You are probably dealing with at least three different people from at least two different insurance companies, and they all want something different.

The first person is the adjuster for getting the car fixed. Usually, he works for the other side’s insurance – but he might work for your own. He wants to get this taken care of as fast as possible. He wants an estimate – but he’d rather go out and get his own estimate, and get you to take a check for that before you go to your own body shop. He’s afraid they’ll come in with a higher number.

The next person might be the personal injury claim adjuster for the other side. His job is to get you to promise not to sue the other insurance company, in exchange for as little money as possible.

Or the next person might be the medical payments adjuster for your own auto insurance company, if you have medical payments coverage. He’ll want to know whether you want to make a claim. He’ll also want to ask your doctor if the treatment is related to the accident.

And if the other driver doesn’t have insurance – or doesn’t have enough insurance – you will also wind up dealing with your own insurance company, if you have uninsured motorist coverage. He will want proof that the other driver doesn’t have insurance.

(Sounds easy – until you think about it. How on earth do you prove someone doesn’t have something? Despite this, there’s usually not that much of a fight about this issue.)

And what you have to keep in mind is that all these insurance people are just worried about solving their problems – not yours. Their problem is getting you out of their system as soon as possible, so they don’t have to pay you any more money.

Which is why people hire lawyers. We deal with everyone for our clients. (Most lawyers, including me, don’t deal directly with repairing your car, because we don’t want to charge you for it, and most people can handle it themselves. But we can talk to the adjuster, and tell you what we think.)

So when you hire a lawyer, you wind up talking to one person – instead of three.

I have been a lawyer over 30 years. You will find your life is a lot easier if you just have to talk to one person – your lawyer. If you have a personal injury case in Cincinnati, Ohio or if you want to know what your lawsuit is worth, talk with an experienced Cincinnati Injury Attorney about the case. Call me, William Strubbe, at 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.

I nearly always negotiate. You have to.

We have an adversary system. I have to do the best I can for my client. The adjuster – or lawyer – on the other side has to do the best he can for the insurance company.

This works for me a lot, because insurance companies make really dumb offers to a lot of auto accident victims before they have a lawyer. So the victims hire me, to see if I can do better.

Well – even after deducting my fee – I usually do a lot better for people than they can do on their own. There’s no guarantee; I just usually can.

But the adversary system means each side has to try as hard as they can to get as much as possible for themselves. The victim’s lawyer has to start high. And the insurance lawyer or the adjuster has to start low, or get fired.

And then each side keeps trading numbers until they reach a point where they believe the case can be settled for a number that both sides can accept.

There are two times I can remember taking the first offer:

1) The insurance company offered as much as I could possibly get at trial, my client was in jail in Kentucky on a six month robbery sentence, and I – obviously – didn’t want the insurance company to know where he was. I got my client’s permission, and faxed the acceptance of the settlement offer before it could be withdrawn. (And no, he wasn’t in jail when he contacted me the first time.)

2) The insurance company made an excellent offer that I was afraid they would withdraw if we counteroffered. I got my client’s permission, and settled the next day.

I have been a lawyer over 30 years. You get used to asking for more than the case is worth, because it’s the only way to get everything you can. If you have a personal injury case in Cincinnati, Ohio or if you want to know what your lawsuit is worth, talk with an experienced Cincinnati Personal Injury Lawyer about the case. Call me, William Strubbe, at 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.

Why can’t they just pay me? It’s their fault.

The insurance company thinks it can save money by “waiting you out.” They want to get rid of the case all at once.

And they don’t know how bad you’re hurt until you’ve provided them with everything they need to know.

It’s really frustrating. It’s a rear end accident. Or maybe a stop sign. You’re hurting. You’ve got doctor bills, and you’re missing work. You need money. But they won’t pay.

Insurance companies hardly ever pay you before the case is settled. They want to make sure that the case is over.

The fact that you need money is a bargaining chip they use against you.

Let’s say that you have a $500,000.00 case. You’ve been off work for eight months. You don’t think you’ll be able to make the next mortgage payment.

The insurance company offers you $350,000.00 in exchange for a release of all claims.

