QuestionOur daughter was in an accident back in November and was rear ended while stopped for a school bus.
She said she saw the car coming in the rear mirror and tensed up and this probably made it worse.
Any way...she has been in therapy for weeks now and has been diagnosed with a ruptured disc as a result. The bills are adding up, she is unable to work after school due to the pain and therapy visits.
My questions is...we are swamped with lawyers emails and mailings so how do we pick the right one? She is a Senior in College and we just want her healthy and able to start her working life without pain but I know it may be a long time until she is...
AnswerHi Mike,
It is really tough to see one’s child injured in an accident, and this injury is potentially serious. That is one reason you might want to call in an attorney since the value of a claim with a ruptured disc is pretty high.
I will give you my ideas on finding a good attorney, but first I want to go over some contracting issues so that she is not paying attorney fees for something she could easily do herself. Since you and your wife might be doing a lot to help with this claim, I will use “you” below, instead of “your daughter”.
NOW ON TO ATTORNEY FEES.
Dr. Settlement is an expert in personal injury insurance claims, and as you can see by my website below, we teach people how to settle their own insurance injury claims at www.SettlementCentral.Com Big or complex personal injury claims are best left to an attorney, though. Yours is such a claim, UNLESS THERE ARE LOWER POLICY LIMITS.
Here is what I want to convey as to the relationship between policy limits and your handling the claim yourself. Let’s assume that the claim has a value of $75,000, which would be within range of a serious herniated disc claim.
If the policy limits of the tortfeasor are only $25,000, then a blind dog with a note in its mouth could settle the claim. So why pay an attorney to do what you can easily do? UNLESS you contract for a reduced fee in the case of low limits, most attorneys will enforce their contract and walk off with $8,333 for basically doing nothing that you and your daughter could not have done.
But if the tortfeasor’s limits are $100,000, then you might have more of a fight to get close to those limits, but again, why pay an attorney one-third to get full value for you when clearly you could get an offer for half that on your own?
In other words, if you get an offer of $50K, and the attorney is able to increase the award to $5K over the value of the claim, or $80K, is it really fair to pay the attorney a full one-third on $80,000? She will want Do It Yourself Personal Injury Settlement Offer Reduces Personal Injury Attorney Fees http://www.settlementcentral.com/page0109.htm
Depending upon the case, you could negotiate an appropriate percentage of the amount the attorney achieves ABOVE the best offer your daughter gets.
Hence, you can see that in limited circumstances you should go forward with the claim, but in all others, an attorney is necessary. But you will want to tell the attorney that this is a claim that merits reduced fees in the event of low limits on the other side.
With respect to low policy limits, there is a real possibility of your daughter netting nothing should her insurers enforce big subrogation claims.. You will have to ENSURE THAT HER ATTORNEY EXPLAINS what can be done to fight subrogation claim, and to explain why she should charge full fees if all she had to do was to get a policy limits settlement was to write a few letters.
Here is the background on subrogation, just for your information.
http://www.settlementcentral.com/page0459.htm
Ask the attorney what she expects for subrogation claims, and whether there are any defenses to subrogation, and what she intends to do about fighting for them?
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Next is the topic of how to handle the claim should you learn that the other side has low limits. OK, Mike—now it is time to learn how to submit and settle your own personal injury insurance claims—DO IT YOURSELF SETTLEMENTS.
Here is a series of pages that you can review. Take what makes sense to you and don't worry about the rest. Just get a flavor of how the system works without spending a ton of time right now.
Overview Tort Law Personal Injury Legal Claims http://www.settlementcentral.com/page3000.htm
Managing Medical Care After Auto Accident: http://www.settlementcentral.com/page0203.htm
Medical Care Documentation-the Key to Successful Personal Injury Insurance Claim Settlements http://www.settlementcentral.com/page0217.htm
Keys to a MAXIMUM INSURANCE INJURY CLAIM SETTLEMENT http://www.settlementcentral.com/page0089.htm
Outline of questions to be expected from insurance claims adjuster http://www.settlementcentral.com/page0190.htm
Detailed listing of questions to be expected from insurance claims adjuster http://www.settlementcentral.com/page0207.htm
By the way, did you know that getting an early settlement is a favorite trick of the insurance adjusters? Please see my website wherein we show Insurance Claim Adjuster Secret Tactics http://www.settlementcentral.com/page0092.htm
Responding to Settlement Offer From Insurance Claims Adjuster http://www.settlementcentral.com/page0244.htm
Without having to join my website, I have given a lot of free information on handling insurance claims without having to join as a member. Read the module at "5 Easy Steps to Do-it-Yourself Insurance Claim Settlement" http://www.settlementcentral.com/page0102.htm
This stuff is not rocket science, but it will take some effort on your part to read and cut and paste letter examples and to communicate. But hundreds of people are doing it each day, and they are getting good results.
What if you get only two-thirds the way to your settlement goal? Well, you can get as big a settlement as you can and then turn it over to an attorney and save a lot of fees. Thus, you could go it alone just to get an insurance settlement offer, and then take that insurance settlement offer to a personal injury attorney, thus exempting the amount of the offer from her fees. Do It Yourself Personal Injury Settlement Offer Reduces Personal Injury Attorney Fees http://www.settlementcentral.com/page0109.htm
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The best way to hire an attorney is to see if she meets three criteria:
• Is she a member of your state trial lawyers’ association? This is important since that organization keeps attorneys up to speed on new issues and the best way to prove cases. Here is contact information on your state trial lawyers http://www.settlementcentral.com/links.php
• Has she handled any disc cases before? Has she been to a jury trial at least once in each of the past two years?
• Will she make the fee arrangements for a reduction in the event of low limits on the other side?
OK, Mike, just keep this information in mind, and MAKE SURE that your daughter keeps her doctor appointments and follows advice. 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
P.S. I apologize for the delay in answering you, but the flu laid me low for this past week, and I do not wish that on anyone as it was debilitating.
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