by txdakotagirl » Thu Sep 04, 2014 05:40 am
Greetings from Texas,
I am wondering what would be a realistic claim for someone like myself. Upfront, I do all ready have a lawyer working for me. As we know,the words ballpark figure seem to make those lawyers skittish. :o Now before I digress into the lawyer jokes allow me to fill you all in with the details.
05/12/14
My fiancee and I were on our way to work took the exit off I-35 which was pretty congested. I merged through traffic to the far right lane, due to heavy traffic I nearly rearended another car at a dead stop. Mind you theywere about a 100' past the yeild sign. Unfortunately again due to traffic, another driver made the merge and was unable to stop in time. She was traveling about 40mph, in her attempt to swerve she hit the driver side rear from about the license plate over on my car.
The police were contacted and she was cited for following too closely and for driving without a license. She was driving her boyfriends car who had liability through State Farm. The hassle with that is a whole another story as State Farm tried to dodge that bullet.
We declined medical services at the time and called for a Taxi to get to work. Once we got to work the symptoms started to show themselves throughout the day. headaches, sore neck and shoulders just felt bad overall. We went to the Er that evening whiplash, strained neck/back and shoulder was determined after X-ray galore. Take some Tylenol go home and rest. We went home we rested and crawled to work the rest of the week.
The headaches that followed the rest of the week were the worst for me. I ended up in urgent care Saturday for headache, nausea they treated formigraine and gave me a shot of Tordol. That helped for a couple days until I could get in with my primary who determined I suffered an concussion. Which also explained the bouts of confusion where I would forget words. She placed me an amitriptyline to help with headaches. It helps but still get bad headaches they are just not constant. I am sensitive now, hot temperatures and overworking myself seems to be the evil triggers. I am now doing epidural treatments on my lower back.
My fiancee ended up with strained neck/back and shoulder and seems to be okay with 20 chiropractic treatments. So right now here is where we are:
2000 pontiac grand am totaled seattled for 3500
Jessica medical Er/urgent care/primary care/xray/cat scan/mri/epidural shots
13000k
Lost time at work 1200
I do have preexsisting condition for degenerative disk little to no pain prior to accident. 2 additional shots pending for back at 3000 a piece.
Fiancee
Medical for Er and chiropractic 2500
Anyone want to take a ballpark guess on this one?
I am wondering what would be a realistic claim for someone like myself. Upfront, I do all ready have a lawyer working for me. As we know,the words ballpark figure seem to make those lawyers skittish. :o Now before I digress into the lawyer jokes allow me to fill you all in with the details.
05/12/14
My fiancee and I were on our way to work took the exit off I-35 which was pretty congested. I merged through traffic to the far right lane, due to heavy traffic I nearly rearended another car at a dead stop. Mind you theywere about a 100' past the yeild sign. Unfortunately again due to traffic, another driver made the merge and was unable to stop in time. She was traveling about 40mph, in her attempt to swerve she hit the driver side rear from about the license plate over on my car.
The police were contacted and she was cited for following too closely and for driving without a license. She was driving her boyfriends car who had liability through State Farm. The hassle with that is a whole another story as State Farm tried to dodge that bullet.
We declined medical services at the time and called for a Taxi to get to work. Once we got to work the symptoms started to show themselves throughout the day. headaches, sore neck and shoulders just felt bad overall. We went to the Er that evening whiplash, strained neck/back and shoulder was determined after X-ray galore. Take some Tylenol go home and rest. We went home we rested and crawled to work the rest of the week.
The headaches that followed the rest of the week were the worst for me. I ended up in urgent care Saturday for headache, nausea they treated formigraine and gave me a shot of Tordol. That helped for a couple days until I could get in with my primary who determined I suffered an concussion. Which also explained the bouts of confusion where I would forget words. She placed me an amitriptyline to help with headaches. It helps but still get bad headaches they are just not constant. I am sensitive now, hot temperatures and overworking myself seems to be the evil triggers. I am now doing epidural treatments on my lower back.
My fiancee ended up with strained neck/back and shoulder and seems to be okay with 20 chiropractic treatments. So right now here is where we are:
2000 pontiac grand am totaled seattled for 3500
Jessica medical Er/urgent care/primary care/xray/cat scan/mri/epidural shots
13000k
Lost time at work 1200
I do have preexsisting condition for degenerative disk little to no pain prior to accident. 2 additional shots pending for back at 3000 a piece.
Fiancee
Medical for Er and chiropractic 2500
Anyone want to take a ballpark guess on this one?
Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2014 12:58 pm Post Subject:
You are paying an attorney 33% of whatever the insurance company pays and instead of having the attorney work for this 33% you are coming online to find out what you might be paid? I can never understand that. Your attorney knows this case better then anyone. Your attorney has handled hundreds of these cases before and he/she is not able to give you a guess as to what your claim is worth? Why not? In their commercials they seem to be telling people that they know exactly what people should be paid on these claims... why shy away from the facts at this point?
