructed to assign a sum of money that would fairly and reasonably compensate the plaintiff for the physical pain and mental anguish sustained in the past and future. Juries use their best judgment based on the evidence presented to them throughout the trial. For a more in-depth discussion on how pain and suffering is calculated, click HERE. You do not have to face a serious injury case alone. Contact our attorneys for a free consultation about how we can help you. Call (713) 489-4270 to speak to our Houston personal injury attorneys directly.
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