What should i settle for?

by Riep69 » Fri Jan 25, 2008 05:14 am
Posts: 2
Joined: 17 Jan 2008

was a 22 year old passenger in a single car accident that broke my femur which resulted in 3 nights in the hospital and sugury to place a rod and screw put in my leg. I was off work for 3 1/2 months and had to go through a month of theropy before returning to work. Medical bills approx. 30k, and lost wages of around $4500. I am almost ready to settle with the insurance and would like to know where to start? What kind of settlement am i looking at? I was wondering where to start when the offering comes.... does it matter if he was drinking and driving and driving wrecklessly? didnt get a DUI though, got physical control. His coverages is 100 300 50...i would like to know a round about estimate of what I am expected to get so I know what to settle for. I talked to a lawyer and she said go for the limits...so after my bills that would leave about 70k, would the insurance settle for that?

Total Comments: 94

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 10:13 am Post Subject: leaves out an option in you too!

He didn't get a DUI though, he got physical control.



See, it is always tough to judge a DUI case especially when you say that the person didn't get booked for the DUI offense. This always leaves out an option for you to have been considered as the party at-fault. Hope you don't belong to a No-fault state. Please keep us updated. Good luck! FrankieStone**

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 10:21 am Post Subject:

Good morning FrankieStone** and welcome to the communtiy

does it matter if he was drinking and driving and driving wrecklessly? didnt get a DUI though, got physical control.

Yes, it could but he didn't get a dui citation? What does ''physical control'' mean?

Personally were I you, I'd ask for the limit..(you can't get more! unless you go after him personally)....out of curiosity HOW did you find out his policy limit? Most states do not require this unless there is a limits issue and is closely guarded by adjusters...just wondering about that...

Something to keep in mind, if you hire an attorney, and they get policy limits you are going to end up somewhere in the 66k (total) area, so keep that in mind while negotiating (my point is 66k or above is as good or better than you would likely get with an attorney)...

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 10:30 am Post Subject:

Hi there, what I understand about liability coverage is that that one segment of it would cover for an individual, while another would cover for all those who are injured. From what you say-

His coverages is 100 300 50...i would like to know a round about estimate of what I am expected to get so I know what to settle for.


I see that he has maintained $3,00,000 worth of liability for all bodily injuries. So, you'd be achieving all your claims from this element of his coverage. Am I right in depicting what you're trying to establish!

I talked to a lawyer and she said go for the limits...so after my bills that would leave about 70k, would the insurance settle for that?


At the same time it would be good if you'd explain more about this figure of 70k. What I could make out of the bills is something worth $(30,000+4,500)=$34,500. So how did you arrive at this 70k thing!
Funny_JoeBowen

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 11:02 am Post Subject:

I see that he has maintained $3,00,000 worth of liability for all bodily injuries. So, you'd be achieving all your claims from this element of his coverage. Am I right in depicting what you're trying to establish!

All the OP is entitled to is 100k total...for his/her injury, the driver (in the OP vehicle) also has 100k limit if they were injured...Now were their ten injured people in their vehicle (rather than the two), all ten people couldn't get more than 300K as a total...

What I could make out of the bills is something worth $(30,000+4,500)=$34,500. So how did you arrive at this 70k thing!

Ok, he should've said he'd have said $65500.00 (rather than 70K) is what he would have left.... :wink:

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 03:29 pm Post Subject:

In determining a good injury settlement amount, one needs to know the area where the accident happen (state laws apply and local opinion matters), all the medical notes need to be reviewed, etc. Of course, if your Allstate you just need to plug the information into some software and then use the lowest number regardless of the injury :lol: .

Again, the state where the accident happen is a _big_ part of the equation.

Knowing that we don't have all the info needed to determine what is a good amount, I'd agree that the policy limits might be appropriate. You should certainly let the carrier know that your injuries are worth much more then $100k and I'd not back off of that statement. Let them know that you've spoken to several attorneys who are willing to settle for no less but if you went that route, you'd be paying them 33%, leaving much less to address your loss (i.e. it's not worth hiring an attorney for an obvious policy limits case unless the final offer is less then $100k, then an attorney will gladly roll the dice in court).

