Personal Injury & Car Accidents

Medical Bills

You will be responsible for paying your own medical bills.  If you have medical payments coverage through your automobile insurance, the health care provider will need your claim number. They will then add your automobile medical payments coverage as the primary insurance and your health insurance as the secondary payer. After your medical payments coverage limit is reached, your health insurance will become the primary payer.  You will be responsible for any amounts not paid by your health insurance.  If you do not have health insurance, you will be responsible to pay the entire medical bill.

Your Medical Treatment

If you received medical treatment after the accident, you should follow the recommendations of your doctor.  If the doctor recommended for you to follow up with additional medical treatment or referred you to another doctor, it is important to follow the doctor’s recommendations.  Sometimes symptoms do not develop until several weeks after the accident. If you develop new symptoms, you should tell your doctor.

Vehicle Damage/Repair

You should contact your insurance agent to notify them of the accident. Your insurance agent will help you open a claim with your insurance carrier if a claim needs to be made.  If a claim is opened you will be contacted by an adjuster, who works for your insurance company.  They will investigate the claim and determine whether the vehicle will be repaired or totaled. The insurance company will probably move the vehicle to a repair shop to get an estimate of the repair cost. The repairs don’t have to be done by the repair shop that the insurance company uses for the estimate. If you feel that your insurance company is not fulfilling its contractual obligation to repair or compensate you for the vehicle damage, an attorney can help you negotiate with the insurance company.

Crash Report

You don’t have to get a copy of the crash report yourself before you meet with an attorney.  If you hire an attorney to represent you, they will obtain a copy of the crash report for you.

Communication with your insurance agent/insurance company

It is important to contact your insurance agent as soon as possible after an accident and to be truthful in all communications with your insurance agent and your insurance company.

Communication with other driver’s insurance company (Request for a recorded statement)

You are not required to comply with any requests made by the other driver’s insurance company in order to preserve your rights. If the insurance company tells you they are going to close your file, that does not affect your legal rights. We recommend for you to consult with an attorney before providing any recorded statements or responding to requests for information.  

Lost Wages

The term “lost wages” refers to suffering a loss of income that you would have been earning but for the negligence of the other driver.  This means that you were unable to work because of the injuries related to the accident. The amount of your lost wages must be supported by documentation.  This amount will be factored into the total value of your claim.

Photographs (vehicle damage, injuries, accident scene)

If possible, take photos of your vehicle, the other vehicle, the accident scene, and your injuries. If you contact an attorney soon after the accident, your attorney may be able to take photographs. If your vehicle is moved from a tow yard to a repair shop by the insurance company, you or your attorney may want to contact the repair shop so photographs can be taken before the repairs are completed.

Insurance Coverage

The amount of your potential recovery depends on the other driver’s insurance coverage. The information that is exchanged does not include the other driver’s insurance coverage amount. The other driver’s insurance company may not provide the coverage amount before a lawsuit is filed. If the other driver does not have insurance or they have a low coverage amount, you may be able to recover additional amounts from your own insurance policy.  Your uninsured and underinsured coverage limits will determine the total amount that can potentially be recovered.

Settlement Demand

After you finish your medical treatment for any injuries related to the accident, your attorney will likely send a settlement demand to the opposing party’s insurance company.  This will include a written summary of your medical treatment and tell your story of how you have been damaged by the accident. This will also include documentation to support your claim for damages such as the crash report, medical bills, medical records, and photographs.  The settlement demand starts the negotiation process. The insurance company will review the settlement demand package and typically responds with a monetary offer to settle the claim. You would then respond to the offer with a reduced demand and both parties go back and forth to see if they can agree on a number to settle the claim.  If the parties cannot agree, then you would proceed to file a lawsuit.

Filing Lawsuit

If a lawsuit is filed, the defendant will likely be represented by an attorney paid for by the defendant’s insurance carrier. The defense attorney will file an answer to the complaint. Then they will likely send written discovery requests called interrogatories and requests for production of documents. Interrogatories are written questions. Your attorney will ask you to provide information to them and help you answer those questions. The request for production of documents typically asks for your medical bills, medical records, tax returns, photographs related to the accident, and documentation to support your claim for damages.  You may also be required to produce information from your social media accounts, emails, and text messages.

Deposition

The defense attorney will probably request a deposition. A deposition is sworn out of court testimony given by a witness in a civil lawsuit. The defense attorney will ask you questions, and you will have to answer the questions under oath. The court reporter will type everything that is said into the transcript. Your attorney will prepare you for the deposition and attend the deposition. This is an opportunity for the defense attorney to meet you in person and they will assess how good of a witness you would be at trial. It is important to listen to the questions and answer them truthfully.

Mediation

Mediation is a meeting of the parties for the purpose of reaching a settlement. The mediator is a neutral third party who assists the parties in reaching an agreement. Each party will be present and represented by their lawyers. Some mediators start a mediation with all the parties together in one room to describe the process and set the ground rules. The mediator then allows each attorney to exchange information they believe will facilitate settlement. After the joint meeting, most mediators divide the parties into individual rooms then meet individually with one party at a time. The mediator seeks common ground and facilitates negotiations.

Trial

The most important thing to know about taking a personal injury case all the way to a jury trial is that it is expensive.  The evidence that you will need to introduce for your case includes the testimony of your doctors. The law firm that represents you will have to pay your doctors for their time testifying in person at trial and testifying at a deposition.  The trial costs that are advanced by the law firm are paid by you out of the amount of money you are awarded by the jury. So, you could be awarded more money at trial than was offered in settlement but take home less money because of the significant additional costs associated with trial.