lost wages nonrecoverable?

California-question for all; I was recently rear ended as I was stopped for a flag man in a construction zone-other vehicle going 35+mph. My attorney authorized my time off work on a monthly basis through one of their doc's, according to the "merits" of the case. Time off came to 3+ months, medical bills came to 14,000+, lost wages to 21,000+, and property damage estimated around 4,800, although the car ended up being salvaged at 1,700. A year later my attorney wants to settle the case for 20,000. After medical bills and attorneys fees I may end up with 5,000 or 6,000, which obviously doesn't cover my lost wages. Attorney says max payout is regulated by law since the responsible party only had 25,000 worth of injury coverage through 21st Century. Is this true and if so how do I recover my lost wages? My attorney states that they did not know the policy "max payout" when authorizing my time off and that is why they let take time off from work that would not be reimbursed, is this normal??? Desperatley seeking clarity-thanks for your time

The insurance will not pay more than the coverage then their client has paid for. You don't have to accept the offer and can choose to go to trial, but your legal fees will go up as well. So, you may end up with less than the current scenario.

Do you have underinsured coverage on your policy? Maybe your insurance co. can do something for you.

The way you describe the events almost makes it sound like if you had known you wouldn't be paid for lost wages, that you would have gone back to work sooner than 3 months. That leads me to think there was some type of fraud going on to help your claim. An attorney doens't authorize time off work and the fact that one of his doc's did, sounds fishy to me. Did you go to the ER after the accident? What were/are your injuries? Which are permanent? Just making observations based on what I read.

Good luck.

I'm not an expert. Just offering advice.

I agree with the above poster. How can an attorney authorize time off work.

Well, now he won't be back! Sounded fishy to me to..

fcobarr said:

The insurance will not pay more than the coverage then their client has paid for. You don't have to accept the offer and can choose to go to trial, but your legal fees will go up as well. So, you may end up with less than the current scenario.

Do you have underinsured coverage on your policy? Maybe your insurance co. can do something for you.

The way you describe the events almost makes it sound like if you had known you wouldn't be paid for lost wages, that you would have gone back to work sooner than 3 months. That leads me to think there was some type of fraud going on to help your claim. An attorney doens't authorize time off work and the fact that one of his doc's did, sounds fishy to me. Did you go to the ER after the accident? What were/are your injuries? Which are permanent? Just making observations based on what I read.

Good luck.


I'm not an expert. Just offering advice.

Click to expand...

horray to the "justice" system... does anyone have statistics on the prevalence of ins. fraud?

also interesting from OP's post.

"I was recently rear ended"....."A year later my attorney...."

I've just seen a new definition of recent.

this certainly is not normal... maybe your lawyer wants to cash in your claim so he could earn on his investment... i agree that lawyers should not authorize your time off work...

Unless the individual works for the attorney, the attorney CANNOT authorize time off from work. The only one who can provide such an authorization is the employer. The attorney does not run the employer's business.

Much to the surprise of many people, with very rare exceptions the same applies to doctors.