by Mrscucch » Wed Aug 05, 2009 01:37 am
I was involved in a serious auto accident a year and a half ago.. I am still getting treatment with little expectations of great improvement all around. Seen many specialists, had many tests, nerve damage was found etc.
I recently found out how much the demand amount was from my lawyer to the other driver's insurance who was 100% at fault.. The demand amount is $75k but I also discovered that the other driver's insurance caps bodily injury to others at 20k...
Does that mean no matter what I have gone through and will continue to go through for however many years, the most I can get is 20k from this?
By time the lawyer gets his share plus fees, what is left? I am also told my health insurance who took over paying treatment after I used up my PIP can come back to me wanting reimbursement once they know I received a settlement..
Sounds pretty unfair to me that if this guy picked the lowest required insurance that I dont get the standard acceptable amount of a claim.
I am living at dimished capacity & am self employed so I have been unable to take on any more clients due to the pain & inability to drive long distances anymore.
Thoughts??? Advice???
I recently found out how much the demand amount was from my lawyer to the other driver's insurance who was 100% at fault.. The demand amount is $75k but I also discovered that the other driver's insurance caps bodily injury to others at 20k...
Does that mean no matter what I have gone through and will continue to go through for however many years, the most I can get is 20k from this?
By time the lawyer gets his share plus fees, what is left? I am also told my health insurance who took over paying treatment after I used up my PIP can come back to me wanting reimbursement once they know I received a settlement..
Sounds pretty unfair to me that if this guy picked the lowest required insurance that I dont get the standard acceptable amount of a claim.
I am living at dimished capacity & am self employed so I have been unable to take on any more clients due to the pain & inability to drive long distances anymore.
Thoughts??? Advice???
Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 11:45 am Post Subject:
Mrscucch, well what a mess...while it won't help you, it may help another reading your thread...IMO, it's always best to WAIT to hire an attorney, as in your case, you could've settled this whole thing with both carriers on your own, as well as negotiating with your health carrier, and got to keep the entire payment.
I've been at this gig since 1987...I've NEVER heard of an attorney that took his/her third and then took additional fees from their clients share...IMO this is outrageous!
One thing to check on (slight, very slight glimmer of hope)...some states allow 'stacking' of UM/UIM...you have (I'm assuming) more than one vehicle? And all have UIM? Check your states dept of ins web site, or actually you could just ask your attorney he should know this off the top of his head. ''IF'' your state allows stacking of UIM that means if you have three cars with 20k UIMBI limits you would have a 60k limit rather than 20...don't get your hopes up, but certainly check it out. I would also attempt to negotiate this fee with your attorney, (sorry I know you like him, but I think he's incompetent) he should've known within 60 days of taking your case what the other guys BI limit were and should've let you know that, minimally he should've been sending letters every 30days asking for their limits, and warned you of this possibility....he HAD to know your UIMBI limits were low. If he didn't, again, he dropped the ball...based on these facts I would try and negotiate his fee..If he says he requested the limits from the at fault party's carrier, I'd want to see copies of those letters, (in fact you should've got a copy of EVERY letter he sent regarding your case, every time he sent one)...I'm betting the carrier offered their limits after he sent his demand...more over I'd bet he knew the limits months ago..
Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 06:41 pm Post Subject:
thanks all for the responses. Like I said earlier, when I hired an attorney, it appeared as though I was going to be needing some serious medical help for a very long time. I have never seen anything the attorney has sent to the other insurance. i got to see the demand letter and the letter my Dr. sent him because I asked to see it.
He has ALWAYS said to do what it takes to get well and it would be worth it in the end which tells me he didnt know about the 20k limit or if he did, he was a great liar.
I will check about stacking the UIMBI on my policy. MASS has a no fault law that already screwed me once on this, I have no doubt, there is something in there preventing me from stacking it.
Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 06:54 pm Post Subject:
Massachusetts does not allow stacking of under insured auto insurance. It was a nice thought.
Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 08:18 pm Post Subject:
My lawyer has said nothing about going after the 20k I have on my UIMBI policy. I dont know that he has ever even seen my policy unless the insurance company sent it to him. Do I need him to go after this?
that way he can have his 1/3 of the orig 20k and I can have all 20k off my insurance.
Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 09:56 pm Post Subject:
Do I need him to go after this?
