Lexington Personal Injury Law Blog

Kentucky requires all motorists to carry auto insurance that includes liability, meaning the company will pay for injuries and damage done by its customer.

But a disturbing number of Kentuckians break the law by driving without any insurance, or without liability insurance, or with policies that often don’t cover enough. What happens if you’re involved in a car accident with an uninsured or underinsured motorist?

The decision to place a failing family member in a nursing home may come with some anxiety over the quality of care. A report from 2016, from the Inspector General's Office for the Department of Health and Human Services, noted that approximately 20% of emergency medical treatment for Medicare beneficiaries was related to possible abuse or neglect of nursing home residents. Though the report included nationwide statistics, residents in Kentucky nursing facilities could potentially be at risk.

In spite of the Inspector General's report, many nursing homes do not report suspected abuse or neglect to state regulators. In addition, even when a report has been substantiated, local police are often not informed. Some families have learned of abuse through the use of nanny cameras that captured footage of abuse carried out by nursing staff. 

It is no secret that nursing homes struggle to retain adequate staff. A recent study found that approximately 75% of these facilities are chronically understaffed by registered nurses. Kentucky residents who have loved ones in nursing homes may have reason to worry about the potential for neglect.

Along with alarming under-staffing percentages, researchers also found that an estimated 70% of nursing facilities inflated the numbers of direct care workers using the self-reporting system. Instead of the widely used Casper system, the study relied on payroll data to arrive at a more accurate figure for staffing levels. In spite of objections that payroll data may not give a complete picture, the data reflects a disturbing lack of skilled care at a majority of nursing homes, especially during the weekends. It was noted that the discrepancy between self-reported totals and payroll data was greater at for-profit homes than at non-profits and government-funded facilities. 

With the growth of on-line sales continuing to escalate, the need to deliver these products means there are more trucks on the road. Though the majority of these drivers strive to complete their deliveries in a safe manner, the chances of a serious car crash involving these tractor-trailers increases due to higher demand and strict time constraints. Sadly, one woman recently died along a Kentucky highway in a fatal crash involving a man hauling an Amazon Prime trailer.

According to police, a woman driving a passenger vehicle was forced to stop with other traffic while traveling through a construction zone. A 34-year-old man traveling north in his semi-truck apparently did not reduce his speed in time to avoid colliding with the stopped traffic ahead of him. His truck then slammed into the woman's vehicle.