Settlement or trial?

Ohio - My daughter was involved in a car wreck over four years ago. The other driver was at fault. Her attorney over the years told her to get several medical tests and she did. Her out of pocket expenses have cost several thousand dollars. It looks like the other attorney wants to settle for way less, because he says it's a pre condition injury. ( it will be known on Thursday). It may not even be enough to pay all the medical bills. She could take it to trial, but she said that would cost about ten thousand, money she doesn't have, or could get. Does anyone have any suggestions?

has there been a suit filed already?

She should listen to her attorney. Trials are long and very, very expensive. She'd stand to lose far more then even what she'd be out for uncovered medical bills. Hopefully they will be able to come to a tolerable settlement.

She did file suit

She’s in tough spot as it will undoubtedly require expert medical testimony to make her case and those boys do not go to court for the fun of it. Plus they’ll want wads of hundred dollar bills up front. So depending on how many, $10K might be a conservative estimate.

But if she doesn’t have wads of hundred dollar bills, what other choice does she have? Seems like an obvious decision to me.

Besides there is the proven adage that a bad settlement is often better than a good lawsuit.

I've tried hundreds upon hundreds of lawsuits and I can tell you this. Few of them every looked quite as good after being thrashed out for days in a courtroom as they did on paper.

They are never are all black and white and the only thing predictable about a jury of your peers is that your peers aren’t predictable.

From personal experience, its still not too late to practice damage control. No offense intended to the legal and medical professions, however, the direction they send you in these cases, seems to always be proactively geared toward an end result that never appears. Your daughter is at that point. Her attorney should be asked if he will proactively contact all the medical providers she owes and negotiate adjustments based on the expected settlement. If the balance is still drastically out of line, prompt the attorney for a rate adjustment also.

If the attorney refuses, proactively contact the medical providers yourself and explain the offered settlement and outline the outstanding bills. Remember, they probably billed her at full rate, rather than the 30 - 60% the insured pay. This should give you a better perspective to make the decision from.

jetsmell said:

Ohio - My daughter was involved in a car wreck over four years ago. The other driver was at fault. Her attorney over the years told her to get several medical tests and she did. Her out of pocket expenses have cost several thousand dollars. It looks like the other attorney wants to settle for way less, because he says it's a pre condition injury. ( it will be known on Thursday). It may not even be enough to pay all the medical bills. She could take it to trial, but she said that would cost about ten thousand, money she doesn't have, or could get. Does anyone have any suggestions?

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If there is an attorney involved, why is it costing your daughter money to pursue the matter? Wasn't there a contingency agreement with the lawyer? And why is it taking over 4 years to settle? Are the injuries that serious? If so, it seems like a settlement would be enough to take care of medical bills and pain and suffering plus the 33 and 1/3rd pecent most lawyers require upon settlement.

Willlyjo said:

If there is an attorney involved, why is it costing your daughter money to pursue the matter? Wasn't there a contingency agreement with the lawyer? And why is it taking over 4 years to settle? Are the injuries that serious? If so, it seems like a settlement would be enough to take care of medical bills and pain and suffering plus the 33 and 1/3rd pecent most lawyers require upon settlement.

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Welcome to Ohio WillyJo. This type of thing is normal here.

OHRoadwarrior said:

Welcome to Ohio WillyJo. This type of thing is normal here.

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Sorry but something is missing here. I visited a legal firm's website for Ohio car accident victims and it says there is a statute of limitations of 2 years. This means that the case should have been settled or gone to trial by now. Is there any reason that a lawsuit anywhere should take 2 years after being filed to get to trial (especially since nowdays trials are usually set at Case Management Conferences to take place no more than a year later). Being that CMC's take place within a couple months of filing suit, trial or settlement should have taken place like a year ago.

Based on the Ohio legal website concerning "car accidents", it seems like they offer the same type of contingency arrangements that many other states including California where the lawyer advances necessary fees toward Discovery and he gets a certain portion of the settlement if reached before filing a lawsuit. Thereafter, the attorney would get a higher percentage if he has to litigate and perform a trial. Correct me with specifics if I'm wrong.

I remember a couple of years ago , her attorney said that she had to file a paper to extend the time. Also, no money has gone to the lawyer yet, it has all gone to the medical bills.

