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Camp Lejeune

Toxic Water Contamination at Camp Lejeune

You may know someone who was stationed at U.S. Marine Corps Camp Lejeune between 1953 and 1987.  Maybe you were there yourself.  We at Trammell & Mills want you to know the facts about the possible health dangers of living there at that time.  Thousands of Marines and their families lived on and around the base in Jacksonville, North Carolina in that 34-year span.  The camp got its water supply from eight area wells, and two of those wells produced water that was seriously contaminated with benzene and other dangerous chemicals.

The US Government knew about this toxic water for many years and purposely kept the truth from the public.  Countless military members, their families, and non-military workers were exposed to contaminated chemical levels that exceeded legal limits by more than 100%.  In 2012, Veterans with qualifying medical conditions were granted access to medical care for illnesses caused by tainted Camp Lejeune water, but there was no legal recourse for non-veterans.  More action was necessary for other victims who suffered health issues.

In 2017, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry Completed an assessment of the contaminants and filed a comprehensive report.  The findings were devastating.  Last year, Congress passed the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act, which includes the Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2021.  This law now allows veterans and civilians exposed the contaminated water to file claims seeking compensation for legal damages.

Anyone residing at Camp Lejeune for at least 30 days between August 1, 1953, and December 31, 1987, may file a claim if they have been diagnosed with Leukemia, Bladder Cancer, Kidney Cancer, Liver Cancer, Aplastic Anemia, Multiple Myeloma, Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma or Parkinson’s Disease.  Other diagnosed conditions that may apply include Breast Cancer, Esophageal Cancer, Pancreatic Cancer, Prostate Cancer, Renal Toxicity, Female Infertility, Miscarriage, and Lung Cancer.

If you or someone you love has suffered as a result of possible water contamination exposure, you need to contact the Trammell & Mills Law Firm for a free, no-obligation review of your case.  We’ll walk you through your legal options.  The law states that any attorneys handling Camp Lejeune toxic water cases must work on contingency, meaning you don’t pay any legal fees unless we win compensation for you.  Even if you already receive medical benefits or compensation from the Veterans Administration for Camp Lejeune water illness, you can still file a claim under the Camp Lejeune Justice Act.

Hundreds of thousands of people were exposed to cancer-causing chemicals in the water at Camp Lejeune, and they now have the opportunity to seek fair payment for the damages they faced unknowingly.  Veterans who served their country honorably, and their families, have the legal right to seek compensation from the Marines for the pain, suffering, and even death they have suffered over the years.  If you have a Camp Lejeune contaminated water claim, call the local attorneys of Trammell & Mills at (864) 485-8585 to get the peace of mind and payment you deserve.

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Allstate’s Colossus Insurance Claim Software Exposed By Insider for Low Balling

I have been trying to tell everyone as loudly and as often as I can, Allstate Insurance Company is evil. Finally someone from within the Allsnake lair sought the warm sunlight through the confession of his sins against humanity while working as an employee of the snake.

Tony Bartelme, with The Post and Courier , reported “Storm of Money: Insider Tells How Some Insurance Companies Rig the System.” The insider was actually an Allstate employee and I’m sure Mr. Bartelme was wanting to use a broad stroke but let’s keep our eye on the head of this evil snake-Allstate.

Since it’s hard enough to encourage people to read, I will provide very simple, concise, excerpts from the article for those individuals in a rush so that they may better visualize those good hands  wrapped around your throat:

  • Colossusis a program that calculates how much a person might be paid for an injury claim;
  • Mark Romanowas the Allstate insider that came forward in the article and was considered Allstate’s Colossus “subject matter expert”;
  • Romano discovered that if he used Colossus the way Allstate did, he could save its new Encompass division millions of dollars by “turning the knobs” of the software — paying people less in claims than they would have otherwise gotten;
  • In South Carolina, for instance, CNA had divided the state into two territories — the “Liberal” area around Charlestonand the “Conservative” region elsewhere. Allstate renamed the territories “Charleston” and “Palmetto.” By using Allstate’s Colossus tuning methods instead of CNA’s, Romano could reduce payments in the Palmetto region by 18 percent. Savings were even greater in the Charleston area — a 57 percent reduction. That meant the Allstate version of Colossus would turn a $10,000 claim in Charleston into a $4,300 payment!;
  • People were being hurt by Colossus, and it was tearing him apart. He couldn’t turn the knobs anymore;

I know you are already tired of reading the obvious points that are being made about how evil Allstate Insurance Company has been over the past few decades. Don’t worry, it won’t effect your life until you are violently, rammed by someone covered by Allstate. Then when you suffer through your injuries for months and an Allstate insurance adjuster enters your information into a computer software program, manipulated to low ball you,-you might just remember why I was jumping up and down while pointing.

Imagine that, Romano even published a short report entitled, “Low Ball: An Insider’s Look at How Some Insurers Can Manipulate Computerized Systems to Broadly Underpay Injury Claims.”

