As North Carolina car accident attorneys we hear from individuals who have personal injury questions because insurance company adjusters are giving them a hard time or playing delay games. These are some of the most common problems our clients run into:
Medical Bills/Medical Expense Recoveries
Medical expenses are recoverable when you are hurt in an accident due to a careless driver, usually through the personal injury recovery adjusted by the at-fault driver’s insurer. While the insurance company may not pay these expenses back until the ultimate settlement in your injury case, consumers often are faced with overlapping health insurance, medical expense benefits on their own car insurance policy, and the right to recover medical expenses/medical bills from the responsible driver/insurance company.
RELATED CONTENT
- How Are Medical Expenses Paid for Car Accident Injuries?
- Why Shouldn’t I Just Take a Quick Settlement?
- Talking to the At-Fault Driver’s Insurance Company
Many states provide that if there are multiple insurance sources to repay medical expenses, that there is a legal right to a double recovery in many circumstances. Different states have specific rules about whether a consumer may recover the medical expenses incurred in a car accident from not only the responsible driver, but from their own insurance sources. We can help with these types of questions.
Medical Releases
Some insurance adjusters immediately send several forms which are medical information releases. These releases allow the insurance company to pick up the phone and call your doctors in order to have personal and private information disclosed to them. While no injury claim can be settled without providing pertinent written information, many clients have problems with the scope and nature of these releases. We can help with this issue by challenging the broad nature of the release and try to limit what the insurance company can access.
Lost Wages/Lost Earnings While Injured
Many consumers cannot get a straight answer from an insurance adjuster about whether the insurance company will pay for your lost wages or lost earnings while you are being treated for injuries that were caused by their at-fault insured driver. Every state provides that lost wages and lost earnings incurred because of an accident caused by the negligence of another driver are recoverable.
However, many people work on commission, many jobs have special pay or benefits, and these areas of potential compensation could be pursued with the assistance of a personal injury lawyer. Sometimes we have to have a client seen by a vocational counselor (a specialist in assessing job losses and wage losses) in order to best establish this type of claim.
Totaled Car/Damaged Truck (property damage) problems
Many times our clients are not only injured in the accident, but are insulted because of games the insurance company is playing with their car/SUV damage, or disputes over the value of the car or truck totaled in the accident.
An insurance company is required to restore/repair a vehicle to its condition before the crash, and is normally required to use new parts. We often assist with questions relating to what happens if your car or truck is “totaled” (a.k.a. “total loss”).
We provide our clients free assistance on these property damage issues as a courtesy when we represent you for a personal injury claim. When a car or truck is a total loss, the insurance company is responsible for the retail value of that vehicle at the time it was in the crash and there are numerous sources to guide our clients in how to best obtain full value.