Dr Xavier had spend years leading up to this moment. And now the amulet was his.
Legend had it that it would transform the wearer into a perfect physical specimen, as
well as provide immortality.

Placing it around his neck the changes were rapid – and extraordinary. The Dr had hoped
for a perfect masculine physique – rippling muscles and a six pack. But as the long
red hair tumbled down past his eyes he realised something was amiss. Two large
breasts jutted from his chest and he became aware of a void between his legs. This was
not how it was supposed to go.

But oddly, he found he didn’t mind. He felt amazing – and so alive. He’d never felt like
this before.

Images of men with rippling muscles and six packs still filled his mind though. And he
realised that was exactly what he needed, he felt so horny. And so he headed out to find
something to scratch that itch…

The quite stunning Angela Ryan

In dimineata aceasta, eram in masina cu sotia mea, in drumul nostru catre munca. Dimineata soferii sunt grabiti. Nu conteaza ca este 6,7,8 sau 9 AM ei sunt grabiti. Asa s-a intmaplat si in aceasta dimineata cand venind pe o straduta (nu stiu cum se numeste) ce se intersecteaza cu Str. Traian, undeva langa hotelul Comfort, am fost martorul unui mic accident din fericire fara urmari grave. Ceva tabla indoita si nervi inatinsi la maxim. Prea desul intalnit motiv – neacordare de prioritate. Eu nu inteleg. Cand ai ditamai panoul cu CEDEAZA, cand se presupune ca asta este un lucru elementar de care toti soferii trebuie sa tina seama, cand vezi ca este circulatie, tu ignori toate aceste semne si te avanti in intersectie cu nunsalanta unui nebun riscand tot, viata celorlalti, viata ta si toate pentru cateva secunde in minus pe care le poti castiga.

Prostie. Aia e.

Masini avariate – opel astra (vinovatu) – bara fata; opel corsa (accidentatu) – cam nasol. partea dreapta facuta praf.

There is something distinctly unsettling, albeit fascinating, about reliving the day of my accident through another person’s eyes. Michael’s eyes, I knew, had experienced the episode from a different perspective. He might shed some more light. After searching fruitlessly for the card on which he’d jotted down his email, and suddenly finding it among piles of paper last week, we connected via Skype this afternoon.

The slow ride to Battambang

Michael and I met on a bus. An Israeli youth trip organizer and schoolteacher, he was traveling solo through western Cambodia and Thailand. We compared notes during the long and dusty ride from Siem Reap to Battambang.

Upon arriving in Cambodia’s second-largest city, we lugged our backpacks around for over an hour before finally settling on a guesthouse not far from the market. We headed out to explore parts of the city, after a bite of local fare.

How well they match

We took a leisurely stroll by the river, stopping to watch and play with a group of street kids. There was widespread commotion, people setting up kiosks for the fair marking the start of the Chinese New Year.

Smiling street boys

The next morning, I rose early and headed out to rent a bike. A few hours later, I landed in hospital and a few hours after that, Michael appeared at my bedside. I remembered very little from his visit, my memory tainted by pain and shock.

And so we spoke, I asked many questions and he shared…

Hearing a knock on his door, Michael opened it and someone handed him a message. It was delivered by Mauro (the Emergency Hospital logistician) and briefly stated that I was hospitalized due to an accident. With directions in hand, Michael rented a scooter and came out to see me. Where was the hospital in relation to our guesthouse, I wanted to know. About 10 minutes away, once you crossed the river.

Michael said that what he remembered the most, when he first saw me, was how much pain I was in.

What about the bicycle, I asked. “I showed you pictures of the bike, don’t you remember?” he asked. No, do you still have them? “They got erased…” I wanted to know what it looked like when he found it. The police had picked it up and by the time Michael and Mauro arrived to cart it away, it was mangled up beyond use, the whole front rim and tire utterly crushed. Michael went to Moto Gecko, paid for the bike, picked up my passport and then, together with Mauro, found a second-hand bike shop where he unloaded it for half the price he paid for it. It’s true I suppose, there’s always some use for damaged goods.

Bicycle built for two?

The following day, Mauro lent Michael a truck, which he used to transport my bags from the guesthouse to the hospital. Michael said he was surprised and impressed at the care and attention that the other patients and I received at this hospital. He said he’d heard about the Khmer woman who lived near the bridge, that she had been summoned and ensured that I was transported to Emergency Hospital, where she worked. Yes, I knew about and remember Keo Vich. One of my guardian angels.

And that was that. A few more pieces of the puzzle, but not yet the whole story. Perhaps this is as much as I will ever know. Or just maybe, not.

A fost odată un bărbat perfect şi o femeie perfectă. Ei s-au intâlnit si deoarece relatia lor a fost perfectă, s-au căsătorit. Nunta a fost perfectă. Iar viata lor in doi a fost de asemenea perfectă.

Intr-o seară de Crăciun, în care ningea puternic, aceasta pereche perfectă mergea cu maşina pe o şosea plină de curbe, când, la un moment dat, au văzut pe cineva la marginea străzii, care se pare că avea o pană. Era Moş Crăciun, cu o tolbă plină de cadouri. Deoarece ei nu au vrut să dezamagească copiii cei mulţi care asteptau cadourile, perechea perfecta l-a invitat pe Moş Crăciun să se urce in maşina lor pentru a ajunge să impartă cadourile. Şi aşa au ajuns, in scurt timp, să imparta cadourile. Din nefericire, s-au înrăutăţit condiţiile Meteorologice şi cei trei au avut un accident.

Unul singur din cei trei a supravieţuit. Care?

(Gândiţi-vă mai întâi şi abia apoi vă uitaţi la raspuns)
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Bine-nţeles că femeia perfectă.
Ea este singura din cele 3 personaje care există intr-adevar. Toată lumea ştie că Moş Crăciun nu există… Şi ce sa mai zicem de barbaţi perfecti…
Pentru femei, povestea se termina aici. Bărbaţii vor citi in continuare.
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Puncte bonus pentru bărbaţi:
Dacă Moş Crăciun şi bărbatul perfect nu există, înseamnă că femeia a condus… Ceea ce explica de ce s-a şi întâmplat accidentul.
Si încă ceva: dacă eşti femeie şi ai citit şi restul poveştii, asta mai demonstreaza încă o chestie:
Femeile nu fac niciodată ceea ce li se spune !

Récit d’un drame qui n’a rien de banal mais qui appelle tous les chevriards à la prudence. N’oublions pas que depuis 1945, 500.000 Français sont morts sur la route, soit un mort par heure ou presque !

Trop de véhicules roulent trop vite en traversant notre village, ignorant les règles les plus élémentaires du Code de la route et mettant en danger de mort nos enfants ! Comment croire que M. Bazier n’utilise pas ses pouvoirs de police pour multiplier les contrôles ? (et par la même occasion arrêter les poids-lourds chaque jour plus nombreux à traverser notre village en toute illégalité)! Quand à cela se rajoutent les aménagements de la voirie accidentogènes par nature, choisis par M. Bazier, on comprend qu’il faut dès lors redoubler de prudence surtout depuis la suppression (délibérément choisie et injustifiable!) des passages piétons de la rue Charles Pathé… (Comment comprendre cette mesure?) c’est tout le problème d’un maire absent et déconnecté des réalités vécues par ses administrés… Il convient dès lors de lui rappeler que son mandat n’est pas une rente.

