car accident setlement in south florida

by shadow1 » Wed Jan 09, 2013 05:43 pm

My husband had a car accident last july, he didnt have insurance at the time, we were contact by a lawyer, after that, my husband had shoulder surgery can work very well, he works on construction, self-employed, the medical bills are as right now around 60.000,00, today the lawyer told us that will take probably 0ne year to settle this, and we probaly walking with only 4.000,00 em our pockets, after all this, the pain, and still no having a totally funcional shoulder and arm, what can we do?? The lawyer promise before to reduce the medical bills, can i ask for the insurance pay the medical bills without touching the setlement money?? Ex: I got my settlement money (60.000) and the insurance be responsable for paying my medical bill and my lawyer??
Thanks

Total Comments: 1

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2013 02:13 am Post Subject:

First, please lean how to write dollar amounts correctly... that is, 60.0000 is not really a number and at best, it's $60. $60,000 is sixty thousand dollars and there is a big difference.

If the accident happened in FL then you are required to have $10,000 in PIP coverage. Since you did not, the other insurance company can still take an offset for the 80% of $10,000 your carrier should have paid. In other words, if you had $6,000 in medical expenses the other carrier might consider paying $4,000 on top of the $6,000. Since your carrier should have paid 80%of the $6,000 the other carrier will only pay $4,000 and 20% of the $6,000 and you would need to address the difference.

But setting all of this aside, you are paying an attorney 33% of everything the other carrier paid. Since this is coming out of _your_ pocket, why don't you ask your attorney these questions?

The other carrier won't pay ongoing medical expenses... this was your responsibility in obtaining the legally required insurance. The other carrier won't pay your attorneys bill. You will be paying your attorney 33% of your settlement.

I can tell you that there is a _good_ possibility that you will walk away from this with very little in your pocket. Mainly because you choose not to carry the required PIP coverage. Another good portion of your settlement will go to your attorney. About the only reason you may pocket anything is that the attorney will get your medical bills reduced after the settlement (something anyone can do with a simple call).

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