Driving demands time, full attention and is a great responsibility. It has become common for drivers to use cell phones while at the same time trying to maintain control of their car. Because of the increase in reported accidents due to distracted driving, some jurisdictions have proclaimed the use of cellular phones while driving illegal.  Kentucky is now one of those states. 

As reported, 81% of the United States population admits texting while driving a vehicle in spite of knowing of the dangers of texting while driving. Distracted drivers account for 25 percent of traffic crashes across the country as reported by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. According to statistics from Kentucky State Police, 192 collisions have been reported in Louisville in the year 2010 that were caused by use of cellular phones to talk or text. The collisions resulted in two deaths and 62 injuries.

From my perspective, not only as a personal injury attorney, but also as someone who is driving a good hour every day these are needles deaths and injuries. What are people thinking? There are 192 Kentucky car accidents that should not have happened. If Kentucky drivers were not on the phone 2 people would be alive today. 62 other accident victims would not be hurt. Why are people still texting and driving? These statistics alone should be enough to make everyone put their phone down while they are behind the wheel.                                                                                  

The law banning texting while driving was implemented in Kentucky last July 2010.   On New Year’s Day, drivers caught texting while driving can now be fined as a result of a new state law.  The fine will be $25 for the first offense and $50 for each offense after the first, plus court costs.

Officials say they are more confident that the new law will decrease the number of distracted drivers. The top priority of the new law is SAFETY.  A driver caught using a mobile device, will lose time and money. In severe cases it may lead to suspension of licence in severe cases. So, avoid a serious Kentucky automobile accident by getting rid of your cell phone while behind the wheel.

You have been in a Kentucky auto accident or car accident where you have been rear ended.  Your neck is hurting.  You are in severe pain.  You’ve been to the emergency room and you have now gone to your family doctor or chiropractor.  He has diagnosed you with a strain/sprain of the neck.  What does this mean?  Well I’m not a doctor but over the course of years of handling personal injury cases and car accident cases, I can tell you that a strain sprain of the neck usually means some sort of ligament damage.  Similar to the ACL which holds your knee, in place there are ligaments that hold your vertebrates in place throughout your back.  These ligaments can be stretched during an auto accident just as a football player would stretch or tear the ligaments of his knee.  How severe your auto accident neck injury is depends on what grade of strain sprain strain that you have.  There are three grades:  

• Grade 1 is the over stretching of the ligament.
• Grade 2 is a partial tearing of the ligament.  This may or may not heal.  If it does heal there will be scar tissue that forms.  This is considered a permanent change in the ligament structure and lead to some instability around the vertebrae or the joint.
• Grade 3 this is a complete tear of the ligament and can require surgery.  This leaves the joint area very unstable.  This is a permanent injury.

            When you receive a strain sprain diagnosis from your doctor ask him exactly what this means.  Ask your doctor to clarify whether or not this is a permanent injury and what grade it is.  This will have a direct effect on your physical recovery and your financial recovery in your Kentucky automobile accident case.

You call your insurance agent and want to purchase Kentucky car insurance.  You tell your insurance agent that you would like full coverage because you want to be protected if you are in a Kentucky car accident. 

• Is there really such a thing as full car insurance coverage? 
• Do you know what the insurance agent is going to give you when you ask for full coverage? 
• Does the price that is quoted always include everything? 
• Is the agent giving you the best coverage or the cheapest coverage?

Unfortunately, full car insurance coverage means something different to different insurance companies.  From my perspective, as a personal injury and accident attorney, I believe full car insurance coverage should be exactly that, full coverage. But what you, the consumer who is purchasing insurance, are quoted usually does not contain uninsured motorist coverage and underinsured motorist coverage (UIM/UM).  These are usually considered add?ons by the insurance company. 

It is very important that you ask what coverages are included in the cost of any policy to make sure that you and your family are protected should you be in a serious Kentucky automobile accident.  You MUST have uninsured motorist coverage and underinsured motorist coverage, especially in this day and age.  Why?  More and more people are driving with the minimum insurance in Kentucky, which is only $25,000.00. Others have elected to violate the law and have no insurance at all.

Let’s look at a situation that happens frequently. You are in a Kentucky car wreck. You are seriously injured. The other car does not have insurance. They have no assets you can collect from. What do you do?  Sure you can file a lawsuit, get a judgment and hope they win the lottery. Your only option is your uninsured motorist coverage, if you have it.  If you don’t have any, you will not collect anything for your injuries.  I would suggest at least $100,000.00 in coverage, but you should go higher if you can afford it. 

For more information on this, go to www.KyInsuranceBook.com to get a complimentary copy of  “What You Don’t Know About Buying Car Insurance Can Hurt You.” 

