What is Underinsured Motorist Coverage Under South Carolina Insurance Law?

Underinsured motorist coverage is exactly what it sounds like. It is an option that you opt for on your auto policy that allows you to add an extra layer of coverage in the event that your medical bills, your pain and suffering and your injury outpaces the actual coverage that the defendant had on his car when the accident occurred.

The significance of this is there is anywhere between 80 to 90% of people out there driving in South Carolina who are riding around with what’s considered state minimum policies. The state minimum for the State of South Carolina is $25,000, therefore the typical defendant who hits you and is at fault is only going to have $25,000 that you can potentially get from his auto insurance company to compensate you for your injuries to pay your medical bills, and any other damages.

A lot of times especially in the context of permanent injuries or injuries that are catastrophic in nature, your medical bills and your injuries are going to far outpace that $25,000. For example, if you’ve got a $25,000 hospital bill because you spent a couple of days in the emergency room at a critical three stage, the emergency room bills get extraordinarily expensive especially when you’re in the ICU.

If you take that and you submit it to the defendant’s insurance company, they’re immediately going to tender that $25,000 because you’ve already got $25,000 in medical bills.

However, then you have $25,000 in medical bills and there’s nothing left over to pay you for your pain and suffering, and there’s nothing left over for your permanent injury that has come as a result of this particular accident.

That is precisely where underinsured motorist coverage comes in. It’s an option that you opt for on your own auto insurance policy. For example, on my car, I have 100/300 and I opted for underinsured motorist coverage for precisely this reason.

In the event that I’m involved in a wreck in which I’m significantly hurt and there’s a permanent injury and the defendant only has $25,000 in coverage, I can go back on my own insurance policy and I can say, “Look, the defendant didn’t have enough money and I’m really hurt and I’ve got $70,000 in medical bills,” and my own insurance company is going to step into the shoes of the defendant and they’re going to say, “OK. Well here, here’s $100,000 to go ahead and cover the rest of your medical bills and to compensate you for your injury and hopefully compensate you for your long term permanent personal injury.”

If you have questions about underinsured motorist coverage, then please contact The Hartman Law Firm at 843-300-7600

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What is PIP or personal injury protection or MedPay under South Carolina law?

PIP or personal injury protection or MedPay as it’s sometimes called under South Carolina law is an option that pretty much any insurance company is going to allow you to opt for. It’s not necessarily something they’re going to come right out and say it’s available because they don’t necessarily want you to get it.

You would have to pay a little bit higher premium in order to add it to your existing auto policy but the idea behind it is actually really, really good. It’s a no-fault policy that typically comes in denominations of either $1000, $5000 or $10,000 and the idea behind it is that that money, it doesn’t matter whether you were at fault. It doesn’t matter whether the other driver was at fault. You’re going to get that money in the event that you’re in a car wreck and you have existing medical bills that need to be paid.

It also doesn’t matter whether you have health insurance. It’s just a strictly one-time no-fault payment from your insurance company in the event that you’re involved in an auto accident and you’ve got existing medical bills that need to be paid.

This can actually be very beneficial because a lot of times, when you’re making an auto accident claim, there can be anywhere between a four to six-month delay before you actually get your medical bills paid because it takes that long for you to treat, for your lawyer to get all the records together, and for him to finally be able to settle it with the insurance company on a number that everybody is willing to agree to.

So in the meantime, you’ve got four to six months of debtors and creditors who are calling you saying, “Hey, we’ve got this existing EMS bill. We’ve got this emergency room bill that’s still outstanding and we fully and finally expect you to pay for it.”

If you don’t have the means to be able to pay for it, it’s going to affect your overall credit score. PIP is a perfect example of where that can be really a beneficial thing to have on your own auto insurance policy because it’s something that you get immediately from your insurance company and you can take it and pay your medical bills right then as opposed to waiting four to six months that you typically take in pre-litigation context for a car accident case.

The benefit being you have your medical bills paid, so you don’t have to worry about that one. The case actually settles. They’ve already been paid and that affects your bottom line because that means more of the money that you get from the defendant’s insurance company actually come to you in the form of a pain and suffering component.

