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Injury

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Seat Belts and Auto Accident Injuries

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In 37 years as a personal injury lawyer in Keene, NH, I’ve seen a lot of needless suffering.

Seat belt use is one of the safest choices a driver or passenger can make according to the National Highway Transportation & Safety Administration ( NHTSA). NHTSA reports that seat belt use can reduce the risk of a fatal injury by 45% and moderate to critical injuries by 50%.

In their 2021 Highway Safety plan, New Hampshire Office of Highway Safety (NHOHS) reports a disturbing trend of decreasing seatbelt usage rate.  The seatbelt usage rate has decreased from 76% of vehicle occupants to 71% between 2018 and 2019, which is in line with the five-year trend. This is alarmingly lower than the 2019 national average of 90.7%.

New Hampshire vehicle occupants younger than 18 are required to wear seat belts and child restraint systems, however, we are the only state that does not legally require adults over the age of 18 to wear a seat belt. Even though its not required, it is the smart and safe choice.

In 2019, 37 of the 90 fatalities in New Hampshire auto crashes were unrestrained drivers.

You can still hire an auto accident lawyer or personal injury attorney to make a claim for damages if you are injured in a car accident and are not wearing a seat-belt.

Allow me to suggest, however, that it’s better to wear your seatbelt, if not for yourself then for others in the car. If there’s a crash and you are not properly restrained, you could land on top of another vehicle occupant and cause serious injury. It’s not worth the risk. Be safe. Buckle up.

 

If you or a loved one have been injured in an auto accident, call Donahue Law at (603) 357-2363 or message me at the bottom of this page. I recognize every impact of an auto accident – financial, mental, and physical and am determined to make sure that the insurance company does too so you get the best outcome possible after one of your life’s most trying times.

It costs nothing to meet with me and I don’t get paid until you win. 

 

The insurance company wants a recorded statement, what do you do?

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Contact an injury lawyer right away. No good comes from subjecting yourself to a recorded statement from a representative of the person who caused you harm. They are not looking to help you, nor are they seeking the truth. They are looking to hurt you and slant the tables against you. Talk with a lawyer who will aggressively represent your interests and put the heat where it belongs – on the insurance company of the person who caused all this misery and upset. We do so without apology or any concern what the insurance company thinks.

Charlie Donahue

Injury Lawyer

Alternative Dispute Resolution

That’s a fancy legal phrase for a way to end a case without going to trial.

In NH, some form of ADR is required for all cases in suit.

The court wants to encourage parties to settle their disputes. This alleviates a burden and expense on the court. Jury trials are costly.

The most common is Mediation, an informal meeting of the parties and their lawyers with a neutral. It is non-binding. There is no science to it, and every mediation is different.

I’m happy to talk with you about details. If your lawyer suggests mediation, make sure they explain fully the game plan. I’ve seen too many cases where a lawyer just agrees on a mediator and shows up with their client. That’s not enough. Not all mediators are good, and I give great thought to which mediator I think would be best depending on the case, my client and the other side (lawyer and client!).

Make sure you and your lawyer have a strategy and you are fully advised on how the process works.

I’ll save the other form called Arbitration for a later blog. Generally it is binding and is done by a single arbitrator or a panel of 3 (where each party names an arbitrator and the 2 hand-picked people choose a third).

Have a great day.

Charlie

“The biggest human temptation is to settle for too little.”

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I wish I could take credit for this great quote.

These are the words of one of the world’s greatest spiritual writers – Thomas Merton.

Of course, I immediately applied them to injury law and dealing with insurance companies.

Unless the insurance company knows you are prepared to go all the way, you will get shortchanged.

There are no short-cuts in this line of work – none.

No such thing as a strong letter to threaten these companies – only hard work. Smart and determined focus will get the results you deserve.

These days, more than ever, the insurance companies are looking to take advantage.

Their obligation is to their stockholders, not you.

Charlie Donahue

Injury Lawyer

Reminiscing

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At a tour of the Aquarium in Atlanta. Tour guide is a graduate of Georgia Tech – very pleasant and knowledgeable.

40 years ago I was a National Park Ranger giving tours.

Never realized what good training it was for trial law.

The tour guide is a teacher, a guide – as is the trial lawyer in an injury case.

If you are interesting, creative, in-tune with your audience (jury) and credible, the tour (trial) will go well.

Charlie Donahue

Injury Lawyer

What to do when the insurance adjuster, driving a vehicle with an insurance company logo, shows up at your door…

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Don’t let them in.

They’ll have a checkbook with the authority to write you a puny check.

Don’t settle.

Don’t fall for it.

Keep your eye on the logo, and remember who they work for – it’s not you.

They might seem very nice, and they might be nice people, but they do not have your best interests at heart.

Call a lawyer before you ever consider talking with them, let alone let them in your house.

Charlie Donahue

Injury Lawyer

Just got this testimonial from a client.

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Charlie and his team are by far the best in the business. They worked with me on a tough case that was a fight from beginning to end. Charlie was with me every step of the way, always being honest and transparent, yet also optimistic regardless of the situation. Nobody else I would have chosen, and I could not have asked for better representation. Charlie and his team come with my highest recommendations.

Voir Dire

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This legal expression means “to speak the truth”.

It’s used when the lawyers question potential jurors before a trial starts; that is, conducting a voir dire. The point is to get a fair jury.

I’ve always found it interesting that the traditional emphasis has been on jurors telling the truth.

Yet, jurors are not the problem. It’s the lawyers who need to be telling the truth.

Maybe the potential jurors should be made to do a voir dire on the lawyer.

Charlie Donahue

Injury Lawyer

How come you never hear about this stuff in the news?

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What I’m talking about is how often insurance companies get fined for fraud and unfair practices.

It happens all the time.

The power people rather have you focused on some fraudulent claimant – to deceive you into thinking everyone who makes a claim is a fraud.

The truth is that some of the biggest crooks are insurance companies.

I’m not talking about your local insurance agent. Yours, like mine, are probably very decent people trying to help their clients.

I’m talking about the many multi-millionaires at the very top of the food-chain who set policy for insurance companies, and run the industry.

For them, it’s all about saving the almighty buck.

The truth of the matter is most of the good folks who work for these companies get screwed over too.

So you’re not alone.

The point of this blog is to make sure you don’ trust them with your claim – they’ll give you a raw deal.

Charlie Donahue

Injury Lawyer

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Atticus Finch was right:
“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view…until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”

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