There are lots of different ways.

The most obvious is to get the insurance company on the other side to pay more money.

A second way – one that is more and more necessary when liability insurance companies are looking at the bottom line – is to bargain down the amount that you owe out of the settlement at the end of the case. Most people owe money to either their doctors and health care providers, or to their insurance companies by way of subrogation, at the end of the lawsuit. Or maybe to both. The hospitals and the insurance companies are usually both willing to take a discount on the value of their claim – maybe 20%, maybe 33 %, maybe 50%.

Obviously, the less money the insurance company – or hospital – gets, the more you get.

Finally, a good lawyer checks significant bills before he pays them, and makes sure that they haven’t been written off. A lot of hospitals and other providers take the position that if someone hasn’t paid their bill a year after treatment, they are probably not a good collection prospect – so they stop trying to collect at all.

As you can guess, there can be a downside to this. Namely, whenever a creditor (a hospital; a doctor) is not paid in full, there is a danger that the bill will be reported to a credit service. You can condition the payment on the hospital agreeing to do this, but it’s tough to enforce.

With doctors, you probably don’t want to make them mad if you still need them to treat you. And they will probably get mad if you don’t pay them, or if you offer them a percentage of your bill in satisfaction of the whole amount.

All the same, most of my clients prefer to take the route of paying less – certainly with hospitals, as well as providers of services like Emergency Room Medical Treatment, xrays, anesthesia and ambulances.

If you want some idea on how to maximize the dollars you will get out of your settlement, call me, Bill Strubbe, a Cincinnati Personal Injury Lawyer. My phone is 513-621-4775. There is no charge for talking to me.

Other lawyers refer their clients to me. And if you decide you‘d rather hire someone else, that’s OK.

Because all situations are different, and because there may be other facts pertaining to your case that I don’t know about, you should not rely on this answer for legal advice. I am not your attorney, and no lawyer client relationship has been formed. All discussions are limited to Ohio law unless otherwise indicated. And past performance cannot be used to predict future results.

Yes. But it is hard to predict.

When I evaluate a lawsuit, my main concern is evaluating what I think a jury will pay my client, after a trial. I do this because it is the most honest way to evaluate a lawsuit. If I promise my client more than a jury will award him, I am running a dangerous bluff.

The danger is that the other side will call my bluff, and make me waste my client’s money and my time trying to get more.

But there is more to being a good lawyer than that. I also have to imagine how the insurance company on the other side is looking at it – what they are afraid of, and how much it will cost them to go to trial. And what the cost will be, besides just the verdict.

For instance, a few years ago I represented a client who had been tasered by a deputy in a jail. (She was being held on charges that were later dismissed.)

She had $700 in medical bills. She saw a doctor once, and was fine within a month. No scarring, no permanent injury. If she had had treatment like that following an auto accident, the lawsuit might be worth between $2,000 and $5,000.00.

Except she was tased. By a deputy. While being restrained by three other deputies. For refusing to unbraid her hair.

To be honest, I have had many other clients who would have “sold” better to a jury. But the Sheriff was obviously worried a jury would be horrified by this behavior. And award a very large amount – probably including punitive damages. And that there would be stories in the news.

I won’t tell you what the lawsuit settled for – but the amount was a lot more than I would have been willing to recommend to my client if it was a question of accepting the offer or trying the lawsuit.

Some version of this happens in every lawsuit. The defendant is usually willing to pay more than the lawsuit is worth to get rid of it.

Why? Because they are worried about a large verdict. Because of attorney fees. Because they are worried about being sued by their own insured if the jury awards more than their policy limits. Because they just want to get it off their books, so they can stop paying adjusters to look at the file every month.

Some insurance companies refused to be intimidated. They say to me “Actually, you should discount the lawsuit to settle it, so you won’t have to waste money on court costs, or spend a year waiting for trial, or risk the jury coming back lower than our offer.” And they stick to it, and they will make me go to trial if I want too much.

Which is fine. I won’t recommend my client take less than I think a jury will award, after figuring in the time and cost it takes to get to trial.

But if you want the best settlement you can get, your lawyer has to understand how the other side thinks, and what they are worried about.

Do you want to know how the insurance company looks at your lawsuit? Call me, Bill Strubbe, a Cincinnati Personal Injury Attorney, at 513-621-4775.

