Rear Ended

[mkl3]

What is the name of your state? Indiana
My husband was involved in an accident on the highway. The driver fell asleep and rear ended my husband. The other driver was going at a high rate of speed. He also had a suspended driver's license and was driving his friends car. The insurance is accepting 100% liability for the accident. My husband's head went through the back windshield and was injured with a concussion, shoulder and neck whiplash and bulging disc( had a cat scan 3 days before accident for arthiritis update and showed no bulging disc) He is in horrible pain and suffers with extreme headaches(never was a headache person) My question to you is "Do you think we need a lawyer" I think he will suffer lifetime pain and meds for the bulging disc. He is such a different person now that he is in pain and using pain meds. My daughters are both basketball players and he will no longer be able to coach them because of the extreme pain he is in. I am sad to see a wonderful man come home from work and be so exhausted from pain.. I feel he is entitled to compensation for lifetime pain and suffering. He will be dealing with this for the rest of his life. I am so mad!!
What should we do? His med bills are $10,000 right now and his is just beginning.. Insurance has not called us in 2 weeks. What does that mean? The insurance company is State Farm.. What do you know about them? Are they really hard to deal with? I am scared! We have never had to deal with such a life changing thing like this before! Any advice would be appreciated!

[Starry809]

lawyer?
definately..

now

Originally Posted by mkl3

What is the name of your state? Indiana
My husband was involved in an accident on the highway. The driver fell asleep and rear ended my husband. The other driver was going at a high rate of speed. He also had a suspended driver's license and was driving his friends car. The insurance is accepting 100% liability for the accident. My husband's head went through the back windshield and was injured with a concussion, shoulder and neck whiplash and bulging disc( had a cat scan 3 days before accident for arthiritis update and showed no bulging disc) He is in horrible pain and suffers with extreme headaches(never was a headache person) My question to you is "Do you think we need a lawyer" I think he will suffer lifetime pain and meds for the bulging disc. He is such a different person now that he is in pain and using pain meds. My daughters are both basketball players and he will no longer be able to coach them because of the extreme pain he is in. I am sad to see a wonderful man come home from work and be so exhausted from pain.. I feel he is entitled to compensation for lifetime pain and suffering. He will be dealing with this for the rest of his life. I am so mad!!
What should we do? His med bills are $10,000 right now and his is just beginning.. Insurance has not called us in 2 weeks. What does that mean? The insurance company is State Farm.. What do you know about them? Are they really hard to deal with? I am scared! We have never had to deal with such a life changing thing like this before! Any advice would be appreciated!

[mkl3]

Thank you Starry for your response! I have yet another ?. Should I be talking to my insurance co. or just the driver at fault's insurance co.?
I have read alot of the other posts and I am seeing alot of answers as to letting my insurance take care of it for my husband.. What does that mean and does that apply to my situation? I hate to have to get an attorney but I really want my husband to have the best possible care. I don't want to hit the insurance lottery but I feel he is entitled to a pain and suffering settlement. He will have this injury forever and surgery will be the only treatment.

[Starry809]

ONLY to your insurance company or (preferably) only your lawyer.

there are alot of personal injury attorneys out there. (some arent too bad).
Call and arrange a consultation... almost all are free.
theyll take a percentage of what your settlement is. (anywhere from 30-40 % is the average I believe). In alot of cases, its worth the cost.
He will tell you who to talk to. But he will handle most of the talking. No need to talk to the other persons insurance company. You lawyer will most likely tell you NOT to talk to them. Sometimes things said to an insurance company will only hurt your claim. remember that the other persons insurance company is out to DEFEND his "client" and will do all in his power to do so. Thats his job. No matter how nice and friendly they are, they are out to make your claim as low as possible and are serving only their companys best interest.
The lawyer will tell your husband to just concentrate on getting well, and he will handle everything else.
Prayers for your husband.

Originally Posted by mkl3

Thank you Starry for your response! I have yet another ?. Should I be talking to my insurance co. or just the driver at fault's insurance co.?
I have read alot of the other posts and I am seeing alot of answers as to letting my insurance take care of it for my husband.. What does that mean and does that apply to my situation? I hate to have to get an attorney but I really want my husband to have the best possible care. I don't want to hit the insurance lottery but I feel he is entitled to a pain and suffering settlement. He will have this injury forever and surgery will be the only treatment.

[mkl3]

Thank you Starry!
I hope we haven't hurt our settlement because in the beginning we talked to the other insurance. We opened a claim with our insurance but then the other insurance took over the bills from the car settlement. We havn't talked to them since. So your advice to me is to talk to our insurance and let them settle it. My husbands MRI came back and he now has 1 herniated disc and 2 displaced disc as a result from the accident. I have read other posts that say if the other insurance co. only has 25,000(say for example) coverage then that is all he will getis this true). His dr. bills are going to be monstrous because he is going to have to have surgery and be on pain meds for the rest of his life. I think this is horrible if it is! If I do talk to my insurance will that hurt me in the long run if (as some posts read) I have to sue them for uninsured coverage? I wish we could just settle this ourselves and the insurance co. would just be fair! Only in my dreams!

