NWA Car Accident Attorney

Anna R. Betts' practice focuses primarily on personal injury and medical malpractice litigation.

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Think Twice about Cutting Your Coverage for Car Insurance: Peace of Mind is Worth a Little Extra

The worst words a lawyer can hear from a client?  How about “I just got the cheapest insurance I could buy”?

No one plans to be in an accident. We all have liability insurance on our cars that covers the other drivers on the road. It is additional coverages that raise important questions:

“What am I getting?” “Is it worth it?”

When you buy your insurance, you should be thinking of the things that can happen to you if you are injured—especially if you are travelling I-49 or 540 between Fayetteville, Bentonville, or Rogers in Northwest Arkansas.  We all know how bad traffic in and around Benton and Washington Counties can be.  One wreck can make the injured driver regret their decision to reject or not increase the medical coverage through his or her car insurance.

Medical Payments or “MedPay” will cover medical bills for you up to the amount you have selected in your car insurance policy. In Arkansas, the minimum you can have in MedPay is $5,000. That type of coverage typically costs less than $20.00 a year.

Why is this so important?

People in car wrecks often believe they don’t need MedPay or personal injury protection on their policy because they have health insurance.  They want to try to save costs on car insurance, and it seems redundant to pay for additional medical payment coverage through their auto policy. But even if you have health insurance, you also have a deductible, and deductibles are getting higher every year.  Plus, health insurance often only covers 80% or less of the total bill.

If the other driver has quality insurance:

Even if the other driver has insurance, your bills are not going to be paid until you are completely done with your medical treatment.  In the meantime, you are going to have cover your own health insurance deductible and 20% of the medical bills.  That is where your MedPay can help.

If the other driver has minimum insurance:

All too often, even if the other driver does have insurance, it is very likely the minimum policy required, which in Arkansas is $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident. Why does that matter? Well, policy limits can be reached quickly when there passengers and/or multiple cars involved. Your MedPay coverage can be used to ensure you get the most for your injuries.

If the other driver has no insurance:

If the person that hit you does not have insurance, then you will be making a claim on your own policy for underinsured or uninsured driver, but only if you have elected to get that coverage. Even if you did select underinsured or uninsured driver coverage, it still can take months before you get any money. During that time, MedPay will bridge the gap to ensure you aren’t being turned over to a collections agency.

If you’re injured in someone else’s car:

Importantly, MedPay follows you, not your car. This is true whether you are injured when you are a passenger in a friend’s car, at fault, in a different state, in an uber, or walking through a cross walk. In all of these situations you can use your MedPay to cover medical expenses up to your policy limit.

Our firm has seen many injured drivers and passengers who were not at fault for an accident become financially strained because they decided not to add this inexpensive coverage. It makes an already unpleasant situation worse and takes focus away from recovering.

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Driving and Cell Phones

Who is allowed to text and drive in the state of Arkansas? “No one,” said, attorney Sean Keith. All drivers in the state of Arkansas are banned from sending text messages while driving, except in emergencies.

A person under the age of 20 is banned from making “handheld” phone calls meaning the person is not allowed to hold his or her phone while driving;  however a person under 20 is allowed to use a hands free device for their cell phone, such as a Bluetooth headset or hands free calling through the car’s stereo system.  A person under the age of 18 is banned from all cell phone use while the vehicle is in motion.   And although the law is clear about texting and phone calls while driving. “The law is less clear about looking at a phone to read something,” said Keith.

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I was injured in a vehicle accident due to a negligent driver and the other party’s insurance company won’t stop calling me for a statement. What should I do?

Often times after an accident the first person you hear from is the other driver’s insurance company wanting a statement. Attorney Sean Keith said, “The worst thing you can do is give the insurance company a statement before talking to a personal injury attorney.  When a person gives a recorded statement hours or a few days after an accident they often times forget important facts.  This mistake is then used against them by the insurance company and their lawyers later in the case.  There is never a good reason to give a statement to the other driver’s insurance company.  If you don’t believe me, ask the insurance company if you can take a recorded statement from their driver and see how they respond.  It will always be no.”    

