Millions Of Dollars Recovered for Our Injured Clients

Gap insurance is a special insurance you can buy when you purchase your car from the dealer which will cover the gap between the blue book value of your car and the financial note or contract that you signed to purchase your car.

So when you drive your new car off the lot it drops in value from 10 to 20% the second you drive off the lot and if you were hit by a truck on that very same day you would not be compensated the same amount for the car that you paid for the car and that is the gap that is created.

Gap insurance pays the difference between the value of your car and the value of your note that you owe on that car. This can become terribly important if your car is totaled weeks months or even years after you have purchased the car and it has depreciated in value yet your note has not depreciated in value you can be left “upside down” regarding the value of the car versus what you owe on the note.

Insurance is not expensive and is a useful tool in the event that you needed and therefore we recommend gap insurance.

Yes, you can make a claim against your own insurance company when you are hit by “a phantom driver”. A phantom driver is a car that hits your car and then takes off without giving you any information; this, of course, is against the law but it happens all too frequently. If you suffer injuries and damages either to your car or to your person as a result of this accident you should proceed forward just like any other accident in terms of seeking proper medical attention and seeking competent counsel to help you sort through the maze in order to receive fair and appropriate compensation.

Your insurance company cannot and will not raise your rates because you made a claim like this because the accident is not your fault and when the accident is not your fault they cannot increase your insurance premiums.

It is wise to call the police and at least make a claim or police reports when this happens to document for the insurance company what happened and when it happened so as to satisfy their curiosity of these types of claims.

You are entitled to stay in a rental car until the defendant has either totaled your car out and given you a check for the value of your car or alternatively if they repair your car until such point in time is your car is given back to you in a repaired condition.

Yes, lost wages are compensable in any personal injury case. So if you are out of work for weeks or months or longer then we will work with you to obtain documentation from your employer indicating how much time you missed from work and how that time translates into dollars. Those dollars are recoverable as lost wages in a personal injury settlement. Happily, those monies are not taxable when they are recovered by settlement or by a verdict in court.

The defense is entitled to proof of your lost wages and might delve a little deeper by asking for tax returns or W-2s to further substantiate a lost wage claim in any given case. While we almost never provide tax returns because we do not feel as if it is their business W-2s for a given period of time is a valid request to substantiate a claim for lost wages.

Sometimes a lost wage claim can become more complicated where a person is self-employed or operates on commission only or in situations where a paycheck or W-2 does not tell the whole story. In these cases, a tax return or further supporting documentation may be necessary to tell the whole story.

Depending on the case sometimes defense counsel may put up more of a fight or less of a fight depending on how valid they feel the lost wage claim is in a given case and therefore sometimes more documentation or proof may need to be provided and in other times less documentation is requested.

If it is not possible to provide formal lost wage documentation for one reason or another in these cases presenting a lost wage claim in court will probably not be possible. So for example, if a person was paid in cash and does not have formal documentation of a W-2 then it is unlikely that a lost wage claim can be made in court as it cannot be properly documented.

Time and mileage traveling to medical care following an injury technically may be compensable. Indeed in workers compensation cases in Maryland, mileage and time lost from work certainly are compensable expenses of a claim.

As for regular personal injury type cases, these expenses technically may be compensable but may or may not be something to be pursued in court. The reason being that if you are in court pursuing significant damages for significant injury often time attempting to pursue smaller or diminished expenses like this can have a negative impact on a much larger claim.

Thus when talking about expenses like this or even a small lost wage claim a personal injury victim should think twice before engaging the defense in a small battle like this which can take the fact finders eye off the bigger ball of more significant damages.

That is to say in a situation like that may be possible to win the battle but it might cost you the war. So while minor expenses like this are compensable it’s not always the best avenue to take.

