The Falvello Law Firm

I love football. My earliest memory is of football and wanting to play in the big Turkey Day Game.

To the perpetual annoyance of my family, I make life analogies to the sport. Sometimes they listen.

In particular I like College football because in any given game, a team of young men who are given no chance achieve something they and their alums will never forget.

On New Year’s Eve something more than that took place in two Bowl games of lesser media consequence, but meaningful to those who know the game; and especially meaningful to our Country. In one game Air Force played a highly touted Houston team that was ranked most of the year and had one of the best College quarterbacks in the country leading a high scoring offense full of big time receivers.

On paper of course Air Force was a heavy underdog, outmanned and undersized; playing a simple option offense.

The other game had Navy playing another big time program. This one, Missouri, with the No.1 recruited quarterback in the country a couple years ago and one of College Football’s highest paid coaching staffs.

Just like Air Force, Navy was outmanned and undersized.

No doubt the coaches and players from Houston and Missouri prepped by watching film of these smaller, slower opponents run their very simple run option offense, figuring their own talent could easily handle these guys in a way that lesser teams, beaten on the field, could not.

The sports pundits and on-line voters agreed in high percentages.

What actually took place in both games was inspiring to a fan like me and a heartwarming, lump-in your-throat moment to anyone who loves this Country and the young men and women of the Armed Services who put their money where their mouth is every day for each of us.

In the early game Air Force ran and threw the ball. Little guys running over bigger guys; jumping over bigger guys; hitting bigger guys harder than they thought possible.

The later game was no different with Navy’s guys running right at the bigger, faster Mizzu defense; and Navy’s defense hitting the Mizzu offense with a relentless conditioning and intensity you can not experience watching film.

Air Force won 45-20; Navy won 35-13. But the games’ score is not the point of this.

To Air Force and Navy players there were few, if any, pro contracts looming in their future. After the game the seniors would be deployed with the rest of their fellow graduates for at least a five year gig. But to them one could tell this was more than just a football game.

On every play, offense or defense, each player had to beat their man and in that way winning each play as a team. Superbly physically conditioned, they never came off their game, not even for a moment. They did not buckle to those chosen to defeat them.

As for Houston and Missouri, no doubt they are all good players, but good players not trained day in and day out to not only defeat your opponent, but to outlast them in every way defeating their will as well. Their opponents on this day took it to them with something they had not seen before. Their opponent this day would pay any price to defeat them.

By the fourth quarter you could see it on the faces of the Houston and Missouri players. The scoreboard was the secondary indicator of defeat. The soldiers had accomplished their mission.

Thus far,this has been an unusually good Bowl season. Bobby Bowden winning to complete a string of 33 consecutive winning seasons. Tim Tebow with a record breaking performance in the Sugar Bowl to finish an extraordinary career at Florida. Auburn-Northwestern; Penn State-LSU; Ohio State-Oregon. All great games. All media darlings.

But let’s not forget the Air Force and the Navy. They play on the field of football as they will protect us in the defense of our Country. Outstanding young men unafraid of long odds and no-win scenarios.

So goes one of the commercials for low cost car insurance in Pennsylvania.

Many bigger Companies have followed suit with Allstate claiming that they will dump GEICO for you and save you $473.

Buyer beware. What they don’t tell you is that they are pushing policies with the least amount of protection for you and your family allowed by law. Many people, understandably looking for a premium savings, don’t realize this too-good-to-be-true catch.

You may be trading 100k in liability coverage that protects your assets for the nominal amount at the legal minimum of 15k.

You could be losing your right to make a claim for a chronic injury inflicted upon you by a reckless driver by selecting “limited tort” when you
previously had “full tort”, giving up not only your right, but the rights of all in your household.

You could be giving up income loss protection that pays to replace your income if you are disabled in any kind of an accident, even one that is your fault.

You could be lowering your limit to 5k for coverage that automatically pays your medical bills for treatment resulting from any accident, which when gone leaves you at the mercy of ever decreasing health coverage or no health coverage at all.

And perhaps more importantly, you may give up protection for you and your family if you are severely injured by someone with little or no insurance.

I’ll give you a sad but unfortunately very real example. A young man in his early 30’s with a wife and family was a passenger in a car when another driver crossed the center line in broad daylight, demolishing the car he was in. The crash caused him severe and permanent injuries and he could no longer work.

The guy that hit him had only 15k, the legal minimum, in liability insurance.

