What’s more dangerous than a driver who’s had a few too many drinks?  According to a new study, the answer is a driver sending one too many texts.

Statistics reveal that distracted drivers are 23 times more likely to cause accidents than drunk drivers.  The startling numbers show that in 2009, 16% of car crash deaths were directly attributable to distracted driving.  That’s over 5,000 lives lost because a driver wasn’t paying attention.

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The following is a guest blog post by Tennessee Tractor Trailer Accident Attorney Morgan Adams.

Yes, that’s right, GOVERNOR HASLAM AND THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE HELP TORT LAWYERS STAY IN BUSINESS! I was too hasty with my earlier post and didn’t think things through. It is the law of unintended consequences. Republican Governor Haslam, the Chamber of Commerce, and the state legislature have insured that people like me, trial lawyers, will thrive under the new law they just passed. That is how bad the new tort law (pushed by the Chamber of Commerce, the Tennessee Legislature, and signed by the Governor) capping non-economic damages is for the citizens of Tennessee. 

You see in the old days in Tennessee when a company was really bad, and had killed and maimed people all across the state, a jury of 12 citizens could kill the bad corporation by compensating a victim with a sum of money that was over and above the defendant's insurance policy. This made sure that the bad company never had the opportunity to kill and maim Tennessean’s again. That might have resulted in one large verdict, but only once, and then the company went out of the business of killing the people of Tennessee.

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If you belong to a public social network such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter, Google Buzz, message boards, etc., it would be extremely prudent to close or suspend such accounts until your personal injury case has wrapped up.  If you are unable or unwilling to do so, be advised that you should use great caution while using social networks.

Whatever you post, or have written/posted in the past, will more than likely fall into the hands of the defense attorney or opposing insurance company.  As people continue to share more and more personal information online, it has become standard practice for the defense to run computer searches and investigations to obtain information about you and your personal life.  They will try to obtain it without your knowledge or permission.  Increasingly, they will demand that you provide them with your account passwords and/or ask the court to order release of your password information.

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It was recently reported that in 2010 the top health insurance companies in the US made almost $12 billion in profits.  The insurers (Aetna, WellPoint, Cigna, Humana and United Health) turned more of a profit than the top five firms in the aviation, construction, auto, energy and parts manufacturing industries.  Rep. Pete Stark, ranking member of the House Ways and Means health sub-panel, released the startling information in a new fact sheet.

According to Stark, Cigna, Humana and United Health managed to raise their profits by more than $3.5 billion by increasing premiums.  Aetna and Wellpoint, on the other hand, increased their profits by almost $800 million by simply spending less money on medical care.

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