Traffic accident compensation question.

[misbehave]

I had an accident last Friday. A guy with a truck rear-ended my Protege5 while I was in a complete stop on I-5 in WA.
What I want to ask is, other than the repair cost of my damaged car, will I be able to get any compensation from him or his insurance company?
Although neither my wife or I suffer serious injury, we both feel that we deserve some compensation cause the accident ruin all the plans we have for the labor day weekend and we have hard time sleeping because of all the pain from our neck, back, and ribs. Also my wife couldn't get to work for a few days because of this.
Do I need I lawyer for this sort of things?

 

[MSPRCRX44]

i am not sure about th lawyer thing, but you guys should go in for a check up.

 

[misbehave]

i am not sure about th lawyer thing, but you guys should go in for a check up.

We did.
We are lucky that there wasn't any bone facture or broken.
But the doctor told us that the pain might last as long as a month.
Both my wife and I cannot sit up right to work for too long now due to the pain.

 

[mountjonas]

small claims court?

 

[jersey_emt]

Yup small claims court sounds like the thing to do. It's usually limited to $5,000 per case, which should be enough compensation for a couple days of missed work.

 

[macklum]

I would get a lawyer ,I was rear ended 25 years ago and I still have problems . I was young and stupid . I didnt know that you could settle without signing off the claim . I shouldnt have signed off because I would still be able to collect monies from the accident for future pain and suffering .
Also keep track of all your expenses including anything that you had to cancel ,these have value . As for the car it can be fixed but the pain that you and your wife are having will continue for a long time go after the driver of the truck ,afterall he rear ended you and he is in the wrong .

 

[misbehave]

Do I need a lawyer to go to small claim court?

 

[macklum]

No but i would consult one anyway to find out your options .

Do I need a lawyer to go to small claim court?

 

[NRRfrogmanP5]

u can get money for pain ...ive done it twice now ..not much but anything is btter then nothin

 

[misbehave]

u can get money for pain ...ive done it twice now ..not much but anything is btter then nothin

Mind telling me more details?
Did you get it through the at fault party's insurance directly? Or get it through small claims court?

 

[Greg S]

What ever you do don't setle for whatever they first offer you, even if it sounds great. Take the offer home and look it over to see if it really is fair. You can consult a lawyer if you want or not. Make sure you add up everything that you had planned to do for the weekend, the repairs to the car , you medical bills for the doctor visit and what your time is worth to compensate for not being able to sit for long periods of time. First thing to remember when you are thinking about consulting a lawyer is that they better be able to get you at least 50% more since the normal fee for a lawyer is 30% of the settlement. If they are not going to get you enough more to make up for what they take then it's not worht it. When I had my accident on my motorcycle years ago the insurance company offered me a max policy settlement of $100,000. I took the offer home looked it over and determined that since I had good medical insurance I used my insurance to pay for all the doctor visits and surguries and rehab then settled with the other person's insurance after I had the hospital sign off saying that I had no more medical bills pending, otherwise the insurance has to write a two party check and my insurance would have resompensated for the $30,000 in bills, instead I got the whole $100,000. Yes a lawyer would have gotten me more, but even if he had gotten me $200,000 thirty of it would have gone to the hospittal, 60 to the lawyer and I would have only ended up with $10,000 more than I got without having to deal with all the hassle.

All in all about 40% of the settlement was for damages and the other 60% was to be for pain and suffering. In my case it was pretty obvious that I had major injuries, four broken bones, two of which were major compond fractures, and the possiblilty of permenent damage to my knee joint. I got lucky and all I ended up with was the four broken bones a little nerve damage on my shin, nothing bad as all the bones healed fine. Fortunately I was only out from work for 4 months instead of the estimated 6 months. So the insurance company was very eager to settle with me and were very happy that I didn't drag them into court, but I made damn sure exactly what my damages were and what future problems I might have.

