The parents of a dead man were suspicious of their daughter-in-law’s role in the sudden death of their son, so they filed a wrongful death lawsuit.

“This is an unusual case, one that captured the attention of the media for many months as the twists and turns of the story unfolded. In this reported case, the woman in question found her husband in the bedroom, and he was not breathing. EMS crews rushed him to hospital, but he was pronounced dead. The medical examiner said he’d died of a mixed drug intoxication, ruling the tragic death accidental,” said Brooks Schuelke, an Austin personal injury lawyer with Perlmutter & Schuelke, L.L.P.

The verdict did not sit well with the dead man’s family, and his father was immediately suspicious. He felt there was something wrong. The dead man’s family watched the widow move into a new house just after she stated she was selling because the home was too big for her. It turned out the new home was even bigger and more expensive. The family had trouble understanding how she could find the funding for a near-million dollar home.

The family spoke to a Sheriff’s Deputy about her unusual new found wealth, prompting some inquiries to the former neighbours of the deceased and his wife. What they uncovered was a shocking story in which the woman told the neighbours that she had mixed Vicodin into her husband’s drinks the evening he died, because she did not want to have intercourse with him. The sordid details did not stop there. The police report also contained information that the woman had been having an affair with a 15-year-old student.

As a result of this investigation, the dead man’s death certificate was changed from accidental to undetermined – a move that confirmed the feelings of the family that their son had been murdered. With death certificate in hand, and the rest of the details about their son’s death, the parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit.

“This is an interesting case from several points of view, but the most important element is the presence of negligence on the part of the wife in slipping her husband Vicodin. While it may have been done to incapacitate him for the evening, she obviously went too far. Without getting into the criminal charges here, the woman can be sued in civil court by the man’s family for the death of her husband. I’d strongly suspect they may ask for punitive damages, given the circumstances of the death and her other behaviour,” Schuelke said.

While this is a different case, the family will still need the valuable experience of a personal injury lawyer to help guide them through the justice system. They will, in all likelihood, receive a jury award for their son’s death, and while that will not bring him back, a finding for the plaintiff will hopefully prevent something similar happening to someone else.

Contact Perlmutter & Schuelke LLP at http://www.civtrial.com or (512) 476-4944.

This case was torture for the family, and ultimately ended in a wrongful death lawsuit.

This case involved the worst nightmare of any parent; a child committing suicide. However, this case had a further twist. The young man who took his own life was showing clear signs that he needed help, and no one at the university did anything about it. The man’s body was found on top of a campus building.

The parents in this case, shocked beyond belief and wanting to prevent what happened to their son from happening to anyone else’s child, filed a wrongful death lawsuit. The suit names the former dean of the university, the current dean and three school psychologists. It suggests they failed to help their son, when he plainly stated he wanted to die after a prior suicide attempt, just two weeks before his body was found. The suit was seeking $20 million in compensation.

The evidence included the assessments of three psychologists, who evidently had diverse opinions about the young man’s state of mind. One commented the young man displayed a normal non-depressed, reasonably positive mood. Another said he was showing signs of chronic depression, but it was not as bad as major depression. Both these assessments were made in the two weeks leading up to the young man’s death. Unfortunately, the university did not tell his parents, or have him evaluated any further. The man had told friends he was having trouble moving forward with his life after a breakup with his girlfriend.

Since the man’s death two years ago, and his family filing a wrongful death lawsuit, they have been working towards a settlement of some sort with the university rather than go to court. Many suits of this nature may be settled out of court, with the decision to move forward to litigation being held in reserve, until all other avenues have been explored. This is certainly an option a good Austin personal injury lawyer would discuss with a client in a similar situation.

It is not an easy decision to file a wrongful death lawsuit, and it often takes a long time before a case does go to court. This has to do with the complexities of filing such a suit. For instance, trying to determine the amount of compensation to seek in court is very difficult. Families may recover payment for the deceased’s medical bills and funeral and burial expenses. However, the survivors have been injured by the death of someone they loved, and this means, what would have happened in the future, needs to be taken into consideration. For this, and other reasons, hiring a skilled Austin personal injury lawyer will make this process a lot easier to handle.