Does that mortgage payment possibly motivate you to take the $350,000.00? And do you think the insurance company knows your answer to that question?

There’s more to it than that, of course. The insurance company can’t value the lawsuit until it knows everything it needs to about the case – how bad you’re hurt, whether your injury is permanent, what your total lost wages will be.

In fact, even you can’t answer these questions until you’ve spent a lot of time with your doctor, and he’s had a lot of time to let his skill – and time – improve you.

A good lawyer makes one of his first jobs getting the insurance company everything it needs to evaluate the lawsuit. And he won’t talk settlement until he can answer the questions the insurance company needs to know, and give the company what it needs to understand the lawsuit
.
I have been a lawyer over 30 years. I get the medical records I need to settle the case as soon as I can. And I try to keep the insurance company up to date on my client’s treatment. If you’ve been injured in an accident, talk with an experienced Cincinnati Personal Injury Lawyer about the case. Call me, William Strubbe, at 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.

Fewer People Buy It. If they buy it, it probably has lower limits. And even if the owner or the driver bought it, there is no guarantee the coverage applies.

First, what is uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage?

If you have it, here’s how it works. If you’re hit by someone who doesn’t have much or any liability coverage – and believe me, there are a LOT of them – this protects you up to the amount of your limits for the coverage.

So if you have UM/UIM coverage with limits of $100,000, and you are hit by a negligent driver who only has $12,500 of coverage, you can recover up to $12,500 from him, and up to another $87,500 from your own insurance company.

The main difference is that your lawsuit is against your own insurance company, rather than the other driver’s, and you pay the premiums for it.

Let’s look at why it’s different today.

Fewer People Buy it.

Fewer people buy it, because insurance companies no longer have to offer it.

Until 2001, insurance companies had to offer um/uim coverage in an amount equal to the liability limits on any auto liability policy they sold. If they didn’t get you to reject the coverage in writing, then you had it, even if you hadn’t paid any premiums.

I thought the requirement was a good one –a lot of people wound up with um/uim coverage that they wouldn’t have even been offered before.

But it led to some stupid results– because of court decisions, a lot of people wound up with “free” um/uim coverage. The insurance companies didn’t like this, and some of them even stopped writing auto insurance in Ohio – so the legislature passed a new law that said the insurance companies no longer had to offer the coverage.

If The Driver Or Owner Buys UM/UIM Coverage, It’s Less Likely To Apply To The Injured Person.

Before 2001, the UM/UIM coverage that was issued had to extend to anyone driving your car with your permission, and anyone who might be occupying the car, regardless whether they were in your family or not.

So – If you had bought UM/UIM coverage, and your kid was driving someone else’s car, he was covered. If your friend was driving your car with your permission – he was covered.

But when the legislature removed the requirement that insurance companies sell the UM/UIM coverage, the courts held that there was no longer a requirement that the coverage had to be extended to anyone in particular. The insurance companies could now write any exclusions they liked into the policy.

So now, the only way you can be assured that you have um/uim coverage is if you bought the policy and you’re driving your own car. Theoretically, an insurance policy could even exclude coverage for this situation, but – from a publicity standpoint – it wouldn’t go down well.

Even If UM/UIM Coverage Applies, The Limits Are Probably Lower.

This is because of a couple things.

First, the insurance companies won’t sell UM/UIM coverage without selling liability coverage of equal or greater limits. If you have $25,000 in auto liability coverage, you probably can’t buy more than that in um/uim coverage.

Second, the economy and insurance companies are driving people more toward minimum limits liability policies. People need to need to eat. They also need to drive, but less than they need to eat. They need proper insurance, but less than they need to drive.

So you get lots of TV ads from Geico and Safe Auto claiming that they can get you lower rates than anyone else. And that’s what’s most important to people when they are buying insurance.

In Ohio, the minimum auto liability limits on a policy are the lower of $12,500 per person or $25,000 per accident. I am seeing a lot of insurance policies with those limits. None of those have higher limits in um/uim coverage.

I have been a lawyer over 30 years. The most responsible thing you can do is buy insurance with the highest limits you can afford. If you’ve been injured in an accident, talk with an experienced Cincinnati Personal Injury Attorney about the case. Call me, William Strubbe, at 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.