 

[misbehave]

What ever you do don't setle for whatever they first offer you, even if it sounds great. Take the offer home and look it over to see if it really is fair. You can consult a lawyer if you want or not. Make sure you add up everything that you had planned to do for the weekend, the repairs to the car , you medical bills for the doctor visit and what your time is worth to compensate for not being able to sit for long periods of time. First thing to remember when you are thinking about consulting a lawyer is that they better be able to get you at least 50% more since the normal fee for a lawyer is 30% of the settlement. If they are not going to get you enough more to make up for what they take then it's not worht it. When I had my accident on my motorcycle years ago the insurance company offered me a max policy settlement of $100,000. I took the offer home looked it over and determined that since I had good medical insurance I used my insurance to pay for all the doctor visits and surguries and rehab then settled with the other person's insurance after I had the hospital sign off saying that I had no more medical bills pending, otherwise the insurance has to write a two party check and my insurance would have resompensated for the $30,000 in bills, instead I got the whole $100,000. Yes a lawyer would have gotten me more, but even if he had gotten me $200,000 thirty of it would have gone to the hospittal, 60 to the lawyer and I would have only ended up with $10,000 more than I got without having to deal with all the hassle.

All in all about 40% of the settlement was for damages and the other 60% was to be for pain and suffering. In my case it was pretty obvious that I had major injuries, four broken bones, two of which were major compond fractures, and the possiblilty of permenent damage to my knee joint. I got lucky and all I ended up with was the four broken bones a little nerve damage on my shin, nothing bad as all the bones healed fine. Fortunately I was only out from work for 4 months instead of the estimated 6 months. So the insurance company was very eager to settle with me and were very happy that I didn't drag them into court, but I made damn sure exactly what my damages were and what future problems I might have.

Wow! Thanks for sharing and I am glad that you are OK now and have gotten some compensation.
Your message is really helpful to me. Now I have a more clear view of what my next step would be. Thanks again!

 

[protegeV]

I had an accident last october where I was not at fault. I was banged up pretty good but nothing was broken. I got taken to shock trauma as a precaution and had to go to pyhsical therapy for a month, also could not work for that month. I used a lawyer because i didnt want to, nor did I know how to fill out all the paper work and talk to the insurance company...All told i waited about 8months to get my money, which after paying some of the bills and paying the lawyer was $4200.
The other guy's insurance company would NOT talk to my lawyer for 4 months straight and it got really irritating. Then when they offered me what my lawyer described as "an insulting settlement" they refused to go higher and we would have gone to court...I figured out how much it would be based on court fees and the lawyers higher percentage for going to court based on the amount we were going to ask and I would have only gotten another $1000 for all that trouble, not to mention it would have been a full on jury trial...

 

[MSPinVA]

get a lawyer. dont talk to the insurance company. I waited a year to get my money, and all said and done i pocketed 10 large for getting a little banged up and going to PT for a month. even after they take out their fees you will wind up WAY better than if you didnt get a lawyer.

 

[memo79]

Yes a lawyer would have gotten me more, but even if he had gotten me $200,000 thirty of it would have gone to the hospittal, 60 to the lawyer and I would have only ended up with $10,000 more than I got without having to deal with all the hassle.

I don't know about you, but to me an extra 10 grand is WELL worth the hassle. That would pay off my car...........

 

[misbehave]

I don't know about you, but to me an extra 10 grand is WELL worth the hassle. That would pay off my car...........

Heh! I would hope for the same thing too.
Anyway, I looked up a few lawyers' numbers on the phone book that handle auto accident case. I've just called one of them this morning and he told me that since none of us injured in the accident, so this will be only a damage on property case and the only compensation I can get is for cost of the vehicle damage repair only.
I am not sure if I should call another lawyer again to see if there is any different view on this.

 

[MSPinVA]

if either of you complain of pain GO TO THE DOCTOR NOW. If it is too far from the date of the accident they wont count it, but as long as its within a reasonable time frame then the lawyer will have something to work with. Plus, if either of you are hurt, and you dont go to the doctor, when you eventually do go to the doctor and he attributes it to the accident, guess whats going to happen? Your health insurance is going to say "**** that, its not our responsibility to pay for this if it was caused by the auto acident". You'll go to the auto insurance company and they will say "prove that it was caused by the accident". Of course, if you went to the doctor more than a week after, there really is no way that you can prove that the accident caused it, therefore making you pay OUT OF POCKET for your health expenses. Trust me, I am in the middle of this s*** right now and it sucks.