In other words, damages may include, but are not limited to, an estimated sum dealing with wages the person who died would have earned, had they lived, and the pain and suffering the survivors are dealing with due to the death. Projections on the amount of money earned in the future by the deceased are usually done through expert testimony.

Waiting to file a wrongful death lawsuit is not advisable because in these kinds of lawsuits, there is a set timeframe for filing, which, if not met, means the claim is barred permanently. This time frame is set by state law and the clock starts ticking from the time of the death, in most cases. There are some states that stipulate the clock begins to run from the time the party was aware of or found out about the death. It’s important to know what the Statute of Limitations is in your state; a question you would need to ask your Austin personal injury lawyer.

Brooks Schuelke is an Austin personal injury attorney with Perlmutter & Schuelke LLP. Contact an Austin injury lawyer at Civtrial.com or (512) 476-4944.

In short, everything you think is relevant, and probably more.  I always tell clients that we would much rather have too much information than not enough.    While each type of case is different, there are some general things that you should consider bringing to your initial attorney consultation.

1.  ACCIDENT REPORT.  In many types of accidents, you might already have access to accident reports about your case.  For example, if you’re in a car wreck, you should bring the police report.  If you have an on-the-job injury, you should bring any investigation report performed by your company.  If you’re injured on the premises of a business, you were likely required to fill out an incident report.  You should bring any type of reports like these to your initial meeting.

2.  PHOTOS/VIDEOS.  If you have photos or video of the accident scene, the other parties, or your injuries, then bring those in.  Photos can be priceless in helping tell your story.

3.  A LIST OF DOCTORS/MEDICAL PROVIDERS.  Prior to your consultation, you should prepare a list of doctors and medical providers who you have seen for the wreck  We’re going to ask you for that in the meeting.  Instead of you being put on the spot and trying to think of those items off the top of your head, try to prepare the list in advance.  I’ve found that clients who prepare the list in advance  (without  the stress or being rushed) do a much better job of naming everyone that needs to be on the list.

4.  MEDICAL RECORDS AND BILLS.  If you have any medical records or bills, bring those to the initial meeting. 

5.  YOUR HEALTH INSURANCE POLICY/MEDICARE or MEDICAID INFORMATION.  It might not occur to you, but it helps to have your health insurance policy.  Because of subrogation principles, your health insurance is probably going to be asked to be reimbursed for any medical expenses it pays on your behalf.  The same is true for Medicare, Medicaid,  VA Benefits and any number of other groups that pay for your medical care.  To help us prepare for your subrogation claims, please gather your health insurnce policy, Medicare or Medicaid records, or any additional information that you think might help us pursue those subrogation claims.

6.  FOR CAR WRECK CASES, YOUR AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE.  Again, you might not think about this, but if you are retaining us to represent you in a car wreck, please bring your automobile insurance policy.  We’ll need that policy to help you determine whether you have Personal Injury Protection (PIP) or Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Coverage (UM/UIM).

7.  CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE INSURANCE COMPANY/DEFENDANT.  If you have already started receiving communication from the insurance company or the other side, we’ll want to know about that.  Please bring that information to the first meeting.

There will, of course, be additional documents that you need.  Use your discretion.  If you think there is any chance that we’ll need the information, then bring it.

Early this morning, a car in Georgetown flipped, slid off the roadway, and then crashed through a fence and hit the back of a home.  A passenger in the vehicle was tragically killed, but no one in the home was hurt.

You don’t hear about car-house collisions much, but they happen.  In fact, earlier this week, another lawyer and I were talking about  (okay, actually emailing each other about) a similar case. 

Sadly, these kinds of cases happen more than any of us would like to think.

In the case at hand, the real question is what kind of claims the passenger might have.  As usual, the passenger’s family and estate have a wrongful death clam against the driver of the car.  But they may also have uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage available.  They just need to make sure they do a proper investigation of available claims before they start trying to resolve the matter.

Sunday’s Austin American Statesman had a wonderful article about hospital liens, a problem that can really muck up a car wreck or other personal injury claim.

Texas law provides that if a person is injured in an accident and is admitted to a hospital within 72 hours of the accident, then the hospital has a lien against any recovery for the amount of the care. (You can read the entire statute here.)

That sounds reasonably fair — hospitals should get paid for their services.  Except that many hospitals are abusing the statute in an unfair manner. 

