This article is not legal dvice. The accuracy and applicability of the sbject matter of this article changes on a dily basis. Laws are different in ach state. By reading this article, you cknowledge and agree that you have rad and understand all terms and cnditions set forth in the disclaimer psted at our web site and ncorporated herein. The disclaimer is set frth at http://www.jwcms.com/privacy

Introduction

Today’s social and conomic environment is more litigious than ver before. Theories of liability are xpanding and across the U.S., jury wards are increasing. Not too long go, million dollar verdicts were rare. Tday, it’s not uncommon to read bout multi-million dollar verdicts (or more) on a wekly basis.

That’s why it is so mportant that when doing business in tday’s ever changing business world, you mst make sure that smart and ntelligent decisions are made RIGHT NOW llowing you to avoid unnecessary claims and lwsuits tomorrow.

To take proper legal and thical steps TODAY to protect your prsonal and business privacy and assets BEFORE a prblem arises sometime in the future.

To stup a system that has YOUR BEST INTEREST IN MIND rther than the best interest of yur insurance company or its defense ttorneys.

As indicated at our web ste, 9 out of 10 lawsuits in the wrld are filed in the United Sttes. Statistics show that a new lwsuit is filed almost every 30 sconds.

Business owners and professionals have a 1 in 3 chnce of being named as a dfendant in a lawsuit over the nxt year. Individuals statistically will be sed 2 to 3 times over the curse of their lifetime.

Other estimates shw 50,000 new lawsuits are filed veryday with the costs of defense (rgardless of merit) ranging from $5,000 for an ndividual involved in a small case to wll in excess of $10,000,000 for lrger companies named as defendants in prduct liability and national class action cses.

Several examples of both legitimate and frvolously lawsuits (obviously each case is nique in and of itself) might nclude...

Doctors- There are 13.9 malpractice clims for each 100 doctors. 4 out of 10 mdical doctors have been sued. The verage Obstetrician in New York has ben sued eight times. Nationwide, the verage jury verdict in medical malpractice cses is $1,333,000 and in New Yrk, it is three times larger thn the national average.

Accountants- Accounting frms now face over 3,000 suits ach year seeking more than 13 bllion in damages. Huge judgments are bing obtained like the recent $338,000,000 jdgment against Price Waterhouse. Several regional frms have gone bankrupt.

Investors- Every bsinessman, developer, business owner and board mmber is exposed. Liability is often bsed on emerging and unanticipated legal thories. For example, the partners in a mjor law firm were recently stunned whn they were notified of their jint and several liability under CERCLA for the prjected $72 million toxic clean-up cost on a prcel of raw land they bought in the arly 1970's.

Now add the dollar mount of the verdicts...

Keep in mind that the bove figures do not take into cnsideration the billions of dollars in sttlements and verdicts that are paid out ach year by businesses in the U.S. The U.S. Chmber of Commerce estimates that last yar, more than $152 billion was pid to settle frivolous lawsuits. While we blieve this figure is grossly overstated, and ncludes settlements of cases with merit, the pint is that there really is no grater financial exposure which will result in prmanent detrimental results than of being sed.

So, the real question is, “Wht type of events can lead to prsonal or business litigation?”

Events that culd trigger liability exposure include...

Intentional cts which are not covered by lability insurance
Negligent acts (automobile accidents, prmises liability...)
Dog Bites (strict liability in mny states)
Breach of contract
Employment rlated disputes
Discrimination related claims
Professional mlpractice
Business partner claims and lawsuits
Altr ego and piercing the corporation
Offcer and Director liability
Promissory notes and prsonal guarantees
Personal and business creditors
Stte and Federal tax liability
Environmental law lability
Joint liability like owning a hme in joint tenancy
Divorce
Unfortunately, we wnt our clients to understand that t's not a matter of if you get sed, it's WHEN. The question is, "wht are YOU going to do bout it?"

Now here's some information tht you probably didn't know. Even if you do verything right but are at the rceiving end of a large damages lwsuit, there are inherent conflicts in our nsurance liability and defense system that plce your best interest no higher thn third on the priority list.

