QuestionQUESTION: My now 19 yr old daughter was a passenger in a single car accident 3 yrs back resulting in shoulder surgery and 2 rounds of physical therapy. Even though the orthopedic surgeon said he could not find anything wrong, she continues to have problems. She teaches at a dance studio while attending college (studying to be a Physical Therapy Asst.) and the physical stress on her shoulder worries me that it's likely to get worse with time. After submitting the requested medical forms and receipts 3 different times, the driver's insurer is now offing a settlement to cover our medical costs of around $15K, $12K of which was covered by my medical policy at work, plus another $20K for pain & suffering. My daughter will be getting married this April so she'd excited about the settlement; however.since her fiancee is in the Marine Corp, I'm worried about their ability to pay for future medical expenses related to the accident. We've never been involved in an insurance settlement involving personal injury. Do you think there's any room to negotiate with the insurer?
ANSWER: Hi Dave,
There is always room for negotiation. Insurance companies will always try to low-ball you. Another thing you need to consider is that your medical insurance will likely be entitled to reimbursement out of any settlement you receive. If the medical bills were $15000.00 then a reasonable settlement would be 3 to 4 times the medical bills or 45k to 60k total. This would include the medical bills themselves, pain & suffering during treatment, current and ongoing pain & suffering and future medical bills. You should start by demanding $60k and then negotiate downward from their. Thell the adjuster their offer is not reasonable considering the ongoing discomfort your daughter is having and the possibility of significant future medical expenses. All communication between your and the adjuster should be in writing only.
I hope this helps
Richard Hixenbaugh
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Thank you Richard. Having no experience with insurance settlements, I'm afraid I made a really big mistake. After doing some more reading it looks like I allowed the insurer to drag their feet long enough so that the statute of limitations for filing a lawsuit may have lapsed. We're in Arkansas and my daughter was a minor when the accident occured so I'm not sure if it has actually lapsed yet or not. Knowing what I do now, it seems odd we received a call from the insurer last week offering to settle if the statute of limitations had lapsed. If we've indeed lost the leverage of filing a lawsuit, I'm inclinded to call her back and offer to settle for $45K, hoping that amount is within her authority and they need to close out some open claims. If I could recover what we've paid out of pocket, pay back our insurance provider and have $20-$25K for my daughter to put back for any future treatment I think I'd be satisfied. Any additional thoughts? Thanks again for your time.
AnswerHi Dave,
When a minor is involved in an accident, the time for the statute of limitations does not begin until the minor turns 18 years old. So it is as if the accident happened on your daughters 18th birthday. So what ever number of years you have in your state staute of limitations runs from her 18th birthday forward.
You should not contact the adjuster by phone. You are at the point where ALL communication should be done only in writing. You may need to assemble a demand package. For assistance with this visit www.collisionwizard.com . This is a website produced by the Better Business Bureau Video Series. It will help you assemble all of your daughter info as well as help you put together a demand package. It even has a claim calculator that will suggest a low and high value for the claim based on the specifics that you enter into the system.
I hope this helps
Richard Hixenbaugh
