Houston Personal Injury Attorneys – Smith & Hassler

If you have just been involved in a car accident, particularly one in which you were injured, you’re about to get a firsthand lesson in a principle Smith & Hassler knows all too well: not all car insurance companies are created equal. Some automobile insurers are nationwide companies who process billions of dollars in claims each year and have thousands of employees working their claims. They probably advertise on television and you’ve heard of them before. Without commenting on whether they make reasonable settlement offers on injury claims, if nothing else, when you call one of the big insurers somebody is going to pick up the phone.

On the other hand there are some automobile insurers who write automobile insurance policies in only one or two states, usually only write minimum limits policies and typically write policies for driver who have a poor driving record, limited credit history, or both. This type of insurer tends to keep its overhead and costs down by overworking their employees and not having sufficient manpower to answer calls, handle claims, etcetera. You probably won’t have heard of the insurance company before, they don’t advertise on television, and each time you call you find yourself on hold for an unreasonable length of time (or your calls don’t get returned).

Automobile insurers also have different philosophies on how they handle injury claims, and a particular insurance company’s philosophy can change over time. Perhaps the most famous example is when Allstate Insurance hired the McKinsey consulting group to review how Allstate managed injury claims. In the 10-years after Allstate brought in McKinsey, the amount of money Allstate paid out in car accident cases went from $0.63 per premium dollar to $0.47 per premium dollar. McKinsey infamously created a presentation slide in which McKinsey recommended Allstate treat people making injury claims with “boxing gloves” instead of “good hands.”

Having prior experience with a particular insurance company and a good understanding of their claims practices is very valuable when making an injury claim. Beyond that it is also very valuable to have experience with the law firms and lawyers that handle lawsuits filed against people insured with these insurance carriers. When an injury claim cannot be worked out through settlement, a lawsuit is the next step, and knowing who will defend that lawsuit and how they will defend it is a strategic advantage. Smith & Hassler has represented thousands of injured Texas in claims and lawsuits in our 20+ year history. If you have been injured due to the negligence of a driver insured with any of the following automobile insurers (or any other insurance company) you can speak to a Smith & Hassler personal injury attorney at no cost for a free consultation: we’d be glad to discuss your case with you and give you some insight into what to expect from the particular insurance company you’ve found yourself having to deal with.

ACCC Claims Service, Statewide Claims, 21st Century, Canal Insurance, Allied Insurance, esurance, MetLife, Progressive, Safeco, Gainsco, Liberty Mutual, Infinity, State Farm, GEICO, Allstate, Farmers, Chubb, Zurich, U.S. Auto, Santa Fe Insurance, Travelers, The Hartford, USAA, Mercury Insurance, Central Insurance, Germania, Texas Farm Bureau

If you’ve been involved in an automobile accident with another driver, once the adrenaline wears off and the dust begins to settle your first worry probably is: “Does the other driver have insurance?”  That is a very serious concern in the State of Texas, where recent estimates are that of the 20 million vehicles in Texas, roughly 22 percent are uninsured (even though the penalties for driving without insurance can be harsh).  That means on a state-wide level you have a 1 in 5 chance of being in a collision with an uninsured driver! TexasSure is the State of Texas‘ vehicle insurance verification program and was created by the Texas Departments of Insurance, Public Safety, Motor Vehicles and Information Resources as a system to help reduce the number of uninsured motorists.

These agencies have created a database that links every vehicle registered in Texas by its license plate, Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) and liability insurance policy. Law enforcement officers can access the database, including at the scene of a car accident by using the computer in their police cruisers, to verify the insurance status of any registered vehicle. Put another way: the police can check at the scene of a collision to see if the drivers involved have valid liability insurance.

The number of uninsured vehicles varies by Texas county.  The TexasSure web site publishes statistics on the number of registered vehicles that are not matched to a liability insurance policy in each county. As of the date of this blog post (02-03-2011) the most recent uninsured motorist statistics were released on 12/06/2010. Harris County, which encompasses the City of Houston, has 2,775,042 registered vehicles, of which 672,384 are not matched to liability insurance, meaning 24.23% of registered vehicles in Harris County are uninsured. That’s a scary, scary statistic! In Montgomery County the percentage is lower at 17.74% uninsured. In Galveston County, 18.52% are uninsured. In Fort Bend County, 16.98% are uninsured.

What you can do to protect yourself from the cost of the damage and injuries caused by uninsured drivers: Obviously the fairest solution of all would be for everyone driving on Texas roads to be responsible and carry the automobile liability insurance Texas law requires.  Unfortunately and despite the best efforts of law enforcement, that isn’t about to happen any time soon.  There is something that you can do TODAY to ensure you are protected from the damage that an uninsured motorist can cause in a car accident, including damage to your vehicle, lost wages and medical bills. Check your own automobile insurance policy to see if you have either of two types of coverage: Personal Injury Protection (PIP) or Uninsured Motorist coverage (UM). Personal Injury Protection is a no-fault (it doesn’t matter whose fault the car accident was) benefit that can cover medical bills and lost wages. The minimum PIP coverage is $2,500, the next step up is $5,000 and the next step up is $10,000 (and some people carry more than that). PIP is not very expensive to add to your policy.

