Colorado Auto Accident & Motorcycle Laws

Car Wreck Injury in Denver

Next step, call me. Insurance companies are designed by their corporate structure to maximize share holder profits. Their not designed to well compensate insured people. I used to work for them. I know their playbook of under valuing and delaying claims. Call me today for a free consultation. I always offer contingency payments on personal injury cases. This means no attorney fees erode unless you win.

By: Jeremy Rosenthal

Truck Accident Litigation

Not all auto accidents are created equal. If you’ve been in a wreck with a truck, you need a lawyer who understands and appreciates the difference between truck accidents and other types of auto accidents. Trucks are insured by commercial insurers who write commercial insurance policies. These policies greatly differ from consumer insurance policies. Additionally, commercial drivers have to follow a lengthy set of rules and regulations that your attorney needs to fully understand to give you effective representation. For a free case evaluation, call me today at 030-825-2223.

By: Jeremy Rosenthal

Attorney and Car expert Jim Gilbert

If you have been in a car accident, you’re probably wondering: “What kind of lawyer do I need? Is a law degree enough?” I don’t think so. You need a lawyer who is also a car guy with a background in cars and trucks. There are a few lawyers in the United States with my car background.

Experience with cars

For several years, I was a race car driver. I’ve been involved for more than three decades in litigating car accidents, ranging all the way from small cars to 18-wheelers. I know vehicle dynamics. Other lawyers across the country recognize our expertise. We get calls weekly, asking for our help in handling their accident cases. National TV and press have featured our work. Many of you may remember when Dale Earnhardt was killed during the Daytona 500. A television news station asked me to consult with them on what caused Earnhardt’s death. Before the NASCAR investigation was even completed, we had concluded that Dale Earnhardt’s seatbelt failed him. Our experience in the investigation of car accidents can be a difference-maker to you and to your family.

Paying Medical Bills Following Bicycle Collision

This summer, unfortunately it seems not a week goes by without a car versus bicycle accident. Despite ad campaigns about keeping our heads up, everybody, whether we’re driving or biking, we’ve had way too many of these accidents. We’re here to talk about what happens after this kind of an accident, and how to get your medical bills paid.

We have Jeff Kelly, he is an attorney with Harding & Associates, in for Phil Harding this Friday. Good to see you again. Good morning. Jeff, you were here last week, and you talked about an interesting concept I haven’t really even heard about before, and that’s about stacking insurance policies to make sure you’re actually getting all of the compensation that’s due you.

That’s correct. And to remind our viewers, you need to have a knowledgeable attorney in this area who will really dig into the different coverages available. And here is a graphic that we used last week. Maybe we could talk about this just for a minute.

Areas of Coverage

Yeah, just kind of a refresher here. Right. And the different areas that you look to for a coverage would be the owner of the car, if they have insurance, the driver of the car, are they insured? And if you have problems in those areas, there may not be insurance or enough insurance, and you look to your own UM, UIM coverage, which we know is Uninsured Motorist or Underinsured Motorist coverage. Yeah, we know that now because you all are always here educating us on UM and UIM.

All right, so we understand a little bit more about the stacking, so that says the car driver or even the passenger, or the person who’s been hit. But I would think it’s vital that we have an attorney who understands how to dig and find those different policies for example. Right. You know, it’s not just knowing about digging into finding each of these policies or coverages, but you absolutely have to give the proper notification.

Today I want to show our viewers how they can reduce what they have to pay back to health insurance, Medicaid, Medicare, and the like. Yeah. I think a lot of people including myself didn’t realize that you do have to pay it back. I just thought, “Okay, it’s covered, they pay for it.” But once you get these policies and they come in, sometimes you have to pay back the health insurance, right?

Yes. And that’s called subrogation. Subrogation is paying back any health or other insurance company money that they paid out for your medical care due to this accident. Three years ago Colorado passed a law that says, “Whenever an insurance company pays– whatever they pay out for you, needs to be reduced by the amount of your attorney’s fees.” Yeah, it was just three years ago. It was called the Make Whole Law. Here is a little bit of it, an excerpt from it, right? Yes, and I’d like the viewers to know that it’s important that it says, “The amount recoverable if any by the payer of benefits or reimbursement, or subrogation, shall be reduced by an amount equal to the payer of benefits proportionate share of the attorney’s fees and expenses incurred on behalf of the injured party in making a recovery.”

