With summer coming to an end and many children returning to school, police in Virginia are asking that drivers slow down in order to prevent personal injuries.

Police are reminding drivers that they should look out for children who are playing and congregating near bus stops. They are also asking that drivers obey the reduced speed limits in school zones and be aware of children who may be preoccupied while on their way to school.

Drivers should also be aware of school buses on the road. Virginia law requires that drivers stop for a school bus if its red flashing lights have been activated or face charges of reckless driving.

Apparently we have touched a nerve with the TV ads we are running on Cox Cable here in Fairfax County. The point of the message is that if you’ve been in an accident, you don’t need to rush out and hire a lawyer, but you may have questions and you probably are being asked to sign forms, either by an insurance adjuster or by a lawyer.

Folks are calling, so thankful that we are offering two free books The Truth About Lawyer Advertising and Five Deadly Sins That Can Wreck Your Virginia Injury Case. We’ve heard two stories over the last few days of claims adjusters applying high pressure tactices to get people to sign medical records releases and, in one case, a settlement check. In both cases our information caused people to think twice before signing.

In the end, these folks may not need a lawyer–That’s my whole point. But at least now they are armed with useful info before taking on the very experienced insurance adjuster.

On Monday, September 8, Virginia State Police released information on three highway deaths due to personal injuries sustained. One of them involved a victim in Woodbridge who was 10-years-old and the other two involved motorcycles.

The boy, Dale City resident Isaac Valadares, died on Sunday, September 7 from the personal injuries he sustained in a crash on U.S. 1. Police say the van he was a passenger in swerved to avoid another vehicle, overcorrected, and then overturned in the southbound lane.

Authorities say that the boy was ejected from the vehicle’s side window and the vehicle landed on top of him. He received transport to Potomac Hospital in Woodbridge, where he died later that day. Three other passengers were also ejected from the van.

Also on Sunday, 33-year-old Stafford County resident Rodney John Trent, Jr. died shortly after 7:30 p.m. from the personal injuries he sustained after losing control of his motorcycle on Route 218 in King George County. His bike then ran off the road and collided with a tree. He received transport to Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, where he died shortly after 9 p.m.

The other motorcycle crash caused the death of 54-year-old Broadway resident Ramona Diane Pence from the personal injuries she sustained in a crash on June 8. On the day of the crash, she was a passenger on a motorcycle that collided head-on with a truck after the bike crossed the center line of Route 732 in Rockingham County at 6:30 p.m. She received transport to the University of Virginia Medical Center where she died the following morning shortly before 3:30 a.m.

These three fatalities bring the total for 2008 to 566. This is a decrease in comparison to the same point in 2007 in which the number was 687.

A former Woodbridge, Virginia attorney had pleaded guilty to fraud for stealing more than $3.5 million from his clients. Stephen Conrad simply “settled” cases and signed over checks to himself, all the while telling his clients “your case is still going.” He allegedly used the funds to pay his own mortgage and credit card debt.

Some believe that when an insurance company issues a lawyer a check that it should all put a letter in the mail to the claimant, saying “we sent your lawyer a check. ”

I think this is a terrific idea–unfortunately many plaintiff’s lawyers don’t agree. Come one folks…we’ve lost the trust of a lot of people because of clowns like Conrad.

What’s there to disagree with on this one?

Here are some of the topics covered:

How to deal with an insurance adjuster.

Why Prudential insurance company got hammered.

How to really manage your time.

Ben Glass on TV

“My daughter got expelled for drinking, can I sue?”

College Student Health Insurance.

The ‘magic formula” for personal injury cases.

The July issue is here. 

The August issue is here. 

According to Virginia State Police, 80-year-old Patrick County resident Virginia Slate died of the personal injuries she sustained on June 10 after the pickup truck she had just entered accelerated through the wall of her garage and into her swimming pool.

According to Sgt. Rob Carpentieri of the Virginia State Police, the accident occurred at approximately 11:30 a.m. after Slate entered a 2003 Chevrolet S-10 pickup parked inside the residence’s two-car garage. Instead of backing out of the garage, the truck inexplicably accelerated forward, resulting in it crashing through the wall and falling into the in-ground pool.

Emergency personnel arrived at the scene and discovered the truck submerged. Slate received transport to Northern Hospital of Surry County. She died approximately an hour after the accident.