Fort Worth Injury Attorney Blog

Here are some ways to save money on your car and truck insurance:

1. Drive safely -- a good driving record reduces your premiums;

2. Grow older and get married (one good reason to do both);

3. Drive in smaller cities or out in the country;

4. Drive a mid size, standard car;

5. Drive as much as you can for personal reasons (not business);

6. Keep your credit score as high as possible;

7. Maintain your insurance, since you will be charged more if you let coverage lapse;

8. Take advantage of all available discounts, including defensive driving courses, driver education classes for young drivers and those with good grades, and multi-policy discounts (cover your cars and house with the same company);

9. Shop around for a cheaper policy. Useful rate information can be found here:

https://apps.tdi.state.tx.us/helpinspublic/Start.do?type=auto

10. If you are still paying too much, call your insurance agent or company, complain about the high cost of your coverage, and say you have to change carriers. I recently did that with Liberty Mutual and it agreed to reduce my payment by about 40%.

A new study shows that higher costs for parts, an increased number of larger trucks and SUVs on the road, and more insurance companies owning body shops are to blame for us Texans paying the fifth highest rate for collision insurance.

So largely thanks to the high cost of repairing wrecked cars and trucks, we now pay the 11th highest rate for automobile insurance in the country. We are already paying the highest rates for homeowners insurance.

Texas liability coverage -- which pays when you are at fault in causing a collision -- is the 20th highest among the states. Texas increased its minimum liability limits from $25,000 to $30,000 per person at the beginning of 2011, causing some of the rise in premiums. The study also blames the rapidly rising expense for medical treatment.and higher number of uninsured drivers.

Overall, Texas drivers paid an average premium of $1,022 a year for insurance, more than the national average of $901. If you lived in Louisiana, you'd pay $1,270.00, the highest in the U.S.

Insurance companies build the cost of your hiring an attorney into the money they pay out in claims, as they do not want an aggresssive lawyer to sue them. And filing a claim or suit will not make your own insurance rates go up -- a common worry among my clients. If you have any questions about whether you should proceed against an automobile liability carrier if you have been injured in an automobile or truck accident, please call me at 817-885-8000.

Continue reading "Why Has Texas Auto Insurance Increased? (Hint: It Is Not Due To Claims Or Suits)" »

Yesterday the Texas Transportation Commisision raised the speed limit from 70 to 75 on nine of our interstates as soon as new signs are posted.

About 1,500 miles of interstates will be a little faster to drive on, with the longest stretch of 310 miles on Interstate 20 starting west of Fort Worth and going out to far West Texas. Here is the map of the affected highways:

Other long stretches of highways are I-30 in East Texas, I-10 between San Antonio and Houston, and I-45 between Dallas and Houston.

As a personal injury lawyer specializing in auto and truck collisions, I have to wonder if increasing these speed limits will increase the number and severity of crashes .

After all, in 2010, there were 104,000 car crashes causes by speeding or failing to control speed. There were also 78,000 caused by driver inattention. Often both factors were listed on police report.

How many wrecks happened here? In 2010 there were 123 serious car crashes in Tarrant County, which led to 134 fatalities. And there were almost 1,000 accidents that led to injury codes on the police reports of either an A or B, the two most serious ones.

The total number of crashes was about 23,000 traffic accidents in Tarrant county.
That's 63 a day - on our slower roads.

The Cowtown Kids 5K was just named the best Youth Running Event of the Year in the U.S.!

My heartiest congratulations go out to Heidi Swartz, executive director of The Cowtown, and her staff for working so hard to put on this race, as well as providing training programs, nutritional education, and financial assistance our area students.

The Cowtown CALF (Children's Activities for Life and Fitness) Council helps coordinate these programs. Last year, CALF helped distribute more than 600 monetary grants and 550 pairs of shoes to the Kids 5K participants. This year, more than 1,600 financial grants will be given to our local school children.

"For some of these kids, this is their very first pair of new shoes," Ms. Swartz said in the announcement.

As a member of the CALF Council, I will be going to schools in the next few weeks to help fit children in their new running shoes and encourage them to run in the 5K - and to keep on running. Any child who is already out there running is bound to excel.

I am representing a young woman and her brother who were injured when a drunk driver, going the wrong-direction on Interstate 35 near Alvarado, crashed into their car head-on at over 70 miles per hour. The car was destroyed.

The young woman, a college student, required surgery to repair her broken ankle and sustained other injuries, including head trauma. Her brother was fortunately not hurt as badly. It is a blessing that they were not killed or more seriously injured.

I sent my investigator to photograph her injuries. I investigated the case and quickly submitted photographs and medical bills and records to the Defendant's high risk insurance company. Even with these facts, the adjuster tried to delay paying on the claim, requesting unnecessary extra documentation. I got on the phone and screamed at him and his claims manager, then sent the company a copy of the lawsuit I was about to file. The claims manager finally agreed to pay the full policy limits of the defendant's policy without further expense or delay to my client.

In more good news, I forced my client's family's insurance company to pay the full policy limits because it could not prove that he had officially rejected Underinsured Motorists coverage in writing. Even though it had not paid for this coverage, I got $30,000.00 more for this wonderful family.

My clients were obviously very pleased with the results of their case.

Many of my clients with health insurance ask me if they will need to reimburse their health insurance carrier for medical bills it pays. The answer is, sometimes, and that the rules vary by plan. Each case is different.

One of the big factors in determining if and how much needs to be repaid is whether the plan is a so-called "ERISA" plan. As you can see, the rules and laws about ERISA plans are themselves very complicated. If you've been involved in a wreck, call my office to discuss your case. I will take the time to meet with you and explain the specifics of your case, including the effect health insurance will have.

What is an ERISA plan?

The terms employee welfare benefit plan and welfare plan mean any plan, fund, or program which was...established or maintained by an employer or by an employee organization...to the extent that such plan, fund, or program was established...for the purpose of providing for its participants or their beneficiaries, through the purchase of insurance or otherwise, (A) medical, surgical, or hospital care or benefits, or benefits in the event of sickness, accident, disability, death or unemployment, or vacation benefits, apprenticeship or other training programs, or day care centers, scholarship funds, or prepaid legal services, or (B) any benefit described in section 186(c) [holiday benefits, among others] of this title (other than pensions on retirement or death, and insurance to provide such pensions).

Continue reading "ERISA Plans and Subrogation: What Does This Mean?" »