Drunk driving, driving while intoxicated, driving under the influence, DWI and DUI; whatever you call it is dangerous.  With the recent attention directed toward distracted driving and texting while driving we have not heard a lot about drunk driving in Louisville, Kentucky. The affects it can cause behind the wheel of an automobile is still a major cause of auto accidents and deaths in Kentucky.  As a personal injury attorney I represent car accident victims who have been injured by drunk drivers. Some of these injuries are serious and could have been prevented. Negligently getting behind the wheel of an automobile after having too much to drink is never a good idea. I urge everyone to use restraint during the holiday season.

            Have our views toward drunk driving really changed? Are we more complacent? The National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration has released a national survey pin pointing drinking and driving attitudes and behaviors.  This survey has confirmed the importance of Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD) and their work to help eliminate drunk driving and to keep alcohol out of the hands of teens and minor drivers.  The work that MADD has done in the last 30 years since its inception is amazing.  Since MADD came into existence drunken driving fatalities have dropped almost 44 percent.  The survey also shows that there is still public concern about drunk driving. Four out of five people in the survey considered drinking and driving as a major concern to them personally.

            MADD has long been a proponent of in-car breathalyzers, also known as ignition interlocks, and sobriety checkpoints.  This survey shows a high level of support for these methods of preventing and catching drunk drivers. This is a big part of MADD’s campaign to eliminate drunk driving.            

Unfortunately the survey confirms that under aged drinking is still a significant problem in the United States.  Having a teenage daughter that is out on Jefferson County roads makes this a big concern to me. MADD knows that when kids start drinking alcohol they are more likely to become drunk drivers.  They advocate that parents speaking with their children about the dangers of drinking under aged early and often.  The data in this new survey confirms this.  The bottom line is don’t ignore this issue. Get the elephant in the room out in the open. Have a conversation with your teenage driver about the dangers of drinking and driving. It may save their life.

The effort to eliminate intoxicated driving is ongoing. Laura Dean-Mooney, President of MADD  stated “Ultimately the survey just emphasizes the importance of MADD’s work. We must continue our work to make American families safe from the dangers of drunk driving and underage drinking- lives are at stake.” I agree.

Every one is tweeting on Twitter and posting on Facebook.  We are walking down the street with our smart phones checking out our friends. Social media is everywhere. Employers have been looking at these sites for years to determine whether or not to hire somebody.  What happens if someone injured in a Kentucky car wreck posts on Facebook? Who can look at it? Is it just who you want to look at your posts?  

Defense attorneys and insurance adjusters have been looking at social media sites to get information on YOU in an attempt to deny or limit your recovery in your personal injury claim. This is whether it is from an auto accident, bicycle accident or dog bite. 

It is only a matter of time before Kentucky courts start to hear cases on social networking sites. Courts in other states have already made rulings on social media issues.  Here is the question. Are Kentucky Courts going to force an accident victim to give access to their social networking sites to the attorney who represents the person that hit you?  The answer is not clear at this point in time.

Here are some points that Courts in other states have looked at. One question involves privacy settings.  Just because you make something private is it really private to the Courts? Will checking the private box be a barrier to the defense seeing what you posted?  By making settings on my account private I do not intend for everyone to see what I have posted or what is on my profile.  Colorado Courts have allowed Wal Mart to subpoena information from Facebook, MySpace and Meetup because they felt the information sought was relevant and reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible information. This is legalize for we don’t know if it has anything to do with the case but it might.

Courts have allowed defendants to view social media postings in a variety of situations. In a case where a child had an eating disorder the court said that information posted on a social networking site may show that the disorder came from something other than what is alleged in the lawsuit.  So the plaintiff had to turn over access to the site to the at-fault party and their insurance company.

In Connecticut the Court allowed a defendant to view Facebook accounts stating that it was a snapshot of the plaintiff’s state of mind at the time they were harmed.  New Jersey has a similar ruling. This is disturbing to personal injury attorneys and Kentucky automobile accident victims. If this standard is adopted in Kentucky just about any fact situation in any accident would lead to the court allowing the at-fault party’s attorney and insurance company to look at your Facebook page. 
           

Courts in jurisdictions, including California, have concluded that by posting online you have acknowledged that the information you are giving is not intended to be private no matter what the privacy settings are in place on your account.  If you post it on the internet and you are involved in a lawsuit they are going to let the other side see it.

This means that accident victims must be very careful about what is posted. A recent California case found that private Facebook and MySpace communications between individuals could not be subpoenaed.  So maybe your wall postings are safe, maybe not.

