Articles Posted in Personal Injury Law

To often, politics of the right and the left interfere with the stark reality of tort reform. In the past decade or so, conservatives have used “tort-reform” as a political “wedge issue” and have spent multi-millions of dollars to turn the public, and juries, against all Plaintiffs. The article below was written by a self-described…

This just in from www.cnn.com Every once in a while someone goes a little too far in trying to avoid jury service. Looks like this guy went overboard in his attempt to avoid service on a grand jury, which amittedly, can take a lot of time. I think the Judge did the right thing here.…

As I’m getting ready for a trial, I’m constantly reminded that the “reason the case is going to trial” has more to do with the defendant’s insurance company than anything else. It’s frustrating as an attorney fighting for justice because I have the burden of proof for the “facts” of the case, but what the…

Well, it finally happened- I’m officially a published author now (and editor!) The NC Lien Manual is now on the shelves, the one I edited and wrote chapters for and that was published by the North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers and Lexis. Before you think that I’m pitching my own product, you should know…

What is a Medicare Set Aside (MSA)? In 2001 Medicare (CMS) announced that it would begin to exercise the Medicare Secondary Payer (MSP) statute. The concept of the law is that Medicare is a “secondary payer” when any other form of insurance exists to pay claims. Before 2001, that meant traditional health insurance, but starting…

The North Carolina Court of Appeals has ruled today that a plaintiff is not entitled to recover punitive damages from an Estate of a tortfeasor. In the matter of Harrell v. Estate of Perry, the COA addressed an appeal from a Superior Court where the Superior Court had ruled that pursuant to NC Rule of…

When the Governor Signs[ed] the Bill, How will[does] it Work? The Legislature has passed a revision to the State Employee and Teachers Health Plan lien and has sent that bill to the Governor for signature. Refer to this post for the text of the bill. Up until now, the SEHP limited itself to no more…

A Hole in the Umbrella Most people driving around these days are blissfully unaware of Umbrella Policies. Umbrella policies or “Personal Liability Umbrella Policies” (PLUP) are insurance policies sold to cover individuals and businesses in case the “regular” insurance is not enough. In other words, if you kill someone by your own negligence, and they…