QuestionHello,
On December 26, 2008 my mother and I were hit head-on by a drunk driver. I was the passenger and was taken to the hospital by helicopter, and my mom (driver) was taken by ambulance.
The drunk driver had a minimal insurance coverage policy of $25K, my actual damages are at $41,200. Luckily both my mom and I have underinsured motorist policies which can kick in when necessary.
The drunk driver's policy provided policy limits, but many of my medical bills are still unpaid. In essence, I have my $25K underinsured policy and my mom's $25K underinsured policy (since she was the driver) to use.
However, our adjuster is dragging her feet and will not return phone calls or emails. It has been almost 4 months, and I need to pay these bills and move on!
How can we speed up the process? The adjuster has all of the medical bills, the lost wages information, medical records, and even photos taken on a bi-weekly basis after the wreck. She has everything she needs. I finally got her through email today, and she said she may need to meet with me in person to observe my facial scars and disfigured hand. Is this a normal procedure? Why don't the photos and medical records serve these needs?
Furthermore, I don't see what the hold up could be ... my bills and lost wages equal to almost $45K. We were hit by a completely negligent drunk driver and not expected to live, for goodness sakes!
Also, my job is 99% on-camera ... I have facial scarring and slight immobility of my left hand, with no knuckles. Will this come into play with the settlement process?
I know about the multiplier method of settlement, and based on that, it seems to be an open and shut case of allowing policy limits for both claims. What do you think?
I have spoken to an attorney, but in the beginning I opted not to hire one. Should I forget about handling this myself and get an attorney this late in the game?
Any help or information will be greatly appreciated ... also, we are in Texas if that helps.
Thanks so much,
Melissa
AnswerHi Melissa,
The claim adjusters job is to delay, deny, postpone, lose things, ask for more things, etc. In short, they try to drag out the process so that when they finally make you an offer you are so fed up that you will likely take the offer even if it is not sufficient. Don't let them play you.
If they want to see your scars in person you should allow them to do so, but, under these circumstances; request that she have a claims supervisor or manager present at the meeting who has the authority to settle your claim then and their. Tell her that based on your medical bills, permanent scaring and partial permanent limited movement in your hand that you will accept nothing less than the full policy limit of both policies. Tell her that based on your research and discussions with attornies that you know (and they should know) that your cliam is actually worth many times the limits of both policies and for them to not immediately tender the full amounts is an act of bad faith claim handling. Tell them further that if you agree to their meeting and you are not able to leave the meeting with a check in hand for the full policy limits that you will be going directly to an attornies office to file suit not only for the claim itself but also for bad faith claim handling where you will also be able to get punitive damages, attornies fees and what ever else the attorney can come up with.
You have to be tough (not nasty)just firm in your conviction that you are the victim here and they need to step up to the plate and take care of the one who pays their salary.
I hope this helps
Richard Hixenbaugh
