Maricopa County is slightly better, but not much. I don't think the 2020 election data is representative, either. I think a lot of traditional republicans voted for Biden because they disliked Trump. They didn't suddenly wake up and want to give big awards in personal injury cases. The family is still getting a decent sum of money but it's a tough pill to swallow when I compare to my Texas results.
If the policy holder prevails against an uninsured party, does the insurer have a duty to go after the non-prevailing party for fees so the policy holder is not required to pay any policy overages?
Depends on the policy, but fees under a fee-shifting statute are normally treated as "costs" rather than "damages" and fall under the duty to defend rather than the duty to indemnify. Unless it's an eroding policy, I can't imagine a situation where the insured would be paying for "overages" under the duty to defend. Either way, the carrier is going to want to pursue the fees because they're the ones who paid them.
This asshat does a lot of Allstate work when he's not moonlighting as a municipal judge. He drives a lime green Lotus with a vanity plate. https://www.al.com/news/anniston-ga...dant-ill-bust-your-ass-complaint-alleges.html
Carrier is not pursuing the fees. Spoiler Should add the plaintiffs are an individual/LLC and the defendant is an LLC
Currently in a depo where the defense counsel taking the depo clearly has no experience in 1st party insurance law and didn't bother to prep for this depo. It is brutal. He's jumping between claims every other question and just going on random tangents. It's absolutely brutal. I'm not sure whether to clean up the confusion and paint my client in the best light possible, or just leave a completely fucked transcript that in no way hurts my client because he has no idea what he's doing.
Those feels when you send a demand that is the carrier's maximum exposure and you get a counter from the adjuster that is way more than you ever imagined they'd pay and pretty close to your demand. It doesn't happen often.
Happened yesterday. Threw out an initial offer that was like 30k more than my clients bottom line. Got a quick response of would they take 20k over bottom line? Settled on 25k above asking. Client thinks I’m a magician.
I have always somewhat felt this way but I have finally concluded that written discovery is absolutely useless in car crash cases. I have a defense lawyer who is very confused by me giving him a discovery extension while also insisting his client’s depo goes forward next week.
Bottom of 30 asked 60. Got 55. Some nice fees on top as well. Good day at the office. Been on an absolute heater since that delayed settlement.
Discovery is completely useless on my end. I send my entire file with my initial demand right after filing suit. It’s rare that there is some key information that isn’t included in my initial disclosure.
In the run of the mill soft tissue car wreck case I hardly ever get anything in discovery from Defendant worth a shit
Past medical issues, wage info, other accidents or claims. That info normally isn’t in the claimant’s demand packages we receive.
I think Sammy is discussing this from the Plaintiff’s perspective. We all know the black hats can’t wait to get their hands on that sweet sweet prior medical treatment
Ya, I was responding in part of CF3234 ’s post about his initial demand packet encompassing most things requested in WD
There’s absolutely nothing in interrogatories that I’m not better served by just asking about it in deposition. I’m also coming around to not serving any initial discovery in my negligent security cases. I think I have my biggest advantage right when suit is filed and defense lawyers in those cases are left playing catch-up. At that point the knowledge gap is greater than it will be at any other point in the case. Written discovery just gives them somewhat of a roadmap and lets them talk to their client and give me dumb objections. I think written discovery still has its place in those cases, but maybe not in the sequence that people have usually done it.
For property, the insurance company has access to all of this info already. All responding to discovery does is waste time and rack up fees
Give it time. Plaintiffs lie to their own lawyers all the time. And eventually, there will be something you either missed or didn’t have access to.
To paraphrase a great piece of advice my mentor gave me as a young lawyer, "You have to assume everyone is lying to you. Especially your own client."
Oh. Absolutely. Wasn’t saying the clients don’t lie. More that there’s really nothing for them to lie to me about that I don’t already know.
My favorite lie was when we were trying a wrongful death/products case, and the expert had told us that he had never used the seatbelt in question as his alternative design other than one time about 15 years previously. At trial, Defense counsel had located about 6 times in last 10 years he had used it. Just awful.
I would probably get fired for the detail in that post. In short, my client is creating a shitload of middle-men for specific cases, when we already report to three different people that are never on the same page. They also are berating millennial jurors for being too emotional.
Adjuster calls for free advice... Adjuster: What is the statute of limitations for Alabama? Tegg: Well, it depends. What kind of case? Adjuster: Car wreck. Tegg: Third-party or UIM? Adjuster: Uh. Our insured. Tegg: Is your insured being sued, or suing? Adjuster: Uh. Being sued. Third party. Tegg: Then it's two years. Adjuster: So, if they filed this three years after the accident, the statute has run? Tegg: Hold on, they filed it three years after the accident? Are you sure this isn't a UIM case? Adjuster: Yeah. Tegg: And are you sure it isn't an amended complaint you have? Adjuster: Yeah. So, can you get it dismissed? Tegg: If it's filed outside the statute, then yes. File arrives. It's a UIM case (6 year statute) where the original complaint was filed within two years and amended after one year of litigation. She wants to know why we can't have it dismissed on the SOL. And, it's a flat-fee file.
who is filing a lawsuit a year after a statute has run? at this point you realize you done fucked up and call your insurance
Case from our Supreme Court came out where a trial court dismissed a med mal case because of SOL, plaintiff appealed, supreme court reversed and remanded. Defendant propounded more discovery after it was remanded and for 3.5 years plaintiff didn't answer the discovery or do anything to move the case forward so the trial court dismissed the case for lack of prosecution and Supreme Court affirmed. Seems like a lot of work getting the dismissal reversed and going through an appeal to then just do nothing for 3.5 years. Must be more to that story. Maybe the lawyer went through a mid life crisis or health issue or something
I love how everyone always throws the Portuguese speaking clients my way like it’s the same thing or something. I just spent like three minutes giving some dude my opening thing in Spanish about workers comp cases and he spent the whole time apparently wondering wtf I was saying.
legal assistant: we got policy limits on the case with the dude with the broken wrist. me: cool was it minimum or what? legal assistant: yes it's 30k me: is there underinsured? her: no. i go into file, check the first party information and see there is a letter from the insurance labeled as no pip and no uim. i look at the doc and he has $30k underinsured. she is lucky that she doesn't work for someone else who would've lost their shit
Civil defense firm in downtown Orlando. I was told I’ll be handling cases involving highway trucking accidents.