Newsletters

Is it Okay to Change Your Mind?

We deal all the time with doctors who have decided to become "experts" because they didn't make enough money practicing medicine. That alone leaves a residue on them. But the thing that both frustrates and provides an intriguing opportunity is that their understanding of medicine calcifies sometime before they leave practice. Every new advance is lost on them. They are unable to change their minds and adapt to new information.

Routine and Interruption—Measuring the Loss

Injuries shove their way into people's lives. They reduce quality of life in all sorts of ways. One of the biggest--and frequently overlooked ways--is by interrupting routines that, in many ways, define us as people.

Government Liability for Wrecks Involving Disabled Vehicles

The government owes a duty to provide safe roadways. As part of that duty it has an obligation to take action when disabled vehicles are reported. There's a right way and a wrong way to frame these claims and it makes all the difference between recovering something and nothing.

Cycle Time. In Other Words: How Long will my Case Take?

Everyone wants to know how long their cases will take. The process is similar for each case. Information gathering, demand letter and then negotiation and settlement or suit. The average time for resolution is about a year. But individual cycle times can be a lot shorter or longer.

E-Bikes

It feels like we're entering the dark ages. We're being required to unlearn everything we know now. One of those things is how to keep kids safe (or at least safer). Nothing is more emblematic than e-bikes. Hopefully claims will be allowed under homeowners policies for the peril parents are creating for their kids.

#nofilter and Personal Injury Cases

It’s tempting to make everything look Insta-ready. But it’s a trap. First, it’s not real. And people respond to authenticity. Second, it embeds vulnerabilities and hides them under the surface. Vulnerabilities can become strengths is they’re addressed right off the bat. When they’re trapped under the skin they can become necrotic.

Parallel Realities: Most People and the Injured Person

Description: Should damages be awarded based on what happens to most people or what happens to the injured person? This newsletter discusses a hybrid model for calculating past damages based on what's actually happened to the injured person and future damages based on how "most people" with similar injuries will do in the future.

But I Paid for $1M of UIM Coverage!

If you have a $1 million life insurance policy and die the insurance company has to pay $1 million. But UIM coverage doesn't work the same way. If you have a $1 million UIM policy, the insurance company doesn't have to pay $1 million. The $1 million figure is a ceiling. It's the most the insurance company will pay, not what the insurance company will pay, if you get into a wreck with an underinsured driver.

Cash Flow

Collisions impact cash flow. More money goes out. Less money comes in. So it’s common for people to feel financial strain while their personal injury cases are pending. Lots of clients ask what can be done to help the situation.

Cautionary Tale

People try to save money on insurance coverage. The risk calculus is about as good as running with scissors. Maybe you get away with it. But if you don't, the consequences are catastrophic. Stretch your budget to buy as much UM/UIM coverage as possible.

How do you Depose an Entity?

Corporations can be sued. Think how difficult it would be to get information if you had to depose one employee after another. Like a game of legal whack-a-mole. Fortunately the court rules provide a very streamlined process for getting information out of corporations and other entities.

The Illusion of Insurance

Insurance is supposed to be there when something bad happens. That's why we pay our premiums year after year. But as it turns out, a lot of insurers are happy to collect premiums but refuse to pay claims.

Plausible Nonsense

We’re busy. Critical thinking consumes energy. To save time we evaluate things based on how they look and sound. That’s dangerous because there are some things that look and sound legitimate, but are really “plausible nonsense.”

Striping and Motorcycles

There are all sorts of hazards for motorcycles. Some can't be avoided. They're immutable. But there are other hazards, especially man-made hazards, that should be eliminated.

PTSD is a Form of Brain Injury

PTSD is more than just an emotional response to trauma. The body's physiological response to trauma causes brain injury. PTSD is not subsidiary to other injuries. It's its own injury. This newsletter discusses our new thinking about how these claims should be prosecuted.

Misunderstanding and the Thin File

Some people think lawyers are motivated to drag out cases or force them to trial. Maybe that's true for the defense. But it's definitely not true on the plaintiff's side. Getting the most money possible in the least amount of time is always the goal. A big verdict after 10 years of fighting feels pyrrhic for most clients.

Women, Collisions and the Short End of the Stick

Some things seem so obvious in hindsight. Short women are less protected by safety systems and suffer more significant injuries in many crashes. This helps understand crashes involving short women. But it also emphasizes the importance individual variability plays in injury, recovery, disability, etc.

Claims Against Cities, Counties and States: Tapping into Bi-Partisan Dissatisfaction

Most drivers are underinsured. In catastrophic injury cases we have to cast a wider net. Frequently cities, counties and states are caught up in it. Not because we're over-reaching. But because systemic safety oversights and indifference seem to permeate state and local governments. And the general public is getting fed up.

