Law firm Divvy-scare "press release"-- why does this stuff get published?

What a steaming pile of dung:

http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/1687528

Obviously just another substanceless vehicle designed to get the law firm's name out there.

Wondering if one of you legal types can shed some light on why these things happen.

I thought they had something to do with getting around some sort of prohibition on advertising but looking here:

http://www.state.il.us/court/SupremeCourt/Rules/Art_VIII/ArtVIII_NE...

There doesn't really seem to be any.

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Permalink Reply by Reboot Oxnard on January 19, 2014 at 12:28am

Ambulance chasing parasites.

Permalink Reply by mike w. on January 19, 2014 at 4:46am

The phrase that jumped out at me was "Bicycles have long been involved in a disproportunate percentage of traffic accidents." After seeing that i pretty much stopped reading that drivel. i may allow that has been a disproportunate number of fatalities in collisions, but this is just another attempt at victim blame and absolution of careless drivers.

 

And could we PLEASE stop calling these incidents "accidents?"

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on January 19, 2014 at 6:52am

+2

Jeff Schneider said:

+1

"What a steaming pile of dung..."

Permalink Reply by ad on January 19, 2014 at 9:33am

They're obviously trying to lay the ground work--and more importantly recruit potential plaintiffs--for some type of contributory negligence theory case flowing out of a more typical injury case involving a Divvy user.  It appears from the ad that they'll try to hang their hat on a theory that Divvy is not adequately warning daily users of the dangers involved in using the system, and assert that Divvy is contributory negligent by failing to provide access to helmets for users.  This is somewhat similar to the "failure-to-warn" drug side effect lawyer ads you see run on TV all the time.    

Until a body of law is finally established in Illinois outlining Divvy's exposure to liability for incidents involving Divvy users injured while using the service, law firms like this are going to see an advantage in running these type of stealth ads in a hope that they will hit it big on a case (or see if they can grind out a nice rate-of-return if Divvy/Alta establishes a quick pattern of settling potential liability cases for nuisance money).    

Permalink Reply by El Dorado on January 19, 2014 at 11:51am

That poor lady who rode her Divvy on Lake Shore Drive would of had a nice law suit. As there are no signs prohibiting bike riders from slipping by on LSD.

Permalink Reply by Davo on January 19, 2014 at 3:59pm

First off, Id like to know the amount of crashes involved with Divvy riders. To my knowledge there have been none in its inaugural year.

Permalink Reply by Alex Z on January 20, 2014 at 3:54am

There was a Divvy crash on the lakefront trail that was discussed here on the Chainlink a while ago. It didn't involve a car, though, I don't think (if that matters).

Permalink Reply by Brendan Kevenides on January 20, 2014 at 4:22am

*Sigh* I can tell you that I have had conversations with fellow personal injury attorneys about Divvy and many are very much looking forward to the opportunity to sue Divvy in the event a rider is seriously injured.  They are not attorneys that handle many bicycle cases and they do not have much of a theory of liability in mind, other than that Divvy should provide helmets.  There was a recent settlement involving a non-bikeshare bike rental company in Chicago in a case where that very thing was alleged.  That company apparently admitted to violating its own internal policies and procedures.  I think a case against Divvy for failing to provide a helmet would be much tougher.

As I've written here, Divvy and bike share world wide has an almost startlingly good safety record.  

Because we handle so many bike crash cases (as many of you know, it is all we do), I suspect that one of these days we'll be in a position to consider suing Divvy.  Like with every case, we will conduct a thorough analysis of the situation and then see where the evidence leads us.  We are Divvy users ourselves and wish it nothing but continued success.

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on January 20, 2014 at 5:03am

From their approach, it seems pretty clear that these attorneys are not interested in the well being of our bike community but only want to make $$ off it.

I want to see Divvy's continued success, both in terms of the useful service it provides and the excellent safety record so far.

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on January 20, 2014 at 5:04am

There have been a few, but very few compared to the total number of trips.

Davo said:

First off, Id like to know the amount of crashes involved with Divvy riders. To my knowledge there have been none in its inaugural year.

Permalink Reply by Adam Herstein on January 20, 2014 at 5:06am

Bicycles have long been involved in a disproportionate percentage of traffic accidents.

They have? Since when? I'm fairly certain that the vast majority of collisions involve one or more cars, and not people riding bikes.

Permalink Reply by Christine (5.0) on January 20, 2014 at 5:56am

I suspect this is out there so that, when someone eventually crashes on their Divvy, this law firm will turn up in the search results.

And it seems to be successful:

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