More drivers have minimum liability limits. Fewer drivers have uninsured /underinsured coverage. More cases settle, but only because the limits are lower and there’s nothing to fight about.

More drivers have minimum liability limits.

Ohio’s minimum required liability limits are $12,500/$25,000. This means every driver is required by law to carry insurance that will pay up to $12,500.00 to anyone he injures in an accident, but no more than $25,000 to all the people he injures in that accident.

You can buy more insurance than this, but a lot of people don’t. They don’t want to spend the money.

Why are the minimum limits so low? Because the insurance companies want them that low. If the limits are low, they can sell more insurance cheaper.

Every time someone proposes higher limits, the insurance companies fight them. They argue that if you raise the limits, premiums will go up, and more drivers will be uninsured.

The insurance companies also say that people can protect themselves against underinsured drivers by buying uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage. Which is true – except hardly anyone buys enough.

Which brings us to our next topic.

Fewer drivers have uninsured /underinsured coverage.

Why not? Because insurance companies don’t have to offer it any more.

For years – until 2001 – insurance companies were required by law to offer uninsured/underinsured (UM/UIM)motorist coverage to anyone who bought a liability policy.

This is a great coverage – if you have it, it stands in the place of the other driver’s liability insurer if they’re uninsured, or if their liability limits are lower than your uninsured/underinsured limits.

And it’s cheap. Often, you can buy millions of dollars of coverage for a few hundred dollars in premiums.

So why did the state stop requiring insurance companies to offer it?

It’s a little complicated, but the Ohio courts became increasingly more detailed about what insurance companies had to do in order to comply with the requirement that they “offer” the coverage. An injured person would sue the insurance company, claiming it had not done everything it was legally required to do to “offer” the coverage.

The court would agree with the injured person, and determine that they were covered by uninsured motorist coverage with limits equal to the liability limits. The high point of this trend came in the 1990’s, when the Ohio Supreme Court decided the Scott Ponzer Case and effectively determined that everyone who was employed had a right to be covered for UM/UIM under their employer’s auto insurance – even if they were not in a company vehicle when the accident happened.

After Scott Ponzer, two things happened. The legislature eliminated the requirement that the insurance companies offer UM/UIM coverage. And the drivers who bought the coverage found that when the policies were examined, they didn’t extend coverage to a lot of people who had been covered before – such as guests of the driver, and non resident family members.

As a result, a lot fewer accident victims are covered by insurance than were before. If you don’t buy your own uninsured/underinsured insurance, this is a bad thing.

But there’s only one way to know for sure. You need to hire a lawyer to read the policy.

I have been a lawyer over 30 years. The only advantage to these changes is that if the limits are smaller, you can stop fighting about the lawsuit sooner. If you’ve been injured in an accident, talk with an experienced Cincinnati Injury Lawyer about the case. Call me, William Strubbe, at 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.

Insurance Companies are faster. If you’re honest about what a jury will do, it’s easier to settle a lawsuit than it was. But Juries and insurance companies are cheaper. Nobody has much insurance. And you can still sue manufacturers for bad products, but a lot of the time it just doesn’t make sense.

Let’s look at these one at a time. We’ll start with the good changes:

Insurance companies are faster.

When you make a demand, if they have enough information, they will respond quickly. They are much less likely to ignore you than they were 20 years ago. They don’t want to pay adjusters to mess around with a case for three years, and they sure don’t want to pay lawyers.

If you’re honest about what a jury will do, it’s easier to settle a lawsuit than it was.

Filing suit is long and expensive. The damages have to be significant to justify the expense and delay of lawsuits. And most insurance companies are willing to acknowledge what a jury will award in a particular lawsuit, in the form of an offer.

Now for the bad changes:

Juries are cheaper.

You used to be able to assume that juries would have sympathy for the injured person; but now they are actually more likely to identify with the person being sued.

People blame this on extensive advertising by insurance.
companies, and that’s part of it. But another part is 9/11. When over 3000 people die at once because of one willful act, a lot of people on juries start to wonder how important the injuries sustained in a typical low impact accident can be.

Insurance companies are cheaper.

