QuestionAn 18 wheeler wanted to change lanes, did not see me on his right, nipped my rear tire. This sent me into a tailspin where I ended up in front of the truck and he t-boned me. This caused our car to roll over three times before we hit the railing, and we were left suspended upside down. The trucker admitted fault, and received a ticket. My husband and I both were taken by ambulance to a hospital where we were later released. Our injuries were soft tissue, and we had 12 weeks of physical therapy. Both my husband and I still experience back pain (mostly lower back) and we are not able to do the things we once could (lifting heavy objects, carrying our youngest daughter, exercising, etc.) Since the accident, I have gained 15 pounds (mostly because I no longer exercise...walking causes pain, and I have been depressed since the accident.) I still have nightmares, and both my husband and I do not like to drive on the highway. We take alternate routes when possible.
We are in Georgia, and our medical expenses equal approximately $5000 each. We are getting ready to settle, and do not have a lawyer. How much should we be expecting?
Thank you,
Sam
AnswerOK, Sam, Dr. Settlement is loaded with personal injury information for you and your husband, so let’s finish your topics. First off, I want to thank you for your generous feedback score and comments. We are here to help and it is nice when someone takes the time to let us know that we were able to do something for them in a time of need.
I again want to caution you to either get access to information and forms online or hire an attorney. Just as you missed the biggest part of your claims unless you had come to me, likewise you will short yourselves unless you get educated on the personal injury insurance claims process or hire an attorney. You are welcome to cruise the free side of my website, but in truth there is not sufficient information on the free public side to handle a complex claim such as yours. Even with a membership at my website you still may have to hire an attorney eventually. But perhaps you could get some kind of an offer so that you could save many thousands of dollars in attorney fees (see link below).
Now, among the first things I would do is to follow-up on getting the neuropsychologist help that I mentioned above. I see that you are going for referrals, and I hope you stand FIRM with your doctor. That doctor screwed up by not making the referrals to start with, so DO NOT TAKE ANY CRAP FROM HIM about healing on your own. GET THOSE TESTS DONE ASAP, whether or not he will make the referral. I am so mad it is almost malpractice to fail to make a referral, given your history and your past and present condition.
Of course I want you to get good medical attention, and thus to heal. BUT Dr. Settlement is an EXPERT PERSONAL INJURY INSURANCE GUY—so THAT is also a main focus in responding to you. And the greatest value of your claims is as I set forth above: in the abject terror and the accompanying mental distress caused by BOTH the psychological factors AND hitting your heads. So go after this part with a new doctor if you have to. DO NOT USE A GENERAL PRACTICE M.D. Use a neuropsychologist. Call the office on your own if you have to.
Next, I would seriously consider making the corrections to your medical records for both of you with a brief letter along the lines I suggested above. This has to deal with BOTH the topics of hitting your heads AND loss of consciousness.
Enough speechmaking. Here are TWO NEW TOPICS: 1) learning about the tort claims system; and 2) DO NOT SETTLE TOO SOON.
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1) learning about the tort claims system
As for the tort system and how to make claims, 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
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
Do It Yourself Advantages, or do these claims need an attorney? As for an ATTORNEY, this does not seem to be a case that involves any legal issues in dispute nor any large or complex damages. Why should you pay someone one-third to do what you can do yourself? Do-It-Yourself Personal Injury Claims; Eliminate Personal Injury Attorneys' Fees; Save Thousands of Dollars Settling Your Own Insurance Claim http://www.settlementcentral.com/page3011.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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2) DO NOT SETTLE TOO SOON.
DO NOT BE TRICKED INTO SETTLING TOO EARLY. Maybe your soft tissue injuries will seem to go away and be resolved. What if you settle now, but in three months you are having pains again? I know from handling injury cases that there is a REAL RISK of suffering from those injuries for years after the accident. What is the hurry? It will be the insurance company that is going to try to hurry.
DO NOT SETTLE YOUR CLAIM UNLESS YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN THAT YOUR SOFT TISSUE INJURIES WILL NOT REAPPEAR ONCE YOU STRESS YOUR BODY WITH PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES OR JUST DAILY LIVING AND WORKING. That Plays Right Into an Insurance Tactic Regarding Inducing Early Settlement of Injury Claims.