 To date there has been no cases heard in the Kentucky Courts.  We do not know what will happen in Kentucky. Caution is in order. Be CAREFUL! Here are a few tips: 

• Look at your privacy settings and set them to block anyone other than people you know from viewing your site.
• Do not post anything that discusses your lawsuit or accident case.
• Do not discuss your injuries in your postings.
• Do not post photographs of you attempting or doing any physical activity that you are now unable to do as a result of your injuries from the accident.
• Make sure your friends don’t post any of the above.
• Do not accept friend invitations from anyone you don’t know. They could be working for the other side!
• Take a look at your friend list. Remove anybody that you don’t know.   

Just be smart so that information posted on social media sites can’t be twisted and used to make you look untruthful or not injured. Taking these simple steps will help prevent unwanted information getting to the other side and maximizing the value of your Kentucky accident case.

If you are the victim of a Kentucky automobile accident and haven’t seen the WHAS 11 I- Team investigation that aired last night about runners snagging clients for chiropractors and personal injury attorneys you should check this out.  After watching this story it’s no wonder that chiropractors and personal injury attorneys as a group seem to have a bad name.                                                

This investigation focused mainly on the chiropractors. There was a follow up that aired on the late news that focused on an investigation on the cash advance companies that have jumped into marketing for auto accident victims several years ago. You have seen the ads on T.V.  They will give you a loan, find you a doctor and then find you an attorney. You will get cash for going to the doctor. Your chiropractor collects the PIP money, which is up to $10,000.00. The personal injury attorney gets a fee for handling your car wreck case. This is if you’ve been in an auto accident. They then charge you a huge sum of money for the interest to do this.  The question comes as to who the attorney’s loyalties lie with.

As the old Osmond’s song goes “One bad apple doesn’t spoil the whole bunch…”  In the same way I hope you understand that all attorneys and chiropractors aren’t bad. Unfortunately, the few chiropractors and attorneys that are paying runners money to go get them clients make the whole profession look bad.  Nobody that is involved in representing auto accident victims deny that this has been going on for quite awhile.

I have had clients contact me and tell me that they have been called by a representative of the insurance company that told them that they needed to go to a specific doctor and attorney for their claim.  Clients have brought me letters from attorneys. They have told me that they have been given a card at the accident scene and told to go see a certain chiropractor. That they went and something didn’t feel right.

As I told them, I will tell you this is simply not how it is done.  No attorney or chiropractor or any professional should be actively soliciting clients by making phone calls or knocking on doors or showing up at accident scenes.  This is unethical in the legal profession and I abhor the practice.  

Likewise, there are many good chiropractors that care about their patients and are interested in getting them well. I know several chiropractors that treat me. I trust them with my children.  

It is the same thing with the loan companies.  There are some bad ones out there that were described in the report. There are some that do not solicit clients. These loan companies do a service for an injured car accident victim that is hurt and unable to work by giving them a cash advance.  They charge a high interest rate and do so in a fair manner. They will negotiate claims and balances due in circumstances that warrant it. Sometimes they are the only avenue to keep an injured automobile accident victim in their home. I don’t like the interest rate, but it may be the only way out.

If you were contacted by one of these ambulance chasing runners, simply tell them that you are going to find your own attorney. Personal injury attorneys are mysterious to most people. What do they really do for a car accident victim? I have seen firsthand what happens when people don’t get proper representation.  As a victim of an auto accident in Kentucky you need to know what a personal injury attorney will do for you and how a good personal injury attorney can help your case.  Here is a link to a previous blog that I did “WhatDoes  a Personal Injury Attorney Do?”  

Don’t listen to these runners. Don’t fall in for the offer of fast cash.  It is not worth it and it is definitely not in your best interest.  I had a potential client in my office today that said he wanted to settle fast.  I told him I was not the attorney for him. That he needed to make sure as to what his injuries were. He needed to wait to get the proper treatment.  Once you settle a case it is over and you can never come back and reopen it again.  It is final.  Your injuries may not be final.  My guess is he was not hurt. I sent him on his way. I am sure he will find another attorney to represent him. Find the right attorney for you.  Know what you are looking for and be a well-informed consumer and don’t take advice and a referral from somebody at an accident scene. 

On the same day that there was an article in the Courier-Journal talking about the Kentucky Bar Association and their concern over lawyers using Facebook. Perhaps their efforts would be better served by concentrating on the problem with runners being paid to get cases for attorneys. It’s just a thought!

There are questions that Kentucky auto accident victims have concerning the damage done to their car in the automobile accident.

• “How is my car going to be repaired?”
• Who is going to pay to fix the car?”
• “Is my car totaled?”
• “Can I keep my car?” 