Un homme de 47 ans comparaissait lundi devant le tribunal correctionnel de Melun pour un homicide involontaire. Le 11 décembre 2008, alors qu’il faisait demi-tour avec sa camionnette sur la D 471, entre Chevry-Cossigny et Gretz-Armainvilliers, il avait été percuté par une moto. Le motard était décédé sur le coup. Le jugement a été mis en délibéré à lundi prochain car les circonstances de l’accident s’avèrent finalement complexes.

L’avocat du prévenu a d’ailleurs plaidé la relaxe de son client.
De son côté, la substitute du procureur a demandé une peine de suspension du permis de dix-huit mois et un stage de sensibilisation routière, notant que dans cet accident « le prévenu n’est pas le seul en cause ». Des mots sans doute difficiles à entendre pour la famille de la victime, présente à l’audience. Ce jour-là, le conducteur s’est arrêté sur un parking en bord de route. Un endroit fréquenté par les prostituées, a noté le président du tribunal, qui a longuement questionné le conducteur pour savoir si sa vigilance avait été « troublée » par la vue de ces femmes.

« C’était une ligne droite. Mais il n’y a aucune trace de freinage »

L’homme avait été condamné en 1998 à douze ans de réclusion criminelle pour viol, agression sexuelle et attentat à la pudeur. Mais ce dernier a fermement nié s’être arrêté dans ce lieu pour cette raison. Il a expliqué : « Je me suis arrêté pour me reposer et faire demi-tour ». Ce qui était autorisé à cet endroit. L’accident s’est produit vers 17 h 15. Il faisait nuit et la chaussée était mouillée. « C’était une ligne droite, rappelle l’avocat de la défense. Le motard a forcément vu mon client faire demi-tour. Mais il n’y a aucune trace de freinage. » Mais des traces de cannabis ont en revanche été relevées dans le sang de la victime.
Ensuite, selon l’analyse d’un expert, le motard roulait à 120 km/h au lieu des 90 km/h autorisés. « Mon client a vérifié qu’il pouvait s’engager. La moto était alors à 115 m. Mais il ne pouvait pas évaluer sa vitesse, qui était excessive. Si la victime avait respecté cette vitesse de 90 km/h, poursuit l’avocat, l’expert est formel, l’accident n’aurait pas eu lieu, la moto serait passée après la camionnette. Mon client n’a donc pas commis de faute au sens pénal. »

]]> http://yongshuling.com/2009/11/26/message-received-the-making-of-part-2/ Thu, 26 Nov 2009 07:32:46 +0000 yongshuling http://yongshuling.com/2009/11/26/message-received-the-making-of-part-2/

After such a fun time on weekend 1 on the set of Karolyn Szot’s Message Received, I was stoked to return for another dose of movie making magic. On the agenda for the second weekend? Blood! Car Crash! Cops! Uh, exchange students!

I was lucky to get a couple of hours off Saturday morning as only a bare bones crew was needed to shoot our two actresses, Emily Marso and Blake-Briana McKay, driving. Just a couple of shots and a simple scene. Easy as pie, right? Well…

Sign reads "Movie Set! Not Real!". What we mean: please don't call the cops on us again.

The story I heard when I arrived on set? A very concerned passerby had called the cops that morning thinking that the two wrecked cars we had on set was the scene of a real accident. Oh well, at least that means a big thumbs up for prod design well-done.

Karolyn gave herself multiple cuts and bruises before putting some on Johnny.

Another challenge that filming a car crash scene brings is the ridiculous number of people who deliberately slow down to get a better glimpse of your set as they’re driving by. Maybe it was to see if there was a famous actor in the vicinity. Maybe it was to get numbers to buy the American version of 4D. Maybe it was to gawk at the awesome blood effects Karolyn did for our actors. Either way, our crew definitely learned more about directing two-way traffic in one lane. It also helped that we had two actors in cop uniforms on set. I’m not sure what it was, but people tended to drive past faster when it’s a cop signaling them to move. Or so they thought!

Taking a crane shot of the entire crash scene.

When it was time to set up for our beautiful crane shot, it was all hands on deck. Like a life-sized balance scale, we had to figure out the exact number of sandbags to hang on one side to counter the weight of our camera on the other. It was almost like watching a team challenge on Survivor. “Take one more bag off,” one would say. “No, you just have to move one closer to the center!” another would reason. The team eventually emerged triumphant! And our crane shot went as smooth as silk.

Shooting outdoors often means racing against time, especially when you’re dependent on sunlight. Good thing our crew heads had their act together. We completed our shots with time to spare and made some new friends with the many deer roaming the woods near us. I’d say our day was a success!

If you thought the shoot so far has been packed with plenty of adventure, wait until you hear about the happenings on our final day of shoot. That story to come soon.

We’re not even into Dec and already Elf & Safety have been called to investigate an accident in a German shopping centre in which an elderly woman was injured by an Xmas Tree.

The 78 yr old lady is in a ‘critical’ condition in hospital, with head and chest injuries after the 100kg tree toppled on top of her

Source . . .

By yesterday morning, the bed of my thumbnail had morphed into a hideously bulbous thing, and in its nearly infectious state, caused me much consternation. An embedded thorn that I’d removed had apparently traumatized the nailbed. So my dilemma was this: do I stay home, suck it up and hope that, with time and care, the healing will happen on its own; or do I brave the inevitable crowds and head to the nearest walk-in clinic or (lord help us all) emergency room?

I chose the latter. Big mistake.

By ten o’clock in the morning, I’d paid a visit to a clinic with which I was familiar. Mindful that school being in session and people not yet on lunch break, I hoped the wait would be short. HA. As I walked in, a quick glance around not only hinted at the impending waiting time, brought on added dread: every single seat was taken. “About three hours,” said the receptionist.

Ok, so H1N1 madness has swept the nation and swine flu vaccinations are in full swing. On my way out I see kids coughing, babies crying and others suffering from varying levels of pain, despair or boredom.

Next stop: A clinic run out of a physician’s home basement. I call first, asking about the wait, because I am recovering from an accident, I have alot of pain and I can’t sit for long. “No problem,” she bellows over the phone in a Russian or Bulgarian accent, “no long wait today. Doctor will see you soon when you come over. You come now.”  So there I am in the car again, whizzing off through an enclave of homes, into which is tucked this nondescript home and hidden office.

I knock on the door, and hearing silence, I walk in, half-expecting to see an empty room, smiling secretary and doctor waiting for me. HA. Meeting my shocked gaze as  I entered the darkened room were no less than a dozen weary-looking people of all ages, stuffed into heavy couches, among them a smart-ass who, noticing the pillow I carry around as a ’sitting assistive device’ exclaimed all too jovially, “so you brought your bed with you too?”

Quickly informed by the chorus that I had to add my name onto the list, I took a look around and asked who had been waiting the longest. A timid, wigged-out, mousey-looking woman eventually piped up: “Almost three hours.” Another one dead in the water. Off I went.

Then, off to a government-subsidized (oh-oh!) clinic housed in an office tower. Much recommended. On the phone, I was convinced to come in right away because there was no wait. Not possible, thought I. Sure enough, when I arrived, only one other person was in the reception area. Once I got to see the nurse I understood why: the doctor is not in today. Excuse me?? Which basically meant that the nurse could do absolutely nothing but ship me off to yet another clinic. Ah, the wonders of our healthcare system.

That was it. My body couldn’t take it any more. Three strikes, Hippocrates, and you’re out.

Or so I thought.

I momentarily forgot that I had an evening appointment with my newest addition to the practitioner-bunch, Claudia (more on her later). Arriving earlier than my scheduled time, I entered a ground-floor walk-in clinic in her building, a large sign outside advertising that  emergency cases without appointment were accepted. Great, I thought, this is it.

