Following an automobile or truck accident, the negligent party’s insurance company will oftentimes propose a settlement in advance of litigation. Regretfully, these offers tend to be significantly lower than the compensation a plaintiff’s attorney has told their client they should expect.

The Reason for a Low-Ball Offer

In a vehicle accident injury lawsuit, there is no one method for determining damages. Instead, insurance firms use their own proprietary algorithms for assessing losses, which are designed to pay out as little money as possible in any given situation. And, because insurance firms do not reveal their formulae, it is nearly impossible to know why a specific amount is offered. However, by analyzing the following elements, attorneys at Turner and Turner can help determine a fair sense of their cognitive process.

Damages Taken into Account

After an automobile accident, you may be entitled to a number of various sorts of compensation, including:

• Medical expenses
• Lost wages
• Lost earning potential
• Damage to property
• Suffering and pain

Each of these damages will be taken into account by the insurance company when making a settlement offer. They may, however, have a different notion than you about how much it should cost to fix your automobile, or how much you should be compensated for pain and suffering. Many first compensation offers, in fact, do not account for pain and suffering whatsoever.

Setting the Reserve

Your insurance company will try to estimate the amount they will have to pay on your claim as soon as you report an accident to them. The “reserve” is the name given to this estimate. The insurance company benefits from setting the reserve early in the case. It also allows them to value the case before you know how much your entire medical treatment will cost, whether you will be left with chronic pain or other lingering symptoms; and how much pain and suffering you will experience.

Once the reserve has been established, convincing the insurance carrier to consider further damages is extremely difficult.

Policy Restraints

An insurance company will not pay out more than the policy limit, no matter how expensive your medical costs are, or how much compensation you receive. So, if your losses total $100,000 but the “at-fault” party’s policy only covers $50,000, your settlement offer will be capped at $50,000.

If Your Settlement Offer is Insufficient

If you feel a settlement offer is too low, you should contact an experienced accident lawyer at Turner and Turner soon as possible. We can work with the insurance carrier, persuading them to make a more reasonable and appropriate offer to cover your present and future damages. If negotiations fail, we can proceed with bringing an action against them in court. If your damages exceed the policy limitations, we can investigate the potential of suing the at-fault party for further damages directly, in addition to their insurance carrier.

Call Turner and Turner today at (248) 355-1727 and schedule your no-obligation, free consultation, and see what options are available. Discover how Turner Law can help you receive the compensation you deserve.

Michigan’s auto no-fault reform bill went into effect last July and the consequences are quickly being felt among accident victims. After the latest statutory reforms from the revised law introduced a new medical fee schedule, the causal effect has been a reduction of how much insurance companies are required to reimburse medical providers for certain services.

Meanwhile, advocates for survivors of catastrophic auto crashes have been saying for months that the changes would cut off their access to medical services they need to survive.

Now, slightly more than two months after the updated medical fee schedules have gone into effect, many survivors have been speaking out about how they are, in many cases, struggling to access even minimal care.

“I was struck by a pickup truck backing out of a driveway… the hitch went through my right-lower extremity, and… severely broke the leg in multiple places,” Paul Becker told a Michigan Fox TV affiliate, who was seriously injured in a July 2018 crash. “I think I’ve had nine surgeries in total, and still trying to recover from the mobility aspect.”

Fox reported Becker hadn’t had any major issues getting insurance to cover the medical services he’s needed during his recovery, that is until this past July.

“Eight o’clock in the evening, they left a message stating that, at that time, anything … from now on will no longer be covered, and it was just out of the blue, boom, you’re no longer covered for anything,” Becker explained.

“I feel like with this last six weeks without any physical therapy, I’ve literally gone backwards.”

Under the new law, any medical service not already covered under federal Medicare law, which includes in-home caregivers and transportation to medical services, will now only be reimbursed by insurance companies at 55 percent of what they were back in 2019. The law also caps the number of hours family members can provide care to just 56 hours a week, according to legal analysis.

Tom Judd, president of the Michigan Brain Injury Providers Council, said in a statement about the legal revisions, “There’s been a lot of delays, and denials, and payments on a whole, and not just the providers that we’ve been talking about for the past few months, in terms of residential and attendant care providers, but outpatient therapists are getting denied or slashed in reimbursement.”

Judd added the changes have thrown Michigan’s post-acute medical care industry into turmoil.

“Hurdles that they did not have to jump through before July 1, they’re having to jump through now, and they’re not getting any payment…. and so, the crisis is kind of expanding to places that we didn’t really think that they would be going.”

According to the Michigan Brain Injury Provider Council, more than 700 patients have already lost access to medical care, since the changes took effect in July.

At least 41 Michigan-based care companies have had to either close their doors completely or discharge patients receiving benefits via no-fault auto insurance. The MBIPC says this has already put at least 1,500 healthcare workers out of a job.

Under the new law, insurance companies still have to provide lifetime medical coverage for those who had or have unlimited personal injury protection (PIP) policies. But advocates say the changes are squeezing qualified medical professionals out of Michigan’s post-acute care industry, making quality providers scarce.