So in that respect, PIP can be an extraordinarily beneficial thing to have and I would strongly encourage any South Carolina driver to go ahead an add it to their auto insurance policy. It’s maybe $10 or $15 extra a month and it can make a real difference.

If you have questions about PIP or MedPay, then I would strongly encourage you to pick up the telephone and call me at 843-300-7600 or feel free to look me up at The Hartman Law Firm.

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What You Need To Know Regarding Discovery And The Context Of Your Car Accident Claim

Discovery is a process that comes about if your attorney is unable to settle the claim with the insurance company in what’s called pre-litigation. 97% of cases will be settled in pre-litigation.

This means that the insurance company has accepted liability on the part of their driver, and your lawyer goes ahead and collects all of your medical and other important relevant records, like police reports, and he or she sends them to the insurance company. They evaluate them, make an offer and then it settled. That’s how the overwhelming majority of cases actually go by the wayside. There’s never a day where you really have to go to court because the entire system is built towards avoiding court.

Typically, the reasons why you would go into litigation is going to be either a valuation situation in which case the insurance company feels that the injury and the wreck don’t dictate the sort of demand that you’re claiming for your auto accident, or it’s a question of liability and they actually feel like you contributed in some way to your own collision.Those are the sorts of issues that you typically see litigated at the context of your car accident. 

Discovery is the process that happens once your lawyer actually files a lawsuit. The problem with discovery specifically in Charleston County is that you’ve got to look at how long it’s going to actually take to get into court. Because of the backlog of cases and common pleas in Charleston County, the typical wait is about a year before you can even get on to the list of where you might be called for a jury trial, and the whole point behind discovery is that prior to that, both sides are going to exchange information such as: medical records, prior medical records, your police reports, past driving records, past criminal records etc.

Anything and everything that could possibly be discovered will be discovered and that’s because the nature of discovery under South Carolina law is incredibly broad as far as what you can actually pull.

Therefore, it’s not just going to be the medical records that are actually relevant to this particular car accident. In all likelihood, the insurance company is going to go back and get at least five years of your prior medical records. The reason being is they want to go back and look and see if they could find some reason why you were injured previously to that part of your body and that way they can say, “We’re not responsible for this. This is just a re-aggravation of an injury that you had two or three years ago that shows up in your general practitioner’s medical records.”

All of that kind of goes into the pot, and discovery is that pot. It's essentially everything that could possibly be relevant, and anything under the sun is considered relevant and as soon as that summons and complaint is filed, your entire life is basically open to discovery from both sides and that can be a good thing and a bad thing. Some people find it invasive and that’s why a lot of people are more inclined to go ahead and settle their case in a pre-litigation context, to not worry so much about the valuation and not worry about going into a lawsuit. Plus they don’t want to wait a year.

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A lot of these things are considerations that a lawyer is going to sit down and talk to you about before you ever get to the point where you file a lawsuit. It’s definitely a conversation that needs to be had and I would strongly encourage you to talk to a lawyer if you’re in that situation.

If you have questions about discovery, I would strongly encourage you to pick up the phone and call The Hartman Law Firm at 843-300-7600 and speak with me today.

4 Reasons Why Pedestrians are Frequently Hit on South Carolina Roads

The law regarding pedestrians on South Carolina roads is that cars have to come to a stop at crosswalks both marked and unmarked and if they don’t do so, then their drivers are potentially negligent for any injuries that result as a result of striking a pedestrian.

There are four different contributing factors to why pedestrians are struck by vehicles.

1. Speed

People approach the intersection too fast and don’t realize that there’s a crosswalk there. They’re driving too fast for conditions and as a result, they’re unable to stop and they strike a pedestrian and obviously common sense is going to tell you if you’ve got a car meeting a human being, human being typically loses that battle and the potential injuries that can result from that can be absolutely devastating to someone. That’s an unfortunate thing and it’s certainly something that they need to be protected for and they’re potentially going to need a lawyer for is they’re going to need a lot of help to get back to where they were before or at least close to it.

2. The driver's age

Meaning, someone who is a little bit further along in life and their vision isn’t necessarily as good as that of a much younger driver. As a result of their vision being a little bit poor, they don’t see that pedestrian at the crosswalk or the fact that there’s a crosswalk there until it’s too late and they strike the person and then the person is injured as a result of the collision.

