QuestionI was hit by a college kid driving when I was parked at a stop sign, while coming out of my friends apartment building. (Accident on 01/31/07). I was driving my friends car alone helping him move his vehicle -- a 1998 Chrysler Cirrus. Cops were called in and the accident report was termed the fault of the guy hitting me from rear. The thing is my friends car wasnt insured (had a just expired insurance card which the cops noted, but not cared as it was the other partys fault). Just to note, I do have a comprehensive insurance for myself for my 2006 car.
The Jeep that hit me from behind had insurance (state farm) for the Kids father and when my friend called in to have his car repaired, they took a cycle of one month to repair the car and the car is now back to normal. On this note I have a question, what chance does my friend have in getting a depreciaton value on his car from the insurance company ? The car market value is around 3 K and the repair shop quote to fix was 1350 and we had it fixed and the state farm already paid for that.
My injury issue. I had quite a stiff middle causing cramps and a lower back pain, which I ignored for three-four weeks after the accident and then decided to approach my Primary care physician (saw her in last week of feb), she advised my some stretching excercises and told me if that doesnt go away in another four weeks, to come back for more checkup and X-rays. I then also proceeded to go a
chiropractor (who has some sign saying he helps accident cases), without my doctors initiative, and the chiropractor was very helpful/professional in taking x-rays and telling me the importance of healing. He showed me that I have some issue at three places in the spine, and that will need about 20 visits for him to perform his manipulations to fix the issue. I just had my last visit him today. To credit him My middle back cramps have subsided and the back stiffness is almost gone. But I have consistently felt a lower back pain ever since the accident and it hasnt gone away.
In late march I followed up on the doctors advice of "if things dont improve, come back in four weeks and we will do more checkups", and went back to see my primary care physician, and as she was on vacation, I took appointment with another doctor (on April 1st) in her office and he turned out to be a Doctor of Oestopathic Medicine and he told me that I have come to the right place, I told him about the accident and he did some "manipulations" and told me that if things dont improve, come back in 2 weeks. Things didnt improve and I was back to him on April 17th. He then did X-rays and told me that I have a condition of schrelosis (some bad arch in my lower back), and this is a pre-existing condition, and when I told the doctor that I have never faced any back pain in my life till date (I am 31 years old male), and I am facing a constant pain in lower back only after the accident, the doctor told me that this is quite possible that the accident "inflamed" my existing condition. He then advised me to go on physiotherapy.
I am on physiotherapy for the coming three-four weeks and have to report back to my doctor. Here is my concern, if the lower back pain doesn’t go away, what course of action do I have – will I be able to charge the insurance company for that pain and suffering I am facing on a day to day life ? I am a computer software engineer and it is affecting my job function..
What are the things that I can use to get compensation for pain and suffering, medical bills from the doctor, chiropractor ? How much should I expect from the insurance company (two times / three times) the medical bills ? Can I include the work loss ( I have lost my work as I work as a software consultant on a hourly rate – which is quite high) in demanding the insurance company to pay the work loss itself? Can I include the work loss for the pain and suffereing ? What should I be showing or documenting to prove the lower back pain and the future affected by it? I want to collect the doctors reports / bills / my employer work loss statement / and the Physiotherapy bills after a few weeks and then apply for the total compensation? The doctors bills / X-rays are about 1000 $ (my health insurance is paying with me paying the copay), and the chiropractor bill is around $ 1500. My job loss is the most significant thing, althought I visit the chiropractor office for an hour each, can I charge the job loss to be two to three hours for that visit (to include the waiting time, traffic time etc) on the work loss statement ?
Final question –
Should I get a lawyer ? I haven’t approached a lawyer yet ?
AnswerHi Roger,
Due to the age and low value of your friends car, the will not be any diminsihed value.
As far as your injury is concerned, the fact that you waited a month to seek medical treatment may hurt you a little. Also the fact that the doctors report will show a pre-existing condition may cause the value of the claim to be lower than if that were not the case.
You should consider interviewing injury attornies. They would be best able to advise you on the best way to proceed and then you can decide whether to hire an attorney or not.
I hope this helps
Richard Hixenbaugh
