Keeping my focus on informing, educating, honoring and memorializing the injured victims of South Carolina and their families, I would be remiss if I did not mention the drumming the University of South Carolina received from its upstate rival.

If you are from this great state of South Carolina or currently reside in this state and share a love for college football, you understand that there were injuries handed out yesterday in Death Valley at Clemson University. Fortunately, I was not called in to action for any on the field but if you are aware of any injuries off the field that may require my services, please keep reading my blog and contact me at your earliest convenience.

The Battle of the Palmetto State is the annual Clemson vs. South Carolina football game, replete with:

 

The State  newspaper in Columbia,SC reported on the third year in a row motorcycle deaths have topped 100 in the state.  Inexperience with driving motorcycles and lack of proper safety equipment was cited as substantial contributing factors, stating:

South Carolina has no mandatory helmet law for bikers 21 and over, and 78 percent of the 120 motorcycle riders killed in South Carolina last year weren’t wearing head protection.

As an attorney, the majority of motorcycle cases I have handled were significant in the extent of injuries, permanent scarring and disfigurement to my clients.  As most seasoned motorcyclists will tell you, its not their driving that worries them, it is the negligent driving of others.

Any time you participate in something that you find enjoyment but shares a large amount of risk, understanding and insuring yourself against those risks will go along way in helping you and those that love you, get through a hard time.  Make sure you have "Full Coverage", Life Insurance for your family, and Comprehensive or Collision for the bike you have invested so much in.  Join a motorcycle club or group specific to your wants and desires then lobby your way to the Statehouse to get what you want.

Yes, I did.  My grandmother, Becky French, had a heart attack several months ago and I promised I would bring her up to Greenville to see my house and where I work.  I had not made good on that promise yet and she reminded me every time we talked.

However being a third year lawyer,  I still needed to work. Although the Trammell Law Firm, P.A., is not officially one of the over 100 companies on the Parenting in the Workplace Institute’s list that allows babies in the workplace, I felt they would be flexible with a more mature adult.

What I learned from bringing my grandmother to work:

  1. Don’t say it, if you don’t want others to hear it- She started off in my office and when I reminded her about confidentiality, she responded that she had not heard a thing my paralegal and I were talking about.  A few minutes later, she inquired how someone could get hurt the way the lady said she got hurt, as told to me by my paralegal.
  2. I am blessed to have an office job- My grandmother worked at Oakland Mill for 22 years and 13 years in a sewing room.  The fact that I sit in a temperature controlled room, in a comfortable chair, and strain my brain and not my brawn was amazing to her. She also found it a little boring.
  3. Live each day like it is your last (in a good way)- Steve Jobs’ commencement speech to Stanford in 2005 had that quote, along with a lot of other interesting points. I spend hours on end talking with complete strangers about the most intimate and traumatic moments of their lives. I need to make sure I take advantage of the time I have with loved ones.
  4. Pride comes before the fall–As I took my grandmother home, I felt a wave of arrogance for being the first attorney in the family. Then I asked her how her day at my office was and she replied, "I enjoyed being a banker for today." 
  5. Nobody loves you like your family
  6. I need to go to a good church, get married because I am getting too old, provide great grandchildren, clean my house, plant more flowers in my yard…………..

"You don’t need a holiday to celebrate every day". — Trey Mills

The Highway Loss Data Institute reported:

November is the peak month for vehicle-deer collisions, and a new analysis of insurance claims and federal crash data indicate the problem is growing. The Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI), an affiliate of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), recently examined insurance claims for animal strikes under comprehensive coverage month by month from January 2005 through April 2008. The main finding is that insurance claims for animal collisions are nearly 3 times higher during November than the typical month earlier in the year.

  • State Farm, the nation’s largest auto insurer, estimates that there were more than 1.2 million claims for damage in crashes with animals during the last half of 2007 and the first half of 2008. The company says animal strike claims have increased 14.9 percent over the past 5 years.
  • The states with the largest number of total deaths are Texas with 227 deaths during 1993-2007, Wisconsin with 123, and Pennsylvania with 112.
  • "The months with the most crash deaths coincide with fall breeding season," Anne McCartt, IIHS’s senior vice president for research, points out. "Crashes in which people are killed are most likely to occur in rural areas and on roads with speed limits of 55 mph or higher. They’re also more likely to occur in darkness, at dusk, or at dawn."
  • Most of the crash deaths occurred after a motor vehicle had struck an animal and then run off the road or a motorcyclist had fallen off a bike. Many of these deaths wouldn’t have occurred with appropriate protection. The study found that 60 percent of the people killed riding in vehicles weren’t using safety belts, and 65 percent of those killed riding on motorcycles weren’t wearing helmets.

