You find out what he said the first time.

This comes up a lot, and not just with truck drivers. People try to change their story after the accident.

So you find out what was said at the accident scene, or right after it.

There was a famous case a few years ago in which a truck driver told the investigating police officer – after a terrible accident – that a deer jumped into his lane on a highway and he swerved to avoid it, causing the wreck. The problem was that the tow truck driver got there first – and he didn’t tell the tow truck driver anything about the deer.

It happened recently to a client. She was rearended by a truck, after she came to a stop on the highway. She saw he was going to hit her, and tried to change lanes, but the truck wound up hitting her in the rear. The white panel truck in front of her was also struck.

The insurance company for the truckdriver denied liability. When I sued the truck driver, I sent questions to the truck driver’s lawyer, to be answered under oath. The truck driver said – under oath – that my client had switched to the lane in front of him right before the accident, and she cut off his assured clear distance.

So I took the depositions of the police officers. Here are the questions and answers:

Question: “When you asked him, what did the truck driver say about where my client came from?”
Answer: “He said he didn’t know where she came from, or how long she’d been in the lane in front of him. He did not say she had cut in front of him.”.
Question: “Which vehicle hit the white panel truck?”
Answer: “The same truck that hit your client’s car.”
Question: “Was there any doubt about that among any of the people you questioned?”
Answer: “No.”

When there is an accident, you figure that anyone involved is going to tell the police officer any fact that means it wasn’t their fault. So the fact that the truck driver couldn’t say when my client had supposedly cut in front of him, and admitted to the police officer that he had struck the white panel truck in front of my client, means he will have a hard time denying that the accident was his fault at trial.

I have been a lawyer over 30 years. A lot of the time what isn’t said is more important than what is. If you’ve been in an accident, give me, a Cincinnati personal injury attorney, a call. My phone is 513-621-4775.

Because all situations are different, and because there may be other facts pertaining to your case that I don’t know about, you should not rely on this answer for legal advice. I am not your attorney, and no lawyer client relationship has been formed. All discussions are limited to Ohio law unless otherwise indicated. And past performance cannot be used to predict future results. Finally, the law changes – sometimes overnight. So a correct answer today might be wrong tomorrow.

Very rarely.

The “American Rule” is that generally, everyone – winners and losers alike – pays their own attorney fees. (It’s called the American rule because in England, the rule is different – the loser pays.)

There are exceptions to the American rule. One – that doesn’t apply in most personal injury cases – is that a law passed by congress or the state legislature can provide that the loser pays in certain types of cases. Ohio allows attorney fees for violation of some trade secrets laws. The federal government has laws that require payment of attorney fees by the losers in cases of civil rights violations, and in patent cases.

In most auto accidents, there are no attorney fees available. Attorney fees might be available if:
• You can prove the other side acted intending to harm you, or that they acted in a manner entitling you to punitive damages. Examples would include driving while severely intoxicated, or in a reckless manner – for example, leading a police chase.
• In the case of a truck, that the driver or the trucking company was acting “with reckless disregard” of the safety of the public – for instance, violating a series of traffic laws at the same time.

I have been a lawyer over 30 years. Awards of legal fees are rare in auto and truck accidents; but their threat can help encourage a settlement. If you’ve been in an accident and want to know if you can get attorney fees, give me, a Cincinnati injury lawyer, a call. My phone is 513-621-4775.

Because all situations are different, and because there may be other facts pertaining to your case that I don’t know about, you should not rely on this answer for legal advice. I am not your attorney, and no lawyer client relationship has been formed. All discussions are limited to Ohio law unless otherwise indicated. And past performance cannot be used to predict future results.

No. Not yet, anyway. And you shouldn’t, unless you know for sure.

There are lots of reasons you may not want to take the insurance company’s offer. It may not be enough. You may not know how much is enough. And you might be afraid that if you give an adjuster your best number, he might try to take advantage.

(And even if you don’t want much at all, he probably will try to take advantage of you, in the sense that he will offer you less than he has the ability to pay.)

It doesn’t make sense to take an offer you are not sure about unless you literally have no alternative. It won’t cost anything to call me – or any other personal injury lawyer – to ask what I think of the offer, and what I think the case is worth.

And there are lots of options. Whenever an adjuster makes me an offer, I do some combination of the following:
• Tell him I will have to talk about it with the person I am working for. (That’s kind of a no brainer)
• Tell him I need more information from him – like why does he think this is such a great offer
• Tell him I need to get him more information (usually about how bad my client’s injuries are, but maybe whether my client’s hospital will take a discount on their bill, or whether my client’s insurance company will agree to reduce the amount they are asking for)
• Tell him that’s not enough, and my client needs more money.

Sometimes, if I think the offer is too low, I might just sit on it. A couple times, the adjuster has called me and raised the offer without my doing anything. It doesn’t happen very often, but my client feels better when it does.

