Motor vehicle accidents can happen at any time on the road. Even if you’re driving carefully, someone else’s actions could put you in the middle of an unexpected collision. While you may eventually need the services of a Phoenix car accident attorney, there are important steps to take immediately at the scene of the accident. These steps will help keep everyone involved safe, and will also make it easier to deal with the legal system should criminal charges or a car accident lawsuit arise from the incident.

1) Get Help: The first thing to do after a motor vehicle accident is to contact emergency personnel. Dialing 911 immediately will insure that medical help will arrive as quickly as possible. Don’t assume that bystanders or others involved in the accident have called 911, even if you see them talking on their phones.

2) Attend to the Injured: You should carry an emergency kit in your vehicle’s glove compartment. This kit should include various sizes of bandages, rubber gloves, medical tape and a list of your family members’ medical allergies or conditions to assist paramedics. If you are badly hurt, stay where you are and try to relax. If you are not injured, assess the other people involved in the accident. Don’t move seriously injured victims or allow them to try to move. Calm them and keep them still. Put on gloves for your own protection and use bandages to put pressure on wounds. Stemming serious bleeding could save a life. Follow directions from the 911 operator and know that help will arrive soon.

3) Safety First: You should carry reflector triangles or road flares in your vehicle’s trunk. These should be place on the road to warn approaching traffic about the accident. Vehicles involved in the accident should not be moved before the police arrive.

4) Exchange Information: Don’t discuss details of the accident with other drivers, but do exchange names, addresses, phone numbers, insurance information (company name and policy number), driver’s license numbers and license plate numbers. Make notes about any damage to the vehicles involved and photograph the damage if possible.

5) Contact Your Insurance Company: Call your auto insurance company right away and let them know that you’ve been involved in an accident. They will obtain a copy of the police report that is filed. But be cautious about making statements to your insurance company before you’ve talked to an attorney.

As soon as possible after a serious accident, consult with an experienced lawyer like the Mesa auto accident attorneys at Skousen, Gulbrandsen & Patience, PLC. Skousen, Gulbrandsen and Patience specialize in Arizona personal injury and accident law. For 50 years we have been Arizona’s trusted accident and injury attorneys. Call us for a free consultation at 800-501-2782 or 480-833-8800.

Myth #1: If you didn’t cause the accident, you don’t need to do anything. You still need to take action to protect your rights – check for injuries, make notes and keep records about the accident, call the police and your insurance company, and never admit fault or sign anything before consulting an auto accident attorney.

Myth #2: If the accident was the other driver’s fault, you will be compensated for your injuries. How easy this is depends on whether the at-fault driver or the owner of the at-fault car has sufficient liability insurance, and whether you have uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage (UM/UIM).

Myth #3: A fast settlement is always in your best interests. By signing off too quickly on an insurance settlement that appears adequate and fair at the time, you may give up important rights. You may particularly regret having done this if delayed symptoms of a serious medical condition related to the accident appear later. This happens all too often with auto accident injuries.

Myth #4: If the accident is minor, you can probably negotiate a fair settlement on your own, without an attorney. If you try negotiating on your own, you’re taking a big risk. You can be certain that the other driver’s insurance company will be represented by an experienced lawyer – or team of lawyers – who will use their knowledge of the law to aggressively protect their client’s financial interests. Without the same legal knowledge, will you really be able to fully protect your rights?

If you’ve suffered a loss as the result of someone else’s poor driving, no matter how obvious it may seem that the other party is at fault, you need the services of a skilled Arizona car accident attorney. The Mesa law firm of Skousen, Gulbrandsen & Patience, PLC offers free initial consultations for car accident victims – just call at 800-501-2782 or 480-833-8000.

Driving is a commonplace activity that we usually take for granted, but as any Arizona car accident attorney or police officer will tell you, driving is a serious job. An average car weighs about two tons, and moving even at modest road speeds a motor vehicle is potentially a lethal weapon that must be handled with care. If you’re under the influence of alcohol or drugs, your judgment and reflexes are not adequate for the task of driving. You could injure or kill yourself, your passengers or one or more complete strangers.

Many Arizona personal injury cases and Arizona wrongful death lawsuits begin with someone’s foolish or uninformed decision to drink and drive. You can cause harm that far exceeds what your auto insurance liability coverage will pay, especially if you are carrying only the absurdly low minimums required by Arizona law. Any assets you own could be at risk if you’re sued by an injured party for damages above what your insurance will pay.