Not a chance. The minute I walked into an empty waiting room, my heart sank. Immediately I knew it was a bad sign. Sure enough, the receptionist, at the end of her rope at the end of a long day, quickly brushed me off, assuring me that walk-ins were no longer welcome.

As if 8:30 PM, post-treatment, wasn’t late enough to call it a day, a decision was made to drop in at an ER to check on the situation. I promised that if told the wait would be longer than 1/2 an hour, I’d return the next day. Almost verbatim, here is the conversation that transpired:

AJ: Hi, can you please give me an idea of how long the wait will be?

Nurse: Not too long, take a seat.

AJ: Well, that’s just the problem, I can’t sit for long because it’s painful. You see, I’m recovering from an accident, and if you tell me that it will be longer tonight than, perhaps, tomorrow morning, then I’d rather not have to wait.

Nurse (looking out at the filled-to-near-capacity waiting room): No, the line is moving along pretty well. A triage nurse will see you very soon and then a doctor a short while after.

AJ: OK.

Famous last words. A triage nurse did indeed see me within minutes. As for a doctor… I finally heard my name called three and a half hours later.

In retrospect, I should have known better. As a trained lawyer, I ought to have insisted that the nurse sign a contract stipulating that, due to my pre-existing condition,  I would be seen within the half-hour (or hour, let’s be lenient here); otherwise, the responsibility would be with the triage staff to find me and suggest that I return another time. Or, they might have offered me a stretcher to lie on…

Voila, welcome to the Medical Circus, aka our medical system and its phalanx of acrobats. Overtaxed.  Magic tricks. Sleights of hand. Juggling too many balls. Throwing us to the lions. Forcing patients to walk sky-high tightropes or wait interminably in the wings. When or how will this madness stop?

Uitati-va, uimiti-va !

In an ironic twist, Pascal Leclaire injured himself on Monday night in a game that the netminder was watching from the bench. And as a result, the Senators will be without their top goaltender for the next four weeks.

The club confirmed that Leclaire suffered a fractured cheek bone, when he was hit with a puck that went into the bench area midway through the second period of Monday’s 4-3 win over the Washington Capitals.

“It’s disappointing and it’s bad luck. I don’t know what the odds are,” said Leclaire on Tuesday morning. “But I’m trying to look at it the other way. It could have got me in the eye and it could have been worse. Around Christmas, I should be back and I look forward to playing.”

“Very disappointing, especially to happen that way. It wasn’t even in a game,” echoed head coach Cory Clouston.

Leclaire was sitting out the Washington game to recover from a mild lower body injury that he suffered on Saturday night against the Buffalo Sabres. That injury was not expected to keep him out of the lineup for more than a few days. Leclaire said the blow from the puck was harder than any hit he’s received while wearing full equipment, but it doesn’t sound like he received a concussion from the freak accident.

“I was kind of dazed for a while. But I remember everything. It was a pretty good blow,” he said.

Leclaire will likely require a minor plastic surgery procedure to fix the misplaced bones in his cheek. The netminder, who is known for his easy-going personality, showed off his sharp wit on Tuesday when he was asked about a possible date with a plastic surgeon.

“We’ll see what’s cool in Hollywood and I’ll make my choice,” joked Leclaire.

Leclaire’s absence for an extended period of time means the club will have to rely on backup goaltender Brian Elliott to carry the load for the next few weeks. The Senators recalled netminder Mike Brodeur from AHL Binghamton to serve as the backup, starting with Wednesday’s game at New Jersey.

Elliott played the majority of games down the stretch for the Senators last season and is ready for the challenge of being the club’s top netminder until Christmas.

“It’s kind of unexpected and an unlucky chain of events,” said Elliott. “Obviously, an opportunity pops up and I’ll take advantage of it. We’ll be awaiting his comeback and we’ll play our best until then.”

Notes: Clouston said that Alexei Kovalev is doubtful for Wednesday’s game at New Jersey. Kovalev has missed the team’s last two games to attend to a death in his family in Russia … D Anton Volchenkov, who has missed 11 straight games with an elbow injury, isn’t ready to return against the Devils … Mike Fisher left practice early on Tuesday, but Clouston said it was just for “maintenance” and he should be fine to play against New Jersey.

Senators entertain Bolts’ young gunsRonaldo close to comeback

Just got hit by a scooter. Luckily got off with only a scare, bruises on one leg and arm and a bike that needs to be repaired. Could have been a lot worse as I wasn’t wearing a helmet!

The idiot was driving his stupid, lame-ass scooter drunk with a friend in the back. And he was close 30!!! He probably broke his leg, dislocated his knee or something like that. He was pale with pain…I’m having a really hard time feeling sorry for the asshole…The friend couldn’t have been worse off the me as he got up and took to the woods – that’s the spirit; don’t worry someone else will call the ambulance for your friend and see that he stays conscious. Really, I can’t believe these people!

Oh, and did I mention, I was on the cross walk and the light was green. Even the police said that there was no way he could have thought that it was his turn to go (as the lights were red for all motor vehicles). Drunk, drunk, drunkety, drunk – that’s the only reason – well, not the only, being an idiot did most likely play its part.

The police men were nice though

People, don’t drink and drive!!!! Pretty please!

Imagine yourself on your way home from picking your pay check up at work and the stopping to get it cash, all is well driving Southbound on SR 209 to return home with plans of going away that night for a four day weekend but as you enter onto the bridge just before the Beechwood Inn out of the blue your see the front grill of a car coming your way and slamming into you.  

The 1994 Chevrolet Silverado drive by Thomas Senavitis was not equipt with air bags and as he stated he was unsure if he had he seat belt. 

He was found lying across the floor of the truck, removed from the vehicle and put into the back of a West End Ambulance to have his injuries worked on,  from their a life flight came in a picked him up to take him to St. Lukes Hospital in Bethlehem.

Morning of 10-18-08 at Hospital

Surgically Placed Affixiator To Hold Bone Pieces Together

DA David Christine stated “with the alleged alcohol reading he should have been in a coma let alone be able to get in a motor vehicle” .  

The time of accident was about 6:30 PM on 10-17-08 and Mr. Senavitis brought to St. Luke hospital with multiple severe injuries through none of which life threatening if not operated on immediately,  he was operated on within 12 hours of the inital accident.   If Mr. Senavitis had any alcohol level protocal would have delayed the surgery until which time was safe from intoxication as the alcohol would create complications during surgery and anesthisia. 

Imagine yourself coming from anesthisia to in a hospital, being all drugged up and seeing a cage literally going through and around your leg.  Having difficulty speaking, eating and drinking due to severe injuries to the mouth go through the roof of your mouth up into the sinus passages.  

Once released home the care was constant having to continually change bandages and keep the wound clean and covered with medication which took more than one family member to do, to hold bandages from moving out of place, holding the leg up and wrapping it around all those rods, at the same time.

First Surgery IncisionFive rods inserted into Mr. Senavitis' leg as plates were put in to hold all the bits and pieces of bone to gether as the tibia and fibia both broke and shattered into pieces.Ulcer From Injury

 Ulcers Mr. Senavitis developed on ankle and leg due to the severity of the internal damage to leg, ankle and foot.

Mr. Senavitis was severely bruised throughout his entire body, had his left elbow wripped open, several broken ribs on the left side which each rib broke in three pieces and a break in his back.

Right Arm Bruise

Left Elbow

Facial Bruising

The second surgery on Mr. Senavitis’ leg entailed an incision on the inner side of his of his right leg the same size as on the outer side of his left when they removed the affixiator, put in another plate with screws holding bone pieces together and soft casting right away.

