Need Advise

I live in Illinois.

My husband and I were in an auto accident in January. The other driver failed to negotiate a curve due to snow on the road and hit us head on. No tickets were issued. We both have insurance, but we were told that it was clearly the other driver's fault. Our insurance company had all the hospital and doctor bills sent directly to them to be forwarded to the other insurance company. None of them have been paid, and we are now starting to get threats about being turned over to collection.

Our vehicle was totalled and we were given a check for it within 3 days.

I had a back injury and was off work for 1 week.

My husband ended up with a shattered knee cap and had to have half of it taken out. He was off work for 3 months. He was released back to work and after a week, his knee gave out while walking down our front porch stairs. He landed directly on it and undid all of the repairs that were done. He had to undergo the same surgery again. He was off work another 3 months. He has been told that he has a 50% chance of having to have his knee cap replaced in the next couple of years. He was told that after the 1st surgery.

We did not get a lawyer. Now it has been almost a year since the accident, and the insurance company is calling us on Monday to set up an appointment to talk about a settlement. We would like to go into this armed with knowledge of what we should expect. We are not seeking a huge settlement, but want to make sure that we get our medical bills paid, our lost wages paid and we are very concerned over what will happen in the future with his knee. What about the cost of future surgeries & rehab?How can we protect ourselves in case he is unable to work in the next couple years because of knee replacement? We have 6 very active kids that he needs to be able to keep up with and support.

Does anyone know of a similar incident? I don't want to jump into accepting an offer that may leave us without options in the future. Is it too early to settle??

Any advise you can give us would be appreciated.

go to an attorney before meeting with the insurance company. Now is not the time to play it cheap.

It has been a long time since I posted this original thread. Our case is now over 2 1/2 years old. We took your advise and got a lawyer. We hired the lawyer well before the statute of limitations was up. The case had to be filed by January 2004. We got a call last Friday from our lawyer telling us that there was a major "snaffoo" in the case and that we needed to come in to talk to him.

To make a long story short, the lawyer thought he had until January 2005 to file the suit. He filed in April 2004. They just got around to looking at the case, discovered it was past the statute of limitations and the insurance company now owes us nothing!

Before we hired the lawyer, we did negotiate a settlement of about 10,000 more than all of our medical bills. The lawyers insurance company is offering to settle this and write a check right now for the amount that we negotiated.

Where do we go from here. He told us we have the right to sue him and his insurance company (the lawyer's insurance company) for what we think is fair, but they will settle it now with a check written to us immediately. If we sue it could be tied up for years.

I would love some advise here. My husband could possibly have to have knee replacement surgery in the very near future. We were not offered enough to pay for that and his lost wages for that surgery if that should happen. If he is off work for any amount of time, I do not make enough money to pay our bills.

Does this happen often? How can a lawyer not file on time? I don't get it!

Please help!

It's called negligence. Happens all the time.

Now you need to consult with an attorney who specializes in attorney malpractice.