Plus, who will pay for your medical care incurred AFTER you settle? Except in specific, unusual situations, you cannot go back and re-open a settlement: when you cash the checks, you agree to close your claims in all aspects.
Here is a page from my website that shows in detail why you should never make an early personal injury insurance claims settlement http://www.settlementcentral.com/page0211.htm
And, of course, once you settle, THAT IS IT: you will never see another dime in pain and suffering money. By the way, did you know that getting an early settlement is a favorite trick of the insurance adjusters? I am going to site again for you that page from my website wherein we show Insurance Claim Adjuster Secret Tactics http://www.settlementcentral.com/page0092.htm
I know that you think this is going on too far with this one topic, Sam, but I HAVE TO TELL YOU that this is a REAL danger that I have seen many times. So just have patience a bit longer and commit your husband (who is more likely to gloss over aches and pains that should be attended to) and yourself to the following:
There may be a dull ache at night following a day at work or some physical activity or pain the next morning. DO NOT LET LITTLE PAINS GO UNATTENDED SINCE YOU DO NOT KNOW WHETHER THEY WILL CONTINUE OR GO AWAY. We all hope and believe that such little pains will disappear soon. But on the other hand, we have no way of knowing since this is the way serious fractures and soft tissue injuries can behave.
So, when this happens, even if a couple months or more post-treatment, do not hesitate to SEE A DOCTOR AND ATTRIBUTE THE PAIN TO THE ACCIDENT WITHOUT EQUIVOCATION. It is NEVER TOO LATE TO REPORT PERSONAL INJURIES FROM A FALL ACCIDENT http://www.settlementcentral.com/page0104.htm
I am talking about nagging pains that can come once you both make your bodies more active as weather warms.
"No medicine: no money"; medical costs increase worth of personal injury insurance claims http://www.settlementcentral.com/page0045.htm
That is just about it Sam. You have enough now to go forward and to get some good medical help and to make the basis for a good settlement.
Best wishes,
Dr. Settlement, J.D. (Juris Doctor)
www.SettlementCentral.Com
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Hi Sam, Dr. Settlement here--back to work after a LONG sickness.
Sorry to leave you with no help for the past week, but I have been out of the office with a nasty “double-ended” flu. SCC’s own Morgan Jacobsen said that she wrote to some questioners about it, with the offer to get an early response via my website--don't know whether you were informed or not. Anyway, I hope my sickness did not cause you any inconvenience.
I know that my answer is only partially complete, so I will tackle the remainder tomorrow. Thank you for your kind and positive comments. I will work hard to earn such high praise.
Dr. "S"
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Roll over accident; depression; brain injury; taking the initiative
Hi Sam,
I have great empathy for you and your husband, so I am going to go all out and put a couple of hours into constructing an answer to get you ON TRACK with BOTH this claim AND some new medical treatment. Both of your claims are potentially very large, but you surely will not get close to value UNLESS you either get some help online with education on personal injury insurance claim procedures, OR you hire an attorney to represent you. Clearly, you cannot proceed in ignorance of these insurance claims processes since there is just too much at stake in both of these claims.
Please do not take the following personally, Sam: it is an all-too-common posture of injury victims, and insurance adjusters take advantage of it. Without sending in your own demand letter, you are waiting to hear from the insurance adjuster, and you are asking me: “How much should we be expecting?”
Well, unless you change your approach, you will be “expecting” as little as the insurance adjuster can get away with, since you have not shown any interest in getting full value for your claim. By that I mean you have not taken the initiative to show the adjuster that you want to be treated fairly, but instead, you are taking an inactive posture that tells him that you trust him to treat you fairly.
Well, Sam, I hate to be the one to tell you that the nice man on TV asking you if you “are in good hands” or if you have been treated “like a good neighbor” IS A LIAR. The insurance industry did not become the wealthiest in America by treating personal injury victims fairly. It makes its profits by screwing as many people as it can as deeply as it can.
OK, enough of that: I just wanted to get you MAD ENOUGH TO FIGHT. Because that is what it is going to take to get both of you through this in better mental, emotional, physical, and financial shape.