This is because juries are. When an insurance company offers you $5,000 on a case that a jury will award $3,000 on, what makes the most sense?

Nobody has much insurance – auto or health.

Safe Auto, Geico and their friends figured out that they earned the most profit in the first premium dollars. The smaller the limits, the greater – proportionately – premium they could charge, and the less their exposure. And they could make more money by selling more policies, because people don’t want to pay a lot.

Ohio minimum limits for liability coverage are $12,500 per person, $25,000 per accident and haven’t gone up in at least 40 years. They are almost the lowest in the country.

People can protect themselves against such low limits by buying uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, but – as with liability coverage – the economy is tough, and they’d rather buy food than insurance. The same goes for health coverage.

Unfortunately, not having enough insurance can make it harder to settle your case. Particularly health insurance. You can’t get the most dollars until you have finished treating for your injury. And you can’t finish treating – a lot of the time – without the insurance.

A lot of the time, it doesn’t make sense to sue manufacturers.

There is not much products litigation any more because the law changed to make it harder to sue manufacturers. And for a lawsuit against a manufacturer, you need an expert. And a good expert is very expensive. So you usually don’t sue a manufacturer without a real clear case and/or significant damages.

What’s the takeaway for someone with a lawsuit?

1) Get a good lawyer early. One who will work to get the information you need to make a settlement demand, talk to you, set a value on the case, and present a demand to the insurance company. But get one who will be willing to fight for you.

2) Be reasonable. The jury won’t look at your case as a lottery ticket, and you shouldn’t either.

3) If you don’t have health insurance, try to find a doctor who will treat you in exchange for a guarantee from your lawyer to pay your bills at the end of the case. The trick is getting in the door. This might mean going to the hospital – where, if you are lucky, they will treat you anyway – or approaching your doctor beforehand. Some doctors prefer to work off a guarantee – they will get paid more than a health insurance company will pay them.

I have been a lawyer over 30 years. A lot of people complain about change. I try to concentrate on how the good changes can help the people I work for, and how to help people around the bad changes. If you’ve been injured in an accident, talk with an experienced Cincinnati Personal Injury Attorney about the case. Call me, William Strubbe, at 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.

You can, but it’s a bad idea. Especially if you’re hurt worse than you think.

Did you ever go to a doctor, and have him try a pill or a procedure that didn’t work?

Doctors are good – but that has happened to virtually everyone.

And you can only settle a case once. Before they pay you anything, the insurance company will make you sign a release, which will keep you from bringing any more lawsuits for your injuries from the accident.

So if you settle before you finish your treatment, and before you’re “as good as you’re going to get”, you’re running a risk that you will need more treatment than you think you do. That your medical bills will be higher than you think. That you will be hurt worse than you really are.

That your case will be worth a lot more than you might think right now.

I have been a lawyer over 30 years. I believe in action; but sometimes, the smartest thing to do is wait.. If you’ve been injured in an accident, talk with an experienced Cincinnati Injury Attorney about the case. Call me, William Strubbe, at 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.

Probably Not.

For a number of years, the Supreme Court of Ohio held that if your damages warranted, you could collect both the full amount of your medical payments coverage and the full amount of your uninsured motorist coverage.

Let’s say you were injured by an uninsured motorist in an car accident, and incurred $5,000.00 in medical bills because of the accident. You had $5,000 in medical payments coverage, and $12,500 in uninsured motorist coverage on your auto policy.

In that case you could collect both the $5,000 on the medpay policy coverage and, if you convinced the insurance company that your claim against the uninsured motorist was worth more than $12,500, collect that too under your underinsured coverage. Total recovery: $17,500.00.

That’s changed. The Ohio Supreme Court, in 2009 case of State Farm v. Grace, held that the law now:

“permits an insurer to limit coverage so as to preclude payment pursuant to UM/UIM coverage for medical expenses that have previously been paid or are payable under the medical payment coverage in the same policy.”

In other words, your car insurance company doesn’t have to pay you benefits under both your medical payments coverage and under the uninsured policy. Under the example, you can now only recover a total of $12,500.00.

What can you do about this?

