Maryland Auto Accident Lawyer Blog

Who is Gallagher Bassett?

By Ronald V. Miller, Jr on December 6, 2011 1:27 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Gallagher Bassett is an international company with over 4,000 employees and over 100 offices. Yet, when an accident victim gets a call from Gallagher Bassett after a car accident, their first question is often, "Who is Gallagher Bassett and why are they call me?" For such a big company, they keep a low profile.

Gallagher Bassett is a outside risk manager. In other words, they are claims adjusters for companies and smaller insurance companies who do not have their own adjusters.

Our Maryland auto accident lawyers have settled a number of cases with Gallagher Bassett. But they are not an easy company to deal with in accident claims. We take a look at the Gallagher Bassett and dealing with them in Maryland accident cases here.

Tracking Down Witnesses and Defendants

By Ronald V. Miller, Jr on November 28, 2011 3:26 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

The Maryland Accident Lawyer has a blog post on locating witnesses and defendants in one place they may be hiding: jail.

Wrongful Death Award in Cab Case

By Ronald V. Miller, Jr on October 4, 2011 5:00 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

A North Carolina jury awarded $1.5 million in a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of a pedestrian hit by a cab. Before his death, the man suffered brain damage that ultimately killed him eight months after the accident. The pedestrian victim was blind - thankfully, there were witnesses to the accident which helped avoid a miscarriage of justice.

One big problem with cab accident lawsuits in Maryland is the taxi cabs are typically insured for only $20,000 in coverage, an amount below the minimum limits. How do cab companies get away with having less than the minimum insurance? They use MAIF which is a Maryland state government operated insurance company that slipped by the legislature when they increased the minimum limits. Hopefully, this gets fixed in the next legislative session.

Verdicts and Settlements for Rear End Truck Accidents

By Ronald V. Miller, Jr on October 3, 2011 1:50 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

A Jury Verdict Research study found that the median award in rear-end truck accident cases is $93,909. Remarkably, plaintiffs recover damages in only 63 percent of truck accident cases that go to verdict. That study is based on verdicts rendered throughout the United States from 1997 to 2007. While these statistics are a little bit dated, I think they fairly reflect the median value.

This is the median not the average truck accident verdict. Clearly, the average truck accident verdict would be substantially higher because a full twelve percent of the verdicts in rear end truck accident cases are over $1 million.

Spoliation in Truck Accident: Most Commonly Cited Case

By Ronald V. Miller, Jr on October 3, 2011 11:14 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

I have written and read a good bit about spoliation in truck accident cases. A common case cited nationally in truck accident spoliation cases is J.B. Hunt Transp. Inc. v. Bentley, 207 Ga. App. 250, 427 S.E.2d 499 (1992). In this truck accident case, the defendant trucking company did what many trucking companies do after an accident: destroy the logbook. There was no conspiracy: this was a destruction in the normal course of business. Plaintiff's truck accident lawyer filed a lawsuit alleging that the accident was caused because of driver fatigue.

Plaintiff's lawyers screamed that the defendant should have - given the notice of a potential claim - preserved the trucking logs. The trial court agreed, telling the jury that they should presume that the trucking logbook would have shown that the driver did not have sufficient rest.

The court relied I'm sure in no small part on the fact that the trucking company was clearly a bad seed. It was a "habitual violator" of the hours-in-service requirements of the Georgia Public Service Commission for its vehicles. One-third of the company's logbook violations which were penalized were because of driver excessive driving. Incredibly, and this is over-the-top even for poorly run trucking companies, it operated a "forced dispatch" system, under which drivers could be terminated for not driving a load upon demand.

That said, destruction of trucking logs after an accident is common, even when the company knows that a potential claim may follow. Good truck accident lawyers use this lack of evidence to their advantage and seek an instruction that the destroyed evidence would have helped plaintiff's case.

Settlement with State Farm

By Ronald V. Miller, Jr on July 11, 2011 9:57 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

State Farm is a tough insurance company if you are trying to settle a car accident case. We have a little magazine type thing called the Metro Verdicts Monthly which provides interesting summaries of personal injury cases that go to trial in Maryland. The majority of cases that go to trial are auto and truck accident cases. I have never gone back and done the math but I suspect that almost half of the auto accident cases that go to trial in Maryland are with State Farm as the defendant.

Like the way this blog takes a backseat to the Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog, we have a website called Maryland Auto Accident that we have tried to put more into but it keeps getting set aside for the Miller & Zois site. In any event, I have written what I think is a pretty detailed analysis of handling claims with State Farm on that site that you can find here.

GEICO Claims Central

By Ronald V. Miller, Jr on July 8, 2011 2:33 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

I have written a lot in recent years about dealing with GEICO in Maryland accident cases. Here, I've set up a "GEICO Claims Central" with lots of information and analysis for lawyers handling car accident claims with GEICO.

Getting 911 Tapes in Baltimore City

By Ronald V. Miller, Jr on April 20, 2011 11:39 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Evidence of a 911 call can be a game changer in a Maryland car accident case. First, the fact alone that a call was made can be important in some cases. But, more significantly, the defendant often makes the call and says thing in the heat of the moment that he/she may later recant. In Baltimore City, you can get a 911 call by sending a fax to 410-984-7024. Their address is:

Information Retrieval Unit

242 West 29th Street

Baltimore, Maryland 21211

In a related/unrelated story, The American Journal of Emergency Medicine published an article on Baltimore City 911 calls, finding that a new strategy helped slow repeated unnecessary 911 calls, which drain manpower and resources of the City's emergency medical services. A pilot program that identified Baltimore City's top 911 callers and coupled them with a case worker has succeeded in drastically cutting the number of such calls while helping callers get proper care.

Moral of the story: by continuing to try, we can find better solutions to Baltimore's most vexing problems.

Social Security Liens in Accident Cases

By Ronald V. Miller, Jr on April 13, 2011 3:19 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Social Security liens seems to be a difficult beast to beast for Maryland car accident lawyers to get their mind around. They can be tricky and you can't screw it up: the client's rights to benefits are at risk.

A starting point is the Social Security Release of Information form, which if completed and sent in, SSA will provide the types and amounts of benefits the client receives, which will make identifying potential lien holders easier. Here is a link to the form.

This is one Social Security subrogation lien fact that I think a lot of accident lawyers do not fully appreciate in wrongful death cases: there is no right of subrogation from Social Security for survivor's benefits.

Car Accident Settlement Calculator

By Ronald V. Miller, Jr on March 14, 2011 4:41 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Laura Zois writes on the Maryland Accident Lawyer Blog about the search for the elusive car accident settlement calculator. Sneak preview: there is a formula but no calculator.

Maryland Auto Accident Lawyer Blog

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