All right. So the two little tiny words, but if any. That’s a big deal. If any is paid back to the health insurance, is that correct?

Yes. Great eye for detail. The reason that that’s important is that the law says that if any, is because if you are not made whole, you generally do not have to pay back your health insurance. Let’s look at another portion of this law, of the Make Whole Law. It says, “Any provision in a policy contract or benefit plan allowing a required reimbursement for subrogation in circumstances in which the injured party has not been fully compensated, is void as against public policy.”

All right. So is this where you come in, Jeff? You and the rest of the team at Harding & Associates? You help the court decide or anyone decide if I have been made whole?

Yeah. I mean how do you prove you’ve been made whole or not? Great point. What we do is, this law describes this type of a determination. It’s set up by statue. In short, if you get the total amount of the insurance coverage as we went through those policies, and we’ll do that in a minute, then you are presumed not to have been made whole. And with this analysis that works with each policy that you can collect from. So if we could go back to that first graphic, I could go through this for– We may have a little bit of technical, our air on the graphics.

So let’s just talk about the different ones. So if the owner of the car, if they have insurance. Let’s say they get 25,000. Right?

Yes. What you do is, you go through an analysis with each policy. And let’s say potentially there is a $25,000 policy for the driver of the other car, $25,000 policy for the owner of the car, possibly a $25,000 UM, UIM policy on another vehicle you may own, then as you settle with each carrier, presuming you have damages that substantiate that type of a recovery. Then the health insurance company, based on the Make Whole Law, will defer recovery, and should defer recovery so you don’t have to pay back your health insurance each time you go through that analysis with each settlement. Okay. Now, I think it’s important here, because the Make Whole Law is relatively new. You said it’s only three years old. Yes. I didn’t even know about it. And you said there were actually attorneys who– they know that it exist, but they’re not actually even using it. That is key when you’re in an accident, to have an attorney like you and Phil, you’re digging for these other policies. And I think the point– it’s all wiggled, so I’m trying to keep up with you. So if you are getting the maximum, the 25,000, then basically they’re assuming, “Okay, you haven’t been made whole yet because you’re already getting the max.”

Correct. Am I reading that right? Right. The presumption is that a policy limit settlement presumes that you have damages that exceed that amount. So what you have to do is, you have to give the health insurance company, and they use a third-party administrator to recover monies for the health insurance company. You give them a 60-day notice, and they have that time period to evaluate it and look at it, and determine if they agree that the party has not been made whole by that policy when there is settlement. If they don’t agree, then you have to go to an arbitration with them. Okay. All right. Good stuff. Thank you so much.

You’re always educating us, you and Phil. If you have any legal questions for Jeff or his colleague Phil Harding, they would absolutely love to hear from you, and it’s easy to get a hold of them. You can go to our website coloradosbest.tv. Look for Phil’s photo there, there it is. Click on it, and they take the time and answer each of your questions personally. And many times they come on the show and address them right here on Colorado’s Best. To contact Harding & Associates directly, here is their number 303-762-9500. You can also go online to hlaw.org. Coming up.

By: Jeff Kelley

The Steps to be taken when dealing with an Auto Accident

There are a number of things you need to do if you or someone in your family has been injured in a car accident. First of all, get the best medical help you can find. Next, keep good records including a diary of how you are feeling. It’s often important also to take good photographs of any injuries, especially soon after the accident. Secure the evidence, including the vehicles involved in the accident. Take good photographs of the vehicles. Take good photographs of the scene. Ask for the police investigation reports and their photographs. Get the names and other contact information for all witnesses. Modern day vehicles also have black boxes that record data at the time of the accident. Our engineer knows how to retrieve that data. For more than 30 years, The Gilbert Law Group has established a proven checklist of each step needed for a thorough investigation. We are experienced, and know exactly what needs to be done to protect your rights to compensation. You need to take care of your family. We will do all of the rest, including getting answers to what happened and why.

Now with the warm stretch of weather – warm, it’s been downright hot – there has been plenty of motorcyclist out on the road, and we hope you’d been paying close attention. Look twice, you might save a life, to all those riders out there on two wheels. Jeff Kelley, he’s an attorney with Harding & Associates. He’s here on this first Friday of each month. He’s an avid motorcyclist. He’s been riding for upwards of 30 years and he’s been practicing law for 25 of those years. Coming off the Fourth of July weekend, weather practically perfect here in the city, motorcycle riders all over the place. That’s true and happy Fourth to everyone. I hope that all the motorcyclists out there had a safe weekend. That’s what we’re hoping for but a lot didn’t. You were telling me the judge’s starting to see some cases.

