1977 - “The
King”, Elvis Presley, dies; World Trade Center is completed; yearly inflation
rate is 6.5%, Dow Jones closes at 831; average price for a gallon of gas is .65
cents; first MRI scanner is tested; New York State enacts its “no-fault” law.[1]
2008 –
Estimated cost of the war in Iraq $3 trillion; U.S. “ok’s” production and
marketing of food from cloned animals; first African-American elected
President; yearly inflation rate is -1.43%; Dow Jones closes at 8776; a gallon
of gas peaks at $4.09; 13 States and Puerto Rico have a “no-fault” law.
2014 –
Ebola, ISIS and White House security dominate the headlines; low budget payroll
team’s dominant the baseball playoffs; the youngest person in history shares in
the Nobel Prize for Peace; insurance rates continue to rise.
The economy
fluctuates. This is a given. Insurance rates continue to rise.
This is also a given. During one such economic fluctuation the insurance
industry waged a campaign to reduce the right to sue of a person injured in a
motor vehicle collision. Following a financial onslaught, the New York
No-Fault statute was enacted under the guise that insurance rates would be
reduced, Courts would be unclogged and insurance premiums would be lowered.
In exchange
for this derogation of common law the carriers would, subject to limitations:
a. make prompt payment of medical bills, wages, and other related expenses of
the injured person without regard to fault (ergo, “no-fault”) and b. not treat
the injured as an adversary.[2]
A “serious
injury” is defined as a personal injury that results in: 1. death;
2. dismemberment; 3. significant disfigurement; 4. fracture;
5. loss of a fetus; 6. permanent loss of use of a body organ,
member, function or system; 7. permanent consequential limitation of use
of a body organ or member; 8. significant limitation of use of a body
function or system; or 9. a medically determined injury or impairment of
a non-permanent nature which prevents the injured person from performing
substantially all of the material acts which constitute such person's usual and
customary daily activities for not less than ninety days during the one hundred
eighty days immediately following the occurrence of the injury or impairment.[3]
While
certain injuries appear to automatically qualify - death, dismemberment,
fracture; and others would seem to meet the “threshold” – significant
disfigurement, loss of a fetus; most injuries are vociferously litigated as
compensation worthy.
Several
conundrums exist, for example a fracture of the “pinky toe” automatically
qualifies while spinal surgery with the insertion of plates and screws may not
qualify.
In its
current state, the phrase “serious injury” has been manipulated by many who
defend or oppose personal injury lawsuits. It is an insult and affront to
anyone who has truly been injured to imply that their injury is not
significant, debilitating, or life altering. Serious injury, or
qualifying injury, merely means that certain injuries are court worthy while
others are not.
Although the
number of lawsuits and the amount of recovery has declined since the
implementation of the “no-fault” law, the Insurance Industry still disseminates
misleading and false information: “reform” is necessary as there are too
many lawsuits, the present system is being abused by plaintiffs and their
lawyers, and change will save consumers money. Insurance talking points
have been consistent over the years and, in this writer’s opinion, are skewed.
“We (USAA) didn’t expect to make so much money (in 1997) said Steven F.
Goldberg, who was in charge of pricing. [W]e were able to give some of it
back as a dividend.'' After paying the dividend, the company's net profit
in 1997 was $1.19 billion, up 39 percent from a year earlier.[4]
Jeffrey M.
Adams