Pain Scales and Timelines

We live in a world of faux-precision. We receive all sorts of really specific data about things that realistically can't be quantified with any accuracy. Pain scales are like that and I think there's a compelling argument that they should be binary: either there is or there isn't pain.

Defense Doctors: Medicine or Rhetoric?

Defense doctors may not be trained in rhetoric. But they use its techniques. One of the most common is “argument by irrelevant absence.” This newsletter shares some examples and talks about how to pull back the curtain on these charlatans.

The Following Driver Rule…and some Exceptions

Everyone knows the rule: if you rear-end someone, you’re at fault. Except sometimes you aren’t. Washington law generally puts responsibility on the following driver. But the rule isn’t absolute. Read more here about the exceptions to the rule.

Mashup: Stairs and Suing Family and Friends

No one wants to sue family or friends. But everyone makes mistakes. That's why they have insurance. Not making a claim only benefits one party: the insurance company.

Minimum Thresholds for Brain Injury--A Moving Target

Until doctors agree that brain injury does not occur below certain levels of linear and rotational acceleration, testimony about Gs and Rads is irrelevant. Another big point: brain injury can occur without eliciting a concussion diagnosis. For example, a brain injury may cause convergence insufficiency but not check all the boxes necessary to make a concussion diagnosis.

What Attorney is Right for You?

We think we know what we want. And what we need. But what's going to make an attorney the "right" fit for us and our case. This newsletter talks about some basic criteria and also the importance of finding an attorney who is comfortable and motivated to handle your type of case.

Lobes and Vision: More to it Than Meets the Eye

There's always a quest for "objective" evidence. Mild traumatic brain injuries don’t show up in imaging. One of the best ways to "prove" that there's been a brain injury is by measuring changes in vision. It's a great way to establish that forces have messed up the circuitry in the brain. There's more about these connections in this newsletter.

Bystander Claims for Family Members and Why they Matter

It's a big deal to see a family member right after they've been hurt. Distinguishing bystander claims from (conceptually similar) loss of consortium claims makes a huge difference in terms of insurance coverage. These nuances can make the difference between a good and a great result. (To the extent there ever is a "great" result after seeing someone you care about get hurt.)

The Hidden Cost of Medication

We live in a very medicated age. And we treat OTC and most prescription medication like no big deal. But medication does two things. It signals that there's an underlying problem that needs to be addressed. And it degrades our health. All of that needs to be captured in personal injury cases whether the medication is Advil or a neuro-stimulant.

Minor Settlements

Kids are pretty resilient. But they get hurt too. Any settlement involving someone under 18 has to be approved by the Court. If the settlement is approved the proceeds are put into a blocked account and can only be withdrawn if there's dire need or when the injured person turns 18.

An Unexpected Loss: The Ability to Argue and Resolve Conflict

There are things that seem inconsequential. Or that wouldn't make a top 20 list. But when you really think about them, they're instrumental to maintaining healthy relationships. The ability to argue and resolve conflict is one of these below the radar but hugely important skills that's often compromised by brain injury.

Who Referred you to Dr. __________?

It's easy for clients to get blown off course while treating for injuries after a wreck. We try to help by making suggestions about what kind of providers they should see next. When it comes to deposition or other testimony there's no reason to shrink in the face of insinuation: "I was referred to Dr. __________ by Myers & Company--the people there care about me."

Law Tigers: A Case Study

I see the billboards everywhere. Law Tigers isn't a law firm. It's a marketing franchise. It creates a brand identify for firms that have not established their own reputations. You can read more about a case we took over from a Law Tiger attorney in this newsletter. (A "lop" is a person of low repute.)

What Matters Most? Severity of Initial Symptoms or Severity of Impact on Injured Person?

Art provides so many great reference points for understanding the world around us. One of those models helps illustrate how little connection there is between size and impact.

Pain and Perspective

Our job is helping the insurance adjuster, arbitrator, judge or jurors understand what a particular injury meant to the injured person, not what that same injury would mean to them.

Oversimplification, Distortion and Getting Back to Basics: Medical Testimony

People are terrified to use their common sense. Courts perpetuate that anxiety by imposing formalistic and sometimes impenetrable rules. Fortunately that seems to be giving way to a more rational way to determine damages in personal injury cases.

Chiropractors and the Insatiable Desire to Write Reports

I hate being caught in the middle. Some clients are evangelists for their chiropractors. What they don't realize is chiropractic reports have almost zero impact on how much a case is worth.