The SOL is not the time by which it must be settled or gone to trial. The SOL is the time by which you must FILE the suit. Once you file, the time limit has been met and the SOL is no longer relevent.

The fact that you did not know that, Willy, speaks to your utter cluelessness.

Just because the lawyer is on a contingency arrangement does not mean that costs don't matter. If they spend $10k on an expert witness for an $8k judgement - or even a $12 or 15k judgement - no one is going to go home happy from that (except the expert witness of course). Costs do matter.

ecmst12 said:

The SOL is not the time by which it must be settled or gone to trial. The SOL is the time by which you must FILE the suit. Once you file, the time limit has been met and the SOL is no longer relevent.

The fact that you did not know that, Willy, speaks to your utter cluelessness.

Just because the lawyer is on a contingency arrangement does not mean that costs don't matter. If they spend $10k on an expert witness for an $8k judgement - or even a $12 or 15k judgement - no one is going to go home happy from that (except the expert witness of course). Costs do matter.

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And what lawyer anywhere in the universe would spend 10k on an expert witness to get an 15k judgement? And you talk about my utter cluelessness?

Once you file a Complaint, of course the SOL has been met. Did I say different? It just seems remarkable that someone gets hurt in an auto accident and it takes 4 years and it still hasn't settled.

It isn't like it was a decade or 2 ago where cases could take several years to litigate. Nowadays, trial is usually set not more than a year after Discovery begins (unless there is lots of back and forth with motions before Discovery). This is not a complicated case so why so long?

Of course costs DO matter! Did I say they didn't? A contingency fee means the lawyer gets like 33 and 1/3% plus costs if settled before trial and like 40% plus costs if trial occurs. If no recovery then the lawyer gets nothing.

Having said all that, it is utterly evident you need to brush up on your reading comprehension since nothing in my posts indicated that I don't know about the SOL in this matter.

And it is utterly ignorant if you believe any lawyer would spend 10k for an expert witness on top of the cost of the trial itself being in the range of another 10k for these types of personal injury cases, to seek a settlement for 8k -- 15k.

So you understand completely why going to trial is not always a smart option, and it's better to accept a smaller settlement in most cases.

Tryingtowin said:

Beats me why the OP listened to an attny for medical tests needed .. why not the OP's doctor??

Sounds like a shady attny to me...

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actually a very common situation. Attorneys that practice in PI will often try to shape their cases in order to establish particular criteria that makes their cases more solid, or in some cases, more lucrative.

Is it shady? Sometimes. Sometimes it is simply what it takes to establish the facts of the case.

Accident in Virginia

Looks like the attorney wanted to pad the medical bills and have the client rack up as much bills as possible so the attorney could get a higher settlement based on 2x or 3x meds etc. And now that attorney has no gumption to take the case to court as that attorney probably boasted he would do prior to signing his agreement. All the attorney knows is he will get 1/3 of your settlement.

Unfortunately, I have one now that may be trying to do the same and is not happy I am getting better as I have only racked up $3000 in medical bills and don't want to rack up anymore as its useless and just not right IMO.

As far as I'm concerned, a few more PT sessions and I'm whole. He can keep his part of the settlement. I don't want a cent. I'll be happy not to have to pay back medicaid and the high interest "Contingent Global Loaner" out of pocket should the settlement not cover those bills. The car was taken care of to my satisfaction. It took 2 months; but I am finally able to sleep without my feet going numb and lower back aches. I feel it was all muscle spasms.

I'm really fuming he now wants me to go for EMG's just to make sure there was no nerve damage. The MRI was negative. No way; I am not risking any of my life savings as I don't have health insurance at this time. There is no guarantee the insurance company will pay for these tests or reimburse a doctor should he put a lien on the settlement. I will get stuck with those bills settlement or not.

I wish I would of read your post sooner. Lessons to be learned. Or actually, I'm glad I did read your post as I can nip some of this in the bud and do some damage control. I hope they can't balance bill Medicaid patients or I'm really in trouble.

I have a feeling this attorney is going to blame the low settlement on me for not following his treatment advice. So you are darned if you do and darned if you don't. Maybe I should refuse to settle period then no one gets anything but his office fees.

I feel so bad for the OP to have to go through this.