Category: Car Accident Bills

How Much Can I Get For My Car Accident?

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How much a car accident victim can get from a personal injury settlement is not an easy question to answer. This is also a different than asking how much your car accident claim can settle for. How much a personal injury claim settles for depends on the injuries, the medical treatment, and how much insurance policy is available. How much the accident victim can get takes into account how much the claim can settle for, how much medical bills have to be paid out of the settlement, and how much the attorney’s fees and costs are.

Settlement Value Of A Car Accident Claim

The settlement value of a car accident claim depends primarily on the nature of the injuries and how much money is available. Of course, the more severe and permanent the injuries are, the higher the value of the case. However, regardless of how severe the injuries are, the amount of money or insurance policy the defendant has will limit how much the case could settle for.

Also, no two people’s cases are alike. While people can have similar injuries, everyone heals differently. Injuries can also affect people differently.  The injured victim of a car accident can claim for their medical bills, their pain and suffering, lost enjoyment of life, and any wage or income loss. In the legal field, we call these items “damages.”

Because the settlement value of a case depends on a person’s injuries, how long they heal or whether those injuries are permanent, an experienced car accident lawyer cannot know from the beginning of a case how much the case could settle for. The more common injuries from a car accident are neck and back pain that are initially diagnosed as a soft tissue injury, usually a sprain or strain. Some neck injuries may require surgery. Doctors generally can’t tell at the beginning if a neck sprain or strain may turn out worse and require surgery. Imaging, such as MRIs, may be necessary. Doctors also may require pain management and even epidural steroid injections. Other tests, such as nerve conduction studies, may be needed. All of these tests and treatment take time.

Once a car accident victim is fully healed or has reached maximum medical improvement, then the attorneys can begin the process of settling the case. A car accident victim shouldn’t settle their case until they know the full extent of their injuries.

How Much Does The Injured Victim Get Out of A Car Accident Settlement

When a client has reached maximum medical improvement, then the settlement value of his or her claim can be evaluated. After determining the settlement value, we can then estimate how much the client’s share is of the potential settlement. To do that, we would have to deduct the medical bills that have to be paid back, the attorney’s fees, and the costs that have to be reimbursed to the attorneys.

Remember, personal injury attorneys are paid on a contingency fee basis. That means, car accident attorneys like D.R. Patti & Associates don’t get paid unless they recover monies for the client. In a typical contingency fee case, the lawyer’s fee is a percentage of the total settlement. That percentage usually increases if the case goes into litigation.

Importance of Getting Immediate Medical Attention

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In real life, many people who are injured in car accidents do not get medical treatment right away. There are many reasons for this. Some can’t afford to take the time off from work to get treatment. They just live with the pain. Some can’t afford the medical treatment, and they too just live with the pain. Then there are those who believe that their symptoms will go away with time. This statement is particularly true for people suffering from headaches, neck pain, or back pain. It is only when their pain doesn’t go after several weeks that some of these people finally get medical attention. When they find out that their condition may be worse or can last months, if not be permanent, they finally seek compensation against the insurance company of the party who caused the accident. Then their claim is denied by the insurance company. That’s when they finally call an attorney.

In our over 25+ years of experience as Las Vegas car accident attorneys, we have received calls from lots of people with similar experiences. Many of them have consulted with other Las Vegas personal injury attorneys, and their case was rejected. Then they ask why.

The insurance company and other attorneys have rejected their car accident case because of the gap in treatment. A significant period between the time of the car crash until the first medical treatment raise doubts whether the person’s injuries are from the car accident. Remember, people can develop headaches, neck pain, and back pain without a car accident.

Remember also, insurance companies will only compensate you if you prove your injuries. Just because you are in a car accident doesn’t mean you are injured. A significant gap in treatment is evidence to the insurance company that you weren’t injured in the car accident. To insurance companies and to many jurors, an injured person gets treatment, and someone who does not get treatment is not injured. This is a stereotype that doesn’t always conform to reality. Those who don’t confirm to this stereotype may find it difficult convincing anyone that they are injured.

Also, in many cases, only a medical professional is needed to confirm that your injuries are related to the car accident. In most cases, a medical professional must be able to testify in court that your injures are causally related to the car accident “to a reasonable degree of medical probability.” Basically, the medical professional must be able to say that your injuries are more likely than not was caused by the car accident. The medical professional doesn’t necessarily have to be a doctor. It could be a chiropractor or physical therapist experienced and trained in diagnosing the kind of injuries you have. The more we can prove your injuries with medical documentation, the easier it could be to resolve your case.

