XPost: misc.industry.insurance

On 12/11/2004 3:29 PM, speicher24@hotmail.com wrote:

My kid and I sustained whiplash-type injuries in a car accident 6
months ago and the other driver's insurance has accepted liability.
Medical and treatment bills are about $4000 and still ongoing my wage
loss is $20,000.
Does anyone have any tips on how to settle a personal injury claim on
our own?
Do I legally have to give the other insurance all the medical
information immediately?
How long should we wait until we settle?
what are the pitfalls dealing with the claim adjuster on your own?
How long after the settlement ended can we expect the money?
Is there an easy formula to calculate how much will my settlement be?
if you had settled on your own, any suggestions would be appreciated
if we settle, do I settle separately or do I settle together with my
kid?
My kid seems to be OK but I am worry about his future prognosis.
Should I wait till near the end of the statute of limitation and then
settle her case

You have a claim worth AT LEAST $24,000 and you're asking advice from a
bunch of strangers?

Get a lawyer. Your lawyer will get you fair value for your claim. Yes,
he/she will charge you 1/3 of the settlement (40% if the claim has to go
to court, but that rarely happens), but without a lawyer you are going
to be outgunned by the other driver's insurance company adjusters, who
do this all the time and are experts at driving down what they have to
pay you.

If you have $20,000 in lost wages, you almost certainly have pain and
suffering damages as well as your medical and wage claims. That will
probably more than make up for the 33% or 40% that your lawyer will charge.

There are four ways to find a lawyer:

1. If you have a personal lawyer, ask him/her to recommend a specialist
in auto accident claims.

2. Ask your friends, coworkers, and family members for the names of
their personal lawyers. Call those lawyers' offices and ask for a
referral to a specialist in auto accident injury claims. If you see one
name on several of those lists, that's the one you want.

3. Find the web page for your county Bar Association. They will have a
referral service where you choose the kind of legal help you need and
they give you a list of lawyers who work in that area. But beware: they
don't do any sort of quality control. They just accept the lawyer's word
that he's good at that sort of thing.

4. If you live in a major city, there are probably billboards with advertisements for lawyers. There may also be TV ads. Again, you have no
idea how good those lawyers are. Here in Los Angeles, we get ads for
"Sweet James" (I kid you not!) and "Call Jacob". Most of these
specialize in cases that are easy to handle, rather than complex ones,
but it sounds like yours should fit that definition since the other side
has already accepted liability.

NOTE: I am not a lawyer. This is not legal advice. If you want legal
advice, hire a lawyer.


--
I do so have a memory. It's backed up on DVD... somewhere...

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)