News Category: Auto, Truck and Motorcycle Accidents

| Auto Insurance, Auto, Truck and Motorcycle Accidents, Insurance Practices

Progressive’s underhanded treatment of accident victim’s family goes viral

A blogger named Matt Fisher recently posted about his family's treatment at the hands of Progressive Insurance: "My Sister Paid Progressive Insurance to Defend Her Killer In Court." Fisher's sister, Katie, was killed in 2010 in an auto accident when another driver ran a red light. The other driver was underinsured, but Katie carried Progressive insurance underinsured motorist coverage that should have kicked in and paid benefits to her family. Source Only it didn't because Progressive refused to accept that the other driver was at fault fo ...

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November 14, 2011

New law hurts auto accident victims in lawsuits

Insurance companies scored a major victory – and a major financial windfall – with legislation that recently passed the N.C. General Assembly. The new law, part of House Bill 542, will impact everyone who is injured in a car accident that was someone else’s fault. The new law effectively penalizes injured people who have health coverage through private insurance, Medicaid or Medicare by reducing the amount of money they can recover in a personal injury settlement or jury award. This particular unfair portion of the law is known as t ...

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September 17, 2010

End distracted driving — turn off your phone

Texting while driving is dangerous. Deadly even. We'd like to encourage all drivers to participate in Two-Second Turnoff today -- and every day after -- every time you get behind the wheel of a car. Two-Second Turnoff Day is a joint campaign by Seventeen magazine, the U.S. Department of Transportation and AAA aimed at getting drivers to turn off their phones every time they get behind the wheel. The majority of teen drivers recognize that texting and talking on the phone while driving is dangerous, according to research by Seventeen. But the ma ...

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September 2, 2010

| Auto, Truck and Motorcycle Accidents, Personal Injury

Lawsuits and Auto Safety Innovations

Many of the safety features now standard in cars are there because of the work of attorneys who advocate for consumer safety. The American Association for Justice has an eye-opening report about how lawsuits filed on behalf of injured people and their families have resulted in such auto safety innovations as air bags, side impact protection and electronic stability control, to name just a few. The graphic below shows how lawsuits against automakers have made our vehicles safer. An interactive version of the graphic is available on AAJ's w ...

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August 23, 2010

Sharing the Road – Safety Tips for Cyclists and Drivers

Tomorrow, Grayson Dawson of Eden is set to plead guilty in the hit-and-run death of cyclist David Sherman. Sherman's death and the circumstances surrounding it have brought a lot of attention locally to cyclists rights and the dangers facing cyclists on our roadways. That's one positive that has come from this horrible tragedy. According to the League of American Bicyclists, close to 800 cyclists are killed every year and another 43,000 are injured every year in crashes with motorists. These types of bike deaths and injuries are far too common ...

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August 17, 2010

Remember to Drive Safely When Part of a Caravan

We were saddened this week to hear the news of two North Carolina students who were killed in a car accident this week on their way to a college orientation program. One of those who died was Arielle Parker, a promising, talented and much loved young woman from Greensboro. The students were traveling in a caravan when the accident occurred, with one car following another to a ropes obstacle course near the Wingate University campus. Driver Mishawn Miller, who also died, ran a stop sign and the students' car was hit by an oncoming grain truck. T ...

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June 14, 2010

| Auto, Truck and Motorcycle Accidents, Insurance Practices

DLG withdraws support for HB 813; compromises could be harmful to injured people

We recently asked you to write to your state senators in support of legislation that would change how automobile accident claims and other personal injury cases are handled in court. While we still believe that North Carolina's use of contributory negligence in personal injury cases is antiquated, harsh and punishes injured people, we can no longer support the version of HB 813 now being debated by state lawmakers. Quite simply, some the the provisions that have been added to the bill as it has made its way through the N.C. General Assembly ...

SUPPORT BILL HB 813 – for injured people

State lawmakers are preparing to vote on legislation that will impact anyone who is hurt in a car accident or suffers a personal injury that is someone else’s fault. North Carolina is one of only four states that allow the doctrine of contributory negligence as a defense in auto accident and other personal injury cases. Contributory negligence is a harsh and outdated way of denying help to people hurt in accidents. Under current law, if you’re even 1 percent responsible for an accident, you CANNOT recover damages from the person wh ...

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May 24, 2010

| Auto, Truck and Motorcycle Accidents, Insurance Practices

Tell Your State Senators to Vote for HB 813

The N.C. General Assembly is considering important legislation that will impact anyone who is hurt in in an automobile accident or suffers from a personal injury. We need you to call, write or email your state senators as soon as possible and tell them to support HB 813, which would change the standard in personal injury cases from contributory negligence to comparative fault. We'll be writing more about this issue in the coming days, but here's a quick primer on what's at stake, courtesy of North Carolina Advocates for Justice. Al ...

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March 23, 2010