The Greenville News was reporting that a fatal accident occurred between Ms. Kay Werts of 738 S. Old Fairview Road and a teenage driver this morning on Fairview Road in Greenville County. 

You never know when a freak accident can occur. Please make sure you have your loved ones, friends, and even your enemies taken care of in times of need. It starts with:

  1. Full Coverage Automobile Insurance;
  2. Personal Injury Protection (P.I.P)/ Medical Payments;
  3. Handling Your Property Damage Correctly; and
  4. Avoiding Allstate Insurance Company Because They Suck

If you or your loved one has been injured in an accident, or as a result of another person’s ignorance, negligence, or omission, please feel free to call upon me at 864-231-7171 or toll free at 1-800-483-0880.

Many media outlets and bloggers are reporting that punitive damages awarded in the Williams vs. Philip Morris saga will remain at their 100-1 ratio of actual, or compensatory, damages. 

This is great news for:

  • plaintiffs that are brave enough to take on these huge corporations;
  • wait for their day in court, sometimes years; and
  • then have vindication from a group of their peers (jury) as to what they believe the case to be worth.

I think it is important to understand that these "Big Verdicts" or "Runaway Juries" , as described by biased media outlets, come from:

  • a group of people from the community;
  • that sit and listen to both sides for however long it takes; and
  • then make their decision based upon all the information they are presented. 

This case went to the highest court in the United States, three (3) times, after already having been deemed just by the Oregon State Court.  That is what big business can buy you. However, this decision helps alleviate any concerns that justice can be bought and paid for, too.

Thanks to Eric Turkewitz of New York Personal Injury Law Blog for such an in depth analysis of punitive damages and this case.

 

 

     

    Embracing the recent Spring like days with open arms, I awoke on Wednesday, March 25, 2009, to a light rain, dark clouds, and cold weather.  Nothing outside the normal as we had still not approached the 85-95 degree days of a “Southern Summer” but we had enjoyed a teaser of warm temperatures. 

    I had a mediation scheduled in town, conveniently located less than a mile from my home on the West End of Greenville.  As I was presenting the mediation a bustle of sirens and activity seemed to provide both an ominous future for my presentation and someone’s well being.  It wasn’t until the completion of a very short, yet required mediation, that I learned the sirens rushed to less than a block from my home.  Having planned to be in mediation all day it was hard to transition back into traveling to Anderson for work with all the activity going on around the house. I planned to finish my work day out from my home office. 

    Little did I know my home office was going to be near a recent crime scene. The city block on Vardry Street between Green Avenue and Anderson Avenue was blocked off with yellow crime scene tape and the foot traffic was ever more increased (see photo above).  The conditions remained cold, rainy, and dreary.  However, few details were being offered by the young, Greenville City Police officer standing post on the Green Avenue block near the crime scene tape.

    The Greenville News would provide a report late in the day indicated that several people were behind a home on Vardry when one of the persons started shooting.  One person was killed, another injured, and another that fled from the altercation.

    In the snap of someone’s fingers the lives for all these people changed today. I wonder if they had come to grips with who they were, what their purpose was in life, and made it clear to everyone they loved how much they cared for them?

    Probably not. More than likely, they were spending idle time doing unproductive things with unproductive people expecting positive results out of negative input.  How will the cycle change if someone is constantly going around in those circles? 

 

 

Premises liability is often times referred to as "slip and fall" law. A general overview of South Carolina premises liability indicates that:

