Accident lawyers attempting to negotiate settlements with insurance companies view insurance companies as monolithic, i.e., “Insurance Company A is difficult’ or “Insurance Company B is easy to deal with on claims.” Sure, it is an oversimplification. Claims practices by different insurance companies vary from state to state and even from…
Five years ago, I had never heard of Ameriprise Auto & Home Insurance. Now, I’m seeing more and more Ameriprise claims that involve an Ameriprise insured defendant. Ameriprise does not have a lot of market share in Maryland. But the Ameriprise website claims it is one of the fastest-growing insurance…
The Maryland Court of Special Appeals in a 2-1 decision today affirmed a Frederick County trial court’s grant of summary judgment to Erie Insurance in an underinsured motorist lawsuit. The nutshell: State Farm paid its $100,000 liability policy in a serious injury car accident case. Plaintiff sought payment under his…
The New York Times has a good article today on Independent Medical Examination doctors, including a doctor referred to by New York injury lawyers as “Doctor Says-No.” We have several IME doctors in Maryland that must be related to him because they have the same last name. The New York…
Maryland Senate Bill 468 passed today in the Maryland Senate. It increases – from $10,000 to $20,000 – the maximum amount in controversy in a civil action in which a party may not demand a jury trial. Defendants would only be able to “bump up” cases between $20,000 and $30,000…
There is a battle now in the Maryland state legislature about whether Maryland should increase the minimum jurisdictional amount before a defendant can remove a case from District Court to Circuit Court. Defense lawyers for State Farm and Allstate, the two largest auto insurance providers in Maryland, routinely “bump up”…
I received this email from a personal injury lawyer in Maryland this morning: I have an MIA complaint involving Allstate offered the number provided by Colossus and now, of course, refuses to produce any Colossus manuals, etc. Do you have some useful Colossus materials? I don’t. Maryland’s bad faith law…
There is an article in the New York Times today that concludes that it is best to settle most accident, malpractice, and breach of contract claims based on a recent study. The basis for the conclusion is a study suggesting that defendants made the wrong decision by proceeding to trial,…
Click to enlarge The Supreme Court of Montana rendered an interesting decision last week for an emotional injury claim in Allstate Ins. Co. v. Wagner-Ellsworth. The case involves a car-pedestrian collision. Two brothers were crossing the street in front of their elementary school and one was seriously injured. Allstate settled…
The Maryland Court of Special Appeals decided the Titan v. Advance case yesterday. Titan is a case where the Plaintiff alleged negligent repair of a roof that led to the clogging of a roof drain, which then resulted in the Plaintiff’s premises to flood. It is located on Eastern Avenue…