QuestionOne year ago, my husband and daughter were hit by an uninsured driver. He made a left hand turn directly into the motorcycle they were on. Both were treated and released from the hospital immediately after the accident. Our daughter is fine. My husband has permanent loss of strength in both wrists and is in almost constant pain. The hand specialist has discharged him after performing testing to establish the percentage of loss in each wrist (15% or so on each side). The strength loss is not necessarily debilitating but the pain certainly is.
As a side issue, all bills were supposed to go to the insurance company but not all have gone smoothly. We have had a judgement issued (then paid by the insurance company and removed) and now have a collection on one of the hospital bills.
Our UIM limit is $25,000. They have offered medical bills to date + $4,000 for our daughter and $15,000 for my husband. How should we proceed at this point?
Thank you for any assistance!
AnswerHi Ann,
I am sorry to hear of this accident because it sounds pretty serious. I think that the claim value exceeds your policy limits. I also find it hard to believe that your daughter will be fine, but after one year, I guess we just have to give thanks for youth! Still, I would want to get some solid indication from her doctor that she (1) is not at risk for pains if she does physical activities; and (2) she is not at higher risk for further injury from less trauma because of the fact scar tissue healing does not have the elasticity as her original structures. Other than that, we can dispense with her and move on to your issues with the limits and your husband's claim.
You may already know that insurance claim help www.SettlementCentral.Com online forms and samples are useful for injured victims who want to handle their own claims. Self help insurance settlements is Doctor Settlement's expertise. BUT my self help insurance claims website and my advice are NOT GOOD FOR YOUR CLAIMS: you cannot go any further on your own.
I am recommending that you seek legal counsel ASAP. Here is why.
First, I would want an attorney to review the circumstances of their failure to pay the medical bills and the judgment entered against you. Without knowing the details of how bills were submitted and paid, I cannot make a determination of insurance BAD FAITH.
But enough smells about this claims handling that I want you to find an attorney who has actually handled a bad faith claim to a successful conclusion. You will have to do a search and make a few phone calls, but I am asking you to humor me and JUST FIND AN EXPERIENCED BAD FAITH ATTORNEY. Do not pick someone like me—I have done almost thirty years of personal injury work, so you might think that with all of that experience someone like me could help. But in all that time, I have yet to handle even one bad faith claim! Get someone who handles bad faith on a regular basis.
Here is why. The entry of a judgment versus you may have been the result of incompetent claims handling. Your insurer owes you a duty under your policy, and is sounds like they may have breached that duty. Hence, there may be damages owing to you under either or both contract law or tort law.
I cannot speculate as to the amount of those damages, but if there were to be proven liability and proven defamation of your credit worthiness (even if just temporary) and some emotional distress, then there could be some pretty serious damages awarded to you for BAD FAITH.
The second reason for the attorney is to make darn sure that the tortfeasor does not have sufficient assets to merit suing him. Sounds strange, but sometimes the uninsured DO have a lot of assets.
The third reason is for the attorney to decide whether or not there could be other tortfeasors to go after. Maybe a family vehicle, or one used in work? Or maybe the city for road design or for letting vegetation grow on the traffic island. Anything to find another source of help.
Don't you dismiss these suggestions, Ann and go about this on your own. You can set aside the amounts of the offers so that the attorney does not take a full fee for those amounts. Does that make sense?
I trust that my time here has produced some information that has been of value to you, and thus I would respectfully request that you take the time to locate the FEEDBACK FORM on this site and leave some feedback for me.
Best Wishes,
Dr. Settlement, J.D. (Juris Doctor)
http://www.SettlementCentral.Com