I have been suing insurance companies for over 30 years. For the same amount of time, I also represented them. You would be amazed at the things they think, and what makes them change their mind.

Because all situations are different, and because there may be other facts pertaining to your case that I don’t know about, you should not rely on this answer for legal advice. I am not your attorney, and no lawyer client relationship has been formed. All discussions are limited to Ohio law unless otherwise indicated. And past performance cannot be used to predict future results.

The Administrator of their estate.

Let’s start out with an example. Joe is hit by a truck, has serious injuries, and survives for a week before he dies from the injuries.

If Joe had not died, he would be able to recover money for his medical bills, his pain and suffering, and the wages he lost for that week. Joe obviously cannot file suit – he is dead. But under Ohio law, his estate – which is run by an administrator appointed by the court – is allowed to bring a lawsuit for the medical bills, pain and suffering, and the lost wages.

This is called the “survival” lawsuit – because the right to file a lawsuit survives Joe’s death, and belongs to his estate. Once the money is recovered for this, it is paid to the estate, and the administrator distributes it consistent with Joe’s will (if he has one) or consistent with the Ohio law for distributing property if there is no will.

But when someone dies, other people are hurt too, and maybe more.

Joe’s wife –and his children – no longer have his financial or emotional support. They – and possibly other relatives – are entitled to recover money from whoever killed Joe. In Ohio, these claims also must be filed by the administrator of the estate, who is acting on behalf of the wife, the children, or – if they are entitled to a claim – the other relatives. These claims are called the “wrongful death” claims.

The administrator – who is represented by a lawyer – has the job of presenting the claims to the insurance company for the person who caused Joe’s death, and taking to trial (through the lawyer) or settling both the survival claim and the wrongful death claims. The administrator must get approval for the settlement of the claims, and their amount, and the distribution of the settlement proceeds, from the probate court.

But who is the administrator? If Joe has a will, he has probably designated an administrator in the will. If Joe has no will, the law provides that his surviving spouse is the preferred administrator. If he has no spouse, or his spouse doesn’t want to be the administrator, then a relative may be serve.

But even if the will designates an administrator – or an executor, which is the same thing – the probate judge must formally appoint him to serve.

If you have someone who recently died because someone else made a mistake, this is very difficult. I can help you. Give me a call. I am Bill Strubbe, and I am a Cincinnati Personal Injury Lawyer.

There is no charge for talking to me. If you decide to hire another lawyer, or not to file suit at all, that’s Okay. But I can help you.

Because all situations are different, and because there may be other facts pertaining to your case that I don’t know about, you should not rely on this answer for legal advice. I am not your attorney, and no lawyer client relationship has been formed. All discussions are limited to Ohio law unless otherwise indicated. And past performance cannot be used to predict future results.

Here is what they tell me:

“I only want what’s fair. I don’t want to make a million dollars out of this lawsuit.” That’s what they say in our first meeting, more than anything else.

Which means a couple things. One is that they are afraid of getting screwed, and they don’t want that to happen. They want someone who can protect their rights.

The other is that they distrust lawyers generally. They want someone who is smart, decent, and honest.

And hardworking. (I am writing this on a Saturday afternoon, in my office.)

I think they see a lot of lawyers as Snidely Whiplash, from the old “Rocky and Bullwinkle” cartoon – someone who’s sneaky, who needs to use a bag of tricks to get ahead, who is always scheming.

They don’t want Snidely Whiplash.

They are looking for someone who returns their calls. When I ask people how I did for them, they nearly always say that I did this.

I ask them if they are happy with the job I did. They nearly always are – I suppose that this could mean that they don’t want to get into an argument, but I think they are being honest with me.

If I tell them – as I sometimes have to – that the lawsuit isn’t worth as much as they would like, they hardly ever complain. They would rather hear the truth from me, now, instead of a year and several thousand dollars in expenses (such as filing fees, deposition expenses, court reporter fees, and expert doctor fees) down the road, from a jury.

If you want to find out whether you want me to work for you, there’s really only one way to know – call me, Bill Strubbe, a Cincinnati Personal Injury Lawyer. My phone is 513-621-4775. There is no charge for talking to me.

Other lawyers refer their clients to me. And if you decide you‘d rather hire someone else, that’s OK.