Keeping a record of your medical appointments can serve as a key piece of evidence in your case. Your medical records can establish important information, including:

  • The nature of your medical condition
  • How long you received treatment
  • The connection between your injuries and the accident
  • The charges you incurred due to your injuries
  • Notes on your future medical needs due to the accident
  • Documentation of your pain and suffering

Be sure that you keep track of all of your medical records and bills and provide them to your personal injury lawyer.

If you can’t go to your medical appointment for sometime, you should keep a pain journal or diary of your symptoms and how it affects you on a daily basis. A handwritten diary written at or about the same time you experienced an event or symptoms is admissible in court. A handwritten journal is evidence in court, but not as powerful as medical records. Experienced personal injury trial attorneys know how to admit the handwritten diary in court as evidence to help prove your case.

If you or a loved one are struggling with your injuries from a car accident and the insurance company, call the accomplished Las Vegas car accident attorneys at D.R. Patti & Associates. All of our attorneys have 10 or more years of experience in litigating Las Vegas personal injury cases. We will answer your questions and discuss your options in depth with you, as well as the risks and benefits of proceeding. Don’t wait any longer. Call us today.

How Long Does It Take To Settle My Car Accident Case?

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There is no simple answer to how long it takes to settle a car accident case. Every car accident case is different, and there is no fixed formula. Generally, the less disputes issued, the more likely the case settles early. The more disputed issues, the longer it takes to settle case.  There are several factors to consider.

Is There A Dispute As To Who Caused The Accident?

The first factor to consider is whether there is a liability dispute. A liability dispute means the drivers involved in the car accident are claiming the other person is at fault. Many times when there is a liability dispute, a lawsuit will have to be filed. The purpose of the lawsuit is to get a judge, jury, or arbitrator to decide who is at fault. However, even if a lawsuit is filed, a case can still settle without going to trial or arbitration. What happens in a personal injury lawsuit is a whole separate topic, and you can learn more about that by clicking here.

Sometimes, a case with disputed liability can settle without a lawsuit. Usually, this happens when one driver has more or stronger evidence to show that the other driver is at fault. For example, if the police came to the accident scene, did an investigation, and determined the other driver is at fault, that other driver’s insurance company may decide to settle the case. Generally, a person’s car insurance company can settle a personal injury claim without the permission of their insured. If there is a disinterested witness to the accident, there is a good chance of settling without a lawsuit. A disinterested witness is someone who has no interest in the case. Usually, this means the witness doesn’t know any of the other drivers involved.

How Severe Are the Injuries And How Much Insurance Is Available?

Assuming liability is not in dispute, the next two main factors to consider are (1) the extent and severity of the injuries and (2) the amount of insurance available. The more severe the injuries and the lower the amount of insurance available, the faster a case would actually settle. For example, if a car accident caused you to break a leg and the insurance limits for the at fault driver is the Nevada minimum of $25,000, the case would likely settle pretty quickly. The reason this case settles quickly is because there is no dispute that the injuries are greater than the insurance monies available.

The more severe the injuries and the greater amount of insurance available, the longer it could take a case to settle. For example, if you were in a car accident with a semi-truck, it is likely that the semi-truck carries a commercial liability policy. That commercial policy could be more than a million dollars. If you injured your neck in that truck accident, it could take sometime before your doctors determine that the injury is more severe or permanent. Most neck injuries from a car accident are initially diagnosed as a soft tissue injury, usually a sprain or strain. Some neck injuries may require surgery. Doctors generally can’t tell at the beginning if a neck sprain or strain may turn out worse and require surgery. Imaging, such as MRIs, may be necessary. Doctors also may require pain management and even epidural steroid injections. Other tests, such as nerve conduction studies, may be needed. All of these tests and treatment take time. A car accident victim shouldn’t settle their case until they know the full extent of their injuries.

More often than not, the less severe the injuries, the more likely the case will settle without a lawsuit. Less severe injuries take less time to heal. Once a car accident victim is fully healed or has reached maximum medical improvement, then the attorneys can begin the process of settling the case. You can learn more about the process of settling a case here.

How Bad Was The Car Accident?

The amount of damage to the cars involved in the accident also affects when the case settles. Generally, insurance companies take the position that minor impact accidents do not cause injuries. Even if they do, insurance companies say that the injuries are so minor and they will dispute the necessity or amount of medical treatment. Read more about the insurance companies’ tactics in dealing with “Minor Impact Soft Tissue” injury cases here.

