Because of the publicity surrounding the Ford/Firestone litigation, tire failures have been reported with increasing frequency.

Although most of us will log thousands of miles in our lifetimes without so much as an air leak, tire failures can and do occur regularly. Many of these failures can be directly attributed to manufacturing defects, design defects or a tire manufacturer’s failure to warn of dangers inherent in their products.

These dangers have been known to the tire industry for years. Tire manufacturers know that tire treads will wear with proper use and at some point fail if not serviced properly and replaced after their intended period of use has expired.

So, tire failures, blowouts and de-treads are foreseeable events.

Although not all fire failures result in serious accidents, the sudden failure of a tire can cause a vehicle to lose ocntrol an droll over or collide with other vehicles on the road. Tire failures are especially dangerous if the vehicle is traveling at highway speeds.

Tire tread separation can be caused by bonding problems in the tire manufacturing process, contaminants introduced into the tire during the tire-making process, under vulcanization, old ingredients, improper sized components or something as simple as air being trapped between the layers of the tire during the tire manufacturing process.

When the tread separates on these defective tires, it can result in single- or multi-vehicle accidents, or even rollovers.

Even auto manufacturers agree that drivers should be able to pull over, not rollover, when a tire de-treads. This, unfortunately, is not always the case.

The Nevada Supreme Court has upheld a $32.2 million judgment in Clark County against Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company related to a single-car accident in 2004 that killed three people and injured seven.

The court rejected the claim of Goodyear that the amount awarded by the jury was excessive.

The majority decision, written by Justice Mark Gibbons, said there was sufficient evidence to justify the amount because of the loss of life and serious injuries and it does “not shock our judicial conscience.”

The car’s occupants were traveling from Nevada to Kansas when a tire blew out and the vehicle overturned near Moab, Utah, on Interstate 70 on Aug. 16, 2004. Killed were Evertina Tapia, Andres Torres and Frank Enriquez.

A suit was filed by the surviving relatives and guardians of the children against Goodyear, Ford Motor Company and Valley View Hitch & Truck Rental. Both Ford and Valley View settled their claim.

During the pre-trial maneuvering, District Judge Sally Loehrer found that Goodyear failed to produce a witness and gave improper responses to interrogatories. She found that Goodyear “has taken the approach of stalling, obstructing and objecting” in its pre-trial behavior. As a sanction, Loehrer ruled that Goodyear could not present a defense of liability but only could argue to the jury the amount of compensatory damages and if it was subject to punitive damages.

The jury came back with the $32.2 million verdict but didn’t return punitive damages.

Source: The Las Vegas Sun

If you’ve been injured in a car accident, you are probably tempted to do just this. And, of course, you don’t need a lawyer to settle your claim, just like you don’t need a lawyer to file a lawsuit or defend against one. The real question is, under what circumstances are you better off doing the work yourself than using a lawyer?

Remember, the insurance company is not there to help you. It is there to make money. Your insurance company will probably treat you better than company of the person that hurt you but not much.

The insurance company agents handle hundreds of cases each year. Their goal is to settle your claim as quickly as possible (because that limits their company’s liability) and as cheaply as possible. Insurance companies don’t make money paying claims. They make money by collecting premiums and paying out as slowly, lowly and infrequently as they can.

A good agent will appear nice and friendly, because they want to get you talking. The love to get a recorded statement which they can use against you later. If they find out anything about your past medical history, they can use that against you when ask for money. Then, it’s like that Southwest Airlines commercial where the ticket agent is friendly and nice, but then turns around and has a different face when the passenger asks for an extra convenience. That commercial should be about insurance adjusters—as soon as you start asking for money, they face changes and the friendly façade goes down.

You should know from your own experience, that the first time you do something, you don’t do it as well as the second, third, etc. It’s called the learning curve. So you are trying something for the first time while the adjuster is on his thousandth—you’re at a tremendous disadvantage.

A study a few years ago made at the request of one of the insurance companies determined that people who are represented by lawyers obtain more than 100 percent better results than if they represent themselves.

Here are some of the things an attorney will do to settle a case : interview clients, interview witnesses, request police report, order 911 phone calls, order ambulance records, take photographs of the area, take photographs of the vehicles, make a map of the area, request medical records and bills, review medical records and bills, interview doctors, prepare a demand letter, negotiate with the insurance company, file suit, send discovery to opposing party, defend against discovery from the opposing party, take depositions, hire expert witnesses, subpoena witnesses, negotiate with lien holders. And that’s not a complete list.

Most often,  people who try to handle the claim themselves make the following mistakes:

* They don’t preserve evidence
* They settle too soon
* They give the insurance company too much information
* They don’t know the value of their claim
* They don’t know what they are entitled to recover under the law
* They settle because the statute of limitations is running out
* They trust the insurance company to give them a fair deal

When should you handle a claim on your own? When there is very little property damage to either car. When there are no injuries or one or two doctor visits. Otherwise, you are much better off having a good car wreck lawyer on your side.

Remember, if you try to handle your claim on your own, be prepared to handle it on your own through trial because most lawyers will not take on your claim after you have been working it for some time. Why? Because contingency work is a gamble—if you take the first roll of the dice and come up short, don’t expect someone else to come in to take the second roll.