Recently, the US Supreme Court has accepted a case that will finally decide whether punitive damages are allowed for persons injured or killed while working at sea. The case is McBride v. Estis Well Service and involves an incident aboard a barge with a truck-mounted drilling rig. The rig toppled
Insurance carriers attempt to limit coverage whenever possible. It is a “trick of the trade.” Insurance companies utilize defenses such as exhaustion of benefits, lack of coverage, and material misrepresentation to bar otherwise viable claims. One defense, in particular, failure to sign BOX 31 of the Health Insurance Claims Form
Will My Accident Case Settle Out of Court? Believe it or not, this answer will depend on you! You are going to have a case and you will hire an attorney to represent you on it. That attorney will put forth all the effort in a pre-suit demand. The insurance
The Florida No-Fault Personal Injury Protection (PIP) statute is confusing, vague, and frustrating to digest. As a practitioner or a layman, we all struggle to truly determine what the Legislature intended with this area of the law. That being said, it is important to understand when an injured person is
Does Social Security Disability Drug Test for Marijuana? How does smoking marijuana (A.K.A. weed, pot, cannabis, reefer, etc.) affect the strength of your claim for Social Security disability benefits? While there is currently no drug testing policy for Social Security disability (SSD) benefits, the answer to how marijuana can affect
It is no secret that the Social Security Disability Trust Fund is “running low.” There has been a lot of talks recently about the disability trust fund not being able to pay full disability benefits starting as early as 2016. What would this mean to beneficiaries? It would probably mean
It is not abnormal for most of my clients to tell me they are considering filing for bankruptcy. In fact, in most situations I expect it. The reason being you are not working, so your financial resources are most likely limited. Bankruptcy is the logical next step. I recently had
The Miami Heat are currently facing the possibility of losing their best player (Chris Bosh) for an extended period of time. Josh McRoberts, a key free-agent acquisition, has been ruled out for the season due to a meniscus injury. The flu bug has spread throughout the locker room, and the
The new PIP Statute was written pretty poorly. That is what happens when the legislature pushes to get in a final bill at the 11th hour before the session closes. The problem with a hastily passed law is that there are often conflicting provisions in the statute. When this occurs
Box 31 sounds like an invitation to something special and mysterious. In the world of personal injury protection insurance (PIP), Box 31 is an archaic defense implemented by our beloved PIP insurance companies. This defense is archaic in that the insurer “should know” the amounts/and type of treatment the medical
