Tags: accident
What a mess this will be…
The City of Dallas has unanimously passed a law that will charge an at fault, non-Dallas resident who causes an automobile accident with a “clean-up” fee. Let me restate what this means. When there is an accident there is often debris left behind such as broken parts, broken glass, oil and other automobile fluids. In some cases there may be blood or other organic matter left to be cleaned as well. Typically the clean up from an accident is done by the city fire department or police. The clean up requires man power, the use of city vehicles, brooms, gloves, etc.
At first blush, it makes sense that a city would want to be reimbursed for this clean-up. But, here is where my issues with this law begin. The law first targets non-Dallas drivers. This makes some sense, because non-Dallas drivers do not pay property taxes in Dallas. Although they do pay sales taxes, tolls, and generally bring revenue to the city. Discriminating on who pays a fine based on residence only just seems unfair. It would be akin to charging tolls only to non-Texas drivers.
The law also targets the at-fault driver. Determining who is at fault is often very difficult. Quite often the officers investigating accidents do not state who, in their opinion, is at fault. If the officer was not a witness to the accident, or does not have the required training and experience to be considered an expert in accident reconstruction or investigation, the officer’s opinion as to who was at fault is often not allowed as evidence in a trial regarding the accident.
This law will essentially require the officer to decide who is at fault (especially if a driver was not a Dallasite), and might even give motivation to find the non-Dallas resident at fault for the accident in a revenue grab by the city. When proposed, this one budget item was expected to bring in 1.1million dollars (per year I presume). City of Dallas Budgeting for Outcomes: FY 2008-09 Annual Budget p.16. http://www.dallascityhall.com/council_briefings/Briefings0808/Proposed_FY09_Budget_%20081108.pdf Typically, officers do not determine ultimate fault, just factors of causation.
My next issue with this law is that Dallas officers were among the first in the DFW Metroplex to stop responding to non injury accidents. For what seems like a decade to my memory, clients have complained of calling the Dallas police department about an accident and an officer not showing up at all. If the officer showed up, they often just tell the drivers to exchange information. I never liked the officers not showing up. However, I do not want officers showing up to see if one of the drivers was not from Dallas, and then doing an investigation in hopes of finding the non-Dallas driver at fault so that the city can collect a clean up fee.
I expect that most drivers charged the clean up fee will simply pay it. I am quite curious what will happen as non-Dallas drivers assessed the fee start to fight the fee. The obvious attack is to go after the qualifications of the officer’s training and the self serving determination of fault. A very aggressive attorney would also likely fight to transfer the venue of the court battle out of Dallas County, claiming a fair trial cannot be had in a county that would possibly benefit from the outcome. Will the costs of fighting these court battles in the courts of the surrounding counties overshadow the profit of charging the fee?
Next, what happens if the person assessed the fee cannot pay it? Your automobile insurance will likely not cover this fee. I have heard estimates of $200 to $954 dollars as potential costs for clean up. This is money the driver has to come up with out of their own pocket. Many will likely not be able to pay. Will the City of Dallas then charge them with additional fees or crimes? Will the city put them into collections?
At first glance the new law sounds appealing to a city trying to make its budget work, but the deeper you look into what this law means, the more problematic it becomes. In the end I think it s a bad law, and that it will cause more trouble than it seeks to correct.
News reports of the new law:
http://cbs11tv.com/local/city.of.Dallas.2.824890.html
DWI Accidents
First off, if you came here to learn about defending a DWI charge, you need to call my friend Jonathan Bailey at 972-434-1555. He is a Board Certified Criminal Defense lawyer. I do not do criminal defense work.
DWI accidents are unfortunately very common and unfortunately usually quite traumatic. The speeds involved are higher and often the angle of impact is the worst possible. Head-on collisions are very common in DWI cases.
Hopefully the officers who respond to the accident will do a sobriety field test and arrest the drunk driver at the scene. If they do, they will often get a breath sample from the defendant and will take a video. These tests and observations by the arresting officers can be used as evidence in the injury claim that follows.
There are numerous issues to a DWI case. Granted, these issues all strengthen the claim against the defendant. However, care must be taken to secure the information and preserve it for the claim and possibly the trial.
When you are hit by a drunk driver the arrest information is just part of the case. It helps to prove the defendant was under the influence of an intoxicant at the time of the accident. If the driver was under the influence of an intoxicant then you can make a claim for gross negligence. Gross negligence is an enhancing factor to an injury claim. Gross negligence can allow for an award of punitive damages. Punitive damages are an award given in addition to the award for medical bills, injury, lost wages and pain.
Insurance companies have tactics for dealing with DWI claims. They know that if gross negligence is not claimed, they can admit to liability at trial and try to keep the fact of drunkenness from the jury in a civil trial. If the drunken state of the defendant is not heard by the jury they won’t be driven to punish the drunk driver.