Bottom lin, no one here can tell you what your claim she be settled at. A claim in MS might be worth less then a claim in CA. A claim for a 25 year old might be worth more than a claim for a 70 year old. We can't review all of your medical treatment, etc. We don't know if those medical bills have been paid and if so, if they need to be paid back, etc. The list goes on.
Seem like your attorney does not want to tell you what your claim should be worth in order to protect himself/herself from you when he/she takes a different settlement from the insurance company. Personally I'd have them out their money where their mouth is. Do they know the value of your case or not? If not, perhaps you should be getting another attorney.
Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2014 07:23 pm Post Subject:
Fair enough,
I'll give him a call see if maybe be can get a better standing 4 months.
Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 07:19 am Post Subject:
I am wondering what would be a realistic claim for someone like myself. Upfront, I do all ready have a lawyer working for me.
I am in full agreement with tcope on this. When people have been exposed to a tort -- damage to person or property due to the negligence of others -- which is probably covered by insurance, for some reason, they seem to head to an attorney long before the need arises. The attorney, knowing this to be true, paints a picture of evil insurance companies that never pay claims and how he/she is so successful at getting them to write checks.Truth be told, the insurance companies write plenty of checks without ever having to deal with attorneys. Most of those checks are for the proper amount, or a fair and agreed amount between the insurance company and the "damaged" party.
Checks written to attorneys are often for the EXACT same amount a person could have obtained by dealing directly with the insurance company on his/her own, which reduces the amount the damaged party receives by 30%-40% or more. Does that sound like someone has received a valuable service? Not to me, it doesn't.
The time to seek the services of an attorney in a personal injury matter is when your negotiations with the insurance company have come to a standstill and their offer to settle is, in your mind, insufficient. (And one also needs to be mindful of the "statute of limitations" -- the amount of time that can pass before it is too late to file a case in court -- miss by just one day, and you might as well have missed by a thousand years.)
Now let's address another issue:
State Farm tried to dodge that bullet.
What is it that you think the insurance company is trying to "dodge"? Have you read the contract the vehicle owner -- who is one of the parties your attorney will sue, not the insurance company -- has with his insurance company? Of course you haven't. Would you be interested to know that the policy probably has an exclusion for damages caused by an unlicensed driver?You want to know "what this is worth" as if it's a million dollar case. Well, it's not worth anything close to that. You are entitled to your direct economic losses. You were paid for the damage to your vehicle, and you are still entitled to payment for all necessary medical expenses (20 chiropractic treatments could be 20 too many and none might be paid) and lost time from employment. If those medical expenses were paid by a health insurance company, then, guess what? That's who will get to collect those amounts from you after you collect from the at-fault party. And any lost time from work claims had better be legitimate and documented, otherwise you might find yourself being prosecuted for fraud.
What you really want to know is how much your noneconomic damages will be valued at. Probably not more than a few thousand dollars total between you and your passenger. Why not more? Because (a) no one is dead, (b) no one is permanently disabled or disfigured, and (c) no one suffered any genuinely traumatic injuries (broken bones, lacerations, etc). Who wins? The attorney who will collect 1/3 or more of the entire settlement amount before payments to health insurance companies are made.
Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2014 04:56 am Post Subject:
Hmm,
I have to say that the lawyer did not paint an evil picture at all. I contacted an attorneys when we got final offer medical bills+80 percent lost wages +500 for my troubles. So no,not thinking this is the case of the century by any means.
State farm did pick up the claim since there was no evidence she had taken the care without permission. So possible he was letting her drive without a license.
The 80 hours over the last four months have all been documented. Doctor approved time off work and time off for medical treatment.
So you're right no broken bones or scarring. My final diagnosis was whiplash, strained back and concussion. I am still working through headaches daily, the blurry vision. The aftermath of the concussion which has continued the last 4 months.
My fiancee was better off Er visit 1700 and 700 covered those 20 chiropractic visits. So for strained neck, back and shoulder did not feel it was overkill.
Okay a few thousand so that random number is more then what statefarm was willing to offer.
Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2014 05:18 am Post Subject:
So to clarify where we stand
20, 000 in medical bills. Yes, we have insurance coverage and I am aware they must be paid back.
5000 is what we have paid for meds and copays of the 20, 000.
Lost wages over the last 4 months was 100 hours=1255.00
Lawyer agreement 33 1/3 AFTER medical bills have been paid.
Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2014 02:57 pm Post Subject:
Well, then it seems to me that the difference in opinion is 20% of lost wages, which are fully compensable, and whatever you think you want for your "general damages" (i.e., pain and suffering). Based on what you've indicated, that's only a few thousand dollars, at best. This never should have required an attorney, and there is a section of the Unfair Claims Practices Act that says it is unfair to compel insureds to sue an insurance company only to recover what they should reasonably have expected to receive.
The crux of your situation is this bad faith effort on the part of the insurance company. A jury may or may not award anything for that. It's up to your attorney to present a compelling case.
Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2014 09:01 pm Post Subject:
:-)
Thank you for taking the time to review my question. Perhaps, I did jump for an attorney, but State farm was pressure for the 500 only. I hope it does not bite me in the butt. I will take it as a life lesson and move on. I'll give an update when things come to an end.
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