Keith said that people unknowingly do things that hurt their own case. It’s not their fault in doing so, rather a lack of understanding the law and the process. A person may feel that they are doing the right thing by cooperating with the insurance company; however, one must remember that the other driver’s insurance company is ONLY  looking out for what is in the best interest of their driver and the company’s profits.  Always contact a personal injury attorney if you have been injured in an accident. Don’t fight the insurance company on your own. They have a legal team working for them.  You should have one fighting for you.

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Honda, Toyota, Ford, and Chevrolet Vehicles Among those Recalled for Exploding Airbags

Over the past 15 to 20 years, airbags have gained popularity and are now routinely installed in vehicles for the safety of the occupants.  An airbag is a major safety innovation that we expect to help reduce injuries, not cause them.   Unfortunately, when an airbag is defective, it can cause severe injuries or death, rather than providing the safety and protection that we all expect from an airbag.

It was recently discovered that Takata airbags are not working as intended.  Due to a defect, the airbags can explode with too much force, causing metal components to explode like shrapnel within the bag.  In many cases, these component pieces are piercing the bag and causing injury to those in the vehicle.  Over 11 million vehicles in the United States have been recalled due to the danger of this defect, with at least four (4) deaths and 12 serious injuries being linked to this airbag defect. 

Not only have the Takata airbags caused personal injuries or death, this recall has also caused economic losses to the vehicle owners.  They suffer from diminution in value of their vehicles because of this defect. The list of recalled vehicle makes and models is lengthy.  For this reason, we are posting a list of the affected vehicles below so that you may determine if your vehicle contains unsafe, recalled Takata airbags. 

If you or a loved one has been injured in an accident with airbag deployment from one of these vehicle models, or if you own one of the vehicles on this recall list (below), please give our office a call and let us see what we can do to help you.

RECALL LIST

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I was injured due to negligence, what are my rights?

Contributed by Sean Keith

Your rights are to file a lawsuit and to have a jury in front of your peers in the community.  This is the most important weapon that we have as attorneys that represent people.  Typically, however, most cases settle without a trial.  In fact, I would estimate that over 90% of our cases are settled prior to going to trial. Nevertheless, we treat every case — from the beginning — as if there is going to be a trial to ensure the other side knows that we are serious about this case.  

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Driven to Safety: GM Ignition Switch Scandal

Dear Members,

Today, the American Association for Justice and our public education campaign, Take Justice Back, are launching an online campaign designed to educate the public, reporters, and decision makers on Capitol Hill about the critical role the civil justice system plays in protecting individuals and families.

As part of the campaign, we are releasing a report called Driven to Safety about how the civil justice system has been the driving force for a half-century in automobile improvements that have protected consumers. We have timed this campaign to start as the House Energy and Commerce Committee Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations holds a hearing today on the General Motors (GM) ignition switch scandal.

We have created online banner ads, Facebook ads, and a targeted approach to reach Washington, D.C.-based influencers, which we estimate will deliver more than 6 million impressions during the course of our campaign.

How to Take Action and Spread the Word

We have created a custom landing page at www.driventosafety.org, where you and other users can download AAJ’s complete auto safety report and take action by calling on Congress to support the Sunshine in Litigation Act (S. 2364/H.R. 4361).

The goal of this legislation is to keep corporations from hiding dangerous products and to motivate manufacturers to correct hazards earlier—instead of waiting for more deaths and injuries to occur.

We also need your help to get the word out. If you would like to send an action alert to your colleagues and clients, we’ve designed a sample action alert email that you can personalize and send: click here.

Results

Our public education alerts through Take Justice Back are having an impact. Thousands of people have signed up on Take Justice Back and are now part of our civil justice activists. These activists—and many of you are among them—have signed our petitions and our letters to Congress and have helped us educate the public by sharing content on social media.

Just a few weeks ago, our Take Justice Back activists sent 6,258 letters to Congress about General Mills’ attempt to insert a forced arbitration clause into its terms of service; our activists sent more than 700 letters in less than two hours to members of the U.S. House of Representatives urging them to vote against an amendment that would prevent a rulemaking to increase the minimum insurance requirements for interstate trucks and buses; and our activists sent 3,347 similar messages about trucking safety to the U.S. Senate in just two days.

Together we have and will continue to make a difference!

