iffy accident, iffy lawyer, clueless me

dollakimbo · #1 12-13-2006, 12:44 AM

What is the name of your state? CA
Well, in the past two days I've somehow managed to hit a drunk driver and hire a lawyer and am completely bewildered and out of my depth.
Two days ago, I was driving in a residential area at night in the rain. There was a police car with its lights on in the opposite lane, so I proceeded slowly. As I neared the cop car, I suddenly saw a matte black commercial truck blocking both lanes, slammed on the brakes, but still hit it. There were no street lights on my side of the street. Apparently, the driver of the truck was intoxicated, had just hit another car, and was running from the cop when he finally crashed into the curb. The cop had just pulled the driver and his child out of the truck and put them into his car when I hit it. The rather surly cop informed me that I was at fault for not avoiding the truck.

I contacted an attorney the next day who seemed to be competent and knowledgeable- but me never having dealt with one before, who knows. He thrust some papers at me which he very rapidly said were just to verify that he worked on contingency, but I think I actually hired him unwittingly. On his advice, I declined to make a statement to my insurance company and started seeing a chiropractor, who took a bunch of x-rays and told me to sign a lien.

Now I'm just really worried that I'm making some stupid mistakes and that I'll end up with my insurance premiums up, nothing paid for, and a battery of attorney, medical and body shop costs, along with a claim from the drunk driver's side. If anyone could give me some sound advice about how to avoid the worst case scenario, I'd be eternally grateful.

stephenk · #2 12-13-2006, 12:50 AM

"I contacted an attorney the next day"

Why?

dollakimbo · #3 12-13-2006, 04:23 AM

"I contacted an attorney the next day"

Why?

Considering that the officer who wrote the report flatly stated that I was at fault, I figured it would be a good idea to get some professional advice about how to proceed. And I've always heard that it was important to get things moving as soon as possible after the incident.

One more thing: the attorney said that he would not pursue litigation-- what then is he planning to accomplish?

ecmst12 · #4 12-13-2006, 08:28 AM

Regardless of the circumstances, it was still technically your fault. I'm surprised the attorney took the case considering that. Maybe he thinks he can negotiate with the other driver's insurance to accept fault for some reason.

Some Random Guy · #5 12-13-2006, 08:37 AM

You didn't contact a lawyer. You contaced a scam artist with a law degree.

You were in an accident where you hit a parked vehicle that had a police cruiser next to it. This just screams "you're at fault."

Any true lawyer you would hire would not be on contingency but would instead be charging you by the hour. Contingency means that you would pay him a big portion of the settlement you would get out of the other driver. Do you really think that's likely?

Quote:

On his advice, I declined to make a statement to my insurance company and started seeing a chiropractor, who took a bunch of x-rays and told me to sign a lien

Sounds like an insurnace fraud scheme. I wonder how much money you are going to lose becaue of all of these legal papers you are signing without understanding.

Advice:
1. Get copies of everything you signed and figure out how much money you are going to lose because of it.
2. Look up the penalty in your state for insurance fraud for your lawyer-diagnosed injuries.
3. Normally after an accident, you would not need to hire a lawyer but instead let your insurance company handle any legal action against you by the person you hit. However, you may need legal help to get you out of the mess you got yourself into with this lawyer/chiropractor.

ecmst12 · #6 12-13-2006, 08:39 AM

Well, the auto insurance medical payments coverage (if OP has this) or his health insurance might cover the chiro. I hope you decided to go because of an actual injury/pain, not just because the lawyer told you to!

dollakimbo · #7 12-13-2006, 05:49 PM

Thank you for all of your advice this far--I just wanted to clarify a few things.

I did sustain injuries from the accident. Normally, since I don't have medical insurance, I would just take the pain meds prescribed by the hospital and grit my teeth, but I have lost a couple days of work. If this all turns out to be a scam, my insurance has med pay that will pay for it. My main fear is that this lien business would equal me paying the lawyer higher fees for the chiropractic care (by the way, the lawyer did not refer me to the chiropractor).

Now, my main question is, if this lawyer is truly just a scam artist, then where is he expecting to collect this money? My doubts about hiring him were temporarily allayed by the fact that he's working on contingency, but now I'm afraid that he's going to find some other way to bilk me

ecmst12 · #8 12-14-2006, 09:03 AM

Give the chiropractor your auto insurance information and have him bill your auto policy. You should have plenty of coverage for x-rays and a couple months of treatments.

I would contact this lawyer and tell him that you are no longer interested in pursuing a settlement for this case and would like to terminate your relationship. If he's actually done any work for your case you'll have to pay for his time, but it's not likely he's done a thing in this short amount of time. If he sends you a bill, make sure he accounts for every hour he's attempting to bill you for. If it doesn't seem to be on the up and up...well, deal with that if it happens.

If you have collision coverage, take advantage of it for your repairs. Your liability coverage will take care of the van's damage. No one was in the van when you hit it so you won't have to worry about being liable for anyone else's injuries or being sued for pain and suffering (your insurance would still take care of this, but it's better that it's not a factor!). Use your medical payments coverage for your injuries, and all you'll have to pay is your deductible for your car repairs. It will be ok

stephenk · #9 12-15-2006, 09:47 PM

The worse advice he gave you was to refuse to give a statement to your own carrier. That just screams fraud to your carrier. Plus, under your auto policy you are required to cooperate with your own carrier (provide a statement) or risk not having your claim covered.