Uninsured motorist (or “UM“) coverage allows your own insurance company to “stand in the shoes” of the uninsured motorist who caused the accident. Your insurance carrier will evaluate your injury claim just as if they insured the other driver, and will make a settlement offer based on your medical bills, lost wages, injuries, physical pain, mental anguish, physical impairment, disfigurement, anticipated future medical costs and other factors that should go into evaluating an injury claim. The minimum UM coverage you will have on your policy is $30,000 (if you have UM).

Smith & Hassler has all too often seen the financially devastating consequence of car accidents and personal injury (and even death) where an uninsured motorist causes a car accident, and the victim of the car accident does not have PIP or UM. Smith & Hassler strongly recommends that EVERYONE check their automobile insurance policy or speak to their insurance agent to find out if they have PIP or UM coverage. If not, we absolutely recommend that in the City of Houston, in a county with almost 25% OF DRIVERS UNINSURED you take out UM and PIP coverage to protect you and your family. If you have been in an accident with an uninsured motorist, you can call Smith & Hassler today and speak to an attorney for a free consultation.

February 1, 2011: Missouri City police are reporting that a driver died late Tuesday evening when his car left the roadway and crashed into a lake. The accident happened along Crow Valley Road near Glen Lakes. When emergency responders arrived the car was still afloat in the lake but the water was too cold for firefighters to enter; the car was submerged by the time dive teams arrived. Police said that Lionel Williams’ body was recovered from the water. The cause of the crash is under investigation.

Consumer advocacy group Texas Watch posted a story online today with the headline “Alert: Farmers Insurance takes over Texas capitol.  According to the Texas Watch article, the Farmers Insurance bus (which is uses as a mobile claims center) was being used as a prop to lobby Texas legislators to look favorably upon the insurance industry in Texas. Texans pay the highest rates for homeowner’s insurance in the United States. Farmers, which is the third largest homeowner’s insurance policy writer in the country, has issued notice of a rate increase in Texas set to take effect next month.

It has been the recent experience of Smith & Hassler that Farmers Insurance has decided to take a “hard line” on personal injury claims made under its automobile insurance policies.  Put another way, Farmers made the decision about a year or so ago that it was going to save some money by paying less on automobile injury claims. This equates to a win for Farmers Insurance (paying less on claims means higher profits) but a loss for Farmers Insurance‘s own policyholders (who increasingly are finding themselves being sued over car accidents when Farmers won’t make a reasonable effort to settle a claim) and injured motorists (who are forced to undergo the time, expense and frustration of a lawsuit in order to recover their damages).  This really is a shame, Farmers Insurance actually used to be a fairly reasonable carrier to deal with, but have decided they would rather take lessons from the notorious Allstate Insurance whose injury claims practices are legend.

Farmers Insurance mobile claims center bus parked outside the Texas capitol

Harris County District Clerk Chris Daniel is warning Harris County residents of an identity theft scam.  Identity thieves are calling Harris County residents and asking for social security numbers while pretending the information is needed in furtherance of Harris County jury service. A press release from the District Clerk says that the would-be thieves threaten people for failing to report for jury service. Daniel said that similar schemes have been attempted in Harris County in the past, and he reminded residents never to give out personal identifying information such as social security numbers. Jury room staff will never contact prospective jurors and ask for sensitive information over the phone or by email.

A new study has found that red light cameras help reduce the frequency of red light running and intersection car crashes. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety is releasing a study on Tuesday February 1, 2011 reporting that camera have reduced fatal crashes by 24 percent in 14 large cities where red light cameras were introduced between 1996-2004. The IIHS President Adrian Lund says the study is proof that red light cameras work, and credits them with saving hundreds of lives. On the other hand the National Motorists Association Executive Director Gary Biller questions the validity of the IIHS‘s finding that red light cameras have saved lives.  He says there are cheaper alternative to red light cameras, including longer yellow lights.  He also says that there are studies showing that red light cameras actually increase car accidents.

Click here to go to the IIHS study on red light cameras and car accidents.

City of Houston voters narrowly passed a proposition in the 2010 mid-term elections that disbanded Houston’s red light camera program.  The unfortunate (but predictable) effect of the proposition passing is that our already cash-strapped city has been deprived of millions of dollars a year in revenue. While nobody wants to get an expensive ticket for running a red light that may cause their car insurance premiums to increase, there is a more simple solution to avoiding a ticket than disbanding the red light camera program: JUST DON’T RUN THROUGH RED LIGHTS!

IIHS shows red light cameras effective in reducing car crashes