In addition to proving the driver was intoxicated, it is important to find out why and how the driver was intoxicated. If the driver left a business that served alcohol to the driver it is possible to make the establishment a party to the claim. The Texas Dram Shop laws make restaurants and bars responsible for injuries caused by serving patrons to drunkenness. Proving where the driver drank the drink that made him or her drunk can be tricky. Credit card receipts, witnesses and even “over 21” stamps on wrists can be evidence of where a person was drinking. In one very tragic case I worked on both drivers died in the accident, and the drunk driver had a stamp on his wrist from the bar he had been drinking at. The hand stamp was very apparent in the scene photos by the officers and lead us to the bar where the DWI driver had last visited.
The most asked question.
What is my case worth? I hear it all the time. I hear it from people who have cases near the end of negotiations. I hear it from people as soon as they have an accident. I even hear it from people just making up imagined "what if" stories of accidents that never happened.
What is your case worth?
Honest answer?
Nobody knows. Honestly, there is no way to know what a particular case case is worth. Every case is very different from the next. There are far too many variables to be positive what any one case is worth. Attorneys can know what their average cases earn, but if you ask them what an "average case" is the definition varies wildly. The honest answer drives people crazy. It drives them crazy because they are usually looking for a way to either plan for money they hope to receive, or they want guidance as to what to ask for to close their case without an attorney.
The people asking because they don't want to hire an attorney think lawyers keep case value a secret. These people think that the lawyers keep the secret so that they can earn business. It isn't true. If you call a lawyer to ask what your case is worth, it isn't the same as bringing a lump of gold to a jeweler and asking what it is worth. Jewels are a commodity, there are indexes showing what the value of a pound of gold is worth at any given time. There is no such index for injuries. An eighty year old retired man with a broken foot will have an entirely different value for his case than say a twenty-four year old rising football star. The person rear-ended by a cell phone wielding distracted driver will have an entirely different case than a person struck by a drunk driver. The family of a deceased father hit by an uninsured driver has an entirely different case than the family of a father killed by a negligent cement truck. Even if you try to compare two nearly identical rear-end collisions at stop lights, with essentially the same amount of property damage and similar injuries, the end results could vary by several thousand dollars.
When lawyers try to predict their internal receivables, they usually guess low. They use a number based on the historical average for every case they have ever signed. That way they can count the number of cases on the books, multiply it by this average, and get a guess at what they think they could earn on every case in their docket. In reality, the individual results bounce above and below the average. But, if you smooth out the numbers over a long period of time, there is a guess they can use. That guess has nothing to do with the value of each case.
What is that number? Why don't you tell us?
That number isn't the total offered. That number is only the attorney's fees. That number is artificially low too, so that attorneys don't oversell their potential and get disappointed if the numbers don't work. Most importantly, since that number is based on an average and not the particular facts of any given case, if you hear that number and use it on your case the attorney could be liable for malpractice in giving you bad advice.
If you don't know what a case is worth, how do you ever settle them?
At some point the insurance company for the defendant is unwilling to offer more. At that point you can look at the number offered, subtract expenses, medical bills and such, and determine the outcome. If the outcome is substantially less than what you think a jury would pay on your worst day (after expenses of litigation), then it makes sense to go to trial. If the offer is equal to your worst day at trial, you still have little to risk. If the offer is better than your worst day at trial, then you risk losing money in litigation.
That begs the question, how do you know what the case is worth at trial?
We still don't "know" what a case is worth at trial. We can only make guesses based on experience, the Blue Sheets(a list of settlements and verdicts used for statistical purposes) and the facts of the case. The guess is just that, and educated guess. Without having worked the case for some time, being advised not only of all the facts in your favor and the facts against you, as well as the area where your case will be heard, that guess cannot be accurately made.
Fine then, what are all these "factors", so I can decide for myself?
The time of the day
The weather
The types of cars
The amount of property damage
The driving record of all the parties
The age of the parties
If any party was on medication, drugs or alcohol
Cell phone usage
How the accident occurred
Where the accident occurred
The traffic controls at the scene
The position of the sun, trees, or lighting
The injury history of the parties
What each driver was doing at the time of the accident
The insurance companies involved
The amount of and types of coverage available
The number of injured people
Pre-existing injuries, if any
The treatment history of the parties
The doctors seen
The length of treatment
The consistency and frequency of treatment
How soon treatment started
The types of treatment
The types of diagnostic tests
The results of diagnostic tests
The medical records
The cost of the care received
If there was or was not health insurance
Medicare, Medicaid, county care or other liens
And much, much more....
Stop being evasive, what is my case worth? Just tell me
What's your case worth? Honestly, I don't know. All I know is your case is worth every single cent I can get out of the other side, whether in settlement or through trial.
For more information, visit the main site at:
http://shtxlaw.com/autoaccidents.php
http://shtxlaw.com/sourcesofrecovery.php
http://shtxlaw.com/typesofinjuries.php
http://shtxlaw.com/motorcycleaccidents.php
http://shtxlaw.com/needlawyer.php
http://shtxlaw.com/insurancecompanies.php
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