3. Impairment

The driver is drunk or intoxicated on some sort of prescription drug or something that is ultimately impairing their ability to see what’s going on around them and keep a proper lookout. As a result, when they approach that crosswalk, they don’t see the person until it’s too late and then they strike them and then again the person is injured very grievously.

4. Poor lighting

A lot of times people are struck at twilight, right around the time where the sun is just going down but it’s not completely night. So you don’t necessarily have your headlights on. Obviously that is the worst time for a human being as far as visibility is concerned. So when you have someone who’s crossing the road at twilight, they’re less visible and as a result, they tend to be struck more and if you look at the statistics, you’re much more likely to be struck around that particular time of day than any other time of day. So visibility plays a significant role and lack of visibility in this particular case.

An experienced Charleston personal injury lawyer can provide help. Protect yourself and your loved ones by contacting Hartman Law Firm, L.L.C. for a free, no-obligation evaluation of your case. We represent clients throughout Charleston and South Carolina. Call us today at 843-300-7600 or use our online contact form.
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Why Motorcycles are More Dangerous than Cars on South Carolina Roadways

The reason why motorcycles are more dangerous on the road is pretty obvious when you sit back and think about it. They’re a lot smaller. So when people are driving in traffic, a lot of times they don’t necessarily see them in your rear-view mirror or your side mirrors and consequently, they get hit because they’re not seen by other drivers, and because motorcycles are roughly a third size of a regular car.

For those reasons, it’s quite frequent that they’re struck and since the other driver doesn’t even realize that they’re there, other factors may come into play. Perhaps the other driver of the actual car is driving distracted or they’re intoxicated. There are all sorts of potential variances that can come into play but reality is that it really comes down to just sight. Are you able to see him or are you not able to see him? The way the cars are constructed, with the mirror construction being the way that it is, there’s just a natural blind spot that allows for a motorcyclist to just disappear behind you.

Other Factors that Contribute to the Dangers Motorcyclists Face:

• Motorcycles are a lot smaller mass-wise, so that when they go to brake, it’s much more sudden because they’re not bringing a 2000-pound car to a stop. They’re bringing a 700-pound motorcycle to a stop. So they’re able to stop at a much quicker rate and they get struck from behind by other vehicles that are unable to stop at the same rate and unfortunately since you’re out and you’re not surrounded by that metal casing of the car, you have a tendency to go flying and you get injured pretty significantly.

• Roughly 70 percent of motorcycle accidents happen at an intersection and the reason why that is, is because cars that are sitting at the intersection are – again, it comes down to sight but their line of sight is being obscured by trees or signs or shrubbery or whatever it is that may be in the way, buildings, if you’re in the downtown area and it prevents them from seeing a smaller vehicle that’s coming around the corner. They pull out from a stop sign and then the motorcycle strikes them.

The byproduct of all this is, is that people who are riding motorcycles, it’s not even their fault. A lot of times, they end up severely injured and almost invariably it’s the other driver’s fault. But that’s not going to make you feel any better when you’ve got broken bones all over or you’ve got some sort of debilitating long term injury that has come about as a result of the collision.

Proving negligence in a personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit based on a car crash can be complex. It takes an investment of time, experience, and money. An experienced Charleston car accident lawyer can provide these advantages. Protect yourself and your loved ones by contacting Hartman Law Firm, L.L.C. for a free, no-obligation evaluation of your case. We represent clients throughout Charleston and South Carolina. Call us today at 843-300-7600 or use our online contact form.
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3 Main Causes of Accidents on South Carolina Roadways

1. Distracted Driving

The first cause of car accidents on South Carolina roads is distracted driving. That can go anywhere from fiddling with the radio to looking at your cell phone while you are driving and not paying attention to the road, reaching for a book, or turning and looking at somebody who’s immediately next to you. The point is, is that you have taken your eyes off the road and you are no longer keeping a proper lookout and as a result, you strike someone and they’re injured as a result of your negligence.

2. Defective Car Design

The second cause of car accidents has to do with defective design with regard to your car, and defective design is actually kind of a different animal entirely. What we are talking about is mass tort claims and something that all of you would be able to identify with that’s currently going on is the GM recall.

