The tug of war between individual rights and corporate power dates to at least the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. In recent years we have seen wave after wave of “tort reform” insulating large corporations and insurance companies from accountability to those who are wronged.

Regardless of whether it’s 1812, 1912, or 2012, our Courts have always been the last, best means for regular citizens to be heard, and to have their claims be treated with the same regard as those of a celebrity or CEO. As Harper Lee put it in To Kill a Mockingbird:

“There is one institution that makes a pauper the equal of a Rockefeller… That institution, gentlemen, is a court. Our courts have their faults, as does any human institution, but in this country our courts are the great levelers, and in our courts all men are created equal.” Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird. 218 (1960)

Given the current political trend toward requiring less accountability, it is more important than ever for judges to recognize that they are the last line of defense for the common citizen being denied a fair chance to seek justice.

Here in Summit County there is an important judicial race we want to bring to your attention. This race comes as a result of Judge Patricia Cosgrove retiring this year. She was a strong advocate for individuals, and will be sorely missed. A local attorney, Pat Hart, has stepped forward and is running for her seat. He’s running this March in a primary for the right to run for the seat in November. It will be a hard fought race. We know Pat Hart. He has been in private practice for many years protecting injured individuals and defrauded consumers. He would make an excellent addition to the bench. He has spent his years in private practice with the law firm of Scanlon & Gearinger and has been awarded some of the best verdicts on behalf of individuals in Summit County. He has all the qualities that we look for in a judicial candidate. He is not a career politician. He has never run for office before. He comes from a private practice where he understands he has to work to earn a living. He’s not afraid to work hard. He’s not afraid to stand up for individual rights. He won’t bend to public pressure and has no fear of making an unpopular decision if it’s the right decision. Not only do we urge you to vote for Pat, we would ask you to tell your friends and family to vote for Pat as well. We’d also appreciate it if you’re willing to put a yard sign for Pat in your yard. If so, please contact us and we will get you a Pat Hart yard sign. You may find out more about Pat Hart at his website: voteforHart.com.

The other races will be this fall and we will discuss them in upcoming newsletters.

Please vote March 6.

Matt Rizzi recently joined Willis & Willis as an associate. Matt grew up in Akron and is a 1999 graduate of Copley High School. He graduated from Kent State with a major in Justice Studies in 2003 and is a 2006 graduate of the West Virginia University School of Law. While studying law at West Virginia, Matt was named to the Moot Court team and was ultimately selected as one of six members of the school’s National Moot Court team. Matt has been engaged in litigation practice for the last five years. He has argued appellate cases in the Fifth, Ninth and Eleventh District Court of Appeals, obtaining successful appeals in the Ninth and Eleventh Districts. The Ohio Supreme Court has recently affirmed an appeal argued and won by Matt. Matt brings his energy and zeal for justice to the Willis & Willis team.

Last Year Senate Bill 5 seemed to touch a nerve in Ohio and the voting public became aware of public employee labor unions and formed an opinion. The public should become engaged in what our elected officials are doing in Columbus. SB5, however, was only one of hundreds of bills proposed and then passed into law recently. This particular law was repealed by the voting public last November. But what was all the other legislation about? Most people don’t pay attention.

We’re now entering another election cycle and we’re amazed at how much money is spent in order to get someone elected to a job that doesn’t pay anywhere near the amount of money spent to get elected. Who is paying and why are they paying large sums of money to get specific candidates elected?

The simple answer is money comes from campaign donors both large and small. Most donors don’t pay money without expecting something in return. Large campaign donors expect their candidate to protect and advance their own special interests. The problem is those interests often conflict with the needs of the majority or are in fact a detriment to society. The candidates are stuck in a quandary. If they don’t support their big dollar special interest donors, they cannot expect donations for the next election cycle.

We believe that campaign finance has gotten out of control; it is an insidious disease that is bringing down the American political system. At the end of the day we, the voting public, are to blame. As voters we have rewarded expensive, glitzy advertising and catchy sound bites. We need to stop; we need to educate ourselves about the people we’re electing, what they truly stand for and do they have the independence and integrity to say NO to special interests. They accept donations from the wealthy and powerful and we should pay attention.

