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Today I got a call from a prospective client who was involved in an accident in 2010. He told me that he had reached an agreement with the insurance company for the responsible party, but he had not signed any paperwork yet. He was waiting to see if he was feeling much better before deciding what to do. He wanted to make sure his medical bills were completely covered.
He was told by a friend of his that he had three years to bring a lawsuit against the other party. Unfortunately, he got the wrong information. The current statute in California is two years from the date of the incident. Therefore, while this gentleman may have reached a tentative settlement with the insurance company, he was ultimately at their mercy because he never finalized the settlement. Therefore, he cannot bring a lawsuit against the other party. Indeed, he may be out of luck. This is the danger that occurs when friends and family give you advice. There's nothing wrong with listening to others, but if they give you the wrong information, it may affect your case. This is the same when people tell you your case should be worth "a lot of money," or you "have no case," or you have "five years to file a lawsuit." I hear the influence of others all the time, "My friend says I should be able to get $40,000 for my case because his aunt Jenny in Kansas got $50,000 for her sprained ankle!" In this case, "My friend said I have 3 years to bring a lawsuit." Remember, your friends and family are simply your friends and family. They are not professionals who do this every day. You should always consult with a lawyer when it comes to your personal injury case. You have nothing to lose in most cases and everything to gain. There's nothing wrong with a free consultation that can set you on the right path. Also, the more information you have, the more of an educated decision you can make about how to proceed. Just because a friend tells you that you have "three years" to bring a lawsuit doesn't make it true. If you have questions regarding your personal injury case, feel free to call my office at (661) 414-7100. We might be able to help you. When it comes to personal injury cases, I cannot stress the importance of photographs enough. Most people don't seem to understand why photographs are important when it comes to accident cases. The old adage holds true - a picture speaks a thousand words. This is extremely true when it comes to proving your accident case.
You're probably not going to have a camera with you at the time of the accident. However, many cell phones now have the ability to take decent pictures. Take pictures of the damage to your vehicle. However, don't forget to take pictures of the damage to all other vehicles involved in the accident. Also try to take pictures of the scene if you can. It is very important when he comes to convincing in insurance adjuster that your accident involved more than a minor bump. If you take pictures with your cell phone, make sure you know how to get the photos off your cell phone. In many cases, you can email the photos to yourself and download them to your computer. You can also email them to your attorney or burn them onto a disc. When taking photographs, it's important to take photographs from every conceivable angle. Take pictures of the left side, the right side, from above, from below, from various distances, etc. Don't just take a close-up of the damage because that will not convey the entire story. Remember, in many cases you'll be trying to convince an insurance adjuster that this accident was more than minor. They will do everything they can to minimize your claims. You need to do the opposite - everything to maximize your claims. If the accident was major, you definitely want to document that fact using photographs. Proving lost earnings is more difficult than you think. You can't recover for "speculative" lost earnings. This affects folks who get paid on commission because it's hard to show you were going to get paid when commission is, by its nature, a hit-or-miss proposition. However, when it comes to lost earnings, you have to show concrete losses. You have to show you were GOING TO GET PAID but did not BECAUSE OF THE ACCIDENT!
Also, it helps to get verification of inability to work from your doctor. If you are unable to work due to your accident, do not leave your doctor’s office without written verification of your working status from your doctor – in other words, get a “note” from your doctor! Claims for lost wages from work are dependent upon your doctor’s written verification of your work status. It is your responsibility to get this information from your physician. Oftentimes, the lawyer's office doesn't get notice of these. Without such notes from the doctor keeping you off work, your claim for wage loss, if any, will be severely hampered. If you are going to allege lost wages, you also need verification from your employer of the dates missed and your rate of pay. If you are missing work due to the accident, your employer (the person offering verification) should know WHY you are missing work. They need to know it is accident-related. Provide your lawyer with the name/address/phone of the person who can assist with verification of your lost earnings. If your claim is significant, providing tax returns from the past 2 or 3 years is helpful to show the decline after the accident. Insurance companies often won’t pay for lost wages unless they have verification from your employer AND your doctor. Otherwise, they will simply assume you just decided to stay home, eat ice cream, and watch Seinfeld re-runs. They don't pay lost earnings because you are a nice person. Call (661) 414-7100 if you have any questions or would like help with your personal injury case. At some point after presenting your entire claim to the insurance adjuster, you will get an offer of some sort. Usually, it will be much less than you were hoping. In my experience, it will be about half of what you were hoping for. You should discuss the offer with your lawyer. An attorney who has a great deal of experience in the area of personal injury should be helpful in determining the ballpark settlement value for your case. As a former defense attorney and now a plaintiff's attorney, I've seen all kinds of cases cross my desk. As such, you start to get a good sense of not only what the case is worth, but what a jury might do with the case.
