Louisville car wreck attorney Archives

Medical Freedom for Victims: Your Right to Choose Your Doctor

To be clear, no-fault insurance, or med-pay coverage, does not require you to go a specific doctor or get pre-authorization. Rather, the Kentucky Motor Vehicle Reparations Act says that if the treatment is reasonable and related to the injuries sustained in the car wreck, the PIP carrier, a.k.a. the no-fault insurance company, owes coverage for that medical bill. You can treat with whichever doctor you want.

Treat with whichever doctor you want when it comes to PIP or no-fault insurance coverage

Don’t Let People Play Games with You

When it comes to personal injury protection coverage (“PIP), there are not any pre-authorizations or medical providers in or out of a network. Rather, a no-fault carrier has you sign a PIP application which is essentially, a fancy medical authorization. This authorization allows them to obtain your medical records and bills, to review them and to determine if they are related to the injuries sustained in the car wreck. Why is this important? Because you can go wherever you want, to whichever doctor or chiropractor you choose, to treat for your injuries.

I just spoke to a new client. In short, one of the big firms told him that he was going to be referred to a chiropractor, even after he said he was not comfortable with a chiropractor. Look, I have nothing against chiropractors but who he decides to obtain medical treatment from is the client’s choice, not the choice of any personal injury lawyer.

It’s All About You

My job as a personal injury lawyer is to advise my client of what I believe the best decision would be. It’s not to make that decision for him/her. I give out the name of chiropractors and/or medical doctors during the course of handling the client’s injury claim. However, I do so because either those doctors are easy to work or because they will work with me on reducing their charges, if necessary, to maximize a client’s recovery. Nevertheless, I make it clear to all my clients, and I have said this in front of doctors:

“You are my client, not this medical provider! While I appreciate that this medical provider may have given you my name, my legal duties run to you. If you are not happy with their facility or if the treatment is not helping you, let me know. We will find you another doctor, or chiropractor, and I will still be your lawyer.”

I consider some of the doctors or chiropractors that I have worked with to be good friends and I have even traveled with them. Nevertheless, my client has the absolute right to choose where he or she wants to receive medical treatment. My job, as a good personal injury lawyer, is to make sure those charges will be paid and/or reduced out of any personal injury settlement that might be reached.

Click here to listed to my podcast episode about PIP (“no-fault”) insurance coverage.

Need More Information?

If you have questions about your automobile accident, call my cell at (502) 609-7657. As an attorney, I handle motor vehicle accident claims in Kentucky and Indiana. You deserve to speak directly with an attorney; not a paralegal or case manager. My principal office is located in Louisville, Kentucky.

This is an adverstisement.

Accountability Matters: Holding At-Fault Drivers Responsible

If you’ve been injured in an automobile collision, your medical bills will add up quickly. This is especially true if you are still treating. If those medical expenses exceed the other person’s insurance limits, are we letting the at-fault driver off the hook if we settle for their policy limits? We are not.

The Kentucky state minimum in insurance is $25,000 per person. This means as long as someone has $25,000 in insurance coverage per person, they are driving lawfully. What it does not mean is that they have enough insurance to cover your medical bills or your claim for pain and suffering. So, can I sue the at-fault driver and refuse to accept the settlement of $25,000, their policy limits? The answer is “Yes” but, I don’t recommend it. Read further to understand why.

If you sue someone, you are trying to get a judgment against them and then collect on that judgment. Well, if a person does not have any assets such as real estate and bank accounts, how are you going to collect on that judgment? The clear answer is you won’t. As the old saying goes, you can’t get blood from a turnip.

So, instead of trying to sue someone beyond their insurance coverage, the better route is to put your insurance company on notice of an underinsured motorist claim. In a recent case I am handling, I found $50,000 of underinsured motorist coverage that applies to the claim.

After I comply with a legal procedure known as Coots, see KRS 304.39-320, and your insurance carrier consents to you accepting the $25,000 offered by the at-fault driver, your insurance carrier acts like they insure the at-fault driver for another $50,000, in the case I am presently handling.

