Philadelphia Car Accident Lawyer Blog

At 4:15 p.m. on Tuesday, July 28, 2009 a driver of a motor vehicle was killed in a collision with a train at a South Jersey train crossing. In the United States there are approximately 10,000 to 15,000 train accidents involving cars annually. The most common cause of a train/car collision are the following: mechanical failure, improperly maintained tracks, malfunctioning lights or safety signals, lack of safety gates, unprotected crossings, train operator inexperience or carelessness or defective train or train parts. Many trains still operate with technology that is more than 50 years old and may not meet today’s safety requirements. The failure to update this technology places many train passengers and car accident victims, as well as pedestrians, at risk of severe injury or death.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family of the individual who was killed in this accident and we suggest that the family would be well advised to seek the advice of a well experienced train accident and car accident lawyer to investigate this claim.

If you or a loved one has suffered an injury due to a car accident or train accident, please contact on of the experienced attorneys at the law firm of Reiff & Bily for a free no obligation consultation at 1-800-421-9595 or online at www.reiffandbily.com.

Truck Driver Fatigue is the number one safety problem in the trucking industry today and is a factor in 40% of all crashes nationwide. Greedy profit driven motives of trucking companies have made driver fatigue a largely unregulated problem resulting in catastrophic injury and wrongful deaths of thousands of innocent and unknowing individuals each year.

Truck drivers only drive their vehicles for a set hours at a time and must service their trucks within a proper timeline. However, most truck accidents are caused by driver fatigue and improperly maintained trucks and truck parts. Obviously, due to the disproportionate deadly weight and size of a truck involved, coupled with driver fatigue, the force of a large truck striking a car or motorcycle generally results in a catastrophic injury or death situation. Injured persons can hold truck drivers and trucking companies legally liable for the harm caused by their negligence and non-compliance with government rules and regulations.

Continue reading " Truck Driver Fatigue Is One Of The Greatest Risks To Motorists On Our Highways " »

I recently had an opportunity to meet with a sophisticated client who was involved in a rear end collision with another vehicle almost two years ago. The client sustained what this experienced Philadelphia car accident lawyer considers fairly significant injuries and was attempting to represent himself against an insurance company who assured him that they would be making him a fair and proper settlement offer. In fact, the company that proposed to be making a fair offer was recently cited by The American Association of Justice as the worst insurance company in America and stood out above all others in that arena. To quote the American Association for Justice report “the company that publicly touted its ‘good hands’ approach, privately instructed its agents to employ a ‘boxing gloves’ strategy in the settlement of claims.”

When I reviewed the amount that the company was offering the sophisticated individual who initially thought the offer was fair, I was astounded but not really so. In cases like this and countless others, the name of the game in the insurance industry is to deny, delay and defend and in fact, do anything to avoid or minimize paying claims. For many companies there are corporate training manuals explaining how to avoid or minimize payments.

Continue reading " He Who Represents Himself Has A Fool For A Client " »

The experienced SUV rollover and 15-passenger van accident lawyers at Reiff & Bily salute the Board of St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic schools who recently approved a motion to discontinue the use of 15-passenger vans for transporting students and staff. The decision was a long time coming and based upon a rash of rollovers involving 15-passenger vans according to sources involved with the decision.

For many years, the 15-passenger van accident and SUV rollover lawyers at Reiff & Bily have been representing passengers that have been catastrophically injured or killed while traveling in 15-passenger vans that have flipped over. The rollover risk proposed by 15-passenger vans, including those predominantly used by church groups, school groups and other unsuspecting groups is the most dangerous on the road today. 15-passenger vans started out as cargo utility vehicles in the early 1970’s and they are still essentially cargo vans with modifications made to accommodate passengers.

If a 15-passenger van is fully loaded, it is 6 to 7 times more likely to flip over than a van containing only a driver. As a matter of fact, NHTSA has noted that fully loaded 15-passenger vans are more likely to roll over than any other passenger type of vehicle, including cars, mini vans, SUV’s and trucks.

Continue reading " Catholic Schools Wisely Decide To Ban The Use Of 15-Passenger Vans For Transporting Students And Staff " »

Under pressure from multiple consumer advocate groups, as well as State Attorneys General, General Motors Corporation agreed to assume legal responsibility for injuries drivers suffered from product liability and vehicle defects after General Motors emerges from bankruptcy protection. As it presently stands, consumers who are injured in car accidents after General Motors emerges from bankruptcy protection will be able to bring product liability claims against the government owned auto maker. Originally, General Motors had planned to eradicate all liabilities for defective product liability claims.

