Oklahoma Injury Lawyer Blog

The Oklahoma Senate has an upcoming vote on SB 272. The bill was originally proposed to deal with relationships with car dealers and car manufacturers.

The bill was recently amended to incorporate a "no pay, no play" section for consumers. Basically, if you don't have car insurance, and you are in an accident that is not your fault, your pain and suffering damages are zero.

Guess who benefits from this type of legislation? The people that are funding it: insurance companies.

Here's one I haven't heard in awhile:

I was in a car accident last week.  The driver that hit me doesn't have insurance.  However, the guy he recently bought the car from still has the car insured!

Can I sue the previous owner to help get my medical bills paid?  His insurance company is denying my claim.  Can they do this?

I have uninsured motorist coverage, should I just turn it in to my insurance company and be done with it?

The previous owner doesn't have an "insurable interest" in the car.  Insurable insurance is usually mentioned if someone is trying to purchase life insurance on someone other than themself.  You generally can't do it (there's exceptions of course).  Back to the car accident: The previous owner isn't liable and his insurance company is correct.  Luckily this person has Uninsured Motorist (UM) Coverage. 

I just received an email with the question, "can you receive double medical coverage if you're in an auto accident?"

Here's my email reply:

I'm not sure what you mean exactly by "double medical coverage," but I'm assuming your question is along the lines of:

I was injured in a car accident that was not my fault. My health insurance paid for all my medical bills, so can I keep the whole settlement I get from the other driver's insurance company?

Short answer: Probably not. You may be able to get double recovery if you have 'medical payments coverage' under your own car insurance company. If you are a named insured, medical payments coverage is not subject to subrogation. Otherwise, if you don't have medical payments coverage, then generally you cannot get 'double recovery,' unless the health insurance company does not have a subrogation provision. Insurances companies often have what's called "a right to subrogation." This simply means that they have a right to be reimbursed for what they pay (when someone else is at fault). Note that your insurance company only has a right to be reimbursed for the medical bills. So, they shouldn't "touch" any recovery you get for lost income or pain and suffering. Here are a few examples:

I spent the last 10 minutes or so online searching for "how much the insurance industry spends on advertising."

It's a common complaint among personal injury lawyers that jurors often have preconceived notions that injury victims are out to just make a quick buck and that the insurance companies would have paid the claim if it was legit. Insurance companies have a huge incentive in paying as little as possible (and are very profitable).

I haven't found a good source yet. But, I stumbled on a New York Times article from 1986. The article mentions that the Insurance Information Institute was starting an "advertising campaign aimed at combating the growing litigious bent." There isn't video on the article, but the 30 second commercials depicted a "world without obstetricians, high school sports or firefighters - a world that high insurance rates caused." The campaign started as a $6.5 million advertising effort.

According to 7News (Lawton, OK area), some auto accident insurance companies are now offering additional coverage for your pets:

Auto insurance is needed to protect you from injuries in a car accident, but now injury coverage is being offered for your pets. Not many companies offer the unique coverage, but for those that do, it is pretty inexpensive.

The article states that the additional cost is usually around $10/month and that coverage amounts can range from $500 to $1000 for injuries to the pet.  

Reuters is reporting a troubling medical bills and bankruptcy story today:

Medical bills are behind more than 60 percent of U.S. personal bankruptcies, U.S. researchers reported Thursday in a report they said demonstrates that healthcare reform is on the wrong track.

This is crazy.  What's even more troubling is that more than 75 percent of those families had health insurance but were still overwhelmed by the medical costs.  The report also notes that:

Nationally, a quarter of firms cancel coverage immediately when an employee suffers a disabling illness; another quarter do so within a year.

Today's Oklahoman reports that our State Troopers may start using the new electronic insurance verification system as soon as this upcoming Memorial Day weekend. 

This is good news.  Something's got to be done about the uninsured drivers roaming our streets.  "It's estimated nearly one in four Oklahoma motorists are driving without vehicle insurance."  The electronic system allows for the officers to know immediately if the pulled over driver should be fined for driving without insurance.  The article states that all departments in Oklahoma will be using the system by July 1.   

