Good Advice If You've Been Injured Recently
When you are injured, you deserve to have every single penny that is coming to you. It is equally important to understand the process involved in a legal case and select the right attorney to represent you. Read on to educate yourself so that you can make the most of your good attorney and your wise instincts.
If you lost income as a result of your injuries, you will need proof for court. Speak with your employer and ask them to give you a statement that outlines how much money you earn and how many days of work you missed because of what happened to you. Depending on whether you earn an hourly wage or not, your income tax return could also be valuable documentation to bring with you.
Get a detailed police report regarding an injury you receive, for future reference in court. Not only will the information gathered by the authorities be very credible, it can help prove that you were wrongfully injured and win your case. Failure to collect credible evidence means your claim may be viewed as hearsay, and that won't win you anything!
File a report with the police. Filing a police report will give you an official way to document names, date, and time of the incident, as well as the contact information of other involved parties. In many cases, this will be your official record of what occurred. This police report will also be valuable evidence should your case go to trial.
Hire a lawyer as soon as possible. If you have been injured, try to start the process of locating a lawyer within a week or two at most. If you have been hospitalized, or are otherwise too injured to do the work yourself, enlist the help of a friend or family member. A lawyer is your best bet for a successful personal injury claim outcome.
Do a quick background check to determine whether or not your personal injury lawyer is qualified. The last thing that you need is for your lawyer to deceive you, which could have catastrophic results financially and personally if your case is important. Hire a lawyer who has a good history and currently has all of the prerequisites to practice.
Never sign something without the advice of your lawyer. When you are dealing website with an insurance company the first thing, they will likely do is get you to settle with them on terms that benefit them. To ensure that you do not get ripped off by them, be sure to have your lawyer review everything you are asked to sign.
It is important to keep close track of any and all paperwork pertaining to your case. This should include doctor's notes and receipts for medical supplies and bills. Be sure to save any emails that your doctor sends you.
If you think your case is a slam dunk win, you are likely to be able to find a lawyer who will work on a conditional contract. These contracts state that you only pay the lawyer's fee if they win the case for you. While you'll end up paying more, this ensures you're not out if you lose.
If it is clear visually that you have been hurt, you should take the time to get high quality images of your body. This will show the extent of your injuries and will strengthen your case. It is important to present the extent of your injury in an accurate way to get the settlement you deserve.
Avoid lawyers who seek you out. Lawyers who go looking for potential cases are known as "ambulance chasers" and should be avoided. These lawyers often make their money by settling quickly and rely on a fast turnover rate so they can find more clients. If you settle a case quickly, you must be prepared to accept significantly less than your case is potentially worth.
When you are looking for an attorney to represent you when you are injured, find one who will take your case on a contingency basis. This means he will collect no fees from you unless you win a monetary award from your case. This will alleviate you from paying the lawyer if you do not win.
Contact all of the parties that may be responsible for paying for your injuries as soon as you can. The law has certain time requirements, and insurance companies do as well, so to ensure that you are within them you should just contact them right away. Not doing so could mean the end of your claim.
When you suffer a personal injury, you are likely to be filled with fear and uncertainty. But, if you take the time to engage the services of a lawyer specializing in such cases, you stand a much better chance of coming out ok. Keep the advice above in mind in case you find yourself in need.
Auto insurers play hardball in minor-crash claims
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- If you are injured in a minor car crash, chances are good that you will be in the fight of your life to get the insurance company to pay all the medical costs you incur -- even if the accident was no fault of your own.
That's what CNN discovered in an 18-month investigation into minor-impact soft-tissue injury crashes around the country. Those are accidents in which there is little damage to the vehicle and the injuries to people are not easy to see by the naked eye or conventional medical tools like X-rays.
Since the mid-1990s, most of the major insurance companies -- led by the two largest, Allstate and State Farm -- have adopted a tough take-it-or-leave-it strategy when dealing with such cases.
The result has been billions in profits for insurance companies and little, if anything, for the public, according to University of Nevada insurance law professor Jeff Stempel.
"We can see that policyholders individually are getting hurt by being dragged through the court on fender-bender claims, and yet we don't see any collateral benefit in the form of reduced premiums even for the other policyholders," Stempel said.
"So I think now we can say to continue this kind of program is in my view institutionalized bad faith."
If you have never heard of the strategy, it's because insurance companies don't want you to know that they are paying out less and less for minor crashes even while their profits soar and your premiums continue to rise.
But after a review of more than 6,000 company documents and court records, interviews with a dozen people nationwide, including former company insiders, and conversations with accident victims, the picture is clear: If you challenge the offer by some insurance companies you will be left with no option but to go to court, where you will be dragged through the wringer.
Expensive, time-consuming
In an affidavit in a New Mexico case where Allstate is being sued, one of the company's former attorneys said the strategy is to make fighting the company "so expensive and so time-consuming that lawyers would start refusing to help clients."
Shannon Kmatz, a police officer and former Allstate claims agent, said company employees were encouraged to get rid of claims quickly and cheaply and even offered accident victims as little as $50, telling them to take it or leave it.
Both Roxanne Martinez of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Ann Taylor of West Lafayette, Indiana, saw the practice firsthand.
Martinez suffered neck and back injuries when she was sideswiped by a driver insured by Allstate.
After three years, the company finally offered her $15,000 -- a little more than half of what she needed for lost wages and medical bills.
She went to court, and four years after the accident a jury awarded her $167,000 plus interest.
"It's kind of hard when you are thinking they are going to leave you broke. ... That was very stressful," she said.
Taylor was not as fortunate when her case went to trial.
The Indiana nurse was rear-ended by a State Farm employee driving a State Farm car. Damage to her car was minimal but she suffered herniated disc and muscle tears.
Taylor racked up medical bills and lost wages amounting to about $15,000. The company offered her $2,000.
"I was just very insulted," she said.
She sued, but three years later a jury came back with a judgment for her of only $1,500.
The jury didn't believe she could be hurt in an accident in which the vehicle had barely a dent.
Three jurors told CNN photos of the two cars involved in the accident -- enlarged and prominently displayed by the defense -- played a huge role in their decision.
And one said they assumed Taylor had already been compensated by the insurance company and was just trying to get more money.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1tK7Cq0WYE_Jbut9wKINYSEnPSaXFndpmovl-Sg3Focw/edit?usp=sharing