What should you do if you’ve been involved in a multiple car collision?

I’m not talking about an instance in which it’s two or three cars and you’ve been hit from behind and you hit the person in front of you. What I’m talking about is the instance in which say you’re traveling on the interstate. There’s inclement weather. There’s standing water on the road. Somebody makes a mistake. They’re driving too fast for conditions or perhaps they’re driving too close to the person in front of them. They hit on the brakes. They do whatever it is that’s negligent that causes a chain reaction to begin.

So they hit the person to the right of them or possibly the person who’s in front of them and it causes that chain reaction in which everybody behind them sees that wreck happening and then they all adjust. Usually what ends up happening is you’ve got that initial wreck and then you’ve got maybe a person who’s coming up. They’re 50 yards behind them and they just – they don’t see it in time. They clip them but they’re trying to avoid them.

In these particular instances, you can have five, six, seven, eight different people all of whom have been involved in a motor vehicle collision. The downside of that is, is the police have to come in and try to piece together what actually happened by talking to all the witnesses, all the various parties and then you’ve got eight different insurance companies. You can see how it becomes increasingly more complex.

What the cops have to do is figure out what that initial instant of negligence actually was because essentially, the insurance is going to hinge on that person’s insurance. So whatever liability coverage they’ve got, the person who actually started that chain reaction, they’re the ones who are going to be on the hook.

All the other people, potentially depending on what they’re doing, it’s possible that one of them could potentially be found negligent as well, but typically it’s going to start with that first car. Eighty percent of people on the highways of South Carolina are carrying South Carolina minimum, which means they’ve got 25, 50 in coverage. They’ve got $25,000. They’ve got $50,000 from multiple people who are making claims against them.

So the pot is essentially $50,000. If you’ve got a wreck at a high speed on an interstate at 70 miles an hour with inclement weather, you’re looking at probably significant injuries and certainly significant collisions and property damage.

The injuries and the medical bills and the property damage are going to far outpace whatever that  

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initial car actually has in coverage. All of those various drivers going all the way back are going to hope to fall back on either their uninsured or their underinsured motorist coverage depending on how the numbers play out and what that initial driver has.

It’s very fact-specific and like I said, there can be other instances of negligence that occur but it’s really – the cops are trying to find a needle in a haystack because you’re trying to put something together that happens over maybe three or four seconds in time and you’re doing it with the spotty recollections and memories of people who are trying to protect their own interest because maybe they think they somehow contributed and God forbid their insurance premium should actually go up.

It’s a fact-specific inquiry and it’s certainly something that you’re not going to want to try to take care of yourself. I would strongly encourage you to seek out a lawyer. Lawyers, this is what we do for a living and we’ve met with these instances and we’ve worked through these incredibly complex scenarios. So we’ve been there and we’ve done that.

If you’ve been involved in a multiple car collision, I would strongly encourage you to pick up the telephone and contact the Hartman Law Firm at 843-300-7600.

What is a Transvaginal Mesh Claim?

As we all know, as part of the child bearing process, when the child grows within the womb, it actually compacts your internal organs and then you have your child and then everything can shift afterward. The problem that sometimes occurs is what’s called prolapse and what that actually means is where some of your internal organs can actually shift and fall into your lower region. It causes discomfort and pain among other issues, and potentially people really could get hurt or potentially die from contraindications of this particular issue happening.

The medical community came up with this concept of transvaginal mesh and essentially what they do is they go in there and they place a mesh and put everything exactly where it needs to be and then they attach it internally and then you back out. Hopefully all of your symptoms subside. 

The problem that they have found is not only with the actual product itself but with the implementation and the way that they suggested the doctors actually implant it. It was negligent and the way that they suggested that you go about doing it has led to both erosion and perforation.

Erosion is essentially where the mesh itself rubs against your internal organs and can cause the skin to become thinner and then you’re open to potential bleeds or infections and that sort of thing.

Perforation is where it actually cuts some of these internal organs that are shoring up and can cause internal bleeding and potential life-altering effects.

The transvaginal mesh is the subject of an ongoing mass tort litigation in America right now. It’s pretty cutting-edge and we’re still waiting to find out what the results are going to be as far as potential settlements, results, and more.

There are so many of these going on. In fact, currently the numbers are – there are about 40,000 ongoing cases against these particular companies that marketed transvaginal mesh to the American public and it remains to be seen what sort of settlements are going to come of it, what sort of negligence is actually being implicated.

My suggestion would be to keep up with the news to look out for yourself and loved ones, and then contact the Hartman Law Firm at (843) 300-7600 should you need representation for your personal injury.