  • To establish negligence in a premises liability action, a plaintiff must prove the following three elements: (1) a duty of care owed by defendant to plaintiff; (2) defendant’s breach of that duty by a negligent act or omission; and (3) damage proximately resulting from the breach of duty. See Hurst v. East Coast Hockey League, Inc., 371 S.C. 33, 37, 637 S.E.2d 560, 562 (2006). (emphasis added);
  • If you can’t demonstrate how the defendant owed a duty of care to the plaintiff then the defendant can move for what is called "summary judgment" and you will not even have your case heard by a jury but thrown out of court. Singleton v. Sherer, 377 S.C. 185, 200, 659 S.E.2d 196 (Ct.App. 2008). See also Hopson v. Clary, 321 S.C. 312, 314, 468 S.E.2d 305, 307 (Ct.App. 1996);
  • The nature and scope of duty in a premises liability action, if any, is determined based upon the status or classification of the person injured at the time of his or her injury. Singleton v. Sherer, 377 S.C. 185, 200, 659 S.E.2d 196 (Ct.App. 2008). See also Sims v. Giles, 343 S.C. 708, 715, 541 S.E.2d 857, 861 (Ct.App.2001);
  • South Carolina recognizes four general classifications of persons present on the property of another: adult trespassers, invitees, licensees, and children. Different standards of care apply depending upon the classification of the person present. Singleton v. Sherer, 377 S.C. 185, 200, 659 S.E.2d 196 (Ct.App. 2008). See also Larimore v. Carolina Power & Light, 340 S.C. 438, 444, 531 S.E.2d 535, 538 (Ct.App. 2000) ("The level of care owed is dependent upon the class of the person present.")

Understand premises liability in South Carolina now? I didn’t think so. I haven’t even had a chance to detail out the law on each one of the above mentioned categories of persons present on the property of another: (1) invitee (2) licensee (3) adult trespasser (4) child.

I didn’t have a chance to mention "Assumption of the Risk" and "Open and Obvious" defenses the defendant’s attorneys often times raise in an effort to downplay their client’s negligence. 

Remember what makes these cases harder than the most common personal injury cases:

  • No highway patrolman or police officer shows up to the scene and listens to both sides and determines that one side is more at fault than the other;
  • No person usually admits guilt; 
  • There are usually no witnesses to the "slip and fall", and
  • There is usually no camera or surveillance footage available, contrary to those black bubbles you may see or thoughts that there should be a camera available.

Do some work to assist your attorney in helping you with these cases by:

  1. taking any pictures of the area in question to better illustrate the negligent condition of the property;
  2. getting a copy of any incident report filled out by the landowner or their agents, servants, and/or employees;
  3. write down names and contact numbers for any witnesses that may have seen the slip and fall or come to your aid; and
  4. if you are aware of any negligent conditions on someone’s property notify them in writing with certified mail and share your concerns with them.


 

There was an interesting article put out by the Associated Press in the Sunday edition of the Greenville News, entitled "Deaths Leave Online Friends in Limbo".

The article discussed the importance of having a contingency plan for those passwords, secrets, and other bits of extremely important information that you have stored inside your memory, or head. 

As stated in the article:

 

David Eagleman, a neuroscientist at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, has had plenty of time to think about the issue.

"I work in the world’s largest medical center, and what you see here every day is people showing up in ambulances who didn’t expect that just five minutes earlier," he said. "If you suddenly die or go into a coma, there can be a lot of things that are only in your head in terms of where things are stored, where your passwords are."

He set up a site called Deathswitch, where people can set up e-mails that will be sent out automatically if they don’t check in at intervals they specify, like once a week. For $20 per year, members can create up to 30 e-mails with attachments like video files.

Regardless of what method you use, given this technological era the majority of us have entered into with online banking, emailing, blogging, and other types of social media, a contingency plan is needed. 

Please provide your loved ones, family, and/or friends with an idea of where they might can find information that will better assist them in closing down your estate. I know it is a morbid thought but:

Nothing is certain but death and taxes.

 

 

A brief introduction as previously reported by Paul Kiel for ProPublica:

As we’ve noted before [1], the main cause of AIG’s collapse was its credit-default swap portfolio. The swaps were essentially insurance contracts on securities, and for a fee, AIG guaranteed the security’s value. The problem: If the prices of the securities collapsed, AIG was on the hook. Because the portions of the securities that AIG guaranteed were judged to be almost risk free, not much thought [2] seems to have been given to that scenario.

There has been much said over our current economic recession, current administration’s handling of the previous administration’s hand, and the ever growing number of "bailout" and/or TARP money being apportioned out.

AIG has gone to the taxpayer well FOUR (4) times already for nearly $170 BILLION DOLLARS! Yet, as Brady Dennis of "The Washington Post" reports: AIG Warned of ‘Catastrophic’ Failure if they did not receive additional funding.

