If there’s no police report your case becomes a little more complex than it otherwise would.

On the other hand, we handle lots of cases where there’s no police report. I would say 10-15 percent of our cases there’s no police report. Sometimes the reason is the accident happened on private property, sometimes the reason is the police officer didn’t realize there was a serious injury.

And, a corollary to that question is: what if I didn’t have an opportunity to give my statement because I was unconscious or I’d already been taken away in the ambulance at the time the police came. We deal with these issues quite a lot, we deal with these issues commonly. And if there’s no police report, what we do is we have our own investigator recreate what the police would have done. The investigator goes to the scene, takes photos, inspects your car–assuming it’s a car accident–inspects the other car, contacts all the witnesses…and as a general rule, we pretty much get what we want.

Many times the insurance companies will try and make a relatively low offer on your car. It’s important to know that you don’t have to accept the offer.

And, just because they say, “Oh, gee – this is what our appraiser says,” doesn’t mean that their appraiser is right. And we’re happy to help with that. If we’re representing you in your injury case and they’re not being fair with you on the property damage aspect of the case, we will step in at no additional charge and make sure that you’re treated fairly with respect to the damage to your vehicle.

The New York Institute of Technology conducted a driving simulation study with students to show them how much their driving skills deteriorate when they try to text at the same time. One student accidentally ran over a dog, and she didn’t even end up successfully sending her text, making her actions a futile endeavor.

The Insurance Institute of Highway Safety states that 11 teenagers die every day in crashes caused by texting. It causes 1.6 million accidents each year, yet drivers don’t realize that when they look down for a few seconds to read or send a text message, they’ve gone “the length of [a] football field blind,” according to Jim Clair from the Ultimate Defensive Driving School.

KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh conducted a similar driving test with teenagers to teach them about the dangers of texting while driving. Each young driver “felt a loss of control,” even while driving at a slow speed in an empty area. Pennsylvania enacted a texting ban over a year ago, and getting caught texting while driving results in a $50 fine plus court costs.

Teenagers, however, aren’t the only drivers guilty of texting when they should be watching the road. Adults are just as bad. 94-95% of teenagers report having seen their parents texting while driving at some point. Even drivers who think they’re being safer by taking a hands-off approach and using Siri or another voice-to-text program aren’t off the hook. Texas A&M’s Transportation Institute conducted a study and found that drivers were “roughly twice as slow to respond to events while texting, regardless of whether they were texting by voice or by typing.” They also spent nearly 10 seconds less time with their eyes focused on the road and its surroundings.

Even though there’s technology available to send text messages hands-free, that doesn’t mean it’s a safe action to perform while driving, as it can distract the driver from the more important task of paying attention while operating a motor vehicle. Still, as more studies are continually released emphasizing the safety risks of driving while texting, millions of Americans (young and old) are guilty of performing the task when they know better.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ford/34364776/

Many clients–probably most of our clients–have auto-medical payments insurance, also known as med-pay. The most typical amount is $5,000, but it can be as low as $500 and I’ve seen them as high as $100,000. What this means is whether you have health insurance or not, you can get your medical bills paid immediately by your own insurance company.

Some insurance companies try to recover some or all of what they have paid on your behalf out of your ultimate recovery but we have had great success in getting them to waive those requirements. In certain automobile insurance companies, particularly the California State Automobile Association, do not ever make a claim for reimbursement on their med-pay policies.

We can advise you on this and we can also help you coordinate between your med-pay and any other form of insurance you might have.

A very common question is, “If your child is injured, how do the funds get handled when we make a recovery?” And the answer in California is always the same. The funds go into what is called a “blocked account” after a judge approves the settlement.

Whenever a minor is involved in a case, we go to court and we get a judge to approve the settlement – this is called a minor’s compromise. As a general rule, the judge will order that funds are put into a separate blocked account for the child and no one can touch it without court approval. However, during the time that the funds go in and the time the child turns 18, the parents can always ask us to petition the court in order to take some of the funds out for special educational needs of the child, or medical needs, or anything of that nature. And we do that at no charge whatsoever until the child turns 18.

“You make us think instead of just memorize facts,” said a fourth year Haitian law student on our last night in Jérémie, a rural coastal town in western Haiti. For the week before, the Hastings to Haiti Partnership (“HHP”), a group comprised of professors and law students from UC Hastings College of Law in San Francisco, had led a number of presentations on issues related to mediation and environmental law before a group of more than one hundred Haitian law students. HHP has visited L’Ecole Supérieure Catholique de Droit de Jérémie (“ESCDROJ”) for nearly fifteen years with the goal of strengthening the rule of law in Haiti by supporting legal education. This year, the trip was made possible partially due to a generous donation from GJEL Accident Attorneys.

Before law school, I worked at GJEL for nearly two years as Director of Client Outreach and decided to reach out to the firm for support because I knew that the firm was dedicated to supporting local public interest organizations. All of the firm’s partners started their careers in public service, and managing partner Andy Gillin frequently says “We love fighting for the little guy.”

But this year’s delegation to Jérémie was particularly close to GJEL’s daily mission. One of the main focuses of this year’s delegation was to support ESCDROJ’s new legal clinic. The purpose of this clinic is to give Haitians an opportunity to take control of their legal issues by obtaining access to legal representation without necessarily having to use the country’s overburdened court system. Once the clinic gets off the ground, it could serve as a powerful example of the potential for alternative dispute resolution in Haiti.

