Accident Insurance, Damaged Property, And More

This week on the Girvin & Ferlazzo Talk Radio Show, hosted on Talk 1300 AM at 10 on Saturday mornings, Daniel Rubin and Kaitlyn Schwendeman share insight on creating a great employee handbook and hosting proper employee training, accident insurance, rental agreements and the need for written leases, even when you are renting to a friend, and how and why you should report any dangerous conditions to your landlord or the property owner.

Check it out yourself!

Employee Handbook

One unique service of Girvin & Ferlazzo is employee handbook review. Kaitlyn explained the importance of having and maintaining an up-to-date employee handbook and the benefits of employee training. Having a good employee handbook helps clarify expectations and business practices to employees, and provides important legal benefits and protections for business owners.

Girvin & Ferlazzo makes employee manuals and training simple and cost effective. Business owners can bring in their existing employee handbook for the lawyers to examine and make recommendations. Or we can utilize our existing library of policies and procedures to create a handbook that fits your company’s exact needs and budget.

Once these policies are in place, Girvin & Ferlazzo can provide the necessary training to make sure that the employees and management understand them. Our lawyers will explain the policies and the laws that back them up in plain English to your employees as well as the various complaint procedures designed to help enforce those policies. Having an up-to-date Employee handbook and appropriate training insulates the employer from liability in those situations where employees fail to follow the proper complaint procedures.

If you have employees, then you need an employee handbook and proper training – Girvin & Ferlazzo makes it easier and more affordable than ever to put these important tools to work for you.

Accident Insurance

A caller, Pam, inquired about who is at fault in a three-car accident and why some motorists are allowed to have such a small amount of insurance coverage. She shared the story of a family member who had a flat tire, moved the car off the road, called AAA, and then suffered a serious and life-altering traumatic brain injury after two cars rear ended the stalled vehicle.

Unfortunately for Pam’s family member, the driver deemed to be at fault for the accident carried only $20,000 in liability insurance, which happens to be the minimum in Massachusetts where the car was registered and insured.

Like so many other people who find themselves in this situation, Pam and her family are left wondering how the minimum amount of coverage can be so low.

Daniel explains that while insurance minimums have to be affordable for everyone, $20,000 is simply too low. But no one should live in fear of this situation because all drivers can purchase a special extra insurance with their own policies known as “underinsured motorist coverage” (not to be confused with uninsured motorist coverage”). For just a few extra dollars a month anyone can add hundreds of thousands of dollars of coverage to apply to the situation that Pam’s family experienced. Had Pam’s family member had underinsured motorist coverage, she would have collected the $20,000 from the at-fault drivers policy and then sued her own insurance company for the difference between that $20,000 and the amount of their underinsured motorist coverage. Daniel also suggests purchasing a spousal waiver. This is a product that should be purchased even when both people are listed as insured for the vehicle because it covers the passenger spouses’ injuries when their spouse is the driver at fault for the accident. It’s not about suing your spouse but getting to the insurance you paid for to cover the damages.

Sadly for Pam, her family member didn’t carry this type of policy. Pam and Daniel hope that the other callers will learn from Pam’s tragedy and call their insurance company today to get these coverages. Daniel couldn’t stress enough how important it is that every person purchases the extremely cheap underinsured motorist coverage and spousal waivers.

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Rental Agreements – Who Is Officially A Tenant?

Todd calls in to inquire about a rental agreement that was originally created by a handshake. The landlord has known the renter for many, many years and has never had an official lease or contract. Now, it is the time that the landlord needs the renter to move out. How does that work?

Daniel explains that these types of relationships are very popular. For example, people may have a live-in significant other or their parents may come to live with them. Essentially, as soon as someone is granted permission to live in the house, he or she has the same rights to the house as does a tenant through an official lease. When it comes time to evict this person, a formal process must be followed even without any type of written agreement in place. If the landlord just throws their stuff to the curb as a method of eviction (known as “self-help”), then the renter could be entitled to treble damages against the landlord. Therefore, it’s always advised to get the terms in writing in the beginning. This always makes for a smoother transition in the end.

The eviction process can take time, and while Daniel doesn’t claim to be an expert, he does have a few helpful notes:

  • A window of time must be given for the person to be evicted to find another place to live.
  • The time of year also determines how long a person has to find a new living arrangement – you cannot evict someone in the dead of winter if they have no other place to live.
  • Some courts are more friendly to landlords while others are more friendly to tenants, so this can impact the timing of the whole process depending on who is filing the charges.

If you have questions about evictions or creating a lease, we can help walk you through the process.

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Dangerous Condition on Property

The caller brings attention to potholes that have appeared during the winter on the apartment property where he lives. He took pictures of the property but hasn’t sent them to the landlord yet because he says the landlord’s opinions are “non-negotiable.” A quick piece of advice from Daniel was to send the pictures to the landlord via certified or registered mail; the landlord can deny ever receiving the pictures, but you will have proof you sent them and alerted him to the problem. It’s not enough to just have the pictures – the key is putting the landlord on notice. Take the photos, keep a copy of them, send the other copy to the landlord through the post office using certified or registered mail. This ensures he was notified of the problems should anything else arise.

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About Girvin & Ferlazzo

Girvin & Ferlazzo is a full-service law firm and has been in business for 25 years in Albany. One of today’s co-hosts, Daniel, focuses on personal injury, medical malpractice, medical device malfunction, nursing home neglect and abuse, and civil litigation. Co-host Kaitlyn focuses on education law (especially representing school districts), labor and employment law where she represents both employers and employees, and provides general counsel to businesses, including employee handbooks and training, legal compliance, and transactional work.

Kaitlyn says working with a lawyer when starting a business is like going to the doctor for a physical to get a wellness check. Business owners should come see a lawyer before a problem arises to get legal advice for payroll, HR, sexual harassment training, FMLA, state and federal requirements among other areas.

Client relationships are a top priority to Girvin & Ferlazzo, and we strive for legal excellence by first listening to our clients. Our goal is to help you get what you need!