I'm guessing if their initial offer is not the $100k, it will be close to $60k. If this or more, let them know you appreciate the offer but you cannot settle for less then the $100k. Now you throw something else at them, such as the future medical treatment you will need for the rest of your life (yeah, it's made up... but this is all attorneys do as well). Also mention how you think a jury would be very sympathetic to your situation (extensive injury, long recovery process, etc). The offer should go up. They key is that if the offer gets close to $100k, the carrier should then be extremely willing to just offer the $100k as it's not worth their time to risk not settling for a few thousand left in the limits. Also, and here is a key thing... time is on your side! Waiting the adjuster out will almost always result in a higher offer. A supervisor and/or manager will be looking at this claim in addition to the adjuster. They don't want the risk of this claim hanging out there a long time. They want it closed. They can do this by offering more money. So you can simply keep asking for the policy limits and then sit back. It sends the message that you _know_ it's worth more so you don't mind waiting until they make the "correct" offer.

The flip side is that they either offer you much less then you feel the claim is worth (something like $40k) or they offer something close to the limits like $90k. If the offers are very low (initial offer is always low) you may want to hire an attorney. If the offer is close to the limits, you may not mind just taking that amount if you don't think further offers are going to be much more.

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 06:11 pm Post Subject:

When you say settle for 100k, that includes my medical bills..correct? They have been paying the med bills as we get them i believe, so after the 30k in med bills are paid, that would leave me 70k...correct?

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 10:12 pm Post Subject:

The other carrier should not have been paying the medical bills and I doubt they have. Long story short, they have an obligation to protect their insured. They are protecting him/her with the $100k policy limits. The only way to legally protect their insured is with a signed liability release from you. Until the release is signed, you could always take their insured to court and get a judgment in excess of the $100k limits. So they won't pay you a dime until the claim is settled. As mentioned, this happens when you sign the liability release.

If they were to pay $30k or so in medical expenses and the case did not settle prior ro a legal verdict, they'd only have $70k left to settle when it went to court. If it goes to court, they need to be able to be _able_ to offer the entire $100k policy limits is appropriate. Any less and their insured can come back against them and file a bad faith claim (contentions sould be if the carrier had been able to offer the $100k in court, the case would have settled so the carrier did not act in the best interest of their insured... bad faith).

Once you settle with the carrier, you can go back to your medical providers and negogiate the bills down. In some states this can be around 50%. But I'd suspect that most medical providers would be willing to settle for 80% of their bills. This is completly seperate from your settlement with the carrier. They make an offer based on _current_ medical bills. They can't make an offer based on the possiblity the bills might be reduced. That is only between you and the medical providers.

Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 07:27 pm Post Subject: Have you sought legal advice?

I am surprised that no one has ask? From reading your post it appears that your best option would be the legal system. Yes you would of course have to pay the attorney his fee, probably 30%, but appears to me this should be at least an option before you settle anything. Most attorney's offer no cost consultations to access if you have a case (since they do not want to waste their time on a case they do not feel they can achieve a payout on).

Why not at least get that first visit in with one or two, explain what happened then let us know what they say. I would be interested in hearing what an attorney would say they thought they could get in a case like this.

Just an idea but think that would be the first thing I would have done.

Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 07:34 pm Post Subject:

I am surprised that no one has ask? From reading your post it appears that your best option would be the legal system. Yes you would of course have to pay the attorney his fee, probably 30%, but appears to me this should be at least an option before you settle anything. Most attorney's offer no cost consultations to access if you have a case (since they do not want to waste their time on a case they do not feel they can achieve a payout on).

About the only problem with getting an attorney in a case like this is if the carrier is simply going to offer their $100k limits. If the OP used an attorney in a situation like that, he'd be paying the attorney _$33,000 for nothing_! What does $33,000 buy? A WHOLE lot.

Thos initial visits really don't account for anything. The OP obviously had a good case and there does not appear to be an issue with the other carrier intending to make a payment. Of course, to each their own. Personally, I'd wait to hear what the offer is first. If the OP does not like it, he can alwasy use an attorney from that point on.

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 07:29 am Post Subject:

what exactly is an OP? sorry, im not too smart when it comes to this. Ive already decided im not gettin an attorney, im talking to one that is guiding me step by step, and is going to read over the paper work before i sign anything. are you saying that they will more than likely offer then limits and send me a check for that and i have to pay the med bills, which is fine, i was just wonder....and another question, how do they tax it? only 4500 of it is my lost wages.

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