Distracted Driving

Does My Automobile Insurance Cover My Child Away at College?

Published on: March 12, 2024 | by Hollis Wright

by HWC Partner Michael Eldridge

Every fall, parents across Alabama celebrate the significant milestone of sending their children off to college. While our attention naturally gravitates toward matters like lodging, tuition, and class schedules, we may also ponder whether our insurance policies continue to provide coverage for our children now that they are adults and out of the house. Consider this scenario: Your child is away at college and is involved in a car accident. Perhaps they are at fault and injure someone else, or worse, they themselves are injured by another driver. In such situations, what are the implications for the parents’ insurance coverage as is it relates to covering a child away at school?

For decades, Alabama courts have ruled on insurance disputes related to scenarios precisely like this one. The central point of contention between insurance companies and their insureds revolves around the term “residence.” Specifically, what qualifies as an individual’s place of residence while away at school? The crux of this question is significantly important because insurance contracts typically extend coverage to both the named insureds (i.e. the parents) and “relatives of the named insured if they are residents of the same household.”

Post-COVID Jury Verdicts … What’s Going On?

Published on: June 15, 2022 | by Hollis Wright

by HWC Managing Partner Josh Wright

Post-COVID verdict averages in personal injury claims are up close to 50% from that of pre-COVID verdicts, according to recent statistics.¹ Verdicts in 2022 alone for Alabama injury victims have topped $97,000,000 in cases involving a wide array of wrongful conduct, including contract disputes, auto, medical malpractice, co-employee, fraud, discrimination, and uninsured motorists. See some of those recent verdicts below (based on lawyer-disclosed data):

Juries appear to listen carefully, consider all the evidence and thoroughly asses fundamental fairness in cases post-COVID. Insurance companies are also getting the message that juries are ready and willing to put aside politics and division in a courtroom, and award fair results in legitimate and real injury cases. Our firm alone has resolved (both at trial and pre-trial), a substantial number of lawsuits for unprecedented money in the last 12 months, which in no small part is because insurance companies have heard the message and listened to recent jury verdicts across the Country.

The Battle for Data: How Courts are Tackling the Discoverability of Cell Phones in Litigation

Published on: March 31, 2021 | by Hollis Wright

by HWC Partner Michael Eldridge

Over the past two decades, the cell phone has evolved into a vital extension of our daily lives. The smartphone is now how we respond to emails, listen to music, surf the Internet, take photographs, buy groceries, make dinner reservations, and much, much more. All this use creates an enormous amount of data about us. What most of us might not realize, however, is that all of this forensic evidence is stored right inside our device.

In recent years, parties in litigation regarding motor vehicle collisions have battled over the discoverability of this forensic evidence. The battle centers on two competing interests. The need to uncover relevant evidence versus a person’s right to privacy. As it relates to the former, it is unquestionable that cell phone evidence could lead to the discovery of important evidence. According to the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, as of early 2018, 95% of adults in the United States owned a cell phone,¹ 77% of which owned a smartphone.² What has grown alongside these astonishing ownership rates is device capabilities. Smartphones today have what seems like infinite capabilities, which creates an infinite number of distractions. According to the National Safety Council, 25% of highway crashes in the United States are caused by distractions from the use of cellular phones and/or smart devices.³