I was asked about car insurance today.  Most people drive a car or truck on a daily basis in Utah.  Obviously car insurance is required by Utah state law.  So not only is it important in the legal aspect, it is also important because it will protect your assets in the even you cause a car accident.

The problem that most people experience is that they don't want to pay excessive premiums and have duplicate coverage.  Most people don't take the time to go over their car insurance policies or any of their other insurance policies.  These people simply trust their insurance agent that they have sufficient coverage and that's it.  I believe that can be a mistake.

As I've prosecuted personal injury claims, the worst situation I see is when people have carried the minimum coverage and then an accident happens that is a roll-over or someone dies.  It is a horrible situation when there is insufficient coverage.

My recommendation to you is to make sure you have under-insured coverage on your car insurance policy.  That way, if the other guy who hits you don't have sufficient coverage, then your own insurance will pick up the difference.

I'm not an insurance agent and I have no insurance to sell you, but as an attorney who sees these types of cases regularly, you should have UIM coverage.

Until next entry,

Jeremy Eveland
www.EvelandLawFirm.com

Today was amazing for my client.  We started a settlement conference at 8:30am at the West Jordan Courthouse and it lasted until 2:00pm.  We worked hard with the mediator and we got all of the outstanding issues resolved.

Quite honestly, it was a great experience to negotiate back and forth with a great mediator and a client who held to her guns on the important issues and was willing to be flexible on other issues to resolve this case.

This was a child custody case whether both parties love their daughter, but the daughter was struggling because of the parents fighting so much.

The success of resolving parents' disputes is satisfying because if both parties can come to a resolution where neither of them is "winning" but the child is able to win by having loving parents take care of them, a true success has occurred.

I hope for more successes for my clients.

Working on a IRS case today.  My client has not had enough withheld from his paycheck over the last several years.  As a consequence, he owes a substantial sum to the IRS.  I have been working with the IRS to set up a payment plan and we are almost finalized on that plan now.  We are preparing what is called the form 433 which outlines the taxpayers income to present to the IRS. 

The first set was to stop the IRS garnishment.  Once we stopped it, we were able to get a hold on all collection efforts while we got the form 433 prepared and got him on a payment plan.

Sometimes, if you do not earn enough money, the payment plan is not the best option.  Sometimes, the best option is to be placed on non-collectable status, show a hardship, do an offer in compromise or file for bankruptcy relief.

Any one of these options might be best for you.  Make sure you consult with an attorney before you jump into any one option.  Do what's best for you.

Working on cases today.

Met with a client regarding a lawsuit this morning.  This client was referred by another attorney who does not do litigation work.  This one is in the Salt Lake Department of the Third District Court.  Typically, when a summons and complaint are served in the State of Utah, the Defendant has 20 days in which to respond in writing to the complaint.

The response can be in the form of an Answer, but the response could also be in the form of filing a motion, such as a Rule 12(b)(6) motion.  In this case, we are going to file an Answer and a Counterclaim.

My next appointment was a telephone conference with a client who has recently filed for bankruptcy relief under Chapter 7.  This client needed to speak with me about his car and his car payments.  He wanted to be sure who he should be making payments to, the amount of the payments and when his title was going to be released to him.

I spoke with a debt collector for one of my clients who wanted me to verify my client's social security number and date of birth.  That was the first time I've had someone call me and request that I divulge that information to them.  Of course I did not do it.  I requested to speak with their attorney.  I was able to do so and had a pleasant conversation with him and the situation was resolved amicably.

Sometimes all you need to do is communicate and the situation resolves itself.