Expert: Anne - 6/17/2009

Question
Two weeks ago my wife was rear-ended in an auto accident.  The other ins co accepted fault.  We subrogated for repairs.  The car was deemed totaled and settled with our insurance co.  As part of the accident, my wife's shoulder was injuried by the seatbelt restraint due to the impact.  She also had some lower back and leg pain.  A week later bruises showed on her arms and legs.  We sent photos to the insureds ins co.  Unfortunately she did not seek medical care.  She has had over to weeks of sleepless night because she keep replaying the accident in her mind to the point of hearing the impact of the crash.  Because of sleep deprivation, she has missed 20 hours of work.  She also has the fear on being rear-ended again.  I was a passenger with her the other day and she ended up going through a red light because of this fear.  As a matter of fact, the other ins co has never really contact us to see how thing are. Without medical bills, what recourse do we had?  Will get any settlement from the insureds co.?

Answer
Hello Mike,

you have a very difficult situation. Your wife must be able to document her damages and just about the only way to do this is by having objective evidence (medical reports).

The fear, anxiety, sleep deprivation, headaches, back pain are all conditions that probably need to be diagnosed and documented somewhere other than by self stating declarations. It is a problem of evidence and insurance companies know that unless you can produce the evidence, they will be able to probably argue successfully that your damages are not documented.

Please see: http://www.auto-insurance-claim-advice.com/bodily-injury-claim.html for more information about that very subject.

You should contact a lawyer and ask them what you can do now.

I hope this helps
Good Luck
Anne
http://www.quirogalawoffice.com/