Laws that protect individuals are being eroded in this state. Ohio has gone from a state with some of the strongest legal protection for insured individuals in the country to one of the weakest. The losers in this equation are individuals, not businesses. For example, Ohio’s uninsured motorist statute was taken off the books by the legislature under pressure from the insurance industry. (Some of the biggest donors) This law was written decades ago to protect law-abiding motorists from uninsured drivers. Why did the legislature take the law off the books? Did everyone who drives suddenly buy insurance? No. There are many uninsured drivers currently on the streets. (One survey says one in five drivers is uninsured.) The real reason is the insurance industry did not want to have to abide by the requirement of the uninsured motorist law which required insurers to cover their insured if they were injured by an uninsured driver, period. Insurers will tell you they still provide uninsured motorist coverage, but effectively while most insurers (previously all by law) still provide some form of uninsured motorist coverage in their policies; it is diminished coverage with numerous exceptions that leaves many un-covered.

Currently, Ohio’s Consumer Sales Practice Act is under attack and legislation is pending (House Bill 275) to reverse current consumer rights and protections. Are laws written about a half a century ago to protect consumers from unscrupulous business practices no longer needed? Are consumers clamoring for this reversal of law? Absolutely not! Auto manufacturers, dealers, homebuilders and contractors and the like are. These laws and others like them are the legal way to obtain justice for citizens who’ve been wronged or injured. If citizens vote for legislators who take away our rights, we will be hard pressed to protect ourselves and our property. Every day the attorneys here at Willis & Willis talk to people who are suddenly faced with catastrophic injuries and/or serious financial problems, through no fault of their own, caused by a business or an individuals conduct. Many of these victims are discovering that their ability to protect themselves or recover from their losses have been eliminated or strictly limited. Please consider in this upcoming legislative election cycle who will responsibly represent your interests and protect your rights as an individual.

Remember citizens do not have to give up fundamental rights to encourage business in this state. Do not be fooled into believing that you do. Many of the laws that are currently under attack have been on the books for decades and existed through some of the strongest economic growth this country has experienced.

The bottom line is that if you have a claim that involves anything more than property damage (i.e. any medical bills have been incurred), now more than ever you need to get an attorney involved as soon as possible. Otherwise you will find yourself outmaneuvered and sent to the back of the line as the various insurance companies begin placing their interests ahead of yours. Most commonly this involves your own insurance company, the other driver’s insurer, and the applicable health insurance, but it can involve employer insurance (if this occurred on the job), the bureau of workers compensation, Medicare (if you’re over 65), Medicaid, a third party’s insurance (if you’re in someone else’s vehicle), homeowners insurance, etc. We have even had cases where clients have had significant injuries, were focused on treating and getting better, and started getting pestered by their health insurance plans for repayment before they had even thought about hiring an attorney.

As a general rule, the longer you wait to retain an attorney the more difficult it becomes to obtain a fair recovery. We fight to put you at the front of the line, where you belong.

Oftentimes clients are confused after they’ve been involved in a collision when the insurance company refuses to accept liability. The person at fault in a collision may be very apparent but the insurance company still withholds accepting liability. Frequently, the insurance company will not accept liability until they talk to their insured. If the other driver tells their insurance company a story about how the collision is not their fault, the insurance company may continue to deny liability. Why is all of this important? An insurance company will not pay anything on any claims until liability is resolved.

That means if your car is damaged, they will not pay to repair it, they will not pay the tow bill, they will not pay the storage bill, pay any medical bills or lost wages. Their refusal to pay any bills can create economic stress. If your damaged car is not drivable and the insurance company is refusing to pay for the repairs, you may now have transportation problems on top of your physical injuries. The insurance companies are not in a hurry to pay claims so they don’t care about the economic plight it causes for you.

Generally, the insurance company will want a recorded statement from you. They will ask for this after they’ve talked to their insured and have a version of the collision story, which may place blame on you or on someone other than their insured. Their recorded statement can ask questions slanted toward supporting the theory they are developing that their insured is not at fault in the collision. We typically advise against giving a recorded statement to insurance companies because typically it does not further your cause.

Usually after a collision, the insurance companies want to take a recorded statement from each driver or witness. A recorded statement is usually done over the phone and lasts approximately 10 to 15 minutes. Most recorded statements are fairly innocuous. The insurance adjuster is simply trying to get some basic information. Sometimes, however, the recorded statement questions are deceptive. We’ve had cases where insurance adjusters, later on, attempt to use the recorded statement to refute or rebut what was said days after the collision. Often the questions have to do with what injuries were incurred in the collision before you’ve had an opportunity to even realize all the injuries you’ve suffered. For this reason we typically advise against giving a recorded statement. If you give a recorded statement, ask to have your own legal representation available. You may have a duty under your insurance policy to give your own company a recorded statement. You have no duty, however, to give your recorded statement to anyone else. The old adage what is good for the goose is good for the gander often comes to mind when I discuss recorded statements with insurance companies. When they ask to take my client’s statement, I typically ask to take their insured’s statement. They never agree to this. You have to ask yourself why are they unwilling to share information. It must be because they’re not as interested in the truth of the matter as they are with controlling the claim to control the ultimate cost of the claim.