Yes, and a very troubling thing that we’re seeing is the increased activity of drivers, motorcyclists, that are being ran off the road, a hit and run type thing or a phantom driver where the at-fault driver doesn’t stop. For whatever reason, they didn’t see the person. Maybe they didn’t even know that they ran the guy off the road. Yes.

So what’s the next process for the rider involved in a situation like that?

Well, what we try to do is give information to our clients. I’d like to get listeners to understand also that you can protect yourself by using UM/UIM insurance that you can obtain for your own coverage on your policy for your own motorcycle.

Is that something that we can opt out off as motorcycle riders when we’re going for that policy?

You know, you’re looking to save as much money as you can, and you see those letters, you might not thing it’s a big deal. So you just decide, “Nah, you know what? We’re not going to do that.” That’s very important. You have to decline that coverage or your carrier has to provide it for you. Interesting. Yes.

So now, another level of safety – you can see here, you just can’t mistake it – is the riding jacket.

Right. That’s one level of protection. I always try to bring in something that gives the viewer an opportunity to see what they can wear. This is a high-visibility jacket. You can tell it’s got the high-visibility grain on it. Kevlar in the elbows and the back just in case something happens. Right. And the Cordura 500 material. This is a mesh jacket. It’s so hot out right now that no one wants to wear a leather jacket or any jacket. This is a good alternative. It’s a textile, but it does allow airflow, so that, literally, you can’t hardly feel that it’s on. So why, during the summer months, is airflow important? As riders, we both know why, but many out there, they don’t. Well, you and I were just talking about you’re sitting on stoplight. You’re waiting. It’s hot. You have a helmet on. You need some airflow to keep your thoughts about you and not reduce your being hydrated. I have a personal experience. I was out on the road, dressed like I would be on a winter day, stuck in traffic. And you we’re saying, keeping your wits about, you start to boil in that thing like a baked potato, and you’re hot. You’re like, “Man, I need to get moving,” and you can actually make some very poor decisions. We talked about keeping your thoughts about you as you’re riding, knowing what’s next to you, what’s behind you, ahead of you, and so on. Staying cool, having the right gear is a good approach to that. Now, let’s jump back to the insurance coverage side of things.

When you were talking the uninsured motorist, how is that a bigger deal now than it was years ago?

One in seven drivers are not insured. Which doesn’t sound like a lot. Well, where the reality really comes home is if you have a accident or you’re injured, you need to look to your own insurance. And if you do not have UM/UIM coverage, then, you’re not going to have any source of recovery from an injury caused by an uninsured or underinsured. An uninsured driver could be either another driver with no insurance or could be the driver that runs you off the road, doesn’t stop. That’s the phantom driver. An underinsured driver would be someone who has the minimum policy limits required by Colorado, which is 25,000. That’s not a lot of coverage. So let’s say that you have a 100,000 UIM on your own motorcycle, that would be on top of what the other driver would have. It’s called stacking. So that’s what we’d like the listeners to really understand. I’m happy to take calls if anyone has questions about that after the show. You may also benefit from having UM coverage on another vehicle, such as your passenger car. That UM coverage follows you and will be another level of insurance that you’ll stack on top of what the coverage is that you have on your motorcycle. There’s a lot of motorcycle riders, especially here, we can’t ride 12 months out of the year, though we wish we could. Right.

So you’re saying the cars that we’re driving in the winter months could have enough coverage to get us to where we need to be on the motorcycle. That’s a good point. That coverage is always there for you, either as a motorcycle rider or driving your own automobile or being in someone else’s motor vehicle. Your UM coverage helps protect you with that extra layer of protection. The other one that we can talk about briefly is MedPay coverage.

Medical Payment Coverage

Medical payment coverage is another optional coverage that you can select when you’re purchasing your insurance, and a minimum amount would be 5,000. It’s another one of those you have to decline if you are not going to take it. But you recommend taking it?

