Category: Medical bills from car accidents

Accident At Work? You May Have A Personal Injury Claim

Personal Injury Accident At Work

Where you hurt while working?

People injured in an accident while working will generally have a claim for worker’s compensation. What many don’t realize is that they may also have a personal injury claim. There are important differences between a personal injury claim and a worker’s compensation claim. One of those important differences provides an important benefit to an accident victim who presents a personal injury claim and could amount to thousands of dollars.

Differences Between Worker’s Compensation and Personal Injury Law

Worker’s compensation laws arose over a century ago to provide a faster way to provide compensation to injured workers. Traditionally, the law did not distinguish between injuries at work and injuries from any other accident. Before legislatures enacted these laws, people injured at work could only receive compensation from their employer for those injuries if they showed their employer was negligent. Employers can try to escape responsibility by showing that the employee was also negligent. In some states, if the employee had any negligent, the employee couldn’t recover anything, not even for their medical bills.

Because of these harsh results and other reasons, legislatures passed laws that allowed an employee to recover against an employer for his or her work-related injury without having to show the employer’s negligence. To provide this new benefit to employees, however, legislatures required a trade-off. In exchange for not having to prove fault, legislatures prohibited employees from bringing personal injury lawsuits against the employers, with few exceptions. Nevada’s worker’s compensation statute, for example, makes worker’s compensation the “exclusive remedy” against an employer for on-the-job injuries. Another trade-off is the loss of the right to obtain compensation for pain, suffering, and lost enjoyment of life. So, under worker’s compensation laws, an employee can get compensated for medical bills and wage loss. However, the injured employee can’t get compensation for the pain and suffering he or she endured. Nevada’s worker’s compensation statutes can be found in Chapter 616A, 616B, 616C, and 616D of the Nevada Revised Statutes.

An employee may have both a worker’s compensation and personal injury claim, however, if the work-related accident was caused by someone other than an employer. That is, if an employee was in an accident while on the clock and the accident was caused by a third-person, the employee can make a worker’s compensation claim and also a claim for personal injuries against the person who caused the accident. The worker’s compensation claim will cover the medical bills and wage loss, while the personal injury claim will cover the pain, suffering, and lost enjoyment of life. Also, if the third party who caused the accident acted recklessly, intentionally, or with malice, the injured employee may have a claim for punitive damages.

Examples of Personal Injury Claims From On-The-Job Accidents

  • A person running an errand for work gets into a car accident and is injured. That person will have both a worker’s compensation claim and a personal injury claim. The car accident injury claim will be against the person who caused the accident and their insurance company. The experienced Las Vegas car accident attorneys at D.R. Patti & Associates have recovered millions of dollars for accident victims in this situation.

NOTABLE SETTLEMENT

Our client, a master painter, suffered a career-ending injury during a car accident in Las Vegas. While driving from one job site to another, his truck was rear-ended by an SUV. The at-fault driver’s insurance company gave our client a difficult time, because of a prior back injury. Nevertheless, shortly after filing suit, we were able to obtain about a million dollars in total settlement.

  • A person is injured at work while using defective product, such as a ladder, electric saw, or even a washing machine.

NOTABLE SETTLEMENT

A hotel employee’s was amputated while using a commercial washing machine at work. During their investigation, the accident lawyers at D.R. Patti & Associates discovered that the employer had hired an outside company to repair the washing machine on multiple occasions. The outside company failed to properly repair the machine, which allowed the employee to unknowingly disable the machine’s safety features. After suing both the repair company and the washing machine manufacturer, D.R. Patti & Associates was able to obtain a multi-million dollar settlement for our client’s product liability and personal injury claims.

  • An employee, as part of their job, is visiting a construction site that is not owned by the employer and is injured due to the negligence of someone at the construction site.
  • An employee is shopping on behalf of her employer and slips and falls at the store. The employee may have a premises liability claim.

In their combined 50+ years of experience, our accident attorneys have handled the simplest to the most complex accident cases. In that time, the Las Vegas personal injury lawyers at D.R. Patti & Associates have been able to obtain millions of dollars for work-related accident injuries caused by negligent third-parties. If you or a loved one have been injured in an accident while on-the-job and want to know if you also have a personal injury claim, give us a call.

Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist Insurance In Nevada

Las Vegas Insurance Bad Faith Attorneys

Far too many people learn too late what uninsured and underinsured motorist insurance coverage (aka UM/UIM) is. Usually, they learn after they are injured in a car accident and find out that the person who caused the accident had no insurance or does not have enough insurance. In that situation, UM or UIM insurance would cover the accident victim’s personal injuries, medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering. Unfortunately, those without UM or UIM insurance are usually left without any recourse.
Uninsured Motorist or UM insurance applies when you are injured in an accident and the person who caused it has no insurance.

Examples of When Uninsured Motorist (UM) Coverage Apply

  • The classic example is when you are injured in a car accident and the person responsible for the crash does not have insurance at all.
  • UM also applies when in a hit and run situation. That is, if you are hit by someone who then leaves the scene of the accident and they cannot be located, your UM insurance will cover your injuries.
  • You get into a crash, and the person at fault for the crash stole the car. That means the at fault person did not have permission to drive the car. In that situation, the liability insurance on the car will not cover your damages, not to repair your car or your medical bills.
  • You get into a crash, and the person who caused the crash did have permission of the owner. However, the car owner’s liability insurance does not cover the accident unless the owner caused the crash.
  • You get into a crash, and the insurance company of the person who caused the crash is bankrupt.

If you have UM insurance, you also have UIM insurance. Underinsured Motorist or UIM insurance applies when you are injured in an accident and the person who caused it does not have enough insurance to cover your injuries, medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering. UIM becomes a blessing for those who suffer serious injuries from a car accident. Medical bills can pile up quickly. If you are injured in a Las Vegas car accident, an ambulance and a visit to the emergency room can run thousands of dollars.

Is UM and UIM mandatory?

Unlike liability insurance, Nevada does not require drivers to carry UM and UIM insurance. Nevada mandates that you carry car accident insurance to protect others but not yourself. Liability insurance applies when you cause an accident and is aimed to protect the people you injure.

While Nevada does not require UM and UIM insurance, it does require insurance companies to offer it to their customers. See Nev.Rev.Stat. § 690B.020. The limits of the insurance offered must be at least equivalent to the Nevada minimum liability limit of $25,000 per person and $50,000.00 per accident. Insureds can purchase higher UM/UIM limits for their protection, up to an amount equal to their liability insurance limits.

If you or a loved one were injured in a car accident and need to know whether your UM or UIM coverage apply, call the experienced Las Vegas car accident attorneys at D.R. Patti & Associates. One of our Las Vegas personal injury attorneys would gladly speak to you and answer your questions.

Pitfalls of Settling A Car Accident Case Without An Attorney

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?

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.