Asker: In New Jersey, do I have to pay medical bills for an accident that wasn’t my fault? If I go through my insurance, I have to pay the $2,500 deductible before they pay for anything. I didn’t even know when signing up for this policy that there was a medical deductible. I don’t feel like I should be paying for an accident I didn’t cause.

Attorney:

Asker: I was hurt in a car accident recently, but I can’t afford my own attorney at this stage. Why are lawyers so expensive? Do they always charge up front for fees? I want to sue, but can’t afford the fees right now.

Attorney: I’m sorry to hear about your accident. You’re not alone if you’re having financial problems resulting from it. Most of the clients my

If your summer plans include a dip in the pool or a swim in the ocean, then it’s important that you know the dangers of drowning and what you can do to prevent an accident or cope with a drowning injury. When you think of drowning, you probably imagine a nightmarish scenario in which you find your child unresponsive at the bottom of the pool. Yet with

You’ve heard the saying about cutting off your nose to spite your face, but insurance companies take the concept to whole new levels of bizarre. More than once, we’ve seen them essentially keep policyholders prisoners in hospitals rather than discharging them according to doctors’ orders just so the insurance company wouldn’t have to pay for necessary medical equipment. No matter that another day of hospitalization costs substantially

You pay your auto insurance premiums in exchange for a promise of coverage. In states with no-fault laws involving accidents, a crucial part of that coverage is personal injury protection, or PIP, the portion of coverage which pays your medical bills if you are hurt. But imagine that you get hurt and that the insurance company to whom you’ve paid thousands of dollars suddenly decides that it

Imagine how it might feel to know that everywhere you go, someone is following you, perhaps videotaping or photographing you without your consent. You find cars tailing you when you leave work at the end of the day. Suspicious people pursue you everywhere, even coming to your workplace and seeking out personal information about you from your coworkers. Eventually, every shadow startles you.

If you thought only

You hear a lot about the rules of the road, but usually they apply to people who are actually moving: drivers, pedestrians, cyclists. In his quest to get out of paying a claim, one particular insurance adjuster invented a “rule” that left us pretty shocked. Apparently people in vehicles parked on the sides of the street are the ones responsible if a truck driver backs into

The risk of workplace injuries involving ladders is, well, high. Falls are among the most common causes of deadly unintentional injuries, and not just in the workplace – everywhere. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) analyzed work injury data from 2011 and ladders play a significant role in fall injuries, especially in the workplace.

Statistics? You’d Better Be Sitting Down

When we talk about falls

A study from international healthcare journal BMJ Quality & Safety suggests that doctors make more mistakes than we realize when it comes to identifying our medical conditions. Medical errors happen with astonishing frequency, but the results of this study illustrate that misdiagnosis is far more common than the average American probably thinks. Each year in the United States, 12,000,000 patients are misdiagnosed.

Statistically, that means one in

It’s a funny thing about insurance companies. With one hand, they delay paying policyholder claims, while the other takes more of your money. Could you imagine your auto insurance company telling you that you’re not covered on the policy after you’ve been paying them premiums for years? Neither could our client – but that’s exactly what happened when she got into her accident.

No-Fault and Apparently No

You want to think your insurance company will be there for you when you need it. But what if you’re wrong? What if you made a claim on your insurance policy for a relatively small amount of money – just enough to help you get your life back on track after an accident – and your insurance company flat-out denied your claim with no explanation? It happened

The insurance industry has explored what seems like every possible avenue for increasing their revenue at the expense of claimants. Yet no matter how difficult insurers make the game, some claimants still manage to win. They don’t recover the money they deserve through sheer luck or even superhuman persistence. Instead, they succeed because of the choices they make when faced with powerful opponents like insurance corporations. The

The insurance industry tried every imaginable strategy to change the rules of the game, and their hard (but devious) work has paid off. Insurance companies have a “product” consumers are required by law to purchase and a marketing scheme that negatively brands those who seek to utilize what their money has bought. Insurers have used their massive financial influence and a lot of misinformation to invade every

Spreading lies about “greedy” claimants and how outrageous lawsuits have supposedly become was the best way for the insurance industry to shut up people who might otherwise stand up for their rights. The industry started by warping public perceptions of a high-profile case against McDonald’s, but from there, the public disdain for frivolous lawsuits took on a life of its own.

The Myth about Sue-Happy America

You’ve

This story and the important message it conveys for all establishments that serve alcohol are just as interesting as the settlement amount (which pushes the total compensation for this case to more than $1,000,000). Dram shop laws – laws that allow bars and restaurants to be held liable for injuries that result from the actions of over-served patrons – are now on the books in numerous states.