In HI, you have up to 2 years after your last medical visit to submit your claim or file suit. There is NO advantage to you as the injured party in settling ANYTHING until you have a FULL assessment of all your damage to your vehicles and more importantly to your body. Most other states have similar laws.
Quick settlements favor the person who caused the accident, as damages are often underestimated and it’s difficult to know whether people will have long term injuries until time passes and they can get a full medical evaluation.
We NEVER allowed our clients to settle until the physicians could tell us that MDs could tell us the full extent of our clients injuries, especially which injuries were permanent and which would resolve and to what extent.
Following this thread closely as my daughter was rear ended and her car was totaled. She has no personal injuries but I would suggest not settling for any offers until you are 100% based on all the stuff they are trying to get away with to settle personal property. Also, check the insurance laws in your state. In mine, they are required to offer replacement value, not value of the car. It’s a big difference. Value of the car is how much you can sell it to the dealer, the replacement cost is how much they will sell it back.
@techmom99 so far, my daughter is negotiating directly with the at fault insurance company. They declared her car totaled, gave her a quote, but reading the adjusters report they didn’t bother turning the car on to look at the Odometer. It’s a low mileage car (2005 RAV with only 73K on odometer). She called them back and they are “looking into it.” What do you do if they refuse to negotiate their settlement price? Part of the problem I see is it seems they can refuse payment on her rental at any time (high cost as 24 yo). All the information needed to get fair price is in the adjusters report but how do you get the insurance company to do what is “right” without threatening an attorney?
Years ago I was hit as a pedestrian, and knocked unconscious. Insurance, which was the same company for both parties, wanted me to settle. I waited a bit, the offer went up by $1000. I did talk to an attorney, felt I was fine after a series of chiropractic treatments covered by the auto insurance and settled as he did not think it was much of a case, as I had only one day off work. In retrospect, I do think I had some subtle neurological damage to my executive function. Traumatic brain injury was not as studied a few decades back. But what I learned, was to wait, as they have years to settle. Two at that time, and your offer may go up. I agree, get fully checked out by a Dr. and if you are a fan of chiropractic, make sure things are right with your back and neck.
I was in an accident decades ago. I never signed anything saying that I would submit a medical claim until AFTER I received a rather large settlement fromthe other party’s insurance company whichncovered ALL of my extensive medical bills, replacement of my totaled car, and loss of wages.
My lawyer handled all of this…all of it.
Consult with a lawyer…this insurance company is trying to pay you to go away.
Oh, I’m sorry to hear about your accident. I’m in the same camp as all the others - wait! But prepare to be frustrated. My experience after my son was injured on a ski lift due to operator error was that the responsible company took FOREVER to pay for the cost of my son’s two ambulances and one helicopter ride, plus extensive testing. I think it was a couple of years before they paid up. They wanted to just pay our out-of-pocket medical costs, but the health insurance company has the first rights to ANY money in a case like this. We had to engage an attorney, and I don’t believe we were reimbursed for his charges. So we prevailed, but it was not a pleasant experience. Took up way too much of my time and energy.
If they refuse to settle for a price you deem reasonable, you can sue the person for the property damage. Whether you go to small claims court or not depends on your state’s limits (NYC is I think at $3K now but it might be $5k). Consult Kelly Blue Book for value and, for small claims court, you can use either two certified estimates or the testimony of a mechanic or appraiser. For regular court, you need a live witness. Remember, the laws in your state might differ.
Another option is to put the claim into your insurance, which will reimburse you and then sue the other party, but you might not get your deductible back and your rates might go up.
There are two parts to the claim, the bodily injury and the property damage. You can settle on the damage to the car without settling on the injury. Keep in mind that, if your health insurance pays for your initial medical expenses, they will expect to be reimbursed if you receive money from the the auto insurance company.
Not auto accident related, but years ago I had an acquaintance who had surgery of some type which was botched by the doctor. She required extensive hospitalization and ended up with a huge medical bill, which her health insurance covered. She then sued the surgeon, received a large settlement, and was totally dismayed when her health insurance required her to reimburse what they had paid on her behalf.
Bottom line, you need to request an amount sufficient to cover your actual medical cost PLUS lost wages (if any) and for future “pain and suffering.”
Yes, this is the clause that’s in health insurance policies: “Subrogation is a term denoting a legal right reserved by most insurance carriers. Subrogation is the right for an insurer to legally pursue a third party that caused an insurance loss to the insured. This is done as a means of recovering the amount of the claim paid by the insurance carrier to the insured for the loss.”
