Auto Insurance Claims: Auto accident personal injury question, facet blocks, dead bang

Question
In August I was rear ended as I sat at a stop sign. Twice. The driver hit me, knocked me forward, hit me again. No other cars involved. The other driver was cited for following to closely. Her insurance paid to fix my car immediately. However, I suffered a back injury that resulted in physical therapy, facet blocks, and finally radiofrequency ablation- all of this over 4 months time. My medical bills totaled right at $17k. Here's the problem. Their insurance is claiming (of course) that the impact was too low speed to cause any injury and that since I had back surgery 6 months before the accident, they think the pain I suffered was "left overs" from the surgery and not caused by the accident. All my follow-up doctor visits after the surgery (before the accident) show marked improvement, great fusion, and no pain. I had no pain until the accident. I had an MRI at the emergency room after the accident and their insurance is saying that the MRI showed no damage so I can't prove I was injured. I took physical therapy at the local hospital and my doctor is an internationally known neurosurgeon. I didn't go to any quacks, ask for any extra treatments, anything that would be considered 'hinky'. They offered a settlement of $10k which doesn't even cover the medical bills! Do I have a leg to stand on and should I keep pursuing this? I've talked to 3 lawyers who've told me it is too small a case for them to deal with so I'm pretty much on my own.

Answer
Hi Donna,

Insurance companies will always try to minimize the claim by making these type of claims against you.

You will likely need to get an attorney. 17K in medical bills is not a small claim. Assuming all of the bills are legit, your claim should be worth 50k to 75k even with the pre-existing condition. Some attornies do not want to have to work for their money and only want to take dead bang winner cases that 2 letters will settle. You just need to keep contacting attornies until you find one that will be willing to fight for you. If necessary, a good attorney will also be able to negotiate some of the medical bills down as well.

I hope this helps
Richard Hixenbaugh