{"id":104,"date":"2008-09-27T11:09:37","date_gmt":"2008-09-27T15:09:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/noyeshallallen.wordpress.com\/2008\/09\/27\/lessons-from-the-lapointe-trial-verdict\/"},"modified":"2017-11-09T08:54:30","modified_gmt":"2017-11-09T14:54:30","slug":"lessons-from-the-lapointe-trial-verdict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.noyeshallallen.com\/blog\/lessons-from-the-lapointe-trial-verdict\/","title":{"rendered":"Lessons from the Lapointe Trial Verdict"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Many Mainers followed the\u00a0<a title=\"Lewiston Sun Journal report of the verdict\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sunjournal.com\/story\/284431-3\/LewistonAuburn\/LaPointe_guilty_of_aggravated_OUI\/\" target=\"_blank\">recent trial<\/a> of Medway, MA and Bridgton, ME resident Robert Lapointe, who was charged with manslaughter, reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon and aggravated OUI following a collision on Long Lake in which killed\u00a0<span style=\"line-height: 16px; color: #111111; font-size: 13px;\">Terry Raye Trott of Harrison and Suzanne Groetzinger of Berwick. The jury was deadlocked on the first two charges and found Lapointe guilty of the third.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div><span style=\"color: #111111; line-height: 16px;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #111111; line-height: 16px;\">Regardless of your opinion on the case (and everyone in Maine <a title=\"comments on the Portland Press Herald web site\" href=\"http:\/\/pressherald.mainetoday.com\/comments.php?id=212155&amp;ac=PHnws\">seems to have a strong one<\/a>!), there are some items worth noting:<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #111111; line-height: 16px;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>The criminal trial was only part of Mr. Lapointe&#8217;s worries. There will surely be a civil trial now that the criminal trial is over. Yes, he was convicted of two counts of Aggravated OUI, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison. And, the State <a title=\"more Sun Journal coverage\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sunjournal.com\/story\/284672-3\/MaineNews\/LaPointe_could_face_second_trial_in_2_lake_deaths\/\">hasn&#8217;t decided<\/a> whether to re-try him on the two deadlocked charges.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li><span>\u00a0A\u00a0civil trial, which would likely charge\u00a0<a style=\"color: blue; text-decoration: underline; cursor: pointer;\" title=\"Wikipedia definition\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Wrongful_death\">wrongful death<\/a>, would be protracted and expensive &#8211; regardless of the outcome. Probably the most famous civil trial following a criminal acquittal was <a title=\"USA Today article on civil trial verdict.\" href=\"http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/news\/index\/nns203.htm\">The O.J. Simpson case<\/a>. As everyone knows, Simpson was acquitted of murder in the criminal trial, only to be found guilty of civil charges, which cost $8.5 million in <a title=\"Wikipedia definition\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Damages#Compensatory_damages\">compensatory damages<\/a> and $33.5 million in <a title=\"Wikipedia - where else?\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Damages#Punitive_damages_.28non-compensatory.29\">punitive damages<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Maine Home Insurance and Homeowners Insurance Quotes from Noyes Hall &amp; Allen\" href=\"http:\/\/www.noyeshallallen.com\/personal-insurance-landing\/homeowners-insurance\/\" target=\"_blank\">Maine homeowners insurance<\/a> and <a title=\"Maine Boat Insurance and Boat insurance quotes from Noyes Hall &amp; Allen Insurance\" href=\"http:\/\/www.noyeshallallen.com\/personal-insurance-landing\/boat-insurance\/\" target=\"_blank\">Boat Insurance<\/a> policies offer liability protection, including defense costs. This would apply only to civil &#8211; not criminal &#8211; charges. The maximum limits available are generally $500,000. Too many people fail to even carry this amount.<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Maine Umbrella Insurance Policies and Umbrella Insurance Quotes\" href=\"http:\/\/www.noyeshallallen.com\/personal-insurance-landing\/umbrella-insurance\/\" target=\"_blank\">Personal Umbrella\u00a0Insurance<\/a> policies provide excess liability protection in increments of $1 million. Best of all, legal defense costs are usually NOT taken out of that limit: most policies provide a full $1 million of protection against damages.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>\u00a0You probably<\/span>\u00a0have a tough time identifying with O.J. Simpson or Robert Lapointe. Their cases are extreme. But bad things can happen to ordinary people, too. And your assets can be wiped out by defense costs and liability judgements following an accident.\u00a0<\/p>\n<div>Takeaways:<\/div>\n<div>\n<ol>\n<li>Review your homeowners policy.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Compare your liability coverage to your net worth.<\/li>\n<li>Consider buying an umbrella policy.\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Talk to your insurance agent. \u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<div><span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many Mainers followed the\u00a0recent trial of Medway, MA and Bridgton, ME resident Robert Lapointe, who was charged with manslaughter, reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon and aggravated OUI following a collision on Long Lake in which killed\u00a0Terry Raye Trott of Harrison and Suzanne Groetzinger of Berwick. The jury was deadlocked on the first two charges [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,12,13,14,15,16,10,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boat-insurance","category-condo-insurance","category-homeowners-insurance","category-personal-insurance","category-renters-insurance","category-safety","category-trends","category-umbrella-insurance"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noyeshallallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noyeshallallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noyeshallallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noyeshallallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noyeshallallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.noyeshallallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4839,"href":"https:\/\/www.noyeshallallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104\/revisions\/4839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.noyeshallallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noyeshallallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.noyeshallallen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}