Dotting my i's and crossing my t's

by Kenney » Fri Feb 25, 2011 06:40 pm
Posts: 2
Joined: 25 Feb 2011

I was recently involved in a motorcycle accident. Other driver turned in front of my and thankfully their insurance company is accepting responsibility. My adjuster at Progressive has been incredibly helpful but I just want to make sure I'm doing everything properly and what I can expect.

Injury occurred on a Sunday afternoon and I was released from the hospital the following evening. I had to stay overnight for observation due to a maxilla sinus fracture that was draining blood into my stomach. My other injuries were a severely dislocated thumb which required surgery and will require physical therapy to regain movement. There is some concern that at 50 I will not regain full movement and will most likely have arthritis in the joint - of course it will still be months before we know anything for sure.

Motorcycle was totaled but I've already gotten payoff on that and was satisfied with the reimbursement.

I know have in front of me the other insurance companies request for release of my medical records. I'm still in the process of figuring out just who all the various providers have been and their addresses. The other form they sent seems pretty straight forward as it's asking for my time lost at work and what my salary is.

Here's my questions for you knowledgeable folk. At this point not even being three weeks since the accident how do I figure out my time lost from work when I still have to deal with future PT appointments that due to where I work I know are going to cut into my time at work. I've also been reading up on some of the comments made in this forum about settlement for pain and suffering. I'm not at all interested in sucking blood and getting personal injury lawyer, but I work in IT and can barely type for the next month due to the cast on my hand. How do you in the insurance biz figure out this stuff? I hate to even use the term pain and suffering. I'd prefer PITA and major hassle. :-)
Is there a form for this that I can expect them to also send me? How should I go about asking for some kind of compensation or is that just a given?

I look forward to any wisdom you can impart. I've never gone thru anything like this before.

Total Comments: 2

Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2011 02:15 pm Post Subject:

Kenny the at fault driver's insurance company and your own insurance company will be very nice at first to try and get you to give up information they can use against you later to not pay your claim fairly, but believe me this will all change once your claim progresses. A year and a half ago a motorist was cited for failing to yield right a way to myself while riding my motorcycle and i am still waiting to get paid. You should contact a motorcycle accident attorney for advise before you sign any medical release forms you don't want are need the headache your heading for trust me.

Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2011 02:28 pm Post Subject:

If you don't know how much work you will miss, then you should not settle. You can give them your wage info but simply tell them that you need to better understand what your medical bills and loss wages will be before you agree to any settlement amount. They will want to settle as soon as possible as 1) it's their job and 2) settlement amounts usually don't go down with time, they go up.

I've had people complain to me that I've not made an offer to settle early on and I've had people complaint that I made them an offer early on.

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