If your lawyer knows you’re going to have an uninsured motorist claim, he can have you turn your medical bills into your health insurer – the insurance you get through your job – rather than into the medical payments coverage that came with your car insurance. Your employment health insurance may be more likely to both pay your medical bills on a discount, and to be willing to settle for less of a “payback” when you do settle.

(Warning – this is not always a great idea. You may want to document high medical payments in order to be able to put that information in front of a jury. It’s a judgment call.)

The other thing your lawyer can do is ask your auto insurance company for a break – particularly if you don’t have enough uninsured motorist coverage to compensate you in full for the claim. If your uninsured motorist claim would be worth $100,000, but you only have $12,500 in coverage, they may be willing to work with you.

I’ve seen it happen.

I have been a lawyer over 30 years. Sometimes, all you have to do to get a break is to ask for one. If you’ve been injured in an accident, talk with an experienced Cincinnati Personal Injury Lawyer about the case. Call me, William Strubbe, at 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.

No. He can make suggestions.

And you – and the insurance company – can each reject his suggestions, and make your own decisions.

A mediator is a go between. He starts out any mediation pretty much as (1) a communications device – like a telephone, or email – and (2) a listening board.

But if you’re lucky, you can learn a lot from him.

The mediatior’s job is to carry offers and demands back and forth between the you and the insurance company.

He talks to you and your lawyer, finds out what you want, leaves the room, tells the insurance company, finds out what they say what they will pay, and then goes back to your room and takes that number back to you. Probably at least 7 or 8 times.

But he is just a smart, informed lawyer. He has no formal power to make someone pay or accept a figure they don’t want to pay or accept.

Why does mediation work? First, the mediator is neutral, in the sense that he is not adverse to anyone. This makes him more believable.

If your lawyer tells the insurance company that your case is worth $50,000, or $3 million, they are not going to listen to him.

But if a mediator tells them that he thinks a jury could award you that much, they might listen. Because he’s not being paid to argue for you.

Second – hopefully – everyone who can make a decision is there. It’s a chance to settle the case, and everyone is committed for at least 3 hours.

When you get a bad offer, you don’t just walk away – you make a counter offer just a little closer to the other side’s number. So long as you think you can get them to a number you can live with, you keep talking.

Because the biggest danger of non-settlement happens when everybody stops talking.

I have been a lawyer over 30 years. I go to mediation with my clients; but I also volunteer as a mediator to help other lawyers settle their car accident lawsuits. If you’ve been injured in a car accident, talk with an experienced Cincinnati Personal Injury Attorney about the case. Call me, William Strubbe, at 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.

There is no formula. But here are a few rules lawyers pay attention to when settling lawsuits:

1) It helps to have a lot of medical bills.

2) When the jury looks at the total of the medical bills, they are probably concerned the most with the total of the payments made by you and your insurance companies to the doctors.

3) You have to look behind the medical bills. I’ve had an MRI, and it was no fun. But it lasted all of 20 minutes. Trying to project a $1600 bill for an MRI as giving the jury a reason to award another $5,000 or $6,000 in pain and suffering isn’t going to work very often.

4) Future impairment or pain and suffering, as well as inability to work – as predicted by a doctor – is very important. Probably more important than any other single factor.

5) If you can put your pain in real terms, it matters.

Last year, I represented an 88 year old man. He looked OK, and seemed to be able to move around pretty much like most 88 year old men. A doctor looked at him, and determined he had lost about 50% of his functionality because of the accident.

I sent that evaluation to the insurance company.

But I also sent them a tape of the man’s neighbor, saying that since the accident, he could no longer go on the roof to clean leaves, shovel snow, or play golf after his accident, and that he had no trouble doing these things before the accident.

6) Finally, in some cases, the jury may not be able to award you more than $250,000, because the Ohio Legislature has limited pain and suffering in most lawsuits in Revised Code Section 2323.43. The limitations are complicated – but I can help you understand them, and they might not apply to your case.

I have been a lawyer over 30 years. The insurance company needs to know your pain. If you’ve been injured, speak with an experienced Cincinnati Injury Lawyer – call me, William Strubbe, at 513-621-4775 in Cincinnati.

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.