by Mrscucch » Wed Aug 05, 2009 01:37 am
I was involved in a serious auto accident a year and a half ago.. I am still getting treatment with little expectations of great improvement all around. Seen many specialists, had many tests, nerve damage was found etc.
I recently found out how much the demand amount was from my lawyer to the other driver's insurance who was 100% at fault.. The demand amount is $75k but I also discovered that the other driver's insurance caps bodily injury to others at 20k...
Does that mean no matter what I have gone through and will continue to go through for however many years, the most I can get is 20k from this?
By time the lawyer gets his share plus fees, what is left? I am also told my health insurance who took over paying treatment after I used up my PIP can come back to me wanting reimbursement once they know I received a settlement..
Sounds pretty unfair to me that if this guy picked the lowest required insurance that I dont get the standard acceptable amount of a claim.
I am living at dimished capacity & am self employed so I have been unable to take on any more clients due to the pain & inability to drive long distances anymore.
Thoughts??? Advice???
I recently found out how much the demand amount was from my lawyer to the other driver's insurance who was 100% at fault.. The demand amount is $75k but I also discovered that the other driver's insurance caps bodily injury to others at 20k...
Does that mean no matter what I have gone through and will continue to go through for however many years, the most I can get is 20k from this?
By time the lawyer gets his share plus fees, what is left? I am also told my health insurance who took over paying treatment after I used up my PIP can come back to me wanting reimbursement once they know I received a settlement..
Sounds pretty unfair to me that if this guy picked the lowest required insurance that I dont get the standard acceptable amount of a claim.
I am living at dimished capacity & am self employed so I have been unable to take on any more clients due to the pain & inability to drive long distances anymore.
Thoughts??? Advice???
Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 03:16 am Post Subject:
Of the $20,000 your attorney will take $6600 off the top which leaves you with $13,300. You agreed to this when you hired the attorney. You mentioned Underinsured Motorist Bodily Injury... do you have this? Your means of protection against other people taking the minimum liability limits as required by law is UIMBI.
Since your attorney did almost no work (asked for $75k when there is only $20k available), he/she should also negotiate with your health carrier so that you either don't have to pay back anything or pay back very little. There right of recovery is obtained from you. If you did not recover everything you should have been paid because of low limits, then they should not be able to recover everything that they paid. I'd be surprised if they did not settle for no collection.
As has been mentioned in this forum before, liability insurance is not really obtained for other people... it's to protect the person who buys it. You need to look out for yourself and get UMBI/UIMBI coverage.
Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 03:44 am Post Subject:
Agreed, it is unfair but you have no control over what others would choose as limits on their coverage.
Anyway, like Tcope has mentioned, you need to turn to your own carrier for reimbursement if you have UIMBI. Do you have it on your policy?
~ Jeremy
Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 04:00 am Post Subject:
I do have UIMBI & UMBI on my policy, but since he has insurance, I can only look at the Underinsured portion where it says 20k per person. What does going after that do to my own rates though? and really, it seems like that money on my policy is to cover medical bills & such, not to compensate me for pain & suffering.
I have no problem with the terms I have with my lawyer, although I did not know at the time his fees are not inlcuded in his 1/3 of the settlement, they come out of my 2/3. So he will get his $6600.00 and then charge me the fees off my $13,300.00 which leaves me with I dont know what yet.
My lawyer told me from the start to get whatever care/therapy I needed even if it was out of pocket and it would be ok in the end... obviously he didnt know about the guy's 20k cap on his insurance at the time. I have complete faith in my lawyer, he has been very good to me.
But I guess I dont understand whats the point in a 75k demand when the insured has a 20k cap. So anyone can go reduce their limits and if someone gets hurt, and its not enough, oh well?
Too bad for me an underinsured person was irresponsible and hit me and my family that day right?
Thank God I am the only one who got hurt in the accident out of the 4 of us because this guy's max was 40k per accident.
Seems to me like I have no choice in it. I was confused as to why he said in his letter to them that he was demanding 75k but since there was a 20k cap, if they offered that, we would accept it and sign a release... Arent I the one who decides when to sign a release? I was told by my physician & specialists not to sign anything for 2 years after the accident which isnt until 2010..
I am unable to work full time anymore.. I own my own accounting business and had to reduce my client base and refuse anyone who is over 20 min away from me as I cant handle the commute anymore. I will continue to need therapy and medications until God only knows when and to be quite honest... no, I am not whining... but I have been through hell, with no sign of full recovery ever, my family has gone through hell with me... and because of all of that... I think it rather stinks.
