Archive for May, 2009

A Seminar entitled “New Jersey Auto Law” delivered to the Bucks County Bar Association by Firm Partners Jerrold Kamensky and Philip Cohen recently received “excellent” evaluations by attendees. The overall evaluations the Bar Association received from those in attendance were “exceeded expectations” by half of the respondents and “excellent” by the remaining half. Among the comments were “obviously expert in the field.” But we knew that!!

Among the many topics covered, Mr. Cohen and Mr. Kamensky focused on areas of the law that differ between the two states of New Jersey and Pennsylvania and how those laws impact upon cases involving injuries suffered in an auto accident. Many of the clients injured in an auto accident that a Bucks County Lawyer represents may have been injured while actually driving in New Jersey due to the shared border of the two states. Kamensky and Cohen pointed out many instances where a different strategy is needed than the one that might be used if the accident had taken place in Pennsylvania in order to get the best results for that client. Although the injured party will probably have a Pennsylvania insurance policy, they pointed out, either New Jersey or Pennsylvania laws may be employed, and the choice should be based on which would benefit the client under the specific circumstances of the incident and the coverages of the insured’s auto policy. Many examples of which is the best choice, given varying circumstances, were offered to attendees.

Both Mr. Kamensky and Mr. Cohen are licensed to practice in New Jersey and Pennsylvania and are members of the Mercer County (New Jersey) and Bucks County (Pennsylvania) Bar Associations. Mr. Kamensky and Mr. Cohen will repeat the presentation for the Bucks County Bar in the spring. Attorney attendees can receive Pennsylvania CLE (Continuing Legal Education) credits for their attendance.

A comprehensive overview of how to purchase Automobile Insurance that best protects you and your family in the event of an auto accident in the states of New Jersey and Pennsylvania are available on the Kamensky—Cohen website under the topic, “Helpful Documents.” The website address is http://kc-law.net.

By Jerrold Kamensky, Esq.,
Senior Partner, Kamensky Cohen

Protecting yourself with your own automobile insurance involves a comprehensive understanding of which coverages actually protect you from the claims against you by other drivers as well as claims made by you against other drivers. It is our view that one of the primary purposes of automobile insurance protection is to protect yourself from uninsured and underinsured drivers causing injury to you. In order to optimize your coverages for these purposes, careful attention must be paid to the selection of all aspects of your coverages. The following article explains two important aspects of selecting the right coverage and how what you choose on one effects what you are allowed to choose on the other.

LIABILITY COVERAGE – pays for bodily injury and property damages that you or a driver of your automobile causes to others. It also pays for the cost of an attorney selected by the auto insurance company to defend you against claims made against you by the other, injured driver. Injury damages include medical expenses, pain and suffering and lost wages. Property damage includes damaged property and automobiles. New Jersey and Pennsylvania (like 45 other States) require minimum coverages, but you can, and should, purchase more coverage than your state requires. The following selection criteria will help assess the need for additional coverages over and above what the minimum requires.

a. Assets Available for Seizure by an Injured Person Due to Your Negligence. Because your liability selection is provided to protect you and drivers of your car from claims of others for negligence related to the use of your automobile, it is important to be aware that the limits of your liability coverage are not the limits of what the person you injured can recover against you but they are the limits of what the insurance company will pay. If, for example, you have selected and purchased a $15,000 liability limit and as a result of your negligence in the operation of your motor vehicle serious injury is caused to another, your own assets can be seized to compensate for those injuries.

Income Earning Capacity. Even if your assets are limited, other means of collection are available through garnishment of your wages and liens on Real Estate. For example; with the diminished bankruptcy protections now available, a judgment against you can be a long term threat that will have impact on your credit rating and ability to transfer jointly held property. The judgment grows daily with the addition of interest.

c. Financial Capacity to Pay for Coverages. – It is easy to see that the more liability coverages that you have, the more protection that you have. Of course, there is always the concern that increased coverage takes more money out of pocket. While this is true, it is important to know that the lower levels of coverages are, dollar for dollar, the most expensive. Why? Because, like all insurance coverage, the purchase price is tied to the cost (plus substantial profits for the insurance company and large executive bonuses ¹⁾and, obviously, there will be far more frequent minor injury claims than claims for serious crippling injuries. In addition, the insurance company is paying for the cost of your attorney, which may not vary significantly despite the difference in injuries caused so those first dollars of coverage are the most frequently paid and hence the most expensive.

(According to the America Association of Justice the CEOs of the top 10 property/casualty firms earned an average of $8.9 million in 2007.)

UNINSURED/UNDERINSURED COVERAGE – (“U” coverages) provides you with insurance coverages when you are the injured party and the other guy has insufficient liability coverage (“Underinsured”)or no insurance (“Uninsured”) to pay for the extent of your injuries and damages.