Oklahoma law is very clear on this.  The amount of coverage is reduced to what the premium would have purchased at the correct age.  (So you'll have less coverage).  This could actually be worse - I'm sure an insurance company has argued that the policy should be null and void if the insured lied (or was mistaken) about his/her age on the application. 

The relevant statute is: 36 Okla.Stat. § 4006.

It seems like several times a week I meet with someone that was just in a car accident that owes more on their car than it's worth.  Under Oklahoma law, the person that caused the accident does not have to pay what you owe on the car, but the fair market value of the car (assuming it was totaled).  How can you help protect against this scenario (and be stuck with car payments and no car!)?

Check out GAP Insurance.

Guaranteed Auto Protection (GAP) insurance pays the difference between the actual value of the car and the remaining balance on the loan.  Assuming the premium isn't too high, it's worth considering adding to your policy.

Everyone is aware of the grass fires that occurred last week throughout Oklahoma.  Are our insurance companies going to step up or follow a similar path to how the insurance companies in California responded to the wildfires there?

Check out the CBS video: Underinsured With Allstate

Among detailing the trouble Californians have had in getting their homes rebuilt, the video has some interesting statistics:

Allstate's Payout (how much is paid for every dollar the company's insureds pay in):

• 1987-1996: 73 cents on the dollar
• 1997-2006: 59 cents on the dollar ($4.9 billion profit in 2006)
  

More more reading on insurance companies, see: Home Insurers' Secret Tactics Cheat Fire Victims, Hike Profits:

The Bloomberg.com report states that:

"Insurers often pay 30-60 percent of the cost of rebuilding a damaged home -- even when carriers assure homeowners they're fully covered, thousands of complaints with state insurance departments and civil court cases show."

"As Mississippi Republican U.S. Senator Trent Lott and thousands of other homeowners have found, insurers make low offers -- or refuse to pay at all -- and then dare people to fight back."

I didn't realize the bullying that goes on with insurance companies until I started handling Oklahoma personal injury cases.  We'll have several people call in to our office each week asking "why is the insurance company refusing to pay anything on my car (or medical treatment) when their insured was the one who caused the accident?" 

The American Association of Justice has a photo along the same lines as the Allstate "good hands" approach: 

Today's Oklahoman has an article, written by Ann Kelley, about the upcoming electronic system that can verify car insurance.  The data system is for the Oklahoma Compulsory Insurance Verification System.  The law is to take effect Jan. 1, 2009, however, testing shows that it's only accurate 60% of the time!  The article goes on to state that the department hopes to have a reliable system within six months.  Note that the law was passed two years ago. 

The Wall Street Journal has an article today about road risks rising as more drivers cancel insurance.  It cites a recent survey by insurance.com: as many as 40% of callers following up on online applications had let their previous policies lapse, up from less than 10% a couple of years ago. 

WSJ sums it up nicely:

The trend is bad news for everybody on the road. If you're hit by an uninsured motorist, you may have to sue to recover costs, and many uninsured motorists have few assets. You can protect yourself by carrying uninsured-motorist coverage -- almost half of states require the added coverage -- but this may boost your premium.

The Journal Record has an article published today about the upcoming changes in the Family and Medical Leave Act regulations.  The changes go into effect on January 16, 2009. 

For those wanting a more detailed look at the FMLA, the regulations may be downloaded here.

The Oklahoman and Tulsa World both have recent articles about the growing concern for Oklahoma's uninsured. 

The Tulsa World cites a telephone survey by the Oklahoma Health Care Authority that found that
about 16.7 percent of Oklahomans don't have health insurance.  That amounts to 579,036 Oklahomans.  The cost is not only the risk of affording unforeseen medical care but the cost of uncompensated care.  The article also mentions that that uncompensated medical coverage in Oklahoma totals nearly $1 billion.  That, in turn, raises the costs for all Oklahomans. 

The Oklahoman article centers around the recent comments made by State Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland.  Evidently, the calls for loss of football ticket privileges was not to be taken seriously:

Holland said the idea of a football ticket takeaway is impractical, unenforceable, and wasn't meant to be taken seriously.

"It was one small part of a larger discussion, and it was generally in jest," Holland said of the ticket takeaway concept.