By filing the underinsured motorist claim, we have the ability to recover more dollars, beyond the $25,000, on your behalf. Your insurance carrier, not you, will bear the burden and expense of suing the at-fault driver to recover any funds they pay out to you.

No one plans to get into a car wreck. The results often complicate our lives in ways we never imagined. While settling for the at-fault driver’s policy limits, even when your medical bills exceed that amount, it doesn’t mean we are letting the at-fault driver off the hook. As an experienced automobile accident attorney, I highly recommend you review your auto insurance policy to make sure you and your family members have enough uninsured and under insured (UM/UIM) coverage. It’s a step you can take to make sure you’re protected when the unexpected happens.

If you’d like to listen to my podcast episode explaining Uninsured and Under Insured Motorist Coverage, click below:

I’m attorney Jim Desmond. If you would like to speak with an experienced car wreck attorney, call me on my cell phone. My number is (502) 609-7657. I’ll be happy to listen to you about your specific situation.

Principal office located in Louisville, KY.

This is an advertisement.

Legal Experience Matters: The Importance of Attention to Detail

Episode 11: Louisville personal injury attorney Jim Desmond discuss why he wrote a controversial blog post. He demonstrates why attention to detail matters to him and his clients. A lady called to see if he could help. She had already been turned down by two other larger firms. Jim was able to figure out that actually, a fairly significant case did exist. Let’s talk about why this happens.

Many of the advertising law firms are very competent attorneys. However, when there are a ton of cases coming in, the process matters. Not every case will get the attention it may require. This is especially true if the case isn’t being handled by an actual attorney.

Some television ads mention how a specific firm may have tremendous financial resources to handle your case. That’s true, but it doesn’t matter if the attorney never really gets the time to work on your case. Large marketing budgets and staffs require a tremendous amount of case volume to support those overhead issues.

When an attorney, like Jim Desmond, has the time to investigate the facts and details of your case, there’s a good chance that an effective strategy can be developed, assuming the case itself has merit. Small discrepancies in the facts can lead to significant outcomes. An attorney needs to assess all of the factors, develop a strategy for the case and begin pounding away at the facts of the case. This takes time and attention to execute.

If you’ve been in an accident, the evidence is critical. Photographs, witness statements and other types of evidence help to support your attorney’s argument in the severity of the case, the resulting damages and the value of your case. An experienced personal injury attorney knows how to gather these elements and how to use them. Non-attorney staff members may not have that level of experience.

Jim discusses various ways he handles cases in an effort to maximize the settlement and the funds the client keeps, once all is said and done. This is extremely important when health insurance liens are involved. Kentucky provides no-fault insurance, which should often be reserved to enable other sources of funds to be used before tapping into the no-fault funds, if possible.

The facts of each case are unique to that specific situation. How the case is approached and managed may be very different, because the evidence and the related issues require specific steps to benefit the client’s objectives. A general approach (or template) doesn’t apply. It’s why when handling a legal case, attention to detail matters.

COVID-19 Impacts Law Firms, Too

The system has slowed down for a variety of reasons. However, the process is still moving forward. Staying organized and carefully monitoring the documentation is even more important when others may not be responding as quickly. Let’s be honest, the “normal” way of doing things has been disrupted.

Jim takes specific steps to ensure PPE measures are taken when he’s meeting with clients, during the COVID-19 crisis. Much of the contact can be done over the phone, via mail and other methods. It depends on what the individual client is comfortable with, at this time.

The key is to keep a client informed of the steps that are being taken, behind the scenes. A lot of what goes on may not involve/require direct interaction with the client, but a good attorney will keep the client up to date on what’s going on so they know the case is moving.

For more information about Louisville Personal Injury Attorney Jim Desmond, visit www.AttorneyDesmond.com.

