The sweeping health insurance reform legislation that became law earlier this year includes a program of 20 federal grants to various organizations to find a way to rein in "skyrocketing medical malpractice payouts."

A federal judge says big-box giant Home Depot stole an inventor's idea and ordered the company to pay the inventor a total of $25 million.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report last week concerning the challenges states face in improving the safety of teenage drivers, and how states and the federal government have addressed those challenges.

I ran across an interesting report about nursing homes as I was working my way through the old reading pile this week.

A couple of days ago I wrote about what to do if an insurance company asks you to give a recorded statement. (Don't.) As I thought about it some more, I realized that's one of the things we talk about during our initial consultation. Today, I'd like to tell you a little more about what that first free visit is all about.

If you're in a car accident, you may get a call from the other driver's insurance company. They may say they have a few questions, and ask you if they can record the conversation.

No one expects to be in a car accident, so it's not surprising that when you are you're probably not prepared with items you may need. It's a time of confusion, and it's easy to not have at your fingertips certain things that would guide you through the time following a crash.

One of the common results of a car crash is a traumatic brain injury. The force of an impact in a car crash can cause a brain injury, even if you don't hit your head. It's not uncommon for the rebound to bruise the brain, causing symptoms that could include fogginess, dizziness, lack of concentration and more. The repercussions of a brain injury for a client and family can be severe.

I have a friend named John Anderson who runs an important organization called Alive at 25. You may have heard of it – it’s dedicated to keeping our kids alive in the early years of their driving careers.

National Public Radio broke a news story on Thursday that Massey Energy, the corporation that owns the West Virginia coal mine where 29 miners died, is offering to pay $3 million cash to the families of the dead miners.

Sometimes it takes me a while to catch up on the stack of reading that teeters on the corner of my desk. I ran across a March 29, 2010 item in the Los Angeles Times that caught my eye.

Here’s a story from the school of hard knocks. A man was broadsided by a driver who ran a red light. There was several thousand dollars of damage to his car and he wound up with a sore back. The other person’s insurance company quickly said they would repair his car and pay for a few visits to his doctor. They told him there was no need to get an attorney involved, that they would take care of him and would pay him fairly for his claim.

Colorado lawmakers have taken several steps in the last week or two to boost rights of victims of personal injury accidents.

A bus driver working under contract for the Denver RTD blew through a red light on April 3, 2010, smashed into a Volkswagen and killed the two occupants, then hit a pickup truck and injured more than a dozen more people, including passengers on the bus. The bus driver was charged by police with 13 misdemeanor careless driving violations.

I ran across an interesting report the other day that I’d like to share with you.

It’s from the Department of Regulatory Agencies, part of the state government that oversees insurance. The report lists every automobile insurance company licensed to sell policies in Colorado in 2008 (the most current year for data), each company’s market share, and how many consumer complaints have been filed against it.

I had my fifth birthday yesterday. (No, I’m not that young, but thank you anyway.) On April 1, 2005, I officially incorporated The Law Offices of Dianne Sawaya, LLC. There were no balloons or cake, and no celebration – at least none that I’m aware of. If my staff was partying, I missed it. I was with a client arguing her case before a judge.