So to understand this concept a little better assume an injured victim has $25,000 in medical bills and $10,000 in lost wages and therefore is in pursuit of recovering $100,000 or more for their claim. If the insurance company is willing to fully and fairly compensate the claim short of litigation than the pursuit of diminimus expenses such as gas to or from a doctors office may be appropriate to recover however the pursuit of $400 or less in gas in the overall pursuit of a six-figure claim can very much have a negative effect on the overall value of the case. Why? Because you want to present to the factfinder a claim that is worth six figures and therefore you need to produce medical testimony and bills and possibly lost wages which would substantiate such a significant claim and more importantly you want the factfinder to focus in on one fair and substantial numbers to compensate for the claim. By bringing to bear a three or $400 gas bill one is doing the exact opposite of having the jury focus on large numbers. To the contrary, you are asking the jury to focus on a $400 bill which undoubtedly the defense attorney will want to argue and fight over. The net results of this bad decision is to have the jury focus on and give time and consideration to a $400 bill and not be focused and concentrating on a $100,000 verdict.
This entire defense tactic of getting the jury to focus on the completely wrong issues is a long and ongoing tactic they use to minimize cases and not fully compensate victims for their injuries. Consequently for small expenses such as gas and in some cases even lost wages it is not always a good idea to put these expenses before a jury simply because they have been incurred by the victim.

The technical answer to that question is 3 years after an accident that occurred in Maryland. That is the statute of limitations in Maryland for personal injury/accident types of cases is 3 years from the date of the accident. This means that a complaint must be filed in court in this time frame or you will be forever barred from bringing any action. However, this answer does not tell the whole story.

The reality of the situation is, if you were in an accident, you should begin to pursue the accident right now. That is, the insurance company needs to contacted and a claim should be set up. Witnesses should be contacted by your accident lawyer, and you should be assisted with your injuries.
Medical injuries must be properly documented in order to have a valid claim for injuries. If your injuries are not properly documented, or you do not treat for any injuries, it will basically be impossible to pursue a claim later because you have nothing to show you were injured. The mere fact that an accident occurred is not sufficient to support a claim for damages. There must be actual damages, they must be properly documented and you must be able to prove the accident occurred the way you say it happened.
Thus, there are many things that go into the proper prosecution of an accident case. The fact that the statute is 3 years will not help unless the claim is properly documented.

You may need to pay your health insurance carrier back for sums of money they have spent on your behalf that were necessitated by an auto accident or somebody else’s negligence.
There are different types of health insurance liens and some or more stringent than others when it comes to paying them back.
take for example Medicare, this is a “super lien” and they must be paid back money that they have spent on medical bills for you related to an accident. Medicaid is a joint Federal and State program which may also need to be paid back.

When it comes to Medicaid for example, the attorney is actually required to contact Medicaid and determine what they’re alleged lean in your case is in order to determine how to satisfy their lien. The word alleged is used because often times Medicare is sloppy and will include all types of medical expenses that were incurred during the time of treatment for the accident but may not be related to the accident. If medical treatment and bills were incurred that are not causally related to the accident than they do not need to be a reimbursed from the accident proceeds.
Other more common health liens would be from your very own health insurance carriers like Blue Cross and Blue Shield as an example that has paid medical bills. They do not have a “super lien” but if they put you on written notice of their lien by letter to you or your lawyer, then they will have a lien that must be dealt with at the time to settlement. The good news is that these liens can be reduced, typically by 1/3 or more but they must be addressed once you are placed on notice. The reason that health insurance liens can be reduced by one third or more is that your attorney is the one that is engaged in the recovery of compensation and payment for your injuries and that compensation is what will be used to satisfy the health insurance lien. In other words, one party or another whether it be Blue Cross and Blue Shield or whether it be your attorney is going to spend money and expend effort to recoup said funds and whoever recoup those monies is entitled to be paid for their effort to do so. So in the case where the plaintiff’s attorney recoups the money and satisfies a health insurance lien you and your attorney are the ones that are expanding the time and effort to recoup the money and therefore it is standard in the industry that a 1/3 fee towards recovery shall apply. So that translates to a one-third reduction of the outstanding lien which means that you would only have to pay back two-thirds of the lean to the health insurance company. This is actually a good thing for an injured victim and therefore the use of health insurance to pay for medical bills upfront can be a good idea. Another benefit of using health insurance to pay bills is that the health insurance company has negotiated lower payments to the doctors and hospitals for the services they provide. So if a hospital, doctor or health provider were to charge $100 for a service the health insurance company will typically negotiate a lower rate like 60 or $.70 on the dollar. That would translate into paying $70 for a $100 bill which saves you money in the long run and then on top of that you can negotiate a reduction in your outstanding lien which is a secondary benefit to you. The money to repay the liens comes out of your settlement or verdict.