A recent article by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources stated:           

Despite a persistent rumor, neither the S.C. Department of Natural Resources (DNR) nor any other state agency will compensate motorists for injuries or damages resulting from deer collisions. Besides practicing safe and defensive driving techniques, each motorist should carry adequate collision and comprehensive insurance.

Do you have the proper insurance coverage to protect you and your loved ones if a deer were to surprise you on an early November morning or late November night? Read my article on Full Coverage, advise your insurance agent, or call our office to learn more about insurance coverage.

Andy Paras with “The Post and Courier”, reported on an insurance scheme that was uncovered in Colleton County.  It appears the same group of people were reporting similar incidents in the same area.  As the article indicated,

“ The scheme was relatively simple: Run an older car into a tree and claim that someone or something ran you off, then say a bunch of your friends and relatives were injured while in the car with you in order to claim more money, court records show."

I am happy to see that some bad apples were caught so as not to spoil the whole bunch, compunctum cito corrumpit sibi junctum. 

It is important to remember that if you are in a wreck, the more details, proof, or evidence you can present, the better able both your attorney and the potential at fault driver’s insurance company will be able to assist you. Some helpful tips from someone that has settled, taken to trial, and/or mediated hundreds of wreck cases:

  1. Keep a camera, disposable or digital, in your car!  If something bad happens take as many pictures as you can of the accident site, property damage (both visible and not readily visible[frame] of all cars or things involved), skid marks, witnesses, at fault driver, posted speed signs or traffic signals.  You can buy disposable cameras for less than $2.
  2. Take down any witnesses contact information and DO NOT assume that the highway patrolman or investigating officer has gotten that information.  (People do lie, sorry to break the bad news).
  3. The accident report you are given can not be used in the courts of South Carolina as proof that it is the other driver’s fault, as indicated on the accident report.  Do not depend on this one sheet of paper to prove the other person was at fault. (Take a look at Article IV of our Evidentiary Rules to see what else the jury will never hear about in court).
  4. Are you really taken care of if the at fault driver has no insurance or minimum insurance? Read my article on "Full Coverage".
  5. MIST-Minor Impact Soft Tissue is an acronym some insurance companies use (Allstate) to try and minimize their financial impact and publicize a subconscious thought of an unproven theory.  Their theory is that the correlation of property damage is relative to personal injury.  WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!  Read this article entitled "Low Impact Injury Accidents".

You would not go to "Joe the Plumber" to get your car fixed?  Think long and hard before just consulting with the at fault driver’s insurance company that makes money when they get you to settle for less money than your case is worth.  Consult a personal injury attorney, the CONSULTATION IS FREE!

 

"……when it comes to funding programs to protect kids from tobacco," said Matthew Myers, president of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids in a release reported in The State newspaper.

Whatever happened to that billion dollar tobacco settlement that was apportioned out to all the states for health programs and prevention initiatives on smoking?

"A Decade of Broken Promises: The 1998 State Tobacco Settlement Ten Years Later" directly answers this question. If you have children that live in the state of South Carolina, viewer discretion is advised.

  • On November 23, 1998, 46 states settled their lawsuits against the nation’s major tobacco companies to recover tobacco-related health care costs, joining four states — Mississippi, Texas, Florida and Minnesota — that had reached earlier, individual settlements.
  • These settlements require the tobacco companies to make annual payments to the states in perpetuity, with total payments estimated at $246 billion over the first 25 years. 
  • The tobacco settlements presented the states with a historic opportunity and unprecedented sums of money to attack the enormous public health problem posed by tobacco use in the United States.
  • Ten years later, this report finds that most states have failed to keep their promise to spend a significant portion of the settlement funds on programs to protect kids from tobacco addiction and help smokers quit.

What about South Carolina’s ranking and budget?