Claims can fall through the cracks without proper medical treatment and legal representation.

For the vast majority of personal injury claims, it is simply no longer possible to receive fair compensation without an attorney. It is just as important to hire an attorney to represent you as soon as possible.

This is because, as soon as the claim is reported to an auto insurance or any health insurance company including Medicaid and Medicare, they all attempt to manage you and the claim to protect their interests at the expense of your own interest. Paperwork starts flooding your mailbox seeking information and requesting your signature. Phone calls begin to pour in asking questions and seeking your commitment. You should respond to some of these communications; you should ignore some and you should have your attorney respond to the rest. Any missteps in this process begin to chip away at your ability to receive full and fair recovery. A few examples of missteps are:

You may unwittingly allow your medical providers to cut in front of you and get paid for their bills right off the top of any settlement (this may actually consume your entire settlement). Any applicable health insurance including Medicare and Medicaid may, or may not have a lien related to the treatment in your case that needs to be reimbursed. Certainly if Medicare or Medicaid paid for any treatment that’s related to the case, it is extremely important that the claim be handled appropriately and that they receive proper reimbursement. Private health insurance companies may have a right to be repaid, but they have to prove they have such a right. You shouldn’t assume that they are entitled to take a percentage of the settlement out of your case. No matter who the health insurance provider is, they may claim a lien on your case that includes payment for treatment completely unrelated to your injury.

Willis and Willis carefully scrutinizes any claim for reimbursement placed against our clients cases.

• Appropriate medical treatment is critical. Do you already have a regular family doctor? Have you been told to see a specialist? No matter what your injuries are, the treatment you receive following your accident can go a long way toward proving your claim or sabotaging it. It sounds deceptively simple but seeking appropriate medical treatment and following the full course is always in your best interest.
• Do you answer every piece of junk mail you get? Of course not. Unfortunately, following a collision, you will receive a lot of junk mail from attorneys, chiropractors and other medical providers seeking to involve themselves in your case. In fact, we are aware of one local chiropractor who calls accident victims multiple times a day and actually lies by claiming to be working with the insurance company. Unfortunately, the “professionals” who use telemarketing and junk mail forms of advertising do you a great disservice. You may be referred for treatment to a doctor who has no business treating the injuries that you sustain. Every year, we have clients come in who have injuries a reputable chiropractor would not treat (knee, ankle, shoulder, etc.) However, there are the chiropractors who will incur a $5,000 to $7,000 bill treating injuries outside their purview. This sabotages your case on numerous fronts:

1. That’s several thousand dollars of money taken out of the case that now can’t be used for the appropriate treatment.
2. During this period of chiropractic treatment the patient is not receiving the correct treatment by the appropriate personnel. Understandably, the actual injuries may not improve or heal.
3. Any insurance company looking at the above example will heavily discount the value because the actual injuries went for weeks or months without treatment. This gives the insurance company the ability to argue that the injuries weren’t that serious or were not related to the collision.

• There are plenty of attorneys, who like us, are dedicated to our justice system and want to do their best to advance your claim. Most of them do not send junk mail. The letters you get in the mail following a collision come from attorneys who put far more of their resources and attention into elaborate marketing campaigns, than they do to pursue your case. Accordingly, once represented by a marketing attorney we believe that they will look for the easiest, quickest, cheapest way to get your claim settled so that they can conclude your file and move on to the next batch of new claims. We have inherited many cases that originally started in the hands of a marketing law firm and, with some individual attention to the file, have increased the recovery to the client significantly.

Just like many things in life, the practice of personal injury law only grows more complicated every year. The longer you wait to hire an experienced attorney the more damage you may cause to your claim.

The path to a fair and full recovery in your claim is riddled with landmines, pitfalls, and assorted other stumbling blocks. A professional experienced attorney can navigate these obstacles and negotiate/litigate a fair settlement for the client.

