West Virginia Lawyer Blog

West Virginia's House and Senate committees are expected to pass a bill banning cell phone use and texting while driving. The bill is championed by Governor Earl Ray Tomblin, and once he signs it, West Virginia will become one of a growing number of states to ban the practice. Already nine states and Washington D.C. ban the use of handheld cell phones while driving, while 35 states have banned text messaging.

The bill would treat both cell phone use and texting as secondary offenses, meaning that a police officer could cite drivers for cell phone use or texting only after pulling them over for a different offense. Other states treat cell phone use as a primary offense, so police officers can pull drivers over just for using a cell phone.

One typical reason for the imminent ban was given by Delegate Nancy Peoples Guthrie: "We're losing too many people in accidents that we know could be avoided. I don't want to lose any more kids, any more parents, any more people." Already, West Virginia prohibits drivers 18 years old and younger from texting or using a cell phone while operating a car. The upcoming ban would extend that ban to every driver.

The Senate Transportation and Infrastructure committee and the House Transportation and Roads committee are expected to take up the bill, and chairmen of both are optimistic that the legislation will take effect sometime this year.

We at the Wolfe Law Firm believe that banning handheld cell phones and texting is a smart solution that is a long time coming -- one that is sure to save countless lives. While driving is a privilege that everyone should handle with great care, too many people act as though they can do anything (eat, drink alcohol, talk on a cell phone, apply makeup) and come away unscathed. That leads to accidents that could have easily been avoided. Our firm has represented car accident victims for over 20 years, and can attest to the variety of injuries people suffer, as well as the often nightmarish interactions with the other driver's insurance company.

Continue reading "West Virginia Legislator Poised to Pass Ban On Texting, Cell Phone Use, While Driving" »

The United States District Court for the District of Arizona, on May 9, 2011, issued an opinion in Haro vs Sebelius, wherein the court held that the Secretary's for DHHR application for a 60-day reimbursement requirement did not give immediate collection actions of Medicare beneficiaries. The MSP provisions did not authorize the Secretary to bring direct action against the medicare recipient to collect disputed reimbursement claims.

What this means is if you are in a car accident in West Virginia and you have medicare or medicaid which pays for medical services DHHR cannot bring a suit to seek repayment if you dispute the amount of reimbursement they are seeking. The reason is simply what if they are seeking to be paid back for bills which are unrelated to the accident?

The Haro vs. Sebelius case was brought on behalf of Medicare beneficiaries and their attorneys against the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Resources regarding the confusing Medicare Secondary Payee provisions wherein Medicare seeks to be reimbursed for monies that were paid to either someone who was injured in a liability case, a Workers' Compensation case or a no-fault case. The suit was declaratory judgement action wherein the attorneys and the beneficiaries of Medicare were seeking to get a ruling on whether or not the Secretary's practices were permissible, or whether it violated a due process clause in the United States Constitution. The plaintiffs sought a declaratory judgement and an injunction to prevent the Medicare Secondary Payee program from seeking collection from the beneficiaries who had received benefits through Medicare.

Continue reading "Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Released New Conditional Final Payment Letters on June 27, 2011." »

So you were in a car accident in West Virginia, your car was damaged and fortunately, no one was injured, what do you do? First, do not move the vehicles, call 911 immediately and request a police officer. Many police agencies today will not issue a ticket or find fault if the vehicles were moved. Do not argue with the other driver, and have your insurance information, vehicle registration and driving license ready for when the police arrive. Also, it is important to make sure you and your passengers are in a safe location. Once everything has settled down, the police officer will take a statement from you. If you have a cell phone with a camera, you can take pictures of the scene and the vehicles, but stay out of the way.

It is important when you give your statement to the police officer, that you have calmed down and are clear of the facts. The police officer will write your statement down and this will be part of his basis for determining what happened. Likewise, either your insurance company or the other party's insurance company will be contacting you by telephone to take a sworn statement, so when giving your statement, you need to be calm and clear as to what happened. Do not volunteer information or ramble on as this will not help in explaining your side of the story. The reason that all this is important is that the police officer and the insurance company are trying to determine who is at fault in the accident, and if the accident is not your fault, you want the records to reflect this accurately.

Next, a property adjustor will want to come and look at your vehicle. The adjuster will be working for either your insurance company, the other driver's insurance company, or both. It is important that you are familiar with your vehicle and communicate this to the adjustor.

If your vehicle is totaled, you will want to know the NADA value of your vehicle and you can determine this online. Once you have obtained this information, print out the NADA valuation. The adjustor will tell you they do not have to go by the NADA value, which is true. Several years ago, the insurance companies wanted to reduce the value they paid on totaled automobiles, so they lobbied the Insurance Commissioner in West Virginia to be allowed to no longer use NADA value, despite that the banks, dealerships and courts recognized these values. They developed their own system called "CCI," which they claim show the market value of a vehicle based on vehicles like yours which were recently bought. This system has numerous problems as no two cars are exactly the same.

Continue reading "How to handle your car accident property damage claim." »