Important Disclaimers:

The information provided on this podcast is for general informational purposes only. It should not be construed as legal advice and does not constitute an attorney-client relationship. You should seek the advice of an attorney for guidance related to your specific situation. I am only licensed in Kentucky and Indiana, so the general advice provided may not apply outside of those states.

This podcast maybe freely shared, but may not be the modified or edited in any way. This is an attorney advertisement. Principal office is located in Louisville, KY. Co-host Jim Ray is a non-attorney spokesperson.

Beware of TV Advertising Lawyers: Why You Shouldn’t Trust Them!

Jim Desmond discusses television advertising attorneys

Why do I balk about using a big, law firm to handle your personal injury claim? It is all about customer service and knowing the details of your injury claim.

I worked at a big, television advertising law firm for over four years. Guess what? First, those firms have an attitude of arrogance. Why? Because your single, personal injury claim is not going to make or break them. If things don’t work out with your car wreck, they will just move on to the next one.

Second, when you are handling a bunch of cases at once, it is hard to concentrate on the details of a personal injury claim. The problem being that you know what really drives the value of a personal injury claim, the details of that claim!

For example, I am presently handling the injury claim of someone severely injured in a motorcycle wreck. All indications are to date that the medical bills alone will far exceed the liability coverage on the at-fault driver and the underinsured motorist coverage available on the motorcycle’s insurance policy. Nevertheless, there is a chance that the at-fault vehicle was owned by a car dealership at the time of the motorcycle accident and therefore, this insurance of that car dealership may apply. This is hugely important as it MAY increase the possible personal injury settlement by over 10 times since now, there may be enough insurance coverage to cover my client’s injury claim.

Why do I think the car dealership might have to provide insurance coverage? Because I took the time to run the title of the at-fault vehicle and despite several times being told there were no such documents, I obtained copies of the title history which shows that the car dealership owned the at-fault vehicle on the day of the motorcycle wreck. In other words, having the time and commitment to really focus on the facts of this one motorcycle wreck might substantially increase my client’s personal injury settlement.

To give you another example, I had a phone call last year that I want to share with you because it made me mad! Not because the caller did anything wrong but because the injured victim was given incompetent advice about car accidents from two different law firms that spend a whole lot of money on television advertising every year.

The potential client was in a severe car wreck that resulted in surgery. Because of the COVID virus shutdowns, she was unemployed and had let her car insurance lapse, prior to the car wreck. Due to this lack of insurance and the fact that Kentucky is a no-fault state, she was INCORRECTLY told by two big law firms, that advertise on television, that she did not have a personal injury claim even though she was not at fault for the car wreck. Wrong! We settled that claim for more than the state minimum of $25,000 and because we used the client’s health insurance to pay her medical bills, since there was not any no-fault coverage to pay those medical bills, the client still walked away with about 60% of the total settlement; even after deductions for attorney’s fee and case costs.

To say it again, and as illustrated by the above-discussed personal injury claim, the fact that Kentucky is a no-fault state means that the insurance company for the vehicle you are in, regardless of the fact that this is not the at-fault vehicle, covers the first $10,000 of your medical bills and lost wages. That’s it! It does not mean you don’t have a personal injury claim.

If your car, was not insured, you cannot recover the first $10,000 of your medical bills and lost wages. So, if you have a surgery bill for $50,000, you can only recover $40,000 of that surgery bill from the at-fault driver’s insurance if your vehicle was not insured. Big whoop! You still have a claim for $40,000 in medical bills AND your claim for pain and suffering.

I established Desmond Law Office 15 years ago and from day one, I only handled car and motorcycle wrecks. I think I have done this long enough to figure out a way to get around the penalty for being uninsured. However, if you go with a big firm and only speak to a “case manager” and not your injury lawyer, good luck with getting around such a penalty. After, as discussed above, one of my clients was given bad information by two television attorneys and had she listened to that advice, the recovery on her personal injury claim would have been $0.