[Lynx 36]

Originally Posted by mkl3

Thank you Starry!
I hope we haven't hurt our settlement because in the beginning we talked to the other insurance. We opened a claim with our insurance but then the other insurance took over the bills from the car settlement. We havn't talked to them since. So your advice to me is to talk to our insurance and let them settle it. My husbands MRI came back and he now has 1 herniated disc and 2 displaced disc as a result from the accident. I have read other posts that say if the other insurance co. only has 25,000(say for example) coverage then that is all he will getis this true). His dr. bills are going to be monstrous because he is going to have to have surgery and be on pain meds for the rest of his life. I think this is horrible if it is! If I do talk to my insurance will that hurt me in the long run if (as some posts read) I have to sue them for uninsured coverage? I wish we could just settle this ourselves and the insurance co. would just be fair! Only in my dreams!

That's the max he would get from the other insurance co. You would have to use your underinsured coverage on your policy, or sue the driver of the car. Before you sue make sure the driver has assets or you will be wasting a lot of time and money. If a person gets hit w/ too big a lawsuit they just file bankruptcy and get out of the judgement and you will be left w/ nothing. It happens all the time. I would use your underinsured coverage and let your insurance co. go after him.

[mkl3]

Okay this is what happened today.. Our insurance called and said we have 5,000 with them and wanted to know if we wanted to use that for medical bills. Before my hubby responded he said would you agree to a recorded version of your story? My husband answered no.. Why would he ask us that? What the heck is this 5,000 stuff all about? I don't know if we have underinsured and after what our insurance just did Im really scared.. Do you think he is trying to get us to settle with them. because he thinks we will go after the them for underinsured? Thank you so much..

[mkl3]

anyone any response??

[mkl3]

another question??? I know my husbands claim will exceed the amount of coverage the other driver has, knowing this. Should I go ahead and claim on my underinsured policy? How does the underinsured policy work?

[Lynx 36]

Originally Posted by mkl3

Okay this is what happened today.. Our insurance called and said we have 5,000 with them and wanted to know if we wanted to use that for medical bills. Before my hubby responded he said would you agree to a recorded version of your story? My husband answered no.. Why would he ask us that? What the heck is this 5,000 stuff all about? I don't know if we have underinsured and after what our insurance just did Im really scared.. Do you think he is trying to get us to settle with them. because he thinks we will go after the them for underinsured? Thank you so much..

$5,000 sounds like your med pay coverage. This is what will be used f/ your medfical bills. That's if your husband gives them a recorded statement. Refusing to cooperate w/ your own insurance co. can get your policy cancelled. Getting recorded statements is standard procedure in the industry.

If I were you I would cooperate w/ your insurance co. and do what they say. Give them a rough way to go they give your rates a rough way to go. I've seen rates raised or policies cancelled b/c of this. If you read your policy you signed it will tell you that you have a duty to cooperate w/ them during a claims investigation. It's your call, but making my insurance co. mad wouldn't be my personal choice. You get more bees w/ honey than you do vinegar.

You need to check your policy to see if you have underinsured motorist. Not agreeing to recorded statement basically tells the adjustor you have something to hide. I use them to go back and listen to periodically through out the investigation if it is a complicated case. They aren't a big deal if it's your own co. requesting it.

[mkl3]

Thank you sooo much for that wonderful advice!!! My husband didn't refuse it he just said he didn't think he wanted to use our insurance for medical.. Can he call him back and say he wouldn't mind doing the recorded statement. We always thought that if they say they want to record than that is a bad sign and not to do it!!! I know we will be using our uninsured.. Will they give us a hard time when we ask for it? I really don't know how uninsured works.. Can you explain to me how you go about getting it? My husband has to have back surgery and will be spending time in hosp. and off work so I know the other insured 50k is not gonna be enough.. Thanks...

[mkl3]

I would really appreciate if someone would let me know how the uninsured insurance works. We do have it but don't know how to go about getting it from our company when the time comes? I know the other driver doesn't have enough. I just want to know how to handle getting it from ours.. Thank you...

[mkl3]

Anyone have any advice about the above post...

[mkl3]

I have a question regarding demand letters..Should my husband write a demand letter? Should we just send in the paperwork to prove our claim and wait for there response? Also, if a demand letter is needed. Should we ask for the dollar amount or should we just state we will be waiting for their settlement offer in 30 days or less? Thanks in advance!!!

[teflon_jones]

If there is insurance on the car that hit you, then uninsured coverage doesn't apply, UNDERinsured does. Do you have that coverage? Some insurance companies offer joint coverage for both under one line on your policy too. As for getting money for this, you need to provide proof of damages (medical bills, documentation of lost wages, etc) showing exactly what you're owed.

As for the demand letter, I don't know if you're at that point yet. Has your husband given the recorded statements to his insurance company? What is the latest communications you've had with them?