I received an offer (100% their fault). I asked for $50,000

by marvwon » Sun Sep 06, 2009 10:34 pm

9/6/09:
I received an offer from a car accident, 100% their fault. I asked for $50,000 (medical $20K) which naturally includes pain and suffering.

Of course, they low balled, $16K. What are the important points that is MOST EFFECTIVE that needs to be addressed in the counter offer letter? I was going to counter offer $43K.

This has been going on for over 15 months now.
Thank you so much for any and all assistance.

Total Comments: 7

Posted: Mon Sep 07, 2009 07:26 am Post Subject:

I guess the 1st question is why they are not even considering addressing all of your medical bills.

Posted: Mon Sep 07, 2009 12:01 pm Post Subject:

Marv, Tcope is right..what's the problem here? you have 20k in meds..and they make an offer that doesn't even cover all the med bills? Were they excessive? What was your injury? What are the facts of loss?

Posted: Mon Sep 07, 2009 03:31 pm Post Subject: I received an offer (100% their fault). I asked for $50,000

Hello,

I am guessing here but from my own "guestimation" they are probably questioning my loss of my tooth. My dentist told me the impact is what caused me to loose my tooth (and this was him saying this to me unsolicitated). In other words, I didn't even ask. He just told me.

I had to go to PT for about 5 months. Since they took full responsibility of the accident, I used a lawyer to write the letter itself, knowing that if we had to go to litigation, I would have to find another attorney.

I'm at the point now, I have to either find another attorney to "possibly" litigate or use this lawyer (top notch from what I heard) to make a few calls and then he gets his percentage (contingency fee) in settling without going to court. He will NOT litigate for me since my case is too small. He would be doing this as a favor for my lawyer (the one that wrote the letter for me only).

Or I write the counter offer and see where it goes from there; hence, the inquiry here.

Thank you for helping me out here.

Posted: Mon Sep 07, 2009 03:46 pm Post Subject:

If you are going to do this yourself you should start with proving all medical bills are related to the accident. I don't know what the deal was with the tooth but if your DDS will write a letter stating it was related and why, this would help. I doubt this makes up the $4000+ difference so there must be other bills the carrier is not considering. If you are not prepared to supply all of this info to the carrier you may want to secure the service of an attorney. Personally I would not choose one that is not willing to file suit. You'd be paying that attorney 33% for doing far less then others do for the same amount. An attorney that will not go to court is liking buying a guard dog without teeth.

Posted: Mon Sep 07, 2009 09:39 pm Post Subject:

Hello,

Yes, we have provided EVERYTHING, in fact, for the past 5 years. So I was thinking of what were the important points that need to be addressed in a counter-offer letter.

Thank you so much for your input.

Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 01:10 am Post Subject: accident

MARYWON..you stated, in your FIRST post that you've been 'doing this for 15 months'. Then...you say, in a later post, been doing this for 5 years.' Did I miss something? Am I reading the posts incorrectly?

Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 04:25 am Post Subject:

Sorry for any confusion I have caused. The insurance company wanted ANY medical history for the past 5 years. The accident WAS 15 months ago; but they want to be sure that if I have had any other physical issues, they want all my medical records (if any) for the past 5 years.

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