Guess next time I should make sure someone rich who has appropriate insurance hits me huh.
Oh ya, and I should move to another State becasue MASS has a "no fault" law that makes my own insurance pay for more of this than normal even though the other guy was 100% at fault.
Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 04:27 am Post Subject:
I do have UIMBI & UMBI on my policy, but since he has insurance, I can only look at the Underinsured portion where it says 20k per person.
So the other person has $20k BI and you have $20k UIMBI... for a total of $40k in payments? Filing a UIMBI claim should not affect your rates.it seems like that money on my policy is to cover medical bills & such, not to compensate me for pain & suffering.
It takes the place of the other person's BI coverage... so addressing your entire loss is exactly what it does.it seems like that money on my policy is to cover medical bills & such, not to compensate me for pain & suffering.
Huh? he takes 33% of your entire settlement.. which seem like $40k in this case. All those commercials are expensive!it seems like that money on my policy is to cover medical bills & such, not to compensate me for pain & suffering.
For ever dollar of medical treatment he's making at least $.33.... the more treatment you have, the more money he makes. Keep in mind, he's not paying your medical expenses out of his 1/3... it's coming from _your_ 2/3rds!But I guess I dont understand whats the point in a 75k demand when the insured has a 20k cap. So anyone can go reduce their limits and if someone gets hurt, and its not enough, oh well?
There is a lot that is unclear. If the $75k demand was against the other party, its was done in order to show your carrier that your attorney thinks you are still owed an additional $55k. Your owed $55k so he is willing to "settle" for your $20k in UIMBI. It's just a negotiation tactic.Seems to me like I have no choice in it. I was confused as to why he said in his letter to them that he was demanding 75k but since there was a 20k cap, if they offered that, we would accept it and sign a release... Arent I the one who decides when to sign a release? I was told by my physician & specialists not to sign anything for 2 years after the accident which isnt until 2010
I could write a book on your option not to take the $20k from the other carrier and not to take the $20k from your carrier but you'd have to then pay your attorney to file suit and obtain a judgement. You'd then get the $40k and have a piece of paper saying the other person owed your much more. Much more of...? What does this person have to give you? Plus, your attorney is simply going to want to collect 1/3 of $40k and move on to the next client. The more time he spends on your case the less money he makes.Medical people can tell you anything they want... they seldom have no idea how insurance laws and settlements work. Your attorney is probably just a tad more up to speed on this (the medical providers don't know the carriers are paying the max that they have available. You can wait if you want... in 2010 you will get the same amount of money as now).
I think it rather stinks.
You are 100% correct! It DOES stink. I don't mean to sound short but you are simply 100% correct. Please let others know that they need to see if they have UMBI coverage with high enough limits. Also consider raising your own.... $20k is really next to nothing. Increasing that to $50k or $100k would probably only cost a few dollars a year.Oh ya, and I should move to another State becasue MASS has a "no fault" law that makes my own insurance pay for more of this than normal even though the other guy was 100% at fault.
If you lived in a state without PIP, you'd be collecting less... not more. Your own PIP just means that there is more coverage available to you.Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 04:50 am Post Subject:
So wait... are you saying if the lawyer takes the 20k from his insurance and then I go and collect the 20k from my own insurance for the under-insured portion, the attorney gets 1/3 of that too? Why would I need him involved in that 20k under-insured part that I have to go after my ins. for? Cant I just do that on my own after the settlement from the other guy's ins.?
The lawyer agreement is 1/3% of the settlement. I was told by my friend who brought me to see him because she used him as well that he will then take his fees out of my 2/3 of the settlement. She did not know this when she signed up and he never ever said that to me, not once. But I am sure its in there somewhere although I have read it cover to cover.
I am certainly not the type to go after the other driver personally... like you said, they would tell him he owes me money and he would say, well you try to make this rock bleed.. And although I was looking forward to something good coming out of this ordeal, like paying off some debt., its not really about the money... well maybe it is... but in the end, I just feel like I was put in a bargain basement bin by accident and someone got to pay clearance price on me because I was in the wrong bin.
I am thankful in some ways I did not go through with the personal treatments for my pain that would have been out of pocket. I didnt have the money at the time and to have found out after the fact I wasnt getting any of it back would have stung even more.
I have been advised to raise the limits on my entire policy although now that my 18 year old is on my car's policy, its already a bit pricey (oh ya and she had a lovely accident a couple months ago in which she was found at least 50% at fault so that rate is going to go up)
She pays for her portion of the insurance and will have to pay for the rate increase & surcharges for sure.