I was rearended in January. Still doing PT. Car totalled. Attorney advised me to wait until I’m cleared by docs and as well as I’m going to get. The other side’s insurance has called me twice. I will not speak with them. $1k is an insult. Go to the doc to get checked out, photograph your vehicle and damages.
My mother in law still has pain from a 1996 car crash that she walked away from, thinking she was fine. She didn’t know she had a crushed vertebra until the next day. Never take a settlement from an insurance company before you’ve been thoroughly checked out.
One more anecdote about the vagaries of back & soft tissue injuries. My wife was back east visiting family a few years ago and was in the back seat of a car when one of her cousins drove a little too fast over the speed bumps at the entrance to a restaurant parking lot. A day after she got home, she was miserable, and it took about a year of treatments for the pain [mainly neck] to go away. You just don’t know how something that seems minor is going to affect you.
Hope your experience is more like mine. I got rearended, it caused damage to two cars in front of me and my car was declared totaled. I really was fine. But we lost a lot of money as our perfectly fine car that we’d just finished paying for couldn’t be replaced by what they said it was worth. GRRR.
But agree with everyone don’t take the money. You need to get checked out.
^^^ Yeah, our car was totaled fifteen months after paying it off. We drive cars til they die; we expected another five years’ worth from that vehicle. Was not thrilled about having a new car payment again.
Soft tissue injuries are really difficult to diagnose and treat. Heck, the ER didn’t even do an EKG on me and I have a defibrillator and was on three anticoagulants! When I saw my primary a few days later as instructed, he was shocked and appalled at what hadn’t been evaluated (and by then, the soft tissue stuff was making itself evident).
Sherpa’s tale is exactly how one of our old cars got totaled, no injuries. D1 was driving.
Our insurer was extremely professional, immediately concerned everyone was ok. In fact, they asked me whether anyone was injured or suffering at the top of every phone call. And there were dozens of calls.
I am not sure if one needs a personal injury attorney, up front. You go to ER, you get the tests (her bf even had a chest CT.) you get the care you need, etc. All the bills went straight to the insurer.There was, as Himom says, some long period when they could report new symptoms. In our case, D1 and bf were ok.
But you don’t cede your own financial interests, so easily.
Your insurer should be managing the case. It’s how it worked for us in another big accident, too. There are cases where some individual (not usual) treatment might not be approved, but you ask first. Then, when it’s all done, all the bills are in, the “at fault” is determined (by police,) the appraisers wrote off the car, your own insurer goes to the other guy’s insurer, either gets what they want or sues them.
The matter of a rental is in the fine print. .
Don’t settle for 1k when you have no idea what your costs will be.
I had a soft tissue injury in an accident last year. I had Class IV laser treatment which is widely approved in Europe but not in the US. The other party has agreed to pay for the treatments but they do no want to pay for transportaion costs to medical treatments which is standard procedure. They just try to drive you into accepting a settlement because you don’t want to waste your time.
OP: Please Google Diminished value before you accept a claim.
Definitely don’t waive after this short a time. D was in a rear ended car felt fine until a few days later when her back started hurting and she ended up with 4 weeks of physical therapy. It was a minor thing in the scheme of thing and H (who is lawyer) handled the insurance and knew that there is a formula for what they will pay. They paid for her medical bills, prescription, lost wages (was working hourly babysitting for summer and had to get someone to fill in) and a small amount for inconvenience (couple hundred, not massive).
This was all just her health - she was passenger and she didn’t have to deal with car stuff. If it’s just been since Thursday, give it a little longer to see if any problems arise.
Why hasn’t your attorney sent a LOR (letter of representation) to the insurance company directing them not to call you again? They will put you on diary and call at regular intervals until/unless they are told you have an attorney, told not to call regardless or you take their offer. If you choose not to have an attorney send a LOR, send a cease and desist yourself. It’s their job to resolve claims in the manner that is most cost efficient and beneficial to them, not to you. Believe me, I am an attorney for an insurance company…
To add to the chorus, I actually (barely) avoided an auto accident by an extreme swerving/braking action in 2010 that ended up causing me months of significant pain–some of which persists to this day–due to a wrenched muscle and pinched nerve. I was on US govt business at the time and could have filed a claim, but didn’t realize it until it would have been a major hassle and events overtook me.
Don’t settle. These things can have long term effects that can really affect your life.
You made the right choice, @consolation. Maybe it was better back then, but many docs now will not take federal workers comp. The federal work comp system is not easy to deal with.
