Radcliffe & DeHaas, L.L.P.

In Pennsylvania, if you are injured in a car accident and the person at fault doesn't have enough coverage to compensate you, normally your own insurance carrier would provide UNinsured and UNDERinsured coverage for you. Both UNinsured and UNDERinsured coverages are optional in Pennsylvania.

Understandably many policyholders reject such coverages due to costs. However, many times even though your policy shows you rejected UNinsured or UNDERinsured coverage YOUR REJECTION FORM IS INVALID. If it is, then you are entitled to the coverage.

We have been successful in making claims for UNinsured and UNDERinsured coverages against an insurance company. So if you were injured in a accident and weren't compensated for your injuries because you thought you didn't have UNinsured or UNDERrinsured coverage give us a call, maybe we can help!

Our firm believes that there may be many occasions in this expanding oil and gas market in southwestern Pa , when the gas company (producer) either unintentionally or otherwise takes unfair advantage of land owners tied to older gas leases. Many of the old leases were standard and may not stand up to legal scrutiny today.

One recent example of this was noted by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in a recent decision which examined the minimum royalty statute in Pennsylvania. That law requires a minimum 1/8 "royalty". But in some old leases the company was deducting from the minimum 1/8 royalty the costs for transportation of the gas after it left the ground. By calculating the royalty this way the company reduced the amount the landowner received to below 1/8. Unfortunately the Supreme Court in its interpretation of the term "royalty" allowed those leases to remain in effect and keep numerous landowners bound to some leases that are 20 to 30 years old.

However, we think those older uniform leases may be invalidated in a class action on other bases. So if you have an older lease, let us look at it. We can tell you if we think you are being treated unfairly by the the gas companies.