Best Regards, Linda Lipsen CEO American Association for Justice

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Co-counsel Files GM Ignition Switch Recall Case

Mike Andrews, who was co-counsel with Sean Keith for the Benton County seatbelt failure case that cost Bentonville High School junior Sara Symons her life, has filed one of the first lawsuits against General Motors for the failure of the Ignition Switch.  Recently it was discovered that GM appeared to have knowledge about a deadly defect in its ignition switch system as early as 2002 when it approved the switch to be installed in many of its vehicles.

The recall was issued because of a problem with the ignition switch that can allow the key to unintentionally switch to the “accessory” or “off” position, turning off the engine and most of the safety features such as power steering and brakes.  If the key is jarred or bumped into that position, the air bags are unlikely to work if there’s a crash.

Recent investigations by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the U. S. Government have revealed that GM was well-aware that the ignition switch did not meet safety standards in 2002 when they approved their installation into GM vehicles.   Also, that GM was aware that the switches had caused a serious safety problem by the early 2000’s.

According to the documents submitted to the [investigative] committee, GM opened numerous internal investigations into the now-recalled vehicles since the early-2000s, but did not recall the vehicles due to a number of reasons, including “tooling cost” and piece price being “too high.”

Source:  http://www.mlive.com/auto/index.ssf/2014/03/official_documents_paint_unset.html

Further problems were caused by GMs own engineering staff.  A panel of Congressional investigators recently discovered a “smoking gun memo” dated May 27, 2006, in which a lead GM engineer allowed a new ignition part to be implemented without changing the original part number.  This decision “caused years of delay in in tracing a defect on nearly 2.6 million Chevrolet Cobtal, Saturn Ion, and other Saturn Pontiac models.” This allowed the faulty switches to be categorized along with the newer, safer ignition switches, thus masking the serious defect in the original switch.

(Source:  http://www.forbes.com/sites/michelinemaynard/2014/04/11/the-smoking-gun-memo-in-the-gm-recall-crisis/)

Our firm is investigating the GM Ignition Switch Recall cases for the following make and models:

Chevy Cobalt 2005-2007

Pontiac G5 2005-2007

Saturn Ion 2003-2007

Chevrolet HHR 2006-2007

Pontiac Solstice 2006-2007

Saturn Sky 2006-2007

If you or a family member were injured as a result of the failure of the ignition switch contact our office by calling 1-800-698-3644 or emailing [email protected]

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How Often Should I Talk to My Attorney

Interview with Anna Betts, contributed by Alex Holder

How often should I talk to my attorney while my case is going on?

Clients at KMBSP should expect to speak with their attorney about every two to three weeks during treatment for their injury. Throughout this time, updates on your wellbeing and treatments are necessary. Also if you have any questions or receive anything from your insurance company, these situations would also merit an additional phone call to your attorney.

If one of our personal injury attorney hasn’t heard from a client in a while, they will often reach out to the client simply to see how their treatment is going.  Sean Keith and Anna Betts are both personal injury attorneys at our firm and have handled many death and catastrophic cases caused by car accidents.

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GM Ignition Failures Have Led to 13 Deaths and a Wide-Scale Recall

On Feb. 13, 2014, General  Motors (GM) recalled 780,000 Chevrolet Cobalts and certain Pontiac vehicles to repair an ignition switch problem that can allow the key to unintentionally slip from its “run” position when the car hits a bump or if the keychain is too heavy. As a result, the defect can cause an engine shutdown and loss of power steering, brakes, and safety systems, including its airbags and anti-lock brakes.

On Feb. 25, GM expanded the recall to include hundreds of thousands of additional Chevy, Pontiac, and Saturn cars, bringing the total number of affected vehicles to 1.4 million.

GM has linked the defect to 31 crashes involving airbags that failed to deploy and the deaths of 13 motorists.

Depositions taken during a civil lawsuit against GM revealed the auto maker knew in 2004, a decade before it issued a recall, that its Chevrolet Cobalt had an ignition switch that could inadvertently shut off the engine while driving.

According to news reports Tuesday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New York has opened a criminal probe into the circumstances surrounding the GM ignition switch recall.

