Ingenix Lawsuit Settled

UnitedHealth Care through an outfit called Ingenix allegedly engaged in some insurance company behaviors I've mentioned. So it settled the lawsuit relating to that paying $350,000,000.00 to resolve class action lawsuits and $50,000,000.00 to the NY AG.

I found one interesting aspect of such lawsuits to be the hypocrisy of doctors bringing the cases since they are typically the ones seeking to limit your rights in medical malpractice litigation.

Wisconsin Personal Injury Lawyer

Olbermann Countdown Gets 3 Cheers

Almost missed posting on this well done piece. Unbeknowst to many Americans, sometimes an administrator at some federal agency can strip them of their rights.

Wisconsin Personal Injury Attorney

BUY Uninsured & Underinsured Car Insurance!

Today's news had a scary story about how the bad economy is causing drivers to let their car insurance lapse. On my firm's web site, we talk about Wisconsin Car Insurance & Umbrella FAQs.

In light of today's news, I can't impress on you enough the urgent need to have Uninsured Motorist Coverage (“UM”) as well as Underinsured Motorist Coverage (“UIM”) in case you are in a Wisconsin car accident (or car accident elsewhere for that matter). I've seen some horrible car accident injuries and the worst accidents are very frequently caused by someone who has minimal car insurance limits of say $25,000 or $50,000. Often my clients think their agent gave them "full coverage," but that's far from true.

UM and UIM car insurance protects you! Buy it for yourself to protect you from Wisconsin drivers who have no car insurance or little car insurance. I tell friends to carry UM and UIM car insurance limits of at least $250,000. With the increased cost of medical car and horrible changes in Wisconsin law (lobbied for by companies like American Family, State Farm, Allstate, Liberty Mutual, Progressive, Sentry, etc.), limits of $100,000 are not enough. In fact, if your family income is more than $100,000, it certainly makes sense to have an umbrella insurance policy with UM and UIM coverage for $1,000,000 or $2,000,000.

Why so much? If your family is driving to Grandma's for Christmas and an uninsured driver crosses the center line and hits you head on, which I've seen, you can easily have insurance claims that amount to $1,000,000 or $2,000,000. And if such a horrific car accident should happen, don't trust the good hands of your insurer to pay your family fairly because as Allstate Claims Manual shows those represented by personal injury lawyers settle claims for about 3 times more than those who do not have reputable personal injury lawyers.

Wisconsin Personal Injury Lawyer

Drunk Driving Car Accidents in Wisconsin

Wisconsin has a severe problem with drunk driving and to reduce that problem, Wisconsin is considering interlocking systems. Clearly, this is a good idea to prevent Wisconsin car accidents and wrongful deaths.

Wisconsin Personal Injury Lawyer

Dangerous Toys

U.S. PIRG is a federation of state Public Interest Research Groups that stands up for our health and well-being addressing issues involving product safety, prescription drugs and other consumer issues. It recently published two papers that are quite informational for those shopping for toys during Christmas: Toy Shopping Guide and Trouble In Toyland: The 23rd Annual Survey of Toy Safety. The basic theme is "buyer beware" as dangerous toys are still sold in stores across the country. Toys sent more than 80,000 children under 5 to emergency rooms in 2007 for serious injuries causing 18 deaths.

Wisconsin Personal Injury Attorney

Wisconsin's Mayfair Road Car Accidents

Wisconsin car accidents make up the majority of my law firm's personal injury practice and car accidents on Bluemound and Mayfair roads in Brookfield, Milwaukee, and Wauwatosa are frequently a part of that practice. So when I saw the article Avoiding a holiday crash on Mayfair Road, it caught my attention.

Wisconsin Personal Injury Lawyer

Wisconsin Personal Injury Super Lawyers

Super Lawyers published its list of the best lawyers in Wisconsin, which you may find in the December, 2008 Milwaukee Magazine. The list tries to identify the top 5% of all Wisconsin lawyers and its Rising Stars list tries to identify the top 2.5% of Wisconsin attorneys under age 40.

