How to Handle Your Own Injury Claim: Part 3 Settlement Phase
Disclaimer: This information offered in this post is for offered for informational purposes only, and does not constitute legal advice nor does it create an attorney/client relationship. I am admitted in the state of North Carolina only and make no attempt to opine on matters of law that are not relevant to that state. This advice is based on general principles of law that may or may not relate to your specific situation. You should not rely on this advice alone and nothing in these communications creates an attorney client relationship. Seeking direct advice from an attorney in person may be advised.
The chapter above briefly addressed not signing releases and taking personal responsibility for getting your records and bills. That bears repeating, as insurance companies can tell you they are only going to get related treatment stuff, but the next thing you know they have records about when you were born. So watch it!
When you get your records and bills, ask for treatment notes and itemized bills from each and every provider. Remember that if you went to a hospital, there may be different physicians and radiology bills, so inquire as to where those requests should be sent.
Recent legislation in NC allows defendants to get credit for your health insurance. While that’s patently unfair, it’s the law passed by your insurance-industry-friendly Republican majority. This means that you can only recover what your insurance company (and you) had to pay to satisfy your bills; in other words, the defendants get a credit for the health insurance contractual adjustment. So make sure you get this documented or they may not even talk to you.
So now you’ve gotten your records and bills, what else do you need. If you incurred lost wages, you’ll want something from your employer to document what you lost and how much it was worth. Most employers will provide that, but sometimes they may give you hassle. Just make sure it states clearly the value of the lost wage claim.
You will want to send all records and bills and lost wage documents to the liability adjuster AND to your Med Pay adjuster(s) (Med Pay won’t care about lost wages, of course, but it’s easy to put everything in one cd nowadays). This will go out with a demand letter. “What’s that?”, you ask:
A demand letter states what you think your case is worth. Don’t start with what you want; start with a lot more than that to give you negotiating room.
Well, what do you want? What is your case worth? The answer is I don’t know! I use my judgment and experience, as well as that of other attorneys I know through consultation, to evaluate each case on a case by case basis, factoring in treatment time, costs, lost wages, pain and suffering, permanency, and other factors. How can you do that? It will be hard, as you won’t have anything to go by. But there’s an old saying that a case is worth what it settles for, so if you have a number you feel good about, use it as your goal.
PLEASE remember that the days of getting three times the medical bills to settle every case are over. That just doesn’t happen now. You will of course have a cousin who got a bazillion dollars for his case that was less severe than yours, but pay no attention to that. People lie. Do your best with what you’ve got and cross your fingers. If you are handling it on your own, that’s about as good as you can do.