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VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
Hello, everyone. This is Robert Mansour, and I'm making this brief video today from my office to discuss the issue of liability when it comes to personal injury cases. When clients call my office for the very first time after an automobile accident, one of the questions that I ask them is, "What happened at the scene of the accident?" Did the other party admit fault for the accident or did they come out of their vehicle and start yelling at them accusing them of causing the accident? If a prospective client tells me, "Oh, the other guy, he got out of his car and he started pointing the finger at me. He said I ran the red light. He told the police officer I ran a red light, and then I told the officer no, he ran the red light." You see what you have there? You have a "he said, she said" or "she said, he said," or whatever you want to call it. The point is that when your opinion about what happened differs from the other party's opinion, you're going to have something called "disputed liability." If you have disputed liability, here's how that plays out - You go home and you call the lawyer's office, and the other guy, he calls his lawyer's office. Now you are both coming after each other and suing each other and making claims against each other. Or never mind that. Let's say, for example, you bring a claim. He calls his insurance company. He says, "No, no, no...that's not what happened at all. The other fellow caused the accident." The point is this: If the insurance company for the responsible party believes their client, they're just not going to pay you. They're going to dig their heels in the sand, and you're going to have disputed liability. People say, "Well, yeah. That's what a lawyer is for. That's why I'm calling a lawyer." This is when I have to explain to the client that if you have disputed liability and the insurance company for the responsible party is not budging and they're not seeing it your point of view, you have to ask yourself at that point, "Is it really worth involving a lawyer? Is it worth me spending two years in court, spending thousands of dollars to pursue this person and bring a claim against them?" Frankly, you're not really going to be involving that person at all. It's really going to be between you and their insurance company most of the time. They may not even know that you're doing anything. It's all happening behind the scenes. I tell clients that it might be worth the fight if, for example, you have injuries that are so severe that you are in a wheelchair for the rest of your life or you had major surgery as a result of the accident or some other significant injury. Then it might be worth two years of your time or more fighting in court with a lawsuit, paying thousands of dollars to go through this. If all you've got is some minor whiplash from the accident, I think you should think two or three times about bringing a claim against the other party because all you're going to do is dig yourself into a financial hole, at least conceivably. Then you end up worse off than you currently are. Just because the other party is disagreeing with you doesn't necessarily mean you should file a claim. Even though it might not feel right to you and it might be upsetting and frustrating, but sometimes you just have to do the smart thing. One of the issues is liability. By the way, just because the other party admits fault to the accident doesn't necessarily mean that party's insurance company is going to agree with their client's assessment. They may disagree and they may still decide to fight you on the issue of liability. Then you have to weigh and balance your options, and decide whether it is a wise decision to bring a claim or not. Thank you very much for watching this video. I hope you found it very helpful. If you have any questions regarding your personal injury case, please feel free to contact my office. Thank you very much. Call (661) 414-7100 if you need help with your personal injury case. When you file a claim for personal injury against the responsible party's insurance carrier, you will usually be assigned an "adjuster" to help you with your claim. If your claim is for property damage, you will be assigned a "property damage" adjuster. If your claim is for injury, you will be assigned a "bodily injury" adjuster. In some cases, the assigned adjuster will handle both the property damage claim and the bodily injury claim.
Keep in mind that while the adjuster is "helping" you with your claim, their unspoken job is to save money for the insurance company. After all, you are not employing the adjuster. They are employed by the insurance company and that's really where their allegiance is. While many adjusters will certainly do their best to help you, it will be within their company's guidelines and parameters. If push comes to shove, don't bet on the adjuster siding with you. Once again, their allegiance and loyalty belongs to their employer...not you. If you are dealing directly with any insurance company, most of the time the claims adjuster will try to get you to settle for a very small amount. Usually, it's far less than what you deserve. Oftentimes, these "lowball" offers are made shortly after your accident because they know you are probably upset, distraught, and generally confused. Sometimes you're simply not in a position to make a reasonable decision. They figure you will take whatever they offer you because you might be afraid you won't get anything at all. Also, insurance companies know claims can take a long time, sometimes years to bring a lawsuit against their client and win a judgment in court. They are betting you are more apt to take the money presented to at the beginning rather than wait years for something better. Whatever happens, do not make a decision on impulse. In most cases, there is no "emergency" and no reason to rush to settlement. Make sure you discuss your matter with an experience lawyer first. Some adjusters will employ specific tactics to their advantage. Some will even try to convince you to call another insurance company - sending you on a wilde goose chase. Sometimes they won't return your calls or your emails. In some cases, they will argue that you "waited too long" to file a claim. If you are bringing a claim against your own company, there might indeed be time limits, but generally speaking, you don't have to bring a claim immediately. Keep in mind there is a difference between making a claim and filing a lawsuit. You must be mindful of the "statute of limitations." Technically you currently have two years in California to file a lawsuit for personal injury against the responsible party from the date the accident occurs, unless your claim involves a municipality or other public entity in which case other time limts may apply. Of course, this is the current law and may change. The insurance adjuster may also tell you they can only pay for your "out-of-pocket" expenses. That is not true. Your out-of-pocket expenses are only part of your overall claim. If your bills were paid by a health insurance company, they may be entitled to reimbursement, but that is another issue. The insurance adjuster will also try to get copies of all your past medical records. To some extent, they are seeking to learn more about your injury. However, in most cases, they are simplly looking through your medical history for things to use against you. For example, if you injured your back in the car accident, they will find any mention of previous back pain from years ago and may make an issue of it. They will make mountains out of mole hills. Talking with an experienced attorney will help you make an informed decision. Being represented by an attorney is not always recommended. However, it's always good to learn about your options. VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