We would like to talk to you about any cases involving serious injuries or deaths resulting from crashes involving the 2005-2007 Chevy Cobalt, or model year 2003-2007 Pontiac G5, Saturn Ion, Chevy HHR, Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky.

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7 Ways Cheap Car Insurance Can Backfire

Everybody wants lower car insurance rates, but you could wind up sorry if you shop by price alone. Skimping on coverage can leave you financially exposed and wishing you had spent more for better protection and service.

“Don’t shortchange yourself,” says Anna Molin, an independent insurance agent with Huntington & Wheatsworth in Towaco, N.J. “In the long run, it’s not worth it, and it’s really not that much more to get something decent.”

That doesn’t mean you ignore price. But when comparing car insurance quotes and policies, make sure you compare apples to apples.

“People think they’re comparing apples to apples, but sometimes those apples are rotten,” says Addison Gardner, owner of The Gardner Insurance Group in Oklahoma City.

Here are seven ways cheap car insurance can backfire:

1. Not enough liability insurance to cover your assets

Most states require you to have liability insurance, but the minimum amounts you have to buy are low.

California’s minimum liability limits of 15/30/5 were set in 1967, says Tully Lehman, a spokesperson for the Insurance Information Network of California. (That’s $15,000 per person for bodily injury liability, $30,000 for bodily injury per accident and $5,000 for property damage.)

“You can exceed that $5,000 limit very quickly,” he says. “The same goes for bodily injury.”

Once the limits are exceeded, you’re on the hook for paying damage or injuries you cause, and accident victims can sue you for your assets.

Gardner says he runs into a lot of consumers who got sold a cheap policy and were told they had “full coverage.” But actually they had only the bare-minimum liability insurance with some collision and comprehensive coverage.

“If you own a $200,000 house and you hit someone with a $100,000 Mercedes, guess where the lawyers are going to dip to get the money?” he says.

2. An unaffordable auto insurance deductible

Raising the deductible on collision and comprehensive insurance is one way to lower premiums, and it’s preferable to forgoing collision and comprehensive altogether if you have a car with some value, Molin says.

But don’t raise the deductible so high that you can’t afford to pay it when your car needs repairs.

3. Stingier coverage

In some states, some non-standard car insurance policies contain exclusions in the fine print, says Penny Gusner, consumer analyst for CarInsurance.com. These are policies promoted as cheap coverage for risky drivers.

For instance, unlike most standard policies, some no-frills policies don’t extend coverage to rental cars, and they don’t automatically extend coverage to a new car when you replace your vehicle. (With a standard policy, your current insurance typically extends to a replacement vehicle, although you’re required to notify your insurer within a certain timeframe, usually 14 to 30 days, after buying a car.)

4. Higher rates for tiny infractions

With a cheap policy you might get dinged harder for minor violations or accidents than you would with other policies, Gusner says. That means you’ll pay higher premiums at renewal time, and the cheap policy might end up costing you more in the long run.

5. Bad customer service

Check out the reputation of an insurance company before buying. Many state insurance departments post information about complaints against insurance companies.

“Ask yourself if the company is going to have your best interests at heart when it comes time to file a claim,” says Lehman.

Molin says beware of companies you’ve never heard of.

6. No extras when you need them

Options like rental car reimbursement and emergency roadside service don’t cost that much, but they can come in awfully handy. Rental car reimbursement pays for a rental car while your vehicle is in the shop after a covered accident. Emergency roadside service pays for towing and service if your car breaks down or you lock yourself out.

7. Not enough protection for you and your passengers

James Kuryak, principal of Niagara National Insurance in Buffalo, N.Y., says too often customers who buy a healthy amount of liability insurance to protect their assets skimp on uninsured motorist coverage. This insurance covers you, the insured members of your household and passengers for injuries or death when an uninsured or hit-and-run driver causes an accident. Kuryak recommends bumping up uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage to the limits of your liability insurance.

He also suggests increasing personal injury protection insurance if you’re in a no-fault state and you routinely shuttle around a lot of passengers, such as your kids’ friends to soccer practice or school.

Overall, Kuryak says, review your car insurance coverage periodically to make sure it’s sufficient for your life situation today.

“At the time of an accident no one thinks about what they paid for insurance anymore,” he says. “It’s all about what coverage you have.”