The collapse, for instance, would strain the global insurance industry, hurt the value of the dollar and damage money-market funds, AIG warned. The company’s failure, it added, would also erase taxpayers’ existing investment in the firm and foster "doubts about the ability of the U.S. to support its banking system."

What the hell kind of mess do they think we are already in? Let them die. AIG mocks our government and spits in their face while we hand over more lunch money. As Josh Marshall of  Talking Points Memo reports on the more than $100 million in employee bonuses that AIG will payout:

First, lest there be any confusion, we’re not talking about bonuses for executives at the conventional insurance providing divisions of AIG. We’re talking about $100 million in bonuses for executives at the company’s Financial Products division, the shop in London that wrote almost half a trillion dollars of credit default swaps (in effect, unfunded de facto insurance policies on wildly overvalued assets) — the ones that caused the company’s death spiral and put taxpayers on the line for what will likely eventually be a quarter trillion dollar price tag.

Again, look at the numbers. ProPublica has put together a chart of previous government bailouts ("History of U.S. Gov’t Bailouts") and then another chart indicating how the Treasury was impacted ("What Happens After a U.S. Gov’t Bailout") by the returns of their investments or LACK THEREOF.

Stop the bleeding. Take the Economy off the resuscitator and let us conceive another beginning. Hasn’t there been enough political fighting, corporate greed, private vs public debate of superiority, and lack of consequences for poor decisions that have impacted millions of people and billions of dollars?

These corporations that are getting bailouts have not kept any type of social interest or thought twice about the overall impact their risky behaviors would have on the common person. Why then is the common person taking the beating for their arrogant follies and injustices?

Other AIG related stories and references:

  1. The New York Times: A.I.G., Where Taxpayers’ Dollars Go to Die
  2. Fortune: Revealed: 15 AIG Bailout Counterparties
  3. Los Angeles Times: Why the World’s Biggest Insurance Company is Still Getting Taxpayer Funds

 

Cartoon by Robert Ariail of "The State"  back in 2008 during the first round of taxpayer beatings.

Recently two things happened that made me realize I should help highlight this point for my fellow South Carolinians.

  1. A horrible head on collision in Anderson County where deaths were reported; and
  2. Georgia attorney, Ken Shigley’s, blog post entitled "What to Do When Legal Vultures Descend on You After a Tragic Accident"

In Mr. Shigley’s article he highlights the pertinent parts of the Georiga Rules of Professional Conduct that are very similar in South Carolina.  The most important thing to remember is that, as attorneys, we can not contact you or have someone (investigator, life planner, "fill in whatever foo foo bullshit title") contact you on our behalf after you or a family member has been in an accident. 

There are stories about the Graniteville train accident, where out-of-town law firms had "runners" working cover as Red Cross workers to get clients. That’s wrong! (It was said, "All you had to do was look at the airplanes parked at the small community airport to tell something was up.") 

Last year, I personally had a local attorney solicit a client away from me and I reported them for their bullshit, selfish, arrogant, and unethical act. They had an investigator waiting on my client when she got home that informed her that he had been working on her case and had an attorney that had also already been working on her case. (They didn’t anticipate her coming to a law firm prior to them getting to her.)  That attorney came to her house, signed her up, and said they would take care of the "other attorney", aka ME! 

I expressed it with comedy in my rewriting of "I Already Got an Attorney?" but it really pissed me off. I just could not handle getting in another fist fight and having my name in the paper, so I put it on my blog.

 

Rule 7.3 Direct Contact with Prospective Clients

(a) A lawyer shall not by in-person, live telephone or real-time electronic contact solicit professional employment from a prospective client when a significant motive for the lawyer’s doing so is the lawyer’s pecuniary gain, unless the person contacted:

(1) is a lawyer; or

(2) has a family, close personal, or prior professional relationship with the lawyer.

(b) A lawyer shall not solicit professional employment from a prospective client by direct written, recorded or electronic communication or by in-person, telephone, telegraph, facsimile or realtime electronic contact even when not otherwise prohibited by paragraph (a), if:

(1) the prospective client has made known to the lawyer a desire not to be solicited by the lawyer;

(2) the solicitation involves coercion, duress, harassment, fraud, overreaching, intimidation or undue influence;

(3) the solicitation concerns an action for personal injury or wrongful death or otherwise relates to an accident or disaster involving the person solicited or a relative of that person unless the accident or disaster occurred more than thirty (30) days prior to the solicitation;

(4) the solicitation concerns a specific matter and the lawyer knows, or reasonably should know, that the person solicited is represented by a lawyer in the matter; or

(5) the lawyer knows, or reasonably should know, that the physical, emotional, or mental state of the person makes it unlikely that the person would exercise reasonable judgment in employing a lawyer.