To support this goal, UC Hastings Professor Melissa Nelken presented a series of workshops related to negotiation. The students were asked to split up into groups of three to simulate a mediation discussion. One student acted as the aggrieved party, another acted as “the defendant,” and the third acted as a mediator. At first, the students were hesitant because this interactive format is not typically used at ESCDROJ. But the students quickly caught on and learned a great deal from the experience. A number of students told me that they consider this type of dispute resolution to be preferable to having to use the court system, and some even said that the presentations persuaded them to join the criminal clinic themselves.

This Spring 2013 delegation was one of the group’s most successful yet, particularly in terms of the amount of ground we covered. For another presentation at ESCDROJ, UC Hastings Professor Brian Gray discussed the failures of American law related to mining and resources extraction. Professor Gray focused on the lessons that Haiti can learn in order to avoid making the same mistakes as gold mining grows more prevalent throughout Haiti.

HHP members also conducted a number of interviews with government officials, police officers, and represenentatives of civil society organizations to learn more about the condition of rape laws in this rural community, particularly in relation to the de facto requirement that women obtain a medical certificate confirming that they have, in fact, been raped before having an opportunity to challenge their assailant in court. A few HHP members also led a human rights training workshop with nearly thirty Haitian teenagers. Since this was the second year leading such a workshop, it was incredible to see how comfortable the teenagers have become in terms of speaking in public and expressing their views.

As always, HHP valued the opportunity to support ESCDROJ’s criminal clinic, present other legal issues that impact the United States and Haiti, and monitor certain human rights abuses in this rural town which impact access to justice for Haitian women. Now that this delegation is complete, HHP is also excited to continue our yearlong commitment to supporting the rule of law in Haiti. This takes a number of forms, including conducting additional research and writing reports on the human rights situation in Jérémie and Haiti writ large, but also inviting some ESCDROJ students to visit San Francisco and take part in legal education at UC Hastings. This collaboration is why we are proud to have a true partnership between UC Hastings and ESCRDOJ.

A very common question we get is whether or not you need money in advance to hire us, and with our firm you do not ever need money in advance to hire us.

We all started here giving free legal services to the poor when we got out of law school, and there’s never a fee in advance, there’s never a charge in advance. What we charge is a percentage of what we collect for you but we don’t take it until and unless we collect for you.

Most people, I’d say 90-95 percent of the people hurt in serious accidents certainly do not have any extra funds to pay for a lawyer. Their problem is quite the opposite – how are they going to make their mortgage payments, their insurance payments when they’re injured, paying doctor’s bills, and are out of work.

The gear, available for purchase from UK Retailer High Visibility, is adorned with the words “Polite Notice, Think Bike” and upon quick inspection can easily be mistakenly read as saying “Police.” You can see the cleverly deceptive attire in the photos below:

Images via highvisibility.uk.com

Although impersonating a police officer is illegal, it seems highly unlikely that this would qualify since the riders aren’t falsely identifying themselves. Instead, cyclists are merely capitalizing on the fact that motorists tend to give police officers exactly the type of space and respect a cyclist needs in order to ride safely. As one user said, wearing the reflective gear “was like a force field around him.”

The idea has quickly made the rounds throughout various cycling communities and news outlets, with the safety-enhancing design being praised as everything from cunning to frickin’ awesome.

As Equisafety’s managing director Nicky Fletcher says, “People who buy them are not stupid. They do look very similar. That is why they are buying them. The cyclist is not breaking the law. He is not trying to impersonate a police officer. It’s a trick of the eye but it slows the driver down.”

If nothing else, the attire highlights the rider and makes surrounding drivers much more conscious of their presence. In many instances, that might be enough to help prevent accidents that would typically result from a driver not having observed the cyclist in the first place. From a cyclist’s standpoint, there’s no harm in wearing something that gives you an added degree of protection. And, from a motorist’s perspective, if you’re driving a completely different way when you think there are police around, maybe you should spend a moment and consider exactly why you place safety at a premium only when you think you’ll be held accountable if you don’t…

A very common question is, “What do I do if the person who caused the accident is uninsured?” And, there are several answers to that.

First of all, we don’t always take at face value the statement of the person that they’re uninsured–because it’s rare–but occasionally a person will say they’re uninsured when they really are. A foolish thing to do, but some people do that.

Secondly, if the driver of another car is uninsured there may well be insurance on the car itself–assuming there’s a separate owner–because very often the reason the driver is uninsured is they’re driving their uncle’s car, or their brother’s car, which they know has insurance. As long as they have permission to drive, that car is insured.

Once it’s concluded that there really is no insurance on the car it becomes an uninsured motorist claim under California law, and then we look to your own automobile insurance policy and almost everybody in California who’s insured has uninsured motorist coverage. Some people with very large policy limits. So typically the fact that the other person is uninsured is not a barrier to getting you a good and substantial recovery.

Although a lot of the information isn’t particularly earth shattering (did you know cycling saves money on gas?) they still offer a nice reminder about the many benefits of biking to work. Plus, how many people would have guessed that “birding” ranks right behind cycling as America’s third favorite activity? Seriously.

In addition to San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Minneapolis, New York, and Washington DC round out the list of bike friendly cities.

The infographic is embedded below:

Infographic courtesy of REI