Quote:
Originally Posted by CTinline-six
I have a few questions just from the insurance side of things...
1. It seems from your story that this guy pulled out into you and caused the accident. Was it determined that he was at fault for the accident?
2. If he is at fault, why is his insurance not compensating you for the lost wages? Most states require people to carry X amount of physical damage liability and X amount of medical liability. Sometimes they are combined.
I remember several claims I had where our insured hit someone and our company paid for the person's damaged vehicle, medical bills, and up to a certain amount of lost wages. In many cases, your insurance company would fight for you until they settled with the other company (subrogation).
I agree with the other posters that it sounds like you need a better lawyer, ESPECIALLY if you were not at fault. Denying care at the scene can make your argument tougher, but it doesn't necessarily change things since many people won't feel aches/pain until a day or so after the accident.
Another thing to consider is that while you had back problems before the accident, you stated they were not severe enough to prevent you from doing things. The whole point of insurance is to fix things to how they were before the accident (making you whole again), not necessarily better than they were. I would drive home the point that while you had back issues before the accident, the accident definitely made them more severe. Pre-existing conditions were always a tough one with claims, but things such as doctor's records of pre-existing back pain definitely help.
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1. Yes. He claimed fault and was ticketed for it as well. Failure to yield.
2. I'm not sure. I guess the hold is that my back injuries (though they ignored my knee injuries as well) were pre-accident related. Despite me being clean bill of healthy for at least four months.
3. I did deny at the scene, but went within the time window (I was told by the lawyer outside of 24 hours is suspicious) I woke up the next morning (less than 12 hours later) and felt miserable.