He went from the soft case to a hard cast and when the hard cast was removed he worn a moon boot to get used to putting his leg down for walking.  

He went from wheelchair to a walker to a moonboot, and just putting his leg through therapy and weening off the moonboot had his bail revoked in a outragous act by Carbon and Monroe County working together. 

He has not recovered from the leg and back injury and is imprison without proper medical treatment.   He is being victimized over and over in every way by the system and those controlling it.  

Also a note I would like to bring to everyone’s attention when imprisoned they were given no medical problems Mr. Senavitis was suffering but the prosection made it clear to the medical department of the prison that Mr. Senavitis needed to be medicated for withdraw in which Mr. Senavitis refused and never took.  He was seen twice a day for syptoms and a check on his withdraw and show absolutely none, never went through withdraw like the prosection was trying to get documented to make him out to be such a damage to himself and society and a alcoholic that could live without it.  

How much does one person have to endore especially when they are innocent.  He has been proven guilty without a chance to prove his innocense .   Every right has been taken from this man and the abuse continues daily for him.

Apropo… cine avea prioritate? Stie careva? Daca da lasa-ti un comment:)

Source: AutoBlog

As I reported earlier here on Road Reality, Toyota is in hot water over stuck gas pedals.  A statement this morning from Toyota gives us their solution for the recall, as well as a timeline for its resolution.  While it’s too late to save the lives of the California State Trooper and his family, who died as a result of this flaw, it’s a wake-up call to Toyota and the rest of the manufacturers.  Any manufacturer that doesn’t incorporate a “smart throttle” which cuts engine power when the brake pedal is pressed needs to think long and hard about how to get that feature into all of their future vehicles.  The crash which brought this issue to the forefront of the news also brings with it the question of how to stop a car equipped with an engine start/stop button, versus a traditional key and ignition cylinder.  Read the original post for how to stop said vehicles.  Continue reading to find out what Toyota is doing to keep drivers safe.

Before the end of 2009, owners of the Toyota Camry, Toyota Avalon and Lexus ES 350 should expect to receive a letter informing them that their car is on the recall list.  In 2010, owners of the other affected vehicles (listed at the end of this post) will also receive recall notices from Toyota.

The recall will start in early 2010, and the first step is reshaping the gas pedal of the recalled vehicles.  Next, the floor mats will be replaced with a new one, designed to help prevent the stuck gas pedal.  Toyota will also offer a new design of the gas pedal, starting in April.  The Camry, Avalon, as well as Lexus IS 250/350 and ES 350 models will be modified to add a “brake override” system which cuts engine power if both the gas and brake pedals are pressed simultaneously, and Toyota is confident that these solutions will work to prevent any more problems with the affected vehicles.

The affected models are the following:

• 2007-2010 Camry
• 2005-2010 Avalon
• 2004-2009 Prius
• 2005-2010 Tacoma
• 2007-2010 Tundra
• 2007-2010 ES 350
• 2006-2010 IS 250 and IS 350

by John Suit

Source: Automotive News

For the second time in a day the Westpac Rescue Helicopter was called to Wainuiomata last night around 7.30pm to a Motor Vehicle Accident

The helicopter, with a Wellington Free Ambulance Helicopter Paramedic on board, responded to the crash site in Wainuiomata. The Fire Service had established a landing area.

On arrival all of the occupants of the vehicle were out. The Paramedic treated a 20yr old female from Johnsonville who a passenger in the vehicle for neck injuries.

The female patient was transported to the Wellington Hospital Emergency Department where she is currently being further assessed and treated for her injuries.

SCRIBEFIREd5liTBsASCRIBEFIRE

Plus de 500 collégiens et lycéens ont été invités à s’essayer au scooter lors d’une journée organisée par la Préfecture de Police de Paris.  Une bonne façon de sensibiliser les jeunes aux accidents causés chaque année par les deux roues.

A la question des policiers : Qui a déjà fait du scooter ? Trois quarts des jeunes présents lors de cette journée lèvent la main. Mais qu’on ne s’y trompe pas : les “frimeurs” sont rapidement repérés par leur façon de tenir la poignée ou de monter sur l’engin. Qu’à celà ne tienne : les policiers de la Préfecture de Paris ont organisé une journée spéciale pour former les 500 jeunes issus de collèges et de lycées d’Ile-de-France à la pratique du scooter. Réunis sur le circuit Carole à Tramblay-en-France, les jeunes conducteurs en herbe ont été sensibilisés aux causes les plus réccurentes dans les accidents impliquant les deux roues.  Sont ainsi incriminés l’alcool, la prise de drogue, et bien sûr la vitesse. Au programme de la journée : freinage, crash tests, de quoi inciter les jeunes à être prudents sur les routes.

Rappelons que pour conduire un véhicule de 50cm3, le Brevet de Sécurité Routière (BSR) est obligatoire pour tout jeune de 14 ans et plus né après le 1er Janvier 1988. Beaucoup de jeunes regrettent néanmoins le coût de cette formation qui revient parfois à près de 270 euros pour 5 heures de formation.

Source : 20 minutes du jeudi 19 novembre 2009

Tot mai înveninat, încordat, cu o faţă de om rău – o fi micşorat raţia de alcool? – Traian Băsescu transmite mesaje tot mai neconvingătoare prin inconsistenţa lor şi printr-un conţinut în care nu mai crede nimeni.Anunţata declaraţie de miercuri, pe la 17, apoi pe la 18 şi…, este o mostră a incapacităţii celui care a fost cinci ani în fruntea ţării de a construi ceva.Şi în al 12-lea ceas, dărîmătorul de guverne, spărgătorul de partide, terminatorul de duşmani şi…prieteni, în loc să spună ce are de gînd să facă, atacă furios, ca un boxer ameţit care dă cu pumnii după muşte, într-o dezlănţuire paranoică de demascare în linia discursurilor şi practicilor anilor 50.Acum, lipsa de cultură, “aplicată” pe o moralitate ce nu mai necesită comentarii, dezvăluie un primitivism înfiorător pentru o “personalitate”, evident “accentuată”, care a avut acces la butoane! Ca să nu mai mă refer la Udrea, Berceanu, Ridzi, Videanu, boc, Boureanu etc. etc. aduc în atenţie, datorită a două întîmplări “fierbinţi”, de la început de săptămînă electorală, personaje emblematice pentru lumea portocalie a lui Băsescu.Primul, baronul Ionel Manţog, “dedulcit” la mormanele de bani furnizate de sectorul energetic, şef de campanie al PDL la Gorj – zona mineriadei portocalii şi a coanei Ridzi – a omorît un om aflat într-o salvare pe care a spulberat-o după ce, cu BMW-ul unui…”susţinător”, cam interlop, se spune, a intrat, cu 160 km la oră, într-o depăşire interzisă!După el veneau, val-vîrtej, doi lideri pedelişti, care, atenţie, au încercat să distrugă probele dînd înapoi vitezometrul! Sigur, se poate spune că şi PSD-ul l-a avut în zonă pe celebrul semianalfabet prof.dr. Mischie, însă ăla nu a omorît pe nimeni şi chiar a fost dat la o parte.Al doilea, judecătorul Netejoru, care visează, cu ajutorul “tăticuţului” de la Cotroceni, să ancheteze miniştri – în afară de cei ai PDL – l-a eliberat pe pedelistul care a fost prins la Giurgiu oferind bani contra voturi, ca şi pe contrabandistul care îi dădea o mînă de ajutor!Asta este lumea lui Băse, cea a lui Manţog şi Netejoru…Aşa că “zicerea” lui Voinescu-Cotoi, cum că şeful său nu respinge soluţia Johannis, menită să mai dreagă busuiocul, cade, pe fondul “nervozităţii” marinerului şi al întîmplărilor de mai sus ca nuca-n perete!