I'm betting he either knows or will ask about it as you cannot accept the BI payment without obtaining authorization from your own carrier.You can see if you are required to pay him 1/3 of the UIMBI settlement or if you can collect this on your own. Again, someone needs to tell your carrier of the BI _offer_ before it's accepted so that your carrier can waive their right of recovery against the at-fault party. Once this is done, you can accept the BI settlement.
Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 11:09 pm Post Subject:
he didnt know about the 20k limit or if he did, he was a great liar.
That's my point he should've been inquiring LONG ago...also, (just IMO) most attorneys I know will automatically 'cc' their client on all correspondence relating to their case, and they should!
As Tcope said, it's VERY important to get your insurance company's ''permission'' to accept the other carriers limits...if you do not get your carriers permission PRIOR to accepting this offer, you will lose your opportunity (most likely) to file a UIM claim...and of course your attorney will know about your UIM when this happens...I'd just ask him point blank.., 'hey, why didn't you know there was a limits issue with this? Since there is, you know what my bills are...how about negotiating your bill some?" I'd also ask for copies of EVERY piece of correspondence he's sent and received...this will give you some indication how hard (or not) he's worked on your case, thus giving you a little amo for negotiating his bill...Of course he can say, 'nope, you signed the contract'..but it certainly won't cost you anymore to ask him...Also don't forget to ask him if he's talked to your health carrier and has he reached an agreement with them to not subro you for their payments.
Posted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 12:08 am Post Subject:
ya know.... I went with this guy cause his firm is pretty big and handles personal injury claims as a specialty... I had started out with a little guy here in town who was a friend and does a little bit of everything and am now realizing... I didnt need the big name but again, how was I supposed to know only a couple weeks after the accident that it would turn out this way?
My friend who referred me received 65k out of her accident which had similar injuries and her grandson received 77k from the same accident due to damage to his teeth etc. which braces have corrected since then....
And in this case it was considered their fault for the accident so their own insurance was all they had to deal with. You would think being found 100% NOT at fault in my case would have certainly paid off much better than what i am getting as the end result.
And again, thank God I didnt seek all sorts of therapy & assistance out of my pocket becuase I would be fresh out of luck.
I should have searched for this forum way back then... although to be honest, I havent had my head on straight since the accident in Jan 08... My organizational skills, focus & over all "togetherness" has suffered quite a bit from this.
As I have said, I will never be able to handle a full client load again, so now I am limited in earnings from now on unless by some miracle I get all better. But it doesnt matter what the future holds for me because of this cap on the other guys ins.
There are those on here who are thinking all I am seeing are dollar signs... but you would have to know what I have gone through for the past year and a half and what the outlook is for my future to understand that going through all this only to find out in the end some guy bought cheap insurance and therefore I got capped on my settlement upsets me a great deal!
Posted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 03:33 am Post Subject:
Interesting thought....
I went back to my emails and found out that he only filed suit this April after a latest update from me and my Dr. showed I was still in agony with no improvement. So I guess we know what he did for the last year... NOTHING... which maybe explains why he didnt know about the 20k cap.
I dont know... right now I have to focus on breathing in and out and repeating... whatever I get in the end, is whatever I get and maybe it can pay off some bills and take some weight off our finances considering I had to trim back my business.
Posted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 03:37 am Post Subject:
I don't think he filed suit... he sent the carrier a demand. Big difference. Attorneys wait all of the time. There is no reason for them to file early... it's just a chance to miss some more medical bills down the road. Once they are 100% sure they wait another month... and then they put together the demand.
I'm sorry to say this but you are 100% correct. They attorney spend about 2 hours on your case (I'm adding in an hour just to be safe).
I'd not sweat the small stuff. Take it one day at a time and do something enjoyable each and every day!
Posted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 04:01 am Post Subject:
Excellent suggestion tcoupe !
I was just using the wording in his email where he said that he filed suit... I am sure that just meant what you said, he submitted his paperwork and then he sent the demand this week.
And I guess when he found out its only 20k cap, he didnt need to wait another 6 mos. to see if I was any better or worse because it wouldnt have changed the outcome so maybe, he was looking out for me in the end.
My brother's bankrupcy attorney waited months to file which ended up making the amount go way up with all the finance charges and such, but in the end, it worked out for my brother... well sort of. But that would be another thread.. : )
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