If you are like many personal injury attorneys, you have probably had to deal with issues regarding liens. Resolving issues with liens is without a doubt frustrating and time-consuming. There may be a few ways to speed things along.

I came across an article by Anne C. O’Donnell the other day while doing my daily exploring on Practice.FindLaw.com. Anne’s article contained her 7 step approach on dealing with lien claims, and includes some of the following:

• Assessing what lien claims are involved.
• Explaining the payments to your client.
• Keeping the Lien Claimant up to date as the case goes on.

To read about the full 7 steps, check Anne’s article, 7 Steps to Approaching Lien Claims in Personal Injury Cases.

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I recently came across an interesting article from the Consumer Attorneys of California’s Forum Magazine by Ibiere N. Seck, Esq. The article, Do I Need a Jury Consultant, features Ms. Seck’s interview with Jury Consultant Harry Plotkin. Mr. Plotkin gives a good insight what exactly a jury consultant does, why they’re effective and when is the best time to bring one onto a case.

I recommend giving the article a read. If you know any young lawyers getting ready for their first case, I highly recommend sharing it with them.

Click here to read it. Hope you enjoy!

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Have you had problems with an expert witness? I recently came across an article on LawRefs.com titled, “How to Choose an Expert Witness.”

The article is rather brief, but does a good job of pointing out the criteria to consider when selecting an expert witness. Criteria such as:

• Qualifications
• Experience
• Preparedness
• Cost
• Socially Appealing

To read the full article, click here.

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A basic fundamental part of convincing someone to believe you is providing visual evidence to back up whatever you are trying to prove. Many attorneys know this to be true in the courtroom. After all, seeing is believing. I recently came across an article by Daniel L. Buckfire, an attorney with Buckfire & Buckfire, P.C. In his article, titled ‘The Benefits of Using Visual Aids With Expert Testimony,” Daniel talks about the use of visual aids in personal injury cases, and goes in depth on the following:

• The importance of visual evidence
• The use of substantive & demonstrative visual evidence
• Legal exhibit companies
• New technology

View Mr. Buckfire’s full article, click here.

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By Josh Habegger

Background:

Since National Record Retrieval is a company focused on supporting law firms for all record retrieval needs, here is a little background on myself and a few of my staff members. We spent nearly 15 years working to help keep some of the largest fleets in the U.S. compliant with Local, State, & Federal regulations.  We consulted with large national carriers to help them properly license & permit, implement safety programs, install telematics devices, and monitor their driver qualification files.  Below is just a quick glimpse of data available in a truck accident.

Information Available:

How familiar are you with DOT Safety Rules & Regulations?  Some of the largest fleets in the United States have gaping holes in their FMCSA (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration) compliance procedures.  It is not because they don’t care, but it is a lot of work and staying compliant is a moving target.  Motor Carriers now have a lot of great technology at their fingertips to help them stay compliant and monitor safety issues. Do you know what type of data is recorded in a trucks ECM or how much data is collected from the most simple telematics units?  In a case against a trucking company or large carrier, what do you ask for?

At any time, the DOT can audit a fleets’ Driver Qualification Files (DQFs) and those files must be produced within 48 hours, but what takes place during that those hours?  I can tell you a lot!  Make sure that you ask for all changes made from the date you request the files to when you actually receive them.  I can promise you that all companies scramble when they are facing a law suit or audit.  Trucking companies that spend a lot of time and money on their safety programs are lucky if they are 85% compliant in the DOT’s eyes. What does that tell you about the average company?  Are they 50%, 40%, or 30% compliant….many are much worse.  So if one of their drivers has been involved in an accident and you know what information to request, you are going to probably find outages in their safety program that will help your case.

What about telematics? What information is in the palm of thousands of Fleet Director’s hands and why do they continue to ignore data that would help to keep our roadways much safer as it pertains to catastrophic trucking accidents?  Is it because monitoring this information is hard work or because it can be costly, or both? Most fleets that have telematics onboard can monitor some pretty amazing things and can know whether or not a driver is operating their equipment safely.  These new technologies are nothing short of amazing.  They monitor hard brakes, excessive acceleration, sharp turns, speeding, hours of service, pre-trip inspections, etc.  So, at any given moment you can look into the drivers history and see what was going on minutes/seconds before the accident.  Even if trucks do not have telematics, as long as they are a model year 2000 or newer, you can pull much of that information form the ECM.

Make sure that you are familiar with the FMCSRs (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations) and what motivates trucking companies/carriers to comply.  Know what information you should be requesting to show the driver/carrier’s safety performance history.  No matter what the trucking company says, what you want is probably available, you just may have to dig for it.

Tip:  If you need help, don’t hesitate to contact one of our FMCSR experts.