Further, I want to say something about the big law firms. As many of my injured clients know, I spent a large part of my career working for a television advertiser; so I am speaking from experience. These firms bring in a large number of personal injury claims every year by spending over $1,000,000 a year on television advertising.

If you allow a big firm to handle your personal injury claim, you are a little fish in their big pond. When the case does not have enough value or the client becomes too high maintenance, they often let the case go and move on to another personal injury claim, generated from their large advertising budget.

Whether it is my firm or another law firm, let the attorney handle your car wreck where your case is going to be the big fish in their little pond. From over 25 years of practicing law, I promise you that you will get more bang for your buck with this small guy. After all, can you reach your injury attorney on his cell phone? All of my clients can!

Unlike the television advertising lawyers, I am not going to tell you that every pile of dog poop is worth money. I will, however, make sure that you know what your legal rights are so you can make an informed decision about the damage to your car, your medical treatment and your personal injury claim!

I am still working during this lockdown. I will come to you if you can’t come to me and I always wear a mask. If you have been injured in a car accident or a motorcycle wreck, quit listening to the nonsense and empty promises made by the TV advertising lawyers. Instead, call me directly on my cell phone and get immediate answers to your problems. It is really that simple.

All the best and stay safe during this crisis.

Dealing with Insurance after a Car Wreck

Episode 6: Louisville automobile accident attorney Jim Desmond continues the discussion about the accident claim process. He’s going to explain important issues related to getting back to normal, after a car wreck. This discussion began in Episode 5.

Assuming you now have the police report, you’ll determine what company is actually insuring the automobile. This might take some effort. Once a claim in opened, they issue a claim number. It’s important to include that number on any communication.

It’s possible that you and the at fault driver might be covered by the same insurance carrier. You need to understand your rights. Get documentation on your car’s fair market value. They might try to low-ball the property damage claim. The police report, photographs from the accident site and other documentation will better position your claim. Be mindful of your tone when speaking to the adjuster. The reasonable person typically has a good chance of getting to a fair settlement.

Permissive Use

The doctrine that if someone gives you their keys to use their car, you should be covered by their insurance. Your own coverage is secondary. However, if you’ve been driving their car on a regular basis, without being listed as an additional insured, the insurance company may be able to fight the claim.

What if I Don’t Want to Handle the Case Myself?

Some people don’t want to do all of the legwork after a car wreck. As an attorney, Jim Desmond is happy to handle the details on your behalf. It’s helpful, however, for the client to have a general understanding of the process. By getting an attorney involved earlier, some of the process can be made more efficient because attorneys file these claims all the time.

Kentucky is a pure comparative fault state. If the other side successfully argues you are partially at fault, they now have a claim against you. Even if the reason you were in the accident is 85% the other person’s fault, you may still be on the hook for 15% of the damages. It’s not about what actually happened. It’s about what either party can actually prove, after a car wreck.

Determining who had the right of way is a key factor in establishing which driver is at fault. Many collisions occur when pulling into traffic, turning left across on-coming traffic or some other action causing a rear-end collision. People instinctively develop a presumption of what caused the wreck. This is why the accident-site photos, police reports and other details discussed in Episode 5 are so important.

This Happened This Week

What happens if your daughter or son is driving your car out of state and has a wreck? The laws of the state in which the car wreck occurred will take priority. However, the insurance coverage you have from your own state will travel with the car. For instance, even if the other state doesn’t have a no-fault system, your Kentucky no-fault benefits will still apply. It’s a good idea to make sure your child is listed as an insured driver. It may make sense to name your child on your policy, even if he/she only lives with you part of the time.

For more information, visit https://attorneydesmond.com/.

Important Disclaimers:

While this podcast addresses what to do after a car wreck, the information provided on this podcast is for general informational purposes only. It should not be construed as legal advice and does not constitute an attorney-client relationship. You should seek the advice of an attorney for guidance related to your specific situation. I am only licensed in Kentucky and Indiana, so the general advice provided may not apply outside of those states.

Tag: Louisville car wreck attorney