Statements to Insurance Companies

My friends at Maryland injury lawyer blog have a solid article on statements to insurance companies. Absent extraordinary circumstances, no insurance company gets a statement from my clients. Why? Because there is generally never any upside to giving one and there is a lot of downside. Thus, my advice is to never ever give any insurance company a written or tape-recorded statement.

You know what insurance companies want.

Wisconsin Personal Injury Lawyer

Medical Malpractice Study

Wisconsin medical malpractice victims lost out when Gov. Jim Doyle signed the new $750,000 cap on medical malpractice damages. And a new study, “Malpractice Premiums And Physicians’ Income: Perceptions Of A Crisis Conflict With Empirical Evidence,” published in Health Affairs finds as follows according to the Center for Justice & Democracy:

"~ From 1970-2000, premiums increased only slightly. In 2000, premiums were lower than in 1986. From 1986-2000, there was a sizable decline in premiums while other expenses surged.

~ The decrease in premiums as a percentage of total expenses between 1986 and 2000 was attributable to a decline in premiums combined with increased spending for other practice expenses.

~ 'For the specialties, premiums also decreased as a percentage of total expenses from 1986 to 2000—most notably for OB/GYN, for which premiums declined from 20 percent to 13 percent. OB/GYN premiums decreased $487 per year, while total practice expenses increased $5,305 per year.'

~ 'National trends were reflected in the nine regions with slight variations… In no region were premiums as a percentage of total expenses more than three percentage points higher than the national mean during any year.'

~ 'Although premiums rose from 1996 to 2000, practice revenue declined nationally and for specialties (except for OB/GYN). It was revenue decline and increases in nonpremium expenses, not premium increases, that account for the overwhelming share of falling income. For OB/ GYN, revenue increased slightly, but income declined because of large increases in practice expenses. However, increases in premiums were less than one-twentieth the size of increases.'

~The average physician income in 2003 was still between the ninety-fifth and ninety-ninth percentiles for all Americans."

Wisconsin Medical Malpractice Attorney

Allstate exposed

Readers know what insurance companies want, as if insurers' Katrina issues weren't enough, and now comes a new book exposing more of the truth I tell, but this time it's all about Allstate.

Allstate looks even worse than I had thought, which is saying a lot, based on the current issue of Businessweek's In Tough Hands At Allstate. The article discusses the new book From Good Hands to Boxing Gloves and describes how Allstate has fought to censure the book's publication and has blantantly violated court orders in doing so. Certainly, the article is an interesting read for those wanting to learn about how insurance companies handle personal injury claims.

It's interesting too that Allstate's Claims Manual has expressly stated that those represented by personal injury lawyers settle claims for 2.5-3.5 times more than those who do not have personal injury attorneys.

Wisconsin Personal Injury Attorney

Lawyers Attacked by a Christian Group?

Study the Christian Coalition of Alabama and Center for a Just Society websites and you will see common ground. CCA's mission states: "We believe that people of faith have a right and a responsibility to be involved in the world around them. That involvement includes social, community and political action." CJS's begins "Our mission is to advance and defend Judeo-Christian principles of human dignity and social justice in law, policy and the public square. "

So what is CCA doing running misguided anti-trial lawyer ads that fly in the face of justice? Read CJS's article. The quote I like states: "Stereotyping all trial lawyers as the puppet masters of the liberal agenda in order to raise funds while simultaneously depending on trial lawyers to overturn Roe v. Wade and protect religious freedom smacks of sheer demagoguery."

Wisconsin Personal Injury Lawyer