The Amount of the Settlement is the Amount of the Settlement

Sometimes we think too much. And sometimes not enough. Both probably contribute to confusion about settlements. Maybe it's different in different areas of the law, but when a personal injury case settles for $X, that's the total amount that's going to be paid by the defendant.

Youth Sports: Educating Adults and Jurors

You'd think that Harborview or the Allen Brain Institute would be at the point of the spear in terms of educating the public about concussion. But it's actually youth sports organizations like Bellevue West Little League.

Defense Experts and Stereotyping: Most People Get Better In XX Weeks….

Stereotyping has fallen out of favor. But there's one place it's alive and well: the fraternity of defense medical examiners.

Why Would the Defendant Want to Help us?

It's really hard for clients to trust the person who hurt them. That's okay. Because when people have shared interests, trust isn't needed to hold alliances together. Read more about how this plays out in this newsletter.

Sight Triangles

Obstructed sight triangles are tricky. Most drivers don't realize that there's something blocking their line of sight until well after it's too late. These claims have become a really central part of our practice. They're an important way to hold property owners and municipalities responsible for their share of fault when there's a collision at a blind intersection.

Skilled Nursing, Assisted Living and Home Health Care Falls

Just because someone falls doesn't mean that a facility was negligent. But if the record show that call lights are left unanswered or one person is used instead of two when assisting a resident, there may well be a case.

"The Sun was in my Eyes" Isn't an Excuse for Using the Gas Pedal Instead of the Brake

I don't know why defendants with insurance don't own their mistakes. They come up with all sorts of crazy excuses. Most of these excuses can be debunked by pointing out that if the sun was in their eyes they should have waited until they could see before pulling out into traffic.

Damages and Inevitability… Everyone Dies

Underlying almost every defense case--particularly where fault is admitted--is this suffocating sense of "so what." So what that have disc herniations, everyone ends up with back problems. So what that you suffered a brain injury, a lot of people end up with dementia. So what that we killed your __________, everyone dies anyway. The collision just hastened the inevitable. It's identify the dog whistle and show the jury the depths of the defense's cynicism.

How to Calculate Loss of Quality of Life?

Loss of quality of life is probably the biggest part of any personal injury case and also the most difficult to calculate. The jury instructions don't offer any formulas. Models need to be created that fit the circumstances of each case.

Low Speed Collisions

Sometimes people focus on everything except the information that really matters. That happens a lot in low speed collisions. The real focus should be on why someone was injured not whether they were injured. Unlike many firms, low speed collisions don't scare us. We're more interested in injuries than property damage.

Anxiety and Age

An NFL team's master playbook contains hundreds to over a thousand plays. Teams practice about 100 plays for a specific week and run an average of 60 to 65 offensive plays during a single game. Defendants in personal injury cases have about three plays. These plays are run regardless of whether they fit the facts of the case. Attributing symptoms to anxiety is one of them.

Jury Selection and "Some People"

One of the most important and rewarding things in life is learning about other people. It's one of those things that's best done indirectly. That's true whether you're curious whether two of your classmates have hooked up or if you're interested whether someone might be a defense-oriented juror.

Why an Interruption in Employment.....

Sometimes we feel pretty secure. Like we're invincible. But then something happens and we start to realize that the whole time we were one fall or car wreck away from not being able to support ourselves or our families. Older workers are at the greatest risk.

Pre-Existing Conditions

We all have pre-conceived ideas. A lot of clients worry they're not going to be able to recover for injuries because they had problems before the wreck. A well-conceived narrative leverages rather than hides from pre-existing conditions. Pre-existing conditions may mean that injured people deserve even more money than someone who was in perfect health before they got hurt.

Winning, Losing and the Way they Hit

We love to win. We hate to lose even more. That's the way we're wired. It's also something that we need to consider when deciding whether to settle a case. One important question is how much weight should be given to quantitative versus qualitative factors....

Car Wrecks: Your Kid is Responsible and So are You

Parents go through all sorts of gyrations. The bottom line is that they're going to be on the hook when their kids cause wrecks. The best way to deal with it--before it happens--is to buy twice as much insurance coverage as you can ever imagine needing. (And don't think sending them to college cuts off your liability.)

Speed and the Favored Driver/Rider

Some people think that if someone was speeding, they're going to be at fault. That isn't the way Washington law works. In most cases speed is irrelevant if the only thing it did was cause two vehicles to be at the same place at the same time.

What the Hell is Loss of Consortium?

"Consortium" is a word we don't hear very much. A lot of people think it relates to sex. But really it encompasses so much more about the relationship between married people. It's not a big loss in all cases. But in some it's huge.

Reframing Anger

Anger is its own emotion. It's also a melting-pot for a lot of other emotions. Jurors don't respond well to angry people. It can really help maximize value to deconstruct anger and separate it into its constituent emotional pieces like fear, sadness, vulnerability, etc.

