Insurance settlement rant!

[trekkor]

Originally Posted by DARISC

Just curious - why did you hire a lawyer before you countered the ins. co. yourself?

They said they were not going to compensate for lost earnings.
Kinda pointless to continue after that.


KT

[trekkor]

I'm so upset right now.

The system is so messed up that I, the victim, will end up losing money because of this accident.

Or I can go through a ridiculous process, that will take a year or more and it still might cost me...


KT

[trekkor]

I need to clear this from my mind.

My rage-o-meter is pegged right now.


KT

[Zeke]

You are not going to get compensation for lost wages as a self employed, so forget that. Work on the stuff you can get. Medical bills, pain and suffering (if you've got years to settle this) and your truck.

[peppy]

Originally Posted by trekkor

I need to clear this from my mind.

My rage-o-meter is pegged right now.


KT

Dealing with insurance co. can take years off of your life.

[trekkor]

KT,

Look for a good Accident lawyer in your area. He should be able to help get the maximum compensation from the Insurance company - things like lost income, trailer repair, replacment of a "work" truck as it is require by you to make a living. They usually do not charge for the first visit.

Depending on the amounts involved most Ins. compnys will settle rather than pay for a court case, but it takes a lawyer to represnt you.

This the advice I got on August 14th- One day after the wreck.

Did I take it?...Noooooo.


As it turns out, being forthright, honest, open, cooperative, timely, etc...All come back to hurt you in the end.

I can't be bitter.
I already knew this. The system is broken...


KT

[trekkor]

Originally Posted by peppy

Dealing with insurance co. can take years off of your life.

Thanks for helping me keep this in perspective.
I'll rant a little bit more and be done it.


KT

[peppy]

Originally Posted by trekkor

Thanks for helping me keep this in perspective.
I'll rant a little bit more and be done it.


KT

Oh, you can never let it go. It just takes years.

I get mad just thinking about it.

[trekkor]

I was at jazz rehearsal tonight.

Didn't think about it once for 3 hours...Which is nice.


KT

[gchappel]

I guess I may be out of the loop- certainly possible. But isn't the person that caused the wreck- not their insurance company- responsible for your injuries and losses. Can you not sue the individual involved- and let them worry about the insurance coverage. It was their choice to save money and use a specfic insurance company- not yours. I have luckily never had to do this, and I am not a lawyer- but I would sue the individual involved and let them fight their own insurance company. If this is the routine senario- and I am not personally responsible and it doesn't matter to me what my insurance company does or how it pays others involved in an accident, then I am going to drop my nice expensive coverage and go with the cheapest fly by night company that I can find. I pay more to protect myself and my assets- but if there is no personal risk I can go CHEAP!
Gary

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by gchappel

I guess I may be out of the loop- certainly possible. But isn't the person that caused the wreck- not their insurance company- responsible for your injuries and losses. Can you not sue the individual involved- and let them worry about the insurance coverage. It was their choice to save money and use a specfic insurance company- not yours. I have luckily never had to do this, and I am not a lawyer- but I would sue the individual involved and let them fight their own insurance company. If this is the routine senario- and I am not personally responsible and it doesn't matter to me what my insurance company does or how it pays others involved in an accident, then I am going to drop my nice expensive coverage and go with the cheapest fly by night company that I can find. I pay more to protect myself and my assets- but if there is no personal risk I can go CHEAP!
Gary

Per most policies, if you (the individual) are sued as a result of an incident that is within your coverage, your insurance company is required to represent you in court. So by KT suing the individual, he's essentially suing the insurance company.

KT, I know exactly how you feel. You don't want to be one of "those people" that hire the sleazy ambulance chasing insurance lawyer off of the TV commercials, and instead try to be honest assuming that the insurance company will do the right thing. Sadly, corporate morality does not seem to exist these days, ESPECIALLY in the insurance industry. Too easy to hide behind fiduciary duty I guess.

[cgarr]

Back in the 80's when I worked for an Insurance Company we had in house counsel that did nothing but defend the companies claim denials.

[gchappel]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

Per most policies, if you (the individual) are sued as a result of an incident that is within your coverage, your insurance company is required to represent you in court. So by KT suing the individual, he's essentially suing the insurance company.