Fortunately, this Wisconsin personal injury attorney and my partner Jeff Zirgibel are listed again as Super Lawyers. I previously wrote on how to hire a personal injury lawyer and consider a Super Lawyers designation another tool for finding a personal injury attorney.

With respect to the Super Lawyers list, keep in mind that many lawyers making the list make it for a reason other than their plaintiff's personal injury practice and may not do such litigation exclusively. All are Wisconsin lawyers but many practice in other areas and the list below includes attorneys practicing plaintiff’s personal injury law and possibly in one or more of the following areas: Alternative Dispute Resolution, Appellate, Business/Corporate, Business Litigation, Civil Litigation Defense, Civil Rights/First Amendment, Criminal Defense, DUI/DWI, Employee Benefits/ERISA, Employment & Labor, Estate Planning & Probate, Family Law, General Litigation, Government/Cities/Municipalities, Immigration, Personal Injury Defense, Social Security Disability, and Workers' Compensation. Thus, conduct your investigation to find out if the lawyer you find is actually a good criminal lawyer (voted a Super Lawyer due to that) or whether they are truly a Wisconsin personal injury lawyer. Finally, keep in mind, that some lawyers listed are there because they are under 40 years old, Rising Stars.

Since more than two lawyers nearly never handle a particular personal injury case or trial, I thought it was important first to identify the Wisconsin law firms having two or more Super Lawyers listing plaintiff’s personal injury as at least part of the firm’s practice:

Aiken & Scoptur SC, Milwaukee
Anderson, O'Brien, Bertz, Skrenes & Golla, Stevens Point
Atterbury & Kammer, S.C., Middleton
Axley Brynelson, LLP, Madison
Bye, Goff, Rohde & Skow Ltd., River Falls
Cannon & Dunphy SC, Brookfield
DeWitt Ross & Stevens SC, Madison
End, Hierseman & Crain LLC, Milwaukee
Gass Weber Mullins LLC, Milwaukee
Gingras, Cates & Luebke, S.C., Madison
Habush Habush & Rottier SC, Various
Hale, Skemp, Hanson, Skemp & Sleik, La Crosse
Herrling Clark Law Firm Ltd, Appleton
Jacquart & Lowe SC, Milwaukee
Lawton & Cates, SC, Madison
Meier, Wickhem, Lyons & Schulz SC, Janesville
Murphy & Prachthauser, Milwaukee Peterson, Berk & Cross SC, Appleton
Pasternak & Zirgibel, SC, Brookfield
Previant, Goldberg, Uelmen, Gratz, Miller & Brueggeman SC, Milwaukee
Schoone, Leuck, Kelley, Pitts & Knurr, S.C., Racine
Warshafsky, Rotter, Tarnoff & Bloch, SC, Milwaukee

The following Wisconsin law firms have one Super Lawyer and at least one Rising Star (under 40) listing plaintiff’s personal injury as at least part of the firm’s practice:

Curtis Law Office, Oshkosh
Domnitz & Skemp, S.C., Milwaukee
Fitzpatrick, Blackey & Associates LLC, La Crosse
Fox & Fox SC, Monona
Gimbel, Reilly, Guerin & Brown, Milwaukee
Laufenberg & Hoefle SC, Milwaukee
Liebmann, Conway, Olejniczak & Jerry SC, Green Bay
Menn Law Firm, Ltd., Appleton
Pitman, Kyle & Sicula SC, Milwaukee

Truth be told, you could do ALOT worse than researching and interviewing some of the above 30 law firms to help with your personal injury case. Of course, I'd like you to interview these Wisconsin personal injury attorneys.

