Basis for pain and suffering?

[Dragonbits]

When you return PLEASE stop changing the font in your posts. There is not need to post text in different sizes. It's extremely annoying.

For some reason the font changes on it's own accord. I copy and paste from a word doc, sometimes I preview and edit, sometimes not. It also is difficult to remove the extra spaces that get inserted. I have yet to discover what exactly is causing that.

If it is a short answer like this one, I just type it.

Other forums don't seem to have this sort of peculiar reaction though all forum software has it's own idiosyncrasies.

 

[Dragonbits]

That would be advisable as an Underinsured Motorists claim is a unique animal.

Read the Underinsured Motorists coverage part of your policy VERY CAREFULLY as there are deadlines and notice requirements that you don't want to get tripped up on.

Google Illinois Underinsured Motorists claim and study all the resources.

Google Illinois Underinsured Motorists demand letter for an idea on how to create one for your wife to explain her claim. It has to come from her over her signature.

Pardon my bluntness but you were 12 hours away from making your wife's claim worth $0 because of your fumbling around. There's a lot more money at stake now. UIM is an adversarial coverage. Your insurance company is legally allowed to put up a fight so it's not there just for the asking. If your insurance company balks she will end up in arbitration where your insurance company will have a very good lawyer and you will not be allowed to say one word in her behalf because you aren't a lawyer. Own up to your shortcomings and get a lawyer for her. With a potential $100,000 available you shouldn't have trouble getting one.

UIM insurance being such a unique animal, I wonder how many average lawyers have much familiarity with it?

As I understood it, no lawyers from either side are allowed during arbitration, each side picks one arbitrator then both arbitrators pick a third arbitrator to total 3.

I was disappointed with the few lawyers I talked to in the week before we filed suit, no one wanted to take the case because of the short time frame left. I understood that, but no one suggested quickly filing a lawsuit to protect the statue. That would have been helpful, if they would have done it for me, they would have had a client.

Once Allstate informed me that I could use their UIM insurance for any amounts exceeding the policy limits of the other insurance company, I did some research on UIM insurance, at least to the extent that any dispute requires binding arbitration unless the amount is over some limit, which seems to be $75,000. The policy they send in the mail doesn’t appear to be the complete legal form of the policy, it looks like the cliff note version. So I will ask for the complete policy description.

BTW, both insurance companies have been the most helpful, at least so far.

In our original demand letter to the first insurance company, we demanded a total of $88,600.

The plan is to present our claim to Allstate, we feel that any offer of $50,000+ would be acceptable, if for a lot less, I would first like to see their justification for that.

It should be obvious that I don’t have a problem with your bluntness about my procrastination nearly causing a catastrophe, I am the one who admitted to that problem, you are only restating it in your own words. The fact that I pulled this chestnut out of the fire doesn't negate the fact that it was I that caused the fire, and I am hoping this creates a lasting memory for me to permanently change this habit.

The plan going forward is to present our claim to Allstate, see what they respond with, if we are miles apart then contact a lawyer.

Do you see any problems with that?

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

UIM insurance being such a unique animal, I wonder how many average lawyers have much familiarity with it?

What makes you think UIM is unique or unusual in any way?

 

[Dragonbits]

What makes you think UIM is unique or unusual in any way?

I would refer that question to [U][LEFT][B][SIZE=4][FONT=Segoe UI][COLOR=rgb(24, 88, 134)]adjusterjack[/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE][/B][/LEFT][/U] and his MSG 20.

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

I would refer that question to [U][LEFT][B][SIZE=4][FONT=Segoe UI][COLOR=rgb(24, 88, 134)]adjusterjack[/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE][/B][/LEFT][/U] and his MSG 20.

It is unique among other types of personal injury insurance claims. There is not something that is so unique that a personal injury lawyer wouldn't know about them.

 

[Dragonbits]

It is unique among other types of personal injury insurance claims. There is not something that is so unique that a personal injury lawyer wouldn't know about them.