Brackets—A Negotiation Tool

Sometimes a straight line isn't the most effective route between Points A and B. That's also true when you're dealing with people and emotions. A lot of times fear--maybe on both sides--gets in the way of what could have been a good deal. Brackets are one way to put a safety net under the negotiation and let everyone get to where they really are willing to go.

How Striping and Signage Can Save Lives

Little things make a big difference. That goes for striping and signage at intersections. Just a little bit of thought and paint can save lives and limbs.

#ifixedit Memes and Concussion Symptoms (Re)Surfacing Over Time

It seems like good bye. Or maybe good riddance. A problem is removed from our life…only to come back again. That’s how it can work with concussion symptoms too.

Target Shooting and Brain Injury: Admissions about Unknown Forces and Individual Variability

You don't have to be shot in the head to suffer a brain injury. Even subtle forces can have a cumulative impact or cause symptoms if someone's brain is already vulnerable. Research regarding target shooting is just one area that confirms these impressions and debunks the model used by defense experts to fight causation in brain injury cases.

Dilution Effect

Too much of a good thing isn’t a good thing. And too much of “average” or “okay” evidence is like poison for otherwise really persuasive evidence.

Wildfire and Concussions

Setting a fire is a little bit like causing a concussion. The fire may start small. But depending on where and when it’s set, it can cause massive impact.

DIY

Why should anyone agree to pay an attorney to handle their case when ChatGPT can generate a pretty good demand? Isn’t this a DIY project waiting to happen?

Attorney Experience—When does Flexing Go from Impressive to Embarrassing?

Up to a certain point age is seen as a proxy for experience. But there's a tipping point where it turns from a plus into a minus.

But They Fixed it Right After the Fall…!

It's counterintuitive: Usually an injured person in a trip and fall case can't offer evidence that the defective stairs were fixed two weeks later.

Nihilism and Finding Meaning in Personal Injury

Sometimes meaning is right in front of us. In personal injury negotiations everything important is distilled into the amount the insurance company is willing to pay for a release.

Disability Coverage—Don’t Leave Benefits on the Table

Disability policies are usually purchased by someone else. Usually an employer. Some people either don't know or forget they have coverage and miss out on benefits after a bad injury.

Vacations After an Injury

It's not just vacations. But vacations are emblematic. The defense will insinuate and make the injured person feel guilty about trying to live their best lives.

But the Second Wreck Didn’t Increase Symptom Severity….

Math is an amazing tool. When applied correctly, it solves most problems. Even in the law.

Severity of Injury = Intensity x Duration

So when the insurance company says that the second collision didn't increase symptoms severity, that means it's only looking at one variable. Duration is just as important. And a second collision can definitely delay or prevent healing.

Bad Things Come in Pairs

There's some unseen force in the universe. Bad things come in pairs. Fortunately, the law is designed to accommodate this reality.

Unhappy Endings and the “No-No Square”

Some massage therapists cross the line. They're going to do it again and again until they're stopped. One of the reasons they're able to offend on a serial basis is the uncanny ability to normalize deviant behavior and sow self-doubt. Trust your instincts.

A Modern Version of the Pain Diary

Pain is the first word in "pain and suffering." So you'd think it was the most important line item in personal injury cases. But juries aren't really "moved" by descriptions of pain. What gets them going is understanding what people have lost as a result of their injuries.

Soccer, Sub-Concussive Events and Brain Injury

McQueen was likened to an oak tree. He did not lose consciousness after heading the ball. He did not have amnesia about the game. He did not experience an altered mental state. He would not have qualified for a concussion diagnosis. But sub-concussive events changed his brain, changed his quality of life and hastened his death.

Am I Locked Into What I said at Deposition?

Review deposition responses before giving your deposition. Think about how you want to explain the collision, how life is different now, etc. It's okay if your memory of something changes between deposition and trial. Memory is and our related understanding of how things happened are fluid.

Risk Tolerance Redux

Risk tolerance plays an outsized role in many decisions--especially the decision whether to settle or try a personal injury case.

What if a Worker Gets Hurt on My Property?

Life isn't a zero sum game. It's really important to do the right thing. We can always insure against risks that can't be eliminated by being careful.

My (First) Experience with an "Independent Medical Exam"

We all react negatively when it feels like someone is questioning us. In the context of personal injury I think the best way to "understand" an IME is to think of it as a pre-requisite to an insurance company potentially paying a lot of money.

Motorcycle Wrecks: Top 10

A lot of issues come up after a motorcycle wreck. Here are some questions we hear and answers we provide in a lot of cases.