About twenty years ago, New Jersey and Pennsylvania motorists got the option to save money on their car insurance. What did they give up in return? And how have the ensuing changes affected the practice compared to two decades ago?

Tonight at 7:00 p.m. on the Philadelphia CNN-News affiliate WFMZ-TV, The American Law Journal presents "Auto Accidents, Auto Insurance: Then & Now". Host Attorney Christopher Naughton welcomes defense counsel James C. Haggerty of Swartz Campbell LLC, plaintiff's lawyers Jamie L. Sheller of Sheller, P.C. and J. Robert Bratman of Stark & Stark and Harris T. Bock of The Dispute Resolution Institute. The program examines the critical decisions consumers must make before and after the accident and how lawyers approach handling these matters today.

"Sadly people have been subtly brainwashed by a campaign by insurance

companies...that they cannot be injured in car accidents," says Bratman. Sheller concurs: "They hope they have poisoned the minds of jurors enough so that even good cases will be discredited... and maybe plaintiff's firms will not take the case."

"Insurance companies are not the evil empire," states Haggerty. "The limited tort has weeded out a lot of the smaller cases. [S]erious cases that deserve to be compensated [will be paid], but if cases are not as serious and they don't believe the people are entitled to compensation, they will let a jury decide."

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Host attorney Christopher Naughton is a former New Jersey prosecutor with over twenty years of broadcasting legal issues on television and radio.