Auto Insurance Claims: Car accident information re claim, whiplash injury, constant headache

Question
Hello, My name is Tracy and I was involved in a car accident on 6/6/09 in a parking lot. I was traveling west bound in the through lane. The person that hit me was in a parking space and shot backwards and slammed into me. I was going between 5-10 miles per hr. I have no idea how fast he was backing out but he hit me pretty hard. The police were called but would not give him a ticket as it was on private property. I started feeling whiplash type pain about an hour later. I had a constant headache that would not go away for 6 weeks. I periodically do still get headaches. I started going to my chiropractor on 6/8/09 2 days later for treatment which after 2 months of treatments 4 x's per week I did feel better as far as my neck and back. The constant headache did go away. About 6 weeks ago I started having severe nose bleeds that lasted at least 30 min to an hour. One episode I had last week lasted 4 hours I had to go to the emergency room have my nose packed and I lost 2 days work. By the way after this accident there was no loss of work as I am a single mother and I could not take off. But with the nose bleed I was so sick I could not go to work and on sunday I had to leave work early as I was so sick to my stomache and was going to pass out. I saw an ENT who told me I have a deviated septum which I have never been told this before. It was a quick visit and I did not ask him if this car accident could have contributed to my nose bleeds and all of this other stuff I have been dealing with. I asked my chiropractor and he did tell me from his opinion that it could be from the accident and the whiplash injury eventhough I did not hit my nose. The deviated septum was from birth however as I have said I have NEVER had any problems with nosebleeds especially not his sever EVER. I have an appointment on September 30th for a cat scan and to talk with the ent in more detail as to probably when they are going to schedule surgery. Also my vehicle was damaged to the sum of $2500.00 my chiropractor bills were $3,000.00 when the adjustor called me 2 weeks ago she wanted to settle for $2100.00. She said she was paying me for my dr visits but they only wanted to pay me to drive to the dr the figure was for half of the milage to the dr. I figured out the amount as to how much my pain and suffering was it was $42.00 per day for a constant headache. I guess my question in where do I go from here? I called her yesterday and told her about my nose and she said she only does soft tissue injuries and I would be referred to another adjuster and they are sending me out release forms but technically I haven't had my appt with the specialist as that happens on the 30th. Then I don't know if the specialist will say this could be caused from the accident but it is just too concidental that I was in an accident in June and in August my nose starts bleeding and they were BAD nose bleeds. I guess my question is how do I handle it from here. I spoke with an attorney a few days ago he said I could settle this myself it isn't enough money for him to get involved but that was before my nose issues came into the picture. I know I have a long way to go. I wanted to settle and get this all over with but I don't want to get screwed which is what they are trying to do to me. Please any advise you can offer is greatly appreciated. One more thing. I did only see a chiropractor/holistic dr for treatment of my whiplash injury. To alot of attorney's this is a problem. Thank You Tracy

Answer
Hi Tracy,

In order for the insurance company to even consider the deviated septum as possibly related to the accident, you will have to get the ENT doctor to be willing to state in writing and possible be willing to testify in court that the issue was absolutely without question, caused as a direct result of the collision. If that is the case then you do not want to discuss any possible settlement until after your surgery and you know the total costs involved. If he is unable to state that then you will be settleing the claim on the basis of the whiplash and the chiropractic treatment. Insurance companies feel that chiroprators are qwacks. Although they will offer a settlement they fee that a chiropractor often treats for too long in order to run up the bills so they will not offer very much for ain and suffering. About the best I can tell you is to simply hang in there until you get what you feel is fair. You may want to look at a website www.collisionwizard.com . It will help you determine the value of your claim as well as help you put togeather a demand package.

I hope this helps
Richard Hixenbaugh