The police crash report generated at the scene of a collision is a public record. It contains your name, address, date of birth, driver’s license number, and social security number. It used to be that no one was interested in these crash reports except the people actually involved in the crash. Since they’re a public record, some attorneys and physicians recently started using them as marketing opportunities. Lawyers and doctors started purchasing the crash reports on a daily basis in an effort to solicit your business. With the increase in interest in these reports, the police agencies have started removing social security numbers from the report before releasing them to the public. However, with your phone number, cell phone number and address, the telemarketers and solicitors can contact you. Obviously, they want your business. The question is, once they have your business, are they looking out for your best interest or are they spending their time and energy on their next advertising venture or campaign. With over 35 years of combined practice experience, Mark and Todd Willis have maintained the philosophy that taking care of their clients is the first priority. They feel that if they take care of their clients the clients will return and refer others. We never cold call or solicit clients. You won’t find us in TV advertising, newspapers, phone books, magazine advertising, radio advertising, billboard advertising, or fancy trucks driving around town with flashing signs. Day in and day out we continue to take care of our client’s interests. We’ve had opportunities to talk to people who have been represented by advertising lawyers or treated by advertising physicians and frankly their stories are frightening. Before you decide to accept treatment from or be represented by a doctor or lawyer who solicited your business, you should ask other people about what their experience has been with these types of people.

If you are involved in a motor vehicle collision, you expect the police to respond, investigate and file a report. Did you know though that you’re supposed to file a crash report with the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV)? The crash report completed by the investigating police agency stays with that agency. Even if it’s the Ohio Highway Patrol. In the vast majority of cases, people do not file a crash report with the BMV and in most cases it makes no difference in how the claim is ultimately handled. In some cases, however, it can make a difference. When you file a BMV crash report, you are required to provide the BMV with proof of liability insurance. The BMV will then contact the driver of the other vehicle to complete a report and require them to provide proof of insurance. If the other driver does not respond or the other driver cannot provide proof of insurance, the BMV will suspend their license.

The BMV will send the request for this information to the address listed on a driver’s BMV issued license. If you’re involved in a collision with a driver who cannot provide adequate insurance information to the investigating police agency, it may be advantageous to file a BMV crash report because this will force the other driver to provide legitimate insurance information to the BMV or admit they have no insurance and face a suspension of their BMV issued driver’s license. It would also be advantageous to file a BMV crash report, if the other driver cannot provide adequate insurance, so that you can prove to your insurance company that you have done everything necessary and possible in order to determine the insurance coverage of the other driver. This may be necessary to obtain coverage under the uninsured motorist coverage in your policy.

You may recall the last time you renewed your license plates that you signed a form in which you declared that you had financial responsibility (insurance). A driver reporting a collision to the BMV is one way the BMV enforces the requirement to carry insurance.

Additionally, this process is one reason why it’s important to keep the BMV apprised of your current address. They will send their notification of a need for you to supply them with information to the address on your BMV issued driver’s license. If they send a letter to this address and it comes back to them, then there is no response from you and they will suspend your license. You, at that point, would have no knowledge of the event until the next time you needed your driver’s license in some official capacity, like a traffic stop or a renewal. Then you would find out that it is suspended, which could lead to your arrest.

Having an understanding of the procedure for making a law can make it easier for citizens to be more active in their government.

Anyone can come up with an idea for a law but it requires the sponsorship of a congressperson to give it wings. While this initial idea may have one or more sponsors such as voters, a committee of civilians, a special interest group, a lobbyist or a member of the legislature, it is a member of Congress, either a Senator or House of Representatives member who is tasked with writing a draft of the proposed law called a bill. After the Congress member has drafted the bill, he/she becomes the official sponsor and can introduce it for consideration. Only the members of Congress can actively introduce bills.

Once introduced, the bill is sent to a House or Senate committee for review depending upon who initially sponsored it. Both the House and Senate have many different committees that cover a wide variety of issues ranging from tax law to the military. The bill goes to the appropriately related committee where they discuss and study it. The committee may decide to table it, which means it doesn’t go any further, or send it back with recommendations for changes or with no changes to be voted on. At this point the bill is debated, modified, and voted on, if recommended by the committee. The bill requires a majority vote to pass then it is sent to the other branch of Congress where the process is repeated. The process can move smooth and quickly or meticulous and slowly.

If both the House and Senate approve the bill, it is sent to the President for signing. The President has several choices. He can sign the bill and it immediately becomes a new law or he can do nothing and the bill automatically becomes a law after 10 days. He can also choose to veto the bill, which means the bill doesn’t get his approval and does not become law. However, a veto can be overturned if two-thirds of both houses of Congress support the bill.

The process for making a law in the State of Ohio is very similar. The State of Ohio has a House of Representatives with 99 Representatives and a Senate with 33 Senators. The Governor is the one who ultimately signs or vetos a bill at the state level.