Whether or not you’re drinking and driving causes an accident, driving under the influence (DUI) by itself can land you in big trouble. Although DUI is illegal in every state in the Union, some aspects of Arizona drunk driving laws are harsher than ”average” DUI laws elsewhere in the country. Anyone who operates a motor vehicle in our state should know what Arizona law will and won’t allow:

• The Legal Limit: As in other states, the law in Arizona will assume that you’re too impaired to drive if you have a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.08 percent or higher. If you’re operating a commercial vehicle, the limit is only 0.04 BAC. However, Arizona law also states that you can be charged with DUI for operating a motor vehicle when you’re impaired to the slightest degree, regardless of your measured BAC. Any Arizona DUI lawyer will tell you that the best idea is to refrain from driving after drinking any amount of alcohol.
• Zero Tolerance for Drivers Under 21: Since it’s illegal for anyone under the age of 21 to drink, it’s illegal for anyone under 21 to drive with any amount of alcohol in his or her system.
• Arizona Open Container Law: Literally drinking and driving – as in drinking while driving – is against the law. So is having an open container of alcohol in the passenger compartment of a vehicle. In either case, you’ve broken the law regardless of your BAC.

If you find yourself in need of an Arizona DUI attorney, call the law firm of Skousen, Gulbrandsen and Patience, PLC. We can assist you in getting the best possible outcome for your DUI case. Skousen, Gulbrandsen & Patience also handles auto accident injury cases, as well as other kinds of personal injury or wrongful death cases. Call us at 800-501-2782 or 480-833-8800 for a free initial consultation.

The insurance industry is one of the most profitable sectors of the U.S. economy. Unfortunately, much of the money insurance companies make comes from acting in “bad faith” – a strategy of denying, delaying, confusing and refusing. Some bad faith insurance companies do everything they can to keep from paying out claims.

Although Arizona, like every state, has a government agency that regulates the insurance industry, these regulators are often as sympathetic to the industry as they are to the insurance consumer. If you’ve been the victim of unfair insurance company practices, you might need the help of an aggressive Arizona bad faith insurance attorney.

Here are six tricks of the trade that the insurance industry doesn’t want you to know about:

1) Denying claims: Some of the largest insurance companies with the best reputations routinely deny valid claims in an effort to pad their bottom lines. They go so far as to reward employees who successfully deny claims, while penalizing or even firing those who do not.

2) Delaying until death: Insurance companies know that if they delay claims long enough, many policyholders will eventually give up in frustration. An insurer may even successfully delay an older policyholder’s claim long enough that he or she will pass away while the claim is still being bounced around.

3) Confusing consumers: One of the main principles underlying our free-market system is that two parties can freely and fairly arrive at a mutually beneficial contract. But what happens when one party writes a contract in a way that the other party cannot hope to fully understand? Consumers all too often buy insurance policies and only later find that the insurance contract contained a “catch” that gets the company off the hook for paying what seems like a reasonable claim.

4) Discriminating by credit score: Instead of basing premiums on risk assessment alone, some insurers charge more to people with poor credit scores. This penalizes the poor, those on fixed incomes and those who have had financial troubles in the past. Even those who responsibly choose to stay out of debt and pay their expenses in cash are affected, because a lack of credit activity also negatively affects a credit score.

5) Abandoning the sick: One way for insurers to cut costs is to cancel, sometimes retroactively, the policies of the seriously or chronically ill. Some insurance companies even pay bonuses to employees who meet “cancellation goals.”

6) Canceling because of a phone call: Have you ever had a small loss that you decided to pay out of pocket, even though your insurance policy would cover it, just so that your insurance rates wouldn’t go up? If you called to even discuss making the claim, that plan probably wouldn’t work. Oftentimes insurance companies will raise premiums or refuse to renew a policy just because a customer called to inquire about the possibility of making a claim. When it comes to protecting their profits, insurance companies can’t play it safe enough.

If you’ve been unfairly hurt financially by one or more of these questionable insurance industry practices, call the law firm of Skousen, Gulbrandsen & Patience for a free consultation with an experienced Arizona bad faith insurance lawyer. Contact us online or by phone at 800-501-2782 or 480-833-8800.