View the original article: http://money.msn.com/auto-insurance/7-ways-cheap-car-insurance-can-backfire

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The Driver who Caused the Accident Left the Scene—Now What?

Contributed By: Anna Betts

You have been in a car accident that you did not cause; and to make matters worse, the other driver did not even stick around?  You are left with a damaged car and injuries wondering how you are going to handle this.  After a hit and run collision, there are several things you can do to protect yourself.

Call the Police Immediately

If you are physically able, call the police immediately.  Give them your best description of the other vehicle and the driver.  If there are any distinguishing bumper stickers or if you remember any digits from their tag, be sure to report those while it is still fresh in your memory.  Even though the other driver is not at the scene, you will need to file a report to be able to press criminal charges if the other driver is found.  Also, you will need a police report in the event that you need to make a claim with your own insurance provider.

Get Medical Help

You also need to get prompt medical treatment if you are injured.  Do not wait or forego treatment over concerns that you are unsure of how you will pay the bills.  Early and appropriate medical treatment can aid healing and get you back to feeling better sooner.  Your health and wellbeing is more important than any other aspect after an accident.

Get Legal Help

As soon as you are able, talk to an experienced car wreck attorney about your situation.  An attorney can provide you with valuable experience and advice on how to handle this complicated situation.  A local attorney can also talk with your insurance company and give them the information they need to open a claim.  It may seem like it is unnecessary to hire an attorney to deal with your own insurance company.  After all, your insurance company is supposed to be on your side, right?  Although at first glance, it appears that your insurance will do everything to fight for you, keep in mind that an uninsured motorist claim is an adversarial claim.  This means that because your insurance company is now responsible to pay, they will view your claim like a third party insurance company would.  Almost all insurance companies have shareholders and making a profit is a huge priority.  You need someone who is completely on your side, fighting for you and what you need.

Even beyond an insurance claim, you may have other legal rights. An experienced attorney can work with the police and investigators to try to determine who the at-fault driver is, to press criminal charges, and to pursue a civil claim if necessary.

If you have been involved in a hit and run accident, call us today for help understanding your options legal rights so you can make an informed decision.  We offer free consultations and will be happy to see if there is anything we can do to assist you.

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Statements Made at an Accident Scene

Contributed By: Anna Betts

When the police arrive at the scene of a car wreck, their job is to determine what happened.  One of an officer’s tools for determining fault is taking statements from all drivers.  It is important to tell the police your side of how the car accident happened.  However, keep in mind that anything you say will most likely be included in the police report.  For this reason, if you misstate anything or speculate as to what happened, the officer may include those misstatements and speculations in his or her report.

The best advice is to keep your description of the facts short and simple.  Explain only what you KNOW and do not speculate.  There is one exception, if you observed or suspect that the other driver was doing anything illegal or odd at the time of the collision, mention that to the police officer.  If you are injured in the car accident, let the police officer know where you are hurt.  That, too, will be included in the report.  If you waive off help or try to “tough it out,” the police officer will mark “no injuries” on the report.

Statements made to the police and statements made to the other driver are admissible in court if your case should go to trial.  They are called a “party admission.”  So, be mindful of what you say, even to the other driver, and always tell the truth.  If the other driver says anything to you, mention it to the police officer so that it can be included in the report.  Things that may seem trivial at the scene can become very important later if you have a case that goes to trial.

Car accidents happen.  However, the more you know about what to do after a wreck, the more prepared you will be to handle it.  If you have an accident in Bentonville, Rogers, Fayetteville, Springdale, or even on I-540, please give our office a call and see what we can do to help you.

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Judget Tom Keith is Counsel with our Firm

Judge Keith is of counsel with our law firm and assists us in ways that can not be measured. He brings his insight and experience of being on the bench as a Municipal and Circuit Judge in Benton County for 26 years. Because of this experience he offers a unique perspective and input into our cases.