But when he and his family came to me I also found out that he had one of these “legal for less” policies as well. He did not have underinsurance protection on his own auto policy that would have covered him over the 15k paid by the at fault party’s insurance.

He had no income loss protection on his own policy and only 5k in medical bill coverage. His income was immediately gone and he could not afford health insurance when his 5k in medical coverage exhausted in short order.

The one time payment of 15k from the other insurance company was gone on bills he owed from the time he was hurt until it was paid.

With no income loss coverage of his own and no underinsurance, the 15k was the end of the road for him and his family where he had been making more than three times that before. In an instant not of his making, he went from working to disabled; financially healthy to destitute.

This devistated him emotionally and financially. He was no longer capable of supporting his young family. The “legal for less” syndrome cost him, his wife and their children their life as they had known it.

He couldn’t understand it. He was told when he bought the policy that he had “full coverage”, another term of art subject to interpretation depending on which side of the insurance table you are sitting when you buy the insurance.

Yes, “legal for less” is legally full (but minimum) coverage, proof of which allows you to renew your vehicle registration in this state. But as you can clearly see it does not by anyone’s interpretation equate to full protection.

There are a lot of these nominal policies out there and despite their low cost, believe me, insurance companies will take as many of these as they can write. As is obvious in the example above, the most any insurance company on either side of such an accident will pay is 15k. The young man above and his family are out hundreds of thousands just in wages over his work life, not to mention they no longer can afford health insurance.

Many believe such a thing can not happen to them until instantly and without warning it does. So don’t trade a couple hundred premium dollars for the real possibility of losing hundreds of thousands.


Sit down with your insurance agent. Get all available coverages explained to you and select the one that reasonably and best protects your family from the “legal for less” syndrome.

Labels: car insurance

The Malpractice Crisis is over. During both George W. Bush campaigns, one of the centerpieces of his campaign platform was tort reform which sought to limit the recovery rights of guiltless victims of medical error and their families. His version never got beyond campaign rhetoric. It was not Bush or his ilk that mitigated the claims situation here in Pa.

In March 2002, the Pennsylvania Legislature and the Pa. Supreme Court changed the fundamentals of Medical malpractice law in this State.

Before the changes, any lawyer on behalf of any person dissatisfied with his or her medical outcome could file suit without a pre-suit medical review of the two most critical issues:.

First,was the patient subjected to substandard care, AND;

Second,did the substandard care cause a harm to the patient that would not have otherwise occurred?

Both these questions must be answered “yes” in order to have a claim.

Many lawyers and their unhappy clients were under the mistaken impression that the Doctor or Hospital and their insurance company would simply ante up some money to get rid of small or nuisance claims.

They were wrong. These cases, even the clearest of them, are vigorously defended. Many insurance policies have consent clauses which prevent any discussion of resolution without the Doctors written consent. This alone drove many (meritless) cases into the Court system for trial. The pre-2002 case numbers proved this.

The 2002 changes required a pre-suit review by the patient and Attorney on the critical issues; and the filing of a Certificate of Merit certifying such a preliminary review to the Court at the time of filing. No Certificate of Merit and the case gets tossed.

This particular change did not materially affect those of us with experience in these cases. We were routinely doing thorough pre-suit reviews knowing the nature of these cases.

Other changes made by the Legislature also had an impact on the number of filings since 2002 by substantially changing the potential money damages a successful claimant could recover. This was known as the MCare Act(Medical Care and Reduction of Error Act). Contrary to the Bush solution, MCare did not put caps on recovery. A different approach was taken to contain costs. It prevented recovery of medical bills paid prior to trial if those bills were paid by a non-government private insurer. This provision is like a similar provision in our auto insurance law. Precluding recovery of insurance paid medical bills brings into question the economic viability of pursuing, for example, a case of clear error with a large amount of treatment bills paid by private insurance, but a patient who eventually made a full recovery. Additional modifications were made to the manner in which any future medical bills and wages are paid.

Societal pressure often prevents people from filing medical malpractice claims even if the case is clearly a case of medical malpractice. Seeking compensation for damages incurred under the care of a medical professional is guaranteed by law. These suits should be pursued in order to help prevent similar mistakes in the future.

Medical professionals including doctor groups, hospitals, and insurance companies all make the argument that malpractice suits hurt the medical profession. They claim these actions hold them to an unreasonable higher standard than other professionals. But when you place your life in the hands of a doctor or hospital, you expect to improve your overall condition, not make it worse.

There are four elements in proving a medical malpractice case.