If you have been hurt in an auto accident and are concerned your coverage will not provide adequate protection for your medical needs, contact the law office of Turner and Turner for a free consultation to ensure your rights are adequately protected.

Writing down the details after an accident is more accurate than relying on your memory. After any kind of accident that could prompt you to file a personal injury claim, it’s crucial to do everything you can to protect your right to fair compensation for your losses.

One of the best first steps you can take is to write down everything you can remember about your accident, including details of your injuries and their effects on your daily life.

These notes can be useful later, when you put together a demand letter for the insurance company, or when you decide to file a personal injury lawsuit. Having notes to remind you of the details of what happened, and what you went through, is more reliable than counting on your memory.

Get into the habit of taking notes on anything you think might possibly affect your case, and carry it through the entire personal injury claim process. Whenever you remember something you had not thought of before — write it down — and put it with your other notes.

Here are some specific things about which you should make notes:

Describe How the Accident Happened

As soon as your head is clear, jot down everything you can remember about how the accident happened, beginning with what you were doing and where you were going, the people you were with, the time, and the weather.

Include every detail of what you saw and heard and felt—twists, blows, and shocks to your body immediately before, during, and right after the accident. Also include anything you remember hearing anyone—a person involved in the accident or a witness—say about the accident.

Describe Your Injuries and Their Effects on You

In the first days following your accident, make daily notes of all pains and discomfort your injuries cause. You may suffer pain, discomfort, anxiety, loss of sleep, or other problems that are not as visible or serious as another injury, but for which you should demand additional compensation.

If you don’t make a specific note of injuries immediately, you may not remember exactly what to include in your demand for settlement weeks or months later. Also, taking notes will make it easier for you later to describe to an insurance company how much and what kind of pain and discomfort you were in.

In addition, writing down your different injuries may help your doctor diagnose you. For example, a relatively small bump on the head or crick in the neck may not seem worth mentioning, but it might help both the doctor and the insurance adjuster understand why your bad back pain developed several weeks after the accident.

Also, by telling the doctor or other medical provider about all of your injuries, those injuries become part of your medical records, which will provide evidence later that such injuries were caused by the accident.

Describe Your Economic Losses and Other Effects of the Accident

You may be entitled to compensation for economic loss, missed special events, as well as for pain and suffering, but you will need good documentation. Begin making notes immediately after the accident about anything you have lost because of the accident and your injuries: work hours, job opportunities, meetings, classes, events, family or social gatherings, vacation, or anything else which would have benefited you or which you would have enjoyed but been unable to do because of the accident.

Summarize Conversations with Insurers, Witnesses, and Others

Make written notes of the date, time, people involved, and content of every conversation you have about your accident or your claim. In-person or telephone conversations worth noting may include those with any witness, adjuster, or other insurance representatives, or with medical personnel.

If you have been in an accident, and need help determining whether you may have a claim, contact the attorneys at Turner and Turner; with more than 30 years of experience advocating for the rights of accident victims, our attorneys will help you receive the compensation you deserve.

Call for a free consultation today at (248) 355-1727.

So, the trucks are here to stay.

The problem is this: When a car collides with a semi-trailer, 78% of the injuries are in the car, particularly the driver. So, to protect you, your car and your passengers, we urge you to revisit these rules of the road as you encounter the numerous truck drivers who are driving alongside you:

1. Make sure everything you control in your car is as safe as possible. Are you completely sober? Are you and all of your passengers belted in? All children must be belted, but please also encourage all adults in your back seat to buckle up, even though they are not required to do so, by law. Is your car in good working order with excellent windshield wipers, and properly working defrosters?
2. Pass on the left, never on the right. Trucks are expecting to be passed, as they often have a lower posted speed limit. But they are expecting to be passed on the left. Trucks have limited ability to see and a larger blind spot than cars, so place your left turn indicator on when you are getting ready to pass. Pull two truck lengths in front of the truck, place your right signal on and then move in front of the truck.
3. Do not pull in front of a truck if you think you might have to brake quickly. Trucks (and other large vehicles like buses) take muck longer to brake and come to a complete stop than smaller vehicles. If you do not leave sufficient room between you and the truck behind you and the truck driver cannot brake in time to avoid a collision, he will either have to swerve or hit you. Don’t take a chance.
4. Be aware of a truck’s blind spots. The general rule is if you can’t see the truck driver in the truck’s side mirror, the driver can’t see you. So when you find yourself in a blind spot, get moving, either slowing down or speeding up to get out of the blind spot. Don’t hang out to the side of the truck; just pass on the left side quickly and safely.
5. Allow for wide right turns. Trucks can’t take tight right turns. So if a truck is to the left of you or to the front of you and they have on their right turn indicator, stay back, allowing them to move to the left in order to make the full right turn. Again, avoid hanging on the right side of trucks as they prepare to make a right turn.
6. Keep your full attention on driving. This rule applies all the time, but can be life-threatening on highway conditions with trucks. Don’t text, don’t fiddle with the music (radio or Iphone), don’t eat or apply make-up. Driving takes all of our attention and more. Even complicated discussions with passengers can be distracting.

Trucks and their drivers are an important part of our economy. We have to be aware of the hazards that trucks bring to the roads in order to stay safe.