How Denver Keeps You Safe in the Snow

How Denver Keeps You Safe in the Snow

How Denver Keeps You Safe in the Snow

The City of Denver boasts their snow maintenance measures as some of the best. That may or may not seem true to you. Let’s explore what their process currently involved and how Denver keeps you safe in the snow.

 

Snow-Save Bike Lanes

Did you know that the City has special plows for bike lanes? Us, either. In fact, it often seems that the bike lanes are hand places to deposit snow pushed off the roadways. However, city officials told The Denver Channel in a recent interview that there are two special plows owned by the city that are specifically used for clearing protected bike lanes. The City claims these lanes are plowed at the same frequency as main streets. A simple walk around the neighborhood with your fur babies shows exactly how little we know about the city ordinances related to snow maintenance on our own property. According to the City, homeowners have 24 hours to clear their sidewalks after a snowstorm. Businesses have a much shorter term of 4 hours from the end of the snowfall. The City also claims to have two inspectors canvassing 3,000 miles of city sidewalks to make sure home and business owners have complied. If you spot any offenders, the City urges you to call 3-1-1 to report the icy walkway.

 

How Denver Keeps You Safe in the Snow

We get many calls from severely injured folks due to falls on snow and ice. We have seen fractured backs, torn rotator cuffs, limb fractures, and head trauma due to these falls. And in most cases, these falls occur even though the pedestrian was extremely cautious. Some have happened exiting their apartment buildings, walking into their workplaces, or entering businesses. And in each of the cases in which we have represented the injured, there was a failure on the part of the business to adequately remediate the snow and ice in places most commonly traveled by customers and tenants. Denver has very strict rules when it comes to snow remediation, as does state law. Colorado courts have determined that businesses must watch for snow and ice dangers in the weather, shovel, plow, and lay ice melt materials to further protect the public. The law does not remove the onus on pedestrians to be aware of dangers and protect themselves. However, businesses are in the best position to protect pedestrians from injury. Denver’s requirements help keep you safe in the snow.

 

What You Can Do To Help

As the City requests, in order to protect yourself and others from serious injury, simply dial 3-1-1 if you see a home or business not complying with the city ordinances and state law. You will not only help keep the community safe, but you will also save the homeowner and business from having to contact their insurance company to report the injuries their negligence caused. And as we always implore, please be aware of elderly and disabled neighbors. They may not be able to protect others, or themselves, from injury by shoveling snow and laying snow melt. Also consider your neighbors with strollers, postal workers, and those nice folks that deliver your Amazon packages. Let’s do what we can to help avoid injuries in our community. At the end of the day, absolute prevention is the only real way to ensure safety.

Getting to Know Us Series

Getting to Know Us Series

Jennifer O’Connell

 

Our goals for 2020 include helping you get to know us a little better. To aid in that venture, we are starting a video series to share a bit more about who we are and help you learn more about who you are working with. Our first video features Managing Partner Jennifer K. O’Connell. Jennifer grew up in Tennessee. Her father was a forester and her mother was a public school special education teacher. She and her sister regularly rode out to the woods with their dad or adventuring among the trees behind their family home, their two Springer Spaniels in tow. The whole family took regular camping trips to state and national parks across the country. If you could not see it in a tent, the O’Connell’s were not interested. They saw snow at the Grand Canyon in June and counted buffalo sightings at Yellowstone in February. More than one of those trips was here to the Rocky Mountains. In fact, Jennifer’s parents began visiting the mountains shortly after they were married. Colorado holds a special place in her family. Jennifer also loves her home state of Tennessee. While the mountains of Appalachia have a bit more oxygen at the top, hiking was still a big part of Tennessee life for her and her family. While the summit of Mount Le Conte is only 6,593 feet, there is a 2,763 foot climb to the top and there is often quite a bit of ice at the top.

Click here to learn more about Jennifer and keep an eye out for the next episode to learn more about her team! Hope you enjoy getting to know us!

Queener Law Featured in VoyageDenver

Queener Law Featured in VoyageDenver

Queener Law Featured in VoyageDenver

 

We are thrilled to see Queener Law featured in VoyageDenver! What an honor!

We love their insightful questions that prompt us to think a bit more about how we got here and why we have made the choices we made along the way. The life of a business owner is full of forks in the road and choices. It is always important to look back and evaluate the road already traveled to help make the right decisions for the one ahead. We are also extremely happy that our client-centric focus came through. We purposefully keep out hometown feel and insist that our clients speak to a partner every time. We want to make sure our clients know how important they are and how dedicated we are to their cases. It was very exciting to hear that the editors wanted to see Queener Law featured in VoyageDenver to give us a chance to share that view with the community.

Check out the feature here!

Call us any time for a free consultation or to refer your friends or family members in need of help. No more being tossed around from attorney to attorney or case manager to case manager. At Queener Law, you will be in the capable hands of a partner and paralegals from start to finish. Your case deserves undivided attention, and so do you.