As a Coachella Valley Wrongful Death Attorney with millions of dollars in settlements and multiple million dollar or larger settlements from over thirty years of experience in or around the Coachella Valley, other nearby cities and internationally, I know many of you are attempting to settle your own personal injury, dog bite and wrongful death cases by yourselves for the maximum and the biggest settlement you can to save the cost of an attorney.

In this article I’ll tell you the secrets of how attorneys negotiate for top dollar and I’ll also tell you why insurance companies lick their chops and rub their hands together with glee when individuals try to settle their claims without an attorney and why, in most cases, you’ll receive a larger, much greater amount in your pocket or in the trust fund you set up for any children injured in the accident, even after an attorney’s fee and costs if you hire a reputable and experienced personal injury attorney.

If you’ve been the victim of a car, motorcycle, bike, truck, pedestrian, bicycle, or auto accident, lost a loved one in a wrongful death or been the victim of a dog bite or animal attack, you can visit our website at http://www.sebastiangibsonlaw.com for more information and call us at any of the numbers easily found on our website.

First, you need to know that insurance companies evaluate cases two ways. As soon as you begin negotiating with the insurance company yourself, they evaluate your case, unfortunately, in terms of a nuisance value matter. They’ve settled tens or hundreds of thousands of cases with individuals before for paltry amounts and they will expect they can settle your case for a measly amount as well.

Why do they look at you as if you’re chopped meat? As soon as you tell them you are negotiating your own settlement, they know you’re trying to save money. To them, that means you may even be desperate. They also know you won’t be as knowledgeable about their tricks and tactics and like those tens or hundreds of thousands of people before you, they know how they can play you until you either become so frustrated you settle for their bad offer or become panicked that your time is running out.

The second way they evaluate a case, namely one presented by a lawyer, is an analysis of what the case’s true settlement value is based on the attorney’s skill and experience, how prepared the case is for litigation in the event it doesn’t settle, and the actual value of the injuries and associated pain and suffering, wage loss and other out of pocket expenses.

To settle your case for the largest amount possible, which may be the policy limits of the insurance policy, depending upon the severity of your injuries, you need to get the insurance adjuster to evaluate your case in the same manner they would as if an attorney were negotiating with them. While most insurance companies, unfortunately, simply won’t do that, here’s what you need to do to try to obtain the maximum settlement value.

First, you need to obtain all of your medical records and bills. You can’t rely on the insurance company to do this. As soon as you tell the insurance company you want them to do this or agree to having them do it and tell you how much your medical bills come to and what your medical records say, you are giving up control of the situation. I can’t stress this enough.

You will need to sign authorization forms to obtain your medical records and bills and pay the cost of obtaining those medical records and bills (the cost of which can range from $15 to hundreds of dollars) from each hospital, ambulance company, doctor, chiropractor, radiologist, emergency room billing service, etc. Some medical providers require you to use their authorization forms. Some require you to agree to their using a photocopy service to copy your records at a higher cost. Some medical providers require one fee for your bills and another fee for your medical records.

Just obtaining all of your medical records and bills is one of the most time consuming aspects of handling personal injury cases. And, to make matters worse, you’re still not through with your medical providers. When your treatment is complete and you have all of your medical records and bills and the first settlement offer is made to you, you’ll need to call each of your medical providers or their billing offices again to learn if you have any balance owing (and you can expect to be on the phone repeatedly and for long periods of time to learn this information) and in many cases you will need to send them another authorization form before they’ll tell you this information.

You will need to obtain a copy of the police report. This is a much simpler process. Some police departments charge between $10 to $40 for a copy, while other departments provide them to you for free. You can pick it up at the police or CHP office yourself or request one by mail with an authorization form and a check for the proper fee.

You’ll also need to obtain your wage loss information on a wage loss form from your employer if you suffered any wage losses or had to use up valuable sick time, personal time, or vacation days.

You should obtain witness statements if there is any issue as to the liability of the other driver for the accident and you should take photos of the scene if there was something wrong with the road conditions or other unusual circumstances.

You will also need to obtain a number of good photographs of your car damage, copies of the vehicle repair bills and estimates and receipts for any items damaged in your vehicle.

Here’s a secret. In California you are entitled to the cost of a replacement child seat if one was in the accident. It’s automatic. Just tell the insurance company the make and model or find out the cost for the make and model child seat and the insurance company will send you a check for a new one, even if the old one wasn’t broken. Why? It’s in the California insurance code. The insurance companies, however, don’t volunteer this information. Why? They’re in business to make money, not pay it out.

Finally, when all your treatment is done, you will need to put together a demand package with a demand letter reviewing the facts of the accident and the negligence of the other driver that made him or her at fault, a summary of your injuries and medical treatment (from your medical records), an itemization of your medical bills, a discussion of your pain and suffering and how the injuries impacted your life, a discussion of your wage loss and how you determined the amount, and finally the amount of your demand and a time limit (40 days – the time allotted under the insurance code) for the insurance company to respond with their offer. The demand letter should be a minimum of four pages in length. Some of ours have been close to twenty pages. Accompanying the demand letter should be copies of all of your medical records and bills, color copies of the car damage photos, copies of the repair bills and estimates, any wage loss documentation and any other relevant items such as witness statements, etc.

If all of this is too much work for you to accomplish (and it is a lot when you are just trying to get better, get on with your life, raise a family and still go to work to put food on the table) you may want to hire our law firm to represent you.

The reason why, in most cases you will receive more, even after an attorney’s fees and costs are taken out, is that insurance companies offer much more to an attorney handling your case than when you are attempting to settle it yourself. In addition, an experienced and reputable lawyer can also obtain reductions from your health insurance company and from any medical providers with a balance with regards to what amount has to be paid back to them out of any settlement.

When you rely on the insurance company to pay your medical bills, and then simply pay you a skimpy amount on top, you are giving them the right to determine what bills they think were “reasonable” and to obtain any reductions in the bills to save themselves money. When an attorney obtains a reduction in your bills or your health insurance company lien, the amount the attorney saves increases the amount of your net settlement.

Keep in mind that as soon as you start negotiating your claim by yourself, it’s almost impossible for an attorney to persuade the insurance company to evaluate your case in the higher category type of claim. At our law firm, while we’ll take on a case that may be months old where the injured victim has simply been receiving medical treatment, we won’t take on the case in most cases if the victim has already received a bad offer from the insurance company. At that stage it’s usually too late for an attorney to make much of a difference.

Hopefully, this article has provided you with some insights as to how to obtain the maximum settlement from an insurance company for an auto, car, motorcycle, bicycle, pedestrian, truck, dog bite, or wrongful death claim. There is much more that an experienced attorney does, especially in the negotiation stage to maximize the settlement and this is where an attorney’s experience kicks in.

An attorney such as Sebastian Gibson who has been negotiating these cases with many of the same adjusters for decades, knows the tactics and negotiating style of them and their companies and knows how refute the talking points their insurance companies train their adjusters to use in negotiations.

What causes many attorneys to be unable to settle their cases and who then find themselves with no alternative but to file a lawsuit in court and face two to five years of litigation before the matter settles or goes to jury, is to get angry (some even scream and yell) with the adjuster, box themselves into a corner and tell the adjuster something along the lines of, “If that’s the best you can do, we’re filing suit.” The adjuster’s response to this is naturally, “go ahead.”

