Author Topic: Auto collision injury question? (Read 530 times)

rod367th · « **Reply #15 on:** December 15, 2002, 07:24:08 PM »

Yeager get a lawyer. Ins company will offer you a very low settlement fast, It will seem high t you but your entitled to 10x actual damage at least. so if hospital bills r 3k u should see 30k.

IF that guy doesn't have ins. your insurance company may send u chk for hospital. If you accept it they can say your paid in full.

Call lawyers who don't advertise. Then haggle with them on thier Fee's. You should get them down to 25% or less. Lawyers will get you more money than you could get on own. And if that guy is uninsured You maybe entitled to STATE money that lawyers know about. some states have a fund for uninsured drivers. you maybe entitled to these funds. @nd unless you need cash bad wait for 6 months make sure no buldging disc or other injuries not as yet showing.

BUT CALL LAWYER NOW.

Everyone hates lawyers until you need them and You do need them in this case. You may get sued by guys u hit if main actor has no ins.

senna · « **Reply #16 on:** December 15, 2002, 08:20:59 PM »

Average American car accident story,

"was driving in my car then I was struck, my neck!"

Average auto accident story in Isreal,

"I was on the way in my car then all of a sudden the freeway blew up!"

capt. apathy · « **Reply #17 on:** December 15, 2002, 08:36:37 PM »

get a lawyer. don't talk to anybodys insurance until you do. I've been in an accident where I was laid up for 6 months,

my wife was in a accident almost identical to yours. only she had a ruptured disk in her neck requiring about 50k worth of surgery.

insurance companys don't make profits by making payouts. they deal with these kinda things every day. whats new and scarey to you is just another workday to them.

just having the attny. to deal with all the crap is worth what you have to pay.

I don't know if the rules are the same everywhere (I doubt it) but here in oregon your insurance pays your medical bills, and wage compensation until you settle. then the deduct that from your settlement with the other guys insurance. my attny only charges his percentage out what was left after these are paid.

in both cases he more than paid for himself in that he persaded my insurance company that the other guys coverage was not suficient to compensate me and got them to wave the pip (personal injury protection) lein on my settlement. so I ended up with the other guys full insurance limit (- 30% to the attny)

also in my wifes case the insurance company tried to get out of paying for the surgery (said she had a weak spine and she would have eventually done something else to hurt it

) without him it would have been an imposable nightmare.

the amount of stress you will save by being able to say "please make all your contacts through my attny" alone is more than worth it.

cash wise here's some a couple bottom lines.

my accident
the pip lein was about 17k
the other guy had the state minimum insurance of 25k per person personal injury

even if I got every bit of insurance from his company I'd have recieved 8k. my attny convinced my insurance to wave the lein so we got the full 25k (17 for me)

wifes accident
pip lein was 68k, other guys insurance was 100k
if we had got all of the 100k (and won the argument on surgery) we would have got 32k
again he convinced my insurance to wave the lein
30k for attny, 4k expenses 66k for us

even though he made some pretty big cash taking care of this in both cases he saved us alot of money, stress, and pain.

ps.
the only good attny is your attny.

Cougar68 · « **Reply #18 on:** December 15, 2002, 11:48:56 PM »

If you don't want to fork out the bucks for an initial consultation with an attorney, call your local BAR Association. They will frequently run a call-in type deal where attorneys volunteer to field basic legal questions at no charge. That would at least give you an idea of some of your legal options.

Cougar

Yeager · « **Reply #19 on:** December 16, 2002, 05:16:30 AM »

Guys,

Thanks for the replies so far. Im not seeking law advice here. Im seeking experiences others have had under similar circumstances.

Bonden · « **Reply #20 on:** December 16, 2002, 06:08:14 AM »

I had an experience like that once, although my passenger and I were not injured to the extent you were. Same scenario as your first post described. I saw the guy coming though, and warned my passenger in time. We were stopped at a light and this guy barrels up behind us and WHAM. We were pushed into the car in front of us with enough force to total it.

Long story short, I setteled for what I thought was a reasonable amount - it was not. That's why I suggested to at least contact your attorney to inform what's going on and he/she will make sure all your bases are covered. Anyway, if it ever happened again to me, the attorney would be on my call list. Good Luck.....