In this post I want to point out the systematic destruction of evidence by insurance companies.

At the bottom of this point I’ve reported on a car accident, a single-car-collision in Iowa that took place in Buchanan County. That accident demonstrates a point I see time and time again in the practice of law. The law doesn’t forbid it, but it should or people should be smarter about when they hire an attorney and why they need to hire one. Let’s first look at the key piece of evidence in this accident. It’s a blown tire case.

In this blown tire case there are four passengers in the car that ended up being injured. Each passenger is hurt, some probably very badly. The four leave the accident by ambulance and are taken to an area hospital. Now I do get telephone calls from time-to-time asking about these types of cases. The reasons vary but normally they aren’t for the reasons most people think. They aren’t out to get rich; far from it. Iowans are a reasonable group of people for the most part. There are exceptions, but overall they normally aren't out looking for a free ride. No, the typical call is them trying to find a way to pay medical bills; medical insurance coverage is in this country a national debate for a reason. It's just too expensive, but I'll leave that for another day's blog.

For lawyers to help hospitals get paid for the ER work they just did, for doctors to get paid for X-rays and consults and for the pharmacy to get paid for drugs dispensed lawyers become a necessary part of the equation.  We are for all practical purposes a necessary link in the chain of our national and local economy. Like it or not we are a necessary profession that society can’t avoid. A bad lawyer is a weak link so those of us that have practice for decades become the stronger links in this necessary personal injury chain. Right now we aren't making a lot of money; we make enough to pay the bills, but many of us aren't even doing that.

So how would we approach a case such as this one where the ‘cause’ appears to be a blown tire? Our first thought is to consider whether something was wrong with the car. In this case the tire blew, causing the driver to lose control, leave the paved surface, head into the ditch and roll. Yeah that’s a big ouch for the people in the car. Many times the passengers are catastrophically injured.

The lawyer's job is to first figure out liability, who is at fault. To do this we need that tire. Which many times has now been scrapped; everyone knew the tire blew, but no one saved it.

There may be other causes, like the owner. It could be the owner for failing to provide tires with safe tread or it could be a tire shop, that did some work at the tire shop and either didn’t tighten up the lug nuts or failed to advise the car’s driver and/or owner what they needed to come back in a day or two to have the lugs retightened. So we would focus on the car's owner, any recent maintenance, a lack of maintenance or the driver themselves. But most times they are just out of luck on this one and the case never moves beyond this initial discussion.

What I tell the potential clients is that while the driver may not be at fault for it blowing that day; they are responsible for maintenance of the car. And auto repair shops, tire shops, etc. are responsible for reasonable maintenance practices that protect the car‘s integrity. And that’s where “the rub” comes into play. Without a car and tires there is no case against the tire's manufacturer. And the insurance industry knows that and systematically destroys the evidence that these cases hinge on. No car, no tires equals no case.

What insurance company’s do is to systematically destroy the car and tires. They don’t ask the owner if anyone is considering a claim that may involve the tires or car; no, instead they know most of the time that may lead to a claim against the insured, so they systematically destroy the car and the tires, and the do it as quickly as they can. That allows the insurance company something else to blame, aside from the driver who is their insured.

As a passenger what you need to do is preserve the evidence by hiring an attorney, taking photographs of the tire tread and keeping the tires. If you keep the tires mark with a white chalk on the sides of each tire to show the outside and which wheel the tires come off of. There is nothing more exasperating than to have clients call and no one has preserved the evidence.

The insurance industry has been very clever about making people concerned about quickly hiring an attorney. So while you hesitate they are out systematically destroying the evidence. So do yourself a favor and hire an attorney early on; or at least have a sit-down with a lawyer to find out your options.

DAMED IF YOU DO AND DAMED IF YOU DON’T

Now some may think, oh why would you sue the driver, but in this insurance driven world money doesn’t grow on trees because we are all spending far too much on insurance. Let’s not forget our friends at hospital administration with their nice blue suits who need money to run those smaller community hospitals. Yes, they too write to us and send dunning letters to the patients that can’t afford to pay or have too little insurance to pay the huge hospital bill. And then there's Medicare and Medicaid with their subrogation arms also sending dunning letters.

So don’t blame me or ask for an apology for my being a personal injury trial lawyer. You’ll get no apology from me. Follow the link to read the police report on this one and have a good day.

A crash occurred in Johnson County on November 9, 2010

VEH 1 N BND ON 380 LEFT REAR TIRE BLEW OUT DRIVER LOST CONTROL AND ENTERED EAST DITCH AND CAME TO REST AFTER STRIKING A TREE.