Vancouver Personal Injury Lawyer

The state of California Insurance Commissioner, Steve Poizner, announced on March 19, 2008, that his agency was ordering Allstate Insurance Corporation to reduce insurance rates in California by 15.9%. So what's the reason Allstate's rates are so high? So high that the California Insurance Commissioner has to order the company to reduce prices? Confirming what personal injury attorneys have...

Capitalism is good. Profit is good. Free enterprise is good. It seems we all want to make money and we all want to pay less for the things we buy. If a company can sell the same quality item cheaper than their competitor, why shouldn't they? Especially if it means the competitor loses sales and they end up profiting as a result by selling even more of the discounted item. That's the way...

Smart consumers purchase uninsured motorist coverage when they buy insurance for their car. With so many uninsured drivers on the road this coverage is a must. Not only are there more uninsured drivers on the road now than in the past, many who do carry insurance buy the cheapest coverage possible. Most states set thresholds for the lowest coverage you can purchase and still legally drive. ...

Dr. Jayant Patel, a former Kaiser surgeon in Portland was front page news on March 13, 2008 in the Oregonian Newspaper. The surgeon nicknamed "Dr. Death" was wanted in Australia for manslaughter charges, all arising out of his bungling care of patients. Manslaughter, for the uninformed, means someone has to die as a result of his actions. The real story here however is how easily this doctor...

Buried back on the 2nd page of the Metro section, the above story title appeared in the March 12, 2008 Oregonian Newspaper. Note it says fatalities, not injuries. Injuries, whether serious life threatening ones or merely something from which you recover, are separate numbers. So what type of hospital errors caused 24 deaths? All ones that were easily preventable. The article described some...

Oregon is about to put an Initiative on the ballot that would limit contingent fees charged by attorneys. At first glance you'd think this is a good idea. Don't lawyers make lots of money? Why shouldn't we pass laws that limit what they can charge? Once again the usual urban myths are trotted out by the people who have the most to gain by proclaiming them. Do lawyers make a lot of money? ...

It looks like Kevin Mannix and Bill Sizemore are at it again. The initiative process in Oregon is supposed to exist so the voice of the people can be heard. If citizens can gather enough signatures from registered voters, an indication many feel strongly about an issue, a measure can be put on the ballot. This grass roots process allowing citizens to bypass the legislature and have a voice...

The Oregon Supreme Court handed down a decision in Hughes v. Peacehealth on Friday February 22nd. The Court said the state law capping non-economic damages in a wrongful death case at $500,000 is constitutional. The court refused to accept arguments that the law interferes with a jury's power to decide fair damages on a given case. In this particular case a jury had awarded a woman one...

An interesting article in the March 2008 issue of Consumer Reports helps to once again dispel an urban myth. Lawyers and frivolous lawsuits are the reason health care costs keeps rising. The article notes over 60% of surveyed adults think this is true. The same survey showed 69% specifically thought it was due to frivolous lawsuits. Well guess what, neither is true. Not even close. Yet...

After an injury accident, many consumers get demands from an insurance company that they be examined by a doctor of the insurance company's choosing. Laughingly referred to by the insurance industry as "Independent Medical Exams", many companies use these as a tool to limit insurance benefits. Insurance adjustors are trained to tell someone injured in a car accident that the exam is set up to...