P.I.S.S.D. -- Personal Injury, Social Security Disability. Dallas Texas Lawyers

Latest Recession Victims: Laid-Off Lawyers

The Washington Times reports, "The number of unemployed lawyers surged from a nationwide average of 20,000 last year to 31,000 in the first quarter, the highest in at least 15 years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics" and "three thousand lawyers lost their jobs in the first three months of the year." Jackie Finn of Finn and Associates, a legal recruiting firm in McLean, said, "D.C. is holding up better than other cities, but we are part of the global legal market now." However, "David P. Landau, of Washington-based legal recruiting firm Klein, Landau and Romm, said younger lawyers who haven't made partner are hit hardest."

From the American Association for Justice news release.

Washington Times Urges Senate To Reject Hurley Nomination For NHTSA

The Washington Times editorializes, "President Obama's pick to head the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration raises a few red flags. If confirmed by the Senate, Chuck Hurley, CEO of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, will drive motorists over the cliff with regulation." The Times says, "Mr. Hurley has a history of pushing laws that harass millions of law-abiding citizens to ensnare a few lawbreakers" and "he supports returning the 55 mph speed limit to our highways as well as roadblocks and random pullovers to make sure drivers aren't doing anything wrong." The paper argues, "this methodology is based on a presumption of guilt - not innocence - of the average driver who is doing nothing wrong." The Times urges "senators to reject this nomination."

From the American Association for Justice news release.

FAA to Propose New Medical Helicopter Safety Rules

The New York Times reports, "A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) official said Wednesday that the agency planned to propose new rules requiring medical helicopters to use additional safety equipment, including collision avoidance systems." The decision comes after "a series of fatal medical helicopter crashes over the last two years that have killed 35 people." In the past, the agency "took the position that helicopter operators could make safety changes more quickly if they acted voluntarily." But, speaking "at a Congressional hearing Wednesday," FAA director of flight standards John Allen said, the agency "would soon begin a rulemaking proceeding to mandate the use of certain safety equipment and procedures."

From the American Association for Justice news release.

Friday Fun

Easy Bar Tricks is just what the name implies - a series of very cool tricks you can play with beer bottles and other items you find in a bar. Here are some great ways to win a few free beers from your friends.

Blogging Presentation at Lawyers Inner Circle

I have the honor of making a presentation to the Lawyers Inner Circle group today. The topic is Attracting Clients With Blogging. I’m talking with the other lawyers about the importance of providing helpful information on their blogs. A good legal blog should be educational, not promotional.

We are meeting in Cary, North Carolina, at the beautiful Umstead Hotel and Spa. The lawyers attending are mostly personal injury plaintiff attorneys, but other practice areas are also represented here.

I’m making this post live, as a demonstration to the audience.

Featured Link - Lawyer Advertising Rules In Each State

Lawyers could avoid a lot of headaches if we'd just take a few minutes to brush up on the advertising rules before we start any new promotional efforts. The American Bar Association has a helpful Web page that lists links to the Ethics Rules Governing Lawyer Advertising, Solicitation and Marketing in each state. This is especially handy for lawyers who are subject to the rules of more than one state. Take a look, and please -- check the rules before you get into trouble!

Insurance Premiums Rise Due To Stock Market Losses

USAToday has an article today about the increases in auto, life and home insurance premiums, brought on by loss of insurance company investment returns. Normally, when there is a downturn in the stock market and insurance companies bring in less revenue, they start talking about tort reform, and blaming their decrease in profits on trial lawyers. I guess this time everyone knows the real reason why they're not making as much money, so maybe we won't have another big tort reform push from the carriers. Here are excerpts from the article:

Home, car and life insurance prices are climbing as insurers grapple with lower investment returns and profits.

The cost of a typical auto insurance policy will rise 4% to $875 this year, on top of a 3% increase last year, according to the Insurance Information Institute, a trade group. Consumers also will pay more for homeowners insurance: The average policy will jump 3% to $841. And term life insurance rates are rising after several years of declines.

The price increases come as consumers struggle — the unemployment rate has reached 8.5%, and household wealth has plunged with investment portfolios and home prices.

In this economy, "Anything that costs more is difficult for consumers," says J. Robert Hunter, director of insurance for the Consumer Federation of America.

The industry's profits come from insurance policies and investment returns, says Terri Vaughan, chief executive of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. That's why, "If your expectations for future investment income are lower, that's going to affect premiums."

As the economy weakens, insurance rates could climb further. Insurers "cannot assume that interest rates will be much higher and stock returns much better in the foreseeable future," says Robert Hartwig, president of the Insurance Information Institute.

