Pennsylvania Injury Law Report : Pennsylvania Personal Injury Lawyer & Attorney : Stuart Carpey Law Firm : Auto Accidents & Product Liability : Pennsylvania Injury Law Report

Anybody who is crazy enough to lie on their car insurance application about where they live in order to get lower rates has to read this article written by Diane Marshall of the Philadelphia Inquirer this week. In Ms. Marshall's words,

Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett's continuing investigation into insurance fraud has resulted in another round of arrests - 24 people accused of falsely claiming to be state residents in order to obtain lower rates on their automobiles.

Using a phony address for lower rates is known as "rate evasion." Urban areas like Philadelphia have higher rates than suburban areas, because of more accidents. So, the insurance companies can charge higher rates.  In the Inquirer article, most of those arrested were from the New York City area claiming suburban Philadelphia addresses. 

A better idea for getting lower rates on your auto policy? Shop around. Start by going to the Pennsylvania Insurance Department website and taking a look at all the insurance carriers who write auto insurance in Pennsylvania. Then give them a call to see what their rates are for the geographic area where you live.

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Unlikely. But Jennifer Smith, whose mother, Linda Doyle, was killed last year by another driver who was distracted because he was talking on his cell phone and ran a red light in Oklahoma City is testing the theory. The reason she can’t win the case is because Sprint-Nextel, whose cell phone service the defendant driver was using at the time, owed no direct duty to Jennifer Smith’s mother. The driver of the other car, 20 year old Christopher Hill, owed a duty Mrs. Doyle, to operate his vehicle in a prudent and reasonable manner. We all owe that duty to each other when we are driving on the road. When that duty is breached, it gives rise to a claim for negligence. Without the duty, there is no negligence.

What’s really going on here is that the negligent driver didn’t carry enough liability coverage on his auto insurance policy,  or failed to carry any coverage. As such, when Jennifer Hill made a claim to Hill’s auto insurance carrier for the death caused by Hill (ie: a personal injury case on behalf of the estate of Linda Doyle), assuming he had some coverage, the carrier probably paid their minimal policy limits. Jennifer Smith’s next step was to make an uninsured motorist claim (UM) through her mother’s auto insurance policy or underinsured motorist claim (UIM). That policy either didn’t carry any UM or UIM coverage, or carried a minimal amount.

The lawyer on behalf of Mrs. Doyle's estate and on behalf of Jennifer Smith  is clearly looking for another source of funds from which to compensate Ms. Smith for the death of her mother. It is an otherwise viable approach, but one that will ultimately fail.

I preach to consumers that they must maximize their UM and UIM coverage. The whole idea of any insurance investment is to use it as a tool to protect yourself and your family. If Linda Doyle had carried sufficient amounts of UM and UIM  coverage, Jennifer Smith and her lawyer would not have had to make a tenuous claim against Sprint-Nextel.

We’re talking about personal responsibility here. Tort cases, (that is, negligence cases), are frequently targeted for discouraging lack of individual responsibility - the theory being that if the courthouse is open to all sorts of legal wrongs, the party suing can look to others for his injury before accepting responsibility for his own actions.

But in reality, the tort law system encourages personal responsibility for wrongs committed in the community. For instance, enforcing negligence claims against drivers using cell phones and being too distracted to operate a vehicle safely is by definition enforcing personal responsibility, on the defendant driver. So too is encouraging consumers to purchase sufficient amounts of insurance coverage, particularly UM and UIM benefits, so that they and their families are financially protected against the careless acts of negligent drivers.
 

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Thomas Killino, a former assistant district attorney in Luzerne County, testified last week in front of a special panel investigating judicial corruption in Luzerne County on the part of former Judges Mark A. Ciavarella and Michael T. Conahan. I’ve reported on the goings on in Luzerne County before.

This is from an article written by Philadelphia Inquirer reporter William Ecenbarger. This is what Killino said and how members of the investigating panel responded to what he said.

"We trusted the judge," said Thomas Killino, a former assistant district attorney when asked why he did not challenge many of Ciavarella's actions, including illegally obtaining forms from young defendants waiving their right to a lawyer. Much of the questioning centered on why prosecutors, probation officers, and public defenders did not challenge Ciavarella's failure to explain to defendants the consequences of waiving their right to counsel and of pleading guilty. This process, called a colloquy, is required by state court rules.

"Did it ever bother you that there was no colloquy?" asked George D. Mosee, head of the juvenile division of the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office.

"It was a fast-paced environment," Killino replied. "This was the established practice of the court. Everyone went along with it."

Mosee, who oversees the prosecution of about 10,000 juveniles a year, added: "I've never prosecuted a child who didn't have an attorney. How do you handle it?"

Killino said he was told that the defendants had signed written waivers outside the courtroom and that he believed those overrode the requirement for a colloquy in open court to determine that the juveniles understood that they had a right to an attorney.

When Killino confirmed estimates that more than half the child defendants who appeared before Ciavarella did not have attorneys, Judge Dwayne D. Woodruff asked him if he had ever read the juvenile law that required them to have counsel.

Killino said he had read parts of the law but not the entire law.

Later, Woodruff said he had heard about 4,000 juvenile cases and every defendant had a lawyer. Judge John C. Uhler asked Killino if there were instances when defendants without lawyers were sentenced without ever speaking in their own defense. Killino said there were, and that in those cases Ciavarella would move right on to sentencing in a matter of minutes. Later, Uhler said that in his 20 years as a juvenile court judge, no defendant had ever appeared before him without an attorney.

Killino testified that he and other prosecutors did not have enough information available to them to determine whether a sentence from Ciavarella was unduly harsh.

"Didn't you want to know?" demanded Jason D. Legg, a commission member who is a prosecutor from rural Susquehanna County. "It was not part of our purview," said Killino.

Later, Legg said he prosecutes hundreds of juveniles every year and they always have legal representation.  

How does this apply to your lawyer in charge of your personal injury case? You should question your lawyer periodically throughout the pre-litigation period of your case, as the case is litigated (meaning after suit is filed) and pre trial. Ask your lawyer pointed questions about the facts of the case. Is he or she familiar with your case when you speak to your lawyer on the phone. Has your lawyer fully and completely read the laws that apply to your case?

Mr. Killino was in a position of power. Maybe not to the same degree as the judges who uniformly sentenced the juveniles who appeared in their courtrooms. Still, as an ADA, Killino owed an obligation not just to the juveniles he was prosecuting, but to the judicial system as well. His client was Luzerne County and its citizens. The duty he owed to his client was to read and know the laws that applied to juveniles being sentenced without legal counsel. The fact that Killino was familiar with the law but not completely versed in the law is inexcusable.

He, and others who appeared in Ciavarella’s and Conahan’s courtrooms, did not want to rock the boat. It’s hard to be a whistleblower. But here there was no excuse.

Your personal injury lawyer should provide the benefit of his or her expertise, value to you in the handling of your case, leading to a satisfactory result and a solution to your legal problem. To do so your personal injury lawyer has to be able to provide you answers to your questions. He has to assist you in the decision making process in your case. If your lawyer can't do that, then get yourself a new lawyer. If your lawyer is familiar with the laws that apply to your case but is not completed versed in those laws and the updates to the laws that apply to your case, get yourself a new lawyer.

Just because there is a fancy degree on the wall of your lawyer's office doesn't mean he's informed. Thomas Killino is a good example of that.
 

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