  • The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that South Carolina spend $62.2 million a year to have an effective, comprehensive tobacco prevention program.  South Carolina currently receives $1.0 million a year for tobacco prevention and cessation, which includes both state and federal funds.  This is 1.6% of the CDC’s recommendation and ranks South Carolina last among the states in the funding of tobacco prevention programs.  South Carolina’s spending on tobacco prevention amounts to 0.9% of the estimated $114 million in tobacco-generated revenue the state collects each year from settlement payments and tobacco taxes.

 

  • Under a 2000 agreement between the Legislature and then-Governor Jim Hodges (D), South Carolina securitized its future tobacco settlement proceeds by selling them to investors in exchange for a smaller lump sum payment. The $910 million raised was transferred into four trust funds. The Legislature is responsible for appropriating the money available from the trust funds annually for programs. No tobacco settlement funds have been dedicated to tobacco prevention since 2003.

If you are 18 years or older, please utilize your voice through phone or email to your respective Legislatures to ask why?

 

 

A U.S. Department of Justice study being reported by Vesna Jaksic of The National Law Journal, states that

Plaintiffs won in 56 percent of all general civil trial cases. Judges ruled in their favor in 68 percent of the cases, while juries favored the plaintiffs 54 percent of the time…..

State courts handled nearly 27,000 civil cases through bench or jury trials. Sixty-one percent of them involved a tort claim, and the most common tort claim involved motor vehicle accidents………

The report also pointed to a major drop in the number of civil trials, with numbers decreasing by 52 percent from 1992 to 2005 in the nation’s 75 most populous counties. In these counties, the median final award also decreased, from $72,000 in 1992, to $43,000 in 2005………..

Dealing with Allstate on a routine basis for personal injury claims, I know how they frustrate me to no end.  However, I was interested to see the amount of Google entries for this title.

Are you really in good hands? Or should you consult an attorney anytime you see a name followed by the word "insurance"?

 

When I turn to my clients and ask them about their automobile coverage, they quickly respond back that they have "Full Coverage".  Full coverage to them and full coverage to me are two different things. My idea of full coverage is below:

  1. $100,000/$300,000/$100,000 Liability and Property Coverage ( Minimum insurance limits in the South Carolina are mandated by S.C. Code Ann. § 38-77-140 and at the present time are 25,000/50,000/25,000. Likewise, UM, or uninsured coverage is mandatory but you should carry higher than the minimum limits).
  2. Personal Injury Protection/Medical Payments (PIP/Medpay)– $25,000.00.  This is no fault insurance that protects you and other occupants of the car. This is optional coverage you can request that is very inexpensive.
  3. Underinsured Motorist Coverage (UIM)- $100,000.00. In accordance with S.C. Code Ann. § 38-77–160, this is optional coverage you can purchase in the event that damages are sustained in excess of the liability limits carried by an at-fault insured (driver) or underinsured motorist. Remember minimum coverage is $25,000.00 per one person.
  4. Comprehensive/Collision Coverage-Again these are optional coverages you can get that provide deductibles you pay to have your automobile repaired if it is in a collision or damaged as a result of something other than collision, ie fire, theft, weather, vandalism, etc (comprehensive). Often times collision coverage is required if you finance your vehicle through a bank, or lender.
  5. GAP Coverage-Gap insurance covers the difference between what the insurance company says your car is worth versus what’s left on your car loan, or note. I was not going to include this in my "Full Coverage" but in the past few weeks I have had 3 clients that would pay triple their premium in exchange for GAP coverage.  

Full coverage to my clients usually means the bare minimum it takes to drive on the roadways of the state of South Carolina. As stated above, that would be liability coverage if you cause injury or property damage to someone else at $25,000/$50,000/$25,000 and Uninsured Motorist Coverage for incidents where you are injured by someone that failed to follow the law and carry the minimum insurance coverage. The amounts I use above can be adjusted to fit in each individuals budget. If you carry the bare minimum required by law, just remember the old adage that "You get what you pay for!"

INSURANCE is just that, coverage and protection when losses are injuries occur to you or your family as a result of the negligence or lack of responsibility of another party.  Be prepared when that time comes. The South Carolina Department of Public Safety put out a report a few years ago that indicated a traffic wreck occurred every 4.7 minutes.