Expert: Bennie719 - 4/28/2009

Question
I live in California. My car was rear-ended about 1 1/2 year ago and was I hospitalized for 11 days nine days after the accident, in which resulted to permanent disability. The at-fault insurance offered me $5,000 for neck injury and not for the injury I was hospitalized for. There was a letter attached from an expert saying that my injuries are “highly unlikely to be the cause of accident.” That expert based her opinion in my medical records without seeing me.  I went for a personal consultation with another expert who wrote a letter saying my injuries are “probable and more likely than not cause by the accident.” I sent my expert’s letter to the adjuster and have not heard from them.

Shall I hire an attorney to file a lawsuit? I wanted to hire an attorney to file a lawsuit but the first attorney I called told me he does not do litigation because of the work and cost involve and not knowing if he can collect anything. He also said that my case is not clear-cut because of that the insurance experts said in her letter. He wants to take my case if he would just do negotiations like asking for a policy limit.

What do you think is the best option for me? Thank you very much from the bottom of my heart.  

Answer
Hi Grace,
I think that you should contact a different personal injury attorney and arrange for a consultation.  Take along every document that you have......police report, letters from other insurance company, the letters from both doctors etc.

I can't provide much input since you gave me no information about the injury which you say have caused your permanent disability.

Your case does sound weak since you didn't enter the hospital for 11 days after the accident for what you now refer to as a permanent disability injury.

It's still worth having a free consultation so a new attorney can review all the documents and doctors letters.

I hope that you find this information to be of help.  Your feedback by rating my response will be appreciated.

Sincerely,
Bennie
San Francisco Bay Area