The only time I accept the offer is when I am sure that I have been through all of the important options with my client, and I know he will accept it.

I have been a lawyer over 30 years. Just because the insurance company is making you an offer, doesn’t mean it’s a good one. If you’ve been in an accident give me, a Cincinnati personal injury lawyer, a call. My phone is 513-621-4775.

Because all situations are different, and because there may be other facts pertaining to your case that I don’t know about, you should not rely on this answer for legal advice. I am not your attorney, and no lawyer client relationship has been formed. All discussions are limited to Ohio law unless otherwise indicated. And past performance cannot be used to predict future results.

I will be honest – I can’t predict. I think that juries – and insurance companies – will be very interested in a number of different factors, including the extent and permanency of your injury (amputation is more than a broken arm), the total of your medical bills, your lost wages, whether you were at fault, the horror of your accident, and – sorry about this, but it’s true – whether the jury will “like” you.

But you can try the same case to different juries, and get different results. Same thing with insurance adjusters, and judges.
But if you want an interesting perspective from someone who is – at least a little bit – outside the traditional system, try reading some of the comments of Kenneth Feinberg.

Kenneth Feinberg – on Morning Joe, a talk show that my wife and I watch every morning – said that for the case he is now working on, it’s the time you spent in the hospital.

Who is Kenneth Feinberg? He is the administrator for the 9/11 victims fund, for the BP Deepwater Horizon Disaster Victim Compensation Fund, the One fund (compensating victims of the Boston Marathon bombing), the fund to compensate the victims of the Aurora shooting, and other funds set up to compensate victims of massive tragedies.

And his job is different from that of the typical adjuster, or juror, because when he makes an award, he is usually applying some standard other than the personal injury law of the state where the tragedy occurs. It might be a charity, or a compensation fund set up by statute (which is part of what happened with 9/11. He may have more or fewer funds than he thinks the victim would be able to get at trial.

But he usually has a set amount of dollars to award to a number of people. His job is to break it up in amounts that will hold up in court.

And what case is he working on now? It is the One Fund, compensating victims of the Boston Marathon bombing. Most of the funds he is planning on distributing are from private donations, but it’s really too early to tell.

And he has different strictures. One is the fact that it is too early to know how much will be available. So he probably has a lot of concerns addressing survivors’ immediate needs – mortgages, special medical care, living expenses, things like that – rather than long term awards for pain and suffering.

What does this tell you about what a jury will award you for a truck accident? Probably not that much – because of all the different factors that go into a jury’s award.

But it might tell you something about what an insurance adjuster will do. The fact that one person spends two weeks in the hospital in intensive care may be more impressive than the $75,000 in medical expenses someone else incurs for a back surgery.

And it gives me an argument if the case does go to a jury: “Mr. Johnson spent two straight weeks in the hospital after this accident, and still came out needing more surgery. I am lucky – but there are a lot of people who don’t have to spend that long in the hospital their whole life.”

If it makes you stop and think, that’s good.

I have been a lawyer over 30 years. One of the most important things about what I do is maintaining a fresh perspective. If you’ve been in an accident with a truck, give me, a Cincinnati personal injury attorney, a call. My phone is 513-621-4775.

Because all situations are different, and because there may be other facts pertaining to your case that I don’t know about, you should not rely on this answer for legal advice. I am not your attorney, and no lawyer client relationship has been formed. All discussions are limited to Ohio law unless otherwise indicated. And past performance cannot be used to predict future results.

Because they don’t have to until you file a lawsuit.

Insurance companies don’t have to tell you what their limits are until you file suit. As a general rule, I have a lot of trouble getting them to do this.

Sometimes, it’s not that important. If my client had one trip to the emergency room, with a total of $1,000 in bills, the case is probably not going to settle for over the policy limits, whatever they are. (Policy limits start at $12,500 in Ohio.)

In other cases, though, you need the information. If you have underinsured motorist coverage, you need to know the other driver’s limits so you can put your own insurance company on notice.

Sometimes, I can get the truck insurance company to tell me their limits by telling them that I have to know whether I need to contact the underinsured motorist insurer. Or by telling them that my client has a lot of medical bills, and needs to know whether there is enough auto insurance to cover the damages.

I have been a lawyer over 30 years. Generally, lawyers are better at dealing with insurance companies than accident victims are. If you’ve been in an accident with a truck, give me, a Cincinnati injury lawyer, a call. My phone is 513-621-4775.

Because all situations are different, and because there may be other facts pertaining to your case that I don’t know about, you should not rely on this answer for legal advice. I am not your attorney, and no lawyer client relationship has been formed. All discussions are limited to Ohio law unless otherwise indicated. And past performance cannot be used to predict future results.