by matthew1990 » Mon Oct 15, 2012 02:34 am
Great forum here folks. A couple questions; I'll try to stay as brief as I can.
1. Lady pulled out in front of me a week ago (Sunday), she was ticketed and has all fault. We have same carrier, full coverage. Will claims work for me as well as one would if it was another carrier? Both vehicles totalled. I have back, leg and other injuries, no breaks or stitches. 45 MPH almost head on.
2. Re: vehicle, I have been buying and selling classics and others for about 12 years so I will be as honest as possible with the description of my truck. '85 Toyota pick up 4x4, excellent condition. I know some will say I am sentimental and inflating the condition, but not true. 135k miles, purchased from original owner out of the garage he parked it in for 27 years. Absolutely original, uncut and unmolested. I get regular offers. Adjuster came out and first offer was 3500.00. I am online all the time and have found over 20 comps. Genuinely equal comps are 7200, that is mostly dealers, a few ebay and a few craigslist. Dealer only examples are 7700.00. These are true comps, the truck was awesomely nice. Question; why so low, are they not using fair market value at all. Also, son hit head on Easter Sunday. Same appraiser did his truck, oddly enough. His is '87 Toy. 4x4 and much rougher and he offered 3K for his, 165K miles. How can my near mint '85 be worth only 500 more than his fairly rough '87? Why the big difference? Thanks alot. M1990.
1. Lady pulled out in front of me a week ago (Sunday), she was ticketed and has all fault. We have same carrier, full coverage. Will claims work for me as well as one would if it was another carrier? Both vehicles totalled. I have back, leg and other injuries, no breaks or stitches. 45 MPH almost head on.
2. Re: vehicle, I have been buying and selling classics and others for about 12 years so I will be as honest as possible with the description of my truck. '85 Toyota pick up 4x4, excellent condition. I know some will say I am sentimental and inflating the condition, but not true. 135k miles, purchased from original owner out of the garage he parked it in for 27 years. Absolutely original, uncut and unmolested. I get regular offers. Adjuster came out and first offer was 3500.00. I am online all the time and have found over 20 comps. Genuinely equal comps are 7200, that is mostly dealers, a few ebay and a few craigslist. Dealer only examples are 7700.00. These are true comps, the truck was awesomely nice. Question; why so low, are they not using fair market value at all. Also, son hit head on Easter Sunday. Same appraiser did his truck, oddly enough. His is '87 Toy. 4x4 and much rougher and he offered 3K for his, 165K miles. How can my near mint '85 be worth only 500 more than his fairly rough '87? Why the big difference? Thanks alot. M1990.
Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2013 12:14 am Post Subject:
Renewing old post. Well, my medical is all done and the total is almost 6K. Still have occasional back pain. I think I will have to live with some recurring pain for a while. Still some pain in neck and hand (from strained ligaments per hand specialist). 3 months of chiro done and am considerably better. I am a Lt. in a big city fire dept. and depend on my body to do my job well. This will effect me to some extent for a while. The question for the pros is what can I expect in the medical settlement? I negotiated my truck settlement up to 6K from their offer of 3.5K, so i don't mind some respectful back and forth. Thanks.
Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2013 07:50 am Post Subject:
You are entitled to 100% of your medical expenses (although anything paid by your employer-sponsored health insurance will have to be paid back to them, and you can negotiate a reduced settlement on that, too). One of the methods by which some folks value their "pain and suffering" is to multiply the medical expenses by 2x or 3x. With $6,000 in medical expenses, you could reasonably ask for $25,000 total personal injury.
If there is a potential for your employment/income to be affected by the injury, you need to factor that in as well. That could bump the damages up to 4x or 5x or more.
You've learned that negotiating with the insurance company is not all that difficult, so pick a figure and set a hard limit below which you will not settle. If you will need to repay some or all of the medical expenses, you should first attempt to negotiate a reduced amount with them, start with 40%-50% and try to get them to agree to 60%-70% -- that's pretty reasonable (saves them the time, expense, and effort to litigate or collect). Then you'll know how much you'll retain of whatever else you settle for.
You can try to find out what the policy limits are so you know how much room you have to play in. If the limits are high (such as $100,000), they'll probably try to hide that information from you. It can be tough to find out without filing a civil suit.
Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2013 01:05 pm Post Subject:
I believe the minimum liability requirement in Tn. is 25K. I expect to be contacted any day now. The office mgr at my State Farm agent (who I think more of than the agent her self) said to try to get the 25 and should get it. I will aim high as in appx 3-4 times their offer and explain in detail why it should be that amount. I already have notes written to help me remember all the points I need to use. I like to be prepared. I am hoping that since it was 45MPH almost head on with 2 totalled vehicles, that I won't be low balled too much. Thanks again, I will update as it goes along. By the way, the truck just went to paint this week finally. Should be awesome when it comes back. 2K just to get the frame and engine straight again.
Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2013 11:34 pm Post Subject:
New question on my case. How long is normal to wait for the medical settlement? I am in no big hurry, just curious. Wreck was 10/7/12, medical done mid January. They handled the auto fairly quick, next week will be 3 months since medical treatments completed. Thanks for any info and opinions. Travis.
Posted: Wed Apr 10, 2013 04:02 am Post Subject:
Do they have all of your medical information? Have you made a demand? If you have not made a demand, they really have no incentive to settle the claim. After all, without a demand there is no real claim to pay.
Posted: Wed Apr 10, 2013 05:06 am Post Subject:
Have you submitted the final bills as proof of loss and indicated that there are no more to submit? If you have, then they are about 60 days overdue in paying your claim. If not, you need to submit your bills.
Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2013 12:15 am Post Subject:
Well, I am glad I asked. I have never done this before but tomorrow they will hear from me. I have done my research on this forum and have my demand and reasons why ready. I did pretty good getting 6K on my truck after an initial offer of 3.5K, so let's hope my negotiating skills will get a similar result, just larger of course. Thanks a lot for the help. I thought they were going to contact me like they did with the automotive part. Thanks again and I will update soon.
Posted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 01:08 am Post Subject:
Finished. They offered appx 8K, I talked them up to appx 12K. That is $$ straight to me, all bills paid. I am happy it is over. I feel fairly satisfied this being my first time through this. Thanks for all advice and comments.
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