Oklahoma Injury Lawyer Blog

Today's blog post is a guest post by Cyndi Laurenti. While she figures out her next career move, Cyndi works as an online writer and editor. Her primary interests are education, technology, and how to combine them. She enjoys the trees and beaches of the pacific northwest, and looking things up on other people's iPhones.

Personal injury lawyers assist clients who've been injured due to negligence on someone else's part. For example, victims of car accidents often sue the other driver over injuries. College students from undergrads to PhD candidates are as likely as anyone else to face situations where they have the right to personal injury compensation from their schools or from people around the school. However, they may have a more difficult time with personal injury lawsuits because of stereotypes about risky behavior among college students.

Science Labs

Schools may be liable if students are injured in a science laboratory accident in class. Many of these cases are settled out of court, but if a student were to go to trial over it, the student would have to prove the school was negligent.
If an instructor failed to warn students about inherent dangers of the experiment or didn't go over general lab safety before the first lab, the school may be liable for any injury to students taking that instructor's class. Similarly, if the instructor wasn't paying attention to what the students were doing or assigned a laboratory experiment that was needlessly dangerous, the school may be liable.

Public vs. Private Institutions

Public institutions are often immune from personal injury lawsuits, although many state laws make exceptions if a student can prove a particular instructor was negligent. Private schools don't usually have the privilege of automatic exemption. These schools may be liable for student injuries even if a particular instructor wasn't negligent.

For example, a public school may be exempt from lawsuits related to students doing experiments if the instructor wasn't negligent, while private schools may be liable simply because the experiment was inherently dangerous.

Bob Kraft has a good blog post summarizing new research that shows Tort Reform Made Healthcare Worse in Texas. Oklahoma is going through similar insurance company-backed changes to our state's tort law. The only thing "tort reform" helps is insurance company profits. The "Failed Experiment" report by Public Citizen shows:

• The amount of doctors in Texas did not increased significantly (you'll notice the commercials in Oklahoma claim the failed logic that doctors are leaving because we need tort reform)
• The report concludes "that using Texas as a model would benefit doctors and insurers - not residents"
• Healthcare costs and insurance premiums have increased more than the national average
  

I received a funny email last week from an old client. The email tells of the story of a "runaway verdict" in Oklahoma:

This year's runaway First Place Stella Award winner was: Mrs. Merv Grazinski, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, who purchased new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home, from an OU football  game, having driven on to the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph  and calmly left the driver's seat to go to the back of the Winnebago to make  herself a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the motor home left the freeway, crashed  and overturned. Also not surprisingly, Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not putting in the owner's manual that she couldn't actually leave the driver's seat while the cruise control was set.

The Oklahoma jury awarded her, are you sitting down? $1,750,000 PLUS a new motor home. Winnebago actually changed their manuals as a result of this suit, just in case Mrs. Grazinski has any relatives who might also buy a motor home.

If you think the court system is out of control, be sure to pass this one on.

Guess what? It's an interesting story, but it's totally false. The truth is that special interest groups (specifically billion dollar insurance companies) like us to believe that our court system is full of runaway verdicts. Can anyone name ONE in Oklahoma? 

Sure, there are some crazy lawsuits out there. The Facebook one is about a ton of money, for instance.

Personal injury lawsuits in Oklahoma are because plaintiffs want to be reimbursed for their medical bills and something for their pain and suffering. It's not a lottery system, but about plaintiffs trying to get something fair.

Here's something similar to what we've been advising our clients for years: Lawsuit Loans Add New Risk for the Injured. Basically, the loan is going to be a lot more expensive than what you expect it will be.

The article gives several examples:

• A Vioxx client faced eviction, so he took out a lawsuit loan to pay his rent. He borrowed $9,150. By the time his case settled (18 months later), the loan payout was up to $23,588.


• A car accident injury client borrowed $10,500. Two years later his payout to the loan company was $35,939.

There's obviously important stuff in your case about going to the doctor, but what's the best way for you to screw up your case?

Lie.

This completely destroys your credibility. Be completely honest with your doctors and your attorney.

If you've been hurt, and the other party is found responsible, you are entitled to financial compensation. This entails your medical bills, lost income, and any pain and suffering the accident caused you. The dollar value of cases varies tremendously. Some cases will be barely over what the medical bills and lost income total, while others will be fives times that.

The "standard" attorney's fee in a personal injury case is one third (33 1/3%) of the total recovery. Note that this is a contingency fee. If nothing is recovered for the client, the attorney's fee is nothing as well. In reality, attorney's actually lose money in this scenario. It costs money to pursue a lawsuit (depositions, medical records, witness fees, etc.). All the costs are only reimbursed to the law firm if we win the case (or obtain a successful settlement.)

Why do we have contingency fees?

I believe the main reason is access to the courts. Most people can't afford to pay an attorney by the hour. They help level the playing field vs. the rich and big businesses.

Instead of trying to just explain the math behind an accident settlement, I've included an actual Settlement Sheet. See:

SETTLEMENT SHEET.pdf

This from a relatively minor car accident case I settled a few weeks ago. Obviously, I've taken out our client's name (I'll call her Client) and the defendant's name. The dates are also different than the actual case.

Here's a quick summary:
The property damage claim was settled shortly after the accident. Our firm didn't charge anything for the property damage settlement, so that check went directly to Client.

The personal injury claim settled for $12,500. All insurance companies require claimants to sign a settlement release before they'll write a check. The total settlement check was made out to Client, all the medical providers that had outstanding bills, and Medicare. Medicare had paid for some of Client's bills, so they wanted to be reimbursed ("right of subrogation").

As you can see, the attorney's contingency fee in this case was 25%. This amount is taken out of the total settlement. We spent $63.19 obtaining the medical records. This was what the various hospitals charged for them. Client have several outstanding medical bills that totaled $630 and Medicare wanted to be reimbursed $1,399.65. The payment to Client, after everything was paid off, was $7,282.16.

I met with a new client (let's call her Jane Smith) last week that mentioned the insurance adjuster on her claim told her that "she doesn't want to get an attorney involved because your claim will likely take longer and you'll have to pay the attorney out of your settlement."  That just means the insurance adjuster didn't want Jane to hire an attorney.  The insurance adjuster is looking to pay Jane as little as possible - settling early for cheap saves the insurance company money. 

I've seen several personal attorney websites state something along the lines of: "a national study showed that injured people represented by an attorney received 300% more than persons who settle without a lawyer."  None of the websites that have this actually provide a cite to the study.  So, I posted the quote on a national trial lawyer discussion group to see if anyone has actually seen the study. 

Hat-tip to Solomon Neuhardt, a Montana car accident attorney, for pointing out what appears to be the study.  At the very least, it's a study discussing represented and unrepresented claimants.  The "Allstate's 'customer service' charade" article was written by David Strickland and appeared in Trial Magazine in 1999. 

The article mentions a study by the Insurance Research Council:

The study found that payments for unrepresented
claimants with bodily injuries amounted to $3,262 on average. Payments
to represented claimants amounted to $11,939 on average.

Yesterday's NY Times posted some interesting statistics on Insurers Feeling Pain of Dog Bites.  The average dog bite claim exceeds $24,000 and claims are up 4.8% nationwide. 

Dog bite law in Oklahoma pretty straightforward.  The owner of the dog is liable for any of the damages if:

1. The attack was without provocation; and
2. The victim had a lawful right to be there

Medical providers will generally file a lien to protect their claim in a car accident (or other personal injury) case.  If a lien is filed, an insurance company paying a personal injury settlement must include any lienholders on the settlement check, or issue separate checks for the liens. 

How can you find out if you have a lien filed against you in Cleveland County?

Check out the Cleveland County Clerk's Index Search.  Click on "Index Search" on the left hand side of the page.  You'll need to click "Accept" after reading through the disclaimer.  Type in your name. 

"My back was killing me for over 3 months. Why isn't my case worth more?"

I had a client recently ask this. For simplicity's sake, I'll call him Bob. Bob was rear ended last year and was rushed to the hospital immediately after a car accident.

The seat he was in snapped back and Bob thought that he had been knocked out. His neck and back were both hurting quite a bit. The emergency room ran up a pretty good bill because they did a CT scan (Bob thought he had a concussion and was dazed; "So, they scanned my cat.").

Bob checked out of the ER with soft tissue injuries, some prescriptions for a muscle relaxer, and some pain medicine. He was also instructed to go to a follow up doctor if he was still having neck and back pain.

After missing work for a few days, Bob decided he could "tough it out," and went back to work. This is great, but his neck and back still gave him trouble. He was in a lot of pain at work and around the house. Two months later, Bob's back is still bothering him. He's tough though, so he doesn't bother to go to a doctor.

Bob called me about six months after the accident. His neck and back had finally healed and he was curious as to why the insurance company hadn't called him and offered to settle his personal injury claim.

The case has since settled for a reasonable amount. At the time though, Bob was a little frustrated because he wasn't able to get compensated for any pain and suffering for the 3 months that his back was bothering.

So, moral of the story: Go to a doctor if you are hurt. An insurance company, understandably looks at personal injury victim's medical records for proof of an injury.

It's very common for medical providers to file liens related to personal injury lawsuits. After all, doctors like to get paid for their services. How can you find out if a lien is filed against you in Oklahoma County?
1. Go to Oklahoma County and click on Search Land Records (under Online Services; 6 down on the left side).
2. Read the disclaimer and click "Yes" that you understand that it is for informational purposes only.
3. Click "Registrar of Deeds Public Access" (on the right side)
4. Click "Grantor/Grantee or UnPlatted"
5. Put your name (Last First - without a comma) in the "Grantee" section.
6. Click "Search Now!"
7. If your name is in the search results, click on the box next to it and click "next step."
8. The various liens (hospital/doctor or other) filed should be on the next page.
9. For the detailed information, click on the Document Number.

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.