After evaluating all factors, your attorney will discuss the case with you to come to a possible acceptable settlement range. Once you both have come to an agreement upon a general settlement range, your attorney will continue negotiating with the insurance company in hope that they will pay within the settlement range. Sometimes, you get a reasonable adjuster who will negotiate with you and work with your lawyer in an amicable fashion. Sometimes, you get an adjuster who is just generally angry with the world (something happened during their childhood), and all they want to do is even the score - regardless who they are dealing with. Your lawyer is not a miracle worker. There is going to come a breaking point at which the adjuster will offer no more money. They will essentially draw a line in the sand. At that point, the lawyer and the client will have to talk numbers. Will there be enough money to pay off the doctors and other lien-holders? Will there be enough to pay the attorney fees and pay the client as well? If the final numbers are acceptable (even if you're not crazy about the final numbers), then you should settle the case. Remember, in most cases the settlement amount will not be what you had in mind. If you are working with an experienced lawyer, then you will probably have reasonable expectations. You won't take things personally, and you will work to get a number that works. If the numbers still won't work out, then you and your lawyer will have to figure out whether or not filing a lawsuit against the responsible party makes sense. If you want to discuss your personal injury case, please call attorney Robert Mansour at (661) 414-7100 for a consultation. Some people are very curious what happens to the person who caused the accident. The truth is, nothing much ever happens to the person who caused the accident. Of course, if they were injured, they will be dealing with their own health care issues. If they were arrested for drunk driving or something else, then of course they will be dealing with that. However, if they were insured, then very little will probably happen. Their insurance company and your insurance company will likely want to take a "statement" from them to figure out what happened. Some insurance companies won't bother with that if liability is obvious. Some will insist on a statement from everyone and their dog regardless of how obvious the facts are.
If their insurance company accepts fault, then the other party is pretty much done. They will leave things to their insurance company to resolve. That's why they (and you) have insurance. If the party who caused the accident was deliberately underinsured, then they might have more to worry about. For example, let's say a very wealthy person gets the minimum auto insurance required by law. Then if your damages far exceed the other party's insurance policy, you can technically go after that person personally (to get more than the insurance policy). That's a long discussion for another day. If the other party had no insurance, then your insurance will probably provide you with coverage as long as you had "uninsured motorist" provisions on your policy. If you don't have underinsured motorist coverage, then you can entertain pursuing the responsible party in court and get money out of them personally. You will likely have to file a lawsuit. After the insurance company’s initial investigation of the incident, there is usually little or no contact between them and the person responsible for your damages. So to answer the question, they are most likely going on with their lives, hoping that the case will be settled by the insurance company. Their insurance rates will probably rise and/or their insurance company may ultimately dump them as clients. If you want to discuss this further, please call (661) 414-7100 for further information or guidance on this issue Before I handled personal injury cases on behalf of injured parties, I used to work as a defense lawyer for a major auto insurance company. Unfortunately, in most cases it is not a good idea to give a recorded statement to the insurance adjuster for the opposing insurance company.
First of all, they try to get your statement so early in the case, usually before you are fully aware of the nature and extent of your injuries. Second, they are usually trying to box you into a story so you can't "change" your story later on. In other words, if your circumstances change, they can use the words from your statement (given a day or two after an accident) against you. Finally, some adjusters will use their time with you to curry favor. You will start to trust them when they promise to pay your medical bills. You will believe them when they advise you against hiring a lawyer or even discussing your case with an attorney. Remember, the insurance adjuster for the other party doesn't work for you. You don't pay his/her salary. They don't owe you any allegiance or ounce of good faith. That is not to say there aren't reputable insurance adjusters out there who do genuinely care for others, but I'd say they are few and far between. Again, I've worked both sides of the fence and I can confidently state that giving a statement to the other party, especially so early in the game, is almost always NOT in your best interest. If you wish to discuss your injury case, please call my office at (661) 414-7100 for a free consultation. |
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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