Why You Should Hire an Attorney for your Car Accident Case
A Case Study
It’s a common scenario – you’ve been in a car accident and sustained injuries. You’re hurt, but the injuries aren’t catastrophic. Do you need an attorney, or can you handle it directly with the other driver’s insurance company? What should you do?
Here is a case study of a client who, with the assistance of Adeszko, Abate & Green, made a net recovery of 10 times the offer made to her by the insurance company.
We were contacted by a potential client who had been in a minor car collision and was attempting to handle the case on her own with the other driver’s insurance company for the past 7 months. She had undergone some sessions of physical therapy and an injection for back pain. She hadn’t received medical treatment for about 3 months. She was also on Medicare, who has a right under Federal law to get paid back for any related medical expenses.
The insurance company had presented her with a settlement release that would pay her $3,000 in pain and suffering and pay the roughly $10,000 in medical expenses incurred thus far, plus allow us to another $2,000 for any additional reasonable and necessary medical bills that had not yet been submitted or repayment of Medicare or additional treatment. The adjuster told the potential client that she had “reserved” $12,000 for medical expenses so that is what she could pay. The insurance adjuster led her to believe that this “reserve” figure was the most the insurance company could ever pay. In fact, “reserves” are an arbitrary figure that insurance adjusters assign to each claim for their accounting and claims purposes at the start of a claim and these figures in no way limit an injured party’s ability to recover. This doesn’t stop insurance companies from leading injury victims to believe this is the maximum they can recover. Quite often they use this as a limit to try to tell an injury victim that anything more than that isn’t reasonable or necessary based on their reported injuries. This is not so different from when insurance companies threaten to “close your file” if you don’t do x, y & z. An insurance company “closing your file” means nothing as long as you are still within the statute of limitations or other deadlines to file a lawsuit.
The potential client came to us in this situation and retained our services and we advised against settling her case and signing the tendered release much to the chagrin of the insurance adjuster. In the following months, the client’s injection relief wore off, so she went back for a few more weeks of physician therapy and other minor treatment, but had completed her treatment within a few months of retaining our firm.
We were then able to gather and review our client’s records and bills and analyze our client’s injuries, and craft a settlement demand more representative of our client’s claim.
We were able to eventually negotiate a settlement for our client for $57,500. The insurance company was obviously not pleased because months earlier they believed they were going to be able to settle the case at a cost of only $15,000.00 to the insurance company.
But, how did this outcome affect our client? How did this help our client’s bottom line and the ultimate money in her pocket taking into account the additional costs and fees associated with hiring an attorney? Did the client really benefit after paying nearly $20,000 out of that settlement towards attorney’s fees and litigation costs? Well, not only was Adeszko Abate & Green able to substantially increase her gross settlement, but they were also able to substantially reduce the amount of the settlement that went towards paying back medical expenses from the settlement. Using their knowledge of the interplay between Medicare and first party Auto Med pay and the Illinois Medical provider Lien Act, the attorneys were able to pay off all outstanding medical bills and subrogation liens and rights using only $7xxxx of funds from the settlement. All of the bills were paid, all subrogation liens extinguished, and for a figure that was substantially lower that what the insurance company said they had “reserved” for medical before additional treatment was incurred.
The final result for this client was that she received $30xxxx in her pocket from the settlement after all attorney’s fees were paid, all litigation costs were covered, all medical bills were paid off, and all subrogation liens were satisfied. Her net recovery was 10 times what she would have recovered if she signed the release presented to her by the insurance company before she had an attorney.
Some key takeaways:
You should always at least consult with an attorney soon after an injury to give you some general advice on what to expect.
Keep in mind that the insurance company’s goal is to settle and close out your claim as quickly as possible by paying you as little as possible. They are not there to help you.
What is considered to be “reasonable and necessary” medical treatment or “reasonable” charges for services by the insurance company may not be what is considered to be “reasonable and necessary” by you or your doctors. Those issues are at the heart of much of our litigation. Never agree to anything where the insurance company leaves these items open ended without defining specific treatment that they are paying in full or specific prior bills that will be paid in full.
If you sign any settlement agreement with the insurance company, you are expected to have read it and understood it. It is nearly impossible to undo any settlement agreement you have reached with an insurance company, even if it was signed prior to hiring an attorney.
The value of hiring a knowledgeable, experienced injury attorney to handle even a seemingly simple personal injury case, cannot be overstated.