An insurance company doesn’t really care if they have to dump your case onto the case load of their attorneys who are already handling tens of thousands of such cases. One more case, makes no difference to them at all. They also know, you may give up or settle for even less when you learn from an attorney how much just the court costs will be. Just to file a lawsuit in most courts alone incurs a $350.00 or larger filing fee. Depositions can cost over a thousand dollars if they are lengthy. And all such court costs come out of your settlement, even if you have a contingency fee attorney handling your case.

Sadly, many of these same lawyers take this step or let their improperly trained staff members (secretaries and clerks) force the matter to such an impasse and then file suit without properly informing the client of the negotiations that took place and led them to that point.

If you are negotiating with an insurance company yourself, there’s no need to be unpleasant. Yes, you are probably going to hear that the insurance adjuster has evaluated your case to be worth much less than you think it’s worth. But you’re forgetting that, that’s just their first offer. Communicate with the adjuster. Tell them how the injuries affected your life and tell them what you still go through today with the pain you still have. You’ll be surprised how many adjusters will actually relate to what you tell them.

Unfortunately, just as there are bad attorneys out there, there are also some lousy insurance adjusters and insurance companies to deal with as well. They’re supposed to get back to you in 40 days with an offer after you present them with your demand package. Some take longer. Some will sound unpleasant, even snotty. And once they make their first offer, it can take weeks sometimes to reach the adjuster again to make your counter-offer. Sometimes the negotiations can take months. If you want to get the most you can for your case, you need to be patient. Your job, just as it is the job of your attorney, is to get these unpleasant insurance adjusters to warm up. I ask them how the weather is, how they’re doing, if their busy, anything to get them to open up to me. You’d be surprised how far a little kindness goes.

We wish you good luck and a speedy recovery from your injuries. You’ll find that your health, in many cases, will drastically improve, once you remove yourself from the stress of handling your case and resolve it either yourself or with the assistance of our law firm by way of settlement. If on the other hand, your case goes into litigation, as do the cases of many lawyers who don’t have the settlement experience or negotiating tools to settle their cases advantageously for their clients, your stress level will almost certainly rise.

The law firm of Sebastian Gibson handles personal injury cases in the Coachella Valley, and throughout Southern and Central California and handle wrongful death cases throughout the state. To learn more about Sebastian Gibson and the other areas of law handled by the law firm, visit the Sebastian Gibson website.

We invite you to visit our website at http://www.sebastiangibsonlaw.com and call us if you’ve been seriously injured in a personal injury auto, motorcycle, car, truck, pedestrian, or bicycle accident, lost a loved one in a wrongful death or been injured in a dog bite or animal attack in the Coachella Valley.

As a Coachella Valley Wrongful Death Accident Lawyer with millions of dollars in settlements and multiple million dollar or larger settlements from over thirty years of experience in or around the Coachella Valley, other nearby cities and internationally, I know many of you are attempting to settle your own personal injury, dog bite and wrongful death cases by yourselves for the maximum and the biggest settlement you can to save the cost of an attorney.

In this article I’ll tell you the secrets of how attorneys negotiate for top dollar and I’ll also tell you why insurance companies lick their chops and rub their hands together with glee when individuals try to settle their claims without an attorney and why, in most cases, you’ll receive a larger, much greater amount in your pocket or in the trust fund you set up for any children injured in the accident, even after an attorney’s fee and costs if you hire a reputable and experienced personal injury attorney.

If you’ve been the victim of a car, motorcycle, bike, truck, pedestrian, bicycle, or auto accident, lost a loved one in a wrongful death or been the victim of a dog bite or animal attack, you can visit our website at http://www.sebastiangibsonlaw.com for more information and call us at any of the numbers easily found on our website.

First, you need to know that insurance companies evaluate cases two ways. As soon as you begin negotiating with the insurance company yourself, they evaluate your case, unfortunately, in terms of a nuisance value matter. They’ve settled tens or hundreds of thousands of cases with individuals before for paltry amounts and they will expect they can settle your case for a measly amount as well.

Why do they look at you as if you’re chopped meat? As soon as you tell them you are negotiating your own settlement, they know you’re trying to save money. To them, that means you may even be desperate. They also know you won’t be as knowledgeable about their tricks and tactics and like those tens or hundreds of thousands of people before you, they know how they can play you until you either become so frustrated you settle for their bad offer or become panicked that your time is running out.

The second way they evaluate a case, namely one presented by a lawyer, is an analysis of what the case’s true settlement value is based on the attorney’s skill and experience, how prepared the case is for litigation in the event it doesn’t settle, and the actual value of the injuries and associated pain and suffering, wage loss and other out of pocket expenses.

To settle your case for the largest amount possible, which may be the policy limits of the insurance policy, depending upon the severity of your injuries, you need to get the insurance adjuster to evaluate your case in the same manner they would as if an attorney were negotiating with them. While most insurance companies, unfortunately, simply won’t do that, here’s what you need to do to try to obtain the maximum settlement value.

First, you need to obtain all of your medical records and bills. You can’t rely on the insurance company to do this. As soon as you tell the insurance company you want them to do this or agree to having them do it and tell you how much your medical bills come to and what your medical records say, you are giving up control of the situation. I can’t stress this enough.

You will need to sign authorization forms to obtain your medical records and bills and pay the cost of obtaining those medical records and bills (the cost of which can range from $15 to hundreds of dollars) from each hospital, ambulance company, doctor, chiropractor, radiologist, emergency room billing service, etc. Some medical providers require you to use their authorization forms. Some require you to agree to their using a photocopy service to copy your records at a higher cost. Some medical providers require one fee for your bills and another fee for your medical records.

Just obtaining all of your medical records and bills is one of the most time consuming aspects of handling personal injury cases. And, to make matters worse, you’re still not through with your medical providers. When your treatment is complete and you have all of your medical records and bills and the first settlement offer is made to you, you’ll need to call each of your medical providers or their billing offices again to learn if you have any balance owing (and you can expect to be on the phone repeatedly and for long periods of time to learn this information) and in many cases you will need to send them another authorization form before they’ll tell you this information.

You will need to obtain a copy of the police report. This is a much simpler process. Some police departments charge between $10 to $40 for a copy, while other departments provide them to you for free. You can pick it up at the police or CHP office yourself or request one by mail with an authorization form and a check for the proper fee.

You’ll also need to obtain your wage loss information on a wage loss form from your employer if you suffered any wage losses or had to use up valuable sick time, personal time, or vacation days.

You should obtain witness statements if there is any issue as to the liability of the other driver for the accident and you should take photos of the scene if there was something wrong with the road conditions or other unusual circumstances.

You will also need to obtain a number of good photographs of your car damage, copies of the vehicle repair bills and estimates and receipts for any items damaged in your vehicle.

Here’s a secret. In California you are entitled to the cost of a replacement child seat if one was in the accident. It’s automatic. Just tell the insurance company the make and model or find out the cost for the make and model child seat and the insurance company will send you a check for a new one, even if the old one wasn’t broken. Why? It’s in the California insurance code. The insurance companies, however, don’t volunteer this information. Why? They’re in business to make money, not pay it out.