In the life insurance industry, weak profits, higher reserve requirements and increased capital costs are reversing a more than decade-long trend of falling term life prices, says Byron Udell, chief executive of AccuQuote, an online insurance broker.

Udell predicts average term life rates will be 5% to 10% higher at this time next year. Banner Life Insurance raised rates this year, he says. Prudential and ING have notified AccuQuote they'll raise rates in coming weeks.

The rate increases — typically 2% to 6% — are significant because these three insurers are major players that frequently offer lower premiums than their competitors, Udell says.

Bankruptcy Filings Up Despite Law Meant to Make the Process Harder

Unfortunately, many of our personal injury clients and Social Security disability claimants suffer serious financial difficulties because of the length of time between suffering their injuries or disabilities and receiving settlements or benefits. As a result, some of our clients are forced to file for bankruptcy.

In an effort to better serve our clients, our law firm recently opened a Bankruptcy and Consumer Protection department, run by attorney Kathleen Munden. Ms. Munden has more than a dozen years of experience representing consumers in bankruptcy cases and consumer protection claims.

Now, due to the economic downturn, even people who have not been injured or disabled are also having to file bankruptcy. A recent article from the MSNBC Web site details the large increase in bankruptcy filings over the past year. Here are excerpts from the article:

The number of U.S. businesses and individuals declaring bankruptcy is rising with a vengeance amid the recession, despite a three-year-old federal law that made it much tougher for Americans to escape their debts, an Associated Press analysis found.

Nearly 1.2 million debtors filed for bankruptcy in the past 12 months, according to federal court records collected and analyzed by the AP. Last month, 130,831 sought bankruptcy protection — an increase of 46 percent over March 2008 and 81 percent over the same month in 2007.

Bob Lawless, a professor at the University of Illinois College of Law, said bankruptcies could reach 1.5 million this year and level off at 1.6 million next year — around the same time economists expect an economic recovery to begin.

Congress voted in 2005 to make bankruptcy more cumbersome after years of intense lobbying from the nation's lenders, who complained that people were abusing the system. Before the move to change the law, bankruptcies were running at what was then an all-time high of about 1.6 million per year.

The tighter requirements initially appeared to work, with bankruptcies plummeting from a record-shattering 2 million cases in 2005 — a total that reflected a rush to file before the new law took effect — to 600,000 in 2006. But now bankruptcies are booming again.

The bankruptcy rate is climbing as well. In the past 12 months, about four people or businesses for every 1,000 people in the country filed for bankruptcy, according to the AP analysis. That is twice the rate in 2006, and close to the average of about five for every 1,000 in the decade leading up to the change in the law.

Under the 2005 law, Congress imposed higher fees on those seeking bankruptcy and began requiring credit counseling sessions and a means test to assess debtors' ability to pay what they owed.

Many filers take a credit counseling class just a day before turning to the courts.

Also, the law's test of a person's ability to pay off debts appears to have failed at one of its goals: steering debtors from Chapter 7, which allows people to sell off their assets to repay what they can and start again debt-free, and into Chapter 13, which places the filer in a repayment plan that can last for years. Chapter 7 cases accounted for 69 percent of all filings in the past year, compared with 71 percent in 2004.

Featured Link - Readability

Do you read a lot of articles on the Internet? If so, you're going to love this nifty tool. Readability is a Web browser plug-in that you add to your links toolbar. When you find a long article you want to read, just click on the Readability icon and suddenly everything on the page disappears except the article, and the article is nicely formatted for ease of reading. The style and size of the text is customizable. It's a really helpful little tool. Check it out.

Editorial: Safety vs. Car Weight Issue Seen As Largely Ignored

In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Sam Kazman, general counsel of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, writes, "The super-high efficiency minicar has become the Holy Grail for many environmentalists," but an Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) study found that minis offer "significantly less protection for their passengers" during two car crashes. "That's not what advocates of higher fuel-economy standards want to hear. Greater weight may increase crashworthiness, but it also decreases miles per gallon, so there's an inevitable trade-off between safety and efficiency." However, "with the exception of IIHS, there's practically no one else providing information on the size-safety issue." A federal appeals court found the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration "guilty of using 'mumbo jumbo' and 'legerdemain' to conceal" the "lethal effects" of Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards. "Don't expect" the Environmental Protection Agency to "admit to CAFE's dangers," Kazman writes, adding that Consumer Reports "has consistently failed to mention the importance of size and weight in discussing how to choose a safer car."

From the American Association for Justice news release.