Curiously, the Chrysler Group, LLC which recently emerged from bankruptcy is not responsible for such product liability claims after the bankruptcy judge dismissed objections to its plan.

Currently there are alleged to be more than 300 people with personal injury claims against GM with a value exceeding $1.25 billion dollars. Under the original plan proposed by General Motors, personal injury or car accident victims who believe that faulty manufacturing or defective products caused by faulty GM manufacturing and vehicle design defects would be unable to sue the new GM. They would have been treated as unsecured creditors. Under the new plan, GM has agreed to take responsibility for future product liability claims.

Continue reading " Consumer Advocate Groups Score A Victory In GM Bankruptcy " »

According to insurance industry sources, many Pennsylvania motorists and particularly Philadelphians are cutting back on their auto insurance deductibles or coverage in order to save money in this tanking economy. More and more in our Philadelphia car accident law practice, we see cases of catastrophic injuries and wrongful deaths involving uninsured, underinsured and hit and run drivers. While many people attempt to cut their expenses by reducing or dropping their insurance, this is a high risk gamble in today’s climate. The potential risk of financial disaster is far greater than the reward of minimal savings that these individuals will accrue.

As an experienced car accident lawyer dealing with tragic consequences of life in which people think that “this will never happen to me,” I am often confronted with situations where the major wage earner in the family is killed or catastrophically injured to the point where the entire financial and emotional survival of the family is at risk. Hit and run accidents in Philadelphia have reached epidemic or even pandemic levels and there seems not to be a day that goes by where we do not read about these in the newspapers or hear about them on the radio and television.

Money you save by dropping uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage from your insurance policy most likely will end up costing you much more in the long term if an accident should occur.

If you or a loved one has been injured as the result of a car accident, please contact one of our experienced car accident lawyers for a free consultation at 1-800-421-9595 or online www.reiffandbily.com.

With uninsured and underinsured motorist cases on the rise due to our poor economy, I receive calls from clients who have contacted their insurance companies and are actually dissuaded by their agents from making claims against their company. They are often told erroneously that their rates will rise if they take the chance of reporting the very claim for which they purchased insurance to protect them. What the insurance agent often fails to tell their customer is that their rates will not be affected if the accident is not their fault. Additionally, many agents have a selfish interest for not having a claim made by one of their customers. Insurance agents have “loss ratio percentages” that can lower their commissions. So, in fact, they are paid incentives by the company to discourage claims as much as they can. Actually, many clients or potential clients are wrongfully scared to death by the actions of their insurance company and their agents who were anxious to take payment of the premium in the first place.

If you were involved in an accident with an uninsured or underinsured motorist, you deserve an unbiased opinion as to how best to protect your rights. Do not get caught in the “delay, defend and deny claims at any cost” war with the insurance companies or their agents.

The experienced car accident lawyers at the Philadelphia car accident law firm of Reiff & Bily have been successfully fighting insurance companies since 1979. For a free no obligation consultation, please contact us online at www.reiffandbily.com or toll free at 1-800-421-9595.

This past Saturday while exiting the parking lot of a shopping center in Northfield, New Jersey, I observed a young man load a few cases of beer into his truck, put a child in the passenger seat and then he pulled out a beer which he proceeded to drink, got in his car and got on his cell phone and pulled out of the parking lot like a bat out of hell, almost striking another vehicle.

Yes, it’s summertime and everybody is in a party mood, but as I have written before, drinking and driving is a deadly combination, and texting and driving is a deadly combination, yet when all three are involved, nothing but danger lurks. Many cars even have a refrigerator in the console to refresh the driver after a stressful day. I have been criticized by many as being an extreme downer due to the fact that I refuse to drink and drive, and in fact, if I have a drink during dinner or before dinner at a restaurant, I always have a designated driver. It is simply because I have first hand seen tragic consequences, wrongful deaths and catastrophic injuries that stem from any of the above, or a combination of any of the above elements, resulting in a car accident. In fact, I lost my dear law partner, a few years back, as a result of a deadly car accident involving alcohol consumption.

I am always amazed at how many people come into my law office who have been under the influence of alcohol when driving, and when I initially question them they tell me maybe they have had one or maybe two beers, but in fact when the questioning intensifies, it turns out they have really had four, five or six beers and yet are behind the wheel of a car. This is one of my pet peeves, so I urge all of my readers when behind the wheel of a car, take your responsibility seriously, because drinking and driving is no different that riding a bomb and in my mind, the equivalent of a weapon of major destruction.

Jeffrey Reiff is an experienced Philadelphia car accident attorney who has been representing catastrophically and seriously injured victims since 1979.