I guess that is what I do not understand- I can be slow.
We are not yet in court. I would be discussing these issues with the individual involved- not the insurance company. Let that person know you are suffering, and will be needing a settlement in the range of $X. I would let him fight with the insurance company about who pays it. In court I would hope the individual is still primarily responsible for his actions and damages, and it is up to them to make sure their insurance- which they chose and paid for- protects them and pays appropriately.
gary

[Groesbeck Hurricane]

Do you have an attorney yet? You should by now.

I agree, why can't you go after the other party? Do they have anything to attach?

[gchappel]

My understanding- again no lawyer here- is that the individual is responsible, and even with insurance is responsible for any amount over the policy limits. What they do in my field is they would sue the individual for several times the policy limit- this forces the individual to obtain private console to protect their assests. Then you offer to settle for a lesser amount, that happens to be under policy limits. All of a sudden you have several sides trying to get the insurance company to settle. No one wants to go to court if there is risk they could actually lose assests. Now, if they have nothing to lose........
Gary

[Dueller]

Keep in mind the initial offer is just that...an initial offer. They will go up from there. Relax...its part of the game.

Sooooo...what did lawyer say?

I've worked both as an insurance defense lawyer and a Plaintiffs' lawyer. Part of the game. So I've peed into the tent and outta the tent.

As a GENERAL rule, they should pay for your out of pocket medical (make sure you're covered on susbrogation side if your personal medical insurance paid anything), property damage, and lost wages (SEI is somewhat speculative in nature and difficult to recover but not impossible...but ya gotta be realistic that if they do compensate it will be for lost NET SEI).

As to pain and suffering it is often calculated as a function of your lost pecuniary damages...often 1-10 times your actual damages. Go figure...its kinda a goofy way to compute something so subjective as P&S. Lower end of the scale if you will fully recover...upper end if you can reasonably (another legal term iof "art") be expected to have future problems.

Soooo....if your property damage is $2000 and your meds are $5000, then P&S would be somewhere in the range of $7K-70K. In a settlement situation it would more likely be no more than $20K and likely lower unless with a reasonable degree of medical certainty (HAH! There we go again) you can prove serious P&S.

So what does this mean? In the above situation, go back to them and ask for $7K actual and $21K (3X actual) in non-pecunairy damages for a total of $28K. They will counter with $9K...ultimately settle for $15K in your pocket. If that fails, hire lawyer and after a year or two, it will settle for $30K if he's any good. He gets 40% or $12K and you get $18K minus lawyers out of pocket expenses....say $1500...so you net $16.5K. Worth the wait for an extra $1500...only you can answer that. Plus you gotta realize that tortfeasor may have only $10K in coverage which is all ins company is obligated to pay.

A final thing too consider is whether or not contributory negligence applies in your particular case which would reduce your recovery.

YMMV.

DISCLAIMER: The foregoing is not intended as legal or professional advice but rather merely offered for discussion purposes. Anyway, I'm not licensed in the land of fruits and nuts.

[trekkor]

Great post!



KT

[Steve W]

In California, my doctor and lawyer friends that deal with many of these types of cases day in an out for the past 10 years, tell me the typical max compensation excluding the damage to the vehicle is 3x the amount of damage to the vehicle. This rule is applied to almost all cases. In other words, you can't get $2k of damage to your bumper skin and get $90k for 'medical and pain and suffering'.

[Dueller]

Originally Posted by Steve W

In California, my doctor and lawyer friends that deal with many of these types of cases day in an out for the past 10 years, tell me the typical max compensation excluding the damage to the vehicle is 3x the amount of damage to the vehicle. This rule is applied to almost all cases. In other words, you can't get $2k of damage to your bumper skin and get $90k for 'medical and pain and suffering'.

Hmmm...that's interesting. Most jurisdiction that deviate from using actual out of pocket expenses (medicals, lost wages, property damage) with a multiplier to calculate P&S, exclude the property damage as not indicative of level of pain and suffering. E.g., suppose I total a KIA that's worth $2K versus a Carrera GT worth $400K...if the drivers had the EXACT same physical injuries, would P&S be worth only $6K to the KIA owner and $1.2M to the GT owner?

Medical expenses do seem to be more indicative of the level of personal injuries.

LOL...maybe the mental anguish of totalling the GT IS worth more.

[trekkor]

FYI: my truck tallied up $17.5k in damages...


KT