Fort Worth Injury Attorney Blog

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram ran two Associated Press articles yesterday reporting that Memorial Day weekend was marred by a large number of fatal car crashes throughout the country.

Locally, a Conroe high school athlete died after an alleged high-speed race.

The Associated Press reports
CONROE, Texas -- A high school football player has died in a car wreck less than a week before graduation.

Police say 17-year-old Jordan Wilson was a passenger in a car that was traveling more than 100 mph Sunday when it crashed on the shoulder of a dark, curving road.

Conroe police Lt. Robert Yetter says the car was racing at least one other vehicle when the driver lost control and slammed into a tree.

Wilson was recently accepted into the U.S. Air Force Academy and was named most valuable player by the coaches in his district.

Yetter said in Monday's Houston Chronicle charges are pending against the 18-year-old driver of the vehicle, who was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.
originally posted by the Star Telegram here.

Around the country, many other fatal accidents occurred over the weekend as the Associated Press reported.

KEYESPORT, Ill. -- Two vehicles collided on an Illinois highway on Sunday, killing four people and injuring five others in one of several fatal crashes nationwide during the Memorial Day weekend.

Clinton County Sheriff Mike Kreke said a Cadillac sport utility vehicle collided with a Pontiac west of Keyesport, about 50 miles east of St. Louis, just after midnight Saturday.

Bond County Coroner Tony Brooks said three of the victims were pronounced dead at the scene. They had been ejected from their vehicles and died of blunt trauma.

Toxicology tests have been performed, but the results were not immediately available.

In Minnesota, crashes over the weekend killed at least 11 people, making it the deadliest Memorial Day weekend in the state in recent memory.

Among those killed were four people in a minivan that police said was broadsided by a pickup truck Saturday night in Olmsted County in southeastern Minnesota. Two others in the minivan were critically injured, including a 2-year-old boy.

The State Patrol said alcohol was detected on the driver of the pickup truck, who was not injured.

In North Carolina, a fifth person injured in a three-vehicle crash on Friday died in a hospital a day later. State police said a minivan driven by a New York man was heading south on Interstate 77 Friday morning when it crossed the median and struck a car and a pickup truck.

The minivan's driver died, along with his wife and two children. Three other children in the minivan survived. The driver of the pickup truck died Saturday morning. His wife was critically injured, while the driver of the third car was treated and released.

In Connecticut, a man was charged with drunken driving after his pickup truck collided with a car carrying four people, killing a man and woman in their 20s, Watertown police said.

In Arkansas, two people died when their sport utility vehicle overturned Sunday in heavy rain about 10 miles northeast of Jonesboro, Craighead County dispatchers said.

original article available here.

Labels: From The Web

The Dallas Morning news ran an article on Friday about three more bills in the Texas Legislature worth mentioning here. I hope this blog will help you save money by alerting you of fines that may affect your lives as well as give you information about what to do if you have a wreck.

The first bill is a statewide ban on cell phones while driving in active school zones. The law is officially meant to protect children from distracted drivers, but if the 700 $25 tickets written in Highland Park during the past two years are any indication, there's a financial gain to be had as well.

Second, seat belts would be required for all backseat drivers under a new law "speeding through the Legislature." Currently, only front seat and rear passengers under 14 are required to wear safety belts. Opponents complain that we are getting closer to a "nanny state" with laws like these and people should buckle up without having to be told by the government. It's a reasonable argument, but too many people, including many of my clients, do not wear safety belts and are severely injured as a result. I don't like getting tickets any more than the next guy, but I also don't want to see people getting hurt when a seat belt would have protected them.

Finally, the booster seat lobby is apparently stronger than anyone thought possible. A proposed law would require all children under the age of 7 and height less than 4'9" to ride in a booster seat. This one seems to be going a bit too far. I feel sorry for any 4'8" 6-year-olds who's friends seem see him getting put into a car seat. The upside though is that if the bill passes, the fine for not using a booster seat would drop from $200 to $25, the revenue from which is supposed to help pay for seats for families who can't afford them.

The original article is available here
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/state/stories/051509dntexdriverbills.420c085.html

June 1 is the last day of the 81st regular Texas Congress session. Here's a look at a few bills that affect the world of automobile accident cases.

SB747 - would require hospitals to send notices to patient before filing any lien. The bill was voted out of committee and passed by the Senate. It was referred to the House and voted out of committee on May 5.

Before settling cases, we do a computer check of any outstanding liens that may attach to the settlement. We do periodic checks to see if hospitals have filed liens, but since hospitals sometimes wait several months before filing, we sometimes get to within days of settlement before we find out that a lien was filed. This bill requires the hospital to alert the patient before filing a lien. This would help attorneys by reducing the number of 'surprise' liens that we don't know about until we are close to settlement.

HB4251, which would require a hospital to go after health insurance before filing a lien against a patient, is still languishing in committee.

One of the more annoying issues we face is hospitals who refuse to file on a client's health insurance after finding out that they were involved in an automobile accident. As the law stands, they can refuse to file on health insurance (requiring them to accept a reduced payment) or they can file a lien on the file hoping to receive full payment upon settlement. Obviously we want insurance to reduce and pay the bills to make settlement easier and get larger amounts of money for our clients.

HB4095 Eiland - would codify the made whole doctrine and common fund doctrine regarding subrogation on insured's recovery from a third party. This bill is in response to the Texas Supreme Court in Fortis v. Cantu. The bill was altered in committee, voted out of committee, and a report was sent to calendars on May 5. Full text available here

I'm hesitant to support any bill that guarantees health insurers' subrogation interests, but this one has a few interesting subsections.
(b) The health benefit plan issuer may not pursue a right of subrogation against a covered individual's first party coverage.
The restriction that subrogation attaching only to third-party claims would be a huge win for plaintiffs. Since you are the one paying for the Uninsured Motorist(UM)/Underinsured Motorist(UIM) coverage, it has always seemed unfair that health insurance can come in and take your settlement.

I just settled a case with a $20,000 third-party limits claim and a $100,000 UIM limits claim where reducing the amount of the $45,000+ subrogation lien was nearly impossible because of the UIM. If this bill had been in effect, only the 3rd party claim would be subrogatable, netting my client an extra $25,000 or more.