AboutDoctor Settlement Expertise 27 years of front line plaintiff`s trial lawyer experience in PERSONAL INJURY INSURANCE CLAIMS. Along with other attorneys and insurance adjusters, we have created a website to help injured people settle their own personal injury claims. With the help from feedback from hundreds of satisfied members, www.settlementcentral.com has become THE AUTHORITY for Internet personal injury insurance claim settlements. I am humbled and honored if people can benefit from my experience and current volunteer work in helping injured people. I hope I can explain things in a manner that is useful for the questioner. If not, do not hesitate to e-mail me and I will take a second shot at it! Best Wishes for your physical and financial recovery.
Experience
Life Experience: 27 years of front line plaintiff's trial lawyer experience
Organizations: American Trial Lawyers Association (AAJ)
Washington State Trial Lawyers Association
Awards and Honors:
I am humbled and honored everytime I am selected to help injured people. And when people give feedback that they have benefited from my experience and current volunteer efforts, then that is a double honor and award for me.
Question I was in a wreck 4 months ago, and the man that hit me insurance company has excepted full liabilty for the wreck. They have settled on my car,but I was hurt in the wreck and had to have 6,000 in medical bills. The bills are coming in and now the insurance company says they won't pay for them until we settle completely, and the doctors are wanting payment now. What should I do?, because I don't have the money to pay the bills. Can't they pay my bills before we settle on my pain and suffering claim since the bills are a sure responsibilty of theirs?
Answer Hi Lashanda,
NO, the tortfeasor's insurer is under NO OBLIGATION to prepay your medical costs as you go along. You must communicate with the doctors in writing if you have no insurance and offer them an irrevocable lien.
The tortfeasor's insurer COULD pay your medical expenses as you go along toward a settlement, but WHY SHOULD THEY? First and foremost, the insurance industry is NOT here to offer you "good hands" or to help you "like a good neighbor". They made over 60 billion dollars annually not by being fair to injured persons, but by SCREWING each claimant as much as they possibly could.
Hence, one of their tricks is to make a claimant without medical care resources wait for her settlement. This puts economic pressure on the victim if she has no insurance. Hence, the tortfeasor's insurer will try to starve the victim for cash until she has no resources to care for herself and she will cave in to accept a poor settlement.
If you have any auto insurance or any health insurance, by all means use it NOW. You must get medical care. First off, keep a good relationship with your existing doctors by working with the office manager of each and communicate in writing to offer a lien. Plus arrange for continued care if your present doctor will not continue to see you.
If you have no insurance, then find a doctor who will give you treatment if you sign an irrevocable medical lien. This protects the doctor inasmuch as you are giving her first dollar off of your settlement. She has the document filed with the county auditor in the medical lien file and she sends the original to the tortfeasor's insurance company. Chiropractors have proven to be more cooperative than medical doctors in accepting liens for services.
Here is some information on making sure that YOU CONTINUE with medical care.
I would make sure that your injuries are healed before any settlement is contemplated.
#1. Bill your own insurance or sign a lien for existing doctors.
#2. Get medical care ASAP—arrange for a lien if need be.
#3. Wait until you live a few months to make sure you have no pain. Three more months is WELL WITHIN the time frame during which one would expect soft tissue injuries to manifest themselves.
Here is the detailed answer with more information.
DO NOT SETTLE YOUR CLAIM UNLESS YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN THAT SOFT TISSUE INJURIES WILL NOT REAPPEAR ONCE YOU STRESS YOUR BODY WITH PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES OR JUST DAILY LIVING AND WORKING. That Plays Right Into an Insurance Tactic Regarding Inducing Early Settlement of Injury Claims.
Let's just finish up this topic of early settlements so you get the full picture of the advantage to them and the risks to you. Insurance companies like to settle early because the general damages—claims for pain and suffering—are always minimal, but continue to grow with continued medical/therapeutic care over the months. Therefore, the insurance adjuster will try to settle before the claim merits a larger pain and suffering element. This makes good sense for the insurance company. A claim that is still active after 12 months, with an injured claimant still undergoing treatment, will settle for a lot more pain and suffering money than a claim that is settled after two or three months of treatment.
In soft tissue cases such as this, the full extent of most injuries is not known immediately after finishing early rounds of treatment, because the injured person has to undergo some of the wear and tear of everyday life, including the pounding her body will receive from a day's work. Even jobs that appear not to be physically demanding can be hard on an injured body.
For example, have you ever stood all day with few breaks, as a store checkout clerk or a jewelry salesperson does? Or sat all day at a computer, as a secretary or phone service center employee does? Many jobs will interfere with healing, and you have no way to know how your wife's body will respond until she has experienced sufficient physical exposure to load-test the scar tissue as she heals.
Plus, who will pay for your medical care incurred AFTER you settle? What if you were to settle now and nine months later when she is suffering at work and the pain starts to become too much, and you go to a doctor only to discover that you can expect a course of treatment that will cost a lot of money? After you settle her claim, all further treatment is YOUR responsibility. Except in specific, unusual situations, she cannot go back and re-open a settlement.
And, of course, once you settle, THAT IS IT: you will never see another dime in pain and suffering money. By the way, did you know that getting an early settlement is a favorite trick of the insurance adjusters? Please see my website wherein we show Insurance Claim Adjuster Secret Tactics http://www.settlementcentral.com/page0092.htm
I know that you think this is going on too far with this one topic, but I HAVE TO TELL YOU that this is a REAL danger that I have seen many times. So just have patience a bit longer and commit yourself to the following:
There may be a dull ache at night following a day at work or some physical activity or pain the next morning. DO NOT LET LITTLE PAINS GO UNATTENDED SINCE YOU DO NOT KNOW WHETHER THEY WILL CONTINUE OR GO AWAY. We all hope and believe that such little pains will disappear soon. But on the other hand, we have no way of knowing since this is the way serious fractures and soft tissue injuries can behave.
So, when this happens, even if a couple months or more post-treatment, do not hesitate to SEE A DOCTOR AND ATTRIBUTE THE PAIN TO THE ACCIDENT WITHOUT EQUIVOCATION. It is NEVER TOO LATE TO REPORT PERSONAL INJURIES FROM A FALL ACCIDENT http://www.settlementcentral.com/page0104.htm
Do It Yourself Advantages, or do these claims need an attorney? As for an ATTORNEY, this does not seem to be a case that involves any legal issues in dispute nor any large or complex damages. Why should you pay someone one-third to do what you can do yourself? Do-It-Yourself Personal Injury Claims; Eliminate Personal Injury Attorneys' Fees; Save Thousands of Dollars Settling Your Own Insurance Claim http://www.settlementcentral.com/page3011.htm
Without having to join my website, I have given a lot of free information on handling insurance claims without having to join as a member. Read the module at "5 Easy Steps to Do-it-Yourself Insurance Claim Settlement" http://www.settlementcentral.com/page0102.htm
This stuff is not rocket science, but it will take some effort on your part to read and cut and paste letter examples and to communicate. But hundreds of people are doing it each day, and they are getting good results.
What if you get only two-thirds the way to your settlement goal? Well, you can get as big a settlement as you can and then turn it over to an attorney and save a lot of fees. Thus, you could go it alone just to get an insurance settlement offer, and then take that insurance settlement offer to a personal injury attorney, thus exempting the amount of the offer from her fees. Do It Yourself Personal Injury Settlement Offer Reduces Personal Injury Attorney Fees http://www.settlementcentral.com/page0109.htm
FINAL TOPIC: Effective communication with insurance claims adjusters. Establish Firm, Professional, and Positive Relationships With the Insurance Injury Claims Adjuster http://www.settlementcentral.com/page0059.htm
Always communicate with the adjuster in writing, showing your own analysis of value. It is OK I guess to have one call or so, but no more. Always have your information and ammunition in writing to give to the adjuster.
Let him know that you are FIRM IN YOUR RESOLVE to get what you are demanding (NOT "asking", since that invites a counter-offer, but instead "demanding" as fair and reasonable compensation) by asking him what the options are to resolve the matter fairly should he not agree to a reasonable claim value. In other words, let him know that you will go through with a court filing if need be.
Remember these tips, do your homework, print out your evidence, show resolve to get your fair settlement, and you will DO JUST FINE.
I trust that my extra time here has produced some information that has been of value to you, and thus I would respectfully request that you take the time to locate the FEEDBACK FORM on this site and leave some feedback for me.
