The Top Mistake People Make When Settling Their Car Accident Claim Without A Lawyer!
This Mistake literally costs people thousands of dollars!
NOT COLLECTING ALL OF THEIR MEDICAL RECORDS AND BILLS ON THEIR OWN!!!
Lets break down this huge mistake into two smaller big mistakes below:
Mistake #1: Not collecting all of your medical bills for yourself and taking the insurance adjuster word for your total bill amount!
I had a client who tried to negotiate their own car accident claim on their own before they hired me. I don’t blame them for trying this, because I consider myself a DIY person as well. For example, I built a computer desk for myself at the beginning of the month from scratch. I started with a few pieces of wood and nails and finished with a desk. I’m proud of that. However, we are not talking about a desk here. We are talking about getting paid the just amount for your injuries. Back to the story about my client. The client thought their total bills were only worth around $2000 because they deiced to let the insurance company collect the bills for them. Great thing that my client was smart and decided that total didn’t sound right for the amount of medical treatment they received. So when this particular client decided to hire our firm, we found that their medical bills total more than $17,000! That’s way more than $2000!
Mistake #2: Not making sure you have collected ALL of your medical bill and records from every medical provider.
The second biggest mistake my DIY claim folks make is not collecting all of their possible medical bills! I had a client who only went to the emergency room after an accident. The client hired our firm and brought me the emergency room bill and the ambulance bill. This was great work and I love proactive clients! The client thought they their case was ready to go. However, the client didn’t know that the emergency room doctor’s bill comes separately from the hospital’s emergency room. Also, the client got an x-ray. Like the emergency room doctor, the x-ray doctor also bills patient’s separately from the hospital and the emergency room doctor. That’s two extra bills from one visit. Those two extra bills totaled up to about $2,000 dollars extra onto the client’s total claim value!
But wait there’s more!
For the same client, we even collected the bills and records from a second emergency room visit that the client failed to tell us about. (They could have just forgot to mention it.) Turns out, the second emergency room visit records mentioned the client’s car accident in the doctor’s notes which increased the claim another $2000 dollars!
It easy to see how an experienced personal injury lawyer can increase the value of a client’s case! There are other ways a great personal injury lawyer can increase the value of your claim as well! We’ll save them for another post!
At Hopson Law Group we are personal injury lawyers who represent clients that are having a tough time dealing with insurance companies. You can reach us at 662-624-4100 to set up an appointment for a free consultation!