A Kentucky accident victim will have several options to get their car fixed or be reimbursed for the proerty damage. First, if the accident was not your fault, the first place to look is the at-fault party’s insurance company.  The insurance company of the person who caused the car accident will pay to have your car repaired. Usually an adjuster will be assigned to come out and examine your car. The adjuster will give you an estimate. You can then take your car to the body shop of your choice.  They will repair the car.  If the body shop discovers any hidden and additional damage they will deal directly with the insurance company to get authority to make those repairs.  If the body shop is on the insurance company’s list of preferred body shops, which most dealerships are, they will take care of it from there. You won’t have to worry about it.

If there is any dispute as to the liability in the case, that is whose fault the Kentucky automobile accident is. The at-fault insurance company may not be real eager to accept liability and pay for your car repairs. Generally, this investigation will entail interviewing the drivers of the cars involved in the accident and any other witnesses.  They will have to conduct this investigation before they decide whether or not they are even going to pay for your car repairs. 

In this situation you will want to look to your own collision insurance for payment of those repairs.  The disadvantage to this is you’ll have to pay for your deductible whether it’s $250.00, $500.00 or $1,000.00. This comes out of your pocket. You will have to wait to get that back from the at?fault insurance company if and when they accept liability. You may even have to go to court.  The benefit to this is you will get your car repaired much faster and your insurance company will take care of fighting about liability.

Whichever direction you go, make the call to the insurance company. Don’t wait for them to call you. This may not happen as quickly as you think it should. The insurance company could also total your car, but that discussion is for another day.

Don’t text while you’re driving.  This is the new buzzword.  You’re seeing it everywhere.  Distracted-driving conferences, new laws in Kentucky prohibiting texting while driving in the hopes of preventing serious automobile accidents.  I’ve seen it on the traffic displays as I’m driving in to work on I-71. I have seen billboards with text language “I dnt txt whl I m drvg”. It is everywhere.

I even heard it on the radio this morning as I was going in.  I was listening to the traffic report on WHAS Radio.  At the end of the announcement the announcer said “If you know of any delays or accidents please call or text to blah, blah, blah”.  Then he said something that surprised me; “But don’t text it while you’re driving.  Pull over to make the phone call or text.”

People are concerned about distracted driving.  It is the new hot topic in our society.  Is it really as bad as everybody is saying?  Oprah thinks so.  She’s had the message sent out to every school in the country.  We all know it but we all know people that do it.  We all know that it causes serious accidents especially me.  As a personal injury attorney in Kentucky I see it almost daily.  Somebody has been texting that has caused a car accident.  When you are looking at the phone you can’t look at the road.  Let’s get the word out.  Tell a friend. By just paying attention to the road lives can be saved and automobile accidents can be prevented. dnt txt & drv!

What does a personal injury attorney really do for you?  What do you get by hiring an attorney to represent you in your automobile or truck accident case in Kentucky?  There are hundreds of things I do for clients on a daily basis.  These range from basic filing and record collecting to interpretation and application of the law to the case at hand. I prepare clients to give statements. I obtain paperwork to send to the insurance company. I prepare forms. I am involved in negotiating settlements with the insurance adjuster.  I educate clients on the process involved in a personal injury case. I collect medical and employment records. The list goes on and on.

Let’s cut to the chase. What a personal injury attorney really does is take care of everything that happens behind the scenes so you can concentrate on what really matters in your case and that is getting well. You can go to the doctor and recover from your injuries. You don’t have to worry about dealing with the insurance adjuster. Your attorney is doing it for you.  While you are recovering your attorney is behind the scenes collecting information, doing the daily grunt work to get everything together to properly present your case to the insurance adjuster to maximize your potential settlement.  If the case is not able to b settled this ground work allows the case to be properly presented to a jury.

Many times you might be wondering what your personal injury attorney is really. Behind the scenes he is in the process of collecting and gathering information to properly present your accident claim.  So what a personal injury attorney really does is allow you the freedom to take care of your daily life to get better while he takes care of the technical aspects of your accident claim. This allows you to be fairly compensated for your injuries either through a settlement or through the litigation process. 