Finally, when all your treatment is done, you will need to put together a demand package with a demand letter reviewing the facts of the accident and the negligence of the other driver that made him or her at fault, a summary of your injuries and medical treatment (from your medical records), an itemization of your medical bills, a discussion of your pain and suffering and how the injuries impacted your life, a discussion of your wage loss and how you determined the amount, and finally the amount of your demand and a time limit (40 days – the time allotted under the insurance code) for the insurance company to respond with their offer. The demand letter should be a minimum of four pages in length. Some of ours have been close to twenty pages. Accompanying the demand letter should be copies of all of your medical records and bills, color copies of the car damage photos, copies of the repair bills and estimates, any wage loss documentation and any other relevant items such as witness statements, etc.

If all of this is too much work for you to accomplish (and it is a lot when you are just trying to get better, get on with your life, raise a family and still go to work to put food on the table) you may want to hire our law firm to represent you.

The reason why, in most cases you will receive more, even after an attorney’s fees and costs are taken out, is that insurance companies offer much more to an attorney handling your case than when you are attempting to settle it yourself. In addition, an experienced and reputable lawyer can also obtain reductions from your health insurance company and from any medical providers with a balance with regards to what amount has to be paid back to them out of any settlement.

When you rely on the insurance company to pay your medical bills, and then simply pay you a skimpy amount on top, you are giving them the right to determine what bills they think were “reasonable” and to obtain any reductions in the bills to save themselves money. When an attorney obtains a reduction in your bills or your health insurance company lien, the amount the attorney saves increases the amount of your net settlement.

Keep in mind that as soon as you start negotiating your claim by yourself, it’s almost impossible for an attorney to persuade the insurance company to evaluate your case in the higher category type of claim. At our law firm, while we’ll take on a case that may be months old where the injured victim has simply been receiving medical treatment, we won’t take on the case in most cases if the victim has already received a bad offer from the insurance company. At that stage it’s usually too late for an attorney to make much of a difference.

Hopefully, this article has provided you with some insights as to how to obtain the maximum settlement from an insurance company for an auto, car, motorcycle, bicycle, pedestrian, truck, dog bite, or wrongful death claim. There is much more that an experienced attorney does, especially in the negotiation stage to maximize the settlement and this is where an attorney’s experience kicks in.

An attorney such as Sebastian Gibson who has been negotiating these cases with many of the same adjusters for decades, knows the tactics and negotiating style of them and their companies and knows how refute the talking points their insurance companies train their adjusters to use in negotiations.

What causes many attorneys to be unable to settle their cases and who then find themselves with no alternative but to file a lawsuit in court and face two to five years of litigation before the matter settles or goes to jury, is to get angry (some even scream and yell) with the adjuster, box themselves into a corner and tell the adjuster something along the lines of, “If that’s the best you can do, we’re filing suit.” The adjuster’s response to this is naturally, “go ahead.”

An insurance company doesn’t really care if they have to dump your case onto the case load of their attorneys who are already handling tens of thousands of such cases. One more case, makes no difference to them at all. They also know, you may give up or settle for even less when you learn from an attorney how much just the court costs will be. Just to file a lawsuit in most courts alone incurs a $350.00 or larger filing fee. Depositions can cost over a thousand dollars if they are lengthy. And all such court costs come out of your settlement, even if you have a contingency fee attorney handling your case.

Sadly, many of these same lawyers take this step or let their improperly trained staff members (secretaries and clerks) force the matter to such an impasse and then file suit without properly informing the client of the negotiations that took place and led them to that point.

If you are negotiating with an insurance company yourself, there’s no need to be unpleasant. Yes, you are probably going to hear that the insurance adjuster has evaluated your case to be worth much less than you think it’s worth. But you’re forgetting that, that’s just their first offer. Communicate with the adjuster. Tell them how the injuries affected your life and tell them what you still go through today with the pain you still have. You’ll be surprised how many adjusters will actually relate to what you tell them.

Unfortunately, just as there are bad attorneys out there, there are also some lousy insurance adjusters and insurance companies to deal with as well. They’re supposed to get back to you in 40 days with an offer after you present them with your demand package. Some take longer. Some will sound unpleasant, even snotty. And once they make their first offer, it can take weeks sometimes to reach the adjuster again to make your counter-offer. Sometimes the negotiations can take months. If you want to get the most you can for your case, you need to be patient. Your job, just as it is the job of your attorney, is to get these unpleasant insurance adjusters to warm up. I ask them how the weather is, how they’re doing, if their busy, anything to get them to open up to me. You’d be surprised how far a little kindness goes.

We wish you good luck and a speedy recovery from your injuries. You’ll find that your health, in many cases, will drastically improve, once you remove yourself from the stress of handling your case and resolve it either yourself or with the assistance of our law firm by way of settlement. If on the other hand, your case goes into litigation, as do the cases of many lawyers who don’t have the settlement experience or negotiating tools to settle their cases advantageously for their clients, your stress level will almost certainly rise.

The law firm of Sebastian Gibson handles personal injury cases in the Coachella Valley, and throughout Southern and Central California and handle wrongful death cases throughout the state. To learn more about Sebastian Gibson and the other areas of law handled by the law firm, visit the Sebastian Gibson website.

We invite you to visit our website at http://www.sebastiangibsonlaw.com and call us if you’ve been seriously injured in a personal injury auto, motorcycle, car, truck, pedestrian, or bicycle accident, lost a loved one in a wrongful death or been injured in a dog bite or animal attack in the Coachella Valley.

As a Coachella Valley Truck Accident Lawyer with millions of dollars in settlements and multiple million dollar or larger settlements from over thirty years of experience in or around the Coachella Valley, other nearby cities and internationally, I know many of you are attempting to settle your own personal injury, dog bite and wrongful death cases by yourselves for the maximum and the biggest settlement you can to save the cost of an attorney.

In this article I’ll tell you the secrets of how attorneys negotiate for top dollar and I’ll also tell you why insurance companies lick their chops and rub their hands together with glee when individuals try to settle their claims without an attorney and why, in most cases, you’ll receive a larger, much greater amount in your pocket or in the trust fund you set up for any children injured in the accident, even after an attorney’s fee and costs if you hire a reputable and experienced personal injury attorney.

If you’ve been the victim of a car, motorcycle, bike, truck, pedestrian, bicycle, or auto accident, lost a loved one in a wrongful death or been the victim of a dog bite or animal attack, you can visit our website at http://www.sebastiangibsonlaw.com for more information and call us at any of the numbers easily found on our website.

First, you need to know that insurance companies evaluate cases two ways. As soon as you begin negotiating with the insurance company yourself, they evaluate your case, unfortunately, in terms of a nuisance value matter. They’ve settled tens or hundreds of thousands of cases with individuals before for paltry amounts and they will expect they can settle your case for a measly amount as well.

Why do they look at you as if you’re chopped meat? As soon as you tell them you are negotiating your own settlement, they know you’re trying to save money. To them, that means you may even be desperate. They also know you won’t be as knowledgeable about their tricks and tactics and like those tens or hundreds of thousands of people before you, they know how they can play you until you either become so frustrated you settle for their bad offer or become panicked that your time is running out.

The second way they evaluate a case, namely one presented by a lawyer, is an analysis of what the case’s true settlement value is based on the attorney’s skill and experience, how prepared the case is for litigation in the event it doesn’t settle, and the actual value of the injuries and associated pain and suffering, wage loss and other out of pocket expenses.

To settle your case for the largest amount possible, which may be the policy limits of the insurance policy, depending upon the severity of your injuries, you need to get the insurance adjuster to evaluate your case in the same manner they would as if an attorney were negotiating with them. While most insurance companies, unfortunately, simply won’t do that, here’s what you need to do to try to obtain the maximum settlement value.