What is considered a minor impact usually depends on the cost to repair the damage or how visible the damage is. An experienced personal injury will always obtain documentation on the property damage. This could include photographs of the cars and repair estimates.

The above are just some of the more common factors affecting how long it takes to settle a car accident. There may be other factors to consider, such as whether the accident victim has pre-existing injuries or is an eggshell person. Again, no car accident case is the same. If you have questions about your car accident case, you should speak to an experienced Las Vegas car accident attorney. With a combined total of 25+ years of experience and success, the car accident attorneys at D.R. Patti & Associates can provide unique insights to your case. Our Las Vegas personal injury attorneys know that its important that clients get to speak to their attorneys.

Pitfalls of Settling A Car Accident Case Without An Attorney

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It’s not unusual for some people injured in a car accident to accept a settlement from an insurance company immediately or days after a crash. Insurance companies would like to settle cases as fast as possible right after an accident, before the accident victim realizes how injured they are or gets an attorney. Settling within hours or days after a crash is part of an insurance company’s tactics to pay as little as possible for personal injury settlements.

We recently represented two individuals who did exactly that, and neither fully realized what they had done.
In one scenario, our client was injured in what generally could be considered a minor impact. Even our client did not think the crash was severe. A taxi cab had backed up into the driver’s side of his car. Though he felt immediate pain, he thought it would go away in a few days because it was just a small crash. Within an hour, an insurance adjuster for the taxi cab company was on the accident scene. Our client’s main concern was getting his car fixed. The insurance adjuster told him the car will be fixed if our client signs the release.

Our client, who spoke only Spanish, didn’t understand or fully understand that he was releasing or waiving his right to seek compensation for injuries. Our client also didn’t realize his injuries would get worse.

Our client was in his seventies and had been turned to his right, warning his back seat passengers about the cab that was backing up fast into them, when his car was struck. His age and his body position all contributed to him developing sprain and strain, otherwise known as soft tissue injuries, injuries that would persist for days, weeks, even months. The day following the accident, the headache that began with the crash was worse. His neck was stiff, and it was painful to move. His back was achy.

Las Vegas Taxi Cab Accident Attorney

Our client waited for the adjuster to call regarding repairing the damage to his car. When he did finally call over a week later, our client told the adjuster he was injured and wanted them to pay for him to see a chiropractor. The adjuster told him that he didn’t have a claim anymore, because he signed the release. Our client was still in a great deal of pain, so he sought a chiropractor on his own. When he told the chiropractor what happened, the chiropractor referred him to D.R. Patti & Associates. In representing this person, we learned that the taxi cab company routinely attempts to settle a case immediately at the scene of a crash.
In another scenario, our client was in a motorcycle accident. She was a passenger in her husband’s motorcycle when her husband laid his bike down to avoid hitting a car that suddenly swerved into their lane. No one got the other car’s information. While her husband was fine, our client suffered a fracture to her cheek bones and significant road rash and bruising. She was transported by ambulance to the emergency room. By the end of the day, she had accumulated over $50,000.00 in medical bills; but she hadn’t received the bills yet and didn’t know how much the ambulance ride and emergency visit cost.

The following day, they made a claim against their own insurance company and were initially denied. Their insurance company explained that because there was no evidence another car hit them, they had no claim under their uninsured motorist (UM) policy. But then the insurance company said our client had a liability claim against her husband’s policy, since he caused the accident. Our client was thrilled when the insurance company offered to give her the entire amount of her husband’s insurance policy of $50,000.00 and signed a release. A few days later, she found out that the hospital was claiming a lien against the entire $50,000.00 and that her health insurance refused to pay the emergency room visit. That finally prompted our client to call one of our attorneys. On her behalf, not only were we able to successfully get her health insurance to pay for the hospital bills, but we were also able to obtained additional monies from her insurance company under her underinsured motorist (UIM) policy.

Can’t Afford Hospital Bills After Las Vegas Car Accidents?