Getting Your Medical Bills Paid the Right Way

Getting Your Medical Bills Paid the Right Way

“The insurance company said they’d pay all my medical bills. Now they only want to pay a fraction of what I owe!’ We have heard this complaint almost daily in our decades of practice. What’s the reason and who’s the culprit? Of course, every story like this begins with the fact that car insurance companies are designed to collect premiums and not pay out. But that is not the only conspiracy happening here. Hospitals and medical providers have found ways to use the car insurance system to increase profits, as well. In a recent article in The New York Times, the master plan of hospital billing is broken down into the following steps:

 

1. Medical Swag

When you are in a wreck, the first thing the EMS or ER staff will do is slap on that age-old neck brace. Often, that neck brace either came free as medical sales swag or was bought in bulk at a rate of a few bucks each. When you get your medical bills in the mail, you find out that your insurance paid $100-plus and you owe an additional $20 bucks or so after insurance. You could get the same brace at your local pharmacy for much less. But when your chart is flagged for a car accident, out comes the medical swag. And in the end, all of this gets paid by the car insurance company… out of your settlement.

 

2. The Cover Charge

When you are taken to the emergency room, you get a bill. That we know. But did you know that this bill is just for use of the room? In essence, that bill is a “cover charge” for entry. In addition to that fee, which may vary depending on how emergent or traumatic your injury may be, there is a separate fee for every material used and every person who walks into the room. In many cases, you’ll even get a completely separate bill just for the use of a doctor, a necessary component of your emergency room visit. This bill, again, may vary based on what the hospital determines is the severity of your injury. Two guesses what they label car accident victims as in order to increase their bill.

 

3. Impostor Billing

Not only can you get billed for every person who walks in the room, but you may also receive a bill for people who you have never met. Medical billing allows for “consult billing,” even when the physician never consulted with the patient themselves. If a radiologist simply stops an orthopedist in the hallway for a second look at your x-rays, you get billed. These are not common charges, but we see them often in cases like auto accidents where the hospital anticipates deep pockets.

 

4. The Drive-By

In more serious cases, where post-ER treatment is required, you can get billed even before your first visit. For instance, if your injury requires physical therapy, a therapist can enter the room just to discuss your future therapy visits, and you will receive a bill for that conversation. A full assessment or actual therapeutic treatment is not required for the hospital to bill for it.

 

5. Avectus

We have added this prong because it is so prevalent and crushing to your in-pocket compensation while filling the hospital’s bank account. Hospitals allow representatives from Avectus or other lien companies to enter patients’ rooms, although they have no medical training or degrees and have not received consent from the patient or relatives. Their only purpose is to have medicated and shocked accident victims sign forms promising to pay the hospital’s bill in its entirety, regardless of whether they have health insurance. Why? Because the hospital does not want to take the contractual discount with the health insurance, and instead wants to take as much as possible from the auto insurance policy, in addition to all of your other medical bills.

 

The End Game

Why do we care so much about what the hospital is doing if the car insurance company is paying in the end? Why should you care about what money goes where? An auto insurance policy is like a bank account. Everything that comes out of it – including medical bills – reduces the amount in the account. In other words, every penny the hospital takes is one less for you. If your hospital bill is inflated simply because you were in an auto accident, your compensation for the injuries you sustained will go to the hospital rather than to you. If the auto policy available is only $50,000 and your hospital bill is $40,000, there is very little money left to pay remaining bills, reimburse your lost wages, or cover your future medical needs. And that’s if you don’t come out with a $75,000 bill and only $50,000 in automobile insurance. What can be done to stop this? Short of changing legislation, simply put, you need an attorney. Our office has decades of experience forcing hospitals to use health insurance and refusing to pay their liens if they are on notice and ignore us. We not only fight the insurance company on your behalf, but we also hold the hospitals to a high ethical and economical standard, refusing to let them dig into the policy that was meant to compensate you. Be aware and proactive with your health and your future. Work with a firm that has no blind side. We see the attacks coming, and will head them off at the start.

Wheelchair Injuries on Ice

Wheelchair Injuries on Ice

Wheelchair Injuries on Ice

 

Require two-wheeled assistance to get around? When it snows, this world is not for you. We all know the feeling of waking up to the gorgeous snow, a feeling that quickly shifts to the grind of warming the car, scraping the windows, and pulling on snow boots over your suit or uniform pants. What we do not all experience is sliding into our wheelchair, looking out the window, and realizing we are stuck. When your wheels are not your alternate method of travel, but are instead are your only vehicle for point A to B travel, even a little snow and ice on the ground can be a hurdle the likes of which champion horses struggle to jump. We’ve all seen the memes of what living on one side of the road versus the other can mean in Colorado when it comes to snow accumulation. Now think differently – think what it means to live in someone else’s shoes… err, wheels.

 

Even when a sidewalk or ramp has been shoveled, the tiniest patch of ice can send your neighbor slipping into the road, off the path, and into danger. The easiest act for able-bodied folks in the snow is getting to the car. Most of the work is the shoveling, scraping, and salting. When you’re in a chair, none of this is possible. Many people are in wheelchairs because of already complicated health issues, weakened hard and soft tissue structures, and other tenuous health conditions. A fall, especially in the cold, can bring on complications very quickly. Yet so can missing doctor’s appointments or being unable to get to work where money is earned to pay for medical treatment. Whether you’re excited about snow days or grumbling over how the mess on the roads makes a mess of your schedule, pause. Think about whether your neighbors or community members use your sidewalk to get around. Salt it. Think about whether your neighbor is wheelchair bound. Shovel and salt theirs. And if there is anyone in your circle, whether neighborhood, friend, or work life, go clean and scrape their car, shovel and salt their ramp and sidewalk. And while you’re at it, do the same for any older friends or new moms. Bring the family! Make a game out of it! Yes, you’ll be late for work. But you’ll help others get to their jobs, and you’ll save them from harm.