Tennessee Injury Law Center

June 11, 2013

Contingent Fee Agreements With Tennessee Injury Lawyers Must Be in Writing

Tennessee ethics rules for attorneys who represent people involved in personal injury cases or wrongful death cases on a contingent fee basis provide that the lawyer must have a written fee agreement with their client.

It is important that, as a prospective client, you read the agreement and make sure you understand what the fee is and how it will be charged.

If you are pressured to sign it the same day you meet with the lawyer, be careful. If you must take it home to read it carefully, or to review it with a family member, you should do so. Do not be forced into signing such an agreement before you have had the opportunity to study it. Do not be afraid to ask questions about any provision of the agreement that you do not understand.

June 7, 2013

Sources of Unbiased Information About Tennessee Personal Injury and Wrongful Death Attorneys

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

There are lots of lawyers who are willing to represent you in Tennessee automobile and truck accident cases, Tennessee medical malpractice cases, and other types of Tennessee injury and wrongful death cases. How do you figure out who to hire for your case?

One place to look is for sites listing "top lawyers" or "best lawyers." However, the qualifications for some of these listings require nothing more than a credit card and really tell you nothing about the actual qualifications of the lawyer or what his or her peers think about his or her legal work.

Here are some "best lawyer" sites that you can trust to help you find the right lawyer for your case"

June 3, 2013

Lawyers Use of Non-Lawyers to Solicit Injury Cases In Tennessee

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

In the legal profession they are called "runners" – non-lawyers who approach Tennessee personal injury victims and families of Tennessee wrongful death victims and try to persuade them to hire a particular lawyer or law firm. They may come to the scene of an accident, a hospital room, a residence, even a funeral home. Sometimes they are paid for their services, sometimes they do it just to have an "in" with a lawyer.

Runners may be ambulance drivers, tow truck operators, nurses or hospital technicians. Whoever they are and however they approach you, what they are doing is wrong. It is improper for a lawyer to employ the service of a non-lawyer to solicit personal injury clients or wrongful death clients. It is also improper for the lawyer to conduct this type of activity himself or herself.

So why do some lawyers do such a thing? Why would a lawyer put his or her law license on the line to get a new client? Because they have trouble getting clients based on their reputation or any of the other ways good lawyers find good clients. And the reason that they have trouble getting clients in an ethical way is that they aren’t good lawyers.

May 24, 2013

What is a “Structured Settlement” in Tennessee Personal Injury and Wrongful Death Litigation?

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

A structured settlement is an agreement reached between a plaintiff (the person who files a lawsuit) and the insurance company for the defendant (the person or company that is sued) to pay a personal injury or wrongful death settlement to the plaintiff over time rather than paying the money in a lump sum.

Such settlements can be structured to pay out the money over any period of time, from a year to a lifetime. The payments can be a combination of monthly payments and "bonus" payments every five years. There is virtually no limit as to how payments can be structured; the financial and other needs of the individual determine how a structured settlement will work.

Every structured settlement includes the payment of interest, and this interest is tax-free assuming that the appropriate rules are followed.

May 23, 2013

Number of Dog Bite Claims Stays About the Same in United States

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

A recent report on the financial consequences of dog bites shows that there were 16,459 dog bite claims in the United States in 2012, a number actually less than the it was ten years earlier, when there were 16.919 claims. No specific information was provided about the number of dog bite claims in Tennessee.

The data comes from the Insurance Information Institute("III"), a company that gathers and shares data about all sorts of insurance claims. According to the III, he average cost per claim was $29,752.

State Farm, a major insurance company that sells homeowner’s insurance (the type of liability insurance that is typically available to victims of dog bites) paid 3,670 dog bite claims in 2012. The total amount of money paid by State Farm on those claims was $108,000,000. Thus, State Farm’s average cost per claim was quite close to the national average of all claims.

May 23, 2013

Abuse or Exploitation of the Disabled in Tennessee

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

The abuse (sexual or physical or mental) or exploitation of a disabled adult in Tennessee can give rise to a right of the disabled person to seek damages.

Under Tennessee law, a disabled adult is one who meets one of the following criteria:

(A) Has some impairment of body or mind that makes the person unfit to work at any substantially remunerative employment;

May 23, 2013

Do Tennessee Doctors Have Malpractice Insurance?

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

In Tennessee the vast, vast majority of physicians have medical malpractice insurance. The medical malpractice insurance company not only hires a lawyer to defend the doctor in the event a medical malpractice (now called health care liability) lawsuit is filed in court but also pays money toward any settlement or judgment in the case. The amount that the company will pay is an amount up to the insurance policy limits actually purchased by the doctor or the company the doctor works for. The company also employs a team of professionals who evaluate claims and supervise the litigation process.

In fact, in over 30 years of representing patients in medical malpractice claims against doctors and other health care providers, I have never come across a single doctor in Tennessee who did not have professional liability insurance. There are states, such as Florida, where there appears to be a significant number of uninsured doctors, but that is not an issue in Tennessee.

One reason for this is that doctors own the largest physician professional liability insurance company in the state and, in essence, sell insurance to themselves. A large number of the doctors who do not work for educational centers (like Vanderbilt) or as employees of hospitals purchase professional liability insurance coverage from this company, State Volunteer Mutual Insurance Company. Insurance rates for doctors are less than they were twenty years ago (after adjusting for inflation).

May 22, 2013

Tennessee Medical Malpractice Claims – What Must Be Proved?

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

A Tennessee medical malpractice lawyer must prove the following things to prove a medical malpractice (now called a health care liability) case in Tennessee:

1. The standard of care for the health care provider. For example, if the claim is that a family doctor failed to timely diagnose an infection, the patient’s lawyer must prove what a family doctor should do when presented with the information available to the doctor at the time of the alleged failure to diagnose the infection. The standard of care must be proved by another doctor of the same or similar specialty, and that doctor must practice medicine in Tennessee or a state adjoining Tennessee.

2. The failure of the health care provider to follow the standard of care. Thus, using the same example, the patient’s lawyer must demonstrate that the doctor did not comply with the standard of care, that is, that the doctor either did something the doctor should not have done or failed to do something the doctor should have done.

May 20, 2013

Charges for Medical Records Used in Tennessee Personal Injury and Wrongful Death Cases

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

Unlike Kentucky, Tennessee does not have a law that permits each patient to have a free copy of his or her medical record from a health care provider. Tennessee law permits health care providers to charge for each and every copy of a medical record.

It is important to have a copy of certain medical records to evaluate every personal injury and wrongful death claim, including car and truck accident cases and each and other cases. The number of providers from whom records must be obtained depends on the facts and circumstances of each case. Some cases require us to obtain medical records from only one or tow health care providers. Other cases require us to obtain records from ten or more health care providers. The cost of obtaining records can be as little as $75 to well over $1000.

Our firm pays for the cost of acquiring the medical records for our clients. Even the event the case is successful, our fee agreement with our client provides that our client reimburses us for the out-of-pocket expenses we incur in the case, including the cost of obtaining medical records.

May 19, 2013

What Does It Cost to Issue a Subpoena?

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

A subpoena is a court order requiring a person to appear in court to give testimony, produce documents or things, or both.

Subpoenas are issued by the clerk of the court in which the case is pending. In Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee, there is a $6.00 fee to issue a subpoena. if the witness lives in Davidson County and the lawsuit is pending in Davidson County, the Davidson County Sheriff’s office will serve the subpoena for $9.00.

Different charges apply if the witness must be served in a different county. The Clerk of Court will answer questions about the charges in such cases.