 

[misbehave]

if either of you complain of pain GO TO THE DOCTOR NOW. If it is too far from the date of the accident they wont count it, but as long as its within a reasonable time frame then the lawyer will have something to work with. Plus, if either of you are hurt, and you dont go to the doctor, when you eventually do go to the doctor and he attributes it to the accident, guess whats going to happen? Your health insurance is going to say "**** that, its not our responsibility to pay for this if it was caused by the auto acident". You'll go to the auto insurance company and they will say "prove that it was caused by the accident". Of course, if you went to the doctor more than a week after, there really is no way that you can prove that the accident caused it, therefore making you pay OUT OF POCKET for your health expenses. Trust me, I am in the middle of this s*** right now and it sucks.

Well, I do understand how frustrated it is to deal with the insurance company. I am lucky that my insurance company is actually quite helpful. But maybe only because I never expect anything from them. However, the insurance company of the guy with the truck that hit my car is really being a jerk. The guy in that company doesn't seem to want to answer my phone calls and my question. Well, my insurance company said they will deal with them for the cost to repair my car so that I won't have to deal with them.
I did went to see the doctor on Wedesday this week, and the fee was covered by my insurance company.

 

[Greg S]

I don't know about you, but to me an extra 10 grand is WELL worth the hassle. That would pay off my car...........

Just a matter of perspective, for me the $10,000 wasn't worht the time and hassle it would envolve, and that estimate was if the lawyer would have been able to get me double what they were already offering me, if he only got me 50% more then I would have actually received $75,000, $25,000 less than what I did get. Also I already owned my car and they had paid off the motorcycle as part of the accident, the $100,000 was for medical bills and pain and suffering so it was all money free and in the clear. Of course I went out and bought a new car and bike after that. It all depends on what you really want to get out of it and what your time is worth on it. Because of the amount of time I had been at my work at that time I wasn't worried about money from work, between shrt term disablility from the state and work I was actually making more for those 4 months than I would have if I had actually worked and my boss and co-workers took up the extra slack for me and made sure my position would be available when I got back. So instead of drag things out for the possibility of a little more money everything combined made it worth it for me to settle in a decent amount of time.
Every case is different and you have to look at your personal situation to determine what is fair for you. Of course the insurance company was really unhappy to see me 5 months later when another one of their clients rear ended me on the freeway in my new car. Fortunately for them they only had to pay for a new rear bumper that time.(rofl)

 

[misbehave]

Just a matter of perspective, for me the $10,000 wasn't worht the time and hassle it would envolve, and that estimate was if the lawyer would have been able to get me double what they were already offering me, if he only got me 50% more then I would have actually received $75,000, $25,000 less than what I did get. Also I already owned my car and they had paid off the motorcycle as part of the accident, the $100,000 was for medical bills and pain and suffering so it was all money free and in the clear. Of course I went out and bought a new car and bike after that. It all depends on what you really want to get out of it and what your time is worth on it. Because of the amount of time I had been at my work at that time I wasn't worried about money from work, between shrt term disablility from the state and work I was actually making more for those 4 months than I would have if I had actually worked and my boss and co-workers took up the extra slack for me and made sure my position would be available when I got back. So instead of drag things out for the possibility of a little more money everything combined made it worth it for me to settle in a decent amount of time.
Every case is different and you have to look at your personal situation to determine what is fair for you. Of course the insurance company was really unhappy to see me 5 months later when another one of their clients rear ended me on the freeway in my new car. Fortunately for them they only had to pay for a new rear bumper that time.(rofl)

Well, it's not like I want to make a lot of money out of this accident.
But there is some stuff like the things inside my truck, and the window tinting won't be covered by my own insurance company. All I am asking for is for his party to pay for those damage items so that I don't have to pay for them again myself.