There are two problems in the way that hospitals abuse the statute.  First, they charge ridiculous prices.  When you go to a hospital, you don’t get to sit down and negotiate prices or look at a menu with the services and prices next to them and choose what you want.  The hospitals decide what treatment you need (as they should) and then they also get to set the prices.  Unfortunately, the prices that they set in the personal injury context are ridiculously high prices that no one really pays.  It’s a pie-in-the-sky number that they try to force on injury victims.

Second, they abuse the system by trying to charge these prices even when other insurance or other payment sources, such as Medicare, are available.  Because the amounts for the services are so much higher than what an insurance company or Medicare would pay for the same services, hospitals often forego payment from these sources and then file the lien hoping to get the inflated prices from the injured victims. 

In the health insurance context, the Texas legislature has tried to fix the law, passing a statute that requires hospitals to submit claims to available health insurance companies when the coverage is available.  However, there is a bit of a debate about whether that law applies to Medicare or other similar proceeds.  As a result, hospitals are refusing to bill Medicare and similar providers in this context to try to get the higher amounts from you.

We need the legislature to again step in and clarify that the lien is not valid if the hospital fails to submit the claims to Medicare.  Until then, our only course of action is to sue the hospital for a declaration that the charges are unreasonable.  This causes all the parties to incur unnecessary attorneys’ fees and just causes unnecessary stress for injured victims, but it’s the only mechanism for resolution we currently have.

I do encourage you to read the article.  They have more time to write about the problem, and they share stories that really show how it affects you as victims.  Also,  representatives of one of Austin’s most aggressive lien filers make some very questionable statements in the article about their practices.  In some, but not all, of those cases, the author of the article calls them on it. 

I’m just thankful that this problem has reached the popular press.  Maybe the publicity will cause some changes.

A favorite insurance company ploy in personal injury cases is to request that an order from the Court that the plaintiff be required to undergo an “independent” medical exam — an exam by a doctor hired by the insurance company.

Despite the implications of the name, these are not indpendent.  The doctors are hired by insurance companies and these exams are filled with fraud.

Back in 2009, the New York Times ran a long story exposing many of these exams for the fraud that they are.  Among other things, the report found doctors reporting on tests that were never done, given written reports saying the patient had no injuries when the videotaped tests and exams proved otherwise, and doing cursory exams. 

At the time, I wrote a long blog post that summarized the article, The New York Times Tells The Story Behind “Independent” Medical Exams, and you can read that post for more information. 

But many times, pictures (and videos), tell a story better than words.  And I recently saw a tongue-in-cheek video that was an example of an “independent” medical exam.  It would be a lot more funny if it wasn’t so darn true.

I always encourage accident victims to talk to personal injury lawyers as soon as possible to make sure that their rights are protected, but it’s even more important now.

As you may know, the Texas legislature is in session.  What you probably don’t know is that yesterday was the Texans For Lawsuit Reform’s lobby day where they unleashed their traditional platform of ways that they want to limit your rights. 

I don’t know what’s going to happen with any of this legislation, but rest assured that none of it will likely help personal injury victims (with the exception of their proposal to stop barratry — solicitation of personal injury clients by unscrupulous lawyers).    There’s also no telling when any of these attempted reforms will go into effect.  In the past, tort reform litigation has gone into effect at different times — some go into effect immediately upon signing by the governor and some have gone into effect only at some later date.

Regardless, personal injury victims should start talking to potential lawyers as soon as they can.  You want to make sure that you and your lawyer have enough time to investigate claims so that any lawsuits can be filed before any new tort reform laws go into effect.

If you haven’t been paying attention, the Texas legislature is in session and facing a huge budget shortfall — with most estimates predicting a shortfall between $15 and 27 Billion.  Because the Republican leadership is pledging not to raise taxes or tap into the state’s rainy day fund, the balanced budget will only be achieved through significant cuts and creative ways of raising  additional funds (somehow this is different than a tax increase).

One of the creative funding mechanisms may help reduce the number of Texas car wrecks.

How?