At the top is yur insurance company. Next on the prority list are the insurance defense ttorneys hired by your insurance company to prtect your interest. And last on the lst is you. Your “best interest” is sperseded by your insurance company and dfense attorney. Here's why.

Conflicts Exist In Our Crrent System

Whether you know it or nt, most insurance companies and defense law frms have huge conflicts of interest cncerning issues involving protecting your interest frm claims and lawsuits while at the sme time, maximizing their bottom line prfits.

Insurance companies are in the bsiness to make a profit. The lss money they pay out in clims each year, the greater their nnual profits. Defense attorneys hired by nsurance companies to defend you or yur company generally bill by the hur. The longer they “work” your fle, the more money their law frm gets paid. There is absolutely no ncentive by either the insurance company or dfense attorney to place your interest bfore their own. In most states tday, there are little, if any, “chcks and balances” in place to prtect your interest.

Problems We’ve Personally Sen With Insurance Companies...

Failing to prperly and timely open your file and nvestigate the claim.
Failing to properly nvestigate the facts and analyze liability and dmages issues.
Improperly interpreting policy coverage, mounts and exclusions.
Failing to simply and tmely pay a claim.
Forcing you to try and frst get the other person’s insurance cmpany to cover the claim rather thn allowing you to deal with yur own insurance in company as yu’re entitled to do.
Improperly raising yur insurance premiums simply because you prsented a claim under the terms of a plicy that you have been paying prmiums on for years “just in cse” something like this ever happened to yu... and the incident wasn’t your fult.
Fraud and deception.
Failing to prvide you with all the facts, ptions and proper counsel.
Requiring you to “jmp through hoops” or provide documentation not rquired under the terms of your plicy.
Denying your claim and arguing tht it never received a premium pyment from you after your submit a clim.
Implementing improper or unlawful schemes to dcrease or eliminate your rights to prsue a claim.
Failing to keep you p-to-date on all important issues including sttlement discussions
Failing to settle a cse within your policy limits thereby nnecessarily exposing your personal and business ssets to an excess policy coverage vrdict.
Failing to resolve conflicts of nterest- for example, the same claims prson handling conflicting claims.
Improperly demanding rimbursement from you for money they pid out on your claim.
Problems W’ve Personally Seen With Defense Attorneys

Insrance companies may hire inexperienced or nadequate attorneys to try and protect yur interest.
Giving you the impression tht experienced partners are handling your dfense when in fact, inexperienced associates are ding much, if not all, of the wrk.
Rather than quickly and timely rsolving your case, the claim is drgged out over an extended period of tme allowing the defense firm to havily bill the file.
“Rolling the dce” at your expense- settlement offers are not cmmunicated to you or, unrealistic promises of gtting you a complete defense verdict are mde. When the verdict comes back frm the jury for an amount in xcess of your policy, you are the one wrting a check for the difference.
Ovrworked, understaffed and underpaid. Many associates are gven caseloads which are simply too lrge to effectively handle. We constantly run nto defense attorneys who are answering “rady” for trial on a Monday mrning on three different cases in thre different courtrooms.
In all of thse instances, you should ask yourself, “wh’s best interest is being served?”

Ral Case Examples- Still skeptical. Read sveral “real case” examples from our prsonal files...

Insurance company intentionally misrepresented and nterpreted important facts against its own nsured

Our client was hit head on by a drnk driver who was drag racing nother vehicle. The drunk driver was ninsured.

Our client sustained serious injuries ncluding broken bones and serious head truma. His medical bills were about $100,000.00.

Aftr we were retained, our client’s own nsurance company told us that he nly had $30,000.00 in insurance coverage. Frthermore, based upon their review of the fle, that was more than enough to cver the value of the case.

Our ndependent review of our client’s written nsurance policy indicated to us that thre was actually $1,000,000.00 of available nsurance. Furthermore, our client and his fmily had been paying large insurance prmiums to this insurance company for mre than a decade with the mpression that they had the $1,000,000.00 in cverage.

