FAQ
What to Do When Involved In An Accident?
What Should I Do If I Am Involved In An Accident?
Things I Should Remember When Involved in An Accident.
What Do I Do When My Insurance Company is Calling?
What Do I Do When The Other Insurance Company is Calling?
The Hospital Is Billing Me and I Do Not Have the Money To Pay.
What To Do When Involved In An Accident?
If you were involved in a car accident, it is important that you make sure that all those, including yourself, who have been injured, are receiving the proper medical care they need. That is, the first thing that must happen is reporting to your primary care physician and/or the emergency room where your injuries are documented and properly treated.
Thereafter, you must make sure that you have properly documented the accident itself. That is you have reported the facts to the police to be reflected in the police report along with the identity of all witnesses who were present before, during or after the collision took place. If the accident was not your fault, witnesses are very important because as a plaintiff you have the burden of proving your case and having independent witnesses support the facts as you recount them goes along way in winning your case.
Once you have all that, you should speak with an attorney so to get an idea as to how to proceed. The Chicago personal injury attorneys and lawyers at the Taradji Law Offices will speak to you free of charge and without any obligation to assess whether you need to retain an attorney or whether your case is one that should be referred to another attorney or one that you may handle yourself.
While you are deciding whether or not to retain an attorney, it is important that you make sure you do not speak with the other side’s insurance adjuster and not give any statements, recorded or otherwise, that may jeopardize the success of your case if you decide to trust your case to an attorney to work for you and on your behalf.
Anytime you have been injured as the result of another person’s carelessness or as the result of a combination of your own and another person’s carelessness, you may be entitled to a recovery for the injuries you have suffered. In Illinois, it is important that the negligence contributable to you not exceed 50%, or you are not entitled to any recovery. It is important to speak with a seasoned attorney and discuss all the facts of the incident before deciding whether you have a case.
Generally you are entitled to recover:
-Reasonable medical expenses for reasonable medical care received;
-Reasonable cost for future medical care and treatment, if any;
-Your wage loss;
- Disfigurement
-Pain & suffering;
-Disability or loss of normal life;
-Any out of pocket expenses;
-Property damage to your vehicle or to your belongings;
-Car rental costs;
-All other expenses that you have incurred resulting from the incident.
It is important that you keep good records of all expenses and costs you have incurred so that you may support your claim with tangible evidence.
Things to Remember When Involved in an Accident
From the moment the incident takes place, anything you say may be used against you at anytime in the future.
Do not say you are sorry, if you feel you were not at fault.
Do not admit fault or offer to repair the other person’s vehicle if you did not cause their damage.
If you are hurt, it is important that you get the medical help you need as soon as possible and without any unnecessary delay.
If you get the opportunity, talk to the investigating police officer and tell your side of the story. If you are hurt, tell him or her that you are hurt. Be concise, do not exaggerate or minimize anything and be thorough to the best of your ability. Do not play coy–be truthful and thorough. If the other person was at fault, make sure you tell the police and tell why you think so.
If you have a camera with you and you are able to do so, document the scene of the accident as best as you can show the vehicles involved in the position found and the property damage incurred. By the same token, document all injuries you have sustained including all bruises, lacerations, and hematomas.
What Do I Do When My Insurance Company is Calling?
In general, insurance companies are not your friends. You should remember that your insurance company is not there to help you. Whether they pretend to be a good neighbor or whether you feel you are in good hands, the bottom line is that the insurance company is not in the business of paying out claims or paying out full value of a claim—that is not how they make their money. Therefore, always take what the insurance company’s adjuster tells you with a grain of salt. It is always a good idea to research and double check the facts and figures set forth by the adjuster before agreeing to them.
When you signed your policy of motor vehicle coverage, it is likely that you agreed to cooperate with your insurance company if and when they choose to investigate your claim. That is, you must give them permission to get your medical records, to see and assess the damage to your vehicle, to get a recorded statement from you and submit yourself to an “independent” medical examination if the insurance company so chooses. Of course, failure to cooperate will result in cancellation of your coverage, and/or denial of your claim.
However, there are exceptions and limitations to your obligations. These exceptions and limitations are to be assessed on a case-by-case basis. An experienced lawyer will be able to make these assessments to prevent the insurance company to have a free hand and an unabridged access to your personal and confidential information when there is no need for that access.
Make sure you keep a record of all conversations with your adjuster. If they promise you something, make sure you ask for it in writing. If it is not in writing, it never existed, no matter how many times you tell them that you were told and no matter how many supervisors you decide (or they let you) speak with. Keep track of the date, time and subject of all conversation. Rule number 1? Get it in writing. Always.
What Do I Do When The Other Insurance Company is Calling?
You have no obligation to cooperate with the other party’s insurance carrier.
Contrary to the obligations to your own insurance company, you do not have any obligation to talk, discuss, prove and/or provide information to the other party’s insurance company. The other party’s insurance adjuster is certainly not your friend. In fact, he or she is to make sure that either no payment is made to you or if you are entitled to payment, that the most minimal amount of payment is made. To that end, adjusters have been known to lie, distort facts and the law in order to gain an unfair advantage over you and to persuade you to accept less than honest compensation for your damages.
IT IS HIGHLY ADVISABLE NOT TO SIGN ANY PAPER(S) UNLESS YOU HAVE HAD IT REVIEWED BY A PERSONAL INJURY ATTORNEY.
Usually the insurance company makes an attempt to speak to you very shortly after the incident where you injured yourself and hopefully before you have had a chance to speak with an attorney. Anything you say during the interview will be used against you and will not be helpful if you choose to retain an attorney later on. You are under no obligation to speak to the other party’s insurance company even less to give a recorded statement where the sole purpose of the interviewer may be to make sure he or she gets you to say things that may not be helpful to your case.
IT IS HIGHLY ADVISABLE NOT TO GIVE A RECORDED STATEMENT TO THE OTHER PARTY’S INSURANCE COMPANY WITHOUT HAVING FIRST SPOKEN WITH A PERSONAL INJURY ATTORNEY.
What Do I Do With the Hospital Bills?
You must remember that from the hospitals and doctor’s point of view, the bills you have incurred for the medical treatment you have received are yours and are your responsibility to pay. Even if you believe you did not cause the accident and therefore the other driver has to pay, so long as your case has not settled or has not gone to trial, and so long as those bills are unpaid, the hospitals will pursue you for payment.
There are alternatives: If you have Med Pay coverage on your motor vehicle insurance, or if you have health insurance, it is advisable to make a claim and have your insurance pay for the medical bills. This way, you at least prevent collection proceedings against you by the hospitals and doctors. If you do not have insurance, an attorney is able to sometimes get a hospital or a doctor to wait for payment of their bills until the resolution of a case.
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