Hello everyone this is Robert Mansour. I wanted to make a brief video today about being proactive regarding your medical care after a personal injury accident. Lets say you get involved in a serious automobile accident and you are hurt. One of the most important things to keep in mind is that you need to move, with respect to your care, your health care. Don't let two, three, four weeks go by before you do anything. Here's why, the insurance adjusters look very carefully at your behavior after an automobile accident. They look in they see how much time lapsed from the very day of the accident to day they went to first see a doctor and then they say, "How many days after that did they start their physical therapy and then after that what did they do? Are they skipping their appointments? Are they waiting too long?" This is a very big problem that I see in personal injury cases. For example, I'll call the client and I'll say, "Oh, you were hurt in an accident?" They'll say, "Yes, I was" I say, "Have you seen a doctor?" They say, "No" I said, "You understand that the other party's going to say - that you are not really injured because you didn't go see a doctor.'" Then they go see a doctor because they're hurt and the doctor prescribes physical therapy. I might call the client and I say, "Okay, did you go to the doctor?" They say, "Yes, I did" and I say, "Okay, what happened?" "Oh, the doctor says I should do physical therapy." I say, "Well, did you go for physical therapy?", "Oh, no I'm too busy." That's a very difficult client to help because they're not being proactive about their care. They're being passive about their care and if they don't care enough about their case and their health to go seek the proper medical care, why should the insurance adjuster care any more? It's frustrating sometimes, for me, to have clients who are not proactive because I can't pull a rabbit out of a hat. I am not a magician. If my client tells me that they are hurt and that they are injured from an auto accident, serious auto accident, they need to go to the doctor. They need to get proactive care, they need to get better, they need to go to physical therapy, they need to go get x-rays, MRI's, they need to follow doctors orders. They need to follow through on their appointments because if they don't the insurance company will use all that against them. Then their case implodes on them and they get frustrated. Again, I reiterate, I tell them, "Listen if you don't care enough about your own case, the insurance adjuster is not going to care more than you. In fact they are going to care far less and they are going to devalue your case." Here is the problem, you might have serious injuries from a car accident. You might be really, really hurt, but if you are not proactive about your care it only serves to harm you at the end of the day. The insurance adjuster for the responsible party is more than happy to devalue your case, and to poo-poo it, and to belittle it. Don't give them extra reasons to do so. They're already wired to do that. If you are not proactive about your care, and you don't go seek the care, cetera then don't be surprised if the insurance adjuster and the insurance company for the responsible party, use that against you. Therefore, it is very, very important to move forward with your care. To be proactive about it. To follow through on the doctors orders and to keep your attorney advised of what's going on. Thank you very much for watching this video. I hope I have impressed upon you the importance of proactive medical care after an automobile accident. Thank you very much for watching and if you have any questions regarding this or other personal injury matters, please feel free to contact my office. Thank you very much. VIDEO TRANSCRIPT: Hello, everybody. This is Robert Mansour, and I wanted to make a brief video today about the issue of medical payments coverage. Medical payments coverage is something that a lot of people have under their insurance policy, and they're not even aware of it. Your auto insurance policy may have some coverage for you called "medical payments coverage," or MPC. What that means is, they basically serve as a health insurance company for you.
So, let's say you don't have health insurance. If you have medical payments coverage under your auto insurance policy, they might be able to pay for your health care coverage, or your health care needs after an auto accident. Now, it's important to know what the limits are of your Medical payments coverage. So for example, you might have $2,000 available to you, or $5,000 available to you. You need to make sure number one that you have it available; and number two, you need to know what the limits are. In some cases, I have seen clients with $25,000 of medical payments coverage available to them. And the nice thing about this is that you can get your health care providers paid more quickly. Some of the health care providers don't understand personal injury cases, and they don't want to work on a lien, for example. They don't want to defer their payment for later on in a case. They want to get paid now. And if you don't have health care insurance, it might be good to use your medical payments coverage. In some cases, the medical payments coverage will only pay after you've exhausted your health care coverage. So, if you use your health care coverage first and then you have some money left over that you have to get paid, some bills, you can use your medical payments coverage at that point. The other thing is that they may want you to exhaust your health care coverage first, your health care coverage options; or at least demonstrate that you don't have health care, before the medical payments coverage kicks in. In many cases, and I would say in most cases, the insurance company has a right to reimbursement of their medical payments. So, let's say you recover money from the party at fault. You probably have to repay your insurance company for the medical payments they advanced on your behalf. So, it's not necessarily a freebie. So, let's say your insurance company pays $5,000 to the doctors on your behalf, under your Medical payments coverage. If you recover money from the other party, let's say you recover $10,000, you have to repay your insurance company for the Medical payments coverage that they extended for you. Now, that is, in most cases, a contractual obligation that many clients aren't even aware of. So, make sure you talk to your lawyer about your medical payments coverage, whether or not it's even going to be available for you. And also make sure you discuss the right of reimbursement that most insurance companies have, when it comes to the medical payments coverage provision. If you don't have medical payments coverage, talk to your insurance professional and see if it will be appropriate for you. In most cases, it's not very expensive and it can be very helpful if you have a personal injury case. Thank you very much for watching this video. I hope you found it helpful. If you need help with your accident matter, please call my office to learn more and see if we can help you with your personal injury auto accident case. Call (661) 414-7100. Also, visit our Videos page for more educational videos you may find helpful. |
Attorney Robert MansourRobert Mansour is an attorney in Santa Clarita, California who has been practicing law since 1993. After working for 13 years for the insurance companies, he now counsels victims of personal injury. Click here to learn more about Robert Mansour. Categories
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