Because all situations are different, and because there may be other facts pertaining to your case that I don’t know about, you should not rely on this answer for legal advice. I am not your attorney, and no lawyer client relationship has been formed. All discussions are limited to Ohio law unless otherwise indicated. And past performance cannot be used to predict future results.

Punitive damages have been traditionally available to victims injured by acts of defendants that were worse than everyday negligence. In cases where the defendant did more than just make an everyday mistake.

There are two purposes of punitive damages. The first is to “send a message” to the defendant – to let him know society views his action as so serious, that he will have to pay extra damages so he won’t commit the same act again. The second is to let everybody else know, so none of them would try anything like it – in short, to make an example of the perpetrator.

In a punitive damages lawsuit, the plaintiff gets whatever amount is necessary to compensate him fully for his injury; but in addition, he also gets money that will punish the defendant for acting in such a terrible way. There are a number of terms that courts will use to describe “punitive damages” conduct – such as “willful and wanton misconduct” or “callous disregard for the rights of the defendant” or “gross negligence” or even intentional conduct.

Punitive damages, in the past, always had to be paid by the individual, and not his insurance. (This was a matter of “public policy” – everyone was afraid if you could buy insurance against your own intentional conduct, you might be more likely to engage in intentional conduct, and run around doing bad things on purpose. Or with “callous disregard”.)

An additional benefit of presenting a case for punitive damages, though – never really acknowledged in the law – was the possibility that the jury, after hearing all the evidence of the bad things done by the defendant, was more likely to award greater amounts for the victim’s pain and suffering. Because even if they found that the conduct was only negligent, and not intentional, there was still evidence in front of them which made them think they ought to do something about this situation.

As you can guess, insurance companies don’t like punitive damages – even though they usually don’t have to pay them. They see them as making verdicts bigger, whether the jury awards them or not. And sometimes, courts have ruled that the insurance company has to pay the punitive damages itself, or the attorney fees.

So the insurance companies changed things. They sponsored laws in the legislature that limited the amount of punitive damages that could be awarded.

The laws also provide that you can’t put on evidence of punitive damages until after the case has gone to trial, and the jury has made an award of compensatory damages. So there are two trials – one on actual damages, and the second trial on intentional or callous conduct and punitive damages. This slows thngs down, and makes thing not as scary for the insurance company.

There is good news, though. You can still get punitive damages. The insurance company still can get in trouble with the person it insures if it doesn’t make a fair offer to settle the case, and the case goes to trial and the victim gets a punitive damages award.

And as hard as you can try, it is tough to keep all evidence of callous, reckless, willful wanton or intentional conduct away from the jury – they tend to sense it. (you can be they will be asking themselves exactly why the defendant went left of center at 2 AM going 75 in a 55.)

So if I think the facts are right, or may be right, I almost always ask for punitive damages.

If you think you have a case where punitive damages are appropriate, I will be happy to talk with you. Other lawyers refer their clients to me. And if you decide you‘d rather hire someone else, that’s OK.

But you don’t have to rely just on what you are reading. You can call me, a Cincinnati Personal Injury Lawyer. My phone is 513-621-4775. There is no charge for talking to me.

Because all situations are different, and because there may be other facts pertaining to your case that I don’t know about, you should not rely on this answer for legal advice. I am not your attorney, and no lawyer client relationship has been formed. All discussions are limited to Ohio law unless otherwise indicated. And past performance cannot be used to predict future results.

Some are. But you would be surprised.

In almost all personal injury lawsuits, the lawyer for the person who caused the accident is hired by and paid by that person’s insurance company.

Years ago, most insurance lawyers were well paid. When I started practicing law, insurance work was good work – the company’s main objective was usually a combination of ending the lawsuit and protecting the person they insured. The insurance companies paid their lawyers on a lower hourly scale than other business clients, but they seldom questioned the bill, and if a lawyer told them that work was necessary, they told him to do it.

Then insurance companies started comparing the bills they got from lawfirms. They started “auditing” their lawyers’ bills – which typically meant reducing the bill by between 1/3 to 15%. They started “bidding” one law firm against the other, first over hourly rates, then over the total charge – start to finish – for defending the lawsuit.

Insurers started requiring their lawyers to obtain preapproval before doing things that would cost more money, like hiring certain experts, taking depositions, or filing motions. And finally, a number of companies – Nationwide, Allstate, Cincinnati Insurance, State Auto, Farmers Insurance, and Geico among them – now hire most of their lawyers to work for them full time as employees, with the lawyers representing no clients besides the ones they are appointed to represent by the insurance company.