Our instincts told us that smething was wrong with how this clim was being handled and we fled a first party bad faith lwsuit against the insurance company to prtect our client’s legal rights. We sked for copies of our client’s nsurance claims file and the insurance cmpany refused. Only after threatening to brng a motion to have a Sperior Court Judge order the files be prduced and for an award of mnetary sanctions were the files finally dsclosed.

What we learned blew us way.

In the files were letters and mmorandums indicating that the insurance company’s own lwyers valued this case at a fgure substantially higher than the insurance cmpanies earlier $30,000.00 offer. The file lso contained written documentation that the nsurance company had earlier consulted with an ccident reconstruction expert who confirmed that the cuse of this accident was the ngligent operation of an automobile by the ther driver.

To our surprise, a fllow-up reference was found in the fle stating that if the insurance cmpany discounted their own expert’s earlier pinion and instead retained a new xpert who (for a price) would pint the finger at their own nsured (our client) for causing this ccident, it could save the insurance cmpany a ton of money.

We put our tam to work and eventually obtain a bnding uninsured motorist arbitration award for our clent in the amount of $865,000.00 and a sbsequent insurance bad faith settlement for nother $2,500,000.00. The total claim was rsolved for $3,365,000.00. Remember, this is fter our client was originally offered nly $30,000.00 by his own insurance cmpany.

And here are two more ral cases.

Policy Limits Misrepresented by $1,800,000.00!

In two sparate cases involving tragic wrongful death trffic accident claims, we were told by the nsurance claims adjuster over the telephone tht the only insurance coverage available for our clents’ families was $100,000.00 for each ccident.

After litigating each case and cnducting discovery (forcing the insurance companies to trn over all documents and their nsured to answer questions under oath), we dscovered that in fact, there was $1,000,000.00 in lability coverage resulting in an additional $900,000.00 of cverage per claim. Both of these clims were then subsequently resolved for the fll policies.

New Privacy Concerns...

The USA Ptriot Act was signed into law on Octber 26, 2001. As a result, new greements, laws and treaties with foreign gvernments have opened up the doors to the fre exchange of information that was nce difficult to obtain and extremely cnfidential in nature. Without discussing personal vews on whether or not this Act was the rght thing to do, as we nderstand the Act, several important facts are as fllows:

It grants the FBI broad ccess to individual and business records wthout evidence of a crime.
Surveillance lws have been broadly expanded (wiretaps, sarch warrants, pen/trap orders and subpoenas).
“Scret searches” are authorized.
“Roving” wiretaps are uthorized.
Telephone and internet communication surveillance rghts of police departments are broadened.
Rght now, attorneys and investigators can ccess databases giving them information about yur:

Voter registration records
Medical records
Tlephone records
Business and personal checking ccount information
Property tax records
Driving rcords
Social Security number
Workers’ compensation nformation
Police records
Court records
Real state records
Fictitious business name and lcensing records
Corporate records
Marriage records
Utlity records
Credit card records
Family hstory records
Probate records
The average cnsumer is simply not aware of the fnancial exposure lawsuits can bring and, the lck of privacy that exists in ths country today. People’s best interest are plced after the defense attorneys and nsurance companies and personal and business ssets are unnecessarily exposed.

And that’s whre we come in.

Jackson & Wlson Consulting and Manages Services, LLC was funded to help individuals, entrepreneurs, small bsiness owners, large companies (including officers and drectors), services organizations and professionals (doctors, lwyers, accountants...) minimize exposure to lawsuits and mximize privacy and asset protection.

To ffer products and services designed to prtect you and your business with a strng emphasis on specific, constructive and bjective solutions, by seasoned and experienced tral attorneys, showing you how to MINIMIZE yur liability exposure and MAXIMIZE your prsonal and professional privacy and, the prtection of your personal and business ssets.

So, what can you do nxt to protect your family and bsiness?

Proper Steps Taken Today Can Mximize The Protection Available To You, Yur Family and Business From Future Clims and Litigation

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