You purchase insurance for a good reason – to protect yourself and your family from the severe financial burdens that could accompany a traumatic event like a serious auto accident injury or a house fire. Insurance isn’t’ cheap, but at least you’re buying the peace of mind that comes with knowing that you and your loved ones are protected, right?

That’s certainly the idea that insurance companies push in their advertising, in order to persuade you to pay their high premiums with your hard-earned money. When faced with a large but legitimate claim, however, “bad faith” insurers show all too clearly just who they’re really looking out for most – themselves and their own bottom line. An experienced Arizona bad faith insurance attorney can help you make your insurance company live up to the promises it made that convinced you to buy their policy in the first place.

Your insurance company is acting in bad faith if it won’t reimburse you reasonably promptly for any loss that should be covered under the terms of your policy. Whether it’s life or disability insurance, or insurance for your home, car, health or business, your policy is a legal contract with your insurer. By paying your premiums on time, you keep your end of the bargain, and they have an obligation to keep theirs when tragedy strikes and you need to make a claim.

Bad faith insurers try various tactics to wiggle out of their responsibilities, such as:

• Offering unreasonably low payment for vehicle accident claims
• Purposely delaying investigation of a homeowner’s property-damage claim
• Denying claims routinely and repeatedly in the hope that customers will just give up trying to collect
• Interpreting policy language in an unfair way in order to get out of paying claims
• Retroactively canceling a life insurance policy and refusing to pay death benefits
• Unilaterally declaring that injured or disabled workers are well enough to work

If you have paid your premiums faithfully only to be given the runaround by an insurance company that acts in bad faith when you need them most, you need to be represented by an experienced attorney familiar with Arizona insurance law. The firm of Skousen, Gulbrandsen & Patience, PLC can help. Don’t accept an unjust denial of benefits from in insurance company. Call SGP Law at 480-833-8800 or 800-501-2782 for a free initial consultation.

If you or a family member ever become the unfortunate victim of a violent crime, you’ll want to see the person or persons who committed the crime suffer the consequences of their actions. While the law entitles the accused to be represented by a competent criminal defense lawyer, you’ll be hoping that the prosecuting attorney will get justice on behalf of you or your loved one. But even if the perpetrator of a violent crime is sentenced to a lengthy jail term, the victim often has practical needs that are not adequately addressed by the criminal justice system.

As a violent crime victim, you might incur large medical bills for treatment of injuries inflicted by your assailant. You might be unable to work and earn income for a period of time, or perhaps even be disabled permanently by the violent actions of the perpetrator. Or you could even lose a family member – and their vital financial contribution to your household – to a homicide. Fortunately, a personal injury lawyer may be able to help you win compensation for your expenses and lost income, and even for the pain and suffering you experienced at the hands of a violent criminal. An attorney can even help you file a wrongful death lawsuit against someone who committed murder or manslaughter against one of your parents or children.

You may ask how it’s possible for the perpetrator of a crime to be punished twice for his or her actions – once by a criminal trial resulting in imprisonment, and then again by a lawsuit requiring monetary compensation to be paid. Isn’t that called “double jeopardy,” which, as we all learned in high-school civics, is unconstitutional? The answer to that question is definitely “no.” In Arizona, as in all states, there are two kinds of law: criminal law and civil law. Criminal law is intended to protect society at large by punishing people who break the law and by deterring others from doing the same. But Arizona civil law, which deals with disputes between citizens, is completely separate. The bottom line is that nothing prevents convicted criminals from being sued under civil law for the loss and suffering they’ve caused.

So separate are criminal law and civil law that even an accused person who is found not guilty of a crime can sometimes be successfully sued in civil court for the consequences of their alleged criminal actions. The most famous example of this in memory is the case of O.J. Simpson, who was acquitted of murder charges but later lost a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the families of the deceased. Although that case occurred in California, and such a sequence of events is by no means common anywhere, theoretically the same thing could occur in Arizona or any other state. The point is that the results of a criminal case have no bearing on a possible subsequent lawsuit based on the same alleged actions and events.

While the reality is that perpetrators of crimes often have little in the way of income or assets with which to pay compensation, crime victims should consult an attorney to explore the possibility of filing a lawsuit to recover damages they’ve suffered. The experienced attorneys at Skousen, Gulbrandsen & Patience, PLC, can handle your personal injury or wrongful death case, whether it arises from criminal action, non-criminal action or negligence on the part of another person. Contact us at (480) 648-0924 for a free consultation about your case.