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South Carolina Medical Professionals Cheat Sheet to Legal Depositions

I am a lawyer not a doctor. Doctors are medical professionals trying to help people get better by diagnosing, treating, and preventing. When we step outside our profession and into another professional arena we know very little about, it can be confusing. No matter how much reality television we watch, it may not carry over to the realities we live in.

In the short time I have been an attorney, it never ceases to make me laugh when I go to a doctor’s deposition. We, as lawyers, have to ask certain questions in certain ways to meet legal thresholds and adhere to the prevailing rules of evidence, which makes those questions sound verbose, obnoxious, and confusing.

  1. “Doctor  ______, is it your opinion to a reasonable degree of medical certainty that it is more probable than not, that my client’sdisc herniation were caused/aggravated/ and/or made worse from the motor vehicle collision/slip and fall/dog bite?”
  2. “Doctor ______, based on your education, observations, and medical treatment of my client, was it medically necessary to send them for physical therapy/diagnostic testing/pain management as a result of the motor vehicle collision/slip and fall/dog bite?”
  3. “Doctor ______, do you have an opinion to a reasonable degree of medical certainty as to the permanent impairments my client would be assigned under the AMA guidelines?”

It’s important for medical professionals to understand that Plaintiffs have the burden of proving their case by the preponderance of the evidence. The most common example is the tipping of the scales of justice ever so slightly to provide an imbalance that would warrant the “preponderance” part, “more likely than not”. (David Swanner of South Carolina Trial Law Blog gives several good examples).

Therefore, medical professionals don’t have to know 100% one way or the other. They just have to give an opinion (based on a reasonable degree of medical certainty) whether an injury or aggravation of a pre-existing injury is “more likely than not”/ “more than a 50% chance”/ “ever so slightly tips the scales” was caused or directly affected by the trauma.

Plus, know what you charge for your office visits. You are a professional and are running a business. In the 100 or more medical depositions that I have taken, not one medical professional has been able to tell me what they charge per office visit. That could be one explanation in the health insurance and medical professional struggle now. How can you talk about lost profits and exorbitant prices when you have no clue about money, fees, or service costs directly related to services rendered?

This is the typical response cut and pasted directly from an recent examination of my client’s treating physician’s deposition:

I can’t make an assessment about causation.  When I see a patient or take care of patients, I’m not really thinking about, you know, is this going to go to a legal situation. I’m mostly concerned about the patients and their well-being so I just go what they tell me, by the history.  So the answer to your question is:  I don’t know.  I can’t say with 100 percent certainty that the motor vehicle accident caused the herniated disk.

I asked the questions previously discussed. Do you have an opinion? Not can you tell me for certain. Plus, if you were truly concerned for the patient, you would also be concerned about the financial stress and misery of undergoing medical treatment and being personally responsible for the medical services you have rendered to them unless you agree that someone else affected their pre-existing injury or caused new injuries.

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Kay Werts of Fountain Inn: Killed in Fatal Collision

The Greenville News was reporting that a fatal accident occurred between Ms. Kay Werts of 738 S. Old Fairview Road and a teenage driver this morning on Fairview Road in Greenville County.

You never know when a freak accident can occur. Please make sure you have your loved ones, friends, and even your enemies taken care of in times of need. It starts with:

  1. Full Coverage Automobile Insurance;
  2. Personal Injury Protection (P.I.P)/ Medical Payments;
  3. Handling Your Property Damage Correctly; and
  4. Avoiding Allstate Insurance Company Because They Suck

If you or your loved one has been injured in an accident, or as a result of another person’s ignorance, negligence, or omission, please feel free to call upon me at 864-231-7171 or toll free at 1-800-483-0880.

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South Carolina Receives an “A” for Medical Liability Laws

The Associated Press has announced that the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) gave South Carolina an A for its medical liability laws and a B-plus for quality and patient safety, especially in handling heart attacks and strokes.

However, South Carolina did receive a “C” from ACEP for how it handles emergency medicine. Dr. William Finn, Emergency Medicine Chairman for Greenville Hospital Systems, stated that:

“The report accurately reflects conditions in South Carolina……The number of employees, primary care and mental health providers are well below average, as well as the number of pediatric specialty centers, like the children’s emergency department. We need more of those.”

This article is entitled “State Earns a ‘C’ in Emergency Care” but failed to pick up on the real gem of the report done by Emergency Physicians:

SOUTH CAROLINA RECEIVED AN FOR ITS MEDICAL LIABILITY LAWS!

  • Does this mean the JUAand medical community are going to have to stop blaming those darn personal injury lawyers for all their woes?
  • Does this mean that doctors can come back to practice in the state of South Carolina after having been pushed out by high premiums (another alleged cause of those darn lawyers)?
  • Or were those problems totally ignored on factual basis and exploited in the media to hide the fact of JUA’s mismanagement of financial funds in the late 90’s (thus causing physician’s premiums to rise)?