QuestionQUESTION: Hello, I was in a car accident in January a lady ran a red light and hit me on the Front side hard! My 3 kids were in the car with me they got seat belt bruising not real bad but enough! I had a brain concussion and also just had back surgery on Nov,5th for a messed up disc in my lower back.. I was wondering my medical bills are already 37,000 dollars but the lady's insurance policy limit is only 20,000 I do have UIM but it's only 20,000 so I was wondering how would I get anything for pain and suffering and also my doctor said I will probably have to have a fusion in around 10 years. Any advice as to what to do would be great! I also live in Texas if that would help..
Thanks
Krystle
ANSWER: Hi Krystle,
I'm sorry to learn of your serious injuries and do wish you a full recovery.
In Texas, the Statue of Limitations to settle a personal injury claim is two years, so you do have lots of time left to investigate this situation.
Without having to use an attorney, you will be able to collect the full $20,000 from the other person's insurance policy. It is normal that the UIM only becomes in effect if you carried an amount that was higher than the amount of coverage held by the party that hit you. For example, if you carried $50,000 liability, then the difference between her coverage and yours ($30,000) would be available as UIM protection. You need to talk to your own insurance company to verify that Texas Insurance Law and your own policy's legal wording follows this normal practice. If so, you can't recover from your own UIM.
Before simply settling for the $20,000, you need to hire an independent firm to research the assets of the person that hit you to determine if they have assets such as stocks, bonds, investments or rental property that could be attached if you hired an attorney and filed a lawsuit.
The cost of the independent firm will probably be between $800-$1,250. This is a step that you don't want to overlook, because if you accept the $20,000, you will also be releasing the at fault party against any future legal action.
If you should learn that the at fault party has a large amount of attachable assets, then you need to consult with an attorney who has trial experience. A situation like this would definitely go all the way to trial.
You would need to have a very clear understanding with the attorney that you will retain him only on the basis that he gets a percentage of the collectable assets and not a part of the $20,000 which you could obtain without his help. This would need to be clearly written in the contract of services that you and he would sign.
Call your county attorney referral service to secure the names of attorneys with trial experience. Only about 15% of the attorneys who practice personal injury claims have trial experience.
If you secure an attorney, the adverse insurance company will not pay from their policy until after the trial is settled because they have a legal obligation to provide a defense in court for their insured.
If you should learn that the at fault driver has no assets and you can't collect under UI because you both carry the same limits, then you should go ahead and approach the adverse company with a demand for an immediate $20,000 settlement.
I hope this has been of help.
Your feedback by rating my answer will be appreciated.
Sincerely,
Bennie
San Francisco Bay Area 12-05-07 11:14 PM PST
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: I already have a lawyer though.. His assistant was the witness to my car wreck which is how I found him. He has told me that my bills are 37,000 and her insurance limit is 20,000 so I have UIM but only 20,000 more which would be just enough for medical bills.. I was wondering also since my kids were in there can they also get UIM?? Also I was wondering if I went about taking her to court then how am I sure that I will even benefit off of doing so I asked my doctor that told me I probably will need the fusion in about 10 years he told me that the fusion hospital stay alone is 45,000 so what should I do I mean I don't want to ruin this lady's life but I do not think it is fair that I would have to pay for any further treatment out of my own pocket for something I did not cause, Please a little more information would be great! Also can a sue the insurance company for not covering all of my medical? Please your quick response is greatly appreciated!
Krystle
AnswerHi Krystle,
Since you already have an attorney, part of his job is to do a deep research to see if the lady has any recoverable assets. If he has failed to do that, he is not fulfilling
his legal obligations to you.
There is no reason for you to feel bad about attaching her assets (if she has any), she should have made it a point to carry enough insurance to fully protect her assets. Her failure to do so is not your problem.
Your attorney will make sure that she has recoverable assets before taking her to court and he should be sufficiently experienced to know how to recover those assets when he wins the case. That's part of his job.
As far as your children are concerned, it's a situation of whether or not they incurred medical bills. The bottom line for an insurance payment is NO MEDICAL BILLS = NO MONEY. You stated that the other lady had $20,000 coverage.
That usually means that she had $20,000 coverage per person, $40,000 to all people. So there is still money in her policy for injuries caused to your children, but only if they had injuries and received medical treatment.
As far as suing your insurance for not paying all your medical bills, first of all, if you carried medical payment coverage on your auto insurance policy, they would have paid your medical bills up to the policy limit that you carried. You then would have had to turn to your personal health insurance for the balance.
Health insurance policy's have deductibles, co-pays and maximum amounts that they will pay for certain procedures.
Your attorney will need to review the legal wording of your health insurance to make sure that they have paid in accordance with the legal wording of the policy. If they failed to pay in accordance with the legal wording of your policy, then your attorney should be competent enough to take any necessary legal action against them.
You have my best wishes that you are able to recover enough to adequately compensate you for your injuries including all your medical bills and coverage for pain and suffering.
Sincerely,
Bennie
12-06-07 2:05 AM PST