The Need/desire to Protect Yourself from Injuries That You Suffer Caused by a Negligent Drive of Another Car. When you are injured due to the negligence of another driver you should no more rely on that driver to have adequate protection for you than you would rely on him to drive safely. Defensive insurance purchasing is as important as defensive driving and both can protect you from the devastating effects of an accident by purchasing adequate Uninsured/Underinsured insurance protection. We have seen many cases where a negligent, reckless or even a drunk driver has caused serious injuries to our clients and the “bad” guy had no coverage or minimum coverages. It sounds simple – just increase the “U” coverages on your policy. The problem is that you can only increase those coverages to the maximum of the amount of Liability coverage that you have selected (see above). To determine the cost of protecting yourself you have to measure the cost of increasing both your Liability and”U” coverages. The following chart will help and is taken from actual quotes for six months of coverage which we provided for a client of ours.

The “lesser coverage” is what his policy reflected at the outset of his coverage consultation in our office. The “increased coverage” is what we recommended and he purchased after our free consultation.

2 The Threshold can limit your ability to recover against the other guy even when he is clearly in the wrong. He could have been drunk, asleep or reckless and if you have failed to select out of the default “Limitation on Lawsuit” you could be out of luck even though you have been faithfully paying for your insurance for years. If you have the “Limitation on Lawsuit” threshold on your policy (insurance companies love that!) you cannot recover for your pain and suffering unless a jury determines that your injuries meet a certain statutorily defined “threshold”. Individuals suffering from “soft tissue” injuries, even severely herniated disks causing a lifetime of pain and suffering, are currently being denied recovery in approximately 90% of jury trials in New Jersey. Watch out for this one because if you do not select out of the “Limitation on Lawsuit” you will pay a lot and get no bang for your buck!

 3 Your PIP (Personal Injury Protection) coverage is important! Insurance companies will often recommend the $15,000 coverage instead of the default coverage of $250,000. The difference is only $18/year more for a good deal more protection to pay your medical bills should you be injured. Even a modest injury can result in medical costs that will dramatically impact on your pocket book and the cap that many health policies now place on your coverage. The $250,000 coverage is considered one of the best in the nation and should be your selection.

 Check out the above footnotes in the chart because they demonstrate the manner in which you can easily be deceived into purchasing far worse coverage when the cost of the much better coverage is minimal. Many of these coverages must be offered by law but are discouraged by the insurance companies. The “Limitation on Lawsuit” threshold is the insurance company’s profit mill. Tha’s why they lobbied the legislature hard for a law that allows them to write your policy with the “limitation on lawsuit” coverage unless you elect out of it. They lull you into thinking that you will be able to sue the other driver, but based on the fact that you have failed to deselect the default coverage of a “Limitation on Lawsuit” policy, you will not be able to recover in 90% of the cases that go to the jury. Many prominent lawyers will not take cases that are subject to the “Limitation on Lawsuit”. Do not make that mistake – deselect ” Limitation on Lawsuit” and be sure that the policy reads “No Limitation On Lawsuit”.

Both of the policies that I have shown above are shown to have selected a “No Limitation” policy. Actually, when my client came to me, he had not deselected the “Limitation on Lawsuit” policy. The difference in the cost of the policy with a “No Limitation” selection would have been only $90/year additional. Had he chosen a “no limitation” policy, the injuries that he had suffered would have been recoverable without question. Without the “no limitation” selection, we were not, unfortunately, able to take his case to help him recover damages for his substantial injuries. Nothing is more frustrating for a lawyer than to see a seriously injured victim of an auto accident unable to care for himself because of uninformed selection of insurance coverage!

Prices for auto insurance will vary depending on factors such as age, gender, location, amount of driving and driving record. The differences in coverage costs for far better protection are surprisingly less than one might think. Most people rely on their insurance company/agent’s recommendations. These recommendations are not necessarily in your best interests.

As I said above, there are a wide variety of factors that influence the cost of your auto insurance purchase. For instance, if you are looking to buy a car, some cars have equipment that may bring down your auto insurance costs. Security devices and tracking devices such as “On Star” will save some money. If you think you can afford that mid life crisis red Porsche, be sure to consider the cost of the insurance when you do your budget. Cars that are on the car thief’s “favorite list” will increase your insurance costs and that cost needs to be factored into your decision.

It has become much easier to compare rates for insurance because of the access to rating

on the internet. Figure out what you want and price the coverages with several different carriers. Rates will differ. Be sure to let whichever carrier you choose know about discount factors for which you qualify. If you don’t know which discounts you may qualify for, ask! Some of the more common discount factors are good student discounts and/or multiple cars on a single policy. A good driving record will bring the costs down and a bad one can make you a high risk and expensive insured. Even reducing your annual mileage estimates by car pooling or public transportation will impact some on the rates.

The best way to evaluate the impact of your policy is to come in to Kamensky-”Cohen for a free review of your policy. We will tell you how the coverages you have selected really protect you or not should you be involved in an accident and help you evaluate your best cost/protection ratios.