Ok, perhaps adjusterjack meant to say it's only unique to people who are not lawyers.

My POV, personal injury claims are just as unique as UIM claims since I am not familiar with either of them.

From what I can see, UIM claims have a longer statue of limitations, I was told verbally 10 years by Allstate but I have yet to confirm that, in disputes they don't typically allow lawsuits, but there are exceptions such as claims that exceed 75,000, Allstate pays for the costs of arbitration, whatever the primary insurance paid out subtracts from the total claim. Typically UIM claims are settled after medical treatment has been completed, with the caveat that there is still a statue of limitations involved.

There are some gotchas such as the at fault insurance being higher than the UIM insurance, so if you collect 100K (policy limit) from the at fault party you can't collect another $25K (policy limit) from your UIM insurance, not sure if that is universal or a state by state situation.

There are a lot of other rules that are different, those are the ones I got so far, and many of the rules only apply to uninsured motorist not underinsured.

 

[Zigner]

I'm curious - did you receive any required consent from your UIM carrier prior to settling the case with the at-fault party?

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

Ok, perhaps adjusterjack meant to say it's only unique to people who are not lawyers.

I'm not going to speak for aj but you wrote this....

UIM insurance being such a unique animal, I wonder how many average lawyers have much familiarity with it?

And that is silly.

 

[adjusterjack]

UIM insurance being such a unique animal, I wonder how many average lawyers have much familiarity with it?

I would think all personal injury lawyers would be familiar with it since it's one more source of money for which they can be paid their contingency.

The policy they send in the mail doesn’t appear to be the complete legal form of the policy,

When you first took out the policy you got a complete policy booklet with all the ancillary forms and endorsements attached to it. At renewals you got forms and endorsements that were updated. You wouldn't have gotten a new booklet unless there was a new edition of the booklet. You need to go back to the beginning and find the UIM coverage part and then move forward and see if there were any later editions of the UIM coverage part. Or, you can ask Allstate to send you the current edition specified on your policy.

The plan is to present our claim to Allstate, we feel that any offer of $50,000+ would be acceptable, if for a lot less, I would first like to see their justification for that.

You aren't likely to get Allstate's "justification," just a counter offer which the claim rep doesn't have to "justify."

The plan going forward is to present our claim to Allstate, see what they respond with, if we are miles apart then contact a lawyer.

Do you see any problems with that?

Nope, not at all.

In fact, if you do get an offer that you don't like you can negotiate a fee with a lawyer based on any additional amount that he gets for you, instead of the whole amount.

What makes you think UIM is unique or unusual in any way?

Because that's what I wrote.

And I thought I explained why.

Ok, perhaps adjusterjack meant to say it's only unique to people who are not lawyers.

My POV, personal injury claims are just as unique as UIM claims since I am not familiar with either of them.

OK, maybe "unique" is the wrong word. When somebody makes a claim on his own policy, his own company has contractual and statutory obligations regarding the handling of the claim. UIM, not so much. With UIM your own insurance company stands in the place of the other driver's insurance company. You don't get money just for the asking. You have to prove your claim and your own insurance company is free to reject it and low ball you. If you don't like the offer you go to arbitration which is similar to suing the other driver. UIM is an adversarial coverage. You have no advantage simply because it's your own insurance company.

There are a lot of other rules that are different, those are the ones I got so far, and many of the rules only apply to uninsured motorist not underinsured.

You are going to have to read the UIM form before you make any assumptions or rely on anything you are "told."

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

Because that's what I wrote.

And I thought I explained why.

But not unusual enough to be unknown to a personal injury attorney.

 

[Zigner]

I'm curious - did you receive any required consent from your UIM carrier prior to settling the case with the at-fault party?

In case it gets missed...

Did you comply with all consent requirements that may be contained within your UIM policy prior to settling with the other party?

 

[Dragonbits]

I would think all personal injury lawyers would be familiar with it since it's one more source of money for which they can be paid their contingency.