First, you need to obtain all of your medical records and bills. You can’t rely on the insurance company to do this. As soon as you tell the insurance company you want them to do this or agree to having them do it and tell you how much your medical bills come to and what your medical records say, you are giving up control of the situation. I can’t stress this enough.

You will need to sign authorization forms to obtain your medical records and bills and pay the cost of obtaining those medical records and bills (the cost of which can range from $15 to hundreds of dollars) from each hospital, ambulance company, doctor, chiropractor, radiologist, emergency room billing service, etc. Some medical providers require you to use their authorization forms. Some require you to agree to their using a photocopy service to copy your records at a higher cost. Some medical providers require one fee for your bills and another fee for your medical records.

Just obtaining all of your medical records and bills is one of the most time consuming aspects of handling personal injury cases. And, to make matters worse, you’re still not through with your medical providers. When your treatment is complete and you have all of your medical records and bills and the first settlement offer is made to you, you’ll need to call each of your medical providers or their billing offices again to learn if you have any balance owing (and you can expect to be on the phone repeatedly and for long periods of time to learn this information) and in many cases you will need to send them another authorization form before they’ll tell you this information.

You will need to obtain a copy of the police report. This is a much simpler process. Some police departments charge between $10 to $40 for a copy, while other departments provide them to you for free. You can pick it up at the police or CHP office yourself or request one by mail with an authorization form and a check for the proper fee.

You’ll also need to obtain your wage loss information on a wage loss form from your employer if you suffered any wage losses or had to use up valuable sick time, personal time, or vacation days.

You should obtain witness statements if there is any issue as to the liability of the other driver for the accident and you should take photos of the scene if there was something wrong with the road conditions or other unusual circumstances.

You will also need to obtain a number of good photographs of your car damage, copies of the vehicle repair bills and estimates and receipts for any items damaged in your vehicle.

Here’s a secret. In California you are entitled to the cost of a replacement child seat if one was in the accident. It’s automatic. Just tell the insurance company the make and model or find out the cost for the make and model child seat and the insurance company will send you a check for a new one, even if the old one wasn’t broken. Why? It’s in the California insurance code. The insurance companies, however, don’t volunteer this information. Why? They’re in business to make money, not pay it out.

Finally, when all your treatment is done, you will need to put together a demand package with a demand letter reviewing the facts of the accident and the negligence of the other driver that made him or her at fault, a summary of your injuries and medical treatment (from your medical records), an itemization of your medical bills, a discussion of your pain and suffering and how the injuries impacted your life, a discussion of your wage loss and how you determined the amount, and finally the amount of your demand and a time limit (40 days – the time allotted under the insurance code) for the insurance company to respond with their offer. The demand letter should be a minimum of four pages in length. Some of ours have been close to twenty pages. Accompanying the demand letter should be copies of all of your medical records and bills, color copies of the car damage photos, copies of the repair bills and estimates, any wage loss documentation and any other relevant items such as witness statements, etc.

If all of this is too much work for you to accomplish (and it is a lot when you are just trying to get better, get on with your life, raise a family and still go to work to put food on the table) you may want to hire our law firm to represent you.

The reason why, in most cases you will receive more, even after an attorney’s fees and costs are taken out, is that insurance companies offer much more to an attorney handling your case than when you are attempting to settle it yourself. In addition, an experienced and reputable lawyer can also obtain reductions from your health insurance company and from any medical providers with a balance with regards to what amount has to be paid back to them out of any settlement.

When you rely on the insurance company to pay your medical bills, and then simply pay you a skimpy amount on top, you are giving them the right to determine what bills they think were “reasonable” and to obtain any reductions in the bills to save themselves money. When an attorney obtains a reduction in your bills or your health insurance company lien, the amount the attorney saves increases the amount of your net settlement.

Keep in mind that as soon as you start negotiating your claim by yourself, it’s almost impossible for an attorney to persuade the insurance company to evaluate your case in the higher category type of claim. At our law firm, while we’ll take on a case that may be months old where the injured victim has simply been receiving medical treatment, we won’t take on the case in most cases if the victim has already received a bad offer from the insurance company. At that stage it’s usually too late for an attorney to make much of a difference.

Hopefully, this article has provided you with some insights as to how to obtain the maximum settlement from an insurance company for an auto, car, motorcycle, bicycle, pedestrian, truck, dog bite, or wrongful death claim. There is much more that an experienced attorney does, especially in the negotiation stage to maximize the settlement and this is where an attorney’s experience kicks in.

An attorney such as Sebastian Gibson who has been negotiating these cases with many of the same adjusters for decades, knows the tactics and negotiating style of them and their companies and knows how refute the talking points their insurance companies train their adjusters to use in negotiations.

What causes many attorneys to be unable to settle their cases and who then find themselves with no alternative but to file a lawsuit in court and face two to five years of litigation before the matter settles or goes to jury, is to get angry (some even scream and yell) with the adjuster, box themselves into a corner and tell the adjuster something along the lines of, “If that’s the best you can do, we’re filing suit.” The adjuster’s response to this is naturally, “go ahead.”

An insurance company doesn’t really care if they have to dump your case onto the case load of their attorneys who are already handling tens of thousands of such cases. One more case, makes no difference to them at all. They also know, you may give up or settle for even less when you learn from an attorney how much just the court costs will be. Just to file a lawsuit in most courts alone incurs a $350.00 or larger filing fee. Depositions can cost over a thousand dollars if they are lengthy. And all such court costs come out of your settlement, even if you have a contingency fee attorney handling your case.

Sadly, many of these same lawyers take this step or let their improperly trained staff members (secretaries and clerks) force the matter to such an impasse and then file suit without properly informing the client of the negotiations that took place and led them to that point.

If you are negotiating with an insurance company yourself, there’s no need to be unpleasant. Yes, you are probably going to hear that the insurance adjuster has evaluated your case to be worth much less than you think it’s worth. But you’re forgetting that, that’s just their first offer. Communicate with the adjuster. Tell them how the injuries affected your life and tell them what you still go through today with the pain you still have. You’ll be surprised how many adjusters will actually relate to what you tell them.

Unfortunately, just as there are bad attorneys out there, there are also some lousy insurance adjusters and insurance companies to deal with as well. They’re supposed to get back to you in 40 days with an offer after you present them with your demand package. Some take longer. Some will sound unpleasant, even snotty. And once they make their first offer, it can take weeks sometimes to reach the adjuster again to make your counter-offer. Sometimes the negotiations can take months. If you want to get the most you can for your case, you need to be patient. Your job, just as it is the job of your attorney, is to get these unpleasant insurance adjusters to warm up. I ask them how the weather is, how they’re doing, if their busy, anything to get them to open up to me. You’d be surprised how far a little kindness goes.

We wish you good luck and a speedy recovery from your injuries. You’ll find that your health, in many cases, will drastically improve, once you remove yourself from the stress of handling your case and resolve it either yourself or with the assistance of our law firm by way of settlement. If on the other hand, your case goes into litigation, as do the cases of many lawyers who don’t have the settlement experience or negotiating tools to settle their cases advantageously for their clients, your stress level will almost certainly rise.

The law firm of Sebastian Gibson handles personal injury cases in the Coachella Valley, and throughout Southern and Central California and handle wrongful death cases throughout the state. To learn more about Sebastian Gibson and the other areas of law handled by the law firm, visit the Sebastian Gibson website.

We invite you to visit our website at http://www.sebastiangibsonlaw.com and call us if you’ve been seriously injured in a personal injury auto, motorcycle, car, truck, pedestrian, or bicycle accident, lost a loved one in a wrongful death or been injured in a dog bite or animal attack in the Coachella Valley.