October 29, 2007Keeping Your Family SafeNo CommentsCalifornia lawyer Jonathan Stein, is a San Diego lawyer who is putting his money where his mouth is– he is offering FREE legal services to Californians who are having problems with their own insurance companies following the devastating wildfires. It’s bad enough to lose your home and all your possessions but it’s horrible to then be jerked around by your own insurance company to whom you have paid insurance premiums for many years….. Jonathon has recently posted a Top Ten Tips list for those who have lost their homes or other property to the fires. While Jonathon wrote his list is for the California fire victims, most of his tips apply equally to homeowners in any state. I STRONGLY urge you to read these tips before you have a loss:
- Document your structure loss. Take pictures or video of the damaged area. If you know what was there, talk on the video camera. If you are taking still pictures, then write down what was damaged. Example: “The outside of the house had siding, painted 5 years ago, brown.”
- Document your personal property loss. Take pictures or video of any damaged/destroyed personal property. Put the details on the tape or write it down. Example: “Nintendo Wii, purchased Jan. 2007 for $400 at Target.” Read the rest…
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October 28, 2007Keeping Your Family Safe, NY Auto InsuranceNo CommentsAside from the MANY bad things that can happen to you if you drive drunk (you can die, you can kill others, you can go to jail, you can lose your license, you can be heavily fined, etc.) most people don’t know that you may also forfeit your No-Fault insurance benefits for medical bills and lost wages. The general rule is that the drunk driver forfeits his no-fault coverage.
There is an exception to this general rule of “no coverage” IF the drunk driver can prove that his/her intoxication was not a contributing cause of the accident. But good luck in proving that the fact that your intoxication was not a contributing cause of the accident!
BOTTOM LINE– DON’T DRINK AND DRIVE!
The applicable law is:
11 NYCRR 65.15. Claims for personal injury protection benefits — accidents on and after December 1, 1977.
(m) Scope of coverage. (2) An Insurer shall pay benefits to an applicant for losses arising out of an accident in the following situations: (i) where coverage has been excluded for an applicant operating a vehicle while in an intoxicated condition or while the applicant’s ability is impaired by the use of a drug, if such intoxicated or drugged condition was not a contributing cause of the accident causing the injuries; (emphasis added)
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October 27, 2007Keeping Your Family SafeNo CommentsAlthough you may notice that I am sometimes critical of how insurance companies treat their own customers, now and then I see something that makes me think that the insurance company is actually thinking about their own insureds. Below is a great list of driving tips for teenage drivers that was published by Safeco Insurance. Given the fact that I have two teenage drivers in my own house (ugghhhh!!), I know we can never reinforce to our kids enough the idea of safe driving! Read the rest…
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October 27, 2007NY Auto InsuranceNo CommentsI have just published a small book outlining what all drivers should know about auto insurance. It will show you how to better protect yourself and your loved ones by explaining complex legal issues in an easy to understand manner.
Entitled “Learn the Five Secrets to Buying Auto Insurance,” the book will answer the following questions and more:
- What are the types of coverage I really need, and how much coverage do I need?
- How can I figure out exactly what situations I’m covered for—and which ones I’m not?
- How do I know my insurance agent is telling me everything I should know?
- When can I sue another driver for my injuries?
- What is the best overall insurance plan for my family?
Why have I written this book? Simple. I have personally witnessed the economic pain suffered by families who do not have proper insurance coverage and I want to make sure that people have the coverage necessary to keep this from happening to them.
Often, for just pennies a day, you can buy a HUGE amount of additional coverage that would protect you in the event of a bad accident.
If you would like a copy of this book, please post a Comment below requesting the book and I will be happy to mail you a copy.
For those of you who don’t want to read the whole book, just subscribe to this blog as I will be blogging about many of the issues discussed in the book.
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October 9, 2007Most Popular PostsNo CommentsWelcome!! After a LONG time ‘thinking’ about publishing a blog, it’s nice to finally move beyond the thinking to the DOING!!
We are very excited to share with our readers our views on the MANY issues that arise in NY Injury cases– we will be talking about NY laws, NY courts, NY cases! Frankly, we will be talking about all things NY and those things that interest us (law technology, gadgets, etc.).
We encourage YOU to tell us what YOU want to hear about. Post a comment or send a direct email to info@zifflaw.com. We want to know what is of interest to you.
But please appreciate that although we will be discussing all sorts of legal issues, you should NOT take anything we say to be legal advice for any specific person. The only way to give proper legal advice is to know ALL the details of your case and we can’t possibly know that unless we have taken the time to learn all the facts necessary to answer your specific legal question. With that said, we hope to generally discuss legal issues in a way that will help folks better understand how NY injury law works…..
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