  Watch this video where Judge Tom Keith and Sean Keith discuss going up against insurance companies: David and Goliath:

http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aed9BtR9ydI

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Pedestrian Safety Tips for Halloween

Halloween/Pedestrian Safety Tips:

Did you know children are 4x more likely to be killed while walking on Halloween than any other night of the year? Remind your kids about pedestrian safety while trick or treating. Here are some tips:

http://www.safekidscharmeck.org/Documents/Halloween_fact_sheet.pdf

  Stay safe and remind your kids about safety precautions while trick or treating this Halloween. Here are a few tips:

Cross streets with caution. Cross at a corner, using traffic signals and crosswalks. Don’t assume that because you see the driver, the driver sees you. Walk, don’t run, across the street.

Walk on Sidewalks or paths. If there are no sidewalks, walk facing traffic as far to the left as possible.

Children under 12 should not be without adult supervision.

Be a safe pedestrian. Watch for cars that are turning or backing up. Never dart into the street or cross between parked cars.

  Be smart:

decorate costumes/bags with reflective tape or stickers.

Face paint and makeup are better for children because they do not hinder vision like masks do.

Kids should carry glow sticks or flashlights in order to see and be seen better.

    Halloween Driving Safety Tips:

Many ghosts and goblins now days ride in cars as well as walk on foot for trick or treating. If you’re going to be behind the wheel this halloween remember to drive with caution. Here are a few safety tips to keep you and others unharmed: http://www.progressive.com/vehicle-resources/halloween-safety/

  Drive slowly, don’t pass stopped vehicles– the driver might be dropping off children.

Park your mobile phone– wait until you’ve stopped to answer

Watch for children darting into the street– kids can cross anywhere, and most deaths happen at spots other than intersections

Yield to pedestrians– children might not practice pedestrian safety, so be alert

Communicate with other drivers– always use turn signals, if you have to pull over to drop off or pick up your kids, use hazard lights

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Did you know? Traffic-related fatality rate for AR- NWA Car Accident Attorneys

Did you know…

  The total traffic-related fatality rate for Arkansas was 19.27 fatalities per 100,000 people, which is 65.8% higher than the average for all Traffic Deaths by State in 2010.

  http://vehicle-fatalities.findthedata.org/l/4/Arkansas

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Settlement Reached in Trial of Death of 17-yr-Old Sara Symons from Benton County | NWA Car Accident Attorney

Settlement Reached in Trial of Death of 17-yr-Old Sara Symons from Benton County | NWA Car Accident Attorney

The trial set to start In Benton County Circuit Court on Monday in the death of 17 year old Sara Symons against Kendall Riggins, Chrysler and Key Safety Systems has been settled. It was alleged that in the lawsuit filed that Kendall Riggins collided with Sara’s Jeep Grand Cherokee on September 1, 2011, the day that Sara had been nominated for homecoming. The collision caused her vehicle to roll several times and it was alleged that the seatbelt failed causing her to be ejected which lead to her death. Sara was the only child of her parents, Scott and Beth Symons, and on the behalf of her Estate they have reached an agreement with all three defendants for an undisclosed amount.

“When we began this process, it was critical to my clients that any misconceptions about that day regarding Sara were cleared and that the truth came out. Through discovery of phone records and expert investigation it was shown that Sara did nothing wrong which lead to her death. That included wearing her seatbelt and neither texting or talking on the phone. My clients are grateful that they are able to celebrate Sara’s life on Monday which would have been her 20th birthday at home instead of a courtroom. They are grateful to all of the overwhelming support that has been shown by Sara’s friends, teachers, the law enforcement and first responders and this community who have stood by them through this process. ” Sean Keith

After Sara’s death the Symons began a Foundation and have handed out more than a dozen scholarships in her name to Bentonville High School graduates. “Sara’s memory will live on not only through us but through the people that her scholarship touches well after we are with her in heaven.” Scott Symons

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FAQ: An insurance company is offering me a nice settlement. Should I take it? | NWA Car Accident Attorneys

FAQ: An insurance company is offering me a nice settlement. Should I take it?

We recommend you do not take a settlement from an insurance company without first speaking with an experienced car accident attorney or injury lawyer. Typically, the insurance company will ask you to agree not to sue them in exchange for a minimal amount of money. They will also often discourage you from obtaining a lawyer so that they can pay you less. Claims adjusters are never on your side because it is their job to protect the interests their employer. Our job is to protect yours. Call us today for more information. We want to help!