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Las Vegas Personal Injury Attorneys

From our extensive experience as Las Vegas personal injury attorneys, we have seen the huge hospital bills after Las Vegas car accidents our clients receive. For the injured victims of Las Vegas car accidents without health insurance, those hospital bills could prove devastating. One emergency room visit to a Las Vegas valley hospital after a car accident can amount to thousands of dollars. In many cases, when a hospital knows that someone was injured in a car accident, the hospital bills after Las Vegas car accidents are usually higher than for any other type of injuries. In Las Vegas car accident cases, the hospitals know they can assert a lien against the car insurance company of the negligent driver that caused the accident.
Despite the Affordable Healthcare Act, many people still do not have health insurance, and many more people than that cannot afford the hospital bills resulting from a car accident, which bills could be in the thousands of dollars. Nevada hospitals can hold off on receiving payment until a settlement or the personal injury claim is resolved by issuing a hospital lien.  Section 108 of the Nevada Revised Statute governs hospital liens. NRS 108.590(1) provides:

Whenever any person receives hospitalization on account of any injury, and the injured person, or a personal representative after the person’s death, claims damages from the person responsible for causing the injury, the hospital has a lien upon any sum awarded the injured person or the personal representative by judgment or obtained by a settlement or compromise to the extent of the amount due the hospital for the reasonable value of the hospitalization rendered before the date of judgment, settlement or compromise. 

To be able to put the hospital bills on a lien, the hospital must be made aware that the treatment is a result of a car accident. The hospital will also want to know the car accident’s personal injury attorney and the car insurance company of the person who caused the accident. A hospital lien, however, will not necessarily stop the hospital from sending the bill into collections or reporting the outstanding bill on your credit report. Speak to the hospital about this at the time of your treatment or soon after.

To be valid and enforceable, the hospital lien must be recorded with the county recorder’s office and sent by certified or registered mail to the insurance company of the person responsible for the car accident, as well as that person. NRS 108.610 provides:

NRS 108.610.  Notice of lien required: Recording and service.  In order to perfect the lien, the hospital or the owner or operator thereof shall: 

  1.      Before the payment of any money to the injured person or to a legal representative as compensation for injuries received, record a notice of lien, substantially in the form prescribed in NRS 108.620, containing an itemized statement of the amount claimed. The notice of lien must be filed with:
     (a) The county recorder of the county wherein the hospital is located; and
    (b) The county recorder of the county wherein the injury was suffered, if the injury was suffered in a county other than that wherein the hospital is located. 
  2.      Before the date of judgment, settlement or compromise, serve a certified copy of the notice of lien by registered or certified mail upon the person alleged to be responsible for causing the injury and liable for damages on account thereof and from which damages are claimed. 
  3.     Before the date of judgment, settlement or compromise, serve a certified copy of the notice of lien by registered or certified mail upon the insurance carrier, if known, which has insured against liability of the person alleged to be responsible for causing the injury and liable for damages on account thereof and from which damages are claimed. 

Additionally, the hospital is required to provide a thirty percent (30%) uninsured discount if you make payment arrangements in advance. Under § NRS 439B.260(1), hospitals generally must reduce charges by 30 percent to inpatients who lack insurance “or other contractual provision for the payment of the charge by a third party,” are not eligible for public medical payment assistance, and arrange within 30 days of discharge to pay the hospital bill. See Bielar v. Washoe Health Sys., Inc., 129 Nev. Adv. Op. 49, 306 P.3d 360, 361 (2013). In that case, the car accident victim, after paying the hospital its full bill, sued the hospital claiming that the hospital’s charges were unreasonable and that the hospital failed to give her the mandatory 30% discount under NRS § 493B.260.  She presented evidence at trial that the hospital had made a 185% profit margin on the victim’s bill and that the hospital overcharged the victim.  The district court held that the victim was ineligible for the 30% statutory discount because of the personal injury settlement she received much later after her hospitalization.  On appeal, the Nevada Supreme Court held that the victim was eligible because at the time the victim received the hospital services, she had no health insurance or other insurance that would cover her bills. According to the Court, the subsequent personal injury settlement cannot be considered as “other contractual agreement.”

The hospital lien is enforceable only against the insurance company of the person responsible for the car accident, otherwise known as liability insurance. This means that the hospital cannot enforce its lien against a car accident victim’s uninsured (UM) or underinsured motorist policy. See Washoe Medical Center, Inc. v. Reliance Ins. Co., 112 Nev. 494, 915 P.2d 288 (1996) (holding that Nevada’s hospital lien statute does not encompass an individual’s UM benefits for several reasons).

If you were in a Las Vegas car accident and have medical bills piling up, contact the experienced Personal Injury Attorneys of D.R. Patti & Associates to help you. We obtain not only fair compensation for the injuries suffered by our clients but also negotiate with hospitals and other medical providers to reduce our clients’ medical bills. We have helped many clients with their hospital bills after Las Vegas car accidents.