Miscellaneous

• Why You Need an Attorney That Knows How to Resolve Liens in a Personal Injury Matter

  Geoff Trachtenberg | March 27, 2007 9:15 AM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ

  There's a saying concerning doctors that applies with equal force to lawyers:Do you know what they call the person graduating medical school in the bottom of their class?"Doctor."On par with hiring an attorney with superior personal injury knowledge and experience is finding an attorney with the knowledge and skill to properly resolve healthcare-related liens. Such an attorney can make the...

• Attorney Referrals Used to Show Bias In Personal Injury Suits

  Geoff Trachtenberg | March 26, 2007 11:21 AM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ

  It might surprise you, but defense lawyers salivate over attorney referrals to medical providers. Indeed, "attorney referral" is even a factor in the pre-litigation "evaluation" systems used by insurers. Defense lawyers make the argument that, where a tort victim goes to an attorney and gets a doctor referral, the injured person's care is suspect and/or "attorney-driven," regardless of any...

• Your Identity Could Cost Just Fourteen Dollars

  Staff Writer | March 26, 2007 10:13 AM | 0 CommentsPhoenix, AZ

  I just learned from an article in the on-line publication Infoworld that your identity and all sorts of personal information associated with it may be available for purchase on the internet for just fourteen dollars. A research report generated by the Symantec Corporation suggests that identity theft criminals can purchase confidential personal information as follows:U.S.-based credit cards...

• Insurance: Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress

  Geoff Trachtenberg | March 24, 2007 9:28 PM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ

  Negligent infliction of emotional distress claims often arise where someone who is in the "zone of danger," i.e., subject to being injured, and they witness a family member's injury or death. Like most serious injury claims, limited insurance can present a barrier to recovery. Recently, however, the Arizona Court of Appeals held that a negligent infliction of emotional distress claim is...

• Like a Good Neighbor?

  Geoff Trachtenberg | March 22, 2007 10:17 PM | 1 CommentScottsdale, AZ

  Randy Udelman reports on the record profits from State Farm Insurance, noting:In the midst of its record-setting year, according to a recent story on CNN, State Farm apparently adopted a policy to minimize settlement offers for low-impact motor vehicle collisions forcing accident victims to take substantially low settlement offers or spent significant costs in litigation. Moreover, Katrina...

• Liability for Negligent Creation of a Dangerous Condition

  Geoff Trachtenberg | March 21, 2007 10:38 AM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ

  When someone gets hurt on property or on a roadway, the issue that is litigated is typically whether there was sufficient "notice" to the property owner or entity responsible for the roadway. Often, however, proving such notice is not required where the defendant is responsible for creating the dangerous condition. As the Arizona Supreme Court recognized in Isbell v. Maricopa County, 198 Ariz....

• Business Installment Agreements & Statutes of Limitation

  Geoff Trachtenberg | March 21, 2007 10:07 AM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ

  Say someone owes you $100 and agrees to pay you in $10 monthly installments. What if they pay the first two installments, miss the third one, pay the fourth installment and miss the fifth installment. When does the statute of limitations begin to run?The answer is that there is a new accrual date for each missed installment, unless there is an acceleration clause in the agreement. In...

• Negligence of an Independent Contractor

  Geoff Trachtenberg | March 21, 2007 9:25 AM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ

  Most attorneys hire outside companies to handle filing and serving lawsuits. What happens when these process servers mess up and, as a result, you cannot pursue your lawsuit?We have a case like that right now. About one week before the statute of limitations ran, our client's former attorney prepared a lawsuit and sent it to be filed with the Court. Although the attorney's staff followed up...

• Negligent Injury or Death of a Pet

  Geoff Trachtenberg | March 20, 2007 8:06 PM | 0 CommentsScottsdale, AZ

  For many pet-owners, pets are more like family members than simple property, so what happens when a pet is negligently injured or worse? Historically, those pets were treated just like property and the owners were simply entitled to the "market value" or "replacement value" of the pets. While the law varies from state to state, in Arizona the courts have suggested that pet owners may have a...

• State Farm Insurance CEO Pay Rises Eighty-Two Percent

  Staff Writer | March 20, 2007 10:00 AM | 2 CommentsPhoenix, AZ

  Congratulations to State Farm Insurance Company! Its profits rose almost sixty-four percent (64%) to $5.32 billion dollars last year from $3.24 billion dollars in 2005. In my opinion, during this time, I do not think that State Farm acted like very much of a good neighbor to victims of Hurricane Katrina or to other policy-holders who timely paid premiums thinking they would be protected in...