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#1. ACCIDENT IS TERRIFYING—CONCUSSION LIKELY—POST-CONCUSSIVE SYNDROME—TEMPOROMANDIBULAR JOINT INJURY (TMJ)
Let’s start at the beginning: the accident itself. There are three things about this accident that are VERY IMPORTANT AND WHICH YOU MUST PAY ATTENTION TO.
First is the terror of the accident itself. This is a compensable item of damages, as I will discuss below. Second is the FACT that you BOTH hit your heads. As such, that is by definition a brain concussion. You BOTH LIKELY have post-concussive syndrome and perhaps a jaw joint injury. Third is that you MUST get some professional diagnosis of these injuries and treatment via consultation with a neuropsychologist.
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#2. TERROR—PSYCHOLOGIAL INJURIES. First is the abject terror of having to go through something like that. This tells us two things. Number one is that you CANNOT USE A FORMULA for arriving at your damage figure. Some people want to multiply your medical bills by a factor to value the claim. But in your case there is severe emotional distress PLUS the factor of terror involved. Hence, you will have to get some help in valuation.
TERROR ITSELF is compensable. By that I mean the terror that you went through and the disturbing memories of it. Your fright during the accident is compensable. Ask the adjuster what a jury will say when they are asked how much money it would take for them to suffer the same kind of accident.
The fact that the memory of that terror is tormenting you to this day is also compensable—BUT ONLY IF YOU HAVE A DOCTOR DIAGNOSIS IT.
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#3. BRAIN CONCUSSION—HEAD TRAUMA—TMJ INJURIES
If you rolled over three times, you both hit your heads, even if you cannot remember it. The questions are: 1) how many times did you hit your heads? 2) how hard did you hit your heads? 3) and how long was your loss of consciousness?
It sounds like a pretty hard ride, with a few whacks. I want you to think about this because I do have some information about mild brain injury that I want you to consider.
So, let’s first address that topic of the most significant potential injury, your likely traumatic brain injuries. Research that term, and especially post concussive syndrome and you will see some of the symptoms of that condition. My bet is that you both DO HAVE A MILD BRAIN INJURY. It is untreated for two reasons.
First off, you most likely denied any loss of consciousness, right? Second, if there is no loss of consciousness and no complaints of the symptoms of brain injury, most doctors who are called upon to treat injuries will not make referrals to have the patient tested for brain injury. That is just a fact of how they practice.
Let’s first examine what is a concussion and what is a loss of consciousness. You DID HAVE A CONCUSSION, that much is for sure, since you both surely hit your heads. So traumatic brain injury is in play in your claims since you both suffered a brain concussion.
Post-concussion syndrome, also known as post concussive syndrome or PCS, is a set of symptoms that a person may experience for weeks, months, or even years after a concussion, a mild form of traumatic brain injury. As many as 50% of patients who have experienced concussion have PCS, and some sources say as many as 90% of patients experience post concussion symptoms.[
People who have had concussions may experience physical, mental, or emotional symptoms. Symptoms can appear immediately or weeks to months after the initial injury.
Physical symptoms can include:
• headache
• dizziness
• impaired balance
• nausea and/or vomiting
• fatigue or sleepiness
• inability to sleep
• decreased libido
• sensitivity to noise or light
• ringing in the ears
• double or blurred vision
• decreased sense of taste, smell, or hearing
Emotional symptoms may include:
• irritability
• anxiety
• restlessness
• depression
• lack of emotion
• emotional lability or mood swings
• lack of ability to tolerate stress or alcohol
• aggression
Cognitive or mental symptoms can include:
• amnesia or difficulty remembering things
• confusion or impaired cognition
• impaired judgment
• slowed cognitive processing
• difficulty with abstract thinking
• difficulty concentrating
• decrease in work performance
• decrease in social skills
LOSS OF CONSCIOUSNESS—not essential to diagnosis of post concussive syndrome, but sometimes the length of time unconscious will be used to judge the degree of the brain injury.
The patient is typically the primary source who is asked the most significant question: “Did you lose consciousness as a result of your injury?” Most of my clients who actually later recalled that they did not remember moments just after being struck in the head, AT FIRST DENIED ANY LOSS OF CONSCIOUSNESS TO THE POLICE AND TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM.