When you first took out the policy you got a complete policy booklet with all the ancillary forms and endorsements attached to it. At renewals you got forms and endorsements that were updated. You wouldn't have gotten a new booklet unless there was a new edition of the booklet. You need to go back to the beginning and find the UIM coverage part and then move forward and see if there were any later editions of the UIM coverage part. Or, you can ask Allstate to send you the current edition specified on your policy.

​

The policy is from 1962, it's not in my files, they are mailing it out to me.

I asked Allstate for a policy jacket for this policy.

​

You aren't likely to get Allstate's "justification," just a counter offer which the claim rep doesn't have to "justify."

I will deal with that when they give me a number, or send them a demand letter and wait for response.

​

Nope, not at all.

In fact, if you do get an offer that you don't like you can negotiate a fee with a lawyer based on any additional amount that he gets for you, instead of the whole amount.

I was thinking along those lines as well. Something like, you can keep 50% - 60% of anything over their offer. Since I will have all the claim info put into spreadsheets and PDF files, it shouldn't require any research on a lawyers part, maybe just spot check to see if it's all real and not made up. Not that anyone would do such a thing.

​

OK, maybe "unique" is the wrong word. When somebody makes a claim on his own policy, his own company has contractual and statutory obligations regarding the handling of the claim. UIM, not so much. With UIM your own insurance company stands in the place of the other driver's insurance company. You don't get money just for the asking. You have to prove your claim and your own insurance company is free to reject it and low ball you. If you don't like the offer you go to arbitration which is similar to suing the other driver. UIM is an adversarial coverage. You have no advantage simply because it's your own insurance company.

I think of UIM insurance much the same way as the at fault party's insurance, the fact that it's my own insurance company isn't a factor. (Though I maybe it's a very small factor.)

​

You are going to have to read the UIM form before you make any assumptions or rely on anything you are "told."

That would be best, though I thought one other way was to send the adjuster an email quoting the 10 year statue of limitation just to verify what he said. All emails are logged into Allstate's claim site, so anything on those emails creates a history, I doubt the adjuster is going to want to write anything that could be construed as bad faith.

Thanks for your response, got to go for now, ciao

 

[adjusterjack]

I thought one other way was to send the adjuster an email quoting the 10 year statue of limitation just to verify what he said.

Don't play games. If he makes a mistake and the law or the form says otherwise you'll be spending 10s of thousands of dollars on protracted litigation trying to hold the company to his mistake. Never rely on what you "heard" in a phone call.

Read the form.

Everything I read says 2 years.

 

[justalayman]

The only statute of limitation I’ve found for Illinois thst lasts 10 years is the sol on written contracts. While this involves a contract, I don’t belive the sol for contracts applies. That is generally for issues such as breach of contract or the enforcement of a contract. Your issue isn’t seeking to force performance on a contract but pay on a claim the contract covers.

Your claim is based on an injury and I belive that is the sol that applies. That sol is only 2 years.

 

[adjusterjack]

Your claim is based on an injury and I belive that is the sol that applies. That sol is only 2 years.

That applies to a claim against the other driver. UM and UIM have contractual time limits.

In Country Preferred Insurance Company v. Terri J. Whitehead (2012) the Illinois Supreme Court quoted the "conditions" section governing "uninsured-underinsured motorists" coverage:

“Legal Action Against Us. No suit, action or arbitration proceedings for recovery of any claim may be brought against us until the insured has fully complied with all the terms of this policy. Further, any suit, action or arbitration will be barred unless commenced within two years from the date of the accident.”

The court also noted that just filing a "claim" is

"not... synonymous with taking “legal action” against the insurer, defined in this policy as “suit, action or arbitration proceedings.”"

https://cases.justia.com/illinois/supreme-court/113365.pdf?ts=1462339012
So, Dragonbits, READ the form and make sure you follow the condition pertaining to activation a UIM "legal action."

And, again, don't play games.