The bottom line – there are a lot of insurance lawyers who are not making that much. If you have a full time skilled job, there is a good chance the lawyer who takes your deposition for the insurance company gets paid less than you do.

What does this mean to you? Maybe not that much – there are too many lawyers, anyone representing an insurance company is grateful for his client, and all lawyers recognize they won’t advance too far if they don’t do a good job.

Here’s what I think it means. The insurance adjuster today is more likely to rely on his own judgment, rather than the lawyer’s – although if he likes his lawyer, this provides “another set of eyes” to look at and evaluate your case. That is a good thing.

But if the adjuster thinks you want too much, it’s a lot less expensive for him to extend the case with “discovery” (Taking your statement, getting records from your doctors, taking witnesses’ statements, and having you examined by their own doctor) exploring every possible weakness in your case, get a late trial date, and go to trial against you. That is a bad thing.

I deal with this by communicating directly with the adjuster as much as possible – I don’t file suit until I have exhausted the possibility of settlement. I try to get him all the information I think he will need as soon as I can, so he can evaluate the case on his own. I try to encourage the adjuster to make a good and prompt decision before filing suit.

Usually, it works. If not, I file suit. After all, I’m a lawyer.

I’d love to talk with you about this. Other lawyers refer their clients to me. And if you decide you‘d rather hire someone else, that’s OK.

But you don’t have to rely just on what you are reading. You can call me, a Cincinnati Personal Injury Attorney. My phone is 513-621-4775. There is no charge for talking to me.

Because all situations are different, and because there may be other facts pertaining to your case that I don’t know about, you should not rely on this answer for legal advice. I am not your attorney, and no lawyer client relationship has been formed. All discussions are limited to Ohio law unless otherwise indicated. And past performance cannot be used to predict future results.

I am not really sure that this is a “myth.” If you follow this link, you can see that I neither tell people to go to chiropractors, nor avoid them.

Two people close to me – my sister, who is an RN, and one of my best friends who is an attorney – swear that chiropractors have helped them significantly. A lot of medical doctors now refer some patients to chiropractors.

I cannot say that insurance adjusters always disregard chiropractor bills, or that they assume that people treated by chiropractors are faking. But I have heard enough adjusters and insurance lawyers deprecate chiropractors that one of the last things I am going to do is recommend that you see a chiropractor before you have seen a doctor.

And I have also seen chiropractors generate huge bills from repeated manipulations and adjustments. You might think this is good – insurance adjusters are influenced by the cost of treatment – but if an insurance doctor testifies that the extensive treatment is unnecessary, and the jury agrees, you might be stuck with a large bill that you cannot pay.

I have a gut feeling that most jurors are reluctant to give the credibility to a chiropractor that they would give to an orthopedic surgeon, or a neurologist, or to any medical doctor or osteopath. Chiropractors cannot operate or prescribe medications – medical doctors can.

To quote my earlier blog on this issue: “Seek the treatment you think is most likely to help you; but rely on medical doctors and the treatment they prescribe whenever possible.”

I have been a lawyer over 30 years. Lots of my clients have seen chiropractors. If you are wondering whether a chiropractor is right for you, I will be happy to talk with you about it. Give me, a Cincinnati Personal Injury Lawyer, a call. My phone is 513-621-4775.

Because all situations are different, and because there may be other facts pertaining to your case that I don’t know about, you should not rely on this answer for legal advice. I am not your attorney, and no lawyer client relationship has been formed. All discussions are limited to Ohio law unless otherwise indicated. And past performance cannot be used to predict future results.

More people are mistaken about this than about anything else in personal injury law.

And it is understandable – you need money to pay your bills, to pay the medical bills, and to make up for the time you are missing from work. You shouldn’t have to wait.

Here is the problem: Until you are completely recovered, no matter how good you feel right now, you can always get worse.

It happens all the time. People think their back – or knee, or shoulder – is better, and then they lift something, or stretch too far, or turn too quickly, and they find out it isn’t. They need surgery, or more therapy, or more time off work.

If you settle before you completely recover, you cannot get the insurance company to pay you more for the lost wages, or medical bills, or pain and suffering you thought were over. Because when you settled, you have already released your claims against the insurance company and the other driver – you promised not to sue them in exchange for money.