I could go on about them totalling my car and not giving me enough to replace it with sometihng as good as what I had but I read it all the time on here that this is nothing new. So I forked out 1k of my own money to get a car that was more comparable, so take that out of my settlement too in the end.
ugh... seriously I cant keep up with all of this.
Thank God I am not hurt worse... they cant cure me and wont do surgery on me so it is what it is... now I wonder when my ins. company will shut off my meds... funny how they would rather pay for pain meds & muscle relaxors than treatment like massage therapy etc.
So stupid...
Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 04:59 am Post Subject:
So wait... are you saying if the lawyer takes the 20k from his insurance and then I go and collect the 20k from my own insurance for the under-insured portion, the attorney gets 1/3 of that too? Why would I need him involved in that 20k under-insured part that I have to go after my ins. for? Cant I just do that on my own after the settlement from the other guy's ins.?
You may now leave the temple, Grasshopper.You'd be 100% correct. With the size of your claim and the limited coverage, there is a good possibility that both carrier would have simply paid their policy limits if you asked. Why did you get an attorney? Apply that answer to your question about why you are paying an attorney 1/3 of $40,000. You signed a contract with the attorney at this point.
I feel for you. I've been stressed out over a few things lately and then someone like you comes along and shows me that I have no right to complain. Just remember, you WILL get through this!
Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 05:20 am Post Subject:
Grasshopper huh..... well I do feel as though I got "burned" !!
I got a lawyer because at the time, we had no clue how far & extensive my injuries were. And at the time, I had no clue there was a 20k cap on the other guy's insurance. Good grief, what if they did decide for surgery on me??? I would be *** out of luck huh?
I have been so stressed, I live on Maloxx & Prilosec... and deal with a list of stress affected medical issues of which any description would be TMI so I will save you from all that.
All I know is, somehow I have to find a way to re-build my company without landing myself into the hospital. And I just lost another client because they are claiming bankruptcy so there goes my 7 year 2nd highest paying client who actually was the most understanding about all that has happened which considering I screwed up his taxes a couple times while trying to work while on the meds, I am thinking he was a heck of a guy.. (that and I paid the penalties out of my own pocket) Note to self... pain killers & muscle relaxors dont mix well with an accounting career!
I still think I should be able to just have him represent the 20k from the other guy and I will go after my 20k from my own policy. But I am sure there is a loophiole there somewhere to keep me from doing that on my own.
I wasnt going to get an attorney or go after the insurance so I should be thankful (and I am) for whatever I get out of this whole thing... I just had hopes for more so when I look back 5 years from now and I am still in pain and still dealing with specialists etc. I could have said... well at least, I got out of debt with my settlement....
But I will say... at least I am alive and can get up and get dressed and breath on my own. My children & husband have taken excellent care of me, although I feel they got screwed out of a "whole" mother in this...
I am not in a wheelchair or bedridden... I can feel the sun on my face, and dip my toes in the ocean... (can you hear the uplifting music starting up in the background on this monologue?)
I will get through this even if it is as a shell of a person stuck on narcotics & muscle relaxors and oh ya, antidepressants so I dont crawl into a cave and be a hermit like I would like to..
And I will up my limits so that God forbid if I ever cause an accident where someone gets hurt, they can be taken care of properly.
Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 05:51 am Post Subject:
Hi Mrscucch,
I have no problem with the terms I have with my lawyer, although I did not know at the time his fees are not inlcuded in his 1/3 of the settlement, they come out of my 2/3.
Didn't you require to sign an agreement at the very beginning? How is it that you didn't know about it?
So anyone can go reduce their limits and if someone gets hurt, and its not enough, oh well?
No, it's not about reducing. Insurance is about covering your risks. You get your risks covered for a price. So, you only get coverage, which is proportional to the price you can pay to cover your risks.
Steven
Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 05:58 am Post Subject:
In my Contingent Fee Agreement, it does not say he will be charging his fees outside of the 1/3% of the settlement. The only reason I know this to be a true practice by this law firm is that is what they did to my friend who just used them in a similar case. They took their 1/3 and then took their fees out of her 2/3..
Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 11:22 am Post Subject:
Hi Mrscucch,
In my Contingent Fee Agreement, it does not say he will be charging his fees outside of the 1/3% of the settlement.
Do they at all mention anything regarding the fees?
If not, how is this 1/3 settlement worth described in your agreement?
Steven
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