Automobile Accidents

• Teen Cell Phone Ban

  Ken Margolin | September 14, 2007 3:35 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  California has banned cell phone use by drivers ages 16 & 17. The ban will include text messaging. Older drivers will be allowed to use hands free phones, but the ban for the teenagers will be total. While the legislation is positive and regrettably, too rare, it is insufficient. A number of studies have shown that even during conversations on hands free cell phones, drivers' reactions times...

• Cell Phone Driving Fatalities

  Ken Margolin | August 07, 2007 4:10 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  If the sight of the driver to your right on the interstate, chatting away on his cell phone gets you angry, you've got a right to be. Various studies have shown that driving while talking on a cell phone can be as dangerous as driving with a blood alcohol level over the legal limit. Estimates of the number of U.S. traffic fatalities caused by cell phone talking while driving are generally in the...

• A Victory Against Trucking Fatalities

  Ken Margolin | July 25, 2007 12:45 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  The federal Appeals Court of the D.C. Circuit, struck down new rules of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, that would have allowed big rig truckers to drive many more consecutive hours. The case was brought by Public Citizen, a public safety advocacy group, and other groups formed to protect the public against tired truckers. The Appeals Court held that the federal agency had not...

• More Insurance Company Fraud

  Ken Margolin | July 06, 2007 11:05 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  Several days ago, I posted a blog on bad faith denial of claims by insurance companies. I don't usually write blogs on the same topic within several days of each other, but I must comment on the superb reporting on insurance company bad faith, in this month's issue of Trial magazine. Trial is the journal of the American Association for Justice, the plaintiffs' trial lawyers association. The...

• The Serious Car Accident Case

  Ken Margolin | July 05, 2007 12:45 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  For many years, small car accident cases resulting in modest injury, were the bread and butter of a portion of the Massachusetts plaintiffs' personal injury bar. Some firms had hundreds of these cases, which were prepared in cookie cutter fashion, and settled with adjustors with little or no discovery done, or even before suit was filed. Reputable lawyers handling the small car accident case,...

• Bad Faith Denial of Insurance Claims

  Ken Margolin | June 26, 2007 6:15 PM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  There is only one reason to buy insurance - to have the peace of mind of knowing that the financial needs of you or your family will be covered in the event of death, catastrophic injury, or long-term disability or illness. When an insurance company denies payment of a valid claim in bad faith, it is practicing the corporate greed version of "what's mine is mine, and what's yours is mine." You...

• Disastrous Distractions

  Ken Margolin | May 07, 2007 7:00 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  Driving while chowing down a donut, alternating the snack with a cup of hot coffee, is a time-honored example of dangerous, distracted driving. Even though driving safety researchers preached that drinking a beverage while driving, could lead to car crashes due to distraction, human nature dictated that eating and drinking while driving, was never going to stop. The ante was raised with the...

• Pedestrian Accidents

  Ken Margolin | April 05, 2007 7:00 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  A few years ago, the National Safety Council ran a television ad showing a deadly car crash, with the superimposed message, "he was right - dead right." I don't know if the ad stopped any accidents, but its message was undeniably true - when on the roads, drivers have to put safety over pride. Sometimes, the best course is to give the right of way to the car, that by rights, shouldn't have it....

• The Atlanta Bus Tragedy

  Ken Margolin | March 05, 2007 7:00 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  A tragedy in Atlanta, Georgia, killed six members of the baseball team of Bluffton University, Bluffton, Ohio, and injured dozens of others. The Bluffton baseball team was traveling in a charter bus on highway I-75 in Atlanta, Georgia, on the way to games during the team's spring break. It appears that the bus took a left lane exit at full speed, the driver possibly thinking that he was in a...

• Private Investigators for Real Plaintiffs

  Ken Margolin | February 27, 2007 9:00 AM | 0 CommentsBoston, MA

  You've seen them on television - those private investigators who can solve any crime or get the true story on any disaster while the authorities fiddle around without a clue. If you are old enough to remember "The Rockford Files," then you know how creative television private eyes can be. The work of real-life private investigators is more boring, generally consisting of tenacity, a good...