On March 23, 2015, Oregon Governor Kate Brown signed into law Senate Bill 411 which made PIP and UM/UIM subrogation much more intimidating, but perhaps only slightly more difficult. The new bill amended several Oregon statutes, doubled the PIP medical benefit period from one year to two years, and changed Oregon UM policies from a…
James v. State Farm Mutual Auto. Ins. Co., 929 N.W.2d 541 (S.D. 2019). The origins of auto insurance can be traced all the way back to the ancient Chinese when investors took out insurance policies on cargo ships crossing the high seas. This later became known as marine insurance and is still a system used…
The Spanish philosopher George Santayana once said that, “Chaos is the name we give order which produces confusion in our minds.” With that definition in mind, the July 3, 2019 Washington Supreme Court decision of Daniels v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 2019 WL 2909308 (Wash. July 3, 2019), is responsible for about as…
Frederking v. Cincinnati Ins. Co., 929 F.3d 195 (5th Cir. 2019). Carlos Sanchez got drunk and crashed into Richard Frederking while driving his employer’s vehicle insured by Cincinnati Insurance Company. Seriously injured, Frederking sued Sanchez in Texas state court and was awarded $137,025 in compensatory damages and $207,550 in punitive damages. Cincinnati agreed to pay…
On Tuesday, April 9th, the Minnesota legislature passed new hands-free legislation requiring drivers to have their cell phones in hands-free mode while their vehicle is moving. The law, signed by Gov. Tim Walz, goes into effect on August 1, 2019. In so doing, Minnesota joined 17 other states which have passed rigorous new laws governing…
There is an ongoing and heated national debate over the growing practice of law enforcement using red light traffic cameras. More than 500 cities and other municipalities across the country have installed some form of red light camera systems to capture evidence of accidents and red light violations. Hundreds of others are either contemplating their…
Ridesharing has officially arrived in New York, and confusion over New York no-fault insurance and PIP Loss Transfer arrived with it. On June 29, 2017, the New York State Assembly approved, and Governor Andrew Cuomo signed, the state’s $153 billion budget, which included changes in state law providing for ridesharing and starting a rule-making process…
Every year, more than 170 billion cell phone texts are sent and received. Each year, an average of 3,000 people die and 450,000 are injured in motor vehicle accidents involving distracted drivers. Ten percent of all drivers who are 15 to 19 years of age involved in fatal crashes were distracted when the accident occurred.…
Texas has more roads than any other state in the country. It has over 15 million licensed drivers on the road and its residents own and operate more than 8 million automobiles—twice as many as New York or Illinois and more than any other state other than California. Nearly all of them travel on Texas…
When a negligent driver causes damage to another vehicle in an accident, most states allow the owner of the damaged vehicle to recover damages in tort for the reasonable cost of repairing or replacing the vehicle along with the monetary value of being without the vehicle for a reasonable period while the vehicle is being…