Nashville personal injury attorney Caroline Taylor from Whitfield Bryson & Mason answers online questions about what to expect from car accident settlements in this YouTube Hangout. If you have additional questions you may post them in the comments section below the video or visit her online at https://www.nashvillepersonalinjurylawyerwbm.com.
Jason – A couple of weeks ago my wife and I were in a minor car accident. There was only a little bit of damage to our car and the other driver’s insurance company agreed to pay for the damage, but my wife has been suffering from back pain ever since the accident and it hasn’t gotten any better. Will the insurance company cover the cost of any medical treatment?
Mary – I was recently hit by a semi exiting the freeway. Luckily I was okay, but I spent some time in the hospital and I am still recovering. The insurance company offered a large settlement, but I’m worried it won’t be enough. What should I do?
John – Last month I was hit by a drunk driver. I have extensive medical bills and I still can’t return to work. The company is offering me a settlement, but it seems kind of low. I don’t want to take it, but I need money to help cover my expenses now. Should I take the settlement?
Alfred – How do I know if an insurance company has offered me a fair settlement for my car accident?
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Transcription of content:
– Hi, I’m Caroline Taylor. I’m here with John Whitfield. We’re attorneys in Nashville with the law firm of Whitfield Bryson & Mason, and we have got some questions that have been written in online from some people, and so we decided to take some time and hopefully explain some of the answers that will help you guys in navigated your cases. So we got a case, I’m sorry, we got a write in from a guy named Jason. It says, “A couple weeks ago, my wife and I “were in a minor car accident. “There was only a little bit of damage to our car, “and the other driver’s insurance company agreed “to pay for the damage, “but my wife’s been suffering from back pain “ever since the accident, and it hasn’t gotten any better. “Will the insurance company cover the cost “of my medical treatment?”
– Well, thanks for the question. The short answer is yes that the insurance company should cover the medical expenses, but in order to get that done, a claim has to be made with the insurance company, and how you make a claim could be different ways. You can call the insurance company yourself and say my wife’s been involved in an accident of some sort and she’s got this back pain. What are you all gonna do about paying for the medical expenses? That’s one way to do it. Another way is obviously to hire a lawyer, but you may not need to if it’s a low impact case like this, you may be able to resolve this yourself. Various states have different mechanisms, insurance mechanisms to pay for medical coverage. In Tennessee, for example, they have something called Med Pay, and Med Pay basically takes care of medical expenses to a certain limit. In Kentucky, for example, they have something called Personal Injury Protection, P-I-P, PIP, and PIP runs up to typically $10,000 with no fault involved at all. So if you’re in a low impact case and you’ve got medical expenses up to about $10,000 in Kentucky. It can be different in Tennessee. The first thing that you might want to do is contact the insurance company and see what they would do to take care of y’all’s expenses. Be careful because if you contact the insurance company, they wanna take a written statement or an oral statement over the phone. Not a good idea. But I think it’s a better idea just to contact them and let them know, put them on notice. We’ve got these issues. What are you guys gonna do about paying the medical bills?
– Absolutely. Next question is from Mary, and she said, “I was recently hit “by a semi exiting the freeway. “Luckily, I was okay, but I spent some time in the hospital “and am still recovering. “The insurance company offered a large settlement, “but I’m still worried it won’t be enough. “What should I do?” Well, that’s a little bit different scenario. Whenever you’re in an accident with an 18 wheeler or a semi, by federal law, they have certain insurance requirements that they have to maintain in order to transport goods across state lines. In addition, trucking companies are very good about having people at the scene when the case happens, when the wreck happens. When the 18 wheeler’s involved with an accident with somebody, they’re very good at having people there early on. And so, what you have to be careful about is if an insurance company or a trucking company is going to make a large settlement. I think the caller said a large settlement.