Yes. So it’s nice that you have to say no to it because then it’s almost you have to opt out which is the difference of opting in. That is why it’s set up that way. The legislature does not want people not realizing that they have that coverage available. A recent example of this is a lady who just hired our firm who had a hit-and-run situation on her Harley, and she had four different policy coverages that I can tell you briefly. She had UM coverage on her motorcycle. That’s all she has. She has a 100 to compensate her for her injuries. She has a pickup truck with another 100 UM, 100,000 UM, and then she has a medical pay policy of 5,000 on her motorcycle and 5,000 on her truck. So we are stacking. We’re putting those coverages together for her, and then we can deal with her health insurance that’s paying for her bills. So it’s– It’s complicated. –too complicated. And it is something that motorcycle riders, you put in the back of your mind, but you’re like, “Look man, I just want to get out and feel the wind and see the sights that Colorado has to offer.”

So keep this in mind, when you have questions, legal questions, call Jeff or his colleague, Phil Harding. They would love hear from you. Just log on to coloradosbest.tv, look for Phil’s photo. Click there, and they will take the time to answer each of your questions personally. It’s good to talk to you on this Friday morning. All right, to contact Harding and his associates, 303-762-9500 online. You’ll find them on hlaw.org.

By: Jeff Kelley

Motorcycle Passenger Safety and Litigation

This is prime motorcycle riding season and we hope you’re paying close attention to all those riders on two wheels. If you’re a rider, there are some things you can do to make sure that you’re really safe when you ride. Jeff Kelly, an attorney with Harding and Associates is here the first Friday of every month. He’s an avid motorcyclist who’s been riding for 30 years. Yes. 30 years. Wow. You have a lot of experience. And you’ve been practicing law for 25. Okay. We are talking to female passengers today. So all females out there who ever get on the back of a motorcycle, you want to listen up today because this is really interesting. You get a lot of phone calls come Monday morning. Yes. Why? Tell me why. Well, because people have been out riding motorcycles, and oftentimes it’s the passenger that’s calling me. They’re home, they’re unfortunately recovering from some kind of a collision. And they’re saying, “What do I do? What insurance do I go? Who do I contact?” Yeah. What do I– because I think, as females, we say, “Oh, motorcycle ride. Let’s get on.” It’s very last minute.

You’re not really thinking a lot about what could happen, and so a lot of these accidents do happen and you don’t have coverage. That’s right. What happens is someone’s invited, say, “Hey, I’m going to go to the store. I’m going to go somewhere. Would you like to go with me on my bike?” And the passenger, oftentimes a female, says, “Sure. I’ll go.” But they don’t know really what they’re getting into when they’re throwing their leg over that back seat and what may lie ahead there for them if there’s a collision. Okay.

You brought your helmet today. How can you miss this? It’s very neon. I remember saying no to the helmet when I was a young 20-year-old because I didn’t want to ruin my hair [laughter]. A lot of women do that. That is so common with– it’s hot. It might be 95 degrees out. I brought this several times because I want to really establish through repetition that this is the type of thing that could really save you from an accident.

Clothing, last time I brought a jacket that was the same color and that’s what I wear. This is what I wear. I want to make sure that I can be seen. You can’t miss it. Absolutely. Okay. We’re going to talk about protecting yourself if you’re a passenger, specifically. Most passengers are females. Why don’t we get into that. Right. Let’s get right down to that. Obviously, you might have health insurance. That’s great. That could be there as sometimes almost a last resort. But primarily, what you’re not going to know as a passenger, you’re not going to know what kind of insurance that motorcycle has. So if it’s a friend or even someone that you just met, and you’re getting on the motorcycle, that person only has to have $25,000 of liability protection. So if the driver of that motorcycle commits an error, drives recklessly, too fast, crashes the bike, the passenger is going to have only $25,000, the minimum limit, if they have that. Perhaps they have no insurance. So you brought a printout today. Obviously, we’re not going to be able to see this one. But you say– there’s your printout. You say that women should actually ask the person who’s driving to bring this out, really? Any passenger needs to know this. This is the bare essentials. Right on the top. Motorcycle Liability Insurance – $500,000. That’s like carrying– They need to have that. Well, it’d be good to know because your injuries could well exceed $500,000. And this is bodily injury coverage. This is what the driver of the motorcycle has to cover the passenger if they driver of the motorcycle’s at fault.