One of the proposals to raise more money contained in the House of Representatives’ budget is to ban the use of wireless communication devices while driving — in other words, no more texting while driving or talking on a cell phone while driving. If this is adopted, it will significantly improve the safety of Texas roadways.  I’ve often written about the dangers of texting while driving  (see a collection of some of my posts on texting while driving).    It is a real threat, and making it illegal will likely help make the roads safer. 

And how is this related to the budget?  The Legislative Budget Board estimates that this move will generate $2.3 million.  They’re not clear on how that will occur, but I’m guessing that it is through expected fines for those that will continue to violate the law.

I think this is also an interesting study on how to position legislation.  For years, some legislators have championed the idea of banning cell phone use while driving because of the safety issues.  As a safety issue, the idea has never received much traction.  But if it now passes based on the argument that it’s a money making idea, it will be a telling lesson about the legislature’s priorities.

There was a horrific car wreck yesterday morning on Highway 290.   A pickup truck driven by Rudy Cruz had a collision with an electricity truck driver.  Both Cruz and the electricity truck briefly pulled over.  But then Cruz took off again and ended up driving on the wrong side of 290.  He hit a an Acura driven by Dr. Bishal Anand and then hit another pickup truck, driven by Carl Bonn.  Sadly, Dr. Anand and Mr. Cruz were both killed.

From a civil liability standpoint, this is obviously a car wreck case. 

But the thing that struck me, other than the obvious tragedies with the deaths involved, was the damage to the vehicles involved.  One of the vehicles was literally ripped apart.  It isn’t supposed to happen that way.

In tragic cases, it’s easy to spot the easy car wrecks and leave it at that.  But as attorneys, we need to look farther.  In many cases, such as this one, an attorney might ask whether the vehicle involved held up like it was supposed to.  These days, vehicles are designed to withstand collisions and protect those inside of vehicles.  When they fail to do that adequately, then there might be a products liability case against the vehicle manufacturer.  These types of cases are called “crashworthiness” cases — and the issue is whether the vehicle was reasonably well designed to stand up to crash forces. 

An attorney might also look at the seat belts — did the seat belt stand up to the collision like it is supposed to?  Or a personal injury attorney might investigate to see whether there were other factors that might have contributed to the wreck. 

In this wreck, it doesn’t sound like many of these factors will apply.  But a personal injury lawyer has to keep an open mind to really analyze when a car wreck presents more than just a car wreck case.

What good news could there be for victims of car wrecks? 

It’s all about insurance.

Beginning January 1, 2011, all new Texas auto insurance policies will require higher minimum limits.  What does this mean to auto accident victims?

In many cases, it will mean more financial compensation to put the victim a little bit closer to being fully compensated for his or her injuries.

The limits of insurance are the maximum amount that an insurance company may have to pay out for any wreck, regardless of how bad the victim of the wreck is hurt.  Currently, the minimum bodily injury limits that drivers are required to purchase are $25,000 per person or $50,000 per accident. 

The ”per person” limit means that in any wreck the most that the insurance company will ever have to pay an individual for the individual’s injuries sustained in a wreck is $25,000, regardless of how bad the individual is ever hurt.  If the injured victim has $25,000 in damages, then the insurance company is required to pay the $25,000.  But if the injured victim has $50,000 or $100,000 in damages, the insurance company is still only required to pay the $25,000 limit of its insurance.

And the “per accident” limit means that the most the insurance company would ever have to pay out for any one wreck, regardless of the number of individuals injured in the wreck, is $50,000.   If three people are injured in a wreck, and each have damages of $25,000, then the insurance company only has to pay $50,000 total, and someone has to work with the injured victims to allocate those funds.

Effective January 1, 2011, the minimum limits for all new policies in Texas will be raised to $30,000 per person and $60,000 per accident.    That change is significant.  The $5,000 difference (a 20% increase) in many cases will make the difference between the victim being able to recover full compensation for medical expenses or lost wages. 

This benefit also protects at fault drivers.  In addition to the injury limits going up, the property damage limit will also be increasing.  As the prices of cars and car repairs increase, the increase limits will provide additional protection for drivers who are involved in wrecks that hurt another vehicle, but not another person. 

And the cost for this benefit is small.  Insurance industry experts suggest that the increase cost of rates will be miniscule, if rates increase at all.

So this is a great change for all Texas drivers that will provide additional protection for all of us.