The insurance company may be willing to settle my claim but they say they won’t pay medical bills.
That is correct- sorta. If the insurance company offers you a financial settlement, that settlement should include your medical bills and then pay you extra money for the pain and suffering that you went through as a result of those injuries.
Thus, if you have $5,000 worth of physical therapy and doctor bills related to your accident, the insurance company may offer you $10,000 to settle your claim. That figure is based in part on the $5,000 in medical bills.
If you were to accept the $10,000 as settlement, then you would be responsible for the payment of the $5,000 in bills out of your settlement. Under this circumstance, $10,000 may not be enough of a settlement and more settlement money may need to be demanded. Conversely, sometimes there may be other sources of money to pay some of the bills like PIP on your own auto policy or possibly health insurance.

So to review, when you opt to settle a case with the insurance company whatever gross amounts of money you agreed to settle for always includes payment for your medical bills. Sometimes at settlement and injured party may think that the settlement amount that is being offered is all pain-and-suffering money intended for them but that is never the case. At the time of settlement of a claim, whatever has been negotiated by your attorney includes reimbursement to you for all expenses incurred in your accident as well as pain and suffering compensation and any permanency that you may have suffered as a result of the accident.
It may be that in your case your health insurance company has actually paid some or all of your medical bills related to the accident. You might then reasonably assume that your bills have been paid and therefore any settlement with the car insurance company would go to you minus any agreed-upon attorneys fees. This, however, may not be the case. When health insurance companies pay your accident-related medical bills they are entitled to subrogation against any recovery in your accident claim. This same logic applies to Medicaid or Medicare payments for medical bills made on your behalf by the government. In fact, when it comes to Medicaid they are absolutely entitled to recovery of any monies they paid and your attorney is actually required to determine and pay the amount of Medicaid’s lean.
Regular health insurance coverage such as Blue Cross and Blue Shield is also entitled to reimbursement however they are in required to put the injured party or the attorney on notice of their lean in order to protect their interest in your recovery.

The bottom line is when you recover money in an accident settlement it would be wise of you to make sure all medical bills are accounted for and settled in one form or another because if you do not then you can get a phone call or a letter from a health insurance provider years after settlement demanding some form of reimbursement for the monies they expended when your behalf.

The truth is there is NO average settlement for any car settlement. That question cannot be accurately answered because there are a variety of variables in each and every case, there are also a variety of variables outside the case for which a plaintiff has no control over; but yet, they still affect the value of the case.

The variables of a case have to do with the injuries sustained by the person, the treatment and recovery they experienced, any permanent injury affecting the person, if the person had prior injuries to that part of the body, whether there were lost wages, the extent of pain and suffering attendant to the injury suffered, the property damage involved, etc.
After answering all those questions, other questions are, what jurisdiction did the accident happen in Baltimore City or Harford County. Two completely different things even if the exact same case happened. Also, what insurance company is involved and who is defending.

Sadly, there is no average settlement in an auto case, not even close. It is a complex makeup of many factors. Then to make the situation worse, if you are not represented by counsel, then you are no threat to the insurance company at all and they will low ball your case to try to get rid of you. This is always a bad idea to fall prey to that trick.
If you have a question about a particular case, call us, let’s talk about it.