WHY? First, most people equate loss of consciousness with being unconscious for some time. But in fact, “loss of consciousness” means loss of conscious awareness. Hence, loss of consciousness can range from being briefly dazed to several days of coma. In fact, in order for a brain injury victim to answer such a question, they would have to undergo extensive examination recollecting past events. Any change in mental state can be significant in understanding a patient's condition and if loss of memory (amnesia) occurred immediately before or after the trauma.
When you struck your heads on something, probably there was a brief loss of consciousness. Even if you never before reported it, now is the time to correct your records with a letter to your doctor explaining that you DID have a brief loss of consciousness.
Loss of Consciousness http://www.settlementcentral.com/page0134.htm After Accident or Injury
How do you correct records with the medical providers and the insurance adjusters? http://www.settlementcentral.com/page7004.htm Letters to insurance claim adjuster.
This page talks about how to confirm conversations with the insurance adjuster
http://www.settlementcentral.com/page0460.htm with loss of consciousness notify the insurance adjuster as soon as you recall it—do NOT wait until you send your demand letter.
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TMJ—temporomandibular joint syndrome: possible source for headaches.
This is another term I want you to research. When an accident victim strikes her head, there is a good possibility that the disc in the condyle, or jaw joint disc, can be displaced. One of the consequences of jaw joint displacement is headaches. All too often in my practice, the doctors treated headaches as having originated from cervical problems, when in fact, they were due to a TMJ. Since the doctors were blind to the TMJ, the problem was slow to cure. I sent a number of such patients to a TMJ specialist and the tests and films objectively showed that the trauma moved the disc, and hence treatment for the TMJ syndrome cured the headaches.
http://www.lectlaw.com/med/med04.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temporomandibular_joint_disorder
http://www.tmjdoctorofmaryland.com/
There are two at-home ways to see if your jaw joint is moving. First, find the spot in front of the little lobes on the middle of your ears. These are called “tragus”: http://www.infovisual.info/03/048_en.html
Now, put your fingers just in front of the tragus and over the jaw joint and open and close your mouth. If the disc is far out of place, you will feel a click. A second, better way is for someone to stand behind you as you are seated and perform the same test. That person can feel the click if your jaw joint disc is far out of place.
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#4. NEW MEDICAL HELP—NEUROPSYCHOLOGIST—TMJ SPECIALIST
Both the terror of the accident and your head injuries have produced severe emotional damage. You both have suffered psychological injuries. You BOTH MUST GET TO A NEUROPSYCHOLOGIST ASAP. As you saw from above, you have both suffered a concussion and you both likely have symptoms of post-concussive syndrome. These expenses must be paid for by the tortfeasor as part of the settlement.
But for now, please pay for these new expenses by using your own auto insurance Personal Injury Protection (PIP) or health insurance. How should you pay for your medical care? Here is a good free page dealing with Personal Injury Insurance Claim: Insurance Company Payment http://www.settlementcentral.com/page0201.htm of Auto Accident Medical Expenses as Incurred
How to get to a neuropsychologist: Tell your doctor about the symptoms you both are having and the depression and get a referral. Or make a self-referral. NO, we do NOT WANT your general practitioner to be treating your mental injuries. Nor do we want a GP psychologist. We want a neuropsychologist since you both suffered brain concussions.
As for the TMJ, you can try for a referral to a dentist who specializes in TMJ diagnosis and treatment, or again, do a self-referral. A general practice dentist will NOT DO. A true TMJ specialist will likely have a 360 degree orbiting device to make pictures of your jaw joint from different angles. So you do the research via internet and phone book to find which dentists consider themselves to be TMJ specialists. You can slip those names to your doctor when she makes the referral.
It is easier to pay for these treatments via your PIP if your doctor did refer you to the TMJ specialist, as opposed to you just walking in the door on your own. Again, look to your PIP for payments, not the tortfeasor.
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OK, Sam, that is it for tonight. It is really late now and I am going to have to finish this tomorrow night for you. But I thought I would pass this along for now so you can think about what I have written for you.
Tomorrow night I will go through the steps you might need to pursue for an insurance claim, provide you some free pages from my website to read, and give some tips on valuation of the claims.
Until then,
Dr. Settlement, J.D. (Juris Doctor)
http://www.settlementcentral.com
