The law office of DiPiero Simmons McGinley & Bastress, PLLC is proud to sponsor two upcoming tennis tournaments in our area. As a Charleston-based personal injury law firm, we are honored to take part in events benefitting and enriching the lives of members of our local communities. In February 2022, DiPiero Simmons McGinley & Bastress, PLLC will support The HospiceCare Tennis Tournament and The Friends of Marshall University Tennis Tournament.

You and your lawyer have worked together to reach a settlement after your car accident or other type of personal injury case. But after your personal injury case has been settled, you may be asking: How long does it take to get a settlement payment? The answer to how long it takes to get money after a case is settled will depend on several factors. While rough estimates usually put the amount of time to receive settlement money around four to six weeks after a case it settled, the amount of time leading up to settlement will also vary. There are multiple factors to consider when asking how long it takes to get a settlement check.

Accidents involving large commercial trucks like tractor-trailers, semi-trucks, big rigs, and 18-wheelers can cause much more extensive damage than a car vs. car collision. When a truck crashes, the risk of fatality is high. Truck drivers who operate these powerful, 40-ton vehicles have a duty to do so as safely as possible. If a truck driver drives distracted, they fail in this duty. Sadly, hundreds of people every year pay the price for these fatal mistakes.

No motorist wants to get in the way of a tractor-trailer truck. They’re much bigger than anything that most people will ever drive. Consequently, a collision with a tractor-trailer truck can cause a lot of damage. Typically, drivers of tractor-trailer trucks are the safest drivers on the road. A lot of hard work goes into becoming certified to drive a tractor-trailer truck, and the majority of companies make their drivers take drug tests.

Insurance policyholders in West Virginia enter into insurance contracts with their insurance companies with the expectation that the companies will pay for property damage and personal injuries under certain circumstances as long as the policyholders keep up with their premiums. Insurance companies have a duty to uphold their contractual obligations when their insureds fulfill their end of the bargain by making timely premium payments. Unfortunately, however, some insurance companies aggressively try to avoid paying claims by exercising bad faith to unfairly deny or delay valid claims. When this occurs, a policyholder has the right to pursue a bad faith insurance claim against the insurance company to recover damages.

Between 2011-2016, more than 3,300 people died when driving in construction zones. Most of these crashes occur on roads with speed limits that are higher than 50. It’s common for drivers to maintain a high speed while driving in a construction zone, which can be dangerous and increase the risk of an accident. If you want to lessen your risk of being involved in a construction zone accident, the following offers helpful safety tips and guidelines that should bolster your safety while on the road.

Truck underride accidents occur when a small vehicle crashes into the back or sides of the cargo area of a large truck, typically an 18-wheeler. Underride accidents remain one of the most dangerous types of collisions you can possibly have. According to the latest data from the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety, an organization that collects data on automobile accidents, 3,436 deaths were linked to underride accidents in 2019.

As wrongful death attorneys with experience helping families recover after the unexpected loss of a loved one, we know there are many questions and uncertainties about the legal process. Filing a wrongful death claim can be intimidating, and often leaves families asking: How long does a wrongful death case take? It’s not an overstatement to say that every case is unique, and assigning an exact timeframe to a wrongful death case in some ways puts it at a disadvantage for a successful outcome. This is a complicated legal process that could take several months or years, depending on the circumstances.

Car accidents are a leading cause of death for children 13 and under. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) statistics show that one out of every three children killed in a vehicle crash was not properly secured in a car seat. Deaths as preventable as these should not be allowed to occur. It takes the work of adults to make sure that children are kept safe in vehicles on the road.

Windshield wipers perform the essential service of clearing water, debris, dirt, dust, and precipitation from the windscreens of our cars. Although it’s a very simple act of car maintenance, you can actually prevent accidents by changing your windshield wiper blades regularly.