Now, dropping down there to Motorcycle Medical Payments, that’s $10,000 in MedPay. That is the most that I could actually get under this particular policy. That would set off any insurance coverage that one might have with health insurance. You have to pay health insurance back from a recovery from a third party. Medical payment coverage would reduce the amount that you have to pay back.

So you need to make sure there’s MedPay? Yes. In addition– Ideally. –to that top one? Okay. And then, as I’ve talked about on prior shows, the uninsured motorist protection down below, you see $500,000. That applies when the driver of the motorcycle would not have maybe done anything incorrectly, or not at fault for the accident and another vehicle caused the accident, or perhaps either another vehicle or a vehicle that didn’t stop. So it would be uninsured or under-insured. A vehicle that didn’t stop to say what insurance they had, or the one that did cause the accident had again maybe that minimum $25,000.

So you have to have those three? Yeah. I have to say, when I used to ride around with my boyfriend, this wasn’t even on my mind. And if it would’ve been, I would’ve been a little embarrassed to ask, Can I check your insurance? But you say you have to be smart about it, right? Well, it is a trap for the unweary. And we, as attorneys at Harding and Associates, we have to go back in time and try to assemble what’s available and look for the coverage.

As a passenger, the passenger has a unique set of challenges when there’s an injury because the driver of the other vehicle, possibly a car, may blame the driver of the motorcycle. Going too fast, too fast for conditions, sliding out on sand, around a curve. The passenger’s basically going to be the victim. As a last resort, the passenger hopefully will have some uninsured or under-insured coverage on their vehicle sitting in the driveway at their house. That’s the only thing a passenger can do is verify what coverage they have on their own vehicles. And some of that insurance coverage that you have on your, let’s say, four-wheel vehicle may exclude an accident that happened on a vehicle with less than four wheels.

So the moral of the story is, females, as passengers, we need to be smart about it. And we want people to know that you and Phil Harding are available to look over people’s coverage and let them know if they have enough, right? Absolutely. They could send it in anytime. We’ll talk to them, go over that coverage. Great. All right. If you have any legal questions for Jeff or his colleague, Phil Harding, as we mentioned, they would love to hear from you. Just log on to coloradosbest.tv, look for Phil’s photo, and click right there. They take the time to answer each question personally. And to contact Harding and Associates directly, their number is 303-762-9500 or online at hlaw.org.

By: Jeff Kelley

Motorcycle Accident Injury Case

Motorcyclists are especially vulnerable to the negligence of other drivers and often have serious injuries at a much higher rate than person in regular car versus car accidents. While car crash law is similar, whether it’s car versus car, or car versus motorcycle, there’s certain nuances in motorcycle law that your attorney must know in order to provide effective and aggressive representation.

Litigating Your Claim

Your attorney needs to be an expert in locating and accessing insurance coverage effectively negotiating with the insurance company, and if necessary, taking your case to trial. I used to work for the insurance companies and I’m a trial lawyer. I’m not one of those paper tiger lawyers that talks tough in a letter writing campaign but then always settles last minute.

Dealing With Insurance Company

The insurance companies know who the paper tigers are and they know who the trial lawyers are. They make offers accordingly. Call me today for a free consultation. I always offer contingency payments on personal injury cases. This means no attorney fees owed unless you win.

By: Jeremy Rosenthal

Welcome back to Colorado’s Best. I absolutely hate this feeling. You just see those flashing lights in your rear-view mirror. Your stomach just immediately tightens up. You get those knots.

And you know you’re going to be writing a big check for a ticket.

Yes.

Well, in today’s Legal Minute, our attorney shares tips for making a traffic stop as easy as possible.

Being pulled over is highly stressful. Here are some tips to make this encounter go as smoothly as possible. First, acknowledge that you see the officer. Next, pull over immediately to a safe spot in the road that’ll fit two cars comfortably. When the officer approaches the car, make sure that your hands are visible. If it’s an unmarked car, pull over in a well-lit area. And if you don’t feel comfortable, you can always call 911 to confirm the stop is being made by a real police officer. Finally, treat the officer with respect. For Colorado’s Best Legal Minute, I’m Phil Harding.

Thanks, Phil. If you have any legal questions for Phil, he wants to hear from you. Just log on to coloradosbest.tv. Look for his photo and click there. You can submit your legal questions and he really takes the time to answer them personally. He might even address your question, right here, on Colorado’s Best.

Very cool.

By: Phil Harding