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If you cause a automobile accident and you don't have car insurance, the ticket for no insurance is probably the easiest problem you will face. Texas law says that your license can be suspended until you fix the damage done (if you are guilty). The driver or the insurance for the driver you hit will be hounding you for payment of the harms you caused. And, of course, you have to find a way to fix your car. This post is not another reason why you should obey the law and have insurance, it is about what to do if you caused an accident and people are coming after you for payment, but you have no insurance.

In a situation where you are at fault and have no insurance, you still have all the defenses available to any other driver. The plaintiff must prove the causation of the accident, they must prove their injuries and damages are a result of the accident, and they have to prove those damages are reasonable and necessary.

I have represented several defendants without insurance. Defense isn't my usual type of work, but with seventeen years experience prosecuting these cases you learn a lot about what the defense does. If you have insurance, use the defense attorneys provided to you by your insurer. If you don't have insurance, consider hiring a lawyer to try to limit the costs claimed by the injured party.

The decision to hire a lawyer to defend you is a balancing act between the cost of representation and what it will cost to resolve the case. The worst decision would be to spend a fortune on attorney's fees and still have to pay a high damage settlement. What you need is a realistic appraisal of what it will cost to make the problem go away and the cost of representation to keep the settlement costs at a minimum.

If this situation applies to you, give me a call and we can look at what your situation requires.

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.

When I interview new clients for accident cases some get alarmed that I ask questions about their insurance. The automatic concern is. "Why do you need my insurance info? I didn't cause the accident. Why would you need my information?" The answer has nothing to do with who is at fault for the accident. My job as an attorney is to look at all possible answers to a problem and present the information to my client. When somebody causes an accident they should be responsible for what damage they have done. Sometimes clients have additional coverage that can apply to an accident. Personal Injury Protection can pay you regardless of who was at fault in the accident. Sometimes there isn't enough available from a defendant or their insurance policy and Under Insured Motorist Coverage can make up the gap. If I don't ask in advance, then we don't know what types of coverage are available to compensate you for all you injuries. Whether you want to make a claim on these other forms of insurance is up to you. But, I have to ask first before I can let you have the choice to claim it or not.

For more on the types of coverage available, see my main site at http://shtxlaw.com/sourcesofrecovery.php

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

In April of this year the minimal coverage requirement for Texas drivers went from a 20/40 policy to a 25/50 policy. It was long overdue. The cost of medical care had been rising ever since Texas mandated coverage for all drivers. $20,000.00 just didn't go as far in today's market as it did then. Now with every insured driver having a $25,000 policy it will be easier to have coverage in more cases. However, as with all change, most will be slow to adapt. Just because the coverages are higher doesn't mean the adjusters will automatically pay more. In fact, I'd bet most insurers think $20,000 was more than enough for most accidents (the cynical side of me says they likely thought $3,000 was more than enough for most cases, but I'm just a bitter old PI lawyer).

I hate that phrase. It is never a good thing to hear. If it is said with regard to health insurance, it usually means they don’t want to cover it. If it is said in an injury case, it usually means they don’t want to pay for all of it. What is and isn’t pre-existing is always difficult to determine.

In a perfect world, you would have tests taken just before an accident so that testing after the accident could show the exact changes caused by the new or aggravated injury. Usually though, there isn’t such a perfect world. Usually there has been a long period of time since testing was done. This makes the situation very difficult. The one resisting payment will try to argue that all or most of your problems existed before the incident you claim hurt you. The law saws a defendant only has to pay for the harm they cause. If they can make a convincing argument that practically everything that ails you was pre-existing then a judge or jury would not make them pay for the care you needed to free yourself from pain. Your only hope is to have qualified expert testimony and assistance to show that most or all of your pain is new or worse.

I have seen insurers argue injuries decades old are responsible for pain, when the client says they had been pain free all that time. In those circumstances it takes a strong expert doctor to make the case as to what is different. If the doctor can find the basis the doctor can show how there are new injuries, worsened injuries or changes in pre-existing conditions that necessitated care.

Either way, when the defense of pre-existing injuries is raised, it becomes a very difficult fight. If you have a claim that involves the potential of a pre-existing injury, I recommend you find competent counsel immediately. The evidence fight ahead of you is tricky and difficult, and you likely don’t want to risk doing it alone.

For more and related information go to my site at:
http://www.shtexaslawyer.com/typesofinjuries.php
http://www.shtexaslawyer.com/sourcesofrecovery.php
http://shtexaslawyer.com/needlawyer.php

Even though Texas law requires all vehicles or drivers have valid insurance, there are still plenty of uninsured drivers on the road. One of the most aggravating experiences after an accident is to find out the person who hit you had no insurance or a problem that invalidated his insurance.

But, don’t ever think that it’s over just because the person who struck claims to not have insurance. As a lawyer, I investigate the defendant to see what there may be. Sometimes a driver will claim not to have insurance in hopes that you will just go away. Sometimes they have coverage when they thought they didn’t. Sometimes they are in a borrowed car that is covered. The best situation is to find out they were on the job. If it can be shown they were on the job, doing what hey were supposed to for their employer, the employer is responsible for the damages. If these and other avenues such as an assets check do not work out, at that point it is essential to verify if you have uninsured motorist coverage (UM).

If there is simply no way to recover from the person that struck you, and they did not commit a crime that would give you access to the crime victim’s fund, then your only hope is that you had coverage for damages caused by an uninsured driver. If you don’t have such coverage now, you should get it. This type of coverage is automatic in Texas unless you specifically sign a waiver of such coverage. If you can’t recall signing a waiver, the insurer should be able to give you a copy if one exists. If the insurance company cannot produce a signed waiver, they have to cover the damage, but they can require you to pay the premium if it had not been charged.

The process of sorting things out in any accident is stressful. When it looks like the other side has no insurance it becomes agonizing. Hiring a lawyer on a contingent basis allows you to have the situation investigated at no cost to you. I recommend if you have been in an accident with a driver whose coverage you question, hire a lawyer now. Let the person with the time and experience to investigate the matter take care of that for you.

I can understand why insurance companies dream of a world I am about to describe. It would save them an incredible amount of money. But, I’m not so sure that injured people would be as pleased. Essentially, their hope would be a world where lawyers were essentially unnecessary, there were no liability claims, and everyone took care of their damages through their own insurance policies. This fantasy can’t work however, just like all utopian dreams, there are holes in the plan. Working backwards through their dreams, the holes become obvious.

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