Here is what The Schafer Law Office will do for you if you are a Kentucky accident victim we represent:

• Educate them on the personal injury claims process and the litigation process.   
• Obtain all written records and documents that are needed to develop and support their claim. This includes, but is not limited to, medical records, the police report and employment records. 
• Conduct an investigation of the facts surrounding the accident. I will obtain witness statements, photographs, diagrams and other physical evidence. 
• Review your automobile insurance policy to determine what coverage is available to you to compensate you for your damages, like medical, hospital and wage loss benefits.  Additionally, uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage is looked at to see if they are applicable to your accident. 
• Review the medical records from your doctors and meet with them when necessary. This can be done in person or telephonically. 
• Retain experts and then obtain reports when needed to support your claim for damages and/or liability. 
• Analyze legal issues and advise on those issues as they arise in your case. 
• File the necessary forms with the at-fault insurance company and the clients own insurance company, including PIP applications. 
• Analyze your health insurance policy and/or governmental benefit plan (such as Medicare or Passport) to determine whether any money paid by that policy is required to be reimbursed. 
• Contact and maintain contact with the insurance company about your claim to help ensure adequate reserves are set aside for the potential settlement of your claim. 
• Conduct negotiations with the insurance adjuster in an attempt to settle your claim, before litigation.   
• When a lawsuit has to be filed, I will prepare and draft the Summons and Complaint to be filed in Court. 
• Confirm the address of the Defendant for personal service of the Summons and Complaint. 
• Draft written questions for information from the other side (called Interrogatories and Requests for Production of Documents). 
• I will help you respond to interrogatories sent by the defendant.                 
• I will prepare you for your deposition. 
• Prepare for and conduct the deposition of the Defendant and any other witnesses that are necessary. 
• Meet with your doctors to prepare for their deposition whether it is a defense deposition or their trial deposition. 
• Prepare and take the deposition of the Defendant’s experts, including medical experts. 
• Prepare you for a medical examination by the Defendant’s doctor, called an Independent medical Exam. 
• Review your medical records and billings. 
• Hire experts to support and prove your claim when necessary. These include other physicians, economists, engineers, vocational experts, etc. 
• Review and analyze expert reports about your case. 
• File all documents in Court as required by the Judge’s Trial Order, including witness lists, exhibit lists, trial memorandum, jury instructions, motions in limine, etc.   
• Meet with and prepare you and other witnesses for trial. 
• Create and prepare exhibits for trial. 
• Organize records and other documentary evidence intended to be introduced at trial. 
• Prepare for mediation when ordered by the Court or agreed to by the parties. 
• Research and write briefs and file motions with the Court when required.  
• Perform or participate in mock trials or focus groups to prepare for trial when deemed necessary. 
• Try the case before a judge or jury. 
• Write briefs or motions following the verdict to obtain post-trial relief, including motions for attorney fees, or to overturn the verdict. 
• Analyze the trial record to determine if an appeal is warranted (if the trial is a loss). 
• Research and write briefs and motions if appeal is filed. 
• Negotiate subrogation claims asserted by client’s insurance company or governmental agency that provided benefits to client.

“The other driver lied about what happened?”  I hear this statement from auto accident victims quite often. They have been in a Kentucky automobile accident and have been injured. They have gone to the police station and picked up an accident report. The accident report contains an unpleasant surprise. The police officer says that fault cannot be determined.   Both drivers have said that they had the green light.

What the accident victim is really asking is: “Can I still collect if the other driver is lying about how the accident happened?”  In these intersection cases, where both drivers say they had the green light (which the last time I checked it was impossible), how do you determine who caused the Kentucky car accident. 

If you had the green light and this happens to you, what are your options?  The first thing a personal injury attorney looks at is the police report. You want to make sure that the accident did occur. Is there any indicators or facts that indicate the other driver may have provided false information or lied? Is there an indication as to who the police officer believes? 

The next thing a personal injury attorney looks for is witnesses.  In this type of car accident case it is very important to have an independent witness, someone who has no relationship to you. This is extremely important and will control the outcome if the case goes to trial. 

The plaintiff or the accident victim brings the case to court and it is their burden of proof. The plaintiff must show that the other party caused the accident. Without an independent witness this is extremely difficult.  In a jury trial your testimony against the other party’s testimony is insufficient to win with certainty.  The next best witness is a passenger in the car that can confirms your version of how the car wreck happened. 

If there are no witnesses available, the final avenue is to check traffic signal patterns to see if they will confirm that you did have the green light on a particular cycle on this date.  This can be very difficult to obtain. 

The most important step a Kentucky car accident victim can take in intersection cases is to document everything you can at the scene of the accident.  Get the name and address and telephone number of every potential witness.  Take pictures of the vehicles in their actual position in the roadway.  If you do this, you have a fighting chance. 

Even if you can’t prove that the other driver caused the car accident you can still collect for your medical bills under your own car insurance policy. These No-Fault or PIP benefits are paid for treatment for injuries from the car wreck no matter whose fault it is. The real question is whether or not you can collect for pain and suffering.  To do this you need to act fast to have a fighting chance in an intersection accident case.