 

My question to every single one of you out there is, "What service do you pay for all your life but get penalized for using?"  If your guess was INSURANCE ding, ding, ding, you win.

I’m sick and tired of people coming into my office shocked and dismayed that their insurance company would "drop" them or significantly raise their premiums if they were to ever have a claim on their insurance.  Wikipedia explains the way in which insurance companies make money as:

Profit = earned premium + investment income – incurred loss – underwriting expenses.

Insurers make money in two ways: (1) through underwriting, the process by which insurers select the risks to insure and decide how much in premiums to charge for accepting those risks and (2) by investing the premiums they collect from insured parties.

I have heard this comment,

"I’ve never had a problem with my insurance company and I have had them for 25 years!"

Well how many times have you had a claim against them or have you just paid your premium every six months for the past 25 years and watched them collect on that premium?

Insurance is a much needed service but don’t go armed with a knife to a gunfight when dealing with them. Hire an attorney. You wouldn’t call a plumber to fix your car. Why trust an insurance adjuster that is paid to make money for their employer?

"Insurance ain’t nothing but a tax you have to live with. Cause you can’t get anything without it and it won’t pay you back." –Client

I apologize to those devout readers that were obviously starved for new blog entries. Or should I just say devout reader, Austin Watts.  Another friend of mine, Michael Dixon, and I most recently traveled to Cancun, Mexico for a long weekend of R&R. I thought I would come back with inspiration but I just came back with a bronze, to red, tan, and still hear waves crashing in my head.

Come with me to a little place they call Mexico……

 

On February 24, 2009, I participated in a mediation of a case on behalf of my clients, Everett and Virginia Heard, against Electrolux Home Products. During the seven or more hours that Everett and I spent together (Mrs. Heard was at home sick), I learned a great deal about his past careers and adventures. 

Fortunately/unfortunately, depending on how you approach the issue, there can be some down time in a mediation, a form of Alternative Dispute Resolution.  Everett and I took that opportunity to talk about women, love, life, the pursuit of happiness, my recent break up, Hong Kong, and Hawaii. I decided to try and memorialize some our bigger discussions in a question and answer format.

 What did you find to be the most interesting point with the mediation process? 

Everett Heard*: Patience. I would have given them a price of take it or leave it and I am out of here. So patience.

What have you found to be the must frustrating?

For me, all the stuff that they (Defendant’s attorneys) said was true but it wasn’t my fault. I had just forgotten some of the details. (Considering the incident occurred so long after the deposition was taken).

What would you tell someone that was about to start this process? 

If I came to you with this problem. I would have had to have my facts better. I didn’t have the facts there and that is what killed our case.  Make sure what you say is what is on record. (Or can be documented).

With life in general, what is something you would like to pass on to others?

Live your life. Bible says that, “You are not guaranteed another day.” (James 4 v 13-15 & Psalm 90)  Live your life as if each day was your last. If you want to go somewhere, go. You want to love someone, love them.  If you want a new car, buy the thing. Worry about the payments as they come.  Wait on love, it will come to you. You don’t have to go to it.  Wait to have children when you are both ready and ensure that love is there.

Always show affection to the woman you love, even if it is just a telephone call.  You can never tell someone you love them too many times.  A bouquet of flowers, box of candy.

I would give the world to be you. Successful. Handsome dude. With your whole life ahead of you. (I’m just writing down what he said).

 

 

 

 

*Mr. Everett Heard currently resides with his wife, Virginia, in Georgia.  Mr. Heard has served his country in the Navy, worked as a salesman in varying service related industries, has driven tractor trailers, and been tested and tried with a lot of what 60+ years of life can throw at someone, including but not limited to the death of his first wife in a motor vehicle accident & the recent death of his daughter. Please keep the Heard family in your prayers.