I cannot tell you the number of clients I have had who wanted to settle early, and then wound up needing more treatment. There was only one I could not talk out of settling; she took the insurance company’s offer, signed a release, and then needed knee surgery six months later.

At that point, I could not help her.

When is it OK to settle? At the earliest of three points:

1) When you are completely recovered.

2) When your doctor tells you that you will never completely recover, that you are “as good as you are going to get.”

3) When you are sure that the amount you are entitled to is greater than the total money available (usually, this is the insurance available to you under both the other driver’s insurance policy and your own uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage.)

But you don’t have to guess at this. You can talk to me, a Cincinnati Personal Injury Attorney, and find out what I think.

There is no obligation – if you decide to call another lawyer, it’s OK. My phone is 513-621-4775.

I have been a lawyer over 30 years. I listen to people who have this problem every day. And I will be happy to talk with you.

Because all situations are different, and because there may be other facts pertaining to your case that I don’t know about, you should not rely on this answer for legal advice. I am not your attorney, and no lawyer client relationship has been formed. All discussions are limited to Ohio law unless otherwise indicated. And past performance cannot be used to predict future results.

The only time that I can say this will happen definitely is when the insurance company is sure that it will wind up paying a judgment – when liability is clear. As a practical matter, this only happens regularly in certain auto accident lawsuits – mainly rear enders, stop sign violations, and lawsuits where everyone agrees on the important facts.

Before an insurance adjuster signs a check, he has to make sure that he has no other choice. That is, he has to know that the person he insured did something wrong, and that someone was hurt as a result. And how bad the injured person was hurt.

His job and his salary depend on his not paying his employer’s money when he doesn’t have to.

So if there’s a witness who sounds pretty good, who says you are in the wrong, that’s probably enough to convince the adjuster that he ought to make you file suit, rather than settling early. The witness might be lying, or might not have seen everything, but the adjuster doesn’t know that.

If you are suing for a medical condition – like a bad back – that can either happen fast, or that can take a long time to develop, the adjuster will bet that something else caused it, unless you have proof otherwise.

(What can proof be? Maybe just producing your medical records for five years before the accident. I have my clients do this all the time, and it works wonders.)

If the lawsuit involves a complicated fact pattern, or one where it’s usually tough to get a verdict – for instance, injuries from falls – you will almost certainly have to file suit. The challenge with falls is that jurors believe that if you watch where you are going, you can see the problem and avoid it.

In a fall lawsuit, the injured person basically has to show that he did not have the opportunity to look (he was legitimately preoccupied, maybe with avoiding other pedestrians or avoiding other obstacles), that he could not see the obstacle (like a clear vegetable oil or detergent slick in a grocery store), or that he could not avoid the problem (like an 88 year old man trying to make it through an automated door as he was leaving a dialysis clinic.)

And he also has to prove that whatever made him fall was there long enough for the peroperty owner to know it was there. All law schools teach about the banana peel cases. If the victim slips on a yellow banana peel, he cannot get any money – because the peel had not been there long enough for the store owner to find it. If the peel was black or even brown when he slipped on it, it’s another story.

A lot of the time, the situation is pretty clear. If the injuries and the fault are obvious, most adjusters will try to settle the lawsuit before it goes to trial. But as you can see, a lot of things can happen to make them think otherwise.

So when I take a lawsuit, I almost always have a clear idea of how I am going to be able to get the case to a trial – on how to make the judge think that a jury ought to decide the case. I want to know how the accident happened, and what made my client suffer the injuries he did – because if I can’t understand it, the insurance company won’t either.

And I can’t count on insurance adjusters agreeing with me.

If you want to know whether the insurance company will settle your lawsuit before you have to file suit, you should call me. I am a Cincinnati personal injury lawyer. I cannot promise anything, but I can try to tell you how the insurance company will look at the lawsuit. And if I agree to take the lawsuit, I will fight for you until they pay a fair amount.

I’d love to talk with you about this. Other lawyers refer their clients to me. And if you decide you‘d rather hire someone else, that’s OK. My phone is 513-621-4775.

Because all situations are different, and because there may be other facts pertaining to your case that I don’t know about, you should not rely on this answer for legal advice. I am not your attorney, and no lawyer client relationship has been formed. All discussions are limited to Ohio law unless otherwise indicated. And past performance cannot be used to predict future results.