People don’t get injured or drive under the influence in that galaxy. However, the CV gets lots of accidents, especially around spring break, the tennis tournament and concert season. When an accident happens, how do you MAXIMIZE YOUR RECOVERY?
We forgive most at fault accident drivers because it is just that… an accident. However, the accident victim deserves to be fairly compensated for their pain and suffering. An accident doesn’t mean you will receive a fair settlement offer and you didn’t win the lottery when rear-ended. Many potential clients do not understand why their case is not as valuable as their neighbors.
The most successful Accident cases have the following things in common, which establish liability and damages:
- Auto and injury Cellphone pictures.
- Police report even if no apparent injuries.
- No statement without a lawyer’s ok, as it is evidence and could later hurt you. If the defendant doesn’t have insurance or adequate insurance, your insurance will pay under your UM coverage.
- Photograph the other driver’s license and insurance and REMOVE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA. Insurance companies watch your Facebook and Twitter posts, showing you playing sports or talking about a vacation, suggesting you are OK.
- Take the ambulance to the Hospital or Urgent Care. Many victims don’t realize the severity of an injury, and don’t seek immediate treatment. Later they realize the pain they are experiencing is accident related. Some refuse an ambulance because they have to pick up their kids or are concerned about hospital and ambulance costs. Without immediate medical treatment in the first 3 days, many lawyers are less interested in the case, because the defense argues, if the victim was really injured, they would have sought immediate medical treatment.
- The Victim shouldn’t give the hospital their insurance/Medicare/Medicaid information. Once notified it takes 6-12 months to get them to respond to lien payment information, so we can release the money. Under a new law, the jury can only consider medical bills not paid by any insurance or Medicare/Medicaid. If Eisenhower charges $50,000, Medicare accepts $9,000, and the patient is only responsible for $1,000, we can only submit $1,000 to the jury. In the past that $50,000 medical bill would result in a $150,000 settlement offer. If $1,000 is all the insurance has to pay, we will get low ball settlement offers of $2,500 to $5,000.
- Contact a Lawyer immediately: Without an attorney, the insurance company can contact you and try to get a statement. Your lawyer will never know what you said or what the adjuster/investigator thought s/he heard you say. With a lawyer there is less of a chance for a “mistaken” comment to the insurance company.
- A lawyer gets medical care on a lien. Most doctors don’t know how to prepare a med/legal report, which is essential for maximizing your recovery. As a faculty member of the International College of Orthopedic Surgeons, I lectured annually on “How to Write a Medical/Legal Report”, almost as important as the doctor’s notes. Ordering Physical Therapy, rather than having you sit in a hot bath and taking aspirin, is crucial too. A lawyer should urge you to list all injuries from the top of your head to the bottom of your toes, and to take that list to each doctor’s appointment. All information should be shared with each medical provider. Arm your doctor with ALL your medical complaints.
- Go to your lawyer’s body shop: Insurance companies recommend body shops with whom they have a working relationship, and who agree to keep the damage estimates low. When settling the case, the adjuster argues since the property damage is low, how could the Victim have been injured? The last thing a lawyer wants is for his client to get his friend to fix the car cheaply.
- You need high auto liability and UM coverage: Locally many have no or inadequate insurance. IF so, we contact your carrier and make an uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage claim. If you have a $100,000 policy and the D driver does not have any coverage, a UM claim against your carrier can be made for up to $100,000. Likewise, if the defendant has a $15k policy we can collect that from the other carrier, and then make a claim against your $100,000 UM coverage.
- You need Medical Payments coverage so you can present a claim under your med pay section for up to that amount of money to pay your medical bills. With $25,000 of med pay coverage, you can collect up to $25,000 from your own policy, no matter who is at fault.
- Follow your lawyers’ instructions and agree to go to trial when necessary. Sometimes the attorney has to threaten or go to trial to get the true value of a case. Sometimes clients refuse to go to trial because of an abortion they did not tell their husband about, illegal drugs listed in the med report, a venereal disease, their referral to a psych or an affair with another person.
- Don’t sign anything: It could be a release…or authorization to obtain your medical records. Don’t trust the adjuster who says, if you have further problems, they will take care of it.
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Dale Gribow’s “boutique concierge” firm protects the Critically Injured/Criminally Accused, and recognized with 25+ Top Lawyer Awards, 4 Dale Gribow Days, 8 Man of the Year Awards, and awarded Mr. Charity.
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GIVE THIS CARD TO ARRESTING OFFICER WITH LICENSE & INSURANCE
Upon advice of my attorney, Dale Gribow, I exercise my right to remain silent until you contact him at (760) 837-7500 or dale@dalegribowlaw.com for an OK. He advises, “the VOLUNTARY FIELD SOBRIETY AND BREATH TESTS, at the scene, are OPTIONAL (unless one is on probation). Thus, I elect not to take them. I want to cooperate and am happy to take a BLOOD TEST.”
