Snow and insurance

Do snow and insurance have anything in common? Of course they do. Here in Charlottesville, Virginia, we were doused with about a foot of snow yesterday. And, when it snows, people drive like crazy, just like always. Unfortunately, there is also a lot of ice around and so there have been a lot of car accidents. Thus, insurance coverage enters the picture. I will confess that I stayed home yesterday because no one plowed my driveway. The kids and I created a wicked sled run in the snow and they caught some serious air using the plastic disc. So I didn't really see any car wrecks, just wipeouts in the snow. But, they made me think about car wrecks. And, I did hear about them, not only here in Albemarle and Charlottesville, but also back in Norfolk and Virginia Beach. This is where the insurance part of the post comes into the picture. You see, most people really aren't that familiar with their insurance coverage. Particularly if there is an injury as a result of the automobile accident and, most particularly if the other driver is uninsured or underinsured. If you are the victim of another driver's negligence and he or she has no insurance, you have to look to your policy. Do you know what your uninsured motorist coverage is in your insurance policy. If you do, high five somebody. If the coverage you have chosen is at least $300,000, give someone a chest bump. If you don't know what your insurance coverage is or if your coverage is just the minimum, take a moment to look at the situation. If you are seriously injured in a car accident, is the amount of coverage you have going to be enough to compensate you for lost wages, for a permanent injury, or for your pain. If you would be happy with receiving the coverage you have chosen, then great. If not, change things around with a phone call to your insurance company. By the way, I don't sell insurance, I just try to protect my injury clients at Wilson & Hajek, www.winjurylaw.com. I will visit this issue again, but for now, enjoy the snow and the rest of the weekend. And, drive carefully!

7 Year Old Ninja

My 7 year old son is training me to be a ninja. Apparently, he was certified as a ninja by a friend and now he is passing on his knowledge to me. I always thought that I would be the one to impart such vital knowledge to my son, but he beat me to it. I am pleased to report that I have advanced beyond beginner status and have been entrusted with an imaginary sword. I am told it is quite deadly. Maybe one day, my son will decide to teach me how to be a ninja lawyer. I have been practicing law for 25 years with most of those years focusing on representing personal injury clients. But, I still learn something every day. I suppose that is one of the best things about what I do. And tonight, I will learn some advanced ninja moves. I can hardly wait.

A Railroad Worker's Retirement

This morning I had the pleasure of meeting a recently retired railroad conductor with 39 years of service under his belt. Unfortunately, a lifetime of hard work on the railroad has destroyed his health and left him with several significant injuries. Most significantly, he has carpal tunnel syndrome which was cause by years of repetitive stress work involving his arms and hands. He also has back and knee problems from walking on ballast and riding locomotive engines that cause vibration related injuries. Instead of being able to enjoy the fruits of his labor, he is going to doctors and looking at surgeries. When are we going to changes that help workers avoid these injuries. Good ergonomic practices need to be instituted! Maybe another lawsuit will help.
On the bright side, if you are home and have time, the Australian Open has provided some entertaining tennis matches. I leave the tv on and try to catch snippets of the matches as I get kids ready for bed and catch up on chores. So I really don't think the term "addict" is fair when used to describe my limited viewing of these matches.

Oh Joy

I have been in good spirits all week. Why, you ask? Well, the rest stops on Virginia interstate highways are reopening. Our new governor is fulfilling his populist promise to reopen all the rest stops that the prior administration closed because of budget shortfalls. And, he is going to pay for the reopening by spending money on business development. You may now have another question brewing in your mind. Why is this lawyer who has a blog about personal injury in Virginia writing about rest stops. The answer is simple. I travel across the state to see my clients who have been injured in Virgina and I like the rest stops. I can plan my coffee consumption so that a rest stop is always handy when I think I will need it. A side benefit is that fewer people will be speeding on the interstates to get to an exit that has a gas station equipped with restrooms, only to find that it is locked and the key has been lost. I also like writing about stuff other than personal injury law. So many of my colleagues have blogs that analyze the latest cases in excruciating detail and which are filled with the right "key" words for internet search engines. In this way they hope to get ranked at the top of the search engine results. Great. But, I am writing this blog to please myself and to give my Virginia personal injury clients a reason to smile (did you notice how I adroitly inserted a few "key" words).

Supreme Court removes restrictions on corporate money

In a stunning display of judicial activism, the United States Supreme Court has removed restrictions on the use of corporate and union monies in campaign advertising. Ostensibly, there are still limits on the ability of corporations to give money directly to a candidate, but, in effect, a corporation is free to spend as much as it chooses to support a candidate through advertising. In this decision, the Court has broadened the individual's right to free speech to include corporations. Should corporations also be able to vote? Maybe a corporation could be assigned a certain number of votes based on the amount of taxes it pays? Of course, you have to decide where the corporation gets to use those votes. Should it be any state where they do business? We could just leave it up to the corporation to decide where they want to use those new voting rights. Is this where we are headed?

Monday in the office

The torrential rains of the night have passed and now we have blue skies in Charlottesville. A new car wreck client called me from the hospital this morning for advice. I could hear the sounds of the hospital in the background and so asked him if it was okay to talk. He was just waiting for the doctor and so wanted to know if he should tell the doctor about the damage to the car and how he had not done anything wrong. I could tell he was still panicked from the shock of the accident. My advice was to focus on getting his injuries taken care of by the doctor and then he could let the doctor know that he had not caused the accident. It seemed obvious but I appreciated the fact that he was shaken up and did not want to be blamed unjustly. It is always better to call first and get good advice in these situations. It also made me feel like I was helping him out in a bad time and that is why I am here. I like it when my clients feel free to call me and discuss their problems, that is why I became an injury lawyer.