• A duty to the patient was owed
• That duty was breached
• An injury resulted because of the breach
• And damages were incurred because of the injury

All four elements of malpractice must be met in order to make your case. If injury occurs but cannot be proven a judgment may not be awarded. It is important to retain an experienced medical malpractice attorney as soon as possible after your injury is discovered, to ensure you receive adequate compensation.

To find out more about medical malpractice and recovering your monetary losses on a personal injury claim in Pennsylvania, please contact the Falvello Law Firm. We will investigate your case and help you obtain fair compensation. There are no legal fees unless and until you are compensated.

Thousands of people every year are injured or killed by defective products. Whether they are toys, dangerous chemicals, or defective tires, the parties responsible for the design, manufacture, or distribution of defective products may be held liable for the devastation they cause. In order to make a case against these parties, you must prove to a court that they are either negligent, or strictly liable for the defective product.

Any entity in the product distribution channel may be found negligent in the release of a defective product that results in an injury. The design may be flawed, the manufacturer may not have followed instructions, or the retailer might be responsible for not notifying you of the possible dangers. Negligence is difficult to prove since you must convince the judge (and possibly a jury) that the designer, manufacturer, or distributor of a product knew of the dangers yet let the product be shipped or sold anyway. Fault is a difficult thing to prove.

More often cases are decided on strict liability, which means that the designer, manufacturer, or distributor is liable for damages but not necessarily negligent in providing the product to you. Under strict liability, you do not have to prove that they are at fault for a personal injury or wrongful death claim. If you or a loved one has been injured by a defective product, please contact our defective product attorneys. The Falvello Law Firm in the Hazleton, Pennsylvania, wants to help you during the difficult time following a defective product injury.

Auto accidents are one of the leading causes of brain injury in the United States. Due to the gravitational forces involved, brain injury as a result of an auto accident can occur in a number of ways. Blunt trauma to the head is most common and can result in either open or closed head injuries such as concussion, brain contusion, or even an open skull fracture. These traumatic brain injuries can result in devastating, life-long troubles that require large amounts of money and time and from which you may never recover.

Other brain injuries may occur that are less obvious. When you are being tossed around in an auto accident, the brain inside your skull may be knocked around with no outward physical signs like bruising. Damage to the brain can still result in some level of brain contusion or give you a concussion because of these forces. It is fairly common for signs and symptoms of brain injury to appear days, and even weeks after the accident, making it extremely important that you seek medical help right away.

If you or a loved one has suffered a traumatic brain injury as a result of an auto accident, please contact the brain injury lawyers at the Falvello Law Firm in the Berwick area of Pennsylvania to schedule a free initial consultation. The Falvello Law Firm serves clients in Hazleton, Wilkes-Barre, Sugarloaf, Bloomsburg, and Berwick, Pennsylvania

Auto accidents are one of the leading causes of brain injury in the United States. Due to the gravitational forces involved, brain injury as a result of an auto accident can occur in a number of ways. Blunt trauma to the head is most common and can result in either open or closed head injuries such as concussion, brain contusion, or even an open skull fracture. These traumatic brain injuries can result in devastating, life-long troubles that require large amounts of money and time and from which you may never recover.

Other brain injuries may occur that are less obvious. When you are being tossed around in an auto accident, the brain inside your skull may be knocked around with no outward physical signs like bruising. Damage to the brain can still result in some level of brain contusion or give you a concussion because of these forces. It is fairly common for signs and symptoms of brain injury to appear days, and even weeks after the accident, making it extremely important that you seek medical help right away.

If you or a loved one has suffered a traumatic brain injury as a result of an auto accident, please contact the brain injury lawyers at the Falvello Law Firm in the Berwick area of Pennsylvania to schedule a free initial consultation. The Falvello Law Firm serves clients in Hazleton, Wilkes-Barre, Sugarloaf, Bloomsburg, and Berwick, Pennsylvania

Previous Posts

• More than Football
• "Legal for Less"
• Medical Malpractice in Pennsylvania
• Medical Malpractice
• Defective Products
• Brain Injury as a Result of an Auto Accident
• Brain Injury as a Result of an Auto Accident
• Big Truck Accidents on Interstates
• Auto Accidents on Interstates
• Truck Accidents Leave Devastation and Despair

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Case Results

• • $2,000,000.00
  • October 18, 2007
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• • Undisclosed Amount
  • March 19, 2008
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• • $1,350,000.00
  • 2007
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• • $800,000.00
  • 2007
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