by choco0442 » Wed Sep 09, 2009 07:45 pm
Me and my kids were driving in the fog and a 19 year old ran a stop sign and we hit him. The police announced that it was his fault because he failed to yeild at a stop sign. I hired a lawyer and settled out with my 2 year old because he was ok. Me and my 7 year old went to the ambulance and got looked over by a doctor. After that I went to accident care clinic and had xrays taken and then put me and my 7 year old in chiro care. We went to chiro for around 3 months. I also was in a rental until my car was paid off by my insurance for around 6 months. Now my lawyer states she can't get anything for the car insurance and the offer for me is 7,000 and 3,000 for my son in which in total I will only be getting 2000.00 back after I pay for our chiro and the lawyers fees. I feel like I should drop my lawyer and represent myself because I have been through financial hardship and I am still in pain after the accident and don't feel that they are doing their job. PLEASE HELP!!!
Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 08:13 pm Post Subject:
I also was in a rental until my car was paid off by my insurance for around 6 months.
Whoooooo.... maybe I missed something here but it took your carrier 6 months to settle your total loss claim? It should take about 30 days and this is about the max the other carrier is going to consider. What happen to make it take 6 months?There are many times that people should obtain the use of an attorney. I'd be the first to say when. In your situation, this was not one of them. It seems your injury and medical treatment were very limited. As such, the amount paid above the medical treatment cost is not going to be much. Problem is... your attorneys 33% fee comes off the top, before anything else. When you hired the attorney you signed a contract.... did you not read the part where it stated you'd pay the attorney 33% of the settlement? I'd love to quote your post for future reference... whenever people say "get an attorney", "get an attorney". You wonder why all those attorneys tell people not to speak to an insurance company until they speak to an attorney or tell people how insurance companies have all these lawyers on their side (yeah... right). 99.9% of the time it's not because the injured person is going to get screwed... it's because they stand to make a lot of money and usually only spend an hour or two on the case.
Usually attorneys will help reduce the medical expenses to offset their fees. That is, they can call the providers and work out a deal for a reduced charge. Some times providers won't do this.
You can't "drop" your attorney as they have a contract with you stating you're going to pay them regardless.
If you are still treating, you should not be settling your claim. However, 3 months under a chiropractors care is about the max that an insurance company is going to consider as after this long they are not going to be doing anything to correct your situation (it's basically a massage after that long). If there is some type of permanent pain, you should be compensated for this but your attorney will need to be able to show that this is the case.
Some attorneys don't want to do much work and just want to cash out on their client's claim. That is not the type of attorney you want.
Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 02:40 am Post Subject: Thank You
I just want to say thank you for answering my question. I knew that this was the case I just wanted to see if I was going to get a different answer. But you live and learn huh, this was my first accident and had little experience with dealing with lawyers and insurance companies. I know for sure that lawyers,insurances and chiropractors are all in on a claimants claim. It's so lame how they do you, well fool me once but you won't fool me again you better believe that. Well once again thank you so much for taking the time to answer my question and you have a great night
Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 09:47 am Post Subject:
Very exhaustive reply Tcope.
Anyway, Marie, we may all get panicky when have to deal with auto accidents. So please don't feel bad about it.
Insurance companies are not always difficult to deal with. IMO it's better to give it a shot before hiring professionals.
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