Finally, here is a list of all the 2008 Super Lawyers and Rising Stars (under 40) listing plaintiff’s personal injury as at least part of their practice:

Victor M. Arellano
Lee R. Atterbury
Charles W. Averbeck
Bruce R. Bachhuber
John A. Becker
Brian P. Beisenstein
Joseph J. Beisenstein
Robert E. Bellin, Jr.
Keith A. Belzer
Avram D. Berk
Thomas W. Bertz
Gerald J. Bloch
Steven T. Botzau
Larry B. Brueggeman
George Burnett
C.M. Bye
John C. Cabaniss
Steven M. Cain
Kelly L. Centofanti
William M. Cannon
Kent I. Carnell
John L. Cates
Craig A. Christensen
John D. Claypool
Keith R. Clifford
Patrick J. Coffey
Terence R. Collins
Byron B. Conway
Shawn R. Crain
Robert D. Crivello
Rodney L. Cubbie
George W. Curtis, Jr.
Jane Cuthbert
Christine Davies D'Angelo
Bruce M. Davey
Michael R. Davis
M. Angela Dentice
Frank M. Doherty
Merrick R. Domnitz
Christopher A. Duesing
Patrick O. Dunphy
Brett A. Eckstein
Gregory J. Egan
J. Michael End
Eric A. Farnsworth
Laurence J. Fehring
David J. Fitzpatrick
Tom Fitzpatrick
Thomas J. Flanagan
Pamela Wiza Flores
Alex Flynn
Michael R. Fox
Peter J. Fox
Paul V. Gagliardi
James W. Gardner
Eugene A. Gasiorkiewicz
J. Ric Gass
Michael W. Gill
Robert J. Gingras
Steven B. Goff
Russell T. Golla
Jonathan P. Groth
D. Michael Guerin
Robert L. Habush
Charles E. Hanson
Victor C. Harding
Michael F. Hart
Webster A. Hart
C. Michael Hausman
Michael M. Hayes
Jerome A. Hierseman
Ann S. Jacobs
Paul R. Jacquart
James R. Jansen
Thomas J. Janssen
Robert L. Jaskulski
Michael J. Jassak
James A. Johnson
Alexander S. Kammer
David B. Karp
Robert J. Kasieta
Kenan J. Kersten
Timothy S. Knurr
Jason Knutson
Kevin J. Kukor
Dean P. Laing
Lynn R. Laufenberg
Michael L. Laufenberg
Thadd J. Llaurado
Kevin Lonergan
David P. Lowe
Michael J. Luebke
Theodore V. Lyons, Jr.
Craig Mastantuono
Robert A. Mich, Jr.
Leah M. Michaelson-Link
Mark J. Mingo
Thomas J. Misfeldt
Gerald W. Mowris
Thomas K. Mullins
Jason R. Oldenburg
James A. Olson
Robert A. Parsons
Frank T. Pasternak
Mark A. Pennow
Ricardo Perez
John C. Peterson
Jeffrey A. Pitman
James A. Pitts
Kenneth C. Pletcher
Don C. Prachthauser
Ken Quincey
Jacob R. Reis
Jason S. Richard
Michael Riley
F. William Russo
J. Drew Ryberg
Werner Erich Scherr
Charles D. Schmidt
Raymond E. Schrank, II
Jacob L. Schrinsky
Paul J. Scoptur
Michael S. Siddall
Anthony J. Skemp
Ardell W. Skow
Marie A. Stanton
Christopher J. Stawski
Phillip M. Steans
Susan R. Steingass
Charles F. Stierman
Jamie Stock-Retzloff
Heath P. Straka
Christopher L. Strohbehn
Brenda K. Sunby
David E. Sunby
Michael I. Tarnoff
Ralph J. Tease, Jr.
Willard P. Techmeier
Frank R. Terschan
Mark L. Thomsen
Timothy S. Trecek
Jay A. Urban
Edward J. Vopal
Benjamin S. Wagner
William J. Waltenberger
John Walsh
Ted M. Warshafsky
David H. Weber
D.J. Weis
Robert J. Welcenbach
Daniel D. Whetter
James D. Wickhem
Geoffrey D. Wilber
Gregory R. Wright
Mark S. Young
Jeffrey R. Zirgibel

Wisconsin Personal Injury Lawyer