Right now, they have recalled approximately 11 million vehicles that were made between 2008 and the present. The reason being, there are defective components in those vehicles that are causing them to drive off the side of the road and currently 11 people have died as a result of those defective parts.
That is a different situation when it comes to making a claim because now you’re making a claim against the manufacturer of the car as opposed to another driver.

Again, that falls into a larger category of mass torts and you are going to end up in a situation where it is you and at least 100 other people who all have the same problem and you are all kind of put into one lawsuit as opposed to you bringing the lawsuit singly on your own. They compile all of them together and then they are ultimately all settled in a large grouping and in a large settlement and typically it’s under seal, which means that they don’t ever admit liability and they don’t necessarily admit how much they are paying the people that have been hurt as a result of those potential defects.

3. Poor Road Design

Some other things to consider and other causes of car accidents on South Carolina roads would include inadequate or poor road design on the part of the state. What I mean by that is there are certain requirements as far as the number of inches that you can have between the side of the road and where the road is and ultimately how much you can potentially come off. Maybe it’s three inches for instance.

If there’s a variance there of seven or eight inches because there was poor construction on the part of the people that the estate employed to build that road, then that is defective road design and then you go off. Your tire catches and you get pulled off the side of the road because there is a defective road design.The only way you’re going to be able to establish that is if you send engineering experts out there and they do the – they test the design and they measure it with what’s required by the state and then they see that there’s a discrepancy. In that case, you are going to have to bring a potential claim against the state because the road was poorly constructed and a person was injured as a result and so therefore the state potentially is negligent for that injury.

At the Hartman Law Firm in North Charleston, we have the ability to help with your worker’s compensation claim. Work injuries can have a devastating effect on your life but, fortunately, a South Carolina worker’s compensation attorney is here to help. To schedule a free consultation, please call 843-300-7600 today.

What You Need to Know About Worker's Compensation in South Carolina

South Carolina Worker’s Compensation Statutes

The first thing that you might not know about worker’s compensation law is A, it is a creature of statute. In other words, it is something that the State of South Carolina has entirely made separate and apart from regular tort law. In that respect one of the main differences between when you’re injured on the job which is a worker’s compensation claim is that there is no component for pain and suffering.

In your typical tort case, i.e. a car accident or slip and fall or something along those lines, something that the jury and/or judge is always going to take into consideration is the pain and suffering component of the injury that you suffered.

With regard to a worker’s compensation claim, there is no pain and suffering component. So in that respect, it’s quite different. It’s really more a matter of just actual computation based on what the statute says your particular body part is worth. That multiplied times whatever your actual hourly wage was in the time that you were actually injured.

South Carolina is a No Fault System in Worker’s Compensation Cases

The second thing that you need to know about worker’s compensation is that it’s in fact a no-fault system and in that respect, it doesn’t matter whether your employer or a third party was at fault for you being injured while you were on the job.

All that matters is that you were actually injured and you can prove it and that it happened in the scope of your employment. The reason why that’s important is because quite honestly that’s one of the primary focuses of any good defense attorney who is working your worker’s compensation claim.

They’re going to try and make it so that whatever happened, it didn’t happen in the scope of your employment. Maybe you were horsing around is the technical term, playing, and somehow you injured yourself in that respect or you were on a smoke break or something along those lines and you fell and you injured yourself that way.

These are ways that you can actually keep a claim from or make a claim so that it’s actually denied by the Workers Compensation Commission and ultimately you can keep a plaintiff on the outside looking in.

As I said before, it’s a creature of statute, something that was created in the 20th century. It used to be that you would actually bring a claim against your employer, just as you would against any other potential defendant but they kind of carved out a little niche in tort law. They made it no fault. They made it so that it’s – there’s no pain and suffering component and they made it so that it’s essentially a computation that’s based on values that are determined by the legislature and periodically updated as is necessary with your cost of living and your inflation considerations.

At the Hartman Law Firm in North Charleston, we have the ability to help with your worker’s compensation claim. Work injuries can have a devastating effect on your life